Na Kobunda! (Lingala)

After the success of my previous point-style post, I'm sticking to that format once again. (I'm sorry, but I'm really churning out good posts at the moment...)

Point One:
The project to get William Booth's 'I'll Fight' speech in as many languages as possible is really going well! I think a blog always works better if there's a project on the go. Since I last posted, the quote has been added in Dutch, Estonian, Lingala, Swabian German and two Swiss German dialects. And the Icelandic version has been improved - huge thanks to Anna, Philipp, Jóhanna, Lizette and the Clarks. So if you're reading this post and you speak another language or dialect fluently and think you can translate the quote (in the right-hand column) go for it! So, any Welsh, Scots, Gaelic, Czech, Russian speakers out there?! (or others, of course!)

Point Two:
Ok. This week, I was headed with Danni and Unnamed Friend 1 to a rehearsal in Romford. The journey was going very well (or so I thought). However, I wasn't on the road I thought I was on - which meant that I didn't follow signs to the road I should be on, because I thought I was on it. Got that? Anyway, we ended up in Rainham for a long time. We managed to get out of Rainham and into Romford - 'Great', we thought. 'We won't be so late now.' However, we somehow managed to completely bypass the centre of Romford and ended up right in Ilford town centre. Great. After driving around for a long time, we found a sign to Romford and followed it. Into a dead-end.

In the end, we just took any road that looked big and ended up in Seven Kings (I think that sounds like such a wonderful place). I know Seven Kings and was mightily relieved as we finally made our way to Romford Salvation Army. (Although slightly disappointed as we'd decided that if we didn't find it soon, we were going to go to McDonalds before going back.) And we were only 45 minutes late for the rehearsal.

But in order to keep the interest going, I gave Danni and Unnamed Friend 1 the Mitchenstein family history tour (as my parents lived in Ilford and Chadwell Heath and my mum lived in Seven Kings before that). So a waste of time was turned into a thrilling interactive history lesson. I think they'll agree.

And yes, on the way home we went through Harold Hill, but that's only because I'd never been there before and wanted to have a look round...

Only two points today - the other thing I was going to mention is how slow the blogging world has become recently, with lots of people taking huge blogging breaks... Things have improved since my last post, but not everyone is back to it yet!

Take care everyone.

And I thank you.

EDIT: Check out the poll in the right-hand column. Now, I know this isn't the hard-hitting journalism you've come to expect from Mitchenstein, but this was just a trial run. And you know it's fun anyway. (Looks like you'll need to refresh the page to see your vote added).

Ten Points

Recently I've had quite a lot of thoughts I could blog about, but they don't really hang together very well, so this post contains ten points. The ten things I've thought I could put in my blog that aren't really enough for seperate blog posts. These are they:

Point One:

In fairness to Katie, she did make me a certifcate after I went on my Twinkie hunt. This is it:

It's not bad is it? Other than stupidly writing the word 'signed' where you're supposed to sign, she did quite well. By the way, Katie says I mention her a lot on my blog. For the next four blogs there will be a Katie embargo.

Point Two:

I really like William Booth's 'I'll fight' quote and, as you may have picked up, I quite like languages, so in the right-hand column, I now have this quote in as many languages as I could find. The Icelandic and French ones seem to finish weirdly and the Portuguese and Danish ones have missed out the 'as they do now' bits, but they're all I could find! If any Icelandic, French, Portuguese or Danish speakers want to help, feel free! And I don't read Polish or Finnish, so I have no idea about those... And if you know the quote in any other languages, please let me know (maybe Anna knows it in Swiss German?)!

Point Three:

For some reason, the 'about me' part of my blog is now in Icelandic...

Point Four:

For the first time in months and months I don't have any deadlines at the moment. As someone who spends their entire life with deadlines and needing to be somewhere five minutes ago, it's quite a strange feeling! I'm not sure I like this new freedom...

Point Five:

Forget about HoDo - do you GoMo? The other day I was running for the train - really late for uni and quite stressed. And as I stressed on by, the postman (not even our postman) said 'Good morning, mate' - and that really brightened up my day! So go on, GoMo! (Good Morning, obviously).

