Vlad the Impala
Another day, another Tube strike. The Underground is in very great danger of becoming a mythical thing that people vaguely remember as maybe taking them places around London in dark, dirty, small metal boxes long, long, ago...
Like the conscientious employee I am, I was reading my company's magazine this morning and was very amused by the very long article about the importance of hand towels, and the difference between hand towels in Western hotels and in Japanese hotels. Mostly, I was confused. The writer's conclusion was that he didn't want Japanese hotels to forget they were Japanese (and therefore presumably kept their hand towels wholly Japanese). Okay then.
Mostly, though, this post is an overview of my very strange and surreal weekend at Asylum 5. This recap will certainly be about a thousand times better than mine, but I will at least give you the highlights. And bitch a little bit (or a lot) about the hotel, who tried to con us into having a downgraded room whilst still paying for the higher grade room. I was livid. I work for a hotel and this kind of deceptive behaviour is absolutely disgusting to me. I will therefore, if I can possibly help it, never be staying with Hilton Hotels ever again, and urge you all to be very careful with them. Or even better, stay somewhere else.
Bitching aside, having been moved to the correct room, I had an extremely entertaining weekend, made all the better by my lovely roommates, cienna, burkesl17 and pixiequeen10thk.
We went to the party Friday night, where we met up with a few people we know from the London meet-up groups. We drank too much, went to bed too late, and had magnificent hangovers for Saturday.
Saturday, we went to pretty much all the panels. Aldis was pretty much the highlight for me. He is just such an amazing guy, who seems to be able to do everything. I don't watch Leverage, so a lot of his panel went over my head, but he was certainly nice to look at. We went to get his autograph, and as is my tradition, I think I offended him by saying his hat looked like something my granddad would wear. I actually meant it in a nice, "I like my granddad's hats" way. But oh well. XD
There was a lot of tea on Saturday. And Misha walked right past us and cienna and I failed to notice. I really loved the group panels.
Most of the day, we'd been on a mission for the SPN episode, and due to various failures had been unsuccessful. As it happens, we finally tracked down a room full of people watching the ep that evening and it was a really fun experience, even if we did have to watch on a netbook with minimal sound. We were a mixed group of D/Cers and Wincesters and this had to be the best episode for all-round satisfaction of some sort in a while. I don't really know many people on that side of the fandom, and it was nice to be reminded that Wincesters can be fun, welcoming folk sometimes too. XD Anyway, it was a fun experience.
Much of Saturday night is a blur of putting on my damn kimono, drinking, dancing, drunk-texting my mother, and other things I probably shouldn't talk about in public.
Sunday began with yet another hangover, but more importantly, MARK. He was pretty much the reason I went to this con, and he was as amazing and funny as I had hoped. I particularly enjoyed him going on at great length about snogging old men for six hours, and them being sweaty and horrible. cienna and I had a photoshoot with him and Misha which turned out perfectly. Mark was very enamoured with Lee, but was sad he had no Crowley badge. We had tried to get one!
When cienna and I went to get Misha's autograph we had a somewhat bizarre conversation about baby vegetable sections in the supermarket. There was a reason for this, as our attempt at a turnip had been a baby carrot painted with tippex. We were resourceful with what we had...
As I'm sure everyone has mentioned, Misha's panel on Sunday was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Aside from the amazing marriage proposal and the panel crashing, I was forced by littlehollyleaf to ask a question about Balthazar. Until hils mentioned it in her recap, I'd completely forgotten that Misha complemented me on my pronunciation of Sebastian Roche's name. I think I wondered at the time if he was being sarcastic. I had notes to remind me of the question because I was so nervous, but they didn't really help as much as I might have liked because they were slightly distracting. We'd been writing them whilst waiting in the questions line, and when Misha mentioned them I think I found myself praying that he didn't demand to see them:
Um. Yes.
In any case, I was pleased that Misha answered my question that Balthazar was the angel Castiel had lost his virginity to, and the thing about Castiel telling Dean he thought he was gay. I am proud this was the answer to my question. Having been suitably traumatised, I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, secure in the knowledge that Misha hadn't been mean to me at least, and I had managed to not say anything insulting.
I also ate some of Misha's turnips, which were a bit too sweet for me.
Well, I was very sad when it was all over, but very much looking forward to some sleep. After all of the horror stories about Rogue Events and Asylum 3, I was pleasantly surprised by the organisation, even if some of the con staff needed to calm down a little.
All in all, a great weekend. I was just sad I didn't get to say hi to more people. We all need to have our LJ names tattooed to our foreheads or something.
