Frost Flowers

 

It's gone cold (aka below 0 at night)! We don't have snow (yet), but it looks like the temperature is dropping & the news will soon feature "the big freeze" again. I'm hoping to finally get a proper snow day, not that public transport needs a lot to totally break down in the first place but it's been holding up pretty darn well so far. The latest delays were due to, errrr, something else but snow makes a much better excuse.

The week's been quiet news-wise, apart from the unexpected interview action. I haven't decided what to do with the weekend yet, tomorrow I'll either wander over to the Monkey House for little monkeys birthday or treck down to Clapham North for Big Jaco's birthday. Sunday might feature a trip to Camden to find skirt to go with red corset & very gothy boots and quite possibly have a chai latte & some food at Inspiral while being all artsy & hippie reading a book.

Today I've had a little chat with my boss, inspired by a call from another agent letting me know there's a research role at Sky going. Neither  my boss nor his boss knew of it, which is kinda weird. But I thought I'd take this opportunity to test the waters re: going permanent. As suspected my boss is really happy with my work & would want me to stay. On that note I pointed out that I like working there very much and carefully hinted on that IF I get to stay I would expect to at least get a senior exec role, which was fine with him but would not happen right away (meaning I'd be on the somewhat depressing pay for a bit longer should all of this happen). The whole discussion was on a purely hypothetical basis anyway as the girl I'm covering for is still in negotiations to come back part-time & I don't know if they have the budget to have both of us. He promised to have more substantial information by end of next week.

I will definitely do the interview, I would be crazy not to. I will be in real trouble if I end up getting two offers. I'm expecting to get at least one.

Oh, and I've started doing yoga again. Only managed 5 sun salutations A and one sun salutation B last night before collapsing & my arms are hurting quite a lot today. I really want to get back into practice again, it felt so nice once I got beyond the initial everything-hurts-OMG-die period. I also very much want a rebounder, which seems to be the posh name for a mini trampoline. I have this crazy idea that it would fit into my room & the thought of happily bouncing about while getting fit, toned & burning calories is very appealing. Have to go stalk trampolines in the near future.

My head is full of ideas & words at the moment, which unfortunately tend to mainly want to come out when I don't have a computer at hand. Like on the train, or in bed. In my head I've written a million blog entries already, but no one will ever read them coz by the time I get home/am back at my computer they have evaporated & are merely shadows of the brilliant things they were. I'm considering having a notepad with me at all times to catch them words before they escape, but writing by hand feels so alien to me now! I used to have a very pretty handwriting back in the days which seems to have degenerated into some awful scribble over time & neglect. Scary. It probably is a good idea to get more practice in, then. I'll be the crazy old lady frantically scribbling away on the train, if you need me.

Words are delicious.

Let's Go To The Circus

More of a quiet weekend that was.

Stayed in on Friday night, which was very relaxing & totally enjoyable. Subsequently woke up rather early on Saturday (7am) but didn't get up until 9am. I had an appointment at the hairdresser to get my undercut cleaned up for 11.15am, so took my sweet time to get ready and then bimbled to Camden. They cut my hair (well, the small bit) for free, I got the offer to get it coloured for free as well if I can get a morning or afternoon during the week off to go to the Tony & Guy academy. Not sure if I'm up for that, taking half a day just to get my hair done seems like such a waste. That said, I haven't got my hair coloured by a professional for yonks and I'm still contemplating taking next week Friday off because a) I'm going to the IMAX Thursday evening, which will be a very late night and b) I want to go to Planet Angel on Friday, which is more fun if I'm well rested. Have to investigate that option.

Once I was done with the hairs I called John and arranged to meet up at Inspiral for noon. Spent 20 minutes walking up to the Lock, then installed myself inside the cafe with a book & a really very tasty soy chai tea latte. The food at Inspiral is really good, all vegan & freshly made. Their chai tea latte is as good as the one Starbucks does, & if you have any idea how much I cherish my Starbucks chai tea latte you know that this is seriously good. The crowd around lunchtime on a weekend was bearable & not quite the usual hippie/esoteric people, which tend to annoy me a little.

John arrived but wanted to get some food on the market & also have a stroll around to look for warm sweaters as he was going to Finland the next day. Saw some nice t-shirts & other things, will have to head to the market this weekend or so to get them & also hunt for a skirt to wear with  my red corset as I'm going to TG next month.

