NaNo Triumphs! (by sarah)

Today marks the end of a month of madness where me and Alaric attempted to write a novel each in a month. I broke the 70, 000 barrier and am on the last part of the novel, Alaric who was using it to get back into writing has about 16, 000 words - well short of the 50K you need to win but considering how hectic this month has been for him plus the leaking roof in his workshop/writing space this is an amazing achievement. We have raised a bit of money for charity in doing so and Jeany has produced her very own illustrated story, for which she has won a hello kitty writing necklace.

She was inspired by the note book which our friend Ulrike sent her and the story is called The Castle of Animals (which turns out to be a series but this is just the first story!). It is no where near as many words as she wrote last year but there was lots of behind the scenes stuff like character development and plot this time - her hand writing is not at it's best but this is a fun project and not school and she is going to be typing it up later on anyway so I decided not to push that one!

Next year we are roping my dad in as well - he came to the Bristol write-in with me yesterday where he did a whole page of his satire that he's been writing and he is a slow writer and we were all chatting so this was an incredible feat for him! Of course he also managed to get friended by a very friendly drunk actor who was excited about the concept of writers which was really very funny 🙂

The Deal (by sarah)

So the deal has been struck! I become a famous author and Alaric shall become an actor so that he can become Dr Who and I will write a series just for him. It needs to wait until I am a famous writer so that we can pay the bills whilst he's training - he thinks it would make a nice change from programming.

His cubs and Jean already think that he is an incarnation of Dr Who anyway. The hat, scarf and coat of many pockets would have to feature.

The deal is struck so I'd best get on with this writing marlarky but as I've not managed to get more than short stories and poems published yet there is a long way to go - he may indeed be a silver haired Dr.

Of Chocolate and Art (by sarah)

Tuesday Morning we went for a stroll around various bits of London on the way to Paul A. Youngs Fine Chocolates in The Royal Exchange. I have to say that a) I was surprised the Royal Exchange was a shopping centre and not a bank or something and also it was quiet boring as shopping districts go but there was lots of pretty buildings and statues around it to photograph.

The Chocolate Shop itself was something else! I was could have just spent all afternoon photographing the chocolates to be honest! Plus the shops were obviously designed with me in mind - see even the bags are purple and the boxes tied up with little purple ribbons - tell me why there is not one of these in Cheltenham? Next to the Cheese Works would be best - just saying.

I may have ended up with a book on cooking with and making chocolate etc....

Alaric is going to try and get it signed for me at some point 🙂 I'd really wanted to go and look in the kitchens or do the tempering course but when we looked they seemed to only be for Chocolate Week 🙁 But I have coffee beans covered in chocolate - t my mind there is slightly too much chocolate on the bean but it is a lovely roast! Alaric got a Marmite bar. The chocolate still contains soya lectin unfortunatly so I can't exactly eat a tonne of it - but then shouldn't really anyway 🙂

I then took more pictures of London 🙂

We headed over to the Institute of Contemporary Arts to have lunch and meet a friend. This statue was on the way and is of Uri the first man in Orbit!

I didn't even know the ICA existed!

Lunch was veggi curry of butternut squash and chick peas for Al and tarragon chicken with mushrooms for me 🙂

It was really tasty!

We looked around some of the exhibits the main one was The House to Die In which had a large narcotices theme running through it though I thought the structures looked like space ships. We found the perfect present for mum but had fortunatly had already gotten her a sketch pad as the blanket was £450!

We mainly sat in the coffee shop with all our stuff and wrote things and drew things and designed things and made things.

We had tea and ginger bread men and chatted lots to Dez who I some how failed to get a photo of :/ Though I took this sequence...

Alaric kept moving his eyes about which was funny 🙂

We then headed over to Padington Station to make our journy home - I filled up my dragon note book mostly on this four day adventure 🙂 And I haven't arted Alaric out - I think he almost Artied me out and I've ended up with a set of Tech/Net/Web/Geek tarot cards from the ICA which I love and am going to write so many stories from. Al broke the 10K barrier on his novel and me the 40K barrier which is just fantastic

Polyps Together the Colony Unitied 🙂

Gotye Hammersmith Apollo (by sarah)

So we finally went to see Wally perform - we ended up being scooped in with the VIPs and what have you mainly due to my stick and the fact that I'd over done it at the Tate Modern so could hardly move and was shaking! I took loads of photos and video of the gig most of which is no good as the light levels were so low and we were so far away - I am placing my blurry gig photos on the blog anyway as it is mine and Al's external memory 🙂 Considering my little happy snappy camera and the fact I was sat in the circle I am actually really happy at the photos I got.

String bean physic and a penchant for electronics - it really was like watching some relative of Alaric's on stage.

We found Gotye because people said he was like Alaric to look at 🙂

Alaric I think has kept his hair short after having been repeatedly mistaken at festivals this summer as The Gotye Impersonator 😉

Alaric was excited to discover Jonti at the concert and happy to hear Gotye who it had turned out we did own music off but had him squirreled away in Al's electronica stuff.

I did alot of experimenting with the light settings and stuff on the camera and think considering how far away I was and the light levels some of these really aren't that bad.

It is beyond me why people feel they have to spend the whole concert getting up and down from their seats - I started to get murderous over it! Especially if it was when I was trying to video or take a photo.

I loved the visuals and am constructing some short stories based on their inspiration!

They confiscated my bottle of drink at the beginning when we went in but Alaric bought me a glass of diet coke.

Alaric commented that he thought Gotye looked more like our friend Richard than himself. I just smiled and said that the official vid of Easy Way Out is like a merger of him and Richard.

