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.
