A Beautiful Sight.... Really???

Oh gawd. I see it’s been ages since I last blogged, so all I can do (again) is apologize. But you see I’ve been busy. No, I really have. Busy sulking about crappy snow and missing concerts; busy feeling sorry for myself with a horrid head cold and blocked sinuses (which I still have incidentally) and also busy with a bit of writing and scrapbooking.

Firstly, I’m pleased to announce that I actually managed to complete NaNoWriMo for the first time ever. As is always the case I left it a bit late to get going, but having an actual plot helped no end and I just managed to squeeze in with 61,960 words on the final day (helped considerably by lack of money to go out anywhere during the month and being snowed in at the end). Yay me!

As I said, the snow, which beat even last year’s Edinburgh Snow Ball stopping quantity, came at a particularly annoying time as it meant Mrs H3 and I ended up missing Marc Almond doing his 30th Anniversary tour and New Model Army, also celebrating 30 years – the first time I was going to see them for about fifteen years (and the first time for Mrs H3). I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather doesn’t deteriorate (as forecast) for this weekend as it’s the Snow Ball 2010 and I’m determined that this year I will be there.

The only good thing about being snowed in was the opportunity to take part in the latest UKS Cybercrop ‘A Scrappy Little Christmas’. Although my team didn’t win it was a good weekend and it made a real change for me to be able to take part in it fully. My scrapping mojo was in full swing and I got loads done:

Talking of concerts, Mrs H3 and I went to possibly the strangest concert ever last week. Finally free of the snow we made our way to O2 Academy Brixton to see Echo and the Bunnymen who were playing their first two albums ‘Crocodiles’ and ‘Heaven Up Here’ in their entirety, followed by an encore of other favourite songs. I had never got round to seeing the band live before and Mrs H3 didn’t really know them at all as she is too young, but I’d always been rather a fan of the band, and Ian McCulloch’s voice in particular, and was looking forward to seeing them and reliving the songs of my youth.

I have always maintained that I don’t actually need to be able to see the band/singer at a concert to enjoy it, but, as if it wasn’t already obvious by my need to be at the front of every I Am Kloot concert I’ve ever been to, this isn’t true and our evening with Echo and the Bunnymen proved it.

Well before the band came on stage there was enough smoke pumped into the auditorium to wipe out several large colonies of insects, and it didn’t stop once they emerged. To begin with I assumed that it was some sort of mood setting, with ivy covered gates in the background and low lighting making the stage reminiscent of a graveyard, but as the evening went on the smoke didn’t diminish, nor did the lighting improve.

Now I will admit that we were sitting in the circle (being rather too old for standing, except at the aforementioned IAK gigs, where I invariably end up perched on the stage at some point when my arthritis gets too much anyway) and it is just possible that the view from the standing area downstairs was better, but for us upstairs, the band and ‘Mac’ in particular, were almost impossible to see. To be fair, Mac still has the most astonishing voice, and I was mesmerised by it for a majority of the evening – the singing at least, unfortunately his scouse accent meant (to my terrible at accents ears) that I didn’t really have a clue what he was saying when he spoke between songs. But, as Mrs H3 pointed out, without actually being able to see him singing, she couldn’t quite convince herself that it was him singing.

On and on the smoke went, the gates disappearing for the second album, but even a slight lighting change did little for those of us sitting upstairs. Although I enjoyed the concert and especially, as previously mentioned Mac’s voice, I couldn’t help but think several times that I could have just as easily sat at home and listened to the albums. Obviously this isn’t quite true as live music never exactly matches recorded output (except in the case of those crappy singers who mime – and who I would never go to see), but without anyone to focus on the evening became quite surreal, and was, as Mrs H3 said, even stranger than seeing the Flaming Lips.

The other thing I have been doing of course, considering the season, is Christmas shopping. I am particularly pleased that this year I managed to complete all of it without going anywhere near any shops – hallelujah for the internet say I!

Unfortunately, I’m not feeling the Christmas mood, despite spending about twelve hours listening to holiday themed music over the weekend and am so far removed from the holiday spirit that I haven’t bothered to put up my Christmas tree (which usually goes up on 1st December). I haven’t made cards, I haven’t wrapped the presents and even the usual Sinner Sisters CD has been under threat (although I have finally managed to get my act together on recording them, now I just have to send).

So Christmas is coming and I’m actually going to be quite busy. First is an evening with the lovely Tim Minchin at O2 tomorrow night, followed by the Safety Xmas Party on Wednesday. Then on Thursday evening Mrs H3 and I get to spend the evening with The Hoff in Wimbledon where he is playing Captain Hook in panto. On Friday we fly to Edinburgh for the wrocking Snow Ball, which is taking place over two days this year – the actual ball on Friday night at The Lot and a follow-on concert at the Central Library the following afternoon. If you’re in Edinburgh, come along to the Library show – it’s free and it’ll be loads of fun.

