Lock down

Hi again.

8am

I got woken up early by the cats, and sun is shining brightly - by all accounts a really nice day!

First of all - today's corona-virus figures:

Yesterday:
Total world cases:  346,877
Total fatalities:  14,914
UK total:  5,748
UK Fatalities: 281

Today
Total world cases:  384,838
Total fatalities:  16,595
UK total:  6,726
UK Fatalities: 335

Last night Boris Johnson put the country into lock down for the next 3 weeks - we have a national emergency.  How strange is this?  It had become inevitable that this was going to happen - I believe the Government were just trying to get their timing right.

It seems like Connor  & possibly Emily have contracted the virus!!  Connor said last night that they both felt ill and were aching all over with sore throats, and then this morning he said - I'm very ill I haven't slept at all.  Lets hope that at 25, they are both young and healthy enough to easily get through it!

My mum has apparently felt rough too - flu and cough - not been able to sleep because of it - although no high temp - it could be normal flu or a very bad cold - my dad - who is high risk - started to develop a cough yesterday.  I have messaged them just now - to see how they are but they haven't replied yet (it is only 8.30am).

So the situation under this lock down is this -

You cannot leave your house unless it is absolutely essential - like shopping for essential supplies.
You are allowed one form of exercise a day - alone or with a family member who you live with. You can leave the house for a medical need or to give help to a vulnerable person, and to travel to and from work if it is absolutely essential.    This is for the next 3 weeks.

Yesterday I was told that my training course for my new job is still on - I'll have to wait and see if it is still on now these new measures have been put into place.  To be honest I am not being told anything as far as my new job is concerned (with the police) I have no idea if they are desperate for me to go to work and that is why the course is still running.  I know the police are utilising people still in training - so I guess that they are struggling for staff - or are expecting social unrest - I have no idea!

My mum just replied - said she cannot stop coughing - and she is running out of insulin.  She said my dad had a bit of a tickly cough but that has gone.  If she has the virus my dad will definitely get it.  We will just have to wait and see.

I just messaged my old boss to see how Surrey Police are coping - I am just trying to get some info - are the police really short staffed? really busy and desperate for new staff? are they really quiet because most ppl are at home? It would be helpful to know - then I can guess whether I am really needed or not.

I have also emailed HR but I had to guess their email address so it might just bounce back.

My boss just messaged back - lots of ppl working from home - and other than that fairly quiet atm but they expecting it to get busy! She reckons the police will really want me to start work.  I'll have to wait and see - my email to HR hasn't bounced back un-deliverable - so it may have got through!

I am trying to get onto Ocado online - I was told my delivery on Friday has been cancelled but then I saw that for Friday deliveries you can edit the order today - I can't get onto the site though!  I am in a queue - but then the page says error and when get back onto it - I am back of the queue again - the queue currently has 14, 186 ppl in it and I am number 13,167! Claims to be a 2 hour wait - but it seems to go much quicker than that - probably cos ppl wait ages only to find that they can't book a delivery anyway and so leave.

11am

So Ocado kept me waiting an hour or so - only to be told I can't edit my order until tomorrow!

Some things in the news are awful - Spain are really hard hit and they said they found an abandoned care home with people dead in their beds and some ppl alive and alone!

We have a full lock down and apparently the tubes in London were PACKED this morning - they have a cut down service, so I am guessing those who HAVE to go to work are being squashed up! The people are the ones being blamed though....

The total worldwide cases have gone up by around 1000 since 8am this morning - its speeding up now as it spreads.

We had a couple of guests turn up yesterday - all our other guests cancelled.  They are supposed to be here until tomorrow but are going home today - this is good.  This is what ppl are supposed to be doing.  I think we are going to change our airbnb listing to say only people working or visiting the hospital can book (we are about a mile a away), plus we will drastically reduce our prices.  See if we can do our bit...

