Green Wing Party 3rd January 2009

[jrt patch]

Is this a record???? Was I the first to get home? I was in my house at 10.10, picking over the take away debris. The dinner I had left was Too Much Effort.
Baby NOT impressed by choice of new Dr Who. I'm sure she'll come round.
It was a fabulous day - thanks so much to Kim for all her hard work - everything was really enjoyable. The venue, the staff, the food, the games, the chocolate cocks, the raffle, the prizes, the screenings, the quick visitation from Richard Preddy, and above all the good company were well worth leaving my cosy warm house to come all the way from South London.

If JRT or anyone else showed up, well, tough - they just had to do without me.

It was so wondeful to see so many people again, and all looking so well, thank goodness. Still, not quite the same without DL and TS - we missed you, ladies!

[tutt-sweet]

Thanks for the update Patchy. Gosh you were home early weren't you? Glad you had a fab day though.

I'm sure I can speak for DL too, to say that we probably missed being there more than you lot missed us.......! Still it was flattering to be missed at all!

Nice that Richard turned up too...what a a nice chap!

Can't say I was impressed by new Dr........Who???!!

Come on ladies where are those photos?!

[chatterbox]

Well I just got home.... Thanks everyone for a brilliant day - I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

I will do a proper write up and upload photos tomorrow (too tired tonight!)

Thanks again everyone - what a team we are!!

xxx

[ducatilady]

Thanks for missing us Patchy, but as TS says, I'm sure we missed you all more...sounds like a great time was had by all, I'm looking forward to seeing some piccies!

[chatterbox]

Well my photos are added to Photobucket here:

http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g310/webmasterjrt/Fans%20and%20meetups/Green%20Wing%20Party%203rd%20Jan%202009/

If you have any photos you would like to add, send them to me or Faeriequeen

[spence]

Thanks Kim for organising such a great day, it was so great to sit back and enjoy it, I actually managed to play some games and eat!! wonderful
so........when are we doing it again!!

my photo's are on facebook

[chatterbox]

Thanks to everyone for the lovely card that Kate gave to me on the way home.... I'm glad everyone seemed to have a good time!

I got there early, with Kate who did a fantastic job in blowing up balloons and sorting out all the things I had forgotten.... Penny and Jess arrived first, then everyone else in fairly quick succession.

We kicked off with lunch, and a word scramble put together by Terri. I don't think anyone finished the hard version without cheating - would anyone care to put me right on that?

We then spent the afternoon playing games and catching up with each other -some of us hadn't met since the convention, if at all! Highlights for me were Penny's superb if slightly scary organisation of the games, especially when she had the Sue White arms on... Spence's attempts at Gall Bladder Operation which came to serious grief, and the wide and varied attempts to get a chocolate tower above four storeys without Mad Sue/Penny knocking it down. The winners got a certificate and prizes of 'GW Obsessive' ID badges which had been autographed by Stephen Mangan with various messages!

We managed to get the very helpful manager to link the big screen to the BBC so that we could watch who would be the next Doctor Who.. Most of us were hoping for the lovely Paterson Joseph, so were a bit flummoxed by the choice, but we soon rallied! We held a raffle of various bits and pieces, including an original Green Wing wrap t-shirt and ambulance sticker props from the series, some audio-books, some more Stephen Mangan autographed ID cards, a programme from The Norman Conquests autographed/defaced by Stephen Mangan, and some cheering bags of chocolate cocks....

After the raffle, we settled down for an evening of episode watching, dinner and plenty of chat which continued throughout... We had a quick but very welcome visit from Richard Preddy just as we had started eating - I hope he wasn't too bemused by the ladies giggling quietly to themselves with post-it notes on their heads. Actually, the post-its were another one of my highlights. I handed out packs to tables at the start of episode 5, and with no prompting at all, the whole company quickly began sticking them on their heads - the faces of the bar staff were an absolute picture!! There was a bit of a scrum at the end for the posters - if you missed out I can get you some more!! And a bunch of revellers set off with some balloons to distribute through London on the way back to their hotel. Kate and I were the last to leave, and we trundled back across Hungerford Bridge complete with Sue White arms hanging out from my case.

Overall, through the raffle and due to the amount spent at the bar (!) we raised £283 for charity, which I will round up to £300, and split evenly between Great Ormand Street (The GW Convention Charity) and The Leukaemia and Lymphoma Unit at UCLH (The JRT site charity).

Thank you to everyone who came, to Kate, Spence, Terri and Penny who helped me in all sorts of ways, and to everyone for having a good time, which made it all worthwhile.

A brilliant day!

[faeriequeen]

Thank you for a great day Kim! It was nice to have nothing to do with the organisation this time!

