Qualcuno dirami ordinanze che impediscono alle donne adulte di spostarsi a bordo di monopattino…  o almeno venga garantita l’impunità a chi cerca di farle infangere sull’asfalto.

Non sono brava con i congegni mattutini. Quando ero a casa, il mio adorabile papà (Il Mimmo) mi veniva a svegliare in modo gentile e indolore, alzando la tapparella, facendomi il tè, allineando cento marmellate sul tavolo, accendendo luci in lontananza e non in faccia… cose simili. Al che, dopo stiracchiamenti vari, mi accomodavo in cucina, mettevo Pingu alla tivù ed ero pronta ad iniziare la giornata con una colazione decorosa e rilassante. Se prima l’unica cosa che mi turbava era il linguaggio incomprensibile di pinguini, foche e gabbiani in plastilina stop-motion, ora è un casino. Non provo alcun rispetto per la sveglia, mi infonde un’automatico malumore, come la lucetta del cane di Pavlov… solo che io non sbavo ma sviluppo un immediato dolore al lobo frontale. Stamattina l’odiato marchingegno ha iniziato ad agitarsi alle sette e trenta… non so bene come, ma ho ripreso conoscenza solo alle otto e quarantuno, inciampando scompostamente nel comodino ikea (il più economico) e lanciandomi verso il pacco di oro saiwa mentre tentavo di insaponarmi un’ascella. Ero molto confusa. Mi fossi almeno goduta l’ora di ronfata aggiuntiva… mavvà, ho passato il nanna-bonus sognando subdolamente di essere in ritardo per qualche evento di importanza capitale, che ne so, il mio matrimonio o il primo incontro tra uomo ed extraterrestri senzienti. Nella vicenda onirica, numerosi personaggi della mia infanzia venivano da me e mi dicevano cose tipo “guarda che devi andare in ufficio”, “ma non credi sia tardi?”, “perdi il tram”, “chi dorme non piglia pesci”, “non ce la fai”, “girati lentamente verso l’orologio” e via così. Orrore.

Mi piace molto la copertina del nuovo libro di Fabio Volo e vorrei poterla avere senza tutte le pagine in mezzo.

Mi sono resa conto che scelgo il pranzo in base a quanto sia consumabile con l’uso di una sola mano… visto che l’altra deve tenere fermo il libro e girare le pagine. Ad esempio, la maggior parte dei panini va saldamente afferrata con entrambi gli arti, o c’è roba che ruzzola fuori, sbava, frana o sbriciola. Mi sono così affezionata ai tramezzini col tonno e il pomodoro, che hanno il pregio della coesione e un livello di collosità sufficiente ad evitare smottamenti. Sono poi dipendente dalla pausa pranzo al giapponese, con il suo funzionale salmone alla piastra con zucchine… trovo giusto e civile che le cose siano già fatte a pezzi per me, fa molto villaggio di Polly Pocket. Quando sarò ricca, avrò sicuramente un samurai addetto ad affettarmi il cibo.

I have been wanting to blog about this for ages!

When I began working at Hullabaloo Studios on what was then a secret project for CBBC – which is now known to be an adaptation of the Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell’s “Muddle Earth” book – I was told in no uncertain terms about another very secret project that NO ONE could be told about. Yep, the Peter Kay single. Over the last four months I have been privy to more backstage stuff than I could have ever imagined: Sitting between George and Zippy, eyeing up FAB 1 and Lady Penelope, being staggered by the real size of a Teletubbie (Tinky-Winky is about 8 feet tall all suited and booted) and actually being allowed to hold one of the Wombles.

It’s been really amazing. We all became acutely aware that something was happening when a muffled medley of original songs began to drone repeatedly about the building. This brought most of us out of our rooms and into the main area of the unit we work in. Imagine our surprise and joy to see an orange head with a zipped mouth and a pink hippo dancing just above a blue wall to this cacophony in front of a small camera crew. No sooner was the recording over than I had the pleasure of sitting between my two heros and, after an accidental impression of Zippy in front of him, getting a swift knock on the head from the zippered one.

Over the course of about three weeks, we got to see Muffin the Mule, the aforementioned Teletubbies, Thunderbirds, Postman Pat and Jess – in Pat 3, not Pat 1 unfortunately, the original Fireman Sam, Bob the builder, Andy Pandy and Tedy, Bagpuss, Little robots and so many more. An awful lot of people did an awful lot of work and produced something magical. I even managed to help out myself in a a tiny way. I created the lava in the lava lamp using Blender’s metaball system made to look like wax thanks to a liberal amount of Sub Surface scattering.

Here are three pictures taken at the tail end of the project when everyone was finishing up. Until this point, only official photographs were available. Apparently, I’ll get the one of me, Zippy and George tomorrow. Can’t Wait!

Pudsey About to Step on One of Andy Pandy’s interchangeable heads!

