Brit GTG Glasgow 2011/ 2012
 

Yes!
John Barrowman is in Panto in Glasgae again!
At the SECC.
I am willing to start saving now - any and all of the usual suspects are welcome to join me. Dani & Limey I hope, at the very least.

Personal opinion - stay in The Alamo again.
Lovely place, lovely people, close to the venue.

If either or neither of you can manage it, that will be my plan anyway.

I really should try to fit it in with the school hols this time. but I HAVE learned the school is flexible. So if it means taking one day off they will wink at that - I've always been good at putting in extra hours because I love my job.

Please.
Please please?
I'll enjoy the show regardless.
But after this year, it wouldn't be the same without you.

And after all I'm slightly above the breadline this time (I still don't earn enough to pay tax, how dire is that?) but with this amount of notice I'll be able to pay more of my own way.

Let me know, ladies, and the Cellar in general.
All are welcome.... We'd love it if you could join us....

Ticketsoup (SECC booking agency) is down tonight.
I'll be checking it tomorrow.
And sending an exploratory email to The Alamo.

xxx

I've started another thread ... Mods, can you merge them?
Oh, and Sundae, yes!

This is Dec/Jan again?

Sure. I am in.

Phone's fucked again. You might have noticed :p

Right. All book seats in the Stalls together this time?
£27.50.
Have a look at the dates and let me know - the run is Saturday 17 December to Saturday 7 January
My holiday is from Friday 16 December to Monday 4th January.

We could go early in the run this time?
Less worries about illness that way perhaps? His I mean, although I'm giving anyone a run for their money with my record this year... If we book tickets for 17-20 December before 31st May there is a discount...

So excited you want to do it again :)

C'mon ladies, c'mon...

You can't have known me this long and expect me to be patient in the throes of a plan...?

We can get 3 seats in the Stalls in row D AT THE MOMENT!
(I was sat in row D this year)
And at a discount!
This is URGENT stuff, here!

Disclaimer - I know it's not really urgent.
I know you have lives to sort out and calendars to work with.
I know I am being over-excited.

But you DO realise this is John Barrowman, right?
And three other bitches might get our seats?

Put me out of my misery soon-ish.
I can perhaps hold out til the weekend. Any later and I will combust.

Love you both :joylove::joylove:
xxx

Sundae - I just need to consider the programme of wall-to-wall carol concerts with the Brass Band that is my December ... BRB, I promise!

Thanks Limes.
I loosened my excitement valve a little, so combustion is not an immediate danger.

I'm up for whenever. Just let me know and Ill work around those dates.

Ah! The student life!!

OKAY! Any date from Monday 19th December onwards is fine. I can prolly do just one night in Glasgow, but you guys are welcome back here (though you may be expected to sing carols!).

Right.
Evening performance Monday 19th Jan.
I'll come up overnight Sunday - probably go back Wednesday. The usual - two B&B nights beig the best for me financially.

Could one of your two book the tickets?
I can't get three on my card, but am obviously able to pay you for mine.

FRONT Stalls.

I can contact The Alamo - triple room again?
I am very excite.

January?
or December
I'm happy to book the tickets ... Just double confirm that you mean December :)

December!
Beginning of the run this time :)

I console myself that had you tried to book the tickets for that date, you would have found it impossible.
Sorry. Silly bim.

Some other byotches got our tickets.
But we are in Row K, 14 - 16.
Hope this is satisfactory, gyels!
= £20.90 each, anytime you like.

Limey, you're a star.
When I referred to being able to smell him from Row K I was of course referring to the man's amazing pheremones, rather than his sweat. 51st century pheremones are more potent than Buckfast Tonic...

Oh - wait.
That's Caption Jack Harkness, not John Barrowman.
At least, I think so...

Oh - when do we want the room for chickies?
It has to be Monday night at least, but I am happy to visit chez Limey on Tueday. I LOVE carols! Do you have a spare room/ available sofa, or could I get a bed in a B&B there for Tuesday night?

I'm gonna book the Alamo for the three of us for Monday night.
Please come back to me re staying Sunday or Tuesday, because if we agree on a two-nighter it would be good not to have to swap rooms.

Excited, excited, excited!
We're going to see JB AGAIN! And the English Cellar Ladies get to go on tour AGAIN! (sorry it's not much of a tour for you Limes, but if it was we probably wouldn't have your company).

