Monday, 23 November 2009

MUSE- THE RESISTANCE 12/11/09

Ok,ok whilst it is still the same month, I am gonna blog on the best band to grace this planet since T-Rex!! (hmmmm perhaps need to come up with a better band maybe- T-Rex does not rock my world on the same level as Muse!)

I have been sooooooo intending to blog about this for ages!!! I have been literally snowed under with uni work and pressing social engagements! It has been intense, but Muse were immense so woohoo that balances that out (the work front that it!!)!!


This is where our seats were, behind the stage. I was not a happy bunny on seeing these!! However the cloth on the towers droped to reveal Muse inside!! Immense!! I was so close to them and they really walked round the circular stage to make sure that everyone got an great view- they are the ultimate players live!! They are the shiz, the cherry, the nuts, the creme de la creme, the booty, the thang! They were just incredible! The atmosphere was simply electric as cliched as it sounds!!



My uncle was the stage dude/head trucker bloke- he was one of the guys filming for the cube things (see picture 3). The best shot of the evening goes to me and Matt Bellamy giving it large on his knee- fricking amazing moment!

This band genuinely give the best live gig in the world. If you wanna dispute me, get me a ticket for the rival band. They will have to eat the static frizz coming out of the amps if you think they can beat this band! Seriously guys check them out! PS. Concert tickets for Muse going on sale on Ebay (courtesy of yours truly) for Sept 2010 in the next couple of weeks- keep an eye out!!

So in summary: It was the best night's entertainment, live music and just frickin' unbelievably fantastic that I believe it is beyond words!!
Pictures are copyrighted babes X (Sorry, my friend once had her's nicked and they were used in the band's next calender- not that my shots are the best in the world but you never know!!)

Friday, 6 November 2009

Muse- The Resistance!


Just under ONE WEEK I shall be seeing them!!!
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
If only my tickets would arrive NOW!!!
Haha!!
Oh, it is gonna be the best ever!!!

This Is It!


Ok, as I said in my previous blog, I went and saw this last night in Leceister Square (very swish- a far cry from the cinema of Slough with seats missing, rips in the screen, playing forty minutes of the wrong film before anyone could be found who knew how to change the reel, and so on.)

I have to say I was really impressed. The show would have been amazing, although I am unsure whether MJ could have done all 50 tours he set out to do... it is far to much for anyone! He sung and danced amazingly, the set design was fab with aerialists on chandeliers and demo trucks and cherry-pickers, some funky dancers, great guitarists, fab dance moves, 3D effects, pyrotechnics and VTs- it would have been breathtaking. And there was very few of the cheesy annotations or people saying how wonderful Mj was. I know he was. Don't ram it down my throat guys, ok?

In some ways I wonder if MJ had lost a little bit. Creative genius aside there were a few instances where I was wondering what he was going on about "simmering" and "nourishment" and "it's about love, L-O-V-E".

On the train back home, I listened to those songs again on my Mp3 player- I loved the Earth Song and Smooth Criminal (they had an old movie and put Mj in it- very classy)- and I listened to those songs again and just thought what a waste of a life eh?

Still, from my first tape (being Michael Jackson Thriller) to MP3- Mj has lived through an era of great change. What a great show...

All in all I think I shall be buying the DVD when it is released. I wanna get on done with some of those moves, baby!!

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

OMG! It's November!

When did this happen?

Humph. Who knows? It may have possibly started back on the first of November?? Hmmmm... I have lost all sense of days... I divide my week not by weekend/weekday but by work day/uni day/library day... it is a never ending circle of days, or irritatingly "cyclical" as one of the really and I mean REALLY smart boys (emphasis on the word boys here by the way) keeps repeating...

"History is so cyclical... the philosophy of history and the history of philosophy being one and the same thing according to Hegel has a cyclical element..." Someone for Christ sake buy him a Thesaurus... in fact I will and place it in his pigeon hole!!

BTW before I get back to the point of my blog- when I say one of the boys- I mean so much for mature men on Masters courses!? They are all in the gang dominated by Cyclical Guy, who are all still proclaiming the wonders of Marxism (which by the way FAILED) and they seem to be much the same as boys in first year. Go figure huh? Needless to say, that is another added annoyance of the university course.

However, on a finally positive note- the girls have been great and Tom too (who I shall put in the girl category). Went to lunch with them today and yesterday and everything seems hunky dory :) Yay! It is nice to have a mutual rant of a historical and course based nature without people thinking I am a moaning ninny!

And tomorrow I am meeting them at the Wellcome Library for history of breasts, cross dressing and mental deficiency= jokes!! - what a weird and wonderful bunch we are!! haha!!

PLUS I am seeing This Is It tomorrow- I am soooooo excited and I hope its good!

So yes November... Halloween was a wash out cos I got so drunk Thursday night I was still recovering on the Saturday and had to work both Sat and Sun so was probs not a great idea to go out and give the kidneys and liver another bashing!! But I dressed up as a witch again (it may be cliched but I love it with my tarot cards and runes and all!!) I tried scaring children at the door too but failed. Plus there was a definite lack of Trick or Treaters this year due to Upton Court Park firework display!! Grrrr... that should have been tomorrow!!
This is Mum, RJ and Dad wearing my very cool witch's hat!! With a glass of wine or two :)
I am going to no firework displays (again!) but I am indeed as I said going to the cinema to see This Is It which by far makes up for it!

So all in all, good summary of life up to now...

