Yes, I'm a nerd - so shoot me

Ah, there's nothing quite like fulfilling a fantasy - which is what I accomplished today.

Whenever I mention to anyone that I want to see Wales, and Cardiff in particular, I tend to get the same question: why?

Why? I'll tell you why! It's because this is where the new series of Doctor Who is made, and I want to see the locations where it's filmed!



Let's head back a number of years to my childhood. Year four of Primary school. My family had just moved back to Newcastle after living in Tuncurry for a couple of years and I'd started at a new school. It's always a tough thing to do, but thankfully I met several friends who, I'm very proud to say, are still friends today. One of them in particular - and he knows who he is - is still one of my closest buddies today.

I can still remember it clearly: for some reason, our class had to spend the afternoon in one of the other classrooms. I dutifully filed in and sat down with the only two people I knew, Alex and Christian. After a bit of chit chat, Alex asked me if I liked Doctor Who. I can't remember what my answer was, but my honest answer looking back on it would have probably been that I'd never really seen it that much, but liked what I'd seen. My memory is shot to pieces these days, so I could be wrong.



I guess this was a sufficiently positive answer for my friends as one of the novelisations was quickly shoved under my nose and I got reading (which was what we were supposed to be doing in this double-sized class). I can even remember which book it was: Planet of the Daleks, one of Jon Pertwee's adventures. You see, it had a pretty big impact on me that I can still remember to this day.

You can probably guess the rest of the story: Drew likes book, watches more of the show, reads more books and is totally hooked - and also kicks off a lifetime love of science-fiction and horror. It's been this way pretty much ever since too; ever since, I have always had a soft spot for the Doctor and his adventures through time and space.



Closer to the present: a few years ago, while I was writing for the magazines, I co-authored an article for What DVD about the 40th Anniversary of Doctor Who - an article I still think is one of the best I've ever written. In it, I made a wild prediction: later that year (2003), there would be a big announcement made about the future of my favourite science-fiction series.

Guess what? I WAS BLOODY RIGHT!

Later that year it was announced that Doctor Who was finally making its return to TV, almost 15 years since its last appearance. Naturally I was over the moon - not just because I'd predicted it happening, but because... well, the Doctor was coming back!

I'll admit, I am a little biased, but I am absolutely thrilled with how the new series has turned out. As a fan, I've always had to put up with the smart-arse comments about the dodgy effects, the wobbly sets and the tacky acting - but I never really let it get to me simply because I absolutely love the premise and the stories which, in the end, is really what it's all about. This time around, however, the show has been blessed with it all: visuals, effects, actors and stories. It's a perfect blend and I'm proud to announce to the world that I'm a Doctor Who fan.

Cut to the present: after accepting the offer to come to the UK, it quickly dawned on me that I'd be able to spend a bit of my time location spotting. You see, the new series (and its less than stellar spin-off, Torchwood) is now filmed almost entirely in Wales - a lot of it in Cardiff, the capital city - so I thought it might be a good excuse to come over to this side of the country and have a look around.

Which is exactly what I did today!

I arrived in Cardiff last night at around 10pm - completely pooped and extremely hungry. I'm staying in a hostel just over the river from the Millennium Stadium, which has been used as a set a few times during the filming of the first two series. After a few drinks, some food and a big sleep, I woke up ready to visit some of the sights I've seen on the small screen.

Imagine my disappointment walking around Cardiff city and not seeing anything. I hate to break it to anyone, but Cardiff is not the most exciting place I've been to. It's remarkably small for a capital city (it's roughly the same size as Newcastle, if not smaller) and there's not much around to look at. I chanced across a shopping centre that was used in one episode, but I was quickly becoming quite disenchanted with this leg of my journey.



After buying a new pair of pants to replace my mud-stained ones, I thought I'd take a trip to Cardiff Bay to see if there was anything there worth seeing. The girl at the hostel warned me there wasn't really a lot to see there, so I was braced for the worst.

On the contrary - it was the motherlode!

It turns out that most of Doctor Who (and Torchwood in particular) is filmed in Cardiff Bay, not the city itself!

