Four Days for the Price of One - Day 830 - Day 833

I'm not sure where the time has gone this week but it has been difficult to find the time to write these blog posts so in the end I am writing up four days in one go...

Day 830...Monday

So the day started, as is our new normal, with an early morning walk; however we only managed 1.3 miles in 23 minutes as rain stopped play. We'd not got our waterproofs with us so we made the sensible decision to head for home when the precipitation started!

Our morning was then taken up with what we referred to as 'Kondoing the wardrobes'. When we revamped our bedroom the other year we adopted the Marie Kondo approach to tidying and we have adopted it ever since. It is a great way to ensure that you only hold onto those items that you genuinely need or love. Since it had been a while since our new wardrobes had been fitted it was time to re-evaluate the storage and assess whether it was working and whether we were actually making use of its contents. We did pretty well and only filled two bags with clothes for our local charity clothes bank.

So after a spot of lunch we hopped in the car and dropped off the clothes, stopped by my dads house to drop off a couple of bits and then had a quick tour around our local Lidl.

Back home and after a coffee and a quiet hour we decided that the weather was more conducive to walking and headed out completing 2.3 miles in 47 minutes.

Day 831...Tuesday

The weather played nice this morning and so our usual morning walk of 1.9 miles in 38 minutes was much enjoyed although at the top of the hill it did feeler a little cooler than of late with a strong wind that I described as bracing.

Then my day took on the theme for much of this week...gardening. Now I am not a gardener at all, my mum used to love gardening however I have not inherited that love, but my task this week was my dads garden. As we are about to sell the house both the front and back gardens were in need of a lot of taming if we wanted to make them look presentable. The morning was focused on the front garden and by lunchtime I'd done a pretty decent job and the whole plot looked a lot smarter.

I came home for some lunch with Simon before heading back to my dads to start on the back garden...a much bigger garden and a much bigger task ahead. It was heavily overgrown and full of weeds and other bits that shouldn't have been there.

By the end of the afternoon progress had been made, although I'd literally just scratched the surface.

I could just start to feel my muscles beginning to ache but that didn't stop me squeezing in a weights workout to round out the day!

Day 832...Wednesday

Thankfully the weather was much better this morning than had been forecast yesterday which meant we could take our usual 1.9 mile walk in a steady 38 minutes, despite my achy body. Why does gardening have such an impact on the body, no wonder it's not my favourite pastime!

So we had a repeat of yesterday today with a morning and afternoon spent at my dad's house gardening. It did rain a little mid way through the afternoon but I was able to occupy myself with other little jobs inside the house. The focus of this week is to get the house looking presentable for estate agent photos next week, so lots of moving things around and storing them out of site.

After a shower and a coffee we decided to head out for another walk in lieu of our usual exercise session. Simon is a little restricted as to what he can do with his arm in cast so walking is proving to be a great alternative; we took a different route to normal in an attempt to find a less hilly route. It was a little less hilly but there's just no way to avoid an incline or two where we are; but another walk of just over 2 miles in 44 minutes was achieved.

I was very glad to finally stop, put my feet up and watch this weeks episode of Ms Marvel.

Day 833...Thursday

And despite my achy muscles we started the day with our usual 1.9 mile walk in 37 minutes.

I was then straight out the door to my dads house to carry on with the gardening although today I had a little company as I was joined by my brother and nephew and by the time I left at lunchtime the back garden was looking pretty good and a whole lot better than when I'd started on Tuesday!

So for the first time in a few days I was able to spend the afternoon at home, although there was no rest for me!

Lunch and a shower out the way it was time to get some research done ahead of podcast recording later in the afternoon. We were talking about the upcoming Epcot Food & Wine festival as all the details of the various food booths have just been released. And as my podcast co-host, Michelle, will be visiting during the festival I had the task of picking some tasty treats for her to try!

We had the most efficient podcast recording session ever as in under an hour we'd not only recorded a show to be released this weekend but also a show for our Patreon supporters. But we had good reason to be efficient as at 5pm UK time tickets for next years Star Wars Celebration in London went on sale and I needed to be poised and ready.

