Rocking Your World Friday weeks 48-50

Despite the fact I have three weeks to cover, I think this will be a quick-ish one (although still as photo heavy as ever, you know me :) ), as I've had a perfectly nice few weeks, but not the most eventful....

The weather has turned very wintry all of a sudden- we don't have snow yet like some of you - but it's soooooo coooooold!  So that does limit our options a little for days out and stuff - and quiet pyjama days indoors with the central heating on become all that more attractive :)

We haven't been completely idle, though, in fact we did start the three week period with one of those days out that I've just been saying we don't do in the winter ....

We headed up to London (it was a Sunday = free parking = cheap day out! at least theoretically) on an art gallery spree.

First stop was Euston, and the Wellcome Collection, to check out Death: A Self-Portrait.

From the blurb : a fascinating exhibition showcasing some 300 works from a unique collection devoted to the iconography of death and our complex and contradictory attitudes towards it.  It was absolutely amazing.

Unfortunately they were super strict with the 'no photos' rule inside the exhibition, but there are plenty on that link above. And here's one I stole from t'interweb of the brilliant (and huge - am guessing they made that woman stand there for scale as she looks a little awkward :) ) plasticine skull.  Totally makes me want to go and play with plasticine.

Plus I did get to take photos throughout the rest of the building - like this one of the Gormley/Crosby Beach dude hanging from the ceiling, and this rather scary sculpture that, for some reason, makes me want to run straight to Slimming World and sign up!

I got two fab books there too:

From the book on the left, which was the official accompaniment to the exhibition, here's my favorite piece from the show (apologies for the bad photo, click on it for a slightly better view) - what a great concept, death and the doctor fighting over the girl's life. I love the way the doc is pushing down on the skull with one hand while supporting his patient with the other:

The other book consists of oversized (about 8" x 10") Day of the Dead themed woodcut print postcards.  I will use some of these for postcrossing, but keep the rest.

And the kids bought themselves little teddies of the MRSA super bug and E Coli :) Like you do :)

Our next stop was the Pure Evil gallery in Shoreditch for this show:

If the name 'Pure Evil' rings a bell, then you might remember him from the street art episode of the Apprentice...

The New York Kings show was excellent, featuring many of the seminal NYC graffiti writers from the 70s/80s - taking their tradition of subway art into a gallery setting with spraypainted artwork on NY subway maps.

The gallery also had lots of little people still in residence from the recent Pablo Delgado show, and some work by Roa and Herakut, along with stuff by the eponymous gallery owner himself.  

The little details are what makes Pablo Delgado's stuff so cool, like the shadows on the gravel.  These guys are tiny, just a couple of inches high

Mr Pure Evil actually turned out to be a really nice chap, he happily chatted away to us and the kids for ages, and was nothing like he came across on t'telly.  Just shows how they edit people to make them look like idiots for the sake of entertainment!  Not that he minded - he said that he sold so much stuff on his website overnight after the show went out, that he thought there was an error when he checked his bank account the next morning :)

And I ended up completely blowing my budget by buying one of his hand-finished prints (ie one he's coloured in a bit) - so imagine this one but with some red hand coloured bits:

It's totally fab, printed on vintage paper, limited run of 100, one of the other 99 is in the V&A's permanent collection, no less!  (I didn't find that out until after I'd bought it)

I need to find an affordable frame for my one (it's a fair size, about 3 foot tall, so that's going to be quite a challenge) and then I can take a proper picture of it.

I love it!

Next stop on our arty tour was the Urban Masters show in Shoreditch:

The line up for this one was impressive:

Bom.K - Blo - Brusk - Gris1 - Jaw - Kan - Sowat - Lek - 
Roa - David Shillinglaw - Zezão - Sweet Toof - Blek Le Rat - 
Ron English - Mac1 - Matt Small - Alexandros Vasmoulakis - 
El Mac - C215 - Joe Black - Seen - Risk - Remi Rough - 
Sixeart - Zevs - Mentalgassi - Nick Gentry - The London Police - 
StinkFish - Rone - Banksy - Kid Zoom - Nick Walker - Shepard Fairey

And it was really well laid out - biiiiiiiig artworks with excellent lighting to really show them off.