Hopping off the bus, I was greeted immediately with the astonishing Millennium Centre and, more importantly, the entrance to the Cardiff branch of the Torchwood Institute! It's a good thing my camera is digital, I would've wasted a hell of a lot of film just on this one monument alone.



Wandering around the area was a Who fan's delight: I walked along the pier where Mickey and Rose talked about getting a room for the night; I walked down the very same flight of stairs that the Doctor hurriedly escorted his captive female Slitheen down; I saw the restaurant they ate at; over the bay I could see the area where Elton had once again discovered the TARDIS; not only did I see the main entrance to the Torchwood Institute, but I also walked past (at first, not realising what it was!) the "fake" entrance - there are so many areas around that have been used on both shows it's crazy.



After marvelling at it all for a while, I wandered up to the visitor centre and picked up a Doctor Who location guide (the Welsh seem justifiably proud of their association) as well as information on a museum exhibit showcasing some of the props and monsters from the show. You can guess what I spent the next couple of hours doing.



I'm sure there are plenty of people reading this thinking I'm nuts, that I should be out seeing the "real" sights of Wales rather than wasting my time on immature and childish pursuits. To you, I say: you're wrong.

I had so much fun today, it has truly been one of the most exciting days for me for this entire holiday and I am extremely glad that I did it. The last year or so has been quite difficult for me, so taking the time out today to forget all about my worries and, instead, reverting back into that bewildered little kid I used to be has made a tremendous impact on me.

But I Don't Even Like Cheese!

Well, adventure is what I wanted - and adventure is what I got.

Yesterday I left Bath and visited Cheddar, home of a massive gorge and some very impressive caves. Oh, and cheese.

Getting there wasn't quite as straightforward as I'd hoped. Rather than just catching a train there, or even a single bus, I had to catch one bus all the way to Wells (an hour away), then catch a connecting bus to Cheddar (20 minutes). This was a doddle; it was also a nice ride through some grandiose scenery. I made it there eventually and headed up to see the caves.

As tourist traps go, Cheddar's not bad. The caves are quite interesting (and they were warmer than outside), and they've even gone to the effort of transforming one of the cave tunnels into a faux-Lord of the Rings adventure/scare path. I was the only one who went through so, being the mighty brave and manly man I am, nobody saw me jump at the scares (one of which involved the shop owner dressing up and standing very still... until walking past him).

I didn't have a lot of time in Cheddar - only a few hours - so I was initially a little hesitant about going on the Gorge walk, but I figured I'd have enough time to see part of it and headed up the 268 steps to its entrance.

Now, I'm unfit at the best of times so this was quite a hike for me - but I eventually made it. But that was only the beginning! The full walk goes up one side of the Gorge and down the other - did I mention it's huge? Well, the Gorge is HUGE. I don't know how far I walked, but it took me a good hour or so to do the first half the walk - maybe a little longer seeing how I kept stopping to take pictures.

By now, time was now running low to get back to the bus so I opted to walk back via the road rather than the second half of the gorge. It didn't take long until I figured out this was a mistake. This road was obviously not made for walking as there was bugger all space on either side of the road and there were plenty of cars around, but I persevered.

What I haven't mentioned yet is the weather. Most of the day had been quite overcast, but as I started to make my way along the path the rain decided to come down. Not too heavy, but just enough to make the area damp. And muddy. And slippery. As luck would have it, I made it all the way up and down without falling once, and this included some very precarious slopes and paths.

I'm sure you can guess where this is going - and you'd be right.

Walking along the flat road, I had to make a detour through the grass on the side of the road in order to avoid being mashed by one of the many cars. It didn't look slippery, so I didn't take as much care as usual - and fell slap bang right on my bum. My jeans, my jacket, my jumper - none of it escaped the mud.

Feeling like an arse, I rushed back to the bus stop and waited. And waited. And waited. It turned out I had plenty of time and could've made it up and down the other side of the gorge after all - and probably would have avoided looking like a messy homeless guy sitting at a bus shelter.

