The Trip of Whom
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The Trip of Whom
Well, the Trip of Whom is now well and truly over - still much to my dismay and displeasure. I only wish that the whole thing had gone on for much, much longer, because I had such a fantastic time.
Every day seemed to be so long and drawn out - in a good way - because each day was so full … but looking back, it seemed like it took no time at all! When we arrived back in Manchester on Thursday, it felt like we’d left only that morning, and (as scripteens put it) the whole things had just been a really long day-trip with naps!
So now, in an attempt to re-live the awesomeness, I’m going to type up my ‘report’. I’m well aware that what I write here will be woefully inadequate to describe the fun we had, but I shall try. So, without further ado, I proudly present to you -
The Trip of Whom: a Day by Day Account
With Pictures
Day One: Saturday, 26th July 2008
We headed out to Manchester Piccadilly at the not-massively-early hour of 1pm, in order to meet up at 1:30pm. Well, ice-elf (hereon-in known as Dobby) and I did; scripteens (hereon-in known as Sarah) joined us at the much more sensible hour of 2:30pm. I say that was much more sensible, as our train only left at 3:15pm; Dobby and I had an hour-and-three-quarters wait, while Sarah only had three-quarters of an hour of sitting in the station - which, on that particular day, resembled nothing more than a gigantic greenhouse.
Still, we had a drink and a sit and a good long chat, and we all got a little giddy about what we were about to achieve …
And then, the hour came - it was ten-past-three, and we were boarding our train to London, St Pancras (International). Our seats were on this occasion grouped together, and so we sat in them quite happily and chattered away to our hearts’ content.
When we arrived in London at about 6:50pm, we had a bit of a rush on our hands - we had to take the tube from King’s Cross St Pancras over to Tottenham Court Road, and then somehow find our way to the Phoenix theatre (sans map) before Blood Brothers started at 7:30pm.
Admittedly, this wasn’t exactly difficult, once we managed to work out which way we were supposed to walk along Tottenham Court Road. Anyway, we made it in plenty of time to the Phoenix Theatre. It was time to pick up our tickets.
Now, we’d bought our Blood Brothers tickets from lastminute.com (a site I whole-heartedly recommend) for £25. Now, we’d bought tickets that were advertised as ‘best available seats’, so we were hoping for maybe the back of the stalls, Row F at best, and three single seats rather than three together.
We were seated in Row B. Together. Close to the centre isle.
I think they were possibly some of the best seats in the house. Certainly worth more than £25! And the view was amazing. The cast really out-did themselves, for me. I cried like a baby (again). This time, however, I didn’t fall apart at the actual shooting, which was what did it for me last time. This time, Mrs Johnstone placing her dead sons’ hands together just was too much; I was in floods. And I think the whole theatre gave them a much-deserved standing ovation.
I still can’t get over the brilliance of those seats. They were just amazing. Amazing!
Next on our itinerary was finding the hotel. We took the tube from Tottenham Court Road over to Earl’s Court and walked out to find this waiting for us:
In case you can’t make it out, this is it in the daylight:
What a spectacular welcome to the area! It made us all very fangirly, and we bounced around it for a while.
After taking photos, we sought out the Windsor House Hotel. It was a nice enough place, but we had to drag our cases up three flights of stairs at 11:30pm; I don’t think the other residents appreciated that, but alas, it was necessary.
Once we were ensconced in our cosy little room, we decided to leave it again and go in search of food. Please bear in mind that this was London, on a Saturday night.
There was nowhere - not one single place - open.
There were a couple of bars; that was it. We ended up going to McDonalds, because there was literally nothing else. So, we munched on McDonalds chicken nuggets and chips in our room, had a good grouch about the cruddiness of our capital city, and I think I may have read an extract from Twilight Streets, one of the series two Torchwood novels, before bed …
Day Two: Sunday, 27th July 2008
We were woken the next morning by the Torchwood theme - Dobby’s oh-so-brilliant phone alarm - at 7:30am, if I remember correctly. Something like that, anyway. Dobby and I got showered and dressed, and hurried down to catch breakfast. I think we arrived at 8:40am - five minutes before they stopped serving. XD
We sat with a very nice Chinese family who are now living in Glasgow, and had cornflakes and toast (not together). It was an all-right sort of breakfast; it set us up for the rather packed day we were about to enjoy!
We headed back upstairs at about quarter past nine to wake Sarah and plaster sun-cream on. Did I mention that London was sweltering. I wore my skirt and a very strappy top, and I was still almost dying from the heat. Sarah just kept wishing that it would rain.
We set off at about half-past ten for the Royal Albert Hall, to watch the Doctor Who Prom. We only got slightly lost (because the map I’d printed off was stupid), but we got there eventually. It’s pretty hard to miss, after all:
On the way in, we swore to go and take a look at the Prince Albert Memorial in Hyde Park after the performance, as none of us had a clue what it was.
Our tickets for the Doctor Who Prom turned out to be quite far back; we were on the back row of seats on the highest level (with seats) - but actually, I was glad we were there. It gave us a fantastic view of the main screen, where they were projecting the video of the orchestra and conductor, or any videos of Doctor Who clips they showed, and also an overview of the auditorium. Which was brilliant when the Ood and the Daleks and Davros and the Cybermen and the Sontarans came out into the audience!
I was so shocked when Davros appeared - it was the last thing I was expecting, and it was brilliant!
Davros: Has the Conductor been Conditioned?
Dalek: Yes, he will obey or be ex-ter-min-ated!
If you didn’t listen to the Doctor Who Prom, shame on you - it was amazing, and although I’m sure it was all the more fantastic and brilliant because it was live, the music alone should have encouraged you to listen.
Some of the pieces they played were: The Planets - Jupiter, the Doctor Who theme, Song for Ten, Donna’s Theme and The Ride of the Valkyries. There were many more, all of which were beautiful. The orchestra were amazing.
However, the highlight - for me, anyway - was the specially filmed sequence with the Doctor himself. I will never forget that moment - the Doctor, staring through a hole in time and space into the Royal Albert Hall, telling the audience that we’d have to shout and is that the Royal Albert Hall? and having everyone in that huge room shout, “YES!” back at him. And being one of the people shouting “YES!” - that was an amazing feeling.
It’s the closest I’m ever going to get to a conversation with the Doctor; I don’t care how stupid it looks or sounds; I loved every moment of that video.
It was really very cleverly done, too. When the Doctor threw his symphony through the hole, all these papers flew out of the TARDIS behind the orchestra, fluttering down in front of all the players, and they then picked them up to play them! It was amazing! And the Graske - when he went missing from the TARDIS - appeared on the stage! It was fantastic! Fan-bloody-tas-tic!
I was delighted that we got an encore. The whole audience was (once again) on their feet, and they played one of the pieces from earlier all over again for us, which was brilliant. It was a fantastic thing to be involved with and I just wish - as Freema said - that we could have started the whole event all over again at the end …
After the Prom, we did as we had promised and went to look at the Prince Albert memorial. It’s a fantastic thing to behold, and really quite sweet when you realise that the four statues at the four corners around Albert are symbols of the four major continents - Europe (the Cow and the Europeans), Asia (the Elephant and the Indians), Africa (the Camel and the Egyptians), and America (the Buffalo and the Native Americans) - and that this effectively means that Albert is at the centre of the world. Or at least, he was the centre of Victoria’s world.
It’s quite sweet, really. Photos below:
The Prince Albert Memorial itself.
Asia, symbolised by an elephant and some people in Indian-style clothes.
America, symbolised by some Native-Americans riding a crazy buffalo.
Next on our itinerary was the Tower of London. We caught the tube from South Kensington (quite a walk!) to Tower Hill, and took some photos of the outside of the Tower:
We then walked across the road to the small complex they had built outside the Tower, where there were food and souvenir shops. We had lunch in a place called Eat (and I wasn’t very impressed by their burning-my-mouth-off-with-Cajun-Spiced-Chicken Sandwich), and then went inside the Tower.
We kind-of missed the last Beefeater tour, but we were not to be deterred and with Sarah’s map we bravely set off to get around as much of the Tower as could be seen in a little over two hours.
The first section we went into was the Medieval Tower, which detailed the life of some of the very first inhabitants of the Tower. It was really interesting - they had even restored the King’s Chamber (or at least, what they thought was his Chamber) to look as it would have done. Pictures below:
I think it looks pretty nice, although the wall-paint was a bit … decorative and overpowering for me personally. Still, it was nice; I quite liked it. We also went into what I think was the Throne Room - there was a Throne in it, in any case. See:
And, just to the right of the door we came in through, there was this little … I’m not sure what it was; I think it was some kind of chapel. The stained glass windows were pretty:
The chapel-area itself.
The gorgeous stained-glass windows, in all their glory.
This was also, apparently, the place where Henry VI died:
There were brilliant views of Tower Bridge from the wall-top:
We were just coming to the end of the Medieval Palace, moving through some displays of Medieval things they had found in the palace, when this guy …
… who we had passed earlier, began to run around outside screaming, “THE CASTLE IS UNDER ATTACK!”
Now, at first, we sort of weren’t that interested. Well, I was, but … not interested enough to follow the crazy shouting Medieval bloke. However, when he hared past us in the (very quiet, library-like) display area, still screaming that the castle was under attack - what were we supposed to do?
We followed him. How could we not?
We arrived on the wall-top just in time to witness the King’s Men parlaying with the Usurping Dogs outside the castle’s (inner) walls. They were a mutinous, rag-tag lot:
It was quite a fantastic show, actually - the Chief Usurping Dog was excommunicated by the castle’s representative of the Pope (some kind of Archbishop?), which was quite exciting. Yay, he used Latin to do it! Not that I could understand a word, but it sounded impressive and pretty. Then the Chief Usurping Dog announced to his fellow Usurping Dogs that he had, in fact, been excommunicated before and look what good it did them, God didn’t strike him down!
By this time, the Archbishop was on his way to the steps, and he was so fantastically polite and dignified as he sort of sailed between the crowds of people clamouring at the wall-top. That guy was brilliant. *easily impressed*
Anyway, we moved along a bit, and they tried climbing up the walls outside:
To combat this, the people on the inside decided to a) chuck a big bucket of sewage at them, b) chuck boiling water down on them, and c) throw rocks at them. That was quite amusing. :P
We left the Medieval people to battle it out over the castle walls, and moved on to look at the Diamond collection. It was really interesting, actually. There were replicas of the largest diamonds ever found, which were bloody impressive, and the shapes they were cut into.
Personally, I think it’s a crying shame to cut them into teeny-weeny pieces, like they did, but hey - I’m not a diamond expert. Maybe they don’t like having big sparkly diamonds as big as your fist …
We also saw a section on crowns throughout the ages. Sarah, Dobby and I all agreed that the best crowns were the early ones - before they began sticking diamonds to every inch of them.
Personally, I think I’d have a modified version of the traditional Dutch (?) crown, which as twice the usual number of arches. If you picture the Queen’s crown, it has two arches that cross over the crown of the head (over the strange velvet bit that appears to have no function other than to Be Expensive). The Dutch (?) crown has four arches instead, and it looks quite nice. Ornate enough to not need a bazillion jewels (or a weird piece of velvet that has no function!) whilst also being classy.
