Last weekend was MCM Birmingham Comic Con!!! Andrea and I got press passes (woo!) so go. This is only the second comic con I have ever been to, the other being New York Comic Con. Obviously the two were going to be pretty different. Getting there was super easy as the arena, The NEC, is right next to the airport so all we had to do was hop on a train to get there. The train was PACKED, and and you could tell who was going to comic con from what they were wearing.

Once we finally got there and picked up our passes we headed into the hall it was being held in. As expected there were a lot of vendors and it was pretty crowded. I think next year it would probably be a good idea to open up the space a little bit.

Anyways, there was not as many people in cosplay as I expected, but then again my frame of reference is NYCC. There was still some pretty awesome costumes going around though! Especially in the Star Wars department. We only got pictures of this fantastic Han Solo/ Chewie from Star Wars though.
There was also a lovely pair of Disney ladies that caught our eye...
And my personal favorite, sexy Sauron!!!


Andrea and I spent the first few hours going through all the different shops and generally spending quite a lot of money. I did buy a few gifts for people back home, so it wasn't all for me! There was this one vendor selling movie and tv scripts which was really cool. I bought one for The Two Towers. It is gorgeous. There were quite a few vendors selling these nifty little framed pictures from movies with pieces of actual movie real stuck in next to it! Andrea bought one for The Princess Bride and got Cary Elwes to sign it later!


Speaking of Cary Elwes, yes he was there. He was doing autographing, photos, AND two panels. The panel room was...odd. It came to be known as "the marshmallow". It was basically a giant white inflatable room that could fit around 300 people. Unlike with NYCC, which had a line going into its panels that sometimes reached 5,000 people, at this little temporary room you could literally just stand at one of the entrances and watch the panels if you did not manage to get a seat. There was also NO STAFF controlling the situation or telling people what they could or could not do. This worked out fine for the most part...except when Tom Felton did his panel, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Andrea and I waited outside the room for a half hour to make sure we got into Cary Elwes, and we managed to get seats in the second row! Not bad. Cary was funny and engaging. I really enjoyed his panel. It was a running joke throughout the hour long session about how hot it was in the room, especially for poor Cary who had all the spotlights on him. You could see him sweating. Apart from that he talked about stories from the set of Princess Bride, his favorite memories from his career, and other fan questions. There was also some touching moments involving children in the audience as well.

So immediately after Cary was the big guest of the weekend, Tom Felton. Andrea and I had planned for this. Due to my experience at NYCC I knew that if you wanted to get a seat at the biggest panel of the weekend you needed to be there early, and if they were not making you clear the room after every panel you needed to hang on to your seat for dear life. So needless to say we did not move an inch in between panels and retained our amazing seats for Tom Felton.

Now a bit of background information. Tom has been traveling around the US and the UK filming a documentary about fandom for the BBC. So his panel was unique in that he was asking the audience the questions for his documentary. He came prepared with a bunch of questions about what it was like being a fan and everything was filmed.

GUESS WHO GOT TO ANSWER A QUESTION? THIS GAL! I was holding my hand up for a really long time and Tom told the man with the microphone to give it to me. *swoon*. He was looking right at me while I was talking which made me so nervous my hands and my voice were shaking. A few minutes after I answered the question he came back to me and talked directly to me about my answer for like three minutes. It was heaven. *ahem*. I am okay. It was really a lot of fun, but also kind of painful because I literally wanted to answer every question. At least I got my chance and now I could potentially be in the documentary! wooo!

After the panel finished we cleared out pretty quickly because it was around 500 degrees in the room and we were dying. We headed over to where Cary Elwes was signing autographs and waited around for that. Now, at this point it was around 4pm and neither of us had drank of eaten anything since like 7am. We were started to crash...hard. This led to a somewhat awkward interacting between me and Cary when I went up to get his signature, I was so out of it I completely walked in front of the girl who was supposed to be before me and started talking to him. He was very polite but pointed out it was not my turn and I felt like a colossal fool. Sigh.

