17

Yesterday we walked around Cardiff bay and Mermaid Quay. There's a giant festival currently going on in the middle of the open oval boardwalk, with a bunch of rides for children. There was a helter-skelter, the first time I'd seen one. There were also these plastic spheres floating on a pool with children inside. Like bubble soccer minus the control. And a ride that consisted of harnessing the kid to two elastic cords and letting them jump and flip on a trampoline (they go really high because of the cords). There was even live steel drumming happening.

It was fun to see the fair, but it covered up the entire quay so I couldn't see it how it was in Doctor Who. They used Mermaid Quay in a couple of key scenes during Tennant's run, and I got to lean on the exact same railing David and Freema Agyeman leaned on in one scene while Harkness ran across to them. Even with all the festivities, it was fun to imagine them filming it here exactly where I was standing, with the Tardis prop in the centre of the Quay.

We took a ride on the permanently installed ferris wheel. From there we could see the barrage that keeps the bay (fed by two rivers) fresh water, as well as the entire fair below us and the giant Doctor Who experience in the distance on the coast towards the barrage. They have a model of the Tardis set up in front of it, so when you look across the bay you can see a Tardis just sitting there. It's really cool. For a moment you can imagine that it's actually the real thing, sitting silently and innocently in Cardiff by the sea. After the Ferris wheel, we stopped at a Sainsbury's and got some kettle chips for the walk home. Then we walked home.

 

Today we went to the Doctor Who experience. It was really cool, especially for someone who knows a lot about the show. The more details you knew, the more you could enjoy it.

We left the house around 11:45am to start walking to the place. We booked our tickets last night. It's only another five minute walk from the bay to get there, a total of about twenty minutes. It's nice to be staying so close to the bay (as well as downtown- same distance in the other direction).

The lobby was cool enough- three daleks (one out of Lego), a Tardis, a weeping angel, an ice warrior, a vintage Doctor Who pinball machine, toy vending machines and coins pressers for souvenirs, gallifreyen robes and message boxes, and a cyberman's head. And this was even before getting through the doors. I was very excited to be there. I got a five centimetre tall dalek figurine from a vending machine. The boys got pressed pennies.

The first thing you do there is go through the "experience", a kind of live semi-interactive guided adventure with the twelfth Doctor. You start in a dark room, they give you the intro, then suddenly something "goes wrong" and red lights start flashing. The tour guide says we need to evacuate, but then a crack on the wall opens and suddenly we're in the heart of the Tardis. The whole set up is very clever: Capaldi has pre-recorded segments where he's "talking" to the tour guide, who responds at the proper times to make it seem like a two-way conversation. Each room is atmospherically lit and decorated. I think it would have been very easy to get swept away in the amazingness that is this world on screen coming to life around you, if it weren't for the twenty other people shuffling along with cameras and coats and backpacks and expressions of unimpressedness. Basically, you go through a series of rooms and travel in the Tardis and to Skaro and narrowly escape a room of daleks and a room of weeping angels, all while finding three crystals the doctor needs to save the day. It is all very cleverly done. I would love to go through again with a group of actors, and really get into the story with the tour guide. I want to go in with a group of people really committed to playing their roles, so much so that we surprise the guide. I think that could be a lot of fun, because the rooms and sets and sounds and lights were so realistic! I just need to take advantage of that and fully pretend it's real for the half hour or so that you get to be in there. I also think it would be an amazing job to be the tour guide. You get to act and be enthusiastic, and better you do the more fun people have. I would love to do that.

After the experience (very fun, almost surreal), you get released into the exhibition hall. Two levels of almost every prop, costume, and set (most originals) ever used on Doctor who. Needless to say I spent a good couple hours in there. They had three full Tardis consoles set up, including the one from nine's run. The original set, refurbished. You could stand right in there next to the doors leading outside the Tardis and just take it in. I stood there for a good while, inside the Tardis. It was just so real, right there, something I'd only ever seen on screen. I think if I ever get a chance to be on Doctor who, even just once, even just some person running away or a passerby or the human victim of some terrible alien, my life would be complete. Starting now, I have made that a goal in my life. Be on an episode of Doctor who at some point. That would be amazing. I mean it's not going to happen, but it can be a goal.

