365 days later…

To be continued.

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Seb’s Flickr stream / Abi’s Flickr stream

The young ones & Have I told you lately that I Love You?

Seb: I’ve spent most of this past week in the company of kids. I don’t mean that derogatorily — I mean that I’m at least 10 years older than most of them.

It’s odd, I’ve always got on better with younger and older people — but not so much with my contemporaries. I get on well with kids because they’re incredibly easy to talk to (and because they’re invariably awed and interested by the cool things I’ve done). Older people (especially women) love me, probably because I’m far too mature and wise to be ‘just 26′, while still sporting good skin and bright eyes.

When it comes to people my age, there’s a certain something in the way. I don’t know if it’s peer pressure, competition, sexual tension or what… but it seems a lot harder to just be with people my own age. It’s always been that way. That’s why I hated college. We were all between 16 and 18. I was forced to hang out with the librarian — she was mid-20s (and cute!) — or with the headmaster (really!)

In this photo, they’ve all been jumping into my pool, and, despite my fatherly badgering, most of them were doing it while fully dressed. Crazy kids!

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Abi: This week saw my good friend Nic get married to his partner Nick. Yes, they have the same name. I don’t really believe that any wedding can be described as conventional but this one was more unusual than most. Look a bit closer and you will see a Drag Queen in the background, one of the several that flanked the Groom’s arrival to the reception and one that provided the Cabaret for the evening.

I have to say that this was hands-down one of the best Weddings I have ever been to. The music was brilliant and we must have danced for about six hours straight. My feet are paying for it today though!

I’ve been a bit down on love for a while. I am however, a hopeless romantic and my faith has been restored in it a bit this year. I do believe that finding a suitable life partner happens to the very fortunate and it is very much something I believe in, however unlikely it can seem sometimes. I’ve never seen it as settling down, I don’t believe people should “settle” for each other. You just continue on the path of brilliance with a companion. I always want to be the best I can be, a succcessful partnership in my eyes is a person I can never stop learning from and laughing with.

I captured this intimate moment between the happy couple and I think it sums up the whole event and my thoughts on partnerships perfectly. Great fun.

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Click either photo to see it in smaller, technicolor glory on Flickr

It’s Raining Men. & The Yeti

Abi: Apologies for the lateness of this week’s upload, I’ve been in Amsterdam! When my friends and I planned this trip a few months ago, we had no idea that the weekend we chose happened to coincide with Amsterdam’s Gay Pride event. Imagine our surprise to wander down a quiet side street and find thumping dance music intersecting with another Latin beat from another party in the next block! I rarely say this about events in my life but this was honestly like something from a film (think this bit in Ferris Bueller’s Day off, only with more beautiful Gay men and you’ll get some idea of what I am talking about). It was awesome, much dancing ensued.

Anyway, as a consequence of these events, the city was COVERED in pink tickertape, for one glorious weekend EVERYTHING was pink. There is surely nothing more fitting then, than this pretty floral bicycle (complete with revellers from the night before in the background) here on the Prinsengracht Canal.

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Seb: I’ve always said that a big man needs a big microphone, and boy is the Yeti big.

For years I’ve used cheap (and not so cheap) computer microphones. They work, but I’ve always felt that they haven’t quite done my voice justice. You see, my voice has a very rich, warm timbre and most microphones just don’t have the right frequency response to capture my specific tonal qualities.

But that’s all about to change with my Blue Yeti! Finally my virtual and online friends can hear what I REALLY sound like. It also has the added bonus of making me sound like a (late-night) radio DJ — and if I get right up on top of the microphone, apparently it’s almost as if my voice is coming from — and reverberating — within their skull.

I’m planning to do a little more podcasting too, when things calm down. Hopefully in a week or two. I’m still trying to sort through photos from Montenegro! You can’t really see in this photo, but I have quite a nice tan…

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Depressing thine left mouse button o’er either photo would result in visiting yonder Flickr

Montenegro dawn & Cheers

Seb: After two weeks I can now speak Montenegrin! Well, if sentences could be made out of modifiers, adjectives and expletives, that is.

Here are a few choice phrases:

Verlo mali jebi… (Very small fuck.)

Veliki, glup, jebi! (Fat, stupid fuck!)

It doens’t really work on paper, but when accompanied with gestures and expressive modulation of volume, it’s surprising what you can do with a vocabulary of just 50 words. The great thing about sentences without nouns (I do know a few, but let’s face it: ‘water’ isn’t very flexible) is that you can shoehorn almost any emotion with the right shake of the head, finger point or enunciation.

