Two Thousand and Great – Week 49

Dear all

Something went terribly wrong, I sat down yesterday and read the instructions once, read them again and then after a third check I set out to dye my hair and beard white for the month of December to pass one of my challenges.

This didn’t quite work out as expected – my hair isn’t a lovely shimmering white, it’s orange! I’ve become a ginger… I could blame the kissing red heads challenge where some latent redness has come through the newly white hair, but I think it’s more likely that my hair is too dark for conventional bleaches.

I’ll have another go tonight see if I can get it lighter, the goal is to get to white… Pictures can be seen here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86577&id=660945790

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Bell ringing is going well and I seem to be getting a bit better – I seem more comfortable in stopping the bell when required.

I arrived a little early again and in the church hall their was a dress rehearsal for a play that is being performed this week.  As someone who isn’t in anyway a regular church goer, is it strange to see people dressed as the characters from Wind in the Willows running around church buildings? As with much of this year I come to expect oddness.

As Sunday was Advent I asked whether there were special songs that would be rung to mark the event. For some reason I kind of assumed that there would be specific rings for Easter, Advent etc… but found out that the only time there is a difference is for Rememberance Sunday with the mufflers.

Tuesday saw my first efforts of ringing as part of a group, with a bell either side of me I had to follow the lead of another ringer, this seemed to go ok at first – but for some reason I started to slow down, it seems intuitive that to speed up again you need to pull harder and faster but to catch up you actually have to do the opposite. three bells should sound like three blind mice and in stages it did, but for the most part it didn’t and it was all my fault.

For my next effort I had to join a four bell ring – my efforts went from bad to worse and at one point I completely lost control of the bell, I had been concentrating so much on the person next to me I wasn’t completing the full pulls on the bell and it began to swing too low. this meant that it swang far too fast and was beginning to drop, I had to try and raise it again otherwise the rope would start flailing about wildly. i eventually got it under control again but it was a stark reminder I have only been doing this for a couple of weeks and have so much to learn.

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On Wednesday my office had a visit from a well known face and he has helped me a little further in the turn on the xmas lights with a celebrity challenge. I hope my efforts are enough to pass the challenge – I hope the person who sets the challenge agrees I have done enough to pass – all will be revealed soon.

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On Friday I set out to Make My Own Head for my final strange day of November – The intention was to make a papier mache model of my head and then paint it on Sunday. Something I have obviously forgotten over the years is quite how long papier mache takes to dry.

I bought some PVA glue and using newspapers I had collected over the week I sat down to cover a balloon. What I didn’t realise is that it was Sunday by the time it had dried. According to how it ended on Friday – my head is a damp gloopy papery oval.

On Saturday morning I watched Art Attack, and on the show it featured a papier mache tissue box holder, but some of the ideas used I realised I could transfer to my balloon head. Using strips of paper I began to build features, like a nose, brow and beard before sitting down to add another layer of papier mache. It’s still drying, and sometime in 2009 it might even be dry – when it is I’ll paint it up and show you all.

this is as far as I have got - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86575&id=660945790

I did look for some fimo clay to try and make a small sculpture for this update but nowhere seems to sell it by me, Playdoh was the closest I could find and that really didn’t work.

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Away from challenges, I went to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park Corner, which is fantastic. There is a German christmas market and a fun fair and tons of stalls selling German foods and lager. There were lovely trinkets and lots of great stuff to buy

I now own a hat that only works on bearded people, it looks like a strawberry – I like it, let me know your thoughts - http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2174984&l=e6822&id=660945790

I’m not sure how to describe WW, the day was lovely. The ice rink looked amazing, standing outside the fun house I was laughing so hard, there’s a maze  section with clear perspex walls, you could watch people walking around and then crash straight into the walls falling over. I’ll never forget as a kid saw his dad and just ran straight towards him before rebounding back off the plastic wall about 3 feet – genius!

One note of warning don’t bother with the ghost train it’s not all that. More photos of the day can be seen here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86571&id=660945790

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It’s getting so close to the end now, but if you have any challenges for me I’ll try and complete them before the end of the year.

Proposed Strange days for December

Dec 4th – National Dice Day

Dec 15th – National Cat Herders Day

Dec 20th – National Games Day

Keep on challenging me, I’ll keep accepting.

Rob / Devani