...opening an alternative advent calendar

...no words


Advent 4 - Keaton Henson from David Wilson on Vimeo.

David Wilson Vs Keaton Henson

www.altadvent.tumblr.com

...keeping schtum about Maverick Slacklines Project X

...but not doing that good a job.
Just check out the sweet skills of team Maverick

...shopping for a Christmas tree

...starting our search for owl decorations, we went to homebase. I have this dream of a Christmas tree covered in little white owls but sadly it was not to be.

...refusing to even glimpse a tree there, I dragged Sam to Stewarts Garden Centre in Christchurch, because it's tradition. For more years than I can remember, the Illingworth family Christmas tree shopping experience involves my dad and my sisters standing by the biggest, fullest  tree we can find, while my mum holds on to a much smaller one across the other side of the centre. Where usually the matriach rules supreme, at Stewarts this rule relaxes, & as is tradition, we bring home the monster tree.

And in recent years they also have reindeer, and Badger likes to rub noses with them as a Merry Christmas greeting, it's his tradition. This year did not disappoint, we brought home the biggest tree. I actually started to sound a little like my mother, "Ron, where are we going to put it?" And like Ron, Sam dismissed my uncertainty, hauling the monster tree to the overeager sales guy.

As is tradition, we had to rearrange the lounge and lop off some of the trunk to make it fit. But fit it does and I love it!

After the tree decorating , drinking hot choc with marshmallows & listening to carols, our friends came over and we moved on to mulled wine and went for a gorgeous Salathai in Southbourne. A great start to December. Hope you're all feeling festive too.

... feeling like a chocolate teapot after Bournemouth Tourism Awards

Reporting back from the Bournemouth Tourism Awards, I have to admit I didn't see eye to eye with the judges on most of the results.

However a fun night was had by Chloe and I, which we have the Bournemouth Echo to partly thank for... worth it even though I felt like a chocolate teapot the next morning...

I feel like I should explain I am holding the second glass of wine for Chloe while she takes the photo.

Watching Maverick Slackline's RedBull Excam 48 hour film challenge entry - SlackLife

Our brief from RedBull on the Friday night was to make a three minute film within 48 hours.

We summoned the slacklining troops and missioned to a derelict, secret location at 6.30am on the Saturday morning. After 4 hours of rigging, the boys set to sending the lines and their crazy combos were captured in the hazy autumn afternoon sunlight by Life Cinematic - Jon Moy.

24 hours later, the video was judged joint first by the RedBull judges at Pop in Southampton.

My heart was beating in my chest, not knowing what to expect as we, team Maverick, gathered in the club with the other entrants to watch it for the first time. It blew us away...

...watching Tyrannosaur

...a harrowing afternoon at the picture house. Highly recommended.


Tyrannosaur

As we don't have a decent art house cinema in Bournemouth, we took our stinking hangovers up to the Harbour Lights Picture House in Southampton to watch Tyrannosaur. My love for Paddy Considine knows no bounds and after seeing his short film, Dog Altogether, I was a little prepared for the trauma in store for me.

But no one else can make his lead character kill his dog within the first fifteen minutes and then have me rooting for him by the end. That's the truth of a film like this, it's dangerous to stereotype people. You might hate an aspect of their character, but it's just that; an aspect. A few times I've tried to write people off and then they show a different side to me and I feel awful for being so dismissive. I'm in a constant circle; hating then liking, then hating, then liking the people on Big Brother. I guess you can't like all people, all the time.

An old lady was so moved by the film she had to talk about it and stopped me to voice her views over the sinks in the loos. "Unjust but very real" and "I wanted her to call a solicitor".

I did give Badger an extra tight squeeze when we got home though...poor pup.

...enjoying the sunshine at the Burley Cider Festival

...browsing twitter on Saturday morning, I came across tweets from @lostinthelarder and @thelarderhouse (thanks guys) about a cider festival in Burley. So we rounded up our cider loving friend Will & the dogs and went to sample some cider.

Roscoe the whippet having a little drink

Roscoe the whippet having a little taste

Not having a taste...