Anyway, regarding this immense landscape and these two little islands. The island on the left (St George) houses an ancient monastery (possibly from the 9th century), while the island on the right (Our Lady of the Rocks) is man-made — or rather, built up from a tiny rock in the water. Over the last 600 years, people have sailed out from Perast (on the left) and dumped rocks in the water. They also used sunken boats, or indeed any other detritus that made for good foundations. Finally, they built a church. This man-made island was so famous that important nobles from all around the Adriatic Sea donated oil paintings and gold coins (that are still hoarded inside!)

But why did they build the island? Because some sailors found an image of Our Lady (The Virgin Mary) on the small rock. I don’t know if they found an actual painting of Mary, or whether her visage was somehow engraved on the rock, but… still… it puts the whole ‘Face of Jesus found on piece of toast’ thing into perspective.

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Abi:I tend to do my socialising in huge chunks. I’m the kind of person who will go out every night for a week, then stay in for a month. I’ve not been a regular weekend drinker since University because the whole scene does not really suit me. I’d rather go see a band or a show, or something.

Having said that, this week just happens to be one of those weeks where everything is happening, I’ve been out for five consecutive nights and again last night as part of my friend Nic’s hen/stag celebrations. This baffles me because I am totally and utterly strapped for cash right now and haven’t managed to spend a great deal. I guess one advantage of not going out and partaking of alcohol regularly is that I am a shameless lightweight. After this Gin and Tonic here I was already tipsy.

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Girl, You’ll be a Woman soon & Growing up

Abi: My Mum died when I was 15. I always think it was a shame because I could really do with asking her a few things about now. I never knew my Mother as an adult, I certainly never thought much about her life before I entered it. The truth is, I always think I am failing a bit at being an adult. I don’t see myself as having achieved half the things I thought I should or would have done by now. Of course there is nothing wrong with that, we should never measure our lives in terms of the choices made by our peers. I don’t even know if I want the same things. Sometimes I feel like I never grew up at all.

I found this photo of my Mother (taken when she must have been around my age) amongst a lot of old stuff. It is one of my favourite pictures of her, possibly because it was taken at a time in her life I can identify with. She had just come out of a major relationship and was (in the process of) falling in love with a handsome man with a camera, (that man later became my father). He took a lot of photos of her around this time, possibly as many people do when they fall in love and this enigmatic image is by far my favourite. I stuck it to my mirror, just to remind myself that it is possible to be more than the person you think you should be by now.

This is a corner of my bedroom, the Pearls are also my Mothers. My Cat Sixx visible there, just underscoring the sad spinster vibe of the whole image!

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Seb: This weekend I attended my old school’s annual fair. Every year less of my school friends turn up. The ones that do turn up are inexorably those with children. Of course, they are now sending their children to the same school! Thus perpetuates the circle of life…

So I play with the kids. Prod them gently on the nose. Offer them a large hand to chew, gnaw or grab, depending on their age. Pull scary faces. That kind of thing.

And then I realise, shit, my friends have children.

I don’t even have a girlfriend and these guys have KIDS! They’ve had kids for YEARS! Every year I go back to school and MORE of my friends have kids!

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that eventually all of my friends will have kids. Everyone will have cute little bambinos but me. 26 isn’t that old to still be without progeny. Plenty of time left…

As long as there are still any women left by the time I feel ready to settle down…

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The Muse & Doublethink

(Click either photo to see it on Flickr)

Old balls, please
(Click for larger)

Seb: I am incredibly good at racquet (racket) sports. Tennis, badminton, table tennis — you name it, I’m great.

My eyesight, on the other hand, is not.

I don’t think I’ve told the story of my failing eyes before — and it’s too long to tell here — but basically: it started failing when I was about 12, but I didn’t realise until I was 16. I didn’t get a pair of glasses until I was 18. I didn’t wear them until I was 19. My mum insists my eyesight started failing when I started reading and using computers, but it’s probably just because both my parents are short-sighted.

So I played until I could no longer see the ball — until balls started hitting me in the face. My dad, you see, is a cruel bastard who only counts body shots as points. Head shots were double. I played a lot of tennis with my father. It was worse than paintball…

I’m told it was quite funny to watch me play, in those last few months of failing sight. I could only swing my racket when I saw the ball, which doesn’t leave you much time when the ball’s travelling at speed. As a result I would just stand in the middle of the court, pensive, waiting to step and swing as soon as I saw the ball. Towards the end I didn’t even have time to complete a full swing, so I generally had to resort to short chips and spins and lobs.

So, as you can imagine, while I was pretty shit from the baseline, I was a pro at the net! It’s very, very hard to get a tennis ball past a 6′5″ (196cm) behemoth standing within a few inches of the net.

I’ve not played tennis since I was 16. I occasionally play table tennis and badminton — the smaller court makes it possible — but really I need to bite the bullet and just get contact lenses. Maybe this should be the year that I start playing tennis again!

