I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing

In my last post I alluded to the fact that I'd recorded a song. Well folks this is the grand unveiling of that Hit/Flop* 

I have had quite a few offers to help me with Challenge number one. Mostly it's people saying "I've got a mate who knows someone, who has a friend who has a studio" or something equally vague like that. But there was never a question for me as to whose help I needed on this one as I have a super talented musician friend. Not just a mate who strums a bit on his guitar. Oh no, my super-talented musician friend has had a song in the Top 40. I bet your "mate who knows someone, who has a friend who has a studio" can't boast that! 

Not that my mate Doug would ever boast. He's also the most humble man I know. He has no idea how brilliant he is. Despite what we tell him, and his wife tells him and his kids tell him. But anyone who knows him knows it. And so there was never any question about who I needed to help me with this challenge.

Step forward Doug Walker - Future Global Megastar! (He's even got a Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Walker_(musician)  )

Now the only trouble with asking someone credible to help you with a project like this is that they then expect you to create a credible song. Our first attempt at song writing did not go well. Now don't get me wrong I have a reasonable talent for writing ditties about vegetables and raps about pirates. But writing an actual credible song... it's a lot harder than it seems. Apparently you're not just meant to write in cute rhyming couplets and you have to actually say something profound. It's taken Doug years to be the brilliant song writer that he is. I was never going to achieve this in one day. 

So we put it to one side and meant to get back to it... but neither of us was very inspired to have another go at my credible songwriting.

And so I turned 40 and Doug decided it was time to dumb it down to an appropriate level for me! "We'll get a backing track off the web of an existing song and record that!". 

Splendid - we're onto something now!

So I went armed to Doug's house with a few song choice ideas - all of which he rejected very politely before he selected something completely different. 

Doug set up a recording studio in his front room - the sound booth was made from up-ended sofas fact fans! - and Doug's magical computer was in the kitchen.

 

He gave me a professional microphone and cans (I can talk the lingo now you see) and we did take after take until he was happy he'd got enough from me.  I then left Doug to tweak my voice (he assures me everyone uses autotune these days!) and do a mix using the backing track.

But here's the thing with a musician: they can't just do that. No Doug decided it sounded too Karaoke so wrote and recorded his own version of a backing track and it's this version that you can hear if you click here:

https://soundcloud.com/daybarkle/dreams-cover-by-liz-day

Clearly all I hear when I listen is every vocal imperfection (Autotune can't perform miracles) but I do also hear Doug's hard work and general fabulousness too. I suspect real singers must feel some of this mixed feeling stuff too.

I hope you enjoy my attempts at recording a song (and it doesn't offend your ears) - and I hope it inspires you to do a spot of singing too.

And if you get an earworm as a result of this then my work is truly done.

* To be decided by you

Slip Slidin' Away

I must confess that this feels a bit like I am Cher announcing another Farewell Tour. But due to a mixture of popular demand and opportunity I have more to write about and so, for now at least, my 40b440 is continuing (albeit I should probably change it to "40b440something").

So since my birthday 3 exciting things have occurred. The first is that I received an email from Liz Day. No, I'm not going mad and it is not just an email I'd sent from my work address to my personal account but from a bonefide other Liz Day. This one lives in Brooklyn and had heard about my challenges through my old school friend Tracy-Ann (Thanks T-A!). It ended with the awesome line: "I'm 40 too :) Nice to meet you!". So how cool is that? She's called Liz Day and she's the same age too. Pretty cool I'd say. Now the question is does meeting someone on email count as meeting someone? I need your thoughts on this lovely 40b440ers. I can't afford to fly off to New York and it would be a bit much for me to demand she comes to the UK... so can I cross this off my list?

The second exciting occurrence was that another dear pal has helped me record a song. Now I'm not going to expand on this as he's still mixing it for me so I shall post about this once it is ready for you to hear. I shall reveal the song choice then too when I launch my music to you all... I really am turning into Cher! 

The final, and most exciting, event happened on Thursday at work. An email had gone out asking for volunteers to take part in a world record attempt that was taking place live on Blue Peter and in return you would gain... A BLUE PETER BADGE!

Now I can't begin to tell you how much I've always wanted one of these. You may well feel the same way too. I was that child that saved up milk bottle tops to raise money for guide dogs. I drew my design for the boss at York Minster. I cringed every time Simon Groom pronounced the word new "nooue". I have loved the great BP from a child and still love it today. I remember seeing Sarah Green once in the flesh when we were young and feeling in awe. I gasped every time Peter Duncan took on another daring stunt (and had much the same response 30 years later watching Helen Skelton take on daredevil stunts). 

