Archive for October, 2004

Tomorrow I am off to the theatre to see Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues. I am so excited!

Famous people and their drug use – Robert Louis Stevenson apparently wrote Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde during a six day cocaine binge.

Yay! Join the Gruffalo Gang at Gruffalo.com

The film “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” is to be released December 17th. Jim Carey plays Count Olaf and film also features Timothy Spall and Billy Connolly. This movie is the first three books of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unforunate Events combined into one movie.

More details at unfortunate events movie (if you can get it to work) and its imdb entry

This is a picture of Violet, Count Olaf (played by Jim Carey) and Klaus. I think Jim Carey is an excellent choice but the kids don’t look right to me. Where are Klaus’s glasses?

I went to the hairdresser’s this morning with a certain trepidation. I do enjoy part of the experience, it usually feels relaxing to have a hairdresser cutting, styling and brushing my hair. I love having beautifully coiffed hair which is straight, glossy and styled making me feel like a goddess when I emerge from the salon. What I detest is the conversation I am obliged to be a part of. The conversation usually goes like thus,

Hairdresser: Are you off out tonight then?
Me: No
Hairdresser: (Looks at me as if I’m an alien) Really? I’m off out with my boyfriend to go and get pissed! You doing anything else then?
Me: Erm nope just staying in reading

The conversation ends there with the hairdresser thinking I am a complete loser. I got asked what I was doing tonight by the stylist and the person washing my hair who both seem to have active social lives. Mind you, I don’t rate getting pissed as exactly exciting. I am much happier staying in to read the rest of Lemony Snicket’s Grim Grotto and starting Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss (a bestseller that I’ve been meaning to read for ages).

“CHANGSHA, Sept. 23 (Xinhuanet) — China’s last inheritress of the mysterious Nushu language, probably the world’s only female-specific language, died at her central China home earlier this week. She was in her 90s.

Yang Huanyi learned to read and write the language as a little girl. Chinese linguists say her death has put an end to a 400-year-old tradition in which women shared their innermost feelings with female friends through a set of codes that were incomprehensible to men.

Yang was born in Jiangyong County, where many people believe the language originated. Before her marriage, she used to exchangeletters in Nushu with Gao Yinxian, the eldest of the seven sworn sisters in the county who were the most authoritative speakers andwriters of the female-only language.”

A new book is to be published on October 12th incorporating two of my worst nightmares Celine “warbly stick woman” Dion and Ann “I take pictures of babies and dress the poor buggers up to look like freaks” Geddes.

“Vocalist Celine Dion and photographer Anne Geddes conceived Miracle as a way to express something deep within their own hearts, and now both the experience and the outcome will delight music and visual art fans throughout the world. Miracle features more than 100 stunning new Geddes images. Each frame reflects the beauty, grace, and magic of both the photographer and her subject. Babies enfolded in blooms, mothers embracing the life flowering within: Anne’s artistic eye captures it all. The exquisite images are wedded with the lyrics to all-new songs by Dion, created and performed on the book-accompanying CD in Celine’s unmistakable international superstar style. It’s easy to hear how her clear and melodious voice has captivated millions throughout her career”

Oh god it sounds hideous

“School bans ‘nut allergy’ conkers Schools are banning children from playing conkers because of allergy fears” – but health campaigners say this may not be necessary.

This petty kind political correctness drives me mad. I think this claims culture we seem to be living in today makes people fearful of of putting a foot wrong. Speaking of which, a new Disabilty Act has made it necessary for the shop I work in to put warning tape on all the steps in the building. I’ve seen more people trip up over the front step now it’s been added.

[I don't usually write on Emma's blog but as my post is going to be about her, I think it's appropriate.]

I had a really wonderful week with Emma on her birthday, around Leeds for the Chinese Weekend and also in Scotland. The week definitely had way more “ups” than “downs”, just like the rest of our time together.

Thank you very much Emma for such a wonderful week away together. I loved it being just the two of us, in a “wigwam”, exploring Edinburgh and such without having to worry about anyone else.

It was a great birthday week and definitely one of many we will spend together.

I love you so much it hurts.

C
xxx

I’m back from the wonderful city of Edinburgh. My boyfriend and I stayed in a caravan and camping park just outside of the city. We hired a wigwam which is more like a glorified shed. It was super cosy and cute to stay in when the weather outside was wet and windy.

We caught a bus into the city everyday with the wonderful Lothian buses. I was amazed to travel on buses that actually ran on time and didn’t cost a fortune. It was the exact opposite of the evil X84 bus I have to catch to work everyday.

We seemed to spend a lot of our time walking up and down the very long and wide Princes street. One side is flanked by shops and the other with Edinburgh castle and gardens and other historical buildings. It’s always very busy but there’s a lot to see and do on both sides of the street.

The highlight of my visit was going to Edinburgh Zoo where we saw a very cute red panda. Red pandas are my absolute favourite animals. They look like a cross between a panda and a fox and are adorable and have beautiful stripey, bushy tails.

We also went to the cinema to see “Supersize Me” and “Hero”. Both films are well worth a viewing. Hero is breathtakingly beautiful and an absolute must see. Supersize Me is funny and informative and will surely put you off eating at McDonalds (though it is beyond me why you would eat there in the first place, but then I’m a lefty vegetarian).