12pm

Total world cases - 393,547

Almost 10,000 more infected people since 8am this morning.  Obviously they didn't get infected since 8am! Its the results of the testing being done - but in our country it is only the ppl turning up at the hospitals being tested - so we have no idea at all really how wide spread it is - the only accurate figures really are the deaths.  That stands at 335 - so if 1% die - we must have around 33,500 infected.

Changing the subject! I have had a few fun video chats with my mum and dad - and often Helen and on one occasion my brother Andrew (all of us together at the same time) - and I have found that all the family are currently chatting more often - which is nice.  We've been chatting with the kids on Whattsapp today - apart from hearing that Connor & Emily are likely to have the virus - and that Adam is having his salary reduced....we have been having a chat and a laugh - laughing at Adam's lame attempt at a moustache...

Lissa was rocking her own frizz.....

I am being totally lazy!!  I dressed to continue painting in the attic this morning, but I may as well go and get changed because I am just sat here, playing, watching the news, chatting to people...obsessing about whether I am going to be at work or not next week....

Coronavirus - ongoing

Hi again.

So - I wrote about the Corona-virus just two days ago - at that time the figures were:

Total world cases:  288,593
Total fatalities:  11,947
UK total:  4.104
UK Fatalities: 178

Today the figures are:

Total world cases:  346,877
Total fatalities:  14,914
UK total:  5,748
UK Fatalities: 281

The cases across the world - other than China and South Korea - are just going up and up - and hospitals are starting to struggle - especially in Italy - who seem to have the most cases.  Although our London hospitals are struggling - it hasn't hit the rest of the country hard yet - I suspect that it will however - and this is the MOST scary thing - if we need care to get over this - it might get so crazy that only a fraction of people will get that help and so the death rate will rocket - and most of us will probably lose somebody we love - or our own lives.

Andy had a moment last night - talking about not coming in contact with ANYBODY as he is worried that he might not survive or at least he will really suffer and find it hard.  He is worried because he has high blood pressure, has had asthma in the past....I am having the same panic even though really I am quite healthy - because you just never know!!

I have started to think - we should write a will.  I was even thinking this morning that I should write letters to my kids and Andy, which they will eventually find should I die...

The government put a lot of things in place to stop people mixing - and some idiots are ignoring it.  There were pictures in the news this morning of a very busy flower market in London yesterday.  WHAT!!??  People WILL absolutely die because of those people mixing yesterday!!  At the same time, I was informed this morning that my training course due to start next Monday (one week today) is still running...I have mixed feelings.  My biggest fear is that I catch the virus and bring it back home to Andy.  I expect today that the Government will impose a lock down and we will get much tougher on the idiots who think they are invincible and are not intelligent enough to realise that they are helping to spread the virus.  So....me going back to work after 3 years at the time the country has gone crazy seems a little strange.

I have emailed to ask what measures have been put in place - and what I can expect after the training and in the normal working day.  That will be interesting to know - if they reply!

So - Ocado who we have used for our shopping deliveries for years - said they would honour regular customers orders - have cancelled my order.  I had told my elderly neighbour that I will order her shopping for her along side my own - now I don't have a delivery slot!  So looks like I am going to have to venture out for supplies at some point...

Just in the time I have been writing this - the total world cases of the virus has increased by almost 1000.  As it is spreading, it is speeding up....

This virus will change things in the world that will never go back the same again - politics, jobs, the economy - many things I can't even appreciate at the moment.

I know soon - I'll be reporting here that the UK cases have plateaued and eventually will start going down - but where are we going to end up before that happens?

I was supposed to be with Lissa when she has the baby - and it was something that meant so much to me...already I know I won't be there - and rather than feel really disappointed - all I can think of is how hard it will be for her - having a baby in a chaotic world, where she wont be able to have any visitors and the hospital might be swamped - it could put her and the baby in danger.  This is the same for Erika who is due twins in July - for her it might be much worse by then - or the opposite.....

So much uncertainty at the moment.  If I was religious I'd be praying that all the people I love will come out of this unharmed.


UPDATE

So our shopping deliveries are now uncertain - I said to Andy I might just have a drive around to our local tesco and see what the situation is - I looked up our local Tesco online and found this image...

