Spike takes Sarah to London to see Derren Brown

So, I don't normally do this. The idea of this blog is to type up stories from my life, however this one is very recent and may come across more like a typical blog entry. However, I had such a good day this previous Saturday that I felt I should type it up.
Most weekends when I go out, I go out to get drunk. I meet up with friends, go to the pub and get wasted on beer and sambuca. I guess there's nothing wrong with this as it can be fun, but from time to time it gets repetitive, expensive and often I do things I regret the next day.

 This weekend just gone has to ahve been the busiest all year. When I say busiest, I mean that there was so much going on. There was the Sonisphere festival, Rhythms of the world, Emily's Birthday, Todds Birthday and Teresa's BBQ, and am sure a couple of other things which have escaped me at this time.
Originally I had planned to go to Teresa's BBQ as I always have such a fun time, however Claire bought me two Derren Brown tickets for my birthday which clashed with this. For a while I was unsure if I should sell them and try to get soem for another date, but as the weeks went by, a few people said they may not make the BBQ and I wasn't sure I'd get replacement tickets if I'd sold mine. I also did not want to upset Claire as she has now befriended Teresa and could easily have found out I was at her BBQ instead of Derren Brown. So I decided to stick with seeing Derren, however it was not easy finding someone to join me as everyone was busy, but finally after a bit of persuading Sarah agreed to come. She's probably reading this, but I'm glad she came along as I know she loves Derren and we jsut had a genuinely fun day out without any alcohol.


When we arrived in London, we went to Davenports first of all. I told Sarah it was kind of secretly hidden away, which it sort of is, but I don't think she was impressed. Anyway I finally got to spend the voucher that Shibs, Mart, Debbs and Mark bought me for my birthday. Forty pounds doesn't go far on magic though, especially from an overpriced magic shop, but I got a couple of essentials and something new which looked interesting.
After that we were starving so headed for something to eat, but took a bit of a detour as we were trying to find a TGI's. This is when we passed M&M world. I'd never heard of it, and I beleive it's still quite new, but it's a massive M&M's shop in Leicester Square. We went in, and were somewhat amazed by the size. Kids and tourists everywhere. Then we saw a massive M&M pick 'n' Mix sections, and startign filling up bags with various colours. The bags got quite full and it was then we realsied that these were going to cost close to twenty pounds, so we dumped them on the side and had a photo taken on an M&M mock Abbey Road crossing (I'll have to pair it up with my real Abbey Road pictures and put them on facebook).

After a nice meal in TGI's we decided to head to 'Ripley's Believe it or Not' as we had a couple of hours to kill before Derren Brown. It was pretty expensive, but we had a voucher for '2 for 1'. It was fun, definitely not worth the money it costs to get in normally, but we took several funny pictures and had a good laugh in there. There was a six legged dear which only had four legs (which was quite possibly the most amazing thing we saw), several odd deformed humans, a mirror maze and a really weird funky spinning tunnel thing. We timed it prety much perfectly and got out with jsut enough time to get soem sweets before getting to the theatre.

Now, I know sweets in London are expensive, especially a pick 'n' mix. But we found one in Piccadilly and figured they'd be cheaper than the M&M's one, as well as having more variety. Maybe we got a bit carried away with what we put in. Sarah said she put two of everything in, but it seemed like a lot more than that. When we got to the till, we saw a packet of coconut M&M's, but being quite pricey we decided to stick them into the bag of pick 'n' mix. I'm sure this isn't classed as shoplifting is it? I mean, it's adding extra weight to the sweets so we're still paying for them, just at a lower price. The sweets came to nearly £16, which was a bit of a shock, but there wasn't much we could do whilst at the till, so we bought them and made our way to the theatre.

The show was good fun, and some of the confessions from some of the audience were quite disturbing. However I don't think it was as good as last years show, this may be due to him having different writers this year. I was also panicking a little bit halfway through. One of the sweets happened to be a blue lolly. I was quite happy sucking on this during the show, until much to Sarah's amusement, she pointed out that I now had blue lips and blue teeth. I was then eating as many different sweets as I could to try to get the blue to fade, I couldn't pose for a photo with Derren after the show with a blue mouth!
Afterwards we headed to the stage door to meet him. Unfortunately he was in quite a rush this time, and only had time to quickly sign an autograph and pose for a pic, no time to chat. The problem was though, our first photo didn't come out. I was happy to walk away then, but Sarah insisted we get another one. So we quickly asked for another, but yet again the photo didn't take properly, so had to get another. He was the nicest guy you could imagine, but he must have been a bit pissed off with us by now.
He then headed back into the theatre, and we started to walk back to the tube. However, he then came out a side door with his mates to wherever he was off to. I had earlier suggested we try to hang out with him, to which Sarah said was stalkerish. When he came out though, Sarah seemed quite keen to try to follow him, which i was now deadset against. So, we walked one way, suddenly he appeared near us again. He'd obviously have remembered us as being the annoying two who kept taking a photo. So we turned down a street to try to avoid him, then a few minutes later we realise he's now infront of us. It seemed wherever we went, he was there. I eventually had to drag Sarah down a street into Covent Garden to make sure we weren't going follow him anymore. I think she was slightly dissapointed by this though. We walked around Covent Garden a bit and then headed back to Kings Cross for the train home. Both of us were pretty tired and continued trying to eat some of the sweets we still had left over. I have to say that i have now gone off sweets, I had way too many.