The next stop on my tour was Cardiff and the only way I could get there from Cheddar was via Bristol, which meant catching the bus back to Wells, catching another one to Bristol and finally another bus to Cardiff! Making it to Wells was easy enough, but there was a good 40 minute wait in the cold for the bus to Bristol, which itself was another good hour ride.

I didn't end up making it there until just after 7pm, just in time to see the bus station cafe closing. Thankfully, I only had to wait...

Ugh, just remembering it drudges up the pain again. I had to wait another hour and twenty minutes for the bus to Cardiff. I think most of the day was spent waiting for buses. Of course, it gets better - the time came... and went... and still no sign of the bus!

40 minutes later (!!!) it finally arrived, but the bus driver didn't want to sell me a ticket and suggested I wait for the next one - this was the last one. Thankfully, he must've realised this and gave me a sly grin and told me to hop on anyway.

At last, I was on the way to my next destination - Cardiff!

Bath

No time for clever titles today, I'm sitting in an Internet cafe and the time is ticking by. I've been booking accommodation for the next week, which is harder than I expected. Although I wanted to spend a few days uninterrupted in Cardiff, I've had to break it up with a trip north simply because I couldn't get anything on Saturday night.

Tonight is my last night here in Bath. I actually decided to extend my stay here by a night simply because I was enjoying the place so much and I wanted to see more of it. Not to mention I was told tonight is going to see around 10,000 toga-clad partiers hitting the streets for one of the biggest nights of the year. Honestly, who can say no to that?

Yesterday was mostly spent wandering around the city and taking in some of the sights, primarily the Roman Baths. This was the site of a huge temple and hot spring baths way back in the days that the Romans were occupying the land and has been used by various other people throughout history since. It was only recently rediscovered - around 100 years ago - and is a pretty spectacular place to visit. I was told to leave an hour to go through the place - I ended up in there for almost three.

The tour concluded with a chance to taste the water in the Pump Room which, of course, I did. I then spent the next five minutes desperately searching for something else to take the taste out of my mouth. It's worth a taste, but only once. Back in the old days it was prescribed as medicine - funnily enough, medicine these days tastes just as bad.

After this I was determined to find a decent vantage point from which to see the city, so I headed north up a long, tall hill in hopes of finding a good spot. After an hour of walking I was just about to give up hope (especially after the freezing cold wind and tiny particles of ice had started to pelt me) when I chanced across a cemetary that had some amazing views of the city. It was a suitably creepy area too - lots of crumbling tombstones and sunken graves made me think of Night of the Living Dead. No zombies, though.

An hour later I was back at the hostel - and I was buggered. Lightweight that I am, I spent most of the night relaxing in front of the teevee, but before I went to bed I headed downstairs to the bar to grab a drink and book another night.

This morning I went on the free walking tour of the city, which I'd tried to do the day before but I couldn't find where it was so I missed out. It was a great walk as well as a great tour, taking us through a surprisingly large area of the city. I know someone will be interested to know that I went past where Jane Austen spent 18 months living in Bath (and apparently wrote Northanger Abbey) as well as walked one of the walks she discussed in both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. I haven't gone into the Austen Centre though, partly because I've been told it's not that good - but also because my interest in Jane Austen ended around seven months ago.

Our tour guide was a great old guy. He's been doing the walking tour for 24 years now and he obviously knows his stuff. He was also far fitter than the rest of us as he had no problem scurrying around the streets and outrunning us with ease.

After the tour I hopped on one of the tour buses that circles the city in order to visit Prior Park, which promised (and delivered) a stunning view of the city. I took many, many pictures here (it was a beautiful area) but I had to rush my way around in order to get back to the bus in time.

I'm really glad I took the time to stay another night, there's a lot I missed seeing yesterday that I managed to catch today. Plus the weather today was a lot better - it was just as cold, but the sky was mostly devoid of clouds.

Tomorrow I thought I'd head out to Cheddar to see the caves out there before heading into Cardiff. But, once again, I'm getting ahead of myself - I still have a toga party to get through!