That image was taken this morning.  So - I expect we will see the numbers of infected will rise in Taunton today!  There is no way I am going out shopping with all those people totally ignoring the social segregation advice!  We won't starve.  Andy was very stressed when I told him Ocado had cancelled our order - we have enough on our plate not knowing if Andy is going to lose his job and in turn we lose the house, without worrying about getting supplies.  I guess however, as I will be out and about next week - I'll be able to hunt and gather if needed.  

BTW it is now midday and the world figures are now: 352,398 - 6,000 (ish) increase in a few hours.  The death figure is 15,330 - an increase of 416 - in just a few hours! The UK just added another 4 deaths...

Scary times.

Coronavirus

Hi,

Well.....the world as we know is has changed since I last wrote on here!  It is surreal, and I suspect we are just on the cusp of the craziness.

So, this virus - the Coronavirus - started in china and they kept quiet about it at first - even arresting the Dr who tried to bring it to the attention of people (he later died of the virus and eventually china apologised to him posthumously).  China must have realised that they could not contain it and so the rest of the world was informed - but there was no sense of panic or urgency, not in the general population anyway! I'm sure some experts were crapping themselves!  Saying that, I do remember Andy saying to me - this is big...this is going to be big, and he was taking it seriously and he made me wonder...we had a discussion about it and I asked Paul if he was worried and he said no.  At that time, I took it more seriously than Paul, but probably not as much as Andy.  I didn't really think too much of it.  Then China started getting lots of cases, with ppl dying, and other parts of the world started to get get cases - then BOOM. The world went mad.

As Andy had thought it was going to be bad, we had kept a close eye on it and watched everything we could find about it - and it brought us to tears at times.  I felt the fear - the real fear at what this was going to do to the world - both health wise - and to the economy.  We spent quite a lot of time panicking about Andy losing his job and us losing the house, and thinking that we could lose our parents who are most at risk.  The realisation that hospitals would never cope - many of these things sank in with me quite slowly - I would suddenly say - oh God...this or that will happen - and Andy would say - that's what I have been trying to tell you!!  I suddenly realised the extent of the situation and then started to try and make other people understand - like my parents! Wow, that was frustrating! My Dad posted on facebook, that he was self isolating at the Trafford centre because the place was empty!  I commented - something along the lines - Its a good job you are not old and in the "at risk" group then! Which is exactly what they are - especially my Dad who is 79.  The next day they called me from a cafe - and I properly told them off - which i think they found amusing.  So - I tried to explain, and then got my sisters Helen and Joanne to help me get through to them - and now they are self isolating.  I think that they understood around the same time as the rest of the Country really started to understand, as this was about the same time as our Government started to take extremely drastic, unprecedented action.

From last night, all pubs, restaurants. cinemas etc. were all told to close.  The Government are really trying to ram the point home that we really need to stop it spreading and quickly.  I hope we don't have too many stupid people in this country....

We are living through an unprecedented thing that will go down in history.  If President Trump has anything to do with it, it will be referred to as the Chinese Flu.  Apparently somebody in the White house referred to it as Kung Flu - you gotta laugh, but at the same time it comes across as wrong and racist!  According to Trump the Chinese President tried to claim that American soldiers infected China with the virus and Trump being the weirdo that he is reacted very childishly and is now trying to get the virus to be called the Chinese Virus.

This morning I tried to get all my kids to watch Dr John Campbell on youtube, who has recorded a daily rundown of all the things we know scientifically and mathematically - what to expect and how to effect it.  But I don't think I succeeded in getting any of them to watch - apart from Lissa who watched one of them but is so scared she doesn't seem to want to know the extent of it - which is understandable as she is 30 weeks pregnant!

So - my view about this - we won't be able to stop this virus and although we might slow it down - it is going to alter life as we know it for at least a year - we will either all succumb because we couldn't stop it or slow it down and only the fittest will survive or we do slow it down and we get a vaccine.  Either way - it has already had the effect of millions of ppl not at work, massive job losses - and the government handing out billions to businesses and to the people. 

