Lord, has it really been that long since I last blogged? I know I haven’t had much going on, but this is ridiculous. Anyway, since I last talked to you, Great Britain showed that it really is great and hosted the best Olympic and Paralymic games ever (no of course I’m not biased); J K Rowling has released a new and completely brilliant book; The Hobbit trailer was finally released to a lot of excitement; I Am Kloot at last (thank heavens) announced some concerts ‘down south’; my computer and my washing machine both gave up the ghost (sadly in the same week) and Mrs H3 and I once again committed ourselves to attempting to attend this year’s Snow Ball in Edinburgh.

And now it’s that time of year again – I mean, of course, NaNoWriMo. Now normally at this time of the month I’m waxing lyrical about how I’m ready to tackle the 1,667 words that I need to write every day to meet the 30 November deadline of 50,000 words and as we all know from previous years I either start out well, then tail off or get sidetracked before I even really get going and then have a mad spurt at the end of the month. So I was all ready to go and actually even had a plot idea for once – something that doesn’t usually happen properly at this stage of the game, but sad to say I’m really not feeling in the mood for writing this year. I’m not entirely sure why, but at the moment I’m just not feeling the NaNoWriMo love and am thinking of skipping it for the first time since 2008. It may be that as the month goes on my need to write will return and I’ll make a late attempt but at the moment it just isn’t happening. However, if you want to have a go, please check out their website at the link.  

Although I’m not writing at the moment books have once again become a large part of my life. For some reason I went through a period of about six months when I didn’t pick up a single book, not even Harry Potter – and I’m sure anyone who knows me knows what a strange and shocking thing that is (and not just the not reading Harry Potter). I’m not sure why this was, but now I’m back with a vengeance and am voraciously reading anything I can lay my hands on. Terry Pratchett, Lauren Kate, Cassandra Clare, John Connolly, the lovely James Herbert, Dean Koontz and of course the wonderful J K Rowling have all featured in my reading list over the last few months – and all have been brilliantly entertaining and well worth checking out.

As the weather gets colder and the nights draw in, Mrs H3 and I are finally getting some evenings out. Firstly was a small and intimate, but completely wonderful evening with the fantastic Chris Singleton and the Distractions a couple of weeks ago, check out the link for a free download of Chris’ first album ‘Twisted City’. Although there weren’t anywhere near enough people there considering the quality of the band, those of us that were had a truly excellent night. The picture isn’t great quality as it was very dark in there, but not bad considering.

Chris Singleton and the Distractions

Next was our usual annual jaunt to the Halloween Night of Fear with Alice Cooper, which of course saw us dressing up in our scary best. Note the fantastic face paint that Mrs H3 put on me – she’s a true artist that one! Alice was good, but I don’t think he was a patch on previous years. I wasn’t keen on the Wembley venue (especially when it was scheduled at the same time as the NFL American football – trying to get to the venue through the thousands of leaving football fans was a complete nightmare and we only just made it in time) and the sound quality wasn’t very good. Initially I thought it was because I’d been struck down with the lurgy the week before and my ears were still playing up, but Mrs H3 and plenty of others confirmed that wasn’t the case. The stage show was scaled back too, which was interesting, but not as entertaining as the usual beheadings etc., although the snake and the strait jacket did make an appearance. Strangely he chose to do a tribute to Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Moon which took four songs – a little surprising when he has such an extensive back catalogue of his own that he could draw upon instead, and when he didn’t play ‘Only Women Bleed’ which I thought was mandatory. It was still a good evening though, although very wet, which is unusual for Halloween and I’m sure was because I went for the full face paint.    

Do you think I've overdone the make-up?

And so onto the future when on 20^th November we finally get to see I Am Kloot for the first time in what seems like forever (definitely well over a year), playing a preview of their forthcoming album ‘Let It All In’. Obviously I’m extremely excited by this, although somewhat nervous as I am desperately hoping this latest Elbow-produced offering doesn’t have the lush orchestrations of the last one and makes a return to the raw, lyric-driven sound of their previous albums. Having heard the first single from it I’m not entirely hopeful, but trying to reserve judgement until I’ve heard the whole thing. The album is released in time for my birthday (hurrah) and is followed by a couple of concerts in London and Brighton in February, which we will, of course, be at. Actually, trying to get tickets was mental, something that has never been a problem before and there was a scary moment where it actually looked like we weren’t going to get them – which would have caused a strop of massive proportions from me. It’s already bad enough having to pay double what it used to cost to see them (since their Mercury music award nomination) without not being able to get a ticket!

Of course Gary Numan makes an appearance before Christmas too on the 7^th December, where hopefully he’ll be recovered from his recent move to Los Angeles. And then, just after my birthday on 31 January we’ll finally be seeing Passenger, a band that I’ve loved for years but have never yet quite managed to get round to seeing live.

