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Old 5 Jan 17, 01:25 PM  
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LE (it) GO, LE (it) GO - my LEGO birthday

LE (it) GO, LE (it) GO
Celebrating a Lego birthday

3rd January and I’m 66. I start the day with a visit to the Doctor’s Surgery. I take Warfarin and have to have an INR level test every so often. Today’s is at 8:30. All goes fine. However, at 9a.m. I have to see the diabetes nurse re my HBIac levels so I spend some twenty minutes in the reception area between the two. Now then, did you know why all the magazines in a Doctor’s surgery are so old and boring? It’s because people pinch the best ones! They take a fancy to a holiday article or a garden layout or a recipe or a knitting pattern and they tuck them under their coats. It’s a fact!

So in I go to see the nurse. She sorts me out and takes blood samples and gives me a urine sample bottle which must be filled first thing tomorrow without fail and returned forthwith. I know how to celebrate a birthday! She also gives me two gifts for my birthday. The first is a flu jab and the second is a course of antibiotics for the chesty productive cough that I have had since contracting some virus 6 weeks ago.

I return home for breakfast and my darling husband has created smoked salmon and scrambled egg on toast. One of my favourites.
I open my cards and presents.



Once that is sorted Darrin is off to work off to work. It’s the first proper working day after all the festivities. I am “off into town” which is a Northern way of saying going into the city - that city being London. Living where we do I can be at Baker Street in 25 minutes but my destination is Leicester Square.

Anybody who watched the Channel 4 “Big Lego Christmas” programme on TV over Christmas will know about the new flagship Lego store which has opened recently on the corner of the square.



Anybody who knows me, knows my love for Lego. There’s no way it was invented for kids. It’s for adults! It’s the modern day jigsaw which relaxes and calms the model builder giving total satisfaction when the project is complete. I put together the $200 Statue of Liberty some years ago and because of its somewhat limited release, she now stands on a shelf in the corner of our living room glowing to the fact that if you want her, box and instruction book, you will need to part with nearly £7,000. I kid you not.



The original LEGO 10179 Star Wars Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon, if still sealed, commands $ 4.500 (£ 3,700) on Ebay. I could cheerfully kill my eldest nephew who still has the model but did not keep the original box nor the instruction book.

I digress – a tendency of mine. I’m 66 you know!

So at its opening the queue to get in the new Lego store was some 90 minutes plus. You’d have thought Frozen’s Anna and Elsa were appearing. Today it was just over 30 minutes. I chatted to some guy from Woking whose lad had seen the programme and wanted to see it “in the brick” so to speak. We eventually are alongside the Underground train viewed from outside through the window. (Well over 600,000 bricks). Looking upon us are Robin Hood, the Queen and some footballer holding a ball and a trophy. I swear his vest says Acton but it’s difficult to see with his arm in front of it. It’s certainly not David Beckham. The hair isn’t right.







We have now reached the corner for the stretch into the front door. They are certainly controlling numbers within. When I finally get in, I wouldn’t call it busy.

I take snaps of the tube train and its other occupants namely a Guardsman and William Shakespeare.



The driver at the front is holding a coffee mug and being an ex Underground employee, I can’t but cynically think that they’ve left out a Sun newspaper!



Then there is Big Ben (proper name – the Elizabeth Tower. It’s the bell that’s Big Ben. It stands some 35 feet and took nearly 2,300 employee hours to build (in the Czech Republic). It was shipped over in 4 segments and assembled in store. All the clock faces work and it chimes on every quarter hour (sound chip) which is more than the real thing will be doing for 3 years whilst it undergoes refurbishment.





The detail on it is incredible:



In a corner is Lester. He is the store's mascot:



As you climb the stairs to the first floor (there is also a lift) there is a diorama of London done in relief. Every so often the spotlights dim and all the car headlights, building windows and street lamps in the diorama come on.





You can see the layers here:



From up here you another view of "Big Ben":



There is a dragon called Brickley (not unlike the one you see at Disney Springs in Florida) but this one weaves in and out of the ceiling and sports a bowler and umbrella!



There is a large telephone box:



I’m now headed straight to the Lego Mosaic machine.



This one off photo booth takes your image and converts it into a sort of monochrome image. It also supplies you with over 4,500 Lego bricks so you can create the image in a sort of profile. This will cost you the princely sum of £99. Thankfully I have earned £30 worth of VIP points on my Lego card which they promptly deduct from the cost. Conversely the original price earns me £5 to spend at a later date. So points on your points. Anyhow, having parted with my money I am informed my slot for taking the picture will be at …………………………. 4:30p.m.

It is currently 1p.m. My hubby had declared “there won’t be many for it at that price!” Yeah! Right! With four an hour the list is chock full from the store’s opening at 10a.m. until my turn at 4:30 this afternoon and no doubt beyond. They shut at 10p.m. So I have some 3 hours to fill. Hmm!

Well, lunch will kill some time. I head to Shake Shack. I have an Alpine burger. This is an Angus burger with that hot runny cheese sauce and apple. It came with crinkle cut fries. I have a blueberry lemonade as well. Staff very pleasant and ask if you are enjoying your meal. Reasonably impressed. I’d give it 8/10.





I decide to walk to Hamleys. Boy! It’s further up Regent Street than I remember. Wish I’d caught a bus.




As I enter the first thing I see is a Stormtrooper figure inviting me to descend into the Star Wars basement. Well, my mate Jeremy would love it in here. Apart from models, costumes and Lego kits there is a whole hoard of SW stuff. They even have battling drones.













I take the escalators to the other floors and on reaching the top you are greeted by the Royal family – in Lego. The Harry one is quite good.



Then there is the Queen complete with corgi.



