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Prickly relations with Thistle 

We are back at the Thistle Birmingham City for 2010, though with the convention still on a growth curve it won't be long before we'll have to consider somewhere bigger.  

The hotel industry is having a bad time of it but according to the hotel Birmingham is a hotbed of activity in the middle of November thanks to the German Christmas fair in the city and the recent revamp of the city centre, and so we are having difficulty persuading them to hold the reserved rooms for as long as we would like. This year, more than ever, it might be wise to book your room early.

If you have any suggestions regarding suitable venues for the con, get in touch. We'll consider anywhere in the Midlands that has suitable convention rooms, residential accommodation and a bar. 

Earlier start on the Friday

The Wroxton Suite (and for all I know the Ariel too) will be available from 11:00am on the Friday for the early birds among you. They are charging us for a full day on the Friday these days so we might as well grab the rooms earlier.

Price increases

It did cross my mind not to mention these but some of you have been coming for so long that you might be stuck on auto-pilot when writing out cheques to book the registration fee, so it is probably best to mention them.

The convention fee has been increased by £2 for the full week-end. It's the first increase in the convention fee in some time and reflects the increased cost of hiring the convention rooms, the subsidised coffee flasks provided in the convention room and the cost of hiring a room for the Bring & Buy.

The single room rates have also been bumped up while the shared room rate is slightly lower this year.  

Dates confirmed

MidCon will take place on the week-end of 19-21 November this year. It's a bit later than normal this year but we like to avoid clashing with Remembrance Sunday. 

Con booklet

The 2009 booklet is now available for download. It is in duplex PDF booklet format. This means you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it, then a duplex printer to print it (or you could just print both sides manually). It now incorporates the maps, though you might need a magnifying glass.

The best reason for printing off the convention handbook is so you can contribute updates to it. If you found a particularly good restaurant or a free place to park or you have a nugget of information that would be useful to other attendees, please send details to us. 

Peter Berlin, Richard Beattie & John Harrington leave a French restaurant in Birmingham, the name of which escapes me ...

Other places to stay in Brum

All information correct as at 2:00pm, Saturday, 7 November, 2009.

Arc Apartments, The Arcadian Centre, Hurst St, Birmingham B5 4TD. About 1.2 miles away from the hotel. £22 for two nights (i.e. £11 a night per person), with car parking space.

Birmingham Central Backpackers, 58 Milk Street
Digbeth B5 5NH. Mixed dorm. From £16 a night. 

Hatters, 92-95 Livery Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, West Midlands, B3 1RJ. About half a mile away. Double bed, private, en suite for £32.50 per night. Mixed dorm en suite £19.50 a night (6 bed dorm) or £16.50 a night (12 bed dorm).

City Quarters at Burne Jones House, 11 - 12 Bennetts Hill, Birmingham, B2 5RS. 

Campanile Hotel, Chester Street,Aston , Birmingham, B6 4BE. About 1.5 miles away. I am not going to quote a price because they have a special 'book 5 days in advance' offer so it will probably be gone by the time you read this.

Those are just some ideas. You will probably be better off trawling the web yourself, in which case the following sites may prove useful:

Laterooms.com 

Bookings.com

Superbreak 

Bring & Buy

We'll be doing the Bring & Buy again. 

Games that will be on offer

If you want to give punters advance notice of the games you will be bringing along to sell, contact John via http://fbgames.co.uk  or, if you can't be bothered to visit that web site you can probably work out his address by rearranging the following elements into the right order: 

1. @ 
2. john 
3. fbgames.co.uk 

Clue: Put them in the following order: 213, with no spaces in between!

Since the Diplomacy tournament died, convention supremo Jeremy Tullett has had to console himself with registration duties

If only you did T-shirts

Hard though it is to believe, we still have some MidCon T-shirts so they will be on sale again. These are high quality jobbies, because we know you like to make your clothes last for decades ... The cost will be £12 each. The shirts will be available in navy blue, cardinal red, olive and charcoal in sizes ranging from Small to XL.

Bookings now being taken