In a world where a blog is created every second does the world really need another blog? Well, it's got one.
An irregular set of postings, weaving an intricate pattern around a diverse set of subjects. Comment on culture, technology, politics and the occasional rant about life.
Alan ... in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Driving across from East Belfast and onto the M2 on Sunday we noticed a large white Dalek on the face of Cave HillDivis. Had one finally escaped from Cardiff?
It’s been a pretty successful, if exhausting, publicity stunt by Denis Rush of UT Events to advertise the forthcoming Vortex Doctor Who convention being held in Belfast’s Europa Hotel on Sunday 3 May from 9am to 1am. Explaining his actions to the BBC:
“There was meant to be a giant question mark beside the Dalek, but I ran out of bed linen,” said Denis speaking to BBC News.
The giant Dalek took two days to make after Denis had ‘exterminated’ his family’s entire supply of bed sheets.
“The first day it was just myself up there and then on the second day my girlfriend Tory gave me a hand,” he said. “I must have asked every single member of my family for any spare bed sheets they had.”
“It was tough going as it must be a 50 degree slope, but it was definitely worth it.”
Last year, the same organisers held a science fiction event in W5. This year, the prices have been cut down from £35 to £10, but you no longer get a free autograph etc. (Tickets are being sold online.) The convention isn’t profit making, and instead will hold prize draws and a charity auction in aid of the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice throughout the day.
Look out for the Ood (I can hear Murray Gold’s oooooy music in my head as type), Lady Cassandra (is she stretching herself thinly across conventions?), the TARDIS, a Dalek and K9. At this stage, the guest stars expected to attend is Gareth David Lloyd (who plays Ianto in the Torchwood spin-off), Chipo Chung (acted in a couple of Doctor Who episodes) and Paul Marc Davis (who has appeared in Doctor Who, Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventure).
So if you’re wandering around the centre of Belfast, expect some strange sounds to emanate from Europa’s new conference room, and the sight of a few fans in fancy dress (they might prefer “dressed up in costume”) wandering around looking like they’ve fallen through the Void.
Will I be there? While a Doctor Who fan, I’m not sure you could pay me to attend a convention! But I will be watching the new episode that will be shown on BBC One and BBC HD on Saturday (11 April) at 6.45pm - Planet of the Dead complete with a cat suited Wonderwoman Michelle Ryan and a London Bus.
Friday lunchtime saw the Black Box packed out for the launch of the tenth Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. Outside on the street, fire breathers warmed up the already warm air, while inside more than a hundred supped their stew and listened as festival director Sean Kelly introduced the programme and teased the assembled audience with a taste of some of the acts this year’s festival would be putting on between 30 April and 10 May.
Lord Mayor Tom Hartley looked more comfortable than the dancing girls with feather boas who escorted him across to the podium where he delivered his welcome to the festival’s launch.
Showing off “the biggest bit of bling in Belfast” around his neck, Hartley got enough laughs in his short speech to give him a chance of a place on next year’s programme when his year of office is over. Highlighting the 80+ festivals that now run annually in Belfast, he touched on the value of the arts:
“The role of the artist is to increase the way in which we engage with our world. ... to be disturbed ... challenged, entertained ... Arts make us bigger people, who know a bit more, and love a bit more.”
The programme is available online as well as at venues, cafes and libraries across Belfast. Having warmed us up with the smaller Out to Lunch festival in January, the CQAF programme is packed with over a hundred events spread over a mere eleven days.
It would be impossible to attend all the events that jump out of the programme - though the organisers would like us all to try - so here are a few personal highlights ...
Get Lost! - Belfast City Hall - While some may call it “the UK’s largest street theatre installation” if you turn up in front of the City Hall you’ll find a hedged maze inhabited by “a range of bizarre characters who guarantee a surreal encounter around every corner”, and those are only the local politicians trying to find their way into the still not reopened Council Chamber. Part of the Festival of Fools.
John Baucher: Behind the Lens at CQAF - The John Hewitt - 30 April to 10 May -Moochin Photoman has been archiving the festival for nine years. His exhibition in The John Hewitt is surely worth a visit to catch a flavour of what John sees through his viewfinder.
