This Week I……

Well, if this week was anything, it certainly wasn’t a quiet one! I’ve had a super busy, and super fun week.

Today is my first day with absolutely nothing to do and I plan to go for a run, have a very long bath and then spend the afternoon binge watching S11 of Drag Race on Netflix.

But first, this week I….

Couldn’t buy Guinnes in the Pub

Last Sunday was St Patricks Day. I’d planned to make an Irish Stew for dinner, but then we made the mistake of eating a MASSIVE lunch and it seemed a waste to go to all the effort of making stew, so I decided to save that till the following day.

Instead we decided to stop off in the pub for a pint of Guinness on the way home from walking the dogs in the park. Except that they’d RUN OUT OF GUINNESS. GASP!

It’s almost like it was St Patricks Day and everyone else had the same idea.

Fortunately we’d stocked up and had a couple of bottles at home so we got to celebrate Guinness Day St Patricks Day in a little way at least.

Got a New Bag

For Christmas Mr LLL got me tickets for the Warner Bros Studio Tour. I’d wanted to go for ages, but cost and the fact that Mr LLL couldn’t really care less about Harry Potter means that I’d never been.

This week was the week that I was finally going, along with a couple of friends who’ve been many times before. In Honeydukes sweet inspired outfits that had been many months in the making.

Mr LLL made me this awesome Honeydukes bag to finish off the outfit. It’s made from wood and lined with pink striped material. (Reginald Spleen can custom make just about anything for you in wood. Drop him a message!)

Got on a Bus

Ok, so it wasn’t actually that bus, that’s the Knight Bus at the studios, but bright and early on Wednesday morning I clambered aboard a slightly less glamorous National Express bus to take us down to London for the tour.

We got the bus because it only cost SIX POUNDS. Which frankly is a bargain.

3 1/2 hours on a bus, a short tube journey, another short train ride and a 20 minute cab ride with a driver who kept laughing at us for calling our hotel “London Watford” when Watford isn’t London (That’s what it said on the address, ok!) we finally arrived at our hotel to get glammed up for the tour.

Did Not Cry

No, I did not. I got slightly damp eyes right at the start of the tour, and then there’s this really amazing bit right at the beginning which I won’t ruin for you if you haven’t been when I tried to breathe in and out at the same time and then nearly choked to death, but I did not cry.

I grinned a lot, so much that my cheeks started to hurt, though.

If you’re a Harry Potter fan and you’ve not done the tour, it’s worth every penny. I rode a broomstick, became a giant in Hagrids cabin and got the actual recipe for Polyjuice potion from the real actual potions book.

We got a lot of compliments on our outfits and the staff were all really lovely, taking the the time to answer questions, tell us secrets and show us original props close up.

I took a LOT of photos, I shan’t bore you all with them here, but there’s a fair few in a highlight on my Instagram.

I will share all our outfits, because frankly I think we look awesome. We’re Honeydukes, Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and a Chocolate Frog.

I also have to share this one, because Butter Beer is lovely and I spent £3 on a souvenir glass so now I have to drink everything out of it forever.

For those of you interested, my outfit:
Dress – The Pretty Dress Company (here in mint!) * Cardigan – Hell Bunny (old) * Hat – Etsy * Necklace & Bag – Custom Made * Shoes – Borrowed

Spent All My Money

Seriously guys. I spent more money in 2 days than I normally spend in a whole month.

There was the Butter Beer glass and a haul of Honeydukes goodies and a Felix Felicis pin from the tour. Then the next day we went to Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross and there was a Ravenclaw pin, and an espresso mug and a Deathly Hallows T-Shirt, then there was Minalima, which was amazing and I had to have a Potions Book notebook, because everyone knows I don’t have anywhere near enough completely unused notebooks, and one of their great lucky dip bags with badges and magnets.

Then there was the delicious food they sold on the market outside Kings Cross, including this gorgeous vegan doughnut with peanut butter on it.

It might be many months before I do anything interesting ever again.

Did More Interesting Stuff

Oh, except it might not be many months, because the day after we got home I already had tickets to go see Sharon Needles at the UEA.

So, yeah, I was off out again. Seriously packing pretty much an entire years worth of fun into one weekend.

Sharon Needles was a great show, and this time we weren’t disturbed by some annoyingly drunk guys spilling drinks on us and talking loudly, because I threatened to punch one of them and they went an annoyed someone else. It was the same guys, we recognised them. They were doing shots at the bar and within 5 minutes of the show starting were stood behind us again talking loudly and generally being annoying. Then one of them grabbed my chair to dance off and I promised to punch him if he did it again, and away they went. Not sorry.

Later on they got kicked out for annoying basically EVERYONE ELSE and after the show we had the great pleasure of listening to a woman they were with complaining to a “not at all bothered” security guard about how in UK law they were perfectly entitled to piss off a whole room full of people because they’d paid for tickets. It was great.

For the record, I do not encourage either punching, or threatening to punch people, but it just happened to work this time, ok?

Went for a Walk

Oh ho ho, you thought it was over? Well, not quite.

Because on Saturday I managed to get a spot on an “Instameet” walking tour of photographers and influencers around Norwich. The tour was based around some locations in the book Tombland (which I have not read, but apparently it’s very good)

A few days prior the paper had run an article about the walking tours and lots of people got very angry underneath about the whole concept of Instagram “Influencers”, but hey, they didn’t get a fun tour and some free chips, so who came off best? Maybe that’s why they’re angry?

Norwich is my adopted City and I think it’s beautiful. I do love to go for walks around, so many of the spots I had visited before, but it’s always great to be accompanied by someone with historical knowledge who can tell you things you didn’t know before. The tour contained a lot of information about Kett’s Rebellion in 1549, which is when the book is set. They are planning on launching a longer version of the walk at the end of this month. It’s a free tour and you can book a spot here.

Details for THAT outfit, for those interested!
Dress- Joanie Clothing * Boots – Hotter (gifted) * Scarf – Lisa Angel (gifted)

Ate Some Chips

Well, the walking tour is really the end, but it finished with fish and chips from Grosvenor Fish Bar, who do basically the best fish and chips in the whole world.

I ate so much that I couldn’t even face my dinner again, so that’s basically twice in one week I’ve had a lunch so big I couldn’t eat dinner.

If you’re in Norwich and you like Fish and Chips. Go here. You can even take them into the Birdcage across the road and get yourself a glass of fizz to go with them.

And that, apart from a nice hot bath and an evening in front of the TV, was another week in my life. How was your week?