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| Matt (Strider/ Aragorn - LOTR), Charlie (Lara Croft - Tomb Raider) and Becky (Tinkerbell) |
So anyway, on Friday, I was going up with Matt and found out a day earlier that his sister Becky and her friend Charlie were coming up too, why not seeing as it's new people's first times which was always amazing really. Everyone was up and ready by 7 and made our way to London Bridge > Charring Cross > Custom House For Excel. Matt was cosplaying as Strider/ Aragorn from The Lord Of The Rings, Becky was Tinkerbell and Charlie was Lara Croft/ Tomb Raider.
We all had Friday Priority Tickets and once we arrived there, it was so much easier to get inside to use our tickets compared to last year when we had to circle round the far end of the Excel Centre but this time we got in via a shortcut (looked like the area where the Lorries must drop off shipments or something) but most important thing was that people using tickets on the day got in no problem and managed to quite quickly.
So once inside, the ladies went off to explore whilst Matt and I wondered around before I got in the queue by 12.00 to see Jessica Nigri and Matt went off to go exploring.
In the queue for Jessica, it may have taken 3 1/2 hours but I made friends during that time with a good bunch. I got to meet Sam, Rachel (cosplaying Saeko from Highschool Of The Dead), Natalie (cosplaying Yoko from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann), Amber (wearing a lot of Pink haha) and Sam (cosplaying David Tennant/ 10th Doctor). I was mainly on my Nintendo 3DS using the Streetpass and acquiring lots and lots of new Mii characters to help me with Streetpass Games on the 3DS (I had begun to finally understand this at last when I attended LAGC back in February and now I take my 3DS with me on the go to see if I can keep meeting new people. But I wasn't being anti-social with the others whist us lot including everybody else were all waiting to see Jess.
A short while before our turn, we had all noticed there was a group of Eeveelutions (the Eevee and other type Evolutions from Pokemon) and after they all had their group picture, individual shots and bought their posts from Jess, I took the opportunity to ask them all for a group picture with myself (I managed to get almost all of them as a few others were still talking to Jess) but it was still worth it and I'm honoured and happy that most of them agreed.
At last it was our turn and of course we all had a group picture and bought a Print each (I already had one from last year) but after her sweet comment she made to me calling me "Cute", of course I was smitten into submission and bought a print of her cosplaying the Eeveelution - Umbreon. I wanted a pic with her which everybody was getting without fail and THIS TIME compared to last year, I managed to share a Hug with her and I thought why not do the same with Ryan since he was a real awesome dude too and a was pleasure to meet. Jess was cosplaying a Murlock and she was joined by Kelly Jean with her again like last year who was cosplaying EVA from Metal Gear Solid 3 and a new beautiful lady I had never heard of before called Sheena Duquette who was cosplaying Yang Xiao Long from RWBY.  |
| We noticed a Pidgeon flying over us. |
After thanking my new friends and Jess, Ryan, Kelly and Sheena for their time and sharing pictures, it was time for me to go look for Matt again. Matt and I were really into the Weapons area which was full of swords (wooden and metal) and had props from Harry Potter, The Lord Of The Rings, Supernatural, Animes, Games etc. Matt was tempted by Legolas's Twin Daggers and Aragorn/ Isildur's Sword Of Gondor but knew it was just too much as I felt too on purchasing a sword too but I did purchase a Plastic Thor's Hammer "Mjölnir" which was only £20 (reckon it would have been cheaper in Argos or something)... |
| Picture uploaded on 7th July, sorry it took so long haha |
Anyway, before we left, I did somehow bump into finding Luke and Beki again from last year for a short moment but it was good to catch up, ya know when you meet and even though time may be of the essence but you still make the short encounters all good.
So after meeting up with the ladies again, we all made our way back home. I felt a little bad having not spent time with them today but they told me they had fun anyway so that's all that matters and so did Matt. I stopped at Crawley as I went to the Old Punch Bowl to meet up with Mum and go and see her friend who was leaving work, Makenna and meet more of their beautiful friends including Amy, Abbey, Sasha and everyone else. Makenna was most pleased I turned up and everyone was having fun looking at my EXPO stuff including the Hammer. We all had a few drinks except Mum and had a good time for a couple hours. It was quite emotional when we had to go but I was most pleased that Makenna and Amy said I should come out with them on a night out sometime which was very exciting and made me feel Awesome that I can sometime go out with new friends! Good Luck Makenna working in London, see you again real soon!
