Knitting

When I was in my teens I used to knit all the time (it started during a phase where I made all my own clothes). I knitted some fabulously intricate patterns: from a jumper covered with multi-coloured Egyptian hieroglyphs and a jewel-bright Pharaoh’s collar to match, to fashionable tops containing the latest and most interesting wools. Nothing was too difficult for me to have a go at as several large fluffy cable knit jumper dresses and a very difficult to knit (and hugely expensive) silk and alpaca cardigan showed.

And then I stopped.

Thinking about it now I have absolutely no idea why. I’m not even quite sure when I stopped as I can remember days of sitting at boot fairs, knitting my way through balls of angora wool and I remember showing Jane how to knit when she got pregnant, so that she could make some baby clothes. But at some point I stopped, and although I made a couple of scarves a few years ago, I’ve not really been involved in serious knitting for years.

Until now.

A few weeks ago I was trawling the interwebs trying to find something to go on the top of my Christmas tree (my beautiful Severus Snape dolls are either too big, and thus too heavy or too small and not imposing enough) when I discovered a knitted Snape doll which I thought would be perfect, both in size and weight. There were two choices: I could buy the doll ready-made, which was quite expensive, or I could buy the pattern and knit it myself. I decided to go for the latter and have spent the last few evenings immersed in trying to create this doll.

But somewhere along the way I seem to have lost my ability to knit, or at least, I’ve lost the ability to do anything but row after row of stocking stitch. Increasing without creating holes in my work is a problem I need to solve (Snape’s face depends on it) and, sad to admit, I even had to look up how to cast off because I couldn’t remember how to do it. Fortunately knitting is a pretty well-covered hobby on the internet and so there’s a million tutorials on every possible subject and even helpful videos, so hopefully the holey face will soon be sorted, but working on the doll has re-kindled my enjoyment of knitting and I’m seriously considering making a jumper … perhaps I’ll make a Weasley sweater for Mrs H3.

Mrs H3 is knitting too. She started making me a Slytherin scarf for Christmas about three years ago and I’m still waiting for it. She has recently moved home and is currently without television or the computer so I told her she might want to finish the scarf for something to do, a suggestion which she didn’t seem too happy with. She has promised that I’ll have it by my fiftieth birthday though – so only another five years to wait!

Photos of the doll will follow once I get him finished. Now, I wonder where I can find a pattern for angel wings?

       

A Catch Up

Here it is almost the end of November and my current total of words for NaNoWriMo stands at zero – yep I’ve not written a single word. At least I haven’t written a word of my novel. I have of course written blog posts for my other blog, written a bit of fan fiction, made lists of stuff, done some writing for work, but the novel has remained elusively out of sight. And so, for this year, I officially give up.

And now it’s almost Christmas again. It seems to me like it was only a few weeks ago that I was writing about it being Christmas last year, time flies so fast these days. I have seen the billboards with the Coke lorry, M&S have released a dreadful Christmas advert and John Lewis have split the country with their offering which is either tedious and mawkish or unbelievably cute and tear-jerking depending on which side of the line you fall. I have to admit to quite liking the advert, although it didn’t reduce me to tears – but then maybe that’s because I was picturing something nasty in the present he’s so eager to give.

I’m actually feeling ahead of the game for probably the first time ever in my life as almost all my presents are bought and are ready to be wrapped (I can’t actually wrap them until my Christmas tree goes up and that doesn’t happen until 1 December, obviously, although it may be delayed as I still have to knit my angel Snape for the top of the tree). The only person who I haven’t yet got a present for is my God-daughter Leanne, but she’s easy to buy for and so I’ll get her sorted in the next few days. As long as there’s no problem with the post I should be all done and dusted by next weekend, which leaves me a few weeks to get cards sorted out, as I haven’t yet got started on those, although I’ve meant to a few times.