[Rosie]

The chocolate cocks from the raffle have come in handy today as a substitute for after-dinner mints.

Thanks to Kim and everyone who helped put yesterday's party together, it was a great afternoon and evening.

[Baggiebird]

Morning one and all from a very chilly and snowey West Brom. Just popping by to say I had a great time on Saturday. Thanks for all your hard work Kim, it was brilliant. It was great to see everyone again. I enjoyed playing the games, Operation was my favourite with the random gummy bear!

Anyway I think I may have been the last to get home on Saturday considering my train broke down......well actually my train managed to bring down the power cables....So I sat on a stationary train for 2.5 hrs, which was getting colder and darker by the minute. In fact it got so cold and dark they issued us with glow sticks and thermal emergeency blankets. They evacuated us at about 6.30 at which point we had to clamber down a ladder and cross the tracks then walk down the siding to get to a coach that was going to take us on the rest of our journey.....It very much reminded me of a scene from a dodgy disaster movie. Anyway I finally got back to Birmingham New Street at about 8pm....which was 4 hours after I should have got home. Needless to say I was very cold, very tired and very hungry.

[minimarsbar]

Thanks to everyone for a great day out. It was good to see people and have a catch-up.
I felt like a girl guide leader on the way back to the hotel!
'Just along here, ladies'
'OK everyone - lets cross over'
'Remember to look out for M & S tomorow to guide you to the tube' etc. etc.
Most of the balloons were set free on the way up through Covent Garden, but thanks to a lack of wind, they sort of sat on the ground looking dejected!
Spence or Terri did manage to fasten one bunch to a lampost near the tube station - were they still there the morning after? They weren't when I passed at about 11.30am
Your trip home sounds dreadful Baggie. My train was 20 mins late leaving Kings Cross due to signaling probs and I missed my connection in Leeds. Got back to Halifax around 1/4 to 6 (although my train left KX a lot later than yours)
See you all again next year.

[spence]

I'm glad you were the 'Guide leader' MMB, we may never have found the hotel without your help, we went right round the houses when we first arrived!! er my fault!! in the morning we were at the tube within minutes, I think it took us an hour the day before we didn't see any balloons

Baqggie what an awful trip, my coach had to pull into the services, as a warning buzzer kept going off, after 15 minutes the driver decided to just turn up the radio so he couldn't hear it!!!

The train problems on Saturday caused by the light air craft crash.......turns out it was the parents of a child in Molly's year, so very, very sad.

[Baggiebird]

Yes well least said about the trains on Sunday the better. Alas all the balloons had gone by the time myself and Em trundled though Covent Garden about 11.45

[ducatilady]

Looking at the photos there are a few faces that I don't recognise, were there some brave newbies there?
Baggie, your trip home reminds me of the dreadful one I had trying to get home after the Green Wing evening at the national film theatre.

[spence]

So who's organising the next one!?

[macs bike]

thnaks kim for a wonderful day .....
spence in furture step away from the chocolate cocks please.
everyones photos are great .
so what next then ?

[goshandcrikey]

Kim for organising a great party.

It was lovely to see you all again. Although we did all miss Di and Rita ( it wasn't the same without either of you). The ambulance signs I won are now safely in my office at home. Not quite sure where to display them. My sister wants to know why I turned down the chocolate cocks though.

Thankfully my trip home was better than Baggies which is good as I spent about 2 hours in Hamleys.The bags I ended up carrying where bigger than me. However I was greeted by a very cute young man running up the station platform with his arms outstretched.

sadly it was only my nephew!!!!

Thanks again Kim for all your hard work.

[Baggiebird]

I will endevour to put my photo's up at some point over the weekend. I need to figure out how to use my camera properly first though.

It was a terrible journey Rita, needless to say the letter of complaint is already in the post, I know it wasn't the fault of Virgin Trains, but I do think they could have handled the situation more efficiently and got us of the train and on our way quicker than they managed to.

Anyway I was sorry that you and Di weren't there it wasn't the same without you two

[Fraudulent Little Tart]

I'd just like to add a 'thank you' to Kim for organising such a fab day. And for letting me be in charge of things . . . . she wont make that mistake again! *laughs evilly*

In other news, and because I really want sympathy off people, I was on the 14.25 out of London Euston which finally managed to get me into Preston at 23.55, having gone via Marylebone, Birmingham Moor Street, Birmingham New Street and every conceivable stop along the way! . . . . And Gordon Brown wonders why I use my car quite so much?!

[Spitting Bunny]

A belated but very big thank you from me - been battling a sore throat this week so hope I didn't give it to anyone else.

Great photos - mine were clearly the work of an amateur with a shiny new camera! (Apparently it helps not to have a dirty great fingerprint on the lens.)