Sunday Challenge - 2nd November 2014

Rocking the deckchair.

Greetings, Earthlings!  

Now, last Sunday I had to duck out of my weekly Challenge blog, due to illness and general woe.  This week, despite the fact that I'm still breathing so heavily I sound as though I'm about to make a dirty phone call, I'm back and ready to rise to the challenge!  And what is this week's challenge?  VLOGGING!

Currently, my YouTube channel is made up of bizarre self-made episodes of Doctor Who and a previous attempt at vlogging, which was... Well, rubbish.  Oh and the odd bit of footage from a gig etc.  So, I decided that for this week's challenge, I'd attempt to film an actual vlog, i.e. me talking to the camera.  Seeing as I've spent the last week at Butlin's, I opted to film said vlog there and my challenge this Sunday would be to edit and upload it.  It was a great plan.  And like all great plans it was DOOMED.

I'd forgotten that I had little to no memory left on my phone and that my digital camera recently died a tragic death.  So basically, I was trying to film something with, er, nothing to film it on.  Consequently, my vlog is pretty short, but in fairness, nobody needs to spend a long time staring at my face or listening to my uniquely irritating voice, so it probably worked out for the best.

Lack of memory space meant I didn't film anywhere near as much stuff as I'd hoped to, so there's a lot of stuff that's not on the vlog that might have otherwise made it.  That shot of me doing the ironing, Oscar-worthy though it was, didn't make the cut...

In spite of cringing at the constant sight of my own face, I actually enjoyed filming this little vlog and cutting it together.  In fact, I decided that filming the Sunday Challenge rather than just writing about it might be something I come back to in the future.  So here's to much more of my nasal voice and close-ups of my eye-bags... YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT.

Anyway, I'm keeping this blog entry short, because a) I'm still not feeling 100% and my eyes are hurting and more importantly b) I'm so hungry, I could eat a small child.  It's unlikely anything I write is going to make sense right now, because my brain is busy listing all the food I would like to eat.  And believe me, it's doing a thorough job; I've mentally gorged myself on everything from steak and chips to baked Alaska since I started writing this...

So, without further ado, here is the link to this week's Sunday Challenge: A vlog filmed on location at Butlin's in Minehead.  Enjoy!  

*Disappears to find food*

Sunday Challenge - 19th October 2014

Yes, it's that time of week again!  It's time for another "Sunday Challenge."  This is going to catch on, guys, I swear...

After missing a week last week (due to the rare occurrence of having a social life), I started thinking about what this week's challenge could be.  Eventually, it was my dad - a rather good poet (but don't tell him I said that) - who came up with the idea of challenging myself to write a poem in a short space of time.  He said an hour.  I decided that was too easy and gave myself 30 minutes, because clearly, I live life right on the edge.

Naturally, given that I'm a writer of sorts, I figured this challenge would be easy.  So, to make it harder on myself, I asked friends on Twitter and Facebook to come up with subjects for me to create my masterpiece of poetry about.  I had various suggestions, including "bollards."  Frankly, the world is not yet ready for a poem about that.  I settled on a suggestion from my friend Mary: "Dresses."

She suggested it because yesterday I saw this:

...And I basically went into raptures.  I love 50s style fashion and music.  I love dresses.  And I love purple.  This dress was a siren, calling out to me: "BUY ME.  YOU DON'T NEED PETROL, YOUR CAR WILL RUN ON AWESOMENESS IF YOU OWN ME!  LOOK WHAT A BARGAIN I AM!  YOU DON'T JUST WANT ME, EMMA.  YOU NEEEEEEED MEEEEEEE."

I caved.  The dress was ordered and it's currently winging its way to me.  And yes, of course I already own a 50s petticoat to go underneath and make it extra... Um... Swishy.

SO.  I had my subject matter.  I knew what I had to do.  I set the timer...

Aaaaand nothing happened.  I stared at a blank screen for the first few precious minutes of my allotted thirty, wondering whether I had any right to call myself a writer at all, considering I was failing so completely to write anything.  My mind was crowded with ridiculous questions: "What rhyme scheme should I use?"  "Will it matter if it doesn't rhyme at all?"  "Does anything rhyme with petticoat, apart from Alan Dedicoat?!"

In the end, I just started thinking of silly things and how hilarious it is when my love of dresses gets... Well, a trifle obsessive.  And I came up with this bit of ridiculousness, written in under 17 minutes:

A Letter of Love

I knew the day I found you,

That you must be "The One."

There is beauty all around you,

I was utterly undone. 

We two became one and suddenly,

There was even more to love!

I adore you utterly,

You fit me like a glove.

You make me feel so beautiful,

In every single way.

If only it were suitable,

I'd wear you every day...

Like Internet dating, I found you online,

And added you to my cart.

And now you are completely mine,

With a special place in my heart.

Am I crazy?  Maybe.

I guess the answer's "yes."

But I've written this poem to say...

I bloody LOVE my new dress!

It isn't brilliant, but hey,,, I did it in under 30 minutes and I wrote on a subject I allowed someone else to choose, so... It's not that bad!

Here's to next Sunday and another challenge!

The Sunday Challenge!

Not THAT kind of sundae.

Today is Sunday.  And Sundays can be a bit...  Well, they're great days for sleeping in late, lazing about and pottering around the house.  But if you don't have plans and that's all you're getting up to, Sundays can get a bit same-y.  With that in mind, I decided to spice up my Sunday by issuing myself a challenge.  I was going to have a go at something I had either never done, or something I hadn't done in years.

Now, me being slightly ridiculous, I had many ideas, from carpentry (I don't even know where that came from!) to geocaching, before I decided that, seeing as I'm not feeling too great today (I've had sinusitis for over three months now - I'm wondering if I'm in line to set some kind of record), I'd pick something sedate.  I settled on painting.

I don't even remember the last time I actually attempted to paint a proper picture.  And by "proper," I mean something a little more impressive than the artwork I sometimes create at work with the kids at nursery, masterpieces though they are.

I dug out some old watercolours and found an A3 sketch pad I bought years ago for some reason or other and I set about trying to decide what I was going to paint.  Several ideas went through my head, including James Bourne's lovely face, although to be fair, his lovely face is in my head most of the time anyway...

In the end, I decided to try something that I love in a very different way; cherry blossom.  Yes, I would paint a cherry blossom tree.  Or at least a few branches (this was my first go, so I figured a whole tree might be pushing my artistic skills a little too far).

I won't lie to you.  It didn't turn out brilliantly.  I had hoped that I would discover a hidden talent for painting, but... Well, that didn't happen.

What did happen, however, is that I had something to focus my attention on for several hours and I was testing myself by trying something I had never really done much of before.  And even though the end result won't be gracing the walls of any major art galleries, I was actually quite proud of it.

And so I've decided to try to come up with a weekly Sunday Challenge for myself.  Obviously some Sundays I'll be busy and I'll have to skip a week, but my goal is to make this a regular thing.  So ideas for Sunday Challenges will be very welcome!  And if anyone else fancies getting involved - please do!

Oh and because it would be a bit silly to end this blog without evidence of the challenge I set myself this week...

Ta-daaaa!

Here's to the next Sunday Challenge!  Bring it on...