Tuesday 31 May 2011

Intrigue - Part 1.2: Discovery



By reading any further, you state, that you are at least 18 years old.

The following content contains violence and situations, which might be offensive for some readers.
So be warned and do not read on, if James Bond like situations do not appeal to you.






The following morning, Harry had only found a few hours of rest. While his tumultuous thoughts disturbed his peace, the forensic called him. The hour was still too early for regular working hours, so what was that call about?

Harry trusted George Henley implicitly. They had long known each other in the service for Queen and country. So Harry waited patiently till George came to the reason why he called, after sharing each other’s family problems and best wishes. They even shared similar disturbed relationships, as it was hard to be a forensic coping with dead bodies and keeping a happy, undisturbed marriage working.

“Why would Lucas fake his tattoos?” With this blunt question George started the topic.

Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

“Fake, all tattoos?” Harry broke out, before he could rule in his surprise.
“I come in, do nothing, tell nobody.”
Harry took up his jacket and keys and walked out the door, while still talking to George Henley over his mobile phone.

“Who does already know, George?” he asked.
“Nobody. I am alone here at the moment. I started early to leave shift early today, you understand, visiting day with my son. Has no sense to keep reminding my wife’s lawyer that I am working most weekends.” George’s resigned voice reminded him so much of his own fight with his wife during their divorce.

“I only have to destroy the already made tape recording and do it again, as soon as you are here. Nobody will be the wiser for it. – Lucas had real tattoos – had he not?”

“Do it. – And, thank you, George.” Harry refused to answer the last of George’s questions and just once again confirmed that he would be there in a few minutes, before he hung up the phone.



=> "Intrigue"-Page                                   =>  Next chapter 1.3

Monday 30 May 2011

Intrigue - Part 1.1 - He is Dead



By reading any further, you state, that you are at least 18 years old.

The following content contains violence and situations, which might be offensive for some readers.
So be warned and do not read on, if James Bond like situations do not appeal to you.





Intrigue - The Beginning



The ending of "Spooks 9" - where it all began...



Harry Pierce stepped back from the rim of the building.
Absolutely in shock he ignored the ringing of his mobile phone.
Lucas, he still thought of him as Lucas North, had rather killed himself than to shoot him and escape.
The picture of the body in that unnatural position on the top of a car down at the street remained glued in front of his eyes.

More than his own son he had felt Lucas to be one of his own. To see his development in the service, his brilliance emitting from all his actions, his coping with difficult situations in the job. To observe each of his progresses had made him feel incredibly proud.
His own son with his drug addiction always had refused his influence, his caring, his support. He had evaded his influence wherever and whenever he could. Lucas on the contrary had always cherished even the least sign of his attention.
Harry Pierce grimaced as if in pain. He on purpose had withheld his feedback and fatherly guidance. He had felt he had failed Ros with his guidance to always do her ultimate best. She should have left the building, when she could. But instead of saving her life, she had died in trying to rescue the home-secretary in foolhardy bravery.

Harry heavily felt the burden of having failed to save either her or him or, as it was, his son, who always was so close to total ruin.
Since Lucas’ return from Russia, no real discussion or chat among friends had occurred. He had drawn back behind a wall, to keep his feelings safe and in the process had ignored all the problems around him, instead of solving them.
It had been wrong of him to let Lucas cope with the traumatic experiences of his imprisonment all on his own, but it had woken deeply buried fears of his own, about his time of imprisonment in Ireland. For a short time he had been held prisoner and had been tortured. He had not been able to walk upright for a whole month, after he had been able to escape his guards. The nightmares still kept him up some nights and he still only could manage to cope with it by evading every thought about this time. The therapist back then had declared him fit for service again, as he had gone through all his nightmares in detail, but when they came back, he just escaped by totally refusing to think about the whole event.

His old fears had prevented him to safe Lucas.

Absolutely depressed, he took up the phone, which was ringing nearly without any pause, and answered it.
It was Ruth telling him in a suppressed voice that the bomb at the railway station was indeed a fake, as Lucas had already revealed to him. Her almost too calm voice told him, that not all was well with her. He had failed her as much as his ‘children’, for which he felt responsible.
He promised Ruth to come in. Ruth would send a car to pick him up.