As far as I am concerned personally - I am quite scared about catching it, because some younger/healthy people have also had a really hard time of it with this virus, and for all I know by the time I get it, the hospitals will be so overrun I wont be able to get any medical help.  I worry the same (more) about Andy who has had mild asthma in the past and is probably not at his healthiest.  So there is a real fear about not surviving the virus and also even if not fatal it sounds really awful.  This fear is then multiplied so much when you think of all your family members - all the people you love and who might suffer or even die.  This is not even being dramatic - these are genuine concerns because we are being reminded 24 hours a day of the spread - of the numbers going up and up all over the world.  Number of new cases and deaths, as well as recovered.  As I write this there are currently 288,593 cases in the world (what we know about - it must be WAY higher than this) with 11,947 deaths.  In the UK we have 4,104 known cases (thought to actually be 30,00-40,000 in reality) and 178 deaths.

So - in all this madness, I am supposed to be starting a new job on 31 March 2020 (a week on Monday), with a one week IT training course.  I have no idea at all if that will be cancelled along with my offer of employment or whether, it might be seen as an essential role at the moment....I am waiting to find out.

I might try and keep this blog updated at this historical time!

Keep safe!

Ages, again!

Hi,

I've been lazy about writing in here because I was stressed about remembering what we all did at xmas! So - you won't get much detail about that here!

I am going to be starting work at the end of March - I wrote a post about the pro's and con's of starting work - and then vetting was done and I had to remove that post from the public domain! lol.

I have mere weeks left before I start work :-( I really really hope I love it!!!

There are so many things going on this year too! Adam & Erika having twins and getting married - Lissa having a daughter and I am going to be there with her!

so - Christmas was fun! we did fancy dress again! we had fake Xmas day on 22nd Dec as they were all going to their in-laws for actual Xmas day this year.  We did everything as we normally - had stockings - Xmas dinner - played games.  One evening (might have been fake Boxing day) we all couldn't be bothered to do anything and American football was on - and Connor was having a mini strop because they had arranged to stay over meaning they would have to go straight to work the next morning - and we were all boring! So, we all dragged ourselves up and made the effort and ended up having such a good time! We were all very glad we had made the effort!

I do have an awesome family!!

It felt so like the real thing (Xmas day) that after they had left, on the real Xmas eve it felt like Xmas was over - not just about to happen!  But Xmas morning was awesome because me and Andy had got each other really awesome gifts!!  I got the Peleton (bike) and an amazing coffee machine - and loads of other stuff and I got Andy the Surface Pro...

We went to Helen and Pauls for actual xmas day, after we had opened our pressies and stuff - was a bit frustrating having to leave our stuff because we had a chance to play with it all, but once we got to Helan and Pauls - it was lots of fun all over again!  We had xmas dinner all over again - which was NOT a problem! We had cooked it the day before and just stuck it in the oven (as they are vegans).  We played on their VR - Oculus - it was so good that we ordered one straight away - we now have two!  We had a really fun time!

Gender Reveal

The gender reveal for Lissa went so well!  I was very stressed about it! I managed to keep the secret!!  We wrapped a big box in yellow (gender neutral) and inside that box was another box with a PINK teddy bear from Build a Bear - so when she saw the teddy she knew it was going to be a girl - and secretly both her and Antony wanted a girl - and I knew that - and EVERYBODY thought she was going to have a boy so it was a big, and awesome surprise!! 

Ian (my ex) and his wife Karen were both there so it was a tad strange attending a joint family event - but I guess we are going to have a lot more of those now the kids are getting older, getting married and having kids etc. but we get on fine when we see each other.

It was held at a pub, and we decorated it with pink and blue, and had cards for ppl to fill in with predictions and advice - and ppl had badges - Girl or Boy - depending on what they expected it to be.  Most ppl chose boy.