Smooching on the haybales

After the festival, we got a bit lost as we always do driving out of the New Forest. The boys brought home 10 litres, yes 10 litres of New Forest cider and we stopped off at St Catherine's Hill to take the pups for a sunset jaunt.

We found a wigwam and Will fiddled with the camera settings until it looked like daylight

As the sun set, we set off for cocktails at the Larderhouse

...watching A Streetcar Named Desire

On Friday night we went to see A Streetcar Named Desire at Poole Lighthouse.

My friend Rod knew the production team & invited us along. After studying & falling in love with the play during my A'levels, I jumped at the chance, dragging along a somewhat dubious Sam.

Surprisingly, he'd never heard of it, but I knew it was full of the gritty realism & shane meadows style dark endings that he enjoys...

The actress playing Blanche, Nicole Faraday (she of Bad girls fame apparently) did a super job channeling Vivien Leigh & Emma Stephens / Stella had a cracking southern accent which didn't falter once.

Rod made us sit right at the front as directed by his friends. I was a bit intimidated to start as the cast were almost on our laps! But by the second half I was grateful for the recommendation as we were lost in the performance. It felt like it was just us & the characters, perfect for such an intense play.

When the lights came up, all three of us had tears in our eyes after watching poor Blanche being sectioned in such a harrowing way.

Fantastic.

...wearing owl earrings

...adoring these cute owl earrings, a cracking present from a cracking  friend.
After seeing all my owl wrapping paper, Juliette knew they were the gift for me. And she was right too.

...spotting toadstools

...walking Badger on St Catherine's hill, I spotted a toadstool. But couldn't find any faeries, sadly.

And this is the first leopard spot mushroom I've seen.

...stripping the colour out of my hair

...getting so bored with my hair being so dark. So I'm sat here with Scott Cornwall colour B4 on my head, stinking like egg.
Only another 45 mins until I find out how ginger all these hair dyes have turned my hair...

...rescuing Badger the Cockapoo from Throop weir

...I had to climb over the fence and step into the slippery  weir to hook the pup out.
Badger then took on a swan. Badger is now banned from Throop. Enough said.



...filling up on pizza at The Larder House in Southbourne with my Juliette. Company was fantastic & so was the food. The perfect, relaxing evening to end a busy few weeks.

...watching Harmony Korine

His new trailer for 'Rebel' doesn't give much away...filmed on a mobile is a clever touch.



This short film evokes the usual uncomfortable feeling in me that is the harmony trademark. What can I say, I love it. Enjoy, or not...

...absolutely exhausted but happy

Wow, what a weekend! I feel so privileged to have worked amongst such wonderful people at the Feast of Dorset. The foodie community in Dorset is full of real diamonds.

Highlights for me were meeting Lesley Waters; helping her find some elderflower berries & blackberries for her demo & then helping her find her bag when she left it in the orchard. She was so delighted she gave me a copy of her fab new book 'a year at abbots hill' and signed it for me with the message 'dear Lisa you are a star'.

Even though it was Tamasin Day-Lewis's birthday, she came along for our Q&A session & was such a good laugh. She highly recommended the Mill tea & dining rooms which is where she was going for her birthday dinner, I'll definitely be checking them out.

Another highlight was meeting Emma from thestylebox and her husband Nick from lostinthelarder, who are both so lovely. We had a cracking chinwag about, well lots of things, food, Twitter, blogs, slacklining...fantastic.

Finally, Anna Del Conte was a real delight as always. So Italian like my aunts and so down-to-earth.

After working two weekends in a row I'm knackered but very happy to be able to work at these lovely events.

...getting ready for the Feast of Dorset food festival

I popped down to set up the press office this afternoon for the Feast of Dorset food festival in Wimborne.

Everything looked so beautiful, it really feels like it will be a magical event. I'm especially looking forward to the ferret racing!

...discovering the book hook

How cool is this bookhook? I discovered it on a cup of Jo
Not only does it look good, it really is the answer to Sam breaking the spines of books.

That or giving in & reading books on an iPad...which I said on my best friend's blog I'd never do, no matter how much Sam tells me I'm old...