We went to see the Crown Jewels, while we were there; Sarah wasn’t impressed. I was impressed, because I like sparkly things, but I can see her point. So many jewels in such close proximity does look rather tacky and fake. The thing I find particularly stupid is that most of the jewels on the Crown … don’t actually belong to the Queen. They’re rented. How dumb is that? I mean, our economy is dying here, and the Queen is renting diamonds for a crown she wears once in a blue moon!
If I were royalty, I’d stop renting jewels, sell most of the jewels that I actually owned, and give the money back to England! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Royalist, but seriously - that is dumb.
After the Crown Jewels, we went around to see the Bloody Tower. It wasn’t as gruesome as I thought it was going to be, but some of the torture devices were pretty gruesome …
Unfortunately, I have no pictures; I thought Dobby was taking enough for everyone. :P
We also went to this room, where they had laid out the story of the Princes in the Tower, and at the end - after you had examined all the evidence - you could cast your vote. Were they murdered by Richard III, murdered by Henry VII - or did they just … disappear? (I think they were murdered by Richard III, personally; it just seems the most likely, since Henry’s first opportunity would have been in 1485, and they weren’t seen after summer 1483 … and as for disappearing - well. They found remains under the White Tower in the 1600s, which they assume are the bodies of the Princes, so … that’s my thinking.)
We also saw the Ravens. I love ravens. They mate for life, and can learn to talk, you know! I think that’s cool. Plus there’s Nevermore from the Discworld series. (You know, the raven that hangs around with the Death of Rats - I think Nevermore is his unofficial name. I’d check, but I can’t be bothered looking him up in the Revised Discworld Companion.) On top of that, I read a pair of books recently, and ravens and crows came out of them really well, and I’ve loved them ever since. (The books were Trickster’s Choice andTrickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce, in case you were wondering.) The ravens were very cute. Here, have a picture:
We also saw a couple of Grenadier Guards, who I thought were wax figurines because they were standing so still. Then they started marching up and down - and I must admit, they did look a bit like total prats. However, I cannot disrespect them, as my Nan’s Uncle (I think) was a Grenadier Guard during the war, and he was killed, so - I must have respect.
Even if they did look ridiculous doing all that still marching and stamping in their big furry hats. XP
It was bout half-past five at this point, and turfing-out time. We went and had a quick drink of water outside, to combat any impending sun-stroke or dehydration, then headed for the Shop.
We bought a bottle of ink each (Dobby got red, Sarah got green - no surprises there! - and I got blue.) Dobby and I also bought a couple of quill pens - mine is blue, hers is black. I can’t wait to try writing with mine! (And I still can’t believe that I managed to get the ink home without it leaking everywhere!)
I also bought - on the insistence of Sarah, who was possessed by mostly-Crowley-but-also-Aziraphale-a-little-bit at the time - a small, ceramic Owl sitting on a book, with a little book under his wing, taking a look at a couple of bigger books. He is absolutely adorable, and I’m actually very glad that I bought him.
Continuing our fangirly, Good Omens theme, on the way back towards the hotel we stopped off in St James Park. We walked all the way around the lake, speculating on where Crowley and Aziraphale would feed the ducks from.
Some of the St James’ Park ducks, underneath a rather pretty tree.
A rather moody picture of Buckingham Palace, as viewed from the bridge in St James’ Park …
… and some impressive-looking building that you see when you turn your back on Buckingham Palace on the bridge. (I think it looks more impressive than the Palace, actually.)
We came to the conclusion, eventually, that they would feed them wherever was convenient - but I got the most fantastic picture of them leaning back side-by-side against this little sign (at the far end of the lake to Buckingham Palace) that described the sorts of birds that were on the lake. And now I just can’t dismiss it; it’s in there to stay. I quite like it being there, though. I even took a picture of the spot, to remember it by:
We started to head back because it started to rain, but not before we had all started being rather silly on the grass. I’m not sure exactly what set us off, but I do remember being really rather giggly, rolling around with Dobby (notinthatway!) and being laughed at by Sarah, who was taking photos. Here’s a couple of photos from before we became too silly.
Obligatory photograph of me!
And a photo of Dobby, looking not-very-impressed with the photographer. (I rather like these two, actually.)
Somewhere along the way, Dobby lost an earring; we couldn’t find it before the rain started, so we hurried back to the St James Park tube station as fast as possible and headed back to Earl’s Court.
The food venues were much more reasonable this evening. Nando’s was open, for a start, so we headed in there and got a table. While Sarah was up ordering all our food, Dobby and I started writing this fic, on the back of a couple of receipts.
This fic rapidly became Epic. We called it The Receipts Round Robin, and the award for Best Line Ever goes to Sarah. I’m saying nothing except: “Put some pressure on it, alright?”
*giggles* It’s not funny out of context, but oh, how we laughed. That one line kept us going all week. When we finished writing The Receipts Round Robin, Sarah and Dobby insisted I read it out loud as a kind of weird bedtime story - complete with (dodgy) American accent!
It really was quite a lot of fun. :P I’m going to put a link here as soon as it’s been posted.
Day Three: Monday, 28th July 2008
Our train for Cardiff only left London Paddington at 1.15pm, so we had an entire morning to kill; we decided to go to Hamleys.
Now, I’d never heard of Hamleys before Sarah, Dobby and I came together to plan this trip. It was Dobby who suggested that we go there, and I’m so, so glad that she did! I’m such a big kid at heart, it was like giving me a free reign to run around looking at toys, and not be the only big kid doing it.
We arrived at Hamleys to find pirates with bubble-blowing guns on the doors. We successfully navigated past them with maximum staring and giggling, and minimum being noticed. We then started our tour of the toyshop (as seemed sensible) on the ground floor.
The ground floor was dedicated to soft toys.
I was in my element! I love stuffed cuddly thing with cute little eyes and lovely little stuffed faces! They had bears and giraffes and dogs and monkeys and elephants (including one that was just about as tall as me!) and kangaroos (which were as tall as Dobby and had joeys in their pouches that you could take out) and wolves and all sorts!
I did love the wolves, but they cost rather too much (I’m remembering something around £40, although they may have been more expensive; I think they were Steiff after all …). However, just before we left the ground floor, we spotted the dragons.
They had this stand full of cute little red Welsh dragons, with the Welsh flag stuck on their bum, and the most adorably put-upon expressions you have ever seen! They had red wings with gold glitter and little beany feet and chubby little bellies and they were adorable. Needless to say, we had to force ourselves to leave them behind as we journeyed upwards …
… via the stairs, through Narnia! Yes, the stairs in Hamleys were Narnia-themed. On the landing between the ground and first floors, they had this little scene set up with Mr Tumnus and Lucy! It was fantastic! I was just sad that we had our cases with us, and so going up flights of stairs was sort of not an option, really, so the rest of our trips up- and downstairs were in the lift. :( Still, at least we got to walk past Mr Tumnus!
The first floor was full of outdoor toys and - for some reason grouped with ‘outdoor toys’ - plastic toy animals. The plastic toy animals they have now are brilliant; I was sorely temped to buy a handful of the cutest ones … but then, I thought of all the children I was potentially depriving, and thought, “No. I shall leave them, to be enjoyed by the next generation …”
Anyway, we kept on moving upwards. We skipped the floor for toddler and baby toys, and went straight up to Girls’ Toys - a truly scary place!
Stepping out onto the Girls’ Toys floor was like entering Barbie World. Everything in sight was pink - literally! Even the floor and walls! It was quite … intimidating. However, I will say this for it - they had a very good section on dolls’ houses and stuff for dolls’ houses. One day, when I’ve got money to spare, I’m going to have a room (hopefully an attic!) and in it I’m going to set up all my Sylvanian Families (and buy more, so I can have a proper, big collection), and also my Dolls’ House, which I’m going to fill with wired-up lamps and little tea-sets and sandwiches and curtains and everything - and, to top it off, I’m going to have a model railway-track suspended around the ceiling, with a train going around. :D
Yes, I have lame dreams. Please don’t mock them too much; I actually do want to do this one day! (And I would seriously play with the Sylvanian Families …!)
I’m happy to report that they had a nice, big section full of Sylvanian Families stuff, still. I love the Sylvanian Families - what’s not to love? They’re anthropomorphic animals! They’re cute and fuzzy! I love some of the new families they’ve brought out - the Dalmatians, for example, and the Penguins. My favourite new set, however, has got to be the pianist and singer, who come with an old-fashioned mic stand and a grand piano! I want it! I really, really do! *flails*
I am, however, deeply grieved to report that the Puppy In My Pockets and the Littlest Pet Shop have gone way, way, way downhill since I was a kid. I used to love both, although if I had to pick one over the other, I’d say Puppy In My Pocket (as they were realistic). Now? Not so much. Everything is so caricatured and anime-ified that they don’t even resemble pets anymore. Plus - why is there a monkey in the Littlest Pet Shop?! You’re not even allowed to keep monkeys as pets, as far as I know! (Also, there was a Littlest Pet Shop creature in the ‘Punk’ collection *headDESK* that I honestly couldn’t work out. What the hell was it? I have NO IDEA! *scared* Also, ‘Punk’ pets? Seriously, WTF? *despairs*)
Anyway, we moved on (quite swiftly) to the next floor: Boys’ Toys. The only part of that floor I can remember was the Collectors’ Stuff Section.
They had replicas of the Evenstar from Lord of the Rings, not to mention various figurines. They had wands from Harry Potter, including Dumbledore’s Elder Wand, Harry’s wand, a complete set of Weasley wands, Draco’s want, Bellatrix’s wand and Hermione’s wand. (Yes, I wanted one! No, I didn’t get one.)
They also had a life-size Firebolt and Nimbus 2000! Now that, I was temped to buy! However, they didn’t have a price-tag and I was too scared to ask; I didn’t really want to know how much, in case I somehow convinced myself that a) I could afford that and b) I could get it to Cardiff and then back to Manchester in one piece, if I wanted to.
On top of all that, they had miniature figurines of the four dragons from the Triwizard Tournament (including the two not seen in the film, boo!) and a little snitch figurine and … well, lots and lots of other stuff that I could easily have spent all my money on.
I was (thankfully) dragged away by Dobby to join Sarah upstairs, which was … well, lots of things. They had a Doctor Who Toys section (sans Sonic Screwdriver - this will become significant later), a Robin Hood Toys section, a Narnia Toys section, and a café where we had brunch - a croissant and tea for me, lemonade and fruit salad for Sarah, and pancakes for Dobby.
Anyway, we had a good old squee over the Doctor Who toys and got nicely excitable over our impending arrival in Cardiff! I saw some toys that I really want (I really am a kid at heart!), including the interior of the TARDIS and the Face of Boe action figure (with moveable lips!)
Then we decided that we should quickly check out the basement, in which was all the electronic and computer-game-y stuff. We climbed into the lift with a couple of other people … and just before the doors closed a pirate (carrying a bottle of sparkling water and a glass tankard) dived in with us. He was … really cool, actually. Dobby and I couldn’t stop giggling. (Meeting pirates does this to us!)
Then he noticed the little key on a chain around Sarah’s neck. And he had to ask: “Is that the key to my chest?”
