| (no subject) |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|09:30 pm] |
This evening I tried to take a photo of a friend and David Cameron suddenly skated between him and the camera.
Possibly this is not so odd when I tell you that I was standing at the edge of an ice rink. The Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park is enormous this year. I went and wandered around it and was astonished by how big it is and how scary some of the rides look. And they have a lot of stalls selling sausage, beer and mulled wine. Also this sign:
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|09:56 am] |
Forget the sheep, THIS:
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|09:49 am] |
| [ | feeling |
| |  chipper | ] |
Trying to decide which is my favourite cover of Hot Butter's Popcorn on Spotify is a very pleasing way to spend a Saturday morning. I think it might be the London Pops Orchestra, or perhaps The Magic Orchestra.
What's a good way to search for songs performed by animals?
Disco song sung by sheep
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|07:58 pm] |
My brother and I went to see Moctezuma at the British Museum which is cool. (Although we both decided it wasn't as good as the Aztec exhibition at the Royal Accademy a few years ago.)
My brother annotated a picture of Moctezuma from the exhibition leaflet to include some extra characters (in blue):
On the right is me with a giant bird stuck in my throat. On the left is my brother with the special tools for removing the giant bird.
The rest of the day involved birthday pub with elements of the f-list, lunch, shopping for collar stiffeners and the most astonishing find in the Oxfam Bookshop - an autographed copy of self help book for people who want to be posher by Mr & Mrs Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|07:33 pm] |
Poll #1481266 Big Bad Gig Odyssey
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10Which bands and artists should I see on my Big Bad Gig Odyssey What naff, cheesey, awful or guilty pleasure gigs have you been to? Cake Ticky box? |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 1st, 2009|09:50 pm] |
| [ | feeling |
| |  confused | ] |
I have to have a snood. (A 80s horror caterpiller head snood, not a snood in the traditional hair net sense)
The question is, do I want a fine one or a chunky one?
Perhaps I'm getting this all wrong and what I actually need is a cowl?
And will a cowl or snood look daft with a hat? Are any of these options channeling a Russian or Norwegian enough vibe?
Having a neck is so unbelievably difficult this winter. I see why the young people are mostly obsessed with vampires. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 23rd, 2009|11:52 am] |
| [ | feeling |
| |  accomplished | ] |
I've got the Bod theme stuck in my head. Other than that, busy busy busy.
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| The 10 best films ever made in no particular order |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|01:00 pm] |
I'm baffled by people who claim to "collect films". Ordering DVDs off Amazon isn't a hobby.
1. Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Obviously the TV show was better. And the radio play was better than the TV show. And the book was better than the radio play. And the audio book of velvety-soft Douglas Adams reading his own novels in his lumpy chocolate voice is best of all. I love Douglas Adams. This film contains the greatest ever moment in film - the scene where the lead characters and the space ship turn knitted and Arthur Dent barfs yarn (as opposed to the knitting technical term "yarn barf" which is when you accidentally pull a great big clump of tangled yarn out of the middle of the ball).
The knitted scene happens after a short introduction from the guide at the beginning of this clip
2. Grease 2
Grease 2 is everything an American high school movie should be. A feisty heroine who works in a garage, a bumbling British hero, bikes, dancing, leathers, bad hair, letching, costumes, bowling, singing... High School Musical should be ashamed of itself for being so spineless and blah. I'm pretty much word perfect on all of the songs from Grease 2.
Back To School - the opening song
3. Mannequin
This was a tough choice, Mannequin or Mannequin 2? The first has Andrew McCarthy, charm and playing dress-up to 80's rock in a closed department store. Mannequin 2 has a heroine who likes weaving and weasels - two of my favourite random obsessions. Mannequin 2 is so rubbish I got my copy from a "please take these VHS tapes away for free" box outside a charity shop so the original beats the sequel and makes the list. This film was one of the highlights of the regular Andrew McCarthy nights that occurred in my house at uni (with St Elmo’s Fire).
The scene where they dance around the department store at night
4. Charade
Audrey Hepburn manages not to be annoying and Cary Grant is wonderful in this glamorous classic set in Paris. Every time you think you’ve worked out who everyone is, who's the baddie and what's going on, it all shifts again. Twists, turns, suspension, perfection.
Charade’s cool opening credits
5. Mary Poppins
My London choice. There's a part of me that will always want to be Mary Poppins. I have the bag and everything. When nobody is looking I enjoy stomping about singing Sister Suffragette.
Sister Suffragette (sing-a-long version)
6. Carry on Screaming
“Because when I’m screaming you know that I’m dreaming of you”. An exquisite blend of Hammer Horror and Carry On, this movie represents everything that’s good about British cinema. This film has a great script, great cast, great costumes, great characters and awful jokes.
