Message from Mitchenstein

I'm sure you won't have failed to notice that today is Mitchenstein's six-month birthday! Happy Birthday Mitchenstein. Over that time we've cut our hair, bought some goats, discovered the greatest Neighbour of all time, dressed up as characters from Lord of the Rings, pretended to be top French horn players, rubbed shoulders with celebrities, travelled to random islands, lost plant friends, featured on t-shirts and looked for toilets in Hendon.

Here's to the next six months!

So all that remains for me to do is to wish you all:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Fröhliche Weihnachten! God Jul! Hyvää Joulua! Gleðileg Jól! Gleðilig Jól! Glædilig Jul! Wesołych Świąt! Veselé Vánoce!

God bless us each and every one! (in the words of Tiny Tim)

The Greatest Neighbour of all Time

And the results are in. In a couple of seconds you will know who the greatest Neighbour of all time is. Are you excited? You should be. (See earlier posts for positions 11-50)

The top ten Neighbours characters of all - as voted by you the public - are:

10. Joe Mangel (1372 points)
9. Sky Mangel (1547 points)

8. Toadfish Rebecchi (1797 points) We know it's going to be Harold 7. Helen Daniels (1818 points)
6. Madge Bishop (1849 points)
5. Izzy Hoyland (1967 points) Little bit of a surprise there...4. Karl Kennedy (2473 points) 3. Paul Robinson (2743 points) It'll be Harold 2. Harold Bishop (3089 points) It probably won't be Harold
and the top Neighbour is (believe it or not):

With a whopping 3385 points:

1. Susan Kinski (Kennedy, Smith, etc.) Well congratulations Susan - little bit of a surprise there, but the people have spoken. But let me congratulate myself for predicting the exact top ten last week. Congratulations Mitchenstein!

Bitsa This And Bitsa That (Remember That Show?)

G'day everyone - how's it going? Well this is going to be a bit of an updatey blog filling you in on various things! Firstly, have you checked out the nostalgia section in the right-hand column? I've tried to add a little something for everyone :-D Let me know what you think!

By the way, there's a Salvation Army group from the USA (The Singing Company - isn't that a great name?!) who have released one album and a Christmas CD - check out their 'Joy to the World/Joy in The Salvation Army' track at www.thesingingcompany.com. Their 'Marching On in the Light' track is very cool. It's so great to find a young group that are proud of their Salvation Army heritage. Here they are:

Aren't they cool? I'd like to be their friend :-D

Anyway, Christmas is coming up soon - 6 days! (5 days for all you Europeans who celebrate it on the wrong day). So that's very exciting - but it's also a very busy time for many of us. I've grown up in The Salvation Army so I've been carolling on the streets for many years, but this was the first year where I actually conducted the band. Scary stuff. I had a feeling that someone was going to hit me with something, but they didn't and people seemed to really enjoy it - and the kids played really well, so I was a happy bunny. That's right.

I haven't been posting so much as I have a big essay to be working on (I really don't have time to be doing this!) but you know how it is when you're supposed to be working... Actually the essay is going pretty well - I just need to spend time on it making it completely unitelligible to anyone who might want to read it. That seems to be what they expect in MA essays.

Of course, you're all wanting to know who came in positions 11-20 in the poll to find the best Neighbour of all time, aren't you?! My money's on Harold. So here they are:

20. Jim Robinson (630 points)
19. Billy Kennedy (682 points)
18. Dylan Timmins (726 points)
17. Janelle Timmins (798 points) No! I really thought she'd be higher than this!
16. Mrs Mangel (805 points) Another one of mine... She was classic!
15. Stingray Timmins (931 points) Them Timminses is mighty popular
14. Charlene Robinson (935 points) That's pretty low...
13. Stephanie Hoyland (992 points) Are you kidding?! She's pants!
12. Lou Carpenter (1343 points)
11. Libby Kennedy (1365 points)

OK, so Harold, Helen, Karl, Susan, Madge, Joe, Toadie, Paul... Who's it gonna be?! Sky?! Izzy?! Man, Ned better not be on that list. It has to be Harold. Well, keep posted and we'll see!