There was a plinky plonky instrument that I itched to have a go on and part of me was thinking - you know I have my laptop but no microphone on me damn!

We tried taking pics putting the monocular on the camera but we just could not reduce the shake enough.

Alaric's comment about one of the songs was 'that reminds me of our hammond organ' to which I responded 'I think he sampled some of it from one'. We almost bought a T-shirt but were running low on budget.

Have I mentions the weird blowy instrument he appeared to be using? Not sure what it was or even if it was a wind instrument and I didn't get to see it properlly as it was gone by the time I wrestled the monocular off of Al.

The voice synth was halarious he really played it up!

This was mine and Alaric's first concert - I've stewarded events and works at events and performed at events but that whole audience thingy? Never really done it. Mainly due to the crowd and sitting down issue. I got these tickets as there were seated ones.

I do like my pics of pretty lights 🙂

Eyes Wide Open is my favorite song and one that I think the Green Unconference should have as a theme tune 🙂

The live visuals did differ alot in some cases and only a bit in others from the official musical vids.

This one I've kept just because I think it looks arty - it's called Ghost of Gotye.

I wonder if a better camera would have gotten me better pictures or if it is just my lack of skill!?

I loved the way all the musicians lined up and sort of bobbed their way through this one 🙂

There was only one song that I would have liked to have heard missed - everything else was covered.

This song Don't Worry We'll Be Watching You freaks me out slightly!

Some of the tunes are so haunting.

I was wondering about the sort of procussion rings that he was using - what are they?

It was quiet cool the way he would announce so and so on the synthasised/sampled sax and things like that. The thing is it does take skill to put this type of stuff together for a live show.

He is an amazing drummer - I would have loved to get hold of one of his drum sticks.

The band were so slick that it was only when a bit of sound engineering went wrong that it differed from the recordings really - this was amazingly good to the point I started to suspect mimining until he accidently mucked up the acoustic as the Apollos more of a theatre.

The moods of the different songs were caught via the lighting - the crew should be very proud of themselves.

One of the songs Gotye had the responsibility of a little tiny cymbal - it was so funny the way he emphasised this 🙂

Wally's little whitasisms thought out made us smile.

I took quiet a bit of video of the gig but it is for a holiday vid of mine and Alaric's break rather than concert specific.

Bronte is Jean's favorite Gotye track though she finds it too sad as the girl doesn't get to say goodbye to her friends - I personally wonder if there is a more sinister ending.

Lots of people left as soon as the band walked off - this was in my opinion a rookie error - and I was right.

We thought for a bit there that Ozzy's might not do oncors but they came back out and I have to find the name of the guitarist (I know he said it but I forgot it!)

The energy of the concert was fantastic mainly due to the musicians habit of noodling around on stage from one instrument to another. Wally/Gotye being the most noodly.

It was an amazing evening were I ruined Alaric's Christmas surprise by getting myself a signed copy of Making Mirrors!

Alaric thanked me for organising it at the end and agreed we should catch concerts in the future - we would love to go to Australia to visit my family at some point - it would be brilliant if we could see him on his home turf at the same time but that sort of trip is way out of budget at the moment.

Jonti and The Chap – Gotye Hammersmith (by sarah)

Gotye has quiet a diverse taste in music so we were intrigued as to what type of music would be the support bands. So we got to the Apollo early thinking we could go in and sit at the bar (this is what happens when you live outside of London for anytime you forget about all the people!). There was already a huge crowd and we couldn't find the end of the queue. A nice doorman person at the end came up to us and directed us to another door - were we were scooped in with the VIPs and what have you. I think this was because I was on my stick and to be honest I had completely over done it and was shaking with fatigue just standing was painful so I am extremely grateful though was a bit grumpy that the seated tickets were upstairs and there was no lift so me and the people on crutches made a slow rise to the circle which fortunately did have loos and drinks (they'd confiscated my inch of severn up!). I took pictures of pretty lights whilst we waited for the first act 🙂

The first act was Jonti for Alaric this slightly topped Gotye as it was interesting and new were as the Gotye tracks were familiar and comftable and fun due to the little quirks put in.

Jonti

I attempted to take some of the photos through the monocular - it did work brilliantly but I quiet like this pic of Jonti.

This guy wizzed about doing funky electric synth mix stuff with like little dance movements inbetween - I think the universe might implode from music awesome if he ever met Brown Torpedo. He had a guitar made out of an old oil can and a funky looking uke (I think). Alaric was entranced and enthused 🙂 To me he was bordering on a Dr Who-esk style performance.

The Chap

• I swear that I already knew these guys I had a vague impression of having danced to some of the songs with my friend Aiofe and they were very much her type of music! I also almost said hello to the drummer before the show (before I knew he was one of the bands - it was surreal I thought I recognised him and then realised I didn't). I enjoyed them though the people behind me didn't to the point were I was ready to throttle them for making comments all the way through :/ Yes it wasn't the same type of music as Gotye and yes everyone was waiting for the big act but you know some of us were trying to listen and cough dance in their seats.

At the end we went and talked to Jonti and The Chap and got them to sign the ticket though we were missing the girl from The Chap - I was in a lot of pain so didn't want to hang around and was perhaps a bit snappy when it was pointed out that a band member was missing 'Yes well!' which was a bit rude but there you go. We were going to by music by them but somehow failed to do so though we did end up with a signed copy of Making Mirrors by Gotye.

Us with The Chap

Me with Jonti

Due to both being shy we had to work as a team to actually go up and chat to them - so glad we did 🙂