Almost Citizens!

Ah.

Tomorrow this time - 15:53 we would have had tea with the mayor, sworn our allegience to Her Majesty the Queen - all in order to become British Citizens.

Why, oh why? I hear you cry!

Well, so that we could travel and go places without having to worry about bloody visas all the time. It is exciting. This is what we have been waiting for six years. Soon, like Cheesy, FG and I will be able to visit far flung places, take pictures and experience new cultures and such. And because we won't be spending hard earned cash on visas it can be used for tatt and food and tours. Whoo hoo.

We can't wait!

Oh right. Only one sleep more. Snh snh snh.

Attention to detail...

I read somewhere during/before the releases of the Lord of the Rings trilogy that Peter Jackson was utterly obsessed with attention to detail. To the extent where, when Gandulf went off to do his research at Minas Tirith and he sat in the library there, going through all those scrolls and maps, practically all of those untouched scrolls and parchments in the background had text on it - eventhough it was not to be used in the scene.

I am finding myself doing that at the moment. Being obsessed with making sure I have the correct formulae for my young exorcist/paranormal investigator to use when confronted with a ghost, the right language, turn of phrase, locations. It is hard work. I know, in the end that it would help, once I sit down and write the blasted novel to have all this information at my fingertips but...I am scared.

I am scared of using too much of it - if I do, I will be a bit of an anorak, showing off all my learned knowledge (a la Dan Brown), if I don't, it might seem that I am doing my "magic" on the wing. Conundrum. Where do you draw the line, where do you see the balance. I know wordweaver will pipe up and say "shutup with the whining already and just write it, fix it up later.." and I know where she is coming from but! being the procrastinator that I am, I am wasting my time googling every phrase I find interesting, doing research on Milton quotes, checking out Dante...Catholic saints...and it is vastly interesting. I am thinking of selling my services to the Beeb even!

Grin, but this Sunday, I think will be the big day when I will start at page 20 in the existing novel and rewriting and start showing - not telling - my research and dropping my poor young character into a whole load of trouble.

SNH SNH SNH

Summer tales...

Picture - naturally - courtesy of Brian Froud

The end of the month of May and nary a day of full sunshine. Now, in general I do prefer the cooler clime of this olde Albion BUT enough is enough.

I took Sparrow for a run in the park this morning before going to work and I bravely stepped forth without my jacket, thinking that it should not be necessary to wear one. I was wrong. I almost froze my patoolies off. The poor pup got run around the park at landspeed record timing and I was back inside, shrugging into my leather jacket within fifteen minutes.

The sun, please, may we have some sunshine? A week, two weeks even, would do. Just let it be warmer than 15 degrees C. We want to, we NEED to have a bbq. We longingly touched the barbeque packs in Sainsburys this evening, dreaming that misty dream of long remembered times when friends came to visit till late at night, sitting around the fire outside, listening to music, sated and stuffed on the gorgeous grilled meats FG had bbq'd. Och. Those were the days.

To encourage summer, a summery interlude of the literary kind:

And pomp, and feast, and revelry,

With mask, and antique pageantry,

Such sights as youthful poets dream

On summer eves by haunted stream

(Milton - L'Allegro (1631) )

Night of the south winds - night of the large fewstars!

Still nodding night - mad naked summer night.

(Walt Whitman - "Song of Myself," Leaves of Grass (1855) )

Oh, how I laughed...

Reading Cheezy's blog about him retiring trusty old Rusty, his ancient Nokia, had me giggle. We too retired our respective but still quite posh and flash Nokias this past week, having upgraded to a new provider (Orange sucks ass) we got new phones. Small little flicky up things. Here is a picture of mine. I chose the pink as it so me (she laughs, with her sore chest and sore throat, sounding like Vin Diesel OD'ing on Jack Daniels and Texan plains)

Then, I thought I would go visit the Nokia website and go see further info on the little tiddler and almost died of a heart attack. This little phone, by no means the cutest or best one out there, is retailing for £229!!! Holy hell. That is a lot of money for sumat. Sumat which I am bound to scratch the hell out of and no doubt lose.

Okay, so, maybe I see if they have a secure goodie thing for me to store it in. Checks out the accessories section and honestly, this is what came up:

Yes, like those twatts out there who buy the "socks" for their iPods, Nokia has seen it fit to design this little cute "cover/baggie" for the phone, it even comes with beaded accessories to dangle off the phone. For £5.99. Fabulous. You can use your cover/baggie to clean both the camera lens AND the screen.