I spent a long time looking at all the costumes. They had all the costumes of the doctors of course, up to twelve, but they also had tons of the companion's costumes (again, most originals! I got to see the actual clothing the actors wore during filming. How awesome is that). Amy Pond, Rory, Donna Noble, Rose Tyler, Sarah Jane, Clara Oswald, River Song, Jack Harkness (and the Face of Boe- the original giant prop) Madame Vastra and Jenny (my two favourites), and Strax. There may have been more as well. There were all the monsters you could think of as well: all the different kinds and iterations and evolutions of daleks and cybermen, the silence, the ice warriors, the silurians, the veil, the scarecrows, the hath, the ood, Davros, the moment, the weeping angels, zygons, and many more including some from the older years that I didn't recognize. There was a yeti costume used back in the 70's or 60's, which was the oldest preserved screen-used costume of the BBC.

There were exhibits sharing interesting tidbits on the filming of the show. One was the fact that the original sound of the Tardis landing was made by scraping a key up a piano string. Very cool.

At the gift shop, I got a t-shirt, a Tardis tin of mints (which are too strong to eat, but I wanted the tin), and 10 themed postcards. Tobin got the latest sonic screwdriver to replace his other one which broke a while ago, by being stepped on I think. Then we walked home. It rained a bit, off and on, so we more like ran home taking breaks under sheltered areas.

All in all, I throughly enjoyed the Doctor Who experience. It reminded me of my love for the show, along with my love for film and acting in general. But mostly my love for the show. And I tried to take advantage of the cheapest time I would have to buy Doctor Who merchandise. An entire large-ish gift shop devoted to Doctor Who themed products, at reasonable prices. That does not come around often. If you wanted to, you could use that shop to wake up on your Doctor Who sheets staring at your Doctor Who poster in your Doctor Who jammies. Have a shower, dry off with your Doctor Who towel, then get dressed in your Doctor Who hoodie or dress.  Have cereal from your Doctor Who bowl and coffee in your Doctor Who mugs. Write a quick note on your Doctor Who notepad with your Doctor Who pen. Put some money in your Doctor Who wallet and don't forget your keys with the Doctor Who keychain or your Doctor Who bracelet or your £160+ Doctor Who gold watch or your official Doctor Who celery pin. Type a quick text on your phone with the Doctor Who case to say you might be late for the Star Trek meeting.

 

Then home. I watched a bit of a show called The Secret Life of Four-year-olds. It's like a reality drama, but with kids. It gets intense too. Marriages, friendships, candy stealing. I got really into it. Next time they're back with five-year-olds.

Canada got bronze in women's rugby! Yes! But we missed watching it because we were watching Naked Attraction instead. It's the weirdest dating show. All I'll say is that it would be banned in North America, I'm sure.

British TV, man.

 

                     

16

We can now post Gishwhes Submissions online! So here they are. 

 

                

So. It was a crazy awesome week. Looking forward to next year when we can do even more!

15

Yesterday we drove from Thrushes to Cardiff, in the middle of outgoing Friday traffic from London. It took a good two maybe three hours more to get here than we thought it would.

We have a small apartment here in Cardiff. It has doors on springs, which can get annoying very fast. It's also quite small for five people, but it will be fine for the two-ish weeks we're here.

Last night we watched the Olympic opening ceremony. It was neat to watch live, but we didn't make it through all the county names. We got to letter M.

Today was the last day for Gishwhes, so we finished up the last items we could. There are a lot of un submitted but subscribed-to items that I hope our team members get in before tomorrow.

There's a park right across the street from us here, which I brought Tobin to today in order for him to let out some of his energy. During this time, the rest of our family went to a big grocery store by car and stocked up on at least a hundred pounds worth of food. I think we're set for awhile. Olympic rowing was on TV during dinner.

Well, off I go to my pull out sofa bed. It's tricky because it's in the middle of the living room/kitchen, so it's harder for me to sleep in. It also means I can't go to bed until I kick everyone out of the main area. But at least I don't have to share a room.

14

(There are more words beneath the pictures)

Sitting in the Geneva airport. It was a bit of a hectic mess getting here. Leaving the house was fine, but then we tried to go to a gas station before the airport. First the one we found didn't work, so we tried another one. Then we wanted to get to the airport, so we put in what we thought was the airport to the satnav. But upon arrival it was just another gas station. So we cancelled that and tried again, choosing a different address that looked like the airport. But alas it rerouted us to exactly the same gas station as before. At this point everyone was frazzled,  and extremely frustrated, Lise especially. There's not a lot Julias, Tobin, and I could do from the backseat, so we stayed out of it mostly.  Jeff took over and selected the airport by moving  a crosshairs on the map to where we remembered the airport building was. It worked, except that it was slightly off so we had to turn off the satnav after we saw signs for the airport. Finally we were at the quick drop off space, where Julias, Tobin, and I got out with our day packs and three of our four big bags to check. And here we are waiting sitting on the sleeping bag big bag and the floor. Just waiting for Lise and Jeff to come back after dropping off the rental car with a full tank of gas (the gas had been run down since we filled it up thanks to the friggin satnav).

