Return of the Ewok

Sponsored canoe thing cancelled and Youth Bike moved.. so game on for the Space Centre hehe. Last minute arranging meant that Mart joined me. Nice to not be alone for a change.

Guy with freaky eyes led a light sabre demo.. we got to do the workshop later on, which was cool but far too short. Would go to the classes if I had the money and the time.

Costume advice

Warwick and Julian Glover (sadly didn't have 25 quid for an autograph :-( ) Julian was General Veers who drove the AT-AT, and Grand Maester Pycelle in GoT, as well as Donovan in Indiana Jones. Bit of a 'character' shall we say. Warwick is just brilliant.. totally hilarious and just cool and down to earth.

Flashback to the amusements at Hemsby thirty years ago..

Decided on a housewarming present when it finally happens..

ROTG did their usual parade at the end. I don't think I will ever stop being more than a little scared..

Now that is bloody good cosplay...

Was very brave today and went up to an attractive lady and tried to talk to her. Didn't go very well, but I know more about joining 501st. Did better at chatting to Harrison Davis about his Kylo Ren lightsabre. No shock there.

yup, still scared..

Highlight of the day for me was the screening of Return of the Ewok.. only 2 copies exist and its not really finished but it was hilarious. Warwick is always amazing at Q+As too.

Back to the flat for pizza and Harry Potter (Warwick and the Hogwarts Express.. perfect) then a bit of xbox. Funniest moment was when the popcorn maker exploded one in my face. Adele at Glasto made then journey to drop off Mart pretty great.. couldn't leave the car till I'd finished sobbing to Make you Feel my Love.

Round Britain Rally

Yep. Start of yet another obsession. All the fault of chatting to Rob at a CMA meeting. It's like geocaching on a bike. Well thats me sold then! So today he took me out for a short easy ride (!) after the CMA breakfast run. Normally the breakfast run is enough for me.

Planning the route was a pain in the arse. When I managed to find co-ordinates they were in three different formats. And they don't all work in google maps, or in the crap from crap land Tom Tom app. And then it was all pointless. Because I made a route and transferred it to the Tom Tom.. after 12 hours of updates. And then.... it tried to send me home all day. AARRGGGHHHHH. I started it up at the Tesco petrol station, rather than at home. And all day long it had a hissy fit.

Still, good to get the rookie error out of the way when it was possible (and far easier) to just follow someone else. Way prefer following anyway.. I go faster as i have to keep up, rather than being away with the fairies and pooling!

Also good to learn was that you don't absolutely have to have the bike and the landmark in the same shot. Sometimes its not possible to park bike safely AT the landmark. And thats ok. Just try, and then get proof you got as close as possible. That said I will still get more than one disallowed or marked down for getting something wrong with the 'flag' and the bike and the landmark.. most probably forgetting the flag and then realising when I get home.

Anyways. Not allowed to post photos. So today I went to..

Donington services to meet CMA
The Limes Cafe for breakfast.

35 - Nottinghamshire: The murder stone
11 - Derbyshire: Foolow Village Cross and bull ring
06 - Cheshire: The Shroppie Fly (which I learned is a crane, not just the name of the pub)
39 - Stafforshire: James Brindley Statue
25 - Leicestershire: Sky Ladder

Hopefully thats enough to get me a finishers certificate.. but I want to aim for 'Standard'. So more miles required.. this time just me and Gladis! Hmm....

Well done Gladis.. 221 miles. Think it equals our previous best.. the ride down to Swansea for last year's CMA fellowship weekend was about that. This time was so much nicer though... NO RAIN!!!!

Massive thanks to Rob for letting me be his Padawan. Really enjoyed it and its a great reason to get out and explore. And to properly ride Gladis. There is no way I'm joining the ranks of Iron Butt though.. I'm more of a Bony Ass.

A train room for my castle

Another change of plan saturday afternoon led me to Go then to Outwoods with Becky and Sarah, this then led to change of plan on Sunday too.. an invitation to go to their caravan to play board games.

Car boot a bit of a disaster on the clearout ready to move front!

Lovely setting and lovely sunshine for games afternoon..

There would have been full Aspie meltdown if I hadn't got this..

CMA train geek ready to go. ..

The Flying Scotsman Flies through Loughborough

Was going to get on treadmill, just checking FB first. And Jackie Bullen had said something about FS going through Syston. Quick research and instant plan change. Then hurried (with hindsight un-necessarily) to Loughborough Station to book my spot amongst the throng. Or, in fact to look like a lunatic as you ask rail employees to ensure that you haven't fallen for a prank because the rest of the world seems oblivious to its arrival.

Anyway, two hours of fretting later.. it finally arrived, having stopped at a red light just before the station, so it was going slow enough to see and waveband smell, and yes the two hours waiting was totally worth it :-)

Last minute decision to prop the phone up against my rucksack worked out quite well..

Actually cried after it had gone through. I was shaking by the time it went past and I think after all that I was just so relieved not to have screwed it up. Fear I will get disowned again. Ah well.

The not so long drive home

Sadly, time to leave and go back to reality. Didn't get the Ghost finished (about halfway)..

and I'll miss the remote control blind... blind goes up... blind goes down..

and the fire.. it really does need to go on the house hunting tick list..

Knitted for most of the way back.. stuck in traffic in Lincolnshire while Dad drove. Only about an hour after we went our separate ways, so time to unpack .. only about 10% of crap taken actually used..

 and see how bad the gift shop damage was..

and to nip to town..

Let's hope its as effective in the future (although I'm now finishing the blog..item 3.. on 24th June)

Summer? and dodgy maps

Mum all prepared for a day on the beach.. officially Summer now that its June :-)

As you can see, the beach is packed..

After a cuppa to defrost in the cafe at the top we had a ride (closest to a train we could find)

Close.. but no Doctor..

Decided to do a multi cache that said it would take about 30 mins around the harbour area. Wrong. At least wrong when you follow the map in the app, and you walk all the way to the end of the third prong of the harbour only to realise that the next clue is actually on the end of the second prong, on a sticky out bit not shown on the map. So you walk all the way back down prong three (leave 2 team members in a cafe) then walk all the way to the end of prong two to get the numbers off this..

and try to look cheerful and like Geocaching is fun..

and trying not to scream when you discover the actual cache is now ten metres away, on the end of the prong where you were standing half an hour ago looking at the gun. Sigh.

Anyway, forget Xbox One.. I want one of these!!

Name the film...

Had to pay another hour on the car park because I was allowed in a book shop. My train spotter look is coming along nicely..

Managed to resist.. for now..

Next off to Robin Hood's Bay. Another steep walk in, to discover that the tide was very much in..

and to wonder how the smog the ice cream van got there!

Slightly worried that we can gain so much amusement from kicking a golf ball around, but at least the bounce the ball off the rock and catch it game didn't take as long as I feared. The cache was halfway up the hill..

but Ma chose to carry on round the path the long way back to the car. Good job we had rations with us..

Last meal out was back to the pub we went to on the first night. More Heads Up, and the Tandoori burger was delicious. But messy. I think me and Chalkie won Tension.. it was all over when we got the 'characters from Harry Potter' card hehe.