Here are some fantastic photos by pixiequeen10thk and her magical camera. My personal favourites are smiley!Mark and Aldis's abs. Oh yes.
Like the conscientious employee I am, I was reading my company's magazine this morning and was very amused by the very long article about the importance of hand towels, and the difference between hand towels in Western hotels and in Japanese hotels. Mostly, I was confused. The writer's conclusion was that he didn't want Japanese hotels to forget they were Japanese (and therefore presumably kept their hand towels wholly Japanese). Okay then.
Mostly, though, this post is an overview of my very strange and surreal weekend at Asylum 5. This recap will certainly be about a thousand times better than mine, but I will at least give you the highlights. And bitch a little bit (or a lot) about the hotel, who tried to con us into having a downgraded room whilst still paying for the higher grade room. I was livid. I work for a hotel and this kind of deceptive behaviour is absolutely disgusting to me. I will therefore, if I can possibly help it, never be staying with Hilton Hotels ever again, and urge you all to be very careful with them. Or even better, stay somewhere else.
Bitching aside, having been moved to the correct room, I had an extremely entertaining weekend, made all the better by my lovely roommates, cienna, burkesl17 and pixiequeen10thk.
We went to the party Friday night, where we met up with a few people we know from the London meet-up groups. We drank too much, went to bed too late, and had magnificent hangovers for Saturday.
Saturday, we went to pretty much all the panels. Aldis was pretty much the highlight for me. He is just such an amazing guy, who seems to be able to do everything. I don't watch Leverage, so a lot of his panel went over my head, but he was certainly nice to look at. We went to get his autograph, and as is my tradition, I think I offended him by saying his hat looked like something my granddad would wear. I actually meant it in a nice, "I like my granddad's hats" way. But oh well. XD
There was a lot of tea on Saturday. And Misha walked right past us and cienna and I failed to notice. I really loved the group panels.
Most of the day, we'd been on a mission for the SPN episode, and due to various failures had been unsuccessful. As it happens, we finally tracked down a room full of people watching the ep that evening and it was a really fun experience, even if we did have to watch on a netbook with minimal sound. We were a mixed group of D/Cers and Wincesters and this had to be the best episode for all-round satisfaction of some sort in a while. I don't really know many people on that side of the fandom, and it was nice to be reminded that Wincesters can be fun, welcoming folk sometimes too. XD Anyway, it was a fun experience.
Much of Saturday night is a blur of putting on my damn kimono, drinking, dancing, drunk-texting my mother, and other things I probably shouldn't talk about in public.
Sunday began with yet another hangover, but more importantly, MARK. He was pretty much the reason I went to this con, and he was as amazing and funny as I had hoped. I particularly enjoyed him going on at great length about snogging old men for six hours, and them being sweaty and horrible. cienna and I had a photoshoot with him and Misha which turned out perfectly. Mark was very enamoured with Lee, but was sad he had no Crowley badge. We had tried to get one!
When cienna and I went to get Misha's autograph we had a somewhat bizarre conversation about baby vegetable sections in the supermarket. There was a reason for this, as our attempt at a turnip had been a baby carrot painted with tippex. We were resourceful with what we had...
As I'm sure everyone has mentioned, Misha's panel on Sunday was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Aside from the amazing marriage proposal and the panel crashing, I was forced by littlehollyleaf to ask a question about Balthazar. Until hils mentioned it in her recap, I'd completely forgotten that Misha complemented me on my pronunciation of Sebastian Roche's name. I think I wondered at the time if he was being sarcastic. I had notes to remind me of the question because I was so nervous, but they didn't really help as much as I might have liked because they were slightly distracting. We'd been writing them whilst waiting in the questions line, and when Misha mentioned them I think I found myself praying that he didn't demand to see them:
Um. Yes.
In any case, I was pleased that Misha answered my question that Balthazar was the angel Castiel had lost his virginity to, and the thing about Castiel telling Dean he thought he was gay. I am proud this was the answer to my question. Having been suitably traumatised, I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, secure in the knowledge that Misha hadn't been mean to me at least, and I had managed to not say anything insulting.
I also ate some of Misha's turnips, which were a bit too sweet for me.
Well, I was very sad when it was all over, but very much looking forward to some sleep. After all of the horror stories about Rogue Events and Asylum 3, I was pleasantly surprised by the organisation, even if some of the con staff needed to calm down a little.
All in all, a great weekend. I was just sad I didn't get to say hi to more people. We all need to have our LJ names tattooed to our foreheads or something.
Here are some fantastic photos by pixiequeen10thk and her magical camera. My personal favourites are smiley!Mark and Aldis's abs. Oh yes.