By the way, there were supposed to be pictures of Lou and Janelle in this post, but blogger won't let me add them. It says that it has, but I think we can all disagree with that.

Make a flake!

Today I found an American website where you can make your own snowflakes! Hooray, I hear you say. How long have you been waiting for one of those? And it gets better. The more snowflakes made, the more money the website will give to The Salvation Army. Fun and a good deed - it doesn't get much better than this! So here's the link:

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/

And check out the three Mitchenstein snowflakes. If I may say so myself, they are very good! I'm not entirely sure who these Popular Front people are... They seem to throw parties in order to make you popular (?!) but when it's for a good cause, who's arguing!?

Now for the REALLY exciting stuff - who came in positions 21 - 30 in the top Neighbour of all time competition? Well, here you are (it makes more sense to do them in reverse order I now see):

30. Boyd Hoyland (385 points)
29. Stuart Parker (387 points)
28. Connor O'Neill (410 points) Argh...
27. Lance Wilkinson (412 points)
26. Darcy Tyler (427 points)
25. Daphne Clarke (430 points) Neighbours' first death, I believe...
24. Scott Robinson (521 points) No! The first one of my votes has come up already! But in fairness, look at the massive differnce in points between Scott and Daphne...
23. Henry Ramsay (548 points)
22. Drew Kirk (556 points) Killed by a horse. Tee hee.
21. Janae Timmins (592 points)

Superficial?

Apart from the particularly moving post about Peter (see below), it could be said that my blog is fairly superficial. I don't go in for the heavy questions about life that Matt, Stephen and Glyn go in for (and do so well).

Well, I'm determined to prove there's more to Mitchenstein than just superficiality. And that's why the time has come to announce who's come in positions 31-50 in the poll to find the greatest character in Neighbours of ALL time! If you remember, back in August I mentioned that www.perfectblend.net - a website I found entirely by chance, I promise! - had started a poll to find the best Neighbour of all time! Four months later, and the first results are out!! Yippee!

So, here we go!

31. Gail Robinson (372 points)
32. Bree Timmins (367 points) Nice!33. Dione Bliss (357 points)
34. Joe Scully (355 points)
35. Cheryl Stark (345 points)
36. Liljana Bishop (349 points)
37. Serena Bishop (326 points) Are you kidding me?
38. Elle Robinson (322 points) The worst actress in Neighbours ever. And that's saying something.
39. Nina Tucker (318 points)
40. Rachel Kinski (304 points)
41. Lyn Scully (288 points)
42. Felicity Scully (285 points)
43. Julie Robinson/Martin (268 points)
44. Anne Wilkinson (266 points)
45. Dorothy Burke (256 points)
46. Max Hoyland (247 points) The most boring character ever? =48. Annalise Hartman (238 points)
=48. Cody Willis (238 points)*
49. Philip Martin (223 points)
50. Clive Gibbons (217 points)

*Victim of Neighbours' most realistic death scene. A drugs bust takes place in the middle of Ramsay Street. A gun goes off and shoots Cody, who happens to be in her lounge. Marvellous.

I'm quite impressed to see that none of my top ten characters have appeared yet (Harold Bishop, Susan and Karl Kennedy, Janelle Timmins, Scott and Charlene Robinson, Madge Bishop, Helen Daniels and Mrs. Mangel. Have I selected the top ten by chance?!)

I'm glad I seized this opportunity to add some real depth to my blog.

Peter

I recently found out about the passing of my friend Peter. When I first arrived in Hamburg and had no friends, it was Peter who got me through it all. We didn't know each other for so long - only for four months - but Peter was as good a friend as a friend can be.

This is Peter (and me) in Germany, 2005:

Peter (full name Peter die Pflanze, 'Peter the Plant') was my buddy. We had our ups, we had our downs, we went on the underground together. He told the best jokes:

I'm afraid I can't repeat the joke here, because it was quite rude.

