Crazy Nuns at an Asylum ring a bell?
Alright, here we go again.
So, this girl just spent her weekend in England. Right now I've already spent the necessary 12 hours in isolation and have somewhat recovered from the trip. Just me, my music, my Supernatural coffee mug, my Supernatural coaster underneath the mug and some Toblerone chocolate I picked up from Brussels (which apparently isn't in Germany, imagine that!). I also seem to have injured myself while in England as one of my toes is pretty aching when I walk. I just hope it isn't broken.
So this is how we're gonna do it. Since it was an extended weekend, I'll be using a lot of lj-cuts to divide the rant into days and other things so you don't need to read everything. There won't be a lot of pictures here, because I barely took any and have much faith in everyone else's pictures. *nods*
I probably won't have much to say about Jensen, so if you're interested in that I suggest looking for someone else's rants. I was more interested in what the other guests had to say so I just got his autograph and listened to the panels with a half an ear, that's all.
Thursday 10th
Dude, how can you get a throbbing migraine just when you're supposed to go to England! Ugh, I woke up at six and had the mother of headaches instantly. It sucked more than anything before and got me popping pills all morning. I was a serious mess.
But by 11 I was already picking up Syr. We'd had agreed to get something to eat, spend some time and then start driving to Helsinki so we did. We got some food into our systems, sat down all excited and made jokes about my dead eyes behind the shades I obsessively wore the whole morning. We were prettyy excited at that point but still kinda chilling. I don't think the whole thing had sunk in that well yet.
We set off to Helsinki at 12.30 with me driving and blazed Stricken, What Have You Done and the like the whole way there. It was so fucking sunny too. Like the perfect weather and we had to leave the country to go get wet in England. Bitchy. The drive went nicely and we stopped by at EH's, talked a bit and then took off to the airport at 3 pm. EH dropped us off and lookie lookie, Maria arrived soon after us. She'd had some hiccups herself with the busses and drives and stuff but arrived at the right time never the less.
When we went to give away out luggage we heard about Brussels for the first time. Apparently we were expected to run through a 1,5 km terminal in less than an hour with security checks and all. Great, we'd assumed we'd have an hour and the closer we got to Brussels the less we had time. Eventually it was 15 minutes, but more about that later on.
We hung out at the airport for an hour, all hyped and loud, taking pictures and just sitting there. The first flight was approx. three hours long and we got food on the plane. Syr sat in the middle, Maria by the window, I by the corridor. The food was good, even if some of us ended up playing with their share. Maria, wanna tell what you did to your fork (she lost it!)? It takes talent to be our retarded, really it does. The flight went well, it was all smooth and nice.
So I mentioned we had a slight window to catch our next flight? It really was slight. They drove us to the correct terminal and we rant through it. Or more like Maria and I ran, and Syrai came after us, whining for us to slow down and wait for her and not to leave her. We got through security checks and passport checks and to the right gate too and you know what we learned over there? Oh yeah, our flight is like 15 minutes late. No reason to run kids! But fuck it, we were just happy we hadn't missed it.
So the happy kids boarded the correct plane and dove in... and onto the wrong seats. Errr... I was tired okay? 18, 17, who gives a damn which row it is? The guys whose seats we took didn't mind, they just sat on our own. And I got a window seat and an obsessive love affair with the wing. I stared at it the whole flight. It was so pretty up there with the clouds and all. We flew for like an hour and saw the night lights of Birmingham soonish. It was whoa.
Down there we eventually found our luggage, Maria her Starbuck and then the air rail thing (it was freaky, I've never seen one before). We even managed to get to the train station and buy tickets! Gob called us while we were at the station waiting for the train to Coventry and Maria (Gob called Syrai but she chickened out of answering) exchanged a few words with her. Gob's so sweet. The whole duration of the trip, she'd just ask us if we needed anything and then provide. A real darling.
We found Coventry late at night. It was about 10 pm local time (12 pm our time). It was just that we didn't exactly know where we were supposed to be headed at. And it rained. And when we asked people where the street we were looking for was, they didn't know. Seriously, you don't the streets of your own fucking hometown? Dude, that's so embarrassing! So we went around for awhile, strode forward in the rain and we just went back and forth. We asked some youth, a hotel clerk, a cabbie and none of them could give us straight directions. Then finally we saw a few policemen and they guided us to the right place.
They took us in at the inn, showed us to our room and then finally we could stop. I'd been on the move all day, I was all wet because of the rain and I just wanted to sleep. We didn't stay awake for long, just enough to make clear what we intended to do the next day, find out that flushing the toilets in England (and that damn inn) was too much for my (and Syr's) worm brain and then hit the sack.
Thursday was all work and (barely) no fun for Jack.
Friday 11th
So... I was probably awake at 7 or so. The people going downstairs for breakfast were noisy. Syrai and Maria got up at 8 and went for breakfast as well. I didn't. I wanted to rest as long as I could and just lay there. After they got back we started getting ready to meet Gob and a few others at Birmingham. People took showers, counted money and emptied their bags to only carry the necessary items. We took off early, didn't exactly realize that there was a difference in the time so... yeah, we got there an hour early.
On the train ride you could get a clearer picture of Birmingham/Coventry. It was all lush green fields and plants and fluffy sheep and charming little swarms of indentical tile houses. Just beautiful. I kept staring out of the window. So we got to Birmingham and just went around the shops for an our. I ate something, we all bought books and then hurried to our rendez-vous point. Our designated meeting place at the trainstation was a little shop called Millie's Cookies. When we got there, Gob, Inf and Inf's sister were already waiting. It didn't take them long to recognize us so we proceeded to make acquiantance. Shay, Lena (Moonie) & Mrs arrived soon after. Then we took off to get something to eat and we walked through Birmingham for awhile, looking for a place that'd take in a lot as big as ours.
