Thought I’d better do a bit of a catch-up…
It’s been a busy few weeks – we’ve had a lot on at work, which is obviously a good thing, but it would be nice to take a decent break at some point!
Jess, Helen and James.
A few weeks ago, I went down to Soul Survivor North in Stafford as a day visitor. James and Helen had taken the Vinelife youth there for the week, so I met up with them as they were dishing up tea to a crowd of teenagers in very wet conditions! They’d taken Jess with them, which must have been interesting for them, but she seemed to be really enjoying herself, and I got to feed her a bowl of pasta which she wolfed down! It was just a shame the weather was so poor, because camping’s much better when the sun’s out!
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been to Soul Survivor, when I was working down in Shepton Mallet venue doing visuals in the Underground venue. It actually felt a bit weird being there as a punter – you kind of can’t switch off from being aware of all the behind-the-scenes stuff that’s happening!
Then that weekend it was John and Carolyn’s wedding up in South Shields.
I won the prize of being the driver for the trip, so it was a full car that set off from Manchester at 7am on the Friday morning up to the North East. Me, Dave, John, Jimmy and Mike were all crammed into my Focus, but luckily we actually had a really clear run up there, and it was a good laugh!
Me, John and Carolyn.
The wedding went off without a hitch, which is always a good thing! Terry did a talk, which looking at the minister’s face, did seem to worry him for a while since Terry basically asked them why they got married in a church when they could have had a service in much more glamorous surroundings, and then even why they were bothering to get married at all! Obviously this led to a turnaround explaining why it is done the way it is, but you could tell there was a bit of nervousness from the local church for a while!
In the afternoon, we had a few hours to kill, so went and had a pub lunch with Michael and Becci and their kids, and then took a walk on the beach and briefly went round a really crappy funfair!
Michael, Jimmy, Mike and John.
Pirate Bateman.
John and me.
The evening reception was at a really posh hotel in County Durham (£4 a pint!), and John and Carolyn impressed everyone with their first dance… choreographed ballroom dancing!! Apparently Chagit had been teaching them for quite a while in preparation for it!
We stayed overnight at Mel’s parents house in Gateshead, crashing on sofas (me) and bits of carpet (the others!), then on the way back home, we stopped briefly at the Angel Of The North to have a really cheesy boyband-esque photo taken in front of it!
There are a load of photos from the wedding and the rest of our trip here.
Jimmy, John, Dave, me and Mike.
Bang up-to-date, and I’m on my own at the office for the moment because James is in Kenya doing some filming for a video we’re making for the American organisation that Tim Karas works for – The Reckoning. They’re a non-profit organisation that aims to mobilise people to make real changes through international development projects.
James in Kenya.
James flew out to Nairobi last week where he met up with Tim and the rest of the team, and then did some filming in one of the city’s slums, where over a million people live. Then he flew on Sunday to a more remote area to meet some people who have been able to set up businesses through loans given to them by The Reckoning. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he’s shot – he sent me a short clip that he filmed in Kibera slum, and it looked amazing. That’s probably not quite the right word to use when it’s about images of such poverty, but the footage did look impressive.
Oh, and the only other thing I need to mention… I get to see U2 live on Thursday… I can’t wait!! 