While I’m sure most people will ask: why mouth cancer, I’d reply that it’s not just smoking related although obviously smoking can indeed cause mouth cancer (let me make it clear: neither Jennifer or I have ever smoked). I’m also for supporting smaller charities who may not necessarily get the kind of publicity that say, Cancer Research or the British Heart Foundation are able to afford/be sponsored for.
In other news, came off the bike this morning after the tyre came apart (but to be fair, I started noticing this yesterday and was a bit overconfident that it’d hold until the end of Friday) and the inner tube went !POP!. I’m fine, and the bike’s fine, but there was a bit of a kerfuffle getting it off the right and I’ve hurt my ankle a little bit as well as being a little bit sore. So it’s back to the buses for the next week and a half..
Have returned from a hugely enjoyable weekend in Dorset attending my brother-in-law’s wedding. You couldn’t have asked for better weather, and all went without a hitch. Well, almost. On the Friday I managed to break the zip on my shorts necessitating in me borrowing a pair from my father-in-law. I hadn’t brought any other pair of trews other than my smart suit trousers which were intended for the wedding day itself. Sadly, I managed to split the borrowed pants on the Sunday when we got home. So it’s off to buy replacements later..
On the big day itself, we were picked up by Mary, my mother-in-law, and awaited the procession. I borrowed Memset’s HXR-MC1P high-definition “actioncam” at the last minute to record proceedings. As we were waiting in the car, the future Mr & Mrs got in the impressive Land Rover taking them to the wedding venue (the old town hall). We were still sitting in Mary’s car, so I took the camera and started filming out the rear window. The resulting footage looks like I’ve been staking out the place, awaiting the suspects to come out into the open! It gives me an interesting opening angle on the finished wedding video – a “24″ style title sequence.
The ceremony itself went without a hitch, and I’ve got some good footage of the whole event (even if I was filming their backs – but the ring exchange footage is a lot better than I expected – this camera is a little beauty) along with the reception party and speeches. I’m going to be editing it down into something watchable and distribute the results to the family on DVD and Blu-Ray (for those that have them).
On Sunday, we demonstrated the art of candy floss making to our 3-year old niece and 10-year old nephew. Never have I seen sugar consumed at the speed of light given them two. But great fun nonetheless. Was also exposed to “Dora the Explorer” for the first time (Pirate Adventure) and I can honestly say that it was: odd. For example: Lisa the Lizard doesn’t pay any attention to steering the ship while huge rocks threaten to destroy Dora and her gang – all they can do is sing, “Lisa, turn the wheel” with huge grins as impending doom threatens their very existence. Part of me wishes they were all crushed against the rocks as punishment for trusting the safety of the entire ship to an idiot. And what’s with baby Jaguar? Every other animal can talk, but he seems to have speech impediment – all he can do is go, “mewmewmewmewmew”.
Took the HXR for a bike ride to work today. I have some excellent footage (all things considered – the camera is poking out the back of my backpack), including a cyclist who is talking on his mobile phone whilst riding on the main windy road towards Worplesdon.
Here is a rare photo of me in the garden attempting to put together a Flymo strimmer. When it got going, had great fun hacking the garden to pieces, terminator stylee. That, or given that I’m wearing a Che Guevara T-Shirt – am planning the next revolution involving an army of garden strimmers.
Jennifer and I have just returned from two weeks in Kenya. We had a wonderful time, although I spent the eve of my 34th birthday with most of my world disappearing out my bottom or through my mouth – so much so I had to to be taken to a remote village hospital (in Voi, near Tsavo East National Park) to get a couple of injections to stop the vomiting and some strong antibiotics to stop the diarrhoea. Also had blood in the urine. The doctor thought it might be malaria (although it was only a couple of days since we got to Kenya, I was already taking Malarone, and it didn’t look as though I’ve been bitten as yet). He also thought it might be food poisoning. Either way after the injections I was absolutely delirious and had no idea where I was. It took two men to get me from hospital to the taxi and from the taxi back to the hotel room as I had absolutely no idea who I was, where I was or what I was doing. After a trouble night’s sleep I felt better enough to get back on safari (although had to miss the 6.15 morning safari) and head back to Mombasa.
The rest of the holiday went well enough and I was back at full appetite, blood-less urine within 24 hours. The drugs seem to have done the job. Although today I’m off to the doctors with the drugs and pamphlets given to me by the Keyan doctor to get myself fully checked out.
In the mean time, here’s the Masai version of the Hokey Cokey:
Started off as a couple of characters in a free online medieval-style computer game who eventually cross over to the real world, except: (a) they’re good guys who turn bad and (b) my dream is actually a film looking in on the events unfolding. The good guys turned bad are played by Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones. The bad guy turned good is the late John Candy. There’s a troll bridge that separates the fantasy world with the real world, with piles of stacked TVs and mixing desks at either end of the bridge looking in on the real world and that of the fantasy one. Lots of libraries too for some reason.
Anyway, lots of adventures of the main protagonists eventually end up with the real world police authorities (thanks to John Candy) sending them back through the troll bridge gateway. The End. Except it isn’t. My dream then becomes the behind the scenes featurette in which we discover that most of the set was erected in San Francisco, and that Demi Moore originally bought the rights to the film only to have then sold them on to Michael Douglas who was in a better position to produce the film.
Sadly there were no trailers for tomorrow night’s dream, although I hear that The Attack of the 50ft Duck from Norwich is playing somewhere in the subconsciousness right now. I’ll have to check it out on imaginary Blu-Ray.
