Saturday in London was so much fun! With the FrightFest weekend passes going on sale at 11am I caught the first fast train of the day up from Brighton, grabbed a quick coffee, and took my place in the sleepy queue bang on 8am. There was about a dozen people already there, including Riz who'd started the queue around 3am - crashing out in front of the Odeon West End after going clubbing the night before! I initially caught up with Rachel, Rob and Richard (who'd all been at the FF breakfast in February) and Lauren (who I'd been emailing all week), and then wandered up the queue to say hi to Alex and Paul and introduce myself to Dee, Kevin and a few of the other forum regulars who I'd yet to meet in person. Mike and the FrightFest drunks™ arrived later, closely followed by the unholy three of Alan, Ian and Paul. Three hours standing chatting with friends in the morning sunshine flew by, until at 10:45 the Odeon opened their doors and let us in to buy our tickets. I was hoping for a front row seat but in the end settled for second row on the aisle in the centre block. Job done!With such a large group of us regulars hanging around it was always going to be difficult to organise something that we all wanted to do afterwards. In the end Kevin, Evrim, the FrightFest drunks™ and a couple of others went off on their own, leaving ten of us - Rachel, Rob, Richard, Lauren, Dee, Alex, Paul, Mike, Martin and myself - in Cafe Uno for an early lunch. There had been tentative plans to head to the Comic Con at Earls Court (as Rachel was hoping to catch sight of Christopher Lee) but the majority vote went to the lunchtime screening at the Prince Charles Cinema - where they were screening Breakfast At Tiffany's. It felt really funny sitting in the front row of the PCC (where FrightFest began) watching a film that had nothing to do with serial killers, zombies or monsters!! A good choice though, even if all of us boys did nod off for a few minutes during the movie. Hey, it wasn't called the sleepy queue for nothing!
Having already lost Mike and Paul before the film, Martin and Richard then left our group after the screening, but we were joined by James who came down to the PCC to meet us - having texted me in the cafe earlier on. With England's crucial World Cup Quarter Final game due to kick off at 4pm there was an urgency to find a quiet pub as Rachel and I were adamant that we were going to watch the match. Not so easy in the centre of London, especially as it was Gay Pride weekend as well! In the end Alex, Lauren and Dee went off to see Over The Hedge whilst Rachel, Rob, James and I headed into The Two Brewers on Monmouth Street which wasn't too crowded - and wasn't full of yobbish lads. Paul (McEvoy) even popped up from the Cinema Store to join us for the inevitable penalty shoot out, which yet again was a major disappointment. James had already shot off after a couple of drinks so after the match it just left the three of us to meet up with Alex, Lauren and Dee again. We grabbed a bite to eat at a small cafe just off Piccadilly before we all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. An excellent day out which bodes well for the main festival in August!
3 comments:
Riz here. Got to the Odeon at 3.30am; got there second:( Undecided whether it was worth going out the night before and going straight to the Odeon. Felt massively tired and slept through the England game. Wished I could have stayed after but had to get to work. I hear people took pics of me passed out outside the Odeon >:-D
Christopher Lee didn't show up in the end so I made the right decision :)
Do you ever change your shirt?
You've been wearing it each time I've seen you recently!!
Post a Comment