Axeman cometh

This is a little sideline project. (Not so little really). Made from mahogany, it's a fretless bass guitar I've been working on, on and off for the last 10 years or so... I actually got chance to fit the machine heads tonight, it's coming along, very slowly... It's nice to work in a material thats not cardboard every now and then!...

"...bit knackered sunshine?"

We hosted an Elizabethan banquet tonight for about 60 guests. It was a busy night! There were seven of us serving on, a chef and three kitchen hands, a jester, musicians, dancers, actors and a pantler.

We were each assigned to a table to serve, I happened to get one with four beautiful ladies, oh shame! Pictured are three of the said beauties plus an interloper in the blue hat. The fourth lady is taking the photograph.

Once the banquet was over we all went into overdrive clearing and cleaning the hall ready for tomorrow. My back was and still is doubled up in pain, I need someone to jump up and down on it.

I finally arrived home at midnight, limping past a group of young lads, one of whom said very observantly to me "...bit knackered sunshine?"

E=MC2

Einsteins favourite catchy little equation E=mc2 actually means; Everything = Made of at least two Cardboard Squares (2) Not many people actually know this, they actually sometimes confuse it with mass and light and stuff, idiots.

A week in politics

Been a busy week... Tuesday I was in Sleaford, a one way, one trick pony kind of place; I was there on a driving improvement course. This is Lincolnshire County Council's latest policy in protecting its employees (from suing it). Actually it was quite useful even though the instructors gave the impression that they were the only people who drove real cars on actual journeys, the rest of us owned noddy mobiles and tootled about in our bouncey castle dreamworlds. A good tip- do up your rear seat belts. If you get shunted and have lots of heavy shopping in the boot, it can crash through the back seats as the catches probably aren't designed to withstand alot of force. You could end up with a frozen chicken bouncing off your head (abit like xmas eve in ASDA...) Even better, strap the frozen chicken into the rear seats, or buy a baby seat, Ok, getting abit silly now... Wednesday I was dressed as a Tudor representing aforesaid Witches Coven at the Lincolnshire County Show (with Victoria- see above!). It was a really enjoyable day, smoozin with the Chairman and various Directors. I accidently got interviewed by Radio Lincolnshire as I queued for a coffee. Always amazed by how many Toadies (note capital T for significance) surround the Chairman of the Council. Picture of him smiling with plebs... Picture of him touching pleb object.... Man of the plebs-er,people... Thursday, back to reality, pretending to be a 15th century Chinese story teller surrounded by cardboard warriors and bashing drums. Friday doing the same, practicing the play. I got to go in the front of the dragon today. It's really hot and tiring-respect to Dave! Tomorrow I am working at our Elizabethan Banquet, probably dressed as a minstrel, so I need to tune up the old mandolin. I really ought to learn some new tunes...

The shadow is cast (from a Bauhaus song...)

Ok, back to the serious stuff. This is the stage set so far. We also have a dragon (see archives!) and a newly aquired galleon, which has been converted into a junk. We are now going through the play repeatedly to get all the bits in order and to music. I am going to sit on the right hand side with a selection of instruments to bash, pluck and jingle, aswell as prodding a CD player. We have a very cheesey song for the end, which sounds abit like Whitney Houston singing in Mandarin! As the two lovers are reunited by the gods, rose petals will fall from the gallery, accompanied by aforesaid icksome bucket filler musing. Ahhhhhhhh! ... yak... It does all look really good now that we have all the work in place. We were quite surprised at just how much we've made over the last six months, plus there's more that we haven't used too. Hopefully there will be another project in the pipeline after this one has finished (which is next month). Time will tell.

Failed economy wash suicide attempt

...and while we are on the subject of caption competitions, here's another one. She will absolutely kill me if she knows I've put this online,... so let's keep it hush eh?!!

Hanging with mr nice

I had to publish this picture just for the sake of it. It's actually... no, I'm not telling, any suggestions to me please... The winner gets a leek.

V force

Spent sunday bottoming my allotment. Got the runners in after elaborately tying up a cane trellis. One day I will make an authentic Victorian trellis. You tie the canes to wires so they form a long V shape from the ground upwards, which means the beans all hang away from the plant, for ease of harvesting. Only thing is you need very strong wires and posts to support it all. For now I will just have to ferret amongst the foliage for fodder!. Got more broad beans in, some strawberry plants, and skimmed the duckweed off the pond (which is full of tadpoles) Thanks to organic Bob Flowerdews' organic bible for the idea; the frogs eat all the slugs. My leeks are getting abit long and leggy so I've started inflicting them on me workmates! Leeks online? -now there's a business opportunity...

Anna

Anna, anna, anna, ....anna, anna, anna, this is a welcome to Anna! So, is it time for a Cardiff reunion yet?!! Maybe give it another ten years.

Who nose?

All the skin has peeled off my nose tonight. There is now a cardboard palmtree nestling in my garage. I have spent the morning dressed as a tudor, absolutely dripping, it's been so humid. I suppose I am a very authentic peasant...

It's a dirty job but someone has to do it...

The last two days have been the Riverside Festival in Gainsborough, so in true devotion to my employers, I have been dressed as a Pirate. We flew a jolly roger from the Tower and had many activities. We also had classic cars on the grounds, motorbikes, a double mini driven by a very stroppy old bloke, samba bands and belly dancers. The samba band let me play along on one song on me guitar! The belly dancers insisted on performing in front of my stand. A job made in heaven!

Leviathon

The Leviathon has awoken. With the help of Mish, Alison, Andrew and most importantly, Dave the puppet master, the great beast has arisen from it's cardboard slumber to terrrorise the Barn. It's amazing how lifelike our dragon can seem with the help of a few bodies. It still needs some accoutriments to give it more movement, I really wanted it to breathe fire, but maybe that's pushing reality abit too far?...

Green is the colour...

The garden from my internet station, also known as the back bedroom. The green thing in the middle isn't another Dalek, it's a composter that is supposed to be going to my allotment. It may be small, but it's packed with planting!

Cardboard evolution

I suppose this is a sort of Darwinian survival of the fittest in cardboard. Im thinking I might just rename this site "Mr shaun's world of cardboard". I just need to get the body of the dragon sorted now. It is going to consist of Michael in his wheelchair, being pushed by Dave, all covered in a purple fabric stretched over hoops. They are going to perform a dance to some authentic Oriental music...