The Recipe for Predictable Bullshit!

Take half a cup of "predictable musical patterns", quarter a cup of "The Bono Complex" and quarter a cup of "lyrics which talk about the poor and vunerable", and a teaspoon of "African culture and scenery" and what do you make? THIS!

It's a shame, it really is. They've obviously now found a sound and equation that works for them, maybe it's an easy equation and takes minimal effort, or maybe they worked their arses off to try and make anything astounding and end up with something that is predictible and mediocre, who knows? But they've come from awesome music making, through bigger things, to what I consider their best album, to *commercially acceptable (this isn't a hugely bad thing, not at all, it's just a little "sell out-ish"!), to their present album. Which I'll be honest, I haven't heard but people who' music tastes I respect and normally agree with, have all told me to abort, abort, abort. Apparently the first song is alright.
It's a shame that the Bono complex has set in. But I'm still hopeful. I hoped all the way through "Only by the Night", that they'd return more to their roots, with the progression they'd made. Alas my hopes were dashed. I'm now hoping that once again, they might just be getting this all of out of their system and return to their amazing awesomeness from before, with added progression and growth...time will tell. I won't keep my hopes up!


*Their stupid American record label have blocked all videos, on Youtube, that weren't singles in England. What the hell man?! Dicks!

Unexplained Deaths in Miniature

I've just read about Frances Glessner Lee who revolutionised the study of crime scene investigation. The book of her study, Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths, looks amazing! I almost wonder if it's what Freamon has been working on...

I wanted to be a coroner when I was younger but the years and years of study put me off. I probably should have pushed through, I'd be an awesome coroner!

Apparently they are making a film of her work, it could either be brilliant or horrendous! I'm hoping for brilliant!

The Fall

I watched 'The Fall' last night and loved it.
It's beautifully shot and apparently no cgi was used, which is quite astounding, when you see some of the scenes. It was shot in 18 different countries. But not only is the scenery remarkable, the storyline is rather compelling and the acting relatively good (especially from the lead girl: Catinca Untaru), the costumes were extraordinary, apparently they were designed by the costume designer of 'The Cell', which makes a lot of sense. It a shame that she hasn't done more projects, as she's obviously a huge talent.
It just goes to show that with a little effort, a film can be remarkable without special effects. It truly was beautiful.

I'm surprised that there wasn't more exposure of it when it came out. Although, I guess it was the wrong time for it's release, maybe something bigger was released at the same time.

The Trailer shows some of which I'm speaking of.

National Poetry Week

Radio 2 have been doing special poetry features all week, which has been a really nice experience. Especially as I've been doing lots of driving for work, often around the time of Jeremy Vine, whom I normally switch off, as listening to the barrage of bollocks from your typical English Daily Mail reading bigoted wanker, is rather fucking dull and frustrating. But this week I've been listening and enjoying people's choices. It's all been rather perfect for the beautiful autumnal weather we've been experiencing this week.

In honour of National Poetry Week, here is one of my favourite poems. Call me predictable but I can't help loving what I love!

William Butler Yeats "Tread Softly"

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

Up The Nose

I snorted Shower Cream yesterday in Sainsbury's. I wouldn't recommend it, although the new Radox African scents do smell nice, even when right up one's nostril!

Barton on Sea & Bath

In the last few weeks I've tripped to Barton on Sea. To meet Tom's parents while they were on their holiday, it was really lovely down there and they are extremely nice and welcoming people.
Barton on Sea is a village on the edge of New Milton down in Hampshire. It's quiet and quaint. We spent the first afternoon there on the beach in Christchurch. We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out, eating and drinking. There was a lovely local pub, The House Martin, from outside it looked like a Beefeater but it was an independent brewer's which was lovely. They had some interesting lagers on tap from a brewery called Hofbrau, it was a very nice lager and I recommend it.
We went for a little potter around the New Forest also, it was a lovely day. I'd advise you to not try and play the Kiwi game 'Horse', it's far too tiring.
Tom's donkey impression is incredibly funny, that will stay with me for some time. It sounds like a disgruntled old man.
I fell in love with these huge daises, they were so incredibly beautiful and striking. We sat in the garden on Saturday evening and I couldn't concentrate at all, they kept on stealing it. I'm looking forward to return trips in the future.

