Sherlocked (and London)

3.43am

Yes, I was awake at that time on Sunday morning and it wasn’t because of Jaxon for once. Our smoke alarm decided that we needed a fire drill. I think Chris said something about the battery dying but I was half asleep so wasn’t focused on that – more checking whether there was a fire and getting us all out if there was one.

Anyway, rewind first, Chris arrived to collect me from Mum’s on Saturday and as I was packing bits away and showing him the travel cot that we got at the NCT Nearly New Sale, he announced that we were off to London the next day to go to the Sherlocked Convention at the ExCeL in London. My parents were booked for babysitting Jaxon all day and Chris had made all the arrangements so that Our Sidekick would be picked up and dropped off at different places for contact. He was on it!

We went home and got everything packed so we were ready to leave in the morning.

We headed to bed early given how early we were going to need to be up but I was struggling to sleep so I finished reading Lost by Elle Field and I researched cosplay outfits for Sherlock and whether it was something I could do with what I had. In the end staying warm and dry given the weather was a higher priority (especially as might end up on the London Marathon route cheering people on).

So having got to sleep the smoke alarm went off at 3:43am, now I’m glad it works but did it have to pick a night when it was going to be short anyway??

The alarm went off at 6am and I was struggling to get my eyes open. Could have really done with extra time in bed but once I was up and moving it was getting easier. Chris checked the weather and it was forecasted to be wet all day. I changed what I was wearing and had to hope I would stay dry enough.

We got the car all loaded up and headed for my parents to drop off the boys. Jaxon was a little puzzled and when we got to Mum’s I realised he’d had no breakfast. Chris was so busy getting us out of the door on time and I was busy ticking all the boxes that I forgot to feed my own son! What a fail! It’s okay though there were plenty of choices packed for other meals so he could have one of those instead for breakfast. I heard on a documentary once that cereal has become a staple of breakfast because it’s what social convention dictates. So if Jaxon has beef hotpot for breakfast then it’s all good!

On the way between the car and the station Chris asked why I was being so quiet. I don’t do mornings at the best of times. From Jaxon waking up and having his first feed of the day to us actually getting out of bed can take a little bit of time – even in a rush it still takes 15-30 minutes for us to wake up properly.

We caught the 7.04am train out of Bedford and there were lots of runners on the train heading to the marathon. One lady had a whole conversation on her phone about where she was meeting her family and the posters that the younger members of her family (or possibly friend’s kids) had made to wave while on the course. Another passenger had his music on so loud that we could hear it too.

We arrived at St. Pancras and grabbed a drink and a snack on our way through (definitely not on plan already!). We then caught the tube. Originally we were heading towards West Ham but with all the changes to cope with the extra footfall because of the London Marathon we ended up going to Moorgate and taking the Northern line to Bank and then changing for the DLR there. Again there were changes on the services there too so we took more diversions including taking the Jubilee line between Canary Wharf and Canning Town

At Canning Town we had to wait for the second train to arrive as there was a large crowd of people trying to get on the DLR for ExCeL. There were a couple of people in Cosplay including a lad in a long brown trench coat and a deerstalker hat.

The team on the doors were lovely and very efficient at getting us all through the doors.

Overall, Sherlocked was interesting for the small bits we got to see for our Standard ticket. There were lots of props and costumes to see which were very interesting. There was a special FX stand and we got to hold and feel a fake arm which was amusing as the wrist wobbled!

We caught the DLR back to Poplar as the DLR train we were on was terminating there. We left the DLR station and found a spot along the barrier to cheer on the runners. We could see the top of this traffic light tree from where we were stood. As we were stood there the lead pack of Elite Men ran past. Around midday, Paula Radcliffe ran past us, she was in with some of the elite men and overtaking them! Rock on!

In the picture above, this was the front of the Elite Men’s group – The guy in the white vest is Wilson Ipsang – he runs for Kenya. In honour of Our Sidekick we had to cheer extra loud when he ran past. We stayed at this same spot until around 1:30 and then decided to go get some lunch. We headed to the supermarket near Cabot Square as it has a salad bar. A lot of things had mayo on them but where I could I choose SW friendly items. Three boiled eggs, a mound of carrot and sweet corn to start with then various different salad choices including pesto pasta, coleslaw and Mediterranean vegetables and pasta. Also had olives and Cherry pepper stuffed with cream cheese. I also had a snack pack of celery sticks instead of crisps. 

We ate lunch on the steps outside and could see part of the marathon course. We could see runners going by but couldn’t see who they were running for a things like that. 

Following lunch we started to head back to St. Pancras to catch the train back to Bedford. By 5pm we were back in Bedford and went to collect the boys from my parents house. 

Overall 

I definitely felt that we didn’t get our money’s worth at Sherlocked. If you can afford to fork out for the upgrades I think it would be a better day out. The props and costumes were really interesting and nice to see up close. Some of the main stage talks were included in the standard ticket price however I think we probably needed to plan our trip around them otherwise there wouldn’t be enough to occupy yourself while killing time. We went to The Grand Design Show last year and Would I recommend…? – Probably not, for the basic price there were only a handful of bits we actually got to see. There are posters and banners up for Comic Con and I think if I was to do one or the other in the future I would look at Comic Con and what you get for the basic ticket there.