Rantings

Before you ask, yes I took some photos and shall be taking more this evening. I only have about half an hour to compose this, so I shall try to be quick, as I have to zoom off to the Arts Centre shortly.

Thursday's performance was ok-ish. It would have been tons better if there hadn't been a bus trip of 20-odd biddies from the local old folks home. Not that I have anything against old biddies, bless them, but they apparently had been told by their carers that they were coming to see My Fair Lady and could have a good old singalong to the songs. I shouldn't have been surprised when they old dears started talking amongst themselves in rather loud voices. It was rather offputting, and my poor dad (playing Alfred Dolittle) got lost halfway through a particularly long bit of dialogue, tried to recover himself a couple of times, then froze up and said 'shit' on stage!

Last night was marginally better. At least we had a much better audience who laughed in all the right places. But I forgot my lines last night! LOL Thankfully, they were only a few words I forgot and Matt and John rallied to help me out and keep the flow going. I must must must do better tonight!

After this evening's performance we shall be toodling along to the wrap party, so no photos for you until tomorrow, I'm afraid. And I shall be watching Doctor Who (which I will have recorded from tonight's airing) before I do anything with photos, so you will just have to wait. :-) I have my priorities after all.

Right, I have to go and make sure all my stuff is in the boot of the car before I leave.

Toodle pip, dwarlings! Mwah! Mwah!

Lots of Lego Doctor Who videos

Bo-Sco-Foe-Joe-No-Croe-Blow-Coe-Show-Row

Enjoy!

The Dalek Song

... Michelle Collins, aka Cindy Beale from Eastenders, is making an appearance! Could be a good choice, I reckon!

Can this be true? Actor John Simm, who plays DI Sam Tyler in the abso-bloody-lutely brilliant series "Life on Mars" is currently favourite to play The Master in Series 3 of Doctor Who. Excuse me while I have a major 'squee' moment.

Read the article here

Also appearing in Series 3 (from what I've heard) is Derek Jacobi (anyone remember I, Claudius?) and also (God help us) Timmy Mallet. The first person to say Wackaday gets hit over the head. With a pink inflatable mallet.

So, after the Doctor Who exhibition, we went over the road to the Millennium Centre. What a lovely arts centre! Stylish on the outside, stylish on the inside.

Also had my picture taken next to the water tower made famous by the Doctor Who spin off Torchwood. The Torchwood Hub is supposed to be directly beneath this tower under the streets of Cardiff. He he!





Lots more photos were taken, but I won't bore you with geeky details.

So, after we'd done the tour of Cardiff Bay we went back to Aunty Kath's and had time to chat and eat something before we had to get ready to go to the theatre. My Mam had bought an extra ticket online for Aunty, so we had to be there early to collect it from the Box Office. I'm not sure she really wanted to go to see a pantomime, but we all had a great time.

The panto was superb. One cheesy gag after another, lots of innuendo, a man in drag and a pantomime cow! What more could you ask for?! John Barrowman was hilarious, and on several occasions could hardly carry on with the show he was laughing so hard. Aunty Kath thoroughly enjoyed it, and after it was over we went round to the stage door to see if we could get an autograph and a photo. Aunty Kath said she'd never done this before and she was just learning how to be a groupie at 61! Heh heh! She likes JB, though, and is a big Doctor Who and Torchwood fan. Incidentally, it's reassuring to know that I am not the only one in my family that cried bucketloads at the last two episodes of Torchwood ... there were a few tears shed from the Welsh Contingent, also.

So, we got to the front of the queue and got our programmes signed. "Kath with a K", Aunty Kath said, and then, "The pantomime was great, but I bet you're shattered now, bless you!" to which JB replied "Uh-huh". I could hardly stifle the laughter because she'd come over all maternal on him, and I was wondering if she was going to then offer him a cup of tea and some fluffy slippers! Mr Lisa, incidentally, had vanished. I think he's actually quite shy and was probably terrified in case I got him to come and pose in a picture with JB.

I think we were some of the last ones waiting for autographs, and if we'd hung around longer we could have had our pictures taken with him, but we were all cold and it was late, so we decided to get back home and open a bottle of wine. The show had finished at least half an hour later than usual as it was the last one and they wanted to send the whole thing off in style. So, this is the only picture I got of JB on the last night.



To finish off, here are some of my favourite bits from the show:

JB - "I've never danced with a fairy before!"

JB to a small child from the audience - "How are you?"
Small child - "Petrified"
JB - Laughs. "Well it's not that bad. There are only a thousand people watching you and we're going to sing a song in a bit. Where are you from?"
Small child - "Erm ..." Looks into the audience. "Mum, where am I from?"

JB, upon seeing Dame Trot appear on stage dressed in the Welsh flag and a black curly wig - "I always knew my Mom was Shirley Bassey!"