My favourites were this one by Rone (mainly because I liked the reflection in the car window)

This amazing, huge, portrait of Chairman Mao by Joe Black, made from thousands of little toy soldiers:

and the portraits by Nick Gentry painted onto floppy disks.  Fantastic!

I love Dscreet's omnipresent owls

The rest of the day was spent visiting a few other little galleries (there are so many in that part of London), and checking out all the new work in the best gallery of them all - out in the street:

Not new, but we hadn't spotted this one before as it was down a side street - by El Mac

a new Stik man

cute!

My favourite of 4 or 5 Anthony Lister pieces we spotted - he's been on a roll recently in London! 

Angelic me :)  Not sure who painted these lovely wings

....and not the best photo as it was dark by this point, but I love this collaboration  piece from  Bom.K and Liliwenn (plus more owls :) )

We finished up with a visit to the bustling Brick Lane market (only in London would a street market still be doing a roaring trade at 9pm on a cold Sunday night in November!), played for a while with some remote controlled cars that Sony had provided for some publicity stunt or other, and then helped ourselves to some free hot chocolate and Aero bars from the, um, Aero Bar :)

That was a long old day with lots of walking and so much eye candy I thought my brain would explode :)  But we all had a great time, and slept soundly that night.

Other assorted happiness inducing things from the last three weeks:

- Wildcats cupcakes and ice skate cookies for sale at the ice hockey game, I wish they did these every week

- My Battlestar Galactica series 4 DVDs arrived just in time, as I only had one episode left from series 3 to watch - and best of all, they didn't cost me a penny as I paid for them with Amazon vouchers earned by doing marketing surveys online

- Getting my postcards made in time and posted on the dot for iHanna's autumn postcard swap - I have already started to receive cards back from, so far, Canada and America

- There was a cool exhibition on at one of the galleries near my work by the mosaic artist Cleo Mussi - I loved the spaceman in the window and the phrenology heads

- I've got most of my christmas shopping done.  Haven't wrapped a single thing, but almost everything has at least been ordered.

- Viva Las Vegas's amazing Black Friday sale - 10% off everything plus FREE international shipping.  I couldn't resist that!  So here are my lovely new stamps.

(I have no idea what I'm going to do with the egg baby! but I'm sure it will come in useful one day :) )

- The Secret of Crickley Hall, a ghost story in three parts on BBC - I really enjoyed this - and not only because the yummy Gary from Miranda was in it, although that didn't hurt :)  Also starring in this one - as the super cute youngest daughter of the haunted family - was little Pixie Davies (you might have also seen her in Oreo adverts), who is the younger sister of one of my son's classmates at school.  She is so adorable :)

- Swindon Wildcats beating Manchester Phoenix decisively in one of the most entertaining games of hockey I've seen so far this season

- my eldest son finally getting hold of the t-shirt that I bought his girlfriend months ago from ebay for her birthday - they sent the wrong one and getting it exchanged has grown into the saga to end all sagas, but it is finally resolved!  (he had to actually go to their premises in person in the end after weeks of being fobbed off)

- a trip to the Toby Carvery - so. much. fooooood.  made my tummy hurt but it was all worth it :)

- making, buying, wrapping and posting my secret santa gift by the deadline - I hope the recipient likes it!