One of the nice things about Christmas is the countdown and advent calendars. Whilst I do have the traditional Thornton’s chocolate one (bought by my friend Richard as he has done every year for the last ten years or so) I’m trying to lose a bit more weight and am wrestling over whether to eat it or not. But I also have (and have sent to friends and family) the Jacquie Lawson advent calendar. I got last year’s and it was a delight, having a little animated scene to play out every day, and I understand that Freddie and Aiden enjoyed it almost as much as I did.

I’ve added a few photos from Halloween and the Labyrinth Masked Ball that Mrs H3 and I attended, along with a few other friends (that’s Foxhunter in the Hannibal Lecter outfit). Unfortunately there aren’t many of Mrs H3 as they didn’t come out too well apparently. As you can see we had lots of fun – and no, of course we didn’t get looked at all, travelling across London by tube dressed like that!

 

Hello World

Oh dear, once again my resolution to blog more has been hijacked by life. It’s been a real whirl since I last posted: concerts, parties, farewells, fun times, job losses, lottery wins ….

Okay, actually that last one isn’t true, but I have been a busy beaver recently. I don’t really want to dwell on the second to last item, which I was rather unhappy about  when I found out (a slight understatement), but have pretty much got over now, so let’s concentrate on the more fun stuff instead!

Saturday 24 September was the six month anniversary of my dad’s death. I had brought some of his ashes back to England with the intention of scattering them in the Thames, as he’d wanted, having previously worked as a Thames Lighterman, but it had never seemed quite the right time. As the six months drew nearer, however, it really was time to say goodbye.

Mrs H3 and I took a journey on the Thames Clipper with a view to inconspicuously scattering the ashes as we made our way down the Thames. However, the boat was considerably busier than we’d expected and it was impossible to even get near the side of the boat, let alone empty the ashes without being seen and to add to the stress we were both feeling a little seasick. We therefore sailed to Embankment and walked down to Cleopatra’s Needle, which is a nice spot, and after a few minutes of contemplation and remembrance, added his ashes to the water there. The journey back was on a catamaran rather than a boat and was much better seasickness-wise and, of course, was much quieter (sod’s law) and we could easily have scattered the ashes in the wake. I would love to go on a catamaran at full speed down the Thames without it having to stop every few minutes at the various piers as it would be brilliant fun.

We have been to a few concerts recently, although sadly not I Am Kloot, as astonishingly, they seem to be taking a break from touring. I can only assume this is because Johnny’s girlfriend isn’t happy with him being on the road all the time, as he used to play solo gigs in-between the IAK ones and was therefore touring constantly all year. Hopefully it won’t be too long before they’re back down South, maybe even with a new album (she says hopefully).

Gary Numan played an absolute blinder of a concert (and that’s not just me being biased, honestly). He also made the error of having a decent support act for the first time since the 1980s – a guy called Jayce Lewis (check him out) which meant that instead of being able to get a seat, which we normally manage with no problem as everyone stays in the bar until Gary takes to the stage, the place was packed for the support and we ended up having to stand all night, which was not fun for my poor old arthritic feet.

Pete Doherty was, I have to admit, a real disappointment for us. Having seen him several times over the years we’ve seen the highs and lows that he’s capable of, but this concert – his last for a long time (his words), was absolutely diabolical. Pete has made no secret of the fact that he’s had problems coming to terms with Amy Winehouse’s death and sadly it really showed at Brixton, where once he had come onstage he seemed determined not to stop playing for anything. There were no breaks between the songs, his usual quite skilful guitar playing was a shambles and he spent a good deal of time dedicating songs to Amy and another friend of his who had died recently. His singing, usually a high point, even when he’s been stoned out of his skull, was average at best and below par for most of it. It was sad to see him in such a state and can only agree with his assessment that he needs to go away and sort himself out.