So, I had a really good day, which I hope Sarah did too. Although I spent a fair bit, I didn't spend anywhere near as much as I do when drinking in London. I also had a more memorable day than when I go out drinking. I really should do things like this more often. I guess the best thing of all too was that there was no chance of having  ahangover the next day.

What Spike wanted to be when he grew up.

So everyone knows that I stand out from most people for all sorts of reasons. When I was a child and asked what I wanted to be when i grew up was always one of those things. Most of my classmates at school wanted to be a policeman, fireman or professional football. Whenever I was asked I'd say I wanted to draw cartoons for Disney, even at a very very young age. Over the years my classmates ideas for jobs changed somewhat to things such as wanting to be vets or teachers etc, however mine didn't. Even in secondary school I stood by my dream of wanting to be a Disney animator, and whenever I visited Disney land, one of the hilights for me was watching the animators drawing stills for the next animated motion picture due out in a few years time.
Halfway through secondary school thoough, I lost this dream. I'm not sure if it was that I realised I'd never be good enough, or if it was that I found something even better that I wanted to become.
When I was off sick from school, there was soemtimes a programme on called 'Movies Behind the Magic' , or something similar. In it they'd show you special effects from films, and how they went about creating them. The making of monsters, puppetry and make up effects is what amazed me, and from that moment on I knew I wanted to make monsters for films. Trying to explain this to people though, they didn't always have a clue what i was on about.
I used to make little monsters out of copydex glue at home, the copydex is similar to latex and gave a great feel of skin to my creations. I even made a corpse out of it in sixth form which was a hit with most of the students, although the teachers frowned upon it.
In year 11 I remember having a career interview and having to tell the careers advisor what I wanted to be and she would direct me into what courses I should take up after my GCSE's. What a waste of time that was. She didn't seem to have a clue what I was on about and could only suggest taking up an art course and had no advice for me after that. So that's when I went into sixxth form and studied advanced art for two years without passing. In that time I became more odd and a little more extrovert and more like the Spike people know today. However I had my dreams squashed a bit when I didn't pass and when I was not allowed into a foundation course at Hitchin college either, as I wasn't good enough. Still, I carried on making monsters and odd creations at home, althoguh I now also had a love of painting due to my advanced art course. I found out addresses for uk special effects companys and sent off letters to them asking for advice and apprenticeships. I only ever got one reply, and that was from the Jim Henson Creature Shop in London, the company I'd dreamed of working for for years. They said that there were currently no jobs or apprenticeships going, but I was very pleased they at least replied. Unfortunately the London chain closed down a year or two after that. I guess my dreams of making monsters then gradually faded, and for most of my twenties I was unsure about what I wanted to do, but knew it had to be creative. I carried on with my painting, which had greatly improved since sixth form. I also still made the occaisional 3D sculpture, I think the last was a life size Gollum. Unfortunately when Jacob was young he broke bits off of it, so I disposed of him (Gollum, not Jacob).
So now my passion is magic. I want to be a magician, which I guess I technically am. It started out as jsut trying to impress a few mates in the pub, but once you learna  little, you get hooked and want to learna lot more. whether or not I'll become a full time pro, I don't know, but whatever happens it'll always at least be a hobby. As for my art, I'll still always paint in my spare time too. I very rarely draw cartoons anymore, and I guess my lack of having drawn them means that my cartoons are nowhere near as good as when I was younger. However I'll still paint with oils as it can be an amazing feeling, bringing a painting to life. i also find that emotions greatly improve how a painting turns out. I love to paint when I'm sad, as they always come out better, I guess as I'm putting emotion into the painting. So, although my original career plan has changed soemwhat since childhood, I'm still as creative as I always was, and still strive for a creative career.

