I’m a Harry Potter Fan. I hit up the Elephant House in Edinburgh, visited a few film locations, and I wandered down to see the madness at the final premier. I’ve read all the books, and seen all the movies. And a while ago, I went all the way to Watford Junction (miles and miles away, on the outskirts of London, with the overground down for maintenance) to see The Warner Brothers Studio Tour.

And it was AMAZING. Completely satisfied my inner HP nerd. It’s basically a tour of selected sets across two sound stages and an outside lot. You stand in line (right next to the room under the stairs) and are shown into a little cinema where they talk about the show, and then you’re pretty much let loose. You can wander around at your own pace, and take as many photos as you want. I took far far too many.

This is going to sound stupid, but I was surprised at how many details I recognised. It’s surprising how many details your brain takes in! I was also surprised at how small things were. The Great Hall was quite long, but wasn’t as wide as I thought it was. They built it for durability, so there are heavy flagstones from York embedded in the ground, and the tables are SO skinny. I’m not quite sure how they fit people on both sides, and all the fancy meals we saw on the movies. Magic maybe??

The details were phenomenal, all the way through. I seriously couldn’t believe it, objects that might have had only a few seconds screen time were SUPER detailed, and must have had a ridiculous amount of care, time and effort made in their making. Things like the little boar lid pourers that I don’t even remember from the movie. The Hogwarts Crest carved out of stone behind the fireplace – in all the movies they have a fire blazing so you never see the crest! But it’s there, and it’s awesome.

There was a bit of a ‘smaller than I thought’ theme, too. The Gryffindor boys dormitory is tiny. Apparently the beds were built for the tiny 10 year old versions of the actors, and so are quite short. As the actors grew bigger, the beds didn’t. So by the time they were all fully grown in the last movie, they designed all the shots to look like the beds had grown with the boys. The actors are all curled up to fit, and it looks quite natural. Most bizarre!

Another one is the hallway in the Leaky Cauldron is mostly an optical illusion. They wanted it to look like it was fifty feet long without having to build a fifty foot long hallway. So it gets smaller at one end, and it does look longer than it is! Was a bit of a throwback to some of the illusions they had in lotr!

They shared some of their magic, too. Like how they floated the candles (on little wires), how the invisible cloak worked (the inside is lined a super bright green) and all the models of how they designed things before rockin it in cg. Where possible, they used mechanical little robots, rather than cg. Scabbers was a robot, the baby fawkes was, so was buckbeak. There’s a massive Buckbeak that bows in the second lot, and there’s a story about how a few important people from Asia (excuse my ignorance, I don’t know quite where they were from, I missed that part of the story) knew that you were meant to bow to the Hippogriff, so they bowed. Buckbeak bows back, as is custom, and then the fancy people bowed in return. It became an endless cycle, and one of the aides had to ask them to stop the Hippogriff from bowing, because it was their custom to return a bow with a bow and it would be never ending otherwise!

But seriously, loved it. Loved the Weaselys living room, and the potitions class, and all the random props from the Room of Requirement! Loved loved loved Diagon Alley, and Dumbledore’s Office, with all it’s super details sleeping portraits. Loved the Fat Lady portrait, and letters, and the Knightbus. The giant chess pieces, and the outside of Number 4 Privet Drive. Loved all the robotic insights, the Ministry sections, Umbridges office with kitten plates and the massive, massive and amazingly details model they made of the castle + the castle grounds. So. Very. Amazing!

You know what I didn’t love? Butterbeer.

They have a stand in the outside lot where they sell Butterbeer. Turns out Butterbeer is super sweet, tastes a bit like creaming soda, but with melted ice cream. I tried it, and turns out that actually? It tastes pretty gross. There’s the weird sensation of when it rolls across your tongue for the first time, you’re not sure whether to swallow it or spit it out. It’s sweet, and sickly, and pretty disgusting. But, I recognise that your taste buds might be different to mine, so you should try it out for yourself.

I was much more amused by the chocolate frogs in the gift store. Even more so by Berties Every Flavour Beans, which look just like Jelly Belly’s. According to the sign though, it did include some random flavours (grass, pepper, earwax, earthworm, rotten egg, dirt, soap, vomit, sausage etc etc) Fun, right?

