Some useless information for you!
There isn't much to do in Aber most nights of the week, so for some time I've been trying to get my work mates to join me in a couple of games of pool. This evening I finally succeeded - only, the game they were used to calling pool was not the game I call pool.
Now as far as I was aware, there were only three games you could play on a Billiards table: Billiards, Snooker and Pool.
Billiards and Snooker are the same game both here and at home.
Billiards is the game where you have two cue balls and a red ball and you score up to 12 points depending on whether you can get just the red ball in, or the red and your opponents ball in... I think. I never really understood Billiards, and I think I always thought that Billiards was actually Snooker, but when I think about it, I do know the difference.
Snooker is the game where you have one white cue ball, 15 red balls worth one point each, and six balls of different colours; those being yellow (worth 2 points), green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6) and black (7). You have to pocket a red ball first and then you can pocket a coloured ball and the coloured ball gets replaced after the score is recorded until all the red balls are done and then you pocket the coloured balls in order... or thereabouts. This was the game I learned to play with my friend Nick Burden back when I was 9 or so - he had a table in his back room, and was Brilliant at it.
The game of Pool however, is a completely different kettle of fish. There is not one, but two games played under the name of Pool: Eight-Ball, an American game which is what is known as Pool in most of the rest of the world, and Blackball, which is the English version of the same game.
No wonder I was confused. The rules are remarkably similar, but the table and the balls are not.
The game I know is the American game. It has a white cue ball, the black 8-ball (logically so called 'cause it has the number 8 on it!) and then seven striped and seven plain balls of various colours with numbers on them. You are assigned either the striped or plain balls, and win when you have first pocketed your seven balls and then successfully pocketed the black. I spent many enjoyable evenings with Amy, Marty, DB, Jase and others at the Norwood pool hall playing this - which I always called pool.
The English version of the game has a white cue ball, a black ball and seven red and seven yellow balls. The balls are slightly lighter and slightly smaller than their American cousins and the balls aren't numbered. The tables are also slightly smaller, and have smaller pockets - just larger than the balls - which are hard edged, rather than the softer ones we often see at home. I played this for the first time the other night at a farewell do - but I don't remember what we called it... the evening was sober for me, but not for my companions. I don't think the name came up actually... :D
From the discussions we had tonight, I believe that the rules are pretty much the same. Fouls, when you pocket the white ball or your opponents ball, or when you miss a shot, lead to a double shot for the other side seem to be the same. You still have to pocket all your balls and then the black to win and if you pocket the white after the black, you still lose. But as with any game, the 'House' rules also apply.
Anyway, all this was leading to me learning a few things and having a great evening. I taught the English guys how to play 8-ball pool, and then proceeded to get walloped for the first three games. I thankfully won my last two, thus saving myself from complete disgrace, but will have to pick up my game if I'm to have any hope of a reasonable reputation. Next week we're going to play Blackball and I expect to get even more soundly walloped... but them's the breaks. :)
GTHBA.
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Monday 27 September 2010
My first tooth...
Warning: This is a bit graphic and probably too much information.
Holy cow.
This morning I noticed that the bit of tenderness in my jaw that made eating not so fun had managed to get perceptively worse, so I thought - better get me to a dentist. Not that I wanted to go mind you, I hate every member of the profession just 'cause, but there are some things you just gotta do (Read: I had arrived at the point where the pain was not something I could will away).
I expected that there would be a wait and have been repeatedly told that getting into a dentist here was difficult. But no, the second practice I rang up said they had vacancies and that in fact they had a cancellation for this afternoon and would I like to take it? Damn.... Well, yes, I suppose I really should.
So I did...
They took x-rays to see what was going on.
Let me 'splain. Me and my teeth do not get along. I tell you, I have THE worst luck and THE worst teeth. I brush, I use mouthwash, but no. I have fillings in all of my molars and caps on many of the front ones. I had my first root-canal treatment at 17, my second at 21. My body doesn't seem to like calcium much.
Anyway, The x-ray revealed another possible two root-canals in the making: One completely hopeless tooth that probably couldn't be salvaged even with the root canal and another that had a cracked filling which could lead to a possible second root-canal.
EEEEEEEEK!