Slowly he went down to the street. Till he came to the ground floor, the ambulance already had arrived and examined the body. They confirmed the death of Lucas North, as he provided the name.
His team of forensics would take over the body for further examination.
They would also try to find out more about the tortures Lucas went through during his Russian imprisonment. Harry pushed these thoughts aside. They were too torturous for him to contemplate now.

When Harry came closer to the body of Lucas, something startled him. He could not directly place the cause for his irritation. He averted his gaze from the shattered body and turned to the waiting car, which brought him back to the grid.



=> "Intrigue"-Page                                   =>  Next chapter 1.2

Sunday 29 May 2011

Sweet Message and Praise for the Initiative of Wonderful Fans

Richard Armitage acknowledged the wonderful fund rasing activities by Servetus, Calexora (mentioned in this post) and so many more of his fans who joined, in a new letter to his fans, which thankfully RichardArmitageOnline.com posted for all of us to enjoy.
As I could not figure out, how to directly link to the message and not just to the main index site, I insert and quote the whole message here:

29th May 2011

Dear All,

I wanted to post a message to say a huge thank you for your generosity of donations to the Christchurch fundraiser on 22nd May, I gather there was a considerable contribution from members of our little community, which is gratefully received to help a rather larger and damaged community 'rise up' get back on its feet. I am so grateful and proud to see such support from so far away, you really are hugely reliable when it comes to those in need. Thank you. I hope our little teaser want too much of a tease, it is so difficult to give anything away, of the movie we are making but we had to do something; I have resisted signing anything 'Hobbity', until the film is finished (just a little bit superstitious) but I was very proud to add my name to the book for Christchurch.

I had a belated request from a certain Wizard about some cello playing, now as a music lover, and particularly that instrument, I can see how that might be a real possibility and perhaps a joy to hear...if Yo Yo Ma were asked. However, raising money for charity by simulating the sound of a strangled cat whose claws are clinging onto a chalkboard for dear life, whilst someone in another room tries to tune a radio in, would result in a charity deficit, with demands for refunds and compensation to boot. So I may have to decline for now, until I have had time to practice a bit more.

With regards for requests for social media, blogs tweets etc. I have always worried that I will reveal something about the project I am working on that I am not allowed to, added to the fact that I am just about up to e mailing and little more, I may have to abstain for now.

So were are about to depart for our short hiatus and I will be sorry to say farewell to Wellington and NZ, one of the most exciting places I have been lucky enough to live and work, not just a magnificent landscape but a warm, friendly, generous and really cool community, which has welcomed us with open arms. Seriously this place has to go to the top of the Bucket List.


Much Love
RA

What a wonderful message to wake up to and Calexora, we can still dream on and hope for him to play the cello once ;o)

Friday 27 May 2011

What World do we Live in? - Or: I Hate Telephone Marketing

Today was not my day for telephone calls. One caller accused me of making her being liable for something she offers in her work portfolio.
But the worst was, that I had put days of work into accommodating her offers in a time where I can ill afford it and her thanks were unjust accusations when she was liable for her offers anyway, if posting them with me or not. She just had not recognized that fact for 26 years. Quite a long time to not discover the obvious.

Also today, I had the third caller in two weeks, asking me to speak to my boss.
How dare they !!! They not only do un-requested telephone marketing, but also fail to read my company details.
Or do they just not expect to get a boss on the telephone?
Or should I not answer telephone calls, because of being my own boss? But who would answer the customer requests then?
And they always ask for a male boss. - Oh, what delicious field day I have with those callers. ;o)
Normally I am very polite and helpful to my callers, but those who ask for my boss completely lost. When my slight feminism kicks in... Hmpf ... (Just spitting out some last bones ;o)

Fortunately I can get a treat and get down from all my steam and raging, as the one unjustly accusing me really got under my skin, whereas I can smile about the presumption, that a hard working woman must have a male boss.

How very fortunate to have Richard Armitage fandom, giving me a real rescue area, where I can fill my reserves with my ideals, wonderful comradery, intelligent women helping, sharing and talking to and with each other and not hacking and biting each other to pieces.
What a wonderful parallel universe Richard Armitage world is for me !!!
[If you are one of those biting females, not leaving a good hair on another female for no other reason than that she is female as well, please just leave my dream universe ;o). But as you read this, you already show that you are not. Welcome in!]

