nessymon.com

Tag: 100 Days to change

  • 100 Days to Change // Day 32 – 59

    100 Days to Change // Day 32 – 59

    100DaystoChange32-59

    100 Days to Change // Day 32 – 59 // Feb 1 – 27 2016

    I kinda realised somewhere along the way that if I was actually trying to do stuff properly that I probably wouldn’t be able to keep updating this every day. But, even though I haven’t updated this, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been a busy bee.

    As I write this, the temperature today was 6 degrees so even though there might be a few green shoots on the trees it’s still winter. It’s too cold for me. Hats, scarves and frost covered cars seem to have dominated more for the past week than all of winter so far. The seasons are shifting, winter is starting later and going on later.

    Even though this makes me want to go hibernate, I have been putting a decent amount of effort into changing things, and doing things to make that happen.

    I’ve been continuing doing the modules in Music Publishing from the Music Managers Forum. Lots of information, sometimes nearly too much to take in at once. I’ve registered for a day course next week which has been described as ‘a three year degree in one day’. I’ll need my sleep the night before!

    I also was at February’s RIG Train night which was entitled ‘Loving the sound of Breaking Glass’. I really enjoyed it. One of the best of their nights I’ve been to in a while. It was basically all based around sound and how it can be cleverly used in radio, in tandem with foley sounds, library music and when scripting.

    There was one part of the night which was delivered by Mat McKinley of Hotwiredmusic.co.uk . I love how upbeat and motivating he was when speaking about making your own music (even if you don’t know much about music). Biggest thing really to remember is that you’re being creative, nothing can be wrong. Mat runs some courses and things. Definitely going to investigate more about doing them. You’ll be buzzing after listening to the man.

    Other things that have been taking up some of my time are writing and voicing some pieces for The Irish Times, which is pretty cool. I’ve never really thought of myself as political, I just believe that everyone is equal. Everyone should be given the same opportunities and chances. You look after those less fortunate, make sure everyone has a bed to sleep in, a school to be educated in, a hospital to get better in and hopefully, let them know that someone loves them. There’s a lot of religions actually based on less. If I can raise awareness about matters I feel are important at home and for emigrants abroad who would like to eventually move home, I’m glad I can. Thanks to The Irish Times and Generation Emigration for giving me a platform.

    The biggest thing for me has been working on a new London based website which I hope to launch next week. It could actually be done by tomorrow evening. Once it’s done, I’ll let you know. Once I get that up and running I hope to launch a UK version of the same site. I’m looking forward to seeing if it will all work. I think it can, I just need to remember that it will be a bit of work for a while.

    If it works, it would be a big step towards a lifestyle change, which is really what we all want. Anytime I feel like I need a little inspiration, I think of what Johnny Ward, (onestep4ward) has done and I say, I want that!

  • 100 Days to Change // Days 18 – 31

    100 Days to Change // Days 18 – 31

    100DaystoChange18-31

    It can be hard to keep this updated all the time, especially if you’re actually trying to do stuff every day. Here’s a recap:

    I went to the first module of the Music Managers Forum Music Publishing nights. The first night was great, lots to take in and I left there buzzing. There was lots of technical ins-and-outs about publishing and over the rest of the nights we will delve into these a bit deeper. Can’t wait for the next one on February 8th.

    Last week’s radio show went down really well. I recorded the show with Goldenplec writer, Tara Joshi via Skype and was really happy after the broadcast when people mentioned online that they thought we were in the same studio, not chatting via Skype. Score! The entire show was dedicated to Goldenplec‘s Plec Picks for 2016.

    I also had the opportunity to speak to Johnny Ward last week for this week’s show. He’s such an inspiration, travelling and running a business from this laptop. Mega impressed, delighted I could chat to him.

    I also had a bit of a brainwave last weekend. I thought it was good idea so I bought some domain names. Over the next week or two I will be able to get things up and running and hopefully, it will help the Irish music community in London and then later the UK. That will give me something solid to get my teeth into.

    The longer I think about things, the more I believe that you have to give things a go, you have to try, even if you fail. You have to strive for something more than what this world just hands you, you have to fight for what you want, the only barriers are the ones you give yourself.

    This week I had to overcome a dodgy back, thanks to new chairs at work. We’ve had them for a while and my shoulder had been a bit sore but I didn’t put it down to chairs. Doing nothing, just sitting in my chair on Monday afternoon, my back gradually got sorer and sorer until it was tighten up. Yay for having to lie flat on my bed for a couple of evenings once I get home!

    That made this week almost a write off. However, yesterday I did manage to get up, go for a nice walk to Lewisham, go to Brixton Academy and interview Wyvern Lingo for next week’s episode of The London Ear.The ladies are opening for Hozier on his UK tour. Really nice people, I enjoyed our chat and thanks to their Tour Manager Anne for all her help.

    On Wednesday I also went to Rigtrain‘s Pitching Tips for Radiomakers. It was good but in the UK if you pitch an idea to the BBC, the majority of times you need to go through an approved Indie production company. Now, call me thick, but if a production company was going to pitch your idea to the BBC, I don’t think you’d be going into a room with the Commissioning Editor of BBC Radio 4 on your own. I reckon there would be at least one week’s prep. Am I wrong?

