What is in a name?

What is in a name?

A little while ago I posted a blog about our exciting evening at The Bedford in Clapham and was rewarded with a few emails from Nikki, the leadsinger from Never The Bride. She is a hoot and now we are her dedicated followers and slaves. Hence us trundling off to Bush Hall this Saturday evening for some Rock ‘n Roll and some madness for the soul.

But, got an email from wordweaver today with a link to young Susy Thomas’ website – all the email said was: I see you have been renamed. So I clicked on the link and was transported to Susy’s website – see the link here.

Somewhere along the line, probably through Nikki, she got her hands on the review I did for the blog and my wide range of faithful followers. It is on her news page and I am cited as an independent reviewer...how incredibly posh does that sound? Also, my name isn’t correct but what the living hey, right? It is exposure and she has a link to the old blog up, so that is pretty darn cool.

Along with Nikki we will be seeing Susy and her backing band perform on Saturday. There is also another chap performing but I can’t think right this minute who he is. But, watch this space – hopefully, if all goes well, I will be able to do a review of the gig on Sunday.

Although, it might be unlikely as it is the FG’s birthday. We don’t know how many people might turn out on Sunday...and we aren’t sure what we are going to feed them, but needless to say, there will be a lot of nosh and laziness. Even if it is just the two of us – I can see the slothfulness of lazing on the couch, watching dvd’s and eating lovely food, probably a mean pot o’chilli....hmmmm. Oh, and strumming our guitars...oh, hasn’t he mentioned that he got his birthday present early? A gorgeous rich sounding Tanglewood acoustic guitar...a left handed one!

Babies and guitars and all things nice...

Oh, what a day!

We started off with a slow amble along Charing Cross Road and visited every single music shop on Denmark Street (Tin Pan Alley for us locals) and surrounds. We strummed every guitar they allowed us to, posed with each guitar they allowed us to, snarled in a rock n roll kinda way and just basically strutted and pretended we were millionaires. Until we went into the tiny first floor shop of Acoustic Heaven and found their collection of vintage Gibson guitars. Hmmmm - so so pretty and boy, do they sound fantastic!

We were not allowed to touch these though, but we did drool a lot and the chaps were sweet and asked what our budget was...at this I spluttered and explained that right now it could maybe be around..(mutter mutter) . He looked amused and patted us on the shoulder and said "Looking is free." So we did. And then we left...hangdog style. And then we went into Hanks and pretended all over again. Oh, how quickly an hour and a half can disappear when you are having fun!

We scuttled down to St Martin's Lane and Mark dragged our friend Phil off for a manly pint and a lot of "arring" and "yeah, kick the ball" whilst I played hostess at Browns to Phil's sweet wife, Michelle and thirteen of her friends for her baby shower. Needless to say, the food was lovely, the service good and Michelle had a good time. She got tonnes of pressies for the baby and for herself. After lunch we got chucked to the bar as they needed the table and we sat around for another three hours by which time the boys had joined us.

And what a fantastic day it was...music, pretending, girly lunch and much laughter and good food and the sun was shining and it was just lovely. The baby is due the second week in May and it will be the first baby in our group of UK friends - in other words, it will be the first baby that we will be in contact with, as such, so this is going to be such an experience for us!

Sigh...oh, off I go to make a light salad for dinner. Suddenly my head is swimming - I just belatedly realised that we ate at one!

Gig news...

Ha! I just love this...

I have been singing Mel Gareh's "Angeline" over and over in my head and went to visit her website and lo! she has has a gig this coming week just two minutes up the road from me where I work - the venue is Sugar Reef, just off Shaftesbury Avenue, nearest tube Piccadilly. And it is on Wednesday, 19th...

YAY!

And, I think its free, so we are definitely going. WV and Cheezy...want to come with? I can find out times and book us a table/reserve an area? They do a good cocktail hour there and it is one of the few places I know that actually sells Krupnik Vodka (honey vodka), for what it's worth.

Och, I need to go amend all my links to include, Mel, Susy and Nikki.

Musical interlude...

I haven't been on e-bay in maybe a year ... or two. As I was a bit bored and sorefinger from plucking the olde guitare stringz (strings restrung on a lighter gauge which makes my lovely Fender sound like...well, honey mixed with smoke) I poodled around the old auction shoppe and found a potential present for FG.

A left hand Stagg Dreadnaught Accoustic. I put in a bid and will know tomorrow if I have won it or not. If I haven't then it isn't too earth shattering as there are others online which are equally nice. Or maybe we just go walk down Denmark Street here in London and see what we can find. The really annoying part is that it looks like he is a natural (insert angry grumbling noises) and easily picked up a few chords on his first try. And he was playing my right hand Fender. And he is a leftie. But I saw the above and showed him and he made the requisite appreciative oohing noises. He is a bit Johnny Cash like that.