Big chris showing them all the green screen on his iphone – to be filled in with angelina Ballerina I think!

Paddington in his Cool dudds and Pingu pulling some wicked shapes! –

One Final Word:

GO AND SUPPORT CHILDREN IN NEED AND BUY THE DVD SINGLE AS SOON AS YOU CAN!!!

I loved the video for the Children in Need single. Me and Daughter sat and screamed excitedly at the telly:

“Thomas!”

“Wombles!”

“Scooby!!!!”

“Pingu!!!”

“Chippy Minton!!!!!”

“Who?” asks Daughter, (guess I didn’t bring her up right).

I think it’s a phenomenal piece of work, getting all these animated characters together. Peter Kay described it as “joyous” and I couldn’t agree more. It’s put the biggest smile on our faces and it’s going to be a DVD single!!!! Hurray!!

But where was renowned first bass of the Grumbley and District Choral Society? (You might know him better as Ivor the Engine).

Pingu was a Swiss stop-motion claymated television series created by Otmar Gutmann, produced by The Pygos Group, and distributed by HiT Entertainment and Hot Animation. The show is about a family of anthropomorphic penguins in the South Pole. The main character is their son and title character, Pingu.

The show ran originally for four seasons from 1986 to 1998 on RTSI, after the end of season 4, the series was cancelled. However, HiT Entertainment’s request for more episodes convinced Pygos to bring back the show in 2004, with 2 more seasons. The seasons did not return for RTSI, and was moved to BBC. When the show’s final episode aired, Pingu was yet again cancelled in 2005.

The program is set in Antarctica, where the penguin families and businesses live and work in igloos. The main characters are a family of penguins, whose son’s name is Pingu. Pingu goes on adventures with his little sister Pinga.

One reason for Pingu’s international success is the absence of human languages. All dialogue is in a honking “penguin language”, and was initially performed without script by Carlo Bonomi. This allows people of distinct linguistic backgrounds to still be able to follow the story.

Oliver har fått sin första dos av vaccinet mot “Svinus”, Svininfluensan A(H1N1). Vi var själva när vi kom dit. Hade räknat med att det skulle vara några fler där, men icke. Oliver hade med sig sin Pingu som stöd. Nu så pratar han mest om sitt plåster

The missing Hopes & Fears video they never knew they had!

Brosa Pret: 14 Lei (cod 97)

New image in the fan penguins photoshop contest

Night has come,
Party will begin shortly
Pingu is ready to the Party
Tuxedo had worn neatly
GO pingu

Hope you enjoy my work,
sorry for the …
Tuxedo Pingu photoshop picture

This starts to hurt the brain:

Em homenagem ao Luís Monteiro, que conseguiu o feito de vencer o concurso de bloggers para ir à Antártica (saibam tudo em: rumoantarctica ) aqui ficam uns bonecos que faziam da minha infância uma alegria e que hoje me voltaram a fazer soltar grandes risadas:

Parabéns Luís e Boa Viagem!!!

Here are a few more photos i’ve dug up from my archive. I have just under 100gb of photos that i’ve taken in about 5 years, it’s pretty amazing to look through, and embarassing to be honest. 3 recent ones from my Birthday weekend, and 1 from a holiday I had in Sri Lanka a long time ago, feel free to give me feedback please . Some big tunes being posted tommorow hopefully but thought i’d chuck some pictures up today. Laters.

I believe this is relevant :

PinguVoid, originally uploaded by sizzled.

and try your call again

Rockie in action with his booties

By Cara Sulieman

A PLUCKY penguin who suffered months of pain in its feet is on the road to recovery after kind hearted keepers fitted it with a pair of custom made waterproof booties.

Rockie the Rockhopper was struck down with a bad bout of Bumblefoot and his tender feet needed protecting.

So kind caring staff at the popular visitors attraction fashioned him a natty pair of boots to protect them from the sharp rocks in his enclosure.

Edinburgh Zoo

Bumblefoot is a bacterial infection in birds that causes the feet to swell and become inflamed.

Notoriously difficult to control, it is more common in animals in captivity and has caused problems at Edinburgh Zoo for a few years.

To allow the treatment to work, staff usually use spray plaster on the penguins feet to seal in the medicine.

But Rockie’s condition was particularly bad and they had to come up with something more effective.

Penguin keeper Lynda Burrill said that the boots – made from the same material used for wetsuits – were needed to give the feet time to heal.

She said: “Use of the neoprene boots protected the soles of Rockie’s feet from rough surfaces, minimised the likelihood of any secondary bacterial infections and gave his feet time to heal.”

For around two months Rockie wore his booties for two days and then had them taken off for another two days to let his feet breathe.

But now that his tootsies are back to normal Rockie will be going bootless and waddling around the penguin enclosure with happy feet.