After food & walk & having been led around Cyberdog's kinky section (no, I have no idea why you'd want to buy sextoys in a rave shop) we got on the bus down to Oxford Street. Went to a few shops, then headed over to Chinatown as I wanted to get some stuff from the supermarkets there. Couldn't find the items I was looking for, though, & it was terribly crowded, too, so we went back to Camden, where John went home & I bussed over to Finchley Road.

There's a small, Japanese shop just next to the Waitrose that had exactly what I wanted (hijiki & arame seaweed) & I also took the opportunity & went for a shopping spree in Waitrose. Somehow managed to spend £25 on, errr, stuff. Tasty stuff. Then got on the rail replacement bus (don't ask... tubes are seriously fuqed on weekends at the moment) back home.

Altogether a good day. No evening activities except more TV & a fairly early night.

Attempted a lie-in on Sunday morning, but my body very adamantly doesn't want to sleep longer than 8 hours. I'm seriously awake after that amount of sleep at the moment, not sure why. Might be because of a healthier diet or maybe my body produces natural speed now. Who knows?

Cooked a nice stir-fry for lunch, then got ready to go to High Street Kensington to meet up with Lynn & Kate for pre-Cirque dinner. We went to Giraffe, which resulted in a tasty "superfoods" salad (not sure what the superfoods were supposed to be, it was green leaves, pumpkin, beetroot & beans).

Oh, yeah, we went to Cirque Du Soleil in the Royal Albert Hall. Totally forgot to mention that previously :)

Lynn had gotten us amazing tickets in one of the Grand Tier boxes. Fabulous views.

Varekai, the show, was pretty average. Very colourful, good acrobats, but a pretty much non-existent story even for Cirque Du Soleil standards. Ka, the show I saw in Vegas, probably set an unattainable standard for all future shows I'm going to see. It was just too good.

Got home around 11pm, just in time for bed. As much as I like relaxing weekends like the last one, I find myself looking forward to a bit more action in February...

Work is still going great, I've got an interview at MTV (yes, for real) next week. I'm excited & a bit apprehensive as I would love to stay at Sky (if possible) but the MTV role sounds good as well, is based in central London & pays about 9k more. I'm looking forward to meeting them, I've never met anyone from their research team & have never seen their offices. Everything else I'll takle when it happens.

P.S.: Made a batch of cupcakes tonight. Vanilla with chocolate frosting. Yummy!

The Breaking Of The Day

photo credit

We've been to the movies.

I've probably mentioned that my expectations for Daybreakers weren't particularly high. After seeing the movie I think I should've started expecting much lower.

It's not that the film is absolutely rubbish. The premise - a virus turns people into vampires, human blood supply is running low after a decade of feeding on them (& subsequently turning them, should they survive), a giant corporation is trying to develop a substitute & is not at all interested in finding a cure but only wants to make more money, some cute scientist finds the cure and is subsequently hunted - was all great, interesting & deserved to be made into a gripping movie. The execution of this premise, however, was shoddy, listless & rushed. There were some great ideas, like day-proof cars & subterranean walkways & human "blood farms" & the cure they came up with, which made it even more of a shame that all this genius didn't translate onto screen.

Don't get me wrong, the film is perfectly watchable. It just leaves you with a stale aftertaste that it could've been so much better if they'd just tried.

2.5 pale bat-winged stars. I hope someone picks this up to do a re-make that does the story justice one day.

On another, much more cheerful note, I've just finished watching 2 back-to-back episodes of Big Bang Theory, which was excellent. It's a bit scary how much the protagonists remind me of my friends & that I get most (maybe not all) of the geek in-jokes. The new season of Skins starts next week. I'm making Thursday my stay in & watch TV day. Well, unless something more exciting is going on.

I've also been contaced by one of my recruitment agents who sent me the job description of a maternity cover at MTV. It sounds interesting enough, I can do what they're looking for, it pays decent money & they're based in central London. Unfortunately I've never gotten as far as first interview with any job I've applied for at MTV so far. My applications just vanished in the sand. Let's see if this one's any different. Anyway, I'm still entirely happy working at Sky & won't abandon them that easily. It has to be worth it & I definitely won't leave before the girl I'm covering for is back. I love my team too much (& Sky is a huge company you don't want to get on wrong terms with) to upset them. If there's any way I can stay after finishing my contract, I probably will.