- scoring an old anatomy textbook via Freecycle complete with all sorts of cool diagrams - excellent collage fodder

- getting an email from the editors of Featuring magazine asking if they can use a circle journal entry of mine in issue 3 (out soon) - so if you happen to buy a copy, look out for my name :)

- on a related note, Marit announcing this year's song list for her Top 2000 Blog Party which I'm hoping to contribute lots to as it was great fun last year

- Finding a super cool "sheep's skull on a stick" at TK Maxx of all places - I had to have it!  Am going to give it a bit of a makeover - watch this space :)

Photobombed by grumpy cat

- surviving the floods - they caused havoc with my journey to work (my commute went from the usual 25 minutes to over 2 hours for a few days) but thankfully nobody I know has suffered any damage to property or worse

this "lake" in Cirencester is the road I usually drive along on my way home from work ....

- making plans for a potential meet up with internet friends next April, I really hope we can get it sorted

- Reece getting "elfed" in town when we popped in to do a bit of Christmas shopping - and the best bit was that he kept his rosy cheeks make-up on all day - even when he went up the park later with his friend :)

- I won an ebay auction for some really cool (and super hard to get hold of) stamps - postal not rubber :)  I had to search in French and everything.  Was amazed I still remembered the word 'timbres' from school.

- a trip over to Bristol on a Friday night after work to see my middle son Darby, and also to visit yet another street art gallery for a double book signing event.

The artists were Bristol legend Cheo (Jay's a big fan, that's his Egghead book <--), and the creator of the Bristol-a-saurus, Andy Council, who has brought out a cool colouring book featuring many of his popular mural designs:

- treating myself to some new spray paints and caps while we were there

- a fantastic all you can eat buffet meal in Bristol city centre with Darby after the book signing.  It was a lot of fun being out in town on a Friday night, instead of slumped on the sofa watching Come Dine With Me marathons which is what we usually do :)

- my fab new Firefly t-shirt turning up in the post from America:

I think that's everything - and I am seeing a pattern - it seems that almost all of the things Rocking My World this time around involved me spending money - oh my poor, poor bank account!

In a minute I'm going to link this up over at Rocking Your World Friday HQ - aka Virginia's blog.  This will be my penultimate link up of 2012 (or the last one if the Mayans are right....) - hasta la vista Rockettes!

Have you ever watched 'The Bridge'?

Nope, nor me ....

It's a Scandinavian crime drama, that has been enthusiastically recommended to me by a few people whose viewing tastes I trust, so I think I'll give it a go.

And it's also the subject of my entry in Pam's Desert Island Discs CJ - as the song I chose from her list is the programme's theme tune:

Hollow Talk by the Choir of Young Believers

The series starts with a female body being found, in two parts, at the centre of the bridge which joins Denmark to Sweden - half in Denmark's jurisdiction and half in Sweden's - and so that's the rather gory inspiration I took for my embroidered piece:

Not having seen the programme yet I have no idea if the actual body looked anything like this, am taking a bit of artistic licence :)

I do love working with material and embroidery for a change - which is just as well as the next journal coming my way in this circle is another fabric based one.....

Oh - and talking of making little pieces of art based upon / inspired by songs ...... can I interest any of you lot in taking part in Marit Barentsen's Top 2000 party this year?  It was so much fun last time around .....  go check out the list, there's at least one song there for everybody :)

My "empowered" postcards are on their way

Today was posting day for iHanna's autumn postcard swap - and by the skin of my teeth I was ready just in time

Four of my cards are headed to America - 2 x Virginia, plus Arizona & Oregon -  and the fifth card is Quebec bound.  None at all going to Europe this time which was a surprise, as last time I took part in this swap there were a lot of Scandinavian participants.

The theme for the postcards was "empowerment", and the most empowered words I know are those from the Pearl Jam song, "I Am Mine":


I know I was born and I know that I'll die
The in between is mine
I am mine


So I decided to kind of re-create a journal entry from last year:

Although I didn't still have any of the original imagery, and I thought I'd do it in slightly more uplifting colours, so the end result is nothing much like the original:

I've stuck one of my faux postage stamps on the back of each (along with a real one!) - I hope the recipients like them ....

