Wednesday 25 February 2015

Memory keeping: My Daleks are *still* there.


Hello, ahoy, welcome.

Yes, this is another post - and another scrapbook page - about the night we went to see Mark Gatiss in conversation.
And if, after I mentioned it in December's Month in Numbers and then again with last week's scrapbook page you 've begun to feel like you just can't escape it ... then you'll have an idea how I felt the week the Daleks took to following me around ....
I've told the story here before but here's a re-cap via the tweets/ Facebook updates I wrote as the strange events unfolded on campus ...
So far so strange. No?

There I was, all week, telling people I kept seeing Daleks at work - when there was absolutely no good reason for me to be seeing Daleks at work. While the word "assistant" is indeed in my job title it is not, nor ever has been, preceded by the words "The Doctor's".

I was just grateful that, each time I'd seen the body parts of a Dalek in the most unlikeliest of places, I had been with someone who saw them too! He could corroborate my story ... and I could rest assured that it wasn't all in my head!
[For the record, yes, I did try to take a photo as proof. But both times it was dark outside, or we were in a hurry, and - the time I did approach the building to grab the shot of them through the window ... I got close enough to activate the automatic doors which suddenly opened out towards me ... which  pretty much convinced that [a] they'd come to life and [b] the next thing I would hear would be 'Ex-ter-min-ate'.]

So, at the end of a strange week of  wondering 'Why Daleks? Why now? Why here?', I went out on the Friday night, to relax, to escape from it all, to see Mark Gatiss ...

...and so did they:
I spotted them in the foyer as we approached the building where the event was being held [which is not the same place where I work ... but several miles away] and the penny dropped: while I may revere him for co-creating Sherlock Mark Gatiss is also one of the writers on Dr.Who. And the organisers had clearly run with the theme.
 
However the ones in these photos aren't actually the ones who'd been following me through the week - in fact these ones were even more sinister as they moved and spoke to us as we entered the building!
 
I mean ... what are the chances that you'd bump into 2 Daleks on a Friday night that weren't the same 2 Daleks you'd met earlier in the week? Really? Could it be that they had nothing to do with the first two. That this was just a random coincidence???
 
Well no.
 
The other two, the ones that were fast becoming regular acquaintances of mine, were actually waiting for me inside the auditorium we went into to see the man himself. Clearly there was no escape! 
[Did you spot me photo-bombing this shot?]

BTW: I was so pleased with myself when I found this appropriately robotic illustration and the timey-wimey themed caption for this page. If you ever want me to delve into my collection to try to source something appropriately themed to match one of your projects just get in touch and we can chat about a custom pack of pages. There's no minimum limit on the amount you can request; unlike the Daleks ... I'm flexible [and can run upstairs].  [p.s there are currently 3 Game of Thrones themed packs currently available for anyone who fancies some Seven-Kingdom-style scrapbooking/journaling!]

SPOILER ALERT:: For anyone still wondering if I'd turned into The Master ... there's actually a more mundane explanation as to why the Daleks had been at my workplace. We learned that the woman who organised the event worked for the same university as me ... which is when I recognised her as the person who, just after we'd seen them for the second time, had come out of an office declaring 'Ah. My Daleks are still there' to no one in particular as we looked on bemused.

'My Daleks are still there'. 'My Daleks are still there' ...

Now there's a phrase that sums up that entire week for me!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Julie

10 comments:

  1. Daleks know how to use lifts now. We had two daleks at the Dragondaze Games convention held here in Newport last September and they wandered around the main hall for a while and then discovered the lifts up to the role-playing room and the wargaming room. They went up and caused havoc - it was great! They are coming back again for the next one in September this year.

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  2. Great, great page, J....*loved* your writing in this post!!!

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  3. If Little E sees this, he'll be your new best friend :)

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  4. Fab layout - that would have freaked me out - been terrified of Daleks since a child and have many memories of watching DrWho in the 60s from behind the sofa!!

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  5. I saw this post's title and wondered where you were going with it ... glad I stuck it to the end! BTW, my 8-year-old tells me that the new generation (re-generated?) daleks can now go upstairs. But he is only 8 and hasn't seen much Dr Who ...

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  6. A great layout, and a fun story! Love the embellishments you used when you photographed it, as well. Your delightful postcard arrived in New York safely, and I did some research on Ladybird Books. They remind me a bit of a series of orange biographies I read when I was in fifth and sixth grades. No idea who published those. One of my teachers had a whole bookshelf filled with them, and I think I read them all! Many thanks!

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  7. Slightly worried to hear that daleks can now get upstairs, if I have nightmares tonight, I shall be blaming you!

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  8. I absolutely love this Julie.
    Claire
    xx

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  9. Beautifully told story, Julie - even more so because it is real. If you see what I mean. I do like your page with the little bits of paper on, and the black and white additions are perfect with those Daleks.

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  10. Ah daleks you either hide behind the sofa or face them headon. Personally, I'm a head on girl and having shared the stage with one in The Mikado I can assure you they are really very friendly
    Jo xxxx

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