Next week will involve the final clearing up of work before the holidays and, as the big day rushes ever nearer, the inevitable need to finally wrap the presents. Much visiting and (hopefully) much eating and drinking will be taking place in the week following that.

So, just in case I don’t get round to blogging again – and let’s face it on this year’s current showing that’s pretty likely – I’d just like to wish you all

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy Halloween, Birthday and NaNoWriMo

So it’s Halloween weekend, and although the TV has been full of Christmas ads (just to annoy me I’m sure) and a Harry Potter one (whoop whoop - only 19 days ‘til the new film) it does actually seem pretty Halloweeny.

Partly this is because I have a lot of online friends who are from the US and of course they’re all bonkers about Halloween, but also because finally Halloween is becoming a big deal over here in the UK too.

I love that this is the case because it gives me the excuse to dress up even more often than I already do and Halloween gives me the chance to go to extraordinary lengths (and I don’t just mean wig-wise). This year we decided to forgo the usual Sherwood Oak Halloween party as part of our celebrations and instead went to see Ghost Stories at the Duke of York’s theatre in London.

I can’t tell you much about it, as like the Mousetrap, they ask you not to reveal details to people, but I will say that it is definitely worth seeing. Clever and atmospheric, it was a good alternative to an evening in the pub and far more entertaining, although the scariest bit for me was looking round at Mrs H3 in the dark, and her looking back – as she was dressed as the puppet from the Saw films and looked brilliant (and terrifying).

Although it’s actually Halloween today, we’ve taken a break, except for pumpkins (mine’s Severus Snape) and pumpkin scented candles (loving Yankee Candle’s Moonlight Harvest at the moment). This is because I’m (supposed to be) getting ready for the main event which takes place tomorrow night. Mrs H3 and I are off to join Alice Cooper at the Roundhouse for his Night of Fear and are expecting to have a bloody good time (see what I did there). I’ve got all sorts of great ideas running around my brain as to what to go as, but can’t quite pin myself down to one idea.

Anyway, whatever I come with up with I’ll be sharing in our Halloween album once we get the photos uploaded.

This weekend has also been my sister’s Jo’s 40th birthday and I celebrated it by sending her some flowers and a bunch of balloons that Freddie just loved playing with. That boy is so cute!

Finally, it’s that time of the year again…yep, I mean it’s NaNoWriMo time. Yes, I know I always sign up, and yes I know I always faff about all month not writing anything and then post a whiny blog about half way through the month (which usually comes to more words than I’ve written of my novel) complaining about lack of writing, but as they say, hope springs eternal.

As ever I’ve only got a half formed idea in my mind, or more accurately about 6 half formed ideas, none of which go together (at the moment) – although after discovering that bookstores are now having whole shelves catering to teenage paranormal romance I may do something along that line instead, but I’m really hoping that in a month pretty much devoid of any excitement (apart from the Harry Potter film (did I mention it was out on 19th November?) and the chance to ogle Snape for the minute or so that they’ll give him on screen) that I’ll really be able to buckle down this time and get the job done.

Interestingly, my boss has also signed up to do it so maybe the two of us can encourage each other. Actually…maybe not.

Guns n Roses

Oh bloody hell. Channel One, or whatever Virgin’s calling itself these days has just ruined my evening by prefixing every ad break with something about Christmas. Give us a break guys. It’s not even Halloween yet and I absolutely, steadfastly refuse to even think about anything Jingle Bells-related until after I’ve been to see Alice Cooper!

So last night Mrs H3 and I went to see Guns n’ Roses at the O2. It was a weird experience in more ways than one.

If you remember, I was heading off to see I Am Kloot, in Nottingham a week ago. Although I had a fantastic time (understandably), due to terrible traffic and crap hotel service from Premier Inns (who, in a continuation of their crap service, still haven’t bothered to reply to my e-mail of complaint), I actually missed half an hour of the concert as they had to take to the stage early. This meant that, very strangely, they were finished and off by 10pm, which coincidentally was the time that Axl Rose and his chums went on stage last night.

Now I must admit I’ve been a bit surprised by the reviews I’ve read of the concerts that were held over the last two days at the O2. They seem to be generally rather anti-GnR and cover the same four topics: that Axl has got fat; that they were late on stage; that Axl had to use an autocue to remember the words of his hit songs and that Slash wasn’t there. In several cases, you could actually be forgiven for thinking that the reviewers hadn’t actually been at the concert as their views of the evening differed so wildly from a majority of the people that were there (and there were huge amounts of comments attached to the reviews proving this, certainly far more than one would normally expect).

Well, sorry reviewers, Mrs H3 and I had a bloody good evening.