And I wonder what I shall receive in return? Exciting!

Rocking Your World Friday weeks 44-47

Is three weeks up already??

Assuming I’m going to keep to the every-third-week pace, I’ve only got two more RYWF updates to go after this one and then 2012 will be done – eek!  How did that happen??

(or, if the Aztecs are right, I only have to do one more....)

So – what have I been up to?  Having a lot of fun actually, which I ascribe largely to the fact that it has mainly been nice and sunny (if a bit on the chilly side) and so we’ve been able to get out and about.  This has put me in a really good mood, I hate being stuck indoors.

Our main outdoor activity has been white horse hunting.  The big, chalk, carved-into-the-side-of-a-hill kind.  There are eight of these altogether in Wiltshire (plus an extra one just over the border into Oxfordshire), and it is one of our family goals to visit all nine before September 2013.  Over the past couple of weeks we have ticked another two off our list so that means we are now up to 7, and we just have 2 left.

So, here is the Marlborough white horse (a dinky one):

and the Devizes white horse (the only one of the nine which faces to the right):

(the little people are Connor and Reece, the cows were very friendly, I was stood just between the horse's back legs)

(not my photo, this is how it looks from the air)

At both locations we also made an afternoon of it by doing some geocaching (and in Marlborough, some Chariots of Fire style time trials :) ), nice cheap family fun in the autumn sunshine, fab.

Another reason I’m in a good mood, I actually managed to have two whole days off work the other week.  In a row!  It was like a bonus weekend, but on a Wednesday and Thursday.  When you work full time, days off are totally like the best thing everrrrrrr, dude.

The Wednesday I spent mainly chilling, and painting, and watching Battlestar, and having a super long soak in a very bubbly bath, and generally doing all the terribly self indulgent things that I don’t have time for in an average week.  Lovely :)

Then on the Thursday I took Connor to London town to see my dad and also to visit the Tower of London.  Again this is related to our family goals – we had a goal to visit eight different UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and this was number eight, so that’s a goal ticked off the list! Yay!  (The other seven, as I know you’re dying to ask, were the Dorset Jurassic Coast, the Avebury/Stonehenge area, Greenwich, Blenheim Palace, the City of Bath, Ironbridge, and the Cornish Tin Mines.   The full list is here - I’d love to visit all 28, but some – Henderson Island anyone? - are a little remote!

The Tower of London was absolutely packed with tourists –it was half term – but we still really enjoyed our visit despite the crowds.  I don’t remember ever going there before, although my dad reckons they must have taken me when I was little.  First we had a guided tour by a real life Beefeater – he was very funny and told us some fascinating stories and amusing anecdotes as we walked around the (huge) site.  For one thing, I didn’t realise that the Beefeaters still have to live on site in the Tower – and that the doors are locked at night with absolutely nobody allowed in or out, so they have to have a doctor living in there with them in case of an overnight medical emergency.

Then we had a good look round the exhibitions – Connor was particularly amused by this suit of armour belonging to a young Henry VIII (so that’s how he attracted all those wives???) – and the crown jewels.  Now, I have to say I wasn’t that bothered about going to see the jewels, I’m not a big jewellery person – at least not into traditional gold and diamonds and the like.  But, oh my lord, in the flesh they were BEAUTIFUL!!  So sparkly!!  I’m beginning to get the appeal :D

Back out in the grounds, we took part in a reconstruction of the English civil war.  I was a parliamentarian, Connor was a royalist.  He ended up getting a certificate and general congratulations from the ‘cast’.  I got beheaded.  Ooops.  Maybe I should have picked the side that actually won!

And finally, the gift shop …. I got some postcards – as ever (I really ought to start up Postcrossing again so I actually get to use some) – and Connor bought the most impressive (and heavy – they are real cast iron) set of jailer’s keys.  They are awesome!  He said I am allowed to play with them sometimes :)

(apparently that's his prison guard face :) )

My only regret is that we didn’t get to see the infamous Tower ravens.  I do hope they haven’t flown away (as then England will fall!).  I think it’s more likely that they were just staying out of the way of the crowds….

