Something happened today that took me back about twenty years, and left me there reliving memories which I thought I had long since forgotten. When I was fifteen or sixteen, I saw the movie Stand By Me (coolio BTW). I remember the song, by Ben E King, along with the video, also hit our screens around that time. I can’t remember how many times I watched the film, just that we (my friends, and I) knew the script well enough to quotes snippets of it, at each other, grossing out on-lookers with beauties such as “Shut up!” “I don’t shut up, I grow up, and when I loook at you I throw up!” “and your mum goes round the corner and licks it up!” Euch!!!
It must have been around that time that I developed an unholy crush on Wil Wheaton, WHO? I hear you thinking. Wil Wheaton was one of the ‘child actors’ in Stand By Me (keep up!), along with River Phoenix. I don’t know what was going through my head but it certainly wasn’t the GCSE coursework that I should have been reviewing and studying in preparation for my exams. I used to sit in my room, text books open on the bed, while I patiently plaited and weaved ‘friendship bracelets’ (THE big thing at school, at the time) and sent them to Wil, following the postal address supplied in whatever teenage-idol magazine I had recently purchased. I used to sign the letters from ‘Womble’, because I was from Wimbledon and thought it was a cool pseudonym(?!?). Of course, I never heard anything back, but then I don’t remember ever expecting a reply.
I remember my excitement when, the friendship bracelet-thing had passed, and saw Wil (do you think ti’s OK to refer to someone you don’t know, by their first name?) in Star Trek: TNG, in the role of Wesley Crusher. I remember thinking then, that he was still pleasing to the eye 
LOL!
I don’t remember if I class myself as a fan of ‘Sci-fi’ at that time, but I certainly enjoyed watching the likes of Saphire & Steel, Star Trek, Blakes 7, and Dr Who, when they were on. Perhaps it was during that time, nearing my twenties that I became engrossed in the Terry Pratchet books (and later, bored by them). I simply couldn’t get enough of them, and having read one book, I went back to the book shop and bought the whole series. I think that maybe I just wanted to escape from my life and reading/watching the adventures of people in different worlds really rocked my boat, so to speak.
Although I could never claim to be as much of a Sci-fi fan as Miles (remember his Dr Who ‘thang’ last year?), we do watch an awful lot of it, to the exclusion of most other shows on TV, and I must admit, I love it. It probably started with the original Star Trek, and the following spin-offs, but I’m glad to say I never really got into shows like Babylon 5.
Anyway, I was uncharacteristically watching some daytime TV on Saturday and accidentally rediscovered Star Trek: TNG, and of course, Wil Wheaton. That got me reminiscing and I felt a powerful urge to find out what he was up to these days. It was then that I found his blog or should I say blogs and realised that not only is he quite a prolific writer, but he is also very funny, a self-confessed geek AND looks remarkably like a very young Patrick Duffy - dontcha think?? I laughed and nodded while reading his post on the Star Wars prequels, what a bunch of @£$%^. BTW I hadn’t even watched the orignial films until I found a boyfriend of mine and his best friend, sitting in the orchard after midnight, drinking red wine, smoking cigars and discussing the spiritual signifocance of the series… whah??? I digress… back to Mr Wheaton… he seems to have made a name for himself all over the web, and written a couple of interesting looking books too. I’d never have thought that I could have anything in common with someone I had a crush on twenty years ago!
OK, all this reminiscing made me think about my friends at the time, and I kicked myself for not calling Heg to find out how she’s doing. I checked the clock, and made a mental note to call her when it wasn’t 9am, but obviously, I didn’t kick myself hard enough because I promptly forgot to do anything about it. Imagine my surprise when a few hours later, when she called me from Cal-i-forn-I-A! yayyy!
It was weird, because I’m the 5th out of 6 players and yet when this collage arrived, there was a beautiful background, which I lurve, but not focal point, central image or even any collage elements, apart from on the left, where there is some tissue paper, mesh and some metallic embellishments 
kind of makes you wanna go “Whaaaatha????”