Guns n Roses were late on stage: Oh my, really? Anyone who knows anything about GnR, knows that they don’t start early. They never have done. In fact their timekeeping seems to have improved somewhat compared to previous concerts Mrs H3 has attended. Anyway, O2 sent warnings that they were likely to be on late and therefore over-run and even laid on an extra train and buses to help people to get home, so how was this a problem? Everyone going already knew they were going to be late so the 10pm start wasn’t exactly a surprise. Okay, I’ll admit that it was a bit inconvenient being on a work night. But surely when you book the ticket for a concert during the week, you take this into account. You know whether you can hack a late finish and plan accordingly – and lots of people did leave before the end, but Mrs H3 and I were there for the duration even though we knew that meant not leaving the O2 until 1am.

The thing is that whilst they may have gone on late, they put on a brilliant show and can definitely be considered value for money as they were on stage for almost three hours non-stop. No mean feat for any band, especially one of advancing years. Talking of value for money, we’re wondering what Tony Hadley is going to be doing at his O2 Indigo show to make the ticket price of £80+ worth paying.

Axl Rose is getting fat: Is this a crime? We’re all getting older, and part of getting older is gaining weight – except for me for whom the fat has always been an issue. So Axl’s gained a few pounds; so what? So had a lot of the audience! More of a crime for me was his porno ‘tache, reminiscent of Rufus Hound’s excellent facial hair. But unlike Rufus it didn’t suit him and needs to go...now.

I thought Axl was entertaining, both with his fabulous voice, which really shone out last night, and with his constant wardrobe changes which way outdid anything Shirley Bassey would attempt (that man must have the world’s biggest collection of scarves and dodgy jackets), and his enthusiasm and energy was enough to override any interesting taste choices.

Axl had to use an autocue: Well if he did, good for him for wanting to get the words right. I’ve been to many a concert where ‘big’ stars have forgotten the words to their songs (actually, this is a regular occurrence with IAK and part of their quirky charm), and I’m not surprised that he’d want to have a back up there, just in case, when we’re talking about songs over twenty years old. He’s not alone in that and at least he wasn’t miming and still has the power in his voice to carry off the songs.

Slash wasn’t there: The other big thing that the reviewers made mention of was the fact that GnR now has 4 guitarists, and none of them match up to Slash, although all try. This is true. But rather than bemoan the fact that they don’t match up, they could have at least acknowledged that they are fine musicians.

Duff McKagan was there last night, apparently the first ‘original’ GnR members to reconcile and now talk is rife about the others returning. But I think it’s fair to say that the chances of an Axl/Slash reunion are non-existent, based on comments made by both of them, and rather than harp on about how much better it would have been with Slash there, the reviewers would have served the public better by giving the current line up a fair hearing.

Regardless of type of music, I applaud any band that takes the time to leave the stage and go and talk to their disabled fans, as was the case last night and I was disappointed at how negative the reviews came across to most people, as almost every person I told today about the concert said they’d heard how crap they were.

Admittedly, they could have cut the show short by an hour, if they’d not given each member of the band a solo and cut down on the tracks from Chinese Democracy. But as the tour is promoting the album it was always likely that a majority of the set list would come from that album, and I suspect that the lulls in attention/enjoyment were mainly due to lack of knowledge of the material. Certainly, a man in front of us was having a fantastic time, and his enjoyment, and sometimes rather literal dance interpretation of the music kept the entertainment value at a premium, even during those CD moments.

I was pleased that they were happy to have played such a long set and clearly enjoyed doing so, and would have had no problem with letting them carry on all night if it had been the weekend. I am sure that had they been on stage at 8.30pm and performed the same set, everyone would have lauded them, but the late time changed perceptions of what, really was, a great concert.

Zynga Games – Addictive and Annoying

I was supposed to be watching the England game, but to be honest it’s so boring I’ve decided to update my blog instead.

I’ve just been trying to play a few of my Facebook games and am feeling pretty pissed off at how long they take to play. Partially this is due to my crap broadband connection (thanks TalkTalk for being so bloody rubbish) but partially it’s because of the games themselves. Like a majority of gamers on FB I, for my sins, mainly play Zynga games – a good way to feel frustrated really fast.

The game I play most is Farmville and I freely admit that I love it. I’ve invested a hell of a lot of time, and an awful lot of money, upgrading and buying and have a fine collection of animals and water features that I can’t display because I don’t have the room due to wanting to continue to actually farm.

When I first began to play the game about a year ago, there was little to do except plough and plant your fields and reap your harvests. As time has gone on there are so many parts to the game it’s almost impossible to keep track of what you’re doing. Not only can you do collective jobs to gain items (I don’t bother), you can do collective jobs to gain items for your spa/bakery/winery (I don’t bother). Even though they’ve introduced vehicle after vehicle to save you time with planting, ploughing and harvesting (the latest being the all-in-one combine), you still have to remember to fertilize and then use a previously harvested bushel to improve your mastery stats when harvesting. And then you can make things in the spa using all those bushels you’ve harvested. And all the while you’re collecting vehicle parts and building materials to make the latest shed/nursery/botanical garden etc.

