So sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I had such a huge day and today was exactly the same. I'm so tired and fairly sure I'm getting sick, and tmro I have to get up at 3am to go to the airport and fly to Munich for Oktoberfest. Oh my god haha.
First of all, thank you so much for all the birthday love. My dinner on Wednesday was absolutely brilliant. It was me, Ash, Jamie, Stephen, James, Lou, Louise and Jess. We had a yummy dinner at the White Lion in Covent Garden (I had fish and chips!) and a couple of drinks. So great to see everyone and the place was perfect. I did end up opening my cards at the table and, yes, I did cry. But good tears I promise!
Yesterday morning I woke an hour before my alarm and was so excited I couldn't get back to sleep. Instead I spent 30 minutes replying to birthday messages I received on Facebook (all up over 100, it was overwhelming! They were from all over the world too).
My alarm went off and I leapt out of bed and got ready. Ash and I left and went to Euston station where we caught the overground to Watford Junction. Here we met Rachel (from my South America tour who lives in Bath) and the three of us drove to Harry Potter studios.
Anyone who knows me at all knows how much 'Harry Potter' means to me. I sound over dramatic, but it changed my life. At Christmas in 1999, my cousin Michelle gave me the first book as a gift. I didn't want to read it, I was a silly 6 year old and judged the book by its cover. A funny looking boy and a train - "boring mum, I don't want to read this". But mum read it to me, and thank goodness she did! Because from that day on, my life was infinitely improved.
Harry Potter helped me enjoy reading more than I already did. It meant instead of wanting to watch too much TV or play video games, my way of rebelling as a child was reading for hours after my parents told me to sleep by torchlight (sorry M and D!). It meant my imagination was endless, and I learned lots of life lessons including standing up for what you believe in, tolerance, loss and many more. It meant that I queued up overnight in Melbourne winter to be one of the first into Dymocks on Collins street in 2007 to get my hands on the 7th and final book (and I got on the news!), it meant I went to midnight movie premieres, and it meant my entire childhood was consumed by this most wonderful series that - one day - my kids will be reading from cover to cover so it can (hopefully) impact their lives in the same way.
This year as you know I've spent a lot of time going to HP film locations. But yesterday was the big one! Because Watford Junction/Leavesdon is home to Warner Brothers Studios. And I can honestly say I had one of the best days of my life. Equal best birthday ever with my 13th (grand final day 2005 - 'LEO BARRYYYYYYY!') and my 21st in Sydney climbing the bridge with Mum.
I won't crap on too much, I took 150 photos so I'll let you have a look. But basically you were on a one directional walk through the premises seeing props, sets and wonderful magical items! Firstly we watched a movie, and then came my favourite part of the day. We got to the doors of the great hall, Rachel pushed me to the front and the man said "is anyone here today celebrating their birthday?" My hand shot up as fast as Hermione's, before he had even finished the question. It was me and another girl, and the two of us got to open the doors in front of the entire group (maybe 100 people??). By the time we got in the hall my hands were shaking and I was so excited I felt like I was going to cry (don't laugh at me, it was my whole childhood!!).
The rest of our 3-4 hours there I was like a child in a lolly shop. I walked through in absolute amazement, staring at all the props and sets I had imagined in my head whilst reading the series and then seen come to life on the big screen as I grew up. Highlights included being given a Harry Potter 'happy birthday' badge to wear alongside the one mum bought me, riding a broom (and Rachel bought me the photo!), drinking butter beer and stamping my children's activity book the lady on the front desk gave me when she saw how excited I was to be there. Got all six stamps - yeahhhhhh! I also absolutely loved the steam train which is the one used in filming and has only been there for a few months.
As well as props and sets, I loved seeing the makeup, costumes and animatronics and how they all come together. The makeup lady upon seeing my birthday badge brought me right down the front and showed me the scar they stuck on Daniel Radcliffe's forehead every time they filmed. Apparently it used to be itchy and he picked it off all the time when he was 11!!