Bath was great fun. Ninor is soon leaving to return to the land of Oz and she'd never been in the five years she's lived here, so I insisted on the matter. We all got the train, so we could enjoy the local offerings to the full. Chips, Tom, JFo, Ninor and Scott were all in attendance. Before we left, I kept on talking about the children's play area in the city (Victoria Park). Everyone thought I was mad, who had the last laugh, well all of us actually. It's so awesome. Not only is Bath beautiful and charming, the pubs were warm, the food good and this play area one of the greatest known to man. They have an area of grown children (Aka adults) which was hysterical. Poor Chips tumbled off the roundabout, which in my eyes was extremely dangerous but very funny, it took me about 5 attempts to get the courage to jump on.
After a little potter around the centre, to show Ninor the sights we visited the following establishments:
Gascoyne Place - it was nice, pleasant but only a short stay and I walked in to the mirror in the bathroom, like a dick!
The Raven - This was a charming little boozer. Chips came here last time he was in Bath and was impressed with it and so were we. Excellent ales, pies and service.

The Kings Arms - This was a great pub. Especially good after running around a playground. They had a great selection of bands with interesting names playing soon and the bar lady was awesome, very friendly and helpful. Plus we all tried Chilli Sambuca, it's not that bad!
Nina and I went to the Baths, while the rest of them went to H&M, as Chips had ripped a whole in his jeans and then they relocated at The Huntsman - This was your typical chain pub, which basic pub food and reasonable prices on drinks. It was nice. Busy and to be fair, nothing special but it was rather perfect for what we were looking for. We also did a shot of Tequila here, that was most disagreeable but all round rather funny.
After we finished our drinks here, we decided upon a return trip home (via Didcot) with some beers and good chat. All in all, a successful day was had by all.

This weekend I'm venturing to Snowdonia to attend the Pennal Show, there is no website I'm sorry to inform you. I've been informed it's like a country fete but with dog race like events and cake & vegetable growing competitions.
Should be good old fashioned fun! Although the 8am departure time on Saturday morning might just kill me!

Common Sense

Why would someone be derogatory about me to Tom and expect him to agree with them?! It's not the first time one of my friends have said something opinionated about me and expected Tom to agree. He's my boyfriend, he's a decent guy "why would he agree with you, against me?". I've never been rude or derogatory about my friend' partners, as it's just not what you do. It's insulting to your 'supposed' friend and it's extremely rude to the partner, as you're insulting their choices!
It's bull!

I Love Blogs!

I've been stalking other blogs lately and taking down loads of urls for them all. Will eventually read everything up there and create a perfect world of cupcakes, cushions and cuteness.

One day...

Speeding Survey

The council in Oxford decided to save some money, so have switched off the speed cameras within the county of Oxfordshire.
There has been some hoo ha about the matter. Mostly, that as soon as they were switched off, everyone would be driving at 100mph everywhere and would be unable to stick to the speed limit, because obviously it's the cameras in fixed positions that make us all adhere to the speed limit, not that fact that it's law or anything.
These sorts of comments really annoyed me, as the speed cameras purely make people who speed, adhere to the speed limit for that 20 feet. If they speed, they'll continue to do so regardless of cameras. Some times they'll get caught and other times they won't.
What irritates me about the survey above, is that you know it was taken with 0% tolerance, when the average speed camera is set at 10% plus 3, which equals speeding at 36mph or above, in a 30mph zone. I imagine that the average speed camera set at 0% tolerance, would also get rather a high rate of speeders too. It's near impossible to drive at 30mph all of the time, regardless of cameras or not.

I hate modern exaggerated, over reactionary media reports. They are such bullshit!

Bloody Times

I've just read a blog about masturbating while on the monthly flow. For some reason this makes me feel very sick!
It's the last thing I want to do at that time of the month. Mainly at that time, I want to eat loads of food, do very little and only want my boyfriend near me if it's for hugs. I know every girl is different but in the words of Cher Horowitz "Ewww, like that's totally gross!".

Alicia Duval and daughter

I'm currently watching this show and as much as I love it, as it's interesting to see the rolls of Mother and Daughter so constantly being swapped. It's also extremely worrying to see someone so emotionally unstable bringing up a daughter. I guess it happens day in and day out, without the lime light. At least Alicia's daughter, Georgia has her head screwed on and keeps herself level at all times.

