Trip!
I'm back in Durham! It was such a short trip but feels much longer because it was so eventful and good :)
I got to London on Friday afternoon, met up with Erin and we went to see Sir John Soane's museum. Erin advertised this to me as looking like the Braxiatel collection, and who wouldn't want to see that? Now, I like to think that Brax's collection is a little spacier, but otherwise that is not a bad description! A very, very curious and strange place, and well worth going. Then we met up with a friend of Erin's and went to Liberty, which is the kind of place that makes you want to be Rich with a capital R. I would buy the hell out of their furniture, carpets and assorted random stuff.
In the evening we did one of the things I came to London for: we met up with Katy and went to the British library (where I had been earlier that day to store my luggage in one of their lockers, which will be important later...) to go to a lecture/presentation/talk about Time Travel! It had Paul Cornell and Audrey Niffenegger and Stephen Baxter and two other people whose name I don't remember. Surprisingly everyone on this panel quite seriously said that time travel is possible and will happen and then they also said many other very interesting things. Paul Cornell is adorable, I now fan him properly whereas before I only thought that his episodes were quite cool. Afterwards there were some amusing questions, especially the lady who began her question with, "As someone who has had psychic experiences" (or something like that) which led to Paul Cornell saying that his religion was quite as ridiculous as hers. Not very PC of him, but I liked it.
Then none of us got an autograph, even though we could have, and we went to get my stuff from the locker... only it was too late. No amount of pleading with the security guards could change the fact that the British Library was well and truly shut for the day, so I had to make do with the things I had in my (fairly small) backpack for the night.
On Friday our expectations for Big Finish Day were pretty low (Erin said there would be panels, and Katy said no, there wouldn't, and if there hadn't been panels it might have been very bad, but then it turned out there were panels!). Really, there is not much to say that Katy hasn't already said about this Con: there were many, many men, most of them older than we, and very few women, and we arrived in the middle of a panel where it was revealed that Brax would come back in a future series of Benny (yay!) and we talked to Miles Richardson several times (he really does look most uncannily like Brax, if you believe in moustache!Brax) and I actually wasn't as nervous about getting people's autographs as I thought I would, so now I have autographs from Colin Baker, Lisa Bowerman, Justin Richards (who seemed quite surprised yet pleased to be presented with a copy of Theatre of War to sign, because it is dedicated to his son who was there right next to him) and Rob Shearman. Stupidly, I did not bring my Gallifrey CDs for people to sign, which might have been a good idea...
Overall I enjoyed this con very much, mostly because Big Finish people are such low-key celebrities that they don't seem very removed from the fans, and it didn't feel commercial because people like Nick Briggs clearly love what they're doing. I still feel good about giving Big Finish my 25 pounds! If they had had more good merchandise, like, say, Benny books, I might even have spent more money. Although they had many, many (signed) photos, such as a picture of Roberts!Master signed by Eric Roberts for a ridiculous price (50 pound, I think) but these I didn't want. Katy got the ultimate guide to Bernice Summerfield, which would have tempted me if it wasn't so big and heavy and I always have to keep an eye on my luggage to take back to Germany. Mostly I guess going to cons is just more fun with people you really like, rather than people you have just met for the first time (such were my teenage anime-fan experiences).
After that we went to get my stuff back from the British Library and that also worked out fine, so, yay! Also, I have now finally seen the Princess Bride, which indeed deserves its cult status.
The next day began inauspiciously as I raced to find London Bridge station and managed to literally get there in the very last second because I got off at the wrong bus station. Once on the train I did something I usually don't, because for some reason I felt compelled to write more X-Men fanfic even though all I had to write was an unsharpened pencil.
As soon as I arrived in Brighton, it started to rain, and it didn't stop (only got much worse) until the next morning. So while I could tell from my first foray into the Lanes and the Summer Pavillion that Brighton is a) pretty and b) a shopper's paradise, it was really quite miserable. Luckily, the hostel I booked is the BEST EVER. If you ever stay in Brighton, choose Kipps. They had a movie night because of the rain with free pizza and popcorn for everyone, free internet, excellent breakfast, perfectly clean rooms, a ten bed dorm that was tidier and quieter than any I've ever seen and extremely nice staff. Even though I stayed only one night, I have rarely felt more cosy.
The next morning I got up really early, went down to Brighton Pier (windy, but no longer rainy) and took in the rest of the city. I'd like to come back to Brighton some day when it is sunny and I'm rich (sun will probably happen, but richness not).
I took the train via Portsmouth and Salisbury to Bath. Sussex is utterly charming in the sunshine... like most rural corners of England, actually.