Where are the dancing little people?

At this very moment, I'm sitting in the pub underneath my hostel in Bath. I've had a couple of drinks, I'm watching the Chelsea vs. Tottenham football game and I'm having a bloody good time.

I'm back on the road - and I'm loving it. After arising slightly later this morning than I'd hoped, I packed up my bags, tidied up my mess as best I could (again, thank you very much for the last week Margaret and Lee!) and hopped on the tube to Waterloo station on the way to my first stop: Stonehenge.

I was in a bit of a hurry to leave and I didn't have a chance to have breakfast, so after buying my ticket to Salisbury I grabbed some lunch, a drink and a book to read on the train. A couple of hours later I was deposited at Salisbury station with a bus ticket out to Stonehenge.

For some reason, I have been completely unable to get the Spinal Tap song out of my head - but that's okay, because Stonehenge completely lived up to all of my expectations. Fair enough, it's basically a pile of big rocks - but what a pile of rocks!

This site is so old and rich with history, it's mind boggling to understand what an amazing monument it is. The stones are MASSIVE and, according to the tour guide, are buried in the ground so that ony two thirds of each rock is poking out of the ground. I don't quite understand how they know, but the stones were apparently carved in Wales and shipped to the area and erected. The beautifully crazy bunch who built it also put in a few fancy architectural tricks in order to hold the stones together. Fantastic stuff.

Aside from the 'henge itself, the area was jaw droppingly beautiful with green pastures surrounding the area. It was also freezing cold, thanks to a particularly brittle arctic blast that decided to arrive yesterday - but nothing could dampen my enthusiasm. Naturally, I took a bunch of pictures (some of them should be pretty spectactular too, the sky was magnificent) but I won't be able to post any until I get back to London.

Braving the weather for another 40 minutes waiting for the bus, it suddenly dawned on me that something was missing - I left my bloody book on the bus on the way! After a few curses at my carelessness (notch up a £7.99 carelessness tax), the bus arrived and I was soon on the train to Bath.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in buying me a belated birthday present: Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis would be a nice surprise.

What can I say about Bath except I absolutely love the place. I originally had no intention of coming here, but a couple of people mentioned I should drop by while I'm close to Stonehenge - and I'm so glad I did. I'm currently booked in to stay for two nights, but I'm seriously considering adding another day so I can take a bit longer to check the place out.

I'm not kidding - after three hours I was looking the window of a real estate agent checking out prices of houses. This is the first place I've been to that I've felt I could really live here.

As usual, I arrived as the sun was starting to go down. After I checked in, I stopped by the bar downstairs for a drink before heading out into the town for a quick recce. By now it was getting quite dark, but I messed around with my camera for a little while taking some snaps (I have no idea how they'll turn out) before heading back to the bar for some food and some more drinks.

Which is where I am now. And with less than three minutes on the Internet machine (and Shampoo's 'Trouble' playing over the sound system), I must depart.

On the Road Again

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving on my first UK adventure. I'm planning to be gone for at least a week, maybe two, so don't panic if you don't hear from me - I'm probably off having a good time somewhere.

One Week of London

Technically, this is my eighth day - but what the hell.

I think I've now significantly recovered from jet lag enough to be able to recount some of the shenanigans I've been up to since arriving in the United Kingdom.

My introduction to London was quite a shock, but a pretty good one. As I've mentioned, Lee, Margaret and I all went to see Nine Inch Nails in Brixton - which was a big thrill for me. Not because I was seeing NIN (although it was a great show) but because I've always wanted to go see a band at Brixton Academy - and here it was, not three hours into the country and I've already struck one of the items from my checklist!

The same night was also my introduction to the tube and the famous red double-decker buses, although most of it was a total blur because my brain had started to melt out of my ears from exhaustion.

In the morning, I woke up and headed into the city with Lee, who suggested I should jump on one of the tour buses that are continually driving around the city. Not one to ignore good advice (I can hear the muffled laughter from here), this is what I did. It was cold, but damn was it exciting seeing all of the sights I've only ever seen on teevee. The Thames, the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul's Cathedral... the place is packed with things to see.

