I Am Finally Learning Guitar (And No, I Didn't Just Want To 'Cause Taylor Swift Does)

Seriously, how long has it been since I last graced the blogosphere with my presence? A week? Wowzums. That went quicker than a panicked commuter on a London zebra crossing. I'm sorry everyone, but I swear it felt like one day. Maybe it's all the exams and revision that make it feel fast.

 Anyway, I have big things happening in my life that I feel are fit to announce to the whole of the World Wide Web. So big that I have a new label for them: "exciting happenings". I AM NOW PLAYING THE GUITAR! I've wanted to for a long time now, people say it came about when I started liking country music, or when I started writing songs, but I think I got interested in the whole thing a bit before all of that, when I was choosing another instrument to play when I started secondary school. My mum was suggesting more obscure options, like bassoons and euphoniums, which I can assure you I have nothing against, I just thought that guitar would fit better with piano, which I've been playing since I was about five or six. But alas, alack, I have a weird thing about not telling people certain, completely normal things. Liking singing, and being a Scout, are some examples. And wanting to play the guitar was another.

  Anyway, who cares how I got here? At least I finally am here! 

The guy behind the "Guitar Tuition" ad in a local pinboard turned out to be the owner of a living room in a tiny village near the country house overcome by stacks of every guitar you can think of plus a piano, and also a hyperactive kitten. Random? Yeah, random. But also the owner of this guitar, which I'm loaning for about a month before I summon up the courage to buy my own. And at the moment, it's looking (or should I say sounding) perfectly epic.

I don't know why, but every time people post about singing or playing instruments on their blog, we expect them to post a video of them playing some random song, just to prove they're telling the truth about what they can do. Honestly, the blogosphere isn't YouTube! But instead of showing you what I can play, I'll tell you what I can play: two chords and a couple of simple pieces involving just plucking single strings. Yeah. Waned your enthusiasm for my guitar video, didn't it?

But it's not just that that's annoying me now. It's this:

No, no, I'm a Swiftie, not a hater, so I'm not about to go on about how she always sings about breaking up. It's what people keep saying when I tell them I'm playing the guitar that's annoying me. I think four or five people so far have piped up in reply with "Are you just playing it to be like Taylor Swift?" NO!!! You think I'm just trying to be a Taylor Swift clone, because alongside blogging, Swiftie-hood is one of the main things I'm known for in my school. Sure, she makes me more enthusiastic about the guitar, but I wouldn't say that's the prime reason. The prime reason is that it's a logical second instrument, useful for my songwriting and if you want to sing with an instrument, it's the way to go. Taylor Swift is sometimes a kind of role model for me, but I don't just copy her, I simply let her give me inspiration.

But overall, a generally positive vibe in my endorphins at this moment in time, and I hope my further guitar lessons turn out well.
-DP :)
 

My First Proper Home Movie :)

Hi, I am in a very good mood. You know why I'm in a good mood? Not because another stressful school term started, amazingly. Because I made my first proper, 4 minute long, home movie! Of course, I couldn't have done it without three of my awesome friends (sorry, that sounded a bit TV talent show) who came over yesterday, and who had this masterful brainwave of filming a spoof news programme. And the rest was history. Well, not really, seems as I still had to do minor movie editing today (was in huge rush to finish Spanish revision :)). But I guess it kind of was history if you're optimistic, because the only other home movie I've ever made was a 30-second clip starring my parents about an Innocent smoothie attacking preservatives for an advertising contest on YouTube. Not surprisingly, we didn't win. Or even get in the Top 10.

Anyway, you are probably more interested in this video. Like I said, it's a TV news spoof, called Scramble News, hosted by an array of pun-named characters (no, I'm not spoiling, watch it for yourself!). Basically everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong in our reports of already ridiculous news stories. But I'm not going to ramble forever, I'm sure you'd much rather watch my video than hear my summary of it. So I'll leave you in peace to scroll back up.
-DP :)


(N.B. We use the BBC theme tune in this video. I am not asserting that I own it. I do not own the BBC theme tune, nor do any of my friends in the movie.)

Hope you enjoyed my video! What did you think? Don't hesitate to comment!

Snow Day Alert!!!

Hello everyone, and yes, as the title of this post suggests, today London was blanketed in snow so we had only a half day of school! Yeah! 

