4 May 2013 (Saturday) - Star Wars Day

Over a spot of brekkie I tried solving some puzzles. One involved semaphore flags and was relatively straight forward. One involved number substitutions and still has me foxed. GPS + HUNT = CACHE. Clearly C=1. G=8 and H=9, but the rest could be anything.

We then went down to visit the Rear Admiral. A spot more brekkie was in order so we called in at the Black Bulll cafe. The all day breakfast was good - when it arrived. I do think that half an hour's wait was somewhat excessive.
We then moved in to Folkestone to see the Star Wars exhibits; for some months I've been seeing all sorts of adverts about the May 4th events which were planned to be taking place all over Folkestone. To cut a long story short I was disappointed. The highlight of the day was that which we found first - a dalek and a cyberman outside the HMV shop. I'm not quite sure what a dalek and a cyberman have got to do with Star Wars, but it made my day when the cyberman said "hello Manky Badger". It turned out that the cyberman was on my Facebook list. We exchanged pleasantries then made our way to the Chambers bar.

The Chambers bar is one of my favourite pubs, and all the information about the day had advertised that the Chambers was running a Star Wars Cantina event for the day. The advertising had lied. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary at all. Certainly nothing sci-fi related. We had a pint of stout and moved on.

By now it was raining so we hurried to The Grand Hotel for the main event of the day. Hidden away at the back of the hotel were two rooms packed with people selling overpriced sci-fi tat, two daleks, a tardis, a weeping angel, and some people dressed as various incarnations of Doctor Who. If you looked closely there were a couple of stormtroopers and a Darth Maul, but they took some finding.
I don't think I'm being unfair when I say that I went along expecting to be entertained but came out feeling that I'd wasted my time. I saw everything that was there in five minutes. Having been to this sort of event before I realise that in order for it to be successful it needs to be more than just a shop. People want to see a show, people want something which is interactive. Today's event was not what had been billed.

As we walked back along the Leas we were asked for directions to the Grand Hotel by several people. Was I being unfair to the event's organisers when I told these people how unimpressed I was?
Leaving the Hose Beast and er indoors TM" shopping, me and the Rear Admiral went into the Pullman for a crafty pint of Red Top. And then home via a pet food stall in the market and Iceland.

Fudge liked the bone we got for him in the market, and spent the rest of the afternoon very noisily crunching away at it.
We then adjourned round to see Steve and Sarah for an evening's batby. It was a shame that he evening wasn't as nice as yesterday's had been, but it was good to sit outside with friends and have a decent bit of tea al-fresco. It would have been good to have stayed later, but my little dog had been left alone quite a bit today and I was fretting about him. We came home to find he was quite happy. We could have left him longer...

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