It was Wicked!

No really it was... Alan took me to see Wicked! at the Victoria Apollo Theatre in London.Totally awesome show and highly recommended if you get a chance to see it. 
Not many picks but here's the stage with the awesome Dragon at the top, representing the Dragon Time Clock that features more in the book.

We stepped out of the theatre about 10:30pm to this - a snow-covered London - and a chilly, slippery walk between theatre and underground, underground and hotel. It was beautiful though.

Awakened early in the morning - well 9am - with an announcement that the "staff were investigating an alarm condition but no action was necessary yet" - we wandered down for a lush buffet breakfast: fruit salad, organic yoghurt, cooked breakfast, juice & coffee.

By lunch time we were back on the train to Basingstoke and on our way home. There wasn't very much snow at home, but took this pic from the window of the train as we zoomed through the countryside.

Birthday Treat - Dr Huge (lots of pics!)

Having wandered and wondered all around the National Gallery, the next stop was Olympia 2 for the Doctor Who Experience (known as Dr Huge in our house, not sure why). On the way into the experience there are lots of models, figures and memorabilia to check out:

First up are some Silurians (Homo Reptilia) from the 2010 story "The Hungry Earth"

We couldn't take any photos in the Experience, and to be honest it was more aimed at younger kids but did like the 3D short film towards the end and the tardis that moved and shook as you stood around the console was pretty cool.

On the other side loads more memorabilia - David Tennant's PJs

The costumes from all 11 Doctors - this is the 1st - William Hartnell (1963-66) - unfortunately it's only a replica as the original has been lost

2nd Doctor - Patrick Troughton (1966-69) - this one is also a replica as the original has been lost

John Pertwee (Dr Number 3) (1970-74)

4th Doctor - Tom Baker (1974-81)

5th Doctor - Peter Davison (1981-84)

6th Doctor - Colin Baker (1984-86)

7th Doctor  - Sylvester McCoy (1987-89 & 1996)

8th Doctor - Paul McGann (1996)

9th Doctor - Christopher Eccleston - 2005

10th Doctor - David Tennant - 2005-2010

and the 11th Doctor - Matt Smith (2010-now)

The Face of Bo

A Tardis console

A Time Lord

Kylie Minogue's costume from the Christmas Special 2007

Amy Pond (Karen Gillan)

Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)

Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman)

Rose Tyler (Billie Piper)

Captain Jack Harness (John Barrowman)

K-9 (my personal favourite)

The Tardis Console (from 1983-89)

Police Box (I think this is an older one from the 1980s)

Now on to the baddies and the uglies!
Davros - creator of the Daleks

A rank of different Daleks, oldest on the left... I can't remember the details but there have been many dalek incarnations.

Slitheen

Sontarans

The Tardis console from the story "The Doctor's Wife"

My birthday weekend

Started early Saturday as we intended to queue to see the Leonardo Exhibition at the National Gallery. So here's Alan (and me behind the camera) at a cold Basingstoke Railway Station at 6:45am - waiting for the coffee shop to open and our train due at 7:09am

See how early we were, the station was almost deserted and it was still dark!

We arrived at Waterloo at 7:55 - optimistic there wouldn't be too many people in the queue that early (the gallery opens at 10am) - hopped on the Northern Line to Charing Cross.

The National Gallery faces on to Trafalgar Square, Nelson's Colum and the London Olympic Countdown Clock. Unfortunately we were wrong about the queue. There were already 1000+ people there, some having started queueing at 10pm the night before - bearing in mind it was about -3 celsius when were standing there, on the exposed and windy square - I don't want to think about how cold those people were! We would have had to queue until 2pm to get a ticket to come back about 9pm that night. We had plans for the evening and I didn't really want to stand in the cold for 6 hours on the chance we may have gotten a ticket before the gallery closed at midnight. We decided that it would have been nice to see the exhibition but not worth frostbite and went to Caffe Nero across the square to warm up.

This is one of the fountains on Trafalgar Square, iced but still working - it had melted by the time we left the gallery at lunchtime so I'm guessing this ice is just from the night before

From the window of Caffe Nero - my archetypal photo of London - Black taxi, red bus, red telephone boxes and Nelson's Column (and a pigeon)

We toured the ordinary exhibitions around the National Gallery. To call them ordinary is not fair though, there were some amazing paintings. You can take a virtual tour here. We'll have to go back to see more of the exhibitions another time. Alan's favourite was The Fighting Temeraire by Turner. I really liked this one The Virgin and Child ('The Madonna with the Iris') that came from the workshop of Albrecht Dürer - you can't see it until you zoom into the picture but the painting of the transparent veil is exquisite.

And then we headed off to Olympia 2 to the Doctor Who Experience - hence the smile - Alan is a huge Dr Who fan, particularly the Tom Baker version (4th incarnation) - I swear one year I am going to knit him the Tom Baker scarf

(to be continued)

Finishing Frenzy - 12th Project

Ready to start, fabric, buttons and thread chosen for this piece...
Plan is to stitch this one onto a flanged pillow with the four buttons in the corners...

And sometimes a plan comes together almost as expected!!

A really hectic week here and there

Lots of to-ing and fro-ing. Wednesday - 200 miles to Leeds University with my son Tom for a look around the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Faculty - one word can sum up our tour of the facilities - Amazing! Thursday - Brixton London to take Cat and friend to Panic! At the Disco at the Brixton Academy whilst Alan and I had a leisurely date at the Ritzy cinema and cafe around the corner
Saturday - another really early start - trip to London to see the Leonardo exhibition hopefully, a show and then a night in a hotel for a lay in and room-service!!
Oh and my 40th birthday is on Sunday