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Previous Challenge Updates...
13/01/06 - 19/01/06 - 31/01/06 - 14/02/06
13/01/06 - Status: 7. Now then, on one hand, I'm really pleased with how it's going so far. Not quite 2 full months into it, and 7 autographs done already. As you can easily work out, I need to get an average of 2 per month... so I'm almost double my quota. That's AWESOME. Well done me!
However, these were the easy months. I had the karting to start with (and if only I'd got the Challenge worked out then, I could've been even further along. Boo! But oh well... that's why I've allowed myself the 2006 karting too, to catch up on what I missed from not being into the swing of things yet) - and so that was 2 autographs in the bag easily. Then December rolled along, and with it came my Neighbours-stars-in-Pantomime obsession... and bing bang boom, another 5 in the bag without me even having to TRY.
And now I go into what I can only think of as being the lean period. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't just stumble across famous people in my day to day life. And so I've realised that I have to actually THINK of ways to find them.
Tomorrow I'm going down to Birmingham NEC for the Autosports show. Due to the ticket I bought, and the fact that he'll be there, I should HOPEFULLY end up with David Coulthard's mark in Crayon. Hopefully there'll be another name or two there that I can nab. After all this time and money, I'd better get a step or two closer to the Holy Grail of 24. I've also almost decided for sure which date to go and see Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show - whilst I'm in no way guaranteed to get a crayon into his tiny but, I'm sure, perfectly proportioned hand, it's a great excuse for going! (I love little Hammond!) I might also get tickets to see The Mighty Boosh in Newcastle... because that show is damn funny, and I'd love it if I could Crayola them at the end!
I also plan on getting my hands on a NUFC footballer or two... that'd be quite exciting on a personal level for me too. August could be easy to some degree, as I'll be at Edinburgh Festival and should bump into some folks there. At the very least, as long as they turn up, I could get The Umbilical Brothers... although I can't decide if they count as one or two??
But even working this out using a sensibly optimistic calculator (an 'sopticulator', if you will)... that's still, say, only bringing me up to about 15 or 16... that's still a lot of work to do. Oh, plus a couple of easy extras at the Karting.. but I'd still be struggling to reach 20. Where do I find that extra handful?? I foresee more trips to London... I could keep GNER and Megabus in business singlehandedly if I'm not careful. Oh well, as long as it's fun, I don't mind!
I'm really looking forward to seeing who use my favourite Crayons (due to names alone) - Cerulean and Dandelion. Will let you know!
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19/01/06 - Woah... what a difference a day makes. I went to the Birmingham NEC on Saturday, for the Autosports exhibition. First off, Alan McNish (he's driven in F1 and Le Mans, among others, as well as doing pitlane commentary for ITV's F1 broadcasting) chose cerulean!! Cerulean!!! Hurrah! (Or "scottish blue" as he called it).
Then it turned out that Mr Coulthard is a popular, popular man, but luckily I got into the queue early enough to guarantee that I'd see him. I'd been waiting for 45 minutes when who should turn up... but Johnny Herbert! This was exciting because he's my racing hero, and it's always great to see him. Luckily I was able to jump out of the DC queue in order to chat to Johnny, and then go back to my spot again. I didn't want to miss Johnny because of DC, but I didn't want to miss DC because of Johnny either!
Johnny did make me laugh. He studied the Crayola box to see which colour he wanted... then he delved in to pick one out. And he picked Carnation Pink. !!! The look on his face was a picture, and I just had to laugh out loud and tell him it was "very manly". After he signed his name, I suggested to him that he draw a picture too... he just *looked* at me, and I grinned and was like "oh go on, you know you want to!" So he took great, great care and concentration.... and drew a little stick man in the corner. He looked oh so proud of himself! He's a funny one!
Anyhoos, so I went back to my spot in the queue and waited about another 20mins or so for Coulthard to arrive. He was only signing for 15 mins, and there was a huge queue of people, so the guys in charge were telling us to Be Quick. So I made him choose a colour, but I wasn't going to attempt to banter with him about drawing pictures. And yet as I watched him, he did his autograph... and then put on a face of deep concentration and started doing little marks on the paper... and I was like 'hmm... what's he doing?'... then suddenly I realised, and so I suddenly announced at him "oh my god!! you're DRAWING!!! I didn't even have to TELL you to! Most people I tell them to, and they don't, but you ARE!" He looked up and just GRINNED proudly at me, then went back to finish his little drawing. When he'd finished, I told him it was more impressive than Johnny's stick man, which made him chuckle. What a nice guy! YAY for DC!
Lastly (or indeed, eleventhly), I got Mark Blundell, again a driver and a commentator guy. He made some comment about "does crayon last?" - good god it had BETTER!!! Can you imagine the tears if I woke up one day to find it had disintegrated into nothingness?? However, I'm fairly confident that it'll last a while... and if it does start to fade, I'm sure I can figure out a way to laminate the pages or something silly to protect it. This book is going to make me smile like a silly person for years to come. One day my grandchildren will look at it and say "WHY did you make them write in crayon, grandma? were you a mentalist?"..... Good times ahead.
PS - Happy birthday Jenson :-)
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31/01/06 - It's been, what?, 12 days, since I last Crayola'ed. And I'm already getting restless, already worried that I may fall behind and not succeed. And yet I'm already 46% of the way through, with only 2 months gone. However, those 12 days (has it really ONLY been 12 days?!) have been far from wasted. A trip to Silverstone for F1 testing, complete with paddock pass, is currently in the final stages of being processed. This should guarantee a few more autographs... the coolness of who I get to be determined simply by who turns up. The prospects range from the very exciting (top name racers) to the ridiculously thrilling (Zonta!!!! eep!!) to the possibility of me being arrested for violence (a certain German).
I've also got tickets so that I'll be in London for the first weekend of March. If Hammond's 5o'clock show is still filming, I'll go to that and try and grab him. I'm seeing Tim Minchin's show on the Saturday, but he's not FAMOUS enough yet. (Oh - Speigeltent and chips flashbacks!) I'll have to have a think and see who else I could find that weekend.
Still planning on getting a few footballers to sign sometimes. Got my sights set on Shearer and Owen, simply because they're the biggest names. I want impressive signings!
Annnnnddd... yeh... that's about it.
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14/02/06 - Silverstone Testing in April has been BOOKED. This could do WONDERS for my collection. Or it could all go wrong and not. Either way, I'm DAMN excited! A letter has been sent to my Leader and King, Danny Wallace, to see if he'd join us for Tim Minchin's show next month... and become my #12 in the process. If you don't ask, you don't get. Hammond's show isn't filming in March when I'm down - bugger. There are no book signings in London that weekend either. Can't find any details of book signings in Newcastle in the near future either. Apparently Derek Acorah's in Southampton on the 18th though. Damn, I've already got to be in York and Newcastle on that day... I can't fit Southampton in there too. Bugger it.
I just found out that the University of East Anglia (I think that's where Zoe's at... Zoe... where are you?) has a 'festival' thing in July... meaning: Richard E Grant, Margaret Atwood (had to do one of her books for A-level, hence, hold a bit of a grudge), Matthew Parris and Julian Clary. Hmmm...!
The Mighty Boosh is in Newcastle at the end of this month... very tempted to try and find them... wonder if I can talk any of my uni friends into that?
Next month, or maybe April, I might actually attempt to find some footballers too. Oh, and Jonny Wilkinson.
Any other ideas??