Static

credit

The past 2 days haven't been extremely eventful. Babs, John & I went for sushi on Sunday evening, sponsored by the 40% off promotion at Yo!Sushi. Apparently they'd had a very busy Saturday, so lots of stuff was sold out. Not a lot I wanted, but by the time we left they didn't even have edamame & avocado anymore. And no pumpkin patties, which was a shame.

Not sure if it was related to the sushi we had, but my stomach went a bit funny afterwards & stayed like that until the next morning. I seem to be getting more & more sensitive to weird stuff in food, or maybe I just notice it more coz most of the time now my stomach & digestion are absolutely fine. They weren't when I was still omni & eating dairy. I would go from constipation to diarrhea & feel bloated lots. Back then I probably didn't realise, it was kinda normal, but now it stands out as it only happens if I eat something "wrong".

Anyway, I'm fine again & wasn't really bad in the first place.

My cold has completely disappeared, which is pleasant. I'm still putting in some saline solution every now & again, my nose tends to go really dry with all the heating. Unfortunately I can't apply saltwater to my hair... it's static as hell! I only wash it every 3 days or so (it doesn't go greasy that fast anymore) but still have fly-away hair, which is very annoying. I could put in more hairgel, but then I have to wash my hair every day & I really don't want that. Especially coz our flat is cold & our electrical shower can't quite cope with the temperature of the water flowing through it, i.e. it does go warm, but not hot.

Oh, and I cooked a Pad Thai last night. Vegan, lots & very yummy.

Tomorrow the flatmate, John & I are going to see Daybreakers. I'm not entirely sure if it's going to be a cinematic highlight & am kinda hoping it won't be all that bad. Better to keep expectations down :)

Decode

 

Photo credit: 

Solar by flight404, 2009, Videogrid by Ross Phillips, Design Museum, 2008, We Feel Fine (wefeelfine.org) by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, 2005 – onwards

Yesterday was a totally grey, miserable & wet day. Nevertheless, I had woken up at 10am unable to go back to sleep again. Even worse, I was feeling awake, not quite as lurgyfied anymore & energetic.

I had found a 2-for-1 voucher for DECODE at the V&A on the Time Out website a few days back. The idea of digital art sounded very appealing, the thought of things being interactive even more (I like being able to push buttons & make art do stuff). Also, I'd never been to the V&A before for reasons totally unknown and had got it in my head that I wanted to go there on Saturday. Flatmate had foolishly agreed to accompagny me (when I told her, not on the day), so by 1pm I was bouncing up & down outside her room wanting to go. There was a brief discussion wherein weather was mentionned a few times, also it being miserable & wet, and rooms that are warm & cosy. I was relentless, I wanted to go & anyway, to get to the V&A from our place is doable with only minimal exposure to the outside world. Shortly before 2pm we were ready to go.

The museum was bustling with people when we got in (apparently more people had thought spending a rainy day in a museum was a grand idea), the queue for tickets was massive, mainly due to an exhibition called Maharaja which must be quite amazing as it was sold out for the day & people were buying tickets for future dates. We, however, just wanted our bloody 2-for-1 £5 Decode tickets... finally had them in our hands, entry was in 15 minutes, so we had a quick look around & then popped over to the entrance.

The way in (& out) is lined with interactive light sticks, that make noise & light up when you walk past. I think I could've spent half an hour just running around between them, but there was more to see, touch & jump around in front of. Unfortunately a few exhibits were broken, including a tree that sheds it's leaves & you can catch them, I guess that's what you get for having art on a computer & people poking it with their mitts. Very much loved an exhibit called "body paint" which reacted to your movement with splashes of colour.

Altogether a great exhibition, if a bit small.

Afterwards we hit the museum shop, I made a few purchases of things that you really don't need but which are rather pretty. We still had 2 hours till closing time, so we ventured upstairs to the textiles bit, getting distracted on the way by various other bits, then found the Theatre rooms, which are awesome as well. The Jewellery section is just pure shiny. By the time we got out of there our brains had reached culture saturation. We still managed to run through a few other rooms simply coz we got lost & couldn't find the way out.

A really great way to spend an otherwise pretty useless day. And my brain very much likes getting fed like that. Definitely have to go back there, maybe on my own, and wander around for a day.

