99th Garrison collects for Dreamflight at the Urban Exchange Retail Park, M/cr on Saturday 18th May, 2013

The 99th Garrison [supported by our good friends The Mint Imperials] was asked to help promote the Urban Exchange Retail Park, Great Ancoates Street, Manchester and in return we were allowed to collect for Dreamflight. see.www.dreamflight.org. If you follow my blog you should know all about Dreamflight by now and if you don't... well shame on you!

The event had been promoted by the event organisers [Don't Panic  as "Lost in Space" and although I'm shown as Memah Roothes on the poster I wasn't able to wear her costume as I wouldn't have coped with her heels all day yet! I'm gradually building up wearing heels an hour or so at a time!

On this troop I was giving a lift to Dave to the event from Sheffield as he can't drive at the moment due to having a poorly foot [I've told him he's only trying to compete with me!] so that meant leaving home at 7:00am to go and pick him up and then a drive to M\cr over the hills and through the thick mist, where we arrived at about 9:10am after having some debate about whether we were actually meant to be there for 8:00am.  Fortunately, we weren't!

Stu in action when he de-kitted in the afternoon taking one of his now famous photos from the floor looking up at us!

The Urban Exchange centre consists of a M&S retail outlet store, a Go Outdoors, an Aldi and a Gym called PureGym. We were given changing rooms for the day in M&S and Go Outdoors and I was based in the M&S one for the day where I have to say that the staff were ever so friendly. 

The gym was also taking the opportunity to promote itself and that included having one of their staff in a green morph suit!

We had a table in Go Out doors where we could sell a few badges and postcards etc but we were given free range of the centre including the main road.  Dave wasn't able to troop because of his foot so he manned the table all day but did have his face painted as Darth Maul by the childrens face painter who was there for the day with her making the remark that she had a large canvas to work on!  And I had to drive him back home looking like that but he didn't get many strange looks off people, it was as if it was a perfectly normal sight to see people going about their business painted as Darth Maul in M/cr.

It was fairly steady but I wouldn't say that we were busy but we shall see what the collection pots hold. I'll let you know as soon as I can.

There was about twenty of us at this event and I'm sorry if I miss any names off at the end but I will try and remember you all.  It was great to see Stu and his son James again with Liz. I'd not seen them for about two and a half years and I was worried that in that time James may have forgotten me and be all grown up now [at ten] and not want hugs and cuddles anymore - but I needn't have worried - he wanted several throughout the day, including one where he had had his face painted as Darth Maul as well and got red and black paint all over my Scout armour.

Was also good to see the familiar faces of regular troopers and some new ones too ... Darren, John, Sarah and Dave. 

The Face painter also seemed to be doing faces as Memah!

We even had a photographer there from Geek Pride from whom some of the photos on this post have been provided... Thank you!!!

We trooped all day in the various stores and the Gym which included photos of me on push bikes and a Spinning bike. 

We also were photographed in tents, camping chairs, in camouflage jackets with a fishing rod and with hats on... mine had to be pink of course!  

There was also a rather good set of stairs in the gym with some good lighting from where we got several good photos. Here is just one with our scariest new member [Sarah] at the front... an excellent costume and addition to the 99th!

We de-kitted at about 4:0pm and then it was a drive over the hills again [still misty] to take Dave home before getting back home at about 8:10pm.

A huge thanks to Paul, Mel, Stu, James, Liz, Jim, Dave P, Alan, Gary, John, Chris, Darren, Dave A, Vicky, Wayne, Ken, Sarah and to Richard, Neil and Stacey and the rest of the Mints... including R2D2.

The 99th Garrison collects for the MS Society - Saturday, 11th May, 2013

The 99th Garrison often supports the Wirral Branch of the MS Society but on this occasion we were asked to support the Liverpool branch of the MS at the Clayton Square Shopping Centre in Liverpool.

We were due to be in costume from 10:30am and this meant an early departure from home for me of 7:00am and an arrival at the venue of 9:20am.  This was my first troop after my operation to my right foot so it felt a little strange making sure that everything was packed, charged and in working order on the Friday night and getting up so early on a Saturday!

On arrival at the venue we were given a empty shop which used to be a "Game" store as our base for the day which was huge with lots of space to get changed in.  There was me, Craig, Grant, Jim, Colin, Eric, Dave, Alan, Gary, Wayne and Chris, so a really good turn out. 

Even though I'm an old timer when it comes to trooping it did feel a little strange being back in with the others, almost like being a newbie again but we got ready which involved Dave helping me to get my boot on my right foot with a lot of huffing and puffing and a bit of pain [on my part!].  We eventually managed it but we both built up a sweat in the process.  Once the boot was on it was fine though and didn't cause a great deal of pain.  Needless to say, I was soon back into the swing of trooping and it was nice to meet Colin's youngest daughter.