It was kinda nice that we didn't find a place instantly, because we got to talk with everyone and just hang out. It was especially nice since I knew most of the people very poorly to begin with. I had to memorize a lot of names and faces quickly. Then at some point Gob vanished for a second and came back out with a bag of toffee flavoured popcorns. She gave it to me and Syrai, because previously I'd mentioned I'd like to taste those weird popcorn flavours in England again. The bag soon went pretty around around the place and everyone ate from it. Inf went around taking pictures of random hott guys on the street to prove to her sister that there were hott guys in existence and in England.
Maria, Syr and I didn't order food when the rest ate. I'd just filled my stomach and they'd had a pretty filling breakfast so we just sat and talked. People started taking pictures too, trying their best to get a lot of funny faces and such. Some made it their challenge to get me to smile. Nuff about that... I'm still a tad traumatized ;) ;)
The dinner went rather well and we left for Coventry afterwards to get to the hotel so we could get our tickets and, ya noe, register. Mrs, Lena and Shay went there by train with us whereas Inf, her sister and Gob stayed at Birmingham. The three took a cab to get to the hotel whereas we went to the inn and dropped off our things and got some advice on how to get to the hotel by walking. I'm glad we did that, because we wouldn't have been able to get back as easily if we hadn't walked there.
The registeration didn't start as planned but was delayed by a few hours. We went around with Lena, trying to find the Tourist Information spot so we'd get a map of the city but the place was mysteriously... er... we didn't find it. Or it wasn't open if it was that was weird door. Anyway, couldn't get the maps so we headed back to the hotel and just sat in the bar, and talked with people to make the time go by. At this point we were joined by Beldoc and her mom. They were talking people in to the line by their ticket numbers and ours were 371 & 372 so we had to wait awhile.
The tickets were pretty easy to get by. I didn't need to show my confirmation letter or anything. Just the ID did the job. It was way over 8 by the time we got out. The whole town seemed deserted at that hour, all the shops were closed and there was no one out. We got something to eat from Subway and headed back to the inn to change clothes and rest a bit. It was probably around 10 when we met Infie at the Godiva statue and headed out for the Town Crier for a drink. We drank something there and changed the scene soon after to a wine place where we spent the rest of the evening with drinks, just talking this and that. Infie got hammered from the wine, she drank the whole bottle so Syrai helped her walk and we walked her back to the statue and made sure she got a cab before we walked to the inn.
I fell asleep easily enough, having consumed just enough alhocol to be soberish, but get a good night of sleep.
Saturday 12th
This morning I also got breakfast and it was heavenly. Toast, tea, marmelade, apple juice, beacon, an egg, some mushrooms and something else I can't recall. It was just a culinary pleasure. I also got a shower and then we took off to the Con. It was sunny that day and everyone was pretty rested. We stopped by to buy a few things, especially those keythings you hold around your neck (because we thought it'd be easier to put holes in our tickets and wear them around our necks). I also got an armband that said 'AS IF'.
So that morning we learned that everything went by your ticket numbers, meaning we couldn't get Jensen or Allison's autographs till the next day. So mostly we just listened to panels & went around the Merchandise Room that day, trying to get a feel to the guests and see who we wanted to get autographs from and see more panels.
The guestlist was: Jensen Ackles (anything with him was always packed), Allison Mack, Alona Tal (Jo in SPN), Justin Hartley (Green Arrow in Smallville), Nicki Aycox (Meg in SPN), Alan Richson (Aquaman in Smallville)and the Coventry Guest Stars: Mark Lutz (Groosalugg in Angel), Douglas Arthurs (I'm tempted to mention The Butterfly Effect but I'll just say Stargåte) & Jenny Mollen (Nina in Angel).
You had the chance to get your picture taken with each guest, get a ticket to have coffee with them and 10 other people for like 30 minutes or so and get autographs. The three of us just settled for autographs and panels, where the guests answered the audience's questions.
We started by getting to the panel room on time so we'd get good seats to Jensen's panel. Eventually we succeeded in getting a few seats (4) because some people had reserved them for friends that hadn't arrived on time. At the time we were there with Shay and Mel and Shay was left without a seat so I told her to come sit on my seat so that I'd sit on her lap. However Syr got thrown from her seat when the person who it'd been reserved for came back and I left with her, not wanting to block the view for others and fearing they'd tell me to get away as well. I also went in to keep S company. We got new seats from the very back. She saw Jensen ok, I couldn't see anything, but we had the speakers right above us so we heard everything well.
Personally I thought he sounded tired and uninspired through-out his panel and the Con. Some fan had jumped on him (kissing and groping apparently) earlier on and he nearly didn't come to his panel because of it (the chick was thrown out), so I can get it why he'd be tired, but by looking at the pictures people took with him he seemed to have that same strained smile in every one of them. Then when we saw him live he looked exhausted. He perked up a bit for the second panel but overall I didn't completely enjoy his apperances. Sure he was fun and had stories for fans and all that, but he seemed to get uncomfortable every once in awhile and just didn't sparkle like the rest of the guests. Sure, he was the main attraction, he had a lot on his shoulders, a lot to bear from the fans, AND it was his first con ever. I understand this, I think he did well considering the circumstances, but had there been no one else for me to look forward to, I wouldn't felt like it'd been worth the money. Sorry, I'm not a diehard fan so I'm not sated with a few smiles and all that. He had a few good stories, the bug story being one, but the second panel was definitely better.
