September, October, NoMovember! Yes, next month I will be growing a moustache for charity. I will be starting the month clean shaven, and (probably fairly slowly) growing out the Mo over the following weeks. Assuming they don’t drop out, I will be doing this as part of a team with some guys from work. Things I will need from all 3 of you blog readers:
Money! It is for charity after all. I shall put details on how to sponsor me up in due course.
Ideas on what sort of Mo to grow. I’m thinking handle bars. I’m not doing a Charlie Chaplin.
Also, team name! I am lackingbin inspiration for a name. “The Moscateers” has been banded around, but I feel like it’s a bit obvious.
Anyway, that’s that. I shall be doing a daily (mostly) photo of the progress. More info about the event at movember uk.
In other news I have discovered a ukulelejam night that happens weekly on a Wednesday at the Royal George on charing cross road. It is aptly named Ukulele Wednesdays. I went last night for what will certainly not be the last time. Lots of people with ukuleles, singing and playing a huge range of songs and drinking beer. You can’t go far wrong with that in my opinion. Its a winning combination if ever I heard of one. I shall be there next week.
While I’m on the subject of ukuleles, I bought a new one. It’s a Laka concert uke, with pickup. The difference in sound between it and my other one is incredible. Just goes to show that with instruments you really do get what you pay for (I did notice the same thing when I moved from my £150 trumpet to the rather more expensive Bach Strad all those years ago). Anyway, uke no. 1 was named Murray (after the infamous Murray Parker, world renowned musician, composer, confectioner, muse and all manner of other professions), uke no. 2 is Falkor. I don’t think I will be buying another for a while (if you want to buy me one though, I would not say no!). I just need an amp next… Anyone have one spare?
No other massively exciting news. Busy as ever on various projects, both work and non-work related
I’ve been useless again and not posted in ages. I have actually started lots of times and then by the time I got around to finishing it was so much after the event it wasn’t really worth actually posting a long description. Reading back what I wrote, it turns out iteas actually quite dull anyway so here is a quick update of what I have been up to in the last month or so.
Since the last post on going to the gym, I have actually been back a few times. I was ‘training’ for the 5.6 km JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. I suck at running. I can’t pace myself and don’t have the stamina. Why I agreed to run it in the first place us beyond me, but everyone else was doing it so I figured what the hell. 5km isn’t that far, right? No. Wrong. 5km is a long way! During my feeble attempt at training (I only started a month before the run) I didn’t actually manage 5km once so I was a bit nervous about the race. I had a £10 bet with Dale that I would beat him. This was looking less and less likely.
Anyway, I’ll try to go through this chronologicaly so more about that later (aren’t you excited to hear my time?). So. Gym. Pain. What was next? Well, the big ‘datacenter move’ project was completed at work. A few minor hiccups, but it went well. I’ve sung in a few concerts with the St Martin Singers (the a cappella choir Ali and I sing with). They all went well. Been to Ronnies a few times and saw some fantastic acts. A couple of weeks ago I went to visit mum and went to the Marlborough Jazz Festival. That was a fantastic weekend. So much good music! Definitely going back next year. And last weekend I was doing a release for work, which went incredibly well. It actually finished on time! More of the same please for august.
The Uke playing is going well. I’m trying to learn a few songs a week (by ‘learn’ I mean ‘manage to get through the song by looking at the tabs). I’ll start a list at some point of the things I can sort of play. If you have any suggestions, fire them my way and i’ll give it a shot. My talented ukulele playing friend Shane FoxX keeps telling me to record a YouTube (UkeTube?) video but I every time I try to record something, I screw it up.
So what else… oh yes, my run time – a little over 33mins (33:19 I think). not too bad considering the lack of training. I beat Dale. Zippy is coming from canadialand in a few days to stay for a week or so. That should be fun as always! I’ve joined a theatre group and it looks like i’ll be in a panto this christmas.
That’s about it! Sorry, fairly uninteresting. I’m surprised you got this far.
I feel like i should have appologised in advance for my ukuleleobsession. Well, not appologised as such, more just forewarned. The only people reading this blog should know already that when I get in to something I tend to constantly go on about it until the next shiney thing catches my eye. So at the moment it’s ukuleles. I have been playing quite a lot since I got mine, and am definitely improving. I can now play Somewhere Over the Rainbow reasonably well, and Bright Eyes slowly and fairly poorly. Just locking away the chord fingerings is a challenge, and then working out how to move from one to the other quickly is so very different from any other instrument i’ve played. Fear not – I’ll get there (sorry Phil, Ali and Kev – you will have to put up with this for a while).
Right. For all those people who say that the ukulele is a toy instrument, and shouldnt be taken seriously, check this guy out.
I’ve just been out and bought myself a ukulele. I decided last week that I should challenge myself by learning a new instrument (the cynics who may or may not be reading this are probably muttering about me rarely playing the trumpet any more – I plan to play that more as well, but it isn’t as good playing it solo. If anyone wants to form a band of some kind let me know!). Anyway, a new instrument, yes.
Why the uke? Many reasons. It’s small, relative inexpensive, and more to the point: amazing. At some point I shall video myself playing it, and maybe if you’re very lucky, sing as well. Considering naming it, but I’m unsure what sex a ukulele is.
