Shorn

Yep, bareassed, that's me.

All gone - hair chopped to the shoulders, or just above, in layers, insisted Christie my very hunky but very gay hairdresser (dressed in his Highland costume - thankfully no kilts, but white Rob Roy shirt, black waistcoat and trousers).

So now, suddenly, my hair has got all this bounce and curl. Freaky.

I had the requisite fawnings at work today, which I graciously accepted, from both fem's and lads alike, so I was chuffed.

Bounce and curl. Who knew? Just goes to show what looooooooooooooong hair does to you. I also admit that I don't recall having this curl in my hair before. Hormones? Looking at all my pics growing up etc, my hair was 1970's John Denver straight. Then I got older and it had this mad kink in it...now its gone all flicky and curly.

Anyway. New Liz - officially 1 stone odd lighter with less hair. Here's hoping I've lost at least five pounds cutting it off.

Off to write.

The big plunge!

I did it.

I booked a hairdressers appointment on Sunday morning. To cut off my loooooooong locks - they have now reached below waistlength. I was as nervous as a teenager ringing up a secret boyfriend to arrange for a rondezvous.

The sweet boy at Headmasters - Leon - was very understanding and when I told him I had not been to a hairdressers proper in 3 years he almost sucked the phone down his throat in dramatic shock. Yes, it is true. I have been to the hairdressers around six months ago to have the ends trimmed, and that's it. No styling - when I told him I am turning into the wild woman from Borneo I could hear him clap his little hands in glee and kick his little red heals and giggle ecstatically. I am going to become a "project".

I have been assigned a senior stylist, and I am getting a 50% discount because the girl I had been seeing more than three years ago, Louise had left, they had sent me a voucher, which I had never used. So I am pleased.

Now the question is....HOW am I going to have my hair massacred? I have visited online and found a few possible ways. I even bought a hair magazine. I am at a loss.

Please, what would suit a chubby little girl with pale eyebrows and freckles? I swear I have smaller chins now and higher cheekbones thanks to WW.

See the options above - all answers in comments, please.

With thanks.

Nervous Girl with too Much Hair.

This coming week...

...will see us going to a foodie event at Borough Market - after hours. "For those who like good food, but not the crowds." And I am thrilled. The boy got sent some invites to the event. Yay! It will be a preview of the seasonal foods for the coming few months. Here's hoping the snow and bad weather does stay away.

We are also going to go see 300 at the Imax - yes, we are thrilled. I am already taking my headache tablets in preparation. The noise! Grin.

I am a fan of Frank Miller's art and his style of story telling. It is brutal, to the bone, to the core. The trailers of 300 look amazing. Someone I tend to chat with at work about books and movies expressed his serious reservations about the movie, stating that it looks incredibly bloody, gory and not at all a historical fiction. I agreed, I could see all his points, but I did say to him, in my mind, this is mythic story telling...everything is darker, scarier, more profound and violent. This is about legends, the agents of chaos, the fears of a race about to be destroyed by a violent and unsurmountable enemy. This is Sparta the way it is not portrayed in Helen of Troy or in the Illiad or the Odyssey. This is the way Alexander should have been shot - uncompromising, an exploration of the myth and legend of a man so great his story is still sung in the countries he conquered in his relentless drive of world domination. Not the rubbish we got to see on screen a few years back with Mr. Farrell and his blonde locks belting out gobshyte in a ridiculous Oirish accent.

In 300, we hope to see the battle that still resonates within a nation, across the world today, thousands of years after it had happened. What would the world have been like had Leonidas not managed to withstand the army of Persia all that time ago?



I am looking forward to it.

Beam!

Yay! It will be mine...yes it will.

Yours,

Gadget-Freak-Liz

A baking day...

Chocolate Bourbon Muffins

• 3/4 cup flour


• 1/2 tsp baking powder


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 125gm butter softened


• 1/2 sugar


• 50 gm chocolate, melted and slightly cooled


• 1 egg


• 1 tbspn bourbon


• 1 tsp vanilla essence


• 1/2 cup chocolate chips


• 1/2 cup chopped pecans


• icing sugar or cocoa for dustin

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt. In separate bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the chocolate, egg, bourbon and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and combine, then fold in the choc chips and pecans. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans and bake at 200 degrees C for 15 - 2o mins.

Breathless

Well, Friday the whole company's happy bunch of employees get to hear about bonusses and increases.

Personally I am terrified. The team didn't do well at all. We made money, but just scraped in with the targets. But we did lose two crucial chaps, i.e. head of the department...and a new regime is now in place and the news lads are fabulous - very much for the team, not so worried about the company as such, but looking after the team has become a priority...so there is hope of some kind of bonus at least. But nottt so much.

Deep within my secret soul, the place I don't really like to look, where the monsters lurk, I know that I will have to move my butt, by this time next year - new job, new sumat. Things are stagnating there, eventhough it's an "exciting period of growth and redevelopment" - I sometimes think its all just to baffle you with bullshit, a trick tactic the magicians of old used to use - watch this hand, watch this hand, so that I can slap and steal with the other one you're not watching.

Either way, whatever happens on Friday - even if it is a whopping £50 (it's been known to happen) it will go into the holiday fund towards our smashing holiday in Greece. It is looming closer and closer and I am smashingly pleased to announce that most of it has been paid off completely and all we have to do is book our car rental for driving around the Peloponesse. Yes, I should become an organisor of events of some sort, or a web designer or an artiste of some sort.

Yes, I am drivelling on about rubbish - I am tired, my head hurts and it's too late to make sense. Hold thumbs and toes for vast amounts of money so that pretty toys such as this can be bought! Before the rest goes safely into a savings account.

300

Mark and Liz decide to go out to dinner....

Ketchup!

After the looong wait, I am now the proud owner of a treasure of South Africa - a book written by one of the coolest ladies of literature (sadly now passed away) Dalene Matthee - called Kringe in 'n bos - which translates to Circles in a Forest.

This was a set-work book for us in High School and I loved it then, and I am loving it now, eventhough I am struggling my ass off reading the Afrikaans. I usually manage around 50 - 60 pages on the train reading an English book...not so with this one - I am averaging around 20 pages. But it is fantastic good fun - so thank you, Darren and May for bringing me my treasure!

And it is official - I now weigh way over a stone less than I did a few months ago - so yay me!

Creativity wise - writing odds and sods - have got a new bee in bonnet, one that has been festering - bookbinding...spent a shocking amount Friday past at the gorgeous Falkiners shop in Holborn buying "stuff" for my first two projects. Jamie and Viv, keep an eye out in the post - either something fab or something utterly awful only to bring out when we visit to make us feel good. Or not. Also tried my hand at drawing on Sunday and it turns out....I am less bad at it than I thought I was and I am more a manga illustrator than I am a impressionist.

Desperately waiting for warmer weather - we are planting out our chili's this weekend, and some other potplants etc. to make a nice cottage-ey feel to our clayclotted garden - we've given up trying to plant grass. The real thing, not marijuana, that is. So we are putting down paving blocks. Nervous laughter. Will be able to post about it no doubt, if we can pull it off.

Hasta!