Carry On Screaming trailer
7. Serenity
I'm a Joss Wheedon fangirl. He creates wonderful universes full of fascinating characters. Unusually for a Hollywood writer and director, Joss gives interviews about knitting hats from his films because he knows his fans are obsessed. (He doesn't actually knit, but that’s a good thing because he’d have less time to entertain me). This film is a big explody episode of one of my favourite TV shows Firefly, the comedy space western series.
Serenity trailer
8. Barbarella
Barbarella is a great big colourful psychedelic blob of weirdness. I watched it a million times when I was studying for my textiles degree as I used it as inspiration for one of my projects. I wove fabric based on the film then made it into shoes. 80’s posers Duran Duran took their name from one of the characters and it’s always funny to watch Barbarella asking people if they’ve seen Duran Duran because she’s not actually looking for the band.
Barbarella trailer
9. Take Me High
The best musical about hamburgers set in 1970's Birmingham EVER. Cliff Richard plays ambitious yuppie Tim. Tim is confident that he's going to be promoted to the New York office but he's sent to Birmingham instead. Disappointed, he decides to continue his rich playboy lifestyle in Birmingham, buying a canal boat and a hovercraft. Can sweet chef Deborah Watling make him see there's more to life than money with her big tasty Brummie burgers and some soppy songs? Yes.
The Brumburger Duet from Take Me High
10. Xanadu
Another musical, but this one is from space and on rollerskates! This film has high tech special effects reminiscent of Blakes 7 and lots and lots of rollerskating. Olivia Newton John plays one of the 9 Greek rollerskating muses and comes leaping out of a wall to bring inspiration and a pumping ELO soundtrack to Gene Kelly and some other bloke. Singing and dancing ensue.
Olivia Newton John sings Xanadu and inspires everyone to dance. (Oh and there’s a bit where Gene Kelly dances and rollerskates IN A SHOP .)
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 15th, 2009|09:17 pm] |
| [ | feeling |
| |  cheerful | ] |
I just had a lovely evening with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) univitedcat. Despite the fact that neither of us are the sort of people who should be allowed in bookshops, we went to a bookshop and hung out with tea and knitting. A most excellent evening.
Most excitingly of all, univitedcat knitted me a scarf! It's pink. And weasely. And I'm honoured. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 11th, 2009|06:30 pm] |
| [ | feeling |
| |  happy | ] |
There are many many reasons why a trip to my in-laws is always a pleasing thing, and this trip was extra nice because I got to meet my brother-in-law's lovely girlfriend.
And there was chocolate brownie.
And to finish off a perfect weekend, I now have photographic evidence that Mr Weasel once took up a ribbon and danced round a maypole. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 8th, 2009|10:06 pm] |
I went to the knitting and stitching show at Ally Pally this afternoon to hang out with My People.
Highlights included fondling lots of pretty wools, having pleasing chats with people I know and complete strangers (hello Cheltenham woman from the bus!), seeing some amazing textile craft work and being nearly knocked off my feet by a 90 year old woman who pushed past me darkly muttering "brains".
I also quite enjoyed the moment when a woman said "Oh my goodness! Look what she's wearing! She looks quite mad!" and we all turned round confused because everyone looked quite mad.
The only bad bit was the rubbish free gift I got for subscribing to Let's Knit Magazine which was two balls of minging fur string. I politely asked if I could swap the minging string for "something in my colours" from another bag hoping I could find something nicer, but they didn't have anything better so I just swapped it for something equally horrible that I pretended I liked more and ran away. Bleugh.
There were women there of every age which was nice, and loads of school groups - I think my head might have exploded if I'd have gone there when I was 15. I decided I was quite young really, till I realised that I'd taken a scone with me in my handbag. A scone. First the flat shoes, now a scone. Oh what could be more old ladyish than a scone in a handbag? I do like scones.
Fun fun. |
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| Cliff! Bruce! Hank! Brian! |
[Sep. 29th, 2009|12:41 pm] |
So. Cliff! The Shadows! miss_newham! Chocolate! My new frilly goth brolly with Cliff's face on it! Oodles of squee! That’s a recipe for a perfect evening.
I saw The Shadows live! The Shadows. Oh they were beautiful. *sigh*
Other than Bruce singing, my other highlight was the extremely silly ooh-eeh dance Cliff did to Sea Cruise, which I think was supposed to be rowing. Cliff did some good dancing.
In lieu of any coherent thoughts on the subject, here are some of my new vast collection of fuzzy pictures of ♥ Bruce Welch ♥
Behold the magnificence:
Living Doll.
Bruce does some rock'n'roll guitar smashing (no not really, he was just changing his guitars)
OAPs high kick. ROCK.