Dobby and I were in hysterics. It’s not even that funny; it just seemed hilarious at the time! Anyway, we stopped off at another floor before he could wrestle the key from around Sarah’s neck, and there were people waiting. The pirate - in a very gentlemanly gesture - dived out of the lift, claiming that he’d take the stairs and “bother people” on the way down. *snerk*
We reached the basement without further incident, and had a wander around. Nothing really caught our interest - apart from the life-size Indiana Jones made of lego!
It even looks like Harrisson Ford!
While we were taking photos, this manager-looking guy bounced over to the man minding a stack of Star Wars lego, and basically had a fangasm over the new Star Wars lego set, complete with hugging the box and going, “Yes! It’s finally here!” If even the management of Hamleys can get away with that sort of crazed behaviour - and we know the floor staff get to play with the toys, act like fanboys/fangirls and dress as pirates already - I want to work there. Seriously.
Then we came to the ‘reduced’ section. I found Dobby and Sarah taking a look at the semi-precious rocks for sale (none of which took my fancy) and the gemstone-growing kits (which, according to Sarah, don’t work). There, we also spotted a Sonic Screwdriver (one of the UV-light ones, that come with the Psychic Paper) for £12.99.
Now, I’d promised myself that I wasn’t coming away from the Doctor Who Exhibition without a Sonic Screwdriver this time, as I didn’t get one when it came to Manchester, and I really, really wanted one, dammit! Sarah asked if I was going to buy it; I declined, saying that I wanted to buy one from the Exhibition, and it would probably be cheaper there, anyway. (Please remember this part; it’ll be important later.)
We moved on, back to the ground floor. And we almost got to the exit, too. Then we spotted the dragons again, and Dobby just had to remember my Ianto-turns-into-a-dragon-fic, and point out that Ianto would look like that if he were a dragon. She grabbed one, and got in the queue.
I dithered. Then Sarah (who, if you remember, convinced me to buy the Owl) made the dragon look at me with its pleading little gold eyes, and made me dither even more. And made it look all sad when I said, “I don’t even need another cuddly toy!” What was I supposed to do?!
Of course I bought him. He’s called Ianto (as is Dobby’s, although hers is Naughty Ianto and mine is Nice Ianto; Sarah even write Nice Ianto on his label). Look how cute it is when they hug!!
We left Hamelys, two of our number now carrying bags full of dragon. The Pirate from the lift was outside; was we walked past - much to everyone’s amusement, and much to the pirates’ surprise - Dobby decided to yell, “YARR!”
It was a beautiful moment. XP
As we were walking back to the tube station, we walked past a couple of shops which, we decided, Ianto definitely shopped in when he worked for Torchwood One. Oh, yes. (I think we scared the guys inside; three young women staring into a men’s clothes shop that sells only suits, loudly discussing whether Ianto would wear That Tie … They looked worried. XD)
We managed to get to Paddington just in time, and we hopped onto our train and sat in our seats pretty much without incident. Sarah fell asleep (I think; it’s all a bit of a blur!), and Dobby and I played Torchwood-and-Doctor-Who-episode-names Hangman. Which rapidly degenerated into Hangman based on stuff that is extremely tenuously linked to Torchwood (like Shark Attack Three, and Stopwatch, and various other things).
We then degenerated further, into Pictionary - and Dobby managed to win the prize for Most Amusing Pictionary Picture Ever with ‘Jack/Ianto’ - she drew a stick figure bent over a desk (Ianto), then drew another stick-figure (Jack) behind him - then drew a stick-cock that came out of Jack’s chest and totally impaled Ianto. We were very, very amused. Needless to say, it was a ‘you had to be there’ moment.
Anyway, we arrived - very giggly - in Cardiff … on the same platform that Mickey Smith arrived on in Boom Town! We walked around to the Travellodge and booked in with surprising ease, then decided - since it was only about four o’clock - to walk down to Roald Dahl Plass and have a go at finding the Tourist Information Centre that hides Torchwood from the world.
We ended up walking alongside a stretch of water (not the river), which was roughly rectangular and had a road down one long edge and blocks of flats around the other three. There was also a restaurant (I think) called The Wharf, which had a boat outside it. Opposite The Wharf (ish) there’s an old, disused crane. If anyone at all has any idea what this place it called, please let me know! (I’m using it in a fic, you see; more details below.)
It was quite amazing, walking past that crane. We all seemed to have the same thought: Jack could climb up that. And Ianto could be dangling from the hook!
Sarah insisted that Dobby and I write fic, based on that prompt. We managed to plot out (probably-multichapter) fics that resemble one another but are in almost every other way different. Hopefully. When we post them, we’re going to have to point out that it was a challenge and we’re not plagiarising …
I’ll say no more now, but I will tell you that Dobby’s fic is also partically inspired by the fact that there was a sign a little further down the path alongside the water, which warned you about the Toxic Algae in the water. Yeuch.
Anyway, we arrived at Roald Dahl Plass and had a look around. It’s … smaller, in real life - as is the Water Tower. I think it’s impressiveness was diminished by the giant stick-on strawberries plastered to it, and the lack of water (which I bet is pissing Ianto off so much) … but it was still cool to touch the thing and know that Torchwood had been filmed right where I was standing.
We had a wander, and managed to find Ianto’s Tourist Info - *massive squee!* - and took photos outside it. It was also really cool, because there was newspaper over the windows … and one of the pieces of newspaper was the front-page article about Margaret the Slitheen (also from Boom Town)! *flail* YAY Doctor Who reference! YAY, acknowledgement that this is Torchwood here! *flails in glee*
The Tourist Information Centre entrance …
… and the newspaper featuring Margaret the Slitheen!
By this time, we were sort of hungry, so we went to Strada - a very nice Italian restaurant, which does a lovely, lovely Caesar Salad. It also had a slightly pretty waiter. :P We ogled him, and spent most of the meal trying to work out if we were being pervy or if he was over eighteen. (He was serving alcohol; he was over eighteen - still slightly wrong in my head, but not quite so wrong as it could have been.)
After our lovely meal, we walked around to the Norwegian Church and across to this random but quite pretty area with some interesting seating. I got a good picture of two of the benches:
We spent quite a while there, and Sarah prompted me to write a fic crossing over Hitchikers’ with Torchwood via the Babelfish. She wrote out the entire Babelfish argument (from memory! *impressed*) while Dobby and I careened about like drunken sailors, singing and being generally silly. :D
Eventually, when it got rather dark, we headed back over to the Plass to take some nighttime-photos. With the advantage of darkness, the Water Tower looked a lot more impressive - plus, you couldn’t make out the strawberries! However, just as we reached the Plass, it started to rain. I put my brolly up,and was called a wuss by Sarah.
I put my brolly down again, and decided I’d brave it. If Torchwood manages without an umbrella - well I was going to as well, while I was on the Plass! (I think people thought we were crazy, dancing around in the rain without an umbrella - despite the fact that we were carrying one!) Here, have a few Roald Dahl Plass photographs:
Doald Dahl Plass in the semi-daylight (which I took when we’d just arrived) …
… and the Millennium Centre by night! I love this photo, I really do. :D
We walked back to the hotel at a leisurely pace, despite the rain, and by the time we got back we were soaked. Still - I’ve been rained on in Cardiff, just like the Torchwood team. It was worth it. :P
We wrote a little more fic (in our pyjamas), and then scurried off to bed.
Day Four: Tuesday 29th July 2008
We got up the next morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Well. Actually, we sort of crawled out of bed at the last possibly minute, bleary-eyed and still half-asleep, and dived in the shower. Which was powerful!
Since it was a nice day, we decided that we ought to walk up to Cardiff Castle and have a look - but first, we had to find Ramon’s, the café in which they filmed scenes from Random Shoes.
We actually found it with minimum fuss, although we did stop off at Forbidden Planet on the way. Alongside some very cool figurines, Dobby managed to find an audiobook of one of H.P.Lovecraft’s novels - read (at least in part) by Gareth David-Lloyd. And it was signed.
Now, I’m not a fan of Lovecraft - I know about Cthulhu, and I know it’s fantasy-horror-type-thing, and that’s about all I want to know. Dobby, however, saw the autograph and spent the next ten minutes next to the display case, dithering over whether to get it or not. In the end, she didn’t take much convincing.
Me: Do you want [the CD]?
Dobby: *squeaks* Yes!
Me: If you want it, just get it.
Dobby: OK! *turns to the guy behind the counter* Can I get one of these CDs, please? The signed ones?
£15 is a bargain for a signed audiobook, in my opinion - considering that the CDs alone would have cost about a tenner anyway. Dobby was very, very happy. (And has promised that both Sarah and I can listen to the CDs, too. And yes, I’m going to - it’s GDL! Even horror and cults and freaky demon-Gods can’t put me off! Well, not so much that I won’t try to listen to it …)
We pressed on to Ramon’s. It was pretty much just a nice little greasy-spoon café, selling lots of fried things. I had scrambled eggs on toast with chips (as did Sarah; she shared my chips), and Dobby had sausage, chips and beans. It was actually rather good!
Now that we had filled our tummies with grub, we went into the castle. With our tickets, we got an audioguide each and a tour - pretty cool! Normally, you have to pay extra. Not at Cardiff Castle, though. First, however, we had to watch this weird video of the history of the castle.
There was this girl, lying in the park, sketching the castle. Then, when she looked up, she spotted this woman in medieval clothing walking away, so she followed her (as you do?). Then she was for some reason attacked and ran away, and met this boy who was attacked by random Romans; she hit his attacked with her book, and they ran away together. After being set upon by various armies from out of history (all without explanation, just with random dates that meant nothing every so often), they ended up on a bus, where this Victorian (?) boy stole the book the girl had been drawing in and threatened to chuck it in the sea. But it was OK; his dad gave him a ticking off and he gave it back. Eventually, the girl ‘woke up’ to find the book empty and this random boy lying beside her in the park. They got up and walked off, hand-in-hand. And there was still no explanation!
In essence, I get it - but it could have been done better. With a little more explanation, maybe. And not such a random meeting with a random boy. (Plus, a Roman legionary would not be knocked out by a girl with a book - I’m sorry, but that’s just silly.)
Anyway, we then went on our tour of the interior of the castle, which was beautiful and incredibly detailed! The architect that designed the rooms had a thing for animals, particularly parrots, so we all tried to spot the parrots in each room. They were gorgeous. One of my favourite rooms had a mosaic of two lions above the fireplace - one golden, and one blue (as the lions on the family crest were blue). It was gorgeous.
I also particularly like the library. They had the shields of real Kings of England and Princes of Wales at one end of the room around the ceiling, and ‘fictional’ Kings (such as Uther Pendragon and Arthur) at the other end. :D And, above each set of bookshelves, there was a little painted angel with a scroll, on which was painted the name of the author whose works could be found below! The best thing, however, was the heating - which was set into the tables in the room! Fantastic bit of thinking, that. :D
After the (very interesting) tour, we went up into the medieval keep (which, incidentally, is where they filmed a bit of Torchwood). There were quite a lot of stairs, but the views were definitely worth it. I mean, look:
View with bonus seagull.
The Cardiff skyline.
You can see the Millennium Centre on that one. It was described, in the audio-tour, as ‘spider-like’; I can see where that description came from …
Also, have some photographs of the castle itself:
That’s the grand, lived-in, renovated part of the castle.
This is outside of the Medieval Keep …
… and the inside of the Medieval Keep!