And so once again Mrs H3 and I are heading to Edinburgh in an attempt to go to the Snow Ball  I’m fairly confident that this year we’ll actually make it as it’s being held at the beginning of December, so hopefully less chance of snow (and us getting stuck at both ends as we did last time) and we’re travelling the day before rather than on the day of the Ball itself just to make doubly sure. This year’s star attraction from the USA is the original wizard rockers Harry and the Potters, who we haven’t seen since Leakycon last year. With RiddleTM, Siriusly Hazza P and Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldronsproviding first class support it’s going to be a great evening and is the first Harry Potter event we’ve attended in ages and will help to soothe our bitter hearts for not managing to get tickets for Leakycon London next year (still not ready to blog about that). Expect lots of photos of all the lovely witches and wizards in their finest robes ready to Wrock the night away in the magical city that Jo Rowling calls home at Europe’s premiere wizard rock event.

A Long Overdue Catch up!

Once again it’s been ages since I last blogged. This has been partially due to a lack of anything particularly interesting happening, but mainly because all my efforts have been focussed on finding, getting and settling into a new job.

You will remember that a while back I discovered that my post was being cut and I was going to end up in the dreaded redeployment pool. This duly happened and I spent quite some considerable time, with the help of my friend and mentor Beryl, writing and polishing my CV, competences and career history in hopes that it might attract a better class of job than I had previously seen advertised.

The system sounds very good in theory, but in practice I discovered that it wasn’t quite as good as it could have been and threw up a few worrying moments. First and foremost was the decision on what categories of type of job to choose. Eventually I went for IT, Communications and Health and Safety as these are my three specialist areas and I was desperate not to end up in a job where I was managing people’s diaries and organising meetings (and topping up my boss’ Oyster card, as one job description said). I was aware that not putting Admin and Support down as an option was going to limit the number and choices of jobs I got put forward for, but was hopeful that what I did get would be more to my taste and hopefully better quality.

I soon discovered that I was not being matched on my shiny new competences that I had spent so much time drafting (and as you are told you are during all redeployment-related things that get sent your way and you have to attend), but purely on my choice of location and the three job types I had selected. There wasn’t even any basic checking to discover whether I was suitable for the job or had the competences they were requesting. Assuming the job was in London and fitted into one of the three types I had specified, I was put forward for it. Now this scattergun approach might be okay when you are dealing with admin/PA-type work, where everything is pretty much of a similar type and quality, but when you are talking about specialism this is definitely not a realistic way of working, particularly as under redeployment pool rules, if you are offered a post you have to accept it, unless you have a VERY good reason not to (that the redeployment team will accept).

I found myself pretty quickly matched to a post, but after several weeks had still not heard whether or not I had an interview. A look at the website through which all this is managed didn’t give any clue as it said I was on hold – although there was no description of what that meant. A few weeks later I received another e-mail telling me I had been matched – for another job in the same division as the first – and once again I went on hold. However, a few days later I received an interview date for the second job, although sadly, not a job description and the division concerned weren’t very forthcoming with one when I asked (i.e. I discovered I would be managing a group of staff DURING the interview). The interview (the first I had done for twelve years) was nothing like I expected (and I discovered afterwards was actually pretty much completely wrong) and I knew almost immediately that I didn’t have the job – but to be honest I wasn’t too bothered. From the way I had been treated and their slapdash attitude I knew that I wouldn’t suit their division.

Imagine my surprise then, when I was matched to two more jobs, both within that same division (surely the high turnover of staff was cause for worry in itself). As if that wasn’t bad enough, one of them was in the same section that I had already been turned down for, which made me wonder whether there was any point in bothering. The other, was a very specialised telecommunications post, for which I’ll be honest, I didn’t really understand the job description. As it asked for several specialised competences that I certainly didn’t have I sat back, secure in the knowledge that I wouldn’t be called for interview for the second job, and probably not the first either once they realised they had already interviewed and turned me down once (they did not, as they were supposed to do, provide feedback on why I failed my interview, but as I didn’t want to work for them I didn’t bother to complain).

    

Surprise turned to downright stunned amazement when I was informed that I had an interview for both posts. Whilst I am aware that under redeployment terms you only have to have 70% of the competences required to do the post, in the case of the second in particular I didn’t have ANY of the 6 specialist competences asked for. This actually worried me a little, because I had assumed that even if I was spuriously put forward for a post, the sifting process would ensure I was removed before it got to interview stage. But my experience showed that this wasn’t an accurate assumption. What worried me was that having got an interview for a job I didn’t understand and most certainly couldn’t do, at least not without a lot of training, if I actually got the job I wouldn’t be able to turn it down. Crazy as it seems I could end up being forced to take it.

I put in a call to my redeployment manager to query the decision and find out how it could have been made. My faith in the system being able to find me a decent and suitable post had disappeared and all I could think about was being unhappily forced into a position I neither wanted nor could do. I was told that I might have got an interview because I was the only candidate put forward, but as I tried to argue, quite fairly I thought, just because I was the only one doesn’t mean I’m suitable to do the job and still shouldn’t have got an interview from the sift alone. He then admitted that the branch might not be doing their job properly (you think?) – which made me even more convinced that I didn’t want to work for them.

It was at this point that fate intervened and took a hand.

I received an e-mail telling me I had an interview for a post that I hadn’t even been told I had been matched with. This mysterious e-mail came with a job description and was for an Admin/Support role job – which, as you will remember, was a job type that I shouldn’t have been matched with as it wasn’t one of my chosen three.

