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clock-watching
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Arg! Harry Potter 7! Spoilers below the cut, beware! ( Read more... )
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home |
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 drained | |
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So this weekend me and my boyfriend moved in to our new flat. It is so thrilling, I still can't really believe how much fun it all is. All the little boring things are suddenly filled with excitement. We went to Sainsburys yesterday and bought economy tomatoes and bleach to unblock the drains, and a bath mat, and it was all wondrous. Vacuuming the carpet for the first time became a deed of great importance. Eating our crunchy nut cornflakes in the morning out of teeny tiny plastic picnic bowls with giant plastic spoons seems so grown-up and couple-y. I am a complete sop, but it is so so much fun. I cannot describe how great it is. |
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This is a tiny thing, but it really annoys me. That advert for moisturing shampoo with Melanie Sykes in, where she's sighing and sighing over 'The things she does to hydrate her skin'... she's shown drinking a glass of water. Is that...it? Drinking water? Because that's not so big an inconvenience. And then she demands 'Invent one for my skin, please!' What... moisturiser? I think that's already been invented. What is wrong with you, woman? |
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Yay, I have formulated a new Secret and Evil Plan! I have been lacking in glee since my last plan came to its evil, evil fruition. Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly enjoyable, it's just that I like looking forward to things and planning and having a secret agenda. So, now I have decided that I am going to give my sister a really fun birthday - three weeks before the actual date! How surprising is THAT?! She had kind of a crappy birthday last year, and I really want to make it up to her. I wasn't there last year (obviously - everyone has MARVELLOUS birthdays when I am around, because I am the Marvellous Birthday Fairy, and get a little bit too into it. As it turns out, it seems that I am also the Washing Up and Cleaning Up The Mouse Crap, Jeez, People, You CANNOT COOK WITH MOUSECRAP ON THE SURFACES, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, HAVE YOU NO SHAME?! Fairy as well.) Anyway, so, I am going to make a big fuss of her on her "birthday" and it is going to be so much fun! Yay! What will her birthday comprise of? She is coming to visit me, so I have so much lee-way to plan whatever I want! Brainstorm: * Waking up to birthday banner, flowers, candles and special breakfast.
* Card, possibly with humorous poem penned by moi
* Birthday cake (possibly for breakfast, oh the debauchery!)
* Lots of presents. Possibly small ones, but still, lots of beautifully-wrapped gifts is important.
* Day of fun, involving purchase of at least one of the following:
-frivolous underwear
- sparkly accessories/hair clips etc
- fun make-up
- a puppy (okay, maybe not...)
* Evening at cinema/west-end show/
* meal out and cocktails
* going to park so that she can show off her deep and impressive knowledge of all the different kinds of ducks. It sounds like I'm being sarcastic/dismissive here, but I'm not. I am impressed with her duck knowledge. Ok, I am so excited and full of glee now! Must go make lists furiously. What cake shall I make her? When will I actually do all this crap? How can I do it without spending any money because I am too far into my overdraft already?! Ah, the excitement.
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gleeful |
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Blitzkrief Bop in my head | |
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Never read this book. It is too damn freaky, and you can't put it down.
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freaked out | |
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At last! Just had lunch in the park in the sunshine, reading my book. The birds are singing, the bluebells are bluebell-ing, and I'm reading a trashy romance novel and eating chocolate caramel rockies*. What could be better? Just realised that I have completely forgotten to write about the two Persephone books I read recently - they were soooo good. One was Noel Streatfield's Saplings. It was just heartbreaking, a story of upper class children during the war and how it basically ruins their lives. It's an interesting perspective, one I haven't much seen before, and very compelling. I was feeling absolutely furious on behalf of the characters. They were so true, so real, and so like children nowadays. The other book, which I found for £1 in an Oxfam shop (I love you Oxfam!), was William, An Englishman and it blew my mind. Again, about the war, this time WWI. It lulls you into a false sense of security at the beginning, which makes it all the more painful when the characters are confronted by the stark reality of war (ooh, slipping into cliches again, sorry). It is a very painful book, but absolutely brilliant. The author, Cicely Hamilton, sounds so intriguing from the introduction. I'd love to read more by, or about, her. Am going to completely and utterly skip over the book I am actually reading at the moment, because the shame is too much to bear. Believe me, you don't want to know. *Arg, grammar question. One chocolate Rocky, two chocolate rockies or rockys? Surely, rockies. Oh, the ignorance. |
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| The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic | 
Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few.
But if someone's obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky.
Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski |
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( Best bank holiday weekend EVER. )The only thing now is, my plan is over. I loved having a secret plan! I'm going to have to think up another one to occupy myself. |
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When I was a teenager, I was never that bothered by boy bands and actors and rock stars, and all the boys that girls are supposed to swoon over. Partly, because I had a superiority complex and thought I was too cool. My special love was comedians, and it still hasn't gone away. When I was 14 or so it was Stewart Lee, Eddie Izzard and Ardal O Hanlon. And the guy in Jonathan Creek. And Billy Connelly. And Dawn French, to a certain extent. (Never Skinner and Baddiel though). Now it is Bill Bailey, Dylan Moran, Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and Ross Noble. Don't get me wrong, I haven't gone off all the others, they just don't seem to do so much stand-up on TV any more. They've all drifted off into writing, or crap sitcoms (I'm looking at you, Ardal O'Hanlon). ( So, when my boyfriend got me ticket no. 1 for Stewart Lee's intimate student union gig last week I almost wet myself. )
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 ecstatic | |
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So, I made Nigella Lawson's recipe for Scotch Pancakes last night. Never made them before, and I didn't have one of the ingredients (white wine vinegar), so was a bit apprehensive, but they are so impressive! And so fun to make! Had the best Shrove Tuesday ever drinking mint chocolate baileys and watching No Angels double bill (it is so thrilling that after the end of a brilliant programme when that smug, hateful voice comes along and says 'Oh, if only you had E4 you could watch the next episode RIGHT THIS MINUTE, but nooo, you are too pooooor and deprived...' that I can actually turn on E4. I watch, like 2 hours of tv a week, but E4 literally makes my life better. It makes me gleeful!) ( Scotch pancakes, for those of you who have never made them ) |
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.... insofar as the charity shop by the busstop has a brilliant range of reasonably-priced second-hand books. I bought four, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, Middle Age: A Romance by Joyce Carol Oates and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. Oooh, so good. First I read Everything is Illuminated in under a day, and it is AMAZING. I'd seen it around the place and been put off by the cover art. Yes, yes, I know the old adage, but I just can't help it! Anyway, I'd never seen it for £1 before... So, go and read it, right now. It is fantastic, amazing, hilarious, heart-breaking, and original. ALL the things I like in a book. It's about an American man, a Jew, who is searching for the woman who saved his grandfather in a small village in Ukraine during the Second World War. We also get the intertwined story of his translator Sasha - and anyone who has ever translated anything will love the linguistic jokes in this. Fantastic. The second book was, coincidentally, also about the Second World War, but focussing on Shanghai rather than Eastern Europe. I've only read The Remains of the Day, and it is an absolute joy to me that I still have several books by Kazuo Ishiguro left to read, and that he is still writing. Amazing. I'm halfway through the Joyce Carol Oates one; I've never read anything by this author before, but I've seen the name bandied about, so I was curious. Also, £1 a book? Are you kidding? I CANNOT resist cheap books. Anyway, it's engaging, and interesting, but I'm not quivering with admiration for it like I am the other two books. |
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My exposure to fanfiction so far has been extreme, to say the least. I've read two authors that I've absolutely loved, and would pay good money to get them to write more - AJ Hall ( ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ajhalluk) and sarahtales. I've also read pottersues and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) deleterius for a while. The fics there are ... not so good. I should read more authors, but unless the writing is really good, and well brit-picked too, I'm put off. I read a perfectly nice little snippet the other day, and it would have been lovely if it hadn't used the word 'candy' about fifty times. I can't help being jarred by such obvious americanisms. Also I don't like anything too hardcore, or anything where Draco is horrible, or .... lots of things. I'm too picky. But hey, I finally managed to make the html tags work. |
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Eep. I am such a thrilling pattern! Who knew.
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oh, such pretty patterns | |
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OK, so I recently finished Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair (Oxfam shop bargain, naturally), and I loved it lots. Now I see that he has several other books on the same theme, all with lurid covers and massive jaunty fonts, and I am coveting them. When will I ever have time to actually go to the library? When, Aslan, when?! Anyway, so the book is fantastic, set in an alternate universe where we have a cold war with The Socialist Republic of Wales and are still at war in the Crimea with Imperial Russia. Everyone is mad about literature, and fervently debates the real authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Also, there is time travel, vampires, and lots of other cool stuff. That is how someone is able to go into Jane Eyre and kidnap her, along with a minor character from Martin Chuzzlewit. My favouritest part was the Rocky Horror-style production of Richard III, with the audience shouting out catch phrases and shouting along with the lines all the way through. I want to go to a Rocky Horror Richard III, goddammit! It sounds sooo fun. I am so jealous.
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jealous | |
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What a weekend! It was fantastic. But now it's Monday, it's grey and dull, and I've nearly finished Lady Audley's Secret which is extremely compelling - and I don't want it to end! Although I do really want to know if she pushed George down the well. I'm sure she did. Oh, the thrill. Also - is she going to poison herself with that opium she was toying with - or someone else?! Now I know why they called it sensationalism. I am just TOO excited. Anyway: v.v. proud of myself because I made a GORGEOUS cake (Nigella Lawson's Guinness cake) on Saturday. Good God, it was NICE. And now there's none of it left.... but if I buy one packet of butter and one of philadelphia I can make a whole new one. I know that would be bad... but the thought is nice, anyway.
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cakeylicious | |
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