Leave the Scar - MiM Rebellion

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.

The Christmas Number One

Dave Gorman said on Twitter yesterday afternoon that he knew he’d become an adult when he realised he no longer cared what was number one in the UK music charts at any time of the year. It’s a great quote and I can see what he means, but I guess then that by his logic I’m not an adult because, although I couldn’t care less what’s at number one for the rest of the year, to me the Christmas number one still holds a little piece of magic. Or at least it did until five years ago.

I no longer listen to the chart show. The bands I love very rarely trouble the charts as they tend to have talent and rely on decent music and intelligible new lyrics, rather than electronic re-hashes of old songs and I realised that I gave up listening to anything approaching so-called modern music when Top of the Pops ended in 2006 and Radio Two became a better station than Radio One. But for some reason however, much though I may ignore the charts (and I think I can safely say that I can’t name a single band that have been number one this year) I can’t help but take an interest in the Christmas chart.

Perhaps it was growing up in the seventies and eighties, when all those ‘classic’ Christmas tracks vied for top spot (although as Bob Stanley in the Guardian has pointed out, there have been more than a few duff songs over the years, however I would challenge his inclusion of ‘Two Little Boys’ in that list, especially having seen Rolf singing it last night) which makes me a sentimental old fool at Christmas, but every year I really do truly wish that something other than the X factor winner would get to number one; actually, anything other than the X Factor winner. And finally it’s happened with Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’.

A lot of people have criticised the RATM song because it’s unintelligible, there’s swearing and let’s face it, it’s not really a Christmas song. But that’s why it was the perfect Christmas number one. Ever since X Factor took over the Christmas charts there have been a growing number of dissenting voices complaining about its domination – as a friend of mine stated when we saw a Christmas number one run-down show on TV last year, “the charts aren’t worth bothering with now ‘cos X Factor’s always number one at Christmas and it’s boring.”

Finally this year the dissenters decided to do something about it and put their weight behind possibly the most inappropriate Christmas song ever. And it worked. It got to number one. And more spectacularly, it got to number one without even selling a single hard copy – it managed to trash the X factor contender by downloads alone. RATM have been gracious (and probably pretty stunned) in their victory and are donating a majority of their unexpected money to Shelter, and playing a free gig next year to say thank you.

Yes the song isn’t to everyone’s taste, although I personally prefer it to ‘The Climb’, but the fact that it sold so many copies shows that people don’t want the X Factor song to be the Christmas number one every year. There has been all sorts of comments about how this is a win for ‘real music’, but I don’t think that this was ever really the issue, as Joe Whatshisname’s song is real music, or at least no more manufactured than 99% of the charts (and I don’t just mean current charts – anyone remember Stock, Aitken and Waterman?) To my mind the real reason that RATM won was because people like me are fed up with X Factor’s domination over the Christmas chart.

I do feel a bit sorry for poor Joe. The boy obviously has a good voice and he seems like a nice lad. But I’m afraid that winning X Factor does not, as a lot of people have suggested, give him automatic right to be number one, and the Christmas number one at that.

Unfortunately for Joe, he had the misfortune to win the show at a time when people are finally becoming so dissatisfied with Simon Cowell and X Factor’s hijacking of the Christmas charts they decided to make a stand and he paid the price, although to be fair the song ‘The Climb’ isn’t exactly a classic. Even my mum and dad, who are part of the target audience for sales thought the song dreary, and several hearings didn’t improve it at all (although it might just have been marginally better than Miley Cyrus’ original).

Had the show finished in August he’d have hit the top spot no problem, after all no-one much gives a damn any more what’s number one at any other time of the year and it’s a little unfair of people to start insinuating that he’s a failure because his song didn’t manage to stem the tide of dissatisfaction.

Unfortunately, I don’t suppose it’ll change anything in the long term. X Factor will still air in the last few weeks before Christmas and next year’s winner will face another challenge – unless Simon does something sensible.

I know...how about the X Factor winner singing a Christmas song rather than some twee but dull ballad?

That Time of Year

So it’s that time of year again. I’ve been trying to pretend it’s not happening, have tried to ignore it, even with Jason and Colleen having happy sing-a-long parties and that woman from M&S flashing her underwear, but now I’ve seen the Coca Cola Santa and there’s no denying it...Christmas is coming.

I can’t believe that it’s come round so quickly. I mean I know that as you get older time seems to go faster, but this is ridiculous. It seems like no time at all since I was last fretting over what to buy everyone.

It’s at this time of the year that I give thanks for the fact that I have only a few people to buy presents for. Some people, like Mrs H3 have a fantastic knack of knowing exactly what to give as presents and merrily toil away (as she has been for months apparently) on creating that perfect gift. I, on the other hand, have absolutely no clue what to get for anyone.

