mcm comic con Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

Can you believe that on June 26th 2017, JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” has been publish for 20 years?! It seems no time at all, since I discovered my love for Harry Potter and his Wizarding World but despite being 38 years old this weekend and having gotten both my daughters to love Harry Potter too, I find it hard to believe that it really has been twenty years since the start of my favourite book series.

That said, I wasn’t one of the first people to jump aboard the Harry Potter band wagon. In fact, when both my mum and dad were raving about the books, I was actually wondering what the hell was going on with all these adults loving a “kids book”. It wasn’t until 1999 (Philosopher’s Stone was 1997), not long after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published, that I finally caved to peer pressure and borrowed my parent’s copy of the first book. In typical “child” fashion, I hated to admit when my parents were right, but oh my god I loved the first book. So much so that it was read within a few days, despite working full time. Book two was then devoured within days, followed by book three. It was official, I was hooked. I was desperate for the fourth book… and I suppose that was when I truly became a Harry Potter fan.

Book Four – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was pre-ordered. When it arrived, I couldn’t wait to get reading and I literally didn’t put it down until I was done. This became the same for all the other books, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and finally The Deathly Hallows. I have never before, or since, been so hooked on a book series. And it didn’t end with just the books either. I went to see every movie that was released, if not on the very first day, within very few days of released. The Deathly Hallows Part 1 was released not long after my ex and I split up and having no one who was immediately free to go to the cinema with, I ventured for the first time by myself to see a movie – rather than wait too long and go with someone else. When the final movie was released, myself and fifteen other friends, all gathered for a party of sorts. We all went to the first midnight showing of the movie and some of us even got Deathly Hallows tattoos to remember the occasion – this was my first ever tattoo.

This week I have been to London and of course a visit to the Platform 9 3/4 shop is an essential part of that trip. Not only that, but as I mentioned earlier – I turn 38 at the end of this week and guess what I’m doing for my birthday? A trip to Watford and the Harry Potter Studios (it will be my third time!). I’m really a huge Harry Potter geek and I don’t care if I should be too old for it or whatever. I have loved Harry Potter for (almost) twenty years and I will continue to do so for at least twenty more. I have loved sharing the stories with my children and hope they will continue to share the books with their own children too. This weekend we are also attending MCM London Comic Con and they have pre-releases of the 20th Anniversary “house” editions of the Philosopher’s Stone and I’m so tempted to get one (or all of them…)! Harry Potter books are the one and only set of books I would never be parted with, over all the books I own.

As a final thought and conclusion to my post, I wanted to share this infograph, put together by Cartridge Save. It has loads of fun facts about most used words and phrases, along with how many copies have been sold and how many words are in each book etc. If you’re yet to read Harry Potter, no matter what the reason, I honestly recommend you give it a try! You have nothing to lose and a whole lot of love to gain!

Last week was another busy week but not as crazy as the one before. Monday to Friday were school as usual and Chris was working all five too. I don’t really remember what I did for most of Monday but I know it was computer based – blogging, uploading pictures and catching up on stuff. Nat came around in the evening so we had a good catch up. Tuesday was similar too but it started off with McDonalds breakfast and taking Chris to work (after the usual school drop off) and then resulted in watching lots of OUAT (I caught up to the end of season) and having a bath. The kids came home with their dad but pretty much went straight to bed, while Chris and I spent the evening catching up on TV – in our grumpy wear.

On Wednesday it was Lily’s class assembly and I agreed to work in the office too. I spent all morning at school, waited for lunch too as Megan was having a sale (hand made items from school) and then headed off to Mum’s to spend the afternoon there and have a cup of tea. After I picked up the girls and we headed home, monging out and doing silly quizzes on Facebook.

On Thursday I had a day at home and while I had lots of blogging planned, next door being super loud and a pain in the ass meant that I didn’t get a lot done. I headed out early to go shopping and then pick the girls up from school, just to get away from the noise. On the plus side my new dress for my birthday party arrived and I’m super thrilled with it. Now I just hope I can make my face and hair look good for the evening, as usually it never all comes together. On Thursday evening we all packed ready for the weekend, we picked out where we wanted to eat and ordered vouchers from Tesco. The next morning, Friday, the girls and Chris went off to work/school and I finished getting organised. I did some blog work and made sure my camera was charged etc. before heading off to get the girls and then go to my mum’s.