I think the more worrying factor is that Alicia spends the entire time trying to convince her daughter that brains are worthless and appearances are more important than anything. Like her friend says, she's trying to live her lost childhood through her daughter/pushing her childhood desires on to her daughter.

I only wish Alicia could appreciate how beautiful, intelligent and clever her daughter is and be proud of how her daughter has turned out, without any of the troubles that Alicia had to go through during her childhood. I've my fingers crossed for the ending of the show. And Alicia should also be proud to have created and raised such an individual.

Monthly paintings

I'm not going to lie, this article has made me feel about 100 times worse than I already do (I've got a weird, dizzy, out of head thing going on currently) but I'm kind of fascinated and also think the two canvases featured look rather beautiful, and a little as though they were collected from the scene of a massacre.

But it is kind of gross and why is that? Is it due to it being classified as human waste, or is it because it's blood? Or is it because it's menstrual blood and it's always been we females little secret. It's not something men generally understand or want to understand.
God knows but it's made me feel dizzier and a little more sicker, if not, a little more open to viewing my monthly visitor in a new light. Not that I'll be swatting over a canvas any time soon.

Summertime

Once again I've spent many hours reading other people's blogs for entertainment and failing to write anything on my own.

Things that have happened recently, well I say things, I mean endless events that mean I've drank far too much and done nothing productive. Although I've started a new scarf, a thin, wide black one, which will be extra long and extra cosy by the arrival for Winter. And I've finally committed to doing the baby blankets, to sell somewhere, it seems utterly crazy that I've had loads of down time lately and not done anything, other than eating, drinking and staying merry.

I've also just acquired a new job of cleaning rented accommodation in Oxford, once the lazy tenants have moved out. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little excited about this. I've two friends on board and my darling boyfriend has offered his time too (god, he's good. I still don't believe my luck at times). Plus, we get to nose around accommodation and earn pretty good amounts of money for a few hours work. The first one is tonight, we will see how it goes...

The Carnival was drunken, and as usual I enjoyed my The Star emotional outburst, every year like clockwork, I can be perfectly happy and yet here come the tears, it's like I've drunk through my happiness and need to go through emotional distress and then straight back to drunken happiness! Oh joy! Maybe next year, I'll conquer the emotions while drunk.

Tom and I went to Wireless Festival so he could see his musical hero in action, LCD Soundsystem. It was good, we stood right at the front and had a merry buzz on...it was a really nice day, we saw some friends and generally spent the entire day hanging out with each other. One of the better moments was that we were stood under the confetti bombs!

A couple of weekends a go, Tom and I headed north to Holmfirth and my two best friends came to stay with their consecutive partners. It was really nice to hang out with them and to let them get to know Tom, it was an all round success! The sell lots of local produce in most of the shops there, one being "Traffic Jam", which is Gooseberry, Apricot and Strawberry Jam layered in the one jar.

At the end of the lane the house is situated on, is Daisy Books, it's such a charming looking shop, especially with it's bunting strung up. On Saturdays there is a charming market held, which has some lovely stalls and really reminds me of East Oxford farmer's Market, held every Saturday off the Cowley Road. I should really get my arse in gear and get back there to sell some of my creations, I really loved meeting everyone and just hanging out, although the early morning starts do give it a little bit of a tarnish for my liking...especially as I'm normally there supping a red bull and everyone else is wearing their homemade items and eating Organic food...opps! Maybe next time I'll take homemade Sloe Gin to drink instead, at least I'll be relatively in keeping. Anyhow, back to Holmfirth! We were only there for a couple of days, most was spent drinking, eating and hanging out. Sunday morning saw us all decamping up the road to do a 5 mile walk, it was beautiful. The perfect weather, pubs along the walk to replenish and recharge, and generally beautiful views. We walked through some villages and across some reservoirs, which supplied some skimming opportunities for the guys. That evening was spent playing CraniumI can't recommend this game enough, especially if you've got a Jo & Chad to compete against who are so very very entertaining!!! Unfortunately, Monday came around and we had to return to reality, it sucked but Tom and I had our compulsory road trip meal of fast food at the service station. I very much look forward to the day when we can lounge around together and chill out, why won't retirement hurry up...