In other news, insisting on having enough room to crochet a large blanket together on a crowded train is my new and exciting way to get my revenge on my fellow commuters. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 19th, 2009|07:02 pm] |
| [ | feeling |
| |  tired | ] |
Now I'm Senior Weasel, I thought I'd better smarten up my act for work so I went out and treated myself to some new black shoes. I think these are the perfect mix of librarian, Granny Weatherwax, ROCK and frightening. I will be wearing them with pin-striped tights.
There has been some coveting of these, these and also these.
What shoesies are you buying or just coveting? |
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| Binky |
[Sep. 12th, 2009|07:36 pm] |
Woman goes up to the till with a packet of pillowcases.
Woman: Binky pillow?
Assistant: Binky pillow?
Woman: Binky.
Assistant: Binky?
Woman: This pillowcase is Binky?
Assistant: What is Binky?
Woman: That's what I'm asking you.
Assistant: It's a pair of pillowcases.
Woman: Yes, but are they Binky?
Assistant: They're pillowcases.
Woman: You should know your own stock.
Assistant: Those pillowcases are very popular.
Woman: Binky.
Assistant: Pillowcases.
Woman: It says Binky on them. *points*
Assistant: BKY? That's just some letters which are part of the code of the product.
Woman: Oh. That doesn't mean anything then?
Assistant: Not really.
Woman: But they're Binky?
Assistant: Would you like to buy them?
Woman: Are they Binky?
Assistant: Yes. We're the only shop in Croydon selling Binky pillowcases today.
Woman: Binky Binky Binky BINKY! BINKY FOR ME! |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|09:25 pm] |
My haul from my first trip to the new Handweavers Studio gets a visit from THE EVIL HAND OF OM NOM.
EDIT: Oh dear, bad choice of pen. Guess who's wearing a glove to work tomorrow... |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 7th, 2009|05:45 pm] |
verybusymonkey on Ravelry has designed some Irate Squirrel Socks. The pattern is lovely, but the story of the naming of the socks pleased me even more. I quote:
"My roommate is a bit wacky, and among her quirks is her belief that it is very important to let squirrels know when you see them. Typically this is how this is done: When you see a squirrel on the side of the road, she feels you should shake your fist in the air and yell, "I see you squirrel!"" |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 5th, 2009|09:38 pm] |
Today Linnie killed me with shopping. We went to Walthamstow Market, the longest market in Europe and bought more handbags, cake racks, brooches, wool, trimmings, forks for pixies, jigsaws and ludicrous presents than we could carry. And we spent about a fiver each.
Highlights included an unexpected art display tied in some trees, finding a tabloid TV mag on the tube with an advert for the most astonishing Elvis charm bracelet for just £149, obscene soup and Bros patches to iron on your jeans. |
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| Dance dance dance with joy! |
[Sep. 4th, 2009|12:47 pm] |
How did I miss the news that Cliff and the Shadows have recorded a new album together? It’s out at the end of the month. The flyer I received in the post claims there’s three new songs (although I don’t see them on the Amazon listing) and an exclusive jigsaw! A jigsaw!
I think I sold my last Cliff jigsaw on eBay because there are limits.
It’s weird is that the picture on the album cover shows Cliff as he is now, but with some people pretending to be the Shadows.
I cannot wait to see them in concert. I am too excited. Ooooh! |
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| Writer's Block: Doh! |
[Aug. 29th, 2009|06:30 pm] |
There's plenty to choose from but I think it might be cutting my lip while shaving my leg. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 20th, 2009|01:35 pm] |
www.fabricland.co.uk has the worst website I've ever seen. Despite the fact that they probably have nice stock, it's really hard to see and buy fabric from it which is presumably what they want. FAIL.
On the plus side, they do sell something called "Lime Moose Glittered Cotton" - I think we should all change our names to that by deed poll.
(Annie Modesitt's website is terrible too, and she's a designer! A wonderful, talented, inspiring designer, but bad website.)
I want to make this dress, but that's a very expensive pattern and it doesn't give sizing.
Where do I get bright red sari fabric?
Why do I suddenly think it's worth having another go at dressmaking? I know I can't. |
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| Sewing, sewing, it's all about sewing. |
[Aug. 18th, 2009|10:42 pm] |
This evening I went to The Make Lounge and learned how to put zips in things. You'd think I would know but I didn't. I do now. I've learned three different ways and made this:
Size-wise it would just about fit 2 or 3 cds in it. Now I want to go back and do their skirt making class because they were lovely. They're opening a shop there soon too.
I want some bright red cotton with gold sari ribbon trim. Can't find.
