Austen & The Abbey Part 2

The second day of Austen And The Abbey dawned just as hot, however I got to ride to the venue, the beautiful Stoneleigh Abbey, in a taxi cab with the designers and Coco! It was a bit of an experience as my Japanese is barely conversational, and when they mentioned how “Kirin” was refreshing and delicious (meaning the beer), I thought they meant “kirin” as in the word for giraffe. >_<

Anyhow, after the hilarity I met up with my fellow Loli Crew and had a light refreshment in the Orangery before heading to the guided tour of the building.

You forget that such wondrous places still exist until you visit them! The paintings, the architecture, the decorations (as the coat of arms contained it, there were lots and lots of unicorns) and the lighting was all spectacular and a perfect setting for a Lolita event.

We held actual books that Jane Austen herself would have read when she briefly lived at the grand manor house, and got to see some very gorgeous and pristine rooms.

Lunch was a free buffet with all sorts of wondrous food! I particularly liked the fact that we could sit in the shade of a wonderfully old tree next to the river and eat al fresco, taking in the vista.

Some of the shops from yesterday were re-set in the basement. I bought an Atelier Pierrot headdress but it unfortunately went missing T_T.

Yuko managed to find something that fit my mutant breasts (hooray!) and I was clad in an amazing Atelier Pierrot outfit once more. Fairy Wish decided to casually not tell me I was replaced by a more delicately feminine girl XD

After explaining what to do with me, I got to teach the other AP models what poses to do, which was a lot of fun with us all practicing in the hallway and then in the adjacent room to where the show was. It was very enjoyable sashaying around the room to Coco’s wonderful piano playing!

A photo was even put up on the Atelier Pierrot website!

Finally, I helped pack up all the boxes etc before heading back to the guest house, thoroughly tired and hot. Before the taxi arrived I was chatting to my friends and as I was wearing my Moi Meme Moitie dress, Alice said she used to design for MMM before starting Fairy Wish, and Coco had a text from Mana himself on her phone! I think we all fainted with sheer awesomeness when we saw it.

I received some sad news that evening, but it didn’t dampen the fact that I had a magical weekend in Leamington Spa. Before I left, I went to the park opposite the Pump Rooms to feed the pigeons. ;)