Estoy

en Mexico, people.
It's pretty tremendous, all things taken into account, even the massive commuting issues.
more to come in future days now that i have a functional laptop

A little bit of Derfwad

Thanks for this Mrs GGGGGGGGGGGG

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
I went to (are you ready)
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil

2. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My lovely mate had a baby boy

3. Did anyone close to you die?
Not this year, for a nice change

4. What countries did you visit?
See Q1

5. What was your favorite TV program?
I didn't see much TV this year coz I was away but it probably the Aussie Masterchef

6. What were your favorite films of the year?
I liked Rango

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I went away. And a managed to come back . I realised how much weight I'd gained and how being unhealthy was negatively effecting what I was able to do on my wonder trip (although interestingly one thing it didn't effect was my ability to go home with a complete hottie), so I got it together and ditched a couple of stone by Christmas.

8. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sky diving, because i was too heavy. Writing, because I spent the first 7 months of last year thinking, reflecting, absorbing and chatting up a storm.

9. What was the best thing you bought?
I-pod touch - greatest travel gadget ever.

10. Where did most of your money go?
Travel travel travel, food, beverages, gifts and posting them home

11. What did you get really excited about?
Seeing Bag End and the other hobbit holes, Stephen's birthday, Vietnamese new year

12. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Pink - Raise Your Glass

17. Best restaurant meal of the year?
La Gran Parilla, in San Telmo

18. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Eating rubbish - turn out it takes month to work that off!

19. What is one valuable lesson you learned in 2011?
How every far away, you will always love them and they will always love you, but no one's life will stop.

20. Who did you most tire hearing about in 2011?
Nothing really. But i'm sorta over the Olympics already (not interms of sporting endeavour, just the endless banging on about it and speculation. Bring on the opening fire works).

Derfwad - siempre en mi corazon

Well, it's been a while, eh?
I've racked up thousands of miles and 3 or 4 continents. More on that later.

In the mean time, a post for Derfwad (http://derfwadmanor.squarespace.com)

1) I don't have a kitchen floor at present, i'm technically homeless. I did just squeedggeeee the shower room floor in the hostel that I'm staying in, in Buenos Aires, if that counts. Largely so that I could dry myself on a dry floor, so not at all altruistic behaviour.
When i did have a tiny kitchen in merry old London, I mopped the floor at least once a year.
I would hoover it once a week, sweep it daily and go over it with antiseptic wipes whenever anything scarily splattery got on it, but the mop didn't put in more than a cursory appearance.

2) No, I have never been in a physical fight. Being quite tall since I was young, various people offered me out (as we say round my way in merry old Nottinghamshire, England) but my utter apparent willingness to take them on left me broadly fight free. That and I could make them laugh instead. I'm a lover, Mrs G, not a fighter. Or some such.

3) I have given this a lot of thought, as I have one of the most classic run of the mill first names ever and as a teen I constantly wanted to change it for something more glamorous. But could never come up with something better. And now I'm sort of used to it. But if I ever take up with someone with a terribly dramatic long surname (Norwegian patronimic or multiple surnamed Latino) I might ditch my Christian name and have my surname for my first name, if you get me. Then my actual name can become a family secret amongst the beloved. (wow. I'm proper crazy)

4) Again, no house... In my old flat, I liked the living room coz it was bright and airy, my rocking chair was in there and it was cool to sit on the wide stone window cill and dangle my legs out as I gazed down the long garden. Basically i like any good spots for reading in a patch of sunshine. I'm like a literary cat.

5) I've covered this in some old posts on this very blog - 'I look like that hooker off telly' - one Billie Piper, who plays Belle in Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and Rose on Doctor Who
for more info see:
http://outofmytinymind.blogspot.com/2008/08/rose-tyler-one-of-my-many-alter-egos.html

6) The Changling with Ange Jolie, in the middle of the night in Rio the other day, when we tuned in part way through, only to become gripped and then by some weird quirk of programming, they showed the exact same film back to back, so we could watch the beginning, after the end, as it were. Whilst eating a pizza. At 2am. Man, I love the hours in South America countries.