Megan, Lily and I spent the evening at mum’s house, where she made us lasagne and we lounged around. At 8pm we headed out to get Chris from work and then set off to Toddington where we would be staying the night. It was about 10-10.30pm when we got to the Travelodge so we all settled in for the night and got to sleep. In the morning we got ready fairly early and then headed out to North Ealing station, where mum dropped us off and we caught the tube into London. We headed for the Excel, which took quite some time, seeing more cosplayers the nearer we got.

We arrived with near perfect timing for MCM Comic Con as we didn’t have to wait long for the doors to be opened and the “general” tickets to be let in. It did take some time to filter through but it was steady moving and really didn’t matter. We looked around about a third of the stalls/stores before deciding we needed lunch. Food was expensive but there was plenty of room to sit and it even looked like we could have taken our own food with us to save on cost. We then wandered around the rest of the stalls but the kids were pretty bored, my bag was heavy and a lot of this distracted from the fun. I really wanted to get some autographs but the place you bought the autograph passes from had a queue of an hour and a half, even though the people I wanted to meet had no queue. In the end I passed up on meeting Cruella De Vil and Ursula from OUAT and we just continued to wander around. Chris bought a new board game, Lily bought a Honey Lemon plush, Megan bought a Cinderella Pop Funko and I bought three Pop Funkos myself – Belle, Cogsworth and Daryl on his chopper.

We were finished looking around by about 3.30pm which left two hours until our dinner reservation. We decided to head for Oxford Street and the Disney Store, even though I knew we probably wouldn’t buy anything. After a wander around there, where we didn’t buy anything, we headed to Lush instead. I’d read a few blog posts about The Comforter being made into a shower gel and that it was only available in Oxford Street branch. I wanted to get my hands on some and since we were nearby it made sense. Though I had skimmed over the information in a blog post, I hadn’t realised that Oxford Street actually had over 200 new products in there, unavailable anywhere else at present. I couldn’t help myself and before I knew it I was stocked up on loads of new stuff, totaling almost £45! (It is my birthday this coming week though…).

After lunch it was time to head for dinner and we decided it would be nice to walk. It took about 10 minutes from where we were so that wasn’t bad and mum was waiting for us when we got there. We had a lovely meal with amazing service (a rarity for our recent trips to London) and though the bill came to £80 as it was, I left an additional £10 because we’d all enjoyed it so much. Our meal was at Bella Italia on Irving Street, in case anyone wants to give it a go! Finally after dinner we headed for Her Majesty’s Theatre which was only a couple of minutes away and got to our seats. People were sat in them which really peed me off but they moved when we asked them to so…

Phantom of the Opera was great, though not as good as I’d remembered. The music and cast was amazing but it seemed like they’d changed some of the pacing, ordering and certain other bits and I was just left feeling a bit disappointed. That said, it was really fantastic and the kids both loved it so that made me enjoy it even more. When the show finished we all headed off to catch the tube back to the car and then mum drove to a different Travelodge (M4) where we were staying that night. The kids were exhausted and it was late but they fell asleep as soon as their head touched the pillow and before the lights were even out. Chris and I weren’t far behind them as it had been a long day and we hadn’t slept much the night before.

In the morning the girls went to mum’s room for breakfast and I went for a shower. Chris brought us coffee and bacon butties which was really lovely. We then headed off home, fairly late by our standards as we’d all managed a lay-in but it wasn’t long after 1pm by the time we got back to Lincoln. We immediately switched to my car and headed home. We all had a light lunch and then chilled out for the afternoon. We ordered takeaway for dinner and just hung out together as a family. Once the girls were in bed, Chris and I caught up on TV before grabbing a fairly early night since it had been a long weekend.

Harry Potter turns 20!

Week 21 – Monday Round-up