Every few weeks there are new limited edition items to tempt you and I am easily tempted – especially when it comes to animals that can be bred (and strange shaped rocks for some reason). However, this is an area that is really beginning to annoy me. I buy a limited edition horse and put it in my stable. A few days/weeks later my horse gives birth to cute little limited edition foals BUT instead of me getting the reward for this, I have to give the foal away to my neighbours. This pattern is followed for limited edition eggs, truffles, and whatever other ideas they’ve come up with this week.

This would be all well and good if I was getting the equivalent type items back in return. But I’m not. I have a rainbow chicken that lays rainbow eggs which I regularly have to give away. I’ve never seen another rainbow egg on offer from any of my neighbours, nor do I ever seem to get the rarer type of eggs – Rhode Island, Cornish, Scots etc. as they’ve all already gone whenever I try to collect. I even have trouble getting the gold or black eggs. How can it be fair that after the amount I’ve invested and shared, that all I get in return is a brown or white egg containing a white chicken?

It would be much fairer if the things I harvest to go to me, with the option to share another with others, as happens with the special offer trade-ins.

Talking of sharing, this is another incredibly frustrating part of farming. Now, almost every click of the mouse brings up a button asking me to share stuff with my neighbours. Whether it be the aforementioned eggs, or fuel that I found whilst ploughing, bushels of goods I’ve just harvested, or collection items, you can’t get away from the bloody messages. And now, every time you level up or gain mastery you can send various people fuel to gloat that you’ve just beaten them too.

Firstly, these pop-ups are really bloody annoying, but especially when I’m in the middle of trying to harvest my crop. I like to have the farm open at full screen and every time the pop up posts it reduces the screen size. I’m sorry Zynga, but it doesn’t matter what I’ve found/am offering, if it happens during my harvest it doesn’t get posted. And stop with taking me to the gift page every time I open my gift box. If I wanted to send a gift I’d be at the gift page not attempting to get into my gift box. And while we’re on the subject, no I don’t want to post one of those crappy “common” collection items to a selection of people. No one wants or needs these items, we all have hundreds. What we need are the rarer items coming out more regularly – I haven’t seen a red feather or a swallowtail butterfly for months!

And now we have the added excitement of truffle farming. The idea is you send your pigs off, they find a truffle and, yep you’ve guessed it, you give it away. Now if your neighbours are decent, they’ll click the button to accept the truffle and send you one back. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen often. Due to successful collecting on my part, most of my pigs collect either gold or white truffles, but it appears that the people I share with have no interest in sharing back. Surely better is that because my pigs collected, I get one automatically and the other goes to the person whose farm it was on. Then we both win.

Also frustrating is that those of us who play who aren’t in the US get to miss out on all sorts of promotions and offers for limited edition items, although we do get the opportunity to take part in the cross-game offers.

This brings me onto another game I play regularly Yoville. I love this game because you can actually do as much or as little as you want. If you have the urge to collect everything in sight you can, or you can buy a house and spend years decorating it to your style. There are incentives for visiting every day, but if you don’t visit for a month you haven’t lost anything apart from the opportunity to buy furniture from whatever limited edition theme was on during the time you were away. There are things you can make with widgets or things you can click on to share with others like animals, keys, drinks etc. but generally you can ignore them if you want.

Zynga, in an attempt to get people playing their new game, are currently doing a cross-promotion with Treasure Isle. If you play that for a few levels you (apparently) get a lotus pond for Yoville. So far I’ve been playing this game for 3 days and got to level 7 and I’ve still seen no sign of the pond. And I can tell you that Treasure Isle is quite possibly one of the most boring gems I’ve ever played. I shall keep going till level 10, after that it will be another complaint to Zynga.

The other Zynga game I play regularly, although not so much since I’ve come back from Spain is Vampire Wars. Before I went away I had a clan of approximately 3,000 vamps who I looked after, helped and voted for regularly. But lack of time has reduced my time to get involved and so currently it’s pretty much on the back burner. I still enter as often as possible to take my spins etc. but everything else has been scaled back for the time being.

Mafia Wars is the one game that has taken a huge hit in my gaming time. Again I originally started playing only as a cross-over for Farmville, but soon became engrossed in the game. However, this really is a complex game and there are so many different things to do to play it properly that I just don’t have time. As a major amount of my free time these days seems to be taken up with accepting and sending gifts for the various games, now everyone can ask for gifts as well as send them the inbox has increased hugely, I’ve found myself visiting Mafia Wars less and less. I usually visit once a day because of the VW/MW cross-over, but no longer accept gifts for the game, nor do I take part in anyone’s crime sprees etc. In fact, I think it would be fair to say it’s a game I no longer play.

Well I'm Back....

Hi there. Remember me?

