What's wrong with a little destruction?

Pancake making!

2009-03-07T00:03:48Z

This is a nice programme which makes little Polaroid inspired versions of your treasured photos, turning 7MB high definition into something which looks like it was taken in the 70s.

Waving

2009-01-07T21:02:46Z

It's early morning and I'm waiting for the lights to turn green. There is a light dusting of snow on the ground and I notice that my friend Steph is in the car in front of me. She notices me behind her and so we wave enthusiastically at each other.

The driver of the car in front of Steph also starts waving, maybe she thinks that Steph is waving to her. She stops pretty quickly, probably feeling a little silly. I wonder to myself if one day, all drivers could wave at one another in a queue of stationary traffic, without fear of persecution or slander. I envisage some sort of wave-chain, travelling the length and breadth of the country. It would probably stop with me though as I don't know how I'd react to some weirdo in the next car along, frantically waving at me.

The Quote Book

2008-12-29T15:51:32Z

This week at work is a little bit unnecessary, as there is nothing that I can be bothered to do. So I'm reading the office quote book, where all of our unintended innuendo is stored. Here is an example of the contents:

'She's not on my list, but I'd go until it fell off!'

'I love my holes'

'I'm sorry, I'm conscious it's not as large as you were expecting'

'When he's talking, he's always playing with his ring'

'My furry bits are still wet!'

'I've got a bad reputation, but I've not actually sexual abused anyone yet'

'My banana is gay!'

Christmas specials, or special Christmasses?

2008-12-22T23:11:39Z

You know it's Christmas when the Father Ted Christmas Special is on at 10pm on Channel 4. It doesn't matter that I could watch it any day of the year, it's ten times funnier now.

I was thinking of Father Ted only the Saturday just gone, while driving along the A34. If you ever drive from Winchester to Newbury along the A34, and it's night time, you're guaranteed to see hundreds of rabbits lining the verge, and in the words of Father Dougal, it's like a big rabbit rock festival!

moondogstar @ 2008-12-12T21:14:00

2008-12-12T23:47:44Z

I've bought some tickets to see the Cribs (and ∴ Johnny Marr, of course) and also to see Blur. I'm starting to feel a little light headed and also light walleted, like after a really good night out.

I have seen Blur once before, but without Graham. I've seen Graham plenty of times but never with Blur. In 1999 I had a ticket to see Blur in Cardiff, but I lost it in a nightclub in a drunken stupor. The disappointment to be honest has been with me ever since. The thought that I might see the ensemble altogether and united as one has left me feeling all tingly.

Gavin is in China at the moment for 10 days. These periods of absence give me an insight into life as a single woman. I've discovered that if I was single I would spend a lot of my spare time listening to obnoxiously loud Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, going to the cinema with my dad and eating Tesco Value chicken kievs. This isn't exactly the Sex and the City lifestyle I would be hoping for.

Here's my tree. Sorry about the low lighting, it's supposed to be 'art'.

moondogstar @ 2008-11-27T22:55:00

2008-11-27T22:55:34Z

Your rainbow is shaded violet.

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

moondogstar @ 2008-11-19T22:11:00

2008-11-19T22:36:21Z

"Aah! You have a woman's purse! I'll wager that purse has never been used as a rowing-boat. I'll wager it's never had sixteen shipwrecked mariners tossing in it."

That mighty Blackadder quote has become nestled in my head for the past two days, and pops to the forefront of my mind every time I get into my lovely 'new' car.

If someone had asked me what car I'd want if I were to get a new car, it's unlikely that I'd reply with 'Top Gear Car of the Year 1997' in green please! But who am I to argue with a very youthful Jeremy Clarkson, even if I am 11 years behind the times?

So that's what I've ended up with. It's so pretty:

It was driving like they did in that video which meant the old car is now ded from crash, but Gav is thankfully pretty much recovered from his cuts and bruises and very lucky it wasn't much more.

I really wanted a Ford Street Ka but Gav says they are too girly for his manly sensibilities - 'Ah - you have a woman's car!'. Exclaiming dramatically that it's Kylie Minogue's car apparently doesn't win you any arguments either.

How update? How quaint.

2008-11-16T02:34:17Z

Do not adjust your set, there's a stranger in your flist midst.

This isn't the first time I've attempted to update, it's just been hard to do so, and I don't know why. It's a wonder I still have people to come back here to talk to, so thank you to those who are still here and a big raspberry to those who have tossed me out like yesterday's rubbish.

I've spent the majority of the evening going back through this little nook of the net I've carved out for myself - locking some of the more personal entries, flat out deleting the most embarrassing ones. What has struck me most is that it might as well still be 2006 - nothing has changed! I'm still working for the same marketing agency. I'm still in a nostalgic disposition, still wasting each and every evening lazing on the couch, watching the same telly and visiting the same websites, going to the same pubs. Still live in the same flat, with the same boyfriend who still has his job despite the tightening of corporate budgets and the threat of redundancy that looms upon us all. I'm still listening to the same Boy Kill Boy album!