Shakes head. I don't understand this buying of "clothing" and accessories for items...my bag does not feel lonely without any adornments. In fact, it is just less junk for me to lose. My monstrous MP3 player is quite happy to get 'tude by being scuffed and thrown around said bag, I refuse to buy it a little nappy/condom to keep it safe.

But yes, there you go. If I were that way inclined, I could buy a little pink condom for my phone. Yippee! Fingler clicking, just like Tara and Paris. Tee-hee.

TDVC - The Movie

Braving the torrential thunderous rain and hailstones, we drifted down to the local cinema to go view TDVC. At half ten in the morning on a Saturday.

The highlight was the trailer for Pirates of the Carib - hmmmm, Johnny Depp - sorry, that wasn't the movie, was it?

If you have not read the badly written book, the hyped book, the fictional book, you will still enjoy the movie. You might not "get" it all, but they have dummed it down tremendously for public fare. And it is a loooooong movie - 149 minutes. Most of which you don't really feel. Personally, I think this should have been directed by an English director, or a foreign director, not Ron Howard. It never made me gasp, wonder, or amaze. Or worry. There was no edge to it and it was all very "fluffy." It did however make me jiggle around my seat though as I recognised the places they were shooting the movie in. The sets were lavish - Lee Teabing's villa and study is sumptious. See pic below:

Old man Sir Ian was a tour de force, as usual. He genuinely sparkled and was a much more interesting character than Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) who seemed to stand to the side a lot and watch worriedly and bemusedly as things went rocketing off the rails, dragging him along. Sophie Neveu was beautifully played by Audrey T. And of course, Silas, the albino monk played by Paul Bettany was out of this world - his portrayal as this pawn of bishops and rich men, was outstanding. I genuinely don't think the Opus Dei has anything to worry about in this movie. They make it very clear that there are radical factions within the OD who tend to take things over the top, whereas most of their members are married, with families etc. A cleverly set-up scene on an airplane with the bishop and his aide acting the part of a journalist...cleverly done.

There were a few clever scenes - instead of Robert Langdon going off to a library to find a clue, they accost a young chap on one of the busses and use his mobile phone to access the internet and do a search. As a saddo, I recognised an in-joke in this scene. The authors Lynn Picknet and her co-author Timothy Freke were on the bus, behind Tom and Audrey. They were the ones who did a lot of research way back in the day into the Magdalene story, Da Vinci and the Jesus Mysteries. Dan Brown refers to Lynn's books in TDVC and cites it as one of the books in his bibliography. Yes, I know. I am sad. In Lee Teabing's house, as he explains to Audrey about the sacred feminine, he is holding one of Lynn's books in his hand. This made me giggle and I sniggered to hubby: "We have those books."

Ahem. There are a lot fo shortcuts in the movie - there has to be. Like in LOTR you just could not put it all in. I think though that they managed to stay true to the book - you get the gist of it. All, except for the ending....where they discover a hidden room underneath Roslyn Chapel (what about all the excavations which the St Clair family have allowed in the church a couple of years ago...the excavations where they had found nothing...do the Americans think NO ONE has ever paid any attention to Roslyn before Dan Brown came along?) and Sophie manages to locate a whole bunch and scrolls and pipes up "Oh look, scrolls from the Library at Alexandria". At that point I burst out laughing. Even if they were scrolls from the great library, they would be in temperature controlled cabinets, behind lock and key and not jumbled together on an open shelf for insects, dust, bacteria and marauders to eat or destroy. Americans! Throw reality to the wind to make it look like the library at Minas Tirith, just because it looks authentic like that and it makes you want to go dig around ancient temples and churches.

I'll pack cynical-Liz away now and say that for all the obvious ploys used in the movie, it worked. Like the book it will bring in millions to the publishers, the author and the movie makers. I just pity old Dan Brown now that he has sold the rights to his character - it is going to be very difficult to set him up to do controversial things now. The movie world owns him now!

Rodrigo y Gabriela

I happened across Rodrigo Y Gabriela via an email newsletter I have somehow managed to subscribe to - not that I can remember doing it - and the write up about their music intrigued me, which led me to investigate them via their website. And, if you believe in synchronicity, this will blow your hair back: I fell asleep infront of the tv the other night and woke up to a special on the duo! How freaky is that?

