Nearly recovered from this. Nearly.
Got to say how impressive that event was. The Echo guys did a great job and the atmosphere was superb. There was way more vintage than I was expecting and a really good selection of modern bits, art, acrylic and all sorts.
Finally met most of the mods from Echo Base. What a nice bunch or guys they are. James, Ben, Nick, Stu and myself were behind our 5-table stand (30ft of vintage awesomeness!) most of us in SWFUK t-shirts and they all came over and made an effort to say hi and have a natter. Managed to meet all the names you'd recognise from Echo (if you're on there) like Adam Pemberton, Paul Desykes, Wayne Totty, Alan Troy, Neil Donnelly and finally the superb Dan Tearle. I know I've missed some out of that list, apologies to them!
The event was well organised and is only going to get bigger and better. Nice convenient location with the shopping centre, too. I was even able to bank the day's taking before I blew the lot on cheap booze in the evening.
Speaking of which, the social afterwards was excellent. Along with the good amount of SWFUKers there was a great amount of EBers there. Clearly alcohol is the second thing we have in common after vintage. My memory is very hazey after about 2100 but I do know a good time was had. And Grant didn't even get barred.
So good to catch up with so many of you. Mark and Lee's stand was looking awesome, Grant was flogging super cheap but super nice POTFII stuff (my only purchases and I'm bloody chuffed with them, thanks mate), and I didn't even get out from my stand to say hi to Jamie at GW!
I know there's still a degree of antagonism between the two formats and groups of users but I would say that by not going (for whatever reason) you really are missing out on a superb event. The hotels are dirt cheap (£50 a night at the Holiday Inn Express which is a short walk to the event and a very short stumble to the pub). Adam is after a bigger shop for next time to hold it in and here's hoping he finds it. The bigger it is the better it will become.
Not going to say thank you to all the guys who bought off my or just stopped for a chat and catch up. You know who you are and I hope to see you again at FF.
These real life events are the life blood of the hobby. By getting out from behind the keyboards we get to know the people that have shared love for the toys. I'm as guilty as anyone else here for forming opinions of people I haven't met. I'm really pleased that some of them have been smashed this weekend and I now have a load of new SW collecting friends.