Whoever carried all the cameras and lights and sound equipment and god-knows-what-else up the 100+ stairs in that Medieval Keep so that they could film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang up there - I have a huge amount of respect for them.
We went back to the hotel room when it came to chucking-out time at the Castle, and once we were back at the hotel, we decided that we couldn’t be bothered walking anywhere else to eat. There was a restaurant/bar called the Bar Café in the Travelodge, so we went and ate there.
After we’d eaten, we sat and chatted and stared out of the window. It being a Tuesday, we had the place to ourselves. The TV was playing music videos, so we enthusiastically took the Mick out of those. I think our loud giggling scared the guy behind the bar.
Then we retired to our room, Dobby and I did some more writing, and then we retired to bed.
Day Five: Wednesday, 30th July 2008
Doctor Who Exhibition today!
We rolled out of bed a bit late but rather over-excited, and got out as soon as possible. We walked down to the Red Dragon Centre, and when we got there we passed the sign for the Exhibition (which we saw on the first night, but which I’ve been saving for you):
Yes, it’s a Dalek. Is that not the most brilliant thing ever?! *glee*
Anyway. We were getting peckish at this point, so we had lunch in this bar-type-place just inside the Red Dragon Centre, whose name I cannot for the life of me recall. It was yummy, anyway. Then we headed for the Exhibition. I’m not going to show you everything - there would be way too many pictures if I tried - but I’ll show you the best bits.
To properly show you the amazingness, I’m going to do this next section by describing pictures:
The Exhibition started with some blurb about previous Doctors and their exploits. When you pressed a button on each display, it revealed a monster from each ear - like this vintage Cyberman!
TRIN-E! The Anne-Droid was behind her, but I got a grand total of zero good pictures of her; they’re all blurry. :(
The Doctor’s suit! *squee* I’ve touched his trouser-leg. *naughty*
“Do I look like an ‘out of bounds’ kind of guy?” just sums him right up. :P I love that display. (Dobby has about seven photos of The Greatcoat, plus photos of her with The Greatcoat. She freely admitted that she has a coat-fetish … :S)
Dalek Sec, in both humanoid and Dalek forms, plus a pig-slave. I do quite like that photo - I think it came out rather well.
Terracotta Daleks! Are they not precious?! *loves them* I want one for my garden! *glee* They were set down near Dalek Sec, and they were adorable.
A Dalek, in front of a mock-up of the Room in Torchwood One in Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. You can also see the Alternate Universe Torchwood One uniform, and the lever that Rose clung to and then let go of.
A spacesuit, with a skeleton in it, from Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead. Presumably not full of Vashta Nerada. *shudder8 We did spend a few minutes going, “Sarah/Dobby/Alice … you have two shadows …” … and then realising that, because of the lighting, we did, and then being freaked out and screaming at one another not to let our shadows cross. Heh, that was fun. *giggles*
A Cyberman, and Rose’s maid costume from Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel. The section on Cybermen was really quite cool - there was a lot of information about them, facts and so on. (Such as the fact that the rods on their head connect directly to their brains. Which makes that scene in Cyberwoman, where Ianto pulls the rods off Lisa’s head, even more gross than it already was due to the excess of blood and ick.)
This is one of my favourite photos. I know it’s not much to look at, but - this is a display about Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways. That gun - the one that’s just to the left of the middle - is the one Jack pulled on TRIN-E and ZU-ZANA. Yes. That gun. How the hell he managed to conceal it, I don’t know, because it’s just … an awkward shape, and just a bit bigger than a fist. OK, so maybe 51st Century men are flexible, but … come on! O.O
Seeing the gun in the flesh made me and Dobby giggle. :P No surprise there, then.
An angry-looking Sontaran. The costumes aren’t really as impressive up-close and not filled, but the masks really, really are.
One of the robotic angels aboard the Titanic and, in the background, Kylie’s costume, from Voyage of the Damned. I loved the design of those angels - they look so … angular yet beautiful; I think they have kind faces. (Doesn’t mean I didn’t get scared when they started killing people.) And, you know, now I come to look at them closely, they have a look of Crowley and Aziraphale’s love-children about them, to me …
A Hath, right by the exit. I liked the Hath, they were a cool ‘monster’ - considering that they were half-fish, half-chicken and humanoid …
*dances around the place* It was so cool!
We moved on to the shop. Now, I spent at least half an hour wandering around, looking at everything, and they had no Sonic Screwdrivers at all. None. None whatsoever.
I was disgusted. They had Dalek salt and pepper pots; they had diecast Cybermen and TARDISes; they had Doctor Who paper plates; they had packs of cards; they had figurines; they had t-shirts; they even had socks - but no Sonic Screwdrivers. (Except for the one in the bath-set that dispenses bath-fizzers or something.)
Heartbroken, I made do with a Dalek UNO set and the promise that we could find a Woolworths tomorrow and buy a Sonic Screwdriver there. We left the shop and walked back into Roald Dahl Plass to have another look around. We had a wander around the Millennium Centre, where they filmed part of New Earth, and a good look in the shop. Then, while we were looking at the Torchwood Tourist Info again, we saw that they were doing boat trips out to the Barrage. On a whim, we decided to have one! We climbed aboard a rather posh vessel and set out across Cardiff Bay.
The view back towards Mermaid Quay from the boat.
The Norwegian Church from the water.
Once back on dry land, we took some more pictures of the Plass - including some of us standing on the Perception Filter’d Lift Stone. :D
Yes, I know it’s a bad photo - I was fixing my hair. >.>;; Still, I kinda like it. It suggests that we didn’t know that people were looking at us/taking our photo - as if the Perception Filter really was working. :P
The Water Tower looks way more impressive when you’re standing really close up to it. :) It probably looks even more impressive when it actually has water cascading down it, and doesn’t have giant strawberry stickers on it …
We had decided earlier that we were going to go and at least have a drink in Tiger Tiger, since that was where they filmed the bar scenes in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, so on our way back into town we passed the Red Dragon Centre.
Since we’d paid for our day-tickets to see the Exhibition, we went ‘round again. :P This time was better; we could be more fangirly, as there was hardly anyone there. A very nice lady offered to take a picture of all three of us, but Sarah refused to be photographed at all, so … nevermind. *sigh*
The Doctor’s suit again. It was only when we went through the Exhibition the second time, when I looked closely at it, that I realised …
It’s got RED PINSTRIPES! *goes into fangirl overload* I love pinstriped suits, especially slightly different ones, so red-on-blue just makes me … explode with glee. :D Like I said; I’ve touched the trouser-leg. *still naughty*
A Stone Angel - caught looking extremely scary in the red light! *afraid* I must admit that Sarah was right, though; it would’ve been much, much scarier if it had had it’s hands over its eyes …
Slightly freaky photo of the clockwork droids from The Girl in the Fireplace. I loved those clockwork droids - they were just the right level of gorgeous, and just the right level of scary. (Like the werewolf, really.)
And finally:
The TARDIS - and the Doctor’s borrowed pyjamas. (Who changed his clothes in The Christmas Invasion, anyway? *hands on hips*)
We left the Exhibition, this time not stopping to look in the shop, and walked back to the hotel. We dropped our purchases off in the room, then moved on to Tiger Tiger. We quickly ascertained that it was quite expensive, but we went in and bought drinks anyway. We sat there for a while, supping our drinks, and had a chat. Then we doubled back towards the hotel to find a place to eat.
We ended up in this lovely, quirky little tapas place called 10 Feet Tall. It was really quite sweet - instead of wallpaper, they had nailed doors (and what looked like a section of flooring!) to the walls. The lights were all higgledy-piggeldy, and none of the lampshades matched. Come to think of it, none of the tables or chairs matched, either! It was great!
The food was brilliant, too, even if it took a little while to arrive. However, it was the Virgin Cocktails that really made the evening.
They had a two-for-one offer, if you bought two of the same cocktail. Sarah was going to get an Angel Delight; I was going to get a Pleasant Banter on the Beach (non-alcoholic Sex on the Beach). I wasn’t really that certain if I’d enjoy it, but hey - I wanted a cocktail, dammit! But when they mentioned the two-for-one thing, I jumped in and said I’d have an angel delight too - after all, I wasn’t that bothered about the other one.
It turned out to be the right choice. The Angel Delight was like an incredibly creamy, incredibly flavoursome strawberry milkshake. I’m tempted to return to Cardiff simply to have another one!
We topped off the evening with some sort of alcoholic-pear desert. Being a complete lightweight, I managed half before getting giggly. (I may as well admit this; Dobby and Sarah will admit it for me, if I don’t.)
We returned to the hotel in rather embarrassing fashion, as it looked for most of the way like I was being escorted home drunk. Sarah and Dobby were, in fact, attempting to convince me to write fic for them. (Once back at the hotel, I managed to come out with, “Honestly, (Dragon!)Ianto - if you want to be in my mouth, at least turn into a human first!” when Dobby accidentally shoved Naughty Ianto in my face. Um. Yes. *has no idea where that came from*)
We didn’t get a particularly early night. I managed to offend Sarah by refusing to write her fic, then being too enthusiastic when I said I would love to write her fic. (Still not sure how that works.) Anyway, I wrote little!Ianto-fic (which will be posted soon) in an attempt to placate her, but she fell asleep before I finished it. :(
Day Six: Thursday, 31st July 2008
The Last Day. :(
We lingered in the room for as long as possible, showing, dressing, packing, drinking tea, and generally not wanting to leave. Then I realised that I’d left my scarf at 10 Feet Tall. *sobs*
It was raining when we left. Blegh. However, we braved the weather and headed back to 10 Feet Tall. They had a look in the lost-property box, and couldn’t find it. So, I have lost my newest scarf, which was quirky and a present from my mum. *unhappy*
Not a great start to the last day. We then went into the centre of Cardiff to do some shopping. We ended up walking around three different shopping centres (including the St David’s Shopping Centre, which is where they filmed … something in Doctor Who. I think.), and could not find a Sonic Screwdriver anywhere.
Finally, in a last-ditch attempt to find one, we went to Forbidden Planet, where Dobby had bought her H.P.Lovecraft-read-by-GDL CD. And finally - success! They had a Sonic Screwdriver with UV light and ink and wipe-clean Psychic Paper!
I bought it. Immediately. (For one whole pound less than the Hamley’s price!)
I could not wipe the smile off my face. We went to Starbucks and sat around for a while, chatting and drinking tea (Dobby), coffee (Sarah) and frappucino (me) until the time came for us to head off to the railway station.
We got onto the train without mishap, and Dobby and I spent most of the journey back writing furiously. (Well, the parts of the journey where we weren’t reading each other’s fic or passing our notepads to Sarah for her to read the works in progress. :P)
We rolled into Manchester Piccadilly at about half-past eight. Sadly, it felt like we’d never been away. As Sarah said, it felt like a day-trip with naps. It felt like we’d only left home that very morning.
I’m still sad that the Trip is over, but as Sarah put it (shamelessly paraphrasing the ninth Doctor):
The Trip was fantastic. And you know what? So were we!
I had a brilliant time with people I love - it was a funny, exciting, exhilarating, inspirational, utterly fantastic Trip, and we have got to do it again, as soon as possible.
I'm typing up all the fics I managed to scribble down while I was away as we speak, so look out for a lot of Jack/Ianto popping up around these parts in the near future (when I get back from the Lakes on Saturday) ...
