Pizza Express Launch Party

Last night, I attended the launch party celebrating the new look of Pizza Express at Richmond. I suppose to tell this story I should start somewhere near the beginning, so here goes: last November I started interning for a new inbound travel venture called Destination Richmond, where I now work full-time apart from Mondays, with the goal of generating interest in the Borough and encouraging short stays and weekend breaks - you can check it all out on the website. To supplement this vision, I started writing a blog about 6 months ago called Eye on Richmond, which details events and general goings on in the Borough.

A member of the PR team for Pizza Express found my blog and dropped me an invite the same day I read in the Metro about how the Richmond branch was experimenting a new style of service, by training their staff in 'small-talk'. What they neglected to mention was that the entire branch had undergone a make-over, by revisting their original vision and bringing it to life and that the Richmond branch was the first to test it out...and boy is it a great style - the only other branch I have been to is the one in Twickenham, and I've passed the Hounslow one many times while I was living there.

I invited two of my colleagues to go with me and one of them brought her lovely daughters and we all had a great time. I hung out with my PR contact and he was wonderful, even introduced me to a few other bloggers he had invited who were also fab to hang out with. They were Jackie Lee of I am a Feeder and Rajini Lolay of Young and Poor - lovely people who had so much advice to give to a relatively new blogger.

The party was fantastic, though there were a few times I had to pause and adjust to the low light and look for steps, but otherwise the staff were great about making sure we had food, which consisted of items new to the menu. Honestly, everything was so delicious, it was hard to keep myself from stuffing my face. If it's one thing about me, apart from my obsession with games, anime, manga and comics, it's that I love my food and I especially love pizza - I maintain that Michelangelo from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is the source of this, with his cute first words upon sampling the delicious dish: "Pizza...Pizza!" So yes, the Pizza Express launch party was like my heaven because everything was FREE and delicious.

The music was great and there was a caricature artist on site, and there were even some staff going about the room entertaining the guests with their amazing Pizza Tossing skills. However, I'd have to say that the highlight of the evening was the following:

Yes people, I met three cast members from Eastenders. In case you don't know, they are from left to right Stefan Booth, Nina Wadia and Himesh Patel, starring as Greg (Tanya's boyfriend), Zainab and Tamwar Masood respectively. Apparently, they were invited by someone Himesh Patel met during a charity event for Mencap. They were fantastic to hang out with and I sort of got trapped in their corner for close to half an hour, with Stefan Booth actually speaking to me. I'm still buzzing over that excitement, I mean especially with my condition, I never dreamed I would get to meet celebrities without paying to do so and it was wonderful how they were such lovely people - I truly feel honoured, and grateful for my eyes not deteriorating as fast I feared they would and I am thankful also for them giving me a beautiful memory to look back on. Actually, I'm more grateful for my PR contact for inviting me and my job for opening an opportunity I would never have otherwise dreamed of.

Okay...that sounded like an Oscar speech, but if I'm ever going to look back on this, I want to detail every emotion I feel and hopefully, I'll remember this night so vividly. To be honest, this is most exciting thing that's happened to me since catching a glimpse of Hideo Kojima at the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater launch event.

It's actually really funny how this came about, meeting the Eastenders crew, my colleagues had just left to get caricatures done and I was left looking after the bags and scanning the room, when just across the table next to me I thought 'Is that Stefan Booth? Nooo...it can't be Stefan Booth, I mean...Stefan Booth at a launch party in Richmond? Nooo...let me check his fansite 'cause if it's not, he's one hell of a look-alike, perhaps I should go up and say so...' I did check out his fansite and there was no information on any public appearances, the only latest message I found was announcing his very recent birthday - I don't really frequent his fansite, not that kind of person but they do come in handy sometimes.

I then looked up, convinced it wasn't him and saw two guys coming my way having been intrigued by the iPod/iPhone stand on the sill behind me. Why they chose my table, I don't know, but I informed them of it's purpose, which was to plug your device in and you can listen to your own music played through the overhead dome-speaker. They found it cool and my colleagues and I love the feature - it's like setting up your own private party!

