rodrigo y gabriela

I have to dedicate this post to this amazing duo from Mexico. I walked into Fopp in Touchwood, Christmas shopping with a friend of mine and a track from their self-titled album was playing. For the first time ever I was actually paying attention to the track that was playing in a shop, and it rocked!

They play classical acoustic guitar in a style that I can only dream about managing with such rhythm, pulse and passion that you can't help feeling like you're in the middle of a fiesta! I immediately went to the guy behind the counter and inquired as to where I could find the album and promptly bought it.

I've read the slip inside and they've had an amazing journey - from their home country, to busking for their rent in Copenhagen to being 'discovered' and getting an album produced. They pay tribute to all the people who they've met on their way including a homeless guy in Copenhagen and the crocodile man from around where they live who is on a one man mission to save the local rare breed.

Anyhoo, I have an early start tomorrow, driving to Leeds to see some peeps so must go to bed. Please follow the links and listen to their music my favourite track at the moment is Orion but it changes every time I listen. Have Fun :)

Niamh Cusack, Jenna Russell, Felicity Kendal and other reasons to go to the theatre!*

Been back nearly 2 weeks now and definitely getting a sense of itchy feet/hands. Have finished sorting out the order of service for the wedding today - just got to find some suitable paper for the outside now (trip to Hobbycraft coming up - a dangerous place for me to enter!) and also to do the model for the top of the cake. The strange things one ends up doing for a wedding! I finally managed to get to the Dr's today to tell them about the beta-blocker period on the ship - now I have the joys of yet another ECG/EKG and a set of 'fasting' bloods on Monday - must remember "nil by mouth" :(

I was coming online tonight to check emails, send copies of the O.o.S to folks who need it and have a quick surf. However since I've been back I've had 'Born and Bred' on as a background/before sleep distraction and once again have felt the injustice at being denied another series. (Although I do understand the reasons - especially from a cast point of view - still a 'clear up' 2 episode special wouldn't go amiss ;) !)
Due being out of the country when it was on, I had to wait to see series 4 until it came out on DVD - which then took me a while to get round to watching because I knew what happened in the first episode, knew what my reaction would be and didn't really want my cabin mate walking in on me. (which she did any way - right at a crucial moment - love you LauraR :))

So I thought I'd have a look and see if anything was happening. Whilst rootling around I discovered that Jenna Russell is in a play at the mo called 'Amy's view' at the Garrick in London - which is starring.......Felicity Kendal

Well, I've now got a determination to go and see this as it stars 2 of my favourite actors, something I haven't felt about a play in a long time! It's a bit like the time Niamh Cusack was in 'As You Like It' at the RSC and I managed to persuade the Theatre Studies teacher to take the A-Level group and me to a pre-show talk - I was only in Year 11 and missed 3 classes to go! - Not a typical me thing to do but that's how determined I was! Also, as a result I have 2 David Tenant (Dr Who if anyone doesn't know) autographs from before he was all famous - nice bloke too :) (As well as attending that fabulous Uni the RSAMD!)**

The only problem is the getting back from London at that time of night and the £30 ticket price especially as I just spent my bonus on somChristmasas presents but mostly on getting my lovely Moffy back on the road. Still I am determined, and if I can persuade a school to let me miss 3 lessons I'm sure I can manage this!

*Yes this is the longest title ever
**Yes this is the longest post about my industry without it being something I'm involved with!

Edit: Here is "The Stage" review of the play with photo

The Dress

Here is a photo of the dress I bought (well paid for by me mum - the bride!) for the wedding. Still needing shoes and something warm (nearly bought a crush velvet midnight blue jacket!) to wear but we'll sort that out soon!

Edit:Oh yes...and I finished Geek cahse in about 3 & Half hours - well not all together - there's a reason for that- and if you're playing you'll know why!

diva droid a gogo!

A quick update:

Have bought a dress for the wedding - Is really nice. Sort of a darl claret colout with Flowetr embroidery on it.

and in complete contrast....

Have had RD "Beat the Geek" delivered and am now well on the way with the internet Geek Chase - sooo cool! And some very clever bits - now, to set my alarm or stay up....hmmmm (get the game to find out why!)

Home on the Range!

Yey, I'm home.......man...I'm bored!!

Although at the minute I'm nursing a stinking cold so am allowing myself to stay in bed a bit and generally mooch around!

Within the first 40 minutes of being home I discovered that:
I am the Chief Usher at the wedding ........."Bride or Groom"....
I'm designing the order of service
I'm designing a poster for the evening do to put up around the village
And I picked my flowers for my corsage - Jasmin, Stephanonsis and Ivy

Over the weekend I met the Groom and his kids - all cool - especially as I managed to drink my mum and Alan under the table - see I did learn something this season ;)

Still finding it diificult to adapt to being back - but it does take a while - I'm missing all the team being around - especially as I'm mostly home alone (which is also a nice thing - it's so confusing!)