After Jensen we went to eat with Infie and her sister. The three of us got fish and chips which I paid for. It wasn't quite as delicious as the last time, but it was good never the less. Had we gone to a place that was especially a fish and chips place it would've undoubtedly been better. Gob and her friend joined us and they took pictures again, but we left after eating and went back to the con. The Merchandise Room was as appealing as ever so we bought SPN mugs (Syr & I), coasters (we all bought a set of 4) and trading cards (Supernatural for all, I bought a Spike & Serenity set as well, Syrai bought a Xena one). Then we went to see the Panel.
Now this was the first time I even realized that the Coventry Guest Stars were there and who they were. Mark I recognized first, he was so damn funny with his cartoonish voice and jokes. The guy was just an amazing stage persona. Douglas came in soon after when they asked the audience if they even knew who they were. Dude, if Mark was good at getting the audience wild, Douglas was even better. He told us he was in the Butterfly Effect and asked if anyone knew him from there. No one did. So he told a little story story about how all the gaysites certainly knew who he was a few weeks before the movie came out, because in the movie he played the character who almost got Ashton Kutcher's character to give him a blowjob in jail. "Remember the blowjob?" At that point the hall was full of laughter, everyone just got crazy. Then there was a question about who they'd wanna do their ideal gayscene with and Mark slowly started inching away, eventually running out of the room after Douglas got wild again with answering. Man that was funny.
After that there was a break and we got better seats for Allison Mack's guest panel. The guy that was interviewing her, Andrew, was there preparing already. Now the room was organized so that there were two screens on both sides of the stage and they showed a the guests a bit closer, so that the people in the back would at least see something. Now during the breaks the cameraman followed Andrew around so that his image was always on the twin screens. It was a running joke and the audience caught on it quickly. We made him sing along A-HA's "Take on Me" and dance and just teased him endlessly. He was such a funny guy.
Anyway, Allison's panel started and she was completely different from the rest. She just positively glowed, she was excited and charming. I loved her instantly. She didn't have particularly funny stories or a strong stage persona, she was just herself and it worked nicely. We all liked her a lot and I decided to get her autograph for myself as well, since I'd previously promised my free one to Kitty. Allison truly made an impression on me. I haven't even watched Smallville, just read Kitty's Chlex fiction. Now I wanna watch the series after I get settled back in. Oh and on a funny note. When they asked Allison who she'd wanna work with more, she said Michael Rosebaum ;D Some also told us that she knits on the set with someone. I have the impression it was Lionel's actor, but I'm not sure I caught the name right (some correct me? The mental image of them knitting together is slightly disturbing). She also personally doesn't believe in Clark/Chloe anymore and loved filming her death scene.
When Allison stopped we got Brooke Nevin, Alona Tal and Nicki Aycox. What we learned at that time was that Alona Tal isn't an interesting person at all. She avoided answering most of the questions and just felt really icy through-out the panel whereas Nicki and Brooke were genuinely interesting people and had lots to say. The panel completely changed our minds about Alona. I was gonna ask her a question in the beginning but as the thing dragged on and on I just didn't feel like it. It felt futile, like I couldn't achieve anything with it. Brooke told us that when she was shooting the Asylum episode Jensen and Jared came onto the set dressed as women. It was probably the highlight of the panel. Nicki ended up being the only one who's autograph we took. Alona was a disappointment really. I don't think she was completely okay with how her character's run on Supernatural went and how the fans received her.
The Panel was the last that day so we went to the inn after that and relaxed and looked through our trading cards, relaxing. We'd agreed to have dinner with the Nuns at 7 so we just chilled till then. It was the only time during the whole weekend that we dressed up. I generally wore the same pants the whole weekend, just changing shirts, so when I showed up with a skirt and tigts the others found it amusing. Well, I was told to dress up. *face* We met Shay, Mel, Lena & Mrs at the Godiva statue and walked to the place we were supposed to dine at together. There we met up with Izzie and Hells. We had a few drinks at that point (Syr and I had Mississippi Mudslides, they tasted just like chocolate milkshakes). We were soon joined by Beldoc and her mom and Inf and her sister. We ordered food and people were drinking and talking and drawing with crayons on the paper over the table. Lena, Syrai and I tried finding Anime series we'd all watched but Lena has weird taste in them. Infie drew metallicar at her end, Maria and I cooked up mild mean jokes on Syrai over our side and there were random pictures all around. Infie took the paper with her after we left the place and picked up some of the balloons too.
A GROUP PICTURE (got it from Infie)
From left to right: Hells, (up) Lena, (down) Shay, (up) me, (down) Mel, (up) Maria, (down) Infie, (up) Syrai, Izzie & Mrs.
We missed Jensen singing at the hotel because of the dinner, even though Lena and I tried to remain hopeful about it. We didn't stay at the hotel for the disco either and everyone just kinda started disbanding after the dinner. Shay was tired and homesick so she didn't leave. Mrs, Hells and Izzie vanished somewhere after they'd played with the helium in the balloons (Mrs inhaled it and sang beautifully afterwards). Lena stayed with Shay and Maria left for the Inn. I suppose she was exhausted by the hard alchol her own drink turned out to be. So eventually it was just me and Syrai and Inf drinking wine at the same place we'd been the night before. We talked about fics, and people, and Wincest and Pyro/Rogue and it was very nice. Inf didn't get hammered that time, so we even left early. Maria had fallen asleep with her glasses on while watching the tv when I called her to open the door for us ("mommy, open the door"). Both Syrai and I were cheerily tipsy but not really drunk. I fell asleep pretty soon again.