The lovely lady dentist gave me a choice; anti-biotics to calm the pain, then root canal on hopeless tooth with the possibility of collapse of the tooth (yes, that's happened too - I have a wisdom tooth somewhere in my mouth which they re-planted into the space another collapsed tooth had vacated) and at the cost of some 400 plus pounds, or, remove said hopeless tooth completely for the bargain price of 40 quid.
Well, I have no money. So the choice was painful but clear. Extract, excavate, uproot and discard. In other words: Remove The Tooth.
OUCH! OUCH OUCH OUCH! OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH! I hate dentists... lovely people, but crap they hurt like hell!!!
So, I am now minus one tooth. I have survived my very first extraction. I am still on the anti-biotics though and I have to go back to have an assessment done on the other one and they didn't even look at the top row.
*whimper*.
One day, when I have money, I'll get a replacement denture or something. But in the meantime... I have a bleeding hole in my mouth. Literally!
OUCH!
Holy cow.
This morning I noticed that the bit of tenderness in my jaw that made eating not so fun had managed to get perceptively worse, so I thought - better get me to a dentist. Not that I wanted to go mind you, I hate every member of the profession just 'cause, but there are some things you just gotta do (Read: I had arrived at the point where the pain was not something I could will away).
I expected that there would be a wait and have been repeatedly told that getting into a dentist here was difficult. But no, the second practice I rang up said they had vacancies and that in fact they had a cancellation for this afternoon and would I like to take it? Damn.... Well, yes, I suppose I really should.
So I did...
They took x-rays to see what was going on.
Let me 'splain. Me and my teeth do not get along. I tell you, I have THE worst luck and THE worst teeth. I brush, I use mouthwash, but no. I have fillings in all of my molars and caps on many of the front ones. I had my first root-canal treatment at 17, my second at 21. My body doesn't seem to like calcium much.
Anyway, The x-ray revealed another possible two root-canals in the making: One completely hopeless tooth that probably couldn't be salvaged even with the root canal and another that had a cracked filling which could lead to a possible second root-canal.
EEEEEEEEK!
The lovely lady dentist gave me a choice; anti-biotics to calm the pain, then root canal on hopeless tooth with the possibility of collapse of the tooth (yes, that's happened too - I have a wisdom tooth somewhere in my mouth which they re-planted into the space another collapsed tooth had vacated) and at the cost of some 400 plus pounds, or, remove said hopeless tooth completely for the bargain price of 40 quid.
Well, I have no money. So the choice was painful but clear. Extract, excavate, uproot and discard. In other words: Remove The Tooth.
OUCH! OUCH OUCH OUCH! OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH! I hate dentists... lovely people, but crap they hurt like hell!!!
So, I am now minus one tooth. I have survived my very first extraction. I am still on the anti-biotics though and I have to go back to have an assessment done on the other one and they didn't even look at the top row.
*whimper*.
One day, when I have money, I'll get a replacement denture or something. But in the meantime... I have a bleeding hole in my mouth. Literally!
OUCH!
Thursday 23 September 2010
Autumnmnmn
I know it's been here for a while, but it finally really feels like Autumn. So, because all the trees are reminding me of the fact around here:
To Autumn
by John Keats
SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
To Autumn
by John Keats
SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Carmen Aber-Style
Interesting...
My first rehearsal with the Aber Choral Society was a study in contrasts. Granted this is only the second choir I've sung with since I became an adult but it's strange how quickly you become accustomed to a certain way of doing things.
Aber's choir has no-one younger than me, whereas at least half the Plym choir were Uni students. This changes the sound considerably, believe me. There was a lot more warbling than I was used to! Mind you, I didn't hear any really bung notes either, so that was a most definite plus. But I missed sharing subtle eye-rolls with people my own age at some of the endearing but daft statements some older of the constituents make. I had to really suppress a fit of the giggles at one stage and I would have loved to have shared a smile with someone.
And the way the sections were placed was different - we were spread out more like an orchestra, with Soprano's, Tenors, Bases and Alto's fanned around the conductor in that order rather than having the Sop's & Alto's at the front with the Tenors & Bases sitting behind like in Plym. I miss having the deeper sound behind me! I find I'm best at keeping myself in tune when I can hear the harmonies and counter-melodies. Something to keep me on my toes most definitely.
