Relocation, relocation, relocation… July 22, 2008

Hello there. Apologies once more for the blogging hiatus. I fear it may continue for a little while longer. I am a couple of weeks into my move to Cambridge and have been dashing back home and up and down the country at the weekends for various weddings. All this means that my brain has been far too busy and exhausted to settle to writing anything even as vaguely comprehensive as my usual offerings! I am due to move in a little more properly to my new abode in the coming week or so, and I hope that at that point I shall be able to blog a little more effectively once more.

 

In the meantime there is not a lot to say but that things seem to be going well so far. I have ceased getting lost on my way to work, my colleagues are friendly and the sun is shining! I have also nearly finished reading Captivating – the book I mentioned before – and it has given me much to think on. I still thoroughly recommend it to any Christian women – even if it doesn’t ring as true for you as it does for me, it makes some interesting points and has certainly got my brain ticking over, even now.

 

In the absence of anything useful or otherwise entertaining, I shall leave you now with a video clip, from Top Secret. I watched this with my sister years ago, laughed rather a lot, and then forgot about it. I’ve just been reminded and so delight in bringing you this brief clip:

 

I need a hero! And cheaper petrol. June 11, 2008

Beware, I’m going to start with a serious rant. But bear with me, things will lighten up later in the post!

According to this story which appeared on the front page of our morning paper today, demand for petrol in Britain has dropped 20% in the last 12 months, as fuel prices have escalated. It cost 92.6p per litre in March 2007 and now stands at 117p and rising. The IEA (International Energy Agency) seem to think that it’s a sign more people are choosing to use public transport because it’s cheaper. This says a lot about the ridiculous cost of fuel, since public transport is as expensive here as it has ever been – just now it is becoming the lesser of two evils. To be honest, I think it’s more likely people are simply being forced to choose not to take long journeys due to the expense, and that’s why petrol demand is down. I wanted to go to Manchester tomorrow to visit some friends from Ohio, who are in the country for one week only, but I quite simply cannot afford to go, either by car or by train. I think if the government doesn’t work something out pretty soon in terms of either stopping the rise in petrol prices or lowering the cost of public transport, the country is going to grind to a halt.

I’m glad I’m moving to a place where I’ll be able to walk more and use my car less.

Speaking of which, I had two interviews yesterday afternoon – quite a stressful thing actually, difficult to get my mind out of one job and into the other in such a short space of time. I think they went ok, I’m due to get some feedback from the agency later this week. We managed to get lost on the way to the first one, so I was a couple of minutes late and rather flustered. Then at the second interview the receptionist somehow failed to inform them that I had arrived, so I was left waiting in a room for 40 minutes before I got to see anyone! Hey ho. I’m just glad they’re over and done with. I slept slightly better last night. Although I still had weird dreams, I think I only woke up once in total.

The highlight of my bizaare night-time adventures so far this week was the thoroughly believable concept that several of my friends are in fact secretly superheroes. A fact I discovered in my dream when they were called upon to rescue me from a life-threatening situation.

I think I’ll have to start keeping an eye on them just in case it’s true…

And lastly today, for no reason at all except for I think it’s an amazing picture, I leave you with a pig. Wearing boots.

To sleep, perchance to dream… June 4, 2008

My mind is wandering and wondering if I’ll get a decent night’s sleep at any point in the near future. It has been a good three weeks since I last had such a thing and I am beginning to despair. You see I have been having dreams. Weird, vivid and crazy ones at that. So it’s not so much that I’m not getting the sleep, more that I wake up feeling disoriented and distinctly un-rested.

 

They’ve not been nightmares or anything, so fear not – I’m not being traumatised in any way. It’s just never ending, random, very real seeming visions in my sleep! For example, the other night I dreamt I was running away from a big, scary organisation, being pursued by one of my friends who was in their employ. I was trying desperately to persuade him not to chase me but he wasn’t convinced… so I hopped onto an underground train through London, and was then racing up some steps following a friend from Texas who I’ve never met… I can’t quite remember what happened next, but I woke up in the morning convinced we had two overly large lemons in the kitchen.

Which is a little odd, even by my standards! Perhaps when everything in my life calms down a bit, my mind will too. Until then, who knows what bizarre fruit-related adventures I may encounter when I close my eyes…

Here, there and everywhere May 28, 2008

Hello there dear reader.

I apologise for the distinct lack of blogging over recent weeks. It’s mainly due to the fact I seem to have been unable to stay still for more than 48 hours at a time! I’ve been running about all over the country, visiting York, Birmingham, Reading, Witney and I’m currently in Cambridge. I’ll be in London next weekend, after spending two nights in Thetford and attending a wedding in Cromer at the end of this week! However I promise I will attempt to blog more frequently during this time, despite the craziness, as it would obviously be cruel to deny the digital world of my many opinions and adventures for so long

 

So in the meantime, allow me to comment on the phenomenon that is the Eurovision Song Contest. I will hold my hands up and admit to being a bit of a Eurovision fan. I can’t help it. I enjoy the chance to sit down once a year and allow my ears and eyes to be assailed with some terrible musical offerings, whilst being given free reign to laugh at my fellow Europeans. This year I voted for Denmark, with their song ‘All Night Long’, which owed more than a little to Jeff Beck’s ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’. Now Eurovision in the UK would not be the same without the commentary from the genius that is Terry Wogan. However I have never heard the poor man sound more dejected than at the end of the results on Saturday night. You see the songs entered by various countries appears to make very little difference to how many votes they get. It’s all about voting for your neighbours, and in recent years this has meant an Eastern European nation winning every time. This year it was Russia’s turn. And well done them. The UK came absolute last. We lost to Azerbaijan’s entry with the crazy man, the knitting brides and the washer woman with birds in her hair. We lost to about 7 different songs which would fall into the category of “life is miserable ballads”. We were even beaten by the Latvian pirates (although to be fair, that was a fun act!).