We popped into Sainsbury's on the way home, I acquired all I need to make Pad Thai today, which is probably going to be rescheduled for tomorrow coz we're going out for Sushi tonight & I can't be arsed to cook. The evening was spent watching the "Welcome To The Parker" marathon on Bravo or Diva or whatever obscure channel it was.

I'm a bit less energetic today, the cold is still present but not as bad anymore, the weather is much nicer but I am too lazy to go out. All fine, though, it's Sunday which is the day of the week that you're supposed to veg out :)

Frequent Flyer: An Evening Of Spoken Word With Henry Rollins

Just look at him!!! *swoon*

Ok, have to calm down now. Thanks to a friend's Facebook post a while back I'd heard about Henry Rollins coming to London to do a spoken word performance. I got totally excited, having first noticed him in some 5-minute-rant vids on MTV years ago. I loved the energy & the anger coming through, also that he seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. And yes, he does look rather tasty as well, which made things even better.

Tickets were purchased, I only got seats on the balcony which turned out to be really high up & pretty far away from the stage. I hate buying tickets for venues I don't know, you never know if that seat that looks good in their seating plan actually is. Next time I go to the Royal Festival Hall I know...

Anyway, flatmate & I got in, took our seats & got comfortable. All there was to see was a mic stand on a vast empty stage. The lights went out, Mr Rollins entered the stage & I was mesmerized! He talked for about 2 1/2 hours straight, about the world, his travels, life & love. Time passsed quickly, it was a pleasure to listen & watch him.

I might have developed a tiny, tiny (errr, ok, MASSIVE) crush on Henry Rollins. He not only looks absolutely tasty (tattoos & all), he's also highly intelligent, cares about stuff & is altogether a total maniac. You see, just my kinda guy.

Left the venue majorly impressed, tubed home & crawled into bed as I was exhausted & still fighting that nasty lurgy.

I'm feeling a lot better today, my nose is still not quite unblocked but I'm less under the weather & therefore contemplating a trip to the V&A this afternoon.

More culture, here I come!

Achoo!

I've got the sniffles. Bad. It started with one blocked (and I mean BLOCKED) nostril & has now moved on to double blockage taking turns with extreme dripping. I think my brain is trying to escape through my nose. I'm not impressed.

I managed to watch the second half of Planet Terror on Sunday. We've also watched Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow on Film 4. Let me assure you that none of them is going to make a mark in cinematic history. Planet Terror is entertaining & suitably gory, Sky Captain is stylish & boast the names of Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law & Angelina Jolie, interesting ideas & a story that makes no sense whatsoever.

Monday to today was mainly work, with a bit of snow thrown in to make the commute more interesting. Plans were made to put some life back into my life as well. I got myself a ticket for Dan Le Sac v. Scroobius Pip at KoKo 23rd March. I found a 2for1 offer for Decode at the V&A this month, so probably check it out this weekend. Babs & I also got an appointment with Yo!Sushi on Sunday to take advantage of their 40% off promotion.

Tickets were booked to see Avatar at the IMAX, thanks to Rebecca's organisational skills. Unfortunately the IMAX is incredibly popular & decent seats were hard to find, which means we're going to see the film at the beginning of February. Nevertheless, it will be awesome. I've actually read in the Metro (place of the higher end of journalism) that people were getting depressed after seeing Avatar because the world the director created is so awesome & pretty that they feel their own little, grey world is inadequate. Err, yeah, duh. It's only a movie. It's not real, even though it's on the big/huge screen & in 3D. Honestly, some people...

John, Babs & I also had the idea to watch Daybreakers tomorrow, but they're only screening it a totally irresponsible times so we had to reschedule for next week, when for some reason only known to Vue it's on at 7pm on Wednesday.

And now please excuse me while I disappear in a pile of tissues...

Buttons Down

There was a plan to do absolutely nothing this weekend. I sort of managed on Friday evening, which I spent in front of the TV.

Yesterday got a bit more active, John came over in the late afternoon & we watched some war-documentary type movie. Can't remember the name, it didn't really grip me. After that, we bussed over to his place so he could get ready for going out. Picked up some take-away en-route & I got to watch most of Planet Terror while he took a bath. It's not the best movie, even as far a zombie movies go & you can't apply to high a standard for zombie movies in the first place (although Zombieland is a huge exception, it's absolutely excellent). But it's cool. It's Rob Rodriguez, it's made of cool. Still, in the Grindhouse series I very much prefer Deathproof. It's awesome & features probably the sexiest car chase you'll ever see. 

