Fun and Games with the QE2

I do not know who writes my scripts as you couldn’t make them up!

We had, as most of you know, covers on board QE2 as she sailed off to retirement to Dubai. Getting them back was always going to be a nightmare. Our Production Manager, Tracey, worked miracles. We found an agent and freight forwarders, they were sent and we managed to get them through customs. So far, so good.

Our next problem is that we oversold on the signed editions but the Master of QE2, Captain Ian McNaught, was our saviour. When he returned to the UK, he happily signed our earlier covers carried on the last transatlantic crossing.

All was going fantastically well when the three boxes of covers arrived from Dubai. Have you noticed life has an irritating habit of setting you up then just when you think all is well, smacking you round the face with a wet fish? The third box was virtually empty! The box containing covers signed by the Captain was missing.

Oh, the joys of carrying covers. We started an investigation. I had had a strange message from the ship via the UK that some of the boxes might have been mixed up with covers returned to Isle of Man Post Office. So I phoned them, only to find out that our box was floating around in Dubai.

With luck they will be returned to us eventually but will we get them in time for Christmas? That’s another story.

2008 has been a hectic year. We seem to have been waiting for various things to happen. The Vulcan bomber to fly. The Tornado to steam. Hundreds of my stamped addressed letters to potential signatories to be returned.

I always send a stamped addressed envelope to every celebrity when asking to sign for us. I send 100s of these every month and get back perhaps 5! Where do they all go? I have a vision that there is a black market for them and somewhere, a stall exists selling my stamped envelopes: “only 15p each! Comes with a label to cover up the address!” I’ve sent over 30,000 of these blasted envelopes, all with stamps, since we started in 2000! I find it hard to understand why just returning my letters, with “no, sorry” scribbled on them in the envelope I send is so hard.

But enough moaning! It is Christmas and I’m not feeling at all bah humbuggy this year. I’m looking forward to seeing my granddaughter, Caitlin, properly enjoy Christmas for the first time this year. Now she is 2 years old, it is magical.

At some point, I must write up my diary of the Collectors' Show we did at Peterborough last month. I still can't think of it without wanting to slit my wrists yet but watch this space ...

Best wishes,

Tony

P.S. It’s a shame that Father Christmas and the tooth fairy only exist for us in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. I think his Hogfather joins White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life and Holiday Inn as great Christmas films to watch. The brilliant Marc Warren plays one of the best baddies ever.