I know, it’s been forever since I last published a blog, but in my defence I’ve actually been rather busy. Pretty much most of my Summer was spent in Spain with my family and since I’ve been back (3 weeks) everything seems to have been a bit of a blur.

In part this is because I’m having trouble settling back into a normal routine after so long spent doing other things and partially because there have been a spate of concerts to attend, beginning with the ever-wonderful Muse at Wembley Stadium and ending with a sublime and utterly perfect evening of wonder with I Am Kloot at the Union Chapel.

I do feel a little aggrieved that being away I missed the opportunity to crow wildly about I Am Kloot being nominated for this year’s Mercury Music Award for their latest album ‘Sky at Night’, so I’ll do it now instead. They didn’t win as they were far too talented and we don’t want them disappearing without trace as most previous prize winners have tended to do. However, it did rob me of the opportunity to remind everyone over and over again that I’ve been touting Kloot as the perfect band for years.

Last week saw Mrs H3 (whom I have missed as badly as if half my soul was missing) and I at two I Am Kloot concerts; the first at Komedia in Brighton, where we have previously seen them and then at the Union Chapel in London, a new and absolutely stunning venue.

Now obviously I always get a little over-excited when I get to see Kloot play live and Monday night was no exception, especially once I realised that they weren’t playing the new album accompanied with all the stringy stuff that Elbow added on as they had at Bush Hall and which we hadn’t particularly enjoyed, and this made my heart beat just that little bit faster.

Whilst I would agree that the new album is worthy of Mercury nomination, to my mind I’m just not sure that as an album it’s any better than any of their previous offerings. I think the reason for this is partially that Guy and his chums have over-influenced the album. Yes, it’s a lovely sounding thing, but Kloot are Kloot, not Elbow and I don’t want them sounding like Elbow. I am aware that Mrs H3’s feelings on this are the same as mine as she gave a huge sigh every time the strings appeared on Wednesday night.

Although the strings were missing on Monday, there was plenty of extra instrumentation around in the form of a huge saxophone, trumpet and, at one point, an accordion. There was a huge increase too, in the amount of people at the gig , due to the Mercury nomination and this was especially noticeable when old classics like “Same Deep Water” didn’t even get a cheer, whereas the new songs were riotously applauded. What was particularly nice was that the increased crowd didn’t result in increased talking through the songs as has been the problem at several of their previous concerts. A new-found respect for the band? I certainly hope so.

I thoroughly enjoyed the concert, although there were some issues with sound quality, at least where we were standing – noticeably at the end of “Same Deep Water” and especially during “Radiation”, when I actually moved to a different part of the room to see if it sounded any better.

Sound quality definitely wasn’t an issue at the Union Chapel. This place really is the perfect venue for a concert. Fully seated, although the pews weren’t hugely comfortable, especially after about 3 ½ hours, a kitchen selling tea – yep – cups of lovely steaming hot tea, and an ice cream vendor who came to us when we realised there was ice cream available. On top of that the acoustics were amazing and after watching Agnes Obel performing her beautiful ethereal music, I was even more excited than usual to be seeing I Am Kloot at work.

And I wasn’t disappointed. I think I can safely say it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to and certainly the best I Am Kloot concert. Never have they sounded better and Johnny was in fine form with his banter. Even Pete talked!

There was a slightly worrying moment part way through when people began clapping along to one of the songs – no, please don’t people, I’ve already said, Kloot aren’t Elbow – but fortunately that was short-lived and normal service was soon resumed. Until the end when Johnny ditched his guitar to grab the mike and drift around the stage Frank Sinatra-stylee (yep and I’ve got photos to prove it). It seemed to me that Johnny, at least, was as overwhelmed by this fabulous venue as I and many others were.

I think the evening can best be summed up in words from the boys themselves “everything we ever thought we'd ever want, me and you, it just came true” – everything definitely came true at the Union Chapel and I am so glad I was there to witness it!

Unfortunately, I was then reminded that we wouldn’t be seeing them again until January (just after my birthday) and that set off my post-IAK depression/addiction. Remembering that they still had the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham to play, I decided that I just HAD to go there (you’ll recall that this happened last time they played there too).

So, fortunately this is not the end of my current I Am Kloot journey. Tomorrow I get to experience one last moment of bliss, although in a completely different way.

If you want to check out my Youtube channel I’ve actually got round to uploading the songs I videoed from Union Chapel and Komedia, and I’ve also uploaded the footage from the Muse concert and a previous concert at the Jazz Cafe with Marc Almond...who says I’m not being productive?

Election Anxiety

The main reason that I’m blogging is anxiety about the General Election. I have a tough decision to make today and the more I think about it the harder it seems to become.