So I shall blog some interesting stuff when I can be arsed :) No offence intended! lol and I suppose I ought to get on reading about Crime in the 1930s for "Public Decency Private Morals" Course and also the effect of the shift of the one-sex model to the two-sex model had on views of cross dressing of both men and women in early modern England and France :)

One Cross-Dressing lady as a man... ok, ok, it's from Shakespeare in Love! Don't hate me for it, you know you love it!
Have a good evening one and all XX

Wednesday, 21 October 2009

The Children of Huang Shi

WAR MADE THEM ORPHANS, ONE MAN MADE THEM LEGENDS.

I recently watched this film, and yes, primarily I was attracted to it by the fact that Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Chow Yun-Fat play central parts in it. They are both pretty hot in my mind. So as I began watching it the story really struck me and like all things wondrous and therefore pondrous I have researched it more and have subsequently blogged it.

First, I shall begin with a brief synopsis of the film, I shan't put in any spoilers for fear it may ruin the film for you!!

The film is about a young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistant of a courageous (in this film American, in real life New Zealander) nurse and a Chinese Communist fighter, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937. Basically. In short. That is the precept. However, it is essentially a build up of how this journalist and friends came to lead sixty orphaned boys on a journey of over 500 miles across snow-bound Liu Pan Shan mountains (or the Silk Road as it is otherwise known) to safety in the Mongolian desert from the advancing Japanese forces in China.

Along the way to this epic voyage he meets Lee, this American/though really New Zealander nurse who he falls in love with, Chen Hansheng the communist, Madame Wang the aristocrat turned merchant of opium and other narcotics in light of the economic displacement of the war, and of course the kids, who each have their own tale and personality of which we see a few of in the film.

On researching this film and the actual history of the story, there are of course some absences and playing around with the facts. Hogg was appointed headmaster, as it were, of these orphaned schoolchildren by Rewi Alley, a communist New Zealander, who has celebrated in China's revolution. It was his idea, in fact, to take the children to a safer place apparently, but it seems Hogg has taken the credit for it in this film by the total omission of Alley as a character. He was a communist and suspected homosexual so, for these reasons, it is suggested that he is omitted from this Hollywood film.

Regardless of these facts, it is, by the by, a "true" story as much as we can say such a thing. It was an eye widening film and made me look at a history, other than British history, of which my knowledge is lacking due to my unfortunately short-sighted nature (not that I don't enjoy other history- I just prefer to stick with what I know!)

It is appearing now and then on Sky, so catch it if you can. Personally I am going to go on Amazon, if the postal strikes don't get in my way, and buy this film to watch properly from the beginning, no interruptions!

Meet Harry The Ragdoll

This is Harry Potter... obviously not the real one, but my little Ragdoll. Embarrassingly enough he has been with me since I was 13. He was given to me on my 13th birthday,the summer before my parents split up, by my dad. I still have my two Harry Potter mugs and Quidditch night lamp used for reading late at night (which I did a lot- my mam wasn't too impressed at my dad buying that but I was!! I need a miniture lightbulb though... like those ones you used to get for doing physics experiments with at scholl when making circuits etc). As you can see I have been a Harry Potter fan for a loooong time *sadly*. But dear lil Harry has been with throughout those horrible years as a teenager, he has absorbed many tears, he has travelled with me to university and back witnessing all the messy hangovers and tantrums there, and many an adventure besides.
Isn't he beautiful?
He still kips somewhere in my bed though he often disappears down the side, back or under a pillow for reasons I haven't yet fathomed. He has been a great comfort and gets hugged a lot whilst chewing things over in mind like whether to give up this Masters shiz or to do this or that. Subsequently he gets very grubby through his well loved owner.
Today I gave him a wash.
A la machine de wash.

This is him coming out after being washed. I think I was rather sick in the head on constructing this thing... I trussed him up like a man being buried at sea (see here) and popped him in the wash. He is now sitting on the kitchen radiator where the above photos were being taken, to dry out whilst I cook Chilli Con Carne for tea :) YUM!


Maybe I need to see a shrink?
Nah, for now Harry will be the ear I can bend!!

OK, let's face it. It has been over a month of blogging absence.

I have started university (my Master of Arts degree), I have gone down to two days a week at work and all my friends have drifted back off to university or home etc. They only seem to come out in the summer. It happens every year, that sinking feeling. To be honest this year it was worse than last year and I am not sure why.

It didn't help that I don't like doing my Masters at the moment, well that is till today- I feel I made a breakthrough. I really enjoyed my "Body in the Renaissance and Early Modern Europe" course and followed it by lunch (or in my case carrot cake with a huge mug of tea :) yummy) with two of the girls in my course. It was good. We were all in the same boat. All from universities that are not Royal Holloway. We are all finding some of the other courses weird and not really suited to us. None of us necessarily want to be archivists or librarians we idealistically want to bring history to the masses.... make what we find fun and exciting fun and exciting for everyone else. In some ways I hold out for a female presenter on a documentary- they are still mostly male!! Though I do not think for one moment I shall be the face that launched a thousand documentaries, I shall hope to help someone do it. Historical research- research Jane Austen period clothing and eating habits, the Tudor sex life, the Flapper girls and Tommies, and the Romantic poets... oh the possibilities. Today is the first day I think I may have actually made the right decision to go back to university.

Yay!

