Mandalorian Friday!!!!

Day 275...

Today's main job was to be in work to facilitate the building work outside as they needed power and water. This wasn't a problem as I had plenty of admin work to be getting on with that I would have been doing had I been at home anyway.

When I arrived at work the contractors were already there digging out a new pavement. They had been surprised with a much earlier than had been expected delivery of materials so had started work before I had even arrived.

So while they digged and mixed concrete I cracked on with sorting wages and bill payments and attempting to balance the end of term accounts. Well by the end of the day the accounts haven't balanced so that will be a task for over the weekend at some point.

But during the day I had a visit from one of my committee members who stopped by to pick up their Christmas present and then mid-afternoon it was time to call in the troops; by which I mean Simon and Molly.

So the laying of the pavement was taking longer than expected and we still had one more flat packed container unit to assemble as all we had managed yesterday was to get the base into place. So as Simon and Molly had very ably assisted with putting the roof on the first unit they were given the okay to get on with assembling unit number two.

So between myself, Molly, Simon and our contractor Doug we assembled the second unit in about an hour and a half. Thankfully the rain from earlier in the day had subsided and the wind had also died down a bit too. Although we all commentated that while the instructions say that assembly can be managed by just two people we strongly disagreed and were thankful of an extra pair of hands. I will admit to not doing too much; more of a director role, holding of screws and bolts and leaning into a wall panel to hold it in place!

But by 6.30pm we had two container units all sorted and a new pavement laid which will enable us to move items in and out hopefully with ease. I can't thank Doug and Sarah enough for battling through, wind, rain and failing light to get this work all completed for us this week.

Upon arrival at home it was time for a coffee, with a red wine chaser, and to sit and watch the last episode this series of The Mandalorian...we didn't want to chance leaving watching it to later in the evening in case of spoilers on social media and oh boy was that the right decision to make.

The episode was AMAZING! It had all the feels, it was Star Wars in it's finest and yes I cried. I cried at the interaction between a puppet and a man in a helmet, when a show can do that to you it must be doing something right. And then I cried some more!

I won't give anything away but this episode gave us so much more than I was expecting. Simon and I had talked about what we thought we might see in this episode but it exceeded those expectations ten fold. And just when you thought you'd seen it all they gave us a post credit scene that left us wanting to know more.

How they have managed to keep the details for this episode quiet is beyond me and is an amazing feat in it's own right. The team of Dave Filoni (have I mentioned that I've met him?! Check out my earlier post) and Jon Favreau have throughout the two seasons so far encapsulated the ethos of Star Wars and have kept true to all that we love about the franchise and have brought so much joy and life back to something that had not always delivered as well as it could have in recent years. I think these two individuals should be given the freedom and control over everything Star Wars because in their hands it will be handled with the care and love it truly deserves.

Oh and yet again watching this series, and this episode tonight, I have surprised myself with just how much Star Wars knowledge I actually have and can even make educated guesses at which planet they are visiting...what has happened to me!!

Anyway, stay safe out there...and may the force be with you!
xx

Day 74

Day 74...

Well after days of battling the new style blogger I have managed to start today's blog with out any problems - get me!

Another very relaxed and slow start to the day was followed by me and Molly heading off to our supermarket of choice to collect our grocery order. Yet again we arrived and saw the same store colleague we see each week and before we had even got out of the car Marky Mark had brought our shopping to us. Quick load up of the car and then home to do the standard unpack, wipe down, wash veggies and fruit and get rid of as much packaging as we possibly could.