Spike sneaks into Sonisphere

I live very close to Knebworth which is a park that often holds quite big gigs and festivals. It's in walking distance and in the past I have been up there to try to sneak into Oasis (this was many years ago, I really don't like them and at the time it was simply because it was a cool thing to do), which unfortunately didn't work.
Last year the Sonsiphere festival was on, and I knew several people who were going. For weeks I'd boast that I'd try to sneak in and meet up with them, but deep down I didn't really intend to bother. On the Friday though, I saw that a friend of mine, Brad, had done just that. Sneaked in easily simply by walking through the carpark. This made me wonder if I should risk it.
I woke up Saturday morning and for a while kept changing my mind on if I should or shouldn't risk it. I was so bored out of my skull that I decided to have a walk up there at least, still not totally sure if I should risk trying to sneak in.
When I got there I realised I could have got a free shuttle bus up there, which was somewhat annoying as it'd have taken a lot less time to get there. Anyway, I scouted out the area and tried to look for some weak points in security. Seeing the carpark I made my way to the gate there, but a woman stopped me. I asked if I could get through and she said 'no', so I stood around for a while, texting and calling Nina, Ross and Maddie to tell them I was outside, still boasting I'd get in. The thing is, I was seriously considering going back home, yet part of me (the Spike part) decided 'bugger this for a bunch of bananas' and I was then considering jumping one of the fences to get into the campsite. However there were several watch towers, and I'd have easily been seen.
So, I then decided to walk around the campsite, continueing to look for weak spots in security and where I could jump the fence, or even crawl under it. Unfortunaly there seemed to be security covering every spot, and I knew that it'd take a good couple of seconds to climb or crawl under, in which time I'd be caught. So I continued walking for a good 20 minutes, until I got to Knebworth House and a little grave yard, which was a dead end (no pun intended).
Just as I was about to walk back, I noticed a huge gate open. There was no one by it, and it looked as if it lead into the main stage areas. My heart was beating fast, but I went for it and walked through the gate. There were lots of trailers parked there, and as I then noticed security and police everywhere! I couldn't turn around and go back now thoguh as they'd have known I'd sneaked in, so I carried on walking, prepared to get out one of my business cards to claim I was entertainment and didn't have a wristband.
My heart was beating more and more as I approached at least 3 policemen and 5 security guards, but they said nothing. I walked straight past them and they didn't say a word. Wow, what a feeling that was, I had been so scared, yet at the same time was totally buzzing!
However I now realsied that I was not in the main stage area, or the campsite, I was inbetween both, and needed a wrist band to get into either of them. I called Ross, told him where I was and said I was going to try to get into the main area. I was now quite scared and was once again looking for weakspots in security, but now there really were none. I sat down on the grass and watched people passing through, most were being thoroughly checked. I then got chatting to a teenager and explained to him I'd sneaked in. He told me I'd be better off going along the path a bit and walking in there as it was more crowded.
Now up the path, the security guy was shouting 'let me see your wristbands please' as people passed through. But so many people were passing through that he couldn't see them all, so I waitied for a big crowd of people and lost myself among them as I walked in with them.
I did it! Spike got into Sonisphere! It was an amazing feeling, I couldn;t stop laughing to myself. Passers by must have thought I was nuts or off my face. I then met up with the group and had a fantastic day seeing acts such as Skunk Anansie, Motley Crue, Placebo and Ramstein.

After Ramstein, I decided to try to sneak into the campsite for more beer with the others. Again, I simply walked through a big crowd of people and had no need to show a wristband. However it was now just Maddie and myself walking back to the tent, as the others had gone earlier. Maddie had no idea where the tent was, so we spent at least two hours walking around campsites looking for a lobster flag. There were unfortunately several lobster flags, and each time we found one, it was the wrong one.
We met lots of people and attended a few brief tent partys on our way to finding Nina and Ross though. When we finally made it back, we chatted for a bit, then everyone went to bed. I decided to stay for a bit and met a group of people having a 'Dave' party, where everyone was renamed Dave. I was of course magic Dave. Spent a couple of hours there, witnessed a very weird bloke shouting things out and starting riots, which then involve dlots of police coming along, then thought I had better head home as it was about 4am and I had to be up early for a charity event in Hyde Park.

I made my way out which looked a bit different to how I remembered it, but I put that down to being drunk. I then had to walk down a country lane in the pitch darkness, with a tiny keyring torch as my only light. When I finally got off the country lane I realised I was totally lost. I was in some sort of village, and looking at a map in a village square I realised I was in Codicote. What was even worse was my phone was dead and out of battery, and being gone 4am even if I found a phonebox I didn't know who I could call who wouldn't be pissed off about being woken up.
I decided to walk back through the pitch back country lane and back to the venue. There was a guy on the gate and I asked him if he knew the way to Old Knebworth Lane, he said he didn't, but I knew it must be the other side of the park. He couldn't let me through though as I didn't have a wristband. I was now well and truly stuck, what the hell was I going to do?
Then suddenly I saw a car driving out, so i ran in front of it and stopped it. It was a guy and his girlfriend who lived in Ware. I explained my situation and said I'd give them money for petrol if they could give me a lift to Stevenage, which thank god they ageed to. I gave them a fiver, thanked them, and then started the 5 minute walk home, finally getting home about 5am. A few hours later and I had to be up for my charity walk, needless to say, I was exausted, but couldn't break tradition and let Debbs down.

So, overall a fantastic day, with a great story to go along with it, I plan to do it all again this year!