Needless to say, they were googled, their My Space website and their standalone website had been found. All I can say is: wow. Their music is fiery, full of passion, they are amazing artists and I love Gabriela as she is funny, fast talking and swears like a trooper. Go check them out. They are playing a gig in June here in London and I am pretty damn sure we will be going.

http://www.myspace.com/rodrigoygabriela

http://www.rodgab.com/index.htm

And what swayed me even more is the fact that they got the greatest gypsy violinist in the world, my personal hero - Roby Lakatos - to play on their new album. Well, what else can I say?

Viva Rodrigo y Gabriela!

Brought low...

Shyte. Is only one of the words I can use to describe how I am currently feeling. Along with that some other terms I can use: raw nosed, bleary eyed, sore throated, painful chest-ted...

Yep, the dreaded lurgy has me in its grips.

For over a year or more, I have managed to stay out of its way. I have had a bit of sniffles, yes, but who hasn't but now, yesterday and today, it decided to pounce on me and pummel me mercilessly into the pavement. Needless to say I spread the germs liberally all over work - not because I wanted to but because no one wanted to send me home. Plus, I entertained clients by sounding like Brian Blessed imitating Vin Diesel.

Plus, I had to come in for my salary review. Which was not as bad as I had feared. £50 more than I what I earn at the moment for a month is better than nothing, right? Gets a glimmer in her eye. That is at least four books from Waterstones...

Off I go to have a bath, take drugs, liberally mixed with whisky, and to pass out.

PS: All of this before my interview on Thursday with well known publishers. I am praying for my voice to at least be gone so I can sign at them in a creative way OR for me to find my voice again and all I have to do to convince them that I can do the job sounding like Vin D after he has gargled with turps, smoked fifty fags with no filters and shouted mercilessly at weak ninnies to keep up as he goes off to save the world.

Welcome to the wide world!

Welcome to the world, little Ashleigh W.

She was born yesterday morning and she weighs 6lb (2.76kg) and is 47cm tall.

Congratulations to proud parents Phil and Michelle W.

Car Porn!

Hat tipped to car porn enthusiast, Tincan!

You know, sometimes it is nice working in London. Ambling to work this morning, I took a detour via St James’s Square and came across around thirty lovely flash sports cars parked outside the Square. All of them were on their way to Silverstone….hmmmm. Now, seriously, I am not a car freak but this was just porn, sheer and utter porn. So I sent the office graduate out with our team camera to go and take some pictures.

Very nice indeed.

Bush Hall - Shepherds Bush

It was Saturday night and we were actually going somewhere. That somewhere was Bush Hall to go and see Susy Thomas, Vince Freeman and of course, Never the Bride.

The venue was fantastic – intimate and unassuming from the outside until you go in and there is this hall slightly reminiscent of older times, high ceilings and chandeliers. Beautiful plaster mouldings – it had the sort of faded glamour look of an old Hollywood film set.

Up stepped Susy with her acoustic backing band. I think that a lot of the people that were there that night didn’t know Susy or had not heard of her before, most of them I think were NtB fans. She started her set and with her genuinely sweet jocular way had their attention within the first few seconds into her first song. The audience quietened down quite a bit and everyone sort of turned to listen to this pretty girl up there on the stage who suddenly demanded so much attention, not just because of her amazing voice but because of the genuineness of her music and lyrics. I echo Nikki’s words here and say: she is going to be big. Watch out KT Tunstall and Norah Jones! Her album is out shortly! Plug, plug…plug!

Next up was the charismatic and sweet Vince Freeman. Nikki introduced him as the next Bruce Springsteen. I beg to differ. Vince has his own style and he an enjoyable voice. He had the audience bopping along to some of his songs – I couldn’t help but think that he was such a huge contrast to these manufactured crappy boy and girl bands you see making it “big”. With his two man backing band he wowed the crowd, doing a bit of singing, a lot of playing and seemingly to be having a lot of fun up there. I have personally never heard of him but will no doubt get a copy of one of his two cd’s.

Then Nikki and Been bounced onstage, looking spectacular and seriously cool as the ultimate in cool - rock chicks! With them they had a different drummer (I couldn’t figure out his name, a bit of an ear infection happening) but they had their guitarists Murray Gould and Greg Harewood with them and you know what…I don’t have enough descriptive phrases for the sheer power that this band emanates. Admittedly Nikki was having problems with feedback from her earphones and mike and speakers, but honestly, I couldn’t care less. They made a fantastic noise – they veered from heartwrenchingly beautiful lyrics of the Living Tree to Loser in Love to Kiss Kiss and a whole bunch of others I can’t even remember. They were consummate professionals, getting over the problems with the feedback, bouncing around and giving it their all. It was brilliant and such a good evening. I danced till I gasped, laughed out loud, shouted, hollered and generally misbehaved (well, for me anyway) and had a fantastic time.

