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[Sep. 29th, 2008|08:31 pm] |
Hey - anyone remember 'Straight No Chaser' from a while back (last Christmas?)
Have any of you seen this:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=9721358
Hurrah!! (OK - I'm not actually totally into 'This is how we do it' as a song ... but the arrangements and disciplined-yet-funky singing - hurrah - they actually made me like it ...)
("I had a little dreidel ...") |
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| Short heads up: Woot! Corrina's Birthday!! |
[Sep. 22nd, 2008|06:18 pm] |
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Notice!! Happy Birthday to Long Standing WoPper whose birthday it is this week (I'll let her keep the precise date details!) ... Corrina Lawson!! Happy Birthday Corrina |
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| Swim time!! |
[Sep. 19th, 2008|11:30 pm] |
Have just discovered that the Bravissimo sale does still have my sizes - so I've ordered myself the built-in bra bikini and the tankini with shorts and briefs (and it was less than buying a full price top and bottoms!) - not sure why I thought they had sold out of the bottoms ... must have mis-read something. I feel like I belong once more!!
I bought the tankini because although I like the idea of not having fabric over the tummy, I wanted an option just in case I was feeling either self conscious or that the water was cold ... but at least with a tankini you can yank it up a bit if it's wet and sticking.
Will definitely review once I have the garments - I just hope I got the size right - in a sale - you turn round and everything is gone - but large expense on the light box and a few other things means that I'm a bit tight (I've been putting a large chunk into savings - it's not that I don't have the money at all) - and really - in sports bras - I tend to be the same size from brand to brand (not usually the case I know - but so far ...)
Everyone should have a practical swimming costume, a 'beach' one and a passport ...
Am reading all about Station X - my head is whirling with bombes, Cilis, 'kisses' and 'pinches' and Alan Turing - gosh the law was a b*****d in 1950's (in the book I have reached 1941 - but it is sad to think that just over a decade later (1954) he was using his scientific skills to lace an apple with cyanide and kill himself ... what a stupid waste. It was delightful to read that there *were* female cryptographers - not just in the translation unit but actually in hut 6 - they recruited female mathematicians from the women's colleges at Cambridge (can't recall if it was all of them) - although from what I've gathered there were plenty more men than women, and the majority of the women were doing the more mundane stuff.
Bedfordshire was a real hive of activity in WWII - airfields, black propaganda station, Bletchley, manufacturing (I love the minor detail that Dunstable got its car manufacturing [gone now] because they built a fake factory and disguised the real one - then decided to make the fake real [presumably after the war!]) (must check the details of that - it's a long time since I read the lecture) |
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[Sep. 5th, 2008|12:47 pm] |
Hi there - it's been a bit quiet on the Min front because I've been concentrating on Words of Prey (to my benefit I think ... there are good peeps hanging out on the WoP community) (and it's been inspiration for another project of mine which may get an announcement by Christmas)
But I did want to flag up this:
http://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/
C'mon - we can *save* Superman's House!! How cool is that?
Not that there aren't many other good causes out there - but this one ... there's something inspirational about not just the character but also about the story of the two guys who made him and the time at which it was done - also, for me - there is something special about saving a house which is probably just any old house - rather like the National Trust in the UK bought Paul McCartney's old home not simply because it was the house of a Beatle but because it was a typical house of its type like any other - architectural normality of its class/period etc ... any working class Merseyside family could and did grow up there - and changed the world ....
I've ordered my Tshirt.
(Spotted on Neil Gaiman's website - as so often). |
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| The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred |
[Aug. 18th, 2008|08:25 pm] |
The command comes from DQ:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
( The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred ) |
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| Just heard the *best* poem on radio 4 |
[Aug. 13th, 2008|11:27 pm] |
I was listening to this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bespokenword.shtml
and I heard the spoken version of this:
http://www.bebo.com/BlogView.jsp?MemberId=6649425&BlogId=4451587100
Here's a video interview with the poet with a couple of extracts but I couldn't find the whole thing spoken. So you'll all have to go out and earn the man his living
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/771006/worlds_greatest_poet_on_keith_richards/
I will post briefly on my delightful wanderings in London last night to say that my second experience of working with Chris to whisk creative American types round weird bits of London was great fun and was as enjoyable as the first time ... only the first time it was ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jennawaterford** and this time is was the delightful quirkybird who is now heading to my first home city of Manchester* ... so hopefully she will be enjoying a nan and salad from one of the Rusholme chippies (heck! I hope they're all still there!)
we had a fun time talking about travel, London, cities, history lots of stuff ... a teeny bit about comics and Jasper fforde ...
