My friends Stef and Lee recently welcomed an unusual new member into their family. Derek the Dalek made his appearance shortly before Christmas, and has been busy earning his keep. Lee gave Derek some TLC to get his sound system fired up, flash his neon lights and activate his flamethrower before sharing him with world.

One of Derek’s first jobs was to attend a mass Dr Who wedding in London. In a strange reality (but who am I to judge…) scores of people married, renewed vows or were blessed in the shadow of the Tardis, with Derek trying hard not to exterminate any ex-spouses who may have turned up to give reasons why anyone in the room ‘should not be lawfully wed.’
He was later interviewed in front of a theatre audience by Keith Allen – one of my Comic Strip heroes! I think Derek would have liked to manoeuvre Lily Allen into a mass wedding of sorts, but he made do with the evening of fun on stage with her dad. His next adventure was helping publisher DK Books to win an award for innovative entertainment at the Royal Festival Hall – so it’s been all go for Derek!
I ran a social media workshop last week at City Business Library. It’s a great place for small businesses and start-ups to gain knowledge and skills at knock-down prices. The session was sold-out! It’s fantastic to attract a full house, but I always feel guilty if people have to be turned away because there’s no space left for them. I understand that the librarians running the booking system have to be strict due to H&S policies, but when people arrive smiling and leave two minutes later looking miserable it makes me sad. So I’m thinking of hiring Derek for my next social media workshop – he can keep those latecomers entertained.
Buying Derek and setting up in business as Dalek-for-Hire was a good call by Lee. But we all make the occasional bad decision in life. Stef was once invited out on a date by a good looking young guy who told her he would be singing on Top of the Pops the following week. It was 1982 and Stef had better things to do than spend an evening with a wannabe in a leather waistcoat who had lots of chat and was clearly overflowing with dreams, but probably had little substance of character.
She laughingly refused. Watching Top of the Pops on Thursday night, as we all did back then, you can imagine how surprised she was to see her almost-new-friend (boyfriend?) George, fronting a brand new band: Wham!!! (That definitely calls for some extra exclamation marks, don’t you think?)
As Mr Michael said (not to Stef), ‘Well I hadn’t seen your face around town awhile, so I greeted you with a knowing smile.’ I may not have seen you for a while but I’m making the time to network more from next week. I’ll be at Biscotti in Gloucester Road on the 12th – maybe see you there? If not, see you here: @WeekendWitch.
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