Only 361 shopping days left until Christmas. Start early folks…
So Christmas is over once again and New year is fast approaching. I hope you all had good Christmasses, I know I did. My best present was from Sarah (my wife) who got me a radio controlled helichoppter which is awesome. Here’s a (badly lit) video of me flying it for the very second time:
It is seriously difficult, but ultra rewarding. Before I flew it I spent ages learning on a simulator on my pc, and it really paid off!
My second best present came from Mr Claus himself (who I’m pleased to report did not enter the premises illegally) and was a DVD of Camberwick Green which goes nicely with the DVD of Trumpton that I got for my last wedding anniversary. As I might (or might not) have mentioned previously, I now have the cash to buy myself an iMac and studio recording equipment. I’m just waiting for apple to release their next operating system first. I’m going to make it my first project to write new hilarious and innuendo filled scripts for these DVDs and publish them on youtube (and here). Should be a laugh!
It’s now only an hour and a half before Santa Clause can legitimately enter the premises. Any earlier and and I should have him arrested.
So being Sunday we did the church thing today and all was very nice. This morning featured the nativity complete with Magi screaming “I want to go home!”, Shepherds throwing their sheep across the stage, Angels appearing at the wrong moment, and a finale featuring a singing donkey and (for some reason) a toucan(!?). It was great!
This evening was your bog standard carol service followed by pies and mulled wine, and now we’re sitting watching telly, awaiting the arrival of Sarah’s family to arrive.
I probably shalln’t blog for the next few days as I’ll be visiting relatives etc (keep an eye on my photoblog though, as it’s mobile), so I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry christmas.
Sorry I haven’t blogged for a whole week, but it has been a long one. Starting with the funeral of Sarah’s grandmother in Bristol. Suffice to say that all went just about as ok as a funeral can go. It was really nice hearing her close family talk about her past, especially the things said by her twin sister.
The rest of the week has just been generally slow with the whole winding down to the Christmas break. Yesterday we had our company Christmas meal at Sillett’s Cottage near Eastbourne, which was very nice. I did a few magic tricks to entertain the masses which was well received as usual, I didn’t even get accused of ‘having the devil in me’ this year (long story. Actually it’s not, but I can’t be bothered to tell it).
Today is my first day of 17 where I don’t have to work! My best mate came up from Southampton and stayed last night, so we watched a few films, repaired my laptop and agonised over whether I should bother upgrading the audio system in my car. No outcome on that one as yet.
All in all pretty boring for you guys, so maybe thats why I haven’t blogged for so long. Nothing interesting has happened.
Oh yes, one other thing, ‘Rob Pannell Visual Productions’ is now a registered business – or at least once the tax man responds and says my froms are all ok it will be. Now all I have to do is try and make some money from it!
Oh yes, it is most definitely christmas.
Thursday night we went out for a christmas meal at the Saltdean tavern with the cell group we used to go to at our old church. It’s a carvery pub and so I loaded my plate up with Beef, Gammon and Turkey, and then piled on the yorkshire puddings, roast taters, stuffings etc. It was great fun and good to catch up with our old friends.
Last night was my office department christmas meal at the Lamb in eastbourne. It was a traditional meal which was served to you and so the portions were not quite as big as the previous night, but very tasty all the same. Throughout the evening it became increasigly apparent that I am in fact now the only male employee in our department. I was also sat next to my manager which is always fun. Well, actually it was quite fun…
Tonight is our new church’s Christmas party as mentioned in my last entry. I have literally just finished writing my script and creating the visual presentation to go with it for the quiz I am hosting. It all came together at the last minute as it frequently does with me.
Those of you who made requests for a video of the event will be glad to hear that I have secured a video camera, and so after I’ve given the recording a once over with my editing skillz, I shall attempt to get it onto youtube for you all to enjoy.
For now though, take a look at this cute video about ducks which Jess talks about in her blog. I’d just love it if one of those duckling pulled a little ripcord and parachuted down…
In the last 3 days absolutely nothing of interest has happened to me whatsoever because I’ve been at home with a nasty cold type thing, hence the lack of entry. I will warn you now that any comments that marry the word ‘flu’ with the word ‘man’ will be shouted at angrily and then deleted.
Well ok, maybe not, but I will definitely frown at the screen!