We had an area to "patrol" in the shopping centre near to the MS Table which had been set up for the day by David and we were fairly busy, although it was quiet some of the time at the table.  Some of our troopers went just outside of the centre though where they were quite busy all day with shoppers, passers by and a quite merry Hen Party.  There also seemed to a lot of excitable and frightened teenage girls who with lots of giggles and squeals would eventually have their photo taken or would be surprised by a trooper creeping up behind them, scream and then run away!

The MS society were really pleased and impressed with our help.  They have a day every month at the shopping centre and on average they usually collect about £250.  At the time of writing this post I do not know how much was raised with us being there but they said that they had never seen their table so busy and had never had so many heavy collection pots before.  They will let  me know how much has been raised asap.  

I can now confirm that a grand total of £763.05 was collected!!!   Thank you!!

One of the things that I always notice about any troops that we do in Liverpool [apart from Spaceport] is that you will always see young ladies out and about doing their shopping etc with all their make up on but also with curlers in their hair ready for a Saturday night out. I have never seen this anywhere else other than Liverpool and today was no exception and it always makes me smile.

As there were enough of us at this event we took lunch breaks in two shifts so that there were always troopers in the centre for the public.  Gary, Dave, Craig, Jim and Wayne were also due to finish at 3:00pm as they had to leave to get to Old Trafford for a charity dinner there organised by Mark Busby for a little boy who has neuroblastoma. [As it turns out this was the night before a very sad day for MUFC due to the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson]  So they took the early lunch break at 12 whilst the rest of us had lunch at about 1:00pm.  Dave who is a Liverpool fan and was due to go to Old Trafford insisted that he take a photo of me with a Liverpool FC scarf on.

When it actually got to 3:0pm, I decided to call it a day anyway.  I had found the day particularly tiring and had forgotten how tired you do get on a troop and how much your back [and now one's foot!] can ache.  So we all de-kitted at 3:00pm and posed for the now obligatory post troop photo out of costume. 

Some of us then went home whilst the others went to Old Trafford where they met up with Steve, Heidi, Dave and John [and R2D2] where I'm sure that they had a blast mixing with and terrorising celebrities like Yvette Fielding.  I finally got home at about 6:45pm.

A huge thanks to Colin, Eric, Grant, Craig, Jim, Wayne, Chris, Gary, Alan and Dave.  Was a good day and great to back in the team. Excellent support from Craig, Dave and Eric as crew/photographers! Also thanks go to David Higham of the MS Society and his volunteers [two of which dressed up Princess Leia and Darth Maul] and to Kevin and the security team of the Clayton Square Shopping Centre. 

The 99th Garrison attends the Spaceport Centre in the Wirral - Saturday, 9th March, 2013.

The 99th Garrison has attended events at the Spaceport Centre in the Wirral a few times now and this time we were asked to attend over the weekend of the 9th and 10th with our good friends The Mint Imperials for the centre's Star Wars themed weekend.  

I was only able to do the 9th March on this occasion as I had already arranged to meet my mum on Sunday as it was Mother's Day and also my step dad's 65th birthday.  So, it was a very early 04:30am alarm call on Saturday morning and I dragged myself out of bed about fifteen minutes later!  Fortunately, for me, Dave had agreed to do the driving for this troop so I was picked up about 6;00am and we arrived at the venue at 08:00am!

This was a well attended event and there must have been about 30 costumers there in total on the Saturday.  I'll try and list them all later but I do apologise in advance if I have missed anyone off.  It was also great to see some new members of the 99th who I had not met before and their families!

The Centre was due to open to the public at 10:00am and they had already sold about 1,000 tickets in advance and it was extremely busy!  It got so busy that they had to close the doors for some of the time and not let anymore guests in until some had left the building. Over the course of the weekend the centre had 3,000 visitors... an average day is just 100 visitors!

There were also celebrities at the event, including Derek Lyons, John Chapman, Kathy Munroe and Lord Vader himself... David Prowse and of course, the troopers were keen to get their piccies taken with them!

I did Memah Roothes at this event and was very busy........ at times it was like being on the red carpet at a film premier with cameras flashing away all over the show - only the majority of the audience was children... who called me various names like "The Blue Lady" and the Blue Princess"  and they were extremely polite and well; behaved as well... I didn't have any trouble at all with any of them.

For anyone who doesn't know the Spaceport Centre has a Wallace and Gromit themed upper level for the children... and great for photo opportunities as well!

