Ohana Ukulele

I am not normally a trendy person, but in March I ordered an Ohana Ukulele from Music Is Life http://www.musicislife.co.uk/ (also called the Southern Ukulele Store on Ebay) which finally arrived a few weeks ago. Ukuleles are very popular at the moment – even the Guardian has dedicated an article to a Ukulele teacher in last Saturday’s Work section. I think the Ukulele is popular because it is cute and a good starting instrument. The funny thing is that I have a beautiful acoustic guitar, but its body is a tad to big for me. I had some lessons and know a few chords. And now I have to re-learn how to tune my Uke, which still goes out of tune too quickly, and the chords, which are different to the guitar chords.

I bought my Uke after watching reviews by Uke expert Ken Middleton on YouTube. He is very thorough and explains everything you need to know.

http://www.youtube.com/user/KenMiddletonUkulele#p/u/81/d9FlraRx1M0

My Ukulele is made by Ohana, a company which specialises in hand-crafting Ukuleles. Though they are based in Long Beach, California their instruments are made in China. My Uke is an SK 35 G – a soprano Uke made out of Mahagony. As you can see in the video and from my photo it’s  a beautifully made instrument.

Unfortunately Bobby is not too impressed – she is generally scared of string instruments – especially my guitar and my husband’s violin. Mainly because he can’t play it yet and because when she was a kitten she managed to whack my guitar over which scared the life out of her. She survived the incident without a scratch but my guitar’s head needed to get fixed with nail varnish (!), because it splintered. I was hoping that she will at least tolerate my Uke for a photo shoot, but so far no luck. Maybe next time. She got used to the hoover and the hair dryer, so there is hope.

I have a couple of books to help me learn the chords and notes but I decided to buy a DVD which I ordered today. It’s called Steven Sproat’s Ukelounge. So I hope I can play a few tunes in a couple of weeks.

If you like Ukuleles, here are some useful links.

For tuning: http://www.get-tuned.com/ukulele_tuner.php

For everything else: http://liveukulele.com/ukelounge-lesson-dvd-giveaway-part-1/

http://www.easyukulele.com/index.html

http://www.theuke.com/content.php?article.15

http://www.ukeschool.com/ukulele/lessons/how_to_play.html

I am still producing new items, working on my wording and taking photos. I am still looking for a newsletter solution, have to design vouchers, order business cards and price my items. At this rate I don’t see myself launching at the beginning of August, but here’s hoping

Dragonfly taken with new camera

Bobby sticks her nose into the new camera's lens

Bobby being cute - typical Bobby look

Yesterday I had to drive him out of the kitchen and noticed an awful smell in the garden. That’s the thing about toms – I am not sure if he’s neutered- they spray everywhere and it’s the worst smell in the universe – (maybe lions and tigers are worse).  And unfortunately some owners of male cats don’t see that it’s their responsibility to get them neutered.

I was glad he didn’t spray in the house. This happened a lot in my parents’ flat when Freddy was still alive. As they don’t have a cat flap, they used to leave the balcony door open and often uninvited toms would come in and harass poor Freddy, especially when she was older. And they would leave awful scent marks on things like my rucksack (my most embarrassing trip home on the tram), the video recorder, the piano (!) and walls. My mum was not amused. Now my dad makes sure the door is always shut and Dusty has to wait until someone lets her in. My dad doesn’t want to invest in a flap as the doors are not designed for one.

We will have to find a way to stop the intruder from coming in. I don’t like it but next time it’s time for the hose!

Because jewellery is now another part of my portfolio I have decided to include jewellery related posts and updates of my projects. I also will include other jewellery related blogs. So watch this space.

for my website

Bobby ponders who to vote for..

The election is in full swing and we have been inundated with leaflets. Not only that –  the office of local Labour MP Julie Morgan has rung twice to ask me who I would vote for. My answer was simple: I am not allowed to vote unless I give up my nationality and become a British citizen. Which I simply don’t want to do.  The lady on the phone suggested that I could vote in the German election – to which I replied: what’s the point if I don’t live there anymore? British politics affect my life more than German.

My stepfather is in a similar situation. Every four years when the election is looming in Germany he follows the campaign with interest but can’t vote, because he doesn’t want to give up his British passport. I have been living here for eight years, pay my contributions and have never been in trouble, but can’t exercise a fundamental right. What bothers me more than this is actually that a lot of people who have the right to vote simply can’t be arsed (and just moan about it all).  To a certain extent I can understand that –  given the abysmal choice. Plus I think the British system is not really that democratic. It’s the winner-takes-it-all approach which simply isn’t working and doesn’t do this country any good.

I found an interesting organisation that wants to reform the whole system: Power 2010  www.power2010.org.uk.  Among the things they propose are: changing the current system into a proportional voting system (similar to the German system), to scrap ID cards and rolling back the database state, replacement of House of Lords with an elected chamber. I would add another one: allow foreign nationals who have lived here long enough (say 5 years) to vote in national elections. Now there is a thought.

 And this is what Bobby thinks of the election:

Bobby is not impressed with the choice.

