Days 109-118: Christmas in Nottingham

Nottingham as viewed from the castle

I have to admit that I didn't know what to expect from my stay in Nottingham. I was staying with my great aunt and uncle (on my dad's side) who I had only met once before when I was just 12. It was also my first Christmas away from home, and I was worried that homesickness (which hadn't hit that hard so far) might be more of a problem once it finally sunk in that I wouldn't be with my family over Christmas. 

In the end, though, I had an absolutely lovely time. I got along really well with my great aunt and uncle and I enjoyed getting to know them better (I have to say that, since they're probably reading this blog, but it's true!) They took such good care of me-- four course breakfasts, anyone?-- and had new sightseeing plans every day. After the stress of exams, a busy but relaxing Christmas was exactly what I needed. There was plenty to do, but also lots of time for sitting in the living room reading or watching telly (like the Doctor Who Christmas special- so many tears!)

Probably the best way to describe my stay is to go over it day by day:

Auntie Diana and I with Robin Hood

Friday the 20th
Shopping in Nottingham. I was introduced to John Lewis (an upmarket department store) and taken to Waterstones (a bookstore) where Uncle Paul invited me to choose any book I wanted for a Christmas present. In true English-nerd fashion, I choose the facsimile of the original drafts of T. S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland.' We also said hi to my pal Robin Hood where he stands outside Nottingham castle.

Saturday the 21st

Newstead Abbey, the home of Lord Byron

In a day of contrasts, uncle Paul and I first visited D. H. Lawrence's humble birthplace (he was the son of a coal manner) before touring Newstead Abbey, which was originally a 13th century monastery before it was sold to the Byron family, the last of which was the famous poet Lord Byron. It was neat to see two such different sides of Nottingham's literary history.

Sunday the 22nd
I got to meet my dad's two cousins and their kids (my second cousins? My cousins once removed? I dunno...) on a family trip to Calke Abbey, a stately home out in the countryside. While I preferred Newstead Abbey, it was lovely to meet my extended family, and we all had a great time shepherding the kids around.

Monday the 23rd 

Lincoln Cathedral

After picking up the Christmas turkey from Mark's and Spencer's (which was a proper British experience, involving queuing for nearly an hour) we took off for Lincoln cathedral to meet some friends of mine from back home. These friends are British originally, but they've been living in Canada, ten minutes from my parent's house, for the past five years. Back in Britain for Christmas, they had brought some presents from my family (TIM HORTON'S CAPPUCCINO POWDER!!!!) and had offered to take some gifts back from me for my family.
Aside from the gift exchange, it was really nice to see some familiar faces and to spend some time together exploring the cathedral. The sheer oldness of these English buildings never ceases to amaze me; I just don't understand how buildings as absolutely magnificent as those cathedrals could have been built almost 800 years ago.

Tuesday the 24th
Uncle Paul and aunty Diana took me on a family tour of Nottingham, stopping at all the places that they had lived, and showing me where my great grandmother lived for a few years. It was fascinating to hear about family history and to see how long Uncle Paul's family had been in Nottingham. 
We also went to the local church to see the bells and ended up staying for the Christingle service. To anyone who doesn't know what a Christingle is: google it. I'm not even going to try to explain. 

My Christingle and hymnal

Wednesday the 25th
Christmas was a relatively quiet day. We went to church in the morning and I got to bell-ring! My great aunt and uncle are bell-ringers at their parish church, so they took me up with them to watch. Then the head bell-ringer asked me if I'd like to try, so he helped me ring the fourth bell in a few 'rounds.' Definitely a Christmas highlight!
For the rest of the day, we ate excessive amounts of food, drank good wine, and watched what Britain had to offer in the way of Christmas telly (Call the Midwife, Doctor Who, and Downton Abbey). 

Thursday the 26th

Christmas Day Bell-Ringing

Boxing Day was similarly quiet, with one of my second cousins + family coming over for dinner. We are more food, drank more wine, and watched more telly. This time, we also had my very amusing second-cousin-once-removed (I'm gonna go with that) for entertainment. At 18 months, he was far more interested in his toy vacuum than in opening any new presents.

