Notes of Life

Following on from (last) Friday…

Saturday morning Chris & I got up early and hailed a taxi to Euston to catch one of the few trains to Milton Keynes that morning. We caught up with Erykah, Sathy, Nicky, Cryssie, Lyvvie and Sylvie on the train platform and all piled into one carriage with our tonne of luggage.

Once at MK Chris & I made our way up to the Jury’s Inn Hotel to see if we could leave our luggage there until we could sign in. Thankfully, they’d got a room ready and we were allowed to sign in so we could take our bags up to our room. We then headed up to MK shopping centre and Collectormania.

At some point, while dodging the crowd, I nearly walked into Leslie Phillips! A little while later Chris got his autograph and a photo taken with him. June Whitfield was signing next to him.

Chris & I got James Marsters’ autograph (again!) as well having our photos taken with him. He wasn’t feeling good as his arm was hurting, but his day wasn’t about to get better… Apparently he got groped sometime after that.

In the afternoon Chris & I headed back to the hotel to rest our sore feet. We watched some TV and talked before going to look for something to eat.

We ended up at the Chinese restaurant up the street from the hotel. The service could have been better, but the staff were polite and the food was lovely. We then went back to the hotel bar for a drink where we bumped into Nicky & Erykah. After a chat with them we ended up at a party in a hotel room on the 2nd floor with them and a few others! There was drink, food and lots of talking. We were quite loud so everytime there was a knock on the door I half expected it to be the manager! Chris & I departed a bit before midnight as we were expecting another early start in the morning.

Sunday morning the alarm went at 6.20am, but I reset it for 7am as I was far too tired to get up. We made it up to Collectormania just after 8am where there was already a huge queue just for virtual tickets for John Barrowman & Eve Myles (Gwen in Torchwood). My virtual ticket for John Barrowman was #280-something and I know at least 1200 were given out… possibly more than that!

A bit later on Chris’ husband Ron met up with us having driven down especially to give us a lift home. We went for a drink in Costa Coffee and while sat down Kai Owen (Rhys from Torchwood) walked in. He recognised Chris & Ron from the previous weekend and had a quick chat with them before dashing off.

Throughout the day we had our photos taken with John Barrowman, James Marsters (again) and Eve Myles (Ron also had a photo taken with Eve as a treat for his birthday). I also got Kai Owen’s autograph as well as John Barrowman’s. This time James was sat on a stool for his photo sessions due to being groped the previous day. As I saw first hand, he was also groped on Sunday. James was getting upset at this and who’d blame him! I’d be surprised if he agreed to do photo sessions again, unfortunately for him, he’d got more photo sessions on Monday (I assume they went ahead, but I was at home by then).

After a bite to eat and collecting our photographs we headed up the motorway in the direction of home. Unfortunately, the weather seemed to be getting worse the closer to Wales we got!

By the time I went to bed it wasn’t just the weather that was bad… I didn’t feel too good either. Still, I did have a great few days away.

… Fantastic! Fantastic! FANTASTIC!

I’ve just come home after going to see John Barrowman in Cardiff last night. He started his tour at the Millennium Centre and what a start it was! John sang songs from his latest solo album Another Side as well as others. John used them to tell us about his life (both personal and professional). One of my favourites was when he sang a song from the musical Wicked, only he changed the words slightly… It described Captain Jack’s feelings for The Doctor (Doctor Who)… and it was brilliant! John’s background is musicals and it shows. He really is a great showman!

John Barrowman’s support act last night was Connie Fisher. John told her to kick the habit and she really did. She was the perfect choice as John’s support act and she did a wonderful job. Of course, she couldn’t help but mention her new album out later this year.

Yesterday was my first visit to the Wales Millennium Centre. It’s beautiful on the outside (picture below) and the theatre itself is stunning. I visited during the day yesterday… I sat in the cafe for a drink and then followed my ears. I could hear live music… Various people (who had already been through auditions) were taking their turn to sing on a little stage at one end of the Millennium Centre. I stood and watched for a while and there was definitely some talent up on stage. The funny thing was as this girl was singing with such a beautiful voice this old man walked past with his hands over his ears! I couldn’t help but laugh!

Look who I bumped into today! OK, maybe not bumped in to… more like queued for over 2 hours on a cold & windy high street in Birmingham. I looked extremely windswept and the lovely John Barrowman looked perfect!

JB was only supposed to be signing books for an hour, but I’m guessing he stayed a bit longer (depending on his schedule) as the queue stretched right down the High Street.

I took this photo (click to enlarge) while I was in the queue. A couple of police officers had come in and he asked if he was in trouble. It turns out the male police officer just wanted to take JB’s photo!

When it was my turn I had my photo taken with JB (which turned out awful - I was windswept and the Waterstone’s staff member who took the photo had obviously never used a digital camera before), my book personally signed and a smile, then I was off. Happy as Larry.

JB’s autobiography Anything Goes has jumped the queue and is now next on my pile of books to read. I’m currently half-way through Gary Barlow’s autobiography My Take (the updated paperback version), which is very interesting so far. I’ve also got Richard Hammond’s account of his life before & after his terrifying high-speed car crash while filming for Top Gear - On The Edge - waiting to be read, as well as one or two other books.

January usually sees the return of Jack Bauer and ‘24? on our TVs (well on my TV, anyway!). Unfortunately, Kiefer Sutherland is currently sat in jail and the 7th season of ‘24? is on hold indefinately due to the writers strike. Filming hasn’t finished on the series and the season needs to air uninterupted due to its format, so it looks like we’ve got a bit of a wait for this one. I have seen a trailer for the forthcoming season and it looks great, so I’m sure it will be worth the wait.

Another show I’m looking forward to is Torchwood season 2, starting 16th January on BBC2. The first episode of the season not only stars the wonderful John Barrowman (obviously!), but it also stars another favourite of mine, James Marsters as Captain John Hart. Videos (including spoilers - so BEWARE!) can be found over at the Episodes section of the website - Link.

Talking of John Barrowman… His autobiography (so far!) Anything Goes (written with his sister) is released on 24th January (UK) and in April (US). Yet another book for me to add to my growing pile, but one I’m sure I’ll enjoy. John will also be doing book signings… and I am very tempted! The book will also be available as an abridged audiobook.

Everybody Loves Raymond is currently in my DVD player. I finished season 7 last night and will probably start season 8 at the weekend. I have yet to buy season 9 though, so I guess I’d better hurry up on that score!

I couldn’t help myself last weekend while passing through WH Smith. They had a sale on DVDs, so I couldn’t resist taking a look… and buying 4 DVDs (including In Pursuit of Happyness)! I had a bargain though. The DVDs cost me £19 in total, with one of them only costing £1. I also found a bargain in Woolworths. I managed to buy Take That’s official 2008 calendar for £2.49 - Definiately a bargain!

This

This might be worth checking out. Tin Man (you may recognise the character’s name from The Wizard of Oz) is a new mini-series about to be shown on the Sci Fi Channel in the US. After spending time looking around the website, I’m hoping it comes to the Sci Fi Channel (or any other channel) in the UK. It looks to be a lot darker than the original book/film, but that doesn’t stop me wanting to sing “We’re off to see the wizard….”!

A colleague recently went to see Wicked the musical in London and has been raving about it, so I’ve got a bit of a feeling for all things Oz at the moment. I’d love to see Wicked and from what I’ve seen and heard, it’s well worth going to see.

That

I’ve been looking through the 100+ photos I took at Take That’s concert on the 17th and decided to upload two or three more.

The rest can be found over at Flickr and here.