Memorabilia At The Birmingham NEC< Autumn Photography With Mandy | Blog | My Battle Against Man Flu > On Saturday 22nd November, I got out of bed around 4.30am, so I could meet Tristan round his parents house, for a day out together. We were going to the Memorabilia event, which was held inside the Birmingham NEC.
Tristan likes to look at hundreds of photographs of famous people, and queue up for hours to get things signed by all the stars there, whilst I like looking round the exhibitions, and the various stalls at the event. I also enjoy taking photographs at these events, due to all the interesting things there, and walking around the event.
I have been to the Birmingham NEC to see the Memorabilia event quite a few times with Tristan and his friends over the years, as they do it a number of times each year. You can visit the Memorabilia website by clicking here. My Dad kindly gave me a lift to Tristan’s parents house and then he left me there round 6am. Whilst I was stood out in the cold and darkness on his parents gravel path, I gave Tristan’s mobile a call. There was no answer. I then tried his telephone in his room, and there was no answer. I was waiting there for ages debating whether to wake up Tristan’s whole family by banging on their front door, as I was starting to freeze to the spot. I saw some headlights of vehicle pull up at the front of his house, and heard the crunching of gravel stones under a pair of feet coming towards me, from out of the cold darkness beyond. The person walking up the drive was unfortunately their milkman.
We said good morning to each other, whilst I moved out of the way of the doorstep, so the milkman could deliver his milk. Then he walked back to his milk van and drove off, leaving me alone again in the cold darkness. A few minutes later I heard someone heavier crunching up the gravel drive towards me. I adjusted my eyes to the gloom, hoping for Tristan to appear. It was not Tristan. It was instead his friend Coxy walking towards me. Coxy was coming along with us to Birmingham too. Tristan enjoys taking the Mickey out of Coxy, he calls him a farmer, and makes sexual references to sheep to him. This is due to Coxy doing a course at Merrist Agricultural College.
Although Coxy does not deal with farm animals, he works as a green keeper at a local golf course. Coxy and I said good morning to each other, and then we both tried calling Tristan on our mobiles. We cursed Tristan a bit, as we were waiting, but eventually he opened the front door and let us both in. We all stood in the kitchen whilst Tristan ate his breakfast, but he made us some drinks as well. The family pet cat came to join us all in the kitchen too. Then once Tristan was ready, we left his parents house, and got in his car. Both Coxy and Tristan had big rucksacks, which they brought with them. They were full of photographs, DVDs, posters and other stuff they wanted to get signed by the famous people at the Memorabilia event that day, which we were going to together in Tristan's car. As Tristan started up his car, Coxy had to sit in the front seat, as he is a fairly big lad. I sat on my own on the back seat, but I had lots of room to myself in the back, apart from Coxy’s large rucksack sitting next to me. Coxy helped Tristan find one of his favourite dance CD compilations out of his car glove box, and then Tristan put on his car hi-fi. We were blasted by Tristan’s loud dance music whilst we drove towards Birmingham at 6.30am in the morning.
I took my camera with me, as I was going to be seeing nighttime, dawn, daytime, dusk, and nighttime again all in one day, so it was a good opportunity for me to practise taking various shots with different light. Moreover, I also like to have my photographs taken with some of the stars, nerds in costume, props, Daleks, and any nice looking women, when I go out to these interesting places with Tristan. When we were driving along the motorway towards Birmingham I saw the sun come up, and it bathed everything in a nice warm orange light, although it was not warm outside of the car, as winter is here.
It was difficult finding interesting things to photograph whilst sitting in a car, but below is some of what I saw on our journey.
We stopped at a petrol station as Tristan needed to fill up his car with fuel. I bought a cheese and onion sandwich, crisps, and a bottle of Lucozade from the shop there, to keep me going for the rest of the journey, for my own body fuel.
The clicking noises of my camera distracted Tristan, and he missed the correct turning for the Birmingham NEC. Tristan started to panic, as he was worried, that he would miss out meeting a WWF wrestler called Bret Hart, as he wanted to get his signed picture. Moreover, we were all worried about missing out on a free Doctor Who goodie bag at the event. Even Coxy was panicking too, as he was concerned to not see his favourite Stargate stars. It was pretty intense in the car, and like something really bad was going to happen. Tristan was getting all annoyed with other drivers tailgating him, and everything.