So after getting home, I was up till 12.40AM preparing for Saturday's MCM by making sure all my tickets were printed out, money was ready, camera had space whilst also preparing my Travel bag for when I headed up to Crewe again to see my best mate Lewis and get to see Kyle and Richard again before everyone finished and go their separate ways.
Saturday 23rd May - Waking up at 5.00AM is not the best feeling on a Saturday but it was all necessary and essential, so after a quick shower and a god awful bowl of Oat Cheerios, I met Kurt at Three Bridges Station by 6.45AM. But we had to wait for Tommy and Brooke till 7.30AM due to Train issues but luckily we all got to the Excel Centre by 8.45 (15 mins before the doors opened) and Kurt and I were ready to make our way as fast as possible over to the Autograph/ Photoshoot area. But we were unaware of the oncoming day of dread, confusion and frustration soon to befall upon us and everyone else which is what made this MCM Comic-Con difficult and mixed instead of easy going and pleasant, here's why.
What was supposed to be a simple day of meeting a couple celebrities and get autographs and have a photoshoot with them, turned into the most uncomfortable, unorganised and frustrating MCM year I've ever had sadly. As soon as the Warehouse Shutters went up and everyone cheered, Kurt and I paired up and brisk walked our way to the area I had spent most of yesterday at whilst Tommy and Brooke wondered around. 
But right when we arrived in the long queue for the celebrities, turns out we had to shift over to another queue and be redirected to the small stall next to the area in order to purchase Orange Smiley Face Tickets/ Tokens that we acquired with purchase of the quantity of celebrities we wanted to meet. Willa Holland, 2 for Iain de Caestecker and 1 for Nick Blood = £80 and Kurt's one's were 1 for Willa, 2 for Iain, 1 for Nick, 1 for Karl Yune and 1 for Rila Fukushima = £90, expensive indeed. So anyway, we were given a Raffle ticket each because the queue for Willa was beyond packed but after an hour we both got to see her in person (good thing Kurt was smart enough to queue up to see Rila and Karl whilst the queue for Willa was going nowhere).  |
| Harry Potter Puppets! |
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| Ted Giving Me A Headache |
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| TETRIS LADs |
45 minutes later, we finally paid for ours, Kurt had bought up his A1 ARROW poster to get the three to sign and I had bought up my Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep PSP Cover for Willa to sign because I know her from voicing Master Aqua in the first Kingdom Hearts game. She was so polite and a real pleasure to meet and we both looked forward to seeing her again later during the photoshoot (or so we thought...)
Since Iain and Nick, weren't gonna be around to do autographs till a little later on, Kurt, Tommy, Brooke and me decided to head upstairs for the first time to watch a Panel for the ARROW TV series and see the guests answer questions that the crowd would ask them. In honesty and shame sorta, I admit I haven't actually watched any of the MAIN AWESOME Series that everyone is now up-to-date on including ARROW, Game Of Thrones, The 100, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad etc but it's because I've been training for The Tough Mudder and work has drained me for a long long time and I figure that once it's over, it'll be a good celebration and opportunity to begin all these series (I don't intend on becoming a "Couch Potato") but I do know everything about all these series since it's the biggest topic at work and I can't seem to ignore, everything may be spoiled but I'm still keen to watch them all for myself. Sorry I went off topic.
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| Felicia Day was first |
Most Fans caused quite a stir and received a startling and negative response from the crowd thanks to the questions actually spoiling it for many fans who turned out to be in the same boat as me or were just a little behind too (even the guests reacted funny and laughed a little whilst responding first with the word "SPOILERS!" But it was a good show and soon as it ended after an hour, everybody tried to rush downstairs probably the same reason for mine and Kurt's reasons. 
