We Made It part 3

Boxing Day we had a huge cooked breakfast and went for a walk in the local park where we saw not one but THREE squirrels!
On the way home we popped into the off liscense to buy more beers. The night was spent watching Eternal Sunshine On A Spotless Mind and Top Gun!

Day after Boxing Day we were awoken by a txt from Pommy Dan. "It's SNOWING!" And indeed it WAS!

Backyard view:

Front view:


The snow falling stopped at around midday and melted away not long after. The London Girl and I traveled up to Kentish Town (in north London) to meet an old friend of mine, Bel. From there we walked to Hamstead Heath ( one of Londons' huge parks).

It was feezing and there were still patches of snow around.


But we had views right over London and the sunset was lovely:




As it got dark we descended from the hill to the out door ice-skating rink. As we were waiting to get on the rink, it suddenly started to snow again!!





And then we SKATED!


AFter about an hr we retired to a nearby pub for a few warming pints!
To cap off a lovely Christmas period The London Girl and I headed back home. On our way we dropped in to pick up a pizza. While we waited we nicked across the road to another pub to make use of the facilities and enjoy a nip of scotch!

THE END!

We Made it Part 2

Xmas Day:

We did not wake to a winter wonderland of snow. Instead it was a lovely sunny day.
Presents were opened. Santa was praised for finding us Johnny and Jenny Foreigners.

Me playing with my xmas yo-yo and wearing my xmas robe and Craig David beanie:


The guests were due to arrive at 1pm, so it was all systems GO in the kitchen! We had to whip up 3 courses plus nibblies!! The D and Ains did most of the work. I did the baked veges and the lamb.:


With the food sorta under control we were able to relax and get on with the socialising and drinking.
Me and The D:


The Xmas lunch crew (minus Pommy Dan who's behind the camera and David who came later):


The xmas day celebrations went well into the night till after 2am. We drank and ate alot more! We played pictionary and poker. We spoke to friends around the world. I remember at one stage holing up poor Mike in the kitchen for about 30 mins telling him about the virtues of the film Conan The Barbarian while playing the soundtrack. (I really should stop myself talking about that film when I've been drinking).

There are some photo's of me trying to box someone- but luckily they're lost.

We ended the night with a sing-a-long jam till the wee hours. Mike and Jaymee are music teachers, Ains is a trained singer and The D and Pommy Dan are also singers.
And then there is me.
The United Nations have passed international law forbidding me to sing. For the sake of humanity.
So I played harmonica and beat on a tea tin.

We made it!!

If you are reading this, then you TOO made it through Christmas!

Well Done! Mine was actually pretty darn good!

Here are some pictorial evidence of the period:

Xmas Eve day. The London Girl and I went to Putney for some last minute shopping. We then walked to the Thames Rr.


Then we had lunch at a very nice pub that sat right on the river. This far up the Thames is actually... sorta... clean. There were ducks atleast.

The pub and the view out the window:





Xmas Eve, night!
The London Girl baked food and then she made a curry with the help of Pommy Dan, while The D and I chilled in the front room. Since we are all Johnny and Jenny Foreigners we were aiming ti stay up late so's we could speak to our families.

As we are in the inter-web age and have high inter-web ninja skills, we hooked up lots of interweb connections and cameras and skype and ... stuff.

Then we kicked back and drank. A lot.

Merry Xmas and all that....

I was going to post 2 x-mas themed animated gifs that I did a while ago. (I've moved into a re-cycling-crazy household. So expect re-cycled artworks, jokes, posts and spelling mistakes).
But I cannot seem to link them.

One was of Santa ripping off his clothes- male stripper style- and then doing a nude jiggle.

The other one was a "Xmas... sux!" message. It had a boy pulling out socks from a wrapped package.

I was going to say that this years xmas will be a little of both for me this year. It's my first ever Christmas away from my family. In the last 5 years I've always managed to make it back to Sydney but coming from London is just a tad expensive and far to travel- especially since i am poor and I've kinda only just arrived.

Xmas posts and xmas whinging is boring. But I am missing my family a lot. I actually really enjoy my family's company, and I enjoy this time of year in Sydney. To me Xmas doesn't mean presents, santa, birth of Jesus, caroling or any of that. It means the one day in the year that I get to break bread and enjoy my families company and also taking a few days off to reflect on the year gone in the "comfort" of my childhood home.

So it's all different for me at the moment.

We will not have a white xmas. The weather in London is actually really lovely and sunny. Friends are coming over for a big lunch. I hope to get really pissed. I have a lovely songbird in the kitchen right now baking. I have some presents under the tree from my mum. I have a pretty good idea that they ARE socks! (But I also think there is the first DVD season of Deadwood which I am DYING to watch!).

So it's not the end of times, and I really don't have any reason to be a Bah Humbug!

So have a happy and safe festive season from everyone here at Diggsville!

See you on the other side!

"Disney exit won't hurt local animators"

..... like hell it won't!!!

"It is a blow to people ... I wouldn't say it is to the industry,"

So, putting 200 animators out of work won't affect the industry?

In an industry that is already severely under serviced? Under paid and under-respected?

I have no love for Disney products or their sweat-shop mentality. But it has been a place where young animators get some fantastic training (if they can survive the experience) and where some of my pals have been able to pick up some descant freelance gigs.

Besides those 200 people now out of work, it also affects all the other animators in the country. There are now 200 more people competing for the very, very few gigs around Australia at the moment.

You SUCK, Disney!!

(full news article here.)

Sometimes... when I'm alone....

.... this is what I think:

Johny Foreigner

The London Girl and I have a mission and that is to have amazingly great sundays. So far we've been doing most excellantly!!
I'll write about our sunday adventures soon, but I need a rest from the screen.
The above photo was taken at a tea room in Hamstead where all sorts of Euro-trash and upper class tweed wearing English toffs and Lords hang.

It's the perfect place for machivillian plotting and raising of ones eyebrows and displaying impressive facial hair.


It's going to be my local.

Mobile Media Revolution

In the process of tidying up/re-jigging my website (it's pretty much done- go check it out) I came across this interview with my old Blue Rocket boss, David Gurney. He's talking to Mo: Life about the mobile media revolution.
Quite interesting considering alot of creative arts is leaning towards that direction.

Also of personal interest to me was this bit:

mo:life:
Your 'Bang the Cat' character was born as mobile content, but word is that it has been picked-up for broadcast – can you tell us how that came about and what bang the cat’s fate is?

David Gurney:
"Bang the Cat" was a mad idea in the first place. I was thinking about minimising a concept down to the smallest thing it could be and ended up with: "There's a cat. It blows up." The idea really hit the spot and started selling well for mobile. Then Canadian broadcast distributor Canamedia expressed interest in taking it to television as interstitials (short form cartoons) and it's gone from there.

I was one of the animators (of 2) on Bang The Cat. 30 secs of madness. About a cat..... that blows up. I wasn't aware of the current progress in it's distribution.

So keep an eye out for it!!

IN OTHER NEWS: Sour cream DOES NOT make a good replacement for milk in ones coffee. Trust me. I know.

Thumbs.

In updating and generally tidying up my professional website (www.sdfraser.com) I've generated some thumbnails of work I've done:


(clicky-click 4 bigger view)

IN OTHER NEWS: I've fulfilled a life long ambition and gotten myself the equivalent of a $5 Haircutt!!
Normally I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for with haircuts- but for some reason I took the plunge and walked into one of those old skool barbers!
I was shit-scared during the whole process, but after ONLY 15 mins in the chair, I walked out with a pretty good haircut!!