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The Trip of Whom
Well, the Trip of Whom is now well and truly over - still much to my dismay and displeasure. I only wish that the whole thing had gone on for much, much longer, because I had such a fantastic time.
Every day seemed to be so long and drawn out - in a good way - because each day was so full … but looking back, it seemed like it took no time at all! When we arrived back in Manchester on Thursday, it felt like we’d left only that morning, and (as scripteens put it) the whole things had just been a really long day-trip with naps!
So now, in an attempt to re-live the awesomeness, I’m going to type up my ‘report’. I’m well aware that what I write here will be woefully inadequate to describe the fun we had, but I shall try. So, without further ado, I proudly present to you -
The Trip of Whom: a Day by Day Account
With Pictures
Day One: Saturday, 26th July 2008
We headed out to Manchester Piccadilly at the not-massively-early hour of 1pm, in order to meet up at 1:30pm. Well, ice-elf (hereon-in known as Dobby) and I did; scripteens (hereon-in known as Sarah) joined us at the much more sensible hour of 2:30pm. I say that was much more sensible, as our train only left at 3:15pm; Dobby and I had an hour-and-three-quarters wait, while Sarah only had three-quarters of an hour of sitting in the station - which, on that particular day, resembled nothing more than a gigantic greenhouse.
Still, we had a drink and a sit and a good long chat, and we all got a little giddy about what we were about to achieve …
And then, the hour came - it was ten-past-three, and we were boarding our train to London, St Pancras (International). Our seats were on this occasion grouped together, and so we sat in them quite happily and chattered away to our hearts’ content.
When we arrived in London at about 6:50pm, we had a bit of a rush on our hands - we had to take the tube from King’s Cross St Pancras over to Tottenham Court Road, and then somehow find our way to the Phoenix theatre (sans map) before Blood Brothers started at 7:30pm.
Admittedly, this wasn’t exactly difficult, once we managed to work out which way we were supposed to walk along Tottenham Court Road. Anyway, we made it in plenty of time to the Phoenix Theatre. It was time to pick up our tickets.
Now, we’d bought our Blood Brothers tickets from lastminute.com (a site I whole-heartedly recommend) for £25. Now, we’d bought tickets that were advertised as ‘best available seats’, so we were hoping for maybe the back of the stalls, Row F at best, and three single seats rather than three together.
We were seated in Row B. Together. Close to the centre isle.
I think they were possibly some of the best seats in the house. Certainly worth more than £25! And the view was amazing. The cast really out-did themselves, for me. I cried like a baby (again). This time, however, I didn’t fall apart at the actual shooting, which was what did it for me last time. This time, Mrs Johnstone placing her dead sons’ hands together just was too much; I was in floods. And I think the whole theatre gave them a much-deserved standing ovation.
I still can’t get over the brilliance of those seats. They were just amazing. Amazing!
Next on our itinerary was finding the hotel. We took the tube from Tottenham Court Road over to Earl’s Court and walked out to find this waiting for us:
In case you can’t make it out, this is it in the daylight:
What a spectacular welcome to the area! It made us all very fangirly, and we bounced around it for a while.
After taking photos, we sought out the Windsor House Hotel. It was a nice enough place, but we had to drag our cases up three flights of stairs at 11:30pm; I don’t think the other residents appreciated that, but alas, it was necessary.
Once we were ensconced in our cosy little room, we decided to leave it again and go in search of food. Please bear in mind that this was London, on a Saturday night.
There was nowhere - not one single place - open.
There were a couple of bars; that was it. We ended up going to McDonalds, because there was literally nothing else. So, we munched on McDonalds chicken nuggets and chips in our room, had a good grouch about the cruddiness of our capital city, and I think I may have read an extract from Twilight Streets, one of the series two Torchwood novels, before bed …
Day Two: Sunday, 27th July 2008
We were woken the next morning by the Torchwood theme - Dobby’s oh-so-brilliant phone alarm - at 7:30am, if I remember correctly. Something like that, anyway. Dobby and I got showered and dressed, and hurried down to catch breakfast. I think we arrived at 8:40am - five minutes before they stopped serving. XD
We sat with a very nice Chinese family who are now living in Glasgow, and had cornflakes and toast (not together). It was an all-right sort of breakfast; it set us up for the rather packed day we were about to enjoy!
We headed back upstairs at about quarter past nine to wake Sarah and plaster sun-cream on. Did I mention that London was sweltering. I wore my skirt and a very strappy top, and I was still almost dying from the heat. Sarah just kept wishing that it would rain.
We set off at about half-past ten for the Royal Albert Hall, to watch the Doctor Who Prom. We only got slightly lost (because the map I’d printed off was stupid), but we got there eventually. It’s pretty hard to miss, after all:
On the way in, we swore to go and take a look at the Prince Albert Memorial in Hyde Park after the performance, as none of us had a clue what it was.
Our tickets for the Doctor Who Prom turned out to be quite far back; we were on the back row of seats on the highest level (with seats) - but actually, I was glad we were there. It gave us a fantastic view of the main screen, where they were projecting the video of the orchestra and conductor, or any videos of Doctor Who clips they showed, and also an overview of the auditorium. Which was brilliant when the Ood and the Daleks and Davros and the Cybermen and the Sontarans came out into the audience!
I was so shocked when Davros appeared - it was the last thing I was expecting, and it was brilliant!
Davros: Has the Conductor been Conditioned?
Dalek: Yes, he will obey or be ex-ter-min-ated!
If you didn’t listen to the Doctor Who Prom, shame on you - it was amazing, and although I’m sure it was all the more fantastic and brilliant because it was live, the music alone should have encouraged you to listen.
Some of the pieces they played were: The Planets - Jupiter, the Doctor Who theme, Song for Ten, Donna’s Theme and The Ride of the Valkyries. There were many more, all of which were beautiful. The orchestra were amazing.
However, the highlight - for me, anyway - was the specially filmed sequence with the Doctor himself. I will never forget that moment - the Doctor, staring through a hole in time and space into the Royal Albert Hall, telling the audience that we’d have to shout and is that the Royal Albert Hall? and having everyone in that huge room shout, “YES!” back at him. And being one of the people shouting “YES!” - that was an amazing feeling.
It’s the closest I’m ever going to get to a conversation with the Doctor; I don’t care how stupid it looks or sounds; I loved every moment of that video.
It was really very cleverly done, too. When the Doctor threw his symphony through the hole, all these papers flew out of the TARDIS behind the orchestra, fluttering down in front of all the players, and they then picked them up to play them! It was amazing! And the Graske - when he went missing from the TARDIS - appeared on the stage! It was fantastic! Fan-bloody-tas-tic!
I was delighted that we got an encore. The whole audience was (once again) on their feet, and they played one of the pieces from earlier all over again for us, which was brilliant. It was a fantastic thing to be involved with and I just wish - as Freema said - that we could have started the whole event all over again at the end …
After the Prom, we did as we had promised and went to look at the Prince Albert memorial. It’s a fantastic thing to behold, and really quite sweet when you realise that the four statues at the four corners around Albert are symbols of the four major continents - Europe (the Cow and the Europeans), Asia (the Elephant and the Indians), Africa (the Camel and the Egyptians), and America (the Buffalo and the Native Americans) - and that this effectively means that Albert is at the centre of the world. Or at least, he was the centre of Victoria’s world.
It’s quite sweet, really. Photos below:
The Prince Albert Memorial itself.
Asia, symbolised by an elephant and some people in Indian-style clothes.
America, symbolised by some Native-Americans riding a crazy buffalo.
Next on our itinerary was the Tower of London. We caught the tube from South Kensington (quite a walk!) to Tower Hill, and took some photos of the outside of the Tower:
We then walked across the road to the small complex they had built outside the Tower, where there were food and souvenir shops. We had lunch in a place called Eat (and I wasn’t very impressed by their burning-my-mouth-off-with-Cajun-Spiced-Chicken Sandwich), and then went inside the Tower.
We kind-of missed the last Beefeater tour, but we were not to be deterred and with Sarah’s map we bravely set off to get around as much of the Tower as could be seen in a little over two hours.
The first section we went into was the Medieval Tower, which detailed the life of some of the very first inhabitants of the Tower. It was really interesting - they had even restored the King’s Chamber (or at least, what they thought was his Chamber) to look as it would have done. Pictures below:
I think it looks pretty nice, although the wall-paint was a bit … decorative and overpowering for me personally. Still, it was nice; I quite liked it. We also went into what I think was the Throne Room - there was a Throne in it, in any case. See:
And, just to the right of the door we came in through, there was this little … I’m not sure what it was; I think it was some kind of chapel. The stained glass windows were pretty:
The chapel-area itself.
The gorgeous stained-glass windows, in all their glory.
This was also, apparently, the place where Henry VI died:
There were brilliant views of Tower Bridge from the wall-top:
We were just coming to the end of the Medieval Palace, moving through some displays of Medieval things they had found in the palace, when this guy …
… who we had passed earlier, began to run around outside screaming, “THE CASTLE IS UNDER ATTACK!”
Now, at first, we sort of weren’t that interested. Well, I was, but … not interested enough to follow the crazy shouting Medieval bloke. However, when he hared past us in the (very quiet, library-like) display area, still screaming that the castle was under attack - what were we supposed to do?
We followed him. How could we not?
We arrived on the wall-top just in time to witness the King’s Men parlaying with the Usurping Dogs outside the castle’s (inner) walls. They were a mutinous, rag-tag lot:
It was quite a fantastic show, actually - the Chief Usurping Dog was excommunicated by the castle’s representative of the Pope (some kind of Archbishop?), which was quite exciting. Yay, he used Latin to do it! Not that I could understand a word, but it sounded impressive and pretty. Then the Chief Usurping Dog announced to his fellow Usurping Dogs that he had, in fact, been excommunicated before and look what good it did them, God didn’t strike him down!
By this time, the Archbishop was on his way to the steps, and he was so fantastically polite and dignified as he sort of sailed between the crowds of people clamouring at the wall-top. That guy was brilliant. *easily impressed*
Anyway, we moved along a bit, and they tried climbing up the walls outside:
To combat this, the people on the inside decided to a) chuck a big bucket of sewage at them, b) chuck boiling water down on them, and c) throw rocks at them. That was quite amusing. :P
We left the Medieval people to battle it out over the castle walls, and moved on to look at the Diamond collection. It was really interesting, actually. There were replicas of the largest diamonds ever found, which were bloody impressive, and the shapes they were cut into.
Personally, I think it’s a crying shame to cut them into teeny-weeny pieces, like they did, but hey - I’m not a diamond expert. Maybe they don’t like having big sparkly diamonds as big as your fist …
We also saw a section on crowns throughout the ages. Sarah, Dobby and I all agreed that the best crowns were the early ones - before they began sticking diamonds to every inch of them.
Personally, I think I’d have a modified version of the traditional Dutch (?) crown, which as twice the usual number of arches. If you picture the Queen’s crown, it has two arches that cross over the crown of the head (over the strange velvet bit that appears to have no function other than to Be Expensive). The Dutch (?) crown has four arches instead, and it looks quite nice. Ornate enough to not need a bazillion jewels (or a weird piece of velvet that has no function!) whilst also being classy.