There is nothing quite like a live gig, is there?

Lyrics from the Living Tree as sung by Nikki and as has been recorded by Dame Shirley Bassey

THE LIVING TREE
Let me breathe
Cause I'm drowning in your shadow
Let me leave
Respect me
do not follow me
believe I can make me own tomorrow
Let me breathe
Does it make
You feel good cause you own me
Does it take Your puppet strings to hold me
How I ache
As you're trying to control me
Let me breathe
Let me dance 'till my shoes cry
Let me laugh
let me be
Let me dance
Let me choose my life
Let me climb the living tree
Picture this
When you wake up in the morning
And I kiss Your sorry ass goodbye
What will I miss
There's nothing I can think of as I leave
Let me dance 'till my shoes cry
Let me laugh
let me be
Let me dance
Let me choose my life
Let me climb the living tree

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!

Hostel, the movie

I have been putting off to go and see the movie as I heard it was pretty grim, people have been sick in the movie house, others have walked out, unable to face watching it...

But, last night FG insisted we go. I thought, okay, let's do this thing. It's Orange Wednesday, even if the movie sucked ass, it would be about a fiver or so down the drain = not too bad.

Along with other grown ups - the movie had a strict 18 rating - we waited in the dark, giggling and wondering what we have let ourselves in for.

The movie starts like any other roadtrip movie - American kids in Amsterdam with their mate Oli from Iceland doing drugs, doing girls...then they get locked out of their hostel and another dodgy chap lets them into his room. He tells them of this uber cool place in Slovakia where its just girls, girls, girls...

Of course, the boys go off to Slovakia and they have a good time. I am getting a bit bored now as nothing untoward has happened. No inkling of blood or gore...or anything. A good few cinematic "in jokes" as they have Tarantino music in the background and some of his movies playing on random TV's in the background as the boys go through their adventures.

Eventually!!!! After you have seen about fifty girls get their boobies out, things start going wrong. Oli disappears. No one knows where he is. He sends a text to his mates though - I am going home - it says. I want to go home too, I think to myself, but stay as I love the area they are shooting the movie in. Fantastic village. Then the gaumless friend disappears and the cool one, Pax, is left on his own...

And then, that is where the trouble begins. He gets shown the "art" show by one of the girls they have hooked up with, who turns out to be in on the plot - touritsts get killed for sport. Depending on your nationality, you are worth either $25,000 or less. Being American, poor Pax gets dragged off to be chopped up by a maniac. The maniac is German and has paid a lot of money to kill Pax. But Pax begs in German (how odd, someone can speak a European language!!) and the man feels guilty...so he calls a guard and the guard shuts Pax up by sticking this S&M ballstrap thing in his mouth...Pax starts throwing up when the German cuts off his fingers with an electric saw. Grim, but doable. The German starts worrying that Pax is going to choke on vomit and die on him...so he removes Pax's ballstrap thing from his mouth...turns away to get his electric saw and lo! he slips on the vomit and the saw cuts him in half as it lands on him.

Pax makes his escape...or does he?

The last part of the movie is the best part - the gory part. And, I can put my hand up and say this as I have been indoctrinated by FG in the world of gory slasher movies, it wasn't so bad, at all. In fact, it had a fantastic ending and the entire cinema audience were crowing and laughing and doing high-fives in the end.

So, clocking in at 94 minutes, Hostel is an interesting cultural experience with a bit of blood and gore thrown in at the end to shake everyone out of their complacency. I did enjoy it and no doubt it will be one of the dvd's FG will own.

BUT the coolest part of it all, was watching the gory bits and knowing that Greg Nicotero did the special effects. He harks back to Frightfest and he is genuinely a fantastically funny and cool guy - we met him a few times and he is so enthusiastic about his work, that it gives us a silly sense of pride as everyone went "eeeeeew" at some parts, knowing how Greg and his team probably spent days working out the goriest way of doing that scene.

Good fun - not as bad as some that I have seen, with a lower R rating.

I am so excited!

I am on holiday today and tomorrow - as I left work yesterday the strangest feeling came sloughing off me...it was a feeling of sheer reckless abandon. For two whole days I was legitimately able to stay away from work. **titter**

I have tidied the little house - well, as much as I tidy as FG is the true Monica around the place, but, I hasten to add, in a macho non-apron wearing way - and have worked a bit on the old story stored in the new toy.