So I think if we don't get a satnav in England, it won't be the end of the world. I have saved our entire route from Heathrow to Woking to Petersfield, so we can make it to our destination. Actually at this point I kinda hope we don't have one. (We're stopping in Woking for me to buy an etch-a-sketch from the toys -r-us there. Gishwhes. Also, did you know that Alec Guiness was buried in Petersfield? That will also be useful). Speaking of Gishwhes, it's not a magic thing that makes everything always better. It's Gishwhes week but we are still in stressful travel situations where the priorities are not making origami toilet paper or making videos or inventing forms. Unfortunately. Fortunately, I have the supplies to work on three Gishwhes items on the plane, including a roll or toilet paper that I kinda stole from the house in Bremgarden. So that's in my carry-on.

 

Now we're sitting on the plane, still at the gate. Haven't left yet. We found a whole bunch of good-quality gluten free chocolate in the airport, and we needed to use up our francs, so we bought eight bars and a toblerone for each of Julias and Tobin. We're set for chocolate. Now just figuring out the best way to make use of a plane in Gishwhes. Not everyone will have a plane.

There are a bunch of scouts or something from England in front of us. A big group of teenagers. The safety video didn't work so now they're doing it manually.

 

We got through heathrow after a couple hours. I managed to get some potential Gishwhes stuff on the plane. We stopped in Woking with our rental car. It was a giant mall, and just closing, but we made it on time. I got my etch-a-sketch (and a mini tiny one-it's so cute!) and I saw a 50's American style burger joint in the mall that was perfect for another Gishwhes item, except that we didn't have Jedi costumes so we couldn't do it.

Jeff and the boys got food from McDonalds (the only fast food store still open) while Lise and I walked to another anointing mall to get salads and crisps from Sainsbury's for dinner. Total for three salads and a big bag of potato chips was 6£. Not too bad at all, considering Julias' burger cost 3£.

Now it's 7:30pm, and we're on the road to Drake and Anna's with Lise navigating. We have no satnav. I navigated from Heathrow to Woking. It was weird getting used to the driver on the right, I kept feeling like I was meant to be driving, but the steering wheel wasn't there so I panicked.

I feel bad for not completing more Gishwhes items yet today, but it was a super busy stressful travel day and I did a bunch yesterday and I worked on some today. And I got an etch-a-sketch (17£) for the sole purpose of Gishwhes. So I think I'm ok.

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Just spent all last night organizing a Gishwhes item back home, phoning and emailing and texting till 1am. It's the next day now. Julias, Drake, and I went shopping to stock up on candy for two Gishwhes items. Also just normal shopping. We stopped at Alec Guinness' grave and snapped a picture. The gardener at the graveyard had a strong London accent. He helped us find the site.

 

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Another day has passed. Again another late night which is why I didn't post yesterday. I was working on a four foot replica of Winchester cathedral until about 1:40am. I was also remotely supervising the quartet at the dentist back home, which went pretty smoothly all things considered. I helped a family driving from heathrow to Portsmouth who were completely lost at 1am. I showed them a map, hope it helped. They were completely lost after following a diversion because of a closure and somehow ended up driving through skinny country lanes in the pitch black. I empathized with them wholeheartedly.

 

Today, after a delicious lunch of borscht, we went to Winchester cathedral, and I posed with my four-foot scale model. Then later we went to the fire station and the town square for three more Gishwhes items. Let's just say that I had paper cut out desserts on my face, we had two pineapples and two solid-colour overalls, and a recording of the song "The Love Cats". All essential ingredients for a successful Gishwhes outing. I am so looking forward to doing this next year.

Dinner was amazing salmon with lemon and potatoes and garlic and beans and tomatoes, most of which came from the garden. I think I've been forgetting to emphasize the amazingness of the food that is made here. It's amazing.

This evening I spent about five hours creating Che Guevara in chips and candy.

So that wasn't a lot of blogging for three days, but I was pretty occupied with all the crazy things for Gishwhes. I'm not allowed to post photos or videos of the items right now. But I can tell you they're all incredible. 

Cathedral:

 

  

13

Worked the entire day on Gishwhes. Had barbecue in the evening with host family, was really good. Went out in the evening to see fireworks because it's Swiss National Day. Fireworks all across the horizon, big official firework display as well. Brought penny whistle, played some stuff, inhaled a bug and had to stop. Tomorrow early rise for flight to London.