| Update |
[Oct. 11th, 2009|05:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
Just a quick flying visit with an update on activities - not much time to do anything while doing the PGCE but I still squeeze a few things in ! Last weekend we were in Blackpool for a mainly relaxing weekend but also to see 'Evita' at The Grand Theatre - very good production indeed.
On Wednesday we went to see 'Round The Horne' at The Festival Theatre, Malvern - again, excellent. We saw the London version twice back in 2003 and this version has two of the same cast. It wasn't very full - about 20 people - but those who were there seemed to appreciate it.
This weekend we've been at the Cheltenham Literature Festival - yesterday we went to a talk by Dame Judi Dench and Sir Richard Eyre. Very interesting indeed but DJD had had an accident the day before and gashed her hand which was bandaged up. Also she looked very unsteday on her feet, as if she had a problem with her hips or similar. So, at the book signing, it was very much in and out - no personalisations and she didn't seem keen on any chat. Francis tried to start up a conversation but she just nodded politely and smiled as if to say "Get lost so i can get this over and done with" !!
Today we went to see Harry Hill - he was very funny and did a cut-down stand-up act rather than a traditional interview. He made some hilarious comments about TV shows including his "favourites" such as 'How Clean Is A Mental Person's House' and 'I'm Mental & Think I've Got The X-Factor' !!
We went to the signing afterwards and Harry personalised and was happy for photos but was subject to the Cheltenham Festival Gestapo so, although he posed for mine he just turned back to signing my book as the flash went off !!
Photos can be seen here :-
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3888402&l=9d70eaea79&id=654288046 |
|
|
| RIP..... |
[Oct. 9th, 2009|08:31 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sad | ] |
......Barry Letts, producer of Who between 1970-1974 :( |
|
|
| PGCE Week 1 |
[Sep. 27th, 2009|04:09 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  busy | ] |
Well my first week back at university is over and it went without a hitch. The workload for the course doesn't seem too bad - I think some people exaggerated about how much there is. The timetable isn't as onerous as I thought, we even get one day off a week !! As I expected, there is a lot of private study to do and the tutors whizz through a lecture and expect you to go through it on your own from the internet - no notes are given out, the presentations are all online.
The differences from 15 years ago are huge - as above re internet notes and also my ID and library card was made, complete with photo, in about 2 minutes on a piece of plastic. In the "old days" we used to have to get loads of passport photos done and stick them on bits of card that would be laminated !!
Everyone on the course is very nice although we have had one drop out already. He was the only one of us living in halls - the rest of us commute in - and it was probably quite isolating as for the rest of us we all went home once lectures were over ! I think he should have given it a bit longer than 3 days but then I can understand how lonley it must have been when no-one else on the course is living on campus.
So we now have another 4 weeks on campus and then we go on our teaching placements until Christmas - eek !!!
In other news, I went out with my "old" work colleagues from CSV Action Earth last night as a "Au Revoir" meal. I owe them so much there for how they have contributed to lifting me up this year. We had a lovely meal and a few drinks, just catching up on the last few weeks. No other big news as it'll be work, work, work all the way but my weekends will still be sacrosanct (for now !!). Next weekend is off to Blackpool to se 'Evita' at The Grand and the Classic Doctor Who highlight of the year - the release of the 'Dalek War' box set complete with 'Planet Of The Daleks' Episode 3 IN COLOUR for the first time since 1973 !!!! Beyond exciting !!! |
|
|
| Regenerations 2009 |
[Sep. 24th, 2009|10:20 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
Just a quick round-up from last weekends Regenerations convention held in Swansea. Regenerations has been a convention highlight for the past few years as it has been truly a "by fans, for fans" concern. Who conventions - certainly the larger ones - have begun to get a bad name due to the popular 10th Planet events being pretty much taken over by the dreaded Showmasters who have turned them into more cynical money-making operations. Bad Wolf in July caused a lot of damage with the sudden "work commitments" cancellations of david Morrisey and Bernard Cribbins - again, since they apparently had to pull out of events prior to this also run by Showmasters/10th Planet - the mutterings being that, due to poor ticket sales, Messers Morrisey and Cribbins were asked not to come as a money-saving exercise.