The last picture really made me laugh because Connor was pretending to be stroppy because it wasn't a boy! hahahah

It was such a beautiful moment!! Because I just KNEW Lissa was going to be really happy with a girl, and I can just see my little baby girl, with a little baby girl! and Antony had said to me really early on in the pregnancy that he thought he wanted a girl - and I knew it was a girl because the gender had been revealed to me weeks earlier - so that I be the revealer!!!  So all this lead up to a reveal that I just knew everybody would be happy about - and it was very emotional seeing Lissa and Antony react!  The stress of keeping the secret and, finding and booking somewhere, deciding how the reveal would go - and travelling to Surrey - was TOTALLY worth it - loved the whole event and the emotion and happiness!!

SO....other little memories - we all had to wait for the reveal because Connor & Emily were late! lol So typical but I also felt sorry for them because they got stuck in traffic and were stressing.  We were stressing because his estimated arrival time - was the same time the food was due to be put out.  The food would have been later but me and Lissa decided that day to bring it forward cos we'd have loads of time!  ha!  In actual fact, we waited for Connor only to discover Antony's Dad was also late - but very late - so it went ahead when Connor got there!

I got to meet Antony's family too - who all seem really nice decent people! I already knew that already to be honest - I have known his sister Hannah since Lissa was at school with her - and they were drinking buddies after school (a large group of them - too much drinking tbh but they had a lot of fun!)- and that is how Lissa met Antony.  We know her as mad Hannah for self-explanatory reasons lol, she was quite wild!

Lissa's sister Beth was there and I haven't seen her (other than in pics) since she was really little - and she seemed really lovely!

Adam & Erika are now happy that their two little babies are going to be fine after quite a few scans and the pregnancy progressing fine - and they announced that they were going to do a reveal as well - but via facebook live - so we could all watch in a group as they opened up their envelopes - so that was something else to look forward to!!

Fast-forward to Adams reveal - and Helen & Paul were here - so we were all able to watch and Zack & Eloise were watching from home - Lissa, Antony, Connor & Emily were in the group and Erika's parents, and brother were with them - so it was really exciting and fun to watch! Adam opened the first envelope and it was a boy! lol.  I think they didn't want two boys, but didn't mind a boy & girl and preferred two girls.  So - it wasn't going to be two girls!  The next envelope - another boy! lol So Adam is going to have two sons and Lissa a daughter!

My niece (the first born of her generation - the second being Adam) had a baby boy on 21st February - Peter.  My sister Beverley (Rebecca's mum) was with them for the birth and said it was the most amazing thing ever - watching him being born!

So - I'm officially old and really looking it too.  Look at this pic (just for some realism)

I'm getting jowls....and old.....and this pic is probably not as bad as it gets!  Andy looks good though! lol

Anyway - this has been an exceptionally long post so I'll leave it there!

Getting ready for Christmas and Gender Reveal

Hi,

So I'm writing this post because Lissa - who NEVER writes her blog finally wrote something so now I'm getting hassled to catch up on mine!!

So - I've been getting ready for Christmas after leaving it all until the last minute!  We have a spreadsheet that we use every year - one page for all the kids and their partners - main presents and stocking stuff, and a page for everybody else like our parents, Helen & Paul, other friends and family.  Its so hard trying to make sure the kids all have quite a few presents to open - all around the same amount of presents and adding up to more or less the same cost - same with the stockings - without buying crap for the sake of it!  Now it's not just the kids but their partners too - I don't think they have any idea how difficult and stressful it is!  We also have secret santa fancy dress to sort out too - and that is stressing me out because me and Andy both ordered fancy dress costumes a while ago and they haven't turned up and they should have and they are not replying to emails or anything!!

I am supposed to be buying xmas cards for all my nieces and nephews and sending them all to my mum who is going to put £10- in each one and I will send her the money - but I don't even have any cards yet!

THEN I also need to make sure the house and all beds are clean and that is not a 5 minute job! AND all the Christmas decorations so the house looks all festive.  AND I have to sort out all the Christmas dinner stuff, crackers and things, AND we always have a spread on boxing day!!  Plus - we need to make sure we have lots of alcohol in AND breakfasts and lunches....

