Impromptu con attendance - Asylum 13!
Last week, I kept seeing all the Tweets of SPN cast members travelling to London/BIrmingham for Asylum 13 - a con I had decided not to go to, mainly because I was working and couldn't take any time off - and with the amazing guest list this year (most of whom I hadn't met yet), all the Tweets were making me really, really want to go!
So, on Friday, I made the crazy decision to try to get to Birmingam for A13 on Saturday... after working a 12-hour night shift on Friday night! The con website said there were tickets available on the door, so I figured I would just show up and buy one there... then I wondered if, because I wouldn't get there until Saturday lunchtime/afternoon, maybe they wouldn't have any tickets left. Thankfully, though, the wonderful Amber1960 offered me a spare ticket that she had - which was amazing :).
I finished work at 7.30 am on Saturday morning and headed home to try to get a couple of hours of sleep before I drove to Birmingham. Unfortunately, though, I only dozed for about 30 minutes and then couldn't sleep anymore. So, with 2.5 hours of sleep under my belt in total, I drove 90 miles to the con!
I met up with Amber1960 to get the pass, as well as Dizzojay and a couple of other people, and despite feeling extremely exhausted, I settled in for an afternoon of panels :). It was a bit odd at first, as there wasn't any assigned seating (other than the first few rows of reserved seats), and I didn't really know what to do with myself, but the con wasn't particularly busy and there were plenty of free seats :). The afternoon panels consisted of Matt and Amy, followed by DJ Qualls, then Gil and Lindsay McKeon, and finally Richard.
They announced during the day that Richard and Matt were going to do karaoke at the disco party that night - which I would have loved to go to, since they usually only do it at Creation cons, but I was so tired by the end of Richard's panel that I was feeling dizzy, and I knew I wouldn't cope with the karaoke as well, so I went to bed early :(.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of sleep, I woke up with a headache this morning, which had me feeling a bit shaky, but I was still able to enjoy the rest of the con :).
I headed downstairs to the convention area fairly early on, in the hopes of getting a good, or even a reserved seat, in the panel room. I didn't realise until about 20 minutes later that for reserved seating, you could just walk into the room and see what was left - but one of the con staff announced there were still seats, and I jumped at the chance... and got a third-row seat for just £10 extra :)... which meant I could take much better photos today :).
First panel was Matt and Richard, which as usual, was hilarious :). There were some familiar stories told (but they don't really get old) and a moment where Matt was asked to pronounce a Welsh word - the town with the longest name: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (which translates to: "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave").
My group was called up for autographs at the end of their panel, and I thought there was going to be 45 minutes before the next panel, but as they were running late with the panels, unfortunately it turned out that the girls (Amy, Nicki Aycox and Lindsay) came on while I was waiting for autos... so I missed their entire panel :(. As I hadn't arrived until midday on Saturday, that meant I missed both of Nicki's panels - which was very annoying...especially since when I got back from autos, there was nothing going on in the panel room for another hour after that :(.
Anyway, the next panel up was Gil, Adam Rose and Theo Devaney (Gavin, Crowley's son). I don't really care too much for Adam and Theo's characters, but they were lovely in autographs and the panel was good :). Because he had such a terrible Scottish accent in the show, I hadn't realised that Theo is actually English - he grew up near Stonehenge!
After the boys, it was DJ again, and then Tim Omundson was up. This was his first SPN con and he was great :). I hadn't realised that he's actually been living in my home town for the last 3 months, while filming an ABC show (he plays an English king)! There were some great episode/show ideas for Cain storylines during the panel and TIm actually tried to call Robbie Thompson right there to pitch them to him - unfortunately the crappy phone reception in the hotel meant he couldn't get through :(.
After Tim, the final panel was Jim Beaver, who I'd also missed seeing yesterday :). It was great to see him again (even though it's only been 4 weeks :P). It was hard to get good pics of Jim though, as he kept moving and mostly stood in front of the twinkly background where I couldn't get good light in the photos :(.
After Jim was the closing ceremony, during which the guests did selfies with the crowd :).
Overall, Asylum 13 was definitely a worthwhile experience, especially as there were several guests there who I'm unlikely to meet again, so that was great :). There were also several familiar faces that I'd seen at JIB and also in London when I went to Jason's pub crawl back in May. As it was a last-minute decision to attend, I didn't have any expectations for it and I was pleasantly surprised (I had heard horror stories about disorganisation and overcrowding at A14, but this con was pretty relaxed and not very busy). Although I got autographs (they were all free with the pass), I wasn't too bothered about getting any photo ops, so I didn't have to worry about scheduling those alongside the panels :).
I'm totally exhausted now (I have another 2 night shifts starting tomorrow night), but I'm glad I went :).
Edited to add:
Oops, I completely forgot to link to all my photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ksanders24/sets/72157648800079306/