And so onto the Bluetones, who played a wonderful set at Shepherds Bush. I was pleased to see such a good turnout for their final show and Mrs H3 and I both thoroughly enjoyed it, despite Mrs H3 not knowing a single one of their songs, not even their hits. I have to say that part of me was pleased that whilst they were entertaining they weren’t totally fabulous to the extent that I regretted not having been to see them during their previous seventeen years of touring, but I am glad we went to see them at the end.

Marc Almond at Tunbridge Wells Assembly Halls was a much quieter evening and one for which we were late (as we always seem to be for his shows). This was partially due to bad timing advice from Mrs H3’s dad and her dodgy Garmin sat nav, which has a mind of its own and is not always very helpful. Every time we’ve seen Marc he’s always been different and this time was no exception. The first half was mainly him sitting on a stool, with a pianist and a harpist for accompaniment, wearing a pair of grey trousers and a black velvet jacket. It was torch song heaven, surrounded by an amazing amount of table lamps and he made us laugh a couple of times when he cranked up the dry ice and turned the lights way down low as it reminded us of Echo and the Bunnymen, although we could still see Marc as he sang.

The second half was slightly more upbeat, and included a dress change from Marc, into jeans and black leather jacket and his band who were wearing grey suits with Hawaiian shirts. What impressed me most were some of the unusual cover versions he performed, beginning with David Bowie’s ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’, continuing with Syd Barrett’s ‘Terrapin’ and ending with Lou Reed’s ‘The Bed’ – which he amazingly managed to make sound like a half decent song (I’ve always thought this to be one of the most depressing songs ever written and always had a problem listening to the original).

I had a little detour last week, without my partner-in-crime as she was busy elsewhere, to see Rockin’ Republic, a local covers band containing an old friend of mine at a nearby pub. It gave me a chance to catch up with some old friends that I haven’t seen for ages and was a pretty good evening and certainly made a change from sitting in on a Saturday night.

So this takes us to last night and our annual trip to see Alice Cooper at Alexandra Palace, with his Halloween Night of Fear. As always he and his band provided a good show, although it was slightly less theatrical than in previous years and there was a lot of guitar work, I guess due to the fact that he had three guitarists including Lou Reed. However, the snake, dead Ethel and the guillotine were all in attendance as well as a giant Frankenstein’s monster version of Alice. This year there were a lot more people dressed up, as were we, Mrs H3 as a corpse bride and me as a witch with a fabulous feathery bright red hat. There was also a late surprise during the encore, when Arthur Brown appeared onstage to sing his hit ‘Fire’ whilst wearing that famous flaming headdress.  Unfortunately, as ever, we arrived late and missed the support which was the New York Dolls, who I would have liked to have seen, but it also had the added benefit of having missed the freaks who stab themselves and stuff, that Alice so likes to pepper his shows with. All in all another brilliant evening – and in fancy dress too, which always cheers me up.

Tomorrow night is another fancy dress party at the Beacon Court in Gillingham where there will be some live bands and on Thursday we are going to see Blue October, which I’m really excited about as it’s been a long time since they were last in the UK. We’re also having a bonfire party at Mrs H3’s house on Friday, where they are going to let us set fire to things (mad people). Later in the month we’re going to a Labyrinth masquerade ball at the Prince Charles Cinema, where we get to dress up again and wear masks, before spending the evening enjoying David Bowie’s incredibly tight trousers.

Oh, and while I remember, this week saw David Hasselhoff announce a tour of the UK in March next year and of course we have tickets for his date at IndigO2. Unfortunately, we were a little too late for the V.I.P. meet and greet option, but we’ve still got prime seats. Excited? Me not so much, but Mrs H3 certainly is and that’s all that matters.

Of course, it’s also that time of the year again. I mean of course NaNoWriMo, that annual torture where I try to force myself to write 50,000 words of a story and generally fail abysmally – although last year I did manage it, but only by writing fan fiction rather than an original story. This year I’m going into it completely blind, with absolutely no plot, no characters and not even any idea, at this stage, of what type of story I’m going to write. Yep, sounds to me like a cause for failure again too, but I’m not going to let it put me off. So, once more into the breach dear friends!