Oh and! whilst listening to the uber rock station XFM they advertised a brand new show being held at Wembley Arena.... if you click on the logo, I trust it will take you to the website!

At a tenner for entrance...that genuinely isn't too bad. So Wordweaver...are you up for it?

We are..

...soon to be British Citizens!

Well, we already are, as we received word via letter from the Home Office this morning (yes, a Saturday morning during a bank holiday) that our application for citizenship has been approved!

Yay!

!!does the dance of joy!!

The letter states that we will within two weeks receive an invitation to attend a citizenship ceremony after which we can apply for our British passports.

This of course means that we can now hop on the ferry to go to France with no worrying about getting stupid visas. We can visit lastminute.com and fly wherever our little hearts desire. Within reason, of course.

It has still not sunk in 100%. I think it will be more real once we do our citizenship ceremony and then send off for our passports.

After five years plus and a horrendous six months of waiting after sending loads of money into the Home Office and our only passports, we got an answer. Is it worth it, I hear you wonder...why yes, yes it is, dear heart.

It isn't until you realise how difficult it is for the rest of the world (speaking of South Africans and other antipodeans and other nefarious characters from other dubious countries) to visit anywhere in the world. The amount of time and money wasted on standing in lines outside of shitty embassies in the rain and snow and temperatures below zero, the hours of taking off work to go to interviews to try and explain why you would like to visit their country, how you have to bend over backwards to prove that you have a job to come back to, that you have enough money in your bank account to sustain yourself whilst on holiday in said country...

Yes the wait was worth it. Now all we have to do is decide where to travel to...

And so to bed...

I picked up a catalogue today from a local bookshop on Charing Cross Road - no, not the one usually frequented by dubious gentleman who carry spare hankies for "accidents" whilst looking at books and movies - and happily carried said catalogue home, thinking it would be an interesting and educational look through for those of us are aspiring writers.

What I found was a collection of romance, contemporary, historical novels in all shapes and forms. But, the back cover enticed and amidst giggles I logged onto the website, not believing my eyes.

This is only one of the MANY fantastic books / titles the website carries:

This is a write up of some of the stories in the above novel:

Love Eternal By N.J. Walters - Sitting alone on a bridge late one night, Genevieve Alexander laments her safe, boring life. But when she attracts the attention of a dangerous, mysterious stranger known only as Seth, her entire world changes.Accompanying him on his nocturnal journey through the dark streets and into the throbbing nightlife of the city, he introduces her to a world of sensual desires unlike anything she's ever experienced. But Seth has a terrifying secret. Will she be able to throw off the shackles of her past and accept the risks that come with being with this sexy, compelling man?

Keeper of Tomorrows By Ravyn Wilde - Raine opened her door late one night to a tall, dark haired man. A man from another dimension who swears he's waited centuries just for her. Will a passionate night of show and tell convince Raine of her destiny?Talon needs his Keeper to accept him as the man he truly is. Their worlds, all worlds, need a matched Guardian pair to save mankind from untold evil. This may be his last chance to persuade her of what a life together might be like. He can offer her adventure, love, and his body for eternity. Will it be enough?

Hmmmm.

I genuinely don't have the words....they fail me.

I wonder if I get myself a name like Buttercup WillowPuss if they would allow me to write for them?

One more sleep...

...then its Thursday and I get to leave work an hour early...

...then one more sleep...

...then it is Easter!

...but more importantly...four days off work!

...and more importantly - yummy food on Sunday with good friends!

**does the dance of joy**

Adios, muchacho!

And so, alas, adieu to TLBJG – the Little Blond Jewish Girl – she has run off to Spain to go and live and play.

I now face the prospect of quiet days here at work, no one else to do the Team America call for help with, no one else to share my murderous impulses or insanely silly giggling moods. All will be still, where there was noise and abuse.

A new girl will be starting tomorrow – by the name of Lianne and as far as I understand it, she got hired cos she is “phoawr”. Here’s hoping she can cope with a notoriously inept team. And I am glad to point out that she will be here for two days before she has to pack them all up to move around the corner.

We wish TLBJG the best of success in her endeavours and naturally expect the best flights and accommodation when we do go over and visit her in Spain. (insert evil laughter).

Rock n' roll in my soul...

Nikki from Never the Bride - www.neverthebride.com

We were invited to attend the Songbirds evening hosted by Nikki Lamborn and Catherine (Been) Feeney by wordweaver at a pub called The Bedford in Balham. Excited, worried (what music will be played, will it be cool, will we fit in, will we get caught in traffic, will we find the place more importantly) made us leave early, don our coolest clothes (giggles) and off we went in Zuki for our first musical adventure.