(P.S.: Did I mention, how important Richard Armitage is for true lived feminism?
I should thank him for that, but what would he think then. He would think I am completely crazy (and would he be so far off the mark at least when he is concerned? ;o)

Edited - Source: Armitage-Online.ucoz.ru

Can we somehow clone him for each one of us?


Source: Armitage-Online.ucoz.ru   Photographer: Joe McGorty
The only objection I have concerning this second picture is, that in my opinion they put the warning sign at the wrong place, as with Richard Armitage fandom there is:

Source: Armitage-Online.ucoz.ru   Photographer: Joe McGorty



P.P.S.: For all awaiting the beginning of "Intrigue", please be patient. I am working on it. I wanted to start with a video clip at the beginning, but have upgraded my software to an unrecognizable new version, where everything works completely different and I do not find my way around.

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Intrigue - A Spooks 9 Sequel (Announcement)

Dear Readers,

I have for so many times announced and spoken about my dream, which 'revealed' the true happenings of Spooks 9 to me, that I finally must write down the story line, I saw back then in my dream.
As my work schedule and dire business situation do not allow me to indulge too much time in the 'fan-fiction', my story will more or less be a draft summary of the happenings.
But I think, I must reveal it before the 'real' Spooks 10 comes out, as it will make my story line redundant and unimportant.
So I hope you understand my motives for doing it in such a rushed and abbreviated way.

As, like in the "James Bond" storyline, a lot of further adventures and situations are possible for the true hero, please feel free to use the resolution and create your own story around it.
I would very much love to read about it, as I was very unhappy with the end of Lucas / John in Spooks 9. If you do, please drop me a line to let me know.

My episodes will be put together in an index on a separate page of this blog, to get the story into the right order, as the continuing blogposts will turn the developing story from the ending to the beginning.

This new page collecting all parts some of you have already detected: Intrigue

There also is a warning concerning the age-limit for potential readers.

« By reading any further, you state, that you are at least 18 years old. »

I do not worry over much and do not specially restrict access, as the intended content is not really offensive or sexually explicit and would in my opinion need no strict age restriction. (My readership, as far as Blogger tells me, is older than 18 years anyway.)
But I do want to avoid any kind of problems, so every post belonging to the story will be marked with an age-restriction notification.
This alternative storyline should be fun for the reader and give all Lucas North-fans some hope back. Causing offence would be the total opposite of what I want to reach with my story.

I hope you will enjoy it and follow my 'dream of the real events'.

Best wishes and thank you for being such a wonderful and supportive group of readers and commentators.

Yours,
Christine (CDoart)


The logo and sign for all parts of the upcoming story:

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Fandom is Great and Wonderful !

If you ever had any doubts that Richard Armitage fans are great, brave and just absolutely wonderful, here are two examples who just deserve to be specially mentioned:

Servetus - with her absolutely wonderful idea to help those in need and

Calexora - with her idea to help by challenging Richard Armitage to play the cello.

As we know through his interviews so far, that he likes to play the cello, it might be a challenge he likes to meet.
Please support both ideas and help where you can.

P.S.: Richard Armitage fans are wonderful.
The world would be a better place if all acted like his friendly and helpful fan community.
All the world should become Richard Armitage fans !
;o) quod erat demonstrandum ;o)


Source: RichardArmitageNet.com
Readers who have seen my short video introduction for FanstRAvaganza 2011 will know, what I want to say with this picture ;o) I hope he does not want to ...

Monday 16 May 2011

To Settle my Nerves ...

How I see that I am at the end of my nerves 
and urgently need a RA treatment?

I look at things I like and only think about how much work it is to maintain them, keep them clean and free of dust, etc.
Then I know, it is high time for me to let the dust stay where it is. He always gets the upper hand with me anyway.
But now, how to decide what treatment would be the right one?
Richard Armitage - treatment of course, but which one?

How fortunate, that it is May and bccmee does give us our daily dose of highly effective medicine! How fortunate for me, to have doctor and nurse so handily available ;o)

Here is today's medicine: bccmee with an "Ultimate Force" picture of Richard Armitage

Another medicine I found by accident today is Robin Hood, a rarely touched topic on this blog. But first I must mention the only "Robin Hood" film, where I really wanted Robin Hood to get Marian in the end.
I saw it the first time, when I was still so young that I slept during most of the cinema performance. It was so cosily warm and dark. But I can remember seeing the last bit, with the happy couple leaving together in a coach ;o)

But now, I think, I must reveal, which film I mean.
This Robin (and only this Robin) should get Marian:

In all the other cases I have seen, I found Robin Hood a bit self assured and overbearing. Nothing like the thoughtful and troubled Guy of Gisbourn, played by Richard Armitage, who would really deserve her and would cherish her accordingly (after the long time of torture she made him go through).