We had a bit of a detour and got lost for a while, but luckily, Tristan found the Birmingham NEC car-park. Tristan parked his car, and we got out and walked towards the NEC buildings. We noticed the parking cost £8 for the day there, which was quite expensive. There were quite a few people around even though we had arrived there quite early. I took some photos of the NEC buildings and of Tristan as we walked towards the event.
Inside the entrance, there was a long queue forming to get in. Tristan went off to get us all entry tickets, whilst Coxy and I saved our place in the queue.
Whilst Coxy and I were standing in the queue, I spotted some Star Wars people, so I asked Coxy to take me photograph with them. I also took pictures of what I saw around me in the queue and leading up to the entrance of the event.
Tristan came back with our tickets and we paid him. We stood in the queue together waiting to get in. More Star Wars people walked past. I saw a Star Wars Storm Trooper buying a Subway takeaway, which I found quite amusing, although I do not know why.
As we walked through the entrance we showed our tickets to the door staff, and we were let in. There were more Star Wars people standing at the entrance.
There were some staff handing out freebies, so we each grabbed a computer game each in a big boxes, which was called City of Villains. The game looked quite good. Inside the box, it had loads of sci-fi plastic people inside, an art book, DVD, and all kinds of stuff. Coxy went back a few times to pick up extra boxes of these computer games, as it saved him buying quite a few people Christmas presents for this year.
Tristan made a mad dash to the Doctor Who area, as we were told the first 40 people there would each gain a free Doctor Who goodie bag. We ran after him in hot pursuit. Unfortunately, when we got there, they were just setting up their stalls and had not yet assembled their free goodie bags. Tristan then dashed off to get tickets for himself so he could queue up later for a photo shoot with WWF wrestler Bret Hart, and arrange for his WWF stuff to be signed by him.
Whilst Tristan was sorting out his WWF Bret Hart signing, I agreed to hang around the Doctor Who area to grab a goodie bag. In the Doctor Who area, some of the old Doctor Who stars from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s began to sit down behind the tables, to start the signing and meeting the fans. I saw Terry Molley behind one of the Doctor Who star tables. Terry played Davros, the Dalek creator back in the 1980’s. He was my favourite actor to have played the Davros part, and made the most appearances as him. Therefore, I thought to get a signed picture, and my photo taken with Davros.
I had to wait a while to meet Davros, as a large family were before me. I told Terry he was my favourite Davros, and it was a shame they did not cast him for the new series. He was quite pleased with my comment. There was a guy who I think played a Thal in one of the 1960’s Dalek films, I asked the Thal guy to take my picture with me and Davros, and he kindly obliged.
I then got my free Doctor Who goodie bag by one of the organisers. It had a MP3 story CD inside, photos, and other bits and pieces, which I was very pleased to get. Tristan missed out on the Doctor Who goodie bag, as he was busy queueing up to meet his WWF wrestler idol Bret Hart.
Whilst Tristan was queueing for hours, I had a look round the stalls and exhibitions on my own. Coxy went off on his own too, which I think was to find a bag with a Japanese design on it, plus to get his Stargate people signatures.
I saw some interesting sights and I bought a few books for myself, which was Batman The Killing Joke, plus The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born. I bought a Zippy doll too, which I was going to give to a lady for her birthday the following week, but as she just wants to be friends now, so I have kept it for myself. I also bought a soft Adipose doll, which is from the Doctor Who series. It's a cute alien, which came from obese people’s body fat. I bought it for my mum, although I really bought it for myself, I just said it was for her, as I have run out of room.
I did see many more things that I wanted to buy, but I sadly could not get any of them, as I have run out of room at home. Everything I buy now, I have to get rid of something at home to make room for it. I am very much a hoarder; I used to keep everything I ever bought, as each object triggers a memory or an attachment of some sort, so I cannot depart with many things, even though it may just be crap. Walking round I saw a Robot Wars Arena. There were some robots boxing and wrestling each other. It was quite fun to watch to them fight each other, so I took some pictures.
Tristan missed getting his stuff signed by his wrestler Bret Hart during the morning, but he did get a photo shoot with him. Bret Hart then took a break for lunch. I hoped we would as well, but Tristan wanted to look round the stalls and exhibitions before Bret came back from lunch. I spent a few hours walking round stalls with Tristan. We spotted some Daleks whizzing round, and other funny people in costume. Tristan mainly looked at stalls that were selling signed pictures of famous people, and then he joined another long queue again.