We went to see the Crown Jewels, while we were there; Sarah wasn’t impressed. I was impressed, because I like sparkly things, but I can see her point. So many jewels in such close proximity does look rather tacky and fake. The thing I find particularly stupid is that most of the jewels on the Crown … don’t actually belong to the Queen. They’re rented. How dumb is that? I mean, our economy is dying here, and the Queen is renting diamonds for a crown she wears once in a blue moon!
If I were royalty, I’d stop renting jewels, sell most of the jewels that I actually owned, and give the money back to England! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Royalist, but seriously - that is dumb.
After the Crown Jewels, we went around to see the Bloody Tower. It wasn’t as gruesome as I thought it was going to be, but some of the torture devices were pretty gruesome …
Unfortunately, I have no pictures; I thought Dobby was taking enough for everyone. :P
We also went to this room, where they had laid out the story of the Princes in the Tower, and at the end - after you had examined all the evidence - you could cast your vote. Were they murdered by Richard III, murdered by Henry VII - or did they just … disappear? (I think they were murdered by Richard III, personally; it just seems the most likely, since Henry’s first opportunity would have been in 1485, and they weren’t seen after summer 1483 … and as for disappearing - well. They found remains under the White Tower in the 1600s, which they assume are the bodies of the Princes, so … that’s my thinking.)
We also saw the Ravens. I love ravens. They mate for life, and can learn to talk, you know! I think that’s cool. Plus there’s Nevermore from the Discworld series. (You know, the raven that hangs around with the Death of Rats - I think Nevermore is his unofficial name. I’d check, but I can’t be bothered looking him up in the Revised Discworld Companion.) On top of that, I read a pair of books recently, and ravens and crows came out of them really well, and I’ve loved them ever since. (The books were Trickster’s Choice andTrickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce, in case you were wondering.) The ravens were very cute. Here, have a picture:
We also saw a couple of Grenadier Guards, who I thought were wax figurines because they were standing so still. Then they started marching up and down - and I must admit, they did look a bit like total prats. However, I cannot disrespect them, as my Nan’s Uncle (I think) was a Grenadier Guard during the war, and he was killed, so - I must have respect.
Even if they did look ridiculous doing all that still marching and stamping in their big furry hats. XP
It was bout half-past five at this point, and turfing-out time. We went and had a quick drink of water outside, to combat any impending sun-stroke or dehydration, then headed for the Shop.
We bought a bottle of ink each (Dobby got red, Sarah got green - no surprises there! - and I got blue.) Dobby and I also bought a couple of quill pens - mine is blue, hers is black. I can’t wait to try writing with mine! (And I still can’t believe that I managed to get the ink home without it leaking everywhere!)
I also bought - on the insistence of Sarah, who was possessed by mostly-Crowley-but-also-Aziraphale-a-little-bit at the time - a small, ceramic Owl sitting on a book, with a little book under his wing, taking a look at a couple of bigger books. He is absolutely adorable, and I’m actually very glad that I bought him.
Continuing our fangirly, Good Omens theme, on the way back towards the hotel we stopped off in St James Park. We walked all the way around the lake, speculating on where Crowley and Aziraphale would feed the ducks from.
Some of the St James’ Park ducks, underneath a rather pretty tree.
A rather moody picture of Buckingham Palace, as viewed from the bridge in St James’ Park …
… and some impressive-looking building that you see when you turn your back on Buckingham Palace on the bridge. (I think it looks more impressive than the Palace, actually.)
We came to the conclusion, eventually, that they would feed them wherever was convenient - but I got the most fantastic picture of them leaning back side-by-side against this little sign (at the far end of the lake to Buckingham Palace) that described the sorts of birds that were on the lake. And now I just can’t dismiss it; it’s in there to stay. I quite like it being there, though. I even took a picture of the spot, to remember it by:
We started to head back because it started to rain, but not before we had all started being rather silly on the grass. I’m not sure exactly what set us off, but I do remember being really rather giggly, rolling around with Dobby (notinthatway!) and being laughed at by Sarah, who was taking photos. Here’s a couple of photos from before we became too silly.
Obligatory photograph of me!
And a photo of Dobby, looking not-very-impressed with the photographer. (I rather like these two, actually.)
Somewhere along the way, Dobby lost an earring; we couldn’t find it before the rain started, so we hurried back to the St James Park tube station as fast as possible and headed back to Earl’s Court.
The food venues were much more reasonable this evening. Nando’s was open, for a start, so we headed in there and got a table. While Sarah was up ordering all our food, Dobby and I started writing this fic, on the back of a couple of receipts.
This fic rapidly became Epic. We called it The Receipts Round Robin, and the award for Best Line Ever goes to Sarah. I’m saying nothing except: “Put some pressure on it, alright?”
*giggles* It’s not funny out of context, but oh, how we laughed. That one line kept us going all week. When we finished writing The Receipts Round Robin, Sarah and Dobby insisted I read it out loud as a kind of weird bedtime story - complete with (dodgy) American accent!
It really was quite a lot of fun. :P I’m going to put a link here as soon as it’s been posted.
Day Three: Monday, 28th July 2008
Our train for Cardiff only left London Paddington at 1.15pm, so we had an entire morning to kill; we decided to go to Hamleys.
Now, I’d never heard of Hamleys before Sarah, Dobby and I came together to plan this trip. It was Dobby who suggested that we go there, and I’m so, so glad that she did! I’m such a big kid at heart, it was like giving me a free reign to run around looking at toys, and not be the only big kid doing it.
We arrived at Hamleys to find pirates with bubble-blowing guns on the doors. We successfully navigated past them with maximum staring and giggling, and minimum being noticed. We then started our tour of the toyshop (as seemed sensible) on the ground floor.
The ground floor was dedicated to soft toys.
I was in my element! I love stuffed cuddly thing with cute little eyes and lovely little stuffed faces! They had bears and giraffes and dogs and monkeys and elephants (including one that was just about as tall as me!) and kangaroos (which were as tall as Dobby and had joeys in their pouches that you could take out) and wolves and all sorts!
I did love the wolves, but they cost rather too much (I’m remembering something around £40, although they may have been more expensive; I think they were Steiff after all …). However, just before we left the ground floor, we spotted the dragons.
They had this stand full of cute little red Welsh dragons, with the Welsh flag stuck on their bum, and the most adorably put-upon expressions you have ever seen! They had red wings with gold glitter and little beany feet and chubby little bellies and they were adorable. Needless to say, we had to force ourselves to leave them behind as we journeyed upwards …
… via the stairs, through Narnia! Yes, the stairs in Hamleys were Narnia-themed. On the landing between the ground and first floors, they had this little scene set up with Mr Tumnus and Lucy! It was fantastic! I was just sad that we had our cases with us, and so going up flights of stairs was sort of not an option, really, so the rest of our trips up- and downstairs were in the lift. :( Still, at least we got to walk past Mr Tumnus!
The first floor was full of outdoor toys and - for some reason grouped with ‘outdoor toys’ - plastic toy animals. The plastic toy animals they have now are brilliant; I was sorely temped to buy a handful of the cutest ones … but then, I thought of all the children I was potentially depriving, and thought, “No. I shall leave them, to be enjoyed by the next generation …”
Anyway, we kept on moving upwards. We skipped the floor for toddler and baby toys, and went straight up to Girls’ Toys - a truly scary place!
Stepping out onto the Girls’ Toys floor was like entering Barbie World. Everything in sight was pink - literally! Even the floor and walls! It was quite … intimidating. However, I will say this for it - they had a very good section on dolls’ houses and stuff for dolls’ houses. One day, when I’ve got money to spare, I’m going to have a room (hopefully an attic!) and in it I’m going to set up all my Sylvanian Families (and buy more, so I can have a proper, big collection), and also my Dolls’ House, which I’m going to fill with wired-up lamps and little tea-sets and sandwiches and curtains and everything - and, to top it off, I’m going to have a model railway-track suspended around the ceiling, with a train going around. :D
Yes, I have lame dreams. Please don’t mock them too much; I actually do want to do this one day! (And I would seriously play with the Sylvanian Families …!)
I’m happy to report that they had a nice, big section full of Sylvanian Families stuff, still. I love the Sylvanian Families - what’s not to love? They’re anthropomorphic animals! They’re cute and fuzzy! I love some of the new families they’ve brought out - the Dalmatians, for example, and the Penguins. My favourite new set, however, has got to be the pianist and singer, who come with an old-fashioned mic stand and a grand piano! I want it! I really, really do! *flails*
I am, however, deeply grieved to report that the Puppy In My Pockets and the Littlest Pet Shop have gone way, way, way downhill since I was a kid. I used to love both, although if I had to pick one over the other, I’d say Puppy In My Pocket (as they were realistic). Now? Not so much. Everything is so caricatured and anime-ified that they don’t even resemble pets anymore. Plus - why is there a monkey in the Littlest Pet Shop?! You’re not even allowed to keep monkeys as pets, as far as I know! (Also, there was a Littlest Pet Shop creature in the ‘Punk’ collection *headDESK* that I honestly couldn’t work out. What the hell was it? I have NO IDEA! *scared* Also, ‘Punk’ pets? Seriously, WTF? *despairs*)
Anyway, we moved on (quite swiftly) to the next floor: Boys’ Toys. The only part of that floor I can remember was the Collectors’ Stuff Section.
They had replicas of the Evenstar from Lord of the Rings, not to mention various figurines. They had wands from Harry Potter, including Dumbledore’s Elder Wand, Harry’s wand, a complete set of Weasley wands, Draco’s want, Bellatrix’s wand and Hermione’s wand. (Yes, I wanted one! No, I didn’t get one.)
They also had a life-size Firebolt and Nimbus 2000! Now that, I was temped to buy! However, they didn’t have a price-tag and I was too scared to ask; I didn’t really want to know how much, in case I somehow convinced myself that a) I could afford that and b) I could get it to Cardiff and then back to Manchester in one piece, if I wanted to.
On top of all that, they had miniature figurines of the four dragons from the Triwizard Tournament (including the two not seen in the film, boo!) and a little snitch figurine and … well, lots and lots of other stuff that I could easily have spent all my money on.
I was (thankfully) dragged away by Dobby to join Sarah upstairs, which was … well, lots of things. They had a Doctor Who Toys section (sans Sonic Screwdriver - this will become significant later), a Robin Hood Toys section, a Narnia Toys section, and a café where we had brunch - a croissant and tea for me, lemonade and fruit salad for Sarah, and pancakes for Dobby.
Anyway, we had a good old squee over the Doctor Who toys and got nicely excitable over our impending arrival in Cardiff! I saw some toys that I really want (I really am a kid at heart!), including the interior of the TARDIS and the Face of Boe action figure (with moveable lips!)
Then we decided that we should quickly check out the basement, in which was all the electronic and computer-game-y stuff. We climbed into the lift with a couple of other people … and just before the doors closed a pirate (carrying a bottle of sparkling water and a glass tankard) dived in with us. He was … really cool, actually. Dobby and I couldn’t stop giggling. (Meeting pirates does this to us!)
Then he noticed the little key on a chain around Sarah’s neck. And he had to ask: “Is that the key to my chest?”
