In The Secret Garden

I'm back from a long weekend in the Cambridgeshire countryside. Yes, I went to Secret Garden Party & it was absolutely awesome!

The trip there was a bit, errr, unplanned. I was supposed to get a lift from Jon's girlfriend on Friday, which was great as I had already taken Thursday to Monday off work which meant one more day of relaxing & getting ready. It also meant not paying £100 for a rental car that I couldn't really drive as my arm is still slightly dodgy. All was chilled & fine until I got a call around 4pm on Thursday asking if it would be ok if we drive down that evening... well, it was not really what I had had in mind, but it was her driving & who am I to argue. So I got my stuff ready & we left mine around 8.30pm. Then proceeded to get lost & got on the wrong motorway (why am I supposed to know that there's a M1 and a A1M???), subsequently arriving at the venue around 10.30pm. A LOT of faffing ensued while she got her stuff ready to meet the boys at the gate. I think we finally made it to our camp an hour later, where I had the pleasure to set up my tent in the dark (thank god my tent & I are good friends & I can quite easily set it up in most conditions). I didn't bother to head down to the festie once I was done & moved in around 2am, but decided to call it a night & postpone explorations until the morning.

The following days were filled with

* fish nibbling on my feet, which tickled a lot & left my feet a bit softer * witnessing a gorilla getting married to a banana * weird bunnies walking around & throwing shapes * a fantastic gig by Stereo:Type & Hybrid * the blimp on the lake burning on Saturday night with lots of fireworks & Chinese lanterns floating into the air * watching a dog fashion show * standing up for the British anthem & subsequently doing the birdie dance * watching mud wrestling at the Collo Silly Um * walking around lots * crossing the lake various times via a very wobbly bridge * being a total hippie * attending a raw food workshop * watching Shitfaced Shakespeare * trying on a Boe jumpsuit & it looked really good on me * eating very tasty vegan food * giving up on waiting for my camp mates who were the kings of faff * going on the ferris wheel at dawn * drinking tasty chai * & quite possibly a lot more that I don't quite remember...

Overall, a really good festival. The experience was slightly hampered by the trip home, which happened about half a day too late for my taste. I was kinda happy with the thought of going home Sunday night, as the festival calms down loads by then & there really wasn't anything new to do any more. My festival saturation was reached. But everybody else wanted to stay, so we did & I finally got home Monday 6pm, thanks to the extreme faffiness of my driver. I waited for half an hour by the car because she had to say goodbye to people she'd just met & of course all took much longer than it would have needed to. Next time I'm driving there myself again.

But despite of that, I had huge amounts of fun. The Friday night was spent with Stu & Robin, just wandering about. The Saturday night was spent watching The Gorillaz Soundsystem with a lovely stranger, who tagged along for the rest of the night with my camp.

I'm a bit under the weather right now, my stomach's gone somewhat wonky & I probably still need to catch up on quite a lot of sleep, but it was worth it.

See you in the garden...

A Totally Mixed Bag

There is an explanation for my silence...

So I met up with that guy from OKCupid on Thursday after my last post. Expect of some delays of the actual meeting (flights delayed & such), the evening was very enjoyable, we had lots to talk about but there was no spark. He took me to a lovely Japanese diner & to the Blues Bar. Very nice indeed. So all was well until he walked me to the bus. On the way there my foot got caught in a grate on the street, I tripped & fell. I hit the ground pretty hard, apparently it looked rather impressive, but didn't think much of my arm hurting afterwards. Got home, noticed that elbow was a bit swollen & stiff, but hey, it's bruised or possibly sprained. Spent the night in agony without much sleep, went to the doctor in the morning who sent me to A&E to get xrays. Turned out I fractured my elbow (radial head), only a tiny hairline fracture but enough to cause swelling & pain. Great, I thought, so I'm going to get one of those really cool coloured casts now, right?!

I didn't. All they did is give me a sling, told me to be careful & come back in a week. So I went home, called in sick, called my mum to get a little sympathy only to hear that she's broken her foot (which, obviously, scores you more cripple points), got recommendations for painkillers & subsequently stocked up on them, hung around for a bit watching TV & then went to bed at 8pm.

Woke up feeling a bit better, in less pain from the arm but still having a persistent toothache. Went to see a flat with Lynn & Kate which was quite, errrr, snug & well overpriced. Just because it's in Hammersmith doesn't mean you can charge way too much for it. Needless to say, our lower offer didn't get accepted.