7) Yep. No one can really dance to music in discos. Enthusiasm is the key. I am going to do a tango lesson shortly. Then I can become utterly shameless on the dance front. Yipee. I might be rubbish but you've gotta put it out there. Life's for the living

8) Back in old London town, a variety of books, some dust bunnies, various packs of printed photos, some hair ties, escapee tablets, a bottle of water, a big box of clothes, some weights (rather dusty from under use), my flute and a guitar tuner. Right this second, nothing as the bed frame is sort of a big solid box. But very comfy none the less.

9) Calling with good news - my mum or my bessie mate. Or whatever fun person is closest to where I'm stood. Someone who would enjoy it and get a kick out of it themselves.

10) In Nottinghamshire, with its lush greeness and forest, in a teeny mining village where the last bus left at 7.30pm or maybe 8pm on a racy night. We biked around, wandered through farmers fields, played on the train tracks as the train went past (yikes), went to the Horse and Jockey pub in town and tried to get served and generally got down with all the 80s tunes, films, hair, leggings and bangles. With occasional jousting (Robin Hood Festival is BIG DEAL here in his home)

11) I am afraid of hospitals. The smell, the colour of the walls. I am afraid of cockroaches. the weird clicking sound that they make, which now I come to think about it, is not entirely unsimilar to the noise of the keys on this netbook. Eurrggghhhh! But I'm not paralysed by fear of either, so no, fairly phobia free ta.

12) Laughter in the face of adversity. Which may be perceived as flippancy but actually takes more effort than you'd think.

13) Yes, I am a morning and a night person. I'm just not a mid-afternoon person. There tends to be a bit of a lull.

14) I won't get sucked back into the 9 to 5 rat race when I get back from my trip. I am striving to make it true too, but worry that it could be a lie.

15) Bruises? No, not really.

16) NO pulp please. And can it be frozen and passionfruit? Marvellous.

Peace out ladies, have a great day

Here on earth

The big enormous world

is a far and wide place with lots of great things in it, to eat and photograph and smell and experience and see
i'm working on it.
Well, a few tiny chunks of it.

New Zealand is one of the most glorious chunks of it though
Get here soon folks, before everyone finds out

Talking to your family

is great, ain't it?

My aunt: Have you got a proper boyfriend yet?

Me: ...short speechless silence during which i wonder if i've accidentally dialled back in time somehow and shortly I will get told off for spending too much time on the phone and asked by my mum to provide my PE kit for washing coz it's hockey tomorrow.

WFT - boyfriend?
I haven't had one of those for YEARS.
It's a term that makes me recoil, even though I don't have a good alternative.
I loathe girlfriend with an equally fiery passion.

Best answer to this question came from Dodo:
Surely an improper one would be better?

Fabulous.
That I can do. Ha ha.
Therefore, whyfore the label worry?
Who can tell?

I guess because growing up it was a question that often had a negative answer, it still flicks me on a sore spot.

peace out people, we're all someones boy or girlfriend, sometime

Cautionary tales for girls from Maya Angelou

They went home and told their wives,
that never once in all their lives,
had they known a girl like me,
But... They went home.

They said my house was licking clean,
no word I spoke was ever mean,
I had an air of mystery,
But... They went home.

My praises were on all men's lips,
they liked my smile, my wit, my hips,
they'd spend one night, or two or three.
But...

wedding tunes

I ought to be resolving the query I'm running on a database
but i'm doing a playlist for the wedding instead.
I'm kicking off with Stand and Deliver and closing with Ain't No Other Man.
it's purely belter and a bit eclectic

Right recalcitrant database, thy days are numbered. you will behave

Peace out folks

And ....

the world has changed

Worse or better
Who can tell?


Frank Turner, folks. He's jolly good.

And she cries in the night

Today would have been my dad's birthday.

Do you stop having birthdays when you die?

Or is that dictated by fame? Mozart will have a birthday for decades but in 20 more years, Led Zeppelin's will be faded moment in the history of brief lives lived large on a world stage?

Anyhow, there it is. He is no more and yet the day remains. And it needs marking.
So it's a commemoration thing. At the commemorative bench.

'Sometimes I sits.
And sometimes I sits and thinks'.

Hug your people tight folks, because we are on a rock that's spinning silently.

