Was lange währt, wird endlich ein Picspam!

In December, absolutelynot1 and yours truly* went off on our Big Torchwood Forest Adventure. Did I mention the weather was gorgeous?



But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Day One: Alien Stadium in the bright morning sun opposite our B&B.

Pretty, yes? So of course we took the tour ...



... and marvelled at the armada of ridiculously expensive UV lights nursing the rugby grass though the Welsh winter.



Seats 70,000 (of whom at least 35,000 should not be afraid of heights).



Ugh, wrong number. *sniff*

Yes, the weather was gorgeous indeed.



The view from the top of Cardiff Castle. Alien squid or what?



Again, how did they manage to fit that stadium in there? I mean, look at this:

That's the stands of the Cardiff Blues's stadium. The Cardiff Blues were to move to a new home down in the bay.But then there wasn't enough money. So the Cardiff Blues kept their stadium and they simply, ahem, squeezed the Millenium stadium in.

Visited the stadium, took the tour, bought the dragons.

(Official Merchandise of the Welsh Rugby Union!) This particular species is called Mertesdrachen (for obvious reasons). On the left is my little Gwasanaethau.

Pretty detail: There are dragon scales on the Wales rugby kits!



Good night ...



Day Two: Off to The Bay!
"In these stones horizons sing" makes a really good brain worm.



Oooh, look! The water pillar!



Gotta take our self portrait in that. Standing on the TARDIS-rubbed-off-on-it invisible lift.

 

Ah, let's just stroll along that boardwalk. *humm dee dum*
... humm? What's that big notice board over there ...?
.... OMG!!



It's a Ianto Shrine!!



A mildly emotional example:



(You don't want to know about the really emo ones.)

"Anything is possible in Sci-Fi!"

(My favourite explanation (thank you YouTube) of why Ianto comes
back from the dead: sexually transmitted immortality.)

And since accidentally (I swear!) I had a few sheets of pink heart-patterned paper in my backpack (from a 25-years-old notebook which a friend and me used as letter book) because I always carry a pen and paper around, there was no choice for us but to add a little reverence of our own - with the help of little room sharing in someone else's poly pocket and absolutelynot1's ingenious use of tissue pack adhesive tape.



We only realized later that this was actually Ianto's tourist information door to the hub.

And now: Panto time!
Further proof that John Barrowman and Jens Lehmann are basically the same person:



The location of the New Theatre where Robin Hood was played.

Prior proof:

Jens = Johannes
John = Johannes

Lehmann = something to do with farming
Barrowman = something to do with farming

And my, we had so much fun!
("Oooh, YES!")



And I may now officially wear this teeshirt:



Of course Mr. B. was flirting with the audience at the end of the show - promoting the charity and generally having a laugh. Oh! What? No, Mr. is not asking *me* in my middle-of-the-second-row-seat how I liked the show - I'm sure he means the lady in the seat behind me, or maybe two rows behind me, and anyway, I'm certainly not going to make a fool of myself by answering questions which I haven't been asked in the first place, so I'll just keep sitting here staring blandly at your pretty face if that's alright, yes? *crawls under the seat* (Talk about the tragedy of my life ...)

TMI: I was ovulating on the day of the panto. I'm pretty sure Mr. B. is not to blame though.)

 * Can you tell I've read Mr. B.'s autobiographies (yes, both of them)?

Torchwood ist letztenendes nichts anderes als ein Werbefilm für Cardiff im Serienformat.