London Anniversary Games - July 2013

Last year, I got to experience what was one of the most amazing summers of my life and a good part of that was down to being able to attend the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. I cannot believe it has been a year already, so obviously I was delighted to be able to secure two tickets to see the London Anniversary Games to watch our Paralympians back in action at the Olympic Stadium.

On arrival, Mattie and I headed over to the British Icons Exhibition in the Spectators Village. It was a chance for everyone attending to see a selection of trophies, medals, footwear, and equipment amongst other things and celebrate the amazing achievements of British Athletics at the Olympics. There was a TV in the corner showing highlights from the Paralympics last year and as we approached, it just happened to be showing the exact moment Aled Davies has won his gold medal, which also happened to be the day we had attended the athletics. The exhibition featured athletes right up to the present day, including a signed top from Jonnie Peacock and an amazing collage of shots, which Mattie had his photo taken in front of, with the biggest smile on his face.

The rest of the village was amazing, yet very busy. There were a selection of entertainers around the village, though I am not sure if they were part of any of the ceremonies from last year. There were also two vehicles from the ceremonies, one of which Usain Bolt had used to make a spectacular entrance on Friday night. There was also an Athletics Agility area, where you could try out a number of sports. As it was a popular area, Mattie just tried out the running and raced two children who had been stood behind us in the queue. Amazingly, he did not have a meltdown when he lost the race, but I think he was just happy to have had a try!

The approach to the stadium, across the bridge, was even more packed than it was the previous summer, but then again it was the only bridge open this time round. Even so, it was great to be back at this stunning stadium. Though it was weird seeing it without all the Olympic/Paralympic signs, even if the anniversary signs were just as good!

We had managed to secure seats in Block 125, which turned out to be amazing seats. The block was directly on the bend at the end of the finish line, near to where the Olympic Flame had been lit barely a year ago. I was definitely impressed as we had gone for the lower end of price scale. The stewards, as always, were fantastic, with one willing to take photos for those who asked.

Before the events began, the pre-show introduced a number of medal winning paralympians onto the track and there was a quick video allowing us to relive the amazing summer the year before. By the time the events were due to start, the stadium was full to the rafters, with so much love and admiration for these amazing athletes. It was as loud and as crazy as it had been the last time I was here.


Being able to watch so many of our British Paralympians compete was truly amazing. Hannah Cockcroft and Richard Whitehead stormed to victory to enormous roars from the crowds. Jonnie Peacock only came third and even apologised for not winning in front of the home crowd but no one cared, because we had been able to see him race in what was a truly great and exciting race. And then David Weir completely dominated his race, taking the lead and extending by a huge distance with two laps to go and to thunderous applause!

So glad I had the chance to attend and hope to attend more events like this in the future. Mattie had a great time, despite wanting to go home before we had even taken our seats. He was cheering so loudly for anyone who was British and was so excited every time we won an event. Definitely want him to attend these events more often as athletes are so inspirational for him, because as I told him, they do not let their disabilities stand in their way of being able to achieve their dreams!

London Film and Comic Con 2013

The run up to this year's London Film and Comic Con has not been as exciting as it was last year and one point I had actually contemplated not going as they were not enough people I was actually interested in meeting. But as is normal in the last few weeks in the run up to a convention, more names were announced that made me want to go. I had even said no photo shoots this year, as I just did not have the money, but two huge names announced made me change my mind on that as well.

This year, the team had learnt from problems last year and made the photo shoot schedule easier for those who were not able to attend till the standard entry time, by scheduling those with double shoots before and after 11am. This meant I was able to drop off Charlie at gymnastics and head straight up there with Matthew, rather than leave at ridiculously early time. Luckily as we had permission to skip the queues and head straight in, I did not need to worry about how long queue was, which according to Twitter, it had gone as far back as Earl's Court 1! I knew it was going to busy but I don't think anyone expected that to happen!

Guest 1: D'Lo Brown

The first guest we met had no queue and was one of the people Jonathan wanted me to meet, the wrestler, D'Lo Brown. I honestly have no idea who he is but he was really nice and quite happily posed for a photo with Mattie. We chose the right time to go and meet him as by mid-afternoon, when we had decided to leave, he had a sign stating no posed photos.

