Destination Star Trek 3

Hi! It's Nabs here, It's been a while since I last posted! This post isn't related to food but to my second love: Star Trek! So this one is for all you Star Trek fans out there!

Last Saturday I attended Destination Star Trek (DST) at the Excel Centre. I can't believe it's been a week already, time flies! I missed out on going to the Destination Star Trek in London in 2012 and to the second one which was in Germany in February 2014, so as soon as it was announced that the third one was going to be in London again I knew I had to go!!

I have been a fan of Star Trek since I was young. I grew up watching The Original Series, The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise.

I bought my tickets in June as soon as they went up on the website for sale. I bought a standard entry ticket for £29 and 4 photoshoot tickets: Nichelle Nichols, Brent Spiner, a Borg Regeneration Chamber photoshoot and the Next Generation Bridge photoshoot.

I won't go into detail on everything otherwise this will be a very long post, instead I will write about my favourite moments from the day.

Entry was at 9am but I got to the Excel Centre early so I could buy tokens for Brent Spiner autographs. (Autograph tokens are exchanged for autographs at DST).

My first photoshoot of the day was with Nichelle Nichols who played Uhura in Star Trek the Original Series, the 6 films that followed and Star Trek the Animated Series. I also went to her talk in the afternoon and it was a privilege to hear her speak. She is an extraordinary woman: she knew Martin Luther King who encouraged her not to quit Star Trek and she worked with NASA in the 1970s. She was joined on the stage by Robert Picardo, it was an added bonus to hear him speak!


Some of the costumes from the museum:

    


The atmosphere during the whole day was great! Everyone I met was so friendly, the staff were brilliant, everyone knew what they were doing!

Klingon Zone

As well as the Photoshoot sets, the Autograph Area, and the stalls selling Star Trek merchandise, there was also the Klingon Zone where people were relaxing over a coffee or a bite to eat and the Screening Zone where they were showing episodes of the Original Series; at one point my favourite episode 'The City on the Edge of Forever' was on.

My favourite character from Star Trek the Next Generation is Data who was played by Brent Spiner. Queuing in the autograph area waiting to meet him I was both nervous and excited, I mean I was going to see Data, in person! (well Brent Spiner but still!!) He was lovely, and once I started talking to him I calmed down.

 I was lucky enough to see Brent Spiner another two times: firstly when I went to his talk where he was answering questions from fans, talking about Star Trek and other non-Star Trek roles, and was extremely funny. I was disappointed when the talk was over, I was hooked from start to finish. The second time I saw him was during my photoshoot later on in the afternoon though there was barely any time for talking. Still at least I got to see him again :))

The other two photoshoots (Borg Regeneration Chamber and Next Generation Bridge) were extremely fun to do, especially the Next Generation Bridge Photoshoot (I sat in the captain's chair of course!)

Other guests who attended DST included William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Karl Urban, Bruce Greenwood, Tim Russ, Jeri Ryan.

I stayed until after 6 and really didn't want to leave, the day had been so much fun! I can't wait for the next one!! Until next time....

London Film Museum and Italian Food

In December my friend and I celebrated our birthdays by visiting the London Film Museum and eating Italian food afterwards!

The London Film Museum is a hidden gem in South Bank, found in the County Hall building. I myself can't remember how I found out about it but once I did I was literally buzzing to visit (particularly as I am a massive Star Wars fan and was very excited to see the Star Wars section!)

We bought our tickets at the entrance, £13.50 each and definitely worth the price!



The dinosaur featured in Night at the Museum 2

Thunderbirds are Go

Costume from Batman Begins

Superman Newspaper Props - I love the original Superman films (1-3) with Christopher Reeves 

We really enjoyed the Myths & Legends exhibition! The original 1981 Clash of the Titans film is one of my favourite films. I remember watching it and being terrified of Medusa. She is still pretty scary as a movie prop! (See below)

Medusa....don't look directly at her

Facehuggers from Alien

Props from the Alien films

I'll be back.....Terminator 2

I love Star Trek and I got very excited when I saw this Klingon Bridge Chair featured in the Star Trek movies. I took photo after photo, from all angles...

I have loved the Simpsons since as long as I can remember. I used to come home after school and just watch episodes, one after the other.

I saw the Borrower's movie in school and so was very excited when I saw these giant versions of everyday products and objects (I felt a bit like a borrower myself). The film was also playing on a mini screen so I caught a couple of minutes of it when I was sat on the Simpsons chair.

We went to the museum on a Saturday and surprisingly it wasn't very full but this worked to our advantage. We got to spend as much time as we wanted in each section.

One thing I was disappointed with was that the Harry Potter section had gone! I had heard that there was a room with Harry Potter props and costumes and was very excited to see this, but when I checked it wasn't there anymore! Still, despite this, I would definitely recommend a visit to the London Film Museum!

After spending a good couple of hours exploring the museum we had worked up an appetite and decided to go for Italian food. We stayed in Waterloo and had an Italian Dinner at Azzuro Restaurant.

Starter
Bruschetta topped with crumbled goats cheese, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar
£5.95

The one time I tried goat's cheese it literally tasted like feet to me but I have to say this starter was delicious!! I could easily have eaten 2 helpings! In fact I actually don't think that there was enough goat's cheese on the bruschetta! I did find that the bruschetta was a little bit overcooked but this didn't matter as the tomatoes and goat's cheese were so tasty I quickly forgot about this.

Pizza - Danielle
Pizza with roasted peppers, goat's cheese, balsamic caramelised red onions and rocket
£9.95

Pizza - Margherita
£7.95

I found the main wasn't as tasty as the starter...I had liked the goat's cheese so much in the starter that I went for Pizza Danielle (my friend had the Margherita Pizza). However, I found that the pizza had too much goat's cheese in it which overpowered the other flavour's, making the pizza very sweet. The caramelised onions didn't help either...so in hindsight I probably won't be getting this pizza again.

Atmosphere                       7/10

Service                                7/10

Food                                    8/10

Chocolatesushi Rating    7/10

Blog Post written by Nabs