Decisions, Decisions...

What should you do when struck down with indecision over the best way to spend a festive evening with your partner-in-crime?  Let the cards decide of course!

• Select a card at random from a shuffled pack.  
• The suit of the card determines the theme of the challenge:
• Hearts = go out for dinner
• Diamonds = get a take away
• Clubs = 'Supermarket Sweep' - find something meal-worthy from your nearest convenience store on a limited budget
• Spades = 'Kitchen Cupboard Challenge' - cobble together a meal from a limited number of ingredients, also restricted to whatever is already in the house
• The number of the card (ace = 1 or 11, picture cards 10) dictates your menu choice if eating out or getting a take away, or your supermarket budget (in £), or the number of ingredients to use for your makeshift meal.
• Once the initial theme card has been selected, the rest of the group can take a card to add some different numbers to the mix if necessary.

The results...
Stop reading now if you get bored by hearing what other people have eaten (that's everyone then).
We picked the 9 of diamonds, followed by an ace, so went for an Indian take away, selecting options 1 and 9 from the starters, special mains and sundries.  I would never have willingly chosen the 'girl curry' we ended up with, or a paratha naan, but I'm very glad the cards made me do it, as it was all delicious and experimental.  We could also laugh about 'what could have happened' had the ace of spades come out (giant pile of fish fingers anyone?).

Verdict:  A late 2013 goal for experimental living.

Christmas Special

Like many people, I struggle to feel festive at this time of year.  In a bid to offset my annual December meltdown, I threw myself into some hardcore crafting.  What better way to ignite that warm fuzzy glow inside* than to think of the great joy brought to your loved ones by some hand-made 'glad tidings' in postcard form?!

Here are a few of my little creations before they went in the post box:

And I found myself with silver card and enthusiasm to spare to make some mini 'Winter Wishes' too:

Merry Christmas Everybody!

*Ah yes, gin.

*Guest Artist Corner*#2

So a very dear friend of mine recently hosted a 50-hour game-a-thon to raise money for the Child's Play Charity.  He even made his own website! I'm so proud of him that I just wanted to say so on this blog.

Here is my baked contribution to the event:

#5b Cards Within Cards

...and look what was waiting on the doormat when I arrived home from Berlin!

The second returned 'card within a card', lovingly crafted by my little sis, who is actually pretty nifty with real-life cake too.

Hallo Aus Berlin!

Winter is coming, the nights are drawing in.  Time for some more experimental travel!

I went to Berlin for 4 days and squeezed (squoze?) in a lot of stuff.  Here are my experimental highlights...

Fliss' 'fread

This is a version of Ariadne's Thread from the Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel.  But I didn't know any Ariadnes who'd been to Berlin.  I do, however, know a Fliss who has lived there for a bit, so this seemed a good replacement.

The idea is to follow a thread between 10 locations in your travel destination, chosen by Ariadne / Fliss.

We made it to all 10, but not strictly in the right order.  But hey, rules were made for breaking!

Here are the 10:

#1 The Gallery of 50 faces

#2 The reggae beach on the east side

#3 The dome of the Reichstag

#4 The East Side Gallery

#5 The DDR Museum

#6 The streets, shops, cafes and bars of East Berlin

#7 Warschauer Strasse U-Bahn Station

#8 Bebelplatz

#9 The Holocaust Memorial
(I cried)

#10 The hotel that Michael Jackson dangled a baby out of
(conveniently part of the Festival of Lights too!)

Here is the (blurry) map:

 

Big up to an artist / tour guide called Penny with the Alternative Berlin tours, who showed us a lot of street art, and also told us the story of the man who built his tree house at the foot of the Berlin Wall:

 Counter-Tourism at the Brandenburg Gate

You know all about counter-tourism by now right?  Here's some at the Brandenburg Gate:

Spontaneous Postcard Art

As you can tell, it was a bit rainy in Berlin.  To escape the rain, we stumbled into the Akademie Der Kunste, where quite by chance there was an exhibition of...  'Mail Art'!

Yes dear reader, it is 'a thing'!  (I bet you knew that already, didn't you?)

So overwhelmed was I to learn that I was actually part of a proper art movement, that I had to 'do an art' right then and there.  So we sent an arted postcard from inside the gallery to...  none other than Fliss, she of the thread!

Other Random Spontaneous Things That You Only See With Your Eyes Open...

 

And of course... lots of bears:

#5a Cards Within Cards

Credit where credit is due:  This is not my idea.
(It was given to me by the venerable partner-in-crime.  Big up.)

It's actually a slight modification of the original 'Why don't you write me', except:

1. Postcards are targeted at people you actually know...
2. ... but in a way that (hopefully) they won't be expecting
3. It uses commercially available postcards specifically designed to tease out nuggets of creativity from those who receive them.  (One of my birthday presents!)

I can't say much more for now or I may spoil a few surprises, but here is the prototype result...

P-I-C sets the bar high as usual

Return of the Spontaneous Holiday Postcard

This postcard lark's not all about giving, you know.
It's only right that I should point out I have received not one but two spontaneous holiday postcards these past months from my all time favourite art-physics-ist / fabulous friend.

I've looked at postcards from both sides now, from give and take, and still somehow it's postcards' illusions I recall.  I really don't know postcards at all...

(With all credit and sincere apologies to Joni.)

#4 Say it with Sugar

There's not much better in life than cake...  Except maybe...