Sunday 13th
On Sunday it rained. We got up early with clear plans on getting autographs and seeing a few panels. We started the day by getting Jensen's autograph first. He looked tired, but I suppose he joked with Maria a bit. His friend Jason was also signing and personally I found him more approachable when he signed for us. We caught bits of Brooke and Nicki's second Panel afterwards and agreed that they had better chemistry without Alona there.
Then we got to the second Allison Mack panel. She was interviewed by Andrew again and the camera teased him just like the day before. It was even better than the one before. She told about her love for chocolate and how she especially adores Finnish chocolate (at which point the three of us cheered at her loudly). Later on I asked her where she'd gotten the chocolate and she said her fans had sent it to her. She also said that she'd had a big crush on Elijah Woods as a kid, that if she had a special power she'd wanna fly and that she barely watches TV (and hasn't therefore seen SPN) but if she were a cast on Supernatural she'd wanna play a hunter, giving a hard time to the boys.
I suppose it was at this point that we realized that the Coventry Guest Stars had their own corners for signing. We started with Mark, who had a map of the U.K. where he marked all of his fans hometowns. Now since we were from Finland it posed a problem that he eventually solved by moving our hometowns to the U.K. Karkkila got moved to Southern U.K. as NewKarkkila. He thanked me for moving my hometown there in the autograph as well. Joutsa, where Syrai lives, became UusisJoutsa (Uusi is New in Finnish, but he heard it wrong) and it was moved to Northern UK. We also got Douglas' autograph, which he signed off to 'Sexy Susanna' (crazy guy) and posed with me in a picture. He wore a kilt and literally lifted his hairy leg in my hands so I just couldn't keep laughter at bay when they took the picture. Damn flirt.
We had a small break, got some food and laid back for awhile and got in line for Allison then. I got autographs for both myself and Kitty. We mentioned to Allison that'd been us screaming and asking about the chocolate in the Panel and she seemed amused. It was after that when we learned that Mrs had gotten a place to the Coffee Lounge with Jensen. Lucky gal. Then we lined up for Nicki's autograph, and the cursed the fact they only had those weird pictures (her in a soldier uniform, not the more "Meg-ish" picture) of her left. We got signatures and visited the Merchandise Room for the last time to buy these collage things. Syrai bought a Dean one (for herself) and a Daniel Radcliffe one for her sister. I bought an Underworld one.
Then they reset the seating arrangements in the Panel Room, leaving us in line for seats once again. Eventually we had seats and Shay and Mel sat with us, even though Shay considered already leaving. They held a charity auction at that point. Items that they sold included pictures with autographs, the groping of Douglasses ass (don't even ask), a Supernatural promo dvd, and a Jensen picture with Autographs that they sold for 400 pounds. It was insane. After that we got Jensen's second panel that also ended the convention. Jensen seemed more relaxed this time around although he had tougher questions. There were one about fanfiction, one about Wincest, one about what Dean would dance at a wedding (according to Jensen, he'd get drunk and get carried out of the dancefloor). Jensen also admitted he calls Jared Jarhead and did a oneliner supposedly as Sam: "Dean! Saltgun!".
Afterwards all the guests came on stage and thanked us. The con ended there. We said goodbyes all around to Shay & Mel, Mrs & Lena and so on. We were also still there when Jensen exited the building. After that we just grabbed some food from subway and chilled at the inn. It was the one evening we got to spend more than an hour in our room and just be. We packed, and talked and wrote and so on. Syrai and Maria watched Romeo Must Die on TV and had some kind of a giggling attack. I tried to sleep at that point but since it wasn't working out I shut them out with my headphones and got to sleep at... 2 am maybe?
Monday 14th
We got up early, ate breakfast, took a train, hung out at the airport and went to the plane. Everyone was pretty tired so we mostly read our books during the flight and freetime. Syrai bought some gifts from the airport and we actually got to look around Brussels as well. We all bought some chocolate from Brussels as well.
Monday was pretty exhausting. We were beyond tired. It was hard to tell when someone was joking and being bitchy so that kinda made the vibes a bit cruel too. There were no big fights though, just some disagreements and comments we wouldn't have normally exchanged. Also the flight was much more uncomfortable especially from Brussels to Helsinki. It was bumpy.
EH and Veli picked us up from the airport and drive Maria to a place where she could get a bus back better. We got some fastfood and chilled for a short while before we started driving back. It rained through-out the way. Syr and I just listened to music hard and went on. It wasn't until our stop to Nummela (she bought Alias' 5th season there) that we perked up again and could spit out the bad taste the tired atmosphere had left in our mouths that last day. After that we were cool. I eventually dropped her off at her father's and drove home.
And that was the end of the trip. I stumpled through the front door completely tired and a bit cranky.
I heard from Syrai today that Goblie fell on a dishwasher and got a knife in her stomach. She's currently in the hospital, chilling and apparently on a good mood. So she'll live. I just got so worried when she told me Goblie had injured herself. I hope she gets a quick recovery.
And Kitty. I'll putting your Allison autograph on the mail tomorrow. I couldn't post it earlier since we only got hers on Sunday and the post wasn't open.
AND that's pretty much that. I'll be posting more pictures when I get some collected from everyone else. It was an amazing trip and I got spend time with some amazing people that made my trip all the more enjoyable. I hope to remain in contact with everyone afterwards as well.