Advance warning - I have a lot to talk about now I am working.
I may have to shoehorn children into every single conversation, like an obsessed mother.
You will get to hear the Tiger's real name. And when I say hear, I mean you will be sick of the sound of it.

Oh but I'm so excited!

I'll do Glasgow Monday night only, Cherry, but you and Dana are welcome to come over to Arran before and/or after the Main Event. I'll be able to put you [both] up.

Not only have the tickets arrived (as confirmed by Limey) but we have a booked room in The Alamo on Monday 19th.
So my very basic plan is to get into town on the overnight train as before, setting out Sunday night and arriving in Glasgow Monday breakfast.
Stagger about (from tiredness) until the room is ready, then go to the SECC that night.
Meet up somewhere along the way.

Go to Arran on Tuesday. come home Weds via boat and hopefully overnight train, given that my previous coach journey home felt like something from Escher.

We'll work details out closer to the day, but those are the bones of it.

Update for the panto.
I had forgotten until posting this that I still owe you money Limes.

Will sort out next month I promise.

From the Evening Times
(Sarah Swain)
We're going on 19 December, but not until the evening.
I'm not surprised that the afternoon show is sold out - if Scottish term dates are the same as ours, it's the first (weekday) afternoon the children will have off school.

I so can't wait.
Thank goodness I have Torchwood to console me in the meantime, and the lovely Mark Gatiss's Dr Who in September.

Pantomime officially launched in Scotland yesterday.
Forward to 24.50 for the short clip.

From STV.

You three need an award sitting through a performance with the Krankies being in the cast :scream:

They need sectioning......

You know, I'd have said that myself last year but they were pretty funny. It's ruined my street cred!

Guess where Best Beloved and I are staying in Glasgow on Saturday night ... ?

YAY!
You going to the Butchershop too?

Harr!

Booked my tickets today.
Can you believe it - Megabus now have a SLEEPER COACH between Glasgow and London!
By train it would have been £78 rather than £42 AND that is taking the seated option on the way back (with the potential of having to share on the way there).

BBC reporting on the launch.

If I have to sleep in the top bunk I will be very cross. I'll simply not be able to get up there and will have to sleep in my seat. Then again, I expect to be at Victoria hours before the coach is due and be in a position to choose my bunk!

Sorry SG, only just noticed this ... we stayed at the Alamo but were just passing through so arrived late and left early-ish. No sign of your toyboy waiter.

Not my waiter... (mumble mumble)...

I just hope Flash is still alive in December.
Which sounds callous, but he's an old chap now.

Panic - did I book The Alamo, or did someone else?
I can't find my confirmation email, and I'm usually pretty good at saving things like that.

Having checked the website they have vacancies - but that again worries me in case we're not confirmed, as the room I thought we had is listed as available.

Sorry for being so feckless, either way.
It's only because I'm trying to sort out my finances/ savings/ what I owe to whom now that I have a second job (smile, smile).

I think I owe money to someone...Limey? For tickets?

We owe Limey just over £20 (£20.70 sticks in my head but might be wrong).
And I think we'll be paying about £150 between us for our room and brekkers. IF it's been booked. The phrase "I'll sort that out" swims worryingly into my mind....

It's not too late though.

Gave the Alamo a call - yes I booked it :)
Talked to Steve. And Flash is still with them.

Limey can confirm the panto ticket price.
After saying over and over that I'll pay, I really will this month.
Prolly mid-Nov when I get my first pay through from Boots. I've assumed (from what Limey has said herself) that if payment had been urgent she would have let us know. Sorry nonetheless.

Now, the panto starts @ 19.00.
Shall we eat after?
The best deals seem to be pre-theatre, but I don't know when you are arriving and it would be horrid to have a good meal and rush it. It will be our only meal in Glasgow, unless people want to change plans. If you want to stay in Glasgow an extra night I will do so too - Dani this applies mostly to you (because I haven't really seen much of the city). Otherwise I'll go to Arran and stay with Limey (not a second choice, Limes! just trying to be fair)

I'll be in Glasgow all day Monday 19th, but will be in budget mode, buying sangers for lunch if I'm alone. I get in early morning as before.

Not tying anyone down to specific plans, just saying what's occurring.
I arrive Monday morning - we see JB Monday night.
We stay together Monday night in the Alamo.
We check out Tuesday morning.
I leave Wednesday night (midnight).

