Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Wolf Pegasus Four - The Pre-Amble

It's now Tuesday and I'm still sorting, editing and scanning photos, trying to type up scruffy and nonsensical notes and every so often I day dream and find myself ghosting a smile or giggling manically...causing those near me to take a few steps away from the mad woman.

First off I'd like to say that Wolf Pegasus Four not only rocked BIG time, but the people who were there.....organisers, the Angel's Reach massive and of course the guests.....quite possibly made it one of the most memorable weekends I've ever had and certainly gave me an huge inner moppet happy of which I was desperately in need of.

So, where to begin...the beginning is as good as place as any....this entry will be a short taster as I still have to reformat pics so that blogger doesn't spit the dummy when I come to post them....and so I start with Friday and my first meeting with the rabble of whom I would spend much of my time over the weekend.


In some kind of order: Erik, Matt, Becki, Joey, Shelly, Kirilee, Amy, (bottom row) Nicky, Rob and yours truly

There is something slightly surreal in talking, in person, to those whom you've conversed with many times, but merely as words on a screen and under the guise of funky sounding alias'....trust me it's a little oood.

Skip forward to the evening and, like last year, I had managed to get a meet and greet ticket...mainly due to my complete lack of willpower and buying my ticket in February!...Anyhoo, it was very cozy at team Angels Reach's table as there were around 12 or 13 of us crammed round which lead to much merriment and decimating of the snack box. Wolf made the mistake of providing a bottle of bubbles which provided much entertainment for a collective of simplistic mentalities.

Then the guest entered...I can't remember the specific order in which they came round our table and there was long gaps in between as they made they're way round the 300 people in the room...what I can remember includes:

Chuck - Asked when everyone was from around the table in an effort to see which places he had been to, didn't sound like he was having much luck with our crew and when I said I was from Bognor Regis a look of utter confuzzlement was cast over his face and he replied he'd not even heard of it ...figures. He recognised Nicky as posing in a photo from P2 where he looked extremely drunk. He also said that since Sanctuary has been out he gets alot of 'Hey, new guy!' randomly shouted at him.

Paul - There were lots of hugs for Becki and Shelly (hugs becoming a bit of a theme of the weekend), he talked about having to wear heels in A Dog's Breakfast and doesn't know how ladies do it...and there was some staring at Kirilee's legs (although he was supposed to be looking at her heels)

Kavan - bless his heart was recovering from a case of the flu and did look a tad peaky, but he definitely was a real trouper....which in retrospect is a fair description as the fella swears like one. He talked about Sanctuary (another theme of the weekend, was kind of an unofficial Sanctuary con) and made fun of Nicky over some e-mails which they had exchanged (to do with a present for Becki) where he'd not heard the outcome...queue grovelling Nicky, who put the blame on Matt. He was tapped on the shoulder as his time was up, but waved them off saying he was going to stay longer....I think he was after the mini Twix's

Chris - Now first off....the man is huge....second....it's Todd the Wraith....and yet the man has a voice which is like hot honey on the coldest of days, he's completely mellow and utterly, utterly nice. He was asked by Kirilee if he'd done the 'Jack the Ripper' tour in London since, you know, 'he knows'

Bam Bam - He was one of those guests who I didn't really know much about, except that he's 'the stunt guy' but he was also lovely, thanking us all for turning up, especially when he found out about us all being from the same online forum. He spoke about the Stunt skit he was putting together for Sunday's talk at which point Kirilee got quite excited and (since she's done performing arts) volunteered...as she was wearing a rather 'dangerous' leopard print dress I chipped in with 'in that dress' to which Bam Bam replied if she wore that dress the definitely.

Neil - Another one of those guest whom I'm new little about, apart from him doing a audio Stargate Atlantis with Paul McGillion....the first thing he said was that he wasn't sure if anyone knew him, but Philippa was on hand with the info about an advert which he had done for a cold and flu remedy in which he played a James Bond type character in the fight against 'Chesty Cough', he's also done Charmed, Diagnosis Murder and Holby City.....the cheeky bugger nicked my last three love hearts and spent much of the time talking about his testicles.

After the Meet and Greet finished, and over-ran quiet considerably (due to Convention Mean Time), the floor was cleared for the first of the weekend parties....for those not in the know these are slightly reminiscent of every wedding reception you have been to with added geeking out and crazy line dances. And dear lord, what dances....I not only have two left feet but one i fear is webbed while the other is about as useful as pirate leg riddled with woodworm. Many, many apologies to those unfortunate enough to be next to me during the Doctor Who dance (of which I got the hang of approx 20 seconds before it came to an end)...I fear my wardrobe was also a hindrance as at one point, during a particularly complex motion of turning whilst stepping, I got all leg twisty, trod on my trouser leg, had a complete gravity malfunction getting up close and personal with poor Erik who made the mistake of dancing next to me, and whom I fear I may have scarred for life. One dance actually has the moves explained throughout (one hop forward, one step back etc) which should have enabled me to resemble Ginger Rogers in my skill...in reality my brain ceased to function and when the track said to 'move to the left', I moved to the right...when it said 'move to the right' I moved to the left...etc...creating a complete buffoon-like persona...oh the shame.....in a moment of clarity I totally ruled when 'Saturday Night' was played, mainly due to my misspent youth in Ground Zero circa 1997.

