So Long As Holmes Is Time-Travelling, It's Okay.

[rionaleonhart]

I have returned from the Mancunian Adventure! Which... oh, wait, I didn't mention that I was going on the Mancunian Adventure here, did I? Well, for the past five days I have been in Manchester, hanging out with wanttobeatree and sazzlette. I fell over all the freaking time. They mocked me. It was entirely amazing.

I hope you enjoyed your transition into the new year! (I fell off the arm of Sazz's sofa twenty minutes into 2009. It was not a proud moment for me.)

There are several things I need to make entries about (the Twilight film, One Tree Hill, shut up shut up shut up), but first, some more general notes from the adventure:

- On Tuesday, we played a game of Scrabble. wanttobeatree won for ever by putting down the word 'Castieling'. It was beautiful.

- We saw in the new year with a sort of charades-ish game: everyone wrote down the names of celebrities and characters and stuffed them into a hat, then each player had to draw out slips of paper and verbally describe as many characters to their team as they could in a minute. Unfortunately, I am hopeless with celebrities. Matt Damon: 'He's a racing driver! ...he's not a racing driver.' Then sazzlette put 'Damon Hill' in the next batch of names, just to cause me pain. (I also thought that Julia Roberts was a chef. Stop judging me.)

- In the second round, using the same names, the player had to describe the subject of the slip of paper using three words or fewer. Julia Roberts, of course, could now be described with 'not a chef'. wanttobeatree confused us all enormously by describing Batman simply with 'BLACK EARS'. I drew 'Daleks' and realised halfway through saying 'teapot Who villains' that I meant 'pepperpot'. sazzlette and pinkegogirl leapt upon this:

'WILL-YOU-HAVE-A-JAF-FA-CAKE?'
'WHAT-IS-A-JAF-FA-CAKE?'
'IS-IT-A-CAKE-IS-IT-A-BIS-CUIT?'
'DOES-NOT-COM-PUTE.'
'EX-TER-MI-NATE-ALL-JAF-FA-CAKES.'

- The third round involved portraying the character without words, if you're thinking of playing it yourself. Of course, this doesn't lend itself well to textual description. I will mention, however, that in order to portray Bella from Twilight I fell over, and, having learnt how ridiculously clumsy I am, nobody seemed sure whether it was part of the clue or not.

- There is graffiti in Manchester that says 'I AM LORD VOLDEMORT'. Graffiti! And I thought he couldn't become any more evil!


Thank you so much to thebaconfat, squeemu and averysmallthing for your lovely cards!

Comments

[tronella.livejournal.com]

I played that exact game for the first time at Christmas! It was not helped by my Dad writing his own surname instead of the celebrity's surname for one of them.

My boyfriend claims that this game is called "It Can't Be Heath Ledger" but that seems like a lie to me.

[rionaleonhart]

Did you have fun? There was a point (in the second game, when there were about seven Matt Damons in the hat and I kept drawing them) at which I was laughing so hard I couldn't get my descriptions out. (Also, hee at the surname-confusion!)

Well, clearly, it can be Heath Ledger, because in our game he was in the hat.

[tronella.livejournal.com]

It was actually great fun, even though I am apparently terrible at miming. It's surprisingly hard to mime "Boris Johnson" or "The Snowman"!

In retrospect, I think he just made that up to annoy my siblings :)

[rionaleonhart]

Oh, man, we had Boris Johnson as well. I managed to convey him by messing up my hair.

[timydamonkey.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Twilight, have you noticed that in Manchester there are Twilight posters everywhere? I commute to uni there and I'm so sick of Twilight posters!

My university (which is in Manchester) has what I call bible graffiti - "you are loved", etc. I suppose it could not be graffiti, but really, who inscribes the sign of a cross and so on at the top of a bridge over a train line?!! Besdies, it's funnier that way.

[rionaleonhart]

There really were posters for it all over the place. wanttobeatree apparently felt compelled to exclaim 'TWILIGHT' every time she saw one.

[kadrin.livejournal.com]

'WHAT-IS-A-JAF-FA-CAKE?'
'IS-IT-A-CAKE-IS-IT-A-BIS-CUIT?'
'DOES-NOT-COM-PUTE.'

"Not with that one, actually. That's a jaffa cake. It's not a true biscuit." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik7IzBHWxD8)

Mitchell and Webb are not wholly unlike Daleks.

[iwrotethissong.livejournal.com]

There is a chef called Julia Child, so you're not entirely off.

x helen

[rionaleonhart]

Thank you! I was wondering why I assumed that everyone called Julia was a chef. (I thought it about Julie Andrews, too.)

[suzie-shooter.livejournal.com]

I fell over, and, having learnt how ridiculously clumsy I am, nobody seemed sure whether it was part of the clue or not.

this made me laugh so hard. *looks guilty*

[rionaleonhart]

I'll forgive you, because I do think that after the Week of a Million Clumsinesses I deserve to be laughed at a little.

[wanttobeatree.livejournal.com]

in order to portray Bella from Twilight I fell over, and, having learnt how ridiculously clumsy I am, nobody seemed sure whether it was part of the clue or not.

YOU'RE A LIAR. I TOTALLY GOT THAT ONE. Which probably definitely says more about my guessing skills than your standing-upright skills.

[rionaleonhart]

You got it, yes, but I felt there was a little 'did she just fall over again?' pause first. If I was not, in fact, so very clumsy that people thought I had genuinely fallen over during the game, though, I don't have a problem with that.

[wanttobeatree.livejournal.com]

Okay, it's true, I did have a moment of '... has she fallen over?' before the Bella clicked.

Relatedly, Helen and I went to Selfridges whilst Sazz was at work and we got GLITTERY CAKES. ACTUAL GLITTER. ON CAKES. (Also, there was this amazing chocolatey one with what looked like chocolate wings on it and GLITTER and it was essentially Castiel in cake form.)

[calamitysxchild.livejournal.com]

awww, sounds like a good time was had by all!!

[sazzlette.livejournal.com]

YOU FALL OVER BETTER THAN ANYONE I KNOW.

ALSO WE MISS YOU INTENSELY. PLZ COME BACK SOON :D

[rionaleonhart]

AS I MISS YOU. (I have been falling over less since my return home. It clearly was your evil influence.)

[saaski-moql.livejournal.com]

I would be so very bad at that game. I know NOBODY.

[squeemu.livejournal.com]

:D I'm glad it arrived safely! Even if slightly late, but I'm pretty sure that's more because I failed to send it on time.

Also also also I got your card!!! Awhile ago, but, uh, I kind of haven't turned on my computer for a really long time. Heeeee, your card was awesome. ♥!

Also that sounds like the best game of charades ever. Although, er, I usually fail at people!Charades because I never know who anyone is.

[rionaleonhart]

THE TINY SNOWMAN. SO CUTE. And the little Avatar stick figures! ALTHOUGH I NOTICE THERE IS NO IROH. WHY IS THERE NO IROH, SQUEEM?

Four of the players were massive fandom people and two of them got really annoyed when the clues were fandomy, which was rather fun. Fandom people are clearly the best people with whom to play such games, because one can convey the character using ridiculous injokes. 'HE HAS VORTEX NIPPLES.' 'BASKETBALL GUY. LOOKS LIKE A HAT.'

[adelate]

Oh my god, that Dalek thing made me laugh so hard! Ahahahahaha!

[rionaleonhart]

Glad it could amuse! Perhaps you would like to see the accompanying illustration?

[adelate]

Oh my god, brilliant!

I also rather enjoyed 'Castieling', though I couldn't find a definition in my dictionary...