I, like most of the people I know, watched the television debates (although I missed the Sky one as I don’t have satellite TV). Through these I found myself shouting at the candidates rather more than I’d like to admit and came to the absolute conclusion that I really detest David Cameron. There is something about him that just gives me the creeps every time I see him and, as a child of the eighties, who remembers the terrible Conservative years, I just can’t bring myself to even consider voting for them...although having said that, I don’t agree with their policies anyway and I certainly don’t agree with having my pay frozen as a public servant to pay for the debt Britain is currently in, when private sector businesses in general already receive much higher pay rises than a majority of public sector workers do. And if Simon Cowell believes they are the right choice for the country, then I know for sure that they are wrong.

Now if truth be told I’ve always been a bit of a Liberal. In fact, one of my earliest election memories was at Junior School, when I tried to convince my parents to vote Liberal. I have no idea whether they did, nor do I have any right to know how they voted – their choice is their own concern; but over the years a majority of the Lib Dems policies have seemed to me to make more sense than the so-called left and right wing parties.

Of course we have the problem of the voting system which means that, as is always touted at these times “a vote for the Lib Dems is a wasted vote”, but I can’t help thinking that a vote for the Lib Dems proves that people don’t want to be stuck choosing between two parties, both of whom are as bad as each other.

So I guess my affinity lies with the Lib Dems and all things being equal I should vote for them and take pride in my allegiance. But here is where my anxiety comes in. What if my, and others votes for the Lib Dems means that the Conservatives get a majority? Then we’ll be stuck once more in a society that cares only for the wealthy and makes the lower paid poorer, with little hope of the voting system ever being changed and giving the country the chance to elect a government it actually wants.

The other option of course is that it would give Labour a majority and that, in some ways would be almost as bad as the Conservatives getting into power.

The ideal choice, I guess, would be a hung parliament – and of course a vote for the Lib Dems would possibly help towards that. Although I can’t see what a hung parliament is going to achieve in terms of sorting out the economy and bringing the country’s debt back to reasonable levels.

But of course, although I may want to vote for Nick Clegg, with his everyman approach and his generally sensible policies (although I am a little disappointed that in the third debate when the talk centred on taxing the banks he didn’t mention the Robin Hood Tax, which would be the perfect scheme to generate money, and would fit in with all his apparent ideals), in reality I am voting for my local MP, not the Prime Minister.

And once again this gives me anxiety. This year has seen a large number of parties vying for my vote: Labour, Lib Dems, Conservatives, the UKIP, BNP, the English Democrats and the Green Party have all been kind enough to kill trees to produce highly interesting (not) leaflets, although not one has actually managed to make it to my doorstep to actually discuss with me what I want from my MP.

And this is where the problem lies.

Firstly I’d like to say that although I read their leaflets with interest, I at no time gave serious consideration to the UKIP, BNP, the English Democrats or the Green Party because they have nothing to say that I can get behind – although I have to give the BNP 10 out of 10 for comparing Nick Griffin to Winston Churchill (err, I don’t think so!)

The Conservative candidate is someone who I know, because she comes into the pub. I have had dealings with her in the past and she has always been pleasant and helpful. She involves herself directly in community projects and is always helping out with conservation etc. and she regularly sends newsletters keeping everyone up-to-date with what is going on in the area. But at the end of the day she is a Conservative and my inbred hatred of the party is enough to put me off her, for which I suppose I feel a little guilty (but not enough vote for her).

The Lib Dem candidate I have never heard of before, have never seen or heard anything about, nor have I received any other literature or news from the party other than the election blurb. In all honesty I would find it hard to vote for someone that I have no knowledge of, or understanding about what his personal feelings are with regards to the area that I live in (I’m not even sure he lives in the area). Having said that, he does, as Mrs H3 said, have the best name – but I’m not entirely sure that’s a good qualification for election as MP.

Finally, we have the Labour candidate, who has been our MP for the last five years at least. I know he lives in the area, because he mentions it in his leaflets and he does, very occasionally, send out a newsletter, although with nowhere near the frequency of the Conservatives. Whether he has worked hard for us or not is hard to prove, although it appears that our standard of life is no worse than anyone else’s, so he’s not made that much of a cock-up. As a (I suspect anti-Conservative) friend of mine said “Well, we’ve not had a problem with him, so no reason to change is there?” And he’s probably right. Except that when the government pushed through the widely reviled and highly criticised Digital Economy Bill (DEB), our MP wasn’t even at the House of Commons, let alone in a position to vote against it. As this was official MP business, what was he busy doing instead? More importantly, how many other important bills did he not sit in on or vote?

So you can see my quandary – vote for state, vote for local area? Vote for a party that are never going to win under the current rules, or run with a party I have no faith in because of fear of what happens if the others get in. And what if everyone else votes wrong? It’s all too much to think about.

Perhaps I should just close my eyes and take a stab at the paper and see where the cross lands.

Feeling a bit Crafty?

