I can't believe I haven't blogged since Christmas.

I really can't, before christmas actually.
Since then I've got a new job temping at a housing association, benefitting society by allocating homes to ex cons, reformed drug addicts, drop outs and pregnant teens. I get them off the streets and living next to your granmother - just remember to tell her to lock her doors at night! Ha ha!

Have been on several CD buying binges - guilty purchases include stuff by Gogol Bordello, Joni Mitchell, Scissor Sisters and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (I know, I'm pop as hell and it makes my teeth ache, and kind of reminds me of Juliette and the Licks so no wonder I got a ribbing from Maullo).

Recent gigs: Milkteeth, Dirrty Ray, Toby Wainright Johns at the Lock Up.
Mighty Boosh (CIA)

Events: Hanging out in the tattoo parlour with German wrestlers, drinking far too much and singing with a Ukranian accent.

Please leave a monkey after the sausage

It's not fair I say, that Al is at ATP getting to watch Lydia Lunch, Weird War and Antony and the Johnsons whilst I am in the library booking thirty minutes on the internet (never enough time by any man's standards) and scribbling notes over my dissertation, and trying to read Dune. Know where I would rather be. But still, can't complain too much I s'pose. For Christmas is coming and I started shopping ages ago and have now almost finished getting prezzies for everyone, this is the most organised I have ever been and I think it's going to pay off. No last minute rush on the 24th for me. I'm just going to sit back and relax with a glass of mulled wine, if we're allowed it that is; Alex is dead set against the idea in case we boil all the alcohol off during the mulling process. Ever heard of "the Christmas spirit"?

Blog from the Shire

Have been here for a couple of weeks now and the initial charm is beginning to wear off.
Have taken to long walks in the countryside in an attempt to combat my lethargy and yesterday I got chased by a dog and nearly run over by two tractors and a cattle lorry- having spent so much time away from home I had forgotton about the lack of paths on these narrow roads and was forced into a muddy ditch several times on my quiet ramble, thus getting several nettle stings and very muddy. Note to self: wear wellies NOT ballet pumps when out walking in future.
It's good weather here, sunny if a little cold but the nights are freezing and I'm finding it hard to sleep (missing Alex a bit). Had a great idea this morning as I was lying in bed, I began thinking that maybe a small ticking clock inside a novelty hot water bottle cover could effectively simulate a human heartbeat? Of course, my boyfriend isn't particulary furry or shaped like a small bear for that matter but it's well worth a try.

Films I have seen this week: When Harry Met Sally, Reality Bites

Why I'll miss Swampea

Now that I'm about to go back to the family home indefinitely I've realised that after four years it's kind of scary to finally be leaving uni and to have to start job hunting.
Right now I can think of least five things I'm going to miss about Swansea:-

1)My hairdresser at uni
She is punk rock and used to have a mohawk, although she currently sports a funky beehive hairdo and bright red lippy. Her laissez faire attitude towards hairdressing amuses me; eg. she smokes whilst washing my hair.

2)Living with Alex
Phone calls are stupid and expensive and living together is much nicer.

3)The sea
Swimming in the sea then sunbathing on the beach after work this summer was wonderful, of course it's a bit too cold to do this in the winter months. When it's cold I love to watch the molten lead waves crashing against the sea wall and to look out to flaming lights and smoke of industrial Port Talbot. Its a dystopian paradise, this 'ugly, beautiful' place.

4)Bars/Clubs
Feel like I've just discovered the new Jailhouse in the shape of the Inferno in Uplands and now sadly I may never get to play on the circular pool table. Sniff sniff...

5)Wales (?)
It's just over the border.We're neighbours.

Shortpacked!

This comic about a bunch of kids who work in a toy store is great.
Here's one of my favourites...

http://www.shortpacked.com/

Keeping regular

Looks like Little Miss Blog-a-lot has become Little Miss Blog-not-a-lot. Back in the Ford, you see, lack of internet action. I'm holding out for some Rick Mayall/Trigger from Only Fools sightings in the organic veg section of Morrisons. I've already bought some cheap Stollen even though Christmas is so far away tis ridiculous.

Noting terribly exciting has happened of late with the exception of a quick visit to Cardiff for ANL gig which was mighty fun and I was jumping around like a crazy bean towards the end of the night. Plus I got a coupla free stickers from the gig (which is always nice) and the chance to stay in a comfy purple bed surrounded by My Little Ponies and fluffy cushions.

The Neighbours reunion episode I have so been looking forward to was a mite bit disappointing yesterday, but I was delighted to see that Sarah has ditched the tatooed lip liner in favour of A REALLY FAT HEAD. Who would have thought it?
Also Billy had clearly only been given about five minutes to learn his lines - he's obviously capable of acting as he's quite good in House. Anyway, I need to get back to work so that's it for now. xxx

Get Well Soon

Really enjoyed watching Get Well Soon last night, think my affection for Jeffrey Tambor (of Larry Sanders and Arrested Development fame) probably helped because I had no idea he was going to be in it and he was brilliant as Bobby's agent. Actually I bid on this initially because it stars Vincent Gallo (surprise surprise!) who was great as a jaded talk show host and I expected Courteney Cox to be a bit lame, whereas in actual fact she was pretty funny. This movie is seriously insane with some really strange plot twists involving mental patients kidnapping Mathew Broderick's dog...don't ask me why. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293176/

Separated at Birth? James Dean and Bolty.

Here's Phil pictured opposite his style icon and looking suave as hell.
Spot the difference.