So have there been any ch-ch-ch-changes* in the six months since I last posted? Well I've been working for Alfa Romeo rather than BMW since August. I was planning on going to New York for a wee break before Christmas, but that's just unaffordable right now. I'm actually surprised that 'unaffordable' is a word, it sounds wrong, whereas the Alice in Wonderland quote I've had in my head the past day, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats? Do bats eat cats?’, sounds in comparison quite normal and rational.

So how ya been?

*Well done Barack

Earthquake

2008-02-29T22:59:55Z

Along with a lot of the country I enjoyed my first earthquake this week. The pair of us sat bolt upright in bed at 1am a couple of nights ago with the blankets up to our chins like some cheesy horror movie. It sounded to me like someone was slamming the door in the other room. Gav thought it might have been mice. We couldn't have been that fussed at the time because we went straight back to sleep and I didn't even remember the incident until the next evening.

25 years until the next one.

2007 review

2007-12-31T10:51:18Z

It feel like ages since Christmas, seeing as I've been back at work since the 27th. Overall it's been quite a boring Christmas, I was looking forward to Doctor Hot as it will forever be known now thanks to Ails, but I though the episode was a little bit crap.

My year in review, it's in photos because bored though I am at work, I can't face actually thinking back and trying to remember over the past year. I always get a little depressed doing so.

Happy New Year!

January - Innsbrück, Austria

February - Bassett puppies

March - Les Arcs, France

April - Cotswold Wildlife Park at Easter

May - Bath on a canal boat

June - Gav's birthday combat

July - Blackpool

August - dogsitting

September - Morocco

October - Brighton

November - Rememberance Day

December - Christmas parties

Curry and Death

2007-12-07T23:02:46Z

I've enjoyed a nice night in tonight, in front of the telly.

But I experienced a disappointing curry earlier this evening. I ordered a chicken kashmiri which was supposed to have bananas and lychees in it, and actually had pineapple in instead. I don't think I've expressed before how much I either love or hate pineapple. If it's ridiculously fresh and juicy I love it, or indeed if it is actual juice, I love it. If it is out of its pineapple casing/shell thing for more than a minute it renders itself disgusting to me and unfortunately the pineapple in my curry (which wasn't even supposed to be there) was the latter. :( I was so disappointed.

But then Have I Got News For You came on with Russell Brand, Jack Dee and Charlie Brooker. I don't think I've expressed before how much I love Charlie Brooker.

The man is the sex and you know it.

PS. We are off to London Town tomorrow to see the Lord of the Rings, in a lovely big theatre. 'Cited!

moondogstar @ 2007-12-04T22:43:00

2007-12-04T23:07:26Z

I've not been on here in days, so much has... failed to happen in that time. To bring you right up to speed, Gav has been reading a Brief History of Time. And he understands it and talks to me about it in ways that I can understand it (you age quicker if you live at the bottom of a valley than you do on top of a mountain - neat). I've been reading Russell Brand's autobiography 'My Booky Wook'. It's brilliant and he uses big words that I have to go and look up, in between talking about his incessantly about his dinkle.

I've finally also read Northern Lights, in preparation for The Golden Compass and whenever I go to see it. I'm looking forward to the polar bears.

On Saturday night we went with some of Gav's Motorola friends to the Biplob Indian restaurant, and came away with a free chocolate cake! The table next were having a birthday party and decided that they couldn't eat all the cake, or be bothered to take it away with them, so they donated it to me us. There was over half the cake still left. I felt a bit sorry for the waiting staff though as they'd probably been looking forward to inheriting that cake.

I've still got a very persistent cough that has stayed with me through much of the past month or so. I do not like but knowing that a whole load of Not Much goes into most Over The Counter cough medicines, I'm discouraged from finding a cure. I'm still hoping to will it away using the power of my mind. We'll see how that goes!

moondogstar @ 2007-11-27T12:20:00

2007-11-27T12:44:41Z

Saw We Are Scientists and Kaiser Chiefs in Bournemouth on Thursday. We got to Bournemouth for 3pm and found a brilliant German Market in the town centre. I had some cherry gluhwein from one of the stalls. The crowd were fun. No baby elephants this time.

Afterwards Gav found me by the barrier and started babbling excitedly that he'd made friends, that some girl who'd stood on him with her huge heels had turned around, apologised and then started taking photos of him 'cos he looked like Ricky'. You should have seen his grin he thought he was a rock star.

On Wednesday of course it was Bill Bailey in Cardiff with the lovely Ruthie and the inexplicable 20 mph signs on the motorway. It will now never be possible to walk past an Asda without shouting 'Hey Asda, I ain't gonna be your bitch!'