A first look at the job description wasn’t awfully inspiring to be honest. It sounded a little dry and possibly quite boring. Certainly it was nothing like any of the IT posts I had hoped to get. But after discussion with Beryl and others I came to the conclusion that the post was actually a very good quality one, as admin jobs go anyway, with a good chance to test my drafting skills in important secretariat and legislation work. The interview, which was so informal it was almost a chat over a cup of tea (which is apparently the level that all redeployment interviews are supposed to be) sparked my interest further and it seemed from the comments made by the interviewer that my competences were just what was needed. Twenty minutes after the interview I was offered the job. I accepted immediately and, being able to transfer quickly, I started in my new post on 21 May to enable me to get a decent amount of on-the-job training from my predecessor before he retired.

And so I am now pretty much happily settled into my new post. There have been adjustments of course, some of which I am still getting used to – for starters I had to give up homeworking, which I had been doing for six years and return to working in London five days a week, along with the travelling that entails and at the moment I am still finding it very tiring. But as time goes on I know I will get used to it more and it was worth the change for a good quality post with decent work. I also get to visit the Palace of Westminster and Downing Street fairly regularly as I am involved in a large amount of parliamentary work, which is quite a novelty at the moment, although I am sure it will lose its allure after I’ve been there several hundred times!

 ♥

So apart from the excitement of a new job, we have also recently had the pleasure of an extra long Bank Holiday to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Mrs H3 and I decided to celebrate in style with an old-school garden party, which was unfortunately, let down a little by the weather (and by a lack of guests arriving at the time they were supposed to). Having held it on the Saturday we were lucky that it stayed dry, although it was cold, unlike the rest of the weekend which was sadly hampered by terrible weather conditions. But we’re British and a bit of bad weather wasn’t enough to stop the celebrations (although it stopped me actually attending any of them in person, choosing instead to curl up in my warm lounge (shockingly, I had to put the heating on in June!) and watch it all on the television). My mother and her friends had a street party. They were luckier though and the weather was lovely for them. Below are a few photos of our right royal knees-up.

On Sunday 3 June Mrs H3 and I went to Brighton Dome to see the wonderful Gary Numan. It was quite exciting as it had been ages since we had been anywhere at all, and what seems like absolutely forever since we had been to a concert. Supporting a new greatest hits release, it was as always a fantastic evening and included a surprise appearance of several members of Dramatis (Gary’s original band), joining Gary for a tribute to Ced Sharpley, who died earlier this year, singing the iconic ‘Love Needs No Disguise’. Support was provided by The Officers, who I enjoyed very much and have been one of his best support acts to date.

Sadly there still isn’t that much on the horizon due to a lack of funds and having not bought tickets for anything. We did get tickets to a last minute warm-up performance by Bill Bailey, which we saw last night and was, as ever hysterically funny and we also managed to get tickets for Alice Cooper’s annual Halloween concert, which is being held at Wembley this year, which has inspired us to start work on our Halloween costumes. We did not however, get tickets for Muse (due to being at work when they went on sale – sadly our old IE6 browser isn’t supported by anyone and definitely not Ticketmaster etc.) I am still hoping that I Am Kloot are going to release their new album shortly and then do an extensive (in the South/East) tour in support. But that, for the moment at least is just a dream.

The Harry Potter Studio Tour - A Review

The following is a review of the Harry Potter Studio Tour. Please be warned it contains major spoilers and a lot of photographs, so if you don’t want to know about the contents of the tour you would be advised not to read any further.Tx

Since the release of the final Harry Potter film last year there hasn’t been much in the way of excitement or good cheer for the die-hard fans, especially the UK ones. But all that has changed with the opening of Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden.

Although the series (both books and films) is now complete and everyone in the fandom is feeling the loss to some extent, the US is fairly well-served for Potter-related entertainment from the theme park in Florida (and soon to be in Los Angeles) as well as conferences taking place all over the country catering to every facet of the Potter fandom. Sadly, the UK didn’t get the theme park, nor do we have many of the conferences, although there is the excellent Wizard Rock show, The Snow Ball held in Edinburgh, in December most years and Alohamora, a conference to rival any of the US ones is being planned for 2013 in London.

And now we have the Harry Potter Studio Tour, which is probably the closest we’ll ever get to the theme park (although I’m still hoping it will one day open on our shores). The hype surrounding the contents of the tour was intense, the wait for the opening was long and the anticipation of the Potter fandom was high. It finally opened on Saturday 31 March and the initial reviews from the fan pages were all good.

And so it was with intense excitement that Mrs H3 and I (probably more me being excited, if I’m being honest) made our way to sunny Leavesden last Monday to sample the goodies the tour had to offer. And I’m pleased to be able to report that we had an absolutely brilliant time and enjoyed it even more than we anticipated. In fact, I think I enjoyed the experience more than my visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida last year (I really hate to say that), although the extremely hot weather there may have had something to do with that.

The Harry Potter Studio Tour is not a theme park. It doesn’t have rides and it doesn’t have a fake village of snowy Hogsmeade (which is strange to see in such hot weather) complete with an admittedly impressive Hogwarts castle overlooking it. What is does have, which I believe makes it win out over The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, is the original sets, props and costumes that were actually used during the course of the seven films.

