2010 (Love Letters, Boardgame Settlers and Cymru Cheesecake Trend-Setters)

Posted on November 5, 2010 by mrblewog

This week we’ve had:

Early mornings (if waking up at 8 can be called early?)

The thing you begin to realise when you’re getting up at a semi-reasonable hour of the day is that you need to go to bed early. Now, I am still suffering from a state of mind I lived with in childhood, it’s called inevereverevereverwanttogotobed syndrome, the main symptom of this disease is a connection in one’s mind of sleeping at night with a ceasing of ‘fun’. I’m slowly recovering, but the knowledge of 24 hour Spar is always a demon.

Some exciting letter writing.

I found myself trying to scan some of the old files in my cerebrum for files on ‘how to write a letter’ I remembered that there were all these formatting rules and courtesy regulations, it took me back to my penpal days with a certain Tiger Tim of Thirsk.

Readings and spectatings of some good examples of post-dramatic theatre (Martin Crimp, Cupola Bobba).

No plot, no characters, no words, no conflict, no stage, no actor, no audience, no life, no earth, no God. Well, it’s not exactly that, but that description is getting close.

An evening of home made burgers and a session of cheese tasting followed by a game of ‘Settlers of Catan’.

We found ourselves in Morrisons, talking to the lady at the deli counter, sampling some of the country’s finest cheeses, in the end settling for some Australian cheddar which I didn’t even know existed and doesn’t sound particularly appetising, it was good though. I also enjoyed some onion chutney. Friends are good for recommendations like that aren’t they, they’re also good for German multiplayer boardgame related joy.

A blessed Welsh CU meeting thinking especially about The Creation or should I say Y Creu.

My Taid was our speaker this Thursday, and what a joy it was to have him there. A good number, and a clear message for us to chew on.

A baby birthday celebration, a victorious game of Articulate and a surprisingly engrossing viewing of first twenty minutes of Finding Nemo.

We had chocolate cake and cheesecake, and as we consumed, the topic of ‘why do Welsh people talk about cheesecake more than other nationalities talk about cheescake’? I’d never heard such claims. I have no opinion on the matter, do you?

So, as you can see, this week’s been a busy one and on top of all that, I feel that most of my time has been taken up with trying to learn lines, and then desperately trying with oh so much of my strength to make my sultana sized brain remember them during the rehearsals! I hope we’re making progress on the play. I really do hope so.

Listening to:

Virally Contracted:

Banksy fancy dress costume.

Blewog’s Firey Diary – 27/10/2010 (Scotland, Mars & Bat-Cats)

Posted on October 27, 2010 by mrblewog

You may have read on my friend Jon’s new blog all about an exciting trip me and a few of the students (as well as my second cousin) took to Edinburgh. As you can tell, we had an enjoyable time. What he failed to report to you was that one of the first things we saw when we got into Edinburgh was none other than Alistair Darling! Black eyebrows, white hair and all! As well as the fact that we had a joyous walk up Arthur’s seat, and the fact that we saw actual bagpipes being played in the streets. Very exciting.

Last night Professor Stuart Burgess came and did a talk for us at A.P. on Extra Terrestrial Life. If you want to read an angry article against him see here. My favourite quote:

Modern Science has not the slightest need to even shrug when confronted by nonsense of this kind…

Yes, that’s why you just wrote a six thousand, six hundred and fifty nine word article about him.

His talk was enlightening and through it I was able to see for the first time why scientists are so desperate to find life on other planets, it’s because there is no evidence for evolution on earth. It is not coincidental that the Mars probe was called ‘Beagle’ (Darwin’s ship) and other such missions have been labelled ‘Darwin’ and other such evolutionary fan-tags.

I admired Professor Burgess’ imovability on these issues, when asked to tell us what the probability was of evolution being true, he replied calmly that it was zero. His mannerisms were composed and at the same time passionate, polite but not afraid to be direct, intelligent yet never showing pride, always giving praise, credit, respect and worship to his creator and showing love to those he was seeking to share with. What an example to us on perhaps the issue of our time.

This week, it’s half term in the schools, so I enjoyed a flying visit from my Mum and the two youngest Brady boys. My Mother-in-law arrives this afternoon.

I am now into full swing with rehearsals, and it’s exciting to see my character starting to take shape. I look forward to the performance in either December or January (they still haven’t sorted it!)

Virally Contracted:

Batman Cat

Listening to:

Blewog’s Firey Diary – 18/10/2010 (Nightmares, Paranoia & Will Ferrell)

Posted on October 18, 2010 by mrblewog

Two nights ago I was awoken by something I only thought happened in films: the sound of my own voice screaming. I had just fallen asleep and I suddenly felt a looming figure moving slowly towards my face, watching me from the end of our bed, and that’s when I panicked and started to use my vocal chords like I never have before, and that’s when my wife thought I was being murdered.

