The 50p's are alowly falling in my path to the glory of having completed the quest to find one of every British coin that has been minted since my birth in the great year of 1988. The idea formed then and won't go away until i have finished.


1991 - 2p (still waiting for Maria to give me this one.)

1992/3 - 50p

1994 - 50p

1997 - £2

2007 - 50p (Found in my change today)

2008 - 5p
2008 - 10p
2008 - 50p


6 Coins left, and three of them are from last years, so shouldn't be too hard to find... right?

Having taken part in what is now a trial run of the Alphabet Challenge, I now want to ask you to join in with me. I took pictures that represented days of the alphabet and changing my status and picture on facebook to coincide with the days.

If you are on Facebook feel free to join the GROUP I made for this plan.

The idea is to re-launch this campaign, which made me really think about the world around me a little more than usual, seeing things you don’t usually see, and also doing things I usually wouldn’t, just to get a good picture for the day. (Although sometimes I didn't get good pictures, and immediately regretted not having done something amazing.)

I want you to take a picture a day, as I did, and for those of you who write blogs with a specific theme, you could keep your theme, and get all your readers enthused with your images and make it a whole project of your own to complete it. For those of you with Facebook, Myspace or Twitter, i think it would be great if you would change your picture and status daily to said pictures and what you have pictured.

So it starts on February 1st, all this involves is taking a picture of something that begins with the letter of that day, Feb 1st - A, 2nd - B, 3rd - C.. Etc. All you need to do is upload this photo and change your status. (For those bloggers out there, just keep to your theme, and send in pictures.)

[Either E-Mail me across your picture of the day to c.southwell [AT] hotmail.co.uk or attach a link to your picture at the bottom of my post for the day]

[To clarify - picture A would have been taken on Jan 31st, and uploaded to be up on the 1st Feb, and each picture thereafter uploaded the day before so it is up for the day]



I see this as a bit of a project in that, it will be interesting to see what many different people come up with, and I would like to collect the best of them from all over the world, plus the added bonus of it probably confusing your friends amuses me slightly.

Like that of a flashmob, except over a month.

So please join me in February, by confusing social networking sites, and invite your friends to do the same, the competition will spur you on to greatness.

See you in February for the Alphabet Challenge. Click HERE for samples of my past run.


CLICK HERE FOR TIPS

Now I am 21, and this project seems to me like a juvenile quest whilst simaltaneously being a project of an old person. There is part of me that just wants to finish it so i can stop 'collecting coins', which all started back there.

For my Birthday my Friend, Adsy gave me one of the few remaining coins i had left on my 'wish list'.

1991 - 2p (still waiting for Maria to give me this one.)

1992 - 50p

1994 - 50p

1997 - £2

2007 - 50p
2007 - £2 (Thanks Adsy!!!)

2008 - 5p
2008 - 10p
2008 - 50p

So down to Seven coins. Most of which are decorative 50p's and rather rare.

I am not really sure where to look for these. I didn't complete it before my 21st Birthday, but am now so close, i might as well finish it anyway.

I never though I would be someone to collect coins. I always thought it was very sad, and still do to some extent, though it does excite me that i am so close to getting every coin minted in the UK since I was born. It started when I had completed the 2008 new graphical design coins, pictures to be found there. Because they were new and exciting i just naturally wanted to have them all, and was pleased to have finished it before the end of the year.


Thanks to a couple of handfulls of change at my local Weatherspoon's pub, i found two of the newer coins that i still needed the other night. This is getting down to the wire now.

1991 - 2p (still waiting for Maria to give me this one.)

1992 - 50p

1994 - 50p

1997 - £2

2000 - £2 (Rosii has mentioned that she has this one.)

2007 - 50p
2007 - £1 (thanks to a handful of weatherspoons' change.)
2007 - £2

2008 - 5p
2008 - 10p
2008 - 50p
2008 - £1 (thanks to a handful of weatherspoons' change.)


Only 8 coins to go now.... Though I doubt this will now be completed before my 21st, it is getting close to being completed.

Hello, this is the continuing story based on this idea of collecting every coin minted in England since I was born.

Upon getting in a taxi today, I had a good conversation with the driver. After discussing my destination and hopping in, the conversation got good, and it was a shame to leave. However, after I had paid, I receive a wallet full of pound coins. I only just found out that I found three pound coins that I needed, which makes the taxi ride doubly sweet.

Charlie: "How you are you today?" (I know a bit of a boring conversation opener.)

Driver: "Happy, I am always happy... If you’re not happy what do you have?"

Charlie: (thinking that this is not quite, where I had expected this to go, but pleased it had.) "Problems" I tell my driver, thinking he may not expect this strain of answers.

