Nearly Christmas! I am feeling the least Christmassy I have in years, mostly due to being horrendously busy at work and also always being out with friends...
I did make time to see Hamlet AGAIN last night, however... though David Tennant isn't in it right now (bad back, apparently... oh that boyish charnm belies his advancing years :) ), it was still utterly stunning. Ed was fantastic and really stepped up to the challenge, supported by the faultless RSC cast. Already looking forward to seeing it for the final time in January.
Why is it that at Christmas you can never say no? I am so, so tired right now - I've been out nearly every night for the last two weeks and I am EXHAUSTED. I don't want to see another glass of wine ever again*, and can't wait to get into bed tonight and sleep! Does that make me Scrooge?! I hope not - I have been playing at being The Yes Man and going out whever anyone asks me. Well, it is Christmas after all.
Last day of work!!!!
a x
*until tomorrow at least
Friday, 19 December 2008
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
WHAT?!!!!!
JOHN SERGEANT HAS PULLED OUT OF STRICTLY?!!!
I can't believe he's been bullied out by the judges! This is another Ross/Brand affair...
*writes feverish email to Daily Mail Overlords of Morality*
I can't believe he's been bullied out by the judges! This is another Ross/Brand affair...
*writes feverish email to Daily Mail Overlords of Morality*
Monday, 27 October 2008
Racing towards 2009
I cannot believe how quickly this year is going. Only ten weeks (ish) of 2008 left... it's been an okay year. I feel like I have much more of an idea about what I want to do, where I want to go... haven't done that much about actually getting there, however :)
Work is even more stressful than usual - a couple of people have been fired/made redundant, which is not doing anyone's motivation any good, least of all mine! I am keeping my head down and ploughing on until the Christmas break, hoping that those couple of weeks off might give me the time and space that I need to make some decisions and make some changes.
I met up with some friends from university a couple of weeks ago - one of the girls I haven't seen since our English Lit graduation ceremony in 2003! I was most jealous to hear that she is nearlya qualified teacher AND is doing an MA in poetry, where she is tutored by Andrew Motion. Andrew fricking Motion. The poet laureate (not that he likes his job very much).
I WANT TO BE BACK AT UNIVERSITY!!!
Thankfully, I'm going to see David Tennant in Love's Labour's Lost next week, which should take my mind off things...!!! And I'm writing lots at the moment too... though sadly it's for the Day Job, meaning that it's all dull, dull, dull pieces of copy for dull, dull, dull audiences. Well, At least it's something...
a x
Work is even more stressful than usual - a couple of people have been fired/made redundant, which is not doing anyone's motivation any good, least of all mine! I am keeping my head down and ploughing on until the Christmas break, hoping that those couple of weeks off might give me the time and space that I need to make some decisions and make some changes.
I met up with some friends from university a couple of weeks ago - one of the girls I haven't seen since our English Lit graduation ceremony in 2003! I was most jealous to hear that she is nearlya qualified teacher AND is doing an MA in poetry, where she is tutored by Andrew Motion. Andrew fricking Motion. The poet laureate (not that he likes his job very much).
I WANT TO BE BACK AT UNIVERSITY!!!
Thankfully, I'm going to see David Tennant in Love's Labour's Lost next week, which should take my mind off things...!!! And I'm writing lots at the moment too... though sadly it's for the Day Job, meaning that it's all dull, dull, dull pieces of copy for dull, dull, dull audiences. Well, At least it's something...
a x
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Escapism
I haven’t had a proper holiday from work in two years. TWO YEARS!! Consequently, my lesser half and I have next week off. In these deliciously trying economic times, we don’t really have any money to go away to a beautiful country hotel overlooking the sea – instead, we’ve found a tiny little cottage a few miles from the sea where we can hole up for a few days and escape.
Hopefully this will give me a chance to engage in some actual writing – writing distinct from that of the Day Job, that is. LH can immerse himself in his X Box for a few hours a day while I plot, ponder and pencil a few words... perhaps getting away from the drain that is everyday life will allow me to plot book one properly, instead of dipping in and out and writing a few hundred words here and there and giving up!
Holiday here I come! Only a few days of busy stressful London to go...
a x
Hopefully this will give me a chance to engage in some actual writing – writing distinct from that of the Day Job, that is. LH can immerse himself in his X Box for a few hours a day while I plot, ponder and pencil a few words... perhaps getting away from the drain that is everyday life will allow me to plot book one properly, instead of dipping in and out and writing a few hundred words here and there and giving up!
Holiday here I come! Only a few days of busy stressful London to go...
a x
Friday, 5 September 2008
Reasons why Peep Show...
