General chit-chat & meeting Benedict Cumberbatch!

Hey there everyone! Long time no talk!

Sorry we've been a bit MIA the past two weeks or so... a lot has been happening! (This is going to be a lengthy post so prepare yourself with some sweets or something and get comfortable).

Firstly, we've both been crazy busy and overwhelmed with university assessment. As much as I would love to have a post up on this blog every single week, it was not possible for us at this time (sorry guys!). We've only got one more day of university before our mid-semester break (which is only for a week :c ) but hopefully we will blog a little more regularly soon! 

We also turned eighteen on the second of April. I felt quite a few mixed emotions but  had a generally lovely day! I didn't party or go out or anything (eighteen is the legal drinking age here in Australia) because we both had uni that Wednesday and I had uni all day the following Thursday. It still feels pretty weird to be considered an 'adult' but I'm not sure if I will ever get used to that feeling. 

I usually always spend my birthday or an occasion such as Christmas with this dreaded feeling of guilt. Our mum loves giving gifts and spoiling us and she gets very excited and I always feel horribly guilty for the entire day because I always feel like I don't deserve her kindness! This year things were a little slower and calmer which was lovely and Tayla and I were lucky enough to receive tickets to what OZ Comic-con called "The Cumberbatch Experience" that was to be held in Sydney on the 12th and 13th of April! I was so excited! Whilst we didn't have very good seats at the time (meaning I would miss out on a photo/autograph token) I was still over the moon to be able to see Benedict Cumberbatch in real life! I've been a fan of his since the first season of Sherlock (I'm a hardcore Cumberbitch, if you will) and could not believe this was happening! Literally two months before I had been re-watching Sherlock season three with my parents and we were chatting about how I would probably never get too meet him!

Fast forward one week to Wednesday the ninth of April when my dad received a call from OZ Comic-con. Turns out they double-booked our tickets for the Saturday session and as we had booked our tickets first they wanted to move us to the Sunday session with improved seats and free tickets to OZ Comic-con in Sydney in September (remember this was just an event held by OZ Comic-con.. not actual Oz Comic-con)! Naturally, we agreed and I could not wait until we flew out on Saturday for the event! 

On Saturday the 12th we woke up bright and early (4AM to be exact) to get ready for our 6:30AM flight to Sydney. I love travelling but I hate flying and I could not wait to get off of that plane and onto Sydney soil. Once we arrived we ventured into the city for a day of shopping and relaxing. I'm not going to lie, Tayla and I went quite crazy in American Apparel and ZARA, simply because they are two stores we don't have here where we live. We eventually returned to our hotel room for our nanna-naps before venturing back out for dinner that night. With out bellies full and out coats wrapped tight (it was freezing in Sydney) we returned to the hotel and I fell asleep almost instantly. 

Then it was the big day! Tayla and I stuffed our faces with delicious pancakes after waking up pretty early with excitement for the day. We packed up our things before jumping in the car we had rented for the weekend and then made our way to The University of New South Wales which is where the event was held. Once we had our tickets we made our way inside where a lovely volunteer directed us to our seats. We were so surprised to find out that we had been placed in the VIP area (thank you Comic-con!) and were in the fourth row! Because we were in the VIP area, photo and autograph tokens were sold to us right away so we didn't have to worry about missing out on the opportunity to meet Benedict! The morning was pretty slow as each row (rows A through to V) had to have a turn at buying tokens until they were sold out and the same process was used for photos and autographs.

When it was our turn for photos I looked like a right mess! I couldn't stop shaking and when the line was close enough that I could see him I nearly flipped out and I was blushing like the crazy lady that I am. When he finished up with the person before us, he turned and smiled at Tayla and I before asking if we were twins (this always happens when we meet a celebrity at a convention... even with Oliver and James Phelps!) and we laughed before shakily replying with yes. He smiled again (swoons) before he motioned for us to take the photograph. I have got to say that the man smelt lovely. Not to be a creeper but I guarantee you would do the same when you have a photo opportunity with a celebrity. He is also a lot shorter than I expected (some of my friends would definitely be much taller than him) but his cheekbones and eyes were perfect! He also had seriously amazing skin... I was so tempted to ask about his skin care routine and the photos from the event do not even do it justice (he is also a lot paler than he appears in photos)! We had the photo and I felt like my face was going to rip in half with how hard I was smiling (his hand was on my hair *heavy-breathing*). He thanked us for coming and we in turn thanked him for coming to Australia before we were asked by security to move along for the next person.

