4 Privet Drive

So the intention was to fully just relax and take it easy Saturday because it had been a long day on the Friday with all of the excitement – good excitement, mind you!

Which was instantly washed away when Emily started talking about something she and Christopher were going to do in the fall and I though, hmm… I should look into that!

Which then lead me to this:

Yessiree… I was lucky enough to score a last minute ticket to go to the Warner Brothers studio to see the HARRY POTTER tour!!! Apparently I was extremely lucky to get a ticket, traditionally you have to book months in advance!

The tour was nothing short of outstanding.  You start out in the great hall and then self-guide yourself from there.  Having worked at a tourist attraction for four summers while in university, I tend to be a bit jaded at some attractions, but this one blew my mind away.  It was superb.  The amount of props/sets/costumes/graphics/vehicles that they have preserved is phenomenal.

If you do find yourself in the London area in the next few months I suggest going!  Apparently it’s going to be scaled down somewhat after that, although I don’t know all of the details.

Normally I would narrate everything, but I think this time I’ll caption the pictures and let them speak for themselves.

"You belong in... HUFFLEPUFF".  Ah, crap.

Harry's room at the Dursley household.

In front of the Great Hall entrance doors

Table settings in the great hall.

Great hall fireplace.

Wide shot of great hall.

I believe this to be a set piece from the Winter Ball?

Alan Rickman's wig

Boy's dorm

Wands.  Get your wands here!

Griffindor common room.

Tri-Wizard Cup

Dumbledore's office

Weird stuff in potions class

In front of the door for the chamber of secrets.  Holding Tom Riddle's diary!

Death Eater masks

I tried, it didn't work. lol

Graphics

Flying motorcycle!

Knight Bus

Ford Anglia

HALLO? HARRY?

Butterbeer - odd taste!

DOBBY NO!

Shopping time!

Ollivander's Wand Shop

Hope you enjoyed! Back to the Olympics in the next post!

Cheers,

Vick

Canada 2, GB 0

You’ll have to excuse me that it’s been a solid week since I’ve last posted; you might understand that it’s been quite busy at the Olympics for me!

Wednesday was a bit of a cool down game.  Emily and Chris were able to get up to Eton Dorney to see Great Britain’s first gold medal of the games which was awesome for them!  I met up with Emily’s friend Abi for a tour of the BBC on the Wednesday afternoon. It was a good tour but the problem was that most productions have moved up to Salford City but that being said a) the pilot for Lucky Sexy Winners with Bob and Vic was taping a b) they had a game show in the interactive studio at the end… and well, take a guess.

I lost in the tie break though!

We then all dashed off to see Wicked.  Yes, I saw it again… but it always has something different!  (This is time number 10, if you’re counting).  This time it was a bit bizarre… they did it with English accents (note: most if not all productions require American accents to keep ‘true’ to the original Broadway production).

Thursday was even more low key… although I did get to the House of Hellenes (the Greek Olympic House) courtesy of my friend Richard, who had a connection through the International Olympic Academy.

Hey there IOA, I’ve got to show you how much I need to be a part of your organization…

We then met up with his other friends and went out for Mexican in Leicester Square.  It was a great meal.

Friday was the first of a few ‘double days’.  Or at least I would hope it would be!

I headed out early to the Olympic Park in Stratford.  I was SO excited to finally get in and see an event! 

I was walking in and got stopped almost immediately… by Reuters!  I guess my costume got their attention. I found out on Saturday that it aired across the US on several stations!

(thanks to DM for the vidcap)

 

The walk in Olympic Park was very inspiring.  I noticed I even had a hop to my step! First up was basketball.  It was Angola/Croatia (blowout for Croatia) and Australia/Russia (really close, win for Australia).  The basketball arena is a “pop up centre” – so it’ll be taken down after the games are done.

One of the most flattering things that happened was midway through the second game.  A father and daughter were walking in my row.  I thought that I might be in their seats… nope! Turns out that the daughter was trying to “collect countries” and I was going to be Canada’s representative!  How fun!

