Barry, Christmas, WW1, Barking, Doctor Who and a leak; quite a busy week!

For once dear reader I've had a very busy week (yes, for all seven days of it, ok six of the seven but it’s a start).

Forget Monday, Mondays are rubbish. Tuesday morning marked the start of our paper props project (I'll come back to that), but as it was the 1st of December (what happened to 2015!) Christmas came to flat 20, as George and I put up Christmas decorations. Whilst a tree had been provided (thanks George's mum), we need decorations and ended up spending a little more than planned in pound land, but a few hours later (with the help of Christmas jumpers and songs) it looks pretty good and I'm starting to feel festive (slightly). It’s now Sunday and I don't think the lights have been switched off once, so we obviously did something right.

For the next few days we continued our paper props project. This is a basic introduction on how to use Photoshop and make paper props (the hint was I'm the title, I shouldn't really have needed to tell you that dear reader). We have to make a range of things, so we (George and I) are making period posters, cans, parcels etc. and I'm loving it. As I write this we have two days until we present our work, but regardless I've loved it and learnt a lot.

Thursday evening was a little different as instead of a cinema trip we (Cait and I) went to the recording of 'The Leak'. I would describe it as ‘Mock the Week’ meets ‘Have I got news for You’, on the radio, with a Welsh twist. Despite it chucking it down on route and us being soaked, it was really good and funny! (Cait if you ever read this and disagree, feel free to comment below). If you'd like to hear us laughing and clapping it's here on iPlayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qdhkr). For the sharper readers amongst you, you may recognise the name Tom Price (Dad you'd better have done), as he was PC Andy Davidson in 'Torchwood', so I managed to get an unexpected autograph and chat, which was nice. Having never listened to the show before I was a little unsure what to expect, but I shall definitely listen to it again (perhaps without the rain).

As if that wasn't enough excitement for the week, we (Jon, Cait and I) went to Barry. It very much reminded me of Ireland, as it was very picturesque, but windy. Unbeknownst to be 'Being Human' and 'Gavin and Stacey' had been filmed there so Cait was excited, whilst I walked round the Doctor Who locations. We all agreed that we could happily retire there, so I think we may go back at some point, perhaps when it’s a bit more sunny.

I didn't stop there dear reader, as Saturday was my final wander around the country for the year, to Barking (oh the glamor). Despite having got up at 4.15am I had a great day! This week’s guests included Liz White (Life on Mars/Our Zoo), Nina Touissant-White (EastEnders) and Bill Patterson (So many things, including the new Dad's Army film). Having not been to Barking for a while, it wasn't as routine as normal, but the guests were all fantastic, particularly Bill Paterson. Not only were the guests lovely, but someone had made brownie, so we had freshly baked (still warm) brownie before the Q&A! (what more could I ask for?). Doctor Who itself was very good, and a great way to end the series. Hopefully now that he’s found Gallifrey, we might have a few more trips back in future series. Only two weeks until the next episode!

My exciting week continued as I made I made a return visit to the Experience on Sunday with Sam, his sisters and Mum which was lovely. As Sam’s sisters are fans of Doctor Who, I was there as a kind of tour guide, which I was a little nervous about, but I think they enjoyed it (you’ll have to ask them, I certainly did). What was particularly nice was how excited they were during the walkthrough experience, as it made it all the more enjoyable for me, seeing them so excited or scared by the different bits. After the wander round the experience, we had a boat trip around the bay which was nice (not something I’ve done before), before eating in Eddie’s Diner (yes the one from last night’s episode), before going past a few locations (for once dear reader, people wanted to know what had been filmed on random streets!).