Below, a report from Anna, one of the red carpet attendees in Wellington, of her experiences that evening:

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I am one of a group of 7 who traveled to Wellington from around the world to attend the Wellington premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Most of us had never met in person before, but knew each other from various online sources — some of us tweet, others are AA or C19 forum participants. At our core were two ladies who are friends in real life, who organized tireless, and, in my case, encouraged me to come out of my shell a little.

I never expected to be someone who, in the prime of my life, would stand with friends alongside a red carpet. But I never realized how much fun it would be.

Nor had I appreciated all the consequences of wearing a t-shirt which had this…

WOW!!!  Still trying to catch my breath!    It’s been a great day!!!

Yesterday was a great day too.   Hubby drove me around Oakland University to my fave vantage point for shooting pictures of the main scene of the tornado movie being filmed there.  He convinced me to go take my pictures even though there were crew members working there. Another man appeared out of nowhere and was giving the others some instructions. He smiled at us so I asked if I could take some pictures. He said go right ahead….take as many as you want. He asked which actor I was there to see, and I said Richard Armitage. He smiled again and said, “Oh, Richard! He’s our lead! Nice guy!” (I squeeeee’d silently in my head lol) I asked if it was alright to ask him a few questions and he said, “Shoot! I’ll answer whatever I can.”