Cary Woodward, the organiser of Regenerations, pulled out the stops by bagging Sir Derek Jacobi as his headlining guest and Sir Derek showed up and was a wonderful convention guest. He did two panels - one with Philip Madoc and one solo - and both had practically no mention of Doctor Who at all. His solo panel was amazing - the audience were hanging on his every word and you could hear a pin drop for most of the session. The room was also jam-packed - first time I've seen a convention where pretty much EVERY attendee is in for a panel. Also, the questions asked were very intelligent and not "What was it like working with David Tennant"-style. Best ever convention panel IMO.
The rest of the guests comprised the usual suspects - Anneke Wills, Mary Tamm, Sylvester & Sophie (who is now the voice of Dennis The Menace in a BBC cartoon, would you believe!), Nick Courtney and various guest stars.
The running of the convention was very smooth with tiny autograph queues and very friendly stewards. The hotel was also in a convenient location. It's also a chance to have a good old piss-up with chums :)
Photos here :-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=154646&id=654288046&l=384e163554 |
|
|
| Holidays Part 2 - Isle Of Man |
[Sep. 17th, 2009|10:02 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
To give us the feeling of having "been abroad", Francis booked for us to spend a few days on the Isle Of Man, which is very convenient from Blackpool as you can fly there from Blackpool Airport.
Our flight was 12 pm so we went down to the airport which is hardly a hub of activity ! The airport is charging passengers an "Airport Development Fee" of £10 - not much IMO especially when you can park for free, but there have been complaints. Our airline, Manx2.com, gave us access to the airport Executive Lounge to make up for paying the fee - fine by us !! One controversy was, when going through security, Francis had his hand gel confiscated as it had alcohol in it (!!) despite the same brand being freely available in the Duty Free shop after security ! We went to the lounge and, when the flight was announced, popped to the loo much to the consternation of a woman at the gate. When we emerged about 2 minutes later she explained that as the plane had landed early, the pilot wanted to leave early too and we had held it up !!! The plane only held 20 people but there was just 7 of us on board. The flight to IoM took all of 25 minutes.
For those unaware, the Isle Of Man is an island in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland. It is not officially part of the UK but they have The Queen as Head Of State - it is a self-governing island but generally follows UK laws eg they had the smoking ban at around the same time as England. They have the same currency as the UK but print their own notes similar to Scotland. The population is about 80,000. An appeal for people to live there is it has very low taxation and a number of banks locate their offshore arms there. With this in mind, I always thought the island would be very glitzy and glamorous but that wasn't the case at all. The promenade at Douglas (the island capital where we were staying) is a bit down-at-heel - there are a number of closed and derelict hotels and many older hotels have been knocked down and turned into apartments. I also expected very up-market restuarants - the tourist board have created an "commended" booklet of restaurants but there were only 6 in Douglas !! We went and tried them all while we were there though :) We also visited the other "big" towns on the island - Ramsey and Peel - and they were practically comatose.
Anyway, we went and did a lot of the tourist stuff such as travel on the steam railway and the electric trams. The island also has horse-drawn trams which were fun. We were very lucky that the weather we had was fabulous every day - very sunny and warm for the time of year.
I think the problem with the tourist industry there is that it is expensive to actually get over there - there is a ferry service but apparently that's quite pricey and, although flights are cheap if you book in advance, they can be expensive if you just wanted to leave tomorrow. Also, there's really not much going on - there's a theatre, The Gaiety, but it doesn't have much on really and the shopping on the island isn't great - the most upmarket store there is Marks & Spencer ! I enjoyed my time there as it was a relaxing break but I couldn't begin to imagine ever living there - I think I'd go mental with boredom !!!! We'd pretty much done the island in 5 days :) Also, it would have been awful if the weather was bad - at least Blackpool has a lot of indoor activities but the Isle Of man really has nothing if you're faced with poor weather.
We came back on Tuesday night and stayed at the flat then came back home Wednesday morning. We're off tomorrow to a Doctor Who convention in Swnasea and then it's off to uni on Monday !!
IoM photos can be seen here :-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153403&id=654288046&l=daf4aedb91 |
|
|
| Holidays Part 1 - Blackpool |
[Sep. 17th, 2009|09:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
I'm just nearing the end of a nice couple of weeks inbetween finishing work and starting my PGCE course. My last day at work was really nice - despite only being there 4 months, I had a lovely card and HMV vouchers as a leaving present which was so touching. My boss kept saying I was "the best Campaigns Assistant she'd ever had" which was a bit embarrasing when it's said in front of other CAs !!
