I was very excited to hear from Diane that David was coming back to England again and would be appearing at the Memorabilia show in Birmingham, about 150 miles from me. I flew over to Florida in 2005 in order to meet David, as I thought that might be my only chance to do so, and I have been soooo lucky to meet him 4 times since in England!! It goes to show that you never know what’s going to happen.

I drove up to Birmingham on the Saturday morning in pouring rain and gales (there have been a lot of floods in Britain very recently), had to queue for 40 minutes to buy a ticket, but once in headed straight for David’s stand with a big grin on my face. David spotted me and said “Hi Sue!” It makes my knees go all wobbly to think about it! He introduced me to the man who was helping him – “this is Sue, my stalker.” That’s what you get for coming to see him every time he's come to England since 2005.

David looked very well and said that I might as well take the photos for Diane’s web site straight away. He had some ideas for the photos. He wanted me to take some of him with the posters so that John Kachmar (who made them) could see how they looked. He also had a sign for the table with his name on one side and on the reverse saying that he would be back, for when he left the table. He had me take one photo with him holding the sign showing his name and then he wanted another, putting the sign up "that he would be right back" in front of his face. Funny!!! He was on really good form all day.

David said that he’d had a very good flight over and would be flying back the following Saturday and he’d have a good visit in England.

I don’t like to stand there too long. I’d rather pop back every now and again when he is not so busy. I wandered off to wait for Sally, who I’d arranged to meet there. We met last time David was over and had a good time together, as we do have something in common. (Guess what?) There were lots of Daleks wandering about as well as many people dressed up.

I met Sally at last, she got lost a few times! Of course we had to head over to David’s stand as we were both excited about seeing him. David also recognised Sally, which is such a lovely touch (though I am sure Diane had something to do with that as well). Sally had brought along a magazine which she had bought on ebay, which had a big article on David and a dreamy photo of him. She wanted him to sign the photo as Al David Hedison, which he joked about and then there was a bit of a kerfuffle as David was about to sign; Sally didn’t want him to sign anywhere on his head. (that is - his head in the photo!) Sally also mentioned a film that she’d seen David in, {Mach 2], which he didn’t remember. Sally said she didn’t like it anyway, as David was punched and knocked down in it!

We headed off for a coffee next and we had a brilliant chat about David and the Voyage episodes that we preferred – naturally the ones where David had a big part. We also got on to chatting about fanfic and favourite stories. It’s great to meet and chat with someone who has the same obsessions!

It was time to go back to see David again and to buy some photos. He also agreed to have some photos taken with us. He was very taken with Sally’s camera and (teasingly) put it in his pocket at one point! We got some lovely photos and of course standing so close to him was also lovely.

It was an absolutely lovely day, even the rain and wind going home couldn’t take the edge off it! I hope I’ll be lucky enough to do the same again.

Sue
12/7/09