Guest 2: Eve Myles

Eve was the guest that made me decide to come to LFCC this year as she is unable to do Cardiff in August. As expected she had long queue, which was moving quickly. While waiting I decided to take a shot of her, which she spotted me doing and she gave me a smile and a giggle while I took the photo. Once up there, she was so nice to us. We told her how we loved Wales and how I loved the welsh accent (which I really do love). I asked if she was allowing posed photos, and she told me they wouldn't let her, from which I sensed she seemed disappointed by, but to make up for it, we decided to do a posed "unposed" photo of her and Mattie! Eve clearly stated to the crew member that she wasn't posing, even though technically she was!


Guest 3: Joe Dempsie

Joe was the reason I had to come on Saturday as it was the only day he was scheduled to appear and I was prepared to do so, as I absolutely loved him as Chris in Skins. I am pretty certain I was the only person in the queue who had not seen Game of Thrones and was only meeting him for the fact he was in Skins and I told him so and I think he really appreciated it. I told him that I had watched back the first two seasons of Skins and that he was amazing as Chris and that it is shame they could not get him back for the final episodes as his character died! He preceded to tell me about the rehearsals for his death scene. The producers/director (cannot remember who) had decided that they wanted his death scene to involve him bleeding from his nose and him covered in vomit. Now being that the character was meant to die from a brain haemorrhage, the medical adviser who was working with them protested and told them that this does not happen when someone has one, but they decided against it and went with the very disgusting, yet emotional death scene. This led Joe to giving me a great message on my autograph, "Chris is alive". I also got photo bombed in my photo with Joe!

Guest 4: Dan Starkey

For those who do not know Dan or even recognise him, he plays Strax, the Sontaran friend of the Doctor's in Doctor Who. He was absolutely gem to meet, even talking in the voice he uses, to help Mattie be convinced it was him. We told him that he had met Matt Smith, or in Mattie's eyes, the Doctor last year, which Dan preceded to talk to Mattie about. Dan has been kind enough to tweet me back after I posted our photo on there yesterday, with the word Splendid! I also did attempt to get some inside info on the 50th anniversary episode from him, but he refused, but as I said, it was worth the try.

Guest 5: Diamond Dallas Page

DDP as he is known on Twitter was another one of Jon's guests. Again, I have no idea who he is, except that he is a wrestler. But even so, he was very nice and thought it was funny that I had been sent to get his autograph on behalf of my husband. He very kindly posed for a photo with Mattie (which I had purposefully made sure Lena Headey was in the background for) and did his famous Diamond hand gesture. Sadly, my camera focused in on Lena instead of Diamond, so the shot was not as good as it could have been.

Guest 6: Armin Shimerman

Armin is probably best known for his role, and the reason I went to meet him, on Buffy as Principal Snyder, or as I see it the dude who got eaten by a huge snake on graduation day! Armin was very nice to meet and was more than happy to pose for a photo.





Guest 7: Courtney Gains

I have to say I was surprised when I went to meet Courtney that there was no queue (not complaining though) as he is an actor who has appeared of number of well known movies. For me, though it was his role in Sweet Home Alabama that had me add him to my list of planned meets. As I approached, it turned out they had just been talking about the movie! He even added a quote, "Hells Bells" from the movie to my autograph!


Guest 8: Frazer Hines

Even though I knew who Frazer was, this was another of guest Jon wanted to me meet. He was an absolute pleasure to meet and was even raising money for charity at his table, to which I donated. When I asked for a photo with him, I had planned to give my camera to the crew member as I had been doing all day but Mattie was adamant he could take the photo, which he did and it turned out really well. At this point, Frazer turned round and told Mattie he could tell his daddy that he had taken photo of mummy with her gentleman friend!

Guest 9: Louise Jameson


Louise was sat next to Frazer so we went to her next. I know her more for her role in Eastenders than when she was on Doctor Who, not I knew that until she was announced as a guest! Again, Mattie want to take the photo of us, which Louise was quite cute and which we showed her after he had taken it!


The final two guests were the huge names that really sealed the deal for me this year at LFCC; Danny Glover and David Hasselhoff! I knew that the chance of getting a photo with them at the signing table would be highly unlikely so I decided to just get a photo with them, even though I knew it would mean not having time to say anything significant to them, just a simple, "It is nice to meet you" and a thank you. But that didn't matter to me as I prefer the photos to the autographs! Both were great to meet and Mattie even got a Hi-Five from David!

