Mementos

I am back home, safe and sound, with all of my luggage. Well, all of it except my scissors. I forgot that I'd placed the scissors in my old bag/purse for some reason, and thus I packed the bag with the scissors in my carry-on luggage. Scissors are considered a weapon, so they had to be confiscated.

Now that I am back in the U.S., all I have to remember England by are Facebook friends, this blog, and a few memento items that I picked up along the way. As promised, I have taken pictures of everything that I bought, so that all my readers can see the little things I never bothered to take pictures of before. Of course, you have seen a few of these items previous. For instance, I have three new penguin items: the card and eraser that you already saw, plus this awesome necktie that I bought at the British Library. I took a close up picture too, so you can see why I call it a penguin item. That's the Penguin logo, with various titles that they have published over the years.

I also modeled this Manchester United shirt in a previous post. Here is a better picture of just the shirt, and on the right, a bigger picture of the crest. It’s my favorite memento from my visit to Manchester, although I also kept the train ticket.

 




And then there is the Doctor Who Experience packet. Below is all of the experience swag together. In the top row, the professional green screen photo of me clinging to the TARDIS, plus a Vampires of Venice and Dalek souvenir postcards. The souvenir poster, the postcard containing all the monsters, and a booklet containing images of all the things I couldn’t take pictures of, are in the middle row. Then there’s my experience packet T-shirt, and postcards containing images of a Silence, a Jadoon, a Cyberman, and a Silurian. All of these items, except the green screen photo, were part of my full experience packet. The green screen image was one of the museum's activities. 

In addition, I bought the shirt that I am modeling on the right from The Doctor Who Experience gift shop. The T-shirt features “the crack.” Actually, everything featured in that picture and my second modeled outfit (except the boots) were bought in the U.K. I bought the white hat at Camden Market and the black and white speckled one while visiting King’s Cross Station. The pants were both bought at the Marks and Spencer store located in the Kingstone shopping mall.

 

Larger Photo of the T-shirt Design

 

I also purchased this Doctor Who mug from the Forbidden Planet Mega Store, located just a few blocks from our flats. I originally visited Forbidden Planet for an author signing that I learned about through Paul Cornell, but quickly discovered that this mega bookstore/comics store/collectables store is a dangerous place for me to visit. I came out with this mug, featuring all eleven Doctors, plus the book featured in the author signing (Beyond Rue Morgue, shown below), and three Simon's Cat books! I adore Simon's Cat, so I got super excited when I found all of his books at this one store. Some of them were bigger and hardback, so I resisted buying them, because I wasn't sure if I'd have room in my luggage, but I bought all three smaller books. If you've never seen the comic strips or the videos, you should give them a try. As one of my flatmates pointed out, it's a little like Garfield in terms of situation and plot. But Simon's Cat is more minimalistic and mostly wordless.

The other books featured above include a poetry book I bought at the Poetry Break Out event that I went to at the Royal Festival Hall near Waterloo Bridge. The London Poetry Library is housed in the same facility, but I didn't have a chance to go see the library, sadly. And on the far right (top row) is the book and bookmark that I purchased at the Roald Dahl museum.

Last but not least, I bought two of these Sainsbury's reusable bags; one for me to use and one to keep as a memento. I am a little disappointed that their design has changed from four year ago. I liked the blue color scheme of the old design. Still, I absolutely refused to leave England without a bag to replace the one I bought previously, that broke due to overuse. Sainsbury is where I do most of my grocery shopping whenever in London, so I like having the bags.


 
If nothing else, I will always think of London when I drink my Whittard's Strawberry and Kiwi tea. I actually went back and bought four additional packages, so now I have five of them at home. That should last me for a while. Although, it probably won't last until my next trip to London. Supposedly, the company will be opening a U.S. branch soon, so I'll be able to order it without the international shipping fee. Yay! For now I will leave you with sweet thoughts of berry tea and London memories. Look out for the photo book that I am currently compiling. I will be posting it shortly.