Simon's hayfever was playing up quite a lot today so we took a short time out to stay inside in the cool to let his sneezing settle down and watch the last episode of Star Wars:The Clone Wars which was amazing. This has been such a fabulous series and these last few episodes have been fantastic to watch and have linked in with the live action movies so well, filling in some missing gaps along the way. For an animated series it has captured the essence of Star Wars completely and had us both on the edge of our seats and it even brought a tear to my eyes! The creative power of Dave Filoni is astounding, he has so much respect for, and knowledge of, the Star Wars franchise and has done a great job in creating something that feels so right and sits so perfectly within the story line. He should be given the creative reins of this franchise because everything he has created so far has been brilliant...Oh and I've met him and he was a thoroughly nice chap who took the time to chat with a crazy lady who had mouse ears on her Mandalorian cosplay. (I may have mentioned this once or twice before, check out Wow What a Weekend and My Disney Sleeve)

We then took a walk out over the fields walking just over 3 miles in a little over an hour. Another beautiful day and we encountered very few people, and everyone we did kept to the appropriate social distance and was polite and friendly.

Once we were back home we enjoyed a coffee (with Kahlua) sat on the patio before I joined my fellow Disney Dream Girl, Michelle and some of our listeners for a Disney quiz via Zoom. I had the pleasure of setting some of the questions and I think I may have made them a little hard...never realised choosing questions for a quiz could be so tricky! Although me and Molly had great fun setting them and then later tonight we carried on playing our own 'guess the song from the lyrics' game with me as quiz master trying to pick the most obscure songs going!

It has been lovely today to have things to do that have distracted from the news. To see photos of hundreds of people gathering on beaches and at parks and beauty spots is, to me, quite horrifying. There appears to be little regard for social distancing and goodness knows what the impact of that may be in a couple of weeks time. Our country is supposed to be easing things as from tomorrow but from the photos it would appear that it's already started! But when we have scientists struggling to agree on the best strategy and a lot arguing for a much slower and gradual approach we can only wait and see and hope that we somehow avoid a second spike...but I'm not convinced.

Enjoy the sunshine but take care, stay safe.

xx

Day 47

Day 47...

And Happy Star Wars Day...May the 4th Be With You!

Sorry it had to be said and quite appropriate in this house today as most of Simon's day has been spent with the next stage of his Mandalorian helmet mold making process. He is now beginning to make the outer shell of the mold which is made from fibre glass but unfortunately he needs more fibre glass to complete the project so at the moment the outer shell is only half completed.

He's also been working on some of the detail work for the mouse droid by assembling some of the 3D printed parts.

It is five years since we got into this cosplay malarkey which all stemmed from plans for Simon's 50th birthday to go to Star Wars Celebration in July 2016. This resulted in a year spent making Mandalorian costumes for both us so that we could attend the event in style. As a result we became members of the Mandalorian Mercs and then as we attended more troops and met more like minded people we became members of Joker Squad and East Midlands Garrison.

Simon and I as Mandalorian's at Legoland Winsdor, May 2018

Over the past five years we have made lots of new friends, we have attended numerous conventions and events, we have trooped twice at Legoland Winsdor for their Star Wars Weekends, we have helped raise money for a number of charities, we have given out too many high-fives to count and made people smile. We even got to meet one of the creative forces behind the various Star Wars animation series, Dave Filoni - such a lovely guy, a fabulous experience and one that resulted in a new tattoo for me! See my post - My Disney Sleeve

Meeting Dave Filoni at Star Wars Celebration, July 2016

Star Wars tattoo inspired by meeting Dave Filoni

I now cosplay as one of the characters from his series Star Wars Rebels, Governor Pryce and Simon has fulfilled a life long ambition and is now a Stormtrooper.

Governor Pryce & Stormtrooper - December 2019

The Star Wars universe has opened up a whole new world to us, one where we have made new friends, helped charities and one that has become an integral part of our lives.

The rest of the day has been fairly quiet; a few odd jobs done around the house, a couple of work emails and phone calls and a little more jigsaw completed. We managed to squeeze in a quick two mile walk out this afternoon in between coats of resin and fibre glassing as well!

So all in all not a bad day...May The Force Be With You...

xx

WOW! What a Weekend - Final Day!

Well after an amazing couple of days we made it to day number three and the last day of Star Wars Celebration 2016.

The day started with a hearty breakfast which kept us fuelled for the day ahead.

















It was then time to get dressed Mando style! Here's just some of our kit laid out prior to getting 'kitted up'!

