I've met Tom Burke...and He's Lovely :-)

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I have met Tom Burke!!!!! Will I ever get over this? (Possibly... when I'm about 90!)

Breathe woman breathe!

It was an amazing experience queuing up waiting for the doors to open to the event. People were dressed in the most fabulous costumes. For the die hard Comic Con fan it must be such a highlight to dress up and meet your favourite stars. People were stopping them to have photo's taken with them, they were possibly more popular than the actual stars!

Once in the actual convention centre I headed straight off to get my photo done with Tom. Sadly I was so excited I couldn't do anything other than squeal! I think I almost leapt on the poor fellow, throwing my arms round him and beaming brightly. This from a woman who HATES having here photo taken! Seriously, there are hardly any photo's of me in existence and I don't even know if or what he said to me. I was so oblivious and happy to be within his presence I just entered this strange alternate universe where I wasn't aware of anything around me. I was gloating. Is this what it felt like being a twelve year old when Take That formed?!!!!

Anyway, after the initial squealing of photo shoot, the Burketeers headed upstairs to the signing area... and pretty much camped out there for the rest of the day! Poor Tom, every time he looked up there we were grinning like Cheshire Cats and taking photo's. Forget the paparazzi, Burketeers will keep that camera clicking all day, but we will do it in full view, we don't hide away!

Soon it became our turn to get autographs and I had a drawing I had done for him to sign. Ohh a chance to chat and I blew it! Well I say I blew it, I just blathered on and on at him about random stuff. Never let the poor bloke say anything, or if I did I was so excitable I just waffled on over him.

At the end of the day we asked if he would do a photo with all of us, he said yes and got Luke and Maimie in on the photo too, but he made it clear this photo was only for his Burketeers :-)

Such a fantastic genuine man, and a great day that will live on in many people's lives!  All I can say is thank you Tom for being such a brilliant and patient human being!

Tom signing my drawing of him as the character Davy from the film Third Star (If you've never seen it, it is a much watch film. Tom and Benedict Cumberbatch are amazing in this film).

OMG I'm off to Comic Con

So today I have headed down to London Town! I'm going to Comic Con tomorrow. I have NEVER done anything like this before... and the only reason I am going down is because Tom Burke will be there (Luke Pasquelino and Mamie McCoy are also there... sorry but I am going to meet Tom).

I am beyond excited, and what's even nicer is I will be meeting up with a few Burketeers I met in April, and a new Burketeer, who comes from my home town, although she moved down south a few years ago!

As it costs a fortune to travel to London, I have decided I should make the most of things and visit a couple of exhibitions today. My hotel is across the road from the Imperial War Museum, and they have an exhibition on 40's fashion. I love vintage fashion so it was nice to see a 40's exhibition. It wasn't too large and concentrated more on the uniforms and "make do and mend" era of the decade rather than the end of the decade and the decadence of Dior, but it was really interesting, although not glamorous!

I then travelled down to the V&A to make a new friend and see an exhibition about shoes (Pleasure and Pain). It was a stunning exhibition showing gorgeous shoes by Vivienne Westwood, Louboutin and Jimmy Choo. The glass shoes from the recent film Cinderella were also on show, but what made me and Nikki scream like schoolgirls and start taking photos? Yup, an old pair of Musketeer boots! Seriously there is no hope for us. It really broke the ice as we tweeted the designer of the show the boots we had seen!

After the V&A I said I could do with popping to Fortnum and Masons to replenish some of my tea supplies. As I was crossing the road I fell over my feet (I was sober and wearing flats shoes) and I just landed flats on my face in the middle of the road! Nikki looked traumatized whilst I lay there screaming grab my phone, don't let it get run over. Seriously all someone needed to do was get a can of white paint and draw a line around me. I looked like a body on CSI!

Well after getting over the initial embarrassment, I thinks that cemented the deal on us becoming good friends, and something she can always laugh at me about!!

I was reunited from my other Burketeer friends as we met up for our dinner (Nikki and I obliviously sitting next to the restaurant drinking tea, we had to ask the waitress where the restaurant was and she pointed to a door a few feet away from where we were sat.)

Anyway, need to get some sleep, seeing Tom tomorrow ;-)

 

Parc Guell

Got the bus up to Parco Guell, another Gaudi masterpiece. It was soooooo hot. It was scorching, the sun was relentless and there was hardly any shade. I was hoping moving out of the city and up the hill would be a bit breezier, but no. Hot hot hot! The parc was interesting, but there were too many people, too many queues and too many dodgy traders trying to flog you stuff. I didn't want to say anything, but secretly I was hoping we might go for another cup of tea, yes I am somewhat obsessed! Anyway, prayers answered, my friend suggested it. Get in there! My tea disliking friend wanted to head back into the city and sit in the cool tea shop with something to eat and drink! Good excuse to go and get some more tapas too!!!

Barcelona & Time for Czech tea!

I'm in Spain. Not been here before, and I'm looking forward to the next few days. The hotel is really nice, and in a quiet part of town. It's nice to be away with someone, makes going for food a bit more fun as you're more likely to try something new!





