A match made in Pinewood Studios

HISTORY FLASHBACK loosely taken from Ruth's script.
Ruth and Pedro met over a bacon buttie in the canteen at Pinewood Studios in 2001 when they both worked on the hallmark mini series - Dinotopia. Ruth as a trainee supervisor and Pedro as a visual effects artist.

Now...Ruth is a much sort after script supervisor and has worked on Dalziel and Pascoe, Wire in the Blood, Silent Witness and Bad Girls etc.

Pedro has 3 Emmy awards under his belt; he has worked on Casino Royale, 2 of the Harry Potter films, and Die Another Day (with Ruth).
I could go on and on, but I want to tell you about their wedding, but first let me just say Beat;root! Pedro is the drummer with this brilliant band.

SCENE 1 EXT.
A1 NORTHBOUND. RAINING, DULL, AND CHOKED WITH TRAFFIC
Sat Nav and I set off to go up north for Ruth and Pedro's wedding. Plan A: I would take my wedding outfit with me and change at my niece's house when I collected her, then we would all go to the wedding together.
A1 traffic almost at a standstill - seriously delayed.
Plan B: Traffic delay too serious to go to niece's. Sat Nav called her on mobile and told her to make her own way to the wedding venue. We needed to find somewhere for me to change en route. Toronto Lodge Hotel open, swept into car park, grabbed bags, ran through rain into hotel, quickly explained our predicament, angel of mercy on reception offered me somewhere to change (thanks angel).

SCENE 2 EXT. WEDDING VENUE
A BIT LATER...STILL DULL, BUT STOPPED RAINING
Arrived at wedding venue with 5 minutes to spare before start of ceremony - or so we thought. Impressive marquees set out for event. Very original and personal. We wondered why the other guests weren't already seated. Brides aunt informs us that the wedding is actually at 2.30pm and not 2pm...so we are actually half an hour early. Should have checked the invite!

SCENE 3 EXT.
Stanhope Silver Band played a selection of tunes while guests were being seated. Very original seating - hay bales covered in Calico.
The bridal procession arrived, led by the vicar as the Portuguese Choir sang Here Comes The Bride.
The film and sound crew were unobtrusively dotted around the entire site in different vantage points.
Ruth shone and looked radiant on her fathers arm. She wore a beautiful fitted cream lace wedding dress, complete with sparkly bits. Her three bridesmaids wore dresses in deep purple. The service didn't actually follow the Order of Service that we were given, and there was lots of good natured laughing and applause throughout, like when it was discovered the rings hadn't been unfastened from the ring cushion, and when suddenly at the end of the service Anita (Ruth's mum and my best friend) stood up and shouted 'we haven't sang the last hymn'! Everybody laughed and cheered. We sang the last hymn, and the Portuguese Choir sang Alleluia' from The Sound of Music...again ;-)

SCENE 4 EXT. DULL BUT DRY
The ceremony over we followed the bride and groom down through the meadow towards the main marquee passing 'the chimney sweep' on the way (a good luck tradition and a great photo opportunity for wedding guests).

SCENE 5 INT. MAIN MARQUEE SET OUT IN WEDDING STYLE WITH DANCE FLOOR
With her special personal touch Ruth had gone as far as displaying photograph trees as unique table centerpieces showing photographs relevant to the guests sitting there. After congratulating our special bride and groom we were offered Pimms.
Food, touching wedding speeches, champagne toasts and fabulous entertainment.
We enjoyed a truly spectacular wedding, met some wonderful people, and made some great new friends.
We had the pleasure of music from Pedro and his band Beat;root. And we all enjoyed Pedro's surprise from his new wife when Ruth and some of her family and friends took to the dance floor with their fun interpretation of the Vote For Pedro dance complete with fab Vote For Pedro t-shirts (there is a video on my youtube sites).

SCENE 6 IT'S AFTER MIDNIGHT, A1 SOUTHBOUND TORRENTIAL RAIN
We are going home, but I am struggling to see because the rain is so heavy the wipers simply can't take it.
Bizarrely somebody switches the rain off and Sat Nav gazes up at the sky and asks me 'Did you see that blue flash of light?'
'No,' says I.
'There it is again!'
'How much champagne have you had?'