She is very sparky and funny - very much as you'd expect.
** who was a good online friend at the time - so perhaps not quite the same feeling of a Spy Rendezvous as yesterday!!
* I didn't live there - but it was the big city near my small town and I went to college there |
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| cities |
[Aug. 11th, 2008|11:18 pm] |
Andrew Marr's programme on London reminded me of why I love the city so much - the city itself as a space ... as a structure ... thinking of other cities - the thing I love about it is the mixty maxty nature of its design or many many designs ... my memories of Berlin and in a rather different way are similar - Athens - which is like a ribbon of archaeology, 70s, modern classical, those white walled mediterranean buildings and medium-sized tower blocks ... I feel at home in patchwork cities .... |
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| Heee!!! |
[Aug. 9th, 2008|10:07 pm] |
http://store.doverpublications.com/by-subject-mccain---obama-paper-dolls.html
Just cos ... cos ...
well cos ....
heeee-hee-heee
(I know Dover have a long tradition of presidential paper dolls - but I just loved the bit about 'the fun way to support [insert your preferred candidate here]')
Although ... I hope Obama is having a lovely holiday - he was rather impressive on our news so far - I was intrigued to know whether it was normal to go and campaign outside your own country or whether it is so he can build up some foreign policy links (which I hear referred to as one of his 'weak' spots). Anyone care to enlighten me? |
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| Black Canary: Back to Star City ... |
[Aug. 5th, 2008|06:37 pm] |
Just to heads-up a link on Newsarama (thanks to the blog of one of our new members for this)
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080724-comiccon-new-green-arrow-writer.html
I've been very surprised so far with my enjoyment of this series - but I really liked the 'day to day' living of the old Grell Green Arrow stories (even if Ollie did come across as an idiot ...) so I am looking forward to seeing this. I actually really enjoy the idea of Canary being married ...
No announcement on the artist so we are assuming there will be no change on the Norton & Chiang (covers).
Any thoughts? |
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| Puzzled - and only 1:20 mins of Dr Horrible is not enough |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|10:59 pm] |
Anyone else having trouble trying to watch Dr Horrible? I keep getting up to the bit about the letter from the deputy mayor and then our entire broadband collapses and the airport shuts off (well maybe not in that order I don't know) and ...
I have no idea why this would happen - I mean - our broadband is pretty broad - Chris is thorough and made sure to go for an offer with a good level of 'broadness' ... and I read the paperwork too ... maybe too many people get the idea of watching Dr Horrible close to midnight and even broadband can't cope ...
Ideas anyone?
'It's about ... Standards ...' |
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| 1991 ... |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|12:45 am] |
And in case you want to think of legal school leaving year ... ( here's 1991: ) |
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[Jul. 19th, 2008|12:11 am] |
It has been pointed out to me that I picked the wrong Big Year for my song list - so I will rectify this.
I must point out that in England you have two possible school leaving dates - 16 years old, when you are finally old enough to legally leave education and you will have just taken your GCSEs and 18 years old - if you stay on doing a variety of courses (FCC, NNEB, A-levels etc -mostly 2 years some one year - but I did A-levels so 2 years) (The Scottish do something different btw - so their cut off points are 16 and 17 I think ...)
So I'll pick 1993 - the year I finished my A-levels ...
This isn't including the top 100 UK songs is it? Where's all the Brit-pop?
( OK - now we're partying like it's 1993 - in the USA ... ) |
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[Jul. 16th, 2008|10:04 pm] |
Oh my!! The letter game is *such* fun ... our characters are up and running slowly.
I've been thinking about the story I'm writing and have bought me a book to start writing my re-write.