As Kurt and I returned to the Photoshoot and Autograph area to see all our autograph guests for photoshoots, it turned into Hell. Turns out that the queues for all the guests had been mixed up and there was no sense in organisation and to decipher which queue was for which celeb. A lot of the MCM Staff were quite stressed and unsure themselves so we ended up asking a lot of people to say who were they queueing for. We saw that Willa was the most busiest so we tried to see Rila (and Kurt wanted to see Karl too) but all the queueing did nothing for a long time and we hardly ended up moving, soon the staff began shouting out "All Priority Tickets for Rila, Please come forward now!" so we ended up seeing her soon enough and luckily Kurt managed to see Karl for his picture with him before we both saw Rila. I wanted to be polite and greet her with "Konnichiwa" (Good Afternoon) as she responded kindly with and after my wonderful picture I parted with "Arigatō" (Thanks) as did she along with "Dō itashimashite" (You're Welcome). I felt so honoured and proud to have remembered a little Japanese from all my years of watching Anime and this time I got to use it at the right moment and correctly. WIN.
BUT when we tried to collect the Prints from the stand where we bought the Autograph coupons this morning, it was beyond packed and many people were told to come back 30 mins later. So we tried looking for the queue for Willa but it turned out she had finished and no more were happening today... F**k. We were not happy or pleased that all that time of standing about helplessly and the short hour for her photoshoot had tied in with everyone else's, that's pretty stupid but we didn't hate her or any of the guests, we were too annoyed with the unorganisation of everything. 
So we tried to get in the queue for our 2 LADS from Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, Iain (Agent Leo Fitz) and Nick (Agent Lance Hunter) however the queue was too long for the staff to allow others to join even though we had already paid for our tickets to receive a picture no matter what. Soon the staff asked everyone who had a Priority ticket for Iain to line up and go first so a while later, Kurt and I got our picture with him separately. Iain was very nice and apologised for the long delay, so we shook hands and had the picture taken and I said before quickly moving on "Thank you so much and your Awesome in S.H.I.E.L.D!" and he appreciated my comment. Originally Elizabeth Henstridge who plays (Agents Jemma Simmons) was supposed to be a guest here instead of Nick but she had to cancel beforehand due to work complications so Nick came instead. Shame we didn't get to meet him. Though I did find the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D Panel thanks to Kurt and it's hilarious and the guys play good banter and we both wish we had seen that too along with Nick, Oh Well. Always next time, least the videos up online!So we were both p***ed off to learn that beforehand we couldn't get a joint picture with Nick to help save time and by the time we had seen Iain, Nick was done as well, so both of us lost out on 2 Pre-paid Photoshoots which costed us £50, (to quote Sheldon Cooper, "Oh, Friggity-Frak!")
So we went back to the queue to get our prints but we just ended up sitting down and not moving for an hour as the team who were receiving the printed out print had NO FREAKING IDEA who the celebs were, there was no organisation such as raffle ticket recognition after having our pictures taken and all they did was look through the huge pile of prints and looked for facial recognition to whoever came to the counter... Yeah! So after we both got one, we were told to shuffle to the left out of the queue and wait until others found our other prints along with everybody else's. People in the queue were telling us and the others to go to the back and we tried with reason to explain without losing our temper that "We were told to wait here by the people at the stall!" But after a long while whilst seeing other people in the queue, Kurt and I finally got our prints but we were still pretty f***ed off that we didn't get our chance to see Willa and Nick.
So we chose to just go after not being able to get through to Tommy or Brooke, I stayed at London Bridge to wait for someone for my next event whilst Kurt headed home but told me he'd try to get us a refund (since we are pretty much entitled to it).
I was also annoyed that I failed to meet my friend Beth but I aim to see her in person soon as she's a Horshamite like me.
That day may have been awkward and stressful, but up next was a spectacular show soon to happen for me and one of my oldest friends who makes me feel so Awesome and be myself with no worries as well as sharing the best interests like The Legend Of Zelda, AVATAR Aang and Korra series and most of all, Doctor Who). That special lady is Ellie and the funniest thing is that our Mum have been best friends since teenagers so it's funny how we are sorta continuing the friendship timeline ha.
Since October last year, I discovered the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular which originally played only in Australia and in May 2015 it was coming to the UK for the first time. How could I miss up this opportunity and I knew the perfect company since we had done a similar past event 2 years ago for The Legend Of Zelda: Symphony Of The Goddesses (which I'll probably talk about in a short post in a while).
So 20 mins later, Ellie turned up and we made our way to Wembley Park and go to the SSE Wembley Arena (a smaller arena right next to Wembley Stadium where Lewis and I saw Eminem).The inside was quite nice and there were a few people cosplaying things from Doctor Who including the Doctor's Space Suit.
