london

Christmas Fair at my niece and nephew’s Waldorf school

Just a collection of moments from today.

I wish I could have shown you the Gnome House. It was one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen. Amy was awed. But it was way too dark to film. (Even my kitchen at night is too dark to film. It’s the one thing that really bugs me about the N93. I think I’m going to have to stop using it soon, so I can have some fun with colours and night-time filming.)

Anyway, the school is pretty amazing.

Those drawings I show on the way into the main building – they’re by people in Class 9, who are (I guess) 15/16 years old.

It’s not an art school. It’s a Waldorf school – an holistic educational movement set up by Rudolph Steiner in the early 20th Century. Read more here and see the Wikipedia entry on him here. It’s pretty interesting.

Also ran into the brilliant and unhinged Jason Jarrett (ABuddhistPodcast.com and ForestRowRadio.com) whom I met for the first time two weeks ago at Phil Campbell‘s bash (see here for evidence), and only afterwards realised that we had this other connection. Only saw him briefly, but hopefully have even more excuse to hang out now.

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Tuk Tuk!

This is a trip that @sizemore and I took on Monday. You can see his written account and photo slideshow at http://trustedplaces.com/news/?p=28, posted (ahem) the same day.

These free Tuk Tuks are being laid on in central London until Saturday (24th) to promote The Darjeeling Limited, the new Wes Anderson film, out here on Friday. Mike was asked if he wanted a ride in one by the PR company, and he asked me along too, because he'd just seen and liked last week's Visit London film.

Wes Anderson is the guy who made Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic. In my eyes, he’s a bit of a genius.

I've stumbled on the daily posting for NaVloPoMo a little, but I'll catch up again. I am astonished at everyone else's stamina and creativity.

While I'm in the mode of pimping The Darjeeling Limited, you should check out the Fox Searchlight US site for it. It has a whole heap of videoblog posts from the production (no RSS feeds though). They haven't put them on the UK site (perhaps territorial rights related reasons, these things usually are).

Oh, the Tuk Tuks are owned by our driver, “Mr Steve” who realised he’d had enough of his career in recruitment when he hit 40, went to India, saw some Tuk Tuks, bought them, shipped them home, quit his job and started doing this. That was four years ago. He’s living the dream, and he seems very happy with it. His website is at tukshop.biz (a pun that even Robert Croma would be proud of)

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Rainy Days and Mondays

Another little film that’s just a moment I caught while working from home yesterday. No excuse not to get this up moments after I shot it yesterday. Just guilt about all the things I hadn’t done.

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Getting Things Done – lesson 1: Multitasking

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Navlopomo Day 18. I’ve been telling people a lot recently about how intimately I feel I’ve got to know other videobloggers through their work.

Today I’ve been getting to know you all *very* intimately. This is me getting up close and personal with Gogen’s great post from yesterday.

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I made this on Thursday night, but my computer froze and I lost half my edit, so I gave up and went to bed. Couldn’t do it in the phone because I needed to cut Jeffrey in. So I’m cheating and backdating it to when it was really made.

This is a recipe Jeffrey posted on truthfairy.eu for Day 11 of NaVloPoMo. I read on Twitter that some other NaVloPoMoers have been making it, and I thought I’d have a go myself.

I’m not much of a cook, but as I mentioned the other night, one of my 15 failed 2007 New Year’s Resolutions was to cook 2 recipes every week. So this is my second recipe for the third week of January.

Jeffrey calls it Quick & Dirty Carbonara. Quick and Dirty. That’s how I like it.

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Just film a moment and send it off. Stop dicking about and letting the side down.

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It’s no wonder I’m behind with my posting. I’m spending too long doing my hair.
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RAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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I don’t know how you all do it.

So many of you taking part in NaVloPoMo have been writing comments on my videos every day, so I know you’re watching – AND you’re making incredible films. Which is what it should be all about, I feel – I don’t want to just be making films here, I want to be watching and talking, responding and collaborating. But I haven’t been able to find the time to do that for days. So I’ve tried to steal a couple of hours this evening to watch videos.

I watched 5-10 films while the dinner was in the oven between 8 and 9. Then I watched a few more while Kate ordered our shopping online between 10 and 11.30.

And I still hadn’t made a film myself. In fact, I was so busy watching that I’d totally forgotten that I was even supposed to make one myself. Until 11.33pm. So this is the only option left to me! Really fulfilling what I said at the beginning of NaVloPoMo about just posting ANYTHING. You can’t even *see* this, the low light filming on my phone is so bad.

Anyway, the point is that I’m humbled by the talent and passion and generosity everybody’s showing by both creating and watching other people. And a bit frustrated at why I can’t get my shit together to do it better myself.

At some point, I want to try to share links to some of the videos I’ve watched. But there are dozens being posted for NaVloPoMo each day, and I’m days and days behind.

Now I’m really finally off to my bed on the floor. Kate and I usually hang out quite a lot in the evenings, so it felt a bit weird watching separate things in separate rooms. I wish I could both watch and hang with her. Perhaps I’m going to have to set up an Apple TV in our living room and drag her even further into our hell.

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My Office – the art of Getting Things Done

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Yesterday, I asked everybody to show their desks & workspaces, in response to Cheryl asking to see everyone’s Junk Drawers. And I promised to show mine today. So here it is.

Two years ago, a friend gave me David Allen‘s famous Getting Things Done. It changed my life.

PS
Dear Clients,
This is a work of fiction.

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