I think I’m pretty easy to buy for (although I guess everyone thinks that), but I really couldn’t imagine having a problem getting me a present. I love so many different things, that buy me anything and you’ve probably hit a winner. Of course anything Harry Potter related is a sure fire hit. And no need to worry if you’ve bought me the right book, CD, DVD either – if I’ve already got them I’ll just return them to the shop and swap for something else I don’t have, but I’ll still accept them as if they were the best present ever. In fact any gift at all is just brilliant.

But other people aren’t like this or at least, being more accurate, I don’t see them that way. I have a need to find the perfect present for them and unlike Mrs H3 I have no imagination or flair for such things. And so I spend hours fretting away about what would be a good gift for people that I’ve known for my whole life but apparently don’t know at all and then end up buying them some boring piece of rubbish that they are probably too polite to tell me they didn’t want.

Of course along with Christmas come the cards, which I have also until now, given absolutely no thought to. I’m considering making some, although whether that will actually happen remains to be seen. So you may from get a real card from me, or you may get a virtual one, it just depends on how much I get done. But whatever the case, you’ll know that a lot of worrying and thought has gone into what you’re receiving and that I’m sending it because you are the most important things in my life and I love you dearly.

Inane Ramblings

Strange how the mind works isn’t it? Well, mine at least.

This morning I was sitting in the surgery, waiting to see my doctor when I happened to glance up at the LED board. Our surgery has finally hit the 21st Century and now has things like automatic telephone appointments (which are rubbish), a rather whizzy computer system that lets you check yourself in and tells you how many people are still waiting to be seen in front of you (amazingly this morning that was none) and of course the LED board. No longer are we subject to crackled voices calling out our names in a style reminiscent of those railway station announcers, each patient looking around in confusion as they try to work out whether it was them that was being called. Now our names glow red, proclaiming loudly that doctor or nurse whoever is ready to see us (or as is more usually the case, that s/he is now fifteen minutes late).

This morning though, watching the board cycle through its messages about repeat prescriptions and late doctors (although not mine, she says smugly – actually have you ever noticed the wave of hatred that is emitted by others waiting for late doctors when you get called in about a minute after arriving and they know they’re there for at least another half hour yet?) my mind picked up on the final message that The Doctor was twenty minutes late.

Sadly, my heart automatically beat faster at the thought that Doctor Who was working at our surgery and for a split second I wished that I was seeing him instead of the sterling Doctor Raval. Of course then sense kicked in and I realised that it was obviously a locum and so their name wasn’t on the board...but just for a minute there...and yes, before you say it, I already know I’m sad.

♥

So NaNaWriMo isn’t exactly going the way I’d planned. So far I’ve managed about 500 words, which is about 11,500 less than I should have written by this stage. In fact it doesn’t even really make up a plot outline if I’m being honest. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been outstandingly busy doing all sorts of fabulous things, but I can’t. The truth is that I just can’t be bothered to write, although I am filling the time with other things like reading the latest Terry Pratchett Discworld novel Unseen Academicals.

And then there’s the UKS Cyber Crop which takes place this weekend and is likely to stall me further. This time the theme is The Wizard of Oz and I’m on the Toto’s team. How much I’ll do remains to be seen, but I’m sure there’ll be a Kiefer layout in there somewhere along the way. Amazingly for once I’m actually available for the whole thing, at least at the moment, although that doesn’t mean I’ll actually do it all; which reminds me that I should head on over to the website and check out the classes and see which ones I can actually attempt. As ever the finished layouts will be posted on here (or at least they will if I get my photo account back, as they’ve incorrectly suspended it at the moment).

Sadly I’ve just realised that this blog entry is longer than my story. Time to check out and get on with some writing I think!

A 'write' Challenge

Well it’s that time of year again. I mean, of course, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which starts on 1 November 2009. Those of you who take note of these things will remember that I took part last year but didn’t manage to complete my novel, although I did write well over the required 50,000 words during the month, just not on my novel. Mainly the reason for this was a lack of organisation over what I was intending to write about and major sidetracking by other projects.

So I’ve signed up again. In some ways I’m even less prepared for the novel than I was last year, although I do have a vague plot in mind, or at least more of a plot than I had last year. However, as this and the last blog post are the first things I’ve written for almost three months it is going to be far more of a challenge. To be honest, I’m not really bothered if I don’t get the story completed again, what matters most is to get back to writing. At the moment I feel stripped of imagination and I’m hoping that focussing my mind on something, however flimsy will clear the block I seem to have erected around the creative part of my brain.