The next offer got put down on a flat that was AWESOME but £300 over our budget. Despite the agents conviction that they would accept because we're great tenants, they didn't. Thanks for that.

Cue a week of almost non-stop flat hunting, arm in a sling & toothache. All not entirely pleasant. I went to the dentist again on Thursday morning, who confirmed my suspicion that the nerve in the tooth was quite irritated & most likely wouldn't calm back down on it's own. Thought he'd then get the instruments out to perform a root canal, only to get told that he can't do this & the specialist they have in the surgery is fully booked for the next 4 weeks, mainly due to the fact that he only comes in every 2nd week for a morning. My protests that I'm not willing to be on painkillers for that long only got me shrugged shoulders, so I took matters in my own hands & found myself an Endodontics specialist, who I've seen today & who will be performing a hopefully successful root canal on me on Thursday morning. It better works as I'm paying shitloads of money for it. After that I'll have to find someone capable of putting a decent crown/veneer on that tooth.

I got rid of that pesky sling on Friday after a visit to the doctor who told me to start using/moving the arm again. Hooray.

The flat hunting came to an end on Saturday when we put in an offer for a flat in Acton Town, a fall away from the tube station & above a dentist (irony?). It's got 2 tiny rooms & one big one, which I bagsied straight away. I need my space & the others were so keen on the flat that they said yes. It's got a massive lounge & kitchen, some very likely illegal outside space, bathroom & separate toilet. It's split level, which is lovely, but also on the main road which I really hope will be less noisy than what I've got now.

Personally, I would've gone on searching until the perfect flat comes along, but both Lynn & Kate thought THIS IS IT & who am I to argue. Anyway, the room's nice & big & I only pay £50 more than I'm paying now, have a bigger room & less travel time to work.

Oh, yes, work.

I had my end of probation chat today & they have decided to extend my probation by 6 weeks because a certain channel head who's a bit choleric had a fit because I made a mistake in a report (ok, twice which is not good, I know) & someone forwarded him an email that wasn't intended for him but for her & therefore worded a tiny bit more colloquial than it would have been if I'd know she'd just press forward. Anyway, that certain someone complained to my boss' boss' boss (very professional) & hence my probation period goes on for a bit longer. Not sure what to think of it. Yes, two mistakes in a row are VERY BAD INDEED (& careless), but I was having a pretty bad week which obviously doesn't count in that regard.

I've now got to step up my game a little & show them that I'm awesome & do all things right. Hmpf. They really should know by now, I've only been there for 7 months.

Interestingly enough, I'm getting a bonus. Go figure. It makes total sense. Really, it does.

So far, this month has been continously picking me up & then kicking me again. I'm entirely not impressed, but am hoping that once August comes along, all will be sunshine, fluffy clouds & fairies.

It better be.

(your idea of a fairy may vary)

Getting Steamy With The Wallpaper

I did some DIY last week. Indeed!!! And it was pretty enjoyable, especially as people kept feeding me things to make the work go faster :)

But really, I liked getting my hands dirty & helping friends out. After all, once everything is done & the place looks nice & cosy I'll be crashing on their sofa at parties. It's only fair that I do my share. I've offered to help again this week, not sure when yet.

Other than scraping paper off walls & pointing hot steam at the parts that wouldn't come off otherwise, I went to see the Unexpected Opera guys perform again. This time they did "Orpheus Down Under", which was great, outside at the Scoop & absolutely free. I kinda enjoyed "The Barber of Saville Row" a tiny bit more, simply coz I liked the music better. It's so cool that you can do stuff like that in London!

I also attended another one of Paul's birthday bbq's. The bbq last year made me decide to go vegan (nothing to do with the bbq itself, overdosing on meat just sealed the deal) & I really wasn't there coz I liked Paul so much but to keep John company. He's got some really lovely friends, unfortunately Paul isn't one of them. But yeah, the boys smoked some sausages & turned perfectly good steaks into charcoal, while I leisurely barbequed my veggie burger. There were some good conversations & some where you just had to ignore the person it was coming from. All in all, a nice sunny day out in the garden. Worse things have happened.

Oh, and before I forget: Germany beat England in the World Cup. Cue German smugness. We didn't follow the game on TV as that was upstairs in John's flat & we were in the garden, instead we listened to the radio. The reporters were making it really had to make out whether they were shouting coz England had scored or because they hadn't. Anyway, 4 to 1, suckers!

