Monkey's Blog - with a little help from Alice

EIFF Short Film Challenge, floral update, and (maybe) working on The Extras
[Updated Tuesday 9th August  2016] 

We're just recovering from the excitement of going to the Filmhouse on Saturday for the awards presentation of the winning films. It was all rather like a mini-version of the Oscars, but without a procession up the red carpet, I'm sorry to say. I'd been especially looking forward to that!

Having decided to dress more like Jenny Beavan, or Iris Apfel, than in an evening dress (Alice hasn't got one as such) and diamonds (ditto) we were relieved she's finally put up the rack for her collection of necklaces. Most of them come from a Cancer Research charity shop. The job entailed an awful lot of swearing and two sets of holes in the crumbly plaster. Don't ask.

She finally determined on her patchwork trousers and colour co-ordinated tops, with just a few of the necklaces. She had promised to make me a kilt, but progress there is particularly slow, given that we're very busy with The Extras, so Ba and I went "au naturel." Having wool and fur, it's not at all the same as it would have been for an elderly human being. [Alice won't type what I was going to say about that.] 

After watching all ten shortlisted films, we went up on stage for a Q&A with the other film-makers. Alice's son took some photos, but distance and camera only produced something very blurred and pixelly. Our photo whizz-kid spent ages doing her best, so please do click!

The lights were shining straight at us, and we couldn't see the audience very well, but we managed to pick out most of our friends and supporters, though not whether they were smiling or not. Still, they all said nice things afterwards, so we must have seemed OK.

Our submission was titled Reading in Bed @ 70, as you'll know if you've been following us. Ba says you must click on this image, to read her witty wording.

We didn't actually win any of the awards, but felt we'd done ourselves proud to be shortlisted as one of the ten out of thirty or so entries.

You can see the list of winners and the day's program on the EIFF site.
Now it's all over, you can also watch the video on Alice's friend's YouTube Channel.

Floral update
We like to keep our followers up to date with the state of our windowsill and indoor plants, so here's a few recent photos of their progress.

You can see how the windowbox has filled up as the plants gradually flourished after we planted them in early June. [See this post.] Ba loves the tiny, delicate Lobelia and I like the big bold Marigolds.

The tall straggly plants are Chrysanthemums, never removed since last year: we'll have to wait for them to flower later on. We were delighted when the first Nasturtium finally came out, ten days on.

And even more so when we got a whole bevvy of the beauties! This photo was taken only a week later. Funny how we seem to be sitting in almost exactly the same places, isn't it?

We've got a good collection of indoor plants as well, sitting behind the sink in the kitchen window. Several of these are Geraniums, some too tall to see here.

Living in a tenement flat wihout our own garden, all three of us take great pleasure in being able to look at the various plants growing away so happily.

I don't think you can really justify that "happily", unless it's a transferred epithet, but Ba insists that plants do experience such feelings, and she can tell. Alice sometimes talks to them, too, but she has an annoying habit of thinking out loud a lot of the time anyway. She says it's a great deal more deliberate with the plants, and she thanks them for looking so lovley and cheering her up if she's down. Humans!

Working on The Extras 
You'll need to wait for that, as there's plenty to say on the topic but weariness calls Alice to her bed for some sleep. 

This part of the title sequence gives you a taste of how much is involved. Click to see it at a readable size.

She's yawning. It really will have to wait.