Gratefulness

I was recently challenged by a friend to do this gratefulness challenge online - basically, you have to say three things a day that you're grateful for, for seven days, and then each day, also nominate someone new to take up the challenge.

Realising that most of you who read this aren't also on Facebook, I thought I would repeat it here. I've already done five days out of seven, so I guess I'll split it into two posts.

Day one (29th October):
1. The wonderful people involved with LSE Bees! Despite the rain, we had a brilliant honey festival today (I will put photos on the LSE Bees blog at some point too...)
2. There being a single bus from my house all the way to uni that I can get on rainy days like this, laden with things
3. The freedom to spend my morning icing cupcakes and my afternoon talking to people about bees – I will miss you PhD when you’re gone…

Day two (30th October):
1. Lunch with a friend rather than at my computer
2. Looking forward to dinner with some of my lovely NSEP peeps who continue to delight me so many years down the track
3. My awesome new 'party pants' - if you can't have fun with fashion, what's the point?

Got so much love for my floral trousers!

Day three (31st October):
1. An inspiring and productive meeting with my co-author
2. Sunny London weather making for an invigorating ride in and a beautiful view out over the city from my office
3. Great new tunes from the 2014 Mercury Prize winners Young Fathers:

Day four (1st November):
1. Bopping out to cheesy music while spending a Saturday in the office
2. Stunning fireworks display in St Albans and having the opportunity to hang with lovely peeps after said day in the office
3. Finally finding the perfect outfit (not) to wear for when I finally graduate (read the reviews, they're hilarious)

Day five (2nd November):
1. A lovely lazy sleep/lie in complete with masala tea from Nepal and listening to the rain beat against the windows
2. Making roasted butternut squash seeds - I really like finding a way to do something with things that you may otherwise have thrown away
3. Buying tickets for next Friday for this completely random cabaret - I'll let you know how it goes!

And that's it so far - stay tuned for the last two days!

Bestival

A couple of weekends ago we finally went to something that we've been looking forward to for months (having got the tickets absolutely ages ago) - Bestival! Bestival is a music festival on the Isle of Wight, and is basically the last festival of the season (and generally always happens on the first weekend of September).

It's got such a nice, relaxed vibe to it and generally gets lots of bands and other musicians who we like, so having first been five years ago in 2009, we headed back this year with big expectations. And fortunately it didn't disappoint! The weather was absolutely amazing - warm and sunny, although not too sunny that you couldn't sit outside for hours (which was our main festival activity of choice), and it clouded over most nights which meant it didn't get too cold. It's also got a fancy dress theme, and this year it was 'Desert Island Disco' which saw all sorts of brilliant takes on sequins and Hawaiian shirts. Although the complete ubiquitousness of bum bags was somewhat astonishing - clearly I'm way too old to know that they're in fashion now!

We went with a group of friends and because it's a reasonably small festival (unlike say Glastonbury which takes forever to get anywhere and you're never going to meet up with your friends no matter how hard you try), we managed to just run into each other most days or meet up for lunch etc. between bands which was great.

Favourite acts for me included Beck (despite him falling doing his brilliant dance moves and hurting his knee), La Roux, Sam Smith, Disclosure, Laura Mvula, Candi Staton, The Kooks (surprise guests!), and DJ Yoda, as well as the brilliant Mr Motivator - an '80s exercise instructor who got the crowd up and moving on Sunday lunchtime.

We also did all sorts of silly things like have a go on a toboggan ride, try out unicycling, learnt all sorts of cool stuff in the science tent (did you know that sounds make a difference to how you perceive the texture of the food you're eating? For example, if you crumple some crackly paper, it will make potato chips seem more crunchy in your mouth - something I did not know!), and just generally hung out and had a good time. The rest of the photos are here if you want to have a look.

Here's to more festivals in the future!

Feel Inside (And Stuff Like That)!

Flight of the Conchords (for all those who haven't heard of them, check out this compilation video), have just released a new song raising money for Red Nose Day 2012.  The charity organising the event is CureKids, a NZ-based charity that funds medical research into life-threatening childhood illnesses.

It is one of the funniest things I've seen in ages - make sure you watch all the interviews with the kids and then listen to the lyrics!

You can buy the track from iTunes for only NZ$1.79 (about £0.90) - bargain!

Learning to play the gamelan

Do you know what a gamelan is?

I didn't until a few weeks ago, but now I even know how to play it!

In 1987 the Southbank Centre in London was given a gamelan by the Indonesian government and they run taster sessions for people to have a go at learning how to play it.  So of course, when I found out about it, I booked us in!

Now, what is a gamelan?  I think the best way to describe it is as a percussion orchestra which about 20 people can play at once, and the whole thing is called a gamelan.  This link gives a really good description of all the different separate instruments and you can also see some videos etc. of what it should sound like.  We only learned to play a simple melody (2-3-2-3, 2-1-2-6) but it was hard enough!  Some of the instruments play the melody, and some play beats (like the drums or the gongs).

Here, Adrian's playing a slenthem, and as well as hitting the keys, you also have to then tamp down with your thumb on the key as soon as you play a new one (basically to stop the resonance of the previous note interfering with the new note).  It was tough!

Here you can see Sophie our teacher, and the kendang (double ended drums) with some other instruments.

 This is the kenong which was the first instrument I played.  You hit the top bobble bit when you play it.

Adrian's getting to grips with it!

And here's Alexandra in with the gongs (the big ones at the back which made an amazing wooh-o, wooh-o sound) and the kempuls (the smaller ones at the front).  You also hit the bobble bits on these ones.

This is Mazida, a friend from uni, in with the gongs and kempuls, and some other people on the sarons in front (those are the things that look like xylophones).

Alexandra's playing the gambang - it's quite high pitched and tough to get right!

And finally this was my last instrument - the gender - which was also part of the melody.

It was such a fun way to spend a couple of hours - if anyone's in London you should definitely try it!