On a plus note I am getting used to working all the time now (at work I mean). It has been tough. Work has been a huge part of my life for over a year and now it has taken a backseat. Now my brother works there and is getting into the whole thrall of it leaving me behind, or as I am starting to think of it, not behind just adjacent and not necessarily on the same course. This time last year I was unsure of what I was going to do. I was applying for jobs I didn't really want but I didn't really know what I wanted... a whole heap has happened since then. I am more settled. I know what I want, or perhaps more accurately what I don't want.


In short, the world is good now. Before the world was bad thus bloggeth I not.

Ode to Death of a Pod Boot

It has been awhile. Apologies. I shall get on to why the long delay soon enough. For now I want to talk of my love for my favourite Pod boots.

They have died. There has been a hole just at the back near the ankle forming for quite some time and this week a zip fell off one of them. They are slowly making their way to shoe heaven. My mother tried throwing them out this weekend. I managed to secret them out of the rubbish pile before she could catch me!
Why do I love these hideous monstrosities?
They are hardly sexy, feminine, gorgeous boots everyone longs for. They make my toes poke holes in all my favourite stripey socks because of the platform's incline downwards, they look ridiculous with all skirts, my mam calls them my Oliver Twist boots as I look like a street urchin when wearing with cropped trousers (oh yes, I bust them out with cropped trousers!!) and they are so unfashionable they warrant being advertised in Grannies R Us outfitters store.
But alas I do love them so. I have begun a search for a new boot love of equal comfort and hideousness. :( But I just want them.
They have been with me through the traumas of Sixth Form, the wild nights and crazy days of university and on the North Terrace at work in the depths of winter... that equates to about 6 years altogether.
So here I blog here to praise my "Pod boot", the highlight of shoe comfort and major "mother annoyance" and platform fantasticness. Praise be Podness!

Tuesday, 15 September 2009

Lethargy

I have let many days pass now without having contributed something on my blog about many things that have struck me... I wonder if I am becoming more sedate in voicing my opinions... or just lethargic??

The anniversary of Sept 11 passed, political inaptitude of handling the economy, the ongoing US argument about NHS/Insurance policy- which I feel pretty strongly about, archive experience, finishing books, films and poems which have pricked my notice but I just can't be arsed quite frankly.

I feel very tired, and fed up, and apprehensive about looming MA start date. I am literally petrified and I am just wondering whether I am going in above my head and whether I should just get a proper job and sort myself out. Hmmmm.... nice idea but what shall I do?

Also serious money issues at the moment due to my total inability to budget and just say no to things...

I promise to write soon a happy, cheerful and marginally informative blog but for now can I just say rest in peace and bless Patrick Swayze...

I remember my mam sneaking a sit down on a Sunday afternoon when I was young... say perhaps 9 or 10... I think 9.... she secreted me out to have my ears pierced at 10 (which was definitely after the sneaking into the lounge to see/ ...) to watch 'Dirty Dancing' whilst my dad was out at the pub. It was in the middle of a roast dinner cooking and she said to me "Don't you let your Dad know I am letting you watch this!". I asked why and she just said it was probably a little grown up for me... but I remember being entranced by it. I loved the slightly unusual looking female lead, I liked the music, I loved the danced and I adored the ideal of this rogue love interest in the form of Patrick Swayze. From there I guess you can say it is a slippery slope into RomComs and Ideal Romances never deemed to last! But I never forget that day when I sat down with my lemonade with my mam and curled up to watch that film. I guess it has been since then we have shared this love of soppy movies as some would call them, but for me they hold very dear memories, which I would like to say still happen- my Mam and me have a great many movies that are just quintessentially us!

I asked my Mam recently about why she let me watch Dirty Dancing- we saw Patrick pop up on screen talking about his illness etc in a fairly recent interview and her reply was that I loved dancing and this ideal notion of romance for so long that she thought it would be something I would like to watch. Needless to say I have never looked back. From dancing with my friend who was bullied in primary school in the adventure playground on a fairly high log bridge mimicking the scene where they dance on a log bridge... to me and my mam singing all the hits... Thank you Patrick Swayze for giving me idealistic notions of love without which I guess would have been a very lonely maths and science class without!!

Wednesday, 2 September 2009

Rightio...

I am officially off to bed now!

Blogs to follow: -

The Time Traveler's Wife

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Work Experience in Chapel Archives

Young Victoria film blog


night all XXXX

MUSE



SEPTEMBER 14TH




NEW ALBUM




"THE RESISTANCE"




EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK




EXCITEMENT :D

Ha! Now I just dance for me!


Strike out on the stage, and fix that ruby lipped grin
Strike out onto that stage, the limelight searing
leap with vitality
turn
shuffle
kick
spin
jump
lunge
pirouette
Stretch- to the crowd
Sweat- earn their approval
Use the cane, flip the hat
express a bow and receive a dainty clap
Exeunt stage, pleading
"be memorable"
ha!

now

i just

dance

for me :)

On a lighter note :)


I think I have almost finally decided that it may be possible that I might actually consider in attempting to do my assessment for tour guiding at work :)

I think.

I will promise to practice more tomorrow on my day off!

I am so glad that I got tomorrow off- I think a 7 day week would near have killed me!!

I am enjoying my time at the archives and I am uber lookign forward to starting my Masters, and the preliminary reading is rolling in already *yikes*

I better dust off my old ring binders and dig out my school supplies.... don't you just love buying school supplies? I do! I love the pensils, the different coloured pens- I love being able to get away using them at uni, and the erasers in various shapes and sizes, my Harry potter pencil case a must, a little ruler, a stapler, a hole punch, paper... the varieties of lined paper... sigh... it makes me think of a quote from "You've Got Mail" with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in *yes, it is a chick flick*:

"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."