We left for the train after that and it was then things really started to get difficult. I was dizzy, exhausted, dehydrated, and could barely think straight. By the time we got into Birmingham I was a mess and Andrea had to guide me around the train station. Do not go without eating or drinking an entire day kids! It is not good at all!!! When we got home I took care of myself and all was well. I will not be making that mistake again, however.

It was really a fantastic day, despite my almost passing out, and it was an awesome first taste of comic con for Andrea. We are bound determined to go to London comic con in the near future. It is all part of the nerd life ;)

I am so behind...AGAIN. Alright, so my big news from last week is that my sister visited!! Because of this we did a lot of traveling and sight seeing...this means a lot of blog posts I need to catch up on. I also must apologize for photography quality. My good camera is out of commission at the moment so my phone has had to pick up the slack.

First off was Blenheim Palace. Only an hour and a half bus ride away, this magnificent palace was the birth place of Winston Churchill! *insert oos and ahs* Yes, I actually stood in the room he was born in. There was inexplicably a pair of handcuffs on the bed.

It was Christmas time at the palace, which meant there was Christmas decorations up everywhere! The palace was HUGE! Everything you would expect from a genuine palace. The statues, the pillars, the walls covered in paintings. It was magnificent.


We were only allowed to tour a small part of the palace...a  very small part. One section of the first floor in fact. The rest has either been converted into other things or is still in use by the family. We started off taking a tour, but abandoned it after a while because the tour guide we had was an old man who talked quietly and talked for a very long time about every detail in the room.

The palace was true extravagance. The walls were decorated with real gold, and portraits were everywhere! In one of the dining rooms there were all these golden statues of animal heads that we found out later represented the Chinese zodiac. Not sure why they were there but they were cool.



There was one woman, however, who was featured in no less than 5 portraits and who's story caught my attention. She was Consuelo Vanderbilt. Yes, she was one of THOSE Vanderbilts. She was forced to marry the English Duke of Marlborough by her mother. The Duke married her because he was going bankrupt. They were only married seven years because they had an unhappy marriage before they got a divorce and she ran off to London to become a sufragete. She also held several positions of public office there before marrying the love of her life, a French man, and moving to France with him. They they managed to escape World War 2 and make it back to the US. Despite the fact she was only a Duchess for 7 years, she was the Duchess by far the most featured in the Palace, and the tour guides could not stop talking about her! One of her many portraits is below.

The library was a really long, grand hall, type room. It had a giant Christmas tree in the center and a magnificent pipe organ at the end.

There was also a woman dressed like an angel and painted gold. She was standing still like a statue and every once and a while would poke someone and scare them. Again, not sure why she was there, but it was funny to watch. I can't imagine how miserable that job had to be though. I hope she got paid well.

Once we got outside to the palace gardens we stopped to eat lunch. I thought it was really cool that I was actually having lunch in palace gardens. I am very historically conscious and I was thinking about how distant an idea that must have been for the majority of my ancestors throughout history. They probably never thought that they would go near a palace, let alone dine in one (although to be fair my nutella sandwich can hardly count as "dining") and there I was doing just that.

Out on the grounds Andrea and I frolicked through the field while my sister laughed at us. We also visited the "Secret Gardens". I don't know if these gardens were at one time a secret, but I don't think they count anymore because there were literally sign posts showing you how to get there and it was also on the map. Putting that aside they were pretty wonderful gardens, even taking into considering the time of year.

There was also this magnificent tree. From a distance it looked like one large tree surrounded by smaller ones. When you stepped inside the circle, however, you realized that the smaller trees were all roots of the large center one. I say smaller trees, but these trees were each several hundred years old in their own right. It was truly amazing.

Walking around the grounds was inspiring, and also made me wish I was rich enough to live in a place like this and go horse back riding through the fields every day. Alas that is never going to happen, but it is nice to dream though, right?