I also have to wrap a ton of presents which takes hours and hours...

There's also Andy and his presents and his wrapping...

And - going to the tip with the millions of cardboard boxes we end up with...

So - getting ready for Christmas is very expensive and a LOT of work!

After saying all that - we always have an AWESOME Christmas!! :-) So it all ends up worth it!

In the middle of all this Lissa has been preparing to have a scan to reveal the gender - and I am the one revealing the gender (on 18th January - something else I've been doing - trying to arrange the venue!). Antony's mum was going to the scan with them and she was going to be given an envelope with the gender written inside.  Lissa was being a major stress head about us slipping up and revealing the gender before January 18th - so I had a lengthy chat with Ginette about it (I've never met her yet - but she seems really nice).  The lengthy chat was all about making it less stressful for Lissa by telling her that we were not going to open the envelope until after Lissa has visited us both over Christmas - but really finding out much sooner than that - especially so that I could start planning the reveal.  Our plan was very clear - find out - lie to Lissa - no stress!  So on the day of the scan - Ginette then says to Lissa - I wanted to wait but your mum wants to know later today lol.  Oh well....

Then - Lissa had the scan and said to me - I have a link to all the pics which should show the gender and I could send you the link - I think my reply was SEND ME THE LINK NOW!  I came running down the stairs saying to Andy OMG OMG OMG Lissa is sending me a link to the scan pics and I should be able to see the gender!!  So I logged in and saw the amazing pics - and it said on one of the pics whether it was a boy or a girl and almost immediately I thought - aaahhh I don't like this responsibility!!!  Being the only person that knows and not being able to say anything to anybody!!  Yvonne was trying to get it out of me earlier today - but I have made the decision to not tell a single person and then nobody can say anything to anybody!! I even spoke to my neighbour about it earlier and didn't say if it is a boy or a girl!!   I can't wait though to do the reveal - I imagine it will feel like a huge weight has lifted off my shoulders!  I also feel very honored to be the one revealing this amazing bit of information!

Its amazing that this little babby is only 9.5 cm long!  Baby has Antony's nose - I said this to Lissa and she said - thank god hahah

Lissa will be 17 weeks tomorrow and Erika will be 10 weeks.  Erika has a scan on Wednesday - I guess if it is all good on Wednesday we can all relax a bit.  Lissa's scans show a perfectly formed little person which was so awesome - wish I could have scans like that - and get to find out the gender - but they wouldn't let us know back then!!  I think it will be cool if Adam and Erika have a boy and a girl.  Their preference is 1) two girls, 2) a boy and a girl 3) two boys.  My exact preference when I was pregnant with twins.  Adam wants to have 2 girls and Lissa have a girl too.  Yvonne wants Lissa to have a boy so if she comes around when Lissa is here they'll all be boys together!  (Yvonne has 3 boys).

oh - cat has a mouse...

I had to run off and get the mouse off the cat - but unfortunately it was already dead - we still have to get the mouse off the cat otherwise we find bits of internal organs all over the place after they chew it up!

Anyway - that's me caught up so Lissa can stop moaning at me!  Love you Lissa!! xxx

Hungover.....

Hi

I am suffering this morning after a great impromptu night out last night!  It got to about 4pm yesterday and I'd not eaten anything - so we decided to walk down the road to the Hungry Horse, have food and come home again.  When we got there, they had a new app where you could order food and drink from your table - so that is what we did! Andy then messaged the kids and told them what table number we were - and they started sending us drinks lol!

Lissa was first - and sent a red bull with a fireball shot in it - I had just finished eating - thank god because I somehow inhaled some of it and started choking on it - and ended up coughing out a mouthful between my fingers - all over my plate! very classy!!

Then Adam sent us coffee tequila shots! these were in-between the drinks we were buying ourselves! A little later a serving of corn on the cob turned up hahaha - that was from Connor & Emily - shortly followed by another redbull and fireball!