Friday the 27th
Since it was my final day in Nottingham, we had to pack in all the big things I hadn't seen yet, which, crucially, included Sherwood Forest. Had I been expecting the greenwood, with Robin Hood and his Merry Men feasting beneath, I would have been sorely disappointed. These days, after most of the huge trees were cut down for shipbuilding, the Forest is just like any other. However, a number of ancient trees do remain, including the Major Oak, which is supposedly 1000 years old.
We then went back to Nottingham (stopping at yet another country house for lunch and detouring through a 3 mile long road double-lined with lime trees) to visit the Castle, and, more importantly, the caves beneath. Nottingham rests on sandstone, so underneath the city is a complex network of caves, none more important than the ones beneath the castle keep, which allowed food to come in during sieges, or soldiers to sneak in intent on kidnapping a king. Nowadays they have a small section of these tunnels open on a guided tour, which was fascinating.

Climbing a tree in Sherwood Forest

Saturday the 28th
We all woke up bright and early so I could catch the 7:45 train to Newmarket, where I was staying with a friend from St. Andrews. On our way, uncle Paul recounted an amusing story where my uncle Mark had been staying with them some years earlier and had missed his train to London, meaning that uncle Paul ended up driving him half way to London to catch the train at the transfer. We had a good laugh over the story, but arrived at Nottingham station in a bit of a rush, just a few minutes before my train was scheduled to leave.
Now, I don't know if it was my fault, or the train station's fault, but we ended up waiting for my train at platform four, when we should have been at platform 3b. About two minutes before departure, we realized we were at the wrong platform. 30 seconds before departure we saw my train at platform 3b, which was about twenty feet away from us... across two sets of tracks. So we ran down the platform, climbed the stairs to cross over the tracks... and watched my train chug cheerfully away without me.

Auntie Diana and my little cousin

The most economical thing to do at this point would have been to wait for the next train (40 minutes later) and tell the conductor my sob story and hope he wouldn't make me buy another ticket. Instead, uncle Paul was wonderful and offered to drive me to Newmarket, an hour and a half away. I gratefully accepted his offer (thanks again, Uncle Paul!) and we set off for Newmarket, where we met my St. Andrew's friend, and a new chapter of my adventures began.


So. That was Nottingham. I really enjoyed my time there, both the company and the places we went, and I look forward to visiting again. My great aunt and uncle love gardening, so I plan to return in the summer, when everything will be in full bloom.

But for now, this post is long enough. I hope you've enjoyed the small selection of photos-- I have so many more, but no time to go through and edit them all!

Days 82-83: Doctor Who in London

EXTERMINATE

Yesterday I wrote about the shows I saw in London; today I'll talk about the Doctor Who events I attended (the convention on Friday, and the cinema screening in Leicester square.) This leaves the general sightseeing/appraisal of London (and the majority of my photos) for tomorrow. 

Firstly, I'm glad that I went down to London for the anniversary. Everyone in St. Andrews seemed to think travelling seven hours was a little ridiculous, but it was definitely worth it, especially with everything else I did in London. Going to the convention and watching the episode with hundreds of other fans in one of London's main cinemas definitely increased my excitement for the show.

The queue to get into the convention

Friday was convention day. While it ran all weekend, each day was basically a repeat of the others, so I only got a ticket for Friday. I bought my ticket months ago, back in Canada, and they sold out in a few hours, which is crazy considering there were thousands of people there just on Friday.

That was the only downside to the convention- the sheer number of people there. I arrived at about 9:15 with the doors due to open at 9:30, but with the huge queue I didn't actually get into the convention room until after 10. Once in, it was a big squeeze to get anywhere, especially by the shops (there was basically anything imaginable for sale... I just bought a tardis notebook. So original.)

Panel with the current cast/crew

There were three main panels throughout the day. The first was called 'Regenerations' and it featured three of the old doctors (Colin Baker, Peter Davidson, and Sylvester McCoy). The second was my favourite, since it involved the current actors (Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman) and head writer (Steven Moffat). Finally, the third featured the special effects director, who demonstrated a number of the explosions and stunts they did on the show.

Other than the panels, there were lots of things going on in the main hall. There were two main stages with smaller panels (I went to one run by Big Finish audio, which records doctor who audio dramas, and I got to go up on stage and read part of the script), a smaller special effects demo, and sessions with the choreographer who taught us how to walk like Doctor Who monsters.

Panel with Big Finish audio

The best part of the day was towards the end, when people started to clear out. Up till then I had been feeling a little bit distanced from the whole thing-- with thousands of people there, I never got near any of the actors, much less had time to talk to them. But as people started to leave, I got the chance to talk to a number of people with smaller roles or behind the scenes jobs.