Last weekend Andrea and I got tickets to go see The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain! Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds. The idea of this entire thing is a group of ukulele officiants perform songs based on certain themes each concert. Since it was around Remembrance Day, the theme was music from the era of the World Wars.

Ukulele's bring joy to pretty much anything, even such a somber theme, and most of the songs they picked were cheerful or satirical rather than depressing. They also made a lovely effort to include music from those countries who's contributions are often forgotten or ignored. They played tunes from East Africa, China, and New Zealand to honor the men who fought and died in the wars from those lands.

What I really found amazing about this entire thing was that Andrea and I were the only ones I could see who were bouncing around in our seats or swaying to the music. Everyone else was watching, stoic faced, and not moving. HELLO PEOPLE! THESE ARE UKULELES! HOW CAN YOU JUST SIT THERE? Did not get it at all.

The venue was also stunning as well. It took place at Town Hall, located in the heart of Birmingham City Center. I had never been before and I must say it was all very fancy and grandiose.


Overall it was a really fun concert and I am super glad we went! I mean...how could you pass it up really? Ukuleles........

WOW I am behind! So a last week Andrea and I went to London for the first time! Well, technically it was just my first time, she went there when she was a teenager. ANYWAYS, getting there was a nightmare. We got as far as Northampton without any problems but when we went to transfer there we descended into commuter hell. A train further along the route had broken down, blocking other trains from getting by. THEN they managed to clear the tracks enough to get trains by, but there were no train crews available to man them. What was worse was, instead of telling us what was really going on, the people at the station insisted on lying to everyone who was stranded, telling them that trains were coming. I listened in on their conversations to find out what was really happening. Eventually (AFTER TWO HOURS) Andrea and I teamed up and caught a taxi with 3 other women to go to a different train station to get into London. Once we finally arrived we managed to get into London we were only an hour and a half late to when we planned on getting there.

It was around noon and we were really hungry so we stopped at the first pub we found...which was a poor choice. It was not that the food was bad...it was just over priced and such a small portion that we left hungry. After that experience we headed off to THE BRITISH MUSEUM. I have been wanting to go to the British Museum my entire life. It is literally on my bucket list! (Yes I have a bucket list). Central London is really beautiful so the walk there was enjoyable. We were also lucky and got really nice weather!

So once we got to the museum we headed straight for the Egyptian section. There, right when you walk in the door, is The Rosetta Stone. I wanted to cry. The Rosetta Stone is one of the most important archaeological finds in all of history, and definitely one in the world of Egyptology, and it was right in front of me!

The rest of the hall was filled with Egyptian statues, which were all stunning of course, and wall carvings. Andrea and I almost killed this one kid. He LEANED ON the head of a 2,000 year old Horus statue to take a picture. The rage I felt was intense.

Other than that incident there was also the disappointment of the severe lack of statues of Hatsheput. Who is that you ask? Well she was the most powerful female pharaoh to ever rule. The MET in New York City has an entire room dedicated to her, I was hoping for at least one image of her to appear in the museum. There never was.There was, however, plenty of my second favorite pharaoh, Ramses the Great, but none of his wife Nefertari :(. I am kind of an Ancient Egypt nerd....in case you could not tell.

We briefly went through the exhibit on ancient Europe and then went to the rest of the Egyptian rooms before heading out. We decided to walk down to see Big Ben, a roughly 40 minute walk. Along the way I saw a store that was selling 12 postcards for a pound! Score! (I am collecting post cards). Once we got to the Thames it was dark out. We came upon The Eye of London first, which was stunningly lit up in blue with a full moon rising behind it.


Then we walked down and saw Big Ben (yes I am aware Big Ben is the bell, not the tower itself), and parliament. The way they were lit showed the detail on the buildings and it was truly stunning. Unfortunately my fancy camera died and my phone takes crappy night photos, so I could not get a good picture.

