Ali's Space

...And it stopped raining.  Woop.

We had our first BBQ in the new garden yesterday which was fun.  Really great to catch up with everyone, and enjoy a few drinks.  Jo cooked, we all ate and drank, I didn't have to drive.... Good deal really!

After the food came Leanne's drinking games...

And, of course, no party would be complete without somebody falling over (and for once, it wasn't Maz)...

And, us adults, rediscovered the fun of balloons...

More photos here

We got around to finishing the garden yesterday (after my manly effort a few weeks ago), ready for a BBQ this afternoon.

Here's the before and after...

Before

There once was a pile of mud...

...and next to it was more mud...

...And then along came Ali and his power tool...

...And his elves (his mother, Jo and Elle)...

...Ali rotorvated, Jo and Elle raked and flattened, and Ali's mum laid the turf with precision...

...The next week, Ali got bored, and bought some Australian palms and some funky grasses (not actually their technical name), and some of those bark chipping things...

...Then Elle planted some vegetables, Nathan bought a horrible garden "Snail on a Ball", the grass grew, Leanne bought Jo and knome called Jim, the furniture and BBQ were put up, and the final result was a garden...

After

...The end.

BBQ later.  And it's raining.

But all these good ideas, they never come to all that much I know.
So raise a glass to liberty, and let it go.

Stumbled across this rare track the other day (from a limited edition CD he gave out at some gigs a few years ago) - it's quite a cool song.

Far better than a Snail on a Ball is the present that Sam gave me for maintaining her web site.

A swear these are the best tasting brownies I have ever had.  The batch lasted around 7 hours with the housemates around.

Further verification of their tastiness - the last time Sam made me some, I was in London cutting the 5:13 trailer.  Whilst we were editing, a squirrel came through the window and took one straight from the cooling tray.  Lucky thing.

...at least get me something nice.  I mean, come on:

How am I even supposed to pretend to be grateful for a "Snail on a Ball" garden ornament?  Thanks Nathan.  Ah well, having a BBQ next weekend.  Hopefully somebody might accidentally smash it.

My absolute favourite artist of all time, David Ford, has recorded a live version of his recent(ish) single, Go To Hell, in a kitchen in New York beginning with kitchen utensils and a looping system...  Genuis.  Gutted I missed his last tour.

He's on tour in the states at the moment.

This is why: a) we have artists, and, b) why I probably got a D in GCSE art.

Link 

(Actually, the real reason I really got a D in GCSE art was that my crazy art teacher thought it would make my "Dolphin Shoe" (for some odd reason, we had to make animal themed shoes out of paper mache) more authentic if we left some dead fish in it over the half term break.  Anyway, needless to say, the shoe not only smelt vile, but the room couldn't be used for a week, and everyone else's work had to be thrown away after moderation)

I used to think it was a bit pointless to take time off work, and not go away or something, but it's been quite nice to be honest.  I haven't done a great deal, really.  I was sort of planning to get stuck into a couple of projects for Chaos but I ended up managing to avoid work for the entire week, which is a record (I even managed to work in Mexico last year, and had to work for two days when in Paris last year).

Anyway, the most productive I've been last week involved me doing my garden.  I'm feeling sort of old and grown up typing this, but, yes, I managed to turn the soil and rubble pit that was my back garden into a full blown garden, with a lawn, flower bed (complete with palms) and a vegetable patch.  Heck, I even hired out and used a rotovator for the task.  Anyone who knows me should know that when it comes to DIY, I'm beyond useless (my last attempt, putting together a bedside cabinet resulted in a drawer being constructed before realising I forgot to put the bottom in), so I'm sort of proud of myself in an oh shit, I'm growing up kind of way.  The lawn was a group effort mind.  I rotovated, Elle and Jo raked and jumped on boards to level it, and then my mum helped lay the turf.  Thankfully, they're still building houses behind us, so we could dump the excess dozen loads of unused mud on the new gardens (although they wised up to us midweek, and have locked all the gates).  So, yeah, all ready for Summer BBQs.

Otherwise I have: Drank in the afternoon whilst sitting in the Royal's beer garden in hot sunshine which got me excited about living here throughout the Summer (especially when the bars open on the waterfront), completed Condemned 2 (the scariest game I've ever played) with Leanne, tried teaching bunny tricks and failed but at least he's toilet trained now, went shopping in Bath with Ben and bought some new clothes and three new albums (Barenaked Ladies, One Republic and Scouting For Girls), read a book (something I only seem to do when I have time off) called Plum Island, reached a 68% score on Brain Challenge (Elle is still hovering around the 9% mark), drank a lot of coffee in a lot of coffee shops, got back into some sort of fitness routine (realising I'd paid out £90 in gym fees over the last few months and I hadn't used it was a good motivator), read the scripts for the new movies I'm editing this year, caught up with Dave and Jade and met their new baby, Jack, and otherwise, just sort of chilled out...

Finally, after many many (about seven?) months worth of work, the project I've been developing for the London Grid For Learning, has entered beta testing.  The project, developed for Electronic Blackboard, features games and activities for every item on the national curriculum.

It's been a bit of a hard slog, but at least I know, for sure, that I am smarter than a ten year old.

Which means, I can actually have some time off.  Woop.  Ten whole days worth.  So, if anybody fancies a catch up, give me a shout.  Hoping some of the Clevedon lot might be back (those that are still students, at least).

More details here on the maths stuff

Just set up a blog on my work web site (Chaos Created).  I'd imagine most of the stuff I post there will get duplicated here, but if you want a nose around some of my work stuff, the link is here.