Of course you did said the traffic officer when he pulled me over last Sunday morning. You see I hd become a little impatient with this silver Volvo driving in front of me in Malvern last Sunday and as I overtook the car in a fit of uncharacteristic impatience I swore for the umpteenth time at the number of Sunday drivers out this fine Sunday morning. Only this chap was not amused and no sooner had I over taken him than on came the blues and twos. “Do you know why I pulled you over?” he asked in a rather high pitched voice that Lorraine says almost shattered the windows on our car. Why do they have to ask that? I wondered. Of cours I know why but I have to appear contrite and penitent so I did. “I am really sorry, I didnt mean to…”

He is right, I thought but it’s best not to argue so I got off with a telling off and drove off at 5mph behind every car on front of me for the rest of the afternoon.
What a weekend! After extolling the virtues of my #2 son George on his 18th birthday and what a wonderful kid he is and all that, he only goes and gets involved in a fight in a night club and ends up in a police cell. This time being his 18th birthday, I don’t get a phone call and he learns at this very early stage in his life what it’s really like to spend a night in a police cell or ‘counterback’ as we call it in Ghana. How important it is to keep declaring God’s protection, grace and positivity over our children. Sometimes it is so much better to walk away but try telling that to a testosterone loaded freshly baked 18 year old who has just ceremoniously burned his fake ID and is ready or so he thinks to step into the world of real grown ups. What a wake up call?

Well ok so much for that… The funding drive for the October show is well underway and we have already hit 2% of our target. It is encouring but we need more so if you are reading this got to http://www.sponsume.com/project/sunshine-music and give us your money!!! as Bob Geldoff once said (notice I left the expletives out?) When you have finished giving us your money, phone, email, FB, twitter your friends and get them to do the same.
Right enough of my shameless begging. My late brother Gabriel had a wonderful saying, ‘A friend in need is a friend to be avoided!!’ If I don’t hear from you, I’ll know you are avoiding me.

On a very serious note though, we have some wonderful inducements, you are not giving your money away, just see it as you acquiring one of our paintings for a seriously knock down price. Check out the rewards on http://www.sponsume.com/project/sunshine-music and you will know what I mean.

Can you tell I am really pleased with myself today? There is much tail wagging in camp  Anne today with a double celebration to launch the new video and the start of the campaign to raise £5000 for the exhibition in October.  It’s not Steven Speilberg so don’t expect too much and as home videos go… well it’s not bad even if I say so myself.  I stutter and I falter and I am not great behind the camera and I did all the editing myself and it fades in and out prematurely but you know what? I did it and yes I am proud of it.

So it’s on the Sponsume website and it’s on my facebook and Lorraine has sent it to all her ex and serving army buddies and I am so pleased they are all behind me. We managed to raise 1% yes a mighty great whopping 1% of our total today. Do you have any idea how I feel about that? Elated! YES ABSOLUTELY ELATED!!!!

Tomorrow, more campaigns and more fund raising but at least this exhibition is very nearly a reality (by 1%) and right now that is good enough for me. Thank you thank you thank you.

Right my second celebration is for George my middle son who turned 18 today!!! I haven’t seen much of him. He has been out and about celebrating with his mates since last night and has been in and out today. Somewhere in the midst of all that he had to go to work (bless him) but his friends were round this evening to take him out and give him a really good time.

I am a happy bunny this evening as I sit and reflect on the past 18 years and to the moment early that morning of 12th May 1994 when he made his debut into this wonderful world of ours. I was able to go home from the hospital that same day and as I turned the telly on at about mid day, labour leader John Smith had passed on into the world of light following a massive heart attack. That was the news that was.

Well many Happy Returns my dear George. You have grown up into a fine young lad and your mum is really proud of you.

I am feeling like a petulant child right now; arms folded, lips pouting and telling my teenage kids how very unfair life is. You can tell how bad things are for me when I start trying to reason with teenagers. In Ghana there is an old African saying, which only makes sense if I give it to you literally… when you are taking a bath and a mad man comes to steal your towel are you going to run naked after him? Don’t try and figure out what mad men might be doing in your plush bathroom, don’t forget we are in Africa in the days of yore when plush bathrooms were not yet invented, when you did your ablutions in the back of your yard and went away quite contented. Anyway the moral of the story if I were to remain on track… don’t stoop to the level mad men and teenagers or better still mad teenagers.

Having been totally bent out of shape by my foolishness I am now back in the world of video editing. Who would have thunk a 3 minute video would take me 3 days? What kind of productivity is that? I am not a perfectionist and not nearly an expert but I do want to get this right, what with laying sound tracks and audio mixes and all that.

I am well into day 5 of this project. By day 70 my paypal account should be ringing with the sound of shiny new coins in excess of five thousand pounds.

I MUST finish this video this evening. Tomorrow my #2 son George will be 18 and much as I would like to be stuck in my office fund raising and editing videos I have committed to spending some time with him.

18 years eh? wow!!

(c) Anne Blankson-Hemans

This isn’t going well at all. I recorded the video yesterday. That was ok, Lorraine fired questions at me and I answered them. I felt really good cos all I had to do was pretend I was Rolf Harris being interviewed by Piers Morgan. Then Lorraine and I fell out because she was I upset I was going to edit her questions out of the video. Look girlie I told you, it’s not about you…

Anyway that’s done and now I have to edit it and add slides and titles and all that plus a heap of background music. I know  in my head what I want to do but somehow cant seem to translate it out of my brain and into the computer software I am using. I know you are probably thinking why don’t you get someone else who knows what they are doing to edit it for you? Or maybe you are not asking the question because you know me well enough; why do it the easy way when you can suffer instead? Yes I am a glutton for punishment!

Well, there is no gain without pain right? I am going to lock, yes lock myself in my office today and I not coming out til it’s done. if I haven’t emerged by midnight tonight, you might have to send a search party out to come and find me.

Sunshine & Music Take 50 (c) Anne Blankson-Hemans

Day 3!! Did I say I’d blog  on a daily basis? hmmm whoever said procrastination is the thief of time knew exactly what they were talking about. I have been trying make the video for this project and have been racking my mind about how best to do it. To be totally honest with you I am not great in front of the camera, I mean I am perfectly fine in an interview situation and can talk until they pull me off camera by my dreadz but tell me to make a video blog and I am all at sea.

So having discussed it with my best (and clearly my only) friend Seiwa, we’ve decided perhaps we ought to make it sound like an interview situation. So this afternoon, I will set up the video camera in my kitchen, sorry studio and we will begin. Lorraine will interview me and I will respond like a true pro. I need to get that video online so the site can go live and I can’t put it off any longer.

Meanwhile,  I have posted details of our plans on my facebook site and have noticed (I will try to remain in denial), how very few likes I have received already. This is not meant to be a painful project and every little amount donated will be gratefully received.

Checkers Delight (c) Larry Otoo