Firetop

On Saturday morning, with a baby to send off to sleep, I popped down to Dorking Museum to see the long awaited Dalek which is featuring as part of the Doctor Who exhibition. Not the most mind-blowing Dr Who exhibit I ever came across; a collection of old toys and memorabilia in a large glass cabinet, as well as costumes which had seen better days (from the old episodes of the 1980s). No cybermen - just lots of monsters I didn’t recognise - nothing that would pass for special effects these days! However - for an entry fee of just £1 you can’t really go wrong, especially taking into account what else is on exhibit at Dorking museum. (more…)

Being an avid Star Wars memorabilia collector, last year I had to purchase the Star Wars potato heads for my collection, adding Darth Tater, Artoo-Potatoo ‘with Princess Tater’ and Spud Trooper to my desktop decor. Imagine my surprise and joy when on Saturday whilst clothes shopping for my daughter, I found a new potato head, this time in recognition of the latest Transformers movie - it had to be the ultimate transforming Autobot - Optimash Prime! (more…)

On Sunday afternoon we took Maria for her second trip around the M25 to the ExCel centre in London, her last visit being to the London Baby Show - but back then she couldn’t see much from inside the womb! Now almost two weeks old and gaining weight & height rapidly, we took her for her first initiation into the fantasy realm of Star Wars for ‘Celebration Europe’ (you can’t wait too long). In honesty this was obviously more for me (and Suzie_Q) - getting out of the house is recommended when faced with the relentless onslaught of feeding, nappy changing and sleep deprivation. Maria was so impressed that she slept her way around the exhibition stands despite the pumping Star Wars tunes and sound effects, luckily for her we managed to get her photo taken with Bounty Hunter ‘Boba Fett’. (more…)

Today is the first birthday of the new look Firetop website complete with blog entries, one year ago I was at Wimbledon spotting celebrities like ‘Nana Moon’ and Rob Brydon, this year it’s far too wet to enjoy the queuing. Furthermore Suzie_Q seems to be displaying early labour symptoms this morning, which could make June 28th a birthday of a different kind next year! So what exactly has the blog achieved in the past year? Surprisingly a few unexpected interactions from those at the centre of a article topics - a celebrity chef, Virgin’s commercial director, the Marketing Manager of Internet World, a developer at Eyewonder, not to mention many unknown people who have solved their Microsoft credit card bill mystery. (more…)

It must be hard to be the Marketer for eggs – they’re not unusual, everybody buys them, almost everything we bake contains them… and then there’s Avian Flu and Salmonella to contend with. When I read today that the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) has banned a re-run of some old 1950s egg TV commercials on the grounds that ‘the concept of eating eggs every day goes against the principle of eating a varied diet’ I was a little surprised. However, upon watching the old Tony Hancock adverts I was even more surprised at how good they were, and as a new owner of Chickens this week… quite encouraged to eat more. (more…)

These past two days are special celebrations in the film world; today would have been the one hundredth birthday of John Wayne (born May 26, 1907), and yesterday was the thirtieth anniversary of the first Star Wars film release. Had I given it more thought I might have arranged a Star Wars weekend, complete with films and Star Wars Trivial Pursuit – the problem is I don’t know any other Star Wars geeks like me so it’d be a lonely weekend. It might have been a better bet to have a John Wayne weekend as I know a few more fans of ‘The Duke’. (more…)

On Sunday evening, whilst collapsed in the sofa following the exhaustion of steam-cleaning the carpets AND relocating household furniture (again), I came across something to take me way back to my childhood. There on ITV3 was Michael Praed as Robin of Sherwood - complete with that absolute classic sound track by Clannad ‘Rooooobin…. the hooded man‘. It wasn’t that long ago I watched an episode of the BBC’s latest attempt at a Robin Hood series and switched it over moaning about it not being as good as it was in my day. To my absolute joy I was able to put that theory to the test and see that I was indeed quite correct, Robin of Sherwood was better by a million miles (if now a little worn around the edges and featuring some very ’80s’ scene transitions). (more…)

On bank holiday Monday we took the new ‘family size’ Peugeot 307sw for it’s first long drive down to Bexhill-on-Sea, picking up some family members along the way. My grandparents (Jack and Vera… yes they were a real life couple!) lived in Bexhill for most of my childhood and, with the eight year anniversary of my Grandfather’s passing coming up, we visited his grave which was surrounded by bright blooming flowers. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t too good down in East Sussex, a strong wind meant I had to hold on tight to my Gran to stop her blowing over, she managed her usual ‘you’ll be burying me here soon’ joke none-the-less though, before we all piled back into the car and grabbed some lunch. (more…)

After dinner this evening my wife and I made the short drive up Box Hill for a walk on the National Trust maintained network of public footpaths. I took my camera as I was expecting some nice sunset photographs… and I also took my Australian bullroarer. You’re probably wondering what a bullroarer is… it’s an Aboriginal painted piece of timber on a string - made famous by Mick Dundee in Crocodile Dundee 2 to ‘make a telephone call’. When swung it makes a loud roaring noise, which the Aborigines used as a sign for women and children to keep away from their secret ceremonies. Just for the crack I’d see whether the one I bought in Western Australia would freak anybody out on Box Hill or down in the valley (if the noise would travel far enough). Unfortunately as you can see from the short bullroarer video footage - all did not go to plan (and yes, I AM mad) (more…)

At 5:30am on Sunday, having loaded our vehicle the day before, we drove down to Dorking Station to set up our stall for the car boot sale and sell lots of items recently superseded by newer wedding gifts. It’s still dark at that time, but that doesn’t stop the keenest bargain hunters armed with torches, grabbing things whilst you unload and set up. We’d expected this early-arrival hassle – it goes with the territory… but what we hadn’t expected was for BBC1’s daytime classic ‘Car Booty’ to set up a pitch right opposite ours. (more…)