Hello all
As previously promised, I thought I’d tell you about my birthday surprise, arranged for me by my lovely friends! I went to London on my actual birthday, for the Lord Mayor’s Show, and all I knew about my Sunday activities was that I was going to London again! I wasn’t blindfolded or anything, but I didn’t get to find out what my surprise was until we were eating lunch in London. My good friend Vicky decided the best way to break the news of the surprise was to hum the Doctor Who theme tune. Needless to say that I got it straight away, because I’ve been hankering to go to the Doctor Who Experience in London since it opened, and more especially since I worked at Olympia a couple of times in the last few months, and saw dozens of little boys in tweed and bow ties (bow ties are cool), clutching Doctor Who carrier bags. So I was super excited for my birthday treat!
We went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Earls Court for lunch, and it was yummy! That was part of my surprise, I didn’t know we were going there, but I was glad we did! I haven’t actually even heard of Gourmet Burger Kitchen before, never mind eaten there. As the name suggests, they serve burgers, and there is such a wide range that even if you don’t like beef burgers, there is bound to be something else on the menu to enjoy. I had a cheeseburger, and shared some chips with Vicky, and because of the size of the burger, even half a portion of chips was too much for me to manage! I would definitely recommend it if you like that kind of thing!
Then, onto the main event of the day: Doctor Who! The first part of the experience is the ‘interactive part’, you watch a video of the Doctor in the Pandorica; he needs our help to escape! So you walk through various different rooms, starting with the library from Silence in the Library, where a node speaks to you about the various different artifacts in the room such as the Van Gogh painting from The Pandorica Opens. As you move through the rooms, you have to encounter the Daleks (genuinely quite scary), and then you end up in the TARDIS, where you have to help the Doctor fly it. The last part is a 3D bit, where various monsters, such as the Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels (also quite scary), reach out at you, before, shock horror, everything turns out OK, and you are safe to exit, and walk through the exhibition of costumes and props. It was very good, and, if slightly more geared towards children (pesky kids), doesn’t detract from the awesomeness of finding yourself in the TARDIS.
Gourmet Burger Kitchen – so tasty!
Me, the TARDIS and Eleven. It’s a truly terrible waxwork (or whatever it is) of him – he looks awful! Matt Smith is much, much more attractive than that!
Some of the costumes we saw. I definitely didn’t touch any of them, because you weren’t allowed. Shame really.
We had lots of fun with the Silence, including drawing tallies on hands.
The photos of me here are a bit rubbish, as they weren’t taken with my camera, but you can see what a loser I’m being.
Whatever you do, don’t blink!
As you can see, there was plenty of fun to be had, including speaking like a Dalek and walking like a Cyberman.
Take that, pesky kids, I got a carrier bag too! Obviously the gift shop is the best part of any day out, and I got a programme (as a present, part of my surprise), two badges, a TARDIS pen, and a poster of the Van Gogh painting (not pictured, from Richard as a present). I also pressed a penny; I try to do one whenever I see a machine, I have quite a collection now!
It was a great day, and I would definitely recommend the Doctor Who Experience to anyone who is a fan of the show! Thanks to my lovely friends for arranging it for me!