We also did no vocal warm-ups this evening, which I dearly missed not having sung for six months, but in place of the quiet pianist of yore who I always had to struggle to hear, tonight we had this wonderfully bombastic lady who thumped out the tune extremely proficiently and managed to be louder than the full-voiced choir. Generous applause was given to her from all at the end and deservedly so.
We are learning the concert arrangement of Carmen for performance in December. In English, which is a tad disappointing, as I'd like to learn the French, but still, all the tunes are very familiar. Actually, the one real problem with singing stuff you know well, is NOT singing the tune! I had to keep pulling myself back onto the Alto line as I found myself wandering into the Soprano's territory. Someone's also played a bit fast and lose with the lyrics which are a little ... odd. I really don't believe Bizet would approve of the line 'Buy one and Get one Free' appearing in his work. But there you go. It will certainly amuse the audience, if they can work out what we're singing. :P
Anyway, the music is still the same, and that is all that really matters. I shall enjoy my 12 week stint in this choir and cherish every moment that I get to be part of such an enjoyable activity. I am grinning now and shall be for some time to come.
I really am blessed, I know that, to have the ability to sing. It's so difficult to explain to someone who has not known it, but be it in an orchestra or a choir, participating in the massed effect of music lifts you up out of yourself. You become greater than the sum of your parts and it is a really wonderful feeling.
Wish I could share it with you. Love & Music - K.
My first rehearsal with the Aber Choral Society was a study in contrasts. Granted this is only the second choir I've sung with since I became an adult but it's strange how quickly you become accustomed to a certain way of doing things.
Aber's choir has no-one younger than me, whereas at least half the Plym choir were Uni students. This changes the sound considerably, believe me. There was a lot more warbling than I was used to! Mind you, I didn't hear any really bung notes either, so that was a most definite plus. But I missed sharing subtle eye-rolls with people my own age at some of the endearing but daft statements some older of the constituents make. I had to really suppress a fit of the giggles at one stage and I would have loved to have shared a smile with someone.
And the way the sections were placed was different - we were spread out more like an orchestra, with Soprano's, Tenors, Bases and Alto's fanned around the conductor in that order rather than having the Sop's & Alto's at the front with the Tenors & Bases sitting behind like in Plym. I miss having the deeper sound behind me! I find I'm best at keeping myself in tune when I can hear the harmonies and counter-melodies. Something to keep me on my toes most definitely.
We also did no vocal warm-ups this evening, which I dearly missed not having sung for six months, but in place of the quiet pianist of yore who I always had to struggle to hear, tonight we had this wonderfully bombastic lady who thumped out the tune extremely proficiently and managed to be louder than the full-voiced choir. Generous applause was given to her from all at the end and deservedly so.
We are learning the concert arrangement of Carmen for performance in December. In English, which is a tad disappointing, as I'd like to learn the French, but still, all the tunes are very familiar. Actually, the one real problem with singing stuff you know well, is NOT singing the tune! I had to keep pulling myself back onto the Alto line as I found myself wandering into the Soprano's territory. Someone's also played a bit fast and lose with the lyrics which are a little ... odd. I really don't believe Bizet would approve of the line 'Buy one and Get one Free' appearing in his work. But there you go. It will certainly amuse the audience, if they can work out what we're singing. :P
Anyway, the music is still the same, and that is all that really matters. I shall enjoy my 12 week stint in this choir and cherish every moment that I get to be part of such an enjoyable activity. I am grinning now and shall be for some time to come.
I really am blessed, I know that, to have the ability to sing. It's so difficult to explain to someone who has not known it, but be it in an orchestra or a choir, participating in the massed effect of music lifts you up out of yourself. You become greater than the sum of your parts and it is a really wonderful feeling.
Wish I could share it with you. Love & Music - K.
Sunday 19 September 2010
Summer is officially over...
It is now getting dark before 8 pm and I've been wearing a light jumper for the past couple of days.
I have to admit though, summer here was pretty impressive. The first 'real' summer I've had in the UK. I was in T-shirts most of the time and even got my sandals and thongs out for part of it. Sun and more sun and even some heat.