And I love to sing Christmas carols.

£21.583333333333333333333333333333333333333333 each
apparently for the tickets.
I can get into town earlier on the Monday so we all eat together pre-theatre. I was planning on dragging the two of you forcibly back to Arran sometime on Tuesday. If you're leaving midnight on Wednesday, Sundae, you can get the 7.20pm boat on Wednesday evening (all this weather permitting).

It sounds perfect to me.

I'm gonna hold off deciding on that second night if that's ok guys? All kind of depends where I'm at with the Pilaudog.

I am so excited.
Less than 6 weeks.
I still haven't paid anyone anything, despite various promises. After 5 years I think you know me well enough not to actually hate me.
Also that I am not scamming you - money will change hands.
And that I am rubbish at things like this. Sorry.

What I am looking forward to:

- Leaving work on Sunday afternoon and knowing London and Glasgow await
- Trying out the new sleeper coach
- Seeing the Alamo Guesthouse again; Steve and Flash (the cat)
- Meeting Dana and Limey
- Going to the panto on the day of arrival! Much as I love the Cellar ladies I'm so stoked about the actual performance
- Breakfast at The Alamo. Nom nom McNom
- Arran!
- Going home on the sleeper coach (well, depends what the trip up was like!)
- Going home to Christmas

Colour me double rainbowed.

Aren't you counting the days yet, Sundae?

Not yet.
I will do on the 19th :biggrin:

Oh wow - less than a month to go!

I've been looking around for a place to eat.
Sapporo Teppanyaki have an Early Diner Menu - 3 courses for £14.95.
Available from 16.30-18.30.
I've heard good things about this place (they have restaurants in Liverpool and Manchester).

Linky
Oh, and they do cocktails ;)

Of course if you have plans Limes, I'm easy going!
But if we think this place is a good idea we should book.

That menu looks great... are you going (more or less) solo ?
A crowd around a teppanyaki more than doubles the enjoyment.

Three of us.
But they seat you on tables of eight, around the chef, so we'd be sharing with another party.

I've also signed up for their email, stating my birthday as 19 December.
Makes no difference if we don't go. But a cheeky bit of fuss if we do ;)

This looks a great idea Sundae! And it'll be so great to be able to celebrate your birthday ;)!
What I was thinking was that I should post you guys your tickets as it'd be a real bummer if you were in Glasgow and I couldn't get there with the tickets because of windy weather (it happens ...).

ETA: The last time I was in a restaurant like that it was with a guy who lost his life on 9/11. No, really.

Good plan Batman.
It would be awful for you, but more awfuller for me, who would cry until I was physically sick.

At least if we are all in charge of our own tickets, we have a modicum of charge over our own destinies (watch mine get lost in the post now).

I've booked for 17.00.
That will give us a good hour and a half and still time to get to the theatre early.
I'm sure this can be changed if necessary.

Anyone who has a large lunch and subsequently can't finish their meal, that's a paddlin'.
Anyone who doesn't finish their meal and then asks for a hotdog later, that's a paddlin'.
Anyone who drinks too many cocktails and then is noisily sick in front of the nice Mr Barrowman, oh you bet that's a paddlin'.

ETA - it will be a taxi from B&B to restaurant, and restaurant to SECC. But as we know the trip back to the B&B is walkable.
Sorry that it's the other side of town, it just seemed such a good deal and an exciting place.

Oh and to correct a previous error - the tables seat 22, with the minimum at a table being 8.
But as Lamp says, that's a bonus for us.
Is there a spare bed if any of us pull...?

On the verge of sorting out various financial strands that have been going awry.
Spent the afternoon on the phone to various charming young men (the one with the Spanish accent was frustrating, but did sort out my problem) and believe it all to be untangled and set to resolve by 12th December.

So for the first time I can feel very excite about Glasgow.
Recently I have been worrying about how close it was creeping instead of glorying in ticking off the days.

Grandad's ashes are being interred on Monday 19th.
Mum and Dad will be meeting my Godfather there.

:(

But I understand that she wants this done before Christmas.

Wait what so you're not going? Or you're just sad to miss the interment?

I'm sad to miss it.

Mum would be furious if I said I wasn't going to Glasgow! She says I was at his funeral and cremation and this means nothing. Of course it means something, but I do understand.