I worked out last year that I had to write 1,667 words a day to complete the 50,000 word target – which seemed easy enough then. At the moment that seems a huge task, but I’m hoping that if I can actually get writing again the job will get easier. At any rate it gives me something to do in those dark and dreary nights of November when we’re not otherwise engaged in going to concerts.

I’m Back!

Yep it’s true. I’m back and bigger and better than ever.

Firstly, I need to make some apologies.

To those of you who I haven’t spoken to enough, when I really should have done; to those who I argued with and upset and was mean to – I apologise. I apologise for not talking, or for talking too much – for the tears and the tantrums, for the arguing and the pain. Basically, I’m sorry for having been such an almighty pain-in-the-arse.

And the hugest THANK YOU in the world too, to Mrs H3 for sticking with me through thick and thin – you are, quite literally, my lifeline. Without you I wouldn’t be writing today. I love you matey, in all your guises.



There are two main reasons why the blogging stopped, neither of which I really want to go into in detail. Enough to say that the concert season pretty much dried up for the summer (damn you festivals!), thus leaving Mrs H3 and I in the situation of having to make our own entertainment down the pub - although that did produce some interesting evenings as the pictures show, and I have been recovering from an illness which has left me unable and not wanting to write anything, let alone a blog.



But as the words of the song say, I’m picking myself up, dusting myself down and starting all over again and the re-emergence of the blog is part of that.
So, back to the good stuff.


*~* MUSIC *~*

The concerts have started again, although they are a little thin on the ground, especially after the extremely sad announcement that Chas and Dave have split up. Obviously our entire autumn schedule had revolved around their concerts, but neither Mrs H3 nor I have any interest in seeing the Chas Hodges Band. We need Dave to make our evening complete. However, all is not dim on the concert front as we do still have Marc Almond, The Flaming Lips, Gary Numan, Alice Cooper and the mighty Rolf Harris to see between now and Christmas and Mrs H3 is off to see Dizzee Rascal later this week.

This is a weird feeling for me, as I’ve never had any interest in Dizzee (although I quite like Bonkers) and I decided that I didn’t want to see him, so told Mrs H3 she could find someone else to go with her. Of course, now I’m wishing I hadn’t said that as it seems very strange NOT to be going to a concert with her and I’m worried that I’m going to miss something good. So yep, now I’m wishing I was going!

Since I last blogged a million years ago, we’ve been to see I Am Kloot at Relentless Garage who have just released a new album of b-sides and rarities, and who were absolutely fantastic (no, of course I’m not biased). I rather like the venue and it was a joy to see the songs performed by the whole band again, although I was a little surprised by their jazzed up version of my favourite song Fingerprints and not entirely sure that I liked it that way.



We also saw Peter Doherty at the Roundhouse, which I’m not sure was the right venue for him. Although he was good as ever, we got the impression that he wasn’t completely comfortable there and he seemed to be lacking something that we’ve seen at previous shows of his. A good evening, but I think he’d have been happier somewhere where the audience could get a bit closer – the gap between stage and audience at the Roundhouse is huge and their bouncers are numerous and well-prepared. There was never any chance of a stage invasion, which probably ruined Peter’s night a little as he does like to get people up on stage whenever he gets the chance.



A repeat visit too, to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Once again they were very good (although they omitted Psycho Killer from their repertoire this time unfortunately), but the venue, Blackheath Concert Halls, was dreadful. The whole building was over-heated, but the concert room itself was totally airless and it was hard to stay awake because of the heat, although the chairs were so uncomfortable that they did help a little. There was one fan, located in the bar area, which Mrs H3 and I spent most of the break standing in front of (bad luck to anyone else who wanted to get the benefit) in an attempt to cool down. The toilets were acceptable, but the cold water had been turned off, leaving only scalding hot water for hand washing – definitely not needed at any time, but especially when the place was already so warm. All in all the evening wasn’t as entertaining as it should have been and even though the UOGB did several of those clever multiple song mixes including some I’d never heard before, it was hard to think of anything else but getting out and getting some fresh air. This was followed by the worst chips I’ve probably ever tasted in my life from a fish and chip shop that apparently has won awards for being the best chip shop in...well, I’m not sure where...London? the UK? The world? I’m guessing maybe it’s the best chip shop in Blackheath.

We were also fortunate enough to see the always excellent Blue October at the O2 Islington Academy. This is a strange little venue and not being in the mood for heading for the front (much to Mrs H3’s relief I imagine) my view of the band was rather restricted, to the point that in the end I gave up even trying to see them and just enjoyed the blast of freezing cold air from the excellent air conditioning whilst I got lost in the music. There was a bigger crowd than I’d anticipated which I’m hoping is a growing fan base rather than people just turning up on the off-chance, although as Mrs H3 pointed out, rather a lot of the audience were foreign.

