My Week #6

Yet again, another week which has been crazily busy. I apologise for the lack of posts.

Last Tuesday I had asked previous Great British Bake Off contestant Holly Bell a few questions which she was kind enough to answer. You can see that post here.

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I had a busy weekend. I went to a friend's house for a few (much needed!) drinks on Friday after work and on Saturday it was an au-pair friend's birthday so six of us went out for a meal and drinks. We went to Wahaca, a Mexican restaurant in Soho. It was really busy when we got there so we had a few drinks in the bar downstairs first. They serve tequila cocktails (alongside Mexican beers and other cocktails), they were so strong! Usually cocktails just taste like juice to me but I could definitely taste the alcohol. They were nice, I had a grapefruit one which was really refreshing and a passion fruit one which was nice and sweet, but I don't think I would have them again. The decor was really cool, empty tequila bottles on shelves, chairs suspended from the ceiling and chain link curtains gave it a really Mexican but modern and unusual feel.

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We sat at a table for six, it was plenty big enough for us all to sit around it comfortably. We ordered and the food came pretty quickly which was good because we were all starving by then. There was about 10 minutes between the first dish coming out and the last dish being served though so some people had to start their meals before some of the others had anything. I ate the grilled steak tacos, the black bean and cheese quesadillas and the sweet potatoes, the food was divine. It was slighty spicy, enough so that your lips burn from the heat but not too much, the flavours were delicious and the service was quick. I asked for a glass of tap water and the waiter came back in about a minute with glasses for the whole table. I was so full, I really shouldn't have had dessert but they had churros with chocolate sauce which I really could not resist. I was definitely right to have them. YUM! All together, including a nice cool Corona to wash it all down, my bill came to around £22 which I thought was excellent value for a Central London restaurant. It is a chain but it feels so individual and with those prices I wasn't really going to turn my nose up. The music was quite loud, meaning you had to shout across the table if you were talking to each other but other than that a great place.  I would definitely return. In fact, there was lots of cool, unusual looking places to eat around that area in Soho, if you are looking for somewhere new then maybe go for a browse.

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I went on a date this week to the cinema to see The Conjuring. I enjoyed it, there was some really jumpy bits and there was quite an interesting story line which is what I like in a horror film.

I'm working on a pretty exciting (if incredibly lame!!) Harry Potter knitting project at the moment so watch this space!!

I was featured in Bonjour, Blogger's Saturday Summary, which you can see here. How exciting! I keep forgetting that people actually read what I am writing! And I hope you're enjoying it. A couple of people have come up and started a conversation with 'I saw on your blog' which is pretty surreal, and brilliant :)

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I have just booked tickets to see Blood Brothers AGAIN!! This will be my fourth time. It is an unbelievably good musical, I love it. It's definitily one of my favourites, if not my all time favourite. This will be the third Nolan sister I've seen playing Mrs Johnston. I am excited.

Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour

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On a delayed train between Manchester and London the image of an eleven year old wizard with a lightening shaped scar on his forehead popped into a woman's mind. That woman was of course J.K.Rowling and that boy was Harry Potter. The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released in 1997 and ever since then the world's love of this young wizard and his creator has been growing and growing.

I have always loved the Harry Potter books. I was six when the first one came out and I remember adoring it. Over the years as Harry, Ron and Hermione grew up, so did I and the Harry Potter series really does remind me of my childhood. There are many, many happy memories attached to the novels. The films came out and even though I didn't enjoy them as much as the books they were still good. The story line is magical no matter if its on paper or a screen. So, when I saw an leaflet for the Harry Potter Studio Tours around a year ago I knew that it would be very high on my list of places to visit in London.

 I was a bit worried. I was so excited to go and I had built it up so much in my head, would it be a total let down? Would I be disppointed? Well, the short answer is no I bloody wasn't.

The studios are in Watford, I needed to take two buses and two trains, and because I was quite nervous about missing my allocated time slot I left really early. It wasn't needed, door-to-door the whole journey took me around one and a half to two hours. There is a regular shuttle bus which operates from Watford station so I rode this to the studios, they played Harry Potter music the whole way there and I really felt like I was going to Hogwarts!

The outside of the tour didn't really look like anything special. It basically just looked like a massive aircraft hanger with some Harry Potter artwork on the outside, but I wasn't expecting a scale model of Hogwarts so it's okay. There were some original chess pieces outside though.

