T'eyla Minh

Okay, okay, I get it, already! I will never refuse to write for POTO again!

( Cut for rambliness. )

In other news, we have a very busy few days ahead. Over the weekend the landlord's gardener came and sorted out the drive, patio and garden, all of which look amazing now. Much better than we could have achieved ourselves (and in any case it would have taken us weeks; killing the weeds was turning into an uphill struggle). The gardener also helpfully mowed the lawn and strimmed the hedge, and took out the big dead tree. Now my plan for a vegetable patch may come to fruition (ho ho)!

Also we went into Birmingham on Saturday so I could spend some of my back-pay - more kitchen bits from Livstil (two sieves, a new pizza cutter, two good-quality pie / flan dishes, and new measuring cups), and some bits from New Look (tartan shoes, a hoodie which is a bit too small so needs to be exchanged, and finally some jeans that fit). Had lunch in Cafe Rouge, which took bloody ages as usual because for some reason they cannot seem to cope when they have more than five customers. For tea we had scallops with black pudding and pea puree (courtesy of Paul), and a recipe from Jamie's Great Britain of pork and apple rice salad, which was lovely. (We picked up the pork belly from the markets for £1.95 - bargain!)

Oh, and yesterday I decided to rearrange the kitchen again, to minimise space in which to pile up washing up, and to maximise space elsewhere. Looks pretty good, actually. ;) (Other than that I have been mostly playing Red Dead Redemption on the X-Box.)

On Thursday, we're going to see the Killers. :D OMG SO EXCITE. Thankfully we have Friday off, but it'll be spent getting in food and cooking things for our Hallowe'en party, which was meant to be on Saturday but we got a last-minute invitation to a birthday party. Then next week I'm seeing Evanescence on the Thursday, and going to Paul's mum's for fireworks on the Friday. :)

Thankfully I am now on leave of absence from choir until next September, so will have a bit more spare time to throw at things like Christmas. I'm hoping to be able to go and see either the November concert or Messiah (just to see what it sounds like from the other side) but will have to see how things go.

So yeah. Probably going to be quite busy for the foreseeable.

Okay, I'm finally going to finish this bloody music meme. Obviously, I've now lost the piece of paper I'd written my answers down on, so these will probably be different to my initial thoughts.

( Music Meme, Days 27 to 30 )

I think that's quite a good point to end on. Thank frell that's done with. Never, ever ask me to do this again, Eni! :P

Okay, new embroidery picture next.

( Scan 34/?? )

Aaaand that's about it for now. I will try and update around here more often, though apparently giving me ridiculous daily memes isn't the best approach. :P

I shall now watch the Giles+Sue Xmas special on iPlayer and probably post icons in the inevitable post-episode squeefest. Be warned.

Because it's been a while, and I'm bloody well determined to finish this blasted "30 days" meme, even though it's now tripled in length...

( Music Meme, Days 22-23 )

Right, now here's some more embroidery pics.

( Scans 29-31/?? )

I do believe that'll do for now. I might finish the music meme before Christmas. :P

Two more scans under the cut.

( Scans 24-25/?? )

Music meme continues. I am determined to finish it having gotten this far, but it might take a while.

Day 20 - A Song You Listen To When Angry

I had a couple of options for this, but so as not to repeat artists, I've gone for this...

Skunk Anansie - "Brazen"

It's so gloriously ANGRY. I only own two Skunk Anansie songs, this and "Hedonism" (both of which I'd heard on the radio before) on a mix tape that Naomi made me several years ago. I intended to make a songset of Spuffy icons to this but never got around to it...

I might purchase their back catalogue eventually. They were popular during that period when I was just about discovering the world outside of musicals. :D

Okay, I have music meme stuff and embroidery stuff to post, and in regards to the former I will just be re-starting where I left off, because I think my last meme post was on 27th August and I don't feel like doing that many in one go... I also have some other bits to update about.