I think I've fallen a little bit in love with Bath. The city is one of *those cities* - a river, hills, nice countryside, old buildings. I imprinted on this city pattern with Heidelberg, and would miss it if I were ever forced to live in a city without these things. It was sunny in Bath until this morning, and the buildings, which are all built with a limestone in a very warm sandy shade, positively glowed. The city centre is full of pillars, like some ideal Roman city from your Latin textbook, and full of tourists, too, but not hectic or crowded. In fact, if I had to describe the atmosphere of Bath in one word, I'd probably choose something like "leisurely" (it needs that certain old-fashioned tone). In the evening I was still torn about whether to go to Stonehenge the next day or not, but I decided that I rather wanted to see the Roman baths and do a proper walking tour of Bath - which was an excellent decision. The Baths are incredible, and include a very well done museum. They used to be a temple of Minerva/Athena, who was always my favourite greco-roman deity as a kid (and probably still is) and despite the tourists they're still quite atmospheric. They reminded me somehow of the Alhambra, which has the same sort of beauty that transcends crowds.
After that I went to the Fashion museum (old dresses galore! Why did Victorian women have tiny feet?) and the Jane Austen museum and then spent some time relaxing in a cafe (writing more fanfic and reading Present Danger which Katy lent me). In the evening I joined a free walking tour of the city. While waiting around in front of the cathedral for it to start, I met an Australian guy who was also waiting for it and we started talking and... didn't stop talking until the tour was nearly over. I sort of suspected that he was going to ask me if I wanted to have drink with him after the tour, and when he did ask I said yes because I rarely get on so well with someone immediately after meeting them. It turned out he was thirty, and had also done English Literature, and he was also quite good looking and funny - in fact, in terms of flirting this may be the most pleasant experience I've ever had. We went to a pub, sat outside for quite a while, took a walk, all the while without a lull in the conversation (people who've met me know that I'm not the most talkative person, so this is really unusual). I knew that he wanted to ask me to come to his B&B (I was staying at the YMCA) for the night, and he sort of hinted at the possibility, and there were hugs and possibly hair stroking... but he never directly said so, and never in a pushy way and in the end he just ended up walking me to the YMCA and we parted with minimal awkwardness.
I went up to my room (it was close to midnight by then) feeling very happy. I still don't exactly regret that I didn't respond more to his flirting because as it was it was such a nice evening, and I'm just not the kind of person who would have a one night stand with a perfect stranger when there is little chance of ever meeting them again. In any case it was a tremendous boost for my confidence (and trust in people) and the perfect end to really good trip.
My journey back was uneventful, I just sat in the train for hours and hours, writing fanfic (27 pages in my newly bought notebook - the paper kind) and reading David Copperfield and drinking too much tea and coffee and thinking, "Ah, that was a nice trip!" and "Oh, I love England so much!" and "Why doesn't this guy next to me blow his nose? He's been sniffling all the way from Peterborough to Doncaster!"
I got to London on Friday afternoon, met up with Erin and we went to see Sir John Soane's museum. Erin advertised this to me as looking like the Braxiatel collection, and who wouldn't want to see that? Now, I like to think that Brax's collection is a little spacier, but otherwise that is not a bad description! A very, very curious and strange place, and well worth going. Then we met up with a friend of Erin's and went to Liberty, which is the kind of place that makes you want to be Rich with a capital R. I would buy the hell out of their furniture, carpets and assorted random stuff.
In the evening we did one of the things I came to London for: we met up with Katy and went to the British library (where I had been earlier that day to store my luggage in one of their lockers, which will be important later...) to go to a lecture/presentation/talk about Time Travel! It had Paul Cornell and Audrey Niffenegger and Stephen Baxter and two other people whose name I don't remember. Surprisingly everyone on this panel quite seriously said that time travel is possible and will happen and then they also said many other very interesting things. Paul Cornell is adorable, I now fan him properly whereas before I only thought that his episodes were quite cool. Afterwards there were some amusing questions, especially the lady who began her question with, "As someone who has had psychic experiences" (or something like that) which led to Paul Cornell saying that his religion was quite as ridiculous as hers. Not very PC of him, but I liked it.
Then none of us got an autograph, even though we could have, and we went to get my stuff from the locker... only it was too late. No amount of pleading with the security guards could change the fact that the British Library was well and truly shut for the day, so I had to make do with the things I had in my (fairly small) backpack for the night.
On Friday our expectations for Big Finish Day were pretty low (Erin said there would be panels, and Katy said no, there wouldn't, and if there hadn't been panels it might have been very bad, but then it turned out there were panels!). Really, there is not much to say that Katy hasn't already said about this Con: there were many, many men, most of them older than we, and very few women, and we arrived in the middle of a panel where it was revealed that Brax would come back in a future series of Benny (yay!) and we talked to Miles Richardson several times (he really does look most uncannily like Brax, if you believe in moustache!Brax) and I actually wasn't as nervous about getting people's autographs as I thought I would, so now I have autographs from Colin Baker, Lisa Bowerman, Justin Richards (who seemed quite surprised yet pleased to be presented with a copy of Theatre of War to sign, because it is dedicated to his son who was there right next to him) and Rob Shearman. Stupidly, I did not bring my Gallifrey CDs for people to sign, which might have been a good idea...