And finally poor Moffy is VERY sick :( She failed her M.O.T (not a huge surprise - bless) and then the guy, Trevor Knight, who came to pick her up to fix her rang to tell me that there was a few other things aswell! It's going to cost somewhere between 'oich and sproooing'* to fix her and I won't get her back until the end of next week:( Still she's worth it and hopefully the old girl will have a garage soon!

Ah well, back to my 'bena and Sims2 :)

*'White Christmas' reference :)

Flying High...

Well, Folks, the season is over and I'm on my way home - in fact I'm sat in Sharm El Sheik airport utilising the free wireless internet to type this!

Has been an amazing summer and will be very strange to be home again - especially in the throws of wedding planning - but I'm pretty sure we'll all meet up at various points :) Mac and Simon are on my flight so at least I shouldn'r have a scary PAX next to me - see you on the other side (of a 6 hour flight!!!!!)

Adventure in the Red Sea!

WOW!!! What an amazing couple of weeks.

Today I came back from visiting Petra in Jordan. It's the canyon and tombs etc that they used to film Indiana Jones - amazing! 4 mile round walk in very hot sun but incredible to see.

Yesterday I went snorkelling for the fist time and had my first ever Scuba Diving experience!!! We went to a dive school close to the ship and snorkelled aroud the coral reef with the amazing fish. Then had our scuba intro in the swimming pool and then went into the sea by the reef and went down to about 12/13m it was incredible!! Definitely want to get my open watr certificate now!

Oh anmd to top it all off last week I went to Giza to see the Pyramids - sooo cool! (pic's link in the side bar) Also saw the falklen statue of Ramses II and the Step Pyramid of Zosser and the Sphinx. Am very tired - especially as the new team are on now and work patterns are all over the place but have had some trul unique experiences in the last coupl of weeks!

5 days to go!!!!

3 weeks and counting!!

OMW it's getting close!

The excitement and dread is beginning to build around the team but everything is still moving along pretty well. Have pretty musch finished all the paperwork I'm supposed to have done already so real free time is looming!

Have finally added the expantion pack (Open for business) for Sims2 that Laura baought me having finished Andy's Website (check it out here) and have spnt many happy hours on it over the last few days.

Should be going to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Egypt - am so excited!!1 Have wanted ot see them ever since studying Egypt in school when I was about 10 :) Have watched "The Mummy" in honuor of the impending trip!

Really looking forward to being home and seeing everybody. This contract has shot by, the Fjords seem like an age ago but can't wait to get back have a break and then go visiting - who knows I might actually have a proper holiday for the first time in 5 years - wonders will never cease ;)

OK...who pulled the plug out?

Well now, that was an interesting evening!

We lost power on the WHOLE SHIP. Engines, Air Con EVERYTHING!!! Right in the middle of the biggest Dance number in the Gala Evening show everything (except of course for the emergency lighting! and the , thankfully, full moon outside) went black.

Tony's (SM) been working in ships for 8 years and that's the first time he's known it happen. It was pretty cool really it took about an hour for them to get the generator's working again meantime the ship took on a whole new feel! The PAX were cool and just stayed where they were mostly. The corridors were lit by the occasional overhead light and the emergency strip lighting (like green fairy lights!) on the floor, the outside by the moon and for once in the entire season the ship was quiet.
One of the things that is most difficult to adapt to when going home is the lack of background noise - the engines humming, things banging about ,the stabilizers going in and out, the anchor going up and down RIGHT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF MY WALL - OK the last one is a joy to get away from! So having the ship that quiet was very bizarre.

Anyhoo it finally came back up and we did the second show and most of us had forgotten about our little foray into a horror film by the next afternoon!

Only 4 1/2 weeks of the season left....Everyone's starting to feel a bit odd, it's that weird mixture of wanting to go home, needing a rest and yet loving the job and not wanting to leave the people here!

Oh, and I've designed a website for a company run by he ACD on here - it should be fully operational in a couple of days check it out here

My Guitars Debut

Wow, what a cool day!

We were in Brest, France. No particularly exciting (in fact I made a round trip on the shuttle bus!) but got a lot acheived today - including a lot of stuff for the website I'm designing (if you wan tto view the thing it's replacing go to www.mistletones.co.uk so you can see the before and after - when it's finished!)but mainly, I finally got the guts up and played and sang in the PAX and Crew talenmt show this evening! I don't think I've shaken so much in years - not very useful when you're about to play on stage! All the show team watching and they said that I didn't seem nervous at all and that it was good - so I consider that a success and a huge compliment! I performed "Strong Enough" by Sheryl Crow - something a little different but I like it.

It's been an interesting week - what with that hurricane on our day at sea and all - apparently it made the news at home! Didn't really affect us until the afternoon when we had to change the show (which was aready set up and rigged) so to change the set Tony had to wear a harness and 4 of us had to hold the ladder an it was still to dangerous to do all of it! - CRAZINESS!

Zoë, Alana, Lesley Ann and Laura have got family on this week which has added a really cool feeling to this rather interesting week! My Dad should be coming to the ship on Wednesday to have a look at what it's all about which will be cool.

Next week we head down to the Med - ah, the joys of Palam, Majorca again! 6 weeks and counting :( / :)