We met a really lovely local couple who gave us the heads up about the area in the first restaurant we sat down in. They asked what we were interested in, and gave us an itinerary and a note of good places to eat. I thought that was so lovely of them to take the time and trouble to ensure that we didn't waste time trying to find our bearings. We knew where we wanted to go, and they pointed us in the right direction!


The architecture here is stunning. It is a bit like walking around Prague, look up and you will see some beautiful stonework. Unlike Prague, a lot of this is obscure and modern!

Above is Casa Batllo shown in the day, and then when lit up at night. Sometimes known as the house of bones or house of yawns, I prefer to think of it as a sleeping dragon, I mean just look at that scaley roof!

 This is another piece of Gaudi's work, La Pedrera commissioned by a wealthy couple who wanted a building in the Passeig de Gracia. They hired Gaudi and the building was completed between 1906 and 1912.

Time for tapas, a glass of fizz and a trip down the road to watch the fountain change colour before going back to the hotel and bed!


Oh yes. I might be in Barcelona, but I've found a Czech inspired tea shop, Caj Chai. My friend found it, but she's not a big fan of tea, but after spending the morning in the searing heat and walking around the cathedral we both headed off with map in hand to find the tea shop.

We started speaking to the owner, and we asked what had got him interested in tea. He said he had been in Prague for sometime, and that is where he learnt all about the stuff, then he came home and opened his tea shop. I spoke to him about Prague and he recommended another shop for me to try next time I am over there. He also recommended somewhere in London, hmm I think it's easy to guess which place I'm more likely to get around to visiting!

Anyway, my friend decided to take herself off for a walk whilst I sampled a rather special 40 year old Oolong tea. I had to tell the owner what tasting notes I could decipher when drinking it. I got them right thankfully. It was such a lovely experience. As I was leaving I remembered my hero likes tea, and I'm set to meet him in a few weeks, I'll take him a business card. You never know, if he ends up filming in Barcelona he'll need to know where to get a good cuppa from!!!

So today, apart from tea the other highlight was a trip to the Sagrada Familiar. Work began in 1882, and it's still not finished. What is there though is totally amazing. We went to the top of one of the towers and it was great to have a birds eye view of the city. As you walk around the outside of the building you can see different styles, from the old ornate gothic Nativity façade, to the more modernistic Passion façade.

The inside is glorious as the sunlight streams thought the stained glass windows, and upon looking closely, a couple of Musketeer references could be seen! Gaudi is buried in the crypt of the Sagrada Familiar.

 

 

 

 

Posh Treat Time

So today I was treated to afternoon tea at The Grosvenor Hotel in Chester. It was a special event with a talk by a local tea merchant.

I don't know whether I could become one of these ladies who lunch, I left and was still hungry. Don't get me wrong, the food was lovely, but very small portions. Now I'm not a big girl, but I do like my food!

The talk by the tea merchant was a bit of a disappointment really. He didn't seem to know much more than me about tea, he is a professional, I'm an enthusiastic amateur. I tried chatting to him about the teas I've tried in Prague, and could he recommend anything new for me to try. He said no and started chatting to someone who liked the colour of the herbal infusions he was also trying to sell! Oh well, back to Prague if I want a proper conversation then!

Seeing as I haven't got much to say about this event without appearing whiny, I'll leave you some pictures with the very tasty (but tiny portioned) food!!

The Mousetrap - Theatr Clwyd

I've resurrected my love of the theatre. OK so I can't pop down to London to watch all the big plays, but my local theatre puts on great shows and I've decided that I'm going to go to the theatre. I don't care if no-one wants to go with me, if I can holiday alone, I can theatre alone!

Tonight I am going to see Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. I've always wanted to see this. Back in April I watched "And Then There Were None" with Paul Nicholas and Susan Penhaligon which was brilliant, so I'm really looking forward to watching The Mousetrap, and it doesn't matter that's it's not on in the West End or there are any big names to watch out for!

I'm pleased to say that I really enjoyed it, it was a very clever murder mystery. For those of you who don't know the premise of the story, a group of people meet in a country house in the middle of nowhere. It snows and so they are cut off from everything when they discover that there is a murderer amongst them! Each character is suspicious in their own right, and as we go through the play we discover more about each character and their sordid pasts. At the end the identity of the murderer and their motive is revealed, and in the true spirit of the play, at the very end the audience is asked to keep the secret alive, and not tell anyone who the murderer is!

A very enjoyable night, and now it is time for bed!

Back in Blighty

Well it's been a good week and now it's back to reality, whatever that maybe! Washing, food shopping, generally getting back on track before going back to work! Seriously, this wasn't supposed to be happening, I'm supposed to be a lady of leisure now, oh well I have the weekend before bracing myself for a week of hell! Whilst I might not like my job, I still cannot believe they chose to close my office down and keep the other one open. The staff are on the phone continuously because they have no idea what they are doing. I do feel sorry for them really. My branch had really complex Trust funds to administer, whereas the other office only dealt with standard Trusts. To have all of this dumped on them can not be good, and I can't see this area operating long before it gets closed down either. Such a shame as it was should a great service and profitable part of the business. Still them in their ivory towers know best!!!