Zoë Conway - Sunday 3 May at 3pm - When Zoë performed at the Out to Lunch festival in January, as well as accompaniment by her husband John McIntyre, she was supported by a large bump and a baby who could probably already tap their foot in time to Mummy’s incredible fiddle playing. Should make for a wonderful lazy Sunday afternoon. (Reviewed.)
Chronicles of Long Kesh by Martin Lynch - Monday 4 - Saturday 9 at 8pm - back after a sell out run in the Waterfront in January, and recommended by many who went to see it.
Waiting for IKEA -Tuesday 5 May at 1pm - While Belfast may gloat (or not!) that they got an IKEA before Dublin, while they've been patiently waiting, Dublin has written a play about it. (Reviewed.)
Talk Radio - Tuesday 5 to Thursday 7 May at 8pm - At the launch, Joe Lindsay previewed his performance as Barry Champlain, host of “Night Talk” radio show which is about to go nationwide at roughly the same time as he goes off the rails. From the snippet we heard, it’ll be a compelling one man show.
The David Ervine Memorial Talk - Tuesday 5 May at 7pm - Eilidh Patterson, Gerry Creen and Anthony Toner will provide the music before an as-yet-unannounced speaker takes to the stage. In partnership with the David ErvineFoundation.
BBC Blast on Tour - Wednesday 6 to Friday 8 May - The BBC Blast tour will be in Writer’s Square (in front of St Anne’s Cathedral and the Police Ombudsman’s offices. Offering teenagers workshops on all manner of creative media topics.
Mark Thomas reading from Belching Out the Devil - Thursday 7 May at 8pm - If live stand-up the night before isn’t enough, hear comic Mark Thomas read from his latest book as he “investigates the truth behind one of the planet‘s biggest brands”.
Art in the Wars - Thursday 7 May at 7.30pm - Belfast was woefully unprepared for the air raids that caused great damage and loss of life during World War 2. This event in the NI War Memorial Building will tell the stories behind the collected murals and paintings, as well as sampling some of the classic poetry about the two world wars. Having sat with the organiser at the festival launch, I’m fascinated by the stories that could fill my gap in local history.
Dave Gorman reading from America Unchained - Saturday 9 May at 2pm - Join Radio 4 and BBC Two favourite Dave Gorman as he explains what happened when he tried to drive across America from coast to coast only spending money with independent traders.
And lots, lots more at cqaf.com. Get your tickets quickly ... it'll be a blast.
Hands up if you knew that there was a cheerleading squad that trained on Belfast’s Sandy Row? It was a couple of months ago that I first heard about the documentary Prods and Pom Poms that had followed the Sandy Row Falcons squad through their training for St Patrick’s Day parade last February and the Scottish regional championships in June 2008.
And so it was back up to the quirky Studio Cinema above Belfast Exposed on Saturday afternoon to catch a rare screening of the local documentary as part of the Belfast Film Festival. If it’s used as a venue next year, the organisers will need to think about getting proper black out curtains ... the orangey-red glow as the late afternoon sun streamed in the back windows and onto the screen was less than ideal.
The 55 minute film followed the journey of the coaches Lesley and Julie, along with the cheerleading squads as they train and perform. Lesley and Julie throw an enormous amount of energy into training up three age groups, the (strangely named) Pee Wees, Juniors and Seniors. Differing abilities, forgetfulness, absenteeism, as well as toddlers wandering across the practice hall all add to their stress and frustration.
And the tension and feeling of impending doom ratchets up significantly as the industrially spray-tanned squads meet up early on a June Sunday morning to board a bus to the ferry and then up to the Braehead Arena just outside Glasgow: a venue packed out with more than a hundred cheerleading squads and hangers on.
“There’s bound to be people worse than us!”
Will they make it to the venue on time? Will they fall out over platting each other’s hair? Will they make it to the stage on time for the first routine. Will their preparation pay off? Will they win any trophies?
Their fund raising and fundraising and sponsorship obviously didn’t extend to going over the night before and being there for the full day; neither did it allow them to stay long enough at the arena to hear the results. So instead, they make a series of incredibly frustrating and comedic tense phone calls from the ferry to the hapless organiser … by the end of which they’re still none the wiser about the result.
“... we came fifth or sixth in something ...”
You’ll have to watch through to the end of the film to find out just how well they did!
The Sandy Row Falcons stuck out amongst the other competitors. They were a more honest squad, reflecting their community: it seemed unusual that the Belfast girls weren’t all pencil thin and blond haired like the Scottish squads.
