Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Dublin launch (written over an evening)
8.41pm , July, 15, 2005
THE countdown has begun, less than four hours till we can get our hands on the latest Harry Potter book.
Yes, I am a complete buck eejit like all those mad ones you see around this time, but not the really mad ones, I will not be wearing a witch’s hat, cloak or any kind of face paint, other than my own normal stuff, whatsoever!
definitely not me...
The young wan is a different matter altogether, she has already tried to bribe me saying ‘if I wear my witch’s hat, will you give me a tenner?’. ‘My arse’, as the eloquent, Mr Royal would say.
Well I suppose she is the number one fan as they say and one who had fully and completely gotten me on board the train to Hogwarts with her.
I made her wear the hat once before, years ago, with the launch of the first Harry Potter movie. I managed to get tickets for the first press screenings which took place a week before the general release and didn’t say a word.
As the days got closer and closer to the date, I said nothing, until that night I bet her that she wouldn’t dare walk into town wearing her very special witch’s hat. (It was made by a very talented friend who incidentally is the ticketloser from CCC and stunning it is still despite years of playing, stamping etc etc.)
After the initial looking at me to see if I was wise in the head or not, she went ‘aye alright’, she must have been 10 years old at the time, and off we walked into town, with her wearing the very large, very in your face, witch’s hat with not a bother in the world.
Pretending to check when the movie would be shown, I asked her to wait in a line at the cinema with dozens of kids who were obviously going to see the movie. She just looked at me, thinking this isn’t starting till next week, why is that cruel sh*te putting me in this line? And then I told her, ach it was priceless. I just love doing that kind of thing….
As they say, I digress, scoot back to the present and it’s been a tense week here in the Red Mum household, the worst kind cos I have been off and we should have been making the most of the week, this beautiful week, but we didn’t.
So today, I was hanging onto just one thing done well by the young wan, and well it didn’t happen, there was more food left on the plates after washing than beforehand, her room, oh Jesus her room, I cannot say anymore about that, she took hours running to the shops (despite being grounded so she could meet her mates) and she was plastered in makeup when I got up this morning despite being told (four times in the last five days alone) that she’s not allowed.
( I allow her makeup when she’s off to a disco or the like, light stuff, but not willy nilly at all, like for example, getting up, not at 13, Jaysus not ever like that.)
I decided that a different course of action was required, so after a long talk earlier, off we set into town and then the plan was hatched. If the young wan tidied her room, done completely by early this evening, we would go into town for the midnight launch of the latest Harry Potter book later tonight.
And, I have to say, without close inspection (cos you really don’t want to do that, oh God no, you don’t), it appears semi-well done…. So, off we go later to the Halfblood prince launch.
I will be prising the book out of her arms later as she sleeps…. I’ve done it before and will do it again, like later… Would Calpol work on an older child, I wonder?
12.55am , July 16, 2005
WELL we left for the bus into town at 11pm and were placed at the end of the queue by 11.20pm, and such a mad queue it was as well. There were large families, drunkards wandering in from the pub, the mad eejits working on the promotion, and us….
Some of the first out with the book
fire juggler
blokes on a small bike!!!!
There were people on stilts, fire jugglers, witches giving away tickets for a raffle inside the shop, a badly suited (sorry) Hagrid, wizards and all manners of mad ‘uns. There was also more than one car with occupants shouting ‘Harry Potters a load of me b*ll*x’ and other such niceties, as well as the occasional drunk person trying to bolster the crowd by going ‘give me a HARRY, give me a POTTER’ to dumb looks from the crowd.
Give me a HARRY
10mins past the hour and nearly there...
Once inside, Easons has never looked so good, all the shelves were covered with material painted with fake shop shelves, there were magicians, a DJ, a raffle, coffee, wine, juice for the youngsters and a bag of sweeties for everyone.
entertaining when he wasn't falling over, no seriously...
Once the €12.99 was handed over to one of the many witches behind the till, we were given a Harry Potter presentation bag, with a copy of the latest book, the last book, a Raold Dahl book, and a couple of other thingies.
We left the shop and the queuing at 12.35am, walked a little up O’Connell Street, saw the end of the queue look mournfully at our little goodie bag before hailing a taxi and heading home to a delighted doggie.
The young wan is in bed now with the goods, I wonder how long it will take her to fall asleep……
THE countdown has begun, less than four hours till we can get our hands on the latest Harry Potter book.
Yes, I am a complete buck eejit like all those mad ones you see around this time, but not the really mad ones, I will not be wearing a witch’s hat, cloak or any kind of face paint, other than my own normal stuff, whatsoever!
definitely not me...