...should be a GCSE set text:
- people really are that petty and mental...
- everyone has a bit of Mark in them...
- ...yet more worryingly, everyone has a bit of Jez in them...
- ...should illustrate to graduates that getting a degree doesn't get you a super well paid and exciting job straight out of uni... you too will probably end up using your HIstory degree to work at JLB
- it glamorises Croydon
- Johnson is the epitome of alpha male, and should be worshipped
- You'll never make a worse decision than Jeremy
- You'll never have done anything as bad as the bad thing that Jeremy did
- it teaches you new ways to consider moral decisions, enabling you to justify entirely selfish courses of action on the flimsiest of premises
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Not shaken but definitely stirred
There’s a lot of upheaval at the moment at work and with my friends, too. I’m not sure quite what has triggered it generally (it’s almost certainly coincidental), but lots of people that I know are making changes in their lives; significant changes that seem pretty bold. Yet they are all without exception absolutely sure it’s the right thing to be doing.
I have friends who are not just switching jobs, they’re switching careers. Some are moving to different parts of England, some are moving to other countries entirely. Some are getting married, some are are breaking up. And they’re all so, so confident that this will help them a little way down that yellow brick road to happiness.
I have to admit, I’m quite envious of this ‘shake it up and let’s see what happens’, ‘que sera, sera’ mentality that seems to be gripping those around me. I’m getting itchy feet again, and the time to shake things up is approaching.
Only problem is...
...I don’t know what I want the end result of my shaking to be.
It will certainly mean a change of job. Possibly a change of career, and it’s likely I’ll need to relocate too.
Interesting times ahead. I think I need to get thinking.
I think the tickets I’ve managed to bag to see David Tennant in Love’s Labour’s Lost can only help this thought process.
A x
I have friends who are not just switching jobs, they’re switching careers. Some are moving to different parts of England, some are moving to other countries entirely. Some are getting married, some are are breaking up. And they’re all so, so confident that this will help them a little way down that yellow brick road to happiness.
I have to admit, I’m quite envious of this ‘shake it up and let’s see what happens’, ‘que sera, sera’ mentality that seems to be gripping those around me. I’m getting itchy feet again, and the time to shake things up is approaching.
Only problem is...
...I don’t know what I want the end result of my shaking to be.
It will certainly mean a change of job. Possibly a change of career, and it’s likely I’ll need to relocate too.
Interesting times ahead. I think I need to get thinking.
I think the tickets I’ve managed to bag to see David Tennant in Love’s Labour’s Lost can only help this thought process.
A x
Saturday, 2 August 2008
The rest is silence...
So.
I've seen it.
It was phenomenal.
After ten months of waiting, last night I finally got to see the new production of Hamlet at the RSC in Stratford. David Tennant and Patrick Stewart in the sexy sleazy Shakesperean tragedy.
David Tennant was magnificent, he really was. A few people have asked me if he was any good, saying they were actually put off going to see the production when they heard that the Doctor was going to be taking on the lead. However - that overlooks one tiny detail - David can act. He can really act. And he acts his socks off in this production, meaning that you're not going 'ooh, look it's the Doctor, fencing with a Danish nobleman' - you forget that it's being acted by anyone famous, even that it's being acted at all - well, for me at least, that's how it was. He was awesome.
Loved Penny Downie as Gertrude - just slutty enough I thought! Her hysterical laughter turned anguished sobbing was fabulous. Patrick Stewart was competent (you'd hope so!) as Claudius, and was gloriously sycophantic as the play opened. However, I never really felt he truly exposed Claudius' real nastiness. Perhaps once the previews have been completed and the first press reviews are out, he'll look to enhance the more sinister side of the character.
However, the real revelation for me was Oliver Ford Davies. Playing Polonius, he really got under the skin of this bumbling, self-centred old man and peeled back the layers to show us his selfishness, disregard for his children and his surprising moment sof sharp insight - after all, let's not forget that it's Polonius who who notes of Hamlet that there is method in his madness.
Having drank the rest of the night away in the Dirty Duck, I'm going to retire to bed now. I am so, so happy I splashed out on tickets for the London run of this show - if I wasn't already going to see it again I'd be on eBay right now parting with money I don't even have to have the chance to see this fantastic production again.
Awesome.
a x
I've seen it.
It was phenomenal.
After ten months of waiting, last night I finally got to see the new production of Hamlet at the RSC in Stratford. David Tennant and Patrick Stewart in the sexy sleazy Shakesperean tragedy.
