Star Trek: Into Darkness PREMIERE @ LEICESTER SQUARE! =)
Sherlock Plush @ Speedy's uploaded by extraordinary on Flickr.FDJFKLJDLKFJSLKDJKLQD! EFF YOU, LIVEJOURNAL. Thanks to the recent errors & down-time I have lost the entire draft I was working on. It took me days to type everything up and link all the pictures, etc... and now I'm going to have to start all over! Pfft. Typical. *HEADDESK!*
Here we go again... T____T!
If you're following me on Twitter ( @omfg_elephant!) you will most likely have heard all about this already, but on April 30th wraithness and I left for London. Uhm, again. B-but this time we took India with us, so there's that at least. ;) We were supposed to get on the Eurolines bus (in Antwerp, yay! SO HANDY!) at 9PM, but as usual, things never go according to plan! We had a two hour delay in which our bus simply did not show up and no one thought to inform us, haha. In the end we did make it to London mostly on time, though? I think we arrived around 6:30AM on May 1st!
EUROLINES, I AM SIDE-EYEING YOU. Even though you're taking wraithness and I back to London in June to see The Tempest (COLIN MORGAN! ROGER ALLAM! HEAVEEEEN!) for only €21. THAT'S FOR A FREAKING RETURN TICKET. HELL YEAH.
Anyway, here's yet another "LIN & KAY DO LONDON!" report. In this issue:
ALL PACKED! This was an important moment, yo. I've been pretty ~in demand~ as an extra lately. LOLOLOL. Basically, the week before the trip I had three different productions to go to - including one the evening before. All of which required my trolley. So I couldn't pack until the 30th. :'D (I am usually the type of girl who packs her bag for trips LITERALLY WEEKS in advance, so this killed me! AHAHAHA!)
Anyway, introducing the cast for this report! ;)
In the role of THE LOGICAL ONE: wraithness!
Dinner at Wok&Walk! We met up a little early so we could all relax a bit together pre-bus-ride-from-hell. =)
In the role of TOKEN AWESOME NEWCOMER: India... who looks eerily like Katie McGrath without make-up and her hair in a bun, IMO.
Aaand there's me as THE SOCIALLY AWKWARD ONE. I brought my own fold-able barstool, you guys. ;)
The first thing we did when we arrived was... err... an outfit change? :'D
I mean, we magically arrived looking 20% cooler. Because London. Then we went to Speedy's for breakfast & also to pick up a friend's t-shirt.
I bought it for her because I was online at the time they went on sale & then contacted them to ask if I could pick it up (like I did with the mug a few months ago!) to save her on shipping, but unfortunately when I got there they were unable to get in contact with the person responsible for the eBay store and they asked me to come back later.
Kay had the jacket potato with tuna & corn, like me. =) I loooove their jacket potato.
We had to wait quite a while for them to get back to us re. the t-shirt, so I got out Feltlock Holmes & Dr. Feltson. ;)
YEAAAAAAAAAAAH. I really like that picture though. xD
Hee! ♥
wraithness always looks like the innocent one, b-but don't let her fool you!
SEE? LOL!
Oh God, I look so tired. :'D
Wearing madmodesty's necklace (I love it!) and a Cumberbatch-inspired bracelet - because India and I made a pact to wear our bracelets during the trip! I have a pink one from my trip to Sweden with slowdead & irsandyberg in 2011 ( pictoral proof in my tag... somewhere...) that I'd somehow managed to store away and completely forget about, I mean, it was just a trinket, and IDK. But then I noticed Benedict's bracelet looked like it was made in the same style (the reindeer antler buttons are a bit of a give away...) so I went looking for it. Once you've felt the (responsibly killed! for food!) super smooth reindeer leather on your wrist you'll never want to take it off, like, ever again, trust me. So now I have a black one, a green/black-ish one and a red one.
They're just sooooo awesome. I ended up with an entire collection before I knew it. AND I STILL WANT A PURPLE ONE. No wonder Benedict never takes his off. X.x
Uhm. No comment.
OBLIGATORY PICTURE IN FRONT OF THE NOT-REALLY!221B DOOR.
This picture's up on my wall right now! x'D I want to go back and take a matching one for Doctor Feltson.
We kept running into Star Trek promotional posters EVERYWHERE! There was a giant display with IDK... PIXELS, LOL. AT VAUXHALL. IT WAS AMAZING. B-but they were hard to get proper pictures of in the tube because SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE.
HAA.
