Are we nearly there yet?

Well, hold your horses, have patience and you'll find out in due course!
Saturday 30th the packers collected a couple of works for the Japan exhibition, then I drove up to Bluewater for a rare shopping expotition - mainly because my sheets and towels are so old they are full of holes. Precious little remuneration in this art business, don'tchaknow! Thence on to mea mater for a couple of nights. Same old, same old, don't get me started.
Monday 1st drove down to Film Farm. Charles appeared to have survived the Bear's visitation, so we got straight on with work - first thing to record Libby outside for the beginning and end of the Overview sequence. Not the warmest of weather, Zooty started off wanting to be the star of the show but then decided to chase Pepper instead, so that involved a number of takes, then the local dog began barking at me. Having decided I wasn't an alien he then also wanted to be filmed but walked off in the middle of a take. We finally got the chat in the bag, Libby warming herself with a glass of red. Cheers! Thence to the edit suite.
In the evening Ray Leigh of the Gordon Russell Museum rang - looks like we've landed ourselves another joblet! Although we don't appear to have sufficient hours in the day as it is - still the money will be useful (think of those sheets).
Tuesday: Some old maps I'd ordered arrived, a 1924 one of the UK and a wonderful yellowed one of Bruges, undated. We're using these as chapter headers for each church in the Overview. More editing but by the close of the day were nowhere near completion and Wednesday was a Reyntiens meeting in Cambridge (see Reyntiens Revels blog) and I was planning to return home Thursday.
Wednesday: Charles woke up with the Bear's cold, which worsened exponentially as the day progressed, so by the time we returned home in the evening (snow on the ground) he was in a dire state and fit only for red wine and Lem-Sip (a delicious combination). So no work that evening.
Thursday: The man felt somewhat better this morning so we decided to plod on with the editing, finally giving up for the day at 9.30, after which we ate and wrote up yesterday's minutes.
Friday: Up to the edit suite first thing. By 1.30 we'd more or less finished the Overview, apart from sound tweaking etc, so, after a quick espresso, I started the drive home (which took 6 hours this time). Then cooked, then checked Saturday's lecture, massive headache and worried I've caught the dreaded cold.
So, in answer to the question - sort of! The Japanese would like me to take some copies of the film to sell in the shop, but we haven't done the Music sequence yet and there are some minor chapters I wanrt to add to the written catalogue. We've decided to crank something out - which means poor Charles has a dreadful job ahead of him this next week, checking all the sound levels, going through each sequence making sure there are no errors, then making the menus, authoring the DVD etc. I feel hugely guilty landing him with this, especially when we'll have to author a final DVD in due course. :-(

pocket rocket

Wowzers - I just cannot believe how much I've accomplished in the last 8 days since I returned to Kent - even for me it's prodigious! I completed and submitted two articles to the Japan Society for their forthcoming Biographical Portraits publication (on FB of course and Urushibara Yoshijiro - I really enjoyed writing the latter because it was a semi-new subject); finished the Overview sequence for FBSG; had a day's research in London at the BM and libraries; wrote a lecture about Piper to be given at the Society of Graphic Fine Art AGM on 6 Feb (of which I'm an Honorary member!); transcribed our interview with Andrea Argent; wrote the Music section for FBSG; started the lecture I'm due to give in Japan at the opening of the exhibition; had a dental appointment and gave blood, plus all the usual housework, cooking, runs, exercises etc. Oh, and I planned a little booklet to give as gifts in Japan and designed some new name cards and sticky labels which I ordered from moo.com (they really are fantastic, thoroughly recommended!)
Poor Charles meanwhile is coping with Jo the Bear trying to complete Charlotte Bach, and has a working weekend ahead - which he dislikes intensely, since one of his New Year resolutions is to take life a little easier. And it's not just the work but the play that's exhausting - 3am they got to bed Wednesday, and 1am yesterday - chatting and downing a glass or 3 of red. I just hope young Charles is still firing on all cylinders next week because I arrive Monday for a 3 day sojourn in the hopes of completing the Overview editing (and one of those days is already forfeit to the Reyntiens saga).

