Ella, Ella, Ella

A couple of times during the summer I got caught in torrential rain.  This summer was like that - really sunny one minute, the sky open the next.  One evening when I got home after being soaked to the skin I decided action needed to be taken.

I decided to buy an umbrella.

We have a couple of umbrellas in the house.  Rina has a nice black one and a small red one that fits in her handbag.  I have one of those £2 ones you buy at Sports Direct.  My umbrella is awkward to carry, but also, after a couple of rainfalls it had started to come apart (what happens when you make an umbrella out of tissue I guess).

I decided to buy a nice umbrella. A strong umbrella.

I did a little research online and found that there was a make of umbrella called Fulton that were strong and well regarded.  They also did umbrellas small enough to fit in my back pack.  I bought one of those. (It cost £10, which seems a lot, but hopefully will negate the need to buy multiple £2 tissue umbrellas).

Well, that was about 2 months ago, and has it rained?  Has it fuck.  there has been flooding all over the UK, including at home, but not a drop in London. That was until this morning.

I was starting to hope it would rain to be able to break out the umbrella, watching the weather forecast each morning.  But now that it has rained, well... the umbrella did its job admirably. Thank you.  That's enough rain thanks.

I guess there is no pleasing some people.

Life Drawing

Last night I went to a Life Drawing class for the first time.  I have really started to feel the love for drawing again and have decided to attend this class to make the most of this.

It was good to get to work at an easel again.

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We haven't had Disciples for a couple of weeks.  We are due to rehearse tonight and I suspect we are going to have to cancel. The Bear is ill, Al and Holly aren't replying to texts and Dal doesn't want to sleep beside The Bear if he's ill or The Bear's ex-missus who is currently on The Bear's couch. We'll see what happens in the next hour.

Ginger Globetrotting - Egypt

I like the idea of this blog recording my travels, but last night, as I sat on the bus heading home from work, I realised that there was a weakness to this plan.  Recording trips I have gone on after starting the blog is well and good, but what about the awesome trips I’ve already had?  Therefore I have decided to start a new series – Trips Wot I Have Had in the Past Wot Were Ace, or Ginger Globetrotting.

Rina has a talent for picking exceptional birthday gifts.  Recent efforts have included a trip to New York and an ipad.  A few years ago she decided to act on a conversation we had about things we have always wanted to do.  For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to see the Pyramids.  I had heard the stories – that the photo we have all seen of the Sphinx and pyramids is taken from MacDonalds’ car park (untrue, it’s KFC), and that it is crowded and polluted – but it remained a major ambition of mine.

We travelled through Egypt in late November.  My birthday is on the 25^th. We landed in Cairo and went to our hotel on the 24^th.  The hotel was nice – clean, modern and large.  It was on a busy road (although from what I seen, all the roads were busy).  Rina had arranged for a couple of tours for our stay.  The first was a day trip that included the pyramids and the Egyptian museum. The other would see us take a sleeper train to Aswan to catch a Nile cruise to Luxor.  All in all an awesome trip.

Cairo

What can I say about Cairo that hasn’t been said a million times before…?  It’s massive, and FULL of people.  I have never seen as many people anywhere, ever.  The traffic is insane.  There are traffic lights, but they are totally pointless and ignored. Crossing the street is like running an insane gauntlet and requires a “Last Crusade” type leap of faith.  The Khan el Khalili souk is a shopper’s paradise, but the worst place on earth if you are that shopper’s reluctant other half, but….

Forget what you have heard, know or think about the Pyramids.  They are bigger, more awesome (literally) and breathtaking than you can imagine.  It doesn’t matter how many Discovery Channel shows you have watched or National Geographic article you have read – NOTHING will prepare you for seeing them in the flesh.  I am getting goosebumps just thinking about this experience and it was 3 years ago.

The Windsor Hotel (where Michael Palin stayed on his attempt at 80 day circumnavigation, and more recently Pilkington slimmed in An Idiot Abroad) is really fun.  We didn’t stay here, but should I return I definitely will. We were here pretty much daily for the bar.  It is an old colonial officers’ club and walking into the bar you could be forgiven for thinking you might bump into Carter and Carnarvon or even Quatermain himself.  I have very fond memories of this place.

The Egyptian Museum was an interesting place.  It felt a bit like we were on a conveyor belt being shuffled past the artifacts the British Museum didn’t want.  The Egyptians are touchy about that, I can tell you.  It was OK.  There was some cool stuff there, but Tutankhamen himself is on display in the Valley of the Kings.

Nile Cruise

The Nile Cruise was amazing.  Like the Pyramids, nothing prepares you for the scale of the temples dotted along the river. Luxor was a particular highlight.  The cruise itself was little more than a means of getting between the sites. Clean and comfortable, but the stars of the trip were the outings.

So that’s the Egypt trip.  Would I go back…?  If you asked me on the day I returned to London I would almost certainly have said no. Today…..

