Lord, has it really been that long since I last blogged? I know I
haven’t had much going on, but this is ridiculous. Anyway, since I last talked
to you, Great Britain showed that it really is great and hosted the best
Olympic and Paralymic games ever (no of course I’m not biased); J K Rowling has
released a new and completely brilliant book; The Hobbit trailer was finally released
to a lot of excitement; I Am Kloot at last (thank heavens) announced some
concerts ‘down south’; my computer and my washing machine both gave up the
ghost (sadly in the same week) and Mrs H3 and I once again committed ourselves
to attempting to attend this year’s Snow Ball in Edinburgh.
And now it’s that time of year again – I mean, of course,
NaNoWriMo. Now normally at this time of the month I’m waxing lyrical about how
I’m ready to tackle the 1,667 words that I need to write every day to meet the
30 November deadline of 50,000 words and as we all know from previous years I
either start out well, then tail off or get sidetracked before I even really
get going and then have a mad spurt at the end of the month. So I was all ready
to go and actually even had a plot idea for once – something that doesn’t
usually happen properly at this stage of the game, but sad to say I’m really
not feeling in the mood for writing this year. I’m not entirely sure why, but
at the moment I’m just not feeling the NaNoWriMo love and am thinking of
skipping it for the first time since 2008. It may be that as the month goes on
my need to write will return and I’ll make a late attempt but at the moment it
just isn’t happening. However, if you want to have a go, please check out their
website at the link.
Although I’m not writing at the moment books have once again
become a large part of my life. For some reason I went through a period of
about six months when I didn’t pick up a single book, not even Harry Potter –
and I’m sure anyone who knows me knows what a strange and shocking thing that
is (and not just the not reading Harry Potter). I’m not sure why this was, but
now I’m back with a vengeance and am voraciously reading anything I can lay my
hands on. Terry Pratchett, Lauren Kate, Cassandra Clare, John Connolly, the
lovely James Herbert, Dean Koontz and of course the wonderful J K Rowling have
all featured in my reading list over the last few months – and all have been brilliantly
entertaining and well worth checking out.
As the weather gets colder and the nights draw in, Mrs H3 and I
are finally getting some evenings out. Firstly was a small and intimate, but completely
wonderful evening with the fantastic Chris Singleton and the Distractions a
couple of weeks ago, check out the link for a free download of Chris’ first
album ‘Twisted City’. Although there weren’t anywhere near enough people there
considering the quality of the band, those of us that were had a truly
excellent night. The picture isn’t great quality as it was very dark in there,
but not bad considering.
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| Chris Singleton and the Distractions |
Next was our usual annual jaunt to the Halloween Night of Fear
with Alice Cooper, which of course saw us dressing up in our scary best. Note
the fantastic face paint that Mrs H3 put on me – she’s a true artist that one!
Alice was good, but I don’t think he was a patch on previous years. I wasn’t
keen on the Wembley venue (especially when it was scheduled at the same time as
the NFL American football – trying to get to the venue through the thousands of
leaving football fans was a complete nightmare and we only just made it in
time) and the sound quality wasn’t very good. Initially I thought it was
because I’d been struck down with the lurgy the week before and my ears were
still playing up, but Mrs H3 and plenty of others confirmed that wasn’t the
case. The stage show was scaled back too, which was interesting, but not as
entertaining as the usual beheadings etc., although the snake and the strait
jacket did make an appearance. Strangely he chose to do a tribute to Jim
Morrison, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Moon which took four songs – a little
surprising when he has such an extensive back catalogue of his own that he
could draw upon instead, and when he didn’t play ‘Only Women Bleed’ which I
thought was mandatory. It was still a good evening though, although very wet,
which is unusual for Halloween and I’m sure was because I went for the full
face paint.
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| Do you think I've overdone the make-up? |
And so onto the future when on 20th November we finally
get to see I Am Kloot for the first time in what seems like forever (definitely
well over a year), playing a preview of their forthcoming album ‘Let It All In’.
Obviously I’m extremely excited by this, although somewhat nervous as I am
desperately hoping this latest Elbow-produced offering doesn’t have the lush
orchestrations of the last one and makes a return to the raw, lyric-driven
sound of their previous albums. Having heard the first single from it I’m not
entirely hopeful, but trying to reserve judgement until I’ve heard the whole
thing. The album is released in time for my birthday (hurrah) and is followed by
a couple of concerts in London and Brighton in February, which we will, of
course, be at. Actually, trying to get tickets was mental, something that has
never been a problem before and there was a scary moment where it actually
looked like we weren’t going to get them – which would have caused a strop of
massive proportions from me. It’s already bad enough having to pay double what
it used to cost to see them (since their Mercury music award nomination)
without not being able to get a ticket!
Of course Gary Numan makes an appearance before Christmas too on
the 7th December, where hopefully he’ll be recovered from his recent
move to Los Angeles. And then, just after my birthday on 31 January we’ll
finally be seeing Passenger, a band that I’ve loved for years but have never yet
quite managed to get round to seeing live.
And so once again Mrs H3 and I are heading to Edinburgh in an
attempt to go to the Snow Ball I’m fairly confident that this year we’ll
actually make it as it’s being held at the beginning of December, so hopefully
less chance of snow (and us getting stuck at both ends as we did last time) and we’re
travelling the day before rather than on the day of the Ball itself just to
make doubly sure. This year’s star attraction from the USA is the original
wizard rockers Harry and the Potters, who we haven’t seen since Leakycon last
year. With RiddleTM, Siriusly Hazza P and Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldronsproviding first class support it’s going to be a great evening and is the first
Harry Potter event we’ve attended in ages and will help to soothe our bitter
hearts for not managing to get tickets for Leakycon London next year (still not
ready to blog about that). Expect lots of photos of all the lovely witches and
wizards in their finest robes ready to Wrock the night away in the magical city
that Jo Rowling calls home at Europe’s premiere wizard rock event.