Oh happy day. I sit here, looking out into the lush green garden and am amazed how life has sprung forth in so few days. Last week this time, our garden looked like shyte. Now it looks like - well shyte - but it has a lot more green in it. We even have new grass coming up in places we thought was arid. Or frozen, at least. Just goes to show what a bit of rain does and a few days of temperatures in double figures.

I am planning a nice dinner tonight - I will amble down to the shop a bit later on to go buy ingredients...I shall visit Delia Online for inspiration. FG jokingly said "roast leg of lamb, roast potatoes and veg" and laughed in a hopeful way. Maybe I do something less time consuming.

And oh! Tomorrow night we are off to our very first musical evening which wordweaver invited us to. It is at a pub in Balham and we are just so genuinely thrilled we are going - it is the first time that they are using this venue and if its a success it will become a regular "thing". It will be an evening of song and music - we will be the appreciative audience. I promise to give it a write up on Sunday once I have recovered from the Con we are going to over in Oxford.

A busy few days but what is genuinely nice is the fact that the weather is warming up. I don't have to stay inside shivering. Instead the pup and I will go walk the park a bit, I think. To get out of the house and experience the incredibly strong wind blowing the winter weather away.

Off I go to do...you know, holiday things.

Remember, remember the 5th of November...

V: This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

We saw V for Vendatta on Sunday afternoon in a mercifully quiet and local Odeon here in Beckehnham. There were maybe ten people in all. Grown-ups all, people of a certain age...okay, dammit, they were all late twenties, early thirties, maybe even older. My point being this:

This movie is not a kiddies flick...a teenager smooch movie or one of those made for action junkies. It is a fantastically satirical and bleak look at a an alternate Britain under the the leadership of an odious man called the Chancellor. V's story, and that of Evey (Natalie Portman who is way too pretty to be allowed out of her house) is heartwrenching and beautiful and stark and scary all at once. Yes, I will admit it. I sobbed at the end - like I usually do. I am a big girl's blouse.

The fact that 98% of the film was shot on location in London gives it a genuine feel for the city. The street scenes in Trafalgar Square and the big screens over on Piccadilly had my hair standing on end - I walk past these places every day so it was really a shivery moment to see them on screen...reflecting a totalitarian big brother government. It really made you think.

V's character played by Hugo Wearing (Elrond in LoTR and Agent Smith in Matrix) absolutely shockingly shines as the mysterious V. I have never read the graphic novels so I had no idea what to expect. I think this was a good thing as I had no preconceptions about the movie, at all. I was utterly swept away by it. I would love to go and see it again as there are so many different things to watch - the nuances and the sets and scenery. It really makes on think that what would have happened, at that one point in history, that crucial turning point, if something had gone the other way. How easily the world could have been turned on its head.

Good stuff. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Five out six stars.

The most money I have ever spent...

...barring shelling out some dosh for our zooty little car! (random googled picture above).

After procrastinating and humming and ha-hing and worrying...I have done it. A brand new toy for techie geek Liz:

Its stats are:

Intel Pentium M 740 Processor 1.73GHz
533 MHz FSB
2 MB Cache
1024 MB RAM
60 GB Hard Drive
Double Layer DVD RW MultiDrive
12.1" Brite Display
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
128MB Intel shared graphics

It has more memory and power than both my old desktop PC here at home and the one FG is on at the moment, on the other side of the room. It is tiny. It can fit into my handbag, in its protective sleeve. I am in love.

I feel as if I am a Gentleman who loves Musicals who has just met Ginger Rogers. In other words, I feel giddy.

Off I go to touch it, feel it, talk to it.

My precious. My own...

Music on the move...

Last year I got a lovely unexpected surprise from FG - a belated birthday present in the shape of a Creative Zen Touch MP3 player.

I am a techie geek. I love gadgets. I was in heaven. I toodled off, ignoring him for the rest of the evening and went about playing with my new Toy. 20,000 songs = 20GB memory. Stunning stuff!

Alas, I realised today, on the way home that I am bored of my current playlists...so, I have deleted everything off the Toy and am redoing the playlists and copying more music across to it. I did however sync it up so that what I had on there, I had on the PC and vice versa. Now I have to sit and decide on the playlists...I have one thus far entitled:

U2

The others will probably be in the vein of:

Noise (Marilyn Manson, Nirvana, Guns n Roses, Staind, Foo Fighters, Creed, Placebo et al etc)
Gaming (this would incorporate music scores, Enya, Loreena McKennit and some noise, for variation)
Calming (Usually anything I can listen to that is happy background noise)
Girly (Madonna, Anastacia, Milla, One hand in my pocket-girl, etc)

What else can there be, I ask myself.