So, it’s been forever since I last blogged, and after promising that I wouldn’t go away for such a long time again too. I put the blame for this pretty much on Gary Numan, Pete Doherty and Johnny Bramwell for not doing any concerts, so Mrs H3 and I haven’t been out anywhere near as much as we had by this time last year, although some of the blame also has to go to my mortgage brokers, who completely fucked up my re-mortgage application and left me close to destitute for a few months, meaning that I couldn’t afford to go out anyway.

Of course it hasn’t been all doom and gloom. The severe shortage of funds, not helped by the need to buy new glasses when mine died suddenly (another reason the re-mortgage fiasco was such a nightmare) left me alone and at home, surrounded by my never-lessening pile of crafting stash. With all manner of birthdays, anniversaries etc. on the horizon and inspired by reading Tim Holtz’s Compendium of Curiosities book, I felt it was time to get my arse in gear and actually use some of it, both in order to save money on cards/presents and to get my crafting mojo going again (and also to stop Mrs H suggesting, as she has several times, that I sell it as I never use it). There was also another UKS Cybercrop, which I actually only found out about the week before it happened.

And so I’ve spent the last few months, cutting and pasting, glittering and gluing and I’ve discovered a whole slew of things, which I guess I should have known before, but with the extended break from anything crafty had been pushed to the back of my mind.

The first thing I learnt, or maybe the last really, is that I’m far too much of a perfectionist to be a true artist. Not for me slapping a bit of this and that on wherever the fancy takes me and treating any errors as ‘interesting focal points’. The things I make have to be perfect – even the inking has to be precisionally placed.

Hand cutting can be tedious, really tedious: Now of course everyone already knows this, which is why lots of people have things like Cricut. But as a pauper who has stopped buying gadgets I don’t use (remember the Sizzix etc. – yep mine’s lounging in a cupboard somewhere), I had no choice but to hand cut – and not just once either. For the birthday cards I made I printed the messages in my chosen font, stuck them to card for strength, then cut them out. This was followed by covering in some of my favourite papers, which were then cut again. On the second card, which took three days to make, there were also flowers to cut and make. Oh, and once I’d made the flowers I didn’t like the papers I’d used for the letters so had to re-cover and cut them for a third time.

Fun foam doesn’t make a good base for something that is going to be heat embossed: Yep, pretty obvious I know, but I wasn’t really thinking sensibly and soon found that UTEE and foam don’t really mix, but I’d got so far by that point that I had no choice but to continue.

Hot UTEE is better handled with tools than with fingers: I know, I know…this one really is a no brainer. But in my impatience to create enamelled flowers I didn’t bother thinking about how I was going to handle them. Hurrah for cocktail sticks say I!

Distress Crackle Paint doesn’t always work: Actually, as it turned out I’m glad it didn’t or two days work would have been ruined as it wouldn’t have gone with my finished card at all. It may be that I just didn’t use it right, but according to the instructions you paint on a layer, then let it dry and it crackles of its own accord. Mine didn’t – did give a nice glossy sheen though...which isn’t what I want from a crackle paint.

Making Memories tweezers work back to front: These things are so annoying. Every time I tried to do anything I couldn’t. But I’ve lost my proper tweezers (along with just about everything else I needed) so had to make do. They’re almost as bad as the Provocraft Silent Setter, but that doesn’t actually work, whereas with a little concentrated thinking I can actually get the tweezers to pick things up, so these only come in as second worst crafting tool ever.

I need new scissors: No, I really do. I have a fabby pair of X-Cuts that I got at Bonanza, what seems like a million years ago now, and they’ve been great. But when you use them for cutting everything from paper to metal brad ends the blades get a bit dull. After a weekend of hacking at brads I realised my poor X-Cuts are just not cutting it (blah!) anymore. So I need a new pair of scissors and want the Tim Holtz (who else) Tonic scissors which apparently cut absolutely everything. Just need to get some money first.

Trying new techniques when you’re a perfectionist and on a short timescale is really not a good idea: Of course this is obvious too, but when I originally started Mrs H3’s “mini” book, three days before her birthday, I was expecting to paint a few beer mats, stick on a few pictures and decorate with primas, buttons and a few stickers and then hold them together with a few decorated book rings. As you’ll see from the photos, what started as a small project rapidly turned into one some forty odd pages long and it was only an hour before meeting Mrs H3 that I finally found a scrapbook big enough to put the decorated cards in (which I then, of course, had to decorate).

New techniques for me included creating my own decal transfers (hard when you don’t have the correct sealant – I only had glitter mod podge), painting strings of beads and (why, oh why) creating miniature plaques of the Hogwarts Houses and School Shield.

No glue sticks properly when you’re in a rush: I guess this is an obvious one too, but it seemed that for each mat I completed, I stuck everything onto it about ten times. Most frustrating when usually diamond glaze sticks absolutely anything. I even resorted to super glue at one point ... and that didn’t work either!

Primas can do absolutely anything! Yep, that really is a rendition of the Rose of England done in Primas on the page with Henry VIII. And bloody good it is too, if I do say so myself.