Over and Out. (you can expect more rants on this subject after I get around to it. Just writing this one took over 3 hours) :D :D
So, this girl just spent her weekend in England. Right now I've already spent the necessary 12 hours in isolation and have somewhat recovered from the trip. Just me, my music, my Supernatural coffee mug, my Supernatural coaster underneath the mug and some Toblerone chocolate I picked up from Brussels (which apparently isn't in Germany, imagine that!). I also seem to have injured myself while in England as one of my toes is pretty aching when I walk. I just hope it isn't broken.
So this is how we're gonna do it. Since it was an extended weekend, I'll be using a lot of lj-cuts to divide the rant into days and other things so you don't need to read everything. There won't be a lot of pictures here, because I barely took any and have much faith in everyone else's pictures. *nods*
I probably won't have much to say about Jensen, so if you're interested in that I suggest looking for someone else's rants. I was more interested in what the other guests had to say so I just got his autograph and listened to the panels with a half an ear, that's all.
Thursday 10th
Dude, how can you get a throbbing migraine just when you're supposed to go to England! Ugh, I woke up at six and had the mother of headaches instantly. It sucked more than anything before and got me popping pills all morning. I was a serious mess.
But by 11 I was already picking up Syr. We'd had agreed to get something to eat, spend some time and then start driving to Helsinki so we did. We got some food into our systems, sat down all excited and made jokes about my dead eyes behind the shades I obsessively wore the whole morning. We were prettyy excited at that point but still kinda chilling. I don't think the whole thing had sunk in that well yet.
We set off to Helsinki at 12.30 with me driving and blazed Stricken, What Have You Done and the like the whole way there. It was so fucking sunny too. Like the perfect weather and we had to leave the country to go get wet in England. Bitchy. The drive went nicely and we stopped by at EH's, talked a bit and then took off to the airport at 3 pm. EH dropped us off and lookie lookie, Maria arrived soon after us. She'd had some hiccups herself with the busses and drives and stuff but arrived at the right time never the less.
When we went to give away out luggage we heard about Brussels for the first time. Apparently we were expected to run through a 1,5 km terminal in less than an hour with security checks and all. Great, we'd assumed we'd have an hour and the closer we got to Brussels the less we had time. Eventually it was 15 minutes, but more about that later on.
We hung out at the airport for an hour, all hyped and loud, taking pictures and just sitting there. The first flight was approx. three hours long and we got food on the plane. Syr sat in the middle, Maria by the window, I by the corridor. The food was good, even if some of us ended up playing with their share. Maria, wanna tell what you did to your fork (she lost it!)? It takes talent to be our retarded, really it does. The flight went well, it was all smooth and nice.
So I mentioned we had a slight window to catch our next flight? It really was slight. They drove us to the correct terminal and we rant through it. Or more like Maria and I ran, and Syrai came after us, whining for us to slow down and wait for her and not to leave her. We got through security checks and passport checks and to the right gate too and you know what we learned over there? Oh yeah, our flight is like 15 minutes late. No reason to run kids! But fuck it, we were just happy we hadn't missed it.
So the happy kids boarded the correct plane and dove in... and onto the wrong seats. Errr... I was tired okay? 18, 17, who gives a damn which row it is? The guys whose seats we took didn't mind, they just sat on our own. And I got a window seat and an obsessive love affair with the wing. I stared at it the whole flight. It was so pretty up there with the clouds and all. We flew for like an hour and saw the night lights of Birmingham soonish. It was whoa.
Down there we eventually found our luggage, Maria her Starbuck and then the air rail thing (it was freaky, I've never seen one before). We even managed to get to the train station and buy tickets! Gob called us while we were at the station waiting for the train to Coventry and Maria (Gob called Syrai but she chickened out of answering) exchanged a few words with her. Gob's so sweet. The whole duration of the trip, she'd just ask us if we needed anything and then provide. A real darling.
We found Coventry late at night. It was about 10 pm local time (12 pm our time). It was just that we didn't exactly know where we were supposed to be headed at. And it rained. And when we asked people where the street we were looking for was, they didn't know. Seriously, you don't the streets of your own fucking hometown? Dude, that's so embarrassing! So we went around for awhile, strode forward in the rain and we just went back and forth. We asked some youth, a hotel clerk, a cabbie and none of them could give us straight directions. Then finally we saw a few policemen and they guided us to the right place.
They took us in at the inn, showed us to our room and then finally we could stop. I'd been on the move all day, I was all wet because of the rain and I just wanted to sleep. We didn't stay awake for long, just enough to make clear what we intended to do the next day, find out that flushing the toilets in England (and that damn inn) was too much for my (and Syr's) worm brain and then hit the sack.
Thursday was all work and (barely) no fun for Jack.
Friday 11th
So... I was probably awake at 7 or so. The people going downstairs for breakfast were noisy. Syrai and Maria got up at 8 and went for breakfast as well. I didn't. I wanted to rest as long as I could and just lay there. After they got back we started getting ready to meet Gob and a few others at Birmingham. People took showers, counted money and emptied their bags to only carry the necessary items. We took off early, didn't exactly realize that there was a difference in the time so... yeah, we got there an hour early.
On the train ride you could get a clearer picture of Birmingham/Coventry. It was all lush green fields and plants and fluffy sheep and charming little swarms of indentical tile houses. Just beautiful. I kept staring out of the window. So we got to Birmingham and just went around the shops for an our. I ate something, we all bought books and then hurried to our rendez-vous point. Our designated meeting place at the trainstation was a little shop called Millie's Cookies. When we got there, Gob, Inf and Inf's sister were already waiting. It didn't take them long to recognize us so we proceeded to make acquiantance. Shay, Lena (Moonie) & Mrs arrived soon after. Then we took off to get something to eat and we walked through Birmingham for awhile, looking for a place that'd take in a lot as big as ours.
