llywela | (no subject)

Thank you to everyone who responded to my last post. I started to reply individually but couldn't quite bring myself to say the same thing over and over. Deb is doing okay, although she is still in a lot of pain and won't be considered out of the woods until she has had a scan to pinpoint the clot and an angioplasty to remove it, probably sometime next week. At the moment she is having daily injections to start breaking it up and reduce the swelling. It is a huge relief that she is finally being given the right treatment, but remains a source of great anger that she was misdiagnosed for four months.

We are now on a wait-and-see for the next few days. The decorating at my house might have to go into abeyance if Mum and/or Dad has to go up there to be with her, but that depends on a few factors, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

On a brighter note, I went to see the Christmas lights being turned on by the cast of Merlin last night, and that was a lot of fun. It was cold and wet and my legs became very stiff after standing around for a couple of hours, but still fun. I have to point out, though, that the cast of Merlin turned out not to be the star attraction of the night. No, that honour fell to the world's favourite purple dinosaur, Barney, who appeared a little earlier to lead a singalong, much to the delight of the crowd, which was full of toddlers! Much to my amusement, most of the teenagers in the crowd were equally thrilled. *G* I had met Mum and Chelsea for the event, and a group of Chelsea's friends had found their way over to us - and they all sang and danced along having an absolute blast, which I really hadn't expected, I thought they would be embarrassed! Evidently not.

Also? The songs haven't changed in the 10 years since Chelsea was little enough to watch Barney. Mum and I remain word perfect. *G*

The Merlin cast weren't onstage for very long and I was sad that Richard Wilson wasn't among them. Everyone else was there, though, and they all said a few words. I can never quite get over Tony Head's real voice (or the fact that after a long and relatively distinguished career, he is still best known in these parts as 'the man from the coffee adverts'). He couldn't stop giggling. Katie McGrath was adorably overcome by being on stage in front of a huge crowd of people. "I feel like a rock star!" she said! There is always some kind of gimmick for the actual turning on of the lights - when David Tennant and Billie Piper did it, it was a technobabble gimmick. This time it was a magic gimmick, as we all had to shout out a Merlin-esque spell, and it was hilarious. Then afterward there were fireworks, which was even more hilarious because the actors were all stood up on the stage, enclosed on three sides, and couldn't see a thing, so they all jumped down and stood among the crowd to watch.

Not easy to take decent pictures, what with the rain and the cold and the dark - not to mention the crowd jostling around and getting in the way. A few came out, though. So, for the benefit of

sherrilina and other Merlin fans on my f-list, here they are.

The two random people on stage are DJs from Red Dragon, the local radio station, who were MCing the event.

Here is a Small reindeer, enjoying the evening.