Amortised

Isn't it a great word?

Visually, it has something gothic going for it and it would have to be said that diminishing debt by regular payment by installments is an almost other worldly concept in these hectic days of ours.

I am debt free.

You can perhaps conceive of the wonder that it is to type that.

I pay things off at the end of the month. Me. I don't have to split the lump sum and spread it across a variety of interest free cards any more. YOWSER.

Peace out folks and keep chipping away, one day it'll be gone

eermmm Planet Jedward ?!!***%%%!!

Really?
are you sure, world?

Can't we leave it at Glee and be done?

If you're desperate for cute Irish singers, try Harry and Alfie Hudson-Taylor

and if you're just looking for cute Irish youth, go on Youtube and look at 3sixty5days
emo funniness, Irish style

biting on the bitter sweet

I've typed it before and no doubt I'll type it again but a fair bit of life is biting on the bitter sweet.

Because it's so short and fleeting, we ought to be clinging to the great bits and even the alright bits but we're all a bit metric and measurement oriented nowadays and that feeling you get when you don't measure up and tick boxes and meet criteria is weird.

Because on the one hand, your rational mind knows that you can only really measure against your own values anyhow.

But on the other hand, you review and realise that you don't have most of things that people are finding important.

This makes you mildly uncomfortable at times but only because it removes you from regular classification and therefore makes you harder for others to understand.

And you can't quite shake the sensation that 'at your age' running off with the [circus/insert alt lifestyle choice here] will look a lot like a nervous breakdown in progress, with funding.
And also sad because inevitably you'll have to come back. And live on people's floor til you start main streaming again.

But anyway the purpose of the post was to acknowledge formally those nano seconds when you think 'wish i had a cute baby to snuggle'. 'wish someone would twitch the duvet back over me in the night, even if I was too hot' and some of the gooey stuff. Like my mate finding out years into his relationship that naming days are a big deal in Scandic countries and finally making a huge fuss. Cute. Sweet. Attention to detail. Never demanded either, which must make it all the sweeter.

Those moments don't crowd out the absolute joy of going to the library, getting 4 books out and reading them into the middle of the night while listening to an odd combo of Frank Turner, David Ryan Adams, 30 Seconds to Mars, Wicked and Miley Cyrus, whilst eating crackers and wearing only moisturising foot socks because it's unearthly hot at present but you can't have your window open all night because you a) life on the bus lane (NOISY) and b) currently have road works at the cross roads just down the road and people in traffic around here have such diabolical music taste that just hearing 15 second snatches of it drift in thru the shutters is enough to increase your basal temperature by 50 degrees. Or Kelvins or something.

I am a selfish shellfish. I like walking to the beat of my own drum. I like pleasing myself about stuff and wearing dodgy old black shorts round the house with a customised 'you f#cking love it' stripey t shirt with no bra and waiting til the Gilmore Girls is on before there's any great action.

But today, I'd quite have liked a cute boy to pop to the corner shop and pick me up some milk so I could have a latte while watching. Rather than having a herb tea because i was too much of a bum to go yesterday.

I realised, in a blinding flash the other day, that the glorious mummies that I know would on occasion like to swap and be the ones who are lounging and then heading out with iced coffee to the Grace Kelly Style Icon exhibition at the V & A this afternoon, meeting old friends and going for cocktails.
And maybe that's the splendour of the whole thing - a Mum is never just a mum, she's also someone's bessie mate and confidant and the person who makes someone else feel woefully inadequate in some other area. Even the clueless 35 year old singleton is getting someone's vote.

So be at peace, for once, folks, deep in your souls. You are someone's joy and no doubt occasionally someone's sorrow.
And as long as that's because of your choices, it's all good

Public image

v sad to report that in the star wars continuum, I'm a bit more











than Leia at present.

My mate posted a picture of me with my giant jabba arms on Facebook of all places. Yuk yuk.




Digital photography haunts me. I preferred it when one person had the picture and that was that.
you hated it but hey, at least people had to visit it to bear witness
Humph.

Music of a down

When you are off to a meeting about your provisional selection for redundancy, music selection is an important thing.

As is outfit choice, but I'd already nailed that.