In fact at school I once asked a senior (and very serious) teacher what he thought I should do for a living when I grew up. He thought for several minutes clearly going through every job he could think of before slowly and grandly stating "I think, Elizabeth, that you would make and excellent Blue Peter presenter". Brilliant! Thanks Mr Thatcher! Suggest a job where there are (normally) only 3 of these in the world. Make my life harder why don't you? And whilst I probably would have been awesome in this role (I would have been the presenter that cries and screams when forced to climb up something high but I would also have done lovely "makes") I did not decide to pursue this particular line of work as even then I was something of a realist. 

But before I start going on about making the tinsel covered advent thing with coat hangers or sticky back plastic and Tracey Island I will get back to the story in hand.

You might think that gaining a BP badge was an easy thing to do. If you're under 16 it is. You can gain them for all kinds of brilliant things - A Green badge for writing a letter explaining about something you did to help the environment; a Sport badge for explaining how you encouraged someone to take up a sport etc. But as an adult... it's really hard! I even know people that work on the show. This should make it easy right? Wrong! The badges are kept firmly under lock and key and very few have access. They are counted in and out and all accounted for. Getting a BP badge as an adult is a big deal. You've actually got to appear on screen and do something which contributes to the programme. I'd been hoping for a chance like this for more than 3 years now. These opportunities come along extremely rarely. There were a lot of disappointed faces in our office this week as only a few could take part - we even got our names drawn out of a hat.

So Thursday afternoon came and 60 of us were taken through rehearsals and safety briefings and told in more detail about the World record attempt that we would participate in. The most people being gunged in 3 minutes. The world record stood at 49. I was allocated number 39 and given a t-shirt with my number on. We lined up and awaited the moment. 

The actual gunging would take place in the studio in a specially constructed gunge-pen. We had been shown the 3 positions we would need to stand in. Position 1: climb over the small wall of the pen and stand in the "waiting position". Position 2: Stand on the X and wait for Barney Harwood (current BP presenter for those of you odd people who don't still watch) to pour 2 litres of green slime on your head from a bucket. Position 3: post-gunge, get your head sorted before moving into the post-gunge area (walking on anti-slip mats of course!). 

The biggest worry wasn't being gunged or knowing what to do... the biggest worry was "Will I slip over on live TV?". It's fair to say I am not blessed with natural balance or co-ordination. I have fallen over in all manner of places and comedy ways (Who can forget the time I fell over in Adelaide with a 20kg+ backpack on and ended up waving my legs in the air like a turtle on his shell, completely unable to get back up as people walked past laughing!?). 

The moment came. I managed to climb over the wall, side stepped into the firing zone...


And waited for what seemed like minutes before suddenly being absolutely covered in green, sticky, slimey gunge!

Yes that really is me being totally gunged! Good work Barney! Magnificently I moved to position 3 and into the pen without falling over and moved to the holding area to cheer on the others:

The great news is that with just one disqualification we set a new world record of 59 people gunged in 3 minutes. So as well as being a VERY proud Blue Peter badge holder I am also a world record holder. Get me!

Although we were offered use of showers I opted for getting home so wrapped my head in a white towel (which quickly became a green towel) and headed home... only stopping at a Drive Thru when I realised that I didn't have food in the house and this was the way I could see the least people. Being Eccles though, noone batted an eyelid at a woman covered in slime and wearing a green and white towel on her head. Makes you wonder what state other people go through in!

Maybe the real Cher goes through in her stage costumes when she's in town for one of her Farewell Tours!

It's My Party...

And so the day has finally arrived. Today I am marking my 40th lap of the sun (and I've never even owned running shoes). In the last few weeks I've completed challenges 26 and 28 which brings the measly total that I've completed to just 25. 

Pretty rubbish eh? Well, I'd have to disagree with you there. 2 years ago I'd never been to Rome, drunk Tequila, watched the Godfather, cooked a souffle... I could go on. The point is that doing these challenges has brought me so many new experiences and even new friendships. It's provided me with so much fun; pushed me out of my comfort zone... I went to the Eurovision Song Contest for goodness sake! But I've said much of this in my last post (have a read if you've not already).

So the real question today on my 40th birthday... the day this was all meant to end is... what next? 

Do I carry on and try to achieve the final 15? Do I add another 10 and make it 50b450? Do I set myself a whole new set of challenges for 50?

*50 countries before I'm 50 (I've done 23 so far... I checked)
*50 IKEAs before 50 (I've been to 12 UK and 4 International ones so far... don't ask)
*Get Fit Forties - A fitness challenge for every year of my forties
*50 Landmarks before 50

 I could go on... I'd love to do the first two and last one but realistically I doubt I could afford to and I genuinely considered the third one until I remembered that I hate exercise and am intrinsically lazy! 

So what then? 

I actually don't know! What do you think?