This "WILL FALL" thing became an inside joke, haha. Basically I saw the poster when someone was standing in front of it and for a minute there I seriously thought "WHO IS WILL FALL," and now it's a Thing. ;)
Hahahah. I'm not even tall enough to hide the EARTH myself. T__T
Our group picture with Benedict Cumberbatch. ;)
Anyway, after Speedy's we went shopping for a bit! We went to Berwick Street & Notting Hill Gate for the used DVD shops, as usual. Oh, and Topshop?
Here's what I bought! All for £1, except for The League of Gentlemen which was £3. :) I also got a hot pink tank top with a big bow on it from a vintage shop for £5. Yaaay.
We returned to Speedy's in the hopes of getting that t-shirt for my friend, but they hadn't actually put one aside for her - despite telling me I could come pick it up! - and they were out of the size I needed to bring back. *pout!* So, yeah, that didn't go according to plan. They were really nice about it, though. But it was still kind of a waste of time and tube money.
Afterwards we had dinner at Carluccio's and headed over to Leicester Square to do some recon~! There was nobody there yet, though. No campers, seriously. x'D
The next day we decided to head down to Leicester Square around 7AM-ish? I think we got there at 7:30AM. Luckily we made it to the first 100! LOL! (I had number 98! xD)
Pleased fangirls! :D IDK, it's not like they stopped at 100, b-but it feels nice to have made it there just before the magic number anyway, haha. I can't really explain it, OK? If you're going to wake up that early for something you might as well put some effort into it, right. I think the 90s are nice numbers. Not too early, not too late? Just right for non-UK fangirls, IMO! Any earlier would've been too exhausting, haha. ;)
Empire cinema where the première took place! =)
We ran into V. (I think she had #113?) and her best friend L. who made this awesome banner! See, at Ghent Film Festival our banner got us quite a bit of a attention (although NOBODY understood the joke? xD) and I really believe we might not have gotten our group picture without it! It was useful? And pretty amusing. It was wraithness who came up with it, I think. It made the Parade's End producer people laugh, haha. ;)
NOTHING EVER HAPPENS IN BELGIUM. Except Ghent Film Festival apparently, haha. So "WE CAME ALL THE WAY FROM BELGIUM" is pretty accurate except when it's clearly not. *grin!*
ANYWAY. After some discussion, L. asked me to write it on there so that's my handwriting, yo. :D I think define_serenity did the honours last time, haha. (... I, errr, provided the cardboard.)
IN THE END NOBODY ACTUALLY SAW THE BANNER THO... :'DDDD
After we got the numbers we set up a bit of a picnic spot with V. and L. on the grass, b-but I'd noticed Cumberbuddy ahead of us in the queue when we arrived and I wanted to go say hi to her. It was her birthday that day & I brought a silly little present for her to basically apologise for being ridiculously intimidated and never having the guts to say hi to her before. Despite the fact that we'd been at, what, three events together in the past year? Yeah, I fail. I get my daily Cumber!fix through her blog (& lately it's my go-to place for info!) and read it religiously before bed every night (and first thing in the mornings), so I really admire her. Her blog really brightens up my day - she's so funny and down to earth. She's also ridiculously sweet in person and shared cake with us! OMFG. ♥____♥
Here's where my social awkwardness kicks in: I swear I was more nervous when I first approached Cumberbuddy than I was while talking to Benedict freaking Cumberbatch later that day. FOR REAL. I HOPE YOU'RE FLATTERED, CUMBERBUDDY. YOU MADE ME STUTTER AND I NEVER STUTTER, OK. NOT EVEN FOR CUMBERBATCH HIMSELF. LOL.
Anyway, she had a lot of lovely people with her that day! Including one girl who'd already met boolafaz earlier & I was kind of dying to meet because she sounded really awesome. Plus, one can never have too many Belgian friends. We're a rare breed, OK. =)
They started setting things up then~! :O
After a short talk and some more pictures, we went back to our spot and... err... camwhored. A lot. ;)
:D!!
Random info: MY DRESS IS SO LOW CUT WHAT. I swear I didn't do that on purpose. I covered up before the actors arrived! LOL!
With Ollie the otter? I can't say we were bored there. O.o; Seriously, it was a very relaxed and enjoyable wait. A+++ would queue again.
Picnic'ing group shot! ;)
BORED. But I love this shot. :)
Here's me with my bao. PLEASED LIN IS PLEASED. :'D Being at Leicester is like heaven to me, omfg. So close to all the Chinese restaurants! AND KFC! WHAT MORE COULD A GIRL WANT?