Aspirations

A couple of things of note happened this week. The first - I finally completed the first draft of the final episode of the sitcom I have been writing.  It has taken quite a long time (and some help from a mate) and it is just a draft.

There are set steps to follow when trying to get a sitcom to screen.  I have ignored all of those.  Every piece of advice begins with "Do not write the whole thing".  I have been writing this for fun.  I have been writing it to prove that I could.  If anything else were to be achieved it would be a bonus.  Now, at least I know I can write a full 6 episode series if I want to.

The second thing is that a really interesting job has come up at work.  I have been waiting for a project management job for ages, thinking that one would never come up. But it has and I'm going to go for it.

I think this week has been a week for aspirations.

It's All Getting a Bit Real

This weekend saw Rina and I, along with Fra and Jennie, head to Heatherton Hall at Pinewood Studios to attend a wedding fair.  Rina has been to a few such fairs (normally with my sisters or mum) but this was the first time I accompanied her.  the reason I went to this one is that Heatherton hall will be the venue in which we get married.

It was a useful trip.  Rina found a couple of suppliers who can sort all the flowers and table settings for the reception and I found a good wedding suit hire place.  Fra (who is my best man) and I will be going to get fitted at the start of November.

Tell you what though, what with having a venue, sorting out suits and table settings, it's all getting a bit real....

Ink on Bristol

The weekend is approaching.  For all the cool kids the weekend starts on Thursday.  It's a bit disappointing, but there is no Fat Disciples practice tonight.  A friend of mine and Rina's from work is leaving to go back to Oz, so we are going for Korean food in Dotori tonight.  It's a really cool restaurant in Finsbury Park that serves awesome sushi.  If you go, go for the sharing platter as your option - its like a degustation menu. For £25. Awesome.

Not too sure what this weekend will hold.  I have recently been doing a bit of drawing (as an RSVP to a friend's wedding).  I get the love of drawing in waves. I am in the middle of a big drawing-love patch.  I thik that this weekend I will try to draw a comic strip that shows what i did this week.  It may be cool or it may be dreadful, but whatever it is it means I will be hearing the scrape of pen and ink on bristol this weekend.

Dry Washing Machine: Pointless

I've watched the first couple of episodes of Fresh Meat, the sitcom by the guys who wrote Peep Show. It was funny and certainly has the potential to develop into something great.

When one character was showing the rest around the house and it's amenities (chest freezer: standard. Washing machine: standard.) he pointed to a tumble drier and said "Dry washing machine: pointless". Made me piss.

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Ligne Claire and Record Breaking

I subscribe to Empire Magazine.  It is one of a number of magazines I subscribe to (along with Official Xbox magazine and Olive Magazine).  Empire is the one I most thoroughly read. Cover to cover, every month.  I've read it for years.  It is a good magazine, but not faultless. It often scores hyped movies with more stars than they deserve and it has its nose firmly shoved up the arse of Steven Spielberg.  This month's issue illustrates this affectation with the first of a 2-part feature on the great auteur.  Saying that, I am a fan of the man and did enjoy the piece.  The reason I even mention it is that there was a significant portion of this feature dedicated to Spielberg's upcoming movie - Tintin.

I like Tintin and always have.  And by that I mean the comic books. For some reason I could never gel with the cartoon (despite its complete faithfulness to the original texts).  I love the adventure, the humour and the mystery in the books, but most of all I love that he travels.  Tintin sees the world and through following him we get exposure to areas of the world we otherwise wouldn't.  Now, there are points at which the stories delve into outdated stereotypes and casual racism.  This is not good, and can be uncomfortable to read, but the sheer joy of seeing Petra, or Delhi or Chicago forgives a lot of the ills.

The style of art that Herge uses in his Tintin adventures is called Ligne Claire (or Clear Line).  The panels are detailed and busy, and leave no room for the sort of "filling-in-the-blanks" imagination that makes the best of Frank Miller's work so appealing.  There are limited artistic flourishes, rather simple lines, and blocks of shade or colour.  Ligne Claire can also be seen in the Blake and Mortimer books, or Moebius' run as artist on Silver Surfer.

I decided over the weekend to look into the style and see what else was available and came across Garan Ewing's Rainbow Orchid (http://www.garenewing.co.uk/rainboworchid/).  It seems to be following in the style of Tintin and is getting rather good reviews.  I have picked up the first volume on Amazon for less than £5 and will see what it has to offer at the end of the week.

Looking forward to that.
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This weekend, the first in October, was ridiculously hot.  29.9oC on Saturday made it the hottest October day in history.  People were sunbathing at the end of the Crescent and it felt like a summer's day (or at least like the sort of day you would hope for in summer).  Rina and I decided to have a BBQ for dinner.  What we neglected to realise was that just because it was as hot as a good July didn't mean the days were as long.  Not long after I started the coals we were in darkness - but a bit of ingenuity from Rina involving a torch and some candles meant we had a fantastic evening.
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Celtic lost to the Edinburgh Rangers.  I think Neil Lennon needs to look at his performance in role.  Not good.