Having only worked 4 months and needing to conserve cash for my course, any abroad holiday was out of the question. It was around this time of the year that we were supposed to be jetting off to see ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pootlus and bamboowan *sigh*. So, the obvious choice was Blackpool, although Francis had another trick up his sleeve....
I decided to have a 2 week gap between work and uni and that fitted in very well as it coincided with Illumination Switch-On weekend. We invited two of our Scottish friends, Harry and Paul, to come and stay for the weekend and they arrived on Friday. We had a late lunch and tootled into town for a look round and joined the Switch-On concert crowd about 8 pm ish - half an hourt before the Radio 2 free concert began. Obviously we were'nt right at the front as we were 2 years previously for David Tennant but we had a pretty good view. Some good acts played including Pixie Lott, Paloma Faith, JLS, Madness and Tony Christie - all great except Tony Christie was reading his song off a sheet of paper !!! The weather held up except when JLS sang "Umbrella" and it rained, only stopping when they finished ! Switch On star this year was Alan Carr who was great fun. We then made our way back to the flat for a late evening meal (about 10.30 before we ate !!) and after that drove along the length of the Illuminations.
Next day (Saturday) we played crazy golf in the mid-morning and, after a rest at the flat, embarked out again in search of Alan Carr and Emma Forbes who were presenting their Radio 2 show from the top of an open tram. We found them at North Pier and, as we went over to join the bit of a crowd that had gathered, who should come off the tram and just hang around but singing sensation Mika, having just appeared on Alan and Emma's radio show !! Obviously this was too good an opportunity to miss so Harry, Paul and I storm up to him and ask for photos. I also whip out my autograph book and get Mika to give me a quick scribble - he was absolutely lovely and very obliging. Barely anyone seemed to notice Mika was there which was fine for us !
We then went for some drinks and to go to the opening of a new sqaure by The Winter Gardens. There was to be a cabaret headed by the fabulous female sword swallower Miss Behave. Anyway, the star spotting continued as we then bumped into celebrity home designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen - he was also happy to pose for photos and sign autographs. His wife was with him too and she was lovely, even offering to take photos !!
Sunday was a quieter day - I went with Harry and Paul to play some bingo and go on the piers. They were then leaving in the afternoon and Francis and I had a busy afternoon cleaning and tidying, then we went to see the first heat of the World Firework Championships on the promenade. Monday was a more leisurely day as we went shopping in Cleveleys and had a lazy evening and an early night as we had been up very late the last few nights.
Tuesday was also a lazy day but in the evening we had a meal in one of our favourite haunts, AJs Bistro, and went to see Billy Pearce on North Pier. It was very encouraging to see the show was practically sold out - excellent, considering people had been moaning that summer shows on the pier were dead etc.
Then, Wednesday morning was quite an early start for the next part of the holiday......
Blackpool photos can be seen here :-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153356&id=654288046&l=6ce7c0f843 |
|
|
| Another Blackpool Bank Holiday |
[Aug. 31st, 2009|07:22 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
Another Bank Holiday rolls round and so does another trip to Blackpool !
This Bank Holiday is always a relatively low-key affair in the town as people save themselves for the hurly-burly of NEXT weekend - the Illuminations Switch-On !! For us, it was no exception, especially as we are having visitors down next weekend so conserved our energies for then :)
We went up very late on Friday and traffic was not too bad and on Saturday walked into Blackpool town centre - about a mile and a half - to get some bits and bobs. We had a drink in Matcham's Bar at The Grand Theatre and went off to one of our lunch haunts, Vincents, near the Winter Gardens. Unfortunately, it's been taken over by new management and they've totally changed the menu. They used to do proper meals but now it's just A N Other snack place, doing jacket potatoes, panini's etc. It's a shame the previous owners sold up as there has been some extensive work going on in the area to make it into an open piazza-style square. While work was being done, they were a bit cut off, but now it's done it's a stunning part of tonw that should have led to sales picking up.
No shows that attracted our attention were on so we had a nice meal in the evening at one of our favourite restaurants, AJ's.
