Friends and Forbidden Planet

Wow. What a day. Today was one of those few days that you realise will be embedded into your memory for a fair while.

Myself and my mate Chris had planned to go to the city of Southampton today but getting there was no easy matter when you live in a town with no train station and few bus routes. To get to Southampton we had to take two buses and change in Salisbury, which is a ridiculously out of the way route. We also had to wait in Salisbury for a bit and decided to go and get a coffee. Eventually we found a coffee shop we could get a seat in, just in time to see one of the barista's get coffee foam all over herself. I ordered what I thought was an chocolate ice dessert but turned out to be a cup full of cream with coffee in it. It was absolutely foul.

The bus between Salisbury and Southampton was quite an experience as some wise person at the bus company had decided to send out a single-decker bus to do a busy route. Myself and Chris had to stand for the first part of the journey, a difficult task on most occasions but going down the country lanes of Wiltshire, full of potholes, is even worse. We did however eventually make it into Southampton where we wandered around for a bit and browsed some shops. Chris was very excited by the fact HMV actually have the dance compilation CD his track is on whilst I was massively excited about all the Toy Story merchandise in the Disney store.

Eventually the time came to once again re-unite the infamous trio as we met up with Mike, who is actually at uni in Southampton. We decided it was time for some lunch and we chose to visit Nando’s. I was surprised to learn that neither Chris nor Mike had ever been into the amazing spicy chicken restaurant before. It was a lovely dinner for all of us though significantly more expensive than the Subway or McDonald’s we would usually get. But you can’t go wrong with a bit of Peri-Peri chicken!

I knew there was a shop called Forbidden Planet in Southampton (a shop that sells loads of amazing geeky stuff) but it took a search on the internet on my blackberry and Mike’s local knowledge to find it. Actually I am loving my blackberry more and more as it gets more use. The ability to “check-in” at places on Facebook (basically telling your FB where you are) has become something of an addiction to me at the moment and the ability to surf the web on the go is fantastic. Anyway, we eventually found Forbidden Planet and I had another nerdgasm, which I haven't had in quite a while (nerdgasm, n, the emotional sensation experienced when a nerd sees something they really like).  There was shelf after shelf of Doctor Who stuff. Loads and loads of figurines, including a box set with all Eleven Doctor’s in it, loads of other Doctor Who merchandise, T-shirts, books, DVDs and even a life-size cardboard cut-out of Karen Gillan. There was loads and loads of other stuff in the store that I was really excited by that wasn’t to do with Doctor Who too. As tempted I was to buy the cardboard cut-out of Karen Gillan, it was £25 and I’m a poor student. Of course there was also the problem with transportation. It would have been quite a sight to see me get on the bus and sit cardboard Karen on the seat next to me. In the end I bought the following:

 

An Adipose stress toy (Adipose are little aliens from Doctor Who). It’s amazing and looks just like the ones on screen. I’m calling mine Adrian the Adipose.

A plush Toad toy (off of the Mario games). I have wanted one of these for literally years and when the chance came I had to buy it.

I know, I’m sad. But if I was much richer I would have actually bought every Doctor Who figurine, every Doctor Who book and DVD, other Doctor Who merch AND a whole load of non-Doctor Who stuff from the store. If I ever become a millionaire that’s what I’m spending it on: a massive shopping spree at Forbidden Planet. Mike was also rather excited by the shop and bought a Scott Pilgrim and a Doctor Who poster. Forbidden Planet is literally the best shop EVER. Shortly after this visit, a now very excitable Mike and me, as well as an apathetic Chris, found ourselves in a games arcade. Queue us using one of the racing simulators and racing each other. Annoyingly I had that occasional arcade racer problem where the steering wheel doesn’t work properly meaning I came third by quite a long way. Disappointing.

Soon after this we finally managed to meet up with our female friends Sammy and Cassie. They were originally supposed to meet us at lunchtime but the fact they didn’t get up ‘til 12AM meant they were much later. Unfortunately us three guys found ourselves in that horrible position of being with girls shopping. We kept disappearing off and rejoicing them until a stop for a coffee, when Mike had to leave. The conversations we had around the coffee table reminded me that people I know do actually read this blog and so I should be careful what I write. Isn’t that right Cassie? Somehow Chris and I found ourselves following the girls into a few more shops. We somehow managed to spend half an hour in a bag shop whilst Sammy looked at purses. I was giving helpful fashion advice on which one I thought was best, but generally making the decision by price and which ones had protective foam in. It demonstrated a major difference between male and female shopping. Whilst most girls will spend ages looking for that one item, most guys will go into a shop, find one, buy it, simple as that. After some time in a clothes shop, where I gave Sammy more helpful style advice, it was time for me and Chris to begin the long journey home.

An hour on a bus, dinner in Salisbury’s McDonalds, another forty-five minute bus journey and then a short walk finally saw us arriving back home. Weirdly that’s all I’m going to be seeing of my mates this holiday as the holiday is nearly over and I return to Uni in a few days. Yes I know, most people have returned to school/uni/work after there Christmas break already, but I’m really lucky. I’ve had several fantastic days out and new experiences with my friends from 6th Form over this holiday and it’s properly made me realise that they are amazing friends and that we won’t drift apart, one of my worst fears about going to uni in the first place. Now I have to sort a few things out as I continue to get more and more excited for the prospect of returning to the lovely Winchester and going back to uni!