David Tennant's suit, and the spacesuit from
'Silence in the Library'

A bunch of trailers were set up with hair/makeup and costumes, so I got to take a look at the actual costumes used in the show. The highlight was definitely getting to handle the jacket that Tennant wore in 'The End of Time' when the Master burned a hole in the front of his suit. I also really enjoyed talking to the hair stylist who was in charge of Tennant's hair, because he was actually a good friend of Tennant's, and he had lots of good stories.

Nicholas Pegg, myself, and Barnaby Edwards.

The best part was when I had quite a lengthy conversation with Nicholas Pegg and Barnaby Edwards, the two main actors who play the Daleks. They were both really friendly, so I and another couple people just stood in a circle with them and chatted about various things, not always doctor who. It was actually quite bizarre because it felt so normal, like they were just other doctor who fans, but then every once in awhile they would mention some part of an episode that they were in and it would suddenly strike me that I was actually talking to doctor who actors!

I left the convention at 7, after most people had already gone. The huge hype from the day left me really excited for the anniversary episode, which aired the next day (Saturday) and was simulcast in cinemas worldwide.

TARDIS

As I said before, I got to watch the episode in Leicester square, which is apparently where a lot of movie premiers happen. All I know is that the cinema had two showings of doctor who on that night, so the building was packed with people in long colourful scarves or tardis blue dresses. The audience was really excited, always ready to laugh or cheer. It was almost like watching it with friends.

Before the episode they aired a couple short clips. A character from the show (Strax the Sontaran) came out to instruct us on proper cinema etiquette (keep a low volume when consuming liquids and nutrition packs) and then Matt Smith and David Tennant came onscreen (huge cheers for Tennant) to talk about 3D and how that would make Smith's chin stick out of the screen.... Smith also had a long rant about how there were zygons in the theatre, but apparently our 3D glasses were equipped with Zygon detectors. It was all good fun, and made it worthwhile to watch the show in cinemas rather than just on TV.

As for the episode itself, I loved it. I won't go into any details (spoilers!) but it was exactly what I wanted from the special: funny, intense, full of inside jokes, moving forward yet looking back, cameos, and just generally a good plot. I had really high expectations for the episode, and it completely met them.

All in all, the Doctor Who aspect of my trip to London was definitely a success. After all, there's really nothing better than leaving the Doctor Who theatre and stepping out not into ordinary real life, but into London, with people everywhere and Christmas lights across every street, and Trafalgar Square right behind you...

Don't blink!

Jenna Coleman at the autograph booth.

Cyberman queuing 

The crowd waiting for the panel

IT'S THEM!

Riversong

The Great Intelligence

The Doctors' costumes

Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred, Donna's grandfather)

Winston Churchill. :)

Old TARDIS console

Day 83: London!

I'm in London right now.

I've actually gotten used to that fact. While I've only been here for three days, it feels like much longer because so much has happened. I've seen three west end shows, photographed most of the major London landmarks, and met a number of the doctor who cast and crew. Currently, I'm sitting in Subway (yeah, I know, I should be at a proper British fish and chips place, but I've spent all my money on show tickets so I have none left for food...) and killing time until the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary special airs.

It'll be odd to watch Doctor Who in Britain. It's just such a part of the culture here, and I bet the place will be humming with excitement. Also, I'm going to a cinema at Leicester square, which is just down the road from Trafalgar Square, where the filmed a scene for the episode (the doctor hanging out of the tardis).  It'll be so cool to watch the show so close to where it was filmed.

So far, my time here has been phenomenal. I've been looking forward to visiting London for virtually my entire life, and I still can't believe I'm actually here. I've also been jumping from thing to thing so quickly, often catching two shows in a day and sightseeing in between, that it's all become a glorious blur. I keep messaging my friends back home saying 'I just saw Rupert Grint!' or 'waiting for the 'Wicked' curtain to go up!' or 'here's Big Ben!' Life is so fantastic right now.

In a few days I'll write up a couple blog posts about each day-- this trip is just too full to fit all in one blog post. I'm not going to start writing those posts until I get back to St. Andrews on Monday, because I need a bit of time to just sit back and digest what's happened. One of the downsides about running around London for twelve hours a day is that it doesn't leave much time for reflection! It'll be a couple days before I can properly evaluate this trip.

For now, I'm going to post this blog (without edits, so if there are mistakes, my apologies!) and head off into the excitement of London. The streets around here are covered in Christmas lights and flashing billboards--- it's like a carnival. I think I'll just stroll around for the next half hour, taking in the scene, until it's time to head to the cinema for the big show...