Sunday we walked in the opposite direction - perhaps 2 miles - to Cleveleys and had lunch there and then came back, walking along the beach. In the evening we went to a dance tribute to Michael Jckson show at The Opera House. This was part of a Street Dance Championship that was being held at The Winter Gardens. It was a big success as it was totally sold out and an afternoon show was slotted in - also pretty much sold out. The show wasn't bad - some good dance acts but a few danced to anything but Michael Jackson, weird for a so-called tribute. The highlights for Britain's Got Talent stars Aidan Davis and George Sampson but the absolute highlight was a routine from this years BGT winners Diversity. They were absolutely incredible and worth the ticket price alone. The stunned the audience and had a well-deserved standing ovation. The work that went into their routine was breathtaking - if ever you get the chance to see them live, rather than on TV, then go as it was amazing.
Today was a clean and tidy up in preparation for our guests next weekend and going back home - the weather wasn't great this weekend, overcast and a bit muggy but not much rain thank god.
One slight annoyance about the weekend was someone I used to work with at the company that gave me the shove emailed to say she was in Blackpool this weekend and, if I was, did we want to meet up. I said fine and told her our itinery to which she said "Great, I'll text you" - anyway, we didn't hear a dicky bird !! Luckly we just carried on regardless but I don't understand why people start to arrange thinks and then not bother. Is it so hard to send a text to say "Sorry, but we're too busy to meet" ?? 9Before anyone says it, i didn't have her number to ask if things were happening).
Anyway, overall a nice relaxing weekend, ready for a busy time next week !! |
|
|
| Study !! |
[Aug. 24th, 2009|11:02 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  blah | ] |
Well, I'm back on the studying path again ! We've already been set an assignment to write based on our pre-course observation time spent in a school - I did mine during May, June and July. It has to be in by October 1st but knowing I have a busy few weeks from next weekend onwards, I set to to get it to be finished for the weekend just gone.
The starting off was a pain but once I cracked that it seemed to flow pretty well. It's such a difference from when I was writing assignments 15 years ago at university. Then, hardly anyone had a computer so we had to write them by hand and count the words individually as you got penalised for being too much over or under. Now it's fab writing it on a PC and it even counts the words for you !!
It was a bit of a sacrifice this weekend as I didn't see Francis at all as I was determined to get it done so I didn't have it hanging over my head while we're on holiday. Luckily there's nothing on TV !!
On that front, though, I'm still in the mind-set of when I was working for the company that gave me the push. As I worked a lot of evenings I would never start watching a series that you had to follow or was new as I knew I'd never get round to watching episodes I recorded. When I was unemployed I wasn't in the mood to get into TV and would just watch stuff that would wash over me. Now, even though I'm in from work at about 4.30 pm every day, I still don't have any inclination to watch anything other than throwaway TV like The Weakest Link, Kim & Agggie, makeover shows etc.
I've still not bothered to watch Torchwood despite being in 4 nights out of the 5 it was on, recording it every night AND buying the DVD. Francis has seen it and enjoyed it but I just can't be bothered and am even less bothered now I know what happened through magazines etc.
The only thing that will break (well just dent it slightly I imagine !) this trend will be New Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures but once they're over it'll be back to Gok Wan, Anne Robinson and Kim & Aggie. |
|
|
| Busy Autumn |
[Aug. 22nd, 2009|10:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | busy | ] |
August has been a bit of a quiet month - last weeks Colin Baker convention aside. This weekend, for example, I'm at home toiling through my first assignment for my PGCE - only 250 words to go though !
However, we've got lots of fun things to do from September to December. Firstly, I finish work at the end of next week so have a 2 week break before starting at uni - F and I are off to Blackpool for Illumination Switch-On (Alan Carr this year) and we pop over to the Isle Of Man while we're there for a few days.
We're seeing concerts by Bucks Fizz (!!), Little Boots, Alesha Dixon, Alison Moyet, Will Young and the Pet Shop Boys, then Pam Ann, Colin B in panto and White Christmas in Manchester plus Kyran Bracken's ice show in Blackpool.
October is Cheltenham Literary Festival time again so we're going to talks by Judi Dench, Harry Hill and Chris Evans this year and there's also three Who conventions !!
Added to this I have to squeeze in starting my PGCE on 21st September - phew !! |
|
|
| Sixth Sense Convention - 16th August 2009 |
[Aug. 17th, 2009|12:48 pm] |
After a very lazy Saturday, when we watched the woeful Peter Cushing Dalek movies so Francis could be up to speed with pretty much all things Who (lucky him !!), we were up early on Sunday to get down to Chiswick for the latest Fantom Films-organised Who convention. This one was a celebration of 25 years of Colin Baker as The Doctor. The Colin Baker years always hold a special place for me as that was the time that I became a fan of the series, rather than an interested viewer.