It was kinda nice that we didn't find a place instantly, because we got to talk with everyone and just hang out. It was especially nice since I knew most of the people very poorly to begin with. I had to memorize a lot of names and faces quickly. Then at some point Gob vanished for a second and came back out with a bag of toffee flavoured popcorns. She gave it to me and Syrai, because previously I'd mentioned I'd like to taste those weird popcorn flavours in England again. The bag soon went pretty around around the place and everyone ate from it. Inf went around taking pictures of random hott guys on the street to prove to her sister that there were hott guys in existence and in England.
Maria, Syr and I didn't order food when the rest ate. I'd just filled my stomach and they'd had a pretty filling breakfast so we just sat and talked. People started taking pictures too, trying their best to get a lot of funny faces and such. Some made it their challenge to get me to smile. Nuff about that... I'm still a tad traumatized ;) ;)
The dinner went rather well and we left for Coventry afterwards to get to the hotel so we could get our tickets and, ya noe, register. Mrs, Lena and Shay went there by train with us whereas Inf, her sister and Gob stayed at Birmingham. The three took a cab to get to the hotel whereas we went to the inn and dropped off our things and got some advice on how to get to the hotel by walking. I'm glad we did that, because we wouldn't have been able to get back as easily if we hadn't walked there.
The registeration didn't start as planned but was delayed by a few hours. We went around with Lena, trying to find the Tourist Information spot so we'd get a map of the city but the place was mysteriously... er... we didn't find it. Or it wasn't open if it was that was weird door. Anyway, couldn't get the maps so we headed back to the hotel and just sat in the bar, and talked with people to make the time go by. At this point we were joined by Beldoc and her mom. They were talking people in to the line by their ticket numbers and ours were 371 & 372 so we had to wait awhile.
The tickets were pretty easy to get by. I didn't need to show my confirmation letter or anything. Just the ID did the job. It was way over 8 by the time we got out. The whole town seemed deserted at that hour, all the shops were closed and there was no one out. We got something to eat from Subway and headed back to the inn to change clothes and rest a bit. It was probably around 10 when we met Infie at the Godiva statue and headed out for the Town Crier for a drink. We drank something there and changed the scene soon after to a wine place where we spent the rest of the evening with drinks, just talking this and that. Infie got hammered from the wine, she drank the whole bottle so Syrai helped her walk and we walked her back to the statue and made sure she got a cab before we walked to the inn.
I fell asleep easily enough, having consumed just enough alhocol to be soberish, but get a good night of sleep.
Saturday 12th
This morning I also got breakfast and it was heavenly. Toast, tea, marmelade, apple juice, beacon, an egg, some mushrooms and something else I can't recall. It was just a culinary pleasure. I also got a shower and then we took off to the Con. It was sunny that day and everyone was pretty rested. We stopped by to buy a few things, especially those keythings you hold around your neck (because we thought it'd be easier to put holes in our tickets and wear them around our necks). I also got an armband that said 'AS IF'.
So that morning we learned that everything went by your ticket numbers, meaning we couldn't get Jensen or Allison's autographs till the next day. So mostly we just listened to panels & went around the Merchandise Room that day, trying to get a feel to the guests and see who we wanted to get autographs from and see more panels.
The guestlist was: Jensen Ackles (anything with him was always packed), Allison Mack, Alona Tal (Jo in SPN), Justin Hartley (Green Arrow in Smallville), Nicki Aycox (Meg in SPN), Alan Richson (Aquaman in Smallville)and the Coventry Guest Stars: Mark Lutz (Groosalugg in Angel), Douglas Arthurs (I'm tempted to mention The Butterfly Effect but I'll just say Stargåte) & Jenny Mollen (Nina in Angel).
You had the chance to get your picture taken with each guest, get a ticket to have coffee with them and 10 other people for like 30 minutes or so and get autographs. The three of us just settled for autographs and panels, where the guests answered the audience's questions.
We started by getting to the panel room on time so we'd get good seats to Jensen's panel. Eventually we succeeded in getting a few seats (4) because some people had reserved them for friends that hadn't arrived on time. At the time we were there with Shay and Mel and Shay was left without a seat so I told her to come sit on my seat so that I'd sit on her lap. However Syr got thrown from her seat when the person who it'd been reserved for came back and I left with her, not wanting to block the view for others and fearing they'd tell me to get away as well. I also went in to keep S company. We got new seats from the very back. She saw Jensen ok, I couldn't see anything, but we had the speakers right above us so we heard everything well.
Personally I thought he sounded tired and uninspired through-out his panel and the Con. Some fan had jumped on him (kissing and groping apparently) earlier on and he nearly didn't come to his panel because of it (the chick was thrown out), so I can get it why he'd be tired, but by looking at the pictures people took with him he seemed to have that same strained smile in every one of them. Then when we saw him live he looked exhausted. He perked up a bit for the second panel but overall I didn't completely enjoy his apperances. Sure he was fun and had stories for fans and all that, but he seemed to get uncomfortable every once in awhile and just didn't sparkle like the rest of the guests. Sure, he was the main attraction, he had a lot on his shoulders, a lot to bear from the fans, AND it was his first con ever. I understand this, I think he did well considering the circumstances, but had there been no one else for me to look forward to, I wouldn't felt like it'd been worth the money. Sorry, I'm not a diehard fan so I'm not sated with a few smiles and all that. He had a few good stories, the bug story being one, but the second panel was definitely better.