This is also a particularly special blog post for me, because the weather was exactly the same just under a year ago when I buckled down and finally started to write this blog you are reading. I don't know if you remember but I also wrote about snow, speculating about some very large animal footprints in the white stuff. Whoa, it seems like a long time ago now :).

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. So, like last year, the mighty snow demons didn't let it snow until mid-January, but at least there was some. And today has had all the elements of a snow day, from snowball fights (:)), to slipping onto my side in black ice while being watched by a film crew (:(), and even a very bizarre snow angel-type-thing on our school playing field that looked like a cross between an apple and a floppy-eared rabbit. Perhaps a UFO...shame I didn't have my camera!

Anyway, here are my spectacular snow shots (note my alliteration)...

This is a restaurant near my house that had one of the best snow coverings I've seen today. No one's going to want the umbrellas out now, hey?!

And here's a great photo (although I say so myself) of a little alley leading down to a yoga and pilates place. I'm surprised it got this much snow because it's so closed up, but do I know anything?

- DP :)

2013 has arrived!!!

So, the world didn't end 11 days ago, and it provided immense humiliation and slight disappointment for some of us, but at least we have the luxury of entering yet another year. I'm still in Sri Lanka for New Year, and watched the first sunrise of 2013 from a rock in the colonial town of Galle at 6:19 am (!). Since I last posted on the 26th December we've hiked through tea plantations in Ella (people called Ella, you have a Sri Lankan namesake town), relaxed in the beach resort of Mirissa (also where the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 was) and been on an unsuccessful whale watching trip. I've even advertised this blog by writing it down an Indian Ocean beach :). But that was in 2012. WE are in 2013. And here at Dramatis Persona we love celebration. So if you have a highlight of the year, a New Year's resolution or even a highlight of the first ten months and 28 posts of this blog, don't hesitate to comment! But for resolutions, mine fall into four categories and are as follows:

1. The General Resolution, that can apply to everything

This year it's to stop throwing things away, being less wasteful and caring about the environment more. This also includes using, not selling, all Christmas and birthday presents.

2. The School Resolution

As in several past years, this resolution is to be more open to everyone I know in school.

3. The Blog Resolution

My first ever in this particular category, I aim first to manage 30 posts before my 1st blog-iversary on the 11th February, and around 80 in total by the end of the year.

4. The Secret Resolution

WELL IT'S SECRET ISN'T IT!!

-DP

PS I am in the first stages of planning a blog-iversary in February, on the theme of "what Dramatis Persona means to me", with contributions from our fans. If you have an answer to this question, please comment or, if you know me, get in touch some other way! And to cheer you up, here's this year's Chinese zodiac animal found in the hotel room (it's a lizard not a snake, but it's nearly there...), and below it a funny picture glorifying useless resolutions from the website Paperless Post.

Random Book Knowledge At National Level

I've left the title of this blog post a little mysterious this time, which is quite new for me :), but I'll tell you all about it now. This week, I was a participant in the 2012 Kids' Lit Quiz, which is an international contest for book lovers like myself from 7 countries around the world, concerning knowledge of authors, books and characters, both classic and contemporary. However, what I haven't mentioned yet is that it's all for 10-13 year-olds just like me! 

So, on to my own results... Well, after successfully qualifying for my school's A team, three teammates and I travelled to compete at The Broxbourne School in Hertfordshire for the North London heat. This turned out to be a relatively easy, pub-quiz style written with ten themed rounds of ten questions, one of them a picture round (this one was probably our favourite and the only one we received full marks on, themed on classic characters and including film depictions of Robinson Crusoe and Huckleberry Finn among others). Believe it or not, at this heat we actually won by 10 points! And, even better, we managed the unusual feat of beating the Authors Team (basically a group of authors competing just for fun)!

Winning this heat meant we had to attend the National Final just 2 days later, in an incredibly fancy-looking hotel in Coventry with, in my opinion, excessive red and gold furnishings and Tudor-style design. I have a picture at the bottom if you want to have a look. But after photos for local newspapers and parading in to the quiz hall to "And last but not least from North London...", we discovered that the quiz was about to be a thousand times more difficult. I mean, one whole round on literary archetypes seems ridiculously hard, who's going to guess that "a humorous male, known in royal circumstances as a jester" would be a clown! And another equally challenging round followed it: first pages of novels. The kind of thing you have to actually read books to know, that no amount of Ultimate Book Guide for 8-12 year olds reading  and online practice questions could teach me. Still though, despite the fact that we didn't make the world finals in South Africa next July, we came an admirable joint 6th of 17, a result I'm proud of!