We go on to discuss the state of society and both gasp almost simultaneously when there is talk of a two headed baby being born, not because of how amazing it is, but because all the experts had told them to abort. We both agree that it is not the doctor’s choice, regardless of whether it would live long... It is a life and should therefore have a chance as any other child. Good on the parents.

I was sad to leave this taxi ride.

Anyways as the coins go, I only went and found the rarest pound coin. And sweeter still it is from the year I was born in. this amazes me. I am ridiculously happy; I don't think I have ever been happier about getting 6-pound coins given to me as change, ever before.

As we said though, Happiness, is the key to life, if you don't have happiness, what do you have?



1988 - £1 (found in change today, I was stoked, as it is VERY rare.)

1991 - 2p (still waiting for Maria to give me this one.)
1991 - £1 (thanks to the change I was given in a taxi.)

1992 - 50p
1992 - £1 (thanks to the change I was given in a taxi.)

1994 - 50p

1997 - £2

2000 - £2 (Rosii has mentioned that she has this one.)

2007 - 50p
2007 - £1
2007 - £2

2008 - 5p
2008 - 10p
2008 - 50p
2008 - £1


Only 10 coins to go (presuming that Rossi and Maria pull through for me)

So today is the end of this particular project and today I ended it standing in London, as it started to snow, hunting down the elusive London Zebra.

I found cave paintings of one, on a fence.


Along the way, I found this SCARY tiger, growling in the cold, waiting for its dinner:

A big monitor lizard, just kinda sitting there:


Some cute Alpacas, chomping away in their big woolly coats, I want me a jumper. Nevertheless, these are not Zebras:


These are the same colours as Zebras, but these aren’t them either...

Here is a cheeky Otter:


And here he is with some friends, it’s like feeding time at the zoo... ah... :

This is the closest to a zebra I've seen so far, you little scamp you, stealing a zebras legs;



CHARLIE'S PICTURE OF THE DAY : Z IS FOR ZEBRA AT THE ZOO.


It was a little chilly, and all the animals stayed indoors, but you know, Zebras aren't supposed to be out in the ice and snow. But imagine my surprise when I turned the corner and out of nowhere.... I found this amazing two-headed specimen of Zebra




EAT THAT ATTENBOROUGH.


Last Alphabet Blog: Y

Other Projects :
London Underground Tube Challenge here
Photographing Photographers here
Alphabet Soup - With You Guys - coming this February.


The Story This Time in Alphabet Soup :

Alphabet Soup: A Half Explaination, and Experiment
Day 1 / A: MK II. A isn't for Apple
Day 2 / B: B isn't for ball, balloon, or bird. Not bus, bike or boat.
Day 3 / C: C isn't for cats, or cars. Its for diggers and smugness??
Day 4 / D: D isn't for Dogs, Ducks, Dynamite, or Des Lynam
Day 5 / E: E is for Near Calamity & An Exam
Day 6 / F: F isn't for Frogs, but it IS for French, kind of.
Day 7 / G: G is for Gambling and Gay Games
Day 8 / H : H is for water and friendship.
Day 9 / I: I is for Ice Bar.
Day 10 / J: J is for Disappointment
Day 11 / K: K is not for kites.
Day 12 / L: L is for Leftovers fit for Lions
Day 13 / M: M is for Mysteries of Kinds
Day 14 / N: N is for Laziness
Day 15 / O: O is not for Oranges
Day 16 / P: P is for CAKE
Day 17 / Q: Q is for Quarters
Day 18 / R: R is for Roof thats leaking.
Day 19 / S: S is for Scoresheet
Day 20 / T: T is for Tea
Day 21 / U: U is not for Umbrella
Day 22 / V: V is for Vendetta
Day 23 / W: W is for Wasting Days
Day 24 / X: X isn't for X-Ray
Day 25 / Y: Yearning for new projects

The penultimate Day of this project in its current guise, actually leant itself well for finding new ideas and starting other projects I had wanted to do for a while.

I started the London Underground Challenge I've been wanting to do for ages, you can read a little bit here. We all had fun running about the tubes, and then arrived at the Tate, much later than had been expected.

I got distracted with finding a new idea for yet another project, which you can read a little bit about, here.

Which all, meant that I had lost track of everything for the day of this project.

We ended up in this bar that I had been to a while ago, which had a sign outside billing it as the hardest pub to find in London, which obviously made me love it. This time it didn’t have that sign though, which made me a little upset. Located on the opposite side of the river, overlooking the Globe Theatre, TSP - or The Samuel Pepys is my favourite hardest to find bar in London.


I love this bar, and because of its unique place in my heart thought it made perfect sense to ask the lovely barmaid this most unusual request upon the realization I hadn't found a letter of the day yet, due to such an excitingly packed day of fun with Rosii and Jenni.

"Have you any Drinks beginning with a 'Y'?"

To which she dutifully set about looking through all the drinks, and found this lovely specimen.