The day was amazing! Kicking myself, for forgetting to pick up some comics for the boys and not getting more photos of those who were cosplaying. Though I did get one or a woman dressed as a cat from the musical, Cats. What was even better was that she stayed in character the entire time I spoke to her!

West End Live 2013

It was that time of the year again, it was time for West End Live 2013.

I have to admit I had been a bit unsure of the line up for the Sunday this year as it was mainly children based shows but in the end it turned out to be an amazing day, due to the announcement of Matthew Morrison turning up to do yet another CD Signing! Though the day did not begin till midday, we arrived two hours early to queue up in order to get our usual spot by the fountain and to be guaranteed we would get in as it had been fully packed the day before and we did not want to risk not meeting the Matthew again! We were also joined by Lauren, someone who I met through twitter and had also been at the show on Thursday!

The show began at midday with an always performance from the show Stomp. It was followed, a twice performed number by The Lion King, which had major technical difficulties. It was followed by firm fan favourite, Matilda, which Rachael is still bugging me about booking tickets for. Next up was The Gruffalo, which I have to admit I am definitely intrigued by and it looks it could make the transfer to stage quite well. It was followed by Everything's Rosie, something that keep everyone happy, just due to the song "Walking on Sunshine" being played. Next up was Let it Be, which I was highly impressed by and Rachael was not, until they played a song she actually knew and liked. Finally it was Thriller Live, as action packed and exciting as always. They were loads more acts but missed them due to what came next.

It was time for an interview with Matthew Morrison, which sent most of the crowd crazy! It was made even better by the fact that he hinted that he was considering doing a show in the West End Live (which is now backed up by rumours that he is in talks with a producer to do so) and that he was coming back to the UK next year (June 2014, I cannot wait). At which point, it was announced he would signing CDs in the TKTS Tent, which made me, Lauren and Rachael run across to get in line. Though it was a few minutes before he moved as he stopped to watch a performance from Billy Elliot, which is always worth a watch due to the amazing talented cast it has.

When he approached the tent, it obviously spotted me because when I turned round to see him walking over, he touched my arm and gave me a big smile, so which made me happy to know he still remembered me, despite the number of fans he had met over the past few days. Even better was when we approached the table and he said to Rachael, "There you are!" as he remembered her from Friday, but then again how can anyone forget her, she is just so cute! As I had already had his new album signed twice, I got his first album signed and told him it was shame he had been unable to perform today and I was happy that I had got to see his show on Thursday! Unfortunately we had been told no posed photos, so we said goodbye to him and left the tent. Well it turned out, he did not mind the posed photos despite the time constraints, which actually peeved me off. So I cheekily grabbed a photo with him as he was leaving to get in his car to go off to whatever was next on schedule. It probably helped that I had met a few times as he may not have stopped otherwise, so I do thank him for that, even though it was not a great photo of me!

Next year, I intend on going on both days, cos most of the musicals I love or I want to see were on the Saturday this year and I missed out on being able to go. So my plan for next year is to go both days, get there early, get a good spot and perhaps even bring a step stool!

Matthew Morrison, CD Signing London - June 2013

So like I said in my previous blog, I had plans to attend the CD Signing, which was today (21/6/13) at HMV Oxford Street in London. Rachael had not been able to attend the show for two reasons; first, no under 14's were allowed (she's nine) and secondly, even she was old enough, I could not afford two tickets!

I had already agreed to support my disabled friend, Tim, while we in there, taking his photo and whatever else he needed while we were meeting Matt. So luckily, it meant there was no need to rush up to London for once, as we would be the first to meet Matthew! So we met Tim at Oxford Circus and went for something to eat until it was time to head to HMV, where we found a much shorter queue than we were expecting and a few other disabled fans, some of whom Tim already knew (is there anyone you don't know Tim??).

Matthew came out to see the disabled fans before he headed up to the stage where the main signing takes place. He was just as lovely as he was the night before and remembered me and Tim. He was also very lovely to Rachael, taking the time to check the spelling of her name and telling her he liked her dress she was wearing even though it was her summer school uniform. Even better though was that he got down onto a bended knee when he had his photo taken with Rachael, which I know made her very happy!

Matthew Morrison is most definitely one of the nicest and generous celebrities I have ever met!