Hmmm bouquets of newly sharpened pencils :) It is that autumn time as well and nearly back to school time... hmmm it is just that season to be jolly... fa la la la la la la la la!

Mind you, was it just me or did the novelty of school and the new supplies wear off in about a week... whereas at uni cos I loved it so much the novelty was all year round :) I hope it will be the same this time too...

The world is full of possibilities sometimes:)

I would like...


I would like people to see me
and say that's "arresting",
the two smooth streaks of mascara on my cheeks
where that last finished novel's
words imprint on my mind

I would like people to see me
and sigh 'how adorable'
when I sleep with my mouth open wide and
a sliver of drool and an "in bed" aroma
to complete the scene

I would like people to see me
and think that's unique
how I dress, that my hair's unbrushed and
I chatter to myself and hum
in a world of my own

I would like, not people, but one
to see just that
I would like to not want that one
as much as this

The Romance of Churches, Chapels, but not so much Cathedrals...








St. George's Chapel (inside) and Monument of Princess Charlotte above... St. Bernard's school and the grand staircase above ^

I often wonder why I love churches. I am pretty sure now that it is not some inherent religious desire I visit them and admire them so. It is still a puzzlement but this snippet of a poem I found in a book- "The Romance of Saint George's Chapel, Windsor Castle"-hits the nail on the head.

In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.

Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.

Well, the book only contains the first stanza, but I looked up the rest and it just captures it perfectly. It is called "The Builders" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is a rather nice poem, but these are by far the two best stanzas.

St. George's Chapel really does just take your breath away. It is just that history, the adoration and loving care given to this building, a living monument to devotion, faith and hope. What a marvellous thing, eh?

One of the few great things about my secondary school was the 'olde worlde' part of it, the part that used to be an old manor house with its own private chapel attached, the crooked steps up to the history rooms, the terrifyingly steep spiral staircases and the huge, high-ceiling, shuttered windows. The chapel was beautiful, except when it came to the 'whole year gatherings' where we would be forced to sing, both badly and embarrassingly alongside our peers, and kneel, and pray and then get back up again. I am definitely irreverent!!

Hmm... anyhow I am deviating. Apart from the horrors of singing that the walls no doubt still harbour, its the sanctuary, the love and the dedication put into this small section of the building that is breath-taking. Every time I step inside a chapel/church (not so much Cathedral- that seems to be built more with a flair to show off and be impressive but impersonal. However there are some exceptions...) I miss that sense of certainty, of omnipotence of a greater being, that these fellows who built the chapels, who commissioned them. They may not have been devout or stuck to all the rules in the bible but it was a way of life... few said that they didn't believe in anything.

Today, as the news keeps telling us, Britain is falling apart. The ironic thing is they have said this for hundreds of years... On working in the Chapel archives and Chapter Library, the number of tracts, sermons and books I have found on how the Popish threat is sure to ruin the country and how Protestantism is sure to come to a sticky end, and how if we disobey the bible we are going straight to hell. Society would fall down without these rules they thought. It makes me wonder whether they may have been right. I am a keen example of how irreverent a society the British nation is. However it is a depressing route I shall forgo this evening...

I am sure you will be glad of that.

I conclude this "half" blog "half" rant "half" pondering... well maybe that should be in thirds?! with what Blackburne of "The Romance of St George's Chapel" says:

"Let worshippers and sightseers catch the message that rings out from these stones, laid so gracefully and carried up so high; let them take this message home and try to live it out in their lives, in order that that which was once a pious dream may become a reality."

I may not be a believer but surely this is why I wrote my blog? That the comfort, safety, awe and grandeur of the building spoke to me... I guess I must have 'taken the message home' in some form or manner! Hmmm... maybe I won't go to hell after all...

Friday, 28 August 2009

BIRTHDAY FUN

Meet Teana the Teapot. Isn't she beautiful?

I have always said that I am an 80 year old in a 22 year old's body! This is my first ever teapot and I am very excited about my tea lurvin'!

I also received "Woof", a mini teapot and cup all-in-one job! I used it in bed this morning whilst watching Slumdog Millionaire that I got for my birthday also.

When I got home Monday night after V Festival I could finally get to open all my cards and presents! It was really hard not actually getting anything on your birthday but I coped. Just about! I opened the Amazon box that I had and gave the books I ordered to Rob, my brother, who proceeded to give me the money and then the books back (symbolic present giving!!lol) I got The Kite Runner, The Bookseller of Kabul (there is a theme running there), The Time Traveller's Wife (which I am reading at the moment) and Windsor Castle by Olwen Hedley which I need to use to swot up for work and my assessment at work so I can tour guide (this a long story and owed to another blog! Emotional trauma isn't in it!!)

I also got in addition to Slumdog Millionaire the DVD, The Young Victoria- I watched it last night with my mam and it made me go all squee and believe in love again... gawd I love historical romances... I feel a film post coming up on this film! And I also was given Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- from where my blog's name really comes from. My copy has gone all grrr and doesn't work anymore- I was devastated!

My mam (I know it was my mam because my dad doesn't do gal's clothes!) gave me a wicked new outfit, cardigan and a cobalt blue V-neck top (which I tend to suit (yay big(ish) boobs!).

I also got some money to spend when I go into London with my mam on 12th Sept to see the musical Oliver! in the West End (this was my present to her for her 50th!)