Charlie's Picture of the Day: Y is for Yering Wine, and Yearning for new Projects.



So I find myself having had a day, where, I have found new ideas for a new project, started another project, and thanks to the wonderful bar staff at TSP, come one day closer to completing this Project. Thank you Jo and Corina [sp?] I gave you the web address of the blog, as you seemed intrigued by the concept. I hope you drop by and leave me a comment, as I owe the day to you.

Thanks, for being so helpful in the face of such an odd request.


Also, we found a Huggin' Hill so;

It had to be done. What a great day!


Last Alphabet Blog: X



The Story So Far in Alphabet Soup :

Alphabet Soup: A Half Explanation, and Experiment
Day 1 / A: MK II. A isn't for Apple
Day 2 / B: B isn't for ball, balloon, or bird. Not bus, bike or boat.
Day 3 / C: C isn't for cats, or cars. It’s for diggers and smugness?
Day 4 / D: D isn't for Dogs, Ducks, Dynamite, or Des Lynam
Day 5 / E: E is for Near Calamity & An Exam
Day 6 / F: F isn't for Frogs, but it IS for French, kind of.
Day 7 / G: G is for Gambling and Gay Games
Day 8 / H : H is for water and friendship.
Day 9 / I: I is for Ice Bar.
Day 10 / J: J is for Disappointment
Day 11 / K: K is not for kites.
Day 12 / L: L is for Leftovers fit for Lions
Day 13 / M: M is for Mysteries of Kinds
Day 14 / N: N is for Laziness
Day 15 / O: O is not for Oranges
Day 16 / P: P is for CAKE
Day 17 / Q: Q is for Quarters
Day 18 / R: R is for Roof that is leaking.
Day 19 / S: S is for Score sheet
Day 20 / T: T is for Tea
Day 21 / U: U is not for Umbrella
Day 22 / V: V is for Vendetta
Day 23 / W: W is for Wasting Days
Day 24 / X: X isn't for X-Ray
Day 25 / Y: Yearning for new projects

The London Underground Challenge is officially started, I will upload a couple of pictures now, but will need time to organise how to really be efficient at doing this, as it is a huge project.



Paddington


Edgware Road [Bakerloo Branch]


Marylebone



Baker Street

Whilst moseying round the Tate Modern, I had two inspiring thoughts, maybe three if you take into account that the Rothko exhibition is rather overpriced for what is essentially squares of colours in big rooms. (Though I did like the black on black ones, where it seems to be one shade, but actually a hidden square with a glaze, that you can only see after looking, really closely for a while.)

The first great wave of excitement came from the moment I decided I quite liked the idea of picturing the photographers rather than the subject matter, I mean I'd end up with the same pictures as everyone else right? Plus there was a slightly pretentious looking professional photographer that I felt it was my duty to annoy a little in a 'subtle' way.




So along the day, I 'collected' a few photos of other people, taking photos.




I think if I decide to really pursue this, it may become a blog in its own right. I missed a terrific shot of two people taking photos in opposite directions, as one had obviously gotten his shot and started to walk away.



This one though is my favourite, coupled with the troubles he was having just moments before;



I think it is great to see that the generation gap is being bridged by technology.


The second thought came from two of the exhibits in the gallery on the fifth floor. One was an artist called Victor Grippo, who had tables as the basis of his artwork, and had quotations written on them, reflecting how tables had become the epitemy of our working and creative lives, sitting at a table represents much more, a great idea.

And a second piece nearby, by Sophie Calle, someone who worked in a hotel, (for only three weeks) and took pictures of the guests things in their rooms, and basically had set up a blog, long before the internet. She was a pioneer of interesting glimpses into people’s lives in the 1980s. a great little project that really made me think about the voyeuristic part in peoples’ lives, and the interest I derive from that little bit of information on faceless people from the 1980s. Her art has this element of self-implemented rules, which is similar to the projects I like to do. More info on this exhibit here.

I wonder whether I should ask these photographers after I’ve taken their picture a bit of information about them. Why they are there etc. Or whether to leave it, but I did really like her text in the panels with the photography.


But to make it of real interest it has to be timeless, like Calle's hotel voyeurism. More pondering will be needed to make this into a fully-fledged project.

Today i started doing the tubes with the help of Rosii and Jenni. I would like to thank them for a fun day out in London, and putting up with me.

Though i started to get the impression halfway through that Rosii was possibly more excited about the Tubes than i was. I decided i needed to get my picture outside the station and on the platform.

I will upload pictures soon.

But i am just so pleased to have got off of the starting line.

WHOOOP!

Now this apparently is a contraversial post, being that i have been accused of breaking the rules. [Adrian] I think it is a rather creative way to get around the fact that there is very little in the world that starts with X.

X-Rays are incredibly hard to get hold of due to radiation and fears that i will turn into a super-see-through piece of walking transparency, or soemthing should it bite me.