We both bought a program and I got a small wristband (by the end, I was gutted that we couldn't purchase a CD of the Symphonic itself, yeah it was that good).
I got us 2 good seats not far from the upper level far left and quite near the screen and a good view of the stage itself. Oh and Ellie and I FINALLY managed to exchange our 6 month late Christmas gifts to each other, I had bought her 2 Harry Potter T-shirts and she got me The Joker (The Dark Knight) FUNKO POP Figurine.
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Updated on October 25th after MCM, I surprisingly found a playlist on YouTube of the whole show and figured I'd share the beautiful music and videos with you, Whovians!
I took many pictures of the night as the screen was so dazzling, showing lots and lots of clips from the series I've watched since 2009 and am now up-to-date.
The setlist was perfect and I managed to recognised a good variety of it all as I have the soundtracks on my iTunes as does Ellie and my cousin Kyle.
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| Apparently Stephen Moffat and Murray Gold Were Here With Us Tonight |
"The Companions" song had 4 unique themes especially Rose's emotional moment for me which always breaks my heart during the final moment of the episode "Doomsday" (I failed to get a quick picture of Donna Noble) but I got the other last 3 before Clara Oswald.
Pretty soon, the Doctor's adversaries began to make appearances on stage and made their way through the crowd on the ground and interact with the audience (that must be something, having this creature up close after only seeing it for years on the TV causing chaos and problems for our main hero and the human race). 
Soon the most powerful and evilest tin-cans made their dramatic appearance and got the crowd laughing and Booing as The Daleks tried to establish dominion over us all and ordering Ben Foster to continue playing, it was slightly spine-chilling to actually see the Doctor's oldest enemy who just don't seem to die and to hear that sinister voice even louder than hearing it on the TV and seeing the team on stage having to see them so close, I wonder how they were feeling (perhaps the Orchestra are used to it but I'm sure it never gets old).The Daleks Theme "To Darkness" certainly darkened the atmosphere and was quite loud which made everything so real that not every orchestra plays beautiful and peaceful music, there are themes for the villains and they deserve to crash the night and also show just how a composer can diverge his work and make such a variety of creations.
The Dream Crabs bought back the scary side to Doctor Who last Christmas "Last Christmas Suite" (but Nick Frost made it still enjoyable) as we see in every season with creepy episodes like "The Empty Child", "Blink", "Midnight", "Listen" and "Last Christmas".
Funny how the current writer of the series, Stephen Moffat has turned the series into a thrilling roller coaster and what Ellie agrees on "complicated it all", it's still good and no offence to him it's just a little different compared to when Russell T. Davies who did all of the 9th Christopher Eccleston and 10th Doctor David Tennant which a lot of people I know really loved Doctor Who back then because there was a layout in the series full of small secrets which soon all were explained by the end. Stephen still delivers that it's just a little different and is becoming too complicated and changing the timeline too much, well that's just my opinion but I'm still a fan as you can see and at least the shows still kicking and no one has yet been told his name! (except Riversong).
After the 20 minute break, Act 2 came on and many more creatures appeared when we saw a montage of the Doctor's enemies and monster of the Doctor Who Universe in "All The Strange, Strange Creatures".
"The Impossible Girl" helped remind me why Clara is so unique (she may have a confusing plot) but she's a beautiful companion (as is everyone else) and probably gives the best hugs.
"66 Seconds" showed the Mummy and even bought one into the crowd like the front were reliving the haunting experience themselves.
It was also good to see a good video of "The Pandorica Suite" episodes show off the big dramatic 2 part episodes to Season 5 and it also showed my 2 favourite couple to have joined the Time Lord but we all know they met an unfortunate end (in time) like all the Doctor's companions...
There was a sad atmosphere when "Abigail's Song" from A Christmas Carol that got me and Ellie emotional at seeing the sentimental heart-breaking love episode.
"Fifty - This Is Gallifrey" was all about "The Day Of The Doctor" special which I wish I had seen in Cinemas and it featured the 10th Doctor David Tennant and the 11th Doctor Matt Smith and also featured the (1st) War Doctor John Jurt during the last day of the Time War and also began the lifelong pain that the Doctor will be burdened with forever (now from where we are up-to-date, it helps open more ideas on how to keep the series going).