Here are some random facts I learned - 588 sets were constructed throughout the eight films, 17,000 wand boxes were labelled and hand written for the films just for Ollivander's Wand Shop, the common room set took three months to build, the knight bus is 22 feet tall and vintage parts from three double deckers were used to build it.
At the end there was a model of Hogwarts that was used during filming, and then 4000 wand boxes, each with the name of someone who worked on the films. Mum kindly said to buy a souvenir for my birthday that she would pay for, so I bought a chocolate frog (saving it) and a Hogwarts keyring in the gift shop. I already have the Gryffindor cushion dad and Adam got me in 2012 at home which I love, too!!
Honestly was incredible! Ash doesn't really like HP and even she was impressed with how it all worked. Hope you all enjoy the photos! Think I did a fine job on the broom just quietly and if I had ever received my Hogwarts letter I would have tried out for keeper on the quidditch team!
We caught the train back and Ash and I headed back to mine. Got ready as quick as I could and then we headed to Stratford. I picked up mine and Ivana's rugby tickets from a hotel, and then we got some dinner at the shopping centre. It felt like the Olympics were on. It was buzzing and people were everywhere!!! We had a quick stop at Jamie's to drop my things off, then I went to the Olympic Stadium and Ash went back to mine.
I met Ivana outside the ground, and realised I hadn't seen her since our Topdeck tour of Norway last June! She's from NZ but lives in London.
And so began the second incredible part of my 23rd birthday - the rugby World Cup! Our tickets cost us £73 each, but were worth £125. We had fairly good seats and I was very impressed with the stadium!
NZ had dropped their best players as Namibia are (let's be honest) probably the lowest ranked team in the World Cup. But I still had a fantastic time. The national anthems got me a bit teary, a lot of the Namibians were crying. Then came the Haka. I've seen it on tv and in NZ, but at a sporting match it was amazing!!
Then the game began. NZ got their bonus point just 29 minutes in (that means they scored their fourth try then), but Namibia put up a good fight! And in the second half down our end, after trying about six times to break through, Namibia finally did and they scored a try. Now this is why I have learned to love rugby very quickly, the crowd are fantastic. At the football the crowd is full of resentment and is segregated. When Namibia scored their try, the entire stadium stood up and went absolutely mental. Me, Ivana and all the kiwis, Japanese, English and everyone else near us punched the air, clapped and cheered. It brought tears to my eyes! They were all so happy and so proud just to be there, and that's what it comes down to I guess! Go you, Namibia!!
Despite dropping their best players, Nonu and McCaw came on for the last 15 minutes (I actually know who they are!) which was great. And then it ended and I walked the ten minutes to Jamie's and stayed there!!
This morning I went to Hotham and I had a great day, though I was very tired. I helped in year four for the morning and middle sessions, then went to the other year four to cover PPA time in the afternoon. They were both classes I taught last year, and it was lovely when they ran up to me hugging and cheering saying "yay! We have Miss again!"
Highlights included one boy responding to my feedback on his work by saying "you're a teacher, you know everything so I'll listen!" And helping one kid write a letter to a school in America where he wrote "Life in London is extremely amazing because in summer it wasn't hot". You got that right buddy!!
I'm on my way home heaps later than normal and in exhausted and think I'm getting sick. This will not be helped by the fact I have to get up at 3am tmro to journey to Heathrow, but that's life! Can hardly complain anyway - Oktoberfest is gonna be amaaaazing!!
Speaking of which, I am camping so am not taking my iPad and won't have any internet. But rest assured, Wednesday late morning Melbourne time there'll be a massive blog post choc full of photos of me wearing a dirndl and drinking beer (if I don't lose my camera - just kidding mum!!!!). Until then I'm on hiatus.
Thank you so much again for all the lovely birthday wishes, gifts, messages, emails, phone calls and thoughts. You're all amazing and I am so incredibly lucky to have such wonderful people in my life looking out for me.
Lots of love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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