Priceless picture is priceless. ;)
Uhm.... O___o;
TEAM BELGIUM! As you can probably tell, we'd moved up a bit in the queue. Well, originally we'd moved BACK to stay with V. and L. but earlier we'd been told to stick to our designated spots since they'd be "loading" the fans soon. Whatever that meant. We took this picture shortly before splitting up for a bit.
In the end it did not really matter. We got to stand together after all. :) (The surprise!guy there had been chatting to India and Kay a lot while we queued so he's included in the picture. He had inside info, wahahah. Well, just a lot of experience with red carpet events.)
... which was good, 'cause I'm not sure what we'd have done about the banner if we couldn't stick together.
P.S. SEE. I COVERED UP MY CLEAVAGE. :P
The red white carpet! :D This was around 3PM or 4PM, I think?
Since we had numbers (some people only had the stamps but no number!) we got to go in first and stand on the first row. Later on they "loaded" more people in... and this is where luck comes in, a bit? Your experience really depends on who's standing behind you. The guys behind India & wraithness were autograph hunters and were major jerks. Luckily, the girl behind me was a sweetheart but the lady behind her was a real pusher. O__o;
Mostly things were fine (for me, at least?), except for the long painful stretch when Benedict Cumberbatch was near us and some chaos for Zachary Quinto & Chris Pine. X.x; That was pure hell and I will never EVER buy an autograph from autograph hunters again. I will explain in more detail later, b-but basically there was a moment where I couldn't help but shout out in pain. I seriously worried I'd be shoved over the fence at one point, ahahahaha.
TL;DR: AUTOGRAPH HUNTERS ARE THE WORST. At least the ones standing near us. I wonder if other parts of the red carpet had them too, or if they just kind of gathered around where we were standing? We did have a pretty good spot... IDK, judging from the videos of the event on Youtube it doesn't look nearly as crazy elsewhere! X.x; B-but maybe that's me being biased because I'd already bruised my ribs in Brughes for Het Vonnis and they weren't 100% better yet (& still aren't completely back to normal even now, to be honest).
The press!
Around 5PM (I think?) people finally started arriving! I think this is Chris Pine... could be Simon Pegg, lololol.
Yeah, maybe it was Simon Pegg. ;)
He was a good warm up, to be honest! People weren't going too crazy yet at this point.. *laughs!* I was all "wait, who's this?" to wraithness because I fail at recognising actors, haha.
I've got great timing, you guys. ;)
This is all we saw of Zoe! Her and Karl Urban didn't come over to our part of the red carpet, baww.
Chris Pine! Things got a liiiittle crazy, but avoiding getting poked in the eye or smacked by the magazines and notebooks was kind of funny.
I love his suit. :O He was nice and took his time with everyone, while his PA (?) pointed out the autograph hunters to him & told him which ones not to sign for. She is amazing at her job and looked so stunning, omfg.
See, I have great timing. X.x;
This one's a bit better! While I was waiting for my turn I basically just took pictures of everyone around me... it seemed like a good idea? I didn't know it at the time, but at Ghent Film Festival I took a few pictures of Bendict Cumberbatch talking to a girl in a deerstalker across from me - and later (MONTHS LATER!) we accidentally found each other on Facebook. She'd been so sad because she didn't get any pictures of the event, but when I told her I might have taken some of her by accident since she was standing so close to us and she was ecstatic. I managed to send her quite a few pictures in the end and she even used one of them for her Facebook profile. Happyyyy.
Also, the girl in these pictures (with the dark brown hair) was the sweet girl who stood behind me. Her name is Kat. I added her on Facebook and we exchange some pictures! Unfortunately, no one at the première got a picture of me talking to Benedict, but she got some of HIM while I was talking to him... which is better than nothing, I guess. ;)
AWFUL PICTURE IS AWFUL OH GOD. But yeah. :'D
wraithness and India getting their turn!
Err. IDEK. I didn't want to just stand there uselessly, so this is what happened. O.o;
Karl Urban spotted somewhere in the distance. X.x;
J.J.! This picture kind of shows how crazy it was, haha.
I think he's signing a book for L. here.
... and then Benedict Cumberbatch arrived! xD Some people around me with proper cameras got some great shots of the group here, b-but yeah. You've seen mine, right? I wasn't even going to try to zoom in that far. Know thy limits.
He approached us from the other side! With bonus India. LOL! Everyone else came from my left, I think? In fact, if I remember correctly, there was a bit of panic because Zach Q. was coming from the other side at the same time! Who to aim for??? OMFG.
Pretty crappy picture, but here he's signing this amazing Star Trek costume the guy from our group picture brought along. It'd been signed by maaaany other actors in the past, omfg. There was barely any room left on it.