The show ended with "Death In Heaven's Suite" and showed the 2 part episodes to Season 8 and the return of 2 of the Doctor's greatest enemies. What seemed too good to be the real ending soon became clear as like any live performance "We always want more!"
And we got it and got to see the powerful and uplifting video and famous track "Vale Decem" which is played when David Tennant regenerates and Russell T. Davies left the show. We all saw on the screen all the past Doctor's since this is the Regeneration Theme (Dad's favorite Doctor was Tom Baker) and when he actually regenerates and there is fire in the TARDIS, it was like reliving the moment when I didn't want David to go like his last words *sigh* but I was worried back then how Matt would do, but he did GOOD and helped bring humour and a young face (no offence haha).
The most obvious and incorrect/ ironic thing was that the Opening Theme tune wasn't the opening to the show, so for them to play if off as part of the Encore seems like a plan and is an excellent finale to a smash-hit night of Doctor Who nerdiness and living the moment of seeing the music that helps make the series and bring it to life for all of us to have been proud to witness.And then we went home yada yada yada. So this really helped lift me up for this particular Saturday. And I got to share it with an Awesome lady just like last time we saw something together live that we love and got to talk a lot about the huge series. That event lived up to the name and was truly Spectacular!
Oh and I even bumped into my amazing Collyers Learning Support friend, Philippa with her family who had just come from the same Doctor Who event. Looks like we need to catch up sometimes seeing as it's been nearly 2 years already.
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| Applause whilst standing, of course |
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| Here's the T-Shirt from Qwertee.com that I tried to look for to wear for the event |
Sunday 24th May - On Sunday morning, I was intending to go back to MCM for a very short time because Kurt contacted MCM about our quarrels and to ask for refunds which we weren't allowed for the photoshoots but we could return with the autograph tickets to see Iain and Nick after failing to yesterday. So that's what we had planned, only thing was that I wasn't pleased to have to travel all the way there, get the signatures and then head to Crewe whilst carrying the heavy gym bag with all my stuff in it (plus it would have to be looked through at MCM which would cost us time).
So to make things easier for me and I'm super grateful to Kurt for collecting and taking my poster and comic book along with his ones to get both signed there without me. It seems so selfish of me but I told him everything and he offered like a bro and by 10.30AM, he had met them both and got our Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D posters and Comic-book signed by them both. What a LAD!
I'll upload the picture when I get the off him ASAP.
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So now I'm gonna pick them up off him tomorrow. So overall you can see that this record breaking MCM London Comic-Con, May 2015 has been overwhelming for me. According to MCM, 122,634 people attended Saturday, woah! No wonder it seemed like an endless ocean of people and was quite stressful indeed.
I can't help but think that in the end, we bot got about 80% out of 100% on what we had paid and queued up for but not everything is achievable in life but it's super that we got what we paid for even if it wasn't the whole deal.
Now we aren't sure on what October's going to be like... I reckon I'll this time have mixed feelings about going and also do my best as well as remain aware and sceptical that it's going to remain this way of becoming Sold Out. But I think we all just need to enjoy the All The Small Things (like what blink-182 says). Plus we make new friends everytime any of us go and we somehow come back with stuff and more memories.
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| Met a Beautiful Spider-Woman & BatWoman |
I wonder how long this can last, but at least this year I was a lot more braver in asking people to share pictures with and I managed to keep my cool and not lose my temper at this kerfuffle. There was a lot of cool stuff which makes this place worth coming to and encourages me to clean out my room so I can make space for future things.
But it's good to see that I've made a few new friends and before Comic-Con thanks to the MCM Expo Group Facebook Page whether it's been a random add to them or to me, it's nice to meet new people and somehow start new friendships as well as boost my confidence and self-esteem. Even if sometimes it's a war on there and difficult to be yourself, sadly not everyone is a good egg on there, but I'm glad I'm friends with the right ones! And made new ones like Aki, Jessica and Natalie etc.
Truth be told, I've been trying to write this up since Sunday but I've been at Crewe with Lewis, Richard, Kyle and Lucy and had an excellent time and been writing this up slowly but surely. I'll write that little adventure up in June and right now I'm packing for Saturday's Tough Mudder!
Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it...