 

Now the past couple of years I could understand our poor results. We sent novelty acts: Scooch with their horrific ‘Flying the flag’ number, and don’t even get me started on Daz Sampson. But this time round we had our best entrant in years! Andy Abrahams (runner up on X-factor the year Shane Ward won) did us proud. The former bin man got up there and gave it his all. The song was catchy, bright, cheerful… and yet the only countries to give us any points at all were competition newbie San Marino (that mighty nation) and Ireland. Who had themselves sent a turkey. Literally. Conclusive evidence that whoever we send and whatever they sing is now utterly irrelevant. The UK is not popular within Europe, nor is anyone scared of us. We have no friends so we get no points. Germany are suffering a similar problem. What grates even more is that a large part of the funding for Eurovision come from the western countries in the EU – not the Eastern ones. We get a buy into the final because of how much money we put in. What would happen if we all pulled out? It’s certainly tempting after this year.

 

However I reckon that by the time 2009 rolls around, we’ll all have become optomistic once more and we’ll still participate. I just need to remember to not bother watching the voting next time. It’ll only make me angry.

 

And you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

A bear, a Scot, some strangers and the soundtrack February 20, 2008

At 6:25am this morning I awoke very suddenly from an exceedingly weird dream, in which my father was being mauled by a grizzly bear. It was all his own fault though, since he went out into the garden to look at the animal instead of staying indoors like we told him to. Honestly, you’d think at his age his dream-self would have a little more common sense.

In other happenings today, Andy Murray followed up winning his 5th ATP title in Marseille last week by going out in the first round of the tournament in Rotterdam. Big losing loser (kidding… mainly). He’s so inconsistent! At least when Henman was going through a bad patch he had the decency to go out in the first round of every tournament and not get our hopes up too much.

I went out to dinner tonight with some of my sister’s friends. I’d not even met most of them before but a fun time was had. I like meeting new people. Almost as much as I like catching up with old friends. I think I just like people! I’m a sociable creature, most of the time.

Lately I have been mostly listening to:

• Thnks Fr Th Mmrs – Fall Out Boy
• Them – Jem
• Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder
• Over You – Daughtry
• Place Your Hands – Reef
• James Bond Theme (From Tomorrow Never Dies) – Moby
• The Prayer – Bloc Party
• Ain’t No Party – Orson
• Highroyds – Kaiser Chiefs
• Skeleton Key – The Coral
• What A Little Moonlight Can Do – Steve Tyrell

In exactly one weeks time a plane will be landing in Ohio and I will be on it!

WOW! January 17, 2008

Youtube is amazing. Check out this retro primary school moment. This surely will bring a smile to the face of all people born in the mid 80s, who went to school in the UK…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Gq17O-HRc

 That’s why the next generation can’t spell as well as us!

 Oh and this is just amazing!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcDnBIekm6g&feature=related

The tune will be stuck in your head for hours though.

And I think this… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5keP9_zYCjU&feature=related explains a lot!! It’s a lot creepier than I remember it ever being!!

Enjoy all you fellow eighties children!

Things January 12, 2008

God is great. I’m trying to live for Him. 

I love coffee. It’s quite possible I have a caffeine addiction. I don’t know for sure because I try to never go without coffee and in doing so I avoid the chance of finding out.

I find Kevin Spacey very very very creepy.

I do not believe The Sun, The Mirror, The Daily Star or anything in that vein deserves to be called a newspaper. When they fabricate the subject matter it isn’t news, it’s fiction. Using words of only one syllable, and mainly pictures.

I have a (possibly slightly irrational) intense dislike of Hugh Grant.

I prefer red wine over white, no matter what I’m eating. I don’t like beer at all. I don’t understand how people find going out and getting drunk a fun pass time.

Rugby is the best sport.

Tennis players are great athletes.

I think whichever government is in power will eventually screw up. I don’t believe a word most politicians say. The exception is my local MP who has actually impressed me by being active.

Will Ferrell isn’t funny.

I don’t have to know everything technical about the cars to enjoy watching motorsport.

Danny Wallace is a genius. In a weird kind of way.

I like both cats and dogs, and don’t feel the need to chose a side.

I enjoy taking photographs of everything. People, places, nature, random objects…

Lame euro-dance music should be banned. Especially when they take classic 80’s songs and ruin them.

I think Venice is more beautiful than Paris.

Call Me Al December 21, 2007

This morning at approximately 7:30am GMT I was drinking coffee and dancing round my kitchen to the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel.  I should maybe point out that this is not a usual passtime for me at such an hour of the day, nor would I generally select such a soundtrack, but the radio was tuned in to Wogan and I was in a surprisingly good mood!

Anyway, whilst busting some moves to those retro beats, I realised that I don’t know anyone called Al. I then reasoned that this was due to it being somewhat of an American name… but then I did just spend three months in America! How do I still not know anyone called Al? Do such people actually exist or is Al nothing but a ficticious moniker?

This mystery remains unsolved, but it did set my train of thought off down the names track. One of the things I noticed whilst I was away, is that pretty much everything in America is at least just slightly different to here in the UK. This includes a lot of things which you wouldn’t expect and even extends to people’s names.

As evidence to support my observation, I present to you a selection of identities found using that wonderful source of information, Facebook!

Taken at random from Joey’s wall postings:  Molly, Conrad, Kendra, CeCe, Brent, Morgan, Zak, Ryan, Randy and Meagan.

Taken at random from my wall:  Daniel, Edmund, Jenny, Liz, Jonathan, Joanna, Andy, Lucy, David and Rachel.

Quite the contrast.

Oh how I love all God’s animals… October 4, 2007

I just got peed on by the dog.

Nice.