( Music Meme and Embroidery Pics 21-23/?? )

My week off is almost over and I have no idea where the time went... In brief:

Saturday - I made my first ever curry! We went to a nearby supermarket and got £15-worth (a full carrier bag) of spices in order to make said curry, followed by a trip to Moseley Farmers' Market for sausages, cheese, local ale, wine, etc. Spent rather too much money, but meh. Anyway, I've now rebagged all the spices (including a 1kg bag of garam masala - I'm going to be making a LOT of curry now...) and my kitchen smells divine. :D As for the actual curry, I did spiced fishcakes to start with a coriander chutney, followed by Anjum Anand's "Punjabi Chicken Curry", which was lovely. I forgot to put the chillies in, and also I put in too much water so it didn't quite go as the recipe stated and I had to thicken with cornflour, but it tasted delicious. Definitely going to make that again. :)

Sunday - I think I had a migraine. Can't remember.

Monday - went to visit jackiesjottings in Oxford, which was a lovely day. We had to change at Milton Keynes, where the structure they laughingly referred to as a bus station consisted of three portacabins and some pavement, with only a cricket ground nearby to break the tedium. It was about a 15-minute walk from the actual bus station in the city centre and thus not worth the effort. Milton Keynes is poo; everything is square and all the buildings are identical. Give me an organic rambling city any day.

As for Oxford, it was beautiful. I wish I'd been clever enough to go there for uni, really. Something about the surroundings inpsires you to Be Academic. We wandered around several of the colleges, found lunch in a quiet pub, and were briefly followed around by a strange-but-friendly cat. Photos are here.

Tuesday - nowt. Recovering from the day before!

Wednesday - we went out to see Avatar in 3D at the IMAX, having missed it the first time around. ( Review / Spoilers )

Thursday - more nothing. Did some more embroidery.

Friday - we were supposed to see Toy Story 3 but neither of us were particularly in the mood. Spent the afternoon searching for shoes for Paul as he's at a wedding today, then he went off to stay over at the bride's mother's (don't even ask, it's the weirdest wedding ever - Paul is a "bridesmate" for starters...) and I came home and watched Marie Antoinette, which we'd picked up at Blockbuster in the cheap sale DVDs rack. Quite an interesting film... Internet was deaded all last night (in addition to cable telly being half-b0rk all day yesterday and again today - you suck, Virgin). I stayed up til about 2.00am in order to knacker myself out before attempting to sleep, otherwise I wouldn't have managed it. Surprisingly, I actually had a fairly good night's sleep, although did have a very odd dream this morning that Paul had briefly come home before going back out to the wedding again...

Today - nothing much at all. Got up 10.00ish after finishing my current book ("Loves Music, Loves to Dance" by Mary Higgins Clark) and have pottered on t'internet since then. Should probably straighten my hair and get ready soon as I have to be at the same wedding's reception at 6.00. Given I hardly fit into any of my clothes any more, I have no idea what to wear. Meh.

Tomorrow - chillaxing and enjoying the last day of my leave. I should have booked another week. Hopefully I will be having another week off after my birthday anyway.

And that's it.

Yesterday was quite pleasant. I was only at work for three hours, because I had to leave shortly before 12.00 to go and pick Lisa up from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (the old one). She'd gone in for A Procedure (not sure she would forgive me for disclosing which!) which required her to be under heavy sedation so she wasn't allowed to be released into the wild on her own. ;)

I got the train down and managed to find her without any trouble, thanks to asking for directions when I rang up to confirm the collection time. The receptionist helpfully informed it was the Green Zone on the fifth floor. Which was just as well, because I'd never been to QEH before and it's frigging massive. Clearly those weeks of placement as an OT must have been good for something, even if it's only being able to navigate hospitals. :P

Anyway, we got a taxi home and then sat and watched telly for five hours. Lisa has bought some DVD box sets recently and rather than inflicting Alias on me partway through (she's on series 3), we decided to give Love Soup a go... ( Details / Review )

Following that, at around 6.30pm, Lisa went up the road to get herself some chicken, and I went back upstairs to await Paul's return home. We had steaks with baked potatoes and salad (Paul) or butternut squash (me) for dinner, and we caught up on the new series of X-Factor. I know full well this will make me angry again, but as it's the last series ever I thought it would be remiss of me not to snark it. :P

And that's that. Thank anything, I have a week off next week. Spring cleaning is on the cards, as well as a trip to Oxford to see jackiesjottings, assuming the trains aren't completely useless...

Whilst I'm around, here's some more stuff...

( Music Meme catch-up )

And now for another bit of embroidery...

( Scan 20/? )

Okay, I think that's everything. Now to check train times.

Augh. The last time I did this was on Monday so this will have to be under cuts. So without further ado: days 08 to 12...