Xylophones only exist in schools to provide a visual aid to one of the most boring, and elusive letters in our alphabet.



I didn't want to photograph another console, as i actually despise it, I dislike the X-box for many reasons, primarily because i am terrible at it. but also felt it was a little too obvious.

So i settled with this creative excursion away from the letter X, in an admittedly terrible picture.

Charlie's Picture of the day : X is for X in Roman Numerals, and the Metric System.

So X. Meaning 10 in Roman numerals, was the first way of breaking things into tens, which is now standard across most of Europe, and a lot of the World. In terms od measuring anything, liquid, distance, monetary units, there is no escaping it.

Adam Hart-Davis would love me for this; This is what the Roman's did for us. They helped create amoung many other things [After stealing them from other sources] to standardise everything, make things fair and easy to understand wherever you are.

This is my 'X' Adrian, and i am confused as to why you dislike it so much, based on the fact if i'd come back with any of the above things, I am sure you'd be fairly dissapointed i'd been boring. So I thought I would be a little leftfield today. Make it interesting.

Hmmmmm. Point taken though, maybe i should have tried to photograph Xenophobia. Maybe next time.


Last Alphabet Blog: W



The Story So Far in Alphabet Soup :

Alphabet Soup: A Half Explaination, and Experiment
Day 1 / A: MK II. A isn't for Apple
Day 2 / B: B isn't for ball, balloon, or bird. Not bus, bike or boat.
Day 3 / C: C isn't for cats, or cars. Its for diggers and smugness??
Day 4 / D: D isn't for Dogs, Ducks, Dynamite, or Des Lynam
Day 5 / E: E is for Near Calamity & An Exam
Day 6 / F: F isn't for Frogs, but it IS for French, kind of.
Day 7 / G: G is for Gambling and Gay Games
Day 8 / H : H is for water and friendship.
Day 9 / I: I is for Ice Bar.
Day 10 / J: J is for Disappointment
Day 11 / K: K is not for kites.
Day 12 / L: L is for Leftovers fit for Lions
Day 13 / M: M is for Mysteries of Kinds
Day 14 / N: N is for Laziness
Day 15 / O: O is not for Oranges
Day 16 / P: P is for CAKE
Day 17 / Q: Q is for Quarters
Day 18 / R: R is for Roof thats leaking.
Day 19 / S: S is for Scoresheet
Day 20 / T: T is for Tea
Day 21 / U: U is not for Umbrella
Day 22 / V: V is for Vendetta
Day 23 / W: W is for Wasting Days
Day 24 / X: X isn't for X-Ray

Ok, so Adam, or inmate Welshy, got a Wii for Christmas. I have generally been terrible at all computer games ever, but i have found a niche in Wii bowling, and Mario Kart.

I'm not only not terrible, im verging on good, almost annoyingly good apparently, from housemates Bennett and Welshy today were finding it tricky to beat the new technique id devoloped.

W despite it having already Wasted hours of my life, and Welcoming back insomnia.

Charlie's Picture of the Day: W is for Welshy'sWii




The new record as of now; 220

my camera dislikes the tele, it isnt that bad honestly. And this is smug me bowling earlier;


So yes, another Waste of a day. On a side note however, my favourite band Infadels are also DJ's, they put together this collection of mixes as an album free to download, go here for the songs & here for the artwork and tracklisting.

Download it, Enjoy it, Dance to it, and spread the word.


Last Alphabet Blog: V



The Story So Far in Alphabet Soup :

Alphabet Soup: A Half Explaination, and Experiment
Day 1 / A: MK II. A isn't for Apple
Day 2 / B: B isn't for ball, balloon, or bird. Not bus, bike or boat.
Day 3 / C: C isn't for cats, or cars. Its for diggers and smugness??
Day 4 / D: D isn't for Dogs, Ducks, Dynamite, or Des Lynam
Day 5 / E: E is for Near Calamity & An Exam
Day 6 / F: F isn't for Frogs, but it IS for French, kind of.
Day 7 / G: G is for Gambling and Gay Games
Day 8 / H : H is for water and friendship.
Day 9 / I: I is for Ice Bar.
Day 10 / J: J is for Disappointment
Day 11 / K: K is not for kites.
Day 12 / L: L is for Leftovers fit for Lions
Day 13 / M: M is for Mysteries of Kinds
Day 14 / N: N is for Laziness
Day 15 / O: O is not for Oranges
Day 16 / P: P is for CAKE
Day 17 / Q: Q is for Quarters
Day 18 / R: R is for Roof thats leaking.
Day 19 / S: S is for Scoresheet
Day 20 / T: T is for Tea
Day 21 / U: U is not for Umbrella
Day 22 / V: V is for Vendetta
Day 23 / W is for Wasting Days