Coxy re-appeared with lots of bags under his arms and a full rucksack on his back. We then all stood with Tristan in another queue for a while. Whilst I was waiting for something to happen, I asked Coxy to take my pictures with a man dressed as the Joker, and of other weirdos in costume who walked past us in the queue.
There was a small cinema near the queue. I left Tristan and his queueing for a while, and I sat down inside it. They were showing new Universal Pictures movie trailers, which will be coming out next year. I liked the look of their new werewolf film called Wolf Man.
As Tristan got nearer the wrestler Bret Hart, he pointed out a table that had a few pretty glamour models sitting behind it. A blond-haired lady and a brunette lady. One of the girls Tristan told me was very famous, the blond one, and her name was Danni Wells. She was very pretty. The brunette girl Bianca Embley also was very pretty. I had never heard of them, as I don't read lads mags anymore. As they were both selling their glamour calendar in aid of a charity called the Polkadotgals. It was for a condition called Fibromyalgia. I thought to go over to purchase one, and to speak to the two models.
Tristan took my photos when I went over to their tables.
There was unfortunately a guy sitting in the way, who was taking his time, but he eventually went away. I chatted to both of the two girls, and they told me they both had Fibromyalgia. I told them that I was sorry to hear that, and it was very good of them to do it in aid of charity. They both signed the calendar and chatted to me. Danni wrote ‘To Barry, lots of Love Danni’ and drew a little heart. It was very sweet of them; I wish all women were as nice as that.
Danni asked if I wanted my picture taken with her, I said yes of course. She put her arm round me, I put my arm round her, and Tristan took a picture of us standing together. Danni was a lovely woman, and Bianca was too, they both were. I wish I could have taken them both home with me, as they were far more exciting than my toy Zippy and the few books I bought there.
As I left them both, a Dalek glided past.
I re-joined Tristan’s queue. There were quite a lot of people who wanted to see this wrestler Bret Hart, hundreds in fact. I was glad when Tristan finally did get his stuff signed by Bret Hart, as we were then finally away from all the queueing. Tristan and I then found a giant inflatable maze. People were going inside it to shoot toy laser guns at each other. Tristan was very keen to go inside it and shoot the kids in there, so I paid the £1 entrance fee and followed him inside with a laser rifle in my hand. I had a bit of fun shooting the kids, but I found it a bit too dark inside it, as I could not see anything. I also got a bit lost and found myself keep walking into the large inflatable walls. I got a bit worried about tripping over. I could see Tristan dashing around like a madman with his laser gun. It was fun, but I was glad when the game was over, as I did not have the energy, due to getting up so early that morning, having a cold, and my legs getting cramp for standing up too long that day. We got together again with Coxy, and they spent ages looking around loads and loads of stalls selling photos of famous people, which became tiring and a bit too much for me in the end. I'm getting too old for it now. Once they had finished looking around, we made our way out of the NEC building. Outside in the car park there was a lovely sunset with the clouds lit up in different colours, so I took a photograph using my camera.
We walked towards the car, and paid a parking attendant the £8 parking fee, then Tristan drove off back down the motorway. Tristan got a bit lost again, but luckily, his mobile has GPS car navigation, so his phone got us back in the right direction again. As we were driving, I took some more photos out of the car window. The clicking sounds of my digital camera annoyed them, so I turned off the sound. I got some good night shots, of light trails, a police car, traffic, Tristan and Coxy in the front of the car, and of me sat in the back.
We stopped at a service station for a meal each. I took Tristan’s picture as he walked towards the entrance.
Inside Tristan took the unusual step of not eating KFC junk food, and he instead bought a proper meal for himself, which I have never seen him do before. Coxy also went for the healthy option, which was also new for me to see. I did the opposite of what I normally do, I bought a Burger King meal, which I have not eaten for about a year, but I fancied it, as I was starving. This was only because I had not eaten anything all day, other than a cheese and onion sandwich and crisps for breakfast. After the meal, we left the service station and walked back to the car. I saw a Christmas tree all lit up in the car park, which I felt was there a bit too early, but I took its picture.
Tristan drove back down the various motorways towards Surrey. The noisy dance music went back on. We eventually arrived back at Tristan’s parent’s house around 7pm. I called my Dad to pick me up and take me home again. I was going to go to London that evening, but I was too worn out. I instead went to bed early. I had a good and an interesting day out. Related ContentComments on Memorabilia At The Birmingham NEC |
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