This isn’t exactly a new idea. An exhibition has been, and will continue to travel the world for years, showing costumes and props within recreated settings and other smaller exhibitions have happened elsewhere (such as Harrod’s recreation of Diagon Alley for the release of the last film on DVD). But this is on a far more extravagant scale and the area the items are housed in (sound stages J & K co-incidentally) has real relevance to the films, as this was where many of the scenes using the sets being shown were shot.

Although I was excited at the idea of seeing Potter film memorabilia in such a close environment, I was a little worried that it would turn out to be like the Star Trek exhibition that Mrs H3 and I visited some years ago which had promised much and delivered very little. But from the moment we arrived it was clear this was going to be something very different.

The first thing to mention is that all the people who work there are incredibly friendly. Everyone we met from the car parking staff, security, the tour guides, the hospitality staff and even the shuttle bus drivers, were all incredibly nice, loved to talk about Harry Potter in great depth and were happy to take pictures of us with the exhibits. It really does make a difference to the atmosphere when the staff engage with the subject as deeply as the audience and have knowledgeable tidbits to share with anyone who cares to listen.

Secondly, entrance to the tour is in timed slots and the studio has very sensibly limited the amount of people who can enter the tour at any one time (and I hope they continue to do this in the future as I believe it is the key to its success). This means that although there are several people looking at the same exhibits as you, there aren’t huge queues, (even the queue for the broomstick and flying car green screen photographs wasn’t as bad as queuing to get into Ollivander’s Wand Shop in Florida (and didn’t involve standing in blazing sunshine for over an hour) or so many people milling around that you can’t see or photograph the exhibits properly, as was also the case in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The entrance hall is light and airy containing giant photos all around the walls of the various characters and high above is the Weasley’s flying car. On one side of the hall is the coffee shop and toilets, on the other is the extensive gift shop containing everything you might need for attending Hogwarts, from clothing and stuffed pets (including replicas of several of the costumes from the movies) to the Marauder’s Map and sweets from Honeydukes. 

Whilst you are queuing to get into the first stage of the tour you are already treated to seeing the Cupboard under the Stairs, the place where Harry’s story began and there are also the handprints of the three leads. Once the tour itself begins you are ushered into a room containing images of film posters from all over the world and after a brief introduction by a guide, a short film explaining the popularity and importance of the series is shown. Once this is finished you move through to a cinema area where you take your place in one of the comfortable seats (smelling lovely and leathery and new at the moment). Another film is shown, starring Dan, Emma and Rupert, who give a quick overview of what you are about to see and then the first, of what was for me, one of several breathtaking moments to happen during the tour occurs. I won’t describe it here so that there are still some surprises if you visit, but suffice to say that it made my heart beat faster and made me very happy to be there.

A talk by a guide follows in the Great Hall, which is a spectacular construct, featuring flag stone floors, and amazing decorations. Two of the House tables are laid out and at various points throughout the room are costumes from the various films.

It is at this point the guided tour finishes and you are left to wander the remaining exhibits in your own time – and you really can take just as long as you like over this (the tour is advertised as taking three hours but we were there for four and could easily have been in there for longer), reminded by the tour guide that there are fifteen hidden snitches to find by the end of the tour.

As you make your way through each area, photographing everything (and you will), there are guides specific to each section who are happy to recount tales, or point out items of interest you might have overlooked (like Neville’s ear extenders or Belltrix’s teeth). By the time we’d reached Dumbledore’s study we had only found one snitch (although to be fair we didn’t have a copy of the snitch list that gives clues as to their whereabouts and I'm completely rubbish at spotting anything) and so I asked the guide there how many we should have found by that time. She told me it was five which meant we really weren’t doing very well, but after a couple of hints we’d found another two of them.

And then we were at the Potions classroom, which anyone who knows me will know was the area I was keenest to see, being a huge fan of Professor Snape. Hagrid’s hut, the kitchen at the Burrow, the Gryffindor dormitory and boy’s bedroom all follow until you find yourself at the Ministry of Magic, the statue showing Magic is Might in the centre with Dolores Umbridge’s office, the Ministry Floo’s and Malfoy Manor, with costumes from the Malfoy family and various baddies, around the outside.

At this point you leave the first sound stage and enter the Backlot outside which contains 4 Privet Drive, The Potter’s house at Godric’s Hollow, and Riddle Family Gravestone as well as the Knight Bus, Sirius Black’s motorbike and the Flying Car, all of which can be accessed for photos. This is also a refreshment area containing seating and a stall selling sandwiches, drinks, ice cream and the famous Butterbeer which has apparently been imported specially from Florida.

Outside the second part of the tour are several of the chess pieces from the first movie, which are rather magnificent and, as with a Death Eater earlier in the tour, you can’t help wishing that they moved occasionally, although that would have been truly terrifying!

So onto the second sound stage and it’s the Creature Shop and Makeup and Prosthetics, where you are greeted by some of those scary Inferi and a Grindylow. You can see the head casts of all the goblins plus all of the many fantastic creatures that were created for the series. Particularly impressive are Aragog (who Mrs H3 and I eulogised to in the manner of Professor Slughorn, having seen the Half Blood Prince only the day before) and Buckbeak, who is so life-like it’s scary. I personally also adored the Thestrals, although it was disappointing that they didn’t have their wings in the full-size version.

