Hanneke is on the left, Nelly on the right.
An attempt to tell the story of two Dutch girls attending their very first Convention.
Won't bother you with any details about travelling to Ashford as all went quite smoothly anyway.
We arrived at the hotel around 2 o'clock, checked in, brought our bags to the room and got our badge and bag at the registration desk (this all sound very *matter of fact* but geez was I nervous. Couldn't always understand what people were saying, couldn't utter a word myself. It took quite a while to adjust to listening to / speaking English, by Sunday evening I started to feel reasonably comfortable with it <grin>).
Judith told us how to reach the supermarket and after first ending up at the front of the hotel we discovered the small gate at the back of the carpark. What we bought: wine, beer, orange juice, milk and cookies. Then to the dealers room, where we bought our copies of Vem Quest and Tales from Space City from Julia, bought a few B7 videos (it seems Virgin decided to stop selling them here in Holland after volume 10 :(( ) and stared our eyes out at all the things that were for sale. After the shopping was done we settled down in the bar for a drink and something to eat until the Opening ceremony began. That was followed by the Pub quiz, which we didn't participate in (gosh, all those difficult questions!), but was lots of fun and David Walsh did a great job on that.
Nelly is in the white top, near the middle of this picture.
The Space City party was loads of fun. I got a bit drunk and so mustered up enough courage (with a bit of force from Hanneke) to show my Tarrant drawing to a few people (thank you all, for the compliments, you made me happy).
Saturday morning after breakfast we went to the Travis and Servalan session, with David Walsh and Brian Croucher talking about, well, Travis and Servalan mostly <grin>. Brian Croucher was a pleasant surprise. I didn't really expect to like him as he's not my favourite Travis and I didn't think he was very appealing in Eastenders either. It was interesting to hear him talk about what kind of person he thought Travis was and the way he portrayed him and about acting in general.
After that is was off to the main hall to watch the B7 Blooper Reel. Sheelagh Wells was marvellous, she sure knows how to create a magic atmosphere! I enjoyed so much listening to her. And oooh that lovely little Baby Orac she showed us...
Next session in the main hall was David Walsh talking about how his Servalan act started and grew (and grew). I love that man, he's a great entertainer and wow he really does have BEAUTIFUL legs! I felt a bit sorry for him because it was freezing cold in that hall and he was wearing a dress which didn't exactly cover all of his upper body.
Then to the dealers room again to buy Renaissance and Morgan (best fanfic story I ever read, with some great art by Val, I'm sooo glad to have my own copy now) and another B7 video and the Sevenfold Crown tapes (listened to them this morning, I like Steven Pacey's comment on Tarrant's personality "What personality was that then?" (sorry Hanneke <grin> oops, and Carol))
In the evening we thought of watching 'Blake' in the videoroom first and then go to the Fancy Dress (and so miss most of it) but decided not to because Hanneke had already seen it (and I haven't but felt it would be better to watch it at home on my own so I can cry when I feel like it) and the Fancy Dress and Cabaret was too tempting.
Just before it started I went to the bar to get us some more drinks,
while I waited for them someone came standing next to me, turning
to look at him I nearly got a heartattack... it was Jason from Friday
the 13th (kindly asking the barman for a straw, he couldn't drink
out of a glass because of the mask he was wearing) !!!
Highlights of the evening were... well, it was one big highlight actually :)). Judith and Rachel's music, Jenni and Fifi's song (great voices, all of them), Steve in his Klingon outfit dancing enthusiastically, Servalan in a beautiful dress, the BBC sketch, oh everyone was fantastic! The rest of the night we sat in the boulevard drinking and talking (completely forgot about the disco) and went to sleep far too late but very happily drunk.
Sunday somehow is a bit of a blur. I remember we wanted to watch 'Children of Auron' in the moring but missed it and watched 'Aftermath' instead. Great episode and nice to see Dayna in action for the first time in my life. After that we went to the Sex in Space discussion, which was very interesting, but that's as much as I can remember :((. In the afternoon we went to the Ruler of the Universe hustings and voting. It was difficult to choose between Londo and Servalan, they were both terrific, but as Servalan had brought Travis along to threaten us the choice was made a lot easier (btw the Sandman was VERY impressive as well).
After the auction and Closing ceremony we went to have a drink and something to eat in the pub and then thought we deserved a treat so went to watch the last B7 video that was shown that weekend... 'Animals'. After about six minutes or so Hanneke and I were the only ones left in the room... and we stayed there watching till the bitter end.
By half past 11 that night my brains finally completely refused functioning, so I left Hanneke in the boulevard in the company of (I think) Steve, Katharine and Calle, and stumbled off to bed. Monday morning we left Ashford early to take the train to London (where we bought, yes, some more B7 videos). The flight back to Rotterdam was rather bumpy, I was too tired and dazed to be afraid I guess, but Hanneke wasn't :((. We were both very happy to be back home again.
A big thank you to all the people who made Redemption such a wonderful and unforgetable experience!
Nelly