Asylum - Coventry - May 12 2007

Right in the middle of my trip to England was the Asylum Convention in Coventry, put on by Rogue Events. Friday was excellent, finally getting to meet so many of the nuns in person was a huge thing for me. We had a great lunch and caught back up again in the early evening. I ended up spending the evening with Syrai, Forsaken, and Maria, and got quite cheerfully snockered on a bottle of very nice red wine. (1999 Brian McGuigan, specifically).

Saturday I woke up a bit late, and I was happy to make it to the convention in time for Jensen's talk. Goblie had kept my sister and I seats about 2/3 of the way from the front, and of course Jensen was close to a half-hour late. We didn't know why at the time, but in retrospect many of the things he said were even nicer.

The interviewer asked for the fans to stay back and not approach the stage several times before Jensen came in. When he did, the flashbulbs went crazy, blinding not just Jensen but also the interviewer. They finally limited flashbulb time, leading to a laugh when then interviewer started counting down again just as Jensen sat down.

This was the first convention star talk I've attended that included an interviewer - it was kind of strange for me to see it done that way. The last couple I went to were Brent Spiner (Star Trek's Data) and Gates McFadden (Star Trek's Dr. Crusher). They were both great, by the way - totally worth catching if you have the chance).

ANYhow, back to Jensen.

Damn, he's a great interview. Of course, it helped that he got so many repeat questions. :) But he does know how to answer each one as if it's all new and fresh each time. Even though it was my third or fourth time hearing the bee story, it was still great fun to hear it again.

The best part of the Jensen interview was likely where he responded after getting a thank you from one of the fans. Given what happened earlier, it was amazing. He said, "No... thank you. Thank all of you. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have a job. I love you guys."

Now *that*, ladies, is pure class.

That was the end of the convention for me on Saturday. I headed back to my hotel, caught an extremely short nap (followed by the "hair emergency") and then it was the Nuns Dine Out (such fun) and back to the 15th century pub with Syrai and Forsaken. It was a great night with an awesome bunch of people.

Asylum - Coventry - May 11, 2007

I had figured to just post on Saturday and Sunday, but after having read Dazedizzy's post on Friday, I was reminded of stuff I'd forgotten. Like, Registration was on Friday. :)

Friday was a busy day. We headed out to central Birmingham around noon, and met up with the nuns at New Street Station (which I kept hearing as 'E Street Station'). Everyone recognized goblie first *laughs* and she got so many hugs and squeals it was awesome! I mostly got somewhat more tentative responses, except from Lena. But the Nun love was everywhere, and it was great to be able to put faces to names.

As we headed towards Broad Street and my first "choose the restaurant" of the day, my sister and I were checking out the men around. She's having a bad men time right now, and of course the best possible medicine is to find lots of hot men to check out. Well, we found them! Right in the middle of Birmingham!

So. That made us a wee bit late for lunch, but gave us lots of pictures to look at.

After lunch, it was time to head for Coventry. My sister and I stopped long enough to get caricatures one. Mine was nude. (I, though posing, was not.) We got some spectacular double takes from passerby though.

Registration.

We got there around 6pm, and found a line up out the door, the Finns on the stairs, and several Asylum staff running quite frantically around shouting for people to "STAY AGAINST THE WALLS!!!". I got to meet Dazedizzy and Flaymz (beautiful, both of them), plus beldoc and her mom, and Minnie and her sister (who I didn't see again the whole time! *cries*). I took one look at the line up, found out it was for numbers 1 to 200, and decided that it was a damned good time to go eat.

After dinner, it was time to head back. Registration took maybe 10 minutes without the lineup (*laughs*) Then it was meet up time and the Nuns were hungry, but no one had anywhere in mind to eat. Time for the epic restaurant trek.

We set out 'thataway'... and went ... and went. We trekked past some damned depressed parts of Coventry, past a group of guys that suddenly and randomly broke into a fist fight. I thought at first they were just playing, but nope. Serious stuff. Time to turn 'thisaway' instead.

We walked through HERDS of places closed for the night. It is unbelievable to me the number of places that are simply closed, or the number that don't serve food. We tried two nightclubs and a club in a church (I loved that place!) before finally finding China Red. Ironically enough, everytime I asked, the result was "I'm not from here." It seems Coventry employs only external people.

I left the Nuns having dinner to go meet syrai, forsaken, and maria. We headed out to Spon Street, found a nice little pub, and then I got totally hammered on a bottle of wine. They were kind enough to walk me to a taxi and pour me inside, and then it was back to the hotel for the night.