It took as a few hours for us to get round (mostly because I wanted to delight in each fun thing, and I did, and it was awesome), but I had a great time! If you’re a Harry Potter fan, and happen to be out this way, hit it up. You won’t be disappointed.

Also, I stole some of the photos from Liz, pretty much all the ones with us two in it. Just a creditin’ where appropriate :) You can see Liz’s post about the trip here.

Organising the Snowbombing adventure for me and ten of my mates was the first big trip I’d organised myself. There are enough trips happening that I was hardly ever required to do much organising. Usually I just say yes to the adventure, pay the money and show up at the time and place I was told to. Which is usually a good thing, because I’m horrid host/organiser. I get host/organiser anxiety about being in control, and making sure everything is fine and it is as brilliant as I sold it when I was recruiting adventurers. Things that don’t go quite right (like checking in to the registration desk, but the wristband desk isn’t open and we’d have to come back later) throw me for six and I get all angsty. Sometimes small things, like holding the departure transfer tickets makes me feel better. Or throwing money at whatever it is. I’m that host that always has too much food, and too much everything, really. I over prepare.

At Snowbombing, it was someone shoving me out of the kitchen with a quite firm “You’re not in control here” that made me say fuck it. At that point I left organising all the people to the wolves and pretty much just went and partied by myself. Drinking all the jager and dancing all the dances made me feel much better about things. It was a good plan, because although I didn’t see at the time (I was quite put out and resentful, actually, that said Chef didn’t appreciate all the organising I’d done, and did so by pointing out my faults) turns out people like doing their own thing in their own time. They were all adults and perfectly capable of organising themselves.

Which is why I was surprised when a friend who came to Snowbombing asked for what weekends I have free. Apparently it’s a surprise, to say “thanks” for organising everything. Except, here is the thing. I HATE surprises. I hate not knowing. Even worse is that I got a few random hints. It’s a group thing, though some people I know will probably be coming. It’s on a Sunday, an afternoon/early evening thing. It’s got some cost involved, apparently. That’s it. My cousin Morf is coming, too. I thought I’d be able to scrounge a few details out of him at least, but he told me that if he gave anything away that I’d have an expectation that he didn’t really want to have responsibility for.

The Elly that likes to be things to be in her sphere of control is really really struggling with being okay about this. I asked for reassurance from Morf that I shouldn’t worry, and that it would all be fine, and he gave it to me in the exact same words that I used to ask. Goober. I’m also a bit too proud to be asking questions and making a fuss. I don’t really want people to know that I’m angsting as something as minor as this. A surprise is meant to be fun, right? I shouldn’t ask all my friends in subtle little ways whether their coming to this thing, and find out through them what ever this surprise is. Except that I did try. I gave up after asking the first friend, realising that if he was in on it, he probably wasn’t going to tell me he was.

In the end I figured I’ll be around friends, whoever they are, that’s enough. I don’t really need to worry about the details, and thinking about it only makes me anxious. Holding on to that one comforting thought, I’ll be with friends, reduced the anxiety so I could move on and not worry about it. It’s just under a week away. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Work sent me and two others on a First Aid course, so in case of the Zombie Apocalypse (or your garden variety work place equivalent) we have three persons qualified in preserving life. They say that, because our job (as heavily, in bold and underlined, mentioned on our one day course) is not to save lives by radical means, but to keep people alive until the life-saving paramedics show up.

It was pretty fun, actually. It was a day out of work, and was pretty interactive so yeah, I enjoyed it. We covered all sorts. The basics of DR ABC (Danger, Response, (Get Help) Airway, Breathing (call an ambulance) and Circulation). Basically, what to do if you come across someone whose fallen over and is unconscious (that’s the response bit, as in, there is none) and what to do if they are breathing (put them in the recovery position) or not breathing (CPR etc etc). It was pretty ridiculous, because apart from the CPR where they use Annie the Mannequin, the rest of it was done on your fellow course attendees. Pretty good way of getting all up close and personal with strangers, which was unexpected.

Also, turns out that CPR? Harder than I thought. To compress the heart (which is mostly under your sternum in the middle, not way off to the left like I thought. In Braveheart, when they put their hands over their hearts? Yeah, they missed) you have to push down 5-6 centimetres. That’s a lot more than I thought! It’s also really hard work, so I’m hoping that I fingers crossed, am never in a situation when I have to give CPR to someone. Also, apparently you’re not to worry if their bones start making cracking noises, because they might. It might also be an indication that you’re breaking their ribs, but as bones are on the bottom of your priority list, and breathing is that the top, it’s better to do CPR bad and break ribs than not do it.

