Whenever I wear badges,
bags or t-shirts of a certain telly programme, band or film, it's always in the hope that some likeminded stranger will stop me to say they like the show/band/film, and I will be connected to the psyche of another human for just a moment. However, this never happens. I can't really blame anyone for this: if I saw someone wearing a Numan t-shirt, I wouldn't dare approach them just to say I liked their shirt, especially if they were with other people. Such is society is I would not get a smile and a brief conversation about Gary, but instead a look that suggests they think I am a freak and cannot comprehend why I spoke to them.
However, on Tuesday my little dream of connection through fandom came partially true. I was out shopping with a couple of friends, and I was wearing my home-made Ianto t-shirt, the design for which you can see here. We stopped for lunch in TGI Fridays, lured by the smells wafting out into the shopping centre and bedazzled by the brilliantly gay member of staff who showed us to our table. Once we were seated another waitor came to take our order. As he turned I say he had a Doctor Who badge attached to his trouser braces, and on his return I complimented him on it. He replied with a happy "Thank you!" and then I proceeded to ask if he watched Torchwood. He did, so I asked him if he liked my shirt. He expressed his approval and then went on to tell me how he "shed a little tear" at Children of Earth. Then he had to go for a while- for some odd reason his employment there meant he was required to do some work- but when he came back with our desserts later on he told us how his mate was a runner on Doctor Who, but jacked it in recently due to his boredom with living in Cardiff. He told us how this mate had once had a photo of himself, David Tennant and Kylie Minogue as his Facebook default, and our waitor had felt a lifetime's worth of envy condensed into one picture! As he left he told us with a smile that he'd given us extra ice cream for liking Doctor Who.
A little fandom gets you far.
However, on Tuesday my little dream of connection through fandom came partially true. I was out shopping with a couple of friends, and I was wearing my home-made Ianto t-shirt, the design for which you can see here. We stopped for lunch in TGI Fridays, lured by the smells wafting out into the shopping centre and bedazzled by the brilliantly gay member of staff who showed us to our table. Once we were seated another waitor came to take our order. As he turned I say he had a Doctor Who badge attached to his trouser braces, and on his return I complimented him on it. He replied with a happy "Thank you!" and then I proceeded to ask if he watched Torchwood. He did, so I asked him if he liked my shirt. He expressed his approval and then went on to tell me how he "shed a little tear" at Children of Earth. Then he had to go for a while- for some odd reason his employment there meant he was required to do some work- but when he came back with our desserts later on he told us how his mate was a runner on Doctor Who, but jacked it in recently due to his boredom with living in Cardiff. He told us how this mate had once had a photo of himself, David Tennant and Kylie Minogue as his Facebook default, and our waitor had felt a lifetime's worth of envy condensed into one picture! As he left he told us with a smile that he'd given us extra ice cream for liking Doctor Who.
A little fandom gets you far.