Last Tuesday I skipped my DVD Tech lecture and made my way down to Stafford station. There I got on a train and a couple of uneventful hours later, got off at London Euston.
An even more uneventful ten minutes followed as I got the tube to Waterloo where I met up with a certain girl called Hogie who I've known for several years, yet never met face to face before as she was in London to see the Kaiser Chiefs.
We wandered around London for an hour or so, reminising about the good old days of the Green Wing Community on the IMDb messageboard before the second series where loads of n00bs showed up and ruined it by starting thousands of threads aling the lines of "Mac! Squeeeeeeee!", and talked about which bands Hogie had stalked and seduced recently and which were next, and the benefits of free newspapers and underwear with a giraffe on them.
Then she very nearly made me miss my next train by trying to get me lost, but I managed to get on just in time, and I was once again on my way to Portsmouth. This was another very uneventful journey, except I was standing some of the time for this one. About six I got got off the train at Cosham and encountered Christ on a bike. I navigated my way around him as he got off, folded it up (it was a collapsable bike) and carried it onto the train, then I made my way over to a taxi and got a lift down to the Kings Theatre, where I went in, found my seat and waited for the show to begin.
At 7.30 the curtain went up and on stage was a busy farm scene, evidently run by Henry and Em who were apparently wondering where their niece, Dorothy, had got to and were worried as it looked like there was a storm coming in. A few minutes of comedy banter later there was a familiar voice from off stage and on walks Toni in a blue dress and pigtails.
When she started singing Over the Rainbow I was almost blown away myself. I had no idea she could sing like that. I'll never know how its possible to fit a voice like that into such a little girl.
What followed for the next two hours was a very entertaining and VERY funny version of The Wizard of Oz (if you hadn't already guessed) with some very talented actors (not just Toni :P). And during the interval the family I was sat next to bought me an ice cream which was very nice of them. I think it was jus cos I was there on my own, but either way I'm not complaining.
I think Toni may have spotted me in the audience, as she was looking right at me for a couple of verses of Follow the Yellow Brick Road, but I can't say for sure as it was quite dark in the stalls and I have no idea if you can actually see to seven rows back from the stage.
Unfortunately Toni was caught up with theatre stuff after the show so I didn't get a chance to see her, which was a shame as I'd got a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum to give her, so I waited outside for the crowd to die down a bit and got a taxi home.
The journey home was slightly more eventful than the journey down. The first part, a ten to fifteen minute journey from Cosham to Fareham, went very well. the train left Cosham on time and even got to Fareham a minute or two early. The train from Fareham to Southampton Central left on time, but then it went downhill very quickly. About half way there we stopped for no apparent reason. Five minutes later there was an announcement to say that the signal man needed to talk to the driver and we would be off again once he'd gone back. After another five or ten minutes we evenutally started moving. Unfortunately, by this time it was 1.15, the time my train from Southampton to Stafford was due to leave. As we aproached the station I saw it going the other way.
When I got to the station I found there wasn't another train to Stafford, and the best I could do was wait an hour and catch the Edinbourgh train til Birmingham New Street and hope I'd be able to make my way from there. So I endured an hour on the freezing platform with a very loud child who repeatedly told his very tired mother about his dream where he was stood on the edge of the platform and he fell on the track because he was 'wiggling', and then I got shifted off my seat by a group of elderly Italians for no apparent reason, as there was a perfectly good empty bench next to the one I was already on which I sat on instead.
At 2.15 I got onto a very crowded train and managed to find a seat, although it didn't have a window, I was still glad I didn't have to stand. At Reading things improved dramatically as I was turned out of my claustrophobic, no window seat by the people who had reserved it and was forced to sit at a table seat right next to a great big window instead, along with Trevor McDonald and a young boy who was happy to have finaly got a Nintendo DS and a copy of Pokemon Diamond. I considered challenging him to a battle (the young pokemon trainer, not the McDonald impersonator) but as he was still excited about catching Starlys, I thought my Elite Four-beating team might have overwhelmed him somewhat.
My luck continued to stay changed at Birmingham as I got off the train and found that the next train on the platform right next to the one I was on stopped at Stafford. It was absolutely packed and I had to stand, but I didn't mind too much as it was only two stops and I eventually got home two hours after I would have if I'd got the direct train from Southampton.
But still, despite all the trouble on the journey back, it was still worth the trip down. I finaly got to meet Hogie in person (two GWC members down, along with Shari, only Deppy, Paula and Lucy to go) and I got to see Toni and hear her sing, even if I didn't get to talk to her or give her a book.
Thursday night I wrote Toni a little letter and posted it along with the book on Friday, so hopefully I'll hear back from her soon.
Not much of interest has happened since I've been back. I pretty much wrote the entire proposal for my Final Year Project (FYP, for future reference) on Thursday and handed it in Friday so I don't have to worry about that any more, just the FYP itself...
Today I got fed up with the clothes and books all over my floor so I gave it a proper tidy. Once I've taken down the plates with the remains of last nights dinner on it'll finally be good enough to take the photos I mentioned last time, so I'll upload them tomorrow.
I've found a recipe for pumpkin pie so I might give that ago tomorrow too. Its bound to be a disaster, but hopefully it'll still be a TASTY disaster....