Peter and I met each other on my first day in Hamburg (he originally comes from Dammtor railway station). We were introduced by my friends Philipp and Grit. We would chat away most evenings while watching Friends. When I had to leave Hamburg, I was heartbroken - where would Peter go? This was a real worry. In the end, my good friends Lucy and Chris decided to foster him. They looked after him well, but recently I got the message that Peter had died. Passed away. Peter is survived by two little plantlings (but I haven't met them yet). None of us ever met Mrs Peter die Pflanze.

You may be wondering why we called him Peter die Pflanze, rather than just Peter. This is because we knew someone else called Peter (Peter der Mann, 'Peter the Man') and you would not believe how often we got them confused in conversation. So we had to give them surnames. Thinking about it, Peter der Mann probably had a surname already... but we never asked him.

R.I.P.

Peter die Pflanze

'He was a plant.'

I'm a Celebrity... I can't stop watching!

G'day! How's it going? Apologies for not having blogged in a little while. It's been manic recently! I'm now doing some teaching at the university, and what with studying and Salvation Army stuff, it's all been very busy! But I love it all and everything's going really well. Pukka. (And I was using that word long before Jamie Oliver came on the scene).

But, if I'm truly honest, the other reason for my lack of blogging is that... I'm totally addicted to I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! I reckon that's probably pretty sad, but I can't help it. If I'm not home I video it. I don't watch Big Brother, X-Factor, Strictly Come Dancing or any of those other 'reality' shows, but I love Celebrity. And isn't it grand?

OK, we don't like Jan or Scott - Lauren and Phina had so won that chest. But the others are all pretty 'cool' - although Toby Anstis is a little odd... Not too keen with this whole 'divide the camp' thing that they've got going on right now, but we'll see how that develops. What do I know?

And one more thing - those people in my 'Friends Who Blog' and 'Friends Who Blog (Abroad)' lists had better start blogging soon (apart from Matt White and Glyn - well done you two) or their places on the lists will soon be up for grabs! Harsh but fair.

Better get back to marking work... That novelty wore off soon!

I kid you not!

Southend United 1 - 0 Manchester United

Roots Hall, Tuesday 7th November, 2006

Way to go Southend!!

And it's not like Manchester United fielded their second team - Rooney and Ronaldo were playing!

It's in and counted!

A massive thank you to everyone who sponsored me for my haircut!

The final total is:

£1045.50

Thank you everyone!!

That's €1,550.95 for all you Germans, 2,599 Australian Dollars or 139,037 Icelandic kronur - I like it in Icelandic kronur the best!

And with that money, we'll be buying:

2 water pumps,

28 chickens,

25 goats,

12 pigs and

2 caterpillar farms!

A huge thank you to everyone who sponsored me! Special thanks must go to Philipp Reutter, Alice Chimusaru and Banbury Postiche for their help :-D

When it started, I would have been really happy to get £100 - I never dreamed that this much money would be coming in - but it's all in and it's all sent off!

Thank you!

PS. Check out the photo in this week's Salvationist!

Every Time I Look Around...

I've noticed a curious phenomenon since I turned 23. Famous people just can't keep away from me! I've been stood next to someone famous every day since I turned 23. Admittedly, that's only been two days, but all the same.

So yesterday, I was at Fenchurch Street station when I turned around and realised I was standing five centimetres away from Jenny Eclair - comedienne and author Jenny Eclair to give her her full name (pictured left). Not only that, but she then got on my train carriage. Well, to put it more correctly, I got on her train carriage, but I can assure you that I was getting on the train anyway. I was with Katie so she can confirm that!

So yes, that was quite cool. But then today, I come out of the toilets at a cafe by university and realise that I'm standing next to Tim Vine, of the new BBC comedy 'Not Going Out' fame (see below, right). Actually standing next to him.

So now, as you can imagine, I'm kind of excited about who I'm going to be seeing tomorrow. Who will I turn around and see then? I can't work out whether the celebrities are getting bigger or smaller as the days go by - I thought that Jenny Eclair is probably more famous than Tim Vine, but then I found out that he's the world record holder for the number of jokes told in one hour (499) and he was also the first male on Channel five... it's a tough one.