BBC's Bonekickers - definitely turning out fun so far ... |
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| Review of Gabriel |
[Jul. 14th, 2008|09:13 pm] |
Gabriel - no. 1 from Moonstone Comics
(artist details following - as soon as I am in the same building as my copy of the comic!!)
( Full Review here ) |
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| Sunshine and Cemetery |
[Jun. 28th, 2008|11:47 pm] |
Have just spent a wonderful day out in the sunshine - with enough breeze to not be unbearable and little humidity and a big broad hat* I was with an old friend from Uni who I have discovered lives near enough to now be a fairly regular full time friend.
We had an odd conversation about children ... interesting but odd. I'll post more on the topic when I've figured out what was odd about it.
I was not living up to my cool urban dresser mode** (but people who dress in CUD mode in the hotter side of the British summer are apt to look silly if they get hot easily like I do ...) but I managed to feel cheery - I have a nice red Tshirts from LTS now and dark red sandals (Doc Martens for the curious) and wore it with blue/brown check-plaid cut-offs (brown cardi in bag in case it got cold) ... I really love colour and texture ... it seems odd, if you're going to buy clothing to wear just to cover your nekkidness and keep you warm that you wouldn't want to also have fun with harmonious colour (A good friend of mine - GreekJester - will be smiling at me now [she's far too polite to laugh : p ]***) or even 'good' clashes ... why not make the world more colourful (substitute beautiful cut/shape for those of you that like minimalist colour ...)
I'm very pleased with my Soltan Once spray - OK, yes, it does make your legs look a shade whiter - but then that means the titanium is doing it's job of not being a chemical block but a physical barrier (that's not to say there aren't loads of chemicals in sunblock but belt and braces is a good approach) - but although I could feel the texture on my legs [something most strong blocks seem to do], it wasn't sticky or too hot and it really did block the sun from my shins quite well and *stayed on*. The Soltan stuff for the face was quite good - they seem to have put a smidgin of colour in it - presumably to stop you from looking like death (this wasn't a once-every 6 hours one but was much less irritating than most other blocks I have tried on the face) but once again I realised that the reason I get it in my eyes is because my eyelashes touch my cheeks .... wonder if I could rely on my UV-protective specs to protect the bits of my cheeks just under my eyes?
We visited Highgate Cemetery - you have to *pay* to get in (unless you have a dead relative) but it is fairly cheap (£3 and children are free under 16) - possibly you pay because they still need to do loads of work on the place it seemed a lot more wild than Pere Lachaise. People seem to be leaving little pebbles on Douglas Adams' beautiful minimalist stone (it just says Douglas Adams, his dates and , I think, writer) - they sit them along the top ... I've seen this before on other graves, akin to cairn building (or like that scene at the end of Schindler's list) but am wondering whether there's stone leaving in the books anywhere - I don't recall it.
The area near Karl Marx' grave was good - there were so many other interesting people and graves - I particularly loved the one where a list of things the person was (good friend, brilliant sky diver [I made those up]) was sort of faint but readable and bits of it - about someone named Simon were highlighted in rainbow letters so the picked out words from the eulogy caught your eye and formed a sentence of their own
I have decided that Pere Lachaise wins in the Cool Architecture stakes, but Highgate wins in the Beautifully Personalised stones stakes - so it's a draw so far - although we didn't spend as long in Highgate so there may be more architecture. Pere Lachaise is still winning on the fantastic sculpture stakes - but then we only saw a chunk of the east Cemetery ... so we may have missed something.
* well - not as big as my crazy straw hats but I've not been in crazy straw hat mode for a while now - I go through phases ...
**thanks Canarynoir ...
*** (I realise some people don't give a stuff and altho' I don't understand it at a visceral level, I appreciate that it doesn't matter on a world scale if someone wears the wrong greens together ...) |
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| When you see this .... |
[Jun. 26th, 2008|11:36 pm] |
Quote from Dr Who on your blog ... so said Canarynoir and so I obey. First I have to do the obligatory - I come from *the* North one before anyone else among my acquaintance does:
Rose: If you’re an alien, why do you sound like you’re from the north?”