Lynda said: “Even though wearing the boots did not stop Rockie from getting around the enclosure, it is hoped that regular preventative treatment will avoid him have to wear the boots in the future.”

See more of our pictures at our Flickr site and videos at our dedicated channel,  Deadline TV.

One of the most amazing sounds in the world has to be the sound of laughter.  Not the fake, oh ha ha he he yeah that was funny,  but real belly rolling, can’t breath laughter!  I have just descoverd that what is even better than that is hearing my two year old uncontrollably laughing at something that he thinks is soooooo funny!

So if you are looking for something great for your kids…here is a show that we came across on Netflix that gets Ayden rolling anytime he watches it.  Too funny!  You can watch them instantly on Netflix or even find them on YouTube.

Here’s to you Pingu!

We shouldn’t do it but, inevitably, we fall into the trap of negativity and lose faith in our ability to create. For example, I perused two wonderful blogs this morning, the inspired Mrs Frys’ Diary and fellow York writer Martyn Clayton’s excellent blog ”Rich Tea and Empathy”. In comparison my own offerings seem somewhat banal and therefore not in the least bit interesting to the blogging community. I sank into my coffee in a depressive fog.

I wasn’t to languish for long. Ironically the next blog I came across gave me all the answers to life, the universe and everything. OK…I am exaggerating slightly (and we already know that the answer is 42) but it gave me the impetus to step up my game.

Here’s the link http://www.dailyblogtips.com/increase-blog-traffic/

Now I’m off to do some research for future articles… starting with “Killing Pingu; My Top Ten Torture Methods”.

What a busy week!!! Our website is up an running now at  http://kateboardman.co.uk/ , Nic is busy posting articles on Squidoo (please check  it out and rate him at http://squidoo.com/tunisiandreams) and I’m writing my first blog.

Today was Pesky Kids’ last day at pre-school. Deep joy. Seven whole weeks of trying to find interesting (and hopefully free) activities to keep us both occupied. Luckily the Netmums website (www.netmums.co.uk) is full of ideas and information. My social diary is looking very healthy at the moment.

On Monday I met my Creative Writing Tutor in Borders and begged her for some “homework” as my creative urge has been a bit sluggish lately. She obliged and gave so many  tasks I almost wished I’d kept my mouth shut. Monday being Nics’ day off, I had every intention of  starting my homework straight away only to get distracted on setting up the website and blog. Well…it is sort of writing isn’t it?

Tuesday was a complete write off (pardon the pun). Pesky Kid was in a major pester mode and I felt as though my head was going to explode at any moment. The only joy I had that day was when I logged on to My Writers Circle (http://www.mywriterscircle.com) and read the complimentary reviews on my poem and short story. The members are really great people who are always willing to help out be it with motivation, information or critique. Be warned though, this is not some clap happy, feel good critiquing…it’s the real deal and not for the fainthearted.

Wednesday wasn’t nuch better. My plans were literally rained off and poor PK had a bit of a dodgy stomach.  Our picnic in the park was reluctantly cancelled. I tried to get some words down on paper but it just wasn’t happening so I worked on the website again and then lost myself on Facebook. I really should nip this Facebook fetish in the bud…I mean, how am I ever going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature if all I’m doing is discussing baby poop online? 

Thursday started off promising. I was made admin on two Facebook sites and spent the whole morning setting up and coordinating local events. I’m now also a member of York Flash Mob Creative Geniuses (more on that when the website is up and running). When PK arrived back home from pre-school I was subjected to an hour of Pingu…(I hate tha bl***y penguin), but then (oh joy of joys) I substituted it for the animated movie Surfs Up and he watched the whole DVD from start to finish. Ok, I am aware that Surfs Up contains lots of penguins too but they are not annoying little sh**s like Pingu. That evening I finally forced myself off Facebook and did some freewriting for an hour. One thousand words later I went to bed feeling like I had actually achieved something.

Until Monday.

Kate

XXX

Please leave feedback on my blog, I would appreciate it so much. Any comments/criticisms are greatfully recieved and will assure me that I’m not just talking to myself!!!

A few drawings I did on Sunday. I don’t really draw that much anymore, so I’m still practicing. eh. I inked the images with the help of tracing paper and a light table. (planning on rearranging my room so I can use the drawing desk again… Gundams invaded that territory) Drawings are of my avi in school uniform (thought of Vampire Knights; I’ve read a few chapters through Shojo Beat. I’d like to watch the anime~), dream avi, and a previous outfit (Pingu!!) I’m getting used to using my tablet to color. But for now, I’m thinking of traditional.

Drawn with Kuru Toga 0.5mm pencil. Inked with Varsity Fountain Pen. I really have to get used to inking with drawing pens like Prismacolor’s pens.
Well off to spray Gundam 00 with clear coat. I was annoyed at how I sprayed the blue runners, so I resprayed it.