It's real! It's all real!

Firstly I must start with an angry rant as I am slightly annoyed this morning. You know when people post something on facebook and you shouldn't let it bother you, but then you do and then you feel like an idiot because it's only typed words, but then it's typed words that everyone can see and it kinda hurts because even thought you don't see them that much you still class them as a good friend and in that case friends should accept you for who you are and not insult you and make you out to be some complete moron? And breathe. That must be a contender for longest sentence in the world....surely.

Well anyway, I'm sure you know what I mean. It's just really annoying. I expect comments like that from enemies and nasty people, none of which I have as friends on facebook, for that very reason. But when people are just elitist and self righteous and uber condescending I think they definitely deserve a punch in the face!

So, I will try to calm down a bit now and tell you about my truly magnificent day yesterday at the Harry Potter Studio tour, Leavesden. To say I was giddy was a true understatement. Various squeals of delight could be heard as well as the obligatory mini jumps in the air and the occasional welling up from being completely overwhelmed.

Outside Watford station when you see the Harry Potter bus for the first time, you know its gonna be a good day! Sadly not a replica of the knight bus as I'd hoped (sorry for those of you that are not HP fans, the knight bus is a triple decker bus used by stranded witches and wizards and features prominently in the opening of HP3. It has beds instead of seats and is purple and of course is invisible to muggles.) but still it was very exciting. What made me laugh was that most of the people were my age or older. There was the odd child and a couple of students but the mean age was about 30. And it was ace because you didn't feel like an idiot, you just felt amongst like minded people, though actually A pointed out that many of the couples were well dorkier than us. He he. We were actually borderline cool at this thing. That's never happened before.

It is in the middle of nowhere but everything about it makes you forget that and I guess it's rather fitting when you think you're being transported to a magical world. THE magical world where the visuals for these wonderful films were made. And I think my British pride definitely came out several times in the day, as there were so many purely British things and so many of the cast, crew, directors (the director from HP 5-8 was born in St Helens) and producers were British. And it all had this very British feel to it. It made me really proud! (Don't worry I vote Lib Dem not BNP...ha ha. NO really, I've already sent my postal vote off for Mayor of London and all the rest of it.)

When you enter the building the pictures of the main cast, spanning all 8 films, greet you. And it really sets the scene. The one of Gary Oldman as Sirius Black was particularly fetching. I do love Sirius Black. YUM!

So many giddy adults in one place, I'd never seen before. And an equal spread of men and women. And luckily because most kids were at school, only a tiny mount of kids. Handy tip: It is worth buying the souvenir guide book as it is really a nice keep sake and to be honest everything in the shop is astronomically over priced. So unless you're loaded I would suggest just getting the guide, taking hundreds of photos, taking your time going round and just soaking it all in.

You enter and there's a guy trying to get everyone going, but as most of his audience are adults, they were a little reserved. I gave the odd woo and hoo, just 'cause I felt sorry for him. Now, I don't want to spoil things for people that haven't been yet but I will point out some of my highlights.

You enter J Stage first which has all the interior sets. These are the actual sets used in the films complete with all the original props.  I will give you a tip here: Don't just look in front of you. Look up. There are so many hidden treasures that they don't signpost, that are just dotted about. You really have to look for them, but some people blasted through and missed so much. Ha ha. More fool them.

There is an opportunity to do some green screen stuff. Now, I was a little sceptical, but A was well up for it. SO we queued for about 35 minutes, not too bad. You can be in the car from Chamber of Secrets or you can ride a broom. We chose to ride a broom, of course and you got to wear a Hogwarts robe too. In all honesty, the closer we got to the front the more and more I didn't want to do it. Everyone in the queue gets to watch you, not only on screens but as you do it. It's extremely embarrassing. Although you cant help but take the piss out of people as they do it.

I said to A, "I want to be good, but I know I'm gonna be shit."

To be honest I don't think I was that bad. There were some really grumpy people that didn't move or anything. I mean why bother doing it if you're not gonna try. There were also a few older women (probably in their 40's) that were having a lovely time and really getting into it. I gave them a clap. Needless to say, I'd already decided the gift shop was too expensive and so I bought mine and A's photos of us hovering above Hogwarts on our brooms. Cheesy yes, but come on, that'll probably be my only time on a broomstick, so you gotta relish. (So: If the queue ain't too bad, do it, but don't worry if it's really busy because it ain't that great.)

Once you leave J Stage you come to the back lot where they have a lot of larger items and outdoor sets. You can also purchase butter beer and a few refreshments and have a sit down. To be honest, at this point we'd already been in about 2 and a half hours and I was dehydrated to the max. So I gulped down a whole bottle of water, plus some butter beer and really enjoyed the outdoor sets. Awesome!

Then you enter K Stage. (Get it J and K Stage. JK. Ha) This is AMAZING! This has the creature workshop where they make all the animatronics, masks, prosthetics, life sized models of cast and all the nasty horrible bits of HP. And it's truly amazing. What you don't realise in the films is that half of what you think is CGI, is actually not. They made so many custom built stuff especially for the films. It's freaking genius!

Okay. Diagon Alley is......mind blowing. I didn't want to leave. And I won't say anything except use your powers of observation here. There are so many little things to see.

Then you get to see how they conceptualise from pencil sketch, to blue print, to white paper model, to scale model, to the real thing. It's breath taking. Especially the original art work, most of which was never actually used but is so wonderfully dark.

The final surprise I will leave a surprise because it really makes you feel like it's all real. A magical magical journey. I am so grateful that they have done this. It's a real pleasure and so much better that you can take your own pictures.   (I think the only downfall from the Studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, was that you couldn't take photos in side.) And it's lovely that you can see it in Britain and not have to go to bloody Florida. (Though that can;t be anywhere near as good.) You get to understand some of the inner workings of how films are made and you just soak it all up.

I literally couldn't stop smiling the entire day, but I was exhausted on the way back. Not used to getting that giddy about something. It really takes it out of you. Ha ha.

So, in closing....GO. IT's MIND BLOWING! If you're not a fan, then fine, don't go, but don't take the piss out of your friends for going. Everybody is a geek about something. Just go with it and celebrate your differences, they are what makes life so interesting!

I am writing this blog from a train zooming from St Pancras to Nottingham to see some wonderful wonderful people, that I haven't seen since Christmas Eve, so we are long overdue for a catch up. Can't wait J and T and P.

Oh and thank you C for calling yesterday for an old school chinwag on the phone. So much communication occurs between email, text, twitter and facebook that you forget sometimes how much hearing someone's voice whilst  you communicate can be so nice.

Have a great weekend everyone and try not to insult anyone on facebook unless it's ridiculously obvious that you're joking. It can really make people angry.
Thank you