LOL INDIA? :'D
Unfortunately, things got real crazy at that point. X.x; There was SO MUCH SHOVING from the older lady in the back that I had to repeatedly shout for people to stop pushing. There was NOWHERE I could go, and it was clear Benedict was taking his time to get everyone an autograph -- yet they still kept shouting and pushing. NOBODY LISTENED. FUCK. It really hurt, omfg. The autograph hunters behind India & wraithness were being jerks as well, so ugh, in the end Benedict skipped them - but that meant skipping India & Kay as well. I didn't know at the time, though? Now I feel so bad for them, but at the time it was really hard to tell whose arms belonged to whom and I was focused on avoiding cracked ribs and taking pictures of everything as steadily as I could. While being nearly pushed OVER the fence. It literally moved a bit at one point, ahaha. CRAZY.
Poor Kat behind me kept apologising.... b-but I knew there was nothing she could do about it. It wasn't her fault and she did a good job not elbowing me. She was standing on the back of my slippers, though. LOL. :'D We were just getting completely flattened together against the fence omfg. Like I said, it got so bad that I shouted out in pain. Even Benedict asked them to stop, b-but that didn't help either. Douchebags. >____>
BUT SOMEHOW I GOT LUCKYYYY. So freaking lucky, you guys. I can't even.
I brought my SFX magazine for everyone else to sign - but since I already have a personalised autograph from Benedict (Ghent Film Festival) I thought it'd be fairer to get something signed for a friend instead. The choice was really easy: boolafaz! ♥! She couldn't be there with us (for very valid reasons, but still!) and that sucked, so so so much. Plus, if you've been around for a while you'll know boolafaz has done so much for me. LIKE ORGANISING THAT SECRET TRIP TO JAPAN EXPO IN PARIS FOR MY BIRTHDAY LAST YEAR. There is nothing I can do to repay her for everything she's done for me b-but hopefully this will even out the score just a bit.
See, a while ago I made these shoes for myself:
And recently this for boolafaz:
So, I thought, "what if I can get them signed for her?" because IDK, but shoes are pretty unusual and might help catch his attention. If not, I could always just throw them at him. Kekekeke. x'D (I'm joking!!)
AND THEN THIS HAPPENED.
O___________________O!!
Basically, I think I said: "Err, could you please sign these shoes for my friend?" and then something like, "I made them for her, but she couldn't be here with us because *insert reason here*!" (I told him why, b-but I'm not including it here. That's up to boolafaz, IMO. BUT YEAH, BENEDICT KNOWS WHY AND HE WENT ALL "MAWWWW" LOL. x.X)
He signed one first, then moved to give them back to me but changed his mind... there was this pause where I wasn't saying anything and he wasn't saying anything. I remember that pretty well. I had this "NOW WHAT?" moment, haha. Then he suggested signing both of them. HIMSELF. OUT OF NOWHERE. Like, he literally asked "Should I sign just one or should I do both of them?"! LOL! I don't remember his exact words (I think there were more?), b-but he was SO POLITE. It was a full sentence and everything, lmfao. Not a "SHOULD I DO BOTH?". I expected him to rush through it, b-but he took his time to, you know, use ridiculously long/polite sentences (HE MAY TRULY BE INCAPABLE OF BEING BRIEF, BUT DEAR GOD, NEVER LET ANYONE SHUT YOU UP BENEDICT?).
I think he actually thought I might say no, hahah. I somehow managed to say something among the lines of "IF YOU WANT TO. GO AHEAD." so he did. Sign them both. Woah.
So, IDK, that was amazing and I didn't want to take up more of his time... b-but I always become a little braver when I'm asking something for a friend (as opposed to asking for myself), I think? Basically, I thought: IT'S NOW OR NEVER! LOL! I asked if I could take a picture of him with the shoes. Mind you, I MEANT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF HIM JUST STANDING THERE AND POSSIBLY INCLUDE LIKE HALF A SHOE IN THERE. AS MUCH OF THE SHOE AS I COULD MANAGE, YOU KNOW? I started out by propping up one shoe with my left hand & kind of balancing it on top of my SFX magazine - I completely forgot I was still holding that! O.o - and then pointing my camera in what was hopefully the correct direction with my right hand.
B-but, I was kind of struggling. You know, someone was STILL shoving me into the fence and there were lots of arms everywhere (...something or someone kept hitting me on the head? NO, SRSLY!)! It kind of made it pretty damn hard to juggle a pair of shoes, my SFX magazine and a camera... X___X!