Now... my friends... My friends from uni who I have only known for three years got me down to a tee. (Now this isn't about whether I got presents or not...) Hatty gave me a book of poetry, a bottle of wine, the prettiest shell bracelet ever and a Piglet car smelly thing. This is SOOOO me! I spend half my blog posting away about poetry and my wine drinking prowess which she has seen in action. I have also adopted a bit of a thing for buying air smelly things for my car- the latest one is a monkey smelling like bananas. I keep buying them everytime I see them. I am sure this is a new car owning thing but Hatty obviously got my obsession there!

SJ gave me a book token (again duh! how me!) Plus I always feel guilty about buying books when I should buy petrol or more sensible items or even save *gasps*. Plus this pair of earrings soooo me and dark and gothic :) She said it was a cop out present because she had to send it and had to buy practical things, but to me it just shows she knows me.

My two best friends both forgot it was my birthday and failed to text me or contact me in any way. Now I forgot SJ's birthday but I text her and then visited her to make up for it. It was at the time when I was dealing with work experience/unpaid leave issues as well as my Master's funding application was going through. She understood. Thankfully.

One of my-best-friends-who-forgot text me four days late with just "sorry I forgot, happy birthday!" Not even what did you do or did you have a good day! The other has since text me and we are meeting up tonight but no acknowledgement... I guess we drift apart and it is a silly thing to be all grrr about but I just thought as my supposed good friends they would take a bit more of an interest in my life. :(

I will get over it though I am sure in the end! I can't hold grudges- I have a memory of a sieve/goldfish/amnesiac etc!!

Other than that I had a wicked birthday! Thanks everyone (for a great weekend, a great post-birthday curry with the rents and post-post-birthday drink and dinner with workies :P Love ya Paddy ;>)

V Festival



1) The Music
What did I see? A lot, but I missed a lot too.... There is just no way you can see evrything! It is nigh on impossible! We saw James Morrison, Keane, The Killers, Lily Allen, Taylor Swift, Razorlight, The Wombats, The Enemy, Katy Perry, The Ting Tings, Ocean Colour Scene, Paolo Nutini, Starsailor, Bjorn again and the end of Elbow I think!!

My top five acts were:
1) The Killers
2) Lily Allen
3) The Ting Tings
4) The Script/Keane (becuase I do not want to miss either one out!! lol)
5) Bjorn Again (ABBA tribute band)

The Killers were fab! They played all their best songs and my voice was soooo unbelievably horse afterwards! We were drunk, my friend Hatty and Bradders were there with my cousin and brother! We were jumping around like loony toons (sp??) and singing the lines at each other!! AMAZING!! This was one of four bands I wanted to see and they did not disappoint!

Lily Allen was frickin' awesome! I mean exactly like the album and she sung "Fuck You"- a great song on her album as well as covering "Toxic" by Britney Spears and nailed that too! It was a complete Me moment :)

The Ting Tings- a new band that I have loved from day one and I knew their album off by heart and again they played exactly like their records- fabulous stuff! Really got the crowd going in the hot heat!

The Script were a real surprise. I wasn't that fussed but boy! They were great! They were a little drunk but having a ball on stage and it was contagious! Keane were my back up choice because Oasis failed to turn up. (A sore point- don't get me started). They were GREAT! They played my favourite song of theirs (and it is in my top ten favourite songs of all time too)- Bedshaped! It was birthday and it was the ideal gift (the only one I got on that day apart from shots of alcohol :P). They finished on a cover of "Under Pressure" by Queen which really pleased my brother who is a huge Queen fan and compensated for me dragging him to see them!

Now Bjorn Again is a little bit of an odd entry. They were just a watcher while we drunk beer and got warmed up or the bands we actually came to see but they were amazing and it was where this photo was taken! We were all up and dancing to the ABBA classics and it was just a real motivator for the day! A good kick off for my birthday! Plus it coincided with a little celebratory dance I had on sneaking in a bottle of vodka, lemonade and lime in (they weren't allowing any alcohol in!)



2) The Company
I went with my brother, my two cousins and all their friends and this was just an ideal group of people who all loved music and were a great laugh. Considering my brother and I only really knew most of the group from a couple of nights out in London we got on really well... especially since we were all living together so closely!!

From using plastic bottles as loo paper (yes, you did read that correctly) to severe drunken frolics of collapsing chairs, incomprehensible banter and bad singing we had a ball.


3) The Toilets

Eeewwww. Enough said I think. But I survived it just about!! They were gross though and definitely worse than I expected! It is the summary of the condition of man back in the Victorian slums for me with these out houses as iot were and a pile of tents/slums lol!! I did enjoy the camping part though and am considering adopting it as a method of holidaying in the future!

4) The Aftermath
WE ARE GOING AGAIN! The tickets are booked, so V Festival 2010 here we come! It is going to be immense!

Another side effect of this is (on the negative side) I have been left to do all the washing and tidying up. Grrrr.... And I still haven't been paid back by my brother. I am far too nice a debt collector... I need to employ someone else to do it for me!! lol

But what a weekend, and what an unusual birthday!! Great times!!

The World of the Victorian Naturalist






On pondering Old Fogey's comments on Christina Rossetti's poem in my previous blog, it come to mind of my friend's (Slarky) art work. For her degree, where she "only got a Desmond" as she put it (2:2)- outragous if you ask me!!- she did this piece on the "Victorian Naturalist". It is amazing, and I am duly posting it here.

This is what she says about it:


"THE WORLD OF THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST.

