Schaffered

Today I bring metal to add to the sparkles.

By far the coolest thing in my life since Hallowe'en was taking Adz's brother Tristan to see Iced Earth live at the Islinton O2 for his birthday.

Some context: To Tris, Adz, myself and some of our best friends, Iced Earth represent a lot more than a great band. We've managed to create a crazy culture around their work - to be specific, the Gettysburg (1863) trilogy - an epic set of songs telling the story of the American civil war battle.

Thanks to this song we've congregated for the last seven years together for a weekend of excessive meat-eating, drinking and listening to metal. What started in 2006 as a day-long barbeque in Gatty halls, St Andrews has now degenerated into the annual tradition of Gattysburg:

We even cooked a pig or two:

So back to the present. Iced Earth were phenomenal. Their new singer is perfect, absolutely astounding range and didn't get a note wrong all night (I'm a stickler for that, sorry) and the guitarist and star John Schaffer, was solid as a rock.

Their new album material is just great, Iced Earth distilled to its purest form, and Dystopia made for a great opening number. They put some real classics in too, and surprised us all with Damien from Horror Show. Atmosphere was perfect, everyone was hyped to see them, and they worked the crowd like pros. I now have a minor crush on the Bassist, Freddie Vidales and his epic stage presence - seems I have a thing for bassists.

Look at us, we love it. 

Shake that beautiful mane, Mr Vidales

So, it was Tristan's birthday, and Adz had bought him a VIP package for the gig, including a meet and greet with the band. So we armed him with an album of all the shenanigans of the last seven years of idiocy and sent him forth to tell John Schaffer our drunken tales. Apparently he seemed pretty pleased - he's a Confederate all the way...

Tris meets Iced Earth

Schaffer learns about Gattysburg

Dethonator played the next day and Adz and Tris were top form. Pretty sure they were channeling the power of seeing Schaffer in the flesh.

Anyhoo. That was Iced Earth and it was a great night.

Til next time,

Hxx

Hallowe'en is awesome

I do love Hallowe'en. I love the history and ideas behind it and the simple joy of the rituals, from pumpkin carving to scary stories to dressing up and seeing kids going out with their parents to trick or treat.

Adam is amazing to be with at Hallowe'en. He becomes a kid again - we've carved four pumpkins since Friday and watched at least seven horror movies. He's so committed he got angry over leaving some fake spiderwebs at home when we headed to his gig this weekend.

My own favourite part is the costumes - I love to make them, though they never save you the money you think they will. I made parts of both Adam's costume and mine this year. 

I was Ursula the Sea-witch (who is the coolest of all the Disney villains) and Adz was Death. 

Death and Ursula. Perfect match.

I made his cowl and my skirt out of sheets from Primark. Proper fabric is not easy to find at short notice if you work 9-5 in London. His cowl was a dressing gown with added hood - he went out in it on Monday night too and terrified the small children, poor things. 

My skirt was a bitty more complicated.  It took two evenings, much in-the-head planning and a LOT of alteration in the making. It's made of sixteen panels which turn into tentacles at the end, which are stuffed. The purple turns up to become an inside lining. 

"Poor unfortunate souls..."

My tentacles, complete with suckers

I had fun doing it and would make a million improvements - but it's nice to know I can do things like this without a pattern, and I plan on doing lots more. 

Adam's gig was... not the best. Serious tuning issues thanks to a broken string just before the show. But he always looks great on stage, if a bit mental - as you can see on this pic, which I can't insert. And it was a great crowd. 

I've rambled enough. Farewell for now!

An introduction of sorts

So. First post. What to write?

Mini-synopsis I think. I'm Heather. A few people call me Aitchey - Because my name starts with H. I also answer to duckle, moo-pie and a number of other sickly-sweet things that my other half calls me.

We've been together ten years, since I was in first year at uni, and almost everything in my life involves him so I'll probably talk about him a lot.

For reference, I call him dinosaur, monkey and other such nonsense too. He plays bass and writes in a band called Dethonator who you should listen to, they're pretty good.

This is us:

There's no such thing as a good photo of the two of us together, this is the best I have.

We like heavy metal. Which a lot of people seem to struggle with, because I'm a civil servant and he's a classics teacher. I also do musical theatre. Honest, it works. We mainly go out to gigs or the pub, and have often talked about how we'd enjoy reviewing restaurants - so expect some of that too.

This will probably be a blog about the lives of two metalheads who are full of contradictions. And not much metal

Anywho. Other main point, I ramble.

From my old blog: On motivation and prioritising

Had a very interesting chat with my line manager today which has put me in a reflective mood.

I've been very pessimistic about work lately (redundancies, stagnant working practices), but this made me feel more positive about the future if only I can act on it. I am, though I wish it wasn’t so, a glass-half-empty kind of person. I know that it often makes me unable to see the wood for the trees, but I don’t seem to be able to stop myself.

My manager pointed out today however that I’m actually in one of the best positions in the office right now if I could just see it. I have the scope to be creative, to work in both the major press and across the marketing spectrum instead of production-lining ministers’ requests.

I had known this before, but I seemed to have forgotten it or something, and I don’t want to forget it again.

So how do I give myself a sunnier outlook, and how do I stop myself thinking about tomorrow’s deadline and start thinking longer term about what we need to achieve? Even now I’m procrastinating from my real work by writing this, what an idiot!

I need to start looking up training and generally start remembering that I have a great opportunity here and not to let it pass under my nose.

Need to stop living from one moment to the next and start being strategic. Sounds hard.

K. Back to work.

From my old blog: Commercial lust

In an attempt to avoid doing anything useful this morning I have been shopping online and I am in love. Irregular choice shoes are just beautiful beyond words and when I get married, they are the one thing I know I will wear. Because I won't be marrying my dear other half, I will be marrying the shoes. Just look at them. Look. 

Look at the gorgeous gut glass style heel and the velvet inner. The fabric has been crafted so beautifully it's practically a sculpture. 

Get cutie dresses are another thing that make me once again feel the urge to just rip out the entire contents of my wardrobe and start from scratch. When it comes down to it I lust after all these beautiful clothes and constantly end up wearing the same old practical, comfortable things. 


This is me in my head                                                   

...and in reality. Tshirts and jeans win.

Determined this will change. Starting tomorrow. Bed is too good.