Now you deserve a further treat for today:
Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

Saturday 14 May 2011

Still Searching for the Best Material

In utter hubris, I wrote on Servetus' blog, that I would try to make a RA-picture for my stitching machine.
I looked and searched, but cannot come up with something nearly fitting. So yesterday and today, I tried to draw a picture myself, to reduce all the colour and lines to at least make it nearly possible to get it transformed into something adequate for my stitching machine.
The downside is, my pictures do not get close to resembling his lovely face and I think they would not work on my machine anyway.

But at least I tried ;o)
I never had a painting career in mind, so I am not overly disturbed, that I cannot catch the likeness.

If you have any suggestions or material which you think might work for a transfer into an image for a stitching machine (preferably black / white), please let me know !!! I very much appreciate any kind of help in this matter!!!

Here are my two efforts:
Picture 2:
Picture 1:

Why was my Reaction so Extreme?

Yesterday's post kept turning round in my head and I continued with the question, why my reaction to this 'old interview' was so extreme?

In hindsight, I think, what disturbed me most about the interview and why it changed my apprehension of Richard Armitage was, because it brought him closer on a personal level.
I was not prepared to let him in so closely. He was on his pedestal quite in a safe distance to me. If the safety zone was more for his sake or mine remains to be decided.
It was a quite comfortable and for some time well established distance which got disturbed. His 'function' in my life got a further aspect. What comes of it must be discovered further in future.

He came too close with a trust he cannot know that he can burden me with without having to fear negative consequences. My family and friends know me and know they can depend on me, when they entrust me with burdensome information. He does not know that and so his trust instinctively let me draw back and put him in greater distance. - Every aspect of his acting in "Strike Back" ep. 3 was under the closest scrutiny and was evaluated meticulously by me.
That unnerved me so much, that I had to stop watching that film which I had seen countless times before.

With the lovely pictures of bccmee and kadamanja I was able to put him 'almost' back in his old place.

Fortunately there is such a lot to be admired in and about him, that a new aspect and different point-of-view does not hurt overly much. The result always is fine!

In comparison, the fabulous and amusing numerological analysis by Fabo Laktuko and Traxy (and I must admit, my own) did nothing to bring him closer, but were so funny, that I still cannot stop laughing.
If you did not already, give the numerology comparison by Celebrity-Galore a try ;o)))

Knowing or Not Wanting to Know Richard Armitage ...

Some days ago, I read an old interview with Richard Armitage I had not read so far.
It was so intimate and contained so many detail, that afterwards I wished, I had not read it, though I must admit, I read through the whole interview.
It clouded my perception of him and when I watched the last episode of Strike Back yesterday, I re-interpreted his performance due to the interview. I did not like that of me and so - what I have never done before - stopped the film before the end. (Here I must admit, I have watched it so often, that in my head it continued anyway.)

What also disturbed me the last days is, that I think John Porter will die or at least disappear in "Strike Back II". That is what was to be expected, after he is filming "The Hobbit". But I think he is not only hunted down by the Americans, the Afgans and As'sad's men, I also think his own team sends out the rescue team to eliminate him and not to rescue him from the imprisonment of the preview scene.
For his own team must think, he has killed his boss Collinson. As he is the only eye witness of the real events, he has no chance to come back to "Strike Back" again.

Today, I read on RichardArmitageNet.com, that RA had been filming in South Africa with some lovely details about him with the crew.
The wonderful artwork by bccmee also did help - this look just warms every heart!
And kadamaja's wallpapers did continue the process to bring me back to full appreciation.

This  reminded me of the key points, why I really appreciate him:
* His high-quality performances
* his absolute dedication to work
* his easy going and friendly attitude towards colleagues and co-workers.

I am not sure what really affected me most:
* That he suddenly became a real person?
* That he fell down from my imaginary pedestal? (That he did not really do or at least he climbed back onto it quite fast ;o)
* That I felt like a bit of a prude or at least very naive? But still this interview was more than I wanted to know, more than I wanted to know about a virtual stranger. (I have heard quite a lot of [even extreme] confessions in my life, but with these I felt uncomfortable.) And I must add, I am not even sure that what I read is the truth! I think it partially is a role set up to entertain the audience and keep up a certain image of attractive vulnerability.

