Two seats back, in the middle of the plane, I spotted two empty rows of four. Heh. As soon as we were airborne and the seatbelt signs were switched off, we leapt to action and staked our claim on the free space. Nice.
I spent the entire flight stretched out and completely horizontal.
I also spent a long time in deep thought. Taking in the events of the last couple of days. Drifting in and out of sleep, dreaming of home.
See this is why I love flying: alone time, rest, thought and much relaxation. Hurtling through the sky, wrapped in 200 tonnes of metal at 600mph.
I started writing this post nearly three weeks ago, way back when November was coming to a close and I’d just about made it to the end of National Vlog Post Month (NaVloPoMo). If you missed the explanation at the start of it all, then apologies – the general gist was to upload a new video every day, for the entire month of November. Consider this a review, if you will.
Final score? 28/30
Not bad for my first attempt, wouldn’t you say?
The two that I missed were Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd respectively. The former was my birthday and, while I did actually manage to record and upload a video in time, the quality was so frickin’ bad – I’m refusing to put it up. The latter however, was the day after my birthday and, given that the party guests only started to leave around 7ish on Sunday morning, I think I can let this one pass.
Either way, two other videos were made for the weekend in question and, if the creators don’t mind, I think I’ll submit them as entries for those days. Guest entries if you will. First, my NaVloPoMo partner in crime, Benny Crime, with his ‘Happy Birthday Whatleydude‘ entry and second, creator of all things NaVloPoMo, Rupert Howe, for this awesome ‘Whatley’s evil twin‘ video.
While Benny’s is suitably bonkers, Rupert’s definitely needs some explanation, but you’ll have to wait for another day for that I’m afraid…
In the meantime one upshot from making video every day for a month is the enforced, creative experimentation of it all.
Much has happened over the past couple of months and there is much to catch up on.
The ‘Tales from my Moleskine‘ series is only halfway through (so expect something from there to appear here next), there is a lot of random video content I still want to throw together and of course, there’s just a crap load of normal life stuff I want to share.
So watch this space, I’ll be back soon…
“Changed for good, my output has.
To what end, remains to be seen…”
It was my birthday last weekend and, as quite possibly the best birthday present I’ve ever been given, my girlfriend sprung two tickets to Paris this weekend.
However, not content with taking me to the most romantic city in the world, seeing the sights, taking in the museums and generally doing ‘the tourist thing’ – my lady also decided to check us into the coolest hotel I have ever seen.
Don’t believe me?
The future is here. The future is now. The future is Omar Sharif.
One key thing that was an amazing constant throughout the Lucozade Challenges was that no matter what far flung corner of the world we found ourselves in, we always had an awesome, local guide to train us and look after us.
For the last challenge, yacht-racing in the Caribbean, we had this guy, Rob Brinkworth.
An Englishman through and through, Rob took great pride in telling us about the Stars and Stripes yacht we were to race, he’d been looking after the boats themselves for years. In the short time we spent on St Maarten, Rob educated us all in the ways of the 12-metre challenge, he made us feel confident enough to handle this multi-million dollar winner of a vessel and at the same time made sure that we respected his word and his skill as a fine seafaring yachtsman.
A fantastic teacher, I remember Rob expressing to us at the end of the week how much he had really enjoyed coaching us all in the science behind sailing and reminisced about his days as an instructor educating school teachers on how to sail, preparing them for a Summer of PGL (a UK institution set up for children to take part in activity courses, such as sailing). He had rediscovered his love of sharing knowledge and, as we left St Maarten at the end of the week, I sensed that maybe there might be change in his future.
Sadly, Rob died last week.
Struck down by an aggressive illness, his life was cut short before he could put any such plans into action.
I heard the news late yesterday afternoon. Al, one of the winners from the challenge, had stayed in touch with Rob after we left. After he told me I immediately started trawling through my files… The following video is put together from all the footage I took while under his tutelage.
Rob, this is for you mate:
While waiting for the video to export, I checked through my notes to clarify a few dates and I found this entry, the last one I made before we left the Caribbean –
Moleskine entry: September 16th, 2009
Race Day
“Later at the bar that evening, Rob tells us that today’s race was kind of a big deal for him. The night before he had called a meeting between our crew, the opposing crew and the race judge. They all agreed that the race today would be ‘for real’.
You see they race these boats day in and day out and could’ve quite easily made some decisions (that wouldn’t have been obvious to us), that meant they would’ve handed us the race. Rob, having trained us all week and seen how we respected the skill and the effort that went into it, insisted that this would be the case.
He told the rest of the staff that the race was to be exactly that.
No fudging it for anyone.
“Throw everything you’ve got at us.” he told them “Try and thrash us. If you do, it’ll be their fault. If you don’t, well then.. they’re awesome. Either way, these guys will not appreciate being handed the race and will know if you do…”
Wow. What a guy. I for one am very glad he called it like that because, come the finish line, yes we came second – a very close second in fact. But boy did we earn it.”
Good luck Rob, wherever you are.
Your friends, old and new, remember you well.
My small obsession with all things London Underground continues unabated with this video pulled together of different shots I’ve taken in and around our fair public transport system.
I love it, I really do.
There’s so much interesting architecture to photograph and shoot that one can easily get quite carried away. Originally I intended just to make this video a bit like a scrap book; it’s ‘pages’ made up of all the out-takes and un-used footage that I’ve taken so far this month. But when I found the stuff with my old friend Basti, I had to whack it on the end.
Yes the audio is out of sync. It’s supposed to be. If you ever meet Basti, you will know that he operates on his own planet, in his own dimension, running by his own rules.
Time and space and all that jazz work around him, not the other way ’round.
I’ve been in Helsinki for the past 24hrs so excuse me while I dig around in my video archive for something that I haven’t published here before…
What I’m about to share with you isn’t specifically ‘new content’ exactly, however it is something actually quite special and I hope you enjoy it.
Meet Stewart Reed.
Stewart, believe it or not, is a genuine cowboy who lives and on a ranch out in the small town of Shell, Wyoming.
One night in July, while we were camping up in the mountains (and after we’d watched the Sun go down), we stayed up late drinking whisky, sharing jokes, telling tales and, eventually – after some cajoling from the group, Stewart fetched his guitar out from the pickup and started to play…
There, up in the mountains, in the long dark silence… a real, live cowboy… singing.
It was magical.
This one, Wagon Wheel, is by far and away my favourite.
Give it 30 seconds or so before he gets going, after that – just enjoy…
It would seem that the 30-day video marathon that is NaVloPoMo has arrived slap, bang in the middle of the first decent writing stride I’ve had in donkeys.
This is largely in part thanks to the wealth of written content I have hidden away in my new best friend and travelling partner, my moleskine.
Alas, as video cannot be held inside its tender pages, the ‘tales from my moleskine‘ series may have to take a back seat for the time being.
We’ll pick it back up again in December. Promise.
If you’ve missed it all so far and fancy a dive, by all means, just click on the word moleskine and you’ll be magically transported. However, if instead you’d rather stick around and see what ocular treats I have lined up for you today, then please, make yourself comfy… We’re off to Africa.
The date is July 8th, we – the first batch of Lucozade Winners and I – had left Damaraland that morning and boarded our own private Cessna to fly up to a place called Haartmann Valley. From there on in, it’ll be a three hour drive to our next camp. Eesh.
It’s pretty remote, but we’re told it’s paradise.
This short video, put together soon after we arrived, hopefully gives you some kind of insight at just how remote ‘remote’ is when you’re in Africa.
I started writing this post nearly three weeks ago, way back when November was coming to a close and I’d just about made it to the end of National Vlog Post Month (
whatleydude.com 