Asylum series part 1: Preparation

This will be written in parts, because I still have shifts going on and my niece and nephew are due any minute. The first section will be dedicated to Thursday and Friday, the prep days.

I left the house about 11.45 driving to Cat's house. My first time driving on the M25, and the M1 and it was on my own. I was terrified. All my pre-con nerves were about making it on those roads, getting to Cat's house without becoming hopelessly lost in her town, checking in with no problems, and getting our tickets. I mentioned briefly at the time that I was dealing with something unexpected on this blog, without highlighting it, but here it is - our tickets got cancelled for a week. It was a misunderstanding, and we were polite with the con runner about the issue, but I was still nervous about whether they were really reinstated. Anxiety is a beast. I'll discuss it more in another one of these, probably at the end. I want to get it right.

Anyway, so the drive wasn't too bad. Cat doesn't live far from where my grandparents did, so that was helpful, my route went by a lot of landmarks familiar for my childhood. I only got lost around the corner from her house because my notes merely mentioned road names, not directions, and although I'd tried to copy where my friend Charli had driven a few weeks before for McBusted, I still lost it because she got lost and went a different route! I still got there pretty quick, but then I was busting for a pee, so Cat let me use her toilet (thank you!)

And then we drove up to Birmingham, which was an experience. Lorry drivers really don't give a shit if you're in the faster lane, they're going to pull out anyway. And I - sorry Cat - began playing the Eddie Stobart game as we got further north. They were everywhere, which makes no sense because what do Eddie Stobart even do? Yeah, I should have announced about that game, sorry :( dick move.

We got to the hotel about 3.30? Which wasn't bad considering I was trying to drive on a few major roads, navigating a route with CatNav that I've never done before. We only drove into the wrong carpark once :/ and then check in was easy, and we decided to go check out the route to the Hilton, where the con was, maybe talk to some fans, grab some dinner.

I think we were both thinking the Hilton was going to be so far away, but it maybe took us ten minutes to get there? That made us both more confident. I had both our tickets, and we both had our ID, so we were set :) we bumped into a group of people from the con page, only three of whom I recognised, Dave, Brenda and Hayl, but everyone else was friendly. We ended up going with Hayl and another girl, Georgina, to check out the Wetherspoons in the NEC for dinner. Rammed. So we went back to Hayl's room and ordered Dominoes, which arrived when we needed to queue for getting registered. We ate in the queue! So sorry to everyone who could smell our pizza and was hungry while waiting to go ahead!

We got through the first stage of registering okay, but when we were meant to collect our packs they sent us to the guy who arranged the conventions. Which made me poop myself (not literally) but he just said they were making up our packs there and then. So phew! It didn't take long, and then we went back to the hotel for an early night (in theory) and so we could go through the schedule in the packs to see what we'd be doing with the things we'd planned for. Cat got to sleep pretty quickly, which I'm jealous of, my brain won't shut off even when my body's given up and my eyes are closing.

Anyway, so next day I was up at stupid o'clock and saw some people were already queueing for photo ops. Really? We got dressed and headed into the airport so I could grab some milk for my shakes and then went to the Hilton, and found Hayl again, but they said it would be much later for photo ops sales, they were just doing tickets and registration. And about half hour later, we found out where they were selling the ops, and got there just before the big queues. Sarah sold us our tickets, bless her, she was working so hard but was nowhere near as fast as the girl next to her, Emma. It wasn't a competition, of course, but I think she felt pressured from excitable fans.

So once we got the ops, we chilled out in the bar, not ordering any of their food. I'd brought some stuff with me, Cat and I snuck that ;) another fan came up to chat with us, and I'm sure she's a nice enough girl but she kinda dominated the conversation and I couldn't really relate to anything she was saying, at all. I tried to participate, but I don't think replying would have made any difference to be honest. We found out the Hilton were putting on a snack room that was cheaper than the bar, and we went there for dinner. And omfg, that girl! Everyone else was eating, chatting a little, even across tables, which was pretty cool, but she was just … I don't know if she's an only child - not an excuse - or if she was overexcitable or what, but she was like 'I'm going to obviously lick my plate in public and when no one comments I'll make a statement about it' and Cat tried telling her it was something we were trying to ignore so then she ate someone else's leftovers. I can't even … I know in a situation like the convention, not everyone would be friendly or normal, but it wasn't like the actors were about, you know? She felt like she was obviously attention-seeking, and trampling over some good conversations. And then she was like 'oh, those girls want to sit with me but I wanted to sit with you' and it was hard not to look at Cat or Hayl then, because I think all three of us felt like we could have had a good conversation, or found something awesome to do, but we had to sit there and listen to this girl most of the day. I feel like a bitch for saying it, because like I said, maybe there was something really wrong, but she wore me out!

We went to get ready for the themed party that night, which was based on the London tube … my costume was not the awesome I was expecting :/ ah well, it was made with love, that was the important thing. We were Elephant and Castle, if you were wondering. We went over with a couple staying in the hotel next door, who dressed as Cockfosters (it was as bad as you're thinking) and Bank, and found Hayl in the bar with Jo and Lorraine (why, yes, I will be throwing a thousand names at you!) and did some pictures, said hello to Rebecca, and went in the party room, checking out the other costumes and queueing up for drinks. I had some miniatures on me, so we ordered cokes and made some mixers up ;) they were playing recent stuff, until they played Carry On My Wayward Son which is a cue for Supernatural fans to go nuts, so Hayl dragged us onto the dance floor, where I stayed while they did good music, but Cat left to go sit down again :( shame, because Michaela and Lyns and their friends found us and joined in, and we bumped into Jo and Lorraine again and there was a really good atmosphere! Jo said that Julie, another girl from the Facebook group, was sitting near the back and wanted to chat, so I went and talked to her and she said maybe we could split a taxi home? Which was fine, and I mentioned it to Cat … until we lost Julie and I couldn't find her again! We got in a taxi with the couple we came down with and two other girls instead, who for some reason I still can't fathom, showed me a picture and told me it was from the finale (who makes dick moves like that?). And then in the room I was trying to do my hair for the pie outfit I had planned, but it didn't work without my sister doing it :( that whole outfit was a fail, but that's for another entry.

I feel like I've heavily summarised this, and I'm sorry! I'll do Saturday and Sunday separately, and then go into some parts deeper, if that makes sense?

If any other Asylumers read this, please feel free to add your story in the comments! Would love to hear them!