...recovering from the Maverick UK Slacklining Championships at Windfest

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to be looking after the PR for my boss's event, Windfest.



My boyfriend, Sam's company Maverick Slacklines chose Windfest to host the very first UK Slacklining Championships. So in between greeting press and photographers, I watched the semi-finals and finals. Now, I had seen the guys slacking at events over the past year but I didn't realise how much they had stepped up and the tricks and combos they were landing just completely blew me away.

Maverick team rider Jake White

Mr Maverick, Ian Jennings

Maverick's UK Slacklining Champion 2011 - Mr Jacob Hirsch-Holland

I'm so darn proud of the lot of them for pulling this off and for showing how talented the UK slackers are.

The very flexible Chloe Loader

Thanks to Ian Loveland for the photos and Danny Bulmer for the video x

...frustrated by my lack of End of the Road photos

Well, i guess it serves me right for being so lazy and not bringing my camera. I would so love to pepper my post with pics from End of the Road festival but alas, my friends haven't posted any yet and I don't have any. I promise to update this post as soon as I can lay my hands on some.

The highlight for me was definitely Sam Amidon on the Friday in the teepee tent. After a bit of banter with my Sam about who was more pleased to have him there, he delighted us with his beautiful voice and banjo strumming. For the finale, his rendition of R Kelly's Relief was punctuated by my friends singing back at him at the top of their lungs, only a few were in tune but that's all part of the fun... unless you were the guy giving us evils... Sam seemed to enjoy it, and with a mischievious glint in his eye, coaxed them on to louder volumes.

As all my friends arrived, finding us with ease to the left of the sound desk as usual, Beirut played a blinder of a set and wouldn't stop, with encore after encore. Dancing with your darling friends in a field to incredible music - really can't get better than this.

Saturday was more about the frolics in the firefly forest than the music for me. Just amazing fun.

Firefly forest photo borrowed from Huck magazine

Joanna Newson headlined the Sunday night and even though it was so cold her fingers turned to blue plucking her harp, she completely enchanted me. I was so happy that we had the new album so I recognised the new songs which she sang so beautifully, remembering all the words to such epic lyrics.

This year's End of the Road was the biggest yet - going hand-in-hand with the incredible line-up. I do think it has a real charm as a smaller festival with more almost unknown bands for us to discover, so fingers crossed it remains relatively small and that the rocky road around the site is rectified before next year, ouch.

The only sad bit is that I have to wait another year to do it all again.
x

...looking at artwork by Russian painter Mikhail Dorokhov

Our gite in France was owned by a very talented Russian artist Mikhail Dorokhov.

During our stay we were lucky enough to get to know him and hear about his life, family and friends. Turns out his daughter is a famous model who appeared in the Levis 'spaceman' advert (the one with the Babylon Zoo song)!

Kristina Semenovskaya

Over a beer one rainy afternoon, Mikhail showed us his art collection. Here is a selection of my favourites;

Trinity by Mikhail Dorokhov

...journeying to the Dordogne...& back

...trying to get back into writing blog posts after returning from our holiday in a beautiful little gite in St Michel de Double in the Dordogne, France.

Our French gite

This was our first holiday abroad with Badger, since he got his puppy passport. So we took the fast ferry to Cherbourg and drove down to the Loire Valley. First time I touched foot on French soil was to have a pee in a farmers field just off the motorway as we couldn't understand the road signs for services, classy hey!

After a four hour drive south, we arrived at the Loire Valley and stepped out of the air conditioned car into 30 degrees heat, perfect. We found a hotel overlooking the Loire river and I can't believe we didn't need to pre-book, we just walked in off the street with a doggy.

The view from our room

The town is built around this chateau

After wandering around the food market, we got back in the air conditioned car and drove another four hours (which was so easy accompanied by Joanna Newsom's new album 'have one on me', Bon Iver and PJ Harvey's old album) to our gite in Dordogne. Where we stepped out into 40 degree heat. Woah, it blew us away.

Our back garden

Our bedroom

So we settled in by the pool and relaxed, for the next week...

Apart from trips to the lake where Sam swam with badger