As is typical of a Fantom Films convention, some unusual and rare guests were there such as a number of guest actors from The Trial Of A Time Lord - some of them looking VERY different from their characters !! - and there was also a Timelash panel with director Pennant Roberts, writer Glen McCoy and actors Robert Ashby and Jeananne Crowley, although Jeananne was adamant that she was an actress and NOT an actor.
Writers Pip & Jane Baker were due to attend but sadly they had to pull out, which was a shame as I met them at my very first convention way back in 1995 and it would have been good to have seen them at an event again. Filling their gap was composer Dominic Glynn, who spoke very quietly but had lots of interesting things to say - we discovered his middle name was Francis at the autograph session :)
Sixth Doctor audio companions Maggie Stables and India Fisher were also in attendance, and they were both very enthusiastic about Big Finish audios and their roles in them - two lovely ladies.
Colin himself was obviously there and we had some good banter with him at the autograph session - "Hello there, you two" we always get greeted with. I took along a flyer for his forthcoming panto at The Festival Theatre in Malvern - Francis and I are all booked up for December 28th !! - and we posed with it as I said I'd put in on Facebook as free advertising, for which he was all for :) Photo is below :-
Later on we noticed Colin pointing over to us while talking to a fan, and this fan came over asking about the panto !! We told Colin we would take commission for any bookings made as a result of the convention :)
Sadly, due to his current driving ban - see Colin's blog on his website for more info - he's not doing much touring work at the moment but, instead, has been doing a fair few conventions and events which has been good for his fans.
Apart from a slight overrun in the middle autograph session, this was another well-run Fantom Films event. Sadly, we can't make the next one - which centres around the Graham Williams years - but hope to make the next one after that.
Rest of my photos can be seen here :-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=142154&id=654288046&l=5348bb30c0 |
|
|
| Happy Birthday...... |
[Aug. 17th, 2009|10:32 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | chipper | ] |
............ to the fabulous pennquelle !!!!
Hope you have a great day and we see you very soon :) |
|
|
| Daleks, Guardians and Moon |
[Aug. 10th, 2009|08:22 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
This weekend saw us embark upon watching Frontier In Space and Planet Of the Daleks - these are the last two Pertwee's for Francis to see and, although scheduled to come out on DVD this year, the release date wasn't until December 28th which seemed a bit too long to hang on. I rthought we'd watch the extras then and perhaps POTD again as episode 3 will be in colour on the DVD rather than lowly black and white on video. However, at the weekend news came through that the FIS/POTD DVD set has been pushed forward to October 5th - oh well !!
Anyway, we watched them and FIS I hadn't seen for years. Not a great story IMO as it's way too padded early on and then the plot gets "resolved" if you call it that, in a huge rush. Earth officials, who in earlier episodes were so convinced of The Doctor's guilt - despite him passing mind probe tests - that they thought he'd been totally brainwashed by The Draconians, were happy to accept his explanations within seconds in episode 6. Also, this is Roger Delgado's last story due to his untimely death and it's disappointing The Master just vaishes. POTD is an OK story - it is dragged up by the presence of Bernard Horsfall who is never anything less than excellent. Episode 3 being black and white is something I've never been able to get to the bottom of - it seems quite random for this to have been wiped and why it happened has never been explained.
My copy of The Black Guardian Trilogy arrived on Saturday so we watched the extras on that as we only watched them on video a few months ago. We did watch the re-edit of Enlightenment which was interesting. It's been edited to 75 minutes - so about 15 minutes removed - and had new CGI effects added. I was quite impressed - I didn't notice any detriment to the story with 15 minutes removed and it was much tighter but it had been "smoothed" out with the removal of the cliffhangers. What I mean is that each episode reaches a peak and then eases down only to have to peak again at the next cliffhanger. This has all been taken out so I didn't feel the jeopardy as much. An interesting experiment anyway but not sure why this particular story was chosen for this treatment.
