Just what the doctor ordered

 

Sophie Aldred ! AKA 'Ace'

On Sunday I woke up and thought I really needed to have an Izzy day, so I got ready first thing - with no real plan on where to go. 

It wasn't too cold, and I had a yellow summer dress that I had got off Ebay that I wanted to wear, plus some new walking trainers that hadn't been out of the box yet.

I was looking on google maps for places to go, when a friend on Skype reminded me that there was a Comic-con at Elsecar Heritage centre that day, and Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred would be there ! 

I checked if the boys wanted to come - I already knew my wife would need to stay in to work that day. They were not interested, their loss.

I did a twirl for my wife to check I looked OK and she said I was fine, but I had a nagging feeling I wasn't, and could see there was some back hair and some straggly bits of real hair showing. So I got her to do some trimming.

I then grabbed my selfie stick and bag and headed to Elsecar on the back roads - it's only about 30 mins away.

Managed to snag a parking space in the overflow parking, as fortunately someone was leaving just as I arrived - it was rammed everywhere so this was incredibly lucky.

I wandered into the centre through the back gate, and spent a confused 10 minutes trying to find anything comic-con related, all I could see were a couple of Storm Troopers in a square, but nothing obvious in any of the buildings.  I eventually found a street I had missed, and a very long queue.

Now I'm not usually one for long queues, this is the sort of thing that would normally really put me off, but I actually felt a lot more relaxed, and just went with it, chatting to my friends in Skype as I slowly made my way forwards,

It took quite a while to get in, the queue went around a corner before it got to the entrance.  Once inside it was a little disconcerting, the place was very busy and I don't really like crowds.

But everyone seemed more interested in the stalls, and didn't seem to be queuing to get the star attractions which were at the back - well perhaps they were not as interested. So I slivered through the masses, being careful not to boob-shunt anyone (I'm still getting used to my new dimensions).

At the end I got to some stages with stuff going on, but I couldn't see any Dr Who type stuff at all, I was getting a bit worried that they were not there, but I looked to the right and there were a couple of boring looking tables with some people sat behind them, only a few people around them.  

It was them !  There was no queue at Sophie's desk, so I awkwardly went up and asked for a photo. I failed to give her assistant my phone to take a photo with, which got a comment from the assistant, silly me.  Anyway she took three photos, and I thanked her for the video message she had done for one of my friends. I probably could have spent a bit more time taking to her, but I was a bit flustered.

After that I headed to Slyvester's desk, someone had approached him for a photo while I was with Sophie so I had to wait a little bit. Once he was ready we did the same as with Sophie, he called me 'darling' :)  , he was really nice.  Again I didn't really say much.  They were both only £10, which is a bit of a bargain I understand.

Sylvester McCoy !!

I was really happy to have got those, I decided to have a look on some of the stalls, but it was all stuff I really didn't need. But I ended up getting a book from a Sci-Fi author who had a stall.

I managed to interrupt him eating his sandwich, but  he took the time to explain the premise of his book series, he signed my book. He was really nice too.

Then I found a quite corner to take some selfies with the hall in the background so I had photographic proof of being in a large crowd :)

After that I though I would head outside for food - I should perhaps have stayed as I now know there were talks by Sophie / Sylvester shortly after I left the hall, but never mind.

I found a cafe in one of the buildings, and after a bit of a wait ended up with a coffee and a really nice cold cream scone - not clotted. Which I attempted to eat in a lady like fashion.

I nearly left there without my carrier bag with the Sci-Fi book in, but someone called me back.

I had a look in a few shops ( there are craft shops, jewellery, records, antiques etc in the centre), then decided the day had been too successful and I probably should head home.

It did really improve my mood, and I felt a lot happier on the Monday, and not too bad at the time of writing :)