It was also great to see one of my Dreamflight boys and his brothers and sisters as well at this event.  I was meant to take a picture for him with me, it was one that we had drawn of him where we were on that trip to Florida  last year I but completely forgot... sorry!! You will get it one day... I promise!

There was one little boy who came with his mum who had recently gone blind.  He had seen all of the Star Wars films before he lost his sight and wanted to touch the characters to feel their costumes whilst his mum talked him through what he was touching...amazing!

We also did our now famous young Star Wars fan workshops which involved dressing the smallest child there in an adult's set of chest armour and helmet... the latter the wrong way around of course!, Stormtroopers dancing [Gangam Style - of course] and kissing and lots of wonderful questions from audience.

We were also joined by Paul Alexender - a member of the 99th who also sculpts and makes props, etc.  He brought some clay with him and by the end of Saturday had transformed it into Salicious Crumb.  It was a privilege to watch Salicious evolve from the clay and wires... a very talented man indeed and a huge credit to the Garrison!

Sandwiches were provided by the event organisers and after lunch I managed to stay out trooping for a while but I eventually had to go for a rest and chill and didn't last much longer after that... My feet were killing me and I was absolutely shattered!

I de-kitted and then went out as crew for a while but the centre was starting to empty so there wasn't that much to do.  We then waited and chatted for a while as we always do after a troop but then we all went off the a local pub for a drink and a bite to eat.  There was a bit of a competition between Mel and Dave about who could eat the most and surprisingly Mel beat Dave - or rather Dave was beaten by Scampi... perhaps we should now call him Scampi-trooper?!!

Whilst at the pub, to my surprise, we were joined Ian, Robbie and James who are three of our members from up in the North East.  They had already done an event during the day up in  Newcastle and had travelled down to Liverpool to do the rest of the Spaceport centre event on the Sunday... dedication or what?!

After a meal and two glasses of red wine, I was well and truly TIRED and glad to get home at about 11:00pm!

Now... here I go with my list... A huge thanks to Paul, Rhys, Darran, Jim, Paul T, Mel, James, Dave, Paul A, Ian, Chris, Dave, Andy, Mark and family, Ken, Vicky, Wayne, Gary, Glen, Claire, Colin and Eric and Stacey, Richard, Phill and Neil and the rest of the Mint Imperials.

The 99th Garrison attends LPUK's First Party with Warwick Davis.

The 99th was asked to attend a party to celebrate the LPUK - a new charity set up by Warwick Davis to help little people and their families.  This was their first annual birthday party at the De Vere Hotel in Dudley.   We were supported by our good friends the Mint Imperials.

We were asked to be ready to party by about 4:00pm so it was a leisurely journey down to Dudley courtesy of Dave who kindly offered me a lift on this occasion.  As I'd decided to do Memah at this event, we set off at about 12:00 noon so that I wouldn't have to rush to get ready!  We needn't have worried as we got there in plenty of time and we were delayed in joining the party anyway as they weren't quite ready for us.  We also seemed to be the only troopers who had the correct postcode and didn't get lost on the way... everybody else had got lost to varying degrees!

We were joined by Craig, Ken Paul, Darran, Jim, Gary and Alan and Stacey, Jake, Ken, Phil and Richard and its amazing how many troopers want the opportunity to help Lord Vader polish his helmet!

We were asked to make our entrance into the party at about 4:30.  The delay was due to problems in being able to play the Star Wars music for our entrance.  The party was well on the way by then and the children were already suitably excited.  We entered the room to appropriate Star Wars theme music and then were on the stage for about half an hour posing for photos and mingling.  

Everyone was lovely and the children were great.  I had one little girl called Amy who according to her Dad is now a friend for life... she kept hold of my hand for most of the time and enjoyed telling me about a trip to Disneyland, Paris that she and her family were due to go on soon.

Once everyone had got their photos that they wanted we then had a group photo with all of the children on and one with Warwick as well.

We were then had a short break before going back into the hotel and mingling with the guests in the reception area again and Starbucks cafe which was on site.  The children still followed us around though and thought that it was good fun to attack the troopers with their toy light sabres!  I did have to ask them to do it a bit more gently a couple of times as they were getting carried away but they were well behaved and good fun!

We then de-kitted and had a bite to eat and something to drink before leaving at about 8:30pm and getting back home at about 10:00pm.

A huge thank you to the LPUK for inviting us to the party and to Jim, Craig, Ken, Paul, Darran, Gary [excellent crew as ever!], Alan and Dave from the 99th and to Stacey, Ken, Jake, Richard and Phil from the Mint Imperials.  A classic line from Jake came at the end of the event when he was looking for his bag... only to realise that it was on his back!  lol