To give you all a taster though, I have posted online a trailer for the film that I’ve put together. You can view this by clicking here…

Whether it’s something fairly simple like arranging a night out for friends, or something slightly more complicated like organising a road trip to Mongolia in a Peugeot 106, I’m the sort of person who’s always happy when he’s got a bit of a project to get his teeth into.

And in the next few weeks, I’m going to see quite a big project that I’ve been heavily involved in over the last couple of years finally come to an incredibly exciting conclusion.

So what is this project?

Well, as most of you are probably aware, my main vice in life happens to be Nottingham Forest FC.

And like Forest fans, one of my biggest heroes is Brian Clough – the man who transformed the mighty Reds back in the 1970s ftom being a bunch of losers into two-time European Champions.

Now sadly, Cloughie died back in 2004.

Not wanting him to ever be forgotten though, the guys who run the tribute website brianclough.com decided that it’d be a great idea to try and raise money for a statue of the great man to be erected in Nottingham city centre.

The idea of the statue was first mooted in early 2005.

Around this time, I was still working in the media. Amongst other things, I was regularly writing bits and bobs about Forest for various Nottingham Forest fanzines, and for the Nottingham section of the BBC website – and it was through doing this sort of work that I was approached by the guys at brianclough.com to see if I’d be interested in helping raise money for a statue.

I duly became part of a small group of volunteers embarking on a mission to raise £60,000 – which we’d discovered, through research, was pretty much the going rate for a life-size bronze statue.

The idea of a small group of mere mortals raising such a large amount of money probably seemed a bit ‘pie in the sky’ to a lot of people. However, we were eventually successful in achieving our goal.

Yes, the fund was officially launched in the summer of 2005. It very quickly took on a life of its own - and after 18 months of graft and pulling off all sorts of stunts to raise cash, we finally smashed our target just before Christmas 2006.

Needless to say, the year-and-a-half in question was a busy and eventful period for all of us who were involved. I could tell you all sorts of amazing stories about things that happened during the course of raising the money - however, I won’t go there, as there’s actually going to be a book coming out just before Christmas, written by one of my fellow volunteers, that tells the whole story.

It is fair to say though that my fellow fundraisers and I were pretty thrilled when we crossed the finishing line. We thought the hard work had been done - and that we could simply sit back, and watch the money get used to create a fabulous and lasting tribute to our hero.

As it turned out, it wasn’t quite as straightforward as that!

Though the local authorities have been incredibly supportive of the idea of the statue from pretty much day one, there was still a lot of red tape to bust our way through to get the go-ahead for statue to be erected on public land in the centre of Nottingham

And the process of actually commissioning the sculptor to make the statue was quite a long-winded process too.

Still, it was important that we got the right sculptor and the right design. After all, Cloughie was way too special to be immortalised with anything other than a perfect statue.

Happily, we eventually got our a man – a chap called Les Johnson, who is based down in Hampshire.

Les is actually from Australia - and so as soon as he came into the picture, I’ve always had an amusing image in my head of him working away in his studio on the statue and, in the style of Rolf Harris, asking anyone who happens to be around “Can you tell who it is yet?”

Les began work on the statue in early 2008. And I must confess, I haven’t actually seen the work he’s done on the statue with my own eyes yet.

However, I have seen some photos of it that were taken very recently, when some of my fellow fundraisers went down to Hampshire to visit Les in his studio, along with members of Cloughie’s immediate family.

And I’m pleased to report that you can tell exactly who it is!

Frankly, the statue looks stunning!

And if you disagree – well, you’re wrong! Because Cloughie’s wife Barbara has described the statue as ‘perfection’, and frankly she knew the great man far better than you did!

Excitingly, you’ll all be able to see the statue for yourselves very soon – because at 1pm on Thursday November 6^th, it is going to be publicly unveiled!

For those of you who know Nottingham city centre, the statue will be sited just up from Market Square, at the bottom of King and Queen Street.

