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.