Huh, so much for my short write up...next entry....the guest talks...watch this space!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Today

Only one event on my mind today.....and so I was busy putting together my 'stuff' for the weekend of course....the list includes camera (& charger), mobile (& charger), hair dryer (& straightener), wallet (& money), Wolf Pegasus 4 ticket, Goonies T-shirt (& other clothes), note book (& pen), polo mints and ear plugs...as the old man snores louder than the low flying jets screeching overhead....quite excited now, just 3 days to go!

Oh, yeah and the first African American President was sworn in today, yes, I watched it and was impressed with the speech which was expectantly inspiring and hopeful, with blunt tones, a not so hidden dig at the last administration and plenty of historical context.

I'm of a generation which religion, sexuality, lifestyle and race just do not come into my opinion about a person...if I call you a tool then it's generally based on my experience of you as a person....so, with regards to Barak Obama, as long as the dude can eat a pretzel without choking there is hope.

Monday, January 12, 2009

End of an Era

It's officially the end of a couple of things...

1.) the cold snap came to an abrupt halt today with temperatures into double figures for the first time in nearly three weeks and the frost replaced with dreary ol' rain, so no more exploring for me for the immediate future....I hate to venture out in the rain, preferring instead to clean the lavatory and take on the immense task which is cleaning my room...that's how much I hate the wet stuff, come back icy weather.

2.) Stargate: Atlantis comes to an end tomorrow night, I'm aware some have already seen the final part, since it aired across the pond last Friday, but for once I figured I'd watch it on terrestrial....another one bites the dust, decent Sci-Fi shows are becoming few and far between (ITV's current attempt Demons is a big fat fail, even with Phillip 'You're surrounded by armed bastards' aka Gene Hunt Glennister....it's dull, dull, dull), probably not helped by the current money troubles across the board, which makes me thankful of my epic DVD collection.....And at least the show will get a farewell in a little under two weeks time with a group of eccentric and fun loving individuals and some of the cast themselves at the ultra cool Wolf Pegasus 4...rock on!

So, anyhoo, here's a couple of pics on my last wandering:

On the towpath to Chichester......The ice covered the entire canal and seemed to be at least 2 inches thick


Dell Quay....On one of the last days of the cold snap, the temperatures failing to get above -1 C

Fluffed up Robin

My attempt at cleaning my room.....it's a work in progress

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Winter Wandering

It's been a tad nippy round here of late...and by nippy I mean barely registering above freezing since Christmas Day....brrrrr...but at least for the most part it's been sunny, yay. I have, since I have nothings else better to do, been out on occasion to enjoy some of this sunny sunshine...today one such occasion.

I wandered over to a local wetland, which was incredibly peaceful and largely frozen over, something which I've never seen before in this area. As I was walking along the footpath my attention was drawn skyward to a hovering bird of prey, who promptly pounced on a poor unsuspecting wading bird less than 10 ft in front of me...camera in hand I managed to capture some of the carnage....never before have I been so close to a bird of prey (upon investigating I'm pretty sure it was a Kestrel....or a Sparrowhawk) in general, let alone one having a late afternoon snack of plump Sanderling.....so, uber cool.....and not another soul bore witness to this event either, most having better sense to preserve life by huddling next to some kind of heat source rather than losing appendages due to frostbite in an effort provide blogspot with some visuals....ahem, anyhoo...said visuals:


The following image I like to call "You're next, sucker"



After watching for about an hour I realised the sun had started to set, quite spectacularly, and so took up position to take in all it's glory.


After almost another hour and with frost starting to settle on everything, including me, I trundled off home....handily some kind person, who'd been clearing hedgerow, had made a bonfire of clippings and so I was able to restore feeling to certain extremities on the return journey.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

New Year, New Doctor

This is the face of the new Doctor...



A 26 year old relative unknown which is bound to cause some controversy and upset amongst the die hard fans of the series, and those of David Tennant also I'd wager.....I'm more interested in what the actor is going to bring to the role, half of the excitement of the regeneration is how the new invisionment is played....the look....the catchphrases....how Captain Jack will react.....And of course there's the other question of who is to play the next companion, personally I'd like to see a fella for a change.....Russell Tovey....


Who's an amazing actor, already appeared in an earlier Christmas special and cheekily cute, would be my first choice....but then I'm not in charge I am, phufft....the stories I could tell.