I look at my watch – at least an hour and a quarter to go to my Mosaic appointment. I stroll back slowly towards Piccadilly Circus and Haymarket. I spot a Café Nero and decide on a cup of Earl Grey tea and some ginger biscuits.



I take a table with the padded long seat against the wall. There are a couple of young French girls at the next table. My French is pretty reasonable and for some reason I tune in to the conversation which they obviously don’t think can be understood by the other occupants. Considering the frankness of their speech I become more intrigued. It seems that A has discovered that her boyfriend has been cheating on her. B seems to think that removal of certain parts of his anatomy (trois pieces – literally 3 pieces) would cure the situation and be the right revenge.



They frequently refer to him as a “salop” – a slang term for a b-----d! At one point A looks up and gives me a mild smile. I smile back. Little do they know I have been privy to their chat. That past a good half hour.

It is starting to change to twilight and the Christmas lights along Coventry Street, the thoroughfare between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square have switched on. They are really pretty. Coventry Street appears on a Monopoly board – yellow headed card. There is still a line waiting to enter the Lego shop – I’d guess at a 40 minute wait.

I go sit on a low wall and listen to the folk singer outside Burger King. He’s quite good and he helps 30 minutes go by.



The temperature is dropping rapidly and my rear end is completely numb on the concrete seat. I stroll over to M&M world. Do you know why they only offer peanut and chocolate flavours and nothing else? It’s because all the other flavours you get in the USA contain genetically modified ingredients and Mars can’t be bothered to re-create non GM flavours for the UK market.

Also a new innovation is coming this year. You probably know that can have messages printed on M&Ms for wedding / party favours. We did it back in 2006 but had to have then done in the USA back then. Well, this year they will print images on M&Ms and to demonstrate this they have a camera in the window which snaps you and then displays you on a giant yellow M&M in the window:





Neat, eh?

It is now 4:20p.m., so I head over to the Lego store. I don’t have to queue. I merely flash my Mosaic card which the cashier gave me and I’m let straight in.



When I get to the Mosaic machine they are just completing a young boy’s image. He is over the moon and merrily trots off with his box of bricks and poster of how it will look. I take my seat in the booth. Rather than moving the seat up and down like you did in the old days, they have a means of moving the camera so the guide marks for your face is central and your eyes are at a certain level. It allows you to take 3 photos and you choose which is best. They can alter the contrast and so on. (If you truly don’t like any of the 3 images they will let you retake another 3.)



So, happy with the one I want the machine does its work. Rather like an ordinary photo booth it churns out the image but this is an A3 - ish version. A video plays with Lego men gathering bricks and putting them in a box and then a crane lifts it up and swings it over to drop it off screen.



The next minute your box of bricks arrives through a rather large slot.




4502 bricks in my case. They are in shades of black, grey, white and yellow. The poster is put into the box and very large Lego bag for which they charge 5 pence. (Did I not part with £99?)
Time to make my way home. I get the Bakerloo line from Piccadilly Circus to Baker Street and then a semi fast Metropolitan train to Harrow on the Hill. I’m home by 5:40p.m.

So you want to know what it’s like don’t you? Well, here is the poster and the box of bricks.



You do need to stand back to see it at its best. I’ll build the actual picture once I get back from a weekend away in Paris. I will come back and show you a photo of the finished item.

The remainder of my birthday day was spent watching TV, drinking champagne, eating caviar and cream cheese on blinis and then Darrin cooking steak with pepper and brandy sauce and “fat” chips. The dessert was Tarte au Citron with single cream – my favourite.
I retired to bed around 11p.m. completely satiated. A brilliant birthday.

Thanks to all who sent wishes, gifts, regards – I had one great day.

p.s. I did have a birthday cake. The day previous I had a visit from DIBBcast colleague and mate Jeremy. His wife Maria and their sons Joseph and Jake came too. We had a little party and they helped my blow out the candles:

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Old 5 Jan 17, 01:44 PM  
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A great way to spend your birthday
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Old 5 Jan 17, 01:49 PM  
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What a lovely day you had, loved reading it.
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Old 5 Jan 17, 01:54 PM  
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Geoff. What a lovely Birthday, that Lego is really impressive especially the Moasaic maker, not cheap mind. But there again none of their stuff really is.
Your Statue of Liberty looks fantastic especially illuminated.
Dinner sounds nice as well.

Not being personal but has your old age pension kicked in yet or do you have another year to wait?
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Edited at 02:31 PM. Reason: Spelling
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Old 5 Jan 17, 02:06 PM  
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What a great birthday! Happy belated 🍸
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Old 5 Jan 17, 02:17 PM  
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What a lovely birthday. Shame Darrin had to work but you were able to have a very nice meal in the evening.
Mr Tom Morrow, I believe this year is the last year for men getting their pension at 65. My hubby is eagerly awaiting his in August!

Edited to add, it may be 2018 actually!

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Old 5 Jan 17, 02:53 PM  
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Looks like a wonderful birthday, Geoffa!
Those shops look to be really neat! You know how I love Star Wars.
I keep telling myself I need to get back to the UK for a visit, but with switching jobs again, I am back down to 2 weeks of vacation (I had 3 weeks when I went in 2010).

Happy belated birthday, my friend!
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Old 5 Jan 17, 03:30 PM  
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Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow View Post
Not being personal but has your old age pension kicked in yet or do you have another year to wait?
See my PM
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Old 5 Jan 17, 03:43 PM  
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A lovely way to spend your birthday Geoff I'm not going to show your pictures to Ian otherwise I'll end up in the Star Wars section of Hamleys all day when we come up to London in March!

Enjoy Paris.


Thank you for sharing x x
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Old 5 Jan 17, 04:09 PM  
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What a fabulous way of celebrating your birthday. Xxx
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