(Here's a grainy iPad shot of the amphitheatre at the Doctor Who convention yesterday. I'll post more photos once I get back to St. Andrews and can put my camera's pictures on my laptop)

Day 80: England!

I'm in England.

We've just gone through Newcastle and York and a whole bunch of other places, and in just over an hour we'll be in London.

I'm so excited. Back when it was actually light and I could see the countryside, I just couldn't stop looking out the window and smiling. The train ride from Edinburgh to London is just so gorgeous. It goes right along the coast, presenting some lovely views of the ocean.

It's dark now, so I can't see much, but whenever we go through a city I can catch a glimpse of some of the larger buildings, like a church with stained glass windows lit up. I'm a little sad that I'll arrive in London at seven pm, so I really won't be able to see much, but I can afford to wait until tomorrow.

But... I'm in England. It really shouldn't be this exciting; after all, I've been in the UK for the past three months. Still, there's something exhilarating about entering a new country.

It's not just any country, either. It's England, the country where all my favourite authors lived. The country where my grandparents came from. The country I've wanted to visit my entire life.

I can't believe I'm here. The odd thing is that, despite how this is all completely new to me, it still feels like coming home. This is where my roots are. Maybe I'm Canadian, but my ancestors (well, on my dad's side) were English. I'm going back to where my family came from.

London should be amazing. The purpose of my visit is to attend the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary convention this weekend (which means I get to see Matt Smith and Colin Baker and so many other cool people... Jealous yet?) but since I'm here all the way until Monday I'll get to do a lot of other things too, like hopefully see some plays, visit the British museum, and see some landmarks like Big Ben.

I just can't stop saying this.... I'm so excited! This trip is, quite literally, a dream come true. By the time I post this (no wifi on the train, so gotta wait until I get to the house of the friend of a friend who I'm staying with to post this blog) I'll be in London. I can't wait.

A Day in the Life of a University Student: Of Midterms and Doctor Who

The title of this post may seem just a little ridiculous. After all, how are midterms and doctor who related? Does the doctor write midterms? Are there midterms based on doctor who? While both of those would be extremely epic, I’m afraid that they also don’t happen. Basically, the only reason why midterms and doctor who are co-existing in this post is that today I wrote midterms, and then I watched doctor who. ‘nouf said.

As for the midterms, I think I did fairly well. My psych one was hard, but I had studied so much that I knew most of the stuff. It’ll be awhile before I get the marks back, but I’m hoping for at least 90%. (NOTE: I ended up with a 95) Then my poetry one was actually a lot easier than I had been expecting. If I don’t get a hundred it’ll be high nineties (I got 104%, there was a bonus question). Afterwards I talked to a bunch of my classmates and they all said that they thought they did pretty well, too. All in all, my midterms went fairly well. Sorry if this seems like I'm bragging, but since my first essay didn't go near as well as I had hoped, it's nice to be getting these high marks in other subjects. I feel like I've redeemed myself.

Now comes the really cool part of the post, where I rant for ten minutes about how good looking David Tennant is…. no. While I probably could rant for a lot longer than ten minutes about David Tennant, what I really want to tell you about is my extremely strange way of watching movies with a friend while she happens to me back on PEI and I’m in Ontario (approximately 18 hours drive, in case you don’t know your Canadian geography.)

What basically happened is that we started using apple’s Facetime on my iPad. She sat in her living room with an iPod, while I pointed my iPad at my laptop screen. Then I played Doctor Who on my laptop. This meant that we could both watch it at the same time (though I doubt that her picture was exactly the best quality) and talk about it while we watched. Seriously, it felt almost as if we were really sitting on the couch together watching a movie.

Maybe this sounds a little stupid to you. It certainly isn’t something you hear of people doing regularly. But personally, I really enjoyed it. I like watching shows and movies on my own, but it’s even more fun when you have someone to discus it with. I’m the kind of person who likes to talk during movies, pointing out random trivia or just exclaiming “Oh my goodness, this is so sad!” (For anyone who knows their Doctor Who, we were watching the end of season two. Sadness extreme.) Because of this, it was a lot of fun to just sit and watch a movie with my friend, even if she was a thousand miles away.

In other related (happy) news, my last exam for this semester is December 15^th, which means that in seven weeks I should be home! Don’t get me wrong, I love it here, but I can’t wait to see my family and my PEI friends again.