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.

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.    

Do you think I've overdone the make-up?

And so onto the future when on 20^th 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 7^th 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.

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!!!!