Naturally, I’m really excited about this grand unveiling. Though a weekday afternoon obviously isn’t an ideal time for some people, hopefully we’ll have a good turn-out of people coming down to have a gander. From what I can gather, there certainly seems to be a bit of a buzz about the statue at the moment amongst the people to whom Cloughie meant a lot – and I feel quite proud that I’ve played a small part in ensuring that Nottingham has a permanent memorial to a man who gave the city so much.

Going back though to what I was saying though at the beginning of this blog entry, the fact that my work on the Cloughie statue is now pretty much done and dusted means I’m now going to need a new project to keep me out of mischief.

Suggestions on a postcard please..!

Hmm… well I’m not doing a particulary good job of providing regular updates on this blog, am I?

“I’ll try not to leave it another month before my next blog entry,” I wrote in my last entry.

Famous last words!

Yes, it’s been another month since I last put finger to keyboard – and again, my lack of updates has been simply because I’ve been so bloody busy!

As per my last update, work remains relentlessly manic, as I continue to traverse the harsh battlefield of primary education!

Happily though, I have begun to feel like I’m more on top of things and in control than I did a few weeks ago.

And perhaps even more shockingly, I’m actually starting to enjoy it!

Every day, something happens that genuinely makes me laugh out loud. And how many people can say that in their job?

That said, there’s only a few days left now til the half-term break – and I can’t say I’m at all sorry about the prospect of having a bit of a breather.

I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that my first half-term as a fully-qualified teacher has been absolutely bloody exhausting!

What hasn’t helped is that I’ve been really busy outside of work.

In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t made so many evening and weekend plans for September and October – as given the extent of the challenge I’ve faced, I could’ve perhaps done with getting my head down really and concentrating solely on the teaching really without any distractions.

Still, you live and you learn I guess – and it seems I’ve just about gotten away this time with burning the candle at both ends.

So what exactly have I been up to in the name of play over the last few months?

Well for one, I used the fact that the England footy team were playing a World Cup qualifiying match there against Andorra as an excuse to spend a weekend in Barcelona at the beginning of September.

Much closer to home meanwhile, September also saw my mate Lucy get married - which saw me spend a very enjoyable day as a wedding guest.

And then shortly after Lucy’s wedding, I spent another enjoyable day down at Nottingham’s lovely Trent Embankment, cheering on my pal Max in the Robin Hood Marathon – in which he finished in a very impressive 30th place!

In addition, other activities in recent weeks have included a very enjoyable visit to Nottingham’s legendary Goose Fair; successfully pissing off punchable TV 'personality' Paul Daniels by heckling him during a live variety performance which also featured on the bill luminaries such as the Krankies and Cannon and Ball; and celebrating my 29^th birthday in style with an epic succession of activities over a hectic five day period - ranging from a sponsored walk with Sir Ian Botham, to live performances by Steve Coogan and Queen!

Best of all though, the actual day of my birthday saw my brother Al and me attend ‘An Evening With Garry Birtles and Kenny Burns’ at a bar in Nottingham city centre called the Approach.

For those not in the know, Birtles and Burns are both legends from the mighty Nottingham Forest team that won pretty much everything in the late 70s and early 80s – and the event in question was one of those chat show-style evenings, where a compere puts questions to the guests.

Al and me have long been big fans of these sorts of events - and neither of us are ever shy in coming forward when it’s thrown open to the audience to ask questions!

And thanks to my question on this occasion, I’ve ended up being able to lay claim to a proud boast.

Yes, I’m probably the first person in history to ever make Kenny Burns – notorious as one of the hardest players in the history of football – shirk a challenge.

“Hi Kenny,” went my poser, “it’s my birthday today, and I hear you have a beautiful singing voice. This being so, any chance you can lead the entire pub in a singalong of ‘Happy Birthday’ in my honour?”

Naturally, this would’ve been legendary had the great man obliged – alas though, he didn’t!

But anyroad… all of my shenanigans of recent months are depicted in the latest batches of photographs that I’ve uploaded online.