Sunday, we went to the cinema to see Moon which, amazingly, Francis was desperate to see !! It was quite well-attended and the film was excellent. Sam Rockwell gives an amazing performance. I'll say no more as I don't want to spoil but, for anyone looking for an antidote to overblown summer blockbusters then go and see Moon and you won't be disappoionted. |
|
|
| The War Games And WWRY |
[Aug. 6th, 2009|10:08 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | busy | ] |
I inflicted The War Games on Francis last weekend. For those not in the know, this was the last Doctor Who story starring Patrick Troughton - a good choice you may think. However TWG runs for a mammoth 10 episodes !! I cheated slightly and told F it was only 5 (!) and he commented during the 4th episode that the story seemed to moving along really well and didn't "sag in the middle like they sometimes do" !! Flooked very puzzled when part 5 came - to him - an abrupt end so then I revealed it was indeed 5 episodes but just on disc 1 ! Anyway, we watched the rest the next day and he did enjoy it. I've actually never seen the middle few episodes, despite owning the video since 1990, and was very impressed but you couldn't watch it all in one go, that's for sure.
The extra features were fine but I think the main "making of" documentary could have been a tad longer. Although departing stars Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury were interviewed, their departure was barely touched upon. Apart from that, the other interviews were very good and a few other interesting features. There was one on a fan-produced video that has been years in the making but, in my view, they needn't have bothered as the acting ability was non-existant !
On Wednesday, we went to the theatre to see a musical for the first time in ages. We'd been to the theatre in Worcester recently to see one-man/woman shows from Barry Cryer and Jan Ravens but this was the first, full-blown production we'd seen in a long while. Birmingham Hippodrome is playing host to the Queen musical We Will Rock You for 12 weeks over the summer. The Hippodrome has these long runs of big shows during the summer - over the past few years we've had sell-out runs of Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and audiences have lapped them up. WWRY was no exception to this and was a complete sell-out despite being a Wednesday in the middle of the run.
I've seen WWRY twice before in London but the first time was not long after it opened and I was sat near the back of the stalls so could only see people's legs ! Second time was with friends from university and that time we were right at the front so had to crane our necks to see. So it's was nice this time, from the circle, to have a proper overview of the show !! This was a good production with some excellent performances and it's great to see the audiences of Birmingham rushing too see quality product !! |
|
|
| Curious.... |
[Jul. 28th, 2009|10:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  confused | ] |
Anyone know why "I Made It Through the Rain" by John Barrowman is at number 8 on the iTunes top 100 ??? Has it been on a TV show or something ??
EDIT - just found out it's being hyped up the chart by Radio 1's Chris Moyles show. Some people are such sheep *rolls eyes*. |
|
|
| Happy Birthday..... |
[Jul. 24th, 2009|11:59 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sympathetic | ] |
.....to agentxpndble.
I know things are tough for you at the moment but send you best wishes and hope you can have a nice day. |
|
|
| Bad Wolf 2009 |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|09:17 pm] |
Francis and I went to the "Doctor Who" Bad Wolf convention last weekend at the Hilton Metropole by the NEC. If you've read ghyste's posts regarding the debacle of the "Supernatural" Convention Asylum, then Bad Wolf was the total opposite.
Firstly, attendee numbers were well down on last year - I was told 270 at one point but one of my friends had booked the Monday before the convention and was badge number 234. I don't believe they sold an additional 36 tickets on top in 4 days especially when two main guests "pulled out" at that time, so I guess it was 250 at the absolute maximum.
The drop outs were David Morrissey and Bernard Cribbins - this didn't bother me as I'd met them both at previous signings but it did cause some consternation amongst posters on Gallifrey Base. Conspiracy theorists amongst us suspect they didn't pull out but were asked not to come to save money as the attendence figures were so poor. Those two were replaced by 5 other guests - Jacqueline King (Donna Noble's mum), Tracey Childs (Metalla in "The Fires Of Pompeii"), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Yvonne Hartman - Head of Torchwood 1 in "Army Of Ghosts"), David Ames and Victoria Alcock (both from "Planet Of the Dead"). I was pleased with this as I'd only met one of these before - Jacqueline King - and she was so fabulous that I didn't mind seeing her a second time !!
I went for a Silver Ticket this time as an experiment - this entitled me to a photo shoot with each guest for £47 more than standard. As I have loads of photos done anyway this suited me fine as each photo shoot is a tenner and it worked out pretty well.