Just before 5pm I clicked on the buy tickets option and found myself on a queue holding page, as 5pm ticked over I was put into the queue and told I had over an hour to wait! Well I was convinced at that point that any chance of getting tickets was looking doubtful, but as I sat and watched the screen the wait time went down surprisingly quickly. Within 20 minutes I was choosing my tickets; the most expensive Jedi Master tickets were all sold out which was fine as we didn't want those as we were after the 4-day tickets and the four day tickets is what we got! A much more cost effective buy than the individual tickets and so by 5.29pm I had our confirmation that we are going to Celebration next April!!

But by 6pm I was starting to see a lot of disappointed fans who'd not been able to secure the 4-day ticket and could only buy the more expensive single day options. It certainly isn't a cheap hobby being a Star Wars fan and I feel exceptionally lucky that we've been able to secure (and been able to afford) the tickets and a hotel. London 2023 here we come!

Phew - the end of Thursday and hopefully a slightly quieter and less garden focused day ahead tomorrow.

See you all then...hopefully!
xx

Day 802

Day 802...

Going to be a quick one today!

It has been a day of catching up on a few odds and sods and an afternoon trip over to Birmingham.

But the main news of today was that we woke up to the announcement that Star Wars Celebration for 2023 will be held in London next April.

It was Celebration in 2016 that got Simon and I into the whole Star Wars cosplay thing. Back in 2015 we heard about something called Celebration and as it coincided with Simon's 50th birthday year I suggested we give it a try. After tickets had been bought Simon the brought up the idea of attending in cosplay...to which I said that providing I didn't have to wear the infamous Princess Leia bikini I'd be happy to join in with the fun.

Then followed a year of building two Mandalorian sets of armour and becoming official members of the Mandalorian Mercs costuming club. We then booked our hotel and attended as members of the Mercs helping out with various activities along the way.

Since then we have added my Governor Pryce and Simon's Stormtrooper to our cosplay wardrobe and joined two more costuming groups - Joker Squad and East Midlands Garrison.

So on learning that Celebration would be happening in London in April 2023 we set about booking a hotel. Suffice to say hotel rooms were scarce as every Star Wars fan out there seemed to have snapped rooms up as soon as the dates had been announced!

Now the announcement came at just after midnight, UK time, and so consequently we did not hear about it until about 8am this morning. In those intervening few hours not only had hotel rooms been snapped up but the prices of remaining rooms had risen considerably, plus add into the equation that the event is happening over the Easter weekend when prices would naturally be higher anyway! But we managed to find a room within a ten minute walk of the Excel arena where Celebration will be taking place...not a cheap room...but it's a room in the location we wanted and so we decided to book it anyway. We were able to book without a deposit and with free cancellation up until the day before...this means that should something cheaper become available we would be able to re-book! But for now we have a room...next is to wait and see what the actual ticket prices are going to be, but we won't know that for a little while yet.

And with that excitement I will see you tomorrow.
xx

Adventures in Cosplay

Over the last couple of years I have taken a step into the world of cosplay, more specifically the world of Star Wars cosplay!

This all came about when we were deciding what to do to celebrate Simon's 'birthday of a significant number' a few years ago. It was July/August 2015 a year before said birthday and the conversation turned to what Simon would like to do to mark the occasion and I mentioned that there was this 'Star Wars Celebration thing' in London that might be worth a look.

So we decided to book tickets for the three day event...and then a few days later came the infamous words from Simon 'well if we're going it'd be rubbish walking around in jeans and t-shirt...how about going in costume?' My response was along the lines of 'well I'm not wearing Princess Leia's brass bikini!!'

And the rest as they say is history...check out these previous posts to see what we got up to!
Star Wars Celebration
Black Thread and a Heat Gun
The Force is Strong
Looking Ahead

Since Celebration in 2016 we have joined two more costuming groups; Joker Squad and East Midlands Garrison. We have been able to troop at Legoland in Windsor in both 2017 and 2018 as part of their annual Star Wars Weekend to help raise money for a children's hospice along with lots of other conventions and events. We even turned up in costume at the pre-school I manage just before we finished for this years Summer break!