Enthused and encouraged by the routines performed by the other competitors in 2008, the Falcons will be heading back across to Scotland in 2009. If you’re on a ferry on Sunday 21 June and spot a squad of bumblebee tracksuits, that’s them. Wish them luck.
After that, maybe they’ll end up cheering in front of an Orange lodge in the Belfast parade this July? Surely a more colourful and cheaper alternative to some of the bands? And as we saw in an informal moment during the film, they have the beginnings of a routine to accompany the Sash.
As well as the cheerleading, the film also starts to follow the journey that the Sandy Row community are on in their relationship with the rest of Belfast. Imagery of painted bollards, murals and terrace housing sits alongside new apartment blocks and hotels sprouting up in the predominantly loyalist community. The squad’s decision to join in the city centre St Patrick’s Day parade now perceived to be neutral, but previously deemed too republican to watch, seemed significant. But if the film is lacking anything, it is a desire to explore more deeply the issues and tensions on the Sandy Row as it feels its way in a changing Belfast.
Like another recent local documentary which looked at a North Belfast ladies darts team, Prods and Pom Poms is a compelling insight into a rarely exposed and little understood community.
There are laughs, tears and much angst. Yet the film makers never seem to be taking advantage of or joking at the expense of the Falcons. It’s respectful, if honest.
I can only imagine emotion and the atmosphere at the Belfast première of the film in January, when most of the squad turned up at the QFT to see themselves on the big screen. The squad should be proud of what they’ve achieved; the coaches should receive the city’s thanks (as well as New Years Honours); and the film makers Ben Jones and Paul Hutchinson from the intriguingly named Höoptedoodle Films should continue to hawk their documentary around film festivals and local broadcasters to ensure that a wider audience get to soak in the atmosphere and passion on the Sandy Row.
While the Northern Ireland Assembly and its committees and executive may normally meet up at Stormont in East Belfast, the Speaker and a subset of MLAs have been out and about on a roadshow that has been holding nine public meetings in different towns and cities.
The last two events will be held ...
Monday 6 April - Lisburn - Island Arts Centre - panel includes David Ford (Alliance), Edwin Poots (DUP), Basil McCrea (UUP), Paul Butler (SF)
Tuesday 7 April - Belfast - Grand Opera House (Baby Grand) - panel includes Anna Lo (Alliance), Alban Maginness (SDLP), Nelson McCausland (DUP), Francie Molloy (Sinn Fein), John McCallister (UUP)
(Parties listed in the order they replied/announced their attendees.)
In both cases, they'll be serving tea and coffee at 7.30pm (no mention whether there'll be samples of Assembly Fudge) with the roadshow chaired by political journalist Eamonn Mallie starting at 8pm.
There's no need to book a place. Just turn up to the venues. The website also allows you to ask questions in advance.
As soon as I heard the Urban Hymns concert (part of the Belfast Festival) getting a plug on Sunday Sequence back in October, I knew it would be too late to get a ticket. Kan Haddock, Ciaran Gribben, Foy Vance, Duke Special and Bronagh Gallagher, accompanied by Inishowen Gospel Choir along with a packed out May Street Church.
It was broadcast on Radio Ulster over Christmas – the evening of Boxing Day I think – but I missed it and it wasn’t available on iPlayer. Then recently, Stuart Bailie put the concert out again on his show ... and again, despite hopes ... iPlayer wasn’t the answer.
But Belfast Film Festival came to the rescue with the première of Bandwidth Films / Will McConnell’s film shot on the night playing in the Oh Yeah! Centre on Thursday evening. The screening was slightly weird in that the sound came from the back, while the film was projected onto a suspended white sheet. There was method to this madness, but it was unnerving to watch artists and choir singing, and hear them over your shoulder. Louder sound might have boosted the intimacy and atmosphere at the otherwise relaxed screening.
Shot using only two handheld cameras, there are few fixed shots and lots of panning across the stage, focussing in on a performer before shifting attention elsewhere. It felt like being there at the concert, constantly distracted by people and details, glancing all around, every now and again coming back to look at the main singer.
The focus is fairly light at the start of the concert, but felt significantly sharper by the second half. Overall it was an unusual style, yet one the really captured the atmosphere (I imagine) of the original concert, and a technique done so well it would be worth pointing out to the Tech Campers in the summer.