Progress

Well, since the last posting Libby has more or less written two articles for the Japan Society and Charles has done one of his many and variegated VAT accounts and sorted magazines.

I arrived back at Film Farm 17 January, and from then to my departure Thursday 21st we recorded my Bruges words and edited the film section for same - pretty good going since the film lasts some 20 minutes.

In between times we had brief interludes and despite the fact that Caroline Conran famously declared that life is too short to stuff a mushroom, Libby persevered and stuffed numerous calamaris - and very yummy they were too.

Charles lives in a not insubstantial house (a mere 13 rooms plus 2 kitchens, 2 bathrooms, 2 extra toilets, a shower room, a darkroom and a workroom) but he finds himself continually pressed for space, hence the magazine sorting and the arrival on Wednesday of a second load of very useful boxes in which to store same.

Personally - I despair!

PS The shadowy figure in the 1st floor right hand window is me, waving and nearly drowning because my bed is being subsumed by magazines - a la Day of the Triffids!

I've started so I'll continue ...

Well, I said we'd get on with FBSG, and as soon as I had taken my mother back home, I whizzed down to Film Farm, arriving 3 January. We recorded my words for the Dublin section and started editing the following day, actually managing to complete the film before I left on the 7th, so not bad going because it was quite a lengthy script.

Meanwhile on the 6th I helped take down the Christmas decorations - that is after we'd take a photo of same - a very minimalist soul Charles with exquisite taste!

PS If anyone can translate the Chinese comment on my last blog I'd be grateful - looks suspiciously like SPAM to me!

2010

Goodness, here we are at the close of 2009 - what has and has not been achieved in the last year?
POSITIVES: Well, I revamped my Brangwyn website at the start of the year using Dreamweaver, Ferens Art Gallery launched their From Victorian to Edwardian book and exhibition in June (all Brangwyn stuff by MOI), the Piper film was VERY successfully launched on the 27th September, Manuel Auad's beautiful publication of Brangwyn's Way of the Cross with a commentary by MOI (replacing G K Chesterton's original - walking in the feet of the gods here) came out in November, the article Gareth and I wrote for the Journal of Stained Glass appeared in Volume XXXIII and I've given countless Gourmet Art lectures which have been rather fun and certainly got the audiences laughing. Meanwhile much time has been spent writing an essay and cataloguing works for the forthcoming Japanese exhibition.
NEGATIVES: Unfortunately FBSG is still awaiting completion! However it WILL be finished next year - PRIORITY! Didn't get back into cycling and swimming but have been jogging regularly (although my hip won't let me get beyond about 2 miles at a time) and started an out of date Canadian Air Force fitness regime which I discovered amongst my papers!
NEXT YEAR: As stated FBSG will be completed (come whatsit or high water), Charles and I will hopefully be making a film about Patrick Reyntiens, hopefully I won't have to take a job shelf stacking at Tesco and hopefully I won't let the oldies drag me down - keep smiling and Carpe Diem!
HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