We have continued to troop as Mandalorians and Simon has been keen to keep our kits functional and upgraded. He has made special 3D printed parts to house Go-Pro cameras, updated parts as they've shown wear and tear, upgraded belt pouches and even as I type he has been upgrading the holsters for my guns!!

Simon's skill-set over the last couple of years has grown and grown; everything from 3D printing to moulding and cold casting aluminium helmets to just recently mastering leather-work. And he is loving every minute of it; he just loves the challenge of figuring something out and taking it from an idea in his head to a fully fledged and working piece of costuming. Any chance he gets to 'make something' he jumps at and nothing seems to phase him.

As we have trooped with new costuming groups whose ranks include a multitude of Star Wars characters I began to think about the possibility of taking on another costume and this time one where I didn't have to wear a helmet. As much as I love my Mandalorian costume I do miss the ability to interact with people face to face. So between Simon and I we began to muse about what to do.

The choice seemed to come down to either being a specific character or a generic officer type role. The problem with being a specific character though meant that when trooping there can only be one of that particular character, after all you can't have two Princess Leia's trooping together! And in both groups that we now belong to there are very well established members already trooping fantastically as specific characters; so if I was going to do a named character it had to be someone that wasn't already being done....so who could I do...

As it was Simon and I are both great fans of the animated series 'Star Wars Rebels' and in the series there is an Imperial Officer called Governor Arihnda Pryce.

This looked the perfect character for me to have a go at; I could be a specific character that no-one in our costuming groups was currently doing and one that would be recognised by devoted Star Wars fans.

So where to start? Now the great thing about the Star Wars world of costuming is that there are numerous groups out there offering advice and detailed information. One such place is the 501st Garrison who have a data bank of costumes containing detailed information about colours, styles, accessories in fact everything to do with a specific character. By following their data bank guidelines I knew that the costume we created would not only be correct but would 'pass' any costuming group requirements. The ethos of all costuming groups is to ensure that the costumes representing them are made to the highest quality and are as screen accurate as possible. The 501st data bank has a great set of instructions for lots of characters, Governor Pryce included, so we decided to use those as our guide.

The first thing was to source the uniform. Now neither Simon or I are seamstresses, we both dabble with material and the sewing machine but do not have the skills to construct a two-piece uniform from scratch. So off to the internet we went! We used a site called cosplaysky.co.uk who stock a multitude of movie costumes that are of a high quality but that can also be made to measure. So we found the correct Imperial Officer uniform, input my measurements and waited. A couple of weeks later and my uniform arrived, then we could start the serious business of making it resemble Governor Pryce.

First thing we tackled was the belt; we found one online and dutifully ordered it but when it arrived we realised that the buckle was not quite correct. The standard Imperial Officer belt is not the same as the one that Governor Pryce wears. In steps Simon with his 3D printing and crafting skills. He was able to produce the correct detail, attach to the buckle and then adjust the belt to match the characters.

This was how the belt looked originally

And how the belt looks after modifications

Simon was able to 3D print the centre code disk and from that he then made a cold cast aluminium version. This was then cleaned and polished and attached to the buckle which was in turn re-affixed to the belt so that a single rivet was visible to the left of the buckle.

Simon also used his 3D printing skills when it came to the 'code cylinders' that sit in the pockets of the jacket. Once the 3D model had been printed Simon was again able to cold cast in aluminium the two that I needed.

This photo shows freshly cast code cylinder and code disk

The finished code cylinders

I also needed the correct 'rank bar' to attach to my jacket. Now luckily for us we happen to know someone through our Joker Squad family who makes these. So the lovely Chris Smith was able to come up with this for me;

The next piece of the uniform required a little sewing. This was for the collar insignia; cut from some black fabric Simon was then able to create a seam around the edge using the sewing machine which gave them a 'sew-on badge' effect. I was then able to sew them onto the collar by hand (with a little help from 'wonder-web' to keep them in place).

That just left gloves, boots, hair and make-up to sort. Gloves and the wig were an easy on-line purchase.

