"When Marjolein was four she drank an entire bottle of sewing machine oil"

The title, a quote ladies and gentlemen, from my Mam. I overheard that a few days ago when she was telling Dad about times when she reckoned we didn't need the doctor.

It's all cool she was a Nurse.

In Amsterdam.



SO, NEWS.

Firstly Claire and I got to do a way fun day of photos with John Carolan and Babs Clubb, she did the make up, John took the photos. It was a fun day with a free jukebox full of good heavy metal music. If it were possible to listen to Holy Diver too many times in one day then that would've been it (but it's not).

Here's a couple:

Claire - natural

Claire - full makeup

Me - natural

Me - full makeup

For more photos from John Carolan click here:
http://www.johncarolan.co.uk/

And for the Youtube account for Babs Clubb try here:
http://www.youtube.com/anesthesiashetland


Last time I wrote here it was January, and I hadn't been to any Up Helly Aa's yet. Well I have now, been to three. Let's update you.

For anyone who doesn't know what Up Helly Aa is, it's a Viking Festival we have in Shetland celebrating our Viking Ancestry, the lightening of the nights and also originally started to spread out the drinking from Christmas and New Year so there was less of a binge in December.
(True story)

The best known Up Helly Aa is most likely the one in town; many consider this to be the main one. Always held on the last Tuesday of January, over 900 men, in costume, take part in a procession through the streets of Lerwick pulling a Viking Galley which they then burn in the play park for everyone to enjoy. This is before embarking on a night of performances, music and revellery. Actually I explain it pretty well here:

This is Maddrim's latest addition to Youtube

That's not all Maddrim did for Up Helly Aa, no it is not. We also got to help Promote Shetland with both a radio show (Joe and Marjolein's Radio Hour), a live web stream of the procession and some footage from the day (which will be added to Promote Shetland's page in the near future!) The web stream went live to over 8000 different viewers from around the world! AWESOME.

Here's Shetland Islands Council telling you in yet more detail, there's a lovely picture of Joe and the back of my head, and another of Katya taking care of the TriCaster - mad skillz (Check out how I use the word interviewing twice within eight words):
http://www.shetland.gov.uk/news-advice/PR-MaddrimbroadcastUpHellyAa.asp

Up Helly Aa is awesome, I encourage everyone to come to Shetland to see it, whichever one, there are 10 official festivals, there are also a few others, such as the Waas one, I was Guizer Jarl (as in Head Viking) there in my youth. Proudest moment of my life. Before graduating.

Andy, Annie, The Guizer Jarl and I

Woaaaah, just as I was typing this I got an email:

"Your membership order below has been shipped. You will recieve your membership package shortly. Thank you for your patience.
Your 2012 Ultimate Soldier Megapack contains:
-Megadeth Cyber Army 2012 T-Shirt
-Cyber Army Challenge Coin - Series II
-Deluxe Megadeth Logo Sticker
-Megadeth Cyber Army Laminate
-Welcome Letter from Dave Mustaine
-8x10 Glossy Band Photo
-Cyber Army 2012 pikCARD"

YUUUUS! That's right I am now a proud member of the Megadeth Cyber Army.
Claire got me to join after months of telling me about how awesome it is. It is awesome.
Dave Mustaine, Chris Broderick, David Ellefson and Shawn Drover all have their own forums where you can read messages directly from them, the other members are sweet as, you get early announcements for tickets and deals AND you get the awesome welcome pack that is written above. And finally why wouldn't you want to be a member of the fan club for Megadeth.

I'll share with you the song that got me into Megadeth back at the tender age of 14:

You are welcome

So, join today. Just cllick the bar below to check it out and then join:

I promise next time there will be more chisels, hacksaws, Ipod and chance of gore. I just really gotta go clean my room now. GOODNIGHT.

From your beloved She-Wolf  xxxx



HAPPY NEW YEAR/BURNS NIGHT

So.
This could be awkward.

Or we could push through the long silence and get back into this like I never forgot about you, blog.

Soz pal.


Yeah, apologies I've been away for ages, and the longer I was away the harder it was to return. There is a song about that somewhere, and I think it may be this one:

(Courtesy of Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha-FS_CHmGw User: Z7TomC7Z)

If not, I'll bet you're still glad you listened.
There is a lie in this blog. Can you read it?