So yes, it's getting cold and getting dark rather more quickly than I'm used to, but at least it was light and warm for a period of time. Remind me of that when it gets miserable, won't you?
I have to admit though, summer here was pretty impressive. The first 'real' summer I've had in the UK. I was in T-shirts most of the time and even got my sandals and thongs out for part of it. Sun and more sun and even some heat.
So yes, it's getting cold and getting dark rather more quickly than I'm used to, but at least it was light and warm for a period of time. Remind me of that when it gets miserable, won't you?
Friday 17 September 2010
Backblog: Singing All Day Long...
On the evening of the 13th of March 2010 I wrote:
Amazing day! We (Plymouth Choral Society) just had a vocal workshop. This means learn the song in the morning, perform it in the afternoon. I just got back and my throat is ... croaky. But what a day! We were singing in St Andrew's Minster, which has an awesome acoustic, and had a wonderful mezzo soloist. She sang among other things, Adele's laughing song from Die Fladermaus (Johann Strauss II) and Mimi's introduction from La Boheme (Puccini). Wonderful.
The choir sang some equally great stuff. From Opera we sang Verdi's Anvil Chorus and his Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, The Villages Chorus by Rossini, Handle's Chorus of the Enchanded Islanders, Bizet's Habanera (Carmen) and Dido's Lament and Chorus by Percell. This was intermixed with some sacred music; from Brahms, Ach, arme welt, From Mozart, Ave Verum Corpus, from Anerio 'Christus Factus est', from Palestrina 'Sicut Cervus', From Vitoria, 'O quam gloriosum', from Stravinsky 'Ave Maria' and a piece by Bruckner that I forgo to write down. None of which elicit any immediate triggers for most of you I know, but I assure you, if you heard them, you'd know them - well, most of them anyway.
It really was a divine day. I haven't felt as Euphoric as that since the last time I performed in a Tea Tree Gully Youth Orchestra concert. Makes me wish I had had the dedication to keep up with my Violin practice. Well, there is always choir here to look forward to, and it will start up again shortly, so expect more singing related posts soon!!
Amazing day! We (Plymouth Choral Society) just had a vocal workshop. This means learn the song in the morning, perform it in the afternoon. I just got back and my throat is ... croaky. But what a day! We were singing in St Andrew's Minster, which has an awesome acoustic, and had a wonderful mezzo soloist. She sang among other things, Adele's laughing song from Die Fladermaus (Johann Strauss II) and Mimi's introduction from La Boheme (Puccini). Wonderful.
The choir sang some equally great stuff. From Opera we sang Verdi's Anvil Chorus and his Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, The Villages Chorus by Rossini, Handle's Chorus of the Enchanded Islanders, Bizet's Habanera (Carmen) and Dido's Lament and Chorus by Percell. This was intermixed with some sacred music; from Brahms, Ach, arme welt, From Mozart, Ave Verum Corpus, from Anerio 'Christus Factus est', from Palestrina 'Sicut Cervus', From Vitoria, 'O quam gloriosum', from Stravinsky 'Ave Maria' and a piece by Bruckner that I forgo to write down. None of which elicit any immediate triggers for most of you I know, but I assure you, if you heard them, you'd know them - well, most of them anyway.
It really was a divine day. I haven't felt as Euphoric as that since the last time I performed in a Tea Tree Gully Youth Orchestra concert. Makes me wish I had had the dedication to keep up with my Violin practice. Well, there is always choir here to look forward to, and it will start up again shortly, so expect more singing related posts soon!!
Thursday 16 September 2010
Click on a Joe or a Yoe?
On the way to Powis castle t'other day, R & H put on a Play School album to entertain A with. Oh my gosh - I remembered so many of the songs! I knew the voices - I knew the singers names for heaven's sake! So many memories from childhood...
Anyway, one, a very Australian song which needs no introduction, was sung by the singers using a lyric I was unfamiliar with. To whit; 'Yeo' rather than 'Joe'. Yeo, it was explained by our singer, is an English dialect word for female sheep, so it does make sense. But it threw me a bit.
I investigated a little. Not only is the Yeo/Joe bit debated, it can be bare bellied, or blue bellied or even a Ewe! And other lines of the piece also get chopped around.
Well, there is no known author, so changes to the words can't really be contradicted, but still, strange to find so many differences in a song I thought I knew backwards.
