Announcing...

The Mitchenstein Blog Awards 2008
(The 'Mitchies')
"As prestigious as you want them to be."

Yes, that time of year has come round again. Presumptuous and pretentious it may be, but the Mitchies are back for a second year (see what I’m talking about by clicking here).* However, this time, the awards are going to have input from you, the readers. Everyone has their own group of blogs they regularly check – perhaps you know a really good one I’ve never heard of. So let me know!


Here are some ideas to help you:
The most thought-provoking blog?
Best blog photo 2008?
Best newcomer?
The person we most want to get back to blogging?
The most entertaining blog?
The most conscientious blogger?
The best supporting blogger? (Those comment-writers amongst us)
The best make-up? (Nyah, maybe not)

And, the big one:
The Best Blog Post 2008 (Any post written since 23rd June 2007 is eligible. As long as it’s good, obviously).

Email themitchies at hotmail dot co dot uk ** with any suggestions you may have and they’ll all be announced during the Mitchenstein second birthday week at the end of June. Feel free to mention them on your blog!

The only thing left to say is:

VOTE PORTUGAL AND NORWAY!!

(Iceland is good too...)
(in Eurovision now though, not the Mitchies, obviously).

*Why not? It keeps things lively. And me out of mischief.
**I've only just found out why people do this - I always thought it was to look cool.

PS. The above picture is, of course, an Oscar award and not a Mitchie.

Phlog (Photo Log)

My German friend Patrick has been living in ol’ Blighty for a good eight months now. We don’t get to meet up much because we’re both lead too darn interesting lives. Last time we met up we went on a tour of all things Army (click on January 2008 in the right-hand column for the pictures) and the time before that we visited all the places on the Monopoly board (click on October 2007 to see pictures of that – see, we really don’t meet up that often). Both of those days rocked, so the pressure was on to find something interesting to do today... What could we do...

SO, I introduced him to my friend Samuel L. Jackson...
While I had a conversation with Robin Williams about bringing Mork and Mindy back. He explained why it just wasn't possible... I stopped to chat with Ant and Dec about my latest film project... Before stopping to chat with those less fortunate than ourselves... Patrick explained his latest film idea to Spielberg, who really just seemed more interested in the camera I was holding... There’s always time for a Shrek hug...But I hugged him for too long and Patrick and The Rock got annoyed with me for holding the day up. Although to be fair, it really had nothing to do with The Rock...Before finding Johnny Depp just staring into the mirror (perhaps wondering when he should have stopped making Pirate movies. After the first one, Johnny.)... I showed Warney my flipper... And cycled with Lance Armstrong... While Patrick danced with Tom Jones... We rubbed shoulders with world leaders... And checked out Simon Cowell’s hairy knuckles... I had this photo with my friend Britney, who – let’s be honest now – is a bit of a poser. Who carries a pole round with them just in case a photo opportunity turns up?

All in all, a fairly successful day.

End of an Era

Do you ever get the feeling when you’re suddenly taken back to your childhood? That happened to me today. As you know, I’m a bit of a Neighbours fan – and people, it looks like it’s survived the move to five – but instead of turning off the TV at the end and getting on with some work, I left it running and on came Home and Away. I used to love that show... Coming in from school, I’d sit and watch Citv, before Home and Away started at 5.10pm on ITV, directly followed by Neighbours at 5.35pm on BBC1 (back then it didn’t go up to BBC15 or whatever we’re on now...). They were the biggest shows at school, and everyone used to talk about them – does anyone else remember that?

Anyway, just before the show started, the announcer... well, announced that this would be Sally’s final episode. Yep, after 20 years as Sally Fletcher, Kate Ritchie was moving on to bigger and better things. Finding it pretty cool that I’d managed to come across this particular episode, I sat and watched it – and wow. It was like I was a kid again. Not only was it a long time since I’d seen the show properly, they’d also brought back half the family that arrived with Sally in the very first episode – which I remember (I’ve always had a weird skill for remembering little things like that in perfect detail. Ask me what I had for tea yesterday – go on, ask – and I’ll have to think about it for a good long while. And actually I didn’t manage to have any tea yesterday, so that probably plays a part. But ask me what I had for tea on Friday and I’ll be like... well, it was fish and chips, because Friday is generally fish and chips evening... but ask me about Thursday and I’ll be like, no idea).

I digress. It was early 1989 I believe, so I would have been 5, and I remember coming home from school and Mum telling me that there was a new show from Australia which had been recommended by one of her sisters (a lot of our family live in Australia). We sat down together to watch it, and I remember seeing Sally, Pippa and Tom (and Carly, Lynne, Frank, Stephen and Bobby – I told you, this is the kind of thing I remember – I didn’t even have to check that on Wikipedia) arriving in Summer Bay. I don’t know why I felt the need to write this down, but it was kinda weird sitting (again, next to my Mum) twenty years later, watching Sally, along with Pippa, Stephen and Carly who had come back for the episode, leaving the Bay. Weird, but kinda cool.

And recognise the location of these pictures from 2005? (the top one is with my cousin, Ellie).

Bus

It seemed so simple. Take the bus from the airport to the city centre. How hard can it be? So instead of ending up here:

How did we end up here?

This explains it (have the sound up high):

Yes, we were travelling to Kaunas, the former capital of Lithuania and today the country's second city. And we had a great time (once we eventually got there).

And my highlight?

These people put banana on pizzas! Banana. And man, it really works. Try it. Ham, pineapple and banana - you may scoff now, but scoff you will. It tastes great.

Here's a couple more shots...

Photo stressed... Is there a monument or landmark that Katie hasn't cut the top off?

Hedgehogs and Sealions

In the middle of all the exam stress, it was nice to go out with some friends to celebrate my brother's 18th birthday...

We forced him to do the cheesy pose with his presents (although he made it cheesier than we'd expected):

Hayley laughed a LOT here - the hedgehog in the front is in fact Josh's head.

It's so weird to think my little brother is 18... Although it's sometimes hard to remember: just a word of warning to you - if you're ever having a conversation with him and you happen to leave a slight pause after the word 'but', be prepared for him to insert the words 'face' or 'head' before you get to carry on... Worth knowing ;)

So, not a paticularly long post, but a little update nonetheless, and a nice break from work! One other thing - I'm a bit of a fan of impressionists. Alastair McGowan and Ronni Ancona used to have me in stitches. (Did you ever see Ancona's Yoko Ono? Man, that made me cry with laughter - sometimes I'm just on the train or something, I'll think of it and start laughing again. Beginning to understand why no-one ever sits next to me on the train). Anyway, a friend pointed out this video to me of a Celine Dion impersonator giving a message to the fans of Eurovision (yep, it's coming round again). She nails it - and the facial expressions when she starts singing are priceless. And at the end of the video we get to see some examples of Swiss fashion. Those people have style ;)