Fire and Ice

A combination of luck and circumstance meant that this weekend I had more time than usual to spend reading, which was great as I had two brilliant books I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into. The first one was “ The Pixar Touch: the making of a company ” which I had been meaning to read for some time. It appealed to my love of corporate histories as well as of course the relationship with Disney. The book proved to be informative, entertaining and very interesting but I wish it had more photos… however; my second book delivered those in spades. As soon as I put down “The Pixar Touch” I started on what turned out to be a gigantic coffee-table book (it didn’t look that big on the website!), also about Pixar called “ To Infinity and Beyond! The Story of Pixar Animation Studios ” which is more of an official story. I was glad I’d read “The Pixar Touch” first as it gave me enormous background, whereas “To Infinity and Beyond!” glosses over the details about how the company ...

I've been waiting for the Muppets to come back for years... and the wait is over! New videos have been appearing on YouTube and the folks at The Disney Blog kindly placed them in one convenient place. If you like the Muppets make sure you watch these shorts - they are very funny! New Skits from The Muppets at The Disney Blog.

As I’ve mentioned before , I’m a Disney collector but a low-key one. I don’t have room for big collections so anything like plush or pins or snowglobes or even cels is out. I do have a few here and there but they are in no way a collection. No, my collection is more about music and books and even in those areas I’m a little picky. I only have CDs with either original movie soundtracks or theme park music (no contemporary collections, no re-recordings, no random compilations). I like to say that this keeps my collection specialized but what it really does is keep it manageable: I only buy maybe two or three CDs a year! The music collection, however, is a new pursuit for me – what I’ve been collecting for a lot longer are Disney books. Like with the music, I have set up boundaries though so I focus on the non-fiction books: biographies, company history, business books, that sort of stuff. But I also have a lot of those gorgeous souvenir books, beautiful volumes full of photos and usually...

My previous post was all about those things I regret I didn’t do while living and working in Walt Disney World. Well, as promised, today I will tell you about some of the cool things I got a chance to experience. The list is long so let’s get on with it, in no particular order: Backstage. As I said before, a lot of people have paid good money to get tours of backstage at the various theme parks and of course as a cast member I could go there anytime. I got to know backstage Epcot particularly well but I also remember that I could walk anywhere in Disney’s Hollywood Studios (then known as Disney-MGM) on the days when there were a lot of areas that guests couldn’t see, except from the tram tour. I could walk anywhere and actually BE a part of the tour! Characters. I was luckier than most in that one of my roommates was part of the Zoo Crew and would play a variety of characters, including the Big Cheese himself. I got the chance to hang out with her while she was on sta...

For many people, a trip to Walt Disney World is the trip of a lifetime. They plan and save and then have a week or two to experience all that The World has to offer. As anyone that has been there before will tell you, it is impossible to see it all in such a short time. The place is much to vast, with so many things to do and see. I should know – I spent 16 months living and working in WDW and I still didn’t see it all! I missed out on some huge things, like Animal Kingdom, simply because they didn’t yet exist but I missed out on some other things because I didn’t know about them, didn’t have time or I just never got around to it. So there are a few things I wish I’d seen and done and I call this my big regret list. So in no particular order… Discovery Island . If you’ve never heard of this, this was a sort of wildlife refuge/ mini zoo located in the island on Bay Lake , which you can view from the Wilderness Lodge . For a few years this was open to the public and ...

A few days ago someone shared this video with me. I don’t know why but it really made me smile and made me feel good about the future. Seeing all these people from all over the world just dancing and having a great time made me remember also one of my favourite Epcot songs: Celebrate the Future Hand in Hand. Put your hand on the future Share a dream together around the world With a voice from every country And a face from every land We'll celebrate the future hand in hand This song was part of the Millennium Celebration and I actually don’t think I ever heard it on site but I discovered the song in the Millennium Celebration CD . It’s a happy song, that makes one get up and dance but also looks towards the future with hope: The future is coming We've got to catch it if we can The magic's unfolding You can hold it in your hand We can touch tomorrow today To make some memories That will never fade away It is really all about celebration, coming together and dancing and it do...

A couple of days ago we had what in the UK is considered a ‘hot’ day – but for me it was simply a ‘less cold’ day. We hit the dizzy heights of 26 degrees and it was sunny so of course everyone around me was melting. Everyone was outside enjoying the lovely weather and I was basically looking at everyone have fun from inside as my hayfever was quite bad. I guess I was in a cranky mood because I couldn’t enjoy the weather so I started noticing just HOW terribly people around me were dressed. Because it rarely goes above 25 degrees around here people seem to throw caution to the wind and turn up to work in the most bizarre outfits. I’ve classified them in three groups (no photos as I thought I’d get sued!): A) The Embracers. These people are SO ready to get out their summer outfits and whenever the weather is mildly suitable (never mind that it is 12 degrees out there), they just go for the lot: sandals, spaghetti straps, tiny skirts or shorts, a lot of flesh on show. Remember, this is at...