Goodbye ‘Blindsided’ and other wanders

As has been the theme for the last few weeks dear readers ‘Blindsided’ has taken up much of my week. With the day off on Monday to recover (at last), we’ve had shows Tuesday to Saturday which has kept me busy with a matinee as well. However, come Saturday and it was all over because within minutes of the show finishing we started on the get-out. Five hours later the space looked completely different, with most of it having been dismantled and ready to go into a skip on Monday (it was rather satisfying if I’m honest). Having finished at 3.00am (as was the plan) Sunday was thus spent sleeping and returning to normal life.

The backstage team!

What about the rest of the week I hear you ask dear readers (someone must have asked, not even one person?). With activities in college during the day for the first half of the week, my first ‘day off’ was Thursday which also happened to be my birthday. Thursday afternoon was spent at the Welsh Millennium Centre watching ‘Kiss Me Kate’. Before the show I had delightful catch-up with Morgan Deare which was great. Having met Morgan in Bristol a few weeks if was brilliant to see him again. The show itself was fantastic! I can’t say I knew anything about the show before seeing, but it has something for everyone, a bit of Shakespeare, tap dancing, big musical numbers and a comedy-double! Afterwards I was able to pop backstage and see Morgan again before dashing back to college for that night’s performance of ‘Blindsided’.

Friday marked another busy as I wandered down to the Experience. Having not been for a while there were a few new things which had been added, in particularly a number of beautifully restored costumes from the classic era, which looked very nice, having been carefully restored and remounted. I ended up spending most of the day there which was great as it was very quiet, so I got to enjoy it all in peace and quiet (no kids getting their facts wrong, although one lady did call K1, KI!)

A beautifully restored Tetrap costume.

Saturday was a rather early start (through choice) as I dashed off to London for a signing in Barking (the last event of the year for me). I happened to meet one of the guests as we got off the underground, so had a lovely chat to Robert Goodman, even before the event itself had begun! As well as Robert I met Kevin Hudson and Arabella Weir, both of whom were lovely. Arabella is currently in a series on the BBC called ‘Two Doors Down’ (go and watch it, or at the very least have it on in the background to help the viewing figures, was what she said). However, I sadly couldn’t stay very long as I had to dash back to Cardiff for ‘prep for get-out’ but never the less it was a delightful trip to London and a great if what somewhat brief catch-up with friends and a lovely last event for the year.

However, my dash to London was not the only Doctor Who person I met this week. On Wednesday Ed Thomas was in college and came to look at our set. I was kindly introduced to him and had quite a chat about the show which he seemed more than happy to discuss; a lovely man and someone that I never really expected to meet.

I think it’s safe to say it’s been a rather busy, but enjoyable week dear readers!