The new and improved library

Yeah, right. For only £300,000 we can spend six months moving the main entrance about six feet to the left of the old one for NO APPARENT REASON. Oh no, I forgot it's well worth it now that students have "easier access" ie they don't have to walk around a corner on the way in and the entrance is "more welcoming" according to the Director of Library and Information Services. That's all wonderful but who knows why the library was shut for the majority of the summer making it pretty impossible to get much work done. Oh and I admit to being a naturally lazy person but was testing the fire alarms and the tannoy system every five minutes entirely necessary during opening hours? Probably not. Air conditioning in the Postgrad area would be nice as it's sweltering all the time.
On a happier note, that Courteney Cox DVD arrived this morning.

The morning after

Oh God. How rough do I feel this morning following a heavy night out at JCs and then Diva's with James-Dean-lookey-likey, the Boltmeister. Still managed to get up at 9.30 though and grabbed a "brunchie wrap" which is essentially the basic rudiments of a full English breakfast encased in puff pastry. Mmm...lovely. I could have done with a strong black coffee too - there are some days when tea just doesn't cut it.

Having major problems posting some photos of Coco and Es chatting with a policeman at a fete in Cardiff.These ladies seem to have a habit of attracting (or is that harrassing?) policemen.

Pizza Came Home.

Alex's pizzas turned out very well yesterday and were duly drenched in soured cream and sweet chilli sauce by everyone who ate them.

Harvest for the world!

Thought I'd left this album in a
cocktail bar yesterday afternoon
but it turned out to be hiding beneath a pile of clothes in the bedroom.
Everbody in the world should own this album because its so beautiful and has all the classics - Heart of Gold, The Needle and the Damage Done and Alabama. Interestingly this was also the bestselling album of the year when it was released in 1972, and was purchased for a mere snip at £2.99 (approximately the price of a relatively obscure Courtney Cox dvd - see below) from HMV. Wow, something from HMV that isn't ridiculously overpriced now that is a turn up for the books.

Pizza Go Home!

As exciting as watching pizza dough rise under a table lamp is, I decided that perhaps my time would be better spent doing other things such as blogging and bidding on Ebay for obscure rom-coms starring Courtney Cox(£3.20 - I won and I still can't believe there were 7 other bidders on this dvd).
The ebay song is proving disturbingly accurate: http://www.imagestorepro.com/ebay_song.html
Thanks for that one Phil.

As you can gather, we are currently in the process of creating some wonderful home-made pizza, and I am definitely a Fiorentina person, being a big fan of cheese, eggs and spinach basically predisposes me to favour this one but I can also appreciate a good old fashioned Margherita which is after all, an all time classic. However, NOTHING will ever rival the sumptous delights of Prague pizzeria 'Pizza Go Home' which is open 24 hrs a day and there was one literally within two minutes walk from the youth hostel in which we were staying in Praha 2. Aside from the authoritarian title of the place there was also a cute cartoon pizza with little legs speedily running away from the pizza place for customers who didn't get the message "You got your pizza, and it's really late at night so GO HOME!" We must have gone there every day, maybe even sometimes twice in one day, it really was that good.
www.pizzagohome.cz/
Run away, run away!

A load of balls.

Finally got the knack of this Pro-Evolution Soccer thingy and I'm now at least able to pose some kind of challenge towards such mighty teams as Iran and er... South Korea (and that's only if I'm playing as Italy, France or Brazil). Allowing for my footballing handicap has made things slightly more interesting as I'm no longer getting a constant ass whupping. That kind of kinky shit is now reserved until after the game.

Danelectro 'Cool Cat'

My long awaited and pretty pretty pedal arrived through the post this morning. Just need to buy an 18v adapter and then I can give this baby a whirl. Yippee!

Farewell Davide.

Thanks for the pictures and I hope you have a wonderful time in Breston Super Mare!

Ciao for now xxx

Warts and all

Anyone who has ever spent even the smallest amount of time with me will realise what an incredible hypochondriac I am; in the space of a little under two weeks I have been totally convinced of having been afflicted with various potentially life threatening illnesses such as cancer, deep vein thrombosis and heart disease. Serious. I have also developed an inexplicable fear of dogs.
And now skin diseases. The problem lies with the man who served me in a music store in Bristol whose hand was really warty. It was so extreme that it reminded me of this illustration I saw in a comic book a couple of days ago in which a female heroine is attacked by a psycho bitch who makes bubbles pop out of her skin and float away. It was a really disturbing image and this guy's hand reminded me of it because it was totally covered with just these semi-formed flesh bubbles. I also did feel kind of sorry for him I might add, and I didn't want to treat him like a leper or anything. Only now I have a red dot on my hand that I am sure was not there yesterday...
Not to worry as the pharmacist seems to think you can only catch them through blood or pus. Yuck, and phew.

A little afternoon delight at the banana stand...

Another very funny episode of Arrested Development at the end of another relatively uneventful day in which I struggled to think of something interesting and original to write about Frankenstein but wound up spending too much time on the internet and playing around with my Zoom 505 which is such a great pedal that the whole afternoon just flew by.

I also checked out Kevin Smith's online diary and www.viewaskew.com in the hope of finding some Clerks 2 info but this was pretty fruitless (although the site is fairly interesting and I may add it to my links section on this blog at some point). There is a new section on the site - www.moviesaskew.com where you can watch and vote on shorts submitted by amateur filmmakers, earlier I watched Lost in Transportation: a romantic tale about a desperate luggage handler whose work goes largely unappreciated until he befriends a small town beauty queen. Quite pointless but mildly entertaining nonetheless.

The Goat Major

Pictures from Gallo's London gig