Argh, DO NOT WANT! (Huge Doctor Who spoiler)

Poppy

2007-11-11T20:37:08Z

I forgot to buy a poppy today so before I went out I improvised.

I realised finally that I could never get a tattoo. That fucking hurt and that was just biro.

moondogstar @ 2007-11-07T21:07:00

2007-11-07T21:15:18Z

Oh dear. I've just spent £80 on two tickets for Arcade Fire in London. It must be obsession.

So, I must spend less money on myself now in the run up to Christmas. If I forgo food, I might be able to fit back into my snowboarding trousers before January and therefore save myself £100 or so by not buying new ones. So infact, I'll have made £20 by buying Arcade Fire tickets.

That's good economics. Yay.

moondogstar @ 2007-11-02T15:38:00

2007-11-02T16:03:57Z

It's really annoying that we're not getting e-mail notifications at the moment, how am I supposed to know how popular I am?

Inevitably, I'm feeling much better as we head towards the weekend (and fireworks!). On Tuesday we went to Cardiff to see Arcade Fire. I now absolutely have to see them again before their tour ends, and will probably spend an insane amount of money on eBay to do so. I haven't enjoyed a show so much in ages. The band, were just beautiful. You don't get to call many bands beautiful these days, but Arcade Fire are (and Super Furry Animals, I'll get to them later!) Also, I never realised how sexy the singer is before. I've been concentrating on the music for the past 2 years. Silly me!

And then last night we went to the Fez in Reading to see British Sea Power. Bless Gav, I though he was going to cry after we left, he said it was the best gig he'd ever been to. And it was pretty good, the Fez is an amazingly intimately club so even though we were four rows back from the front we may as well have been right at the barrier. But the best part was I saw that Boy Kill Boy are playing there on November 16th so we'll be going back soon.

One thing I regret is not going to see Super Furry Animals on Monday. We both decided to be sensible and that seeing four gigs in a week was to decadent. However, the rest of the month is panning out thus:

3/11/07 - [spunge] (probably)
16/11/07 - Boy Kill Boy
18/11/07 - Arcade Fire (pleeeeeease)
21/11/07 - Bill Bailey
22/11/07 - We Are Scientists / Kaiser Chiefs

So we might as well have seen SFA :( Hopefully next time. The Furries must never split. They day they do, a part of my soul goes with them.

moondogstar @ 2007-10-24T15:33:00

2007-10-24T14:41:44Z

On Saturday morning I heard the phone go at about half nine. I figured it must be some fool who doesn't know that there is no chance of me getting out of bed to answer the phone on a Saturday morning. When I listened to my message after lunch it was from Dan, who said that he was taking Mum to go gliding but that she 'didn't know about it'. I wondered to myself how long you can keep someone in the dark about taking them gliding, before they realise what you're up to?

It turned out in the end that Mum doesn't want to go gliding, or at least not until we can all be there to watch her. I'd love to go gliding too, how cool. But I'll let my mother try it out first as it looks quite dangerous.

On Sunday we went to Madame Tussauds in London, but like so many things that I've remember from childhood, it's not really that good. Madame Tussauds is also maybe not the best place to realise for the first time that you are actually quite afraid of wax works. Nevermind, we're going to Alton Towers on Sunday for half price, yippee!

I'm now seriously contemplating sneaking a ferret into my flat. It is my flat, a own it, I don't rent. But still it is against The Rules Of The Building.

But I might break them.

moondogstar @ 2007-10-17T15:41:00

2007-10-17T14:52:15Z

On Saturday we went down to Brighton so our friends Dick and Dom* could buy copious amounts of 'stuff', and Gav and I fancied to be by the seaside, and I wanted see my friend Heather.

The day started with puzzlement over the public lavs.

Uh oh, brokened.

He hadn't had any of the 'stuff'.

I'm such a tourist with my crappy camera, I love a good pier. It was a jolly daytrip all round.

Rachel and Nick have just announced they're engaged, which is nice. They join Nick and Rachael in the pre-nuptial race that my friends seem to have started (but only if you're in a Nick/Rach(a)el couple). This always leads to the jovial 'you'll be next' nudges and winks that generally leave me wanting to hurt someone.

* names changed to protect the not so innocent.

moondogstar @ 2007-10-11T20:05:00

2007-10-11T19:44:58Z

Today was properly foggy, like a Sherlock Holmes novel. It pleased me, I like the fog.

I'm finding it hard to get motivate with a lot of things at the moment. I got myself motivated to commit to a 10 week course, and was so looking forward to it, but the day before it was supposed to start they rang me up and told me it was cancelled. And I'm still waiting for them to refund my £60, fuckers.