The young wan is a different matter altogether, she has already tried to bribe me saying ‘if I wear my witch’s hat, will you give me a tenner?’. ‘My arse’, as the eloquent, Mr Royal would say.
Well I suppose she is the number one fan as they say and one who had fully and completely gotten me on board the train to Hogwarts with her.
I made her wear the hat once before, years ago, with the launch of the first Harry Potter movie. I managed to get tickets for the first press screenings which took place a week before the general release and didn’t say a word.
As the days got closer and closer to the date, I said nothing, until that night I bet her that she wouldn’t dare walk into town wearing her very special witch’s hat. (It was made by a very talented friend who incidentally is the ticketloser from CCC and stunning it is still despite years of playing, stamping etc etc.)
After the initial looking at me to see if I was wise in the head or not, she went ‘aye alright’, she must have been 10 years old at the time, and off we walked into town, with her wearing the very large, very in your face, witch’s hat with not a bother in the world.
Pretending to check when the movie would be shown, I asked her to wait in a line at the cinema with dozens of kids who were obviously going to see the movie. She just looked at me, thinking this isn’t starting till next week, why is that cruel sh*te putting me in this line? And then I told her, ach it was priceless. I just love doing that kind of thing….
As they say, I digress, scoot back to the present and it’s been a tense week here in the Red Mum household, the worst kind cos I have been off and we should have been making the most of the week, this beautiful week, but we didn’t.
So today, I was hanging onto just one thing done well by the young wan, and well it didn’t happen, there was more food left on the plates after washing than beforehand, her room, oh Jesus her room, I cannot say anymore about that, she took hours running to the shops (despite being grounded so she could meet her mates) and she was plastered in makeup when I got up this morning despite being told (four times in the last five days alone) that she’s not allowed.
( I allow her makeup when she’s off to a disco or the like, light stuff, but not willy nilly at all, like for example, getting up, not at 13, Jaysus not ever like that.)
I decided that a different course of action was required, so after a long talk earlier, off we set into town and then the plan was hatched. If the young wan tidied her room, done completely by early this evening, we would go into town for the midnight launch of the latest Harry Potter book later tonight.
And, I have to say, without close inspection (cos you really don’t want to do that, oh God no, you don’t), it appears semi-well done…. So, off we go later to the Halfblood prince launch.
I will be prising the book out of her arms later as she sleeps…. I’ve done it before and will do it again, like later… Would Calpol work on an older child, I wonder?
12.55am , July 16, 2005
WELL we left for the bus into town at 11pm and were placed at the end of the queue by 11.20pm, and such a mad queue it was as well. There were large families, drunkards wandering in from the pub, the mad eejits working on the promotion, and us….
Some of the first out with the book
fire juggler
blokes on a small bike!!!!
There were people on stilts, fire jugglers, witches giving away tickets for a raffle inside the shop, a badly suited (sorry) Hagrid, wizards and all manners of mad ‘uns. There was also more than one car with occupants shouting ‘Harry Potters a load of me b*ll*x’ and other such niceties, as well as the occasional drunk person trying to bolster the crowd by going ‘give me a HARRY, give me a POTTER’ to dumb looks from the crowd.
Give me a HARRY
10mins past the hour and nearly there...
Once inside, Easons has never looked so good, all the shelves were covered with material painted with fake shop shelves, there were magicians, a DJ, a raffle, coffee, wine, juice for the youngsters and a bag of sweeties for everyone.
entertaining when he wasn't falling over, no seriously...
Once the €12.99 was handed over to one of the many witches behind the till, we were given a Harry Potter presentation bag, with a copy of the latest book, the last book, a Raold Dahl book, and a couple of other thingies.
We left the shop and the queuing at 12.35am, walked a little up O’Connell Street, saw the end of the queue look mournfully at our little goodie bag before hailing a taxi and heading home to a delighted doggie.
The young wan is in bed now with the goods, I wonder how long it will take her to fall asleep……
NB
The pix were taken on a digital camera without the flash as it isnt powerful enough so following the lack of photoshop at home, these are the 'raw' pics , dark and shaky as they are, but sure they still paint a picture.
3 comments:
I bet if you saw my daughter's room you'd hug and kiss your daughter over the neatness of her own room. She, too, was very excited about getting the new Harry Potter, and more so about the fact that she would have it 7 hours before all her friends as she is in a different time zone!
Oh dear what a bad mother I am.... I laughed at the thought of you considering plying your daughter with Calpol to knock her out! Enjoy your read :-)
and heres me trying to keep it quite that I was stood in a queue outside WH Smiths til 1.15 to get an adults copy and a childrens copy.I have just outed myself, perhaps we should hold a Harry Potter pride march.
Love the blog and the fantastic pics, you certainly have an eye for framing.
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