~Kadomatsu

So, I've decided, something like 5 months ago, that it was the time for me to go out and explore new things while I still can do it. So, basically my idea was to attend a furry convention for the first time in my life. On my list were two conventions, Just Fur The Weekend, in Bristol, and Eurofurrence in Berlin whose the theme immediately drew my attention. After careful considerations, I weighted the pros and cons of each of these to become my first furry convention and JFTW presented more advantages by being a little convention with around 200 attendees, by being nearer from my place (Yay for France and its absolute lack of conventions!) and in a country of which I speak the langage and to potentially welcome more people I would know (at the incredible number of two! XD). I then took contact with  Daicymru, whose I remembered talked about attending this convention and who was unsure if he would attend it at the time, in the end he even proposed me to share a room with him there which I gladly accepted. In fact, I knew about this convention thanks to  Lupinemoonfeather who already tried to invite me there last year but, unfortunately, life has prevented me to give it a try.

After some 5 months of preparation, the time came to finally board into my little 1990's car for the 700 or so kilometres long trip from my little city to Bristol via Cherbourg-Octeville and Poole. And while I'm on the outward journey, I would like to address my very sincere (and ironic) thanks and congratulations to both the city of Mayenne and the Mayenne departement for doing works on the roads and not indicating the deviation they made (obviously I haven't a cigarette lighter so I've no GPS and the application on my phone decided to not work...), which made me arrive at the ferry terminal only 10 minutes before the end of the boarding while I should normally arrived two hours before the beginning of the boarding. Anyway, even though those difficulties, I managed to land on the British soil on Tuesday morning and to arrive around two hours later at the hotel of the convention.
I managed to finally met in person with my roommate and very good friend Dai later in the beginning of the afternoon, we spent several hours to chat before to go exploring a bit Bristol which let me a very good impression (but very few photos as I didn't brought my camera with me).

And then came Friday, the first real day of the convention with a lot of people I didn't know with strange people dressed in some weird animal constumes. :P
We began this day by meeting with  Lupinemoonfeather, her boyfriend and Mayhem in order to go to the Aerospace Bristol Museum where is conserved an exemple of the Concorde.
I have to admit that for this first day, as the perfect introverted socially awkward and extremely shy man that I am, I tried to follow as much as possible Dai's lead as I feared to go to others. And if he hadn't be there, I'd very probably not have enjoyed the con as I did as he encouraged me and pushed me to overcome my apprehensions, so I owe him a lot!
On saturday, thanks to Dai, I managed to get a place in the coach for the fursuit walk at Clevedon, at something like half an hour of the hotel and where I got on with another fennec fox who had to be  smilesgeoid. I must say that I've been pleasingly surprised by the reactions of the people of Clevedon as I was still thinking that people in Anglo-saxon countries were still beguiled by the stereotypes brought by both the medias and some TV shows (like CSI to not pick one), in fact, people we came across were quite curious and interested by this heard of giant walking animals and came to ask questions about what was happening. I think the most hostile reactions must have been ignorance which is really no big deal. :)
Later in the afternoon, I went emptying a bit my wallet at the Dealer's Dens and had some very good chats with  Danza,  Indiwolfonline and  Foxydragon. I then ended my day by attending with a good dozen of other people, whose my roommate, Baron, her boyfriend and Mayhem, to a room party.

And then arrived sunday, the last day of the convention, that I began by attending the Motorfurs event and by, at first it was really just a private jock with myself (just don't ask XD), presenting my 1994 Peugeot 106 there as I've noticed that 1990s cars were quite rare on the British roads nowadays and it had, and I was the first surprise, more attention than I though it would. I even managed to get an award, the "Filthy Favian Award" and I'm not sure if I should be that enthusiast about being awarded on this category but let's just say that a filthy car is a car that's a lot on the road and as such is a proof of reliability (yes, I know, a reliable French car is a paradox :P), that works, right? And for my defense, it was only dirty because of the salt that I accumulated on the Normandy and then on the British roads, otherwise I spent two hours the eve of my departure at cleaning it.
But sunday also was marked by the final goodbye to so much great people met there and it has been done with a bit of sadeness but with the hope to see them again sooner or later.

Now, on the personal thoughts about this convention, for me it has been a really great moment and it allowed me to take my mind off as I was feeling down before to leave and I never would have thought that meeting new people would make me feel better! But honnestly, the convention very well organised and there has been no drama nor any significant incident and everyone was really so nice (at the point that the hotel crew said we have been their best clients!). And for that, I really would like to thanks everyone who made it possible, the Staff, the attendees and the hotel staff too! So, I definitely will consider coming back to JFTW again, maybe not next year because of some probable significant life changes, but it still will be on the list as it totally worth the 30h of travel to get there and then to return home and even the British weather did not ruined it! :P
Anyway, this convention has opened the doors to me to a new form of possible travels for me, at the point that I'm considering about maybe going to the Eurofurence this year too! But for the latter, it still is a big *Maybe*, it will mostly depends on some friends who I know were interested about going there this year and I think the chances to see me there will be quite thin but hey! Who knows? With some luck I may will be able to attend it! I will be also looking to attend, maybe, to JFTW 2019 if I'm free on those dates and why not Furrnion 2019 too, everything will depend on both my health state and the speed of the French administration. :)

Anyway, I think I hold you long enough as it is, I'll be uploading in the following days/weeks (still have to see) the best photos I've took there, though they are on a limited number given the fact that my wide-angle lens had decided to be capricious (due to a very stupid problem that I fixed in five seconds while on the ferry boat to return in France...) so most of my photos were taken with my other lens, a 55-250mm lens, which is really not optimal for portraits and group photos but gives some beautiful photos thanks to the depth of field.

Well, thanks for reading!