My Fancy Dress needs for the year.

I have four Fancy Dress events coming up in the next few months and I have no idea where to start!

The themes are (1) Freddie Mercury; (2) Naughty at Forty; (3) Sheer Heart Attack - I will explain this one and (4) Doctor Who.

The first three are for the annual Queen Fan Club Convention, this is a fantastic event involving lots of music, lots of alcohol (known as Convention Water), competitions, both Queen based and non-Queen based, and catching up with old friends.

I don't want to just buy an over the counter Freddie Mercury costume as there will be people in attendance who will be wearing handmade to the original pattern costumes which over the years will have cost them hundreds of pounds.

I think the easiest way to get round this is to go as Freddie, or Ian Beale*, in the I Want To Break Free video.

I am sure I have got a Vanessa Shanessa Jenkins costume that I can adapt!

Naughty at Forty is because the 40th anniversary of the formation of the fan club.  I really don't know what to do for this.  The best I have come up with so far is a forties style outfit but I am not sure how to a naughty element into it.

Sheer Heart Attack is because as well as this year being the 40th anniversary of the fan club, it is also the 40th anniversary of the album, Sheer Heart Attack.  Again, no idea where to start.  Should I borrow some scrubs from work and go as a surgeon?  

I could go as a stick of rock, Brighton Rock being the first track on the album,  I could try and recreate the Killer Queen outfit from We Will Rock You, Killer Queen is the second track.  

Doctor Who is for a Halloween party but there is just so much choice!  Do I go as a Doctor, an assistant, a baddy?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received!

*Oh, and the Ian Beale reference...

Sunday Night Mash Up

This week I have been in Birmingham again on the second of my revision courses for ACCA.  It was a four day course this time and I felt so drained at the end.

Tomorrow I have a Question Based Day (QBD) in preparation of next Monday's exam.  I don't really rate the QBDs but they are included in my course fee so I go.  On a QBD you sit an exam, but you do it question by question to exam timing.

You do the first question, that is then whisked away for marking whilst you complete the second.  You then get the marked papers for the first question back and then do the third, and so on.

Now in an exam, you can do the questions in any order, in fact this is encouraged.  So you choose your strongest topics and work down to your weakest.  In a QBD if you can't answer a particular question, there is no coming back to it, you just sit there panicing!.

Because I have been in Birmingham, nothing much else has gone on.

Apart from last night was the much awaited and much hyped Day Of The Doctor.  And I was a bit disappointed.  It seemed such an opportunity lost.  And, spoilers sweetie, why was it that John Hurt's Doctor appeared to be regenerating?  Wouldn't he already have done that?  Surely it should have been Matt Smith who changed?

This week, apart from tomorrow, I am back at work so normal service resumes.  Tuesday is weigh in number 3 for the Pounds for Pounds charity weight loss, I am not expecting a weight loss this week, I will be happy with staying the same as last week!

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb...

Further to my earlier blog I decided to make a Rhubarb Sponge with the two stalks of rhubarb I picked this morning.  It wasn't very successful.

It tasted lovely, the sponge was light and fluffy and the rhubarb sweet and tender but I just couldn't turn it out of the bowl I had cooked it in despite greasing it before I used it.  So the picture of my perfect sponge that I had in my head to post is not happening.

I did afterwards make some Yorkshire Puddings, they were far more successful.

While I was waiting for them to cook I caught up on last night's Doctor Who, I completely forgot about it last night.  Does anyone else think that this series still feels very familiar, I know I have said this before.  Last night they entered the room with the power source for the TARDIS but were warned they could only stay in there for minutes before they would die, what powers the TARDIS? Dilithium Crystals?

Next week's episode appears to be the Carry On episode of Doctor Who (we have already had the Red Dwarf and Most Haunted episodes), specifically Carry On Screaming.  For those of you who may not have seen it, people were snatched, and dipped into vats of a wax substance and turned into shop mannequins.

Is there going to be a Breakfast Club episode? That seems to be a favourite amongst writers.