Been a Long Time Coming...

Hey,

It has been a long time since I have blogged. It was a new years resolution of mine to blog at least once a week to vent feelings, well mainly rages and stuff, enabling me to become emotionally balanced.

Well as you can see it is now the 13th of January and there is an auspicious lack of blogs. I owe you two. This one is one... I guess. Kinda.

Anyhoo back to the tedious inevitability of naming the list of impossible new year's resolutions that will have failed by the end of the month.

1) Blog more

2) Lose weight- I have set what I think may be achievable goals.

3) Lose my temper a little less often at the ones I love and more at the ones who deserve it.

Fairly easy.

PAH! I managed to fail the first two through the stresses of essay writing- I comfort ate-I wanna snog the person who invented salt and vinegar chipsticks- you got me through the trials of erotic dancing and prostitution in early 20th-century Britain. "Phallic symbol anyone?" "Yuck! Leazi, please!! TMI!!" *shrugs* what can you do?

Lol gawd love my family for their unwavering support these last three weeks. My mam read and reread my most troublesome essay groaning at raunchiness and my attack on "the patriarchal imperial social order that reinforced misogynistic display of females in adult entertainment in Soho". Yep. As she said to me, "my mother would have been shocked that I am reading this never mind you writing it."

Gawd love my dad for driving me to university at 2:32pm when the essay was due in at 3pm. Also bless him for sliding back down the hill on a patch of ice in car on university territory treating the milling students to a host of vibrant expletives that will educate them far more than that lecture they just attended.
I was still writing in my PJs at 2:20 and also showing my love and affection to the laptop in some expletives of my own :D and Dad didn't say a word but just started the car.

Gawd love the lil brother who came in with copious glasses of lemonade, offerings of sweets and other essay sustaining goods to the wee hours. He learnt never to ask how it was going, just to lay down the goods and rapidly retreat out of the office. He recognised that he was not getting onto the laptop until I was done and stopped nagging me to get on it. And last night he tidied his room so we could watch comedy DVDs have a glass of wine and celebrate the end of the essayness for this term.

So thanks guys. XXXX

I managed to not lose my temper at them but instead at the laptop that is sooooo painfully slow and at myself for not being more organised to have started this essay sooner.

So, that is why despite being a student and having four weeks off for Christmas I haven't blogged. And before then? Well, I guess I was being just plain lazy!! haha!!

So I hope you had a good Christmas and may it be a fabulous 2010 for all of us eh? Good luck to the resolution keeping :D

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!!)

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!!

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

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!

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!!