Anyway, when they had left, I over that way again and saw Nina Wadia - there was no way I could mistake her - who was speaking to Himesh Patel, and the following popped through my mind: 'Oh my God! It's Stefan Booth!' I loved him on Dancing on Ice, then I was confused because she looked at me, beamed and waved at me like she knew me. I naturally waved back, somewhat thrown, and my colleagues came back whom I proceeded to tell about who I had just seen. When we looked back again, there was Nina Wadia smiling and waving again...needless to say, I carried out my plan to take a picture with them and went over. She apologised for waving - she had thought I was someone Himesh Patel knew because he was pointing in my direction, but not at me. Anyway, picture taken and a lovely night was had. I would go into further detail about what we talked about, but it's not really interesting and with the music so loud I could barely hold a conversation because of my low voice...just know that Stefan Booth was very entertaining and kept making me laugh. Also, all I could think about was how much of a tramp I looked...

Preview: Supernatural: The Animation - Update (now coming February 2011)

I wrote about this earlier in the month and since then a second trailer has been released:

Looks like we'll have to wait another month for this to be released, but damn does it look good! Though I barely recognise any of the scenes from the live action series...though I think I may have spotted the ShapeShifter.

Review: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - Aqua and Final Episode

Completed Aqua's story on Monday 4th October, quickly followed by the Final Episode the next day. Can I just say, before launching into my opinion of her arc, I am really not impressed with Aqua's VA. I appreciate the fact that voice-acting doesn't come naturally to some people and that this may be her first foray in the field, but she really didn't sound comfortable in her role. Especially when hearing Terra and Ventus sound so natural, and then to have her mumble her lines in that croaky fashion like she's trying to sound cool/keep her voice low for a YouTube video. Yes, a lot of people on YouTube sound like that when recording "How To's" and their own reviews and whatnot, and it's annoying; Croaky Voice DOES NOT = Cool.

I'm sorry, this has just been bothering me throughout the game and to sit through 11 hours of her arc plus the 1 hour for the Final Episode...ugh.

Anyway, apart from that minor gripe, her arc wasn't too bad, though again the pacing was off. For all three arcs, there seemed to be this disconnection from what the characters were doing, the development they were going through and the story that's trying to be told. It's interesting, however, how the origins of the more familiar characters has been told...though a few things could have warranted further thought. I just wish I knew whether Nomura either had this all planned from the beginning, or is throwing this all together as he goes because he never saw Kingdom Hearts I to be such a big hit. There was a magic in that flagship title that I haven't felt since, and rather than each successive title building on that magic (bar Chain of Memories), there seems to be a dynamic that he just won't give up. There are various elements that frustrate me about each new title...but this isn't the place for them, and nor is it the time.

Preview: Supernatural Anime coming January 2011

Now this is news! I came across this while browsing the DeviantArt Supernatural Club, which I helped found and am now trying to get back into a somewhat active role in running it. Someone posted up a Windows 7 theme for the show and I couldn't believe it when I Wiki-ed* the show and tracked down a trailer!

I'm so pumped; the 22 episodes due to air in January will cover the first 2 Seasons, though I wasn't all too impressed with the second Season...hated the Route 666 episode and hated how Sam lost the ability to do all his research and had to rely on Dr. Badass of the RoadHouse - though I did like Dr. Badass. Also hated how Ellen and Jo were introduced; the Season picked up for me after Tall Tales. It will also include some side-stories, obviously so it's not like you're watching the live-action series in animated form.

Can you hear me 'Squee!' in delight? Madhouse is also a very good animation studio, having contributed to Batman: Gotham Knight, Casshern SINS, Devil May Cry Anime, Death Note, Perfect Blue, Hajime no Ippo, Last Order: Final Fantasy VII and various other works including almost all CLAMP titles. Needless to say, I approve of the choice of animation studio.

*It's a fundamental aspect of my being; when in doubt, I Wiki.

Learning to say 'Goodbye'

So watching an older episode of Ugly Betty a second time made me think a little...okay well maybe a lot. The episode was about Daniel reaching Level 7 and finally making peace within himself and saying goodbye to Molly. It was quite a moving episode, though no more so than any other episode of any given series that deals with loss and moving on with one's life.

Learning to say goodbye on an emotional level is a difficult step and perhaps one of the few lessons we learn from our grandparents, or perhaps the very last that we should ideally learn from our parents. Of course life never goes so smoothly nor runs the same course for everyone, no matter how much we'd like to believe otherwise.