London 2008 - Con 2-4 May 2008

HILTON HOTEL LONDON

4th May 2008

A very emotional day for me cause it appeared the day my mother passed away about more then 10 years ago. So today seeingLucy on stage and going to her concert was as my mother had given it to me, to enrich my joy. Thanks Mummy!

It must be sad it was a noicyy convention. Seems a lot newbies where there and sometimes it was hard to understand as many jumped in the words, when Lucy was even talking, or repeated it, or frankly started giving their own opinion to eachother. In Burbank I was a newbie to but I looked around to see how people behave and went along. Nice and easy. To bad, newbies at London didn't think about that.

DUM DUM DUUUUUMMMMMM! WELCOME LUCY!
Lucy came onto stage. Funny that there were some flowers on stage all of a sudden, which was not the case when the other guests appeared.

It is always fun and very interesting to hear what she had to say. She is a woman who shares so much about her life and where she's going with it with us. We are not simply people in the room but she makes us feel asshe knows us, there is a mutual respect, she cares about us and vice versa. A unique thing which we all do treasure. It is always as at a con a group of good old friends are coming together to do some coffee talk and what that shining star.

Lucy was very casual in jeans with a grey sweater and an overdrapping. Yeah, Kiwi do have cold when we are sweating!. Her hair casual done and natural make-up. I love her that way. I love that natural woman.
When she came out onto stage there was a huge roarings screeams and the standing ovation to welcome her.

She immediate wants to know who had been already to the show on which almost everybody threw their hand in the air. Sorry not mine, I had to wait for the evening. Lucy told that she had a great audience on her first concert and said :“I’m ripped this morning, let me tell ya.”
I have to say that I didn't get all she told us during her on-staging because of the noisy people. So I will skip some topics and just mention what I noted down as interesting, important, funny and ofcourse what happend to me. Yep, me again.

Lucy, as always, funny girl she is; looked at us and smiled (you know how she can do this) and said with a soft voice : How lovely to meet you all! Just as if she noticed us just yet. She immediately asked to start the q&a as according herself " I ’m brain dead”.

We learned that she was already 4 days there. What a coincidence. She arrived the same day was I did. To bad, different arrival terminals in London. Would have been cool. ' Hey Lucy; also in London?'' Hehehehe! Right, I'm drifting away.

One of the next questions was to know which was the most funny or most hard moment during the filming of Xena.
It appeared to be Tsunami because of the cold water. I can tell, that if scenes were filmed at Bethells, that west coast has freezing water. Next time I use a wetsuite for sure. So I do admire LL and Roc if they had to do a scene overthere without speaking of the constant wind you have there. Brrrrrrrrr!
Lucy told us "We were underwater for days. Lucy claimed that Ted was there with them also, but he wasn’t in that ep - maybe snorkling? Lucy repeated the how the water was kind of tepid and there were rotting cabbages floating around in it. And how she, roc and bruce made a deal that the first one of them to get cranky,or anything in that direction would have to pay the other two
$5,000. She let us in how she and Bruce would wait until the camera was on Renee and then push those stinking cabbages her
way so they’d float by her. They are naughty. If you some bloopers of things going behind the camera's you get a blast and you can understand what happend at Tsunami. Anyhow it seemed she lost the bet by saying something sarcastic and sharp to someone.
“And I never paid it.” She laughed and shook her head and sayed again that she never paid up.

Someone wanted to know how Lucy and Renée came together and how it worked out from the start. It was not clear to me if they met eachother at first's days shooting or if they met before over a diner or so to see how they got along. “Renee is younger than me. And we were working in my home town”, Lucy told us that she had some advantages over Renee’s situation by working in her home town. And then Lucy is again their with her humor telling us when they met “I looked down at her-WAY down…” We burst out in laughter at Lucy pantomiming looking WAY down at an invisible Renee. And it seems i it only took Renee a few eps before she was over her awe of Lucy.

Next time I use a voice-recorder. Next question was about the last episode - the last cut. Lucy told us the following : “The very beginning and the very last few episodes of any show are very taxing. You work 80 hours. You’re running on empty. I went to the wrap
party and I fainted.” About the morning-after “I don’t think I woke up the next morning.” “You have to be rehabilitated back to life. On set, you give up all control. You’re told what to eat.” Meaning that you are kind lived by other people.

She talked a bit about BSG, telling her character could always come back and about Bedtime Stories.

And her I come now. A girl sitting next to me (Sam she was named, I do recall her name), she only came when Lucy was on stage, cause for the rest we didn't see her. She was a deaf young woman and she wrote me a little note if I could ask Lucy a question for her. I explained that we both would go to microphone so she could stand next to me and in front of Lucy. OMG, she got really shocked. Even afterwards she kept crying. Now, you must understand I do not know any sign language. Although I told Lucy I was Sam's voice, I forgot to mention this little thing.

Sam's question was : How did Xena learn to stand up to mean people? Lucy immediately replied “Good question. It’s internal-like magnetic north. She knew what right was.”
And now the funny and embarrassing moment of me. I tried to explain what Lucy just told, to Sam, by just slowly telling. Lucy exclaimed, “You don’t sign!” No I don't she turned to the audience and told them that I just was repeatting what she just told, slowly and carefully. Everybody started to laugh which I didn't find respectfull. Anyhow Lucy said something as , “Well, she’s got a heart.
Lucy told me that Sharon knows ASL.” (American Sign Language.) But she couldn't do the trick neither as she only knew the basic and we found out that there are different sign languages. Lucy went back to answering the question. “(Xena had) “a moral compass.
She was a bad girl initially.” “Then she spat the dummy". Lucy stopped for a second and thought. Then asked, Do you say that in England?” A dummy can be called pacifier. “She rebelled against her leash”. “I have a strong sense of what’s good for me. These days, it’s very black and white for me. It’s just intuition-you just know the right thing. Have to be encouraged to go with your moral compass.”

She looked over us and Sharon, still working on translating what she was saying. Lucy said that on television at home, signing is very precise and kind of formal. But she’s noticed that here in Europe the signing is much more emotive. And she demonstrated it quite well.

A funny note was when there was a notion that she and Celine Dion are about the same age. Lucy said something about the Vegas show, Celne had finished it. Would she take over and make a show in Vegas?

She was asked what her favorite place in New Zealand is. I was curious to know cause it such a beautiful country.
"The top of the South Island. It's the gourmet bread basket of New Zealand. Like Europe, there are silver smiths, wine, cheeses,
sculpture. You can get good coffee just about everywhere in New Zealand-that's important to me."
Good coffee oh yeah, the big caffee latte at the west coast each weekend. I know. Bigger then a soupbowl you get. Njammie Njammie.

Then Lucy went to the table for the autographs. Almost my turn. Woaw, seeing her so near in front of me. Unbelievable. I got my wedding ring in my hands. It has the chakram on it and is an unique piece (besides the one of my wife ofcourse). When I came in front of her I gave her my ring and asked if it looked familiar. She took a good look at it and was nicely surprised. Then my wife Karin, showed hers and she was knocked down by surprise. She reacted so surprised, happy, big smile, glowing blue eyes. Karin got a handshake and we both got a lot of blessings and good luck. I love that woman!

MY LUCY ENCOUNTER IN LONDON! Wish I could meet her in NZ in 2009.

Martine De Grauw 29/12/2008