So then I was back into work for one day, and then it was the weekend again – this is the life!  I wish I could do that all the time, work one day on, two days off, ad infinitum ......

On the Sunday of that weekend I was up super bright and early to go visiting.  I had to be in Birmingham before 9am, so that meant getting out of bed before 7am.  On a lie-in day. Ouch!  But so worth it, as my lovely friend Michelle was making a flying visit to the UK on her way to Venice from the US, and this was my one chance to meet up with her in the flesh.  We have been chatting away over the interwebs for years now, but that just doesn’t compare to a proper hug and a catch up over a cuppa.  I wish we had had more time as the three hours we had went by in the blink of an eye.  Hopefully we will have another chance to meet up one day (I still have to visit the New Jersey Devils home rink, it’s on my list, so expect a house call, Michelle!).

I made her sign my True Colors book, because that book was what started it all for me, I'd never done anything remotely creative before then.  And it was because of the book that I first sought out Michelle's website, started chatting to her, and how we became pals.  So it means a lot to me.  I didn't see what she had actually written until I got home, made me smile....

And, talking of friends who make me smile, while I was up in the Midlands (child free at that as Jay was babysitting Connor for me, as he is a total star) I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go and see my bessie Alison, so that was my next stop.  She hadn’t told her hubby I was coming so he looked rather surprised when he opened the front door, still in his dressing gown :D  (at this point, I’d like to remind you all that I had been up and dressed for almost *6 hours*, get me! but usually I would still be in my jamas too :) ).  Great to see the bessie, as ever, and Bert the mad doggie.  Another visit where I wish we had had more time to chat as it always goes far too quickly.  I wish she lived closer.

All round, hoorah for visiting buddies from far and not so far

Onto last weekend now, and our trip to London for VANS WARPED TOUR UK - woop woop!!!  We bought tickets for this one-day punk/rock/skate festival months and months ago and the date finally rolled around.  This was Connor and Reece’s first proper gig – and talk about dropping them in at the deep end!  30 bands over 4 stages over 10 hours.  It was a long old tiring day.  But I wanted to use this as a test to see if they could hack a day at Download festival next year without getting bored or complaining, and given the great time they had at Warped I think the answer to that is a definite yes.

The gig was at Alexandra Palace in North London – one of my favourite venues, it’s such a pretty old building in lovely grounds, and as it is high up on top of a hill, it has the most amazing views over London.  And of course it was where Dr Who scaled the radio tower in the episode The Idiot’s Lantern (the really scary one with Maureen Lipman in the TV shouting “hunnggrrrryyyyyyyy!!!!” and stealing people’s faces).  Before the bands even started playing I had realised a long term ambition – I finally got a photo of the beautiful Ally Pally Rose Window from the inside – that room has never been open whenever I’ve been there before during the day.

We saw a ton of bands, and they were pretty much all on top form – I especially enjoyed Lost Prophets (more than I expected to actually), Less Than Jake, Bring Me The Horizon, the Used, Bowling For Soup, New Found Glory, Architects ….. and a couple of bands new to me that were fun to watch, Man Overboard and Force Family 5

Lost Prophets

Bring Me The Horizon

The response from the organisers is that they were overjoyed with how it all went, and it must have paid for itself as the gig was a sell out, and even all the merchandise sold out within 2 hours of the doors opening (so I’m glad we got our t shirts and stuff as soon as we got there!).  So hopefully they’ll be back next year, and we’ll be there, I’m sure.

The next day was another fab day, starting off with a nice lie in (we didn’t get home from the gig until about 1 in the morning), and then we were off to Cheltenham to meet up with the Watkins clan en masse – first we went to Jay’s Gran and Gramp’s house where his mum and Chris were there with Reg the dog, and Simon (Jay’s bro) was over from Barcelona with his wife Annie, and Reece’s big brother Kieran was there too with the first signs of his Movember moustache just starting to sprout.