If you’re reading these witterings on my blog site at www.softbulletin.co.uk, then simply go to the gallery section to view the snaps..If, on the other hand, you’re reading this on Facebook – well, simply click here to be redirected.

All in, I think the photos largely speak for themselves. However, there is one episode from recent months that I’ve been wanting for some time to go into a bit more detail about – and that is my trip to Finland at the end of August for the World Air Guitar Championships… four days that were among the most hilarious of my entire life!

But how did the trip come about?

Well first of all, it’s worth mentioning that I have had notable dalliances in the past with the cut and thrust of the competitive air guitar world. For back in 2003, I actually took part in a regional heat of the UK Air Guitar Championships – mainly in the interests of research for an article I was writing for a national music magazine.

Now fast forward five years, and my mate Ed and I are on the Mongol Rally – and we’re driving through Romania with three Danish hitch-hikers on board.

As you do..!

Of course, as is always the case during a long journey, all sorts of nonsense came up in conversation – including the revelation that theDanes were actually planning on going to Finland the following month to go and check out the world’s leading exponents of the oxygen axe!

By this stage, Ed and I and the Danes were getting on famously – and upon seeing how amused we were by their plans, they immediately invited us to join them on their soujourn.

Suffice to say it’s not all that often in life that you get invited to go to Finland and the World Air Guitar Championships – and so naturally, I immediately vowed that I would definitely be joining them!

Sadly, Ed had the small matter of a pregnant wife to go home to - who he had already somehow persuaded to grant permission for him to bugger off halfway around the world with me in a knackered Peugeot 106!

Asking for another ‘pass-out’ would probably have been pushing his luck just a tad..!

With no such responsibilities myself however, I found myself - just days after returning home from the epic Mongolia mission - dusting off my passport again, in order to head down to Heathrow and get an  flight to Helsinki.

It was in the Finnish capital that I hooked up with Sonja and Cecilie, two of the three Danes – the third, Tanja, having decided in the end to give the air guitar a miss.

Having had a right laugh with the girls during the couple of days they spent with Ed and me on the rally, it was great to catch up with them – and an evening of drunken madness in Helsinki duly ensued…

That said, the championships were actually taking place in Oulu - a pretty little city situated some 500 miles north of Helsinki, on the north-west coast of Finland.

We’d pre-booked flights to Oulu departing the day after our arrival in Helsinki – and it was on the plane when it all started to get quite amusing. For it turned out that the bloke sat across the aisle from us on the very same flight was none other than the reigning US air guitar champion, who had travelled all the way over to Finland for a shot at the big prize!

Craig - for that was his name – turned out to be a very genial and pleasant chap… and we kept bumping into him regularly over the next couple of days, as we pottered around Oulu and attended the various events taking place as part of the championships.

In terms of what actually happened in Oulu – well, I think the pictures probably speak for themselves!

One thing that isn’t really shown though is the fact that, on the night of the grand final, I actually ended up being a sort of part of Craig’s ‘act’.

As with all of the other air guitar competitors, Craig had to give a three-minute ‘performance’ on stage – and as the climax of his carefully choreographed routine, he decided to unleash a flying scissor-kick and boot a cup out of the hand of audience member in the front row.

And yes, it was me who was given the job of standing right down at the front and holding the cup aloft!

And yes, Craig ended up being crowned the World Champion!

So I can justifiably claim to having played a small part in the triumph of somebody who is officially the best in the world at something!

All in all then, a highly entertaining few days!

In this increasingly po-faced world, I just think it’s brilliant that such a ludicrous event as the World Air Guitar Championships actually exists!

That said, I have elected to conveniently gloss over one or two things that went on during our few days in Oulu – such as some rather sordid goings-on in a hotel room with a minor celebrity… not to mention Cecilie, Sonja and I having to talk our way out of trouble after deciding when we were really really pissed that it’d be a great idea to try and break into a sauna!

Some things that go on on tour are best very much left on tour..!