    So today is the last day of January, I’m glad to see the back of it to be honest. The past few days have been colder again so hopefully a new month and longer evenings will lead to less hibernation.

    Nessy out!

    IFOPPORTUNITY

  • 100 Days to Change // Day 16 / 17

    100 Days to Change // Day 16 / 17

    100DaystoChange1617January 16/17 2016

    It’s the weekend! After a little bit of a lie in and doing the social media stuff for this week’s episode of The London Ear, it was time to get up, get out and see what the world was like. To cut a long story short, it was bloody freezing!

    We made our way to Spitalfields to grab a bite to eat. I also popped into Rough Trade and bought Bowie’s Blackstar on CD and Public Service Broadcasting’s Sputnick / Korolev on 12inch vinyl. So much music to buy, so little money to spend, there’s never enough.

    A photo posted by Nessy (@nessymondotcom) on

    Lumiere London

    We’ve been making a conscious effort to leave the apartment, this time of year, I always feel like hibernating! ‘Lumiere, London’s Festival of Lights’ was on this weekend so we decided to check out Regent Street’s offerings.

    It started at Oxford Circus, with what I believe was an installation to show the tsunami in Japan. Impressive, with subtle colour changes. As we walked down Regent Street, there was a Stick Man installation. Two stickmen chasing each other around the front of a building, then the shapes they made chasing were transformed into computer games, complete with a soundtrack.

    Walking further down, two giant flying goldfish floated in the middle of the street. Getting towards Piccadilly Circus, an elephant was projected in a window. My favourite of what we saw.

    While I’m writing about Lumiere, I have to speak about the crowds on Regent Street last night. I don’t know whether more people than expected turned up to the event, or it could have been organised better but there were at times when the crowds were so dense and so pushy, that I actually feared for our safety. Any busier and someone could have easily got crushed, especially at the area where the elephant was. People were pushing in one direction, while others were trying to side streets. It got to the stage where I wanted to get out of there. If someone had kids with them, I can’t see how it would have been an enjoyable experience. A pity but no lights are worth that. I wanted to go to King’s Cross to see the installations there but Tahlula checked Twitter and King’s X station had been closed to prevent over crowding. I couldn’t deal with going through that a second time.

    So besides writing up all this, I also delved into my ‘Cook a new dish’, today’s was a diary free potato, mushroom, leek bake with a goat’s cheese topping. We tucked into a corner to try it out. Yummy!

    Diaryfreebake
    Nessy’s diary free bake

    Sidebar: I’m writing this as I’m sitting on the couch, Tahlula keeps glancing over to see what I’m at, she’ll read it later anyway so Hi Tahlula!!

    A relaxed weekend, we even got a little snow!

  • 100 Days to Change // Day 10 – 15

    100 Days to Change // Day 10 – 15

    100DaystoChange10-15

    January 10/11/12/13/14/15 2016

    This week was a strange one. We woke on Monday morning to the news of David Bowie’s death. I wrote about this here. I wasn’t even sure if I should publish it or not but I’ve received so many lovely messages and comments on Facebook, here and on my personal profile, I’m really glad I did. Music plays an important part of people’s lives and the outpouring of response backed that up.

    I wasn’t feeling 100% this week, it’s cold and dark in dreary London. This week I wanted to make sure that I would make one decent change. It might sound a little stupid but I made sure that I brought lunch to work every day.

    It’s really easy to get a bit lazy and buy a ‘meal deal’ from Boots or Tesco etc., but to be honest making sure you have lunch done saves cash! If a meal deal is £3 or £4, even if you buy lunch once a week, that would work out at £192 per year, if you work 48 weeks. If I have to, I’d much rather get a morning coffee after my commute than get lunch. It’s all these little expenses that can eat into your bank account and London is expensive enough.

    So, five days in, I think I can call the lunches successful and have planned to do it again this coming week.

    I’ve also made an effort to try to a different dish, something I normally don’t make. I normally make veggie curry with McDonnell’s curry sauce. Anyone from Ireland, not living there will tell you that this is Ireland’s best kept secret. What makes it even more awesome is that Tesco in Lewisham always have tonnes of the stuff. Yummy. Recently myself and Tahlula went for a quick bite in Feng Sushi on the Southbank. They had a very similar dish with udon noodles so I decided to give it a go, served in a bowl. Beautiful, warm and tasty, perfect for a cold winter’s evening.

    UdonCurrybyNessy
    Udon Veg Curry by Nessy

    As if David Bowie dying this week wasn’t enough, the very lovely Alan Rickman joined him.

    I’ve always loved him, such a good actor, from Love Actually to Die Hard, but I think he’ll remembered by most as Snape in the Harry Potter films. Me, I’ve always Dogma. RIP Alan Rickman.

    It really was a week when many people looked at their own mortality, their heroes aren’t supposed to die. Life is short, we need to make the most of it while we can.

    Alan Rickman
    Alan Rickman as Metatron in Dogma