Rowan do classes too, I miss classes, classes make me feel good. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 13th, 2009|12:52 pm] |
Burn Gorman appeared to be wearing a fat suit in Oliver! Last night. And because the show wasn't allowed to scare children, he was playing a very neutered Bill Sykes without the benefit of being able to whoop it up like a pantomime villain. But he got panto villain boo-ing at the end. Not really a triumph, but not really his fault either.
There’s a bollard in Museum Street that looks like a normal concrete bollard but is actually inflatable and vanishes when you lean on it while doing a bit of knitting. The hilarity of wrestling in an ungainly fashion on the floor with a giant inflatable bollard and a ball of wool was slightly lost on me at the time but in hindsight I see why so many people in the street were doubled up with laughter by the time I’d regained my composure. |
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| I ♥ the Jersey Boys cast. |
[Aug. 9th, 2009|04:20 pm] |
I'm a bit obsessed with the cast of Jersey Boys since I saw the show a while ago. I'm also obsessed with the soundtrack which has the slightly more rock'n'roll versions of The Four Season's hits from the show. (The Jersey Boys soundtrack is on spotify, yay)
I'm also convinced we're going to be seeing more of the cast. One of them was Jack the Ripper in Psychoville. And the chap playing Frankie is really nice and I've see him sing live a couple of times (he's on the West End musicals weakest link, as is the monster from Avenue Q). Stephen Ashfield is the tall dishy one and he's got wonderful knees.
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 5th, 2009|03:36 pm] |
| [ | feeling |
| |  sleepy | ] |
What London needs is a magazine shop. A big shop which sells all magazines. All subjects, all publishers, little fanzines, strange self published stuff.
Borders is almost what I want, which is useless as they’re closing half of the shops, bah, annoying.
WH Smiths don’t have enough shops large enough to stock most of the mags I like and their selection is very bland, the staff are not knowledgeable about mags and there's a lot of interesting stuff they don't bother with.
RD Franks is good for fashion and there’s a few comic shops entertaining people who like that sort of thing, but I can’t think of any other decent magazine shops and pls, I want a big, good, magazine shop in central London. And I want it now. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 4th, 2009|06:55 pm] |
The world is all swirly and it spins.
I have finished knitting some squares for my blanket:
Sleep now. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 27th, 2009|01:09 pm] |
| [ | feeling |
| | sleepy | ] |
The pharmacy at the hospital has a robot which swooshes down the aisles of pills to collect your prescription. According to the sign, it can collect your medication within 10 seconds of your prescription being processed. It then takes a further 35 minutes for the medicine to travel the 3 metres from the robot to the pharmacy collection point.
The robot and aisles of pills are behind a glass screen with evocative medical words like creams, capsule and apothecary etched in fancy script on it. Oddly, the word suppository isn’t etched on the glass.
Other things I learned today:
1. TB medication is free.
2. I look like the sort of person who needs to be told not to take my medication crushed up in jam.
3. There’s a new type of Ferrero Roche – the Ferrero Rondnoir and it costs £1.99 for four in WH Smiths. Is that more expensive than gold?
In other news, this cup of tea tastes like dirty cardigan and I’m not planning to go and build a Lego house with James May, although I did once win a prize for building a Lego house so I’m more qualified than most. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 26th, 2009|12:57 pm] |
Yesterday I went to a birkenstock party wearing converse. Fashion fail.
Still, the food at 2 year old's birthday parties turns out to be my favourite food - mmm banana sandwiches.
This is my favourite song today:
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 17th, 2009|05:12 pm] |
Cricket is an entirely fictional game based on nonsense, like Mornington Crescent, isn’t it? W keeps shouting things like “Onions Eleven!” and “International Mouse Face” and “Murdoch felled a redwood hundred” and other gibberish. Total mystery.
I thought I saw vampires on the tube at lunchtime but then I realised I was looking at a window, not a mirror. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|02:46 pm] |
Did you hear the screaming and the psychotic laughter?
About two hours ago?
There's no way you could have missed it.
It probably made you feel cold and sick with fear.
I'm sorry about that. I tried on some harem pants in Primark and it was the only apropriate response. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|07:33 pm] |
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I'm just re-watching Top Gear on iPlayer, and when they're in the office trying to get quotes for 17 year olds, the Stig is in the background photocopying his head. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|08:35 pm] |
This is my favourite moment from Cliff Richard's film Wonderful Life. Cliff, the Shads and their friends decide they're going to make a movie and to prove how easy it can be there's a silly 8 minute montage of them working their way through the hisory of film in silly costumes.
As the only review of this film on IMDB says, "I didn`t understand it then or now".
(contains Bruce Welsh dancing in drag for everyone curious about that.) |
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7 (70.0%)
busy
bouncy
