This year we did it a little differently – an earlier start, along with some chairs & blankets – we were in it for our version of the “Long Haul”. We arrived & joined the queue at 2.am – two hours earlier than we did last year. The first thing we saw were tents – and lots of them! I’m sure there were more campers this year, as the queue was on Prince Consort Road by the time me and The Boy joined it. We pitched up, broke out the blankets and waited. Those chairs were a godsend: other than being able to catch a nap in a comfy position, the idea of leaning against the wall or sitting on the pavement for all that time was not appealing – I swear it was colder this year. We were also aided by the food & flask of coffee we brought along… oh, and a hip-flask with a “wee dram” in it which The Boy brought along as a warming surprise
By 06:30a.m “The Surge” happened: people in Tents started packing away and the line started to move along – we were further along on Bremner Road by 06:37a.m – which is just around the corner from the RCA. The Queue broke into 2 segments (from our perspective) at this point 1) those who were lined up alongside the RCA building & 2) those who were on the other pavement – which is where we were… all that separated us was a road. It seems that getting there a few hours earlier made a difference indeed, as I was surprised at how close we were to the RCA already at that point.
08:41a.m and we were in the RCA. The Boy did what I always forget to do, and asked the Guard on the door with the Counter what numbers we were as he clocked us in: 227 & 228. That might sound like a high number, but considering how many people queue for the event, that was pretty good going! I refused to look at my lists until we were at that point in the line where you could see the screens…
We got to that point in the queue… we could see the screens. A lot of the cards were still available – it was very early into the Sale, the 1st 50 Raffle Winners had been & gone (we didn’t win again this year) & we were getting closer to being able to ask for our choices…
And with a big “Huzzah!” I can say that these are latest editions to my RCA Secret Collection:
No. 1149 by Pierre Julien
No. 2207 by Angela Lamb Even though cards are still available later in the day, I still think it’s worth it to get there earlier – to me it feels like you have more of a chance of walking away with the Cards that you want. Third time doing this, and it’s still an amazing feeling – I can’t believe how quickly the Sale came round & that it’s over!
I didn’t take as many this year, due to the fact I managed to sleep a lot in the Queue (thanks to those chairs!) but my pictures from the RCA Secret 2010 can be viewed over on Flickr:
Until next year RCA Secret, see you later
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