And today was chance to get out those Mickey ears. These were detachable as they are not strictly 'official' Mandalorian armour; Simon had craftily fitted extra strong magnets to the helmet and ears so they could be secure yet easily removed and attached. Pouches that are attached to my belt became handy 'ear holders'.

Once ready we headed out to the Excel Centre but we had not even made it out of the hotel car park before we were stopped for our first photos of the day. But by now we had a plan...each time someone wanted to take our photo we asked if in return they would take a photo of us with our camera!

And then we managed to get one of just us (this photo would come in rather handy later on....)

And here's just one of many taken at the entrance to the Excel this time with a young Star Wars fan..

And once again the walk into the centre and through weapons check before entering the main exhibition halls was staggered with photo opportunities.

But this morning we had a job to do as we had offered our services to help out in the Star Wars Celebration Family Area. This was an area set aside with space for families to sit down and take five minutes as well as some fun activities for the younglings. Within this area various groups had agreed to help out and provide activities over the weekend. The Mandalorian Mercs had agreed to be part of this and as such had a number of slots over the three days and the Sunday lunch time was our slot!

Mando selfie at a very busy Star Wars Celebration Family Area

Our job was to help the children make their own set of Mandalorian armour by way of some colouring sheets!

Not looking bad!

Although I think in some cases the dad's were more interested than the children!

Simon introducing a dad to the real armour - possible new recruit?

After an hour it was time to pack away our crayons and head over to the Mandaorian Mercs booth to take part in a group event. The idea was to have a group photo with as many of us as possible, so once we had all congregated at the booth we made our way out of the building to the front steps. It was such fun all of us walking out 'on mass' as the reactions from the public were great; lots of photos, smiles, waves and high fives. Once out of the building we all gathered on the entrance way steps which served perfectly to enable some great photos to be taken.

Buckets (helmets) on!

Buckets off!

And another shot...we reckon there must have been over 50 of us! Quite an impressive sight I think you'll agree!

Now once the photos had been taken we had a little surprise as we had a proposal between two of our members!! Thankfully she said yes!

As a memorial to a couple of official members who are no longer with us we then took part in an 'honour march'; this meant us all marching back into the arena in single file, with no interactions just straight forward heads up and march.

Simon and I taking part in the 'honour march'

Thank you to Steve Mannion Photography and J Goldsmith Photograhpy for some of the above images.

The march wound it's way around the two main exhibition halls before returning to the Mandalorian Mercs booth where we hung out for a short while...here's a few photos of Simon on booth 'duty'!

We then decided to head back to the hotel, grab a shower and change before heading back to Celebration for the last hour. This gave us chance to have a last look around and we even had chance to look inside the official Celebration Store as there were no longer any excessive queues! Although once inside there was not an awful lot to look at as stock was predictably low. I have to admit I was rather disappointed by the lack of unique clothing options specifically for us ladies! There were lots of unique t-shirts but I had hoped to see lots of 'Her Universe' products and although there were some pieces the choice was pretty dismal - about 3 or 4 different items. 

Now I love the clothing produced by 'Her Universe' which is ordinarily only available online from the US, so I had hoped this was going to be an ideal opportunity to make some purchases without incurring overseas postal fees and potentially customs charges too. But alas it was not to be :( It was such a shame especially as the lady behind it all, Ashley Eckstein, was actually at Celebration talking about her role as Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars;The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.

Not looking overly impressed with the lack of 'Her Universe' choice and sizes were too big as well!

Some of the lifesize 'props' on display

As we wandered around we happened to stumble upon a talk that was talking place in one of the areas set aside for specific media outlets in the main halls...and we were very happy to eavesdrop in on Dave Filoni chatting all about Star Wars Rebels...

He is in there honest....look for the cowboy hat!