I remember now:

Music scores (Lord of the Rings, music to Last of the Mohicans, Troy, 13th Warrior, etc...)

I love my player. It is my life-saver on the train so I don't have to be subject to Mr. Businessman phoning his wife or secretary to give them instructions. Or to listen to the jibba-jabba of transfer studens from Smelly Country In Europe who, eventhough they sit opposite one another, have to SHOUT at one another, and then laugh at the top of their lungs, wafting smells of bad breath and unwashed bodies around. Or, my favourite, in the evenings, listen to the abuse hurled from one drunken sotted yob to his maaaaaaaaaayte on the phone or to his maaaaaaaaaaaaaayte on the other side of the carriage.

I realise that they could be dangerous for your health. Girl run over whilst cycling in the middle of the road listening to her iPod, case in point. Maybe she should not have been cycling in the middle of the road...but that is just my opinion. They can be bad for your hearing - granted. But then I would rather be deaf than locked up for beating seven shades of hell out of someone shouting at his mate whilst sitting next to me. They also say it is encouraging people to be more secular, to keep people from talking. Sorry, maaaaaayte, but have you seen some of the things that get to travel on the Hayes line into Charing Cross or Canon Street? No one ever speaks to strangers, why start now? Don't blame people for keeping themselves to themselves - if you don't interfere with others, they don't interfere with you = happy stalemate.

Admittedly, the one thing I hate with a passion is some little twatty person listening to their music so loudly that it "bleeds" from their £2.99 offie-bought earphones. Invariably its badly recorded RnB or rap ripped third-hand from someone else's player.

Oh gods, having just read this I realise something - I sound really old and moany. Time to go listen to Queen Madge and Marilyn Manson to get in touch with my young self.

Again.

Not gone!!!

Dear fans

I have not disappeared into the great void of cyberspace like Neo. I have just not had the time to scribble nonsense on here for a while.

Work has been insane the past few weeks. Here's hoping that it calms down a bit. My desk is starting to crack under the weight of the papers and files. Okay, so I am lying, sue me.

We had a glorious day today - we took Sparrow for a run in the large country park we have up the road from us. Man, it was bitterly cold. I took my 35mm camera with me, with the intention of getting some wildlife shots and some new shots of the pup and FG frolicking (snarf) in the undergrowth.

I think I got quite a nice set of pictures. I felt incredibly guilty as I haven't actually had my camera out in over a year. Which is dreadful as I love taking photos. And I have been told that I am good at it...but whenever do we listen to what we are told? I will have the film developed next week after payday and then post some pics on here.

To prove my astounding photographic skills, I include some of them below for your pleasure:

Wistmans Woods on Dartmoor - the most magical place I have been.

Shot of the Nile from our apartment in Luxor

The weather at present is so odd – bitterly cold with these incredibly blue skies and bright sunshine. It fools you into thinking that Spring is on its way and then you get hit by this wind that slices through your coat. Brrr. But, it is Spring Equinox soon! Which means Summer, for what its worth, and that means braais! Oh the excitement and joy.

Dances around for a few moments. Then slumps down, having just expended all the energy in the body.

Okay, enough from me.

Time to pretend to work so that they can pretend to pay me.

Criminally bent...

FG and I woke up this morning to the news of the £25m heist down the road of us here in Kent. We were amazed and intrigued by it. As CSI geeks and compulsive crime story readers and tv-show watchers we figured out the following:

1. There must have been at least ten of them - 2 to take the manager hostage, 2 to take his family hostage. The rest would be waiting at the depot or closeby.
2. Once at the depot the manager would have called the staff in for a meeting - the others would come in and take them all hostage.
3. Say three or four guys to keep the hostages under guard whilst the rest load the van with as much cash as they could.

We grinned at one another over our brekkie thinking that yes, we are such clever deviants. Much to our shock it happened almost exactly like that. Ooo, er, missus! Are we just really clever or are we criminally bent?

Next few things to figure out:

1. Do not run with the money - airports and trainstations are watched 24/7.
2. Divide the cash, dump the cars used, either steal or use the reserve cars stashed somewhere else in a garage or a warehouse.
3. Split up.
4. Maybe go back to your day job, as if nothing had happened - it was early enough to work okay.
5. Tell no one.
6. Escape into the countryside.

Easy as pie. I figure that these chaps are very clever - they must have been watching the depot itself for ages, along with everyone who worked there. They learned their routes, their routines, who did what ... its easy enough to follow someone around, no one EXPECTS to be followed around by a criminal!

