I've got a long weekend this weekend, so I've set myself a mammoth list of jobs to do!

• Hot wash my towels
• Clean my room
• Clean the bathroom
• Clean the landing
• Measure the box room for shelves
• Hoover the stairs
• Clean the hallway
• Clean the lounge
• Hoover the kitchen stairs
• Clean the kitchen
• Sweep the patio
• Rearrange my room ready for shelves
• Fetch the ladders, my bookcase and books from PW
• Clean the windows I can reach, inside and out

I think the easiest way to get across my feelings at the moment is in the form of a history lesson, firstly about RBW and then tomorrow I'll talk about my career as a radio and then gigging DJ. The conclusions are similar and highlight something about the fandom that really disappoints me...

I got deeply involved in RBW in 2008 because it was failing. Three months before doors, there was essentially no convention, no direction and no leadership. 200-odd people stood to lose their money and so myself, Kittiah and Miyabi promoted ourselves from DJs to Damage Limitation, took as much control as we could claw away from FoxB and spent every minute and pound we could on making the con happen. The good news was that we managed to drag it back from the brink of disaster and put on a con that whilst disappointing, was at least functional. The bad news was that we got lumbered with a con to run from then on.

Then RBW2009 came along and the general consensus was that it was going to be crap. The disappointing performance at RBW2008 hung over 2009 like a bad smell and some people were even citing FoxB's departure as a cause for concern (at the time we were still covering up for him so we couldn't put the record straight!). In the face of all that, we found a new motivator: spite.

That's right; the thing that got us through RBW2009 and really drove us to do an awesome job was spite. Spite at all the nay-sayers who thought we couldn't do it and at the twisted individuals who were determined to bring the con down (there were actually a few of them - people who believed we had forced FoxB out whilst in reality he had left to go work in the Czech Republic). 2009 was also a creative work which we enjoyed immensely, but even that enjoyment paled in comparison to the hate and spite that drove us to success.

RBW2010 on the other hand was much more emotionally balanced and a lot easier to pull off. We had form from 2009 and a recipe that worked. However the main advantage that we had over 2009 was that we weren't fighting a running PR battle. That freed each of us up to concentrate on the convention itself and the results were dramatic. The con book for example, completely changed the way that other conventions approach their printed material. The bit that I am most proud of, however, is the amount of money we raised for Sled Dog Welfare: £6396.90.

And this brings me to a major issue that I've been particularly unhappy about... RBW2010 raised an equivalent of £29.60 per attendee. The only convention chair who had anything to say about that was Cheetah from EF who belittled it on the UK Fur forum, claiming that Microsoft's sponsorship skewed the final figure, making it look a lot better than other cons (read EF). Even without the very generous help from Microsoft (which they also extended to Confuzzled this year, thank you) RBW2010 raised £14.80 a head. Eurofurence 16, on the other hand, raised a staggering £5.17 per attendee. That's really not something to be proud about for a con that big.

Just to summarise the money raised for charity per person at the three biggest European conventions:

• RBW2010: £29.60 per person including corporate sponsorship, £14.80 without.
• Confuzzled 2011: £13.53 per person including corporate sponsorship, £6.76 without.
• Eurofurence 16: £5.17 per person, no corporate sponsorship sought.

Cheetah's comments couldn't have been wider from the mark. It's my honest opinion that he could have done his organisation a lot more credit by either keeping quiet and aiming to do better this year at 17 or a small congratulations and a resolution to try harder next time. Trying to make yourself look better by belittling your competition is petty and uncalled for.

That's two of the probably five things that have made me into the bitter and twisted individual that I am today. I'll cover another one tomorrow which will probably offend even more people.

The week from hell continues tomorrow, now with early starts. Work have also put the kaiboosh on going to Mum's 50th and EF. Ho hum. At least it will all be over soon. I narrowly avoided driving over a hedgehog on the way home - really hoping that good karma counts for something as I could do with a bit of that right now.

On a brighter note, I'm moving on Monday. Good bye Paddock Wood. Hello freedom. The house needs work, but is going to be at least a hundred times better than living with a grandparent. It's also next door to work, so I can say good bye to commuting too. Even better, there are also 31 pubs selling real ale within the local area. So much for the diet!

LF party last weekend went really well. I DJ'd for the first time in almost a year and didn't suck half as bad as I thought I would. I'll post the set list when I get around to it. I'm also giving serious thought to restarting my radio show from my new house.

And now, sleep! So much to do tomorrow...

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This is a brief list of the prime ministers of the United Kingdom that came to power without being elected by the citizens of the UK.

• The Rt Hon Gordon Brown
• The Rt Hon Tony Blair
• The Rt Hon Sir John Major
• The Rt Hon The Baroness Thatcher
• The Rt Hon The Lord Callaghan of Cardiff
• The Rt Hon The Lord Wilson of Rievaulx
• The Rt Hon Sir Edward Heath
• The Rt Hon The Lord Home of the Hirsel
• The Rt Hon The Earl of Stockton
• The Rt Hon The Earl of Avon
• ...

And that's just the ones that served under Queen Elizabeth II.

The truth of the matter is that this isn't the USA and we don't elect presidents. I'm fed up of people going on about GB with the same old "We didn't vote for him." crap. If that's the principle point of your arguement, you don't know enough about the vote to have one IMO. It's certainly not a pretty-boy or popularist contest.