So I haven't been here, and I've been waiting to have something very hilarious and entertaining to greet you all with, but I decided I shouldn't wait for something to happen, I should type it. Luckily that's when I got an email from a friend who pointed out the good coverage the MET office made for February's forecast. Here, read it yourself:

UK Outlook for Monday 6 Feb 2012 to Monday 20 Feb 2012:

The forecast for early February remains very uncertain. There appear to be two main scenarios, each equally probable, but which are very different. The first scenario consists of a changeable westerly or southwesterly weather type with rain at times (amounts greatest in the west), and with temperatures noticeably above average for early February, with only occasional frosts. The alternative scenario is that much colder weather with winds mainly from an easterly or northeasterly quarter, will prevail well into February, bringing widespread frosts and snow to some areas. In this scenario it would be the east that was most vulnerable to snowfall.

So, was there a point? In case your wondering, I'll put your worries to rest, I have a good idea for March, so I took some liberties, illegally branding myself as the Meteorological office and have come up with a rough assumption for the third months weathering:

UK Outlook for March 1^st 2012 to March 31^st 2013

So in March yea, it will begin most probably dark, because it should be starting after midnight on February 29^th. We can’t promise anything, as sometimes there’s an added day in that month. Then it should get a lot lighter towards seven o’ clock, unless it’s cloudy; then you may need to keep your car head lights on till nearer eight. There is also a chance, although maybe not, depends on the galactic weather, of an eclipse so you may need to keep your headlights on till 8.15.

The rest of the day should be fairly overcast with chance of rain and as a result slippery roads.

The alternative scenario is that it could turn out to be a nice, sunny day, with temperatures reaching a max of 38 degrees. Factor 50 Recommended.

The pollen count will be somewhere on the grey scale.

Chance of high winds.

Once upon a time my forecast was going to be posted  in the format of video. We filmed it, but I have no idea when it will be ready for your eyes. And I am too kind to leaving you waiting for any longer. So I thought you could read it, reading is better for you after all.*

There is one thing I've done that is all ready to show you. Here is a video Mam, Dirk, Claire and I made on Saturday:

Courtesy of me. Url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVHCryThEOM

This is Mam's filming debut. Well done Chaz!

So now we've all discussed the weather, and I linked in my new film, there's nought much else to say. I was thinking about what direction I'm going to take this blog in for 2012. Not that is really ever had a direction before. I was going to go with some sort of improvement programme but I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. I summed it up in fewer than 140 characters on Twitter:

Look Blog, I forgot about Twitter for a while too.

However, earlier this week (Monday) at our Maddrim Media meeting Cara got us to make a Skills Wall, where we write our skills on a pink post-it, and then on a yellow post-it write what skills we'd like to have. Here are my post-its:

Skills I have

Skills I'd like

So. In a gripping tale of adventure and huckleberry finn I'll let you know how that develops.
And my Ipod is well and truly dead. I know because I charged it overnight and nothing happened. I'll try opening it up in the shed later. Actually that would be way more interesting then that skills thing. Yeah! Let's open my Ipod!

See you next time for some core slicing fun.


XXXXXX MARJOLEIN

*Yes that was the lie.

You don't know the pain of building a robot with Christopher Walken...

....Is probably the best piece of artwork I have ever seen on the internet. Nay, it is the best.
(There is a secret message in this blog. See if you can find it)

Thank you Brandon Bird for painting this in 2004. Online image source: http://laughingsquid.com/

After working with paint to create my collage in my last blog I was reminded about the days and nights I spent on that programe working on masterpieces. Recently I have been staying in town because of the bad weather. This one is called Bawbags: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bawbag
I myself would have called it Skunkydoo the Sequel.

So, while at my brothers we thought this would be a good time to write Christmas cards to all our Dutch relations. Instead we played on paint and made gifs.

This blog isn't going to be very long. I just want to you show you all the pretty things we made.

It all began with a story. Oh, I should give you some context:

When I was 11.

When I was 11 I was really into the Harry Potter books, well I still am
(for further information read: http://marjoleinrobertson.blogspot.com/2011/09/11-years-old.html hmmmm, where have I seen this linked before? How about HERE: http://marjoleinrobertson.blogspot.com/2011/12/winter-is-coming.html I push, I push.)
 It was about that time they started working on the films too. I wanted to be Hermione. I spent much time and effort writing a letter to the Studios asking to play her, and every other female character in the books, ever.

The list of characters I could play was something like this:
Hermione Granger
Lavender Brown
Hannah Abbott
Ginny Weasley
Angelina Johnson
Padma Patil
Parvati Patil
Katie Bell
Mrs Weasley (and I'm not even ginger)

So I thought I'd be helpful and include my details in the letter: hair colour (but I'd happily dye that) eye colour (I'm comfortable with contacts) height (for costume) and head circumference (for my witches hat). It was at that last one where my brother couldn't read my letter anymore for laughing. But I'd written it in pen, didn't have Tipex and knew I should send it straight away (because they had already cast Hermione. Wha)

So anyway, the rest of the story isn't as interesting, but someone at work had to measure their head circumference, by now I have been conditioned to believe that is a ridiculous practice. And I had to bite my hand not to laugh. Somewhere between acting out the story and recreating my pose on paint we decided to draw it on paint. I can't remember how. But I'll skip the image. Now one is drawn by me and the other by Dirk.