The one thing which was not affected by reading the interview, was my writing the dream-solution for "Spooks 9". My writing it continued quite undisturbed, but I am still not very far, though the outline is finished.

You will not believe it, but I really started it (without real time for it, but I just could not resist ;o)
I reckon, I have to reveal my storyline before "Spooks 10" starts, as these 'real events' will make my phantasy sequel obsolete anyway.


Now securely back in deep RA-fandom, I will try to start posting my dream-sequence soon, to not keep you waiting for the solution of "Spooks 9" much longer ;o) 
Have fun and enjoy!

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Art and Richard Armitage

I do not know, what Richard Armitage has on him, to provoke such a lot of artful behaviour form his fans. But it is a wonderful experience to enjoy the results in the fandom and to spread one's own wings and try out old, long forgotten talents and test new things. I had stopped drawing for years, before, through fandom, coming back to it again now.

My previous post, I feel necessary to mention, was not meant as a request to fish for compliments.

My tries at drawing, especially water colour, are just completely awful. - I will spare you the experience ;o)
All figures I try look like comic figures, but as soon as I try comic figures, they look just like ... oh, just awful.

But at least my drawings are much better than my last experience I had in a German modern art museum. I will not divulge the name of the town that museum was in (not my home town, so you can rule out Munich).

They had a painting, 1,5 x 6 m in format, completely black.
When I just ignored that nonsensical painting and went by it, the museum guard standing in that room came to me and lead my attention back to this painting, as it was the most expensive of the whole museum.
As I am in general a very polite person, I listened to his explanations. So the guard continued, that this painting had been transported from New York (sorry to mention this town in these circumstances - no offence meant) to the town under the highest security and safety measures. This had been necessary, as the texture of the painting was so fragile that if one only touched it with the finger, the whole colour would fall off.

Absolutely unimpressed, my thoughts were - fortunately I did not mention them to the absolutely ecstatic guard - why did they not take a canvas of the same measurements and some black colour and did hang that up as a replacement. Nobody would have been able to tell the difference and they would have spared all that money.

By the way, I must mention, they had another painting, which was also very impressive. One painted with cow excrements. The guard also told me the fascinating story of this painting. It was a wonder, that the artist could make a colour combination to preserve the colour and original substance, so that it would not rot on the canvas.
What an achievement indeed. Next time I visit a farm, I urgently must visit the cows to get some paint.


I was hard pressed not to laugh, but the guard meant all that in earnest.

The next room held a metal construction that let out some air with silent swooosh-sounds. I thought, they had a strange air conditioning system in this room and very noisy at that. There also was no fragile picture in this room to make such a construction necessary.
When I came to the next room, the next guard asked me, if I had seen the excellent metal art thing in the previous room.

Oh, yes, I had, I confirmed. I did not mention that I had thought it to be an ugly air conditioning system.

So you see now, I have not the least sense for art ;o)

Monday 2 May 2011

Who is that angry looking man?

I have been found out, or at least almost.
My parents saw a photo of a certain man in my appartment and asked me that question: "Who is that angry looking man?"
My answer, a bit fuddled and red in the face ;o) "Oh, an actor."
Fortunately, my parents did not ask any further. Who would love such an angry looking man anyway, they must have thought.
But for me, a picture of him looking angry is a good motivation for me to go back to work and work even harder than I would do anyway.

Is that a way of 'mis-using' Richard Armitage?

But completely overworked as I am right now, I needed a break. When I am totally overworked, it is even an effort for me, to decide on what to do that is not work related.
So my method of choice or better way of keeping my hands busy so that they could not grab for the next work (as there is lots to do right now and I do not know where to look first), was again Richard Armitage.
Not only that he keeps me motivated, he is also my source for rest and recreation.
I did some drawings to get my hands off work. (Nothing arty, my meager talents do not suffice for that, but I still do enjoy doing it. Please do not expect too much, it is nothing like the artful creations bccmee is doing right now. If you did not already, take a look. One wonderful creation for every day in May. What a great idea by a real artist!)
Here are the results of my forced recreation for you to enjoy: