Resolutions revisited

I think it’s about time I revisited my resolutions for the year and did a bit of an update on my progress:

Eat healthily: This one comes and goes in waves, for the most part I think I am a lot healthier in my eating habits than I used to be. I’m happy with my progress in this resolution.

Get rid of overdrafts: Well I’m working on one, but the other may have to wait a little while until the first is paid off, I should have got rid of one completely by the end of the year though!

Get Rid of credit card: I’m now set up to pay the minimum amount by direct debit every month so that if I forget to go into the bank and pay some off I don’t get hit with charges, it’s a start and I’m definitely making a dent in it, so by the end of the year maybe it’ll be gone for good.

Stop Smoking: This one I am ashamed to say I’m still working on. I’ve cut right back but I haven’t kicked it yet, more through laziness than anything, actually seeing this again today I think I will start again as of now, sorted.

Sit-ups: another shameful underachievement, hopefully I will have more positive news on this the next time I update, though with 6 months of the year gone already I should have a flat stomach by now!

Go to Reading: Tickets booked and ready to go.

Go to Glasto: crap line up, this one has been dropped.

Go to Amsterdam: The Wizard and I are hoping to get away in October around our birthdays.

Read my backlogged books: Since I’ve started reading as I walk I have made great progress through my bookshelf… but I have acquired a few more books to add to the pile… not my fault though, they were practically forced on me!

Pay more heed to my appearance: I have come to the conclusion that I’m just not the sort of girl that cares about make-up and tidy hair. I will make the effort when I feel like it and the rest of the time people will have to put up with a scruffpot

Get my totem tattoo: There have been too many things recently that have cost me money so I think this will have to go on the back burner for now, plus I’m finding it very hard to find good drawings of the totems I want to have tattooed to me, and there’s no way I’m going in without everything 100% as I want it

Go to Portugal: all booked for this September, I’m going to pack 5 books and see how many I can devour

Start a Japan account: unfortunately this resolution is very much dependant on my company’s share price going up a bit by the time my sharesave scheme ends. If I’m not happy with the price I won’t sell and the Japan account will have to wait a little longer.

Learn something new: Hopefully, as long as Ryan gets his bum in gear, I should be starting basic Japanese lessons in September. I have also learned some basic origami.

Visit the Fat Duck: I think I will try and get this sorted in Autumn sometime, I really want to try the tasting menu.

Get my nipple pierced: done and dusted and I’m really rather happy with the result! It’s healed up beautifully, I’m pleased I decided to get one that’s pointing down instead of across, it looks really good.

Get one of the burlesque pics printed off and framed: I haven’t had the time or the money to do this yet, but by the end of the year I will have a photo of the three Graves sisters all corseted-up on my wall, choosing one that I’m happy with could be hard though, the photographer was excellent but I just don’t like the face I pull when I have a photo taken.

See a Shakespeare play at the Globe: Not had a chance to think about this one yet, I’m hoping I get to see a Midsummer Nights Dream, it’s my favourite of Shakespeare’s plays.

Sort out storeage: All done and dusted, I now have all my books at home!

Medieval Banquet: another one I haven’t even thought about yet.

I think I’ve done fairly well with the list so far, I’ll keep soldiering through and stick another update up in a few months.

Brain Dump

It feels like it’s been an age since I last posted… again. I have no excuse, I just have an aversion to blogging sometimes, plus recently despite yet again having done tonnes of stuff, I still feel like I have nothing of note to talk about.

I’ve been in one of those odd philosophical moods recently, it’s been hovering about since the end of May and it’d be great if I knew what the hell I was philosophising about, I mean, I know the whole point of philosophy is perspective but give me a break!

Anyway, it’ll pass I guess, it’s just a nagging, itchy, antsy feeling that something is coming, or going, or maybe it’s already here and I just can’t perceive it yet, perhaps it’s nothing and the weather is just making me feel odd, who knows?

Tonight I shall mainly be chilling, ooh the excitement.

Scientology is a Cult…

…but we’re not allowed to say so:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/20/1

Whirl-Y-Gig

Saturday night I experienced the most enjoyable club night of my life. Today I’m feeling the pull of that place and longing for the next big night out, it’s an experience to remember.

We travelled up to London Bridge and made our way to a little pub for a swift one before heading to the club itself, Whirl-Y-Gig. The entrance was quite nondescript and you wouldn’t have known there was a club there at all if it hadn’t been for the banner above the door.

On entering the club the first thing you see is a stall opposite the door selling glo sticks, t-shirts, and providing a UV face painting service. The first room is the chill out room, it’s walls are adorned with colourful hangings and there are comfy seats, sofas and padded benches everywhere. The music is just the stuff from the main room but quieter and more muffled.

Up some steps and there’s a lovely little niche room with a few little café style round tables and chairs, the theme of wall hangings continuing. This little space was a really good place to begin the night with a couple of drinks from the bar.

A couple more steps up and you’re into the main room. The ceiling had two large rounds of material hanging from it that looked a little like the roofs of two bigtops, the walls familiarly covered with sparkly streaks of coloured material. The music had a rave type beat but with very ethnic and hippy style melodies over the top which resulted in people picking either the fast or the slower pace to dance to. I opted for the drifty slower pace and was told I spent a lot of the night with a dreamy smile on my face, twisting and floating to the beat, waving my glo sticks about merrily.

Around the edges of the room were several people with bongo drums, so depending on where you stood you had yet another layer added to the music. In other places were people with poi, and a guy juggling glowing balls. The clothing in that place was brilliantly eclectic. There were ravers in their baggies and little tops, hippie types in gypsy skirts and earthy tones (I opted for this look myself), people in fancy dress, and some D&B style revellers.

I danced that night more than I think I ever have, I must have lost about half a stone in sweat! Everyone was friendly, I hugged so many people and chatted to loads more, so many lovely people!

At the end of the night the music lulled temporarily and everyone sat down on the dance floor. A large parachute was passed over our heads and held at various points by staff members. They started to make waves with it as some lovely chilled out tinkly music began and a soothing light show was played onto the canvas, I could happily have drifted off! Once the light show was over and the chute had been taken away we all drifted into the chill out room to sit, chill to the mellow music, eat water melon and oranges and generally mong out. By this time I was using Dopey John as my PLP, he was a little gem and looked after me for the last couple of hours of the night as it goes.

At about half 7 the club kicked out and we made our way back to Romford. The trains were pretty good and I made it to bed by around 9am. I woke again at half 2 feeling incredibly hot in my stuffy room, and managed to stay awake for the rest of the day, although admittedly I wasn’t much use for anything! Today I still feel a little zoned out, but I’m working away and keeping myself going with some happy hardcore courtesy of youtube. I can’t wait to go back to Whirly!

Be Afriad, Be Very Afraid…

This person is the head of science at a school in the UK:

http://www.darwinwars.com/lunatic/liars/layfield.html

Who let him in then?

Red red wine…

Roll on the weekend and roll on payday, I cannot wait.

I had a beautiful red wine hangover this morning, after an impromptu trip to the pub with my sisters last night. It was really good to be out and not stuck at home worrying about surviving til the end of the month, I feel like I’ve missed out on a lot of social stuff since I started being more frugal.

Various people were out, Jon turned up with a mate of his, both dressed in red and white from head to toe, singing England til I die and other patriotic tunes at the top of their voices. They’d been drinking since 1 in the afternoon and were quite, quite drunk. Various other people arrived and somehow I ended up wearing a plastic bowler hat with the England flag printed on it.

After some serious pubbing, a little dancing from my sisters to some tunes they put on the duke box, and a lot of natterings we all headed to Eddies for a little while where we discovered that Lando had left 18 cans of beer. A few of us nicked one then we hid the rest so that when he turned up some time later he had to go foraging to find them all. I wonder if he actually found them all in the end or if Eddie will be discovering beer cans in odd places for the next month. We watched the big bang theory then myself, Vikki, her Alan, Jenni, America and Dopey John all headed back to mine.

At mine we played some GH3, watched a few youtube videos, Vikki and America disappeared into the loo for aaages to sit in the bath and chat, then eventually we all realised it was stupid late and we had work the next day so everyone made their way home and I went to bed.

I woke this morning about half an hour before my alarm went off with a mind-splitting headache. I stumbled to the kitchen and got a cup of water before crashing again and then pressing the snooze button repeatedly for half an hour. When I finally did get up I had barely enough time to get ready, rushing like a nutter here and there, then somehow managing to knock a half bottle of red wine all over the floor and my jeans 5 minutes before I had to leave the house. Somehow I managed to change my jeans, put the soiled ones into the washing machine, and scrub the kitchen carpet (god knows why there’s a carpet in the kitchen) before belting it out the door.

My haste was unnecessary however as the bus was 15 minutes late and then took a convoluted route to Brentwood because of some massive traffic jam, so I got here about an hour late for the second time this week, the last time I was actually stuck in a massive traffic jam and it took me 45 minutes to get round one poxy roundabout. My head really didn’t need the hassle.

When I finally stumbled into work this morning I really felt worse for wear, I’m still a little groggy now but I had a sausage in a bun and a lucozade for brekkie so I’m starting to feel a little more chipper. America (Paula) met me for lunch and tuna sarnies which was cool. Tonight I’m gonna go home and have a really nice quiet night in, followed by a massive lie in tomorrow morning as I have no work, then it’s off to London for Eddies birthday!

Just need to get through the rest of today…

stuff

It’s been a fair few days since my last update, recently I’ve not felt the motivation to do anything even vaguely energetic. This really needs to change today or I fear my carpet may be lost forever beneath the layer of mess that’s accumulated.

So… what have I been up to? Well the film unfortunately didn’t get handed in on time, which is a real shame. It was great fun to make though, and we have learned some important lessons for any future projects… the main lesson being to get a decent microphone sorted before you start filming. Hopefully we will get a master copy of the whole thing made up and put on youtube, I will post the link up here if anyone ever gets round to doing it as it’s quite daft!

Not a great deal has happened since that weekend. I’ve been to the pub, visited friends, played poker, I started line dancing again… that was pretty cool. I haven’t been in around 3 years and was actually a little nervous as I walked back into the hall. The first person I saw was an old friend, little Gary.. Who is now 20! He still looks very young though bless him. We had a catch up and gave the abridged version of all the changes that had taken place in both of our lives over the years. He’s now in a full time job and with a lady that seems to be making him very happy, long may it last! I have realised just how unfit I’ve let myself get this past few years now, I am getting out of breath just a couple of sings in and I actually can’t remember any of the dances! I’ve printed off a load of sheets to practice with so hopefully next time I’ll be better.

Soon things should start to pick up again on the social front. This Friday I will be going out in London with various other people to celebrate Eddie’s birthday. It should be the first time we all meet his new girlfriend too so I look forward to that The following weekend we’re back in London again for my sister’s birthday at Sin in Tottenham Court Road… loadsa clubbage!

Getting creative

 

This weekend I have mainly been doing this:

 

http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festival/2008/48hour/

Hayley and Jon went to get the brief Saturday morning and Alan, Gilley and Eddie all gathered at mine so we could start brainstorming as soon as we got our instructions. A little later Mike turned up with half a tonne of computer equipment and software for editing.

Jon rang by about 11 with news of our title: Back Alleyway, our one line: ‘OK, this is weird, I just typed your name and you appeared’, and a prop: an A4 piece of paper which someone needed to write N, S, E, W pm and rip into 4 pieces. I won’t tell you what we came up with because I’d like to post the youtube link up on here at some stage when it’s been uploaded.

We bounced a few ideas around then wrote a few down each for fleshing out. Hayley and Jon returned and we discussed our ideas and eliminated any that weren’t good enough, that were too complicated for a 5 minute film, or that we didn’t have the resources to pull off.

Once we had an idea of where we were going we started working on a script, it all seems so long ago now it is hard to remember the process we went through! I know we were all very awake and enthusiastic at the beginning, Jon was recording ‘The Making Of’ on his little handheld camera and there was lots of laughing and joking.

By early afternoon we had scripts and we were running through our lines and actions until nightfall. Hayley wanted to do all our filming in the dark because the ambient lighting was less likely to change. Cue a montage of us running around dressed in outlandish garb on the streets of Romford until the wee small hours and that’s Saturday gone!

Sunday I woke late to find people still going. I didn’t have much work on the second day but Hayley and Mike worked pretty much non-stop, as they had since it all kicked off the morning before. When it got dark we had to film a couple of scenes again because the lighting didn’t work for everything, or because we didn’t have time the night before. We had to dub a load of stuff too because the microphone didn’t pick up everything.

This morning I awoke to find Hayley still sitting at the PC after an hours sleep, Mike had finally decided to get some kip too and Hayley was going to give him half an hour before waking him for the last push. All they had to do was get the music sorted and get it onto DVD to hand in.

A few minutes ago I found out that they were still trying to finish it. There was a mini power cut at the house and now it won’t do the final render, I’m so worried it’s not going to happen all because of one stupid little thing right at the end, and I can’t do anything to help, all that work… it’s awful

Hopefully I’ll update this very soon with news it all worked out OK…

 

READING!

As of yesterday, after an hour of clicking refresh with one hand and redial with the other, I have Reading Festival Tickets!! The line-up this year is epic:

http://www.readingfestival.com/

I’m so glad I’m all sorted for tickets now and don’t have to worry anymore. Though I didn’t manage to get early entry tickets so I need to try and get them on the second wave.

Also, I have a new piercing

some things never change

I’m the same as I always was, supposedly. I was both comforted and amused at that comment.

I feel like such a different person now, but I know that at heart I’ve always been the same. Years pass, lives are lived, good times come and go, occasionally bad times turn up unannounced and spoil the party before leaving in a huff, and I’m still me.

It was good, perhaps even a little therapeutic, seeing a face from my past, because I did change, in the middle, I changed. I learned, I came full circle and now I’m as comfortable with myself as I was back then, but with none of the teenage neuroses (well, OK a few).

I like being me, the same old me, no pretences, no boundaries, no suppressions, no hiding, the same… but different