I’ve never felt properly crazy before. I’ve felt a bit mad, maybe slightly weird from time to time, but never totally mental. And so it begins, this was two nights ago and last night I had to sleep with a light on and a pillow over my head! No joke. I hope it will pass, because it’s really anoying, no less for Sibyl who has to put up with my childish fears as if she were my Mother. Needless to say she has been nothing but patient and helpful.

Other things to report include the fact that I’ve recently enjoyed watching the film Stranger Than Fiction.

It was moving, funny and engaging which sounds like the description of most good films. I suppose I could say it was original as well, with a familiar and lovable cast who put in convincing performances. But I’m afraid I can’t think of anything profound to say about it, so if you’d like to, take my word for it and believe me that it’s a thoroughly well made film that tells a brilliant story.

Hope to see you soon.

Listening to:

These two songs were in ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ but I’ve heard them both before in other films. The first is a Max Richter track and I heard it in the BBC Drama Dive. It’s highly depressing and I love it. The second is by Vangelis, I feel it gives me the sense of a fairytale and I first heard it in one of the films that has recently entered my ever changing top five, Millions.

P.S. Enjoy the ballet! (And the seaside)

Virally Contracted:

Some people on Reddit are saying that if you put your thumb over Paul Simon’s head it give’s Garfunkel an awesome moustache. Try it. You know it’s true.

http://i.imgur.com/D3wgx.jpg

“I didn’t ask for your life story.” #10 – Very faint memories of a holiday in Derbyshire.

Posted on August 6, 2010 by mrblewog

Like most people, I do not remember very much from early childhood. I’m not one of those idiots who claims that they can remember being born. I’m also not one of those people who says they can remember things, even though they’ve just seen those occasions in a photograph and they have made them up in their mind (most of the time anyway).

The earliest holiday I remember was to a place called Derbyshire. I seem to recall firstly that I was an only child at the time, and that we drove there in an old blue Austin (I’m sure parents will correct me on this). There was an older lady who welcomed us to the cottage, and seemed very kind.

I am able to recollect that early one morning, I badgered my Dad to come down stairs with me, as I hated being on my own. Then Dad said that I was a big boy and that I could watch TV on my own, and let them sleep for a while. Then Mam pointed out that it might have been because I had heard about the recent child murders that had taken place, I hadn’t, but this made me even more scared.

Dad got up with me, took me out, and introduced me to an old farmer who must’ve been the owner of the land. The farmer took my hand and said that we were going to see the chickens. We walked up to a large hut type thing which he unlocked and opened the door of. Out came about twenty flapping chickens, and they all gathered around my knees. I wasn’t scared by this at all, just in awe. Then he took me into their hut where we managed to find six eggs, which the chickens had apparently laid that very night! I boasted to my parents about it when I got back, they were very impressed.

I believe that one day we went to a place called Gulliver’s World, a theme park of sorts. I remember a gigantic statue of a man (I assume he was Gulliver) and Dad telling me that in the story he wasn’t actually the big one, the people were small. My parents took me to what I identified as a river, there was a dark brown wooden boat which we sat in and the seats were soaking wet. “Why are we sitting in a wet boat? Why is it moving?”

To which my Mam replied “We’re going to sort of go down a waterfall!”

“What? Hello? Huh? What!?”

“It’s like a slide with lots of water on it! It’s fun!”

“Will I get wet?”

“A little bit.”

I hugged up to Mam tightly, fearing my inevitable death.

Sadly, the actual plunge does not exist on my mental records, perhaps it was so traumatic that my brain deleted it for fear of nightmares. But parents, take note, do not take your kids to strange theme parks and tell them that they will then fall down a waterfall, they have watched to many cartoons and know that it is always a crisis if you’re heading towards the end of the river, you never do it by choice.

I also went with Dad on a Helter Skelter. I retain the thought of trying to say Helter Skelter and what a magical name for a twirly wirly slide it was. I also loved the fact that we had to sit on door mats. Amazing.

The last memory of that holiday is of me sitting in the car, in the front seat, with Mam in the back. We stopped to get some petrol and Mam asked if I wanted a swap. “What’s a swap?”

“You’ll see when you get out of the car!” she giggled.

Thoughts of a fantastical chocolate bar called Swap came to mind, Willy Wonka style. I stepped out of the car, she lifted me up, placed me in the back seat and did up the strap. This was followed by her sitting in the front seat with me left waiting for my treat.

“Can I have my swap now?”

“You’ve had it!”

“No I haven’t!”

“Yes you have, a swap is when you change places with someone.”

Harsh. Very harsh.