Turning 30 Whovian style

It was my birthday on Friday :)  I turned 30.

The cake my Dad made and
decorated for me

I had very mixed emotions about turning 30 - I'm sure many people do.  Part of me was happy or unconcerned, part of me was using it as an excuse for multiple shopping trips, and part of me was totally dreading it.  I was feeling like I hadn't achieved all these things I thought I was supposed to do by 30, feeling like my life didn't have a lot of direction or purpose, that I wasn't sure what the hell I was meant to be doing with my life. 

I got over it (mostly) and life seems to have carried on as normal.

In the end, my 30th was a pretty relaxed affair with work for the day, and then a family dinner to the Chinese restaurant.

On the Saturday we had a bit of a 'do at my parent's place.  It was Doctor Who themed because I am a geek and proud of it.  However for the guests (none of whom are Whovians and very few of whom are into dressing up) I told them it was Time and Space, which meant they could dress as anything from time and/or space.  Most people didn't get into it, a couple wore themed shirts, but a few went right out which was awesome.  The main thing was that I had a lot of fun decorating everything in blue and silver, pulling out every Whovian thing I owned.  I even bought a TARDIS dress especially for the night.

My TARDIS dress

Ancient Greeks and an astronaut dropped in for the night

David Tennant with his TARDIS, Mr Spck and Princess Leah

Whovian decorations on display

The main celebration for my 30th birthday though is this weekend: a few friends (including my parents, who I count as my friends) and I are heading to Brisbane for the weekend.  We're meeting up with some other friends for a High Tea Saturday afternoon, and then some of us are off to QPAC to see Wicked.  This will be the fourth time I've seen Wicked and I am so excited!

In other news...

I've been posting stitching updates on Instagram lately, including a Super Hero Swap I've been involved in, and the Floss Tube Photo A Day challenge.  I'm @FangirlStitches on Instagram so jump on there and follow me.  I'll post a bit of a project update on Blogger too next week.

Happy Stitching!

New Who and the ABC

Have you been watching the new Doctor Who?

For the first episode of the new season, the ABC decided to air it at the same time as the UK. Which was 4:50am Sunday morning.  They also uploaded it straight to their online site ABC iView, and re-aired it at 7pm that night, which is when they usually show Doctor Who over here.

Yes, I got up at 4:50 to watch it.  I was in Brisbane with my parents at the time- we'd flown down to see David Suchet in The Last Confession. (Which also stared George Spartel from Play School, and Stuart Milligan from Johnathon Creek- not sure who I was most excited about!). Anyway, we were all staying in the one motel room so my parents also had to get up to watch the episode.  They would have done so anyway I'm sure! 

What was really awesome though was that, in response to how popular the early morning airing and the instant iView upload were, the ABC have decided to continue to do this for the rest of the season!

Which I love.  It shows that a) the viewing world has changed and b) that television stations can adapt to suit the new market.  Someone at Comic Con said that Australia has the highest download rate per head of any country in the world.  Which I readily believe. With the internet and social media, information on new episodes is readily available at a mouse click (or a touch if you're a tablet user). It's hard to avoid spoilers.  And people don't want to wait.  We know instantly when a new episode of our favourite international show is released in The UK or USA.  The chat forums, blog sites, and social media pages go crazy with spoilers and memes.  It's hard to avoid.  Fans become frustrated. The TV stations can take up to 6 months to aire new shows, and iTunes is just as bad, if not worse. It's relatively easy to find illegal copies of episodes and watch them online.  So many people I know would rather watch a show on TV (minus the ads perhaps) or pay for a legal copy on iTunes or the like, but they become frustrated with the wait and so look elsewhere. Which means the TV stations don't get their ratings, and iTunes (or the like) don't get their profit. The same goes for DVD sales when people buy from overseas for the same reasons, but that 's another story.

So good on the ABC for leading the way.  Good on the ABC for showing how it can be done.  For showing that it does work, that it is worth it, that people want to do things the right way.  Good on the ABC for letting us.  Now if only the Australian Government would stop cutting the ABC's funding, maybe they can continue to bring us brilliant, quality international shows in line with other countries.  Oh and some good old home-grown stuff too (ANZAC Girls and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries being perfect examples).

This was going to be a blog about the New Doctor and my take on the new episodes, but it got off track.  Will have to save that for the next one!

Happy Stitching!

P.S. No, I didn't get up at 4:50am to watch the next episode.  Instead I watched it at 6:30am when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.  The third one I watched at 7pm with my Dad for Father's Day (I was in Brisbane again but at my brother's house so decided to wait to watch it with Dad).  Yes, I may get up early to watch next week's episode :)

The New Doctor

Have you seen the recent costume reveal for the new Doctor, Peter Capaldi?  The 12th, 13th, or 14th Doctor, depending on your counting system:

• 12th Doctor if you don't count John Hurt's Doctor - he didn't call himself the Doctor during that regeneration, and had also been called The War Doctor so that the other Doctors didn't have to be re-numbered
• 13th Doctor if you do count John Hurt (who was a pretty awesome Doctor if you ask me)
• 14th Doctor if you include the 2nd regeneration for David Tennant

I quite like the new Doctor's costume.  Very refined, simple, but with a hint of colour.  Some people have been comparing it to John Pertewi's outfit, while others have been complaining that there is nothing "distinctive" about it.  

Photo from drwho-online.co.uk

Personally, I like it.  I enjoyed Matt Smith's "bowties are cool", Tennant's long flowing trench coat, and who could forget the 4th Doctor's scarf; however sometimes I think costume designers can go overboard trying to be "cool" or "different" or "distinctive", remember the 6th Doctor's technicolour dreamcoat?  Sometimes simple, elegant and classic is the best.

Past Doctor costumes from The Day of The Doctor cross stitch pattern, available from Fangirl Stitches

As Peter Capaldi himself has said "He's woven the future from the cloth of the past.  Simple, stark, and back to basics.  No frills, no scarf, no messing, just 100% Rebel Time Lord." (bbc.co.uk)

Now who could argue with that?

I'm really looking forward to Capaldi's era as the Doctor.  While David Tennant stole my heart, and I'll always have a soft spot for Chris Ecclesten, Matt Smith irritated me most of the time.  He did grow on me towards the end, and he did have some spectacular moments, particularly during the 50th and every story with River; however I spent most of his tenure wishing for Tennant to come back!  I'm also hoping Capaldi helps improve Clara for me, who I personally don't like.  I'm over the whole companion-has-a-crush-on-the-Doctor storylines.  I think that's why I didn't really like Amy Pond either.  And why I miss Rory and Donna. 

I'm getting off topic.  As I said, I'm looking forward to Capaldi's era.  I'm looking forward to a bit of gravitas, and maybe a little bit of "acting like grown-ups".  I'd have enjoyed some more of John Hurt too (Big Finish audios perhaps?).  Ooo, I'm also looking forward to his voice - will he be Scottish or English?  Or maybe Northern?  Providing he's not Essex, we're all good.

I'm also really looking forward to some new monsters, new quotes, and to designing new cross stitch patterns for the Rebel Time Lord.

It Is Defended cross stitch pattern from Fangirl Stitches

What do you think of Capaldi's outfit?  What's your favourite Doctor Who moment?  What would you like to see in cross stitch?

Happy Stitching!