We missed it, first time round, did an illegal u-turn and randomly drove down a road, wondering where the living heck will we find parking? We did, we scuttled to the pub. It is huge - go up the stairs, past all the cool wanna-be's q-ing up for the comedy, shove them all aside and find the stairs to the Tavistock room which is where the music will be happening.

We made it, sat down at our booked table. The excitement was palpable and FG and I were in a giggly nervous mood and our friends Almay and Darren were there already, as was our South African friend, singer and actress (with annoyingly beautiful white teeth) Anzel. Soon the room started filling up. Wordweaver and her partner arrived. We chatted, the place was abuzz! We wanted music, dammit!

Nikki came on stage and things quietened down - she did the welcoming speech, her co-founder of Never the Bride settled behind the keyboards and the next thing we know, there was this fury of voice, hair, attitude and sex belting out in the most amazing voice two songs that had everyone rocking. Man, they were outstanding - honestly. I am a convert. Nikki just struts and oozes sexyness everywhere and at the same time, she manages to create an atmosphere of recklessness and you just want to jump up and wave your arms at her and shout along. Rock n roll wannabe's can learn oodles off her - she worked the ground and was naughty, funny and the consumate showman. We were given two songs by Nikki and Been as they warmed the crowd, before she introduced a pretty young thing called Ngwara from New Zealand and stepped off stage.

Ngwara and her keyboard player turned things down a bit, playing two haunting songs. Ngwara's voice, I thought was nice enough and then suddenly, she did something odd. She looked into the audience, found someone and poured her heart out to this person. We were wrapt up in her melancholy. It was fab.

Next on stage Nikki lured Mel Gareh - www.melgareh.com and http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=42898843 - who just proved that you should never underestimate pretty girls. She was dynamic and with her guitarist Sophie they set the stage alight. She has a voice that reminds you of Tori Amos, and Alanis. There is just enough huskiness to her voice to draw you into her world and we were soon swaying under her spell. Her music is accoustic rock and folk rock and I think she will go far.

Mel Gareh - see, sexy and talented!

Next up, Nikki introduced Susy Thomas. - www.susythomas.com - Earlier the evening, we heard a sound check she did and she seemed a nice enough girl but as she only sang a few bars of music and played her gorgeous guitar (insert jealous face) we weren't sure what to expect. Holy smoke! Her speaking voice is just gorgeous sexy huskiness and she settled herself on her little chair, flicked her hair back and opened her mouth and blew us away. Liquid molasses, is a term that comes to mind. I was stunned, I wanted to be her. She was the coolest human being I have been around in a long long time. The girl can sing! She can play guitar and she was funny and so down to earth. She worked the crowd and had us cupped in the palm of her hand as she did her songs. I was blown away by her and can't wait for her single to come out in June. She has converts, that's for sure! Her sets were gutsy and the songs she had written were very personal, special things and they came across exactly like that - gifts she shared with us.

Susy Thomas, a star in the making!

Next up was a husband and wife duo, Richard and Belle, better known as Bellissima. Richard looks the business - ultra cool with his kinky hair in a pony tail and then up steps this four foot slip of a blond who looks like someone's favourite aunt, you know, pretty but unassuming. Nikki ribbed her for being the Doris Day of music. We all laughed nervously wondering "what the hell, she can sing?"

And holy smokes, again. It just proves that you should NEVER pigeon hole people. This tiny blonde lady opened her mouth and the voice that came out of her would blow you hair back, and off, if you had to wear a wig. Man, she was a liquid dynamo of sound. She had everyone howling, hooting, clapping along to their songs and her hubby wound his accoustic guitar and I wanted to attach myself to his leg and be his shadow to learn how to play like that. I have NEVER in my life heard anyone sound like that. I can't begin to describe her voice. The power of it should be harnassed to blow our political enemies straight out of the water. They wouldn't stand a chance. She rocked, she bluesed us to absolute smithereens. It was honest to goodness pure sound that you could lift you head up to and howl. It was primal and brilliant. We were exhausted afterwards.

There was a break for everyone to chat and eat and drink something. All of us turned to one another and went "again, again!". The amount of raw talent that they had on stage on Friday put every single crappy musical talent show you have ever seen on TV to shame. It was awesome and awe inspiring. We couldn't wait for the second set.

And it started all over again.

It was an evening like nothing I had ever experienced before. The music was outstanding and we will no doubt become regulars if Nikki could swing a monthly gig at the Bedford with enough support.

Wow - we drove home and could not stop talking about Susy, how she just made you feel rich and wrapped in silk and chocolate and then how Belle blew everyone out of the water with a voice that had so much character and depth to it, you felt like you had been transported somewhere else entirely, and felt annoyed for waking back up in the real world.

Please, Nikki - make the magic so we can come back!