Done badly, it could have been awful; but done well, it was fantastic. If you do ever get to see the film, look out for the beautiful tracking shot during one of Duke Special’s songs, examining the faces of the front row of the choir.
Musically, it was great. Foy Vance’s cover of Hallelujah! was memorable. Despite the upbeat name, it’s always a depressed and melancholy song, and Vance’s scrunched up gurn particularly impressive.
Bronagh Gallagher was the only woman on the line-up, and yet she stood out not by gender but by being the most extrovert of all the performers. Duke Special achieved a lot with a few thumps on the piano and using the choir as his backing band. Now I can see why people flock to his concerts.
The Inishowen Gospel Choir were on their feet for most of the night. Some made it along to the screening, and got to see what had been going on behind them up in the pulpit (the stage for the soloists) while they sang their hearts out.
It’s a shame that more people didn’t come along to the screening. But a lovely evening, and a really well put together film that’s a great advert for the talent of Will McConnell and Bandwidth Films.
It'll be interesting to see whether this will be the year of the blogging moderator, and whether the denomination will eventually host a moderatorial blog on presbyterianireland.org, one that rolls over from one moderator to the next as the years go by?
In the meantime, Stafford is posting away on one designed by a local Richhill web design company Red Rhino. If I'm being pernickety, it has a quirk on the About tab which gives Stafford's bio in the third person ... always a sign that someone else set up a site!
When the festival programme suggested that a film would be shown in Donegall Street, I wondered if they’d got it right! But sure enough, up above the Belfast Exposed gallery, up above NvTv, right at the top of a lot of stairs, there was tiered seating and a projector on the ceiling in the Studio Cinema.
It turned into an evening where an IT architect gate-crashed the world of the built environment and more traditional architects.
The festival event was based around Ireland’s entry into the 11th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice back in Autumn 2008. Without getting all artsy, in curating the exhibition Nathalie Weadick and Hugh Campbell avoided concentrating on buildings, and instead reflected the use that people made of the space within the buildings. Hence the title - The Lives of Spaces.
Photographs and models of buildings are very static. So instead, they commissioned nine pieces for the exhibition that instead used film to show off the spaces and the lives they supported. Most came from architects, teamed up with a film-maker, to realise their vision of a particular space.
“In an attempt to get beyond the common abstract, distancing effect of traditional architectural displays of drawings and models, film is used as the primary medium. Film offers a vivid immediacy, a readily accessible language, and the capacity to incorporate time into the depiction of space. The exhibition consists of a series of filmic representations displayed in specially-designed armatures. Most display film on single or multiple LCD screens; some break film down into its constituent elements of sound, light and time.”
The spaces were all quite different.
Looking through the windows and up the hall into rooms in a bungalow, inter cut with family photos and amateur footage of a wedding reception that had been held in the home.
Contrasting the empty Waterford Library in its pristine, just-finished state with the book-laden people-rich environment once it had opened.
Comparing the spaces created by “two recently completed urban projects - one in Milan and one in Dublin”. Projected onto the big screen, the 24-like multi-screen effect entranced while the soundscape helped tell the story.
Overall it was a celebration of the communities that constructions support. Not about the pure beauty of the architectural form, but the opportunities and potential unlocked. And it made me think about the parallel tendency in the world of IT architecture to fall back on basic static designs (with lots of rectangular boxes and lines between them to represent the systems and interfaces), forgetting that it’s all about the people using the solutions and the opportunities and potential unlocked.
Clips interspersed with Nathalie and Hugh’s background info. The full exhibition is coming to Ormeau Baths Gallery in February 2010, and after Wednesday night’s taster, it’ll be worth going along to see: to interact with the different pieces and explore the creators’ spaces.
The talk and screening was sponsored by PLACE (they have a blog) – a project run by the Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA) and Belfast City Council (BCC) which aims to promote good design while raising standards and best practice by educating architectural types as well as the general public who work and live in the “built environment” they are paid to create.
You'll have stood beside the door of PLACE if you've queued at the hole in the wall at the back of Boots in Belfast. Or wondered what happened to the old back entrance the old Ulster Bank branch that turned into Belfast Welcome Centre.