Boots were a little more tricky as the first pair we tried were not as we hoped and had a seam running up the front which we didn't want. So back to the internet and we purchased a pair of riding boots which look so much better, although they do require a bit of wearing in!!

Wearing them around the house!!

So then it was a case of enlisting help from my good friend Jo who was able to cut the wig to match the character and then it was left to me to have a play around with the make-up!

Make-up test!

So with all this done we can now see the final results! Me as Governor Arihnda Pryce...

...right best get out there and do some trooping!

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!

WOW! What a Weekend - Day 2

OK so here we are with Day 2 of Star Wars Celebration - London 2016.

After a hearty breakfast and sporting our new Vok'Chi Clan t-shirts we headed over to the Excel arena for another day of Star Wars.

Once again we had made the conscious decision not to spend time queuing for panels and so took our time and made it over to Celebration for about 10.30am. We chatted with a lovely family on our walk over and were able to help take some photos for them when we bumped into this big guy!

"I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee", said me, never.

And before we'd even got inside the arena is was chance to grab some photos with some of the cosplayers outside the entrance...

A shiny ShadowTrooper

There were still queues to get through bag check but these actually moved along quite quickly, although there was a lot of walking up and down barriers in what was essentially a very large warehouse!

Time to catch up with social media!

Once through and into the main exhibition halls it was chance to have a good wander about and take in anything that we had missed from the day before. This did lend itself to a few more photo opportunities!

Star Wars Rebels style Imperial Combat Driver

Not the only one with Mouse Ears at Celebration

He told me that he's just Matt the Radar Technician at StarKiller Base (but he kinda reminds me of someone else)

With Ryi'nock - one of our fellow Mandalorian Mercs

And of course the obligatory selfie while walking the floor!

After a few hours we headed back to the hotel to get changed into our Mandalorian armour as we had our first official stints on the Mercs booth that afternoon. We had learnt a few things from our outing in armour the day before which meant not only was the whole 'getting dressed' easier and a bit quicker but we'd also got a couple of changes; like putting my gloves on last so that I could take them off if needed (or at the very least so I could use my phone!).

All kitted up off we headed once more to the Excel and the long walk round to the entrance but once again we found it to be such fun with lots of high five's and stopping for photos. And this continued once we'd got into the building and through 'prop check' (remember all prop weapons had to be checked before being allowed through).

With a couple of mini-Mandos!

And even a Jedi wanted a photo with us!

Finally we made it through to the Mandalorian Mercs booth where we had duties to perform! Simon had some cell guard duty to attend to...

How did that Wookiee get in there?

...and he even got filmed for Star Wars Show Live!

We also helped out on a section of the booth that was set-up for children to get involved with; there was a shooting game and a throwing 'thermal detonators' target game. These were a great way to involve the children and introduce them (and their parents) to the world of the Mandalorians.

As our 'shift' came to an end fellow Merc Kris approached me and said that she'd like Simon and I to take part in a panel that the Mercs were hosting that afternoon! It was a panel all about building a set of Mandalorian armour and along with a few others Simon and I were to be the 'models'!! This involved us all standing at the front of the audience for an hour...in full kit...helmet on. This was the longest I think I'd ever spent with the helmet on and I have to admit I was a little unsure of how I would cope. The thing is I actually find the helmet to be a little claustrophobic, especially when indoors, but I surprised myself and in fact the longer I wore it the more I got used to it. Now don't get me wrong I was still thankful to take it off after the hour long panel!

Full audience ready for the Mercs armour building panel

Our team busy demonstrating how to shape the armour

A bit of posing going on by us 'models'!!

So the team here were able to shape a set of Mandalorian armour for an audience member in around 42 minutes...just a tad quicker than ours!! It was another fun experience which not only saw a lot more photos get taken but we also had chance to chat to members of the audience afterwards about our kits. I will confess to being very proud of my creative other half as we both received no end of compliments about our armour and although I think I wore it well all credit for it's creation firmly lays with Simon.

After the panel it was time for Celebration to close which meant a walk back to the hotel, a much needed shower, a change into civilian clothes and a very welcome and deserved tipple before our meal...