We then had a fair few hours to wait before the autograph session. The OZ Comic-con organisers had organised various youtube videos and interviews of Benedict (frequently featuring Tom Hiddleston) to play in the theatre whilst we waited but having already watched these interviews and videos before (I just can't help myself) I was pretty bored. After a long wait it was autograph time! Unfortunately only one person was allowed per autograph token (we were not aware of this when we bought our token) so Tayla was kind enough to let me go and get Benedict's autograph. I lined up with the other people from row D and I started getting all nervous again (it sounds so silly but I couldn't help it!) and the line was moving a lot slower than the photograph line. He wanted to spend as much time as he could with all of his fans and he honestly looked so overwhelmed and delighted by the response he was getting from everyone. By the time it was my turn I placed my autograph-paper-thingy on his table where he looked at my name (our names were placed on sticky-notes so we didn't have to try and tell him how to spell them) and he looked up at me. He must have noticed that I was holding the photograph that we had hours earlier because he asked where my sister was. I told him that the volunteers wouldn't let her come with me and his smile dropped and he said "I'm so sorry Maddison" and I nearly screamed/passed-out/melted into a puddle right then and there. I told him it was okay and he signed my autograph before looking back up at me and asking how I'd enjoyed the day. I told him it had been amazing before asking how he had enjoyed his day. He smiled and said "It's been tiresome but fantastic, thank you for asking. You're the first to ask today" I'm sure he would have been asked that many times throughout the rest of the day but because I was in the fourth row it really was a possibility that I was the first to ask him. I blushed like crazy and smiled before he thanked me again for coming and I was asked to move along by security. 

The wait for the panel to start was even longer than the wait for autographs. The autographs ran over time (because he wanted to get through everyone and made sure no-one that bought a token missed out) and it wasn't until 5pm before he was finished (my autograph would have been at about 2pm). He had a quick fifteen minute break (the poor guy must have been so tired after posing for over 1000 photos and signing over 1000 autographs all weekend) before the panel began. The panel was amazing (I apologise if some of my quotes are wrong or in the wrong order but I was a little over-excited and didn't pay as much attention to the questions he was asked as I should have). He entered from a door towards the back of the stage and he had his iphone right up to the microphone where he played a Daft-Punk song whilst dancing to his seat. The crowd loved it and he got everyone up dancing before telling us that we had just taken part in some illegal dancing (the gifs are all over Tumblr right now if you're interested some great footage can be seen here and the back of my head is in it!). Soon the lady in charge brought him out a glass of wine and he goes "YEA! Thank you so much. I haven't had a glass of that for..uh..these two weeks!" We all laughed before he got onto the first question which was about preparing for his role as James in Third Star. He answered in depth and we already noticed that he can get distracted and go off topic very easily but his answer was very thoughtful and he thought about what he would say before saying it. I found that the majority of his questions were similar to the first and were about his various roles and how he approached them. We were lucky enough to get his doing his famous Alan Rickman impressions (more than once actually) and he also did a little Khan and Smaug which had the crowd going wild (he normally hates doing his Smaug voice in a panel). He also told us that his favourite childhood movies were the Ghostbusters, the original Star Wars trilogy and Indiana Jones. He also shared with us that the famous 'riding-crop' incident (a fan supposedly sent a riding-crop to him after the first season of Sherlock) and he admitted that he later found that it was sent from Tom Hiddleston as a practical joke. He was asked what the most embarrassing song on his phone was and he sang the beginning of Puff the Magic Dragon under his breath. The last of what I remember really well was him talking about his role as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (I'm so excited for this film as I think Benedict Cumberbatch working alongside Keira Knightly is a winning combination). He mentioned that he personally thinks that Alex actually took his own life (this film is based off of a real person for those of you that don't know) and he has attempted to portray that in this film. He didn't swear as much as I expected (watch videos of him at other panels and you will understand) and he really was generous with his lengthy, detailed answers. He was eventually told to have one more question and he managed to get three more questions answered before the organiser told him that he really did have to leave. You could tell that he was very genuine and he really did want to spend as much time as he could with his fans. 

All in all the experience was amazing! I still feel like it never happened and I also can't believe that it did. I'm so envious of the VIPs that got to go to the meet and greet and have dinner with him afterwards, but I was so lucky to get to meet him in the first place. 

Sorry for such a lengthy post about me fan-girling over a middle-aged man and I'm sure this was a lot of nonsense to those of you that either aren't a fan of Benedict or if you simply don't care! 

Thank you so much to those of you that read this post! Talk to you all soon, love from Maddie xoxo.