If you are feeling blue, are fed up with depressing news and the world around you – watch Little House on the Prairie. It will cheer you up, make you think and give you back the belief in the good that exists in the world. Though a lot of drama happens to the Ingalls family during the 8 seasons, the stories have mostly happy endings, a positive outlook on life and there is a strong community spirit. The series doesn’t adhere completely to the book and stories have been added. There are also historical inaccuracies as pointed out in this Wikipedia entry, which gives a detailed summary of the whole series and cast: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_House_on_the_Prairie_(TV_series)

I re-discovered this childhood favourite of mine because a friend lent me her box set of the first season. I used to love this show as a child and looked forward to my Saturday afternoon fix of Laura and co. I identified with the feisty tomboy Laura. My aunt, who is five years older, and I used to play LHOTP and there was little dressing up required as we actually had dresses, which resembled those of the girls on the show- minus the pinafores.  I loved wearing those dresses and they were tailor-made by a friend of my gran’s, who was a dressmaker. I loved the idea of living on a farm with lots of animals. Some episodes made me laugh and some cry. I remember one of the saddest episodes was the one where Laura’s older sister goes blind.  I cried buckets. I guess as soon as I reach that episode (series 4 if I remember correctly) I will cry again.

I wanted to find out what happened to the main cast. While some actors like director and actor Michael Landon are no longer alive, others like Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary) and Melissa Gilbert (Laura) are still acting. Melissa Gilbert  see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Gilbert and http://www.gilbertboxleitner.com/melissa/index2.html had a dramatic life herself – which was completely the opposite of her on-screen persona. She was adopted as a baby by a comedian, dated stars such as Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise and John Cusack and had problems with alcohol and drugs.  She managed to carve out a TV career after LHOTP and was appointed as President of the Screen Actors Guild twice. Today she plays the mother “Ma” CarOline Ingalls in the musical version of LHOTP.

Fans of LHOTP can visit the various sites the stories are set in: http://www.laurasprairiehouse.com/ and a museum devoted to author Laura Ingalls Wilder:  http://www.lauraingallswilderhome.com/

This website http://www.littlehousebooks.com/ gives an overview of the books.

Bobby watches a wildlife documentary

Our cat is full of surprises and the latest is that after 4 years with us she finally has discovered the joys of watching  television. Usually she doesn’t care much about it when it’s on and often  just snoozes, but for a couple of days now she is transfixed by it. She responds to noises and on Monday she spent an hour watching a wildlife documentary about the Yellowstone River in Canada. At some point they showed how the snow came down and she started touching the screen. So I am wondering what cats actually can see when they watch telly. They usually do respond to sounds, certainly animal sounds and of course other cats, but what can they actually see and recognise on the flat screen? So I googled to find out.

 Here some links that shed some light on the question:

http://www.pawnation.com/2009/07/23/what-dogs-and-cats-really-see-on-tv-and-elsewhere/

 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081221171729AAPq4kU

What do you think? If you own a cat, does she/he  also stare intently at the telly? Does she/he prefer specific programmes?

Bobby watches a wildlife documentary

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/may/23/germany.features11

It all comes down to language. And context.

I have been living here for almost eight years, find all sorts of things very funny, consider myself as someone with a dry humour and I am very fond of British comedians. The ones I enjoy are all very different from each other, among them: Bill Bailey, Stewart Lee, Russell Brand, Jo Brand and the Australian Tim Minchin. And not all of them really tell jokes in the traditional sense. Certainly not Lee. They also try to avoid perpetuating stereotypes and dissing other nationalities and don’t rely on cheap shots at Germans. I regard Bill Bailey’s Kraftwerk piss-take as a nice homage to the band.

In Germany we have different types of humour like the Brits, but the sophisticated political cabaret dominates more over here and has a long tradition. I grew up listening to old records by the Duesseldorfer Kommoedchen and people like Dieter Hildebrandt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Hildebrandt). Harald Schmidt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Schmidt) is a big name and in Germany and had his own late night show for years. He is funnier than say Jon Stewart, Jay Leno and the likes. The Misfits are a funny female duo that used to make me laugh out loud and I enjoy Dieter Nuhr’s satire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Nuhr). Loriot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicco_von_B%C3%BClow) is still very popular (and sadly his wonderful partner Evelyn Hamann died a few years ago). His sketches are timeless classics. I also like Kaya Yanar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaya_Yanar  and http://www.kaya-yanar.de/html/deutsch/home/home.php ) who is more like your typical comedian. He takes the piss out of everyone no matter what nationality.

You can find also silly humour and “below-the-belt” humour in Germany. Especially at this time of year in the run-up to Carnival. Cologne is the bastion of Carnival and for five days in February you can either dress up and get pissed and maybe shag some strangers (if you really have to) and get into the spirit of things – or you hide in your flat and wait it out. Or if you’re lucky you go on a holiday until “Aschermittwoch” – Ash Wednesday” when the show is over and people are back at work with a massive hangover. At this time of year German Television consist of a variety of shows which are called “Prunksitzungen” and are extremely unfunny. “Faekalhumor” or dirty jokes dominate these shows. Carnival is a time of year when I certainly don’t miss Cologne. I never enjoyed Carnival as I prefer to determine myself when I want to have fun. Organised fun – like organised religion – is not for me.

I prefer dry, ironic humour with a bit of sarcasm thrown in. But I do find Harry Hill’s TV Burp hilarious.