And it was back to PLACE afterwards that we headed for pizza and discussion. Bet there aren’t too many films in the festival with free food!
(And in slightly-stretched homage to The Lives of Spaces, this post is illustrated with images – sorry, didn’t stretch to film! – of the pizza fuelled lives occupying the narrow PLACE.)
Now it's the turn of the small screen, and Five Minutes of Heaven will be broadcast on BBC Two (network-wide, not just locally) on Sunday night at 9pm, depicting how the lives of Alistair Little and Joe Griffen (played by Liam Neeson and Jimmy Nesbitt) overlapped during a brutal UVF shooting in Lurgan, and how their paths converged years later in an opportunity for reconciliation and possibly revenge.
It'll be interesting to hear what English, Scotish and Welsh audiences (I wanted to say "mainland" but I chickened out) make of it. I suspect a lot of the subtlety will be completely lost on them, and they'll see it as a psychological piece with two actors they recognise and a lot of emotion and angst. But for local audiences - and particularly in light of the recent resurgence in violence - it will tell a more haunting story of pain and consequence.
The DUP say it's a fake account, so the potential enjoyment and humour that can be extracted from Sammy Wilson's musings on Twitter may be short-lived.
But before it's deleted or taken over by the MP, MLA and global warming-sceptic Environment Minister note, some excerpts (in chronological order) from the stream of consciousness that turns out not to be from the man himself ...
Totally forgot about earth hour!
Putting the bin out before bed.
@sirwiggum I don't recycle, I just put the bins out!
I think after yesterday's football riots, our national sport should be stock car racing, perhaps some MLAs could use their 4 litre SUVs.
Can't remember how to change the time on the heating.
Pity it was too early to be an April Fool impersonation!
Update - looks like Jim Allister is now being mocked online too.
Belfast’s Film Festival – the 9th Jameson Belfast Film Festival to give it its full title – kicked off on Thursday night. Over 130 screenings from over 30 countries. Feature length films as well as shorts. Documentaries as well as drama. New Irish cinema, Indian films, World cinema.
Screenings that I’d like to get along to – but probably won’t! – include:
David Hammond - The Music of Film – Tuesday 31 March at 8pm – a tribute to the life and work of the late David Hammond, including a showing of The Magic Fiddle followed by a performance by Arty McGlynn (guitar) and Nollaig Casey (fiddle).
Place/Lives of Spaces – Wednesday 1 April at 7pm – a talk about curating and communicating architecture through film followed by the screening of the films from The lives of Spaces exhibition which looks at nine very different spaces. [reviewed]
Urban Hymns: The Movie – Thursday 2 April at 8pm - showcasing the local musical talent that performed one night during the Queen’s Festival in May Street Presbyterian Church. [reviewed]
Prods and Pom Poms – Saturday 4 April at 5pm – documenting the journey of a cheerleading squad from Belfast’s Sandy Row as they head towards the regional championships in Glasgow. [reviewed]
When it comes to watching sport, I don’t. With only two exceptions: the London Marathon and the University Boat Race between Cambridge and Oxford. Two sporting events where the participants put in a lot of training and expend an enormous amount of energy pounding around the familiar streets and pulling themselves through the water along the Thames. Two events in which I don’t break sweat as I watch them! Revelling in other people’s preparation and team work. Wonder what that says about me?!
I normally blog about the University Boat Raceafterthe event. This year, I’ll warn you know in advance that the 155th meeting between Cambridge and Oxford is on ITV1 (UTV) on Sunday from 2.20pm to 4.30pm. As usual, watch out for the sleight of hand as the presenters transfer from the start line to the finish (on a fast boat up the river) just before the race starts. ITV are giving up their rights to broadcast the boat race twelve month early, and it was announced a couple of weeks ago that the race will switch back to the BBC from 2010.
The phrase "lunchtime recital" conjures up a mental image of musicians in black clothes performing in front of an earnest audience - some of whom will be wishing they'd had something to eat before it started, the rest regretting the indigestion that follows having eaten so quickly.
Although the reality of today's lunchtime recital involved musicians, black clothes and an earnest audience, it was quite different to anything I'd expected.
The music came out of a "collaboration between ... classical musician[s] and one of top Belfast electronic artists. Each ... will compose and perform a new piece together."