After you’ve looked at the ugly little mandrake and the even uglier Voldemort baby thing from the last film you make your way to another of those amazing faster heartbeat sights (at least you will if you’re a fan), Diagon Alley. Entering by Gringotts Bank you make your way up the road, able to inspect the shops that you know so well from the stories, enjoying seeing the cauldrons in Potages or checking out Gilderoy Lockhart’s books in Flourish & Blotts and of course marvelling at the window displays of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes which dominates Diagon Alley. I was also pleased to see that Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour was there too, although it had never actually appeared in any of the films.

Once you finally manage to drag yourself away from this perfect slice of both the books and the movies it’s onto the Art Department which includes everything from sketches to some beautiful artwork and models both in paper version and more substantial building material.

It’s at that point you reach the most astonishing and powerful exhibit on the whole tour, one which truly took my and Mrs H3’s breath away. It’s the scale model of Hogwarts, but to describe it as that just doesn’t do it justice. For some reason I hadn’t expected it to be as large as it was and once you walk around it, and it takes quite some time to do, you discover more about the castle than you would ever learn by watching the films. It is exquisitely sculpted and so intricate in its detail I don’t think you can take it all in after just one look. The lighting is brilliant and takes you through twenty four hours with the castle lighting up as darkness falls, then coming back to life as day breaks. To be honest I could try to describe this amazing exhibit for hours and still not manage to capture how truly fantastic it is. I think the only time I’ve ever been as strongly moved by a piece as this was when I saw the real Statue of David in Florence and anyone who read my blog about that will know just how was I was affected by it.

When you can finally bring yourself to leave, and to be honest if I’d been there on my own I would probably have spent another hour in there just studying the intricacies of the building, you end up in the wand shop, where there is a mixture of the boxes from the film version of Ollivander’s, along with wands for every person who ever worked on the film series. There are also helpful staff who have memorised where the wands are so you can ask to see Alan Rickman’s wand and they will show you where it’s located.

And then, rather sadly, you’re back in the gift shop and buying Chocolate Frogs (all the chocolate is made in England so tastes better than the US counterparts apparently – I don’t know as I haven’t tasted either) and replica ‘Have You Seen This Wizard’ and ‘Undesirable No 1’ posters, before heading for a cup of tea (where they have a very tasty cake selection, which we were very good and didn’t try) or heading out of the Studios and off home, feeling happy at having been a part of the Wizarding World once more, but sad at having to leave it.

I feel there were one or two little niggles, which are things that annoyed us rather than necessarily being problems for the majority. Firstly, as hardcore fans excited to be taking part in something so majorly Potter we had bought everything - the guidebook and the digital tour guide, which you can buy as a package with your entrance ticket to save some money. We also paid for the special ticket wallet rather than collecting our tickets on the day, but to have to then give in those tickets to collect our guides etc. made the wallet rather redundant (and a waste of £3.95).

The digital guides too, were rather a waste, at least they were for us, as we wanted to share the experience rather than walk around in our own little worlds listening to Tom Felton. There is no doubt that the guides are good value for money, containing something like thirty two pieces of information given by Tom about the various parts of the tour plus extra exclusive information in videos, sketches, picture galleries etc. for each of these, but having decided we would finish going through the guide whilst we had our tea at the end of the tour (as I noticed several people doing before we went in) I wasn’t impressed to discover that by the time we finished the tour the battery was about to give out. We therefore had to give up with the guides about half way through. If I was going on the tour on my own I would probably get the guide again so I could learn about all the cool stuff it contains, but  I don’t think it’s really any good for groups.

The food and drink was about standard for these sorts of attractions. Starbucks are the retailer of choice and their prices are pretty much as you would expect, with a bottle of water selling for £1.50. The one thing they do allow, which certainly isn’t allowed at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, is for you to take your own food and drink, although understandably you’re not allowed to consume it during the tour except in the Backlot.

What annoyed us here was the Butterbeer. In Florida you can get two types of Butterbeer – the ‘normal’ one and a frozen one. In the UK they sell only the normal one (which is a shame ‘cos I loved the frozen one). However, in the US they serve it in plastic pint tankards and aren’t a bad price (I can’t remember exactly how much it was, but it wasn’t too expensive. Over here they sell it in small plastic glasses (the ones that come with water coolers) and they charge £2.95 a glass. This really is extortionate, especially when you discover, as we did that it actually tastes nothing like the Butterbeer from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It may have been that the drinks we received weren't very well poured (or maybe that should be mixed) – certainly the delivery method is completely different from the US system, but it was probably the biggest disappointment of the day as we’d both been looking forward to sampling it again. It wasn’t that it didn’t taste nice, ‘cos it was fine, but it was a bit like a cross between ginger ale and cream soda with a bit of creamy stuff on top and didn’t make me feel like I was drinking Butterbeer, whereas in Florida it did. Thinking about it his might actually be a good thing as it saved us a lot of money by only having the one drink. I was also personally disappointed that the Pumpkin Juice hadn’t also been brought over, although several of the bottles were in one of the displays.