I learned stuff though. As an Aussie, you'd think I would have some idea of the meaning of the words of a song I sang regularly. But I had no idea that a snagger was a shearer who rushed his job and therefore left tufts, or snags, of wool behind. In actual fact, I always thought the word was swagger! :D You learn a new thing every day. See this good website for explanations of the first four verses or so.
Anyway, here are the lyrics with some of the additions that I found. Interesting.
Click Goes the Shears
Out on the board the old shearer stands
Grasping his shears in his long bony hands
Fixed is his gaze on a bare-bellied "joe"
Glory if he gets her, won't he make the ringer go
Chorus
Click go the shears boys, click, click, click
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow
And curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied "joe" (a.k.a. bare-bellied Yeo)
In the middle of the floor in his cane-bottomed chair
Is the boss of the board, with eyes everywhere
Notes well each fleece as it comes to the screen
Paying strict attention if it's taken off clean
The colonial-experience man he is there, of course
With his shiny leggin's just got off his horse
Casting round his eye like a real connoisseur
Scented soap and brilliantine, and smelling like a whore (or smelling like a sewer, or a.k.a. Whistling the old tune "I'm the Perfect Lure")
The tar-boy is there awaiting in demand
With his blackened tar-pot and his tarry hand
Sees one old sheep with a cut upon its back
Here's what he's waiting for "Tar here Jack!"
Shearing is all over and we've all got our cheques
Roll up your swag for we're off on the tracks
The first pub we come to it's there we'll have a spree
And everyone that comes along it's, "Come and drink with me!"
Down by the bar the old shearer stands
Grasping his glass in his thin bony hands
Fixed is his gaze on a green-painted keg
Glory he'll get down on it ere he stirs a peg
There we leave him standing, shouting for all hands
Whilst all around him every shouter stands
His eyes are on the cask which is now lowering fast
He works hard he drinks hard and goes to hell at last
You take off the belly-wool clean out the crutch
Go up the neck for the rules they are such
You clean round the horns first shoulder go down
One blow up the back and you then turn around
Click, click, that's how the shears go
Click, click, so awfully quick
You pull out a sheep he'll give a kick
And still hear your shears going click, click, click
Anyway, one, a very Australian song which needs no introduction, was sung by the singers using a lyric I was unfamiliar with. To whit; 'Yeo' rather than 'Joe'. Yeo, it was explained by our singer, is an English dialect word for female sheep, so it does make sense. But it threw me a bit.
I investigated a little. Not only is the Yeo/Joe bit debated, it can be bare bellied, or blue bellied or even a Ewe! And other lines of the piece also get chopped around.
Well, there is no known author, so changes to the words can't really be contradicted, but still, strange to find so many differences in a song I thought I knew backwards.
I learned stuff though. As an Aussie, you'd think I would have some idea of the meaning of the words of a song I sang regularly. But I had no idea that a snagger was a shearer who rushed his job and therefore left tufts, or snags, of wool behind. In actual fact, I always thought the word was swagger! :D You learn a new thing every day. See this good website for explanations of the first four verses or so.
Anyway, here are the lyrics with some of the additions that I found. Interesting.
Click Goes the Shears
Out on the board the old shearer stands
Grasping his shears in his long bony hands
Fixed is his gaze on a bare-bellied "joe"
Glory if he gets her, won't he make the ringer go
Chorus
Click go the shears boys, click, click, click
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow
And curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied "joe" (a.k.a. bare-bellied Yeo)
In the middle of the floor in his cane-bottomed chair
Is the boss of the board, with eyes everywhere
Notes well each fleece as it comes to the screen
Paying strict attention if it's taken off clean
The colonial-experience man he is there, of course
With his shiny leggin's just got off his horse
Casting round his eye like a real connoisseur
Scented soap and brilliantine, and smelling like a whore (or smelling like a sewer, or a.k.a. Whistling the old tune "I'm the Perfect Lure")
The tar-boy is there awaiting in demand
With his blackened tar-pot and his tarry hand
Sees one old sheep with a cut upon its back
Here's what he's waiting for "Tar here Jack!"