Shortly after basketball ended I booted it out of there.  I did briefly stop and see the Today Show (NBC) set up on the way out (50 feet from Al Roker!) but I had to get going.

Going?

Well, the day before I decided on a whim that I was going to head up to Coventry and try and see the Canada/GB women’s footy quarterfinal.  Also I knew that I had two more events at the park, so I’d have the chance to walk through next week.

I went to London Euston station and picked up my train ticket.

“Hey!”

“Hey!”

“Oh my goodness, hi!”

Claude, a friend that I had made (who went to high school not 30 minutes away from me!) at the Newcastle game, explained that she had an extra ticket.

Oh, really?

“Yeah, you can have it if you promise one thing… YOU HAVE TO CHEER REAL LOUD”!

“I think I can do that!”

I made plans to see her at 6 pm at the ticket booth.  On the way up on the train I ran into Ernie and his crew again!  It was a good time to see them again.  “Why are we not surprised!” they said.

We all took the shuttle over to Coventry.

I also noticed something else… Canadaman was getting asked for a photo, over and over again!  Someone joked that I should get an entertainment lawyer!  I just laughed it off… I was flattered to take pictures with people.  I also got interviewed by the Coventry Telegraph.  Fun times!

Claude led me into the seating section.  It turned out that I was going to get to sit with the family and friends of the team!  What an awesome experience!

And to boot, we were up 2-0 after 20 minutes.  I was holding my breath for most of the game… especially as we were down 2-0 to Sweden earlier in the week before tying it up.

But the ladies were so strong and were able to handle it… and we won the game 2-0!  It was pandemonium from the Canadian crew.  What a wonderful, wonderful experience to be part of it first hand!

After the game we hung around and got some pictures, and got to talk to the team again.  Karina Leblanc remembered me too!  Again, quite flattering!

Following the impromptu photos and chatting we finally got on the train to get back to London… I think I crawled into bed around 2.30 am in Gidea Park!  Totally worth it though.

Three events (plus a bonus one) down, six to go!

Cheers,

Vick.

Canada 2, Sweden 2

On Monday morning I sadly said goodbye to Swansea and area.  I had been blessed with such wonderful weather as well as being able to meet up with wonderful friends again. The train ride was very peaceful and a few hours later I met up with one Ryan Taylor.

What’s a Ryan Taylor you say?  He’s my friend that beat me in Countdown three years ago!  We had a great time over a pint catching up and discussing all things quizzing.  Like me he is serial game show contestant – he’s been on five game shows as well!

After catching up with Emily on Monday night (and an exciting run to Tesco!) it was time to head up to Newcastle for the Canada/Sweden and France/Cameroon matches!

On the train up to Newcastle I ended up meeting up with Ernie and his other supporters.  It turned out that Ernie’s daughter was playing on the team! After chatting with him and the rest of the crowd I went and got my Canada spirit on!

Once in Newcastle I started walking to St. James’s park.  As soon as I got there I started having pictures taken with me!  People really liked my getup! I also got interviewed for Metro Radio Newcastle.

The security guards liked my get up too! “What’s in your pockets?” “I HAVE NO POCKETS!!!” In a get up like that it’s pretty impossible!

Inside I was thrilled to see that I was in a massive pocket of Canadian fans.  I was running around getting pictures with a lot of them!

I was up near the top of the stadium and then was asked, along with two other Canadians to be interviewed on the big screen.  Well OF COURSE I did it ha ha ha! After that I ended up sitting down to a nice couple from Winnipeg and their young daughter.  And a bunch of Swedish supporters were behind us.

It was a bit scary, the game itself, as we were down 2-0 to Sweden within about 20 minutes.  But our girls came back and tied it up!!!! Very pleased with a 2-2 tie.

After the game, I went and got a few pictures with some of the players as it was possible!

With #13, Sophie Schmidt

With goalkeeper Karina Leblanc.  She even retweeted this!!!