Finally, the prices in the shop are somewhat steep. Expect to pay £3.95 for a bar of Honeydukes chocolate and the Chocolate Frogs are more like £7. Scarves, hats and gloves in house colours, which are all going to be desired by the younger visitors, if not the older, will set you back about £60 for the set and I’ve no idea how much the wands were as I didn’t bother looking. Whilst the prices certainly weren’t cheap in the US, they are cheaper than over here. Oh, and if you a spare £200 odd, you can buy a replica of Hermione’s gown from the Yule Ball.

I honestly think that the ticket price, which I have heard criticised by some as being too expensive, definitely wasn’t for what is on offer during the tour and that it is interesting enough for those who are not Harry Potter fans, but are interested in looking behind the scenes at how films are made, to get something out of it too. But the concessions have the ability to make the experience very much more expensive, especially if you’re a family with children. Once we’d bought green screen photos (which reminds me of another little gripe, that they only had Gryffindor robes available for the broom flying photos - definitely not what a Slytherin wants - and whilst I understand the problem of green screen and green robes, not everyone considers themselves Gryffindor and there are two other Houses at Hogwarts too) and food and drink, Mrs H3 and I had spent about £50 between us on top of the price of entry – and we really didn’t overdo it, or buy anything from the shop. 

Oh, and we only found 9 of the golden snitches in the end, so we’re going to have to go back so we can look for them again!          

Snow!

I hate the snow!

There I’ve said it. I know it’s not a popular opinion, but finally after 46 years I’ve decided to be honest about it. The idea of a skiing holiday is my idea of absolute hell. Not even the après-ski would make me consider wasting my life on a place with snow. I would happily relocate anywhere in the world that never has the stuff – and would never miss it if I never saw it again. I don’t even like being out in the snow long enough to make a snow angel or snowman, or to throw snowballs. And I definitely wouldn’t want to go sledging. Snow makes me cold, wet and very depressed.

I will admit that for about five minutes last Saturday night, the freshly falling, powdery, glitter-strewn white stuff did enchant me enough for me to post a sappy Twitter/Facebook message, but in my defence I wasn’t at that point snowed in, I was on my way home from a brilliant evening out which had involved good friends, good food and a considerable amount of cake - and I’d had several large glasses of wine. By the morning normal service had been resumed and the discovery that I was once again trapped had me scurrying back to bed in a major sulk.

Snow looks very pretty when you are in a nice warm house and don’t need to actually go out in it, but open that door and suddenly you’re left with the nasty reality – either you’re snowed in and can’t go anywhere decent (and by that I mean anywhere other than Walderslade village and even that’s a major chore which resembles an arctic trek), or you can finally get out as the roads have been cleared, but then risk breaking your neck on the too slowly thawing snow and ice.

Before I worked at home, being snowed in was a great way to have a few days off work and something I vaguely looked forward to just as long as I didn’t have to actually leave the house at any point. But now that I have access to the office from home, being snowed in doesn’t stop me from working and so it loses its appeal. When it stops you from actually doing stuff, like going to concerts, or seeing friends it then becomes actively unpleasant. Fortunately, this year we haven’t had any concerts yet and so we haven’t had that problem, unlike last year where we had to miss several because of the white stuff (although had we known about Peter Doherty’s secret gig on Sunday I wouldn’t have been able to go, as was the case last year too).

Unfortunately, snow makes me lazy. I have problems leaving the house in normal weather and sometimes have to really force myself to set foot outside the door. But once the snow and ice come it’s even harder. Partly it’s because I’m not very sure-footed and have had too many painful tumbles on the ice to feel comfortable about walking in the white stuff, but also because, surprisingly for a winter baby, I just get the urge to hibernate, to curl up under my duvet and not re-appear until Easter.

The beautiful glittery, powdery snow that so enchanted me on Saturday night has now been around for five days and is hard, icy and generally a pain in the arse (sometimes quite literally) to deal with. And according to reports there could be more to come. I have to admit that I’m really hoping that the reports aren’t true!

Every Cloud's Got A Silver Lining?

I’ve been having a bit of a rough time for the last week or so. A week ago today I received a letter at work telling me that my post will cease to exist on 31 March 2012. Now I knew this was coming, at least I was aware of the likelihood as I’d been told last year it was going to happen. But since then there had been radio silence on what exactly was happening or when, apart from rumours suggesting that nothing more had been heard as it still wasn’t certain to happen. So receiving the letter was a bit like hearing that someone who you knew was ill and had been for a while had died. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was still a shock – and it still hurt.

The loss of my post makes me very angry when I think about it, as for a second time within my current career, the time I have spent training for my specialism has been thrown away for no seemingly good reason. Whilst I am aware that the decisions were based purely on post rather than anything else (or so I’ve been assured by my section head), it annoys me that other people within my division with no relevant experience or training are actively seeking to leave and yet their posts are remaining. Of course these people are at a higher grade, because once again the cuts have removed the remaining lower grade posts to ensure the higher still have a job.