After that we walked over to Westminster Abbey (above), which was enormous, and walked around it. I really wanted to inside, but obviously it was closed. We then decided to head back to the train station. On the way back we passed Trafalgar Square. I find it interesting that in all the photos of this place the giant statue of a rooster is somehow excluded. Yes, there is a enormous chicken statue in the middle of London.

Once we got back to the station we had some time to kill before our train, and some severely aching feet, so we ducked into an "American" diner where I had a Nutella milk shake. This thing was so delicious it was almost a religious experience. I fully intend to get another one during my next visit.

We got home almost at midnight, exhausted but extremely happy with our trip! I really cannot wait to go back, there is still so much I have yet to see!

 So this was my first Bonfire Night....Guy Faulks Day.....whatever you want to call it, in England! One thing that is really different from in the US is that people are allowed to fire off fireworks without a permit as long as it is on their own property! It was also the Hindu festival of light, Diwali. This means that for the last two weeks people all around my neighborhood have been firing them off from about 6pm to 11pm every night.  Bonfire Night was high intensity on the fireworks and the church around the corner was ringing their bells for around 3 hours straight! I did not actually do anything Bonfire Night, but the next night my university was hosting a fireworks display and fun fair, so Andrea and I went to that!

Now, I have been in my fair share of crowds. I have been in New York City during the Christmas season! Nothing was compared to this though. Thousands of students were funneling into a tiny space through tiny walkways at a glacial pace. It took so much longer than it should have just to walk there!
Look at all those people! It was shoulder to shoulder the entire time and you could not move without have to shove someone out of the way!

The funfair was decent. There were four rides that you had to pay 2.50 to get onto. I think there might have been games and refreshments too, but we never made it that far. There was one ride called "Miami Fever", which we got a kick out of.


 Andrea and I decided we only wanted to go on one ride....this glorious creature! It swung back and forth while spinning you around. When I was younger I used to go to a theme park in upstate New York every summer, and I always went for the biggest and the baddest rides in the park! This happened to be the best one at this fair.

I also ran into some friends I had made on the hike from a few weekends ago while we waited online. It was really nice to see them again! Now right as we were about to get on the ride after waiting for 20 min or so....the fireworks started. Then...it started to rain! This led to one of the coolest experiences I have ever had on a theme park ride in my life! Every time we sung into the sky we could see the fireworks in front of us, the rain was pelting us in the face, and we we screaming our heads off! I also may have been maniacally laughing, but that is just something I do when I am really nervous.

After we got off the ride we watched the rest of the fireworks. They were pretty good! We were standing right underneath where they were being shot off, so occasionally we would get hit by the debris! After that we tried to get home. I say tried quite literally. We walked over to the bridge we had crossed to get in, and somehow managed to get stuck on it for fifteen minutes! There was a huge crowd of people crammed don it and for some reason we were not moving. I still don't know what was blocking us! Eventually we got frustrated and left to find another way out. We did, and when we got to the other side of the stream we still did not see what was blocking the people on the bridge! Even once we got out of the fun fair we still had to walk back through campus in a huge crowd of people. It was a relief to get out of there an into the open!

Despite the crowd issues, it was a lot of fun! That one ride was one of the most unique experiences of my life and I doubt I will ever have another one like it!

Cows love to stare at people, and these were very curious as to why all these people were walking by their pen
Sheep not so much, they run away from you if you get anywhere near them.
The grass was literally this green.
This one is probably my favorite picture I took the entire weekend!
Do not be deceived, that blue sky was never over our heads

Note the puddles of water at the bottom of the picture.

When it was raining it came down in sheets, and the wind was constantly blowing the water across the lake.
However when it wasn't raining it was quite stunning!
Still wasn't warm enough to not wear my hat though!
In Birmingham everything is still pretty green, here it actually looked like autumn!
The water was stunningly blue! I wish we had had enough time to walk around the entire lake.