And so, really, System of a Down was the only choice. Andy did me a compilation to run to, but it makes me giggle to much, laughing at the crudity.
Boy did I need a laugh that morning.

But now it is done. The die is cast.
It's over.

And now I have mourned for a couple of weeks, I am back to the me-ness of life with a gusto.
And a wee peak at the Alexander Skarsgard. and a Listen to 30 Seconds to MArs and some excellent covers by some v. talented Irish lads that I have actually met - Harry & Alfie Hudson-Taylor.
Harry's 18th birthday post was deeply hilarious.

And so it is that here on Planet Maj, there are plots to be hatched and lives to be lived. Whether we like it or not.
So i'm off to buy butter for my malt loaf and borrow some rubbish literature for late night reading from the library.

Then I might count my mighty change mountain and see about turning it into beer.
Given that I am unemployed, some activity of this nature is beholden upon me, no?

There may be acapella busking at some point too. You have been warned

Peace out people. Good things are coming our way

from beyond the veil

Even though I know that my mum and dad shared an email address and that she is still using the account, it does still freak me out to find emails from HERIMPERIALMAJESTYDAD@blah.com in my inbox.

I realise that wherever he's gone, he's got far better things to be doing than email me but still...
I can dream

Some sunny day baby, you'll look up and see that I am gone

It was a beautiful evening yesterday. Roads like clean black tar rivers. A bright sky with groovy clouds displaying shafts of light in the rear view mirror.
Undulating fields of bright yellow oilseed rape swaying in the breeze and then BLAM, I rounded a corner and came upon the sea horse tree, always a marker in my journey.
And now devoid of the three branches that look like sea horses, which also didn't seem to be any where on the ground.
It was my dad who first drew my attention to the tree and now they're both gone.
Ah the fearful symetry of life.

people are people so why should it be

you and I should get along so awfully?

Well, I've thought about it and I can tell you why in three reasons:

1) you work very hard at not getting on with me but in stealth and underhand ways as you haven't got the cojones to front me.
Unlucky, I'm not to big to say that I made a mistake LAST AUGUST with a tiny bit of filing and that since i was picked up on it in OCTOBER, I haven't done it again. Really, if it's taken you that long to find it, it begs the question - didn't you have any real work to do? Still though, I did it, I admit it and I'm even sorry for it.

2) you're obviously a very unhappy person and you'd like to share that around. well done, once again you have.

3) i do not, have not and will not kiss up to you. Live with it. It's not going to happen. You can however keep it up and make yourself look mean, small minded and petty.

You upset me. It's true. I wish it weren't so but I'm quite at a loss to understand how I've engendered such hostility in you.
Unless it's because I eat. Every day. At least three times.
That's all i can come up with.

Still though, I feel Ghandhi about it.
this is my other cheek.
I present it to you.

But please note, it's for the LAST time.

Peace out people, let's share the joy in life and put the petty woes behind us wherever we can

pigmies and hobbits

i saw lots of these on Friday, shod as i was vertiginous heels of immense and indeed intense pinkness.
Lovely work it is too, strutting about as a high heeled wonder. Why one feels that one really could touch the stars.
But there was a lot of shortness about.
And while I realise it takes all sorts to make a world, i have observed that the online dating site that i'm on (ha ha if 4 dates in about as many years counts as an active profile) is increasingly becoming a pocket rocket mecca.

This is not useful to a big bird like myself as there's nowt more likely to illuminate your lumpy bits than a Lilliputian courtesan.

Oh Don Juan de Richard Armitage, donde estan los hombres altos?

And all that jazz (to be sung)

Avishai Cohen Quintet blew my mind last night

The sensuous curve of AC's double bass and his jazz face, beatific Amos plucking his oud, the incredible percussion of Itamar Doari, soaring vocals and the most accomplished piano styles of the appropriately names Shai Maestro.
With some good hollering from Avishai and Karen over the top.

So what if the grills of the church flooring maimed my new pink shoes (why oh why do they cover heels in fabric, leather or patent anyway, don't they know with the pavements of the modern world they are ASKING for trouble?)

It was a magical evening and all thanks to NB and his marvellous birthday tickets.
Yipee for new music