In reality I suppose I am lucky that the loss of a post doesn’t mean the loss of my job (at the moment, although compulsory redundancies must be coming soon as the Department has to reach the 40% target imposed by the Government and they just aren't getting the numbers through voluntary redundancies, and I don’t want to be without a post when that happens). Even once my post ends, I will still be employed, but need to find a different post within the Department. And this too is causing me some distress. Whilst I haven’t yet been shown the whole range of posts available to the “redeployment pool” which will be my new home from the beginning of April, the ones which have been posted for general consumption have been insipid, tedious or generally of such poor quality that it is almost enough to induce a severe bout of depression whenever I look at them – and quite often reduces me to tears. I am hoping that once the pool is open to me there will be something with a little more quality about it, but to be honest I’m not holding my breath. I am also hoping that I can get something in London (not guaranteed as I’m classified as mobile and therefore theoretically could be posted anywhere in the country, although being frank I’d rather get posted to the Falkland Islands than Bristol – at least I’d make some decent money and get to see penguins in their natural habitat!)

Of course, neither of my specialisms are likely to make an appearance, as the IT jobs were all contracted out a long time ago and Health and Safety doesn’t seem to be very popular at the moment and most H&S jobs are dead-men’s shoes. Unfortunately the biggest H&S section and the one in London, is the one from which I am losing my post anyway.

I have been wondering whether my career would have been any more successful if I hadn’t followed the advice that the Department gave out in the late nineties that people should develop one or more ‘anchors’ – streams of specialism that would see them through their career. Maybe if I hadn’t bothered getting all that training, doing all that extra work to make myself more employable and get a better quality job I’d be rattling along somewhere in a safe job, or maybe I’d still be in HR (which come to think of it is a third specialism)RHRh.     

As if my week wasn’t bad enough I also received a lot of bad financial news too, which, when I received a nasty letter about the Council Tax was the final nail in the coffin. The despair, pain and general self-loathing which had been building up for quite some time erupted like Mount Vesuvius.

Having been in this position depression-wise many times in the past I know how hard it is to drag myself out of the pit of despair once I’m there and was seriously considering that I might need to pay a visit to the doctor (something that Moodscope has been suggesting for a few weeks now) as retreating to bed to bury my head in the sand doesn’t help to sort my finances or find me another post. But then, when I was probably at my lowest point for a long time I read a blog post by a friend, Mel, which made me stop and think.

I haven’t yet read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green as I can’t afford to get it at the moment, but everyone I know who has read it (and that’s a lot of people from the HP fandom) all loved the book and raved about how much it had made them laugh and cry, just as Mel described. And her admonition to enjoy life, along with her list of the brilliant things she had done last year made me sit down and think about all the amazing things I did last year too.

As a natural depressive it’s sometimes hard to think about the good things that have happened as the bad always seems to overshadow them. It’s hard to think about the little pleasures, the enjoyment one has taken in reading a book, for example, when everything in your future looks bleak, or you’re still holding onto the bad things that have already happened. For instance I once vaguely considered joining a dating website but gave up the idea when I reached the question which asked me to explain what I was thankful for. At the time this question was impossible for me to answer, because I couldn’t think of a single good thing in my life (I was deep in the midst of the worst bout of depression I’d had for many years at the time). I’m not entirely sure I could answer it satisfactorily now, but I could at least cobble together some sort of answer. And after reading Mel’s blog I could at least think about the good things that happened last year.

And do you know what? They really did outweigh the bad things (with the possible exception of dad’s death which was a massive bad thing).

Thinking about the good made me more positive, and that in turn made me more determined. I finally tackled all the rubbish that I’ve been storing in my flat, meaning to get rid of, but never quite getting round to doing it - meaning that I finally have a little space to breathe. It’s only a start and there’s more that needs to be done, but it is definitely a start and I already feel that I can better cope with what’s left (before I often considered setting fire to the flat just to get away from it all).

Then I tackled my finances. It turned out that there had been a series of computer errors which were fairly easily sorted once I summoned up the nerve to contact the various companies. Of course finances are still tight, after all it’s that really long month after the Christmas overspend, but at least I now know that with careful budgeting I can afford to live, although unfortunately not in the style to which I’d like to become accustomed – I really do still need to win the lottery or marry a millionaire for that to happen.        

Now I have to sort out my job, and in particular I need to write a CV and my competences. This is something that has been giving me trouble since I first found out that I was going to lose my post, but I think I’m finally ready to deal with it and hopefully with a little positivity I’ll be able to make a good enough job of it to get a decent post.

I did, for a very short while, entertain the idea of leaving the Civil Service and going to work at Leavesden at the Warner Brothers Studio Tour (which opens just as my post finishes), as it would be an ideal for job for me. I even discussed it with a few people, all of whom were equally sure that it would be a great choice for me (let’s face it, a chance to dress up and show off my knowledge of Harry Potter = heaven). But in reality it wasn’t a good choice. Whilst the job would be great, I imagine the money isn’t wonderful and I am far too old, as they are looking for youngsters who are willing to work for the enjoyment rather than the money. And with my current financial commitments I have to seriously consider the money. It was also too far away. A huge trek to get to work every day does not make for a healthy mind and body as I already know, even if you get to dress up as a witch at the end of it.      