And so it came to be that Ciarán Maher sat at the piano (with his iPhone perched like a music manuscript) and kicked off the performance by playing discordant chords and riffs over a subtle ambient background provided by Barry and his Electronic Electric Workshop.
After a while a battery operated fan (with string replacing the fan blades) mounted on a retort stand was switched on and Barry took the lead in the melody making.
And later, Gráinne Maher closed her eyes and hummed, oohed and aahed into the mic, and sang with herself and over the tinkling, gurgling and mechanical strumming coming from Barry's toy chest of noise sound.
Near the beginning a delightful young girl elegantly wandered across the room in front of the performers, twirling around as she meandered from side to side. In my head I knew she wasn't part of the performance, yet in my heart I saw her action as part of the overall effect.
I'm being harsh - in fact, I'm being slightly ignorant - as I'm new to the ambient scene, and in fact I think I'll never be in the ambient scene.
It might be cruel to remark that the (male) beard count was high in the audience. People lay back on bean bags in the front row, sat forward in their seats around tables, or leant against the bar at the back of the space. Many drank beer, which on reflection may have helped them enjoy the mellow mood music and certainly would have stopped them asking themselves questions beginning with what and why! Others stared at their phones or typed on their Blackberries.
I was out of my depth, though in no way out of my comfort zone. The Group Space in the Ulster Hall with its bright clean lines, and a great view out its windows of old architecture on the other side of the road, provided a tranquil and undemanding venue and a refreshing space in the middle of a manic week.
As regular readers of AiB will know by now, just because one person's art is another's torture isn't a good enough reason for me to be down on something. So I enjoyed it ... even if I didn't quite appreciate what was going on!
So thanks to Adam for all his hard work pulling together the Ulster Hall reopening fringe events, and a quick reminder that it's not too late to call into the Adult Electronic Crèche on Saturday afternoon at 2pm for some downtime, free wifi and a turn on the Wii, or pop in at the same time to make the case for your favourite Northern Ireland musical icon ("person, place or thing") at AntIcon.
"What makes a speech powerful enough to inspire hope, rebellion, or even terror? Is it the words or the speaker, or simply a case of being in the right place in the right time? Can a speech work taken out of its original context? Over four Sundays, a number of anti-establishment speeches from history will be performed as an experiment to find out why some words may have changed history… and not always for the better. Every sermon will also feature different musical guests."
Sunday evening sees the last event of the fringe with Che Cuevara's speech performed alongside music from Tin Pot Operation. Will his words ring true in 2009's Northern Ireland setting?
“We would like to see this assembly shake itself out of complacency…” (speech to the UN, 1964)
Today, bmi celebrates 25 years of operating a route between Belfast and Heathrow.
Starting out at Belfast International, I remember well the period of overlap when they bizarrely - but conveniently - flew out of both Belfast International and Belfast City. Roughly at the point that BA pulled out of the route!
I’m sure there’s a story to explain why they made the (commercial) decision to keep a foot in both camps for those months.
And in the last eight years or so, they’ve just been flying out of Belfast City Airport, leaving bmibaby to hold the fort up at the big airport. Though when Cheryl and I flew off to Heathrow on honeymoon all those years ago, bad weather meant that we had to be bussed up to Aldergrove as the plane hadn’t been able to land at the harbour. The eventual take-off was quite a memorable experience - a story I’ll reserve for a real life encounter.
So happy birthday bmi. Maybe see you soon for some cheese and crackers.
Entry is free to spectate at the competition events that will run from Sunday 5-Monday 13 April out at Jordanstown. The programme is available, though no start/finish times yet.
You're also free to dream up suitable captions for the picture of DCAL Minister Gregory Campbell that UU used to illustrate their press release, or to generate puns to describe the event and point them out to me in the comments below!
Update - You can follow the championship and look back at the competition on their blog.
The European Parliamentary elections are coming up on 4 June. If you've moved house recently or never voted before, then you'll need to make sure your registration is accurate so that you'll have a chance to exercise your right (and responsibility) to vote in the election.
This week is the Electoral Commission's Register To Vote Week,and to make the normally arcane form filling slightly more user friendly, there's a website to help.
So check out aboutmyvote.co.uk, fill out your new postcode and it'll guide you through the process. Just printed off my pre-filled form to sign and post off (or hand in) to the Electoral Office ...
