99th Troop, teaming up with Xbox Kinect booth at Gateshead Metrocentre

An early start, off to the Metro to meet Ian, enjoy the wonders of the Metro and introduce ourselves to the Kinect Team, Ian got a sneaky go on Star Wars, well, all 30 seconds of it!!! then off to meet up with Nigel and Phil for a cuppa (and a snack of course) then off to 'That's Entertainment' where Craig was good enough to let us use the staff room to get changed (Thanks Craig) we were trooping for about 1.00 for the booth so making our way round, a 5 minute walk with the usual gasps and stares and of course always the ones that 'pretend they've not noticed or even seen us, funny that is!

Anyway, we got to the Booth, Ian and I had checked in earlier as did the others so didn't take long to get sorted with wrist bands, suddenly the Kinect stand went from 'busy' to 'Manic', not that they were complaining, they were loving it, 3 booths set up for people to try the Kinect, we were booked in for 2.40 and 2.50 so it was business as usual with photo's. The stand had a green screen so of course we took advantage and had some photo's taken, their photographer took some and put backdrops in, Nigel has one on his profile, we got copies of it and definitely impressed with these, oh and some free Xbox Live points :O). The staff loved us, they took loads of photo's and had lots taken with us, very welcoming they were.

Me and Lynn busting our moves!

The Stormtrooper Mash!!!

The place was heaving, Lynn and I scared some teenage girls, we closed in on both sides of them so they had nowhere to run, honestly, what is so scary! A few children not impressed with the purple hehe, love it!  We scared a few children and a good few adults too then it was time to book in, Ian, Keith, Lynn and myself were playing on Kinect, Nigel Claire and forgive me, Keith's wife! took some photo's and video which we've yet to see,. First up was Nigel, Jedi training, then Claire then Keith and myself got up to fight the droids, I'm not game player but did enjoy this, then Lynn and I wanted to do a Dance one, by this time we had massive crowds watching us through the window, how much fun that was, a few of the staff came in and took pics too  then it was Ian and Keith's turn to dance, well, let me tell you, that's the funniest thing I've seen in a while, two of them dancing in their armour,  so funny to watch and look forward to the footage that was taken of it, hoping Nigel gets that 99th Youtube site up and running so we can see all videos taken. Back out to the crowds again for more photo's, by this time it was so busy you could hardly move, but worth it and then by 3 it was back to Craig's to dekit, a fabulous fun filled troop, considering it was a short one TWSS and not many of us, it was one of the most fun troops we've done. Oh and forgot to mention, we were invited down to London with them when they go there, but Nigel and I mentioned MK Garrison as they're a lot nearer...would have been nice though !!!

Anyway, not a lot of photo's, so pinching Nigel's on FB for here..
Thanks everyone who attended and the crew for a grand job on such a busy day....
Well done everyone ..

Wedding Troop at Loch Ness 3rs September 2011

Friday 2nd Sept found Ian and I waiting for Craig to arrive so we could pack up and ship out,  good job we had the Top Box on the car, without it we'd never had fit everything in! But we managed and off we set on our way to Inverness, a long drive ahead but with Craig's chatter and all the stories we had a great drive up, often mentioning Nigel on the way, lots of comments we know he have enjoyed, you know the type, 'I can fit it all in no problem' etc!! We stopped once along the way for a 'wee' break (when in Scotland) then we decided once we got near to Inverness that perhaps we'd not been in the car long enough, so set ourselves a mission to catch the Sunset over Loch Ness, so off we went chasing the sun as it went down over Urquhart Castle (sneaking in through the NO ENTRY gates) to get a few sneaky pics! Which I will attempt to add one now! here goes...

Breaking in!!!!

 Mission accomplished We're in and we got our Sunset.

Eventually we made it to our Hotel, a quick unpack, few texts exchanged with Louise (our bride) and we met both Louise and Ade (hubby to be) at the pub for a heads up of what's happening, I'll just go off on a tangent here and say ooooh the Snow Goose meals were out of this world, fantastic food!! We were all stuffed! Anyway, enough of the food, meeting Louise and Ade was great, a lovely couple who gave us their ideas of what they wanted us to do for the wedding, they gave us a little keyring Stormtroooper with a ribbon tied on with their names and wedding date on, love them, so kind and they're so cute :). Once we'd sorted out, off we all went for an early night....I don't think Louise slept much, we received Postcode by text at 1.30 in the morning.....

Saturday morning, bit of a lie in then a walk around town, we gave up the idea of catching the sunrise, can't imagine why! Inverness was lovely, warm and sunny as we wandered about, found a small Market where we ha a good mooch about, Craig got chatting to someone about religion, that was him lost for half an hour! After he totally confused the woman, we headed back to get out kit, time to Troop.....bit of a sticky moment at the traffic lights, TEN minutes we sat waiting!!!!!!! C'mon, don't they know we had a wedding to attend? We found the Hotel, tucked away and wow, how gorgeous it was, we were greeted by Ade, who introduced us as the other musicians who were playing later,...nobody knew were were going to be there, I loved it, fab idea! Ade showed us to our room where we were to get changed, bless, they let us use their Bridal Room to get ready, gorgeous room with the most amazing view, but no time to wait, we had to get ready, me in the Loo, trying to hide while putting facepaint on with two windows in there, had a major panic when the paint I use stained the sink, just don't ask me what I scrubbed it clean with!!!! 

Louise and Ade

Having got ready we sneaked down and waited outside the room the guests were in, Louise was very fashionably late, but we were entertained by a Hornet who decided to hang about oh er, he was a big un! Louise finally arrived and I have to say she was beautiful and amazingly she piped herself down the Aisle, wonderful! After their ceremony as they left that's when we were given our cue to go in and keep the guests in there, the reaction as we walked through the door was 'in Craig's words, Mega! They loved us, we did cause quite a stir, great fun and more so that a lot are Star Wars fans, we even had someone doing Wookie noise, brilliant...finally the guests were allowed to leave and that's when we got to mingle, fabulous friendly people, musicians were there playing and were fantastic too, then of course we had TARTAN TROOPER, Ian came down with a Kilt over his Stormie (courtesy of Louise and Ade) as if they didn't have enough to do, they took time out to bring a couple of kilts and a Busby (photo opportunities)....Some fun with the kilt as our Stormie was checked out under the Kilt to see if he was a true Scott, thank god for the undersuit  ;O). 

Checking the tackle!!

On his wandering to the next room with all the guys in, he was told his kilt was wrong way round so he was jiggled about and his sporran moved etc until he was suitably dressed in the correct way! After many photo's, which we were included in the wedding pics, great fun, it was time for everyone to eat, we were in a room with the photographer and his assistant,great sitting in purple facepaint in my civvies! Fabulous meal, just to make you all jealous, all 3 courses of fabulous wedding food and in fabulous surroundings, totally fantastic...

Later we were to be ready for 7.00 to greet the evening guests, again, all friendly and all loved us, plenty of photo opportunities, I have to say, John the photographer was great, he enjoyed taking photo's, I have a sneaky susupicion some were more for him than anyone else..soon is was time to lead the Bride and Groom onto the Dancefloor for their first dance of the evening, ahhh it was lovely, we stood guard 'menacingly' as they danced, then come the next song, harassed the guests to get them up too, many of whom did get up and then as I looked on the dancefloor, there is Craig and a kilted young man getting jiggy with it and oh dear, another one, Ian getting jiggy with our Groom!!!!! after he'd got jiggy with the bride tut tut, that's when our wookie wannabe grabbed me for a dance too, all on a little video which most of you will have seen...if you haven't, take a look, it's brilliant, it's on my Facebook page. After the dance and a bit more wandering it was time to leave, so half 9 we finished, back to Hotel to shower quickly and back to spend the night with the wedding party, we were invited back which was a lovely gesture and how many guests came up and said how wonderful we were and what a great day they'd had, I'd say the whole day was a resounding success, hence the length of this blog, I do apologise and top marks if you got this far!!! my butt is numb sitting here doing this I can tell you!... After our return we were treat to Stovies, none of us had every had Stovies, but we all enjoyed it, with some Oatcakes? (I think that's what they were) very hearty and warming, then it was time to get up and dance, Ceilidh style I think it was, Craig got up for this, as the band played, they danced, Ian and I got up to try a Jig too but the couple we paired with legged it so we missed that one, but never mind, all good fun,  and not a pop song in sight, our first experience of a Highland Wedding and I have to say, the best wedding I've ever been too and of course a MEGA troop at the same time......we loved it, the guests loved it and I do think Louise and Ade loved it too....phew, blog now over and out...

Nessie, we found him!!!

Actually no, it's not, well yes it is really, apart from our little visit next morning round Loch Ness to find Nessie, which we did,..not the real one of course, he was hiding I think! a few photo's of Loch Ness then headed home via Aviemore where we bought Haggis, now wondering what Craig's Emma did when Craig got his home! Mine is for Mark so he's having his tonight, oh and one more stop on the way home after seeing a sign for Ice cream, home made (farm made) 3 flavours in one tub and believe me when I say, it's a big tub, the girl says 'you'll only get a little of each'... A LITTLE? she's having a laugh? I think I skimmed half an inch off top of each before admitting defeat, Craig however managed to polish the whole lot off..way to go Craig!!  And there you go, finally home and exhausted but happy after an amazingly wonderful weekend Troop......thanks guys for being such fun and many thanks to the Bride and Groom, family, friends and Hotel Staff for their warm welcome.............

Marie, Ian and Craig ;) 

 

Catch up on past Troops

Catch up on past Troops

Apologies for the following short blogs...been too busy going here and there but here's a quick catch up...

16^th July

A couple of short catch ups (apologies for not being on the ball with these)

Sheffield at Crystal Peaks  – a fun troop, me craig n Nigel travel down in car, eventually after wandering the car park we found the centre, on dragging bags through the shops we found the escalators to which as we were going up, Nigel said ‘I’ve been dripped on by Crystal Peaks’…..much sniggering by me and Craig before we eventually found the shop, the staff I have to say were very welcoming, couldn’t do enough to help us, mind you, we weren’t too impressed with the stairs, nothing wrong as stairs go but my god there seemed a lot of them. I got ready on floor in front of mirror (paint to apply) while the others and staff got ready behind me, once we were all ready, come 11 we made our way out into the shop, we were well received by the people in the shop and of course out of it, it got very busy at one point, the mall was crowded, but all went well, we had sandwiches and drinks laid on by staff for our lunch (thanks to the staff for being on the ball) it was a busy day, lots of people, happy children and happy ‘big children’ !!!

All too soon though it was time to pack up and go, we all had a great time, as did the shoppers, I think they enjoyed us, I know the staff working out there did. Hopefully we’ll return someday, I’d like to say my memory was great, but it’s not, so this is short and sweet, I do though, remember that there was a lot of innuendo, all good fun stuff though and lots of laughter..fab day guys…

Hmm, I seem to have no photo's of this one!!! sorry peeps....

Rotary Club 30^th july

Well, this was a funny one, up in Blaydon in some Pub that I can’t remember the name of, when we finally found it, we weren’t sure what to think, but onwards and upwards, we met with Craig, Nigel, Claire and EvilBetty, we were shown to our ‘room’ the passage at the top of the pub stairs in their private quarters, but having asked for a mirror were shown to a bedroom which obviously belonged to the owners sons, I had my mirror which I put in front of window on the floor, but needed more light, on opening the curtain, one side of the pole came out of the wall and fell down!      I had to climb up and push the screw back in, this after getting Craig to sit on arm of chair I was on (so it wouldn’t tip) and cause more damage!...And anyway, after having the stairs cleared of bits and pieces, we finally managed to struggle down the stairs, through the pub and outside, much to the delight of the local children, we got some very strange looks, but all in all it was good fun, the guy across the road from the Pizza shop asked us over for photo’s and as usual we complied, never one to turn down a photo opportunity! After we stood around outside a while, getting people’s interest in the pub etc, it was time to wrap it all up and get changed, the staff were great, after getting changed it was all downstairs into the bar for a drink before leaving, oh and a dance of course (that was just me on my own though) complete with normal day to day clothes and still purple face! But what the heck. Maria from Rotary Club was very impressed with us and is wanting us to do more for them, which we look forward to.. yet again, a bit of a quickie, my brain can’t remember everything, must take a noteboo from now on….but great work everyone involved in this one…….

13th 14th August, Spaceport

The 99th Garrison was asked by Mersey Travel to support the Spaceport Centre in Liverpool at its Star Wars weekend on the 13th and 14th August 2011.  We agreed and invited another group along to assist called the Mint Imperials.  We had met them previously at the Star Wars Family Fun Day in Burnely in May

The event had been organised by the 99th's MLO [Paul] and through his involvement with the Walking With Giants Foundation, it had been arranged for members of the WWG Charity to come to the centre in the morning for a tour and a visit as part of their WWG annual convention.

This was great fun, Ian and I arrived on the Fri night at our Hotel where we later met up with Paul who was with the rest of the WWG people, we had a great night, friendly chat and some banter with one or two of the others.

Sat morning we met up with Paul who we followed through town over to Spaceport, thanks for that Paul, arriving at the car park it seemed we were locked out, Paul went off to find someone to unlock the barrier, only to find that it wasn't locked in the first place hehe, oh well, gave us a giggle ;O). Once inside we were shown to our changing room, bit of a mess once we were all in getting changed but was good to mix in with the others, then of course out we went all ready to troop and wow, what a busy day it turned out to be, I do believe they normally get 150 people through their doors on a Saturday, they got something like 800? Great for us and fab for Spaceport themselves, we went down a storm as did the 'How to be Jedi' talks, I missed out on that one, but from what I've heard they were tremendous fun, well done to Paul for those, and of course Craig. 

Keeping this short as I know Sue/Craig already done a blog, just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who attended this, and sorry that we didn't get to troop the Sunday (due to the car break down) honestly, never a dull moment!!! But a successful weekend, well done everyone,.....

99^th Wedding at Whitworth Hall Country Park Hotel Spennymoor 18^th June

We were requested to do a wedding at Whitworth Hall for girl who’s husband to be is mad on Star Wars, it was to be a total surprise, here’s how the day panned out. Ian and I left for Spennymoor, having only one small detour after Sat Nav sent us into a closed off road, we should have had our Sat Nige in, sure he’d have managed! Eventually we got there, and shown into the Duncombe Suite! Ooohh poshest changing facilities I’ve been up to now,so we dumped our gear and headed outside into the grounds to wait for Craig and Nigel, who turned up in usual style, Nigel with head in his mobile, Craig giving us the sign as he drove up the long driveway, great stuff Craig! We were to be ready for 11 as the Groom was arrived for then, we did cause quite a stir when we finally were ready and outside, the Groom arrived and what a happy face he had on seeing us, he loved it, so after the usual ‘on the knee’s’ photo for both him and his best man, we had a chat for a while until guests started to arrive, again, lots of photo’s and plenty of attention from the people from over the field who’d been in  feeding the Deer.. yes, I said Deer, they have loads of them up there! Gorgeous place to go for lunch and a wander with the Deer, but you need to like flies! After the guests had arrived, it was time to wait for the Bride, we didn’t get any photo’s with her, but a few with the car and then it was time to leave, we were given our donation and a big thank you for a great day and off we went to get changed.

Mark, my son was with us, he took the photo’s, and he did a cracking job of that too!! We headed off into the field (in costume) with the Deer, a great photo opportunity that could not be missed, that was good fun and some great pics taken by Ian too… after all the fun and frivolities though, it was out of costume and off to the pub for lunch, I can and I’m sure the others agree, recommend a trip out to Whitworth to that pub, the meals are fantastic and it’s lovely to go in to spend time with the Deer…

Preston Park Fire Enging and Vintage Car Rally.

Another lovely day, picked up by Craig and headed off to Hartlepool to pick up Sat Nige, with help from the Sat Nav and many wrong turns! Sat Nige sat in back giving directions, well, trying to! We finally made it to the park, sun beaming down and it was red hot! After a few phonecalls back and forth we met up with the others at our 'Gazebo' which I have to say, was a little like an oven! We also had the use of a small prefab which had mushrooms growing inside? Oh the sheer luxury of it all, but still, we had seating and a couple of benches to put out costumes on, saved me sitting on the grass in the Gazebo to put on facepaint, now that would have been entertaining! Lucky for me I had a bottle of water, it was either that or spit on my facepaint as no running water in this little cabin.

A visit from Ian who has Matthew with him so couldn't stay too long but took some great shots  for us too :)



I think the temperature in that cabin must have been cranked up, the day was getting hotter and anyone wearing full facepaint in the heat will know, it's a long slog to stop it running! George who was crewing turned on the cool blow on the heater, that helped but only a little to keep us cooled off, but only when we stood directly in front of it. All good fun though, once all ready we made our way to the Gazebo, we were all surprised at the size of the Rally, we didn't think it would be so big, plenty of people about, Craig was crewing, don't think he'll be doing that again in a hurry, he felt naked without his Stormie on he said. The sun was beating down on us, of all days to be outside in full costume and helmets etc, like walking about in a sauna suit, but we enjoyed it.

Definitely a bit of Wookie going on here!

The public enjoyed us being there, as usual we were on many photo's, some got the rough treatment though, on their knees, Nigel taking advantage of one young man and putting his foot on his back to push him down to do press ups! At this point I'm thinking, is this legal? But all taken in good humour as photo shows, me of course thinking, I'd like to do this to the next victims, sadly, there weren't any for me that I could do that to without getting into trouble!

On your knees boys...

ten more press ups...NOW!!

Nigel sticking the boot in

Who Ray!! :)

 Nigel arranged for a visit to the little laser quest and we hid behind inflatable 'things' while getting a few photo's with their laser guns, that was good fun! The guys did a great job crewing, Craig being my slave, oops, did I say slave? I meant to say 'my saviour' going for me some food, being half undressed and half painted, it wasn't good to be seen out in public! Thanks Craig :). We did however have a few giggles when people kept coming to our 'window', yes, we had a window which was much like the ice cream van window and asking us how to get out of the place and other questions, for some bizarre reason they thought we were Council? Ok, how many council members do you see in lumpy ninja's, half dressed stormies, biker scouts in boxer shorts and Twi'Lek's with head piece off and painted purple? But hey, this is the North East, you just never can tell!!

Council worker?

Well, as the day progressed it cooled down, then heated right back up again, a quick hello to the guys from Who Ray and a bit of a photo op with them on their knees haha, good to see them both again! The day came to a close and boy were we relieved to get out of the hot sweaty costumes we had on, I decided to wait until I got home to tackle the face, some very strange looks from people as they passed, one little child told me 'you're purple'.... Am I?????? And off home we all went, after a hot days Trooping, all good fun, thanks Craig for the lift home too, much appreciated :).

How many cans? Side of house is same!

Oh and had to take a piccie of this house on the way home, been wanting to do it for ages, not your every day type of decor.....


All thanks to Crew and Costumers for this Troop, great job and great day for all. Till next time...........................................

Springwell Carnival - Springwell Village Community Venue - June 2011

Ready to Escort the Carnival Queen inside and onto Stage

All set to scare!

Last year I was literally 'dragged' into Springwell Amateur Dramatics Group by my Brother, who assured me they wanted back up singers (me thinking I'd be behind scenes- I wasn't and I'm still not! nor is my good friend Jacqueline who came with me) anyway, cut a long story short, having received an add on Facebook from one of the girls who helps run the hall, it was noticed that I was part of the SW group, she  loved the photo's and as they are always on the lookout for new stuff for the Annual Springwell carnival they asked if we'd come along and be there for the afternoon with them, and this is how it goes.

4 Blue Milks please!

Troops picked up from Heworth and Sunderland, Jim and Sue already here at mine waiting, we headed off to Hall, we arrived in good time and good weather! Changing rooms (which I'd been in that week for show) were free for us to use and even had mirrors! with lights I'll have you know! a luxury for us. We were greeted by Jacquelyn who helps run the hall, then it was off into get changed, funny, there wasn't much TWSS involved in this Troop! What went wrong Nigel? Eventually after everyone was ready we were led out to 'the music' of course, apparently we looked fantastic and they're well impressed with us, so much they want to use us again! The Carnival officially opened at 12.30 and we were asked if the 2 Stormies, Ian and Jim, Sue too, to escort the Carnival Queen (who looked gorgeous)  into the hall and onto the stage for the official opening. After this it was a free for all, the usual round of photo's taken inside and out, scared a few children -oops- and I thought purple would go down well with them! 

Not something you see every day!

Carnival had plenty to do, though I avoided having wet sponges thrown at me, just because of my purple paint running, can't be having a drippy Twi'Lek! Oh and I missed the ride on the Fire Engine too! Nooooooooo.. There was a small petting bit with Snakes, Tarantula (oh he was gorgeous), Piglet, Sheep, an Owl and a few other small animals, I had my gun end bitten when I threatened the Piglet! I guess he didn't like my 'lunch' comment! Ian managed to hold a Snake *wow* on his armour of course! Claire enjoyed the animals too, George just about took over the animals, helping us and the children handle them, well done George, Lynn and Jenn were busy taking lots of photo's for us, thanks girls. All in all a good few hours troop, much enjoyment, think the lady crossing the road was a bit shell shocked by her escorts, goodness knows what the passing traffic thought, it's not every day you see Stormtroopers and Fighter Pilots crossing the Road.

Brave Stormie :)

Lunch?

Unfortunately it positivily....rained heavy! which meant everyone was inside and phew was it hot in there, some fun photo's taken at the Bar, the Band who were playing were kind enough to allow us to take over their instruments giving us a fab photo opportunity, I got my hands on the biggest instrument, oh er, TWSS, have to say, Double Bass is my favourite, Mmm that sound!!  George managed to get himself involved in the Cream Cracker eating competition, slow and steady he nibbled away, taking his time, it worked, George came first *ahem* how many innuendo's can I get out of this? The 99th really are a 'cracking' Team :) o....k, moving on from bad jokes!!

Cantina Band?

A cracker eating crackers! and did a Cracking job, he won :)

The day finally ended, hot, sweaty and tired, we left the hall after a big thank you from the Compere for the day, Suzanne, the lady that runs the hall sent in our donation, then we received another for expenses, much appreciated but kind of defeats the object of the hall raising it's funds, so we kept half and gave half back to the hall for their pot, all in all this was a fun troop, a few hours of good fun with fine people, raised money for both the Hall and Dreamflight, which myself, Ian, Jim and Sue handed to James later that night at the Can Can  Tigger Ball, but that my friends, is another story all together (we looked oh so good ;o) )

A great big THANK YOU to all who attended, Costumes and Crew for coming along to this one, they'd not expected as many nor had they expected the quality, good job guys..

Also, nice to see friends turn up to this from home and work ....:)

Marie :o)

That's Entertainment 4th June 2011 - Metrocentre Gateshead

What a Troop this was! I don't think anything I can say will do it justice but here goes.......