SURPRISE CAKE!!

Now I'll admit I'm cheating a bit here.  I'm no stranger to baking for people.  And the cake-recipient did just have a birthday, so it wasn't an entirely random 'hello'...

But still, it was a surprise, and a seemingly welcome one at that, so I thought it was worth a mention here.

Here are the cakes ready to be sent out into the world:

They're based on the tale of 'The Gingerbread Man'.  The cupcakes are ginger with lime drizzle icing and a secret thing hiding inside.  They come with a gingerbread fox and four mini men displaying various emotions.

Conclusion:  I've yet to meet anyone who would not appreciate a surprise gift of cake.

Counter-Day-Tripping

Me and my partner-in-crime thought it was high time for a bit of experimental travel, so having booked time off work, we trundled off to spend a sunny Wednesday in... Morecambe.

We parked up on the outskirts of town in Bare (home of the Bare Boys' Brigade) and headed straight for our target counter-tourist attraction - Graham Ibbeson's statue of the late comedian Eric Morecambe.  Following the rules of counter-tourism, we then turned our backs on Eric, and took photos not of him but of what he could see - including any normal tourists that happened to be snapping him at the time...

This mission accomplished, it was time for spontaneity to take over.  As neither of us were familiar with the area, we wandered around keeping our eyes open for any potential sources of recreation - and we found it in abundance!

Here are some things I never expected to do in Morecambe:

• Climb a mountain or two...

• See lots of street / beach art...
  

• Lunch like Poirot...

• Play hopscotch...

• Do a  bird-search...

• Win on the slots...

• Perform some pavement poetry...

All in all, a fantastic day out, made all the more exciting by experimentality.  

Thank you for having us Morecambe!

#3 Invitations with a bang!

Do you ever find that ideas constantly float around in your head in a state of Brownian motion, until each finds a compatible brain cell with which to share love's first embrace, then proceed to tap you politely on the skull to inform you of the happy union, allowing you to bring forth a bounty of creative fruit?

No, me neither.

What happened was this:  I thought that putting a message inside a balloon would be a good way to say hello.  Balloons made me think of parties.  Parties made me think of invitations.  Invitations to parties are a very good way to say hello.  I remembered that conveniently I have a birthday coming up and I might need to send some invitations...  and so the 'invitation inside a balloon' idea was born.

It looked a bit like this: 

The all-important message was on a rolled up bit of paper inserted into the deflated balloon, which was then put inside an envelope (with simple instructions to 'Blow me up and POP!') and sent to the desired recipient.

In theory, said recipient would then blow up the balloon and pop it to release the message, thus getting a bit of a pre-party adrenaline rush to get them in the mood for fun times.

In practice, the desired positive effect can be lessened somewhat if your friends (like mine) happen to fall into any of the following categories:

1. Globophobics 
2. Owners of nervous pets
3. People who can't blow up balloons

In conclusion: sometimes creative ideas can fail a bit.  And that is completely okay.

*Guest Artist Corner* #1

(With many thanks to Bad Bad Drawings for this specially commissioned piece.)

#2 Give a Life

A confession:  I don't like mushrooms.  I cannot bring myself to consider them food.

But if, say, I was an Italian plumber living with my brother in a 2-dimensional world of princesses and chompy flowers and those weird ghost things, then I might very well appreciate a mushroom or two to make me 'super', or even give me an extra life!

So this got me thinking about my next way to say hello...  Maybe my nearest and dearest would appreciate being gifted with such a treasure!  Surely we all need a 1-UP* on a Monday afternoon, whether you've spent your day dodging bob-ombs, or simply staring at a screen, trying to be creative.

Here's what I did:

The recipients assure me that they were pleasantly surprised to find these little fellas on their doorstep.

Success!

*To all those Mario pedants reading: yes I know that 1-UP mushrooms are supposed to be green, but I only had red paint.  And it's artistic licence.  Or something.  Sorry.

#1 The Spontaneous Holiday Postcard

Here is my first attempt at saying hello in a more experimental way...

Step 1:  Go on an unplanned 'holiday' for a day / morning / afternoon.  (I found myself quite spontaneously in an English tourist town on a sunny Sunday.)
Step 2:  Procure a postcard to send to someone who's not expecting one (hello mum!).  And a stamp if you don't have one to hand.
Step 3:  Write your message at the point at which you feel most alive with the joy of your holiday.  (I wrote mine whilst sat outside a waterside cafe in the sunshine, sipping black coffee and digesting my Mediterranean platter of bread, cheese and olives.  Pure holiday.)
Step 4:  Don't forget to post it before you leave!  (Searching for a postbox is also a good excuse for further exploration of your holiday destination.)

Unsolicited Mail

Well the flood of NYC postcards appears to have dried up - so I thought I'd take the opportunity to show my appreciation for all the unsolicited (but very welcome) messages I've received of late.

My pet bunny seems to miss me when I've been away as he leaves me pictures on my chalkboard...

...and I'll occasionally get home to find my doormat brimming with pre-loved magazines from my neighbour...

...or even a postcard from my mum, who's been beside the seaside for the Pensioners Parliament (http://npcuk.org/)

I've even received an extremely rare piece of fan mail!!

Every little message makes me smile, and so I'd like to try to give back at least as much as I get.

My next experiment: to try out different and creative ways of keeping in touch...