Shearing is all over and we've all got our cheques
Roll up your swag for we're off on the tracks
The first pub we come to it's there we'll have a spree
And everyone that comes along it's, "Come and drink with me!"
Down by the bar the old shearer stands
Grasping his glass in his thin bony hands
Fixed is his gaze on a green-painted keg
Glory he'll get down on it ere he stirs a peg
There we leave him standing, shouting for all hands
Whilst all around him every shouter stands
His eyes are on the cask which is now lowering fast
He works hard he drinks hard and goes to hell at last
You take off the belly-wool clean out the crutch
Go up the neck for the rules they are such
You clean round the horns first shoulder go down
One blow up the back and you then turn around
Click, click, that's how the shears go
Click, click, so awfully quick
You pull out a sheep he'll give a kick
And still hear your shears going click, click, click
Wednesday 15 September 2010
A question of pens...
Not that he reads this, but Happy Birthday M-Moose!
This post is all about Zebras - I swear!
I went shopping online today for a very important implement; A new pen for NaNo.
This can be no ordinary pen. It has to have ink that flows quickly and freely across the paper I most prefer using so I can write at the speed of my brain. It has to have a non-slip grip so that when my fingers start getting sweaty, with the stress of keeping up with my mind, I don’t loose the pen. The same grip has to be comfortable and slightly giving so I don’t end up with ridges or blisters on my fingers from the extended use I make of it. It has to have a large diameter so that when, in my panic to get my word count up, I grip too tightly I don’t give myself cramp. It also has to have enough ink to last me for at least 50,000 words. No mean feat I can tell you.
The search has been long. Over the years I have survived many inferior pens. When I was at school I liked Schafer pens, tapered and angular, but these actually gave me blisters somehow. After I had started writing regularly I spent years using uni-ball micro roller-ball pens, bog standard and relatively cheep, which were great for easy-flowing writing and weren’t too uncomfortable although the finger-ridges thing happened regularly. Only problem was the damn roller-ball point kept detaching itself with my vigorous use. I would always manage to break the pen well before it ran out of ink. I went through at least thirty before giving up. I tried Bic four coloured pens as these were slightly more chunky than the usual pen, hoping to overcome finger cramp, but they have no grip and my fingers just slid right off.
And then about five or six years ago I started using PaperMate’s four-coloured multi-pens. Really nicely chunky, a soft, non-slip grip, a lot of ink (four times as much!), comfortable... But it just didn’t flow as quickly as I wanted, and it’s standard nib-size (1.0 I think), is too thick for my preference. I like a fine line.
Well, they don’t sell PaperMate’s here, so last year in Plymouth I went looking for a substitute and discovered a Zebra brand four-colour pen. I had already fallen in love with their Tapli Clip pens as work-pens in Canberra (unfortunately TapliClip are now discontinued :S) so when I saw the four-colour ones, I grabbed the very last two in the WHSmith in Plymouth.
And right there, for me, heaven in pen form had been discovered. The nib size was perfect, the ink flowed beautifully, the grip was great and NaNo was a breeze – well, I notched up 100k words, so yes, it went well!
Unfortunately, I never saw the pens in ‘Smith again, although I looked routinely hoping to buy more. My current two are all but out of ink now, so I have been studiously looking for replacements. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I searched Plymouth, I searched London, I searched Melbourne over Christmas, I searched Aber, I searched Shrewsbury, I searched Birmingham: No Zebra four-colour chunky pens did I find. So I went online. I went to the UK Zebra website and the US Zebra website and even to some websites in Japan, Zebra’s home country, but they no longer make them.
*deep groan*
I was properly horrified. My favourite pen has been discontinued! Even worse, they haven’t (as yet) come up with a replacement for it! I am devastated. Why do these companies have to keep improving and re-inventing the wheel? Have they not heard of the adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’?
*sigh*
I discovered a sort-of substitute four-colour chunky pen from a company I have never heard of – Reynolds – which works ok, suffering from the same problem as the PaperMate pens being not-flowy enough and a bit too thick for me. And although they’re good enough for everyday writing, they’re not good enough to survive NaNo. Not as I do it these days at any rate.