Now for those of you not familiar with the Star Wars extended universe let me give you a brief explanation! So we all know about the 3 original films and then we had the 3 prequels and then last December we had the first in the next trilogy - ok? Well besides all these movies there is even more Star Wars stuff - comics, books, toys and even animated series. And Dave Filoni is the creative force behind these animated series; Star Wars; The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels both of which are fantastic. Having watched both of these series relatively recently I have been really impressed by the story telling and the attention to detail that Dave Filoni and his team have produced. Watching all the behind the scenes featurettes has been fascinating and given a real insight into the amount of work, dedication and love that goes into producing anything that has the Star Wars name attached to it.

But anyway, Star Wars Celebration was now drawing to a close and at 5pm on Sunday 17th July 2016 it came to an end. But we had yet more fun planned as the Mandalorian Mercs were getting together that evening in a local pub to have a meal and round out what had been a fantastic weekend.

And then something happened that for the fan-girl in me made my weekend!

So there we were at a fairly standard, innocuous pub on the outskirts of London about to enjoy a meal with our new and very lovely Mandalorian family when we caught sight of someone entering the room; Simon and I both did a double take and looked at each other with that 'are you seeing what I'm seeing' look on each of our faces. Simon then said 'Dave Filoni's just walked in the room' and I think I said something along the lines of 'I know but why? What's he doing here? What? I don't understand...eek!'

Now at this point Simon and I are beginning to geek out big time and looking around the room everyone else seems to either not have noticed who's just walked in or not aware of who he is...it later became apparent that we all did know who he was but we had all adopted the traditional British 'we're not going to get over excited' approach! Well, we had our meal and Dave spent a good couple of hours with us all. He got up and spoke about the respect and love he has for all Star Wars fans. He spoke about how he respects what the Mandalorian Mercs are all about and how he always wants to ensure that he 'does right by us' when introducing Mandalorians into his work. His passion, love and care for this franchise was very evident in how he spoke and made me geek out even more!

I was determined to see if I could speak to him and at least get a photo with him but my English reserve was in danger of getting in the way...after all how does one ask a celebrity for a selfie? On our way back from the bar we found ourselves in an ideal position; the meal was over and everyone was just chatting and mingling and we noticed one of our fellow Mandalorians approach Dave for a photo. As we were stood very close by I decided this was our moment. Simon said to me in a half joking manner 'you ought to ask him if Mickey ears could be brought into the series' so I quickly got out my phone and found the photo of Simon and I from earlier in the day with me wearing my Mickey ears. I then approached Dave with phone in hand and showing him the photo began a conversation about Mickey ears in the Mandalorian universe...I kid you not! Dave took hold of my phone and zoomed in on the photo. We spoke about Mickey being his 'boss' now and whether the ears could be some sort of radar dish/communication device. He also gave us some lovely compliments about how good our armour looked and how he loved the paintwork...as you can probably guess by this point I was one happy and very geeked out fan-girl.

Showing Dave Filoni my phone and the photo of Mandalorian me with Mickey ears

Trying to convince Dave Filoni to make Mickey ears officially part of the Mandalorian universe 

Simon and I with the one and only Mr Dave Filoni

But the icing on the cake to all of this was later on as Dave was leaving and he came to say goodbye to some of our clans council leaders who we happened to be sitting next to. He turned and spoke to Simon and I, making reference to the Mickey ears and promised to 'have a look into it' and he put his hand on my shoulder as he wished us well and said goodbye. Que one very excited me, who quite frankly then acted like a teenager meeting the latest boy band...I hadn't really realised how big a Star Wars fan I had become until this point. In fact I am now even talking about a possible new tattoo that will be Star Wars themed!!

Someone else we got to chat to in more detail that evening was Tom Hutchens who is the founder of the Mandalorian Mercs or to give him his proper title 'Mandalor the Uniter'. Such an honour to meet him and find out a bit more about the Mercs, their origins and their ethos; a very cool guy.

Simon and I with Tom Hutchens

So that was our Star Wars Celebration weekend, a fantastic fun filled three days where we got to experience the joy of cosplaying as well as meeting a whole new family of friends as well as hanging out with a celebrity!