After Jensen we went to eat with Infie and her sister. The three of us got fish and chips which I paid for. It wasn't quite as delicious as the last time, but it was good never the less. Had we gone to a place that was especially a fish and chips place it would've undoubtedly been better. Gob and her friend joined us and they took pictures again, but we left after eating and went back to the con. The Merchandise Room was as appealing as ever so we bought SPN mugs (Syr & I), coasters (we all bought a set of 4) and trading cards (Supernatural for all, I bought a Spike & Serenity set as well, Syrai bought a Xena one). Then we went to see the Panel.
Now this was the first time I even realized that the Coventry Guest Stars were there and who they were. Mark I recognized first, he was so damn funny with his cartoonish voice and jokes. The guy was just an amazing stage persona. Douglas came in soon after when they asked the audience if they even knew who they were. Dude, if Mark was good at getting the audience wild, Douglas was even better. He told us he was in the Butterfly Effect and asked if anyone knew him from there. No one did. So he told a little story story about how all the gaysites certainly knew who he was a few weeks before the movie came out, because in the movie he played the character who almost got Ashton Kutcher's character to give him a blowjob in jail. "Remember the blowjob?" At that point the hall was full of laughter, everyone just got crazy. Then there was a question about who they'd wanna do their ideal gayscene with and Mark slowly started inching away, eventually running out of the room after Douglas got wild again with answering. Man that was funny.
After that there was a break and we got better seats for Allison Mack's guest panel. The guy that was interviewing her, Andrew, was there preparing already. Now the room was organized so that there were two screens on both sides of the stage and they showed a the guests a bit closer, so that the people in the back would at least see something. Now during the breaks the cameraman followed Andrew around so that his image was always on the twin screens. It was a running joke and the audience caught on it quickly. We made him sing along A-HA's "Take on Me" and dance and just teased him endlessly. He was such a funny guy.
Anyway, Allison's panel started and she was completely different from the rest. She just positively glowed, she was excited and charming. I loved her instantly. She didn't have particularly funny stories or a strong stage persona, she was just herself and it worked nicely. We all liked her a lot and I decided to get her autograph for myself as well, since I'd previously promised my free one to Kitty. Allison truly made an impression on me. I haven't even watched Smallville, just read Kitty's Chlex fiction. Now I wanna watch the series after I get settled back in. Oh and on a funny note. When they asked Allison who she'd wanna work with more, she said Michael Rosebaum ;D Some also told us that she knits on the set with someone. I have the impression it was Lionel's actor, but I'm not sure I caught the name right (some correct me? The mental image of them knitting together is slightly disturbing). She also personally doesn't believe in Clark/Chloe anymore and loved filming her death scene.
When Allison stopped we got Brooke Nevin, Alona Tal and Nicki Aycox. What we learned at that time was that Alona Tal isn't an interesting person at all. She avoided answering most of the questions and just felt really icy through-out the panel whereas Nicki and Brooke were genuinely interesting people and had lots to say. The panel completely changed our minds about Alona. I was gonna ask her a question in the beginning but as the thing dragged on and on I just didn't feel like it. It felt futile, like I couldn't achieve anything with it. Brooke told us that when she was shooting the Asylum episode Jensen and Jared came onto the set dressed as women. It was probably the highlight of the panel. Nicki ended up being the only one who's autograph we took. Alona was a disappointment really. I don't think she was completely okay with how her character's run on Supernatural went and how the fans received her.
The Panel was the last that day so we went to the inn after that and relaxed and looked through our trading cards, relaxing. We'd agreed to have dinner with the Nuns at 7 so we just chilled till then. It was the only time during the whole weekend that we dressed up. I generally wore the same pants the whole weekend, just changing shirts, so when I showed up with a skirt and tigts the others found it amusing. Well, I was told to dress up. *face* We met Shay, Mel, Lena & Mrs at the Godiva statue and walked to the place we were supposed to dine at together. There we met up with Izzie and Hells. We had a few drinks at that point (Syr and I had Mississippi Mudslides, they tasted just like chocolate milkshakes). We were soon joined by Beldoc and her mom and Inf and her sister. We ordered food and people were drinking and talking and drawing with crayons on the paper over the table. Lena, Syrai and I tried finding Anime series we'd all watched but Lena has weird taste in them. Infie drew metallicar at her end, Maria and I cooked up mild mean jokes on Syrai over our side and there were random pictures all around. Infie took the paper with her after we left the place and picked up some of the balloons too.
A GROUP PICTURE (got it from Infie)
From left to right: Hells, (up) Lena, (down) Shay, (up) me, (down) Mel, (up) Maria, (down) Infie, (up) Syrai, Izzie & Mrs.
We missed Jensen singing at the hotel because of the dinner, even though Lena and I tried to remain hopeful about it. We didn't stay at the hotel for the disco either and everyone just kinda started disbanding after the dinner. Shay was tired and homesick so she didn't leave. Mrs, Hells and Izzie vanished somewhere after they'd played with the helium in the balloons (Mrs inhaled it and sang beautifully afterwards). Lena stayed with Shay and Maria left for the Inn. I suppose she was exhausted by the hard alchol her own drink turned out to be. So eventually it was just me and Syrai and Inf drinking wine at the same place we'd been the night before. We talked about fics, and people, and Wincest and Pyro/Rogue and it was very nice. Inf didn't get hammered that time, so we even left early. Maria had fallen asleep with her glasses on while watching the tv when I called her to open the door for us ("mommy, open the door"). Both Syrai and I were cheerily tipsy but not really drunk. I fell asleep pretty soon again.