I stopped off at the London Eye and took a trip up in that - somehow forgetting that I'm afraid of heights (I can hear the muffled laughter from here), so I spent most of the ride doing my best to get close to the glass and trying not to look down too much.

On Saturday we all hopped on the tube and watched Lee play a game of Lacrosse - then headed down to the bar for a few drinks. I was pretty grateful for such a peaceful day, to be honest.

Sunday was quite fun - I took myself into the city and wandered around for a while, mostly around the Regent Street and Leicester Square area. I spent a few hours checking out the Apple store quite thoroughly, then just meandered around the streets taking it all in. When it started to get dark I headed back to the flat.

Funnily enough, just as I was about to open the door it was opened for me by Lee and Margaret who were on their way out to dinner - which they very kindly invited me along to. We wandered up the road to a restaurant they've been to a few times before and assured me was really good.

It turned to be the funniest meal I've ever eaten in my life.

We turned up a little early, but were still allowed in by the very cheerful manager. After a few minutes he came to take our drink orders, but warned us that they'd had a big lunch crowd so the alcohol situation was a little shaky. Lee and Margaret discussed with him about what to order, and off he went. They then proceeded to tell me that the manager - the guy who served us - wasn't the usual guy that's there, but he still seemed just as jolly.

Not five minutes after he took our drink order, he was back at the table with a surprised look on his face wondering why we didn't have any alcohol - and then proceeded to take our drink order. Again. This was just the first sign of just how jolly he was that night.

In the meantime, more people had arrived and had started to order - including a table of eight. After a good ten or fifteen minutes, our effervescent manager reappeared at another table with some dishes - unfortunately, they weren't what this table had ordered. Obviously a little flustered, he placed a couple of the dishes down on a nearby empty table and returned to the kitchen.

Moments later, he reappeared at the same table and apologised - and proceeded to take their order again. The next time he disappeared back in the kitchen, the large table had decided they'd had enough and all proceeded to leave.

By now we'd had our drinks delivered but, from what we could work out from the girl who was also working that night, it turns out he had taken the orders from several tables, but had neglected to take note of which order went with which table. In order to save time, she took our order again, apologised profusely and, with a beautiful smile that simultaneously expressed frustration, incredulation and further sincere apology, informed us that this was her first night working here.

As we continued to wait, we began to notice the manager was starting to sway a little more than he'd done previously. We also noticed that the rest of the staff were obviously none too pleased at his behaviour, especially the new waitress. She later told us that she'd forced him to sit on the floor in the kitchen and eat all of the wasted food that he'd tried to deliver.

As Lee and Margaret continued to reassure me that this place was not normally like visiting an episode of Fawlty Towers (and I believe them!), the waitress was taking charge and getting everything back on track. We shared a few laughs with some of the other diners and soon everyone's food had arrived. As expected, it was excellent.

Then the manager tried to make himself a cup of coffee.

As we continued to eat, a loud crash came from behind the bar. And then another. I could see into the bar from my seat, so I watched what was happening. Sure enough, our good friend was back there trying to figure out the coffee machine and doing a superbly awful job at it.

We decided not to risk a dessert and instead elected just to leave. At the bar we found the waitress and the (swaying) manager, whose shirt was now covered in coffee stains. I guess he was the only one who was able to work the cash register, as he was being sternly ordered by the waitress on what to enter into it. As we left, she thanked us profusely.

Monday I did nothing except stay indoors - by now I needed a bit of a break. Especially considering...

Tuesday was my birthday! This whole trip has been my big birthday present to myself, but I figured I should do something fun for the day so I headed in to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, then took another wander around the city until it was time to meet up with Lee and Margaret who took me out to this fantastic Pakistani restaurant. Not only was the food wonderful, but the service was impeccable - dishes started to arrive within five minutes of ordering. After dinner, we went into Soho to a couple of bars for some drinks. A damn fine birthday, I must say - definitely a memorable way of entering my thirties.