There was a chance to meet the band afterwards, but although I wanted to get a hard copy of the latest album Approaching Normal, the whole thing looked rather disorganised and there were a lot of screaming girls around, so we decided instead to just get the hell outta Dodge. Amazingly, the car park that we’d used was almost empty despite being pretty cheap. Definitely a good find for future concerts in that area as getting up that way is a nightmare when the tubes are playing up as they were for the IAK concert.



Finally, Mrs H3, her mum and I all wandered down to the Lewisham Country Fayre (apparently Lewisham is in the country) and had a pleasurable afternoon petting llamas and goats, eating cakes, drinking tea and watching Boney M. Yep, that’s right, Boney M were headlining the afternoon’s attractions. Running through their range of hits (most of which Mrs H3 didn’t know, being such a youngster) the band, who still contain one original member (the woman in red) were enthusiastic and lively and we rather enjoyed the show, although there were some very strange people there – which I suppose livened the proceedings up even more.




*~* FILMS *~*

Now the last time I posted about films it was, of course, excitement at the impending Harry Potter film that I’d been counting down to for over a year. As luck would have it I ended up seeing the film twice on opening day, the first time alone, the second with Mrs H3 and I think it would be fair to say that it comes in as my second favourite of all the films, top place still being held by the Prisoner of Azkaban.

It’s almost time for the DVD to be released and way too late for reviews, but I think my view pretty much fits with the majority of other HP fans – the film was good, but had its flaws. I was confused rather than elated when I left the cinema the first time and couldn’t actually decide if I thought the film was brilliant or rubbish.

As ever there wasn’t enough Snape, although admittedly there was more than any previous film and I was hugely disappointed that they missed the most important line of the whole book out of the film – it wouldn’t have taken too much more screen time for Snape to say ‘DON’T CALL ME COWARD!” I was disappointed too at the lack of the battle at the end of the film, instead replaced by a pointless (in my and lots of others opinion) attack on the Burrow. I was also exasperated by the Ginny/Harry/Room of Requirement scene as that leaves too many important things unsaid or undone for the next film.

In fact that would be my main criticism – too much important stuff not explained. Mention of the horcruxes, but not how they were made, or why they were important. Too much stuff removed and little put in that added substance, although the fish scene was quite delightful.

The ‘unfortunate event’ as it’s become termed by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode, was wrong and gave a completely different impression of the end of the film to the end of the book. And I have to congratulate too, Steve Kloves for still attempting to ship Hermione and Harry even when it’s completely obvious that they’re never meant to be a couple.

Since then there’s been little on the cinema front either, although Mrs H3 and I did, sadly, waste two hours of our lives going to see The Time Traveller’s Wife which was incredibly dull and just totally crap and the completely excellent District 9 which I would definitely recommend to everyone, although I did find it incredibly sad.

But this week has seen the beginning of the new season and the release of a load of films that I want to see and of course I’m now on countdown for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland next March (as it’s a little early for me to be counting down to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One ). Coming up are 9, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant , New Moon, the Twilight sequel; Where the Wild Things Are and, surprisingly, Guy Ritchie’s version of Sherlock Holmes (or maybe not a surprise as it stars Robert Downey Jr). Out now are Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Up and even Zombieland which received pretty good reviews.

I went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs after good reviews from both critics and friends and thought it was excellent. I went to a Saturday afternoon showing and thus shared the cinema with lots of children, all of whom seemed to enjoy the film as thoroughly as I did. This animated film revolves around the premise of a man who invents a machine to turn water into food and is both laugh-out-loud funny (for children and adults) and touching and although a little mawkish at the end, is generally an all round feel-good movie. I came out of the film feeling glad that I’d seen it, which I think says it all.

I was also impressed with the staff of Showcase Cinema at Bluewater as they had no problem in throwing out a large group of youngsters who were mucking around in the cinema and refused to shut up even after repeated requests from the rest of the audience. The woman who removed them received a cheer from the rest of us.

And the fun doesn’t stop with films. Halloween is on its way and Mrs H3 and I are going to Hendrick’s Halloween Ball - St Anthony’s Dance a fancy dress event at the Troxy ho sted by the Last Tuesday Society. The following night will see us once again dressed up (for a change) for the Sherwood Oak Halloween Party . Expect a huge bunch of photos to appear shortly.

So I think it’s time to shut up now. You see, now I've got going again I can just rabbit on...and on...and on....