I collected my ticket, it had a Mandrake on it and I thought that was a strange Harry Potter creature to have on all the tickets. Then I saw the someone had Fawkes!! I must say that I did feel rather cheated at getting a Mandrake, hehe. I also paid for an audio guide. It was like an iPhone with a case and headphones, and a lanyard so you could wear it around your neck. It was really good and had loads of extra information on it. A lot of these audio guides just repeat the information which is already written down but this didn't do that. I paid £4.95 for it and it was definitely worth it in my opinion.

After queuing, we went through to a room where a member of staff spoke to us, told us a little more about Harry Potter and the experience we would be getting that day. We then went through to a room with a big screen where we watched a film which had more information about the background of the Harry Potter films, the more 'behind the scenes stuff'. From here we went through the Hogwarts main doors and into the Great Hall.

The member of staff talked throughout the time we were in this room, telling us interesting facts about some of the props, the room's role in the films and some information about the actors. We then went through to the first section of the tour and we were left totally to our own devices, we could take as long as we wanted to look at everything. There was a mixture of rooms from the films which had been set up identically, Hagrid's hut, Snape's dungeon, Dumbledore's office, there was costumes, hair and make-up displays, and there were props displayed on their own. There was such a wide range and eclectic mix of items from the films.

Umbridge's Educational Decrees

The Invisibility Cloak

The Triwizard Cup and the Golden Egg

Triwizard Cup

Dumbledore's Office

Potion Ingredients

Animal Actors Who Played Hedwig

Animal Cages in Hagrid's Hut

The Door to the Chamber of Secrets

The Door to the Chamber of Secrets

Mad-Eye Moody's Trunk

Death Eater Mask

Death Eaters Including Bellatrix Lestrange, Lord Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy and Draco Malfoy

Magic is Might Statue

A Selection of Dolores Umbridge's Outfits

Ministry of Magic Floo Fireplaces

An Original, Handwritten Letter First Received by Harry

Ron's Howler

You were then directed outside into a large courtyard which contained a small number of food outlets, a butterbeer stand and some more of the larger props.

 I had some butterbeer! I am very pleased with this fact. It was delicious, the 'head' of the beer was so sweet and tasted like caramel and butterscotch which I expected but the liquid was cold and fizzy. It tasted like caramel too so it was a little bit weird at first. It was really nice one I'd gotten used to it. It was quite expensive, £2.95 for a plain plastic beaker of the butterbeer. I paid £2 extra to have it in a tumbler which I could take home. They even had a little 'tankard wash' so you didn't have to put the sticky cups in your bags, great idea!

The Wooden Bridge

The Knight Bus

Tom Riddle's Grave

4 Privet Drive

 The last part of the tour was smaller than the first. It was made up of a creature shop, which had many of the dummies, prosthetics and models used in the films. There was also a big set of Diagon Alley with the shop windows all decorated. One of the staff members was doing a demonstration on how they got the 'Lumos' spell to work in the films, it was interesting. They had then displayed lots of the drawings and models which the film crew had used to design the final image of the set.

Nearly Headless Nick

Gringotts Goblins

Hungarian Horntail

Rest In Peace Dobby!

Aragog and the Basilisk

Buckbeak

Diagon Alley

Ollivander's Wand Shop 

Diagon Alley's Entrance Behind the Leaky Cauldron

The Weasley's House Sketches 

The Shell Cottage Paper Model

I thought that this was the end of the tour and to be honest it was a bit of an anti-climax. Then I walked around the corner...

It was so beautiful. I cried. Again. It was amazing. This is the model which they used to film most of the exterior shots of Hogwarts.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the day. The place was exceptionally clean, the toilets were immaculate and I hardly saw a piece of litter throughout the whole day. I hadn't realised how much detail had gone into the film sets. There was fake lichen put on one house, who would have seen it in the film?? In Ollivander's wand shop there was over 5,000 individually boxed wands and each had a handwritten label. Incredible. Yes, it was expensive. I went on my own so it wasn't too bad but if I'd paid for a family ticket plus all the extras on top then it would have been extortionate but no-one's forcing you to buy anything other than the tickets, you don't have to so I don't see why people complain. The gift shop had some nice things but they were also crazily overpriced in my opininon. I bought a keyring and two postcards, that was all. This was one of the best things I've done in London, it was great. I would thoroughly recommend it, it was totally worth the money and I would definitely go again. I was a bit worried that now I know how they did some of the effects and costumes the Harry Potter series would lose some of its magic but it hasn't at all. If anything seeing how much everyone loves the series, even the directors, producers, costume designers, everyone who worked on the films, has only reinforced the magic and childhood memories which these books and films induce. Sorry that this post is a bit 'photo heavy' but it was really hard to decide which pictures to include and which not to, it was all so great!