- DP :)

P.S. Recently I've made a few updates to my blog, for instance now you can subscribe by email, which is great because you don't need to give any details apart from your email address, and you don't need a Google account. I've also made a poll on the sidebar which, to celebrate the Kids' Lit Quiz, is all about what trivia topic is your favourite! There's also a new translate button at the bottom so everyone in the world can see what I've got to say! oh, and the hotel image isnt mine ;) 

The Grape Harvest Has Come Around Again!

These are from a Bordeaux vineyard I visited last week - no, just joking. We grow grapes in the conservatory of our country house in Suffolk, and this year I'm pleased to say we had enough for a bottle of very sweet grape juice! It's always a very exciting preoccupation picking grapes from the vines hiding (and also giving shade beneath) the glass roof at around this time of year, and it's something to look forward to at the tail end of the summer holiday (apart from the new school year, obviously). This particular bowl is only usually half full on most harvests, so the fact that it's almost overflowing this year is a pleasant surprise. I don't know what it is. Perhaps the grape gods who live on a dark purple cloud high above a French vineyard have decided that more positive attitudes toward grape-growing and more vineyards worldwide are grounds for a better grape harvest this year. Or maybe that's a little far-fetched. Just I don't want to be boring by saying it was just luck.
- DP :)

My Conversion To Electronic Books

this image isn't mine

I'm sure the picture above needs no explanation to you as the Amazon Kindle. However I would need to mention to you that I won a free one as part of a school art contest, and I spent pretty much all of yesterday reading my first book on it (a good one too, Carnegie-shortlisted My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher, about a boy coping five years after his sister's death). Previously I'd never got the point of the advertising slogans "Lighter than a paperback" (who cares? Paperbacks aren't exactly ten-ton weights) and "Can carry thousands of books" (why would you need to have that many books on you?), but now I see that's not really the point. What is the point is the new generation way of reading, where you press a button to turn a page rather than going through the ordeal of lifting one (OK, a little hyperbole there) and the thrilling, never-disappearing novelty of simply touching a word to have it immediately defined. And there's the excitement of buying your whole bookshelf in one go - next on my list is the Australian outback-set growing-up tale Everybody Jam by Ali Lewis.

- DP :)

P.S. On a similar literary theme, I recently entered a short story competition for 500 word yarns starting with the line "Dad was flabbergasted when I told him the news". The prize is a collection of books and online publication, but we're not allowed to publish entries elsewhere until the winner is announced. So you'll have to wait a month for mine. Sorry about that.

My First Go At Being Behind The Counter

The title of this post suggests that I've signed up for an after-school shopkeeping job, so I'll put your minds at rest by saying that all I'm doing is a small-scale tombola with 4 friends. Still exciting and definitely blog-worthy, though. Particularly when you're designing and making the tombola itself and also contributing to toy sales and craft sales (see my gorgeous little knitted blue mouse below). I've always wanted to participate in the organization of charity sales like this (if you're wondering about the charity, it's DEBRA, a charity dealing with EB or butterfly skin, a rare condition where the skin can blister or even cut at the slightest touch), and I honestly can't wait to see people buy/win stuff that I donated, even if it is a little saddening at first losing them. Anyway, it's a week on Monday (9th July) so I guess all that's left to do is decorate the tombola...

My homemade tombola

- DP :)

The fore-mentioned blue mouse (sooo cute, though I say so myself)

The Biggest Plum In The World?

A shorter post this time, I just wanted to show you this enormous plum I received from Borough Market near London Bridge as a present after I passed an exam. I love plums, and this one was especially juicy and sweet. I later researched plums on the Internet (:D) and found out that this is probably an Angeleno plum, which is "a big, purple plum with yellow flesh" which comes from Chile. Your mouths may be watering at this post but there was only a small basket left at the market, which may have run out by the time you read this post (even if they haven't, hurry because they will!)
- DP :)

The plum with a massive bite out of it!

P.S. If any reader knows of a bigger plum than this, I'd love to hear about it!