Thank you Ruth and Pedro...we were proud to be a part of your perfect day.
May the sun always shine on you both :-)

Aliens - do they exist?

Aliens - what is an alien? Or UFO?
I watched a tv programme last night about UFO's that set me wondering.

How can the sceptics say that we are the only human species in the universe?.....after all there are millions of planets. We are here, so why can't there be other people living on another earth-like planet?

And if some people HAVE been abducted by aliens...why aren't they believed?
I was abducted once in my sleep by a beautiful woman...and when I woke up it was Sat Nav lol !!!

But seriously. Why would the government want to keep such things a secret? They say they don't want to cause a panic. I wouldn't panic, and neither would millions of other people. We have a right to know what goes on in our skies - our skies - not the governments skies....OURS.

I would love to meet an alien from another planet.
I might have done so already, and yet been totally unaware of it. Come to think of it...so might you.

Just because people say they have seen strange things in the skies it doesn't mean they are mad.

I am lucky to live in a rural area so have beautiful clear diamond studded night skies to gaze up at. I can enjoy the planets and stars just by tilting my head back and lifting my eyes.

We do see lights that we can't identify. Most times it's a plane, but other times...who knows? It's a case of now you see it - now you don't!
Occasionally we see a very bright star that stands alone...it's not the North Star...and then it just disappears. So is it a star? Is it an alien space ship popping in for a short visit...or is it Google Earth???? Who knows?

I've added two photographs to this blog. I took them myself. One during the day and the other on a full moon around midnight - yes, I know that's the witching hour, but we'd been out to a party and no...I don't drink alcohol.

It wasn't until I looked on my comp at the full moon photo that I could see what looked like a face to the left of the moon. Spooky, or what?

Can you see it? ...............or, am I one of those mad people lol!

The Last Night of the Proms

Last night Sat Nav and I went to Darlington Civic Theatre www.darlingtonarts.co.uk to see The British Philharmonic Orchestra perform The Last Night of the Proms. Conducted by Alistair Lilley (now... I have something very important - and impressive - to share with you.... I am proud to tell you that my great-uncle used to conduct this very Orchestra - see, I knew you'd be impressed!) and lead by Alison White.
They were absolutely brilliant. Jeni Bern and Andrew Forbes Lane were the Soloists, and Mark Langley the Presenter. So with this line up you can guess that we were in for a special treat.

The theatre was full to the brim, but alas unlike some, we had forgotten to take our flags with us!
This meant that we couldn't join in :-(
But the clever theatre staff were prepared and during the interval Sat Nav discovered that suitable flags were on sale at the sweetie kiosk. Naturally she rushed off to buy a couple so we could join in and wave to our hearts content. Which we did, and Sat Nav usually very conservative waved her flag with the best of them!

Now, let me tell you about the fabulous music....well, where to start?.... we enjoyed selections from The Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, Mary Poppins, and Grease - with the soloists dressed in 70's gear for Grease.
Sat Nav was in raptures with the medley from My Fair Lady - her absolute favourite film.

We were soothed with gentle tones, totally relaxed, but then they played the Dr Who theme with terrific verve and what came next was a bit of a shock.
We were sitting at the end of the front row of the dress circle next to the right hand box, (yes, you do need to know this) when I was deafened by a scary familiar voice booming out from said box...it was a dalek... and it was shouting as plain as day 'exterminate!!!....exterminate!!!'
I couldn't believe it, - what a ploy and what a shock. The entire audience re-acted....It was brilliant.
Recovered, I told myself - don't be silly there can't possibly be daleks in here - can there? lol!!!

We enjoyed the company of two lovely ladies throughout the concert, Mave and her friend Marjorie from Northallerton. Mave is something of a celebrity - although retired she taught theatrical makeup and her students have gone on to great things. Thanks Mave for giving me your programme :-)

And thanks to the British Philharmonic for giving us such a treat...I know that I've said this before, but I'm going to say this again, IF YOU GET THE CHANCE - GO AND SEE THEM!
Whoops! Nearly forgot...Sat Nav and I are now officailly Promenarders ;-)