Using the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species as a starting point, I wanted to visually explore the idea of the Victorian Naturalist and the paraphernalia associated with it, to show to what extent Victorian naturalists were harming the environments and species which they sought to learn about with their obsessive collecting for both acedemic and decorative purposes."


Old Fogey says that the poem instructs us what to do, but that Christina may not have followed it herself, which is entirely possible. However, I said that her sentiment in the poem is completely at odds with her time. The Victorians, as Slarky says, were harming the environments around them for knowledge and decoration. Even if Rossetti didn't always avoid squatting the odd fly or squashing the odd spider, she voiced an opinion little held and even less liked.
Check out her website here: http://www.charlotteslark.co.uk/index.html

Monday, 17 August 2009

POEMS FOR CHILDREN

OK, so we probably know that I like Christina Rossetti's poems A LOT. Like a lot, not as much as Emily Dickinson, but a lot right?

I was in a charity shop last week and bought a 1969 copy of Christina Rossetti's poetry "for young readers" called Doves and Pomegranates. It is a really nice book. It is the sort of book that I would have loved as a child. At primary school we were always having a poetry day or something so I had this one book of poetry and I always HAD to pick something out of this book as it was the only one I had. It served me well, but by year 6 it was a little immature and I had used all the good ones! This book I am going to keep for my kids (if I have any) and they can use this book to death too.

HURT NO LIVING THING

Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.

> This was particularly apt as I was lying in the bath reading this poem when I noticed a spider *eugh!* scuttle in through the slightly ajar window and I was wondering whether to kill it, capture it and throw it out the window to certain death or to just let it go but watch it wearily.

I watched it wearily for ten minutes before I couldn't take it any longer and got out the bath. And the water was still warm and the book unfinished. What a very rude spider that still lives.

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini


A Thousand Splendid Suns is written by Afghan author Khaled Hosseini (followed his debut The Kite Runner which I haven’t read- but I have ordered from Amazon based on how magnificent this book is!)

The book has two main characters- Mariam and Laila. It is through these two women we get an insight of the female world of Afghanistan. Mariam, as an illegitimate child, had a fairly unhappy childhood and when her mother hangs herself her father and his wives marry her off at the age of 15 to Rasheed, a much older shoemaker from Kabul. After she miscarries a child, Rasheed becomes abusive towards Mariam. In contrast to Mariam, Laila has a fairly happy upbringing to begin with. Although her mother is a depressive and idolises her sons too much, Laila enjoys a great relationship with her dad, has a great friend Tariq (who becomes a constant reminder of the child casualties of war- he lost his leg as a young child to a mine) and is highly intelligent with a good education. After a series of striking but brutal plot forming events (including the death of Laila’s parents) Laila ends up marrying Rasheed and living with Mariam. The brutality and torment Rasheed puts the women through is horrific. He makes them burqas to hide their identities (it is one of the most soul destroying parts of the books when Laila mirrors Mariam’s words when they both admit to feeling safe behind the burqas.
(To show how this novel struck me was when I was at work a lady with really pretty eyes came in wearing a burqa and her husband was really rude and brushed past her, shouted at her and left her to deal with the kids it made me wonder... what is her life like? I only finished the book the night before but it made me wonder and it still does...)
Anyway, back to the point... Hosseini vividly describes what life is like for women in a society where they are valued only for their reproductive ability and home-making skills. The marriage of both Laila and Mariam to Rasheed just becomes daily torture and their home is a prison that they are charged with to keep by fear and physical recrimination if they fail.

What is particularly novel about Hosseini is how he depicts the two women and their burgeoning friendship. For a man he really nails the relationship between women on the head and also how females’ minds work. It is hard to write from another gender’s perspective and many women fail to write a good solid male character and men find it hard to write a convincing female character. However, Hosseini really wins this one. In fact I thought he was a woman until I read the author’s blog bit on the back cover. Just an aside here: The bit that finally made me, the hard old nut crack, was when Laila returns to the village and reads Mariam’s father’s letter that he left for her. Only the reader knows the significance of the videotape and it really wrenched at my heartstrings. Anyone who has read the book and not cry at that... well, heartless is what you are.
Anyways, I shan’t reveal too much more of the plot as I do not want to spoil it for you, but it is a real eye opener and a terrific story. Read it. This book has already made it into my top ten I think. Or at least the top ten books that opened my eyes. The last one I can remember doing so is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood so I am going to make a few comparisons between the two (plus they have a similar story plot of a) an oppressive patriarchy, b) female protagonists, c) they conjure up a world that is recognisable in some manner but not really known of, and d) they have deep psychological, bloody and violent content within.
What Hosseini has got right about this book with I think Atwood failed in was making it seem real. I suppose that Hosseini had the added benefit that the war in Afghanistan is still raging. There is no conclusion in sight in the real Afghanistan, unlike in his book where he actually paints the reader a picture of how he would like Afghanistan to be. For all the brutality, evil and death there is that underlying buoyancy that makes the reader feel that something has to go right. (Believe me I had to keep going to find a good happy bit to finish reading on for the night otherwise I would have a nightmare!!) Atwood never intends for The Handmaid’s Tale to be happy or optimistic. When she concludes her story with the protagonist escaping the chauvinistic and sexist society she lives in (a futuristic look at where hardline feminism will end up- in a world dominated by men), so the reader thinks “Yay! It is all over!” Nope. The epilogue completely shatters that view. Like a hundred years later the tapes she made of her story are played back the reader sees the beginnings of oppressive patriarchy rearing its head again. Bam! That happy ending is over. We are doomed to repeat ourselves.