Grandad was always proud that I "travelled" in the UK. He went all the way to Australia, but never saw much of England, let alone the rest. He said I took after Nanny - his family suspected her of having gyspy blood.

No-one else in the family is going, but I would have if I hadn't had longstanding plans.

I didn't go to Nanny's, but I live here now and Grandad was a big part of my life.
Part of my daily routine until February and at least my weekly life after.

I'll raise a glass to him in Scotland.
He enjoyed the fact that I liked cocktails - and was very impressed that I took Mum to Harvey Nichols for them. He was a barman and cocktail specialist in London during and after the War. He started at the Grosvenor in Piccadilly and pretty much moved up from there.

He also liked the fact I was as interested in opera and musicals as Mum.
We talked about shows I'd seen and Mum would always make a special point of mentioning tickets I'd bought for her and Dad as presents through the years.
He was so happy that I got Mum & Dad tickets to Turandot as it isn't staged very often, and it was Nanny's favourite opera.
When we went to see Carmen at the Coliseum (where he worked as a stagehand) he told Mum, "You've got a good one there."

His absence is very noticeable coming up to Christmas.
I keep factoring him into my plans. What to buy him - oh, must remember to get Grandad a card. Am I taking his dinner round before or after we eat? Maybe we should do him a snack brunch - oh wait, he's at Hillside - will we all go together?

Oh wait.
No.

What lovely memories of your grandfather.

I think he would want you to go to glasgow too, and have a wonderful time with friends. :)

This is normal. Painful, like an unscratchable itch. It seems to pass, to fade, but what really happens is you become aware of your new relationship with him. One where he isn't exactly gone, but where he spends all his time somewhere else, in your thoughts and in your heart. I imagine he'll enjoy your trip to Scotland together, no?

In 2000, my Dad passed at 94 yrs.
But I still have daily conversations with him, particularly when something happens that he and I shared years ago.
.

Oh, me too Lamp.

@ V: that's a brilliant description of what it's like. I have been thinking about it on and off since I first read it. That's kind of what it's like with Dad. Made especially so by the fact that Dad and I mainly interacted at a distance. So, in a sense he still occupies that space, off in a different town, in an imagined place.

So true, so true. This is how it is for me too. I'll raise a glass to your Grandad, too, Sundae!

Holy shit it it's the 14th...


Right: got the little London trip out the way and about half of the end of module paperwork and feedback etc. (Should really do a self-reflection on my PDR - personal development record - at some point...hateful fucking things). Still have 22 essays to mark but I can see light at the end of the tunnel, which, hopefully indicates daylight ahead, and not the approach of an oncoming train:P

So...i now have headspace to be excited about Glasgae *grins* Well, actually I was excited before I went to Lon Don (pronunciation key: a la Tubs off've TLoG). I even bought a new top! £8 Sainsbury's, can't go wrong.

But I now have more headspace and time and way less not-yet-done-work-guilt :p So, umm...


Yeah. When's the show again? Is it next Monday? When we meeting etc? Oh...Limey, I have a vague recollection of you mentioning posting tickets...you didn't, did you?

he he he - Dana, that post made me smile.

It is indeed on Monday. Five more sleeps!
And we are having an early dinner - 17.00 in Sapporo Teppanyaki, for my birthday.

Yey!

So, an early train for me then :)


Is that an independant or a chain?

Anything like Si Sushi or Wagamama?

Technically a chain as there are three of them.
Everything is cooked right in front of you, with lots of knife tricks and throwing things around.

I refer you back to this post for the menu.

Ahahahahahah.

I've been wracking my brain about your upcoming 'birthday'....surely it's not in december I'm thinking. I have totally misremembered, I'm thinking. Went to check the Cellar calendar....no upcoming Sundae birfdays.

Now I understand. I had forgotten about the Queen's Birthday you've adopted for the purposes of potentially enhancing our restaurant experience :P

Incidentally, check out thatlink I sent you :)


It says further screenings will be arranged, but the next step after Hammersmith, is Tunbridge Wells then Stateside I think. I'm presuming from the 'further screenings' promise that they'll be bringing it back to the Uk, most probably London again :P

Haven't posted tickets to anyone. Every time I've thought about it it's been blowing a hoolie out there. Weather looking meek and mild for Mon-Weds. Dana - are you thinking of doing the whistle-stop tour of Arran with Sundae?