Autumn

So it's Autumn. The weather is finally showing signs of being vaguely Summery, although subject to change at any moment and the night's are drawing in. I'm now getting up for work and the gym in the dark and noticing the early morning chill in the air. Also depressingly, the first adverts related to Christmas have already been shown on the telly (thanks Sun newspaper!)

The good thing is that with Autumn comes Halloween and, of course, a spate of concerts. I'm really pleased about this as I've been dying of boredom sitting at home without anything interesting to do but nerd out on the internet.

The first of these concerts is tomorrow - Gary Numan at Shepherd's Bush Empire. I am really looking forward to this as it's a showcase for his new album Dead Son Rising that was released this week and I will be buying a copy at the show (one of the few artists that I'm still getting physical copies of their work rather than just the MP3 version).

Next is a visit to see our old mate, Peter Doherty (assuming he manages to stay out of prison until then) at Brixton Academy, which will be good as we missed out on his last concert due to the snow, swiftly followed by a stop to see the final ever concert by The Bluetones at Shepherd's Bush. Then it's a trip to Tunbridge Wells to spend a pleasant evening with the ever lovely Marc Almond, leading us neatly up to Halloween when we will, of course, be joining horror-meister Alice Cooper on his Halloween Night of Fear tour at Alexandra Palace. Then, just when you think everything's calmed down we'll be going mad over Blue October, finally coming back to the UK and appearing at O2 Islington. Sadly there's no sign of any imminent I Am Kloot shows, or even Johnny Bramwell solo evenings, but I'm hoping they'll be doing something soon.

Currently there isn't anything past Blue October, but after that it won't be long until Panto season starts. Whilst there's no majorly exciting productions this year (with the Hoff reproducing his Captain Hook role in Bristol and Brian Blessed not appearing at all) there are still enough to keep us going for a few weeks over the festive season.

If anyone is checking out my old posts you'll notice that many of the photos and slideshows have gone. This is because the company I was using to host them closed down. I do have another hosting site now so future posts will once again feature photos, but I'm not going to bother to put the old photos back unless anyone is desperately interested. If so, please let me know.

Also, I just want to remind you about my health and fitness journal which you can find here. I'm doing quite well so far, but support and recipe ideas are always welcome - and I've managed to get a post in every day so far, which is more than can be said for here, although I really am trying!

Gosh it’s been a long time since I last blogged. I really did mean to start writing again, but time slipped away as it has a nasty habit of doing these days and suddenly it was time for Mrs H3 and I to go on the holiday of a lifetime (something I will be making a separate blog about in the near future, featuring lots of lovely photos) and then there was the extended recovery from the holiday of a lifetime. Suddenly months have gone by, summer (whatever that is) has gone and it’s almost Halloween once again.

So what have I been doing? To be honest with the exception of the holiday - not much. We’ve been to a few concerts and seen a few films, but mostly it’s been a staying in kind of time due to the expense of going to the USA and to Universal Studios and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in particular.

I will still try to update this blog slightly more often assuming anything interesting happens – there are a few concerts on the not too distant horizon, but I will also be keeping a daily journal to record my latest attempt to live a healthier and fitter life which can be found here. Please feel free to join me over there with any helpful tips, advice or encouragement.

Oh and don’t forget to watch out for the holiday of a lifetime special, coming to a blog near you shortly. 

In Memorium – Raymond Edwin Sexton

I am aware I haven’t posted anything for a very long time (four months excluding the Rebellion post-it, which doesn’t really count), but to be honest, I haven’t actually been in the mood or even really been able to write much.