I noticed that they were both lugging suitcases around - my illusions of fame were slightly shattered when I realised that famous people don't get their cases moved by someone else...

It's interesting - unlike Glyn and Matt, I don't need to travel to special places at special times to meet famous people (see Matt White's blog) - I just happen to hang out in the same places they do.

Sweet.

John Mitchinson - The Merchandise!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I kid you not! This is a picture of me (albeit a slightly dodgy picture, because I had to take it myself) wearing the first John Mitchinson Haircut T-shirt. Possibly one of the coolest birthday presents I've ever had. Thanks have to go to Lucy for designing and making it!

As it's pretty hard to see the design on this picture, check these pictures out:

The front:

And the back:It's me! It's really me! The more astute of you will have noticed that the first picture is based on me when i was dressed as a very dashing Legolas and the second picture comes from me sitting in the hairdresser's chair after my locks had gone (admittedly not looking quite as bald as on the t-shirt!)

I've now been 23 for 69 minutes. It's not bad. Nothing has particularly changed since I was 22. I guess I'll need to leave it for a little while and then I'll get back to you on that.

By the way, my friend Lucy would be very happy to hear of others wanting t-shirts made to any design. Let me know, and we'll see whether we can fulfil your t-shirt needs (although my part in that will be minimal... In that that was it.)

(I'd just like to add that my birthday is October 26th, and it is October 26th - no idea why it's claiming to be another date and time - it's not GMT, the current American time or anything... Hang on, maybe time stopped at 11.49pm yesterday and I'll be 22 forever. It's possible.)

Phased out but not fazed out!

I've been phased out!

Ok, remember in Friends where it emerges that Phoebe once tried to phase out Monica? You know, not return her calls, messages, etc. until she gets the picture and moves on? That's happened to me! I've been phased out!

It's not the best feeling, but I know I'm a great friend to have!

(By the way, I know that this is actually a picture of Monica showing Phoebe all the things she can do with the van instead of running a catering business together, but it's the only picture I could find of Phoebe and Monica together...)

As for the haircut stuff - money is still coming in nicely. I don't want to say how much has come in yet, because there's still more to come, but it's going well!

As for the new me, it's been so funny to notice the different reactions that people give me, now that I look like a thug. Someone at my church said that if they saw me walking down the road, they'd cross over. Is it wrong to be proud of that?

I stepped on the underground train last week and (seriously!) people hugged their bags closer to them. It may not have helped that I was wearing a football shirt at the same time... (although, admittedly, it was from the Faroe Islands, rather than England).

Apologies that I haven't been so good at blogging recently. University is absolutely manic at the moment. I'll get back into it, but it's taking its time...

And by the way, I still really want to do that Monopoly Day, but people seem to have forgotten about that... To all those people who said they wanted to come with me, let's sort that one out!

Catch you soon!

And The Money Kept Rolling In...

Any excuse to use a picture from Evita... :-D

But yes, the hair went a week and a half ago - and I've not looked back since! Recent comments about the new haircut include: better, good, hot and, my personal favourite, spunky (from Australia of course!)

I still get a little shock when I walk past a mirror, it certainly feels colder and I keep going to pull the hair out of my t-shirt in the mornings, but I have to say that I do like the new look! It's grown on me - and it really has!

The money collecting - as you may have guessed from the title - is going really well. I'm quite close to a target that I never thought I'd reach and now really want to! :-D So if you said you'd sponsor me and haven't got round to it yet, here's a little reminder - sponsor me!

And if you didn't say you'd sponsor me, but are now feeling that you'd really like to - that's ok! Go with it.

Take care and catch up with ya later!

IT'S GONE!! (1)

So, here goes...


It had got pretty long...

Looking enthusiastic here.

Off comes the ponytail. NOOOO!

No going back now.

Not a good look!

Shall we leave it as a No. 2?

IT'S GONE!! (2)

No, we'll go the whole way!


My beautiful hair!

Sue saw what she had done, and it was good!

I DID IT!!! (the ponytail's in the bag!)

It's FREEZING!!

SPONSOR ME!!