So I made some cards, and a mini book for Mrs H3, that turned out to be anything but mini and then finally even did some layouts for the Cybercrop, although I returned to my digital roots for that as it happened to coincide with the weekend that I returned to working at the pub. The results of my crafty sojourn are below, if you want to feast your eyes.

Birthday

So, another birthday has been and gone. As tends to be the case, Mrs H3 and I made a weekend of it, with a Mardi Gras party at the Sherwood Oak, where we were joined as usual by Dan - the three muskateers together and dressed up again. Photos from the evening can be seen on my Facebook, or I might get round to putting them on here when I get a moment if my internet speed ever gets back up to normal.

Yesterday I had a few drinks with friends at the pub in the afternoon followed by a nice meal with Mrs H3 at TGI Friday at Bluewater.

My most exciting present was a wand, which is also a remote control, although I think its going to take some lessons before I can work out how to use it properly, and the most personal, of course from Mrs H3, was a mug covered with photos of the two of us from our activities over the last year. Unfortunately, my most anticipated gift, a trip to Chelsea to see Birmingham play tomorrow, has been cancelled - which I can honestly say has really pissed me off. Had it been a last minute offer I wouldn't have minded so much, but this trip had been planned since October, so I think it's understandable that I'm disappointed. I just hope that the game is being played on 5 Live so I can listen to it.

A Bit of a Natter About Films

I had been intending to do a recap of the things that I’d done in 2009 including all the bits I never got round to blogging about, but unsurprisingly I was too busy playing games to do it and now, heading into the fourth week of 2010 it seems a little late to drag up the old stuff when there’s so much new coming along.

Between the snow falling at Christmas and the recent horrendous weather that has left me feeling depressed and hibernatory, Mrs H3 and I went to see Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. Now I’ve never really enjoyed a Guy Ritchie film before, in fact I’m not entirely sure that I’ve ever seen one as they’re really not my cup of tea, but the combination of classic detective and sexy actor had me intrigued enough to go. And I loved it. I can honestly say that it’s one of the few films that I’ve seen in the last year that I would happily return to the cinema to watch again and again. Robert Downey Jr is excellent as a grimy sort of Holmes, who might not be awfully canon, but sure makes for good entertainment and because of the subject matter Ritchie wasn’t able to put too much of his gangster stuff into it, but did still bring the fights and explosions. A visual feast (and not just RDJ), exciting and with a half decent story too. I’d definitely recommend it.

On the other hand I’m still not feeling the love for Avatar. I don’t know why, because in every way it should be my perfect film. Sci-fi/fantasy, with beautiful animation (even though it has a dodgy storyline) and the critics and just about everyone I know who has seen it, have universally enjoyed it. But for some reason it still doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest except as a vague feeling that if I don’t see it at the cinema I’ll have missed out on something. However, this feeling isn’t strong enough to actually get me to the cinema.

There are plenty of films coming along that I do want to see in 2010. Of course there’s the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (expect a countdown ticker to appear as soon as the Leaky Cauldron or Mugglenet produce one), although that of course isn’t until November. Before then the big release is Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in March, starring the usual Burton crew and also an adaptation of The Lovely Bones, which I think is out shortly, based on a book I very much enjoyed reading. There seem to be plenty of remakes in the works like Clash of the Titans, which I’m sure will be visually stunning given the abilities of CGI these days, but I suspect that they will lack something in the storytelling as so many of those films do.

Also released shortly is a Hollywood version of Edge of Darkness, which older people may remember as a brilliant UK television series from the 1980s. Sadly this new version stars Mel Gibson, an actor in whom I have lost a lot of faith over the years and early reports don’t sound promising as for starters the ending has been changed. There is still a temptation to see the film, although I think buying the box set of the original series and re-watching that is probably the better bet.

Anyway, this week I’ve seen two films on television, both of which I’m sure were feted by the critics. One of these was a completely brilliant and surprisingly delightful gem of a film, the other was depressing, violent and relentlessly downbeat apart from the contrived ‘happy’ ending. It has left me wondering what it is that makes film critics label a film as ‘feelgood’. I am of course referring to the film which has been dubbed ‘the feelgood film of the decade’, Slumdog Millionaire. As I’m sure everyone knows by now, this happy little tale actually has more in the way of violence and torture than happiness – so how can it be ‘feelgood’? The film left me thoroughly depressed and wishing that I hadn’t wasted 2 1/2 hours of my life on it.

However, the film that I think should take Slumdog’s title is Akeelah and the Bee. I originally watched it purely because there was nothing else on the television at the time and I couldn’t be bothered to dig out a DVD and because it seemed vaguely interesting. This is a gem of a film and I was surprised at how involved I became with the characters and the story and whilst the ending is somewhat bland and obvious (much like Slumdog Millionaire) it left me with a happy little glow that lasted for the rest of the day – and in my life that’s a great thing.