What really made me laugh (and I was quite drunk by then too) was a girl arrived at our table and said - is everything okay with the....she looked down and saw all we had was corn on the cob in a little bowl - and we just started laughing!!

We had a really good time - and it was awesome just having random stuff just delivered to our table!  It is not like I haven't heard of this before - I just hadn't experienced it!  We walked back home and watched a boxing game (random I know) then stuff on TV then Andy put music video's on and we had a good ole sing song - until I fell asleep on the settee - and Andy basically put me to bed at about 2.30am!!

We had guests here - and they left this morning - I looked a complete state when I answered the door in my PJ's and un-brushed greasy hair - looking rough....lol

I can hear Andy getting up now I think - I am going to get a shower and make bacon butties!  We planned on putting up the xmas decorations today - hope I/we feel better and we still do it....

blurrggggggg

War of the Worlds Experience and London

Hi!!

Its Sunday evening and I'm in my PJ's after just getting quite emotional having just watched Junior bake-off final lol.

Its been a busy weekend! and in a couple of hours I'll be watching the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Titans.  The Titans are in our division and we are currently at the bottom of the division! I hope the game is not as depressing as last week...

So...this weekend was a War of the Worlds (WOTW) experience with Helen and Paul.  We all love WOTW - although I think Helen doesn't know it as well as the rest of us.  I was pretty obsessed with it when I was around 14-15 years old, and have listened to it lots since - and watched the film.  So, we read about the experience in London and decided to go for it - despite the fact that's its quite expensive to get there, to stay in London, to eat out in London - and pay for the tickets!  We bought Pauls ticket for his birthday.

So Saturday morning, Helen and Paul got on the train in Paignton, and were trying to save seats for us at the table they had got, so we could sit together and they were getting very stressed as the train filled up before we got on in Taunton.  By the time we got on the other seats were taken and there was only standing room left!  We stood up until we got to Bristol and then we were able to sit with them!  They then got out bread and hummus, olives, sausage rolls and prosecco! lol.  It was pretty awesome - and quite typical of them to be so organised and thoughtful! We had a really good laugh the rest of the way - which was another couple of hours or so! 

When we got to London we made our way to the hotel - all just following Andy as usual! We stayed at the Strand Palace, and we upgraded to a renovated room - not sure why - think they were doing it with everybody.  It was nice enough if not a little small - but it is central London! We just dumped our stuff really and then headed to the WOTW event.  We got there early (as planned) and had a little food and a drinky poos....and the pub was really good! They had moving pictures and WOTW stuff about...

We then went, with 8 other people - into the the event.  We were taken through to a room where we watched a hologram of two ppl explaining about the aliens landing etc. with a bit of the music....  Paul got told off for messing about lol...we were then taken through to another room where telescopes were set up...there was an actor saying...welcome to the observatory...it then became obvious that something had gone wrong and a voice came through asking the actors not to proceed. It was then a little awkward and I was really worried that we wouldn't be able to proceed at all and we'd come so far and spent so much...but a few minutes later things seemed to be back to normal - although there was a scene played through the telescopes but not on mine or Pauls...

We went into another room and it was the Horsell common scene where Professor Ogilvy tries to make friends with the aliens and gets set alight! The special effects for this was quite good.  A soldier then takes us through to an area where we put VR headsets on - and we walk around a room - all the other people with headsets on are represented by a character - Andy was a maid hahah - he told me afterwards that I was a black guy wearing a top hat hehe.  My VR headset wouldn't work properly, so a guy had to take it off me and sort it out - then the sound was really faint so that was a little disappointing.  With the headsets still on we were taken out on a bridge where there was a whole scene of the aliens burning up ships and artillery trying to fight them - eventually fire engulfs us and we all run away! Another soldier then takes us down a spiral staircase and we try and get into a house - they open and window and as the first few ppl start climbing through the open the door lol.  Its a big dining room and we all sat around it.  An actress/maid plays out a scene until it all goes dark and loud - and then we see her grabbed by an alien - and again we all run off!.  We all got into boats and again put headsets on - the boat was moving in time to the scene that we could see - it was really good but this time my headphones wouldn't work properly and it ruined the soundtrack - and my fave song!  We were taken up into the air by the aliens - and eventually let go again....the graphics were pretty good - Helen and Paul were sat in front of me which was really funny as Paul was represented by a woman who was constantly smiling - even though we were being attacked from all side hahah and Helen was a young boy!