Disney Tales

This article, has many a good point. But then again, I'm the girl who didn't remember the Nazi's in 'The Sound of Music', as it preferred it ending straight after they'd gotten married...

I love...I love...I love...

I love Majestic Wines! I always have and I do utterly, over the top and completely, now. Not only do they always have deals on but you can now mix and match your purchases, instead of 6 of one. Plus, they've got the greatest selection of Kiwi wines and they always carry your orders to your car. They are always overly friendly and helpful and last night, they offered me the chance to taste some, I chose not too, as once I start...I love Majestic Wines! It just makes sense to buy in bulk, that way there is always some around and it's much more cheaper!
I also love Jessop's camera insurance. Ever since I bought my first digital camera with them, I've purchased the £26 for 3 years cover insurance and it's served me well, from the beginning to now! I've had about 3 cameras now and they've all got damaged somehow and every time, they've either been fixed for free or I've been compensated with vouchers for the value of the camera. My indestructible camera broke, I know, nothing is indestructible! Off it went and 3 weeks later, it's back, fixed with a new outer casing on it. That's not why I sent it off but they changed it anyhow. It's just bloody brilliant.

Abingdon (on Thames) has at least 13 hair dressers in the centre of town alone! That doesn't count the ones on the outskirts, neighbouring villages and mobile/home hairdressers. There really aren't that many heads to cut, regardless of the fact that in 2001 there was a population of 36,000. Basically, although most of Abingdon centre and the older parts of the town are extremely pretty, the shopping precinct is just charity shops, coffee shops and hairdressers! Welcome to 21st century towns!

June

June has been so so busy, I knew it was going to be hectic but the weeks have flown by and I'm unable to finish tasks I started:
My friend and her daughters birthday presents, which need sewing.
A scarf I started to knit.
A blanket I started to crochet.
The planting of flowers in the front garden.
The printing of photos for the wall of fame.
The smock dress I wanted to make.
A top I've been meaning to finish for my friend for about 4 years.
Some hemming that is required.
And the mural for the birthday upstairs.

And now all I want to do is make a pair of these!!! I've never felted anything ever, this is very new and very exciting!

I did however this month go to Paris and Newcastle!

It was very enjoyable and lovely. I got to meet a very good friend of Tom's, James. He, his girlfriend and their housemates were far too hospitable. Tom's been to Paris loads of times and I'd never been, but he did well at showing me the sights and keeping me entertained. We didn't bother going in to any of the museums, as the queues were huge and we only had a couple of days. It's only 2 hours away, I can back to see it all in more detail.

Newcastle was amazing, although I hardly saw any of the city. I saw the train station and the metro line, both were charming. And am looking forward to going back soon. I also want to go to Durham, it looks beautiful! I mainly saw some charming villages in Northumberland, for the wedding I was attending. The sun coming out made all of the photos on the beach even more striking.

The Finale

I've read this recap blog since it started in Season 5 of Lost and I truly believe it's one of the greatest. I think the final recap explains it's better than most. And yes the island did exist and yes, some of them escaped the island and carried their lives on elsewhere. And no, it's not purgatory!

I adore the theme and meaning of the show and still stand by my original opinion "it is, was and will always be, a truly amazing TV show".

The Artist Is

This is quite interesting, a more kind of similar stagnant version of Antony Gormley's 4th plinth.

Marina Abramović is sitting in the MOMA in New York and inviting people to sit with her in silence. I originally thought it would be rather nice to sit with someone in a museum in silence, until I found out that you actually had to sit opposite her, at that point, I thought it would be far to intense, uncomfortable, personal space and the like. Do you look at the other person, in the eyes? Or do you look over their shoulder, at the crowd, with closed eyes?! God knows.

Apparently numerous famous people have popped by, from actors, to writers, to fellow artists and of course the general public.

Here are the portraits of those who sit with her and how long they stuck it out for.

Solution to Crack

What every low riding wearer has always required! The Crack Patch!!!
Congrats Kimberlily for inventing them and making them so affordable. If only they didn't look so stupid!

Foreign Zombies are the best!

Oooooo, a new Foreign Zombie film to get excited about!