Rantings

Being a sci-fi nerd with my geek compass pointing torchwards and tardiswards, is it any wonder I have to do this?

Happy 40th birthday Mr B!

[waves in the general direction of Cardiff]

Ok, geek moment over. As you were, folks.

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!"

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 never thought that I would ever begin a blog entry by talking about the weather, yet here I am, breaking with tradition by asking what the weather is like in your neck of the woods.

So ... what's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

It's been really freaky here. Yesterday we had torrential rainstorms and the sky was so do dark we were working in twilight for much of the morning. Then, in the afternoon it stopped all of a sudden and the sun came out. This is was obviously intended to lull us into a false sense of security because no sooner had our spirits started to lift and the winds came. Gale force winds which knocked you off your feet and made a hell of a mess of your hair.

Seems they had blown over from the west where some folks have died in accidents caused by hurricane-strength winds. All very scary stuff and what the hell is happening with our weather anyway? Who did we give permission to mess with our weather? How dare they?

Wherever you are and whatever you do, if possible stay indoors and stay safe.

On a lighter note I have in my possession a pair of tickets for the pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, in Cardiff for the very last performance on 27th January which is next Saturday. As John Barrowman is in it, and he's my latest obsession, I really really want to go but I'm a bit strapped for cash. Driving all the way there is going to be just too expensive - I reckon £80+ in petrol alone, so I will have to get the coach if it is only going to be me travelling down. Thankfully, I have a lovely aunty in Caerphilly who will put me up, so no overnight hotel bills to fork out for. However, Mr Lisa hasn't decided whether he wants to go or not, and if he isn't going then I need to book a coach ticket and I have to do that at least 7 days beforehand, which kind of means I have to do it today, and he won't make a bloody decision! Yeeaargh! I get the feeling he's deliberately stringing me along as he knows I like John Barrowman and would love to see him live in the panto.

Bloody men!

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.

Apologies if you're getting bored of hearing about him, but for those of you who can't get enough of him, don't forget to tune into Radio 2 tonight at 7:30pm for Friday Night is Music Night, where Mr Barrowman himself will be singing a selection of songs from our favourite musicals, along with a festive selection of carols. This is a recording of the BBC Christmas concert which took place on the 18th.

If, for whatever reason, you can't listen to it on air, you can listen to it for up to a week after, at the BBC website, here.

Ok, so who watched the Royal Variety Performance last night? And I defy anyone to say they didn't swoon when John Barrowman did the last number at the close of the show. That shameless Torchwood plug halfway through was a bit cheesey, but I can live with that.

However, I was quite disturbed by Barry Manilow's performance. So much so that I had to fast forward it (I was lucky I was watching it an hour behind everyone else due to the wonders of Sky+). I couldn't help but think that he'd had so many face lifts he no longer looked human, nor could he stop smiling as his face has been stretched into a pained rictus. Now then, that's just given me a good idea for a new monster in Doctor Who ...

Woo hoo! I'm so pleased! My current favourite programme is to continue for a second series, the BBC have just announced today!

"BBC Three's Torchwood is back for a second series but this time it will premiere exclusively on BBC Two as confirmed by Jane Tranter, Controller of BBC Fiction, and BBC Two Controller Roly Keating.

Starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, Torchwood has captivated audiences and smashed records.

It attracted an audience of 2.4 million viewers for the broadcast of its first two episodes - securing the highest-ever audiences for a BBC Three programme and the highest-ever ratings for a non-sport programme to air across all channels in digital history."

Click here for the full press release

Yippeeee!