After this we had a 20 minute break in a bar!  So we had a drink - and I complained about my equipment constantly letting down - Andy was questioning if I had it on properly - which I did! This was to come back and haunt me as ppl kept trying to wind me up and claim it was my error! lol.

From the bar we went into a room where another actress was in a grave yard - she was touching Andy's face saying she didn't think we were real - that we were ghosts! She said we should pray and confess our sins - we were then all put into a confession box - with the VR headsets again!  We could see a priest who was telling us we were all doomed and the aliens were actually demons! (obviously following the story of WOTW) we could then see a scene where we were in one of the alien ships and there were long arm things - that actually took off the priest - again the visuals were really good and this time my headset and headphones worked really well!  As the arms of this alien were coming close to us we were actually grabbed lol - this made me jump!

We then went into this room (4 at a time so it was us 4) and we sat on a round bench thing - looking upwards at a scene that made us all feel quite queasy!

We then followed an actor again - and he was going through his speel and heading into a room - and Helen pushed me towards him! I was trying not to go into him/the room - and I got told off!! lol.  We all thought that was quite funny!  We had to try and find blueprints for something - and the actor starting talking to Andy (and the whole room - carrying on the story line) - and Helen threw a rag at Andy that hit him in the neck - and Andy just didn't react because the guy was talking to him - again we all found it quite funny!

After this we went into hot air balloons - 2 to each one - so me and Andy were together - we put headsets on again and could see a whole scene around us as we went up in  these hot air balloons - I cant really remember what we were seeing but it was good!!

After this we had to go down a slide thing which was fun! and I think we then saw the last woman actor who kept telling ppl off and it was quite annoying because it was for minor things and she was more like a school teacher rather than somebody who was supposed to be entertaining us!  It was at this point I think that we went through the last door and back out into the bar!

So - all in all I was a little disappointed - at times it was quite amateur and I was let down quite a few times by the technology - but on the other hand we did have a good time and a good laugh!!

We left here and headed back towards our hotel and Leicester square - we had a drink in a packed pub - then left to find a comedy club - which we found straight away and bought tickets and went in - we ended up on the front row but off to the side - much to Pauls disappointment - he didn't want to be at the front at all - but me and Helen did! hahah so he lost!  Andy and Paul went to the bar and got 2 crap warm beers and 2 double vodka and coke in a small plastic glass and it was £38! So were were not impressed with that!!  We saw 3 comedians - a blind guy first - then an Asian guy, then a Nigerian guy - all were really funny - the last two were mainly talking about their heritage or being black in London - we laughed a lot which was awesome!

We were starving afterwards and Paul wanted to see if Burger king had the new vegan burger - they didn't but me and Andy got a burger - only to realise that Helen was quite upset because she thought we were going for a meal.  So I ate my chicken burger - and then went for a meal hahah.  It was Thai food and awesome - didn't have loads tbh - and I got cocktails (buy one get one free) I got Expresso Martini and it was disgusting!  It was all very expensive - wherever we went, but that's London for you!  We headed back to the hotel after this and got to bed - think it must have been about 12.30am....I was knackered and got straight to sleep - had been a busy day - and a very fun one!

The next morning I got up and got a shower and we met H&P in reception at 9.30am and headed back to the train station - we all got some food for the journey and when we got on the train we managed to get a table between us again - so it was a fun journey again! We discussed the WOTW experience and we were also trying to remember the details of when we went on a zombie experience - and discussed xmas etc.  Very chilled and fun...made our way home....

So - a great weekend - great company, all good and happy - but skint lol.