Category Archives: Apocalypse

Today (an average Saturday)

Today began with a mild hangover. A lie-in prevented anything major.

When I emerged from my sleep of weird, but now long forgotten, dreams, I was greeted by mid-morning sunshine. Which prompted me to take a picture of my zombie garden.

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Which is looking much better now that the grass is getting longer. This afternoon, we went shopping for festival supplies.

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Five boxes of beer, two boxes of wine and a bottle of vodka should just be enough. Although my second in command will also need supplies.

This evening, I caught up with yesterday’s Graham Norton show on iPlayer; I don’t often watch it, but Cyndi Lauper was one of this week’s guests.

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OK, I know she’s had some work done, but she still looks great for 61. And her voice is holding up pretty well too.

I then watched Soaked in Bleach, the film about the days leading up to Kurt Cobain’s death. There was the expected murder/conspiracy theory, with a possibly forged suicide note. But, even if those arguments are discounted, it’s clear that something weird was going on. It’s worth watching.

I have housework tomorrow.

 

 

2.8 hours later

Another couple of pictures from our time volunteering for 2.8 hours later.

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These pictures, and a few others, were spotted by a friend on someone’s Facebook page. I don’t do Facebook, so she asked them to mail me some. The bloke who took the pictures is considering a role as a zombie next year, a great way to spend an evening in my opinion.

Here’s a video I’ve found from last year; I’ll have put up a link at the time, but here it is again 2.8 hours later 2014

And another from this year 2.8 hours later 2015

 

I was leaning on a lamp post …

Yesterday evening involved growling at people again. Our number was reduced from last week’s three zombies to two (me and Lucy), but Ian was running, so we were three at the zombie disco (plus our new friend, ‘Michael’. And quite a few other people, both colleagues and customers).

From the beginning of the evening, Lucy …

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And me …

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This week, I was slightly less mobile since I was chained to a lamp post. While my chains were surprisingly comfortable, It was a pain to keep having to adjust them between groups af people.

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And this was my lamp post, just around the corner to Gateshead stadium.

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I’d intended this, second, year to be my last, but we’ve pretty much decided to do it all again next year. The cameraderie amongst zombies (and runners) at the zombie disco was the deciding point.

Cats and zombies

On Friday evening, I resumed my duties as a zombie. While I did ache a little after my four hours of chasing people around Gateshead, I’ve not experienced the same level of pain as last year. Saying that, I did two nights last year. And there’s still next weekend to come.

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On a different subject, there was a knock at our door yesterday. I answered after checking for obvious signs of Jehovah’s Witnesses or Salespeople. At our door were a man with a little girl. The man asked whether Sandra was home. When I told him that Sandra doesn’t live here, he explained that he’d been entrusted with the safe delivery of his grandaughter to another grandparent. He knew that she lives in one of the cottages in our street, but didn’t know which one. So he’d asked his grandchild to point out the house. The little girl had apparently pointed to the waving cat in our window.

Z Nation

I’m currently into episode five of Z Nation on Netflix. It’s pretty awful, but it’s making me think that we should’ve signed up for 2.8 hours later and zombie school this year.

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Stocking up

As a result of an error, four tons of firewood was delivered today.

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We did manage to accommodate it all though. But only just.

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So, we’re almost prepared for self sufficiency in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Or other, more plausible, disaster. All that remains is to complete work on the shed brewery.

2.8 hours later

Because it looked to be a very cool thing to take part in, we bought tickets for 2.8 Hours Later Survival as part of Deb and Luce’s Christmas present. For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a zombie chase game, run in a bunch of cities through the year. This was the first time for Newcastle and it runs two nights last week and three this week. I’d not even heard of it before, but the five nights in Newcastle sold out pretty fast. Around 500 players take part every night, with 12 stages to get through over a four mile course. My niece, Abi, and her boyfriend Simon managed to get tickets too. 

The zombies are made up of volunteers, who go through zombie school, a half day course which basically teaches someone how to be a zombie. 

What Deb and Luce didn’t know was that my second in command and I had volunteered to be zombies. Zombie school was a great experience, even without the actual event. We spent an afternoon at Gosforth boys’ school, and some time practicing in the park, to become fully trained zombies. 

The event itself is incredible though. Since Deb and Luce were going Saturday night (Abi was too, but she knew we’d be there), we were there at Friday’s first night to practice our new skills. Well, we wanted to be at our best on the Saturday. 

My second command were in different zones, she in zone 11 and me in 9. On the Saturday, it was 9 and 11 (I know, that won’t mean a lot to most people). Yesterday, most of my evening was spent in a bush, waiting to jump out and chase players as they passed. I won’t say more in case any future player comes across this. 

A few pictures from Saturday …

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The zombie disco, at the end of the night, was well worth a visit. Both players and zombies attended. And after over three hours of jumping out of a bush and running after people, the first pint of beer was the best thing I’ve ever tasted.

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Oh, my view from the bush.

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