As the attendence figures were so low, photo and autograph queues were practically non-existant, except right at the start of a session. But each autograph session lasted about 3 hours so I just breezed in about an hour or so into the session - nothing was done on badge number order as there was no need. The only autograph session that was a bit of let-down was Lis Sladen as hers was only 2 hours and she was very 'conveyor-belt' about the way she was signing - she also charged the most. Since Showmasters has got into bed with 10th Planet we've had what we used to get at conventions cut - from 2 free autographs to just one and extras were £5 each but are now £10. However, Lis Sladen's extra autographs were a whopping £15 !!! I'm OK as I use Francis' autograph sheet so I still get my 2 free autos :) They also use their own photographer instead of Robin and Colin who is usually not much cop although this years photos were better than last year - still just 7 x 5 rather than the 10 x 8 that R&C used to do for us. This year they also dispensed with Mike and Rob on AV so we had some bloke at a desk with a bit of kit but no clips, intro videos to the panels etc so the atmosphere was a bit flat. Mike was there as a paying attendee and obviously slagged the whole set up off at length !!
The main hall was way too big too - Gold ticket holders had the first front rows but that soon died a death as they were always empty and the guests on stage moaned about it, so by Sunday the reserved signs were thrown on the floor and the system abandoned :)
The rest of the guests were Janet Fielding, Sylvester McCoy - who had injured his leg so roared about the hall taking questions on a mobility scooter !, Phil Collinson, Keith Hodiak (Raston Warrior Robot !), Derek Martin (currently Charlie Slater in Eastenders who made some unfortunate comments about "Chinks" when talking about starring in The Chinese Detective), a couple of Dalek operators and old stalwarts like Anneke Wills, Debbie Watling and Lisa Bowerman.
All the panels were very good but the highlight was Victoria Alcock and David Ames "Planet Of the Dead" panel right at the end of Sunday - they were both absolutely hilarious, telling crazy stories about how awful their hotel was in Dubai (which was actually over the border in Oman !) - the only person who had vaguely hot water was Michelle Ryan to which David Ames said "She would have, wouldn't she ??!!", how "ladies of the night" were extras, how David Ames got bored saying "It's coming Doctor" off-screen so did it in the style of interpretive dance, taking Michelle Ryan to an 80s night in Cardiff and many more.
The "parties" on Friday and Saturday were disasters - lots of photos are on Facebook of a practically empty room with a smattering of half-hearted dancing and we had a so-called "cheap" bar where a vodka and coke was £6 (reduced from £7.50 !!). Francis and I had a row with the Costa Coffee stand as we were told £5 for 2 teas and then, once we were stirring them etc they said it was a mistake and we owed another £2 !!! Needless to say, it DIDN'T get paid !!
Overall, we had a fabulous time, mainly due to the lack of queues, the brilliant company of friends and some great guests eg the aforementioned Victoria and David, the brilliant and OTT Jacqueline King, the fabulous Tracey Childs, and Tracy-Ann Oberman who gave us a whole load of her advert voiceovers in the style as they were done on TV - sounds crap but was hilarious and she's well pissed that Alex Kingston has an action figure but she doesn't (she also shamlessly flirted with me in the autograph queue - well I think she did anyway !!).
The reason attendences were down is IMO, a combination of factors - notoriously bad experiences at the hotel last year put people off, over-saturation of events, recession and higher prices for less - be careful what you wish for, "Supernatural" fans, if you want Showmasters to run events as Who events they have their hands in have gone from by-the-fans-for-the-fans to strictly business affairs aimed at screwing every penny they can get out of you.
Next years's event is apparently moving to Daventry which will be, erm, interesting !!
For non-Facebook users/friends, photos are here :-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=131003&id=654288046&l=ee6eaa211b |
|
|
| Bloody Morrisons !! |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|07:19 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
Bloomin' Morrisons - the supermarket - are driving me round the twist.
First of all they sponsor a charity campaign my employers run thus (indirectly) keep me employed but it's what they did today that took the biscuit.
I pop in to my local store to buy ONE item, costing £2.10 and thanks to their dastardly so-called "special offers" of chart CDs for £7 each I end up buying THREE and spend over £20 !!
Absolute bastards !!!!! |
|
|
| RIP ..... |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|07:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | sad | ] |
..... Mollie Sugden :((
There's hardly anyone left from Grace Brothers now :( |
|
|
nostalgic