Full list is here.

( Days 08 to 12 )

Anyway. That will have to do as I have a lasagne to serve. :)

Actually managed to post this on time today.

Full list is here

Day 06 - A Song That Reminds You Of Somewhere

Dick Van Dyle / Sally Ann Howes - "Doll on a Music Box" - from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

This might seem rather an odd choice. I first watched this film (after owning it on video for several years) when I was 14, a couple of days before going to Gran Canaria with my mum. It was an absolutely brilliant holiday, arguably one of the best I've ever had, and thanks to re-watching this film several times before going (I used to re-watch stuff endlessly, a habit which continued into TV fandoms many years later) I was cursed with having most of the songs stuck in my head. For ages afterwards I would always associate the CCBB soundtrack with the holiday in Gran Canaria, and for some reason this song in particular is the only I remember most vividly. (Shipper instinct, probably. :D)

So that's that. :)

I have this on DVD actually. I may have to do a re-watch soon...

In other news, we went to see Inception today and it was awesome. Quite brain-manglingly plot-heavy but most enjoyable. I would review more but I'm far too tired. I did like the (very slight) nod to 2001: Space Odyssey, though I fear after finally watching that film I'm seeing it everywhere for evermore...

I didn't get to do this last night, so here's the next two days' worth of choices. The original list is here.

Day 02 - Your Least Favourite Song

I told myself when doing this meme that I would stick only to music I actually own, and I think with a few exceptions I have managed that. In which case...

Antony and the Johnsons - "Free at Last"

Now, don't get me wrong. I really, really like "I Am A Bird Now", the album this comes from. And for the most part the songs on that album are sheer brilliance. This particular song just doesn't do anything for me. I'm sure it has some great deeper meaning that I'm simply not understanding, but... I don't get it. It's the only song I regularly skip, both on the CD and on my MP3-player when I get to it.

Day 03 - A Song That Makes You Happy

I had a couple of choices for this, but I've moved one of them elsewhere, so:-

The Feeling - "We Can Dance"

I suggest you ignore the video and just listen to the song in the background. It's the only album version I can find - all the others are live mobile phone type uploads with people singing out of tune over the top. Suck.

This is a hidden track on the second album, "Join With Us", and it comes after the last listed track, "Greatest Show on Earth", which is quite slow and maudlin. When those synths kick in at the start, it never fails to make me smile. It sort of reminds me of Tubular Bells at the beginning, but the entire song is bouncy and chirpy. I think it makes less sense out of context of the preceding song, as you don't get the same sense of the change in mood, but nevertheless, I defy anyone not to start humming along. :D

That be it for now. I'll try and do the others on time. :)

We had 'Wetherspoon-style' chilli con carne last night... So here's a recipe, courtesy mostly of none other than Marguerite Patten (seriously, her book is a kitchen lifesaver...) - enjoy!

( Chilli Con Carne, Wetherspoon Style )

It's literally the easiest thing to cook ever, apart from toast or something. Alternatively you can cook the rice beforehand and throw it in with all the other ingredients, or have the chilli on baked potatoes. Et voila.

In other news, I am in something of a musical quandary, and trying to decide whether or not to buy a couple of albums... My plan is to check them out for free on Spotify before I go and spend any money. For starters, I really like the Noisettes' new single because it sounds really retro-disco-esque (I don't know the title; the chorus ends in "always remember me"), despite not really liking "Go Baby Go" very much - though it's growing on me...

My other quandary is Katie Perry. I really, really didn't like "I Kissed a Girl" because it was bloody stupid, but I really like "Waking up in Vegas" (and from what I've heard of "Hot and Cold" or whatever it's called, I quite like that one too...) I also find myself increasingly getting Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" in my head, which, NO. I didn't particularly like her personality when she was on Jonathan Ross and haven't heard anything else she's done.

So, yes. Spotify would seem to be the answer.

I spent an evening the other day searching for Killers videos from alternative sources, as most of them cannot be viewed on YouTube in the UK because of copyright reasons (which is a bit rubbish, though I imagine most of them are on the singles...) - the video for "Mr Brightside" is probably my favourite, if we exclude the one Tim Burton directed ("Bones"), which loses points for Brandon Flowers sporting a rather questionable beard. :P

I don't think I can find anything else to ramble about. Best go find some work to do.