The Doctor: Lots of planets have a north!
and just because I love her - but haven't seen the episodes since I was a kid ... so I had to look a few up:
Ace: Right, freeze! I mean, don't freeze, I mean stand still!
and this one just because I like it ...
Doctor: Good place to put things, cellars.
(Although unless your cellar is a Cool, Dry Place [TM] that comment is not true) |
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| Thanks for the Meme-ory ... (couldn't resist puns ... brain melting ...) |
[Jun. 24th, 2008|11:23 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme, memories | ] |
| [ | music |
| | not right now - just the humm of the fan | ] |
This one is from Canarynoir (and then from Ashtur ...)
“If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now,even if we don’t speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want — good or bad. When you’re finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.” |
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| Chirpy customers improve the day enormously |
[Jun. 24th, 2008|10:35 pm] |
I had such a nice lot of customers today - no sarcasm involved - they were great!!
Nuff said. More to be said tomorrow. |
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| Singing coincidences, sci fi and stories |
[Jun. 15th, 2008|01:10 pm] |
I have been wondering about joining a choir recently and have finally found a local one which does what I want - i.e. sings shorter pieces. Weirdly the lady who runs the choir is my brand new singing teacher - and I only found out recently by a bizarre set of circumstances (otherwise I would have had the even weirder experience of turning up at choir and finding out that oh! there's my singing teacher)
I've been working on the breathing exercises she taught me although not the singing ones - the breathing ones seem to help the cough, actually trying to do the singing bits seems to make me start hacking all over again - I am definitely getting mucha better .
Have discovered - through my Sci-fi reading group (well - the one I'm in - I'm not in charge of it!!) - the delights of Charles Stross! This is real-proper *ideas* based sci-fi but he knows how to write people and how to be funny when it is relevant (although he knows how to write a good thriller too) - having also read J Gould's Jumper this month - I am doing well on new author discoveries (can't understand why they made so many silly changes to the Jumper story to make it into a film - I mean I can see that the structure of the book doesn't exactly fit the pacing of a film - but that is a different sort of change!!) (It was a much more interesting plot idea before ... although if I were Gould I would simply be glad for the publicity and pleased that some aspects had been retained !!)
GreekJester has introduced me to a new webcomic: Hero by Night
http://drunkduck.com
and I also recommend Knights of the Shroud - which has a very slight Linda Medley vibe - but with a bit more Tamora Pierce thrown in (and Matt's very own individualness of course - but I was thinking more 'quickly - pitch this movie!')
http://www.girlamatic.com/comics/kots.php
and I appear to be keeping my vow to post (briefly) on a more regular basis. Let's see how it goes
Also - have started playing The Letter Game with a friend (we've done about three letters each now) - which is great fun!! But actually a heck of a lot more challenging in a technical sense than I had truly allowed myself to realise ... suddenly ... hats off to Jane Austen, Laclos etc (Richardson does not get a hats off because a. I haven't read him fully yet and b. he cheats wildly in terms of letter length!!) (In case any of you haven't read the introductions to Sense and Sensibility - it was originally a letter novel, as were [I believe] some of her other juvenilia - most of which I have read) |
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| Provincial Housewife Lives Again |
[Jun. 9th, 2008|10:36 pm] |
Snagged this from DQ - then saw it at Jenn's too ...
I'm actually moderately surprised by this - I thought that I might be poor because of my crazy bluestocking ways but I am actually fairly practical and I am quite into 'pretty' - I like flowers in the house ... but then you see ... I don't want kids and although I *can* sew on buttons, I often don't unless there is space in the evening to get it done - they usually get put in a the standard safe place for buttons (that's a fixed spot - the trick, I've found with safe places is to assign a consistent safe place - ie always put your loose buttons in the same place, always put your plectrum back in the same spot on your guitar etc.
Or maybe I got my wiles-y hooks into him before he knew what hit him? : )
Hats off to E M Delafield whose book I refer to in the title - go order it from your bookshop.
You may also be amused to see that I did it for my husband too - as a husband
Next blog!! I'll try the husband quiz for me and the wife for him ... I suspect we'll both be excellent husbands and rotten wives - I have frequently told him I think we need a wife ... |
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pleased
hopeful
geeky
sore
thoughtful