Anyway, John got himself dressed up & ready before I got to the end of the movie, which means I'll have to watch the (undoubtedly) gory end sometime.

John had suggested to go check out Buttoned Down Disco @ Koko, which was free with invitation flyer before 10pm. We rocked up shortly before that, being stingy & all that. Koko as a venue is brilliant, an old theatre with all the trimmings. It would be so great to have Planet Angel there one time, but it might be just a tad too big for that. But this wasn't a psytrance night, it was an Indie/Alternative/Electro/Punk/Funk thing. Whatever that means. The first hour our to was nice, but then it started to get terribly crowded & people started to get annoyingly drunk. The crowd was young, lots of them only a year or so over 18 (presumably) & all they did was drink & subsequently stumble about on the dancefloor, thinking they're cool-as-fuck but in reality they were just getting on my nerves. It didn't help that they all congregated on the dancefloor (the meat market), then stood around or bumped their ass into yours. Not fun. Maybe I'm just really spoiled, but I prefer happy, loved-up munters to stumbling, farting(!) drunks any time.

Events worth noting: They played Hey Boy, Hey Girl, which had me bouncing around like mad on the balcony (were there was space). I got attacked by a Brasilian snog monster... I suppose that's what you get for smiling at drunk people. I walked past, smiled, he got that slightly wrong and attached his mouth to mine. It was a good 5 minutes (not all unpleasant, mind) before I could untangle myself & head back to the dancefloor. Sometime later I had a nice tattoo show-and-tell with a cute guy, who I suppose was flirting with me but I just didn't get it. Got very annoyed at myself for not spotting the obvious, tried to find him again but couldn't. Well, he most likely was way too young anyway.

We called it a night at 1.30am, which made us feel slightly old (well, we were) but I just couldn't stand another minute with the kids.

It was an experience, that's for sure.

The plan for today is to venture down to the shops & not do a lot more. Possibly watch the end of Planet Terror. Maybe some TV. Cook food should I feel really adventurous. 

So This Is 2010

It's a week into the new year. It's been going quite nice so far.

Planet Angel was a lot better than expected. It actually was really good! The venue was way out in the sticks, somewhere Bethnal Green & then a 10 minute bus ride up the road. They'd made an effort to decorate the place, I got greeted by a bouncy Fraser & there were lots more people I knew than I thought would be there. I might've spent 2 hours snogging some boy from Brighton, who fucked off spectacularly fast when I broke the news to him that I don't do one night stands. Tough luck, stranger! Had quite a few boogies, got facepainted & hugged. Very much enjoyed myself. Stayed till the bitter end, then squeezed into a cab with Gemma, Russ, Ellie & Pete to party on at the Zoo. It was one of the good afterparties, the ones where you talk lots, play some games, venture outside to poi/hoop/staff and everybody feels loved & happy. A very promising start to the year, indeed.

Went home late in the evening of New Year's Day & spent the next 2 days recovering. Didn't feel like I needed to do something, I just vegged out, fought with the lurgy & relaxed.

Going back to work was alright, I still enjoy what I do.

The weather's been cold, icy & snowy all week, we got sent home early yesterday & today. It looks like the cold snap is going to stay for a while, with more snow forecasted for the next days. It's proper winter outside London, but within the city it's just mushy & icy. I'm really hoping for real snow in the city, it would be absolutely awesome.

Of course, the UK being the UK, things are breaking down, getting cancelled & are delayed all over the place. Apparently they're running out of grit for the streets now & the gas/electricity network is at breaking point. One does wonder occasionally why this island doesn't spontaneously combust.

Oh, and I've met Tom again. Tuesday evening. It was a nice meeting, we talked lots had tasty Italian food & I came to the conclusion that he's way too complicated & busy with his children & work to be in any way boyfriend material. D'oh. We have decided to go clubbing together, though, so not all is lost. And while he definitely looks his age (he's 40), he's quite a pretty one.

I'm feeling rather optimistic about this year so far, bring it on!

♥ Love to you all ♥