In Coventry, no less. Who would’ve thought such a thing was possible? This is a long post, so you may want to go and make a cup of tea before you settle down to read it!
It all started on Friday, with a trip to Cosham on the bus. We were sat behind this obnoxious group of girls who were randomly phoning their friends and leaving “funny” messages on their answer-phones if they didn’t answer. Hilarious stuff, especially if you’re 12. Then it was the train to Southampton – excitement levels slowly rising. We stopped off for a baguette and a coffee in Southampton Central while we were waiting for the train to Coventry and I stabbed a bit of hard baguette into the roof of my mouth. Like all the other times we’ve went up to Coventry for RF ‘Fests, the train was packed. Luckily, we had reserved seats! Apart from discovering the game-breaking “Air Vent” on Scribblenauts for the DS, and Jane nearly choking to death on a sweet, it was an uneventful train journey.
Finding the hotel was a slight issue – we knew which general direction it was in, but no route was planned. We winged it, and after walking right past an unmarked side of it, eventually found it. We stayed at a Premier Inn this time, rather than the usual Ibis. We figured that because we had more free time than we usually have on ‘Fest weekends, because this one was nearer the City Centre we’d have more stuff to see and do. They took security very seriously there – you had to swipe your key-card to get to the lifts, swipe it to get from the lift to the corridor, then again to get into your room!
The room itself was nice – it was a bit bigger than we’re used to in the Ibis. It had an open wardrobe type thing, but the shelf under the hanging department was too high, Jane’s dress couldn’t hang properly with it there so we improvised and strung her dress on the coat hooks. There was a desk and chair, as well as a nice comfy tub chair, and the air conditioning actually worked and was pretty quiet. The bed was quite comfy (although Jane got on with it better than I did), and it had large sofa-like cushions so you could sit comfortably on it while watching TV. The bathroom had a bath and a shower, and the view from the window was… interesting, to say the least.
We had a look around some shops on the Friday afternoon, we were mostly looking for pink clothes to wear to Michelle’s upcoming pink-themed birthday party (she likes pink so is having a party where you must wear something pink – makes sense really), but also to pick up some wrapping paper for our gift to Karl and Hannah. Jane quite thoughtfully realised that a wrapped present may not travel well. Then, in the evening, we went to Bella Italia for tea. It was very nice nom nom foods, and I discovered my new favourite beer – Peroni Gran Reserva.
I was looking forward to Saturday morning, not just for the obvious reason of it being the day of Karl and Hannah’s party celebration, but we had an “all you can eat Premier Inn cooked breakfast” coming up. I thought I was quite modest and didn’t go over the top with my order, but I asked for three rashers of bacon and received five. A fry-up for breakfast is a real treat – even better when you don’t have to cook it yourself or wash up afterwards. We had another look around some shops in the morning, grabbed a sandwich from Marks and Spencers, then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the afternoon/evening. I helped Jane curl her hair, which was great fun (see photograph – maybe I should retrain as a hairdresser?). We were ready with plenty of time to spare, so went down to the hotel bar and had a swift drink to calm the nerves, then went out and waited for the taxi.
I don’t think the taxi driver knew where we wanted to go – at one point he was on his phone to one of his chums, possibly asking for directions. When we did eventually get there some random woman said that Jane looked gorgeous. Proof that it’s not just me who thought so. She looked stunning in her dress. We found the hall, found Karl and Hannah, wished them well and caught up with the gang. They had little cards which guests could write their messages of goodwill and congratulations on, then hang them up on a washing line type thing, it was lovely, and so Karl and Hannah. When everyone had mostly arrived, it was out to the orchard for the blessing, the botanical garden setting really suited the whole occasion. We formed an outer circle, and Karl and Hannah’s relatives formed an inner circle, with those two in the middle and they recited their vows, which were beautiful, meaningful and you could tell from their voices, totally heartfelt. Then we drank some champagne, took some photographs of the happy couple and their entourage – then it started raining and we rushed back inside, grabbing some super tasty hog roast on the way.
Round-up time. Karl and his Best-men in trainers. The “Wedding Trainers” were quite cool actually. Dave forgetting the present. Dave being worried that Jane would “kill him” for forgetting the present. Dave and Louis eventually rescuing the present. The iPod playlist. Random Fury: Stealing your flag, putting a donk on it, then putting it back since 2004. Getting soaked going out to the hog roast for seconds. Having plants you could take away as a memento of the day (which we forgot). Dave being asked if he came from London because he was wearing a suit and trainers. Bing’s Big Bubs – having tubs of bubbles at the tables was such a cool idea. So much happened, I’ve probably forgotten a whole bunch of cool stuff.
Karl and Hannah were both delighted by the gift we at Random Fury had clubbed together and got them, and Hannah was visibly stunned with the amount of money in the card. It never ceases to amaze me how much we can do when we put our minds to it – and all this from an innocuous little thread on a mildly popular gaming forum 6 years ago. It was great to see the guys again, for sure. They actually went on to a club after the blessing – I heard that Louis fell asleep at the bar – I’m amazed at their stamina to be honest. The amount of drink they put away between them, then seeming fine at Browns the next day… Ah, to be young again!
Sunday was mostly a quiet, relaxed day. Jane wasn’t feeling too good after all that glorious alcohol, hog and cheese, so we took it easy. I went down for my cooked breakfast, and took Jane up a Croissant. We had organised to meet the RF guys at Browns (quite simply the best food ‘n’ booze joint in all of Coventry – a regular ‘Fest highlight), so we took our time in getting ready then slowly meandered around Coventry for a bit, marvelling at the incredible mix of classical, Tudor, retro and modern architecture. Lucozade in hand, we checked out St. Michael’s Cathedral and the Coventry Skydome, some of the modern side-streets and the incredible old Spon Street.
We met up with the guy at Browns at about 1 o’clock, and it was, as ever, immense. It was lovely to see Karl and Hannah again – we were expecting it to just be Dave, Mike, Gareth and Louis, what a bonus! After a lovely meal (I had Spicy Meatballs – boy, were they spicy!) we did our farewells, and we wandered around the shops a little bit more before heading off back to the hotel. We had planned to watch the final of “Don’t Stop Believing” on Channel 5, but for some reason the Freeview in the hotel room had every channel except Channel 5. How annoying. By the way, we’re not religious followers of “Don’t Stop Believing”, we’ve only ever caught the middle of one or two episodes and we weren’t repulsed by it (in fact it was mildly entertaining), so we figured we’d watch it. But we couldn’t, in the end. Oh well.
The photos we took of the blessing and lunch the day after at Browns are here. Here are the photographs we took of Coventry and some random other things.
All in all, a lovely weekend. Congratulations again to Karl and Hannah, and a big thanks to them for allowing us to be a part of their blessing. It was magical.