Dobby and I were in hysterics. It’s not even that funny; it just seemed hilarious at the time! Anyway, we stopped off at another floor before he could wrestle the key from around Sarah’s neck, and there were people waiting. The pirate - in a very gentlemanly gesture - dived out of the lift, claiming that he’d take the stairs and “bother people” on the way down. *snerk*
We reached the basement without further incident, and had a wander around. Nothing really caught our interest - apart from the life-size Indiana Jones made of lego!
It even looks like Harrisson Ford!
While we were taking photos, this manager-looking guy bounced over to the man minding a stack of Star Wars lego, and basically had a fangasm over the new Star Wars lego set, complete with hugging the box and going, “Yes! It’s finally here!” If even the management of Hamleys can get away with that sort of crazed behaviour - and we know the floor staff get to play with the toys, act like fanboys/fangirls and dress as pirates already - I want to work there. Seriously.
Then we came to the ‘reduced’ section. I found Dobby and Sarah taking a look at the semi-precious rocks for sale (none of which took my fancy) and the gemstone-growing kits (which, according to Sarah, don’t work). There, we also spotted a Sonic Screwdriver (one of the UV-light ones, that come with the Psychic Paper) for £12.99.
Now, I’d promised myself that I wasn’t coming away from the Doctor Who Exhibition without a Sonic Screwdriver this time, as I didn’t get one when it came to Manchester, and I really, really wanted one, dammit! Sarah asked if I was going to buy it; I declined, saying that I wanted to buy one from the Exhibition, and it would probably be cheaper there, anyway. (Please remember this part; it’ll be important later.)
We moved on, back to the ground floor. And we almost got to the exit, too. Then we spotted the dragons again, and Dobby just had to remember my Ianto-turns-into-a-dragon-fic, and point out that Ianto would look like that if he were a dragon. She grabbed one, and got in the queue.
I dithered. Then Sarah (who, if you remember, convinced me to buy the Owl) made the dragon look at me with its pleading little gold eyes, and made me dither even more. And made it look all sad when I said, “I don’t even need another cuddly toy!” What was I supposed to do?!
Of course I bought him. He’s called Ianto (as is Dobby’s, although hers is Naughty Ianto and mine is Nice Ianto; Sarah even write Nice Ianto on his label). Look how cute it is when they hug!!
We left Hamelys, two of our number now carrying bags full of dragon. The Pirate from the lift was outside; was we walked past - much to everyone’s amusement, and much to the pirates’ surprise - Dobby decided to yell, “YARR!”
It was a beautiful moment. XP
As we were walking back to the tube station, we walked past a couple of shops which, we decided, Ianto definitely shopped in when he worked for Torchwood One. Oh, yes. (I think we scared the guys inside; three young women staring into a men’s clothes shop that sells only suits, loudly discussing whether Ianto would wear That Tie … They looked worried. XD)
We managed to get to Paddington just in time, and we hopped onto our train and sat in our seats pretty much without incident. Sarah fell asleep (I think; it’s all a bit of a blur!), and Dobby and I played Torchwood-and-Doctor-Who-episode-names Hangman. Which rapidly degenerated into Hangman based on stuff that is extremely tenuously linked to Torchwood (like Shark Attack Three, and Stopwatch, and various other things).
We then degenerated further, into Pictionary - and Dobby managed to win the prize for Most Amusing Pictionary Picture Ever with ‘Jack/Ianto’ - she drew a stick figure bent over a desk (Ianto), then drew another stick-figure (Jack) behind him - then drew a stick-cock that came out of Jack’s chest and totally impaled Ianto. We were very, very amused. Needless to say, it was a ‘you had to be there’ moment.
Anyway, we arrived - very giggly - in Cardiff … on the same platform that Mickey Smith arrived on in Boom Town! We walked around to the Travellodge and booked in with surprising ease, then decided - since it was only about four o’clock - to walk down to Roald Dahl Plass and have a go at finding the Tourist Information Centre that hides Torchwood from the world.
We ended up walking alongside a stretch of water (not the river), which was roughly rectangular and had a road down one long edge and blocks of flats around the other three. There was also a restaurant (I think) called The Wharf, which had a boat outside it. Opposite The Wharf (ish) there’s an old, disused crane. If anyone at all has any idea what this place it called, please let me know! (I’m using it in a fic, you see; more details below.)
It was quite amazing, walking past that crane. We all seemed to have the same thought: Jack could climb up that. And Ianto could be dangling from the hook!
Sarah insisted that Dobby and I write fic, based on that prompt. We managed to plot out (probably-multichapter) fics that resemble one another but are in almost every other way different. Hopefully. When we post them, we’re going to have to point out that it was a challenge and we’re not plagiarising …
I’ll say no more now, but I will tell you that Dobby’s fic is also partically inspired by the fact that there was a sign a little further down the path alongside the water, which warned you about the Toxic Algae in the water. Yeuch.
Anyway, we arrived at Roald Dahl Plass and had a look around. It’s … smaller, in real life - as is the Water Tower. I think it’s impressiveness was diminished by the giant stick-on strawberries plastered to it, and the lack of water (which I bet is pissing Ianto off so much) … but it was still cool to touch the thing and know that Torchwood had been filmed right where I was standing.
We had a wander, and managed to find Ianto’s Tourist Info - *massive squee!* - and took photos outside it. It was also really cool, because there was newspaper over the windows … and one of the pieces of newspaper was the front-page article about Margaret the Slitheen (also from Boom Town)! *flail* YAY Doctor Who reference! YAY, acknowledgement that this is Torchwood here! *flails in glee*
The Tourist Information Centre entrance …
… and the newspaper featuring Margaret the Slitheen!
By this time, we were sort of hungry, so we went to Strada - a very nice Italian restaurant, which does a lovely, lovely Caesar Salad. It also had a slightly pretty waiter. :P We ogled him, and spent most of the meal trying to work out if we were being pervy or if he was over eighteen. (He was serving alcohol; he was over eighteen - still slightly wrong in my head, but not quite so wrong as it could have been.)
After our lovely meal, we walked around to the Norwegian Church and across to this random but quite pretty area with some interesting seating. I got a good picture of two of the benches:
We spent quite a while there, and Sarah prompted me to write a fic crossing over Hitchikers’ with Torchwood via the Babelfish. She wrote out the entire Babelfish argument (from memory! *impressed*) while Dobby and I careened about like drunken sailors, singing and being generally silly. :D
Eventually, when it got rather dark, we headed back over to the Plass to take some nighttime-photos. With the advantage of darkness, the Water Tower looked a lot more impressive - plus, you couldn’t make out the strawberries! However, just as we reached the Plass, it started to rain. I put my brolly up,and was called a wuss by Sarah.
I put my brolly down again, and decided I’d brave it. If Torchwood manages without an umbrella - well I was going to as well, while I was on the Plass! (I think people thought we were crazy, dancing around in the rain without an umbrella - despite the fact that we were carrying one!) Here, have a few Roald Dahl Plass photographs:
Doald Dahl Plass in the semi-daylight (which I took when we’d just arrived) …
… and the Millennium Centre by night! I love this photo, I really do. :D
We walked back to the hotel at a leisurely pace, despite the rain, and by the time we got back we were soaked. Still - I’ve been rained on in Cardiff, just like the Torchwood team. It was worth it. :P
We wrote a little more fic (in our pyjamas), and then scurried off to bed.
Day Four: Tuesday 29th July 2008
We got up the next morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Well. Actually, we sort of crawled out of bed at the last possibly minute, bleary-eyed and still half-asleep, and dived in the shower. Which was powerful!
Since it was a nice day, we decided that we ought to walk up to Cardiff Castle and have a look - but first, we had to find Ramon’s, the café in which they filmed scenes from Random Shoes.
We actually found it with minimum fuss, although we did stop off at Forbidden Planet on the way. Alongside some very cool figurines, Dobby managed to find an audiobook of one of H.P.Lovecraft’s novels - read (at least in part) by Gareth David-Lloyd. And it was signed.
Now, I’m not a fan of Lovecraft - I know about Cthulhu, and I know it’s fantasy-horror-type-thing, and that’s about all I want to know. Dobby, however, saw the autograph and spent the next ten minutes next to the display case, dithering over whether to get it or not. In the end, she didn’t take much convincing.
Me: Do you want [the CD]?
Dobby: *squeaks* Yes!
Me: If you want it, just get it.
Dobby: OK! *turns to the guy behind the counter* Can I get one of these CDs, please? The signed ones?
£15 is a bargain for a signed audiobook, in my opinion - considering that the CDs alone would have cost about a tenner anyway. Dobby was very, very happy. (And has promised that both Sarah and I can listen to the CDs, too. And yes, I’m going to - it’s GDL! Even horror and cults and freaky demon-Gods can’t put me off! Well, not so much that I won’t try to listen to it …)
We pressed on to Ramon’s. It was pretty much just a nice little greasy-spoon café, selling lots of fried things. I had scrambled eggs on toast with chips (as did Sarah; she shared my chips), and Dobby had sausage, chips and beans. It was actually rather good!
Now that we had filled our tummies with grub, we went into the castle. With our tickets, we got an audioguide each and a tour - pretty cool! Normally, you have to pay extra. Not at Cardiff Castle, though. First, however, we had to watch this weird video of the history of the castle.
There was this girl, lying in the park, sketching the castle. Then, when she looked up, she spotted this woman in medieval clothing walking away, so she followed her (as you do?). Then she was for some reason attacked and ran away, and met this boy who was attacked by random Romans; she hit his attacked with her book, and they ran away together. After being set upon by various armies from out of history (all without explanation, just with random dates that meant nothing every so often), they ended up on a bus, where this Victorian (?) boy stole the book the girl had been drawing in and threatened to chuck it in the sea. But it was OK; his dad gave him a ticking off and he gave it back. Eventually, the girl ‘woke up’ to find the book empty and this random boy lying beside her in the park. They got up and walked off, hand-in-hand. And there was still no explanation!
In essence, I get it - but it could have been done better. With a little more explanation, maybe. And not such a random meeting with a random boy. (Plus, a Roman legionary would not be knocked out by a girl with a book - I’m sorry, but that’s just silly.)
Anyway, we then went on our tour of the interior of the castle, which was beautiful and incredibly detailed! The architect that designed the rooms had a thing for animals, particularly parrots, so we all tried to spot the parrots in each room. They were gorgeous. One of my favourite rooms had a mosaic of two lions above the fireplace - one golden, and one blue (as the lions on the family crest were blue). It was gorgeous.
I also particularly like the library. They had the shields of real Kings of England and Princes of Wales at one end of the room around the ceiling, and ‘fictional’ Kings (such as Uther Pendragon and Arthur) at the other end. :D And, above each set of bookshelves, there was a little painted angel with a scroll, on which was painted the name of the author whose works could be found below! The best thing, however, was the heating - which was set into the tables in the room! Fantastic bit of thinking, that. :D
After the (very interesting) tour, we went up into the medieval keep (which, incidentally, is where they filmed a bit of Torchwood). There were quite a lot of stairs, but the views were definitely worth it. I mean, look:
View with bonus seagull.
The Cardiff skyline.
You can see the Millennium Centre on that one. It was described, in the audio-tour, as ‘spider-like’; I can see where that description came from …
Also, have some photographs of the castle itself:
That’s the grand, lived-in, renovated part of the castle.
This is outside of the Medieval Keep …
… and the inside of the Medieval Keep!