Having all met at 10.00 at the shop, Craig showed us where we could get changed, his staff were totally on the ball with everything and we were well looked after with food and drinks, the Ladies wasn't working so of course us lovely ladies got to use the mens toilets, having said that, they were spotless, nice to be greeted by someone holding towels for us too, albeit a mannakin with stormie lid on, so cool :). I'll miss out the bit about me putting facepaint on and Jimmy paying his visit!!!! oops, sorry. Anyway, after Nigel turned up, we all got together to discuss how this was going to work, we were all emerging at 11.00 to the sound of SW of course, but as time got near we could see through the one way window and it was totally packed out there! (Not sure the picture does it justice) But at 11.00 'cue the music' we emerged from the back room through the central aisle that they'd cleared for us and I don't think I, or any of us have ever experienced anything like it in our lives!!  Everyone was snapping away at us as we marched through, all I could hear was comments of  'how cool is this' 'this is awesome' 'this is fantastic' 'how good do they look'....and many more, we got to the front window and it was like we were famous, camera's up in the air taking shots and the queue for photo's was HUGE! All the way round the shop, some who'd been waiting nearly two hours. I've got to admit to it now, I struggled big style not to cry with the reaction, it felt so good I got all emotional but tears with purple facepaint wasn't recommended! And so our day began, photo after photo after photo, totally exhausting with very little respite in between, we had a break of course, but once out there they were relentless. The reaction will stay in my memory for a long long time and think everyone who was there agreed they'd never had that before...

Once photo queue settled a little it was out onto the mall and what a stir we caused, we virtually clogged it up with people for photo's, one lady was telling me they'd traveled 20 miles just to come see us as their son is SW mad, another lady was in tears at her son's reaction, he had a photo with me, asked me was Darth Vader there, his face lit up like a Christmas Tree when I said 'yes he's here',' look round there'! and off he went with his face beaming, leaving his Mother in tears of emotion and telling me they'd been waiting 8 weeks for this and traveled 40 miles as well. Lots of stories told like this, a few friends of mine passed too, said that we were great and the look on the faces of the kids was fantastic.

 Here we have Bill, Ian's mate from Optical Express on his knees, totally in the spirit of things, told us he was having not such a good day but we all totally brightened it up for him. Photographs and Video were taken by some of the staff in the shop and they're fantastic, video footage is waiting to be sorted but think it's going to be brilliant to see. This has to be the best Troop I've ever been on, certainly the most emotional and exciting, though I've enjoyed every single one for different reasons, this is truly the best. I can't put into words how it was or how it felt, but I got such a buzz out of it, I didn't want the day to end.

A big thank you to the Staff of That's Entertainment for all their hard work and friendliness, they made us so welcome, and of course Craig, well done to Craig for all his work in this, awesome dude :)

A big THANK YOU to our Crew members too, they did a fantastic job on the day, George did an amazing job with crowd control for photo’s, Lord Vader was impressed and Claire and evil Betty were fab too..thanks guys x

I'm just shutting up now, I could talk all day about it, let's just say AWESOME!!!!

And well done to everyone else too, to Ian, Daz and Jimmy who spent all Friday night putting together John's Armour so he could troop with us, an exhausting night for all. Nice to have John and Nate along with us for this one too, nice to meet you guys....

Ok..enough of this awesome, amazing, mindblowingly brilliant Troop

Love you guys

Marie

x

Milton Keynes - Collectormania 28th to 30th May

Keeping this one short and sweet as Sue has already done an amazing blog of the weekend.

Milton Keynes Stadium is the coldest place on Earth (I kid you not) temperature drops as soon as you walk in the place! but still, for all the cold an the wind and eventually the miserable rain, we had a fantastic weekend, great fun at Mick's (MKG) BBQ, and yes, as Sue said, NEVER AGAIN!!!!

It was great to catch up with friends both old and new, and of course see a few 'Stars' along the way, not that I recognise any! Annnywaaaay, I can talk a glass eye to sleep and promised to keep this short. An amazing time had by all, loved catching up with everyone and celebrating The 99th's year and what an amazing year it has been, long may it continue...

That's all ;)

 Jim....showing such aggression!! poor cake!

Craig enjoying his night, was this after your speech? Hope not, not judging by Ian and Jim's faces haha.