The best bit I thought was the afternoon, when we covered blood + bandages (well more fun than the burns + seizure sections). There’s a whole list of things you’re meant to go ask as you’re bandaging someone up (AMPLE – Allergies, Medical History, Prescriptions, Last food/liquid, Event History) and that last one, Event History, is where you ask them how they hurt themselves. When you’re all hyped up on a Friday afternoon, you can come up with some pretty mad explanations. How’d I get this glass shard in my forehead? Well I’m a Pirate Captain, and some swashbangling boot-bucket from another ship stabbed me as I swiped his booty! Oh, this bite mark right here? I’m an underwater explorer and this great white didn’t like it when I was trying to explore his mouth. Yeah, you can see how ridiculous it got. Fun, though.

So yes, qualified to preserve lives! Like a boss!

I’ve been London for about a year now, and I hadn’t yet had a chance to see anything more than the outside of Shakespeares Globe Theatre. Mostly because the shows they put on are expensive, and fill up ridiculously fast. Call me a snob, but I wasn’t interested in being a groundling (the people who stand in the courtyard for a fiver, rather than sit on a bench for the duration of the play). So, when my friend Liz suggested we go, I jumped at the chance! Also, true to my snobbery, I hired a cushion and a red fleece blanket for £4 and was glad of the comfort when it started raining, and the groundling’s got all wet.

I saw Troilus and Cressida. Except, that it had a twist. The Globe Theatre was doing 37 shows of Shakespeare’s works in 37 different languages by 37 international theatre companies. Woah buddy. I saw Troilus and Cressida in Maori, so it was actually “A Toroihi Raaua Ko Kaahira”. And colour me ridiculously proud to see Maori perform on the stage of Shakespeares Globe. Ti hei mauriora!

I think that’s important to note that I don’t speak Maori. I understood about of quarter of what was being said, but that was clearly more than a fair chunk of the crowd. A Toroihi Raaua Ko Kaahira was both a bit dramatic, but also had it’s hilarious moments. There were a few jokes that I got, and you could tell who else spoke Maori because they cracked up at the same time I did (one joke in particular was after Toroihi and Kaahira had consummated their marriage, and he was all proud, and Kaahira was slightly mocking. I heard the words ‘tane’ and ‘kauri’ and it wasn’t hard to put the rest of it together. I thought it was funny, anyway).

Still, they had scene summaries up so you knew what was going on, but mostly they weren’t necessary. The acting was phenomenal, and even if you didn’t understand the words, it wasn’t hard to see the body language. It was pretty easy follow, especially because we looked up the synopsis on wiki before the show started. It was also pretty amusing to see some familiar (aka, Shortland Street) faces. I have to say, up close on stage suited them much better than anything I’ve ever seen on Shortland Street.

The best bit, though? The best bit was how the whole crowd came together to show their pride at our Maori actors being brilliant. I was surrounded by kiwi accents, and all of them, all of them were expressing pride and amazement at the close of the show. There was a closing haka by the actors, and unsurprisingly there were two haka responses from the crowd. Haka’s are amazing. They are loud, and intimidating, and an immense show of respect, really. I got a little bit teary eyed and felt a little bit homesick. Mostly pride, though. Pride that people from my heritage, with all the sterotypes and colonisation history are here, in the heart of England, on one of the most historical and amazing stages, rocking their culture like nobodies business.

It. Was. Amazing.

So yeah, Number 89 Done!

Note: Our tickets, with their amazing seats (mid gallery, part way around to the left of the stage) was £25 + booking fee. Pretty sweet, aye? The Maori shows are all done, but they’re doing other languages right up until the 9th of June, 2012. If you’re in London, check it out. Seriously, affordable and amazing theatre shows in this amazing building – you won’t find better!

Went up today. Mostly it’s about the shenanigans that happened at SB12 that probably isn’t appropriate for people I work with and other judgey sorts. If you’d like to read up on the mischief, either leave a comment, mail me or send a DM.

Chur!