There also was a spell of lettings agent visitng on Friday and some flat hunting on Saturday. Not very successful, as we didn't see anything we really liked. The two properties we say weren't exactly bad, but seeing that we still have 2 months we can be picky. I've sent off the notice to our landlords today, so it's final, I'm leaving this flat & the flatmates behind. It's a bit scary, but I'm also very much looking forward to new people & a new place.

It think that about sums up my activities of the last few days. This week probably got some more DIY lined up & I've also been chatting to a bloke on that dating site who might want to meet me. After the last banter I had kinda got lost in the sands of time & the interwebs I'm sceptical, but who knows, maybe this time. He sounds nice enough.

That Pretty Much Sums It Up

Tuning The Raspberry

Last night I saw Beardyman play in a giant, purple, upside down cow. As you do, obviously.

I took the train to Waterloo after work, which actually was pretty relaxing & totally trouble-free. We had dinner at the Wasabi's in the station. I got some sushi & a seaweed salad, which was not quite as tasty as it looked but still alright. We then ambled towards the river, following the "To the cow" signs. Not that the cow was hard to spot, really. I mean, yes, London comes up with crazy things, but it's not every day that you happen across a rather large cow which is not only bright purple but, in fact, a music venue.

We installed ourselves in the very pleasant beer garden in front of the cow, had a drink, had another wonder, joined the queue for the entrance, bumped into Tom & Emma & finally made it inside. We got really good seats, not that the venue had really bad seats in the first place, it's tiny.

Beardyman's set was awesome, even more awesome than the last gig I went to as this time, it being a much smaller venue, he actually joked around for a while before getting down to business. If I could I'd go see him again straight away! Seriously, that man is a god on the beatbox & this is from someone who doesn't really like beatboxing all that much. He's funny, a total entertainer, although he seemed to be somewhat upset about the fact that FRANK had turned down his idea for promoting the service... one wonders why.

We headed home pretty much straight afterwards as it was already late & I still had to check my brother's presentation (which I did once home & then finally fell into bed around 1am).

I'm going to the dentist tomorrow morning, which had saved me from attending the volunteer day but probably won't save me from being in even more pain tomorrow. Also, I'll have the pleasure to go to work afterwards & spend the day in the office, while my colleagues have the afternoon off to watch the England game. Methinks I won't do any overtime tomorrow...

One Week Holiday

I have spent the last 5 days with my family in Germany. It was really enjoyable, I just relaxed, ate Mum's homecooked food & actually managed to get a sunburn. As usual, I went over with a half empty suitcase & came back with a suitcase full of stuff I just can't get in the UK (like Tempo tissues & antibacterial washing liquid). In some ways, I miss living in Germany. The houses are bigger, it's way more organised than the UK could ever be, it's clean. Oh, and the doctors are better.

I made the mistake to go to the dentist on Monday, before leaving for Germany. I should've just waited & get my teeth done at the huge clinic in Aachen. Anyway, apparently there was a filling that needed to be replaced, which they did. Since then I've been in pain. The cavity was larger than the dentist thought, so she had to take off more tooth & make a deeper filling. I used to have a simple silver filling which didn't cause any problems at all. Now I have a white filling & it hurts. Most of all, it seems to be gradually getting worse. I popped over to the dentist back in Germany, who told me to wait until tomorrow & go back to get the filling re-done if the pain was still there. I'm really pissed off, I haven't had any tooth aches for, errr, at least 10 years & now I'm in pain for something that's not even my fault.

Anyway, the next filling that needs replacement will have to wait until I'm back in Germany.

In flat-related news, I've decided to abandon current flatmates & flatshare with Lynn & Kate for a change. We're looking for a 3 bed (or more) flat or house around Acton or Hammersmith. I'm pretty excited, it would be awesome if we'd find a house with garden! I've got next Friday off & probably head over to Acton/Chiswick to see what the local estate agents have on offer. The only problem is that we have to be out of this flat by 15 August, so time's running & I'm slightly scared that we won't find anything in time. Everybody else seems to be fairly relaxed, though, & if push comes to shove I just look for a short-term let in a random flatshare, I guess.

I can't believe that my week off is already over, I so need more holidays! While I'm fairly happy in my current job I just don't think that permanent employment is the way forward. There are definite advantages of contracting, although the uncertainty of the next job would probably drive me mental.