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Abi: I don’t think I have played a proper game of tennis since I was at University. I used to be quite good at one point, when I was younger I even had a coach. Tennis at school was always frustrating, due to my always pairing up with my extremely short-sighted friend. I am sure she won’t mind me saying here that I think she only returned a ball twice in about three years. Not the stuff champions are made of. I played on and off for years but really should pick it up again. There are courts just down the road from my house so there is little excuse. I’m sure someone will play me. If not I shall go and buy a Swingball (TM) you can still get those, right?

Tennis is still my favourite sport to watch though, I do miss going to Wimbledon and have been following on TV as much as I can. I guess everyone in the UK digs out their old school racket around this time of year and attempts a highspeed serve or two in the privacy of their own garden… I mean, look what it’s done to Seb! He is jumping.. that is an actual jump.

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Seb’s Flickr stream / Abi’s Flickr stream

The Chair & The Commute

Seb: It might not look like much — and the arm lock is broken on one side, so it limps and wilts to the left — but it’s my chair.

I have written short stories, blog posts and treatises on human nature — all from a dirty white deck chair. It’s where I read, too. I finished Pride & Prejudice to the sound of birds tweeting at me from their nestled seclusion just a few feet away.

It’s also where I get my regimented 15 minutes of sunshine every day, to keep the Vitamin D stocks up. At 3pm every day I emerge from my bedroom and perform an excellent impersonation of a small subterranean animal. After ten minutes I begin to open my eyes… and five minutes later I scamper back into my bedroom, to the warm glow of my four computer monitors.

Despite the tranquillity of this shot — check out the heat haze obscuring the chair! — it was actually taken at half time during the England vs. Germany match. I actually wanted to burn a flag on the grass… but I don’t own any England flags. How miserably unpatriotic.

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Abi:

I need to buy a bike. I walk to and from work every day and after much experimentation with routes, have finally settled on a path that is pretty AND quicker than the others I had been taking. It takes me over the river, past the floating harbour and through Queens Park. The only thing that would make it perfect is the bike, so I’m working on that. It seems that I am not alone in choosing this as the best way into the city. A lot of other people seem to favour it too and at certain times of the day it can get pretty busy!

I took this on my way home this evening. Reflected is the Louisiana Pub near the Floating Harbour and some guy with a bald patch. But we know nothing about him apart from the fact he walks into work like I do.

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Click either photo to see them on Flickr!

Elton & Tina

Seb: Unlike Abi, music didn’t enter my life in a big way until Napster and the Era of Downloadable Music. That’s not to say my life was devoid of music! It was always around, either played by my mother in the house, or loudly on my dad’s car stereo, but I never had my own music.

I tried to get into pop music, when I was a teenager. I wasn’t under the duress of peer pressure for long, but for one painful totally-not-being-myself year I listened to the radio. I tried to record songs like Spaceman onto a tape. I even bought Britney Spear’s first album — believe it or not, it was my first ever CD!

Anyway, to cut a long story short: for the first 15 years of my life I only listened to whatever my parents were playing. Today, I look at the list of songs below and simply marvel at how accurately they reflect my current music tastes. God knows I’ve travelled the gamut — jazz, musical theatre, heavy rock — but I just keep coming back to soul, disco and Burt Bacharach.

I suspect I’ve listened to each of these songs at least a thousand times in the last 26 years — each one is a masterpiece, each one is a part of my soul.

For the Europeans: Spotify playlist
For everyone else: Last FM playlist (some of these aren’t the correct versions!)

And the list, in plain ol’ text:
1. This Old Heart of Mine — The Isley Brothers
2. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough — Diana Ross
3. You Make Me Feel Brand New — The Stylistics
4. You Make Loving Fun — Fleetwood Mac
5. Bennie And The Jets — Elton John
6. Somebody To Love — Queen
7. Endless Love — Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
8. Sentinel — Mike Oldfield
9. You Are Everything — Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye
10. Make It With You — Bread
11. The Right Thing To Do — Carly Simon
12. This Guy’s In Love With You — Diana Ross & The Temptations
13. Let’s Stay Together — Al Green
14. More Than A Woman — Tavares
15. That Lady – Part 1 & 2 — The Isley Brothers
16. Under Pressure — Queen & David Bowie

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Abi: I’m not even exaggerating when I say that Music is one of the most important things in my life. I live and breathe the stuff and have done ever since I can remember. I am acutely aware that I can be a musical bore, but somehow that never really bothers me, not when it’s this important. My earliest memories involve music, partly due to my parents highly evolved and eclectic tastes. My Mother jokes I came out dancing and its true, I don’t think I can recall a time when I havent been toe tapping or “wrist twisting”.