So I went searching today for substitutes. I looked under ‘4-Colour’ and ‘Multi-pen’. I found bic's but steered well clear of them. Then I thankfully discovered a good website selling hundreds of different brands of pens. I found three four-colour pens that look like they might be chunky enough to be comfortable. Actually, there were only three four-colour pens on the site! Two Pilot pens – the Feed GP4 and the BegreeN Feed GP4 and something by a company called Tombow – their Reporter 4-Colour Pen. I thought I’d try out each, so I bought all three. They were dispatched almost immediately. I should get them in the next day or so.
And then of course this evening when I got home, I looked at the shell of my favourite pen and realised it wasn’t called a multi-pen or anything nearly as snazzy. It was called Clip-On. Just that. How very undescriptive.
So just on the very off chance that they might exist in some hereto-undiscovered corner of the universe, I went looking for the 'Clip-On'.
And guess what they have up on the WHSmith website at 10% off right now?
You guessed it, the Clip On! I bought six, which is all I can really justify at the ‘mo as at over 3 quid a pop, they’re not cheep. But they still exist!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy!
*Kat Happy Dance*
Of course, they are still discontinued, but ‘Smith have a surplus supply so yay for me! When I feel sufficiently extravagant, hopefully before WHSmith run out, I will buy some more.
But for the meantime, I’m very happy. I have discovered a supply of my favourite Zebras and they are on their way to me right now!
See, I told you this post was about Zebras! NaNo 2010, Here I Come!
This post is all about Zebras - I swear!
I went shopping online today for a very important implement; A new pen for NaNo.
This can be no ordinary pen. It has to have ink that flows quickly and freely across the paper I most prefer using so I can write at the speed of my brain. It has to have a non-slip grip so that when my fingers start getting sweaty, with the stress of keeping up with my mind, I don’t loose the pen. The same grip has to be comfortable and slightly giving so I don’t end up with ridges or blisters on my fingers from the extended use I make of it. It has to have a large diameter so that when, in my panic to get my word count up, I grip too tightly I don’t give myself cramp. It also has to have enough ink to last me for at least 50,000 words. No mean feat I can tell you.
The search has been long. Over the years I have survived many inferior pens. When I was at school I liked Schafer pens, tapered and angular, but these actually gave me blisters somehow. After I had started writing regularly I spent years using uni-ball micro roller-ball pens, bog standard and relatively cheep, which were great for easy-flowing writing and weren’t too uncomfortable although the finger-ridges thing happened regularly. Only problem was the damn roller-ball point kept detaching itself with my vigorous use. I would always manage to break the pen well before it ran out of ink. I went through at least thirty before giving up. I tried Bic four coloured pens as these were slightly more chunky than the usual pen, hoping to overcome finger cramp, but they have no grip and my fingers just slid right off.
And then about five or six years ago I started using PaperMate’s four-coloured multi-pens. Really nicely chunky, a soft, non-slip grip, a lot of ink (four times as much!), comfortable... But it just didn’t flow as quickly as I wanted, and it’s standard nib-size (1.0 I think), is too thick for my preference. I like a fine line.
Well, they don’t sell PaperMate’s here, so last year in Plymouth I went looking for a substitute and discovered a Zebra brand four-colour pen. I had already fallen in love with their Tapli Clip pens as work-pens in Canberra (unfortunately TapliClip are now discontinued :S) so when I saw the four-colour ones, I grabbed the very last two in the WHSmith in Plymouth.
And right there, for me, heaven in pen form had been discovered. The nib size was perfect, the ink flowed beautifully, the grip was great and NaNo was a breeze – well, I notched up 100k words, so yes, it went well!
Unfortunately, I never saw the pens in ‘Smith again, although I looked routinely hoping to buy more. My current two are all but out of ink now, so I have been studiously looking for replacements. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I searched Plymouth, I searched London, I searched Melbourne over Christmas, I searched Aber, I searched Shrewsbury, I searched Birmingham: No Zebra four-colour chunky pens did I find. So I went online. I went to the UK Zebra website and the US Zebra website and even to some websites in Japan, Zebra’s home country, but they no longer make them.
*deep groan*
I was properly horrified. My favourite pen has been discontinued! Even worse, they haven’t (as yet) come up with a replacement for it! I am devastated. Why do these companies have to keep improving and re-inventing the wheel? Have they not heard of the adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’?