And so next week is my birthday, another potentially depressing day when I realise that yet another year has gone by without me becoming significantly skinnier, wealthier or more loved. But whereas earlier this week the black cloud of my despair had already turned the day into something bad because of my inability to afford to celebrate in any way, my new more positive self is looking forward to it. Yes, I might be another year older and all those bad things may still be true. But it’s the start of a new year where, if I can keep up the positive outlook, great things could happen. And I know, that even without the money to celebrate in style, I have friends who care for me enough to make my day special regardless of what we do.     

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2012.

I thought I’d start with an early blog post as I’m seriously intending to try and post more regularly this year (yeah yeah, I know, I always say that – but this year I’m actually going to do it).

I’m not really one for resolutions, as they are too easily broken, but with a tough year ahead (some people would classify it as challenging and relish it, but I’m afraid I’m not one of them and am going to find it hard going and quite possibly upsetting at times) I think I’m really going to need to get stuff out of my system and this blog (and the fitness and nutrition blog) will be the way to do it.

I haven’t really got much in the way of exciting things to look forward to in the near future due to a lack of money and anticipate spending rather a lot of time at home on my own. However, the up side to this is that I received a lot of DVDs for Christmas and will at least have something to keep me occupied whilst I’m stewing at home.

First up will be an episode of Lost a day, which, if I manage to stick to that schedule, should see me finishing the final series at the end of April. I will also be catching up with season three of Castle and Fringe and finally attempting to watch series one of Downton Abbey (I have actually watched the first episode twice and couldn’t manage to get into it at all, but I am persevering as everyone else in the world seems to love it, so I must be wrong). I’ve also the first three series of Merlin to catch up on (I loved series four) and the first series of Bones (to see if I want to get the others).   

I also have, courtesy of a fabulous Christmas present from Mrs H3, the ultimate, limited edition Blu-Ray and DVD versions of the Harry Potter films which I never have a problem watching again and again – and I’m hoping that my new LCD tv will make the final films more watchable than my old telly.

That’s not to say that there won’t be some good moments during the year. My birthday is fast approaching and I expect there will be a fancy dress evening at the Sherwood Oak to celebrate as usual (although I haven’t yet decided what the theme should be) - featuring (hopefully) Mrs H3 and the Foxhunter and maybe even other people.

And there will be concerts too. Already booked are Justin Furstenfeld (lead singer of Blue October) and David Hasselhoff (yes Mrs H3 is VERY excited about this). I Am Kloot are due to release a new album shortly, which I’m really hoping means a load of concerts that we can get to, as it’s been far too long since I last saw them. Also I think Gary Numan will be releasing his new album later in the year, which should mean more supporting concerts too.

Filmwise, my interest is taken up by The Woman in Black due out in February, The Hunger Games in March and the long-awaited The Hobbit which is out in December. Of course, there is also the final part of Twilight: Breaking Dawn (I still have absolutely no idea why this was split into two films, as unlike Harry Potter there wasn’t much story to begin with and the first film had quite a lot of filler in it).

So some tough times ahead, but hopefully with enough bright spots to stop me from sinking too far into depression. Hopefully this new programme I’ve discovered called Moodscope will help me to better gauge things and help me to stay on an even keel, although after just three days of completing the tests it suggested that I see a doctor (although it was over New Year which is always a down time for me).  

The Countdown is On....

According to the internet there is 10 days, 1 hour and 59 minutes left until Christmas. Where has the time gone? It was the beginning of December yesterday. My tree is up, my lovely Snape angel is complete and taking pride of place at the top (although he’s still a little bit big for it, but far more suited to the role than any of my other Snapes have been) and I have at least managed to make and write most (although not all) of my Christmas cards. I haven’t yet started wrapping the presents, although I have drunk the wine I bought to drink while I was wrapping.

Strangely, although I’ve been wearing my Christmas tops (including a rather fantastic snowman dalek, which satisfies both my nerd and Christmas sides at the same time), have my workstation decorated with more tinsel and fairy lights than Santa’s grotto and have already been to the works Christmas dinner (a bit of a disappointment to be honest, All Bar One) I’m not really feeling very Christmassy. Partly this is because I’ve got other things on my mind which are detracting from me enjoying myself and partly it’s because of that pile of presents still needing to be wrapped.

This weekend is the Wizarding Winter Fair, which is a replacement for the Snow Ball and is being held in Macclesfield. Unfortunately I can’t make it, which would explain why this year, instead of being snowed in (as has happened the previous two years when trying to get to Edinburgh), it seems that with the exception of a bit of wind and maybe a storm, the weather will be fine. Gutted as I am not to be able to join my fellow wizards for some pre-Christmas wrock and fun, Mrs H3 and I will instead be spending Friday evening celebrating our own early Christmas (due to my imminent departure to Spain) at Bluewater with a meal, presents and Robert Downey Junior (phwoar!) in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I’m hoping that by Friday I’ll be feeling a little more in the spirit.

It occurred to me that I’ve never documented my Harry Potter Christmas tree properly before and so I’ve taken some photos of the tree, Snape angel (I made the wings from decoupaged glitter card in the end and they look fab in real life), and the decorations so you can see just how wonderful they are.        

I’m not sure if I’ll get a chance to post again before I go to Spain as I’m pretty busy for the next few days, but if not I’d like to thank you all for reading my blog, sporadic as it’s been over the last year or so and wish you all a very merry Christmas (holiday season etc.) and a happy and healthy New Year!