There was an epic game of Frustration and then most of us went over to Gloucester where we met Jay’s dad and Kieran’s slightly hungover girlfriend at Pizza Hut for a mammoth nosh up. Yum!







Other positives:

- We have discovered a new Chinese takeaway near us that is luuuuuush!

- My hockey team has signed a new, rather fit, defenceman – about time Swindon got some eye candy ;)  (cracking photo by Simon Emms)

- There was a cool geocoin inside one of the caches we found the other day – you don’t get to see them very often nowadays which is a pity, but that means it’s a real treat when you do

- Finishing my Desert Island Discs CJ in time and getting it in the post – I love launching a new journal into the world, with all its empty pages waiting to be transformed :)

- There’s going to be a new Star Wars film next year – woohoo!!!  (and I might end up eating my words but I actually think Disney will probably do a pretty good job)

- And while we’re on the subject of Sci-Fi, I’m excited about Battlestar Galactica Blood & Chrome, the new prequel webseries – the first two episodes are now up on Youtube here and here and they are pretty good!

- Trick or Treaters – we actually got some this year, yay!  (although on the down side, that did mean fewer left over sweets for me) – Connor had a lot of fun going out ToT-ing with his pals from school too

- Prez Obama (and the lovely FLOTUS) are back for 4 more years!!! So pleased with that result, even from the other side of the world




- My Instagram web profile went live, and it looks cool: http://instagram.com/floroo17.  I think I might start using Instagram more again like I used to, just to keep it up to date.

- Three of my Roller Derby photos got published in an actual magazine down in Portsmouth – I’m hoping to be able to get hold of a copy, as I love seeing stuff of mine in print, makes it seem all official-like :)

(mine are the ones with the yellow background)

- iHanna launching another one of her handmade postcard swaps, I enjoyed the last one very much

- Meeting up with Pam in Cirencester for a little wander and a chat and for her to hand over her Desert Island Discs journal – it’s a lovely fabric based affair

- Connor’s eye test going well, and the opticians having one of their 2 for 1 sales on again so I was able to get him some prescription sunglasses for free

- Darby completed the Hell Down South run and did it in record time – they say that anything under 2 hours is brilliant and his time was 1:45.  A bit muddy though, apparently his vest started off white. Ewwww.  And he told me he is still picking dried mud out of his beard :D

- that the hotel in Brum where I went to visit Michelle backed down on the £90 parking fine they tried to slap me with - I was not happy when I opened the letter!!  But when I called to explain I had been there to visit one of their guests AND the receptionist had told me I was fine to park where I was for the duration, they apologised and rescinded the fine immediately.  Phew.

- Tesco putting orange and passion fruit J2O on special offer, leading me to discover that if you add a shot of vodka it tastes pretty darned close to my favourite, sadly now discontinued, alcopop of all time - Reef.  Yum!

- Catching up with season 2 of Portlandia, and finding an episode that had both a Battlestar Galactica sketch but also a guest appearance from Eddie Vedder.  It's almost like they wrote that whole episode especially for me :)

- Connor having a glowing parents' evening and a fun class assembly in the same week - and I managed to get to both, escaping the curse of the working mum for once, hooray :)

- and finally, this :



I could watch that on a loop all night, bazinga! :D

I want to wrap up this time with a huuuuge thank you to our chief Rocketeer, Virginia.  This whole process, of sifting through your life each week (or fortnight, or every third week in my case) to find those golden nuggets, is so uplifting.  It doesn't allow you to wallow.  It makes you recognise how blessed you really are.  And none of us would be doing it if Virginia hadn't had the idea in the first place, and caught the rest of us up in her enthusiasm.  So cheers me dear!

See you all again in December - eek!