*sigh*
I discovered a sort-of substitute four-colour chunky pen from a company I have never heard of – Reynolds – which works ok, suffering from the same problem as the PaperMate pens being not-flowy enough and a bit too thick for me. And although they’re good enough for everyday writing, they’re not good enough to survive NaNo. Not as I do it these days at any rate.
So I went searching today for substitutes. I looked under ‘4-Colour’ and ‘Multi-pen’. I found bic's but steered well clear of them. Then I thankfully discovered a good website selling hundreds of different brands of pens. I found three four-colour pens that look like they might be chunky enough to be comfortable. Actually, there were only three four-colour pens on the site! Two Pilot pens – the Feed GP4 and the BegreeN Feed GP4 and something by a company called Tombow – their Reporter 4-Colour Pen. I thought I’d try out each, so I bought all three. They were dispatched almost immediately. I should get them in the next day or so.
And then of course this evening when I got home, I looked at the shell of my favourite pen and realised it wasn’t called a multi-pen or anything nearly as snazzy. It was called Clip-On. Just that. How very undescriptive.
So just on the very off chance that they might exist in some hereto-undiscovered corner of the universe, I went looking for the 'Clip-On'.
And guess what they have up on the WHSmith website at 10% off right now?
You guessed it, the Clip On! I bought six, which is all I can really justify at the ‘mo as at over 3 quid a pop, they’re not cheep. But they still exist!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy!
*Kat Happy Dance*
Of course, they are still discontinued, but ‘Smith have a surplus supply so yay for me! When I feel sufficiently extravagant, hopefully before WHSmith run out, I will buy some more.
But for the meantime, I’m very happy. I have discovered a supply of my favourite Zebras and they are on their way to me right now!
See, I told you this post was about Zebras! NaNo 2010, Here I Come!
Tuesday 14 September 2010
Aunt Millie's Garden - Block 8.
Done and Dusted. This means I'm half-way through the blocks, and have completed one block of each of the colours that will be represented on the quilt top!
Block 8: Purple - I like the way the green leaves make an additional pattern inside the flowers, but it does make it rather a bit too green!
And here's a refresher- Click to enbigen!
The warm colours:
And the cool colours:
Yay! They are looking good, even if I do say so myself!
Block 8: Purple - I like the way the green leaves make an additional pattern inside the flowers, but it does make it rather a bit too green!
And here's a refresher- Click to enbigen!
The warm colours:
And the cool colours:
Yay! They are looking good, even if I do say so myself!
Saturday 11 September 2010
Core of my heart...
I have a lurgy. I have no energy. So a Poem it is...
It was T's Birthday yesterday (Happy Birthday T!) and I got homesick, so here is one for the home I miss. Apparently it was originally called 'Core of My Heart', hence the blog title, and also that the last line of the third stanza used to read 'And ferns the crimson soil' which I like much better - but here is the currently accepted version thereof:
My Country
by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
It was T's Birthday yesterday (Happy Birthday T!) and I got homesick, so here is one for the home I miss. Apparently it was originally called 'Core of My Heart', hence the blog title, and also that the last line of the third stanza used to read 'And ferns the crimson soil' which I like much better - but here is the currently accepted version thereof:
My Country
by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
Thursday 2 September 2010
Aunt Millies Garden: Blocks 4, 5, 6 and 7
Aunt Millie's Garden progresses!
Block 4 in Orange: Very Cheerful!
Block 5 in Red: It took me a long time to accept the centre petals of these ones but I think they work.
Block 6 in Indigo:
Block 7 in Yellow: - Not too happy with the centres of these, but will have to change it later - I don't have my fabric stash with me!
And here are Blocks 1 through 6:
I am now working on Block 8 which is the first purple one, then I just have to do 9-16 and the borders of course... oi vay!
Block 4 in Orange: Very Cheerful!
Block 5 in Red: It took me a long time to accept the centre petals of these ones but I think they work.
Block 6 in Indigo:
Block 7 in Yellow: - Not too happy with the centres of these, but will have to change it later - I don't have my fabric stash with me!
And here are Blocks 1 through 6:
I am now working on Block 8 which is the first purple one, then I just have to do 9-16 and the borders of course... oi vay!
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