lateral thinking

Arrived at Film Farm late afternoon Monday 14th after another lecture. Tuesday we recorded my sound for the Elveden film and Charles did his Brangwyn voice again, then we buckled down and got yet another section of the film completed - we're positively racing through editing these days - without loss of perfection I hasten to add!
On Thursday it started to snow and by Friday we were surrounded by a veritable winter wonderland (unfortunately I'd left my camera at home, silly girl). Also unfortunately this was the day I had to drive up to Thornton to collect my mother for the Christmas festivities. Lincolnshire was pretty snowed under but once I got to the A1 it was fairly clear. By the time I neared York it started snowing again and the windscreen washer froze. Arrived at my mother's house to discover that not one, but TWO cars had slid off the hill into her not insubstantial stone front wall the previous evening. The wall didn't look too happy - heaven knows what the cars looked like.
It snowed even more overnight. Friday morning I cleared the drive of snow and ice pulling a muscle in my back in the process (not on purpose you understand), loaded up the car and we set off at 10.30 for what is usually a 5 hour journey. The windscreen washer still wasn't working despite my filling it up with de-icer and the roads were throwing up slushy grit mix. A filthy windscreen combined with a bright low sun makes for hazardous driving conditions and necessitated frequent stops to clean said windscreen. The roads weren't too awful but everyone was being cautious and taking it fairly slowly. Finally arrived at Cambridge Waitrose an hour later than anticipated for a re-fuelling (us, not the car) and a quick shop for fodder. We set off again as the sun started to set, making the snow covered fields glow warmly, and dusk wasn't as bad as usual because the white countryside lightened everything. Delays on the M25 due to roadworks, slow moving traffic on the QE2 bridge and then back to Kent where there were huge problems. The radio had alerted me to the fact that parts of the M20 were closed for Operation stack (when they use the motorway as a lorry park when ferries are delayed or not sailing), and as a result the A20 was congested. Minor delays were reported in Dover. So I decided to take the M2 and the A2 down to Dover and back home on the M20 northbound. However as we approached the outskirts of Dover we were gridlocked. Nothing moving, cars and lorries solid on a dual carriageway with no way out - not even a hard shoulder to drive down illegally. Drivers were walking along the road comparing notes, some locals caught in the queue reckoned we could be stuck for at least 4 hours if not overnight. By this time it was back down to freezing and I obviously had to get my 91 year old mother out of this predicament.
So I thought up a cunning plan - I put on the hazard warning lights, told my mother to lie back and look grey, and then approached the drivers of cars ahead of me explaining my anxiety - they all kindly moved over so I could drive past, then I approached the drivers in front of them etc etc and it worked like magic until a white van man was sceptical about my passenger and plan. At this point the traffic moved marginally enabling me to squeeze off the road at the next junction. It transpired almost every road in Dover and Folkestone was blocked, stationary - after many illegalities (U-turns on roundabouts, driving the wrong way along a dual carriageway, weaving in and out of parked lorries) we finally made it home exactly 10 hours after setting off. And half an hour later I'd cooked roast smoked salmon, couscous and broccoli served up with more than a dash of much needed warming red wine!
Now to put up some Christmas decorations and prepare 4 festive meals for 12 people before we set off for the west country on Christmas eve where I'm chief cook (but hopefully not bottle washer)!
Have a good Christmas - and next spring we WILL finally complete and publish FBSG!

Blue Peter (take 2)

Life is becoming somewhat frenetic - Sunday 15th November I drove down to Ramsbury for a lecture in Swindon Monday morning. Tuesday up to stay with my mother in Thornton-le-Dale and then give a lecture for the Scarborough NADFAS group Wednesday, another lecture in Huddersfield Thursday and on to Film Farm Friday to complete the educational 'How to make a stained glass panel' film. Which we succeeded in doing by the time I left on Monday morning (23rd). We also had great fun putting together some 'glass music' to separate the different processes - we mixed sounds of broken glass, chimes and rubbing the top of wine glasses with varying amounts of water inside (unfortunately not wine - that would have made the process FAR more fun but might have got out of hand!)
23rd I left for Leicester Museum and Art Gallery to catalogue the Brangwyn works and then drove back to Thornton. Tuesday a lecture in York, Wednesday another in Leicester, followed by a further couple of days at Film Farm during which we made the Miscellaneous film section - which includes the memorable wet suit incident! (see blog dated 19 November 2007)
Now for an entire week at home followed by 3 lectures in 3 days - Southport, Nottingham and Bisley. A mere couple of days at home and I'm off once again, this time to Norfolk followed by another editing session. No rest for ....