Official European Kevin Sorbo Fanclub

What a wonderful whirlwind of a day Saturday 17th October 09 was in Ghent Belgium at the FACTS Convention! I went there with my husband Peter, who obligingly took lots of photos, both for me and for everyone. This was my 5th time of meeting Kevin, all very special times; It was absolutely lovely to see him again and to meet up with both old and new friends – Heidi, Anne, Edith, Jenny, Jan, Jakub, Vaclav, Ralf, Sandra, Teresa and Amanda, Kerstin and her partner, Evelyne and her husband, Charline and her daughter, Viviane, and a young lady from Ghent, who I got talking to in the autograph queue for Kevin, who had been to the same convention in London as Jakub and Vaclav, and who met up with us later on during the day – was great to see you all, and to spend time with you; I have happy memories of exploring the middle of Ghent with Heidi, Anne and Edith, Peter taking Heidi and I on the wrong tram to a part of Ghent we didn’t know (made up for Heidi taking us across the Rhine last year!), but not finding it difficult to follow the tram lines back to familiarity, having a lovely time to chat on Sunday morning with some of our group, and Jenny, Jakub and I trying to roll up the lovely poster Kevin signed for us with lots of giggles, it took us much longer than the guy who was helping Kevin took to roll it up! I remember lovely friendly people, the fact that it cost 40cents to use the loo at the convention(!), that everyone spoke English, French and German at the drop of a hat, and that it was a relaxed and happy convention. I could write reams but I won’t!; these are my memories of my special moments with Kevin;

lst Autograph session: Kevin arrived and it was so good to see him again; he looked great and got busy putting out all his photos for us to choose; the queueing system was a little chaotic but Heidi, Anne and I arrived in front of Kevin; he smiled and said hallo to us and started to look for something, and then gave me 3 photos of the Golden Hind which Sam had especially autographed for us, it was a lovely surprise and we appreciated it very much. And Kevin mentioned that maybe Sam would be able to come with him another time, that she had done so in the past – would be lovely! We gave Kevin the birthday book, which he thanked us for, and we said that we could post it to him, but Kevin said it was fine, and put it under his table, which was going to prove fun later! I said it was lovely to see him and glad that he had been able to make it, and Kevin nodded and smiled, sort of went phew and said it had been so busy! I stayed then to have an autograph and Kevin showed me a photo of Avenging Angel from his collection, I said I had the dvd, and then a photo of Fire From Below which I said we had here in Europe; for my autograph I chose a gorgeous photo of Dylan when he was out in the snow in Exit Strategies, Kevin made sure he spelt my name right as most of the time its spelt with a ‘a’ in America;