I felt a fair bit better this afternoon so I decided to do some research for the quiz show I’m hosting Saturday night. Perhaps I should backtrack for you. But just before I do, and before everyone gets bored and stops reading, I’ll plug the new live chat link both below the title bar, and on the links bar to the right of this blog. by clicking here, it’ll refresh the page, but also load a chat window where you can chat with me (if I’m online) and any other readers (if they’re online) whilst continuing to browse my blog.
Back to the story: A few months ago, shortly after recruiting Sarah and I for the Youth Congregation leadership, Phil mentioned that each year the youth (i.e. us on behalf of the youth) put on a Christmas party for the whole church, and so we agreed on the date of 16th December. We decided that we could do all the planning a bit closer to the time.
Sunday before last we realised that there wasn’t much ‘closer to the time’ left, and frantically made plans for a couple of meetings during the week. The result of these meetings (one with us 3 leaders, the other Me, Phil and a few select youths) was that we’d planned out games and activities for most of the evening, and rationed out all the work behind it.
Phil was extremely pleased that he had virtually nothing to do. Sarah was given the task of producing a Richard and Judy style ‘You Say We (don’t) Pay’ game, and I was tasked with hosting a comedy panel show.
Unfortunately whilst writing my own notes, I inadvertently wrote down my surname instead of the word panel. One of the younger guys saw it, decided it was hilarious, shared it with the others and declared that just as I had written, the show would now be called “The Pannell Show”.
So this afternoon I sat and thought about which of the suggested rounds I would include and decided to steal one round from each of the popular panel shows off the telly, and set about sieving the internet for content. turns out there’s some real rubbish out there you know!
Today we yielded to the onset of the festive season.
Sarah’s family are coming up to stay with us for Christmas this year, so we decided we’d get ourselves a real tree and make the place look all pretty. We wen’t to the local garden centre this afternoon and picked out a nice spruce, and we’ve just erected and decorated it. Here’s a photo with all the prezzies underneath:
I’m very much looking forward to a nice Christmas day in the flat with Sarah folks round. We get to do it all again just after boxing day with my folks in Southampton. I think it will be very different this year with Amber joining us.
Last weekend while I was in Southampton I took my camera, 2 clip lamps, a 500w flood light, 2 sheets and some tracing paper to Lou & Gareths place and attempted to impersonate a studio photographer.
Here are some of the results.
No prizes for guessing what’s just happened in this one:
Given that I’m far from pro and have no equipment, I think they turned out ok. I’ll be putting all of the good ones from the day on my Deviantart gallery one day in the distant future after I put the rest of my huge backlog on there…
If one lens on it’s own is a monocle, then why is a pair called spectacles rather than binocles?
When I mentioned just over a week ago that I had been to the opticians, my blog comment inbox was literally inundated with a request for pics of the new frames. Well I picked them up yesterday, so I am now in a position to fulfil your request Dogga.
I know they aren’t great photos, but frankly I can’t be bothered to take better ones. Sarah eventually decided that the shades are cool, but that was secondary when I bought them. It was function over design.
So all is now well on the glasses front, not!
When I picked them up I said to the guy who fitted them that it didn’t feel right, but he assured me it was the usual ‘new glasses’ thing, getting used to the new prescription. I wasn’t convinced but I took them away and have been wearing them ever since.
I think the left lens is pretty much ok, but the right one is allll wrong. It seems that my right eye is unable to focus on anything beyond around 2 feet. It’s as if the right eye is looking through slightly frosted glass.
Unfortunately I can’t get back to specsavers until friday, so I’m going to persevere with them until then, just to prove it’s not just me. I don’t know what they’ll have to do, I may need another test I guess.
I haven’t done any design work for what feels like years. So on wednesday night, when Phil, Sarah and I met to plan for the youth group we run and we realised that the Christmas party was actually only two weeks away and therefore required a poster to be produced, I leaped at the chance. I spent the day yesterday (whilst working of course) thinking about what to do. We haven’t put our office Christmas decor up yet, so there were a few boxes of baubles and tinsel etc lying around. I grabbed a few bits and snuck them into my bag and upon arriving home I began to flex the old design and photography muscles once more.
After a bit of warming up, I soon got back into the swing of it, with a lot of opinions and help from Sarah that is. So, with all the details blanked out so you weirdo’s don’t all turn up to the party, this is what I ended up with:
Big Story weekend has come around again, so if you’re in Southampton tomorrow night, be there. So having flexed my design and photography muscles last night, I’ll be flexing my videography muscles tomorrow.
I’ll be glad when we get to christmas. I have two weeks off so I might get a chance to sit down!