My wonderful and much beloved father spent the past four and a half years battling with prostate and bone cancer. Although it was something I would normally have blogged about, as I have often used this blog as a stress reliever, I was unable to do so as we’d kept the true severity of his condition a secret so he wouldn’t lose heart and give up. As my father was an avid reader of my blog, always wanting to keep up with what I was doing, it was hard to express my feelings on his illness when he was likely to read it and therefore I moved into complete silence on the subject, but then found it hard, especially once his condition became critical, to write on more light-hearted matters.

As you know, I spent three months in Spain last summer, which was actually to help my mother with caring for my father in what we thought (and were told) were his final days. In fact we spent a week in hospital with him, during which we were all sure that it was only a matter of days if not hours before we lost him. However, being the fighter he always was, dad wasn’t ready to go then (despite dire warnings from every medical person to cross his path - the reason we were keeping it a secret and hence my three month ‘vacation’). As autumn drew on, he began to show an amazing recovery – the pain seemingly absent and with his steely determination he forced himself to get himself out of bed, an amazing feat as the muscles in his legs had almost withered away to nothing. Although not well by any means, he was at least able to enjoy some quality of life again – being able to watch the television, read his beloved books and use the computer, and over time had even managed to get himself walking again with the use of a frame.

Unfortunately, a couple of months ago, in his haste to move (impatience ever being one of his faults, as it is mine) he fell and this set him on a downward path. A detached retina in one eye added to a worsening cataract in the other meant he could no longer read, always his greatest pleasure in life and his worst loss, and a swift return of the pain, increasing to the stage where no painkillers could help (and he was high as a kite from the cocktail of drugs most of the time), meant that for the second time in a year we had to prepare ourselves for the worst. Once again I went to Spain, ready to help my mother, exhausted as she was from the constant round-the-clock care she had been providing since his fall – and of course, to say goodbye to my precious dad.

Heartbreakingly, my father passed away, peacefully and finally free from the pain he’d been in for so long, at nine am on a grey and rainy Thursday, on 24 March 2011.

I had been due to fly home the following day, as the coming weekend (containing Mrs H3’s birthday) was going to be the busiest of the year, with concerts by Chas & Dave and Elbow to go to, as well as an England football game at Wembley and a 1970s themed fancy dress party (an excuse for Mrs H3 to finally wear the roller skates I got for her previous birthday!) At that moment all those things ceased to exist for me and all I could think about was being there to support my mum through those first few tough days (although I will admit I was gutted not to be able to do those things so long planned - especially the Elbow concert, which I understand was brilliant).

The Spanish custom is for the funeral to take place as soon as possible after death, usually within twenty four to forty eight hours. However, mum and dad have a funeral plan (if you live abroad you really need to get one of these, seriously, as it really saves you money and a lot of hassle) which allows them to extend the mortuary time, and the people running the plan were incredibly efficient and extremely helpful. Mum, ever considerate of other people, even at such a distressing time wasn’t keen on the funeral happening on the Saturday, as friends of theirs were celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary at a party that evening, and there was the question of whether any of the family would be attending and so the funeral was arranged for Monday 28 March.

Mum and I, along with Sam, a good friend of my father’s went to view the body (also a Spanish custom as they only ever hold closed coffin funerals) on Sunday evening. This was a strange time for me as I wasn’t sure I wanted to see him, but felt I ought to, in support for my mother. I will admit I only lasted in the room for a few seconds. The body lying in the coffin wasn’t my dad. He was long gone and I couldn’t bear to see his body lying there, looking somehow artificial. There was also an awful smell, although I apparently was the only one who noticed that. Bizarrely, and I suppose it’s always at stressful times you get these odd types of thoughts, the first thing I noticed was that he seemed to be covered in glitter… sparkling you might say, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether my father had turned into a vampire (although I was careful enough to keep that part of the observation to myself).