 

An awesome, awesome game! On the way back to the train station I met Urbe and crew from Montreal and Toronto.  I ended up sitting with them on the train on the way home and playing some excellent games of cards!  I hope that I’ll be able to catch up with them when I’m home.

Next Olympic event: Women’s Basketball on Friday!

Cheers,

Vick.

"You WALKED???"

 
Although my principal reason for being over here in Europe is for the Olympics, my family lived in the west of Wales for a year when I was 6, so we’ve some friends that I keep in touch with still.  If you’ll allow me, I’d like to share some of the fun times.

Thursday I said goodbye to Ruth, Gareth and Ffion in Cardiff after a wonderful stay which included the footy match in the last post.  I was off to Swansea, an hour further west.

I was very happy to spend the day with Pauline and Nerys.  Pauline’s husband, Eddie, was my dad’s contact/mentor on his Rotary scholarship back in 1977!  We started with lunch in the Mumbles with Nerys and her two daughters, Alice and Gemima, as well as Pauline.  It was wonderful weather so we took some time to go for a little walk with the girls (they are quite young).  Later on I joined Nerys and her husband Johnathan for dinner and some more Olympic watching.

Friday I was with my penpal Mark, his wife Sally and their sons Will, Thom and Daniel.  Mark and I took Will and Thom golfing to a pitch and putt!  I hadn’t been out for the better part of a decade, but I didn’t think it went too bad!  We did both the 9 hole par 3 course and the driving range.  I got one par so I was pretty pleased about that!

In the afternoon we headed back to the house and had a wonderful BBQ.  We also had some fun playing cricket and footy with the kids.  It is always nice to see them!  Mark was then nice enough to drive me back to my B&B (which I booked through airbnb.com and was excellent!) and we had Joe’s Ice Cream before parting ways.  My ice cream was in a boat!

I didn’t have tickets for the Opening Ceremonies but I did watch them on the telly.  I thought they were very well done, all the entertainment was wide ranging. Really loved the Bean/Queen entertainment.

 

On Saturday I decided to rent a bike (for a tenner!) and went for a ride.  Ended up biking from Swansea to the Mumbles pier and back (about 15K) and did another bunch of walking along the Welsh Coast Path which was absolutely gorgeous.  It was so beautiful and so peaceful… I have definitely been blessed with lovely weather on this trip so far!  Even found the site I dove at three years ago, as well as finding my old house.  On the way back I stopped and took a dip in the water, and just lied for awhile on the beach.  So wonderful.

I did actually make it back to Swansea to catch the last open top bus.  This is something that the Swansea bus service runs in the summer and for four pounds, I got to see a good chunk of what I did earlier in the day by bus!  I remember doing this as a kid and it was just as wonderful as when I did before.

Sunday was my ‘aquatics’ day.  I had tried to contact several stores and clubs to organize a dive, but with no luck.  That also comes down to not having brought my gear with me or having access to a car, so instead, I went surfing!

I know that everyone says you’ve got to warm up before doing lots of exercise, but I took it to another level by walking the five miles from Swansea to the Mumbles and then up to Caswell.  It was long (about 90 minutes solid) but very peaceful and I really enjoyed it.

David Hasselhoff not included.

I ended up taking a lesson with Surf GSD at Caswell Bay.  They were awesome!  So very patient.  I ended up staying the whole day and just doing some ‘free surfing’ in the afternoon.

AND I ACTUALLY GOT UP AND STOOD ON THE BOARD!  Much improved from Spain three years ago!

The one thing that was really noticeable was the tide… it really came in quickly!  We started the day around the corner and by the end it was only about 50 yards from the beachgoers!

And to top off the end of my time we had a lovely takeaway with Nerys and Johnathan! The funniest sentiment was when Nerys exclaimed “Wait, you WALKED from Swansea to Caswell?”.  “Yep!” I replied.  It was that or not go surfing!  I think I made the right choice!!!

Front: my old school! Back: Oystermouth Casle

Next stop… London and Newcastle!

Cheers,

Vick.