So, anyway, what does Benedict Cumberbatch do? You'd think he'd go, "Ah, sorry, no time! Need to move on!" or something, right? His minder/PA lady was definitely trying to get him to do just that. BUT NO. HE SEES ME STRUGGLING AND TAKES MY SHOES TO FREAKING POSE WITH THEM. LOL.
There are no words for how relieved I am that this picture turned out OK. It's a small mircacle, honestly. I knew I'd only get one chance. I remember thinking I'd just sob forever if it turned out blurry - I was so afraid to check it, hahaha. X.x;
ALSO HE SMILED AT ME LIKE A BIG DORK BEFORE HANDING THE SHOES BACK AND DASHING OFF! LOLOLOL! ♥__♥!
SO THERE. No one is ever going to convince me that Benedict Cumberbatch does not like his fans. Or that he is too posh. Or anything else completely ridiculous like that... :'D
I am sure he has bad days, but each time I've had the pleasure to see him interact with fans, well, he has always been 100% amazing. I sure haven't heard anyone complain so far. ;)
Moving on, Zachary Quinto! ;) Another super nice dude, omfg. He recognised the girls standing behind me as his fans. Woaaaah.
They had such bad luck with their camera. X.X; The first time Zachary didn't click the button properly, or something? Then they called him back, and then THAT time all they got was a picture zoomed in on his lips. LOL.
So, these are the only pictures they have, which makes me sad. At least we were all still coherent enough to exchange e-mail addresses.=(
From my other side. :'D
Not sure what they were negotiating... all I was capable of at that point was aiming and clicking.
I like this one. :)
Looks like he kissed our India! I ship it! x'DDD
That was it, basically? So V. & L. headed off to the Graham Norton show recording studio... thing. X.x; They were shooting an episode with Chris Pine and Benedict Cumberbatch in it that evening. So I took a picture of were we needed to meet them later. Our goal was to get our hands on some of the posters that were hanging on the fences, b-but only India & wraithness managed to get one. I was kind of gutted? Seriously, I bawled. Haha. (Kay did try to get me one - I'd had enough of asking strangers for things for one day, man! - b-but it wasn't meant to be. Boo.)
Here's what I got instead. ;)
We met up with a friend of India's (who had also been at the première!) and had dinner together! Chinese food cheered me up, yo. My Soy milk was SO HOT that it got stuck to the table. Literally. The waiter had to come and rip the table cloth so I could lift my glass, haha.
Oh, you mean it's hot? Thanks for the warning. ;)
Us at dinner!
wraithness and India with their posters on our way back to the hostel. We had to wake up at 6AM the next morning to go HOOOME. *mournful look!*
That's it for now! It's probably not as detailed as my original draft, b-but I did my best to make it as accurate as possible for boolafaz. These pictures are all from my own camera, by the way. I'll try to get a post with wraithness's funniest up soon. We always seem to act a little more silly in her pictures. I also have a few nice ones Kat sent me, so... we'll see? Maybe I'll add some of V. and L. as well if I can get their permission (possibly in a locked post, though!).
For now, check this out!! x'D It's my arm... photo-bombing on Cineplex's website, haha. Or if you're feeling generous: me taking a picture of Chris Pine & Kat.
If that's not impressive enough, my arm is also featured in this video on Youtube:
Click to viewIt's a really great video, IMO! It gives a pretty amazing overview of the entire event + an idea of the scale of it all... and it might even make you feel like you were right there with us?
☆彡 There's Cumberbuddy at 0:26!
★彡 The moment Chris Pine took a video of us waving at him! Well, loads of fans, but we were among those who waved!
☆彡 At 1:56 there's Zachary Quinto with Kat and a bit of L.?
★彡 There's extraordinary at 2:00 doing some acrobatics (I already took two pictures of them at that point? I think my arm was getting tired... IDEK YOU GUYS! AT LEAST MY CLEAVAGE WAS COVERED YO.) while wraithness IS LOOKING THE OTHER WAY WHUT & India is there, too!
☆彡 The deafening screams for Benedict Cumberbatch at 3:15, then...
★彡 At 3:21 -> 3:30 there's the moment Benedict takes the shoes from me to pose with them, omfg!! It was less than 10 seconds, but I was so terrified it felt like AN HOUR! I swear my Thought Processing Speed (TPS?) at the time could've rivalled Sherlock's, haha. Or did they speed up the video? *shifty eyes!*
As if that still wasn't enough: THERE'S GIFS ON TUMBLR! AND MY POST ABOUT IT HAS 2828 NOTES. YIKES. LOLOLOL!
<- my favourite one, from here!
Yeaaaah, pretty much the. best. moment. ever. ♥___♥