So, as you can no doubt guess, I'm back home. And what a jolly good time we had!

We arrived at my Aunty's in Caerphilly around 10:30pm, and as we hadn't eaten since the afternoon, we had some soup and a roll and sat and drank wine while we chatted and caught up on family gossip. It must have been around 1am when we finally went to bed.

Needless to say I didn't get up bright and early the next morning which what I had planned to do. I had a list of places I wanted to visit and thought it was going to take up my whole day, but it all turned out fine. I just made sure I saw the best places first.

So, after breakfast, off we toddled to the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff to see the Doctor Who exhibition. As we walked up to the entrance I'm guessing my face must have been a picture, because Mr Lisa said "the words 'kid' and 'sweet shop' come to mind"! It was certainly a visual feast, even if it was quite a small exhibition. Very enjoyable. Here is a small selection of photos I took:

Are you bored yet? There is more to come. Watch this space.

I have to admit I'm getting pretty excited now. Yesterday I visited my parents who had just had a weekend in Paris, so they didn't know about my plans to go to Caerphilly/Cardiff tomorrow. I told them about the panto and said it would have been nice if I had three tickets, then I could take my aunty who we'll be staying with. I said I'd already bought a "just because" gift to take down with me ... rose and violet creams from Hotel Chocolat and a bottle of pink champagne ... so my Mum offered to buy an extra ticket! We did it online there and then and have to pick it up from the box office before the performance, and it's for a seat in the row behind us, so not too far away. It will lovely having my aunty coming with us!

So, Saturday ... the plan is to go out early to start exploring all the redevloped areas of Cardiff (eg the Bay area was all seedy docklands when I was last there over twenty years ago) and to visit the Doctor Who exhibition, then home to eat, shower and change and back to the Theatre for the show.

So, a busy weekend ahead of me. Here's hoping that JB is over his throat infection and able to deliver the goods for the final performance. :-) [major squee]

I was making a list of Dr Who related places to visit while I'm in Cardiff, and look what I found! A Doctor Who exhibition which is on currently at the Red Dragon Centre! Wahaay!

Mr Lisa is going with me. Yay! That means no coaches, we can go in the car. Also, he wants to go on Friday instead of Saturday, which means that we can go exploring round Cardiff. I know I'm such a nerdy geek, but I want to go and see some Doctor Who/Torchwood film locations while I'm there.

Squeeee!

Hope you all had a good Christmas! Did Santa bring you everything you wanted?

I'm still pooterless, so currently hijacking Mr Lisa's laptop for now. I don't have long to update you all.

Me? I got the latest Terry Pratchett book, "Wintersmith". Also, the complete boxed set of Farscape Season 3 (Mr Lisa got me Seasons 1 and 2 last year), the complete Life on Mars (Yay! Can't wait for a Series 2) and the complete boxed set of Doctor Who Series One (the one with Christopher Eccleston). A geek's paradise!

Speaking of which ... wasn't the Christmas Day Special of Doctor Who great?! I was pleasantly surprised by Catherine Tate as I don't usually enjoy watching her on telly, and Sarah Parish as the Empress of the Racnoss was just superb. Also on Christmas Day was the Doctor Who Confidential Christmas Special which went behind the scenes of the Doctor Who concert which was held at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff in aid of Children In Need. Just wonderful.

And yesterday? Well, the wonderful John Barrowman got hitched, of course, to his long term partner of 16 years, Scott Gill. Some nice photos to be found here, including some rather lovely pictures of JB in his kilt (swoon). It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling and makes me proud to be British (which is a rare thing in itself) to know that same sex couples are entitled to just the same rights as everyone else. And quite rightly so.

Speaking of JB, I can now own up to my little jaunt last month when I went in search of an unusual Christmas gift for Mr Lisa. As I had been keeping it a surprise for him I couldn't really write about it in my blog in case he reads it. I don't think he has so far, but you never know. Well, let's just say I got him a signed and personalised copy of JB's CD "Swings Cole Porter". Damn that man has a good voice. Also, I got myself a nice photo of JB autographed and personalised for me, and my picture taken with Captain Jack himself. He was so patient and polite while I fumbled and got lost for words, a real gent.






Right, I think that's it for now. I'm going away for New Year (Whitby) so I may not update till I get back. In the meantime, here are some photos from the last Whitby Gothic Weekend.

Is it because you are looking forward to getting lots of prezzies? Is it because you get to spend quality time with your family? Is it because you get to eat and drink as much as you like without anyone nagging about your expanding waistline/heart/teeth*?

* delete as appropriate

Nope, none of the above for me. This year it's because the Christmas Special edition of Doctor Who, "The Runaway Bride" is on TV!

Me? Sad? Whatever gave you that idea?