Thanks to Colm for the jibjab 
It’s been a busy seven days.
Last Saturday, Graham ‘The Odyssey’ Hughes surprised us all by magically teleporting himself from Rome, Italy to the bar at FACT, Liverpool! Great surprise! A ‘Skype-ing event had been planned and around 30 of his friends gathered for it, as a live link-up had been arranged. For those of you not in the know, Graham’s currently mid-Odyssey, attempting to visit every country on Earth – by surface – in the shortest time possible. He’d secretly returned to the U.K. so as to attain some visas for the middle-east. Shortly after the event began, we lost sound, followed shortly by faint cries of, “can you hear me…can you hear me?” until eventually, the webcam link went down. Suddenly, and as if by magic, Graham appeared in the bar, shouting, “Can you hear me now?!”. It was great.
On the Sunday, we headed to his folk’s place for a similar event, and a similar surprise for his family, which also worked a treat. On Monday evening, I met up with Graham & friends in a bar in town, and seeing as we had a busy day planned for Tuesday, I got the last train home. Tuesday arrived, and post breakfast, we worked on a little bit of the Odyssey website and some film conversion, before heading to Granada Studios in Manchester for some filming for the news’ Granada Reports. Later on, we headed over to the BBC studios as ‘Auntie’ was also interested in The Odyssey. We headed into the studios of North West Tonight for a live interview with the legend that is, Gordon ‘The Krypton Factor’ Burns. Post interview, we met up with a technician from NWT, who was keen to get involved with the project.
On the Wednesday, Graham headed to London for an interview with ITN for the national lunchtime news, and later that night, I put out a news story on his website indicating that he was home. Thursday arrived and was spent generally catching up on the events of the week, sending & receiving e-mails and news contacts via the website. On Friday night, a meeting was arranged for The Odyssey team, but it fell through, much to my annoyance. Tonight (Saturday 13th Feb), I’m staying in with the wonderful Yvonne, our little angel Katrina, and enjoying the calm that is Seán staying at his Nana’s for the night! Bliss…
Here’s the footage from the ITN news piece on Wednesday.
Bye for now x.
This video shows the winner of ” Ukraine’s Got Talent,” Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.
The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about $130,000.00. She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated. It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.
She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier. This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house. In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.
The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine , resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.
Kseniya Simonova says, “I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger compliment.”
I love this! Santa’s heard about Seán and he’s sent him a message from the North Pole! Click the picture below to watch the video (opens in a new window).
Click the picture to view Santa's message to Seán!
If you like light art, more specifically projection art, then you’ll LOVE this! Sound on, full-screen. Thanks to Derek Skelly for the vid.
I regularly watch the ‘Five Minutes With’ series on the BBC website, as it gives it a brief insight into the lives and thinking of both celebrities and others of greater thinking than myself. If you’re not yet versed in the ‘Five Minutes With’ series, here’s a recent interview with Richard Dawkins…
More of the same can be viewed on the BBC website by clicking here.
Graham’s week 7 vid is now up. He’s just finished getting around The Americas, and has now departed from Iceland towards the U.K. – due to arrive on Monday night. On Tuesday 21st, we’re off to get around Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales in one day – yeah! Have you donated yet? Follow the link on the right hand side of my website, or, for more info and to donate to WaterAid, visit www.theodysseyexpedition.com.
Here’s his latest video for you to enjoy:-
Graham’s week 4 vid is now up. He’s still struggling to get around the Caribbean – ferries once a week and cruise ships just aren’t interested. The yachties say that it’s against the wind (I’m no sailor?) but there ye go. Have you donated yet? Follow the link on the right hand side of my website, or, for more info and to donate to WaterAid, visit www.theodysseyexpedition.com.
Here’s his latest video for you to enjoy:-
I love this!!!!!!! Have a laugh on me…
Graham’s crazy attempt visit every nation on earth in one year (without flying) – in aid of the international charity ‘WaterAid’, is 30 days in, and having completed South America, he’s struggling to make his way around the Caribbean. For now, it really doesn’t look like he’s gonna be able to make his way to Nova Scotia for Feb 12th. If you know ANYONE with a boat in the Caribbean (he should be in St. Kitts by now), be sure to get in touch with me.
For more info and to donate to WaterAid, visit www.theodysseyexpedition.com.
Here’s his latest video for you to enjoy:-
It worked!! I sent an e-mail to the editors of YouTube requesting that they feature Graham’s video on the front of their sites, and it’s now the top featured item on the front of YouTube UK and YouTube Ireland, as well as the #1 featured Travel video on both! How cool is THAT! In the space of around 8 hours, we’ve had 10,000 hits! Take a look while it’s still there…
[update 30/01/2009]
60,000 hits on YouTube!!!!!!!!!!!!
Graham’s crazy attempt visit every nation on earth in one year (without flying – yeah!) is well underway. All in aid of the international charity ‘WaterAid’, he’s seventeen days in, has completed South America and has just landed in Trinidad & Tobago. For more info and to donate to WaterAid, visit www.theodysseyexpedition.com.
Here’s his latest video for you to enjoy:-
1st January 2009 sees the beginning of Graham’s quest to visit EVERY country on Earth by land or sea in 12 months. Lonely Planet TV and National Geographic are involved, and the Guinness Book of Records will be keeping a close eye on things, and during the 12 months, I’ll be keeping his site up to date. Take a look at the promotional video below…
Fancy a good laugh? This one’s a good’un…plays for 10mins 47sec.