Sunday 13th
On Sunday it rained. We got up early with clear plans on getting autographs and seeing a few panels. We started the day by getting Jensen's autograph first. He looked tired, but I suppose he joked with Maria a bit. His friend Jason was also signing and personally I found him more approachable when he signed for us. We caught bits of Brooke and Nicki's second Panel afterwards and agreed that they had better chemistry without Alona there.
Then we got to the second Allison Mack panel. She was interviewed by Andrew again and the camera teased him just like the day before. It was even better than the one before. She told about her love for chocolate and how she especially adores Finnish chocolate (at which point the three of us cheered at her loudly). Later on I asked her where she'd gotten the chocolate and she said her fans had sent it to her. She also said that she'd had a big crush on Elijah Woods as a kid, that if she had a special power she'd wanna fly and that she barely watches TV (and hasn't therefore seen SPN) but if she were a cast on Supernatural she'd wanna play a hunter, giving a hard time to the boys.
I suppose it was at this point that we realized that the Coventry Guest Stars had their own corners for signing. We started with Mark, who had a map of the U.K. where he marked all of his fans hometowns. Now since we were from Finland it posed a problem that he eventually solved by moving our hometowns to the U.K. Karkkila got moved to Southern U.K. as NewKarkkila. He thanked me for moving my hometown there in the autograph as well. Joutsa, where Syrai lives, became UusisJoutsa (Uusi is New in Finnish, but he heard it wrong) and it was moved to Northern UK. We also got Douglas' autograph, which he signed off to 'Sexy Susanna' (crazy guy) and posed with me in a picture. He wore a kilt and literally lifted his hairy leg in my hands so I just couldn't keep laughter at bay when they took the picture. Damn flirt.
We had a small break, got some food and laid back for awhile and got in line for Allison then. I got autographs for both myself and Kitty. We mentioned to Allison that'd been us screaming and asking about the chocolate in the Panel and she seemed amused. It was after that when we learned that Mrs had gotten a place to the Coffee Lounge with Jensen. Lucky gal. Then we lined up for Nicki's autograph, and the cursed the fact they only had those weird pictures (her in a soldier uniform, not the more "Meg-ish" picture) of her left. We got signatures and visited the Merchandise Room for the last time to buy these collage things. Syrai bought a Dean one (for herself) and a Daniel Radcliffe one for her sister. I bought an Underworld one.
Then they reset the seating arrangements in the Panel Room, leaving us in line for seats once again. Eventually we had seats and Shay and Mel sat with us, even though Shay considered already leaving. They held a charity auction at that point. Items that they sold included pictures with autographs, the groping of Douglasses ass (don't even ask), a Supernatural promo dvd, and a Jensen picture with Autographs that they sold for 400 pounds. It was insane. After that we got Jensen's second panel that also ended the convention. Jensen seemed more relaxed this time around although he had tougher questions. There were one about fanfiction, one about Wincest, one about what Dean would dance at a wedding (according to Jensen, he'd get drunk and get carried out of the dancefloor). Jensen also admitted he calls Jared Jarhead and did a oneliner supposedly as Sam: "Dean! Saltgun!".
Afterwards all the guests came on stage and thanked us. The con ended there. We said goodbyes all around to Shay & Mel, Mrs & Lena and so on. We were also still there when Jensen exited the building. After that we just grabbed some food from subway and chilled at the inn. It was the one evening we got to spend more than an hour in our room and just be. We packed, and talked and wrote and so on. Syrai and Maria watched Romeo Must Die on TV and had some kind of a giggling attack. I tried to sleep at that point but since it wasn't working out I shut them out with my headphones and got to sleep at... 2 am maybe?
Monday 14th
We got up early, ate breakfast, took a train, hung out at the airport and went to the plane. Everyone was pretty tired so we mostly read our books during the flight and freetime. Syrai bought some gifts from the airport and we actually got to look around Brussels as well. We all bought some chocolate from Brussels as well.
Monday was pretty exhausting. We were beyond tired. It was hard to tell when someone was joking and being bitchy so that kinda made the vibes a bit cruel too. There were no big fights though, just some disagreements and comments we wouldn't have normally exchanged. Also the flight was much more uncomfortable especially from Brussels to Helsinki. It was bumpy.
EH and Veli picked us up from the airport and drive Maria to a place where she could get a bus back better. We got some fastfood and chilled for a short while before we started driving back. It rained through-out the way. Syr and I just listened to music hard and went on. It wasn't until our stop to Nummela (she bought Alias' 5th season there) that we perked up again and could spit out the bad taste the tired atmosphere had left in our mouths that last day. After that we were cool. I eventually dropped her off at her father's and drove home.
And that was the end of the trip. I stumpled through the front door completely tired and a bit cranky.
I heard from Syrai today that Goblie fell on a dishwasher and got a knife in her stomach. She's currently in the hospital, chilling and apparently on a good mood. So she'll live. I just got so worried when she told me Goblie had injured herself. I hope she gets a quick recovery.
And Kitty. I'll putting your Allison autograph on the mail tomorrow. I couldn't post it earlier since we only got hers on Sunday and the post wasn't open.
AND that's pretty much that. I'll be posting more pictures when I get some collected from everyone else. It was an amazing trip and I got spend time with some amazing people that made my trip all the more enjoyable. I hope to remain in contact with everyone afterwards as well.
Over and Out. (you can expect more rants on this subject after I get around to it. Just writing this one took over 3 hours) :D :D