Which one is more like me?

The idea of the competition was to represent someone, but you're not allowed to delete any mistakes.
(I drew the one with the nosebleed)

Next we drew Drik:

(Secret message: This blog was actually written on Thursday 8th.)

His pose was from a story at work when his boss fell over. As you may have guessed by our choice of tool Dirk's is the thick pen.We swapped them around to keep  you on your toes. SUPRISE.

Then we made gifs. Are they working? Maybe not. If you want to view them, and more, and some still scans of drawings Dirk made (and stole) go here: http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/dirkhead/

I'm sorry for this blog.

Winter is Coming

A very festive hiyi and also a belated HAPPY SINTERKLAAS, because he has been and gone already on his trusty white steed.

Picture courtesy of: http://elisabethcrisstmas.tumblr.com
I'd say for me Isa - he's pretty much on the same level as Santie.

So I don’t blog much seeing as I rescued my Ipod and now I no longer have a purpose. These situations always get a bit awkward, but being the good British citizen I am I will instead duly turn this discussion towards the weather. It has been snowing of late.

Yes, Hurricane Skunks passed and on the first of December the wind died, it started snowing and we were straight into your typical Wintery evening. It was with that I realised I was not prepared at all... prepared for Christmas!

My favourite Christmas decoration in Shetland.
Yes, he's gripping those branches so hard some have passed out.

I’m still not prepared, I’m getting there... tonight my blog writing is, as usual, a form of procrastination. I’m meant to be writing Christmas cards. It’s like writing essays back at university, only the word count is no more than 15 and you have to write 30 of them. God, I forgot how much I love to procrastinate - you should see how clean my room is. Also I got through 3 comedy DVD’s last night, a mixture of Russell Howard and Frankie Boyle, so I’m currently experiencing everything in a boyish/dour/wonder-filled/foul-mouthed charm. It’s like when you’re constantly reading a book or watching an entire series in one go and you begin to narrate your own life in the style of a certain character/author. Do you get me? Here are some examples:

The Christmas of 2005 my brother was given Arrested Development Season 1 from Santie. (yeah we call him that up here). We watched it repeatedly for days, then for the rest of the holidays it was like living in Sudden Valley. Everything I did was narrated by Ron Howard, every time I left or entered a room it was accompanied by a ukulele and whenever three or more were gathered the inevitable chant of “Speech! Speech!” accompanied by the rhythmic slapping of palms rang in the air.

Halfway through my second year of Uni the film Twilight was unleashed and I bought all the books (?). After reading the first two I began to take on Bella’s traits, as in: round-a-bout paranoia, a deal of self loathing and an extreme lack of coordination. That was a bad period. Luckily the books don’t take long to read and it wasn’t long before I was running around Edinburgh again listening out for the Doctor’s arrival. VWHEEEAAYHH! VWHEEEAAYHH!

Apologies for the digression, I’m a terrible British Citizen.

 One of my favourite genres to read is fantasy and I adore anything with a long and arduous journey, here’s looking at you Tolkien. I’ve really gotten into Game of Thrones; it’s been dominating my life recently. Awesome. However due to the narration, everyone, every-one gets a say in these books. (Wait till you’re on Dance of Dragons, Martin is throwing new characters at you all over the house) So it’s harder to use GOT to narrate my life. What is easy to incorporate into your daily routine is
the practice of using popular phrases from the books/show, such as three and twenty (23) or, my favourite: to break one’s fast. Breaking fast is way better than breakfast and makes me feel like I’m involved in some illegal P cooking with Hal at the same time. When did this turn into a guide of how to incorporate popular culture into your daily life? Or rather: when wasn’t it?


What about the influence of Harry Potter I hear you ask. Well of course. But I've already explained that one (along with Pokémon) here:
http://marjoleinrobertson.blogspot.com/2011/09/11-years-old.html
(linking my own blog. smooth.)

Recently I have been watching Encounters at the End of the World. This is with the hope that soon my life will be narrated by none other than the Werner Herzog.

In case you don’t know who Mr. Herzog is, please, watch this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7kdDeGXUjI

You’re welcome

I’m sure this whole practice is perhaps an example of unstable behaviour and not that healthy.  In future I should probably moderate what I read and watch due to my highly impressionable nature; and it is for that reason (but not that reason alone) I will never, ever, watch A Serbian Film.

Goodnight.