I also had a Hercules map for Kevin to sign, which he had a good look at and said wow, he hadn’t seen one in years; the map had had a little adventure before it reached Kevin’s autograph table; I nearly set fire to it with a candle when showing Heidi, then ripped a little bit of the edge when showing Anne and Edith! Kevin signed it, then talked a little about Julia X, and having his hair coloured; then I had a photo with Kevin and a lovely hug; I said that I thought that he would make a very good bad guy, and he laughed; after the photo Kevin said how busy he had been, and talked about a new series with John Voight; I asked if this was The Handyman, and Kevin said yes it was; he said we were doing a great job with the Club, and said he would send us more info and videos, and then Kevin touched my hand – great moments! I moved away, but as I had forgotten to give Kevin messages folk had given me, I just went to the back of the queue, and eventually arrived back at his table! Kevin said, you back again, and I said, yes, I had forgotten to give the messages! I said Glyn, one of our new members, had sent him a hug, Celine sent her love and a hug, and I mentioned her little boy that Kevin had thumb wrestled with at Milton Keynes – Kevin remembered this and said oh wow! I sent Stripe’s best wishes, and Kevin asked how she was, I asked if Kevin was going to Billy Bobs for the party; Kevin wasn’t sure but he knew he was going to dinner; and whether we could have a group photo with him; Kevin said yes to this and we arranged it for the end of the signing session, but in the event it was not to be, it was still too busy then and Kevin had to leave, presumably for some lunch and a bit of a rest!; hopefully next time we might be able to have a club meeting and a group photo. I then chose another gorgeous photo of Avenging Angel, Kevin asked if it was for me, I said yes, and he wrote a great autograph on it, which I said ‘yes please’ to when I read it, and he laughed!
Photoshoot: Jenny and I spotted Kevin when he came to the photoshoot and we must have made some little noise because Kevin looked in our direction and we smiled and waved at him, and Kevin did the same back; he had to wait for a few minutes before they could start his photoshoot, then the fun began! Most of us seemed to have bought at least 2 tickets, and Kevin was asking folk which arm they wanted; when it was my turn he asked which arm I wanted, I chose, then Kevin said I was gonna get two anyway! So Kevin had both his arms wrapped round me, and I had both my arms wrapped round him; I liked that very much!!! In one of the photos Kevin laid his head on mine – I liked that very much too!!! After the photos Kevin had another little chat about Julia X, that he had never had his hair coloured before, and that they had also cut it, and that it was a spooky film; I asked if we needed to watch it from behind the settee and he said yes, and chuckled; I told him he looked gorgeous, Kevin smiled, and then that was the photoshoot over; we were able to watch everyone have their photo taken, and Kevin asked Jakub and Vaclav to pick him up – great fun! Unfortunately some of our group missed this shoot (there was no time booked as this was the first time FACTS had done an official photoshoot and were playing it by ear), but Kevin was called back and they got their photos – phew! While Jenny and I were looking for the ladies to tell them in case they didn’t know, Kevin walked past fairly near to us; I missed him(bother!), but Kevin saw us and Jenny saw him and said hallo; I did see the back of his head, which is very nice! The photography team were very friendly and helpful; the guy putting the photos into the bags suggested we sit, which we did and were glad to rest our feet!, and also provided us with waffles – very nice! When I had my two photos I went back to the autograph table with Heidi, and as we were waiting in the queue, Kevin’s helper came to us and asked if we were fanclub, yes we said, and he told us to wait, that he would come back for us, which he did in a couple of minutes; we were intrigued; he came back and took us straight to Kevin and said that we could have the big poster advertising Kevin and that Kevin would sign it for us! We were thrilled to bits! While we were there Kevin signed one of my photos with two messages, ‘hug me hard!!’ and ‘thanks for all your hard work!’ both of which I love and much appreciate; thank you Kevin!, I said that we had had a brilliant time and thank you very much, then we had a conversation about water, and agreed to come back later for the poster to be signed. Sometime during this time a dad and his little girl came for a photo with Kevin, and Kevin picked her up, which was lovely.

The Q & A:
The question and answer session was on earlier than we expected and was about 25 minutes; Kevin told us that he was jetlagged all over the place, about having dinner with Christopher Judge and getting lost in Ghent, also something about a brothel which he said no to!; he told us about Julia X and that it scared him to find how easy it was to fall into the role; I think there was time for about 4 or 5 questions, but I can’t remember everything that Kevin said! I know he said there should be another Avenging Angel, which would be wonderful, and answered a question on how does he remember all his lines doing so many different movies, Kevin said that its easy if it’s a good script. Kevin also mentioned The Handyman with John Voight, and the name of the director, and Edith and I realised that Edith had got the director’s name right for a transcript we were doing for the NL – thank you Kevin for the confirmation! and possibly doing a series of films on the Gold Coast of Australia;
Birthday book and poster:
After the Q & A we came back to Kevin’s autograph table and discovered Anne and Edith there, and we then decided to see if we could get a photo of us with Kevin and the birthday book; Kevin said yes, then took a little while to find it under his table, it seemed to have disappeared! For a couple of minutes we could only see the top of his head while he was looking for it, with some help from the assistant, but it did eventually come to light, and we were also able to tell Kevin that the cd with it was Tatort, which was aired in Germany recently with Sam speaking German, and that it was for both of them; Kevin was surprised and touched by this. We had a lovely photo with him with lots of happy smiles! Then we talked about the poster and Kevin wanted to know what we would like him to sign; I looked at Heidi, she suggested OEKSFC, Kevin looked at her lanyard and said he would put To The Official European Kevin Sorbo Fanclub, and he did, adding whew!!! Love to the ladies, hugs to the guys, and then his wonderful signature; we were highly delighted! We were going to take it down there and then but Kevin’s helper said he would take it down properly at the end with a knife, so we left it and waited at the end of the barrier with Jakub, Vaclav, Jenny, and the young lady from Ghent; Heidi had gone for a few minutes, and it looked as if Kevin was packing up to leave, so I went and asked for just one more hug until we meet again, Kevin said ‘sure’, and it was a lovely lovely hug, as they had been all day; we wished each other safe journeys, talked a little about trains, as that was how I had travelled, and then he was gone; Kevin’s helper got the poster down for us, and rolled it up very expertly, and we told him that we had had a great time;

Saturday 17th October 2009 in Ghent, Belgium, was a very special Saturday; as well as being a very versatile and gifted actor, Kevin is a lovely human being; I loved all my special moments, and they were over much too soon; thank you so much Kevin, and hope it won’t be too long before we can meet again;

Lindsey


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