This photograph was taken at Christmas, I must have been about three years old when I got my first Sony Walkman. I had had a record player in my room since birth. The Walkman is now an ipod but I don’t think I have been without headphones since.

One of my earliest memories involves sitting on a booster seat in my Dads car, listening to casettes that were stored in a red box. Many of those songs appear on this list, some are a direct influence from my Mother, who would listen to Motown and Disco as she cleaned. My Father, a brilliant guitarist, ingrained artists such as Hendrix and Clapton into my conciousness. “House of the Rising Sun” and “Sultans of Swing”, the reasons I first picked up a guitar. I only have to listen to the opening of “All along the Watchtower” to turn to someone (anyone!) and quote my Dad ” This is as close to perfection as it gets (Abigail)”.Whenever I hear Marvin’s vocal swoop into the menacing beat of “Heard it through the Grapevine” I am watching my beautiful Mother dance around the kitchen like the coolest thing ever. An obsessive list maker, these are the songs I turn to time and time again, they are the reason I love what I love and the spark that ignited my passion. As my list is pretty long, there are also gaping omissions, some of the tracks here represent whole albums, which I urge you to listen to in their entirity and the works of some influencial artists, which shaped the sounds I champion today. I have barely scratched the surface of my musical education, which is ongoing. This list represents who I was and who I have become.

I worry for my kids.

My (extremely difficult to put together) List: Listen in full here

Sultans of Swing — Dire Straits
Karma Chameleon — Culture Club
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting — Elton John
Nutbush City Limits — Ike and Tina Turner
I heard it through the Grapevine — Marvin Gaye
Higher Ground — Stevie Wonder
I just called to say I love you — Stevie Wonder
All Along the Watchtower — Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Show must go on — Queen
Free Fallin’  – Tom Petty
Diamond Dogs — David Bowie
Dirty Diana — Michael Jackson
The House of the Rising Sun — The Animals
Honky Tonk Woman — The Rolling Stones
Chain of Fools — Aretha Franklin
I feel the earth move — Carole King
Piece of my Heart — Janis Jopin
Go Your Own Way — Fleetwood Mac
Layla — Eric Clapton (Derek and the Dominos)
Purple Rain — Prince and the Revolution
Wuthering Heights — Kate Bush
Love to Love you Baby — Donna Summer

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Seb’s Flickr stream / Abi’s Flickr stream

England & Get Yer Kit Off!

Seb: I’m not a big football fan.

I supported a team once, when I was a teenager, when I had a best friend. I supported the same team as him because… well… you don’t just sit there in silence when the rest of the household are red-faced and screaming at the television. It’s just not done.

I supported them for a few years; never did see an actual, live football match though, and I rarely watched them on television. I do try to watch England’s international matches, and I think I understand enough of the game to appreciate it, but I really only really watch because it’s the done thing. I can’t turn up at the (figurative) water cooler tomorrow and not know exactly how Lampard rocks or why Heskey sucks.

Anyway! I actually used to play football. I never really learnt to run, so I was usually in goal, or in defence; right back. (Are you meant to be taught how to run, or does it just come naturally?) I wasn’t very good in either position, but you can’t just side on the sideline and watch… that’s just not done.

I should probably take this chance to wish the Americans well in the World Cup! No hard feelings, eh? What with our group game out of the way, we’ll probably both advance to the quarter finals — and after that, we can only meet in the grand final!

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Abi: Football, Football… Not really something I would say I am into.

I don’t support a regional team, nor have I fancied a player since Gary Linekar (did I just say that out loud?) I have never dated a man who is into football, (okay one or two, but they dont count) or generally been into preamble, Alan Hansen or Carling Black Label. I realise this may lose me a lot of fans, but I’m more interested in Tennis, Rugby and Figure Skating. I did go out with a guy who was into Aussie rules Football, which was an education, but as for the Football, (No Americans, it is definately NOT Soccer) I do have a fleeting interest in our World Cup campaign but that’s about as far as it goes.

Saturday’s game against the USA was really, freaking dull. I went into the city to shoot some pictures of the crowds assembled in Queens Square. I have honestly never seen so many topless men in one place, it was like auditions for Celebrity Love Island. Anyway, I’m not sure if any other country does this when it comes to major sporting events, but the UK is currently obsessed with these little flags which clip onto your car. I don’t know if I missed the announcement or something but suddenly everyone has them. I vaguely remember them being around during the last World Cup, but not in quite such vast numbers!

It is only during major sporting events that one is reminded of ones Britishness. Sometimes I am proud to be English, sometimes I am am embarrased. On the whole I think that a sense of National Pride is a good thing. It’s a shame that (unless by some miracle, we win the damn Cup) right now we are best known for a Hung Parliament, Cups of tea, Bad teeth and Clip on St Georges. It’s not a big ask Boys, win already.

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