Point Six:

Yesterday morning I was collecting for The Salvation Army on the High Street. I haven't been able to do it for the last few years, but I have to tell you that I loved it. I had a really good time. I really liked being there - people came and spoke to me, told me how they loved the Army, asked me the time, wished me luck, told me that they hoped I didn't get too cold. People were also very generous. One guy said that he thought we probably had enough money by now. I don't know what he thinks we do with it! One thing I really liked was when a family was debating how much they'd give - obviously the mother wanted to give quite a bit more than the others did and she said 'I don't care - there's just something about them.' I really liked that.

Point Seven:

Speaking of quotes, I read this quote from 1912 the other day: 'The Icelanders have an idea that the presence of the Army in their country lowers them in the estimation of other nations.' (History of the Salvation Army, Volume 5 - 1904-1914). I quite liked that quote too!

Point Eight:
Cleo Rocos was making eyes at me the other day. I sort of gave a double take as she walked past me and she looked at me and smiled a sort of 'Yes, I am famous' smile. I told Katie (the embargo hasn't started yet) that I'd seen Cleo Rocos. Katie thought it was a coffee bar.

Point Nine:

This post got longer than I was planning... I think I might start learning Greenlandic. Those two things are unrelated.

Point Ten:

My brother was exploring the internet the other day, when he came across the Michael Jackson Moonwalker game for the MegaDrive (weren't they the best?). Now, part of me vaguely remembers it... Does anyone else? The graphics are so bad. The basic premise is that he has to go around dancing and saving little children holding teddy bears. Hmm... Anyway, to defeat the baddies, he makes them dance. Ingenious. And he gives a little 'woo-hoo' (in his own way) every time he gets hurt. What a classic.

It even works on dogs...

And, of course...

Hunting for Twinkies...

Thanks to Tim, I ended up on a hunt for Twinkies today. Now, my friend Katie is a school teacher and needs some Twinkies for the Easter production of Grease. Another friend Tim (who I haven't seen for one year, by the way - I don't know why that's relevant, but it feels it) helpfully pointed out that I can go and get some Twinkies for Katie because, and I quote, 'they sell them at CyberCandy, only 10 minutes away from uni'. This meant that I ended up looking for Twinkies.

Today was my only opportunity to get them before Katie's deadline of Monday. With my bag packed full of uni books (six thick books, plus a dictionary) I set off for Covent Garden (where Tim had said the shop was). Via Leicester Square. Upon arrival at Covent Garden (so not ten minutes away), I checked the map (remember that I have a very heavy bag) at Covent Garden tube station and saw that it was actually at Leicester Square. Thanks Tim. So, with my heavy bag I set off back down the road I had come along to Leicester Square. Then I found the shop and the Twinkies. Great!

Then it dawned on me - I would have to break my rule. I would have to travel on the Central Line at peak time. Now anyone who has ever done this can tell you what a horrible experience that is. So I get the tube to Holborn and then get the very hot, very packed, Central Line train. Very, very hot. And I have the heaviest bag in the world (and it's got one strap, so that's some concentrated weight). I had my face pressed up against a bald guy's sweaty head. And another guy's earphones were playing TechnoSmurfs in my ear. And I forgot to mention that I was wearing an Arctic coat that kept me warm in -26 degrees. Completely unable to move my arms to remove it. I was perhaps the most miserable I have been for a long time!

I tell Katie that I've got the Twinkies and the other things she asked me to get (I remind her that I am not a personal shopper). She is quite happy and says 'the drama teacher will be so impressed that I went to the effort of getting some real American Twinkies'.

Well done Katie.

Glynjohnball

Man, all this HoDo-ing is tough. Anyway, after my last post, Glyn's comment reminded me of the joy that is Glynjohnball. After having ransacked my room, I found the only two surviving pictures of the creation of Glynjohnball. This game is native to the Channel Islands (in that we made it up in the pool room of the Salvation Army in St. Peter Port, Guernsey in 2003).

You may be wondering where the name 'Glynjohnball' came from. Well, we put Glyn's and my name together to make 'Glynjohn' and then we added 'ball'.

This is Glyn making a throw-in (you have to face the other way and throw it over your shoulder). Of course. This is Glyn and me mid-play. You'll notice that we're running. There's a lot of running in Glynjohnball (Glyn and I were at the tender age of 19 when this was taken, so we were much fitter).

Glynjohnball took off in a really big way. Before we knew it, loads of youngsters were playing it, and having a jolly good time. Until Lewis came in and told us to stop getting everyone overexcited.

Killjoy.