Oxford Moot 2013: 9th - 11th August! Book A Room!

[Calma]

Have a great Moot!

Can't wait to hear all about it.

[Frelga]

Have fun, mooters! Everyone who knows me, give each other hugs from me.

[Leon K Fox]

Tried to call my friend yesterday but went straight to his answering machine. Having a feeling I may well end up not having a +1 after all. Will phone in the morning though to be 100% sure.

[Leon K Fox]

Well it seems as though my friend has bailed for whatever reason. Also Mum had called me to say my train was cancelled according to National Rail Inquiry, but the staff at the station/on the platform say it's all running as planned. :S (and the service starts here so they would know if it had been cancelled if anyone would)

[rowanberry]

Have fun, all of you! Il'l be there in spirit.

[Leon K Fox]

Turns out National Rail Inquiry was wrong and the train is running as normal, bound for Didcot Parkway now. From there I get the train from Oxford. See you all soon! Nervous yet excited still.

[JewelSong]

Don't be nervous, Leon. My first Oxford Moot was in 2004 and it changed my life. Completely and yes, for the better.

I flew over from the US, I had never been to England, never met anyone who was coming to the Moot and had no idea what it would be like. But I had become besotted with Tolkien and LOTR and was determined to meet some of the folks I had been posting with on TORC. I was a bit concerned that I might be too "old" for what seemed to be a younger crowd...but I was wrong.

I have never felt so welcomed and so included in my entire life.

I made some life-long friends at that Moot, and at subsequent Moots.

You will have a fantastic time.

[Leon K Fox]

Well, it's pretty safe to say that I had a fantastic weekend at the Moot. As I had stated on here a few times I was incredibly nervous going into it as I was still new to Tolkien (having only gotten into LOTR in January) new to TORC (joined the site right at the end of that month) had never been to a Moot before and I know so many had known each other for years both on the site and at the Moots every year since 2002 (some of them anyway) so yeah, I went into it fairly blind.

And I can not stress enough how glad I am that I did. Everyone that I spoke to was very welcoming and made me feel right at home and I had so much fun, been added to the Facebook group now which is going to help a great deal in finding everyone on that site. Plus it will help me with staying in the loop by checking both there and here on TORC.

Many laughs were had over drinks, some very insightful conversations were had about Tolkien and other subjects and god we had such a laugh playing "Werewolf" in Dean's room on the Saturday night/Sunday morning. We totally have to do that again next year (Though perhaps making a bit less noise may be adviseable, not that I can say much though as I did kind of let the door slam once... )

Sadly I have very few pictures worth sharing here, any good ones taken of me were taken by other people...well, as good a photo as one can take of me, anyway.

But all in all I will most certainly be back next year. Thank you Dean/Hobbituk for putting it all together and making it all possible!

[Hobbituk]

You're very welcome Leon.

I have started a Moot report thread HERE.

Leon, you may wish to repost your comments there