Overall I enjoyed this con very much, mostly because Big Finish people are such low-key celebrities that they don't seem very removed from the fans, and it didn't feel commercial because people like Nick Briggs clearly love what they're doing. I still feel good about giving Big Finish my 25 pounds! If they had had more good merchandise, like, say, Benny books, I might even have spent more money. Although they had many, many (signed) photos, such as a picture of Roberts!Master signed by Eric Roberts for a ridiculous price (50 pound, I think) but these I didn't want. Katy got the ultimate guide to Bernice Summerfield, which would have tempted me if it wasn't so big and heavy and I always have to keep an eye on my luggage to take back to Germany. Mostly I guess going to cons is just more fun with people you really like, rather than people you have just met for the first time (such were my teenage anime-fan experiences).
After that we went to get my stuff back from the British Library and that also worked out fine, so, yay! Also, I have now finally seen the Princess Bride, which indeed deserves its cult status.
The next day began inauspiciously as I raced to find London Bridge station and managed to literally get there in the very last second because I got off at the wrong bus station. Once on the train I did something I usually don't, because for some reason I felt compelled to write more X-Men fanfic even though all I had to write was an unsharpened pencil.
As soon as I arrived in Brighton, it started to rain, and it didn't stop (only got much worse) until the next morning. So while I could tell from my first foray into the Lanes and the Summer Pavillion that Brighton is a) pretty and b) a shopper's paradise, it was really quite miserable. Luckily, the hostel I booked is the BEST EVER. If you ever stay in Brighton, choose Kipps. They had a movie night because of the rain with free pizza and popcorn for everyone, free internet, excellent breakfast, perfectly clean rooms, a ten bed dorm that was tidier and quieter than any I've ever seen and extremely nice staff. Even though I stayed only one night, I have rarely felt more cosy.
The next morning I got up really early, went down to Brighton Pier (windy, but no longer rainy) and took in the rest of the city. I'd like to come back to Brighton some day when it is sunny and I'm rich (sun will probably happen, but richness not).
I took the train via Portsmouth and Salisbury to Bath. Sussex is utterly charming in the sunshine... like most rural corners of England, actually.
I think I've fallen a little bit in love with Bath. The city is one of *those cities* - a river, hills, nice countryside, old buildings. I imprinted on this city pattern with Heidelberg, and would miss it if I were ever forced to live in a city without these things. It was sunny in Bath until this morning, and the buildings, which are all built with a limestone in a very warm sandy shade, positively glowed. The city centre is full of pillars, like some ideal Roman city from your Latin textbook, and full of tourists, too, but not hectic or crowded. In fact, if I had to describe the atmosphere of Bath in one word, I'd probably choose something like "leisurely" (it needs that certain old-fashioned tone). In the evening I was still torn about whether to go to Stonehenge the next day or not, but I decided that I rather wanted to see the Roman baths and do a proper walking tour of Bath - which was an excellent decision. The Baths are incredible, and include a very well done museum. They used to be a temple of Minerva/Athena, who was always my favourite greco-roman deity as a kid (and probably still is) and despite the tourists they're still quite atmospheric. They reminded me somehow of the Alhambra, which has the same sort of beauty that transcends crowds.
After that I went to the Fashion museum (old dresses galore! Why did Victorian women have tiny feet?) and the Jane Austen museum and then spent some time relaxing in a cafe (writing more fanfic and reading Present Danger which Katy lent me). In the evening I joined a free walking tour of the city. While waiting around in front of the cathedral for it to start, I met an Australian guy who was also waiting for it and we started talking and... didn't stop talking until the tour was nearly over. I sort of suspected that he was going to ask me if I wanted to have drink with him after the tour, and when he did ask I said yes because I rarely get on so well with someone immediately after meeting them. It turned out he was thirty, and had also done English Literature, and he was also quite good looking and funny - in fact, in terms of flirting this may be the most pleasant experience I've ever had. We went to a pub, sat outside for quite a while, took a walk, all the while without a lull in the conversation (people who've met me know that I'm not the most talkative person, so this is really unusual). I knew that he wanted to ask me to come to his B&B (I was staying at the YMCA) for the night, and he sort of hinted at the possibility, and there were hugs and possibly hair stroking... but he never directly said so, and never in a pushy way and in the end he just ended up walking me to the YMCA and we parted with minimal awkwardness.
I went up to my room (it was close to midnight by then) feeling very happy. I still don't exactly regret that I didn't respond more to his flirting because as it was it was such a nice evening, and I'm just not the kind of person who would have a one night stand with a perfect stranger when there is little chance of ever meeting them again. In any case it was a tremendous boost for my confidence (and trust in people) and the perfect end to really good trip.
My journey back was uneventful, I just sat in the train for hours and hours, writing fanfic (27 pages in my newly bought notebook - the paper kind) and reading David Copperfield and drinking too much tea and coffee and thinking, "Ah, that was a nice trip!" and "Oh, I love England so much!" and "Why doesn't this guy next to me blow his nose? He's been sniffling all the way from Peterborough to Doncaster!"