I would love to see what happens now - I see the amount of money has now gone up from £25,000,000 to £55,000,000. And the coppers are offering a £2M reward...would you grass up your mate for that little if they are sitting with £55M?

Grin.

I feel a "Evil Ruler of the Universe" pose coming on, complete with stroking my white cat.

Meaow!

Death of a stove...

It is a trauma beyond imagining dear friends.

My stove died - in fact, it blew up. Two Sundays ago we were waiting for our lovely baguette to bake in the oven so that we could have it with our lovely chicken ceasar salad when BOOM it went. We ran into the kitchen in time to see the oven light go fweeeep and shut down.

We giggled nervously wondering WTF is going on? Did just the light blow? We peered into the darkness of the oven, worried. But it revealed no secrets. We fiddled with nobs. Nothing. Nada.

A dead oven.

And this happened last year too - one week before Easter. Thank the gods that we have a relatively good agency who looks after us. I rang them up on Monday, bearing in mind that it is school holiday, and explained to our agent, a lovely patient and funny chap, that I managed to kill another oven. Within less than a year. He laughed and said that yes, it was suspicious but that he would take pity on me and send their electrician/handy man out to come and have a look. I have waited one week. A very very very very long WEEK. SEVEN days with no oven - do you know how bad that is?

I made friends who came around to visit us this weekend shell out money to buy pizza from Dominos. I could not bear trying to cook for five people on just the stove-top. No one questioned the Dominos purchase - all I had to email to them is "my oven is broken" and they all understood immediately. I got a reply from one of them. It went like this:

Uh-oh. Broken stove + one week without decent food = Angry Liz.

Oh, how well do they know me?

I rang the agents again today as I have not heard of the electrician chappy or anyone, for that matter. I was apologised to. My number was dutifully passed onto the right people. Now all I have to do is wait. Impatiently. For someone to ring me to get me out of my kitchen hell.

And don't you dare say "but at least you had your stovetop" or "why don't you buy ready meals and microwave them?" because...well, you know, I need my oven whole! So I can bake bread and grill fish cakes and bake cake and stuff...its like losing the use of my arm or sumat.

It is dreadful. Oh, gods of the kitchens, please, I implore you - fix it!

A milliner's tale...

In 1797 a hatmaker on the Strand who fancied himself as something of a dandy, invented the top hat. So proud was John Hetherington on his natty new headgear, that he went for a stroll on the Strand but his enthusiasm was not shared by the general public.

“The sight of his hat caused a sensation; people booed, several women fainted, a crowd gathered and a small boy got his arm broken in the crush. Hetherington was arrested and fined £50 for “appearing on the public highway wearing upon his head a tall structure calculated to frighten timid people.”

Naming and shaming

If you read the previous post, you know I did my first bit of online shopping with one of our local supermarkets here in the UK fully expecting fantastic service and the convenience of having it all delivered to the house, as we were without a car for about 2 weeks - the alternator went and died on us.

Har! The supermarket in question rang the night of the delivery, at quarter past eight to say "the delivery won't be taking place as there is a problem at the store, please call customer services to arrange for a different time, the following day."

""$^$%&%^**(()&*)*()_ - is what I thought. I rang customer services, fully expecting to be treated as a preferred customer as the delivery had been cancelled by them and not us. The customer service chap sounded about ten and seemed petrified of me. Now, I know I can be scary once I get going, but at that point, I was merely bemused and a bit curious.

Him: Oh madam, we can only fit you in on the 9 - 11 pm delivery slot.

Me: What, how is that possible? My delivery was cancelled, surely I get preferred delivery times. I have NO food in the house. Our off-licence on the corner closes at half seven at night. I say again, I have NO food in the house.

Him: I understand. But there is nothing I can do about the slots. I can make sure you are refunded your £3.99 delivery charge.

Me: Do you know what went wrong at the branch?

Him: No, not a clue, madam.

Me: Give me the branch number.

Him: Rattles off the number.

I say thank you. I hang up and ring the branch.

It eventually gets answered.

Me: Hi, I am ringing to enquire why there are no deliveries this evening. I have received a message on my mobile stating that there is a problem at the branch.

The Branch: Madam, I have got a list of customers who I am ringing to notify them of the problem we are currently experiencing. We can't deliver any orders.

Me: Why? What has happened?

The Branch: Madam, I am not entirely sure...I think we are having problems with the vans.

Me: What? All of them?