Natasha Walter (hardline feminist too by the sounds of her) of the Guardian notes that Hosseini is particularly skilled in telling a story that seems unbearable but his direct tone and “the sense that you are moving to a redemptive ending” makes it “slip down easily”. I agree with her on this point, but she soon turns on this “sense (of)...moving to a redemptive ending” and says that Hosseini’s desire to believe in the deliverance of Afghanistan means that “the ending verges on the schmaltzy”. She continues to write that “Hosseini's understandable longing for a beautiful return to life for the oppressed people of Afghanistan has made for an ending that is just a little flimsy”.

I disagree with her here. This book has been more than a story in some ways. Hosseini has given us a history lesson, a real, down to earth, based on people, society and life in Afghanistan, a country that the West has little or no understanding of. I will hold my hands up and agree that I knew next to nothing. This book has educated but it hasn’t been rammed down our throats. It is just fact, story, fact, story. The combination of both working well and the ending- well, the book was published in 2007 and there is still no end to the story now in 2009. He ends it with that sense of prevailing optimism that has been present throughout the book and he ends with his own idealised version of his home country. He has transcended the real world and has given us his view of what Afghanistan should be, or perhaps more accurately, what it could be. The ending is a statement of one Afghan’s dream for his country. Schmaltzy? Flimsy? I don’t think so.

So at the end of the book I was shook up, battered and bruised (figuratively speaking) myself. Sleepless nights from either reading what happened next so gripped to the story or not being able to sleep for having finished on a particularly harrowing part... my oh my... what a novel.

The Humorous and True Story of Beryl the Breakdown

Beryl is my car. I love my car and I keep her clean and well stocked with sweets and cool tunes. I give friends lift in her, I pop to the shops for Mam in her and I like driving myself to work. I make her go fast and I make her go slow, I take her round corners in fourth gear (okay, okay so maybe that wasn't a great idea) and I forget to take my handbrake off on hill starts... but otherwise she is a very well looked after lil automobile and leads a happy existence.

However.

One Thursday night whilst travelling to a pub in Iver with travelling companion JR, the rain lashed down and the windscreen wipers whooshed back and forth in a blur. We were traversing down some windy rural roads when Beryl hits some pretty big puddles and I think "ARGH". But she lives. An hour later on winding our way to another pub following some other school mates, Beryl dies on a corner of a road in a place with fields all around with no lights.

JR, who I promised a lift to had to go out in said lashing rain and heave/push/ stagger against/ generally curse at the car to get into a pub car park. On sitting back in the car again, drenched and less than amused. Well, OK, this is JR. He was cool about it and more worried about the car. We thought it may have been the puddles and all. Sean came out and we tried "roll starting it". To be honest they could have done with a better and more experienced driver and some street lights to help the matter. (I didn't know what a roll start was.) This was interesting, After pushing it up the inclining car park and letting me roll whilst I pump the accelerator and do various things with the keys and clutch only to fail and repeat pushing her back up the car park again to let me go and do it all again when she failed again (!!). Needless to say it failed. AGAIN. About an hour later, drenched, fed up and in need of a pint we left car in pub car park and proceeded to pub. Good night was had by all.

On returning to car with Daddy the next day, would Beryl start?

Nope.

Thankfully Iver MOT place was ten minutes drive from there and we dropped keys off with the strict instructions to fix it. They have. It was the foot pump (?) and it wasn't injecting petrol to the engine blah de blah it wasn't the huge puddles I drove through blah de blah gobbledygook etc etc...
£207 later she is at home and well. On the plus side though, they did fix my central locking system for which I am eternally grateful. One button and I can get everyone in the car!! yay!

What a palaver!

Spendaholic


Okay, I think I may have to admit that I am a spendaholic.

Sigh.

I am again facing the prospect of my overdraft. Yes. It was pay day only 11 days ago. Grrrrr. However in that time I have had to pay for car repairs (yes, my car is two months in my possession). On the other hand, I think the inner tubes for my bike, the four books I bought off Amazon and two new CDs were not as necessary. Damn! lol yet I know I will do it again next month!! But next month I will be going down to two days a week *argh* so money troubles really start for real!!

However, books keep me entertained = not going out = not spending money = cheaper in the long run???
*coughVFESTcough* Yeah... that is another hole in the bank... and I almost bought new tap shoes today *why oh why!* I think it was spending time with my fellow spendaholic friend who, despite now working, still has a monthly subsidy from her rents, her car was bought for her and her insurance is being paid for her too...

Anyhow... wails of woe of wads of £$£$£$£$ have thus ended....

Saturday, 1 August 2009

Piercings/Tattoos

LEO VIRGO

Now I have a clamouring to get a tattoo done... Well, it isn't so recent and I even know what I want and where... I want there above star signs tattoo'd on my wrists (little finger side).

HOWEVER.

My Mam will actually kill me and bury me in the back yard if I got one. So. Really it is not an option.

Therefore... shall I get my ears pierced again? I have just been paid, I am not affluently rich but there is dough to play around with rather than save it??? Hmmmm... I shall investigate tomorrow methinks...