Whoever carried all the cameras and lights and sound equipment and god-knows-what-else up the 100+ stairs in that Medieval Keep so that they could film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang up there - I have a huge amount of respect for them.
We went back to the hotel room when it came to chucking-out time at the Castle, and once we were back at the hotel, we decided that we couldn’t be bothered walking anywhere else to eat. There was a restaurant/bar called the Bar Café in the Travelodge, so we went and ate there.
After we’d eaten, we sat and chatted and stared out of the window. It being a Tuesday, we had the place to ourselves. The TV was playing music videos, so we enthusiastically took the Mick out of those. I think our loud giggling scared the guy behind the bar.
Then we retired to our room, Dobby and I did some more writing, and then we retired to bed.
Day Five: Wednesday, 30th July 2008
Doctor Who Exhibition today!
We rolled out of bed a bit late but rather over-excited, and got out as soon as possible. We walked down to the Red Dragon Centre, and when we got there we passed the sign for the Exhibition (which we saw on the first night, but which I’ve been saving for you):
Yes, it’s a Dalek. Is that not the most brilliant thing ever?! *glee*
Anyway. We were getting peckish at this point, so we had lunch in this bar-type-place just inside the Red Dragon Centre, whose name I cannot for the life of me recall. It was yummy, anyway. Then we headed for the Exhibition. I’m not going to show you everything - there would be way too many pictures if I tried - but I’ll show you the best bits.
To properly show you the amazingness, I’m going to do this next section by describing pictures:
The Exhibition started with some blurb about previous Doctors and their exploits. When you pressed a button on each display, it revealed a monster from each ear - like this vintage Cyberman!
TRIN-E! The Anne-Droid was behind her, but I got a grand total of zero good pictures of her; they’re all blurry. :(
The Doctor’s suit! *squee* I’ve touched his trouser-leg. *naughty*
“Do I look like an ‘out of bounds’ kind of guy?” just sums him right up. :P I love that display. (Dobby has about seven photos of The Greatcoat, plus photos of her with The Greatcoat. She freely admitted that she has a coat-fetish … :S)
Dalek Sec, in both humanoid and Dalek forms, plus a pig-slave. I do quite like that photo - I think it came out rather well.
Terracotta Daleks! Are they not precious?! *loves them* I want one for my garden! *glee* They were set down near Dalek Sec, and they were adorable.
A Dalek, in front of a mock-up of the Room in Torchwood One in Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. You can also see the Alternate Universe Torchwood One uniform, and the lever that Rose clung to and then let go of.
A spacesuit, with a skeleton in it, from Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead. Presumably not full of Vashta Nerada. *shudder8 We did spend a few minutes going, “Sarah/Dobby/Alice … you have two shadows …” … and then realising that, because of the lighting, we did, and then being freaked out and screaming at one another not to let our shadows cross. Heh, that was fun. *giggles*
A Cyberman, and Rose’s maid costume from Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel. The section on Cybermen was really quite cool - there was a lot of information about them, facts and so on. (Such as the fact that the rods on their head connect directly to their brains. Which makes that scene in Cyberwoman, where Ianto pulls the rods off Lisa’s head, even more gross than it already was due to the excess of blood and ick.)
This is one of my favourite photos. I know it’s not much to look at, but - this is a display about Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways. That gun - the one that’s just to the left of the middle - is the one Jack pulled on TRIN-E and ZU-ZANA. Yes. That gun. How the hell he managed to conceal it, I don’t know, because it’s just … an awkward shape, and just a bit bigger than a fist. OK, so maybe 51st Century men are flexible, but … come on! O.O
Seeing the gun in the flesh made me and Dobby giggle. :P No surprise there, then.
An angry-looking Sontaran. The costumes aren’t really as impressive up-close and not filled, but the masks really, really are.
One of the robotic angels aboard the Titanic and, in the background, Kylie’s costume, from Voyage of the Damned. I loved the design of those angels - they look so … angular yet beautiful; I think they have kind faces. (Doesn’t mean I didn’t get scared when they started killing people.) And, you know, now I come to look at them closely, they have a look of Crowley and Aziraphale’s love-children about them, to me …
A Hath, right by the exit. I liked the Hath, they were a cool ‘monster’ - considering that they were half-fish, half-chicken and humanoid …
*dances around the place* It was so cool!
We moved on to the shop. Now, I spent at least half an hour wandering around, looking at everything, and they had no Sonic Screwdrivers at all. None. None whatsoever.
I was disgusted. They had Dalek salt and pepper pots; they had diecast Cybermen and TARDISes; they had Doctor Who paper plates; they had packs of cards; they had figurines; they had t-shirts; they even had socks - but no Sonic Screwdrivers. (Except for the one in the bath-set that dispenses bath-fizzers or something.)
Heartbroken, I made do with a Dalek UNO set and the promise that we could find a Woolworths tomorrow and buy a Sonic Screwdriver there. We left the shop and walked back into Roald Dahl Plass to have another look around. We had a wander around the Millennium Centre, where they filmed part of New Earth, and a good look in the shop. Then, while we were looking at the Torchwood Tourist Info again, we saw that they were doing boat trips out to the Barrage. On a whim, we decided to have one! We climbed aboard a rather posh vessel and set out across Cardiff Bay.
The view back towards Mermaid Quay from the boat.
The Norwegian Church from the water.
Once back on dry land, we took some more pictures of the Plass - including some of us standing on the Perception Filter’d Lift Stone. :D
Yes, I know it’s a bad photo - I was fixing my hair. >.>;; Still, I kinda like it. It suggests that we didn’t know that people were looking at us/taking our photo - as if the Perception Filter really was working. :P
The Water Tower looks way more impressive when you’re standing really close up to it. :) It probably looks even more impressive when it actually has water cascading down it, and doesn’t have giant strawberry stickers on it …
We had decided earlier that we were going to go and at least have a drink in Tiger Tiger, since that was where they filmed the bar scenes in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, so on our way back into town we passed the Red Dragon Centre.
Since we’d paid for our day-tickets to see the Exhibition, we went ‘round again. :P This time was better; we could be more fangirly, as there was hardly anyone there. A very nice lady offered to take a picture of all three of us, but Sarah refused to be photographed at all, so … nevermind. *sigh*
The Doctor’s suit again. It was only when we went through the Exhibition the second time, when I looked closely at it, that I realised …
It’s got RED PINSTRIPES! *goes into fangirl overload* I love pinstriped suits, especially slightly different ones, so red-on-blue just makes me … explode with glee. :D Like I said; I’ve touched the trouser-leg. *still naughty*
A Stone Angel - caught looking extremely scary in the red light! *afraid* I must admit that Sarah was right, though; it would’ve been much, much scarier if it had had it’s hands over its eyes …
Slightly freaky photo of the clockwork droids from The Girl in the Fireplace. I loved those clockwork droids - they were just the right level of gorgeous, and just the right level of scary. (Like the werewolf, really.)
And finally:
The TARDIS - and the Doctor’s borrowed pyjamas. (Who changed his clothes in The Christmas Invasion, anyway? *hands on hips*)
We left the Exhibition, this time not stopping to look in the shop, and walked back to the hotel. We dropped our purchases off in the room, then moved on to Tiger Tiger. We quickly ascertained that it was quite expensive, but we went in and bought drinks anyway. We sat there for a while, supping our drinks, and had a chat. Then we doubled back towards the hotel to find a place to eat.
We ended up in this lovely, quirky little tapas place called 10 Feet Tall. It was really quite sweet - instead of wallpaper, they had nailed doors (and what looked like a section of flooring!) to the walls. The lights were all higgledy-piggeldy, and none of the lampshades matched. Come to think of it, none of the tables or chairs matched, either! It was great!
The food was brilliant, too, even if it took a little while to arrive. However, it was the Virgin Cocktails that really made the evening.
They had a two-for-one offer, if you bought two of the same cocktail. Sarah was going to get an Angel Delight; I was going to get a Pleasant Banter on the Beach (non-alcoholic Sex on the Beach). I wasn’t really that certain if I’d enjoy it, but hey - I wanted a cocktail, dammit! But when they mentioned the two-for-one thing, I jumped in and said I’d have an angel delight too - after all, I wasn’t that bothered about the other one.
It turned out to be the right choice. The Angel Delight was like an incredibly creamy, incredibly flavoursome strawberry milkshake. I’m tempted to return to Cardiff simply to have another one!
We topped off the evening with some sort of alcoholic-pear desert. Being a complete lightweight, I managed half before getting giggly. (I may as well admit this; Dobby and Sarah will admit it for me, if I don’t.)
We returned to the hotel in rather embarrassing fashion, as it looked for most of the way like I was being escorted home drunk. Sarah and Dobby were, in fact, attempting to convince me to write fic for them. (Once back at the hotel, I managed to come out with, “Honestly, (Dragon!)Ianto - if you want to be in my mouth, at least turn into a human first!” when Dobby accidentally shoved Naughty Ianto in my face. Um. Yes. *has no idea where that came from*)
We didn’t get a particularly early night. I managed to offend Sarah by refusing to write her fic, then being too enthusiastic when I said I would love to write her fic. (Still not sure how that works.) Anyway, I wrote little!Ianto-fic (which will be posted soon) in an attempt to placate her, but she fell asleep before I finished it. :(
Day Six: Thursday, 31st July 2008
The Last Day. :(
We lingered in the room for as long as possible, showing, dressing, packing, drinking tea, and generally not wanting to leave. Then I realised that I’d left my scarf at 10 Feet Tall. *sobs*
It was raining when we left. Blegh. However, we braved the weather and headed back to 10 Feet Tall. They had a look in the lost-property box, and couldn’t find it. So, I have lost my newest scarf, which was quirky and a present from my mum. *unhappy*
Not a great start to the last day. We then went into the centre of Cardiff to do some shopping. We ended up walking around three different shopping centres (including the St David’s Shopping Centre, which is where they filmed … something in Doctor Who. I think.), and could not find a Sonic Screwdriver anywhere.
Finally, in a last-ditch attempt to find one, we went to Forbidden Planet, where Dobby had bought her H.P.Lovecraft-read-by-GDL CD. And finally - success! They had a Sonic Screwdriver with UV light and ink and wipe-clean Psychic Paper!
I bought it. Immediately. (For one whole pound less than the Hamley’s price!)
I could not wipe the smile off my face. We went to Starbucks and sat around for a while, chatting and drinking tea (Dobby), coffee (Sarah) and frappucino (me) until the time came for us to head off to the railway station.
We got onto the train without mishap, and Dobby and I spent most of the journey back writing furiously. (Well, the parts of the journey where we weren’t reading each other’s fic or passing our notepads to Sarah for her to read the works in progress. :P)
We rolled into Manchester Piccadilly at about half-past eight. Sadly, it felt like we’d never been away. As Sarah said, it felt like a day-trip with naps. It felt like we’d only left home that very morning.
I’m still sad that the Trip is over, but as Sarah put it (shamelessly paraphrasing the ninth Doctor):
The Trip was fantastic. And you know what? So were we!
I had a brilliant time with people I love - it was a funny, exciting, exhilarating, inspirational, utterly fantastic Trip, and we have got to do it again, as soon as possible.
I'm typing up all the fics I managed to scribble down while I was away as we speak, so look out for a lot of Jack/Ianto popping up around these parts in the near future (when I get back from the Lakes on Saturday) ...
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