Doctor Who

Civilised Working From Home

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My sister in law came to visit in March. When trying to come up with something that we would be interesting to do with her I thought going to the Doctor Who shop. She is Doctor Who fan like I am. I wasn’t sure if she had ever visited the store in her trips to London. She had not so we planned to go. M was going to take the girls to a park nearby while we browsed the shop. When it came time for us to get ready to leave the girls were a bit crazy. Since M had spent time with our sister and law while the girls were in school she suggested that I take her on my own since I was more of a fan.

It was well worth the trip. We geeked out in the shop for a really long time. I bought the girls the latest Sonic screwdriver (13th Doctor) to go with their collection. I also got a Tardis tea set for one.

We also paid the pound to each to go into the museum they have in the back. That may be its own post since it was super awesome. One of the owner showed us around and he was supercool about explaining everything.

It was a fantastic experience even though I spent more money than I had anticipated. On the plus side now I have a tea set to help me get into the tea drinking habit.  Since I got the tea set I have been making a mini pot of tea when working from home.  I am even having it on the weekend.  I treat myself to one or two tea biscuits.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the new ritual.

The girls are even getting into the ritual sometimes on the weekend.  They saw me doing it one day.  I couldn’t say no to them after they saw the tea biscuits.  They also love tea.  Since team to them is really a tiny amount of tea and the rest of the drink being milk in the cup.  Adding a biscuit to the ritual sold them too.

W Sisters Short on The TARDIS

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“It is smaller on the outside, and bigger on the inside”. That is A’s explanation of what a TARDIS is to British kid.

The first thought that came to my mind when I heard that was it was very funny and I had to write it down. The second thing that went through my mind was I thought having a working knowledge about Doctor Who was a legal requirement for all British children? My nephew not knowing about it in America is just sad, however a 7 year old in London not knowing about it I thought was illegal.

Coincidence

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“Never ignore coincidence. Unless, of course, you’re busy. In which case, always ignore coincidence.” Crazy that a Doctor Who quote is semi-appropriate for describing how I feel about something at work.

Of course during the same issue I kept thinking and said out loud at least once “if Woody had only gone to the police, none of this would have every happened. I guess that I am just well rounded in my pop culture quotes.

The W Sisters And The Story of Their Sonic Screwdrivers (And Doctor Who)

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I feel like I have been careful not to impose our opinions on the girls. I was generally pleased then when on their own they started liking Star Wars. I believe I wrote about how I introduced it to them previously.

Like many things we want to expose the girls to we got a book or two about it. They enjoy it so much that I got the entire series as Little Golden books. That segued into watching the movies with them. The girls have now seen all of the movies in the original trilogy at least once. They have also seen the force awakens several times.

Watching the movies was a good segway into the girls requesting for Star Wars stuff. A more than T however T has an Ewok pillow and a few other things. A has numerous Star Wars themed accessories and things. I find it extremely cute. I also love that I can share something that I enjoyed as a child with them. Of course who am I kidding I enjoy it now as well.

Star Wars is of course very mainstream and it was surprisingly easy to introduce them to it. There’s lots of children themed ways to have them engaged in Star Wars such as the books I bought. Other things I have wanted to introduce the girls to have been more elusive to me on how to introduce them.

Doctor Who has been something I’ve enjoyed since I was around 10 or 11 years old. I may have been exposed Star Wars much earlier science fiction franchises have played an important part in my history. Lets not forget partly how we named both girls. T story is here.

Even before I started buying any Star Wars books T had a plush TARDIS. Both girls have lunch boxes however not sure if he’ll ever use them. I still maintain they had to have them.&nbsp. I’ve also gotten the girls action figures. I can’t remember exactly when I bought them however they’ve had them since probably before A could walk. Both girls know of the action figures and they can even identify who is who. I have one doctor, and Amy, and Rory. I am not a purist so it’s a 10th Doctor. since I like him better than the 11th. I wanted the Amy for A. I haven’t found a T one even though I know it exists. Beyond being able to identify them and never really played with them.

Something changed in the past few weeks however. I’m not really sure what however they started taking significantly more of an interest. We were playing with the dollhouse and the girls had several action figures. It was an assortment of wonder woman, Superman, Batman, Belle from beauty and the beast, Ame Pond, Rory and the doctor. I thought it was pretty hysterical the dialogue they had interacting. After that both girls started talking about thr doctor and the companions and asking questions.

Previously I bought a sonic screwdriver that I keep near my desk. Every once in a while and the girls complain that they’re scared about some imaginary thing in their room I take it out and make it light up telling them getting rid of all the bad guys. Both girls love to play with it and make it light up and make noise. After their interest in the action figures the girls started wanting to play with the sonic screwdriver more. I decided to buy another one so I had two of them and give them to the girls. T got my 11th doctor screwdriver and I bought A the 12th Doctor one.

I’ve had to confiscate them so they don’t take them to bed at night and make noise. I also had to prevent them from going to school however A claims she took it to school one day anyway. For right now that’s unconfirmed.

I’m still not sure if the girls are old enough to watch any episode. They do ask questions and I am showing them pictures. I also have shown them some small clips on YouTube.

We are planning a trip to Disney World. M showed the girls a video about it. One of the things that we’re doing with them when where there is a treat to go to Cinderella’s Castle one of the breakfasts. I forget which one. The video showed that one part of the meal everyone has or can bring magic wands, swords or other stuff. We saw kids with an assortment of things. At first the girls asked if they could bring their light sabers. Now they’re asking to bring their sonic screwdrivers.

Overall I’m just enjoying being in the share things I like my two adorable little people. They continue to live up to the statement I always say that they are my entertainment budget. They always seem to entertain me.

Why an I a Sucker For Time Travel Stories?

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I don’t know what it is about time travel stories.  I am a science fiction fan in general but there is something about adding a twist of time travel to a story to make things more interesting.  Since I was a kid I have been fascinated by them.  I think I started thinking about this earlier this week after the new season of Doctor Who came on.  I also have thought about what things I like that I can introduce to the baby once she arrives and is old enough.

One of my favorite movies of all time is one that I remember watching as a kid was The Final Countdown.  What little boy could resist it?  It had aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and time travel.  Even today I still think it is a pretty neat plot and I will watch the DVD every now and again.

I started watching Doctor Who in middle school, around 1983 or so.  I think I just stumbled upon it changing channels.  I started off at the end of Tom Baker.  I think I saw bits and pieces of episodes and then the first one I can completely remember was the Warriors Gate.  I didn’t understand why soon after the main character changed.  i would figure that out later, but to this day I was hooked.  Recently David Tennant’s portrail as the Doctor is probably one of my favorites  but Peter Davison is also still a favorite.  That is most likely because he is the one I remember most growing up since he was what was on the air.

Other shows with a bit of a time travel twist that I couldn’t get enough of were Lost, Journeyman (it got canceled way too soon), and Life on Mars,  I am also a sucker for the genre getting drawn into watching stuff that is really bad.  I wanted to watch Terra Nova for the premise alone and I haven’t been able to watch more than a handful of episodes.  Just because you have good effects does not mean I or anyone else will like something if it doesn’t have a good plot.