On Location

Master Poppins really enjoys his expeditions out when he occasionally gets called to a job as a little fashion model. He has modelling for some fantastic brands, and seems to really love the camera. As he has to have an official children's work licence and school are for now supportive, I think until he no longer enjoys it we shall carry on. Education is of course very, very important, however he learns so many other valuable lessons in life when he gets called to a photoshoot, he can navigate his way around the London underground better than I, he socially has come on leaps and bounds and which was my main reason he got involved, and he gets to meet many very interesting people and places. Of course being his mummy, I am merely his chaperone for the day but I especially couldn't wait to go on location for a photoshoot he had this week. It was at a drool worthy home that I couldn't help but share one or two photographs with you. Whilst he had been whisked away to strut his stuff, I got chatting to the lovely owners, who happily let me have a little nose around their home....

The gorgeous Kitchen diner....

   Drool....

 
This bedroom was just yummy....

Oh my, the bathroom....

And here I am, pretending it was all mine ;)

This bedroom was so, so cute....

And the little corners of the home with pretty treasures on....

Flowers....

Gorgeous eiderdowns....

Oh it was just lovely. Soon it was time to go, Master Poppins enjoyed himself and I came away with much inspiration indeed. Infact I think this would pretty much be my dream home. It also got me thinking, about people who hire out their homes as such for location filming etc. I don't think anyone would ever fancy coming to my home. They would be tripping over lego, or falling over the loose floorboards we have, or even wondering if the bare plaster look we have in some rooms is indeed a fashion statement. But, if I had a home as beautiful as this, would I consider hiring it out? I know the pay is indeed a fantastic reward, but I think perhaps I would find it a little intrusive I don't know. Maybe it is simply the fact that a home as lovely as this just needs to be shared, and why indeed I am sharing a little of it with you....

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Warner Bros Studio Tour - The Making Of Harry Potter

When myself and my family were invited along to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour of the making of Harry Potter, there were a couple of very excited children in the Poppins home that begged me to say yes. Although we have yet to watch all of the movies, and the last ones possibly being a little too dark for my five year old to watch Miss. Poppins especially was very keen to see the sets where much of the action took place. Having a theatrical background myself, any opportunity to visit film sets I like to take and so we all looked forward to going. We got a little excited when we were greeted by this....

And this as we made our way through the entrance....

We couldn't help but see if our hands were bigger or smaller than Daniel's...

I really have only captured a very small glimpse of what is on offer in my photographs as there is so much more to see, but I couldn't help but give an idea of what is seen at the tour. After a superb trailer in the cinema, we were led into the great hall....

It really did feel very magical being on the Harry Potter set and couldn't resist a little photograph being taken of moi in front of the owl podium used by Professor Dumbledore. Then it was onto seeing more of the fabulous sets. The boys dormitory....

One of my favourite's, Umbridge's ministry of magic office....

Dumbledore's office....

 Hagrid's hut....

I enjoyed reading about the animals involved in Harry Potter....

The Griffin stairwell....

The pendulum from The Prisoner of Azkaban....

Chamber of secret's door....

We wandered on, every little detail has been accounted for and I guess big fans of all the Harry Potter movies would be astounded at the attention to detail, it really is just amazing....

Then outside you get to see number 4 Privot Drive, ( made out of polystyrene, shhh don't tell )....

And was amazing to see the Potter house that Voldermort destroyed at Godric's hollow, I had a lovely chat with the workmen who were popping the finishing touches to the paving for the grand opening of the Studio Tour on the 31st March....

The bridge to Hogwarts was tres amazing....

 Diagon Alley was very impressive....

Here's Master Poppins having his own little wander....

For me the grand finale is on nearing the end of the tour, where you are greeted with a breathtakingly scale model of Hogwart's castle, which was used in the films and you can get to walk around it, seeing every little detail. With a moving musical background, and excellent lighting effects I almost wanted to stay in this chamber for ever....

Pretty much everyone that was entering this room, and including us all said "WOW". A thoroughly  enjoyable day out, and all in all the tour took us around 3 hours. I believe on this preview tour throughout the day there were around 1800 visitors, and on a normal day would be around 5000, so was nice and roomy, you could get up really close to all the lovely things on offer. My only negative really, is the somewhat slightly over priced retail souvenir shop that greets you at the end of your tour. Master Poppins really wanted a little wand, and anyone who has a five year old boy would know that it would have to be somewhat child friendly, even light up, maybe make a little sound. The only wands on offer, looked like collectors items and at £25 a pop, sadly he came away without one. For me, the shop being the last room to visit at the end of the tour as you are led into it, could cause issues with some children who want things, as they often do.

As for me, I cant justify spending £25 on a wand for a 5 year old that looks like a collectors edition and we did have somewhat of an unhappy child as we were leaving. I would definitely suggest there being more appropriate child friendly, less expensive wands on offer, as well as the ones we saw as we would certainly have bought one. What we did buy however were a couple of chocolate wands and at £3.95 each would be a lovely little souvenir of the day, however am not sure how long they would last ;) The wand issue was soon forgotten, and we got back to chit chattering in the car journey home of what a lovely time we had had....

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Disclosure: We gained complimentary entry for a family of four to the Warner Bros Studio Tour- The Making Of Harry Potter for the purposes of this blog post.  

Tots100 Film Club - Green Lantern....

As a family who love to snuggle up and watch the occasional movie at home, I happily agreed to join in over at Tots100 Film Club in conjunction with Warner Bros We are not big cinema goers and much prefer to watch movies at home, where the popcorn is cheap and with plenty of space to curl up and relax. When I was sent a little list of possible family friendly movies to review this month, I chose Green Lantern. I obviously need to gen up on my knowledge of films as I soon found out it is rated as a 12 and for some reason I thought this was a Peter Pan type film, maybe was the green suit that threw me. With my children being only 5 and 10 yrs, imo was not going to be one appropriate for them to watch and I offered to send it back. However I was kindly asked if I would watch the film and see what I thought. Oh dear, I am a girly girl who loves chic flick films, and not really into action thrilling adventures....

It took me a while to get into the right frame of mind to watch it, and the first scenes were imo quite rightly not going to be suitable especially for my 5 year old to watch, though I carried on trying to take it all in. Taken from the description of the movie it reads...."In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, an elite force of protectors for peace and justice has existed for centuries. They are GREEN LANTERN CORPS. When a new enemy called PARALLAX threatens to destroy the universe, their fate and the fate of the earth lie in the hands of the corps newest recruit, the first human ever selected : HAL JORDAN ( Ryan Reynolds )"  I have to be honest here, it isn't one for me, though I made it to the end and infact Reynolds in his little green suit was quite easy on the eye ;) However if you love all things action packed, like a reasonably good if not clichéd plot, loud noise and very good special effects then this certainly could be one for you to watch. Bare in mind the rating though, as 12 is there for a reason and imo really not suitable for the little ones. Hopefully next month I shall research better the movie choices and ratings and we can all sit together and watch something more appropriate for us all.

Disclosure: We received one DVD to watch for the purposes of this blog post.