Day 777 - Happy Star Wars Day!

Day 777...

Yes it's that time of year when it is customary to wish one and all a 'Happy Star Wars Day' and watch the puzzlement on the faces of the 'non-geeks' among us!

So just to clarify, today is May the Fourth...May the Fourth Be With You...Happy Star Wars Day...get it?

We even had a special episode of the Disney Dream Girls podcast that I co-host drop today. We had a special guest who had recently visited the new Disney resort experience aboard the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser; he'd even adopted a persona for his 'visit' called 'Hank Lonely'!

And then before settling down to write this blog we were able to watch the trailer that had just dropped for the upcoming Disney + series...sorry limited event...Obi-Wan Kenobi, and boy does it look good. But then again anything with Ewan McGregor in will always look good in my eyes!!

But on with the mundaneness of the middle of the week, the hump of the week if you will. And it was another full day in work for me and involved yet more cash flow predictions as the day started off with a request from a parent which made a significant impact on the figures I'd calculated yesterday. But it was all good and by the end of the day I was pretty pleased with all that I'd achieved.

Back home and after a coffee I struggled to find the motivation to get going. But I did eventually and managed to sort a couple of things to do with my dad's estate. I've also been scouring the internet for something suitably Disney as a suggestion for my leaving present from my work colleagues. Initially I'd started looking at jewellery but had struggled to find anything suitable and so now I'm looking into whether I can find a figurine or ornament that would sit well in our new study/craft room.

But that's pretty much it for the day as the only thing left to do now is to watch the last episode of the Disney + series Moon Knight, and hope that we get the answers we've been looking and waiting for.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Happy Star Wars Day!

Day 412...

And it was another day off from work for me today. We had a scheduled Inset Day at pre-school, which ordinarily means the staff would be in work training or catching up with various tasks, but because we have already worked the hours it meant a day at home.

We did allow ourselves a slow getting up this morning as we had been so busy the last few days but we still had a pretty productive day. Molly had a driving lesson this morning and Simon and I took a short walk out while it was still dry. We only walked 1.6 miles in 32 minutes but we achieved the objective of getting some items in the post and then battled our way against the wind home again.

Then it was time to move the last remaining pieces of furniture out of the living room and into our garage for the next few days. This meant moving some rather heavy pieces so we were very grateful for Molly's help. But it also meant disconnecting all the TV and audio kit and the mass of wires that go with it all as well as dismantling our sofa to get that moved out the way as well. Thankfully our sofa was a 'build it yourself' type so taking it apart was pretty straight forward and it is now in about nine pieces! Although we did take plenty if photos as we went along to aid with the reassembling in a few days time! 

Once the room was clear of furniture we had yet more carpet to roll up and put in the back of the car. We then moved onto clearing our bedroom. We were able to disassemble our bed, while leaving us the mattress to sleep on for the next few nights. We then had to empty the drawers of the dressing table so that we could move that out of the room...it is a very heavy piece of furniture so we made sure we had the shortest distance possible to move it! We then removed the underlay from the remaining carpet so that all we are left with in the bedroom is our mattress and some carpet! I think we will be 'camping out' for the next few nights. If the floors need to have screed applied before we can lay the new wood floor we will have two rooms out of action for possibly 24 hours so we will need to make sure that we have everything we need for the next few days out of each room, otherwise we'll be in a pickle!

So with more underlay in the car we took our third trip to the local recycling centre. It was unusual to be out and about driving around in the middle of a work day and it was kind of reassuring to see how busy the roads were. Although it was also sad to see pubs that had been open in the last week or so now shut because of the typically temperamental British weather; to be only allowed to open outdoors at the moment is ridiculous. Pubs cannot survive on outdoors only dining when the weather is so unpredictable, after all who wants to sit out in the wind and the rain to 'enjoy' a glass of wine! And just today the government very quietly released a paper by SAGE (their scientific advisory group) that basically said there was no detrimental affect of opening up indoors hospitality yet all these businesses have got to wait until the 17th May...unbelievable.

Arriving home we refuelled with a coffee before getting the hoover out and cleaning around the best we could ahead of tomorrow. There is going to be more dust, and more cleaning, over the next few days but figured I'd try and keep on top of it as best I could.

So as today is 'Star Wars Day' (May the 4th be with you!) Simon treated himself to a new VR game called Star Wars; Tales from Galaxy's Edge. Galaxy's Edge is the new area in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World that takes you to the planet of Batuu and this game is centered around that planet. In the theme parks the area includes various shops, restaurants and rides including Millenium Falcon: Smugglers Run. 

Now I am not a big fan of VR, kinda makes me feel a little seasick and disorientated, but Simon was insistent that I gave it a try this afternoon as I would be able to experience Batuu from a position that I would be unable to do so in actual reality. So I popped on the goggles and found myself in Sleesak's Bar with a window in front of me which looked out over the Millenium Falcon...

Inside Sleesak's Bar

...Wow! Everything looked so good and I really could imagine myself being in the actual Galaxy's Edge, somewhere which we have yet to visit. I said to Simon that if the real life version is as good as the VR then I am going to struggle to get Simon away from it all the next time we get to visit in person!

And there we have another Tuesday. Back to work for me tomorrow and the start of our new flooring being installed!

Take care.

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