As many of you will know, I (that is, Liz) would attend conventions when I was in NZ and Oz. You know, sci fi conventions, and some expos too. However, for budget reasons and having time to spare, I haven’t been to one here. Until last month.

Yea, I dragged Rob along too. One of the reasons we committed to the event was 1) James Marsters was attending and 2) the convention was in Northampton, a city we wanted to visit as it’s where my Uncle Bob grew up. Well, James Marsters cancelled, but we still got to see Northampton.

Northampton is a lovely large market town – population just under 200,000 – twice the size of Cambridge. As seems to be our habit when visiting new cities, we spotted a couple of churches. The first was in the center of town just next to the market square – All Saints Church. The church was rebuilt (as was much of Northampton)by Charles II after a massive fire in 1675 that wiped out most of the town. There’s a statue of Charles II to acknowledge his financial contribution towards the rebuilding work on top of the portico in front of the clock.

The other church we saw, and noticed purely by accident, was the Holy Sepulchre church. What was great about this was it was a Norman round church – one of four in the UK – and we’d already seen our first in Cambridge! This Northampton one was built by returning crusaders based on the Holy Sepulchre round church in Jerusalem. It was built in 1100 and extended over the next few centuries to grow into this large church you see here below. The round nave is behind the tall tower.

But we weren’t just in Northampton to see the lovely churches or try some new restaurants (Les Olives for Spanish tapas was great!). We were there for a convention to make some new friends. Thankfully, the convention had parties on both the Friday and Saturday night to help us get to know people. There was much drinking and dancing, as well as some rodeo riding. 🙂

The actors weren’t anyone we knew from before the event but were a lovely bunch that we had a good chat to. This picture below shows Ben Loyd-Holmes “The Operative”, Colin MacFarlane “General Pierce” and Bear McCausland “Steven Carter” (aka Jack’s grandson) all from Torchwood: Children of the Earth. Their characters were all fairly minor in Torchwood, so I wouldn’t expect anyone to recognise them. A nice bunch of guys though.

Overall, it was a great weekend and I think I’ll go back to another event. Though maybe one with actors I know.

We did go to another event a week later as well, though only for signings. There were a few Star Trek people there, but I was quite keen about seeing the Phelps twins from the Harry Potter films and the Yellow-eyed Demon from Supernatural. Super smooth and chatty guys, which always makes getting the photos and autographs enjoyable. 🙂

May these 2 events be the first of more good times to come.

Should be fun. 🙂