Wednesday I took in a show... okay, a movie. As a massive fan of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead, I finally found my chance to see Hot Fuzz - and, naturally, I loved it. I'll have to watch it a few more times to decide if it's topped Shaun though (which is currently one of my favourite movies of all time).

Thursday saw me head back into the city for another walk around, this time I took a look around Buckingham Palace and the gardens that are nearby. Everything looks a lot smaller than I'd imagined, but it's still a thrill to see all of these places in the flesh. One of the highlights was when a squirrel decided to run up to me - I guess in hopes that I'd feed it. It then paraded around the area, giving myself and another lady enough time to snap a few photos. You'd swear it was posing for us.

Which finally leads me today, Friday. Tonight I'm meeting up with an old friend from high school who I ran into briefly in Newcastle on Christmas Eve. She's been living out here for the last couple of years and invited me to her work farewell do, which is where I'm off to right now.

So Where Was I?

Last time we left off, our hero had just worn away a significant amount of shoe rubber walking around Kyoto. We now continue with the rest of his adventures in the land of the crazy vending machines - Japan!

The morning after my massive walk around Kyoto, I was naturally pretty tired - but no rest for the wicked. Overnight the weather had turned for the worse and it was really bucketing down outside - and the train station was quite a long way away. The guy at the hostel suggested I bus it back to the station, so a short wander up the road to the bus stop and 150 yen later I was back at the train station and on my way to Hiroshima.

I'm not going to add any commentary about Hiroshima itself, I'm pretty sure everyone knows its history. All I'll say is that I had one hell of a rush trying to pack as much of the place into one brief afternoon.

As I've mentioned earlier, I didn't really plan this trip all that well - there are a lot of things I'd do differently now. If I had any single regret about my trip to Japan it's that I didn't get enough time at Hiroshima. I was very lucky that the hostel I was staying at was so close to the Peace Park so I managed to see quite a bit of this area.

Without a doubt the most impressive sight here was the A-Bomb Dome, but there were also quite a few different shrines to the many different people who died here. It's a sobering area to walk around. I can't help the feeling that some of the psychopaths who are in power of the various governments around the world could do worse than spend an afternoon here so they can see first-hand the unnecessary pain they inflict upon ordinary people.

Sorry, that's as political as I plan to get. Back to the action.

With the light starting to fade, I walked as fast as I could up to Hiroshima Castle to take a look here. This place was originally built in the 16th Century and was destroyed by the atomic bomb. The recreation was completed in 1958 and is now a museum.

It's a really nice area here and the castle outside is quite impressive, but by now I was starting to have a bit of Temple/Shrine/Castle burnout. I took a bit of a walk around the streets for a while, but I was still pretty tired from the day before so I decided to head back to the hostel for the night.

The next day has already been fairly well documented already, but I'll cover it briefly again - I caught the Shinkansen from Hiroshima to Osaka and managed to check into the wrong hotel. What I haven't talked about yet is my extreme regret that I didn't just skip Osaka completely and stay in Hiroshima for another night.

While I was at the hostel, a couple of the other people staying there were planning a trip in the morning to Miyajima - which, I'd been told by another traveller, is considered one of the three most beautiful areas in all of Japan. Rather than spending a tranquil day looking at these fantastic sights, instead I was stuck in yet another city - but this time, it didn't appear to have any of the redeeming features of Tokyo or Kyoto.

Osaka is the only place I stayed that I didn't enjoy. Mistaken hotel incident aside, I found the place dirty, smelly and generally unpleasant. It was also the only place in my entire trip where I actually felt threatened by any of the locals - everywhere else I only ever felt welcome. I went for a walk after I'd checked into the correct hotel, but by this time it was dark and I was nowhere near any of the sights worth visiting.

Thankfully, the next day I was heading back to Tokyo - which I did as early as possible. Along the way, the Shinkansen travelled past Mt. Fuji so I took the time to take as many pictures as I could.

That's about all there is to tell really. After this, I took the Narita Express back to the Airport and stayed overnight in yet another hostel, then in the morning caught my flight to London via Frankfurt.