I am cinsidering purchasing a drone and thought I had better check the guidelines for owning and flying drones in the UK.
Although the drone i’m looking at is is under 250g I decided to register as a flyer and operator and managed to complete the test today to complete my registration. You can do the online training free on the governments website and then take the test. If you want to operate and fly drones above Class 0 and 250g and/or with a camera then you can pay the registration fee as an operator for £9 renewable yearly.
On the 27th July 2019 we went to our first Comic Con at Olympia. Got there really early so we could get a car park space at the Olympia car park (£27 for 6-10 hours, £37 10+). Then a 1.5 hour queue until it opened at 9.30am. The downstairs hall was full of stalls selling every sort of memorabilia and upstairs is where the guest signings and photos take place.
We made our way to the desk to collect our Diamond pass goodies to be told we needed to go back outside and queue to collect our actual Diamond passes first. A helpful member of staff let us go through a side door and back in again afterwards to save us having to queue to get back in.
Diamond passes cost up to £200+ for each guest celebrity you want to meet. Someone bought me a pass for William Shatner and Darren & Debbie had passes for Tom Ellis, John Barrowman and Jason Mamoa. A Diamond pass gives you one photo with the guest, one autograph of a photo or other object you bring with you, a guest talk, a goodie bag and you get priority in queues to meet the guests.
Olympia quickly became very warm and busy. There are also no seats and we were standing all day for 10 hours before we got a chance to sit down. Some guests arrived a little late increasing queue times but the diamond pass meant I got to the front of the queue. Some guests were more friendly than others. When I met William Shatner he didn’t really say much but I got him to sign my replica communicator on the front in gold pen. Whilst waiting with Debbie to see John Barrowman, I paid extra to get an autograph with Walter Koenig ( he signed the back of the communicator), Robert Picardo and Lee Majors.
The talk with William Shatner was quite intimate with him recalling stories from his many decades as an actor and the audience could ask questions. With the Diamond pass you get a seat at the front of the stage area.
Downstairs we started looking for collectibles and purchased an acrylic case for my Apollo rocket from idisplayit and a replica Predator head signed by Ian Whyte the actor inside the costume in the film. We bought some food which was very expensive – 2 snacks, 2 drinks cost me £22.90!
It was a fantastic day and a chance to meet some actors from film and tv that I grew up with. Next time I would consider a weekend ticket and it was difficult to see everyone and check out all the stalls in one day.
On Saturday 27th July, we went to the Wembley SSE Arena to see the semi finals for BGT The Champions with Judges, Simon, David, Alesha & Amanda. We got hold of free tickets from applausestore.com.
We arrived via Tube at about 3.00pm and the queues were already long. It took us about 45 minutes until we got to present our online voucher and the staff exchanged this for actual tickets and we were told to return at about 6.00pm.
In the mean time we went a short walk and visited the BoxPark. A series of street food vendors, a bar and various games all inside a large warehouse like building just next door to the arena and Wembley stadium. Beer costs about £5 for a pint. There is a vast array of independent food vendors selling food from many parts of the world. You sit on large benches/tables set around the building on too floors. There are pool tables, TV screens and activities for the kids like face painting. It has a great vide and something for everyone i’m sure.
After lunch we made our way slowly back to the arena for 6.00pm and the queue to get in was huge. It took us about an hour to get into the arena. There are a variety of hot food stalls and bars available and we got some drinks (not cheap) and made our way to our seats with a reasonably good view. Almost every seat was taken by the time the warm up man arrived and told us all what was going to happen. After this, the judges arrived and Ant and Dec and began their intro and the acts started appearing. We enjoyed all the acts and this all went on until after 10.00pm. We left shortly before the end to beat the mad rush for the tube so we didn’t see who won. Hopefully we make it on screen in the audience in one of the shows.
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