Tomorrow evening I'm dragging John along to Beardyman @ the Udderbelly, then there's some work social work thing event on Wednesday that I'm still trying to get out of, if the weather's nice (i.e. dry) we're going to watch an opera @ the Scoop on Thursday. Oh, yeah, & NO WORK on Friday, did I mention that already.

I've got a few more weekends that aren't fully booked until the 2 festies in July & really want to use them to find a new accomodation. It's strange, I can't see any further into my future than August, which seems to have been the most pivotal month of recent years (BM last year, moving this year). There will be travel in autumn & I so hope that there will be positive developments in my love life for once, but that's all quite vague & uncertain.

Well, yeah.

Changes Ahead

It has been two weeks, I know. Don't look at me like that, I still love you.

In those 2 weeks, there has been the last Planet Angel until autumn, a birthday-afterparty, a trip to the IMAX & a meeting with my favourite lead guitarist.

In order of appearance, let's start with the trip to the IMAX. Stu had suggested to go watch "Prince Of Persia" on the big screen, yes, the movie adaption of that console game. It could only be ridiculously bad, I thought, but actually it was rather nice. Like watching a 90 minute computer game, & I rather enjoy watching someone playing a computer game, so it all worked out. It did help that Jake Gyllenhal is proper eyecandy.

Next up, Planet Angel. I was really tired & had been for the whole week, mainly due to not being able to sleep very deep (somehow). Therefore I had been really, really tempted to just not go, despite having a ticket & all, but managed to convince myself that all would be fine once I got there & for once there were loads of people I knew attending. I got there still not convinced that I really wanted to be there, but in the end it turned out to be a pretty good night. I didn't do too much dancing, but talked to lots of people, made a new friend & got many hugs. And yes, I went to the afterparty as this was also a combined birthday party & again, all turned out absolutely enjoyable. Andy was there & very cuddly towards me, Emma was there & very cuddly towards me - all I needed, really. Throw in more lovely friends & munted entertainment & you get a rather happy me. I finally trundled back home early on Saturday evening, still in the afterglow which is probably the best way to cope with London transport.

The following week was, unsurprisingly, a bit rough. My brain only returned to almost normal functionality on Thursday, maybe I'm actually getting too old for this (erm, no, I don't think so).

Last weekend was quiet, I didn't go out Friday or Saturday, but went to Westfield on Sunday with John. We got there relatively early (noon), which unbeknownst to us was just when they opened. It was almost empty for the first hour or so, which made browsing the shops so much more pleasant. I bought a lovely strawberry nighty, which is way too cute to just wear it in bed so I might combine it with jeans & use as a top. We had lunch at the food court (lebanese nibbles, yummy), browsed some more & had a vegan milkshake. John had to head off around 3pm to meet up with his brother & have dinner with the family, so I got on the bus to Acton to return some dresses I'd foolishly bought on the interwebs (Pearl Lowe for Peacocks). To my defence I must say they looked so much better & more high quality online, in real life they were pretty disappointing & didn't even fit me. Got a refund for two (hooray) & only kept one of them.

On Tuesday I met up with Robin, who I hadn't seen for almost a year (I think). He's recently split up with his girlfriend, is couch surfing at a friend's & is broke. Not that much has changed since I last saw him, really. Spend the evening having dinner at Wetherspoons & catching up.

Now it's Saturday, I've been lounging on the roof terrace for a while taking advantage of the bit of sun that occasionally manages to wriggle itself out of the clouds. I'm heading over to the Monkey House later for a bit of socialising & to get my hair cut. Wish me luck.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Lynn to look at a flat she found & which I might move into with her & Kate. Carmen came home last night with the news that she has been offered a great job in Bristol & probably will leave London, which prompted me to bring up that I'm thinking of changing flats & flatmates. I have been feeling for a long time that I need a change of scenery, my room is too noisy & I just want something else. The decision is not final yet, but it all points towards a new flat.

Changes are in the air.

I've also started to feel the need to change me. Not quite sure how to do that, though. I definitely have to loose some weight to fit into all my clothes again, but I can't help but feeling that I might need change on a deeper level as well. Lots of things have been just ambling along in my life, it is as if I'm just getting dragged along instead of actively taking charge. I want closer relationships with my friends (which would involve me trying to see them more often), I need a holiday somewhere that's not Europe, I want to change my style a bit, I want to be happier.

I'll keep you posted how I get on.