Matthew Morrison - Singin' In the Rain - June 2013

Matthew Morrison, Bush Hall London - 20th June 2013

Last Wednesday morning I got sent a link for a ticketing website. Matthew Morrison was coming to the UK to promote his latest album and he was playing an intimate show at Bush Hall in London. I knew I had to go especially when the ticket prices were so reasonable. Even more so, thanks to my best friend, Emma and her husband, Dan, I was able to book for VIP as I had a £30 gift voucher to use on Ticketmaster! (Still cannot stop thanking them for it!)

The day arrived and I spent all day watching the clock, desperate to set out for the venue! It felt like it went so slowly that when it got to half two, I could wait no longer! Before heading to the venue, I shot up to Oxford Street, picked up a copy of his album, shot round to Piccadilly Circus to capture my photo for photography challenge and then jumped on a tube and headed over to the venue. I ended being the first one there, despite expecting to find a good twenty odd people there already. So I went off for a walk, discovered where Loftus Road was and came back to find three ladies who I recognise, had turned up. Turned out they had also been at the Oliviers, one of whom just happened to work at local train station! Spent the next three hours chatting with them until the doors open, which definitely made the time go faster!

Finally it was time to go in and I nearly missed out on front row seats because the lady who was checking us off the list as we entered forgot to give me my wristband. But it turned out to be a blessing as I ended sitting next to a guy who attends the same conventions as me! I was position just to the right of the centre, so I did not need to worry about he dreaded microphone stand being in the way all of the time. Before Matthew came on, we got to see a new up and coming artist, Matt Wills perform. He is extremely talented, got a James Arthur vibe off him and he did very well making every one laugh and enjoy themselves, considering we could have been a hostile crowd as we were there for Matthew and not him.

Finally, it was time for the man we had come to see, with fabulous intro music from Brad Ellis and band! Matthew was swearing, making jokes and drinking on stage and it just felt more relaxed than his previous show. It felt more like him, that he could be himself, which I think all the fans absolutely loved. I know I did. Favourite moments included a West Side Story Medley, which I nicknamed "How to do West Side Story in Two Minutes" and Singin' in the Rain. Very happy as well that Matt looked my way and gave me a smile during the performance!

After the show, it was time for the Meet and Greet, which took place in the Terrace Bar upstairs. I was so excited and nervous to meet him, that when it came to my turn, I could barely get my words out. But Matthew was so lovely, he introduced himself, shook my hand and asked my name, even checking how to spell when signing my album. I manage to tell I was coming to the CD signing the next day, just so my daughter could meet him! He was great in the photos, getting up close with each fan to give them the best photo he could. Admittedly, I was not completely happy with my photo cos my stomach looked awful! While waiting for a friend outside the venue, I also got to meet Brad Ellis, the piano player on Glee. He was so lovely to talk to as was his wife! Though I was idiot who chose a song that I love that was not even arranged by him!

Chris Colfer Book Signing - 16th June 2013

Up until yesterday, Rachael and I had been fortunate enough to have to met two cast members of one of our favourite TV show, Glee. Yesterday, we were got to meet a third, the absolutely adorable, Chris Colfer.

This past week has been crazy in terms of the information flying round. No one really knew what was going on. The only thing we had figured out was that was a lot of interest and people were planning to camp out. The scaremongering started Saturday morning when Bluewater Waterstones tweeted a photo of the first person to turn up to camp out. From there, more and more people turned up, that by the time we had got up and ready to go, I actually threatened not to go.

We were very lucky to meet loads of wonderful people, starting at London Bridge where we met the lovely Lauren, who had flown over from Northern Ireland just to attend. It really did help the long wait go so much quicker. We arrived just before 9am and grabbed a ticket, number 437. We were there, we had a number, we were guaranteed to meet him! The next six hours went by so quickly thanks to amazing laughs, chats and fun we were having with the group of people we had met. (I'm sorry I cannot mention you all by name, cos I cannot remember them all and if I did, knowing me, I would forget someone).

Then the time came to meet the man himself. As expected Rachael went completely shy, but Chris was so lovely to her. I bent down next to her, rather than get the photo I had originally promised I would get, and helped through the meeting. Chris asked her name and replied that he was hearing the name Rachael a lot lately when she replied. I took this as my opening to tell we had meet Lea last year, to which he gave us a huge smile. If he said anything else, I honestly cannot remember! But I did managed to throw in that we were looking forward to seeing him in Glee next season. He was definitely worth the 6 hour wait!