The Branch in a vague voice: Madam, I can't say, I'm afraid. I really don't know...I think it must be the vans. That's what I heard. They just gave me a list and told me to ring customers...

Me: It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Chelsea is playing an important football match and the drivers are rather watching the game than working, is it?

The Branch: I'm afraid I cannot comment on that, madam.

I hang up.

Thursday I wrote a stinking letter to the supermarket. What shit service. For a first time online customer as well - I am shocked and will NEVER EVER AGAIN buy from there EVER AGAIN, online or otherwise.

Birthday Me!

Wow - what a lovely weekend.

I turned 33 yesterday but decided that Sundays are invariably days of rest for friends, that we should meet up in town on Saturday for a gorgeous meal and some nattering.

I chose Browns for the lunch - dependable food, good service and the atmosphere is friendly and welcoming. There was ten of us and it was lovely to see all my friends there. I was spoilt rotten, with presents galore! We stayed there till about four and eventually, reluctantly left, and made our various ways home, or to go walkabout town.

Breakdown of presents:

1 x New Queen Madge CD
1 x Milla CD
2 x Guitar books
1 x new novel set in Rome
1 x beautiful miniature zen meditation garden
2 x pairs of Socks (I genuinely asked for these!)
1 x Hero dvd
1 x very lovely new expensive earphones for my MP3 player
1 x esoteric book!
1 x huge, divine hand poured scented candle

= good pressie hoard!

The grande day itself was a relaxing one - FG and I had a lazy breakfast, we mooched about the house, decided to go for a walk and ended up in Beckenham where we had coffee and a hot chocolate at Costa Coffee - even the howler monkeys in the form of babies and kids, didn't worry us much. We got home, read a bit, watched the rugby - Scotland pounded France, go the tartan army! - and dozed and well, it was a genuinely lazy day where I got all the tea I wanted, I even got some popcorn! All in all it was a grown up, lazy birthday without having to rush around like crazy people to make sure everyone visiting has been fed etc.

Thanks for everyone joining me on Saturday and thanks for all my text messages yesterday! I am sure everyone in Costa Coffee thought I was a social butterfly, inbetween sipping hot chocolate, writing in my journal and texting, I looked quite the important one!

I am off work today - for a change - and am looking forward to sitting down in about an hour and working on my novel till FG comes home. I did my first bout of home shopping today too with Tesco and feel quite the techno wiz! Here's hoping they can deliver the 17 items I bought...

Will post back on that on Wednesday evening when it gets delivered!

Sometimes the Magic Works

There are days that are just utterly magical.

And today is one of them.

The air outside is cold. It freezes your face and sticks in your throat and sends shivers down your spine. You hunker deeper down into your scarf and warm coat, relieved that you decided to wrap up warm before leaving the warm nest of your house.

The walk to the station is an exploration – the air is cold enough to have formed a strange kind of mist that Hollywood producers pay thousands to special effects people to recreate when doing scary movies. The traffic is slow and there seems to be a lull in general sound. The station is that bit deserted that makes you wonder if you have somehow missed the notification of a new holiday.

The train journey into town is slow, giving you ample time to look out through the windows onto empty parks where the ground mists are creeping across the ground, circling the empty park benches. The train chuckles along, giving tantalising glimpses of a city wrapped in mist. I can see the Docklands and the high rises are squat because of the low cloud. We pick up speed as we pass London Bridge and soon we are crossing the Thames. The London Eye looms large and curious on its banks, only half visible to the eye and behind it the houses of parliament and Westminster Abbey. Too soon we are at our destination.

For a few vivid moments people swirl around in bright scarves and woolly hats as they exit from their carriages, leaving Charing Cross Station. The cold air is waiting outside, to welcome you. You inhale deeply, after the warmth of the train the fresh air chases the lethargy, forcing you to walk briskly to your office. Trafalgar Square is swept clean, with no pigeons in sight. The lions keep guard at the bottom and I shrug deeper into my coat and bury my chin in my scarf. The wind is cutting and my eyes water.

Along Pall Mall I squint and can imagine I can see all the way down to the bare bones of the trees in Hyde Park. But I cannot and it is only my imagination. The streets are practically deserted of traffic and a few pedestrians swiftly stride towards their destinations, oblivious of the history around them. I take my time and wonder at the mystery of this ancient city. I feel comfortable in my skin today and it feels like I can hug this ancient place that has given so much to the world since time began.

I step into my building off Regent Street and leave my wondering-self at the door. There is no place for mystery and musings on ancient things here.