Monday was a beautiful sunny day, in total contrast to the day of dad’s death and (possibly because of the old wives tale) it made me feel that he was happy now he was free from pain. As he was an ex-Serviceman, the Royal British Legion (of which he was a member) gave him a Service funeral which was held in a nice chapel in a lovely modern-looking Tantatorio in Orihuela. The coffin, draped in the RAF flag and bearing a poppy wreath and a tribute from my mother, sister and I stood in place of honour as standard bearers carried their flags into the chapel and took their places for the service. This was conducted by a friendly and caring lay preacher called Keith Brown and was heart warming and touching, at times both funny and sad.

Originally mum and I had decided we weren’t going to say anything at the funeral, but surfing the web the day after dad’s passing I found a poem which expressed perfectly just how his last moments had been and how mum, Jo and I felt about his leaving us. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to read it at the service, although every time I read it through the words always left me in tears and both I and the preacher were a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to go through with it.

Although upset and still somewhat raw during the service, I was determined I wasn’t going to cry. If I’d done that the poem definitely wouldn’t have been read as I’d never have been able to stop for long enough to get through it. Instead I gritted myself and tried not to think about the sadness as I waited for my cue, about half way through the service. I was so glad they didn’t play any of the music we’d chosen before my big moment or I’d have been a blubbering mess.

And then it was my turn. Suddenly I had to read the poem (slowly, Keith had told me) and it was then, standing at the lectern and looking out at the mourners that I realized just how many people had come to the funeral. The room was full and all those people were looking expectantly at me as I tried not to lose it up there in front of everyone. I took a long deep breath then launched into an explanation of how I’d come across the poem and finally said the words that meant so much to us:

God saw you getting tired,
When a cure was not to be.
So He wrapped his arms around you,
and whispered, "come to me."

You didn't deserve what you went through,
So He gave you rest.
God's garden must be beautiful,
He only takes the best

And when I saw you sleeping,
So peaceful and free from pain
I could not wish you back
To suffer that again.

Amazingly, I managed to get through it without crying for the first time ever, but almost before I had a chance to sit down mum’s choice of song came on – “True Love Ways” by Buddy Holly and that was it for me. With mum sobbing openly now, all I could do was stroke her arm and try to comfort her as my own tears flowed silently down my cheeks. How we got through the farewell, where mum and I stood by dad’s coffin as the Kohima Epitaph was recited and the standards were withdrawn I don’t remember, I was too busy thinking of dad to take much notice of what was happening. And then they were playing our second choice, dad’s favourite song by his favourite band – “Wild West Hero” by E.L.O. and my tears were no longer silent. The song, always a favourite of mine too, evoked such strong memories of my dad that I couldn’t help but release the pent-up sorrow that I’d been holding inside for so long.

And then it was over and the final Spanish custom (touching the coffin to say farewell) was taking place, with mum and I at the head of the procession. Outside, we talked to the huge quantity of people that had attended and I admitted that I’d been terrified about my reading. Many of them told me the poem had been absolutely perfect for the occasion and most had assumed I’d written it as it was so “from the heart”. I shall state here that I’ve no idea who wrote the poem as it is generally credited as being by an unknown author, although several people have claimed credit for it, if Google is anything to go by.

Flowers are also not a Spanish custom, so instead we had asked people to make a donation for the Paul Cunningham Nurses, who had done so much to help dad in his final year. I am pleased to say that this raised almost five hundred euros for the charity.

And so a month has passed. In some ways it all seems like a distant memory, yet in others it’s still as raw as it was on the morning of dad’s death. I won’t lie, there were a few tears yesterday morning at 8am when I realised that it was exactly a month since he’d left us. A part of me can’t believe that he won’t be there waiting for me when I return to Spain and I know that whilst he will always be with me in my heart there will also be a little part of me missing that will never heal.

Jo, Freddie and I will be heading back to Spain in May, to spend a week with mum – giving her the chance to enjoy her grandson properly, for the first time, and giving us all a chance to say a final goodbye to dad as we scatter his ashes up in the mountains where he used to walk to the dogs.

Goodbye dad.

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?