I want second holes on my lobe and a single piercing through the middle of the lip of my left ear...
Anyhow... I am born on the cusp meaning that I am both Leo and Virgo... I think that I am very much both of these star signs although they are definitely very different. I think this is where I often run into trouble when knowing what to do or who I am.
Here is the "synopsis" of being a Leo:
Characteristics:
Leo’s may have strength and courage like a Lion, but they can also have egos too, and like to take control. Their protectiveness can also come across as being bossy and interfering. On the positive side, a Leo can be generous and protective to those around them. They also have an optimistic, enthusiastic, outlook on life. One of their most important leadership qualities is good organisation.
Leo people are grand, confident and generous, although you tend to be egocentric and can be somewhat overbearing. Glamorous Leo enjoys a thoroughgoing love of life and all its pleasures. As the Sun bestows light and life without favour, the benefactor of every living thing on this earth, so you, genial host and natural entertainer, get inordinate pleasure from helping others enjoy life as much as you do. Though full of ambition and enthusiasm, Leo has to admit to a lazy streak and, given the opportunity, will take the easy way out, especially when a situation offers little fun or glory. This is something lazy, luxurious Leo needs to watch.
Determined Leo, a fixed sign, can be rather stubborn and resistant to imposed changes. In many ways this is a plus, for it gives you the stamina to accomplish things in life, due to your tenacity. You can stick with projects when other more easily distracted souls lose concentration or interest. This stubbornness, which you prefer to think of as consistency and determination, is, however, dictated more often than not by your ego.
It is easy for pleasure-loving Leo to become addicted to rich food, and as the cat gets older you find yourself putting on weight. Your gregarious nature makes it hard to enjoy or stick to boring, solitary physical fitness routines. Dancing, swimming, and tennis are your favourites, though you are quite keen on sports of all kinds.
Compatibility:
Leo’s don’t always like to share the spotlight, and are also very competitive so get on best with star signs that won’t overshadow them. A Leo will generally be compatible with other Fire signs (Aries and Sagittarius) and Air signs (Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius).Although Air and Fire signs seek it for different reason, both find common ground in their love of freedom.
Symbol: The Lion
“They swagger about displaying the fruits of luxury- but the sentiments of their honest hearts are without guile.” (Manilius, 1st Century)
Throughout history the Lion has been known as the king of the jungle, and revered for its strength and courage. Similar qualities are seen in a Leo, who also enjoys leadership and being the centre of attention.
Element: Fire
Those born under Leo are associated with Fire, and thus a fiery personality. It can also indicate creativity, and a great enthusiasm for life. Although on the flip side, fire signs can easily burn out of control.

Here is the "synopsis" of being a Virgo:
Characteristics:
A Virgo likes routine, which enables them to be practical and industrious workers. They are also very good at absorbing information. On a personal level, Virgo’s are at their happiest when looking out for other people. Virgo’s can also be mistaken for introverts, as they are very shy and modest, partly due to an awareness of their own short-comings. Although modesty is a known aphrodisiac, few Virgo’s will react to any love interest without some self doubt. The negative side to their character can also find them too conservative, and weighed down by the details of a project. Disappointment, however, can harden you into a cynic and a skeptic. Virgo consequently becomes quite critical with self as well as circumstances, due to the effect of such disappointments on a sensitive and discriminating nature.
The planet Mercury, governing our intellect and communicative faculties, rules Virgo, where tradition also places the house of its exaltation, so Virgins have a truly intellectual, critical and analytical approach to life. Communication is important and you love books and writing.
A critical eye for detail, combined with your ceaseless pursuit of perfection, endows you with an irresistible urge to improve everything and everyone (whether they need it or not!). Although you often have altruistic motives in helping others, you do have a teensy tendency to act the martyr when your offerings are ignored. It is not unheard of for you to use guilt as a weapon. Helping others to improve is one thing, my dears, but pushing them toward goals of perfection they cannot hope to accomplish is quite destructive, as well as impossible.
Health-conscious Virgo makes an effort to stay physically fit and you don't mind repetitive health routines.You enjoy tennis, racquetball, swimming, sailing, fishing, and biking, even though athletically you are not overly competitive. It's just that you always seek to perfect whatever skills you may have, primarily for the sake of doing a thing well.
You are also subject to black moods and despondency from time to time, which can adversely affect others in your vicinity.
Compatibility:
For centuries the zodiac elements have been used to describe basic personality traits in human nature, and this can be quite accurate in predicting which star signs will be most compatible. Virgo’s are known for their dependable natures and it’s this trait they look for in others. They will find this in the other earth signs, (Taurus and Capricorn). The water signs of Pisces, Scorpio, and Cancer are also compatible with earth signs. The nature of earth signs means they are often ‘guiding’ water signs towards achieving their goals, while in turn, water signs can help mould or release emotions in an earth sign.
Symbol: The Virgin
“She has a tongue which charms, a mastery of words, and not so much wealth as the impulse to investigate the causes and effects of things.” (Manilius, 1st Century)
The true origins of the name are unknown, but Virgo has most often been associated with the symbol of a virgin, or specifically the Virgin Mary. As the sixth sign of the zodiac, Virgo is known not only as the god of fertility, but of agriculture too, as its sign falls in harvest time.
Element: Earth
Linking a star sign to an element occurs mainly in Western astrology, with Virgo being an Earth sign. Earth is also a strong indicator of stability and grounding in a star sign. Another buzzword associated with Earth signs is ‘physical’, which refers to their nature and a need for physical security. They share a need for security with water signs, but these signs seek it on an emotional level.
Well, I think summarises me quite nicely....
As someone said to me at work the other day after discussing horoscopes... that each star sign must have like a billion people of that same sign and that we can't all be like that... hmmm I wonder whether people are all that different inherently... We have all got to get along for a reason, right?