David Tennant was magnificent, he really was. A few people have asked me if he was any good, saying they were actually put off going to see the production when they heard that the Doctor was going to be taking on the lead. However - that overlooks one tiny detail - David can act. He can really act. And he acts his socks off in this production, meaning that you're not going 'ooh, look it's the Doctor, fencing with a Danish nobleman' - you forget that it's being acted by anyone famous, even that it's being acted at all - well, for me at least, that's how it was. He was awesome.
Loved Penny Downie as Gertrude - just slutty enough I thought! Her hysterical laughter turned anguished sobbing was fabulous. Patrick Stewart was competent (you'd hope so!) as Claudius, and was gloriously sycophantic as the play opened. However, I never really felt he truly exposed Claudius' real nastiness. Perhaps once the previews have been completed and the first press reviews are out, he'll look to enhance the more sinister side of the character.
However, the real revelation for me was Oliver Ford Davies. Playing Polonius, he really got under the skin of this bumbling, self-centred old man and peeled back the layers to show us his selfishness, disregard for his children and his surprising moment sof sharp insight - after all, let's not forget that it's Polonius who who notes of Hamlet that there is method in his madness.
Having drank the rest of the night away in the Dirty Duck, I'm going to retire to bed now. I am so, so happy I splashed out on tickets for the London run of this show - if I wasn't already going to see it again I'd be on eBay right now parting with money I don't even have to have the chance to see this fantastic production again.
Awesome.
a x
Thursday, 17 July 2008
How to create time
There was a piece in many of today's newspapers about a scary sounding experiment that's going ahead in Geneva next month. Now, I'd heard about this place before, and had hoped that the thing they're about to do had happened quietly without my knowledge. However - no - actually it's happening next month.
They're going to do some kind of particle accelerator thing (forgive me for not having advanced my physics knowledge beyond GCSE - I got an A* don't you know :) ) that if all works well, will create some particles called Higgins Boson things (not the catchiest name - there's a serious marketing opportunity there) which will reveal the secrets of the origins of the universe. Seriously exciting stuff. Apparently they may even reveal how we can travel in time. Someone alert David Tennant...
However - the reason why it's incredibly scary is that there's the weeniest tiny chance that the reaction might create a black hole. A black hole that could swallow up our entire universe. Because the scientists involved want to know more about something called Higgins Boson.
I'd like to suggest that there may be some sort of crazy minded, super-liberal argument that might hint that given the odds - perhaps - just perhaps - it might not be worth taking the risk?
They'd better wait until after I see la Tennant in Stratford...
a x
They're going to do some kind of particle accelerator thing (forgive me for not having advanced my physics knowledge beyond GCSE - I got an A* don't you know :) ) that if all works well, will create some particles called Higgins Boson things (not the catchiest name - there's a serious marketing opportunity there) which will reveal the secrets of the origins of the universe. Seriously exciting stuff. Apparently they may even reveal how we can travel in time. Someone alert David Tennant...
However - the reason why it's incredibly scary is that there's the weeniest tiny chance that the reaction might create a black hole. A black hole that could swallow up our entire universe. Because the scientists involved want to know more about something called Higgins Boson.
I'd like to suggest that there may be some sort of crazy minded, super-liberal argument that might hint that given the odds - perhaps - just perhaps - it might not be worth taking the risk?
They'd better wait until after I see la Tennant in Stratford...
a x
Monday, 7 July 2008
Must try harder
Seven months since a post.
Budget.
Well, it's not like anyone's reading anyway. But I must get better at this before I start trying to entice readers... main changes since January (gulp):
Budget.
Well, it's not like anyone's reading anyway. But I must get better at this before I start trying to entice readers... main changes since January (gulp):
- I have become utterly obsessed with David Tennant - he is delicious
- I have been promoted! So I am now on the poverty line, rather than just beneath it
- I have decided that I need to become an awful lot better at online media because I feel I would be much happier working in that field
- Did I mention David Tennant?
I'm still not engaged, pregnant or proud owner of a publishing contract. Win some, lose some...
A xx
PS I got new tickets to Hamlet in Stratford. I know you were worrying.
Saturday, 12 January 2008
RSC love thwarted
Well... I was supposed to be going to see David Tennant's Hamlet by the RSC this year. Not only do I have phenomenal tickets, I also have the time off work booked and a guest house room for while we're there.
And then one of my best friends reveals when she's getting married. That weeekend.
AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH
(if anyone has a pair of good RSC tix for this summer let me know)
(otherwise - just let me CRY)
(ps)
(AAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH)
A x
And then one of my best friends reveals when she's getting married. That weeekend.
AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH
(if anyone has a pair of good RSC tix for this summer let me know)
(otherwise - just let me CRY)
(ps)
(AAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH)
A x
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