I'm not feeling too motivated to update this journal either, I've deleted my Bebo and I'm only keeping Myspace for the bands. I've just realised that I'm not 14 and don't need to access that many social network sites. I've no mind to delete this journal though. In fact I wish I hadn't deleted the first journal I had in 2001, it would be quite fun to read back on what Little Shell thought of the world but I guess those times are passed.

I ordered Junk by Melvin Burgess and it came today, I can't wait to have a shower, watch Peter Serafinowicz and then read it. I loved it so much when I read it at school and I think it'll be good to read it again, having dispensed out methadone and diamorphine and the like, and watching kids battle against their heroin addictions. Sometimes I miss working in the pharmacy, I realise now it a much more important job than what I do now. No one dies if BMW don't have a banner up on their websites.

I had my hair cut a couple of hours ago, but I've just tried to take a photo of myself and the results are so appalling I'll just have to wait for the next social before I show it off.

Here's my favourite Arcade Fire song at the moment, Ocean of Noise. When I listen to it I feel like I'm 16 and in my old room in my mum's house. I'm seeing Arcade Fire later this month and it might just one of the best gigs of my life, I can't wait.

I went to Morocco and saw....

2007-10-04T19:11:32Z

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moondogstar/sets/72157604122747120/

All this and more.

moondogstar @ 2007-09-04T18:54:00

2007-09-04T18:26:59Z

Uffington White Horse, so obviously a horse on the hillside! (you need a helicopter or light aircraft if you want to see it properly).

Mr Ed's head from above.

Exotic local wildlife...

Scary-eye dog.

moondogstar @ 2007-09-03T19:23:00

2007-09-03T18:58:16Z

I've had an enjoyable weekend, but I've eaten far too much pizza and Haribo. On Friday night I went to a house party in Southampton and watched the Big Brother final. The scary thing was how easily the conversation turned to Facebook, and the parting shot was 'see you on Facebook!'. Is Facebook where people live now?

On Saturday it was Nick's engagement party, Part 1. Much fun. During his brief BBQ we ended up 'making friends' with some neighbourly children. Picture the scene, 9 or 10 twentysomething adults being given a volley of abuse by a trio of 8 year old girls. Who knows where the parents were, probably down the pub. Nick put on his Scary Teacher Voice in the end and they scampered.

Then things got really wild and we played Trivial Pursuit. Oh yes, Gav and I won. And then we did a shots game, where you roll a dice and down the corresponding drink, until we ran out of alcohol when we did shots of Petite Filous.

Great stuff. Can't wait til Part 2 in October.

Panorama tonight is all about layabouts and bums in Swindon. I expect I'll spot a few ex-schoolmates.

moondogstar @ 2007-08-29T20:44:00

2007-08-29T19:46:33Z

I have a new "direction"!

I've decided to go do a part time course in Radio Producing and Programming, and unlike a lot of my half-arse ideas, I've told people about this one, so I have to do it. I'm so excited! It starts in a month and it's only for 10 weeks, but its a something and something it a lot more than I've been doing with myself lately.

Of course, had Radio not appealed to me, I was spoilt for choice at New College, Swindon. You can do courses in:

Miniature Teddy Bears - £50 spent on stuffing bears.
Make Your Own Compost - a bargain at only £20 per lesson
Chicken School - indeed, really. £40 a lesson

And my favourite:

Third one from bottom.

Scan for proof, this course really exists! I only need to spend £2 getting into Walkabout on a Friday night to feel empowered by my breasts.

I've just finished The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde. That man owns me, I'll have to let him know if I meet him again. But I've got a dilemma, do I read the new Thursday Next book or start the Neil Gaiman that is on my shelf? Den, come back to LJ and help meeee!

Skye

2007-08-22T20:28:52Z

I'm back at home now and I miss Skye. I even miss her annoying hair that gets everywhere and when she comes up and unexpectedly sits on you and leaves you struggling for breath.

So... Skye spam.

Wet dog, and wet dog behind bars for extra patheticness.

Relaxing with a stick.

Playing footie.

Couch potatoing.

Chaos.

Skye also now has a Dogbook account. This may be a step too far I feel.

Morocco

2007-08-17T21:49:27Z

It turns out the perils of dog walking are actually an artistic opportunity waiting to happen. Skye should pay attention to this, she creates enough for a whole exhibition.

I've been watching Stephen Fry weekend on BBC4 and it's been predictably brilliant. I think it's for the best that I don't have Sky TV at home, I wouldn't ever leave the house.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. The IT Crowd starts next week
2. Kaiser Chiefs/Super Furry Animals/Arcade Fire/Bill Bailey in the next three months
3. Morocco - flights and hotel booked, we're going, in exactly one month!

We've already decided that while we're going to sleep and swim for most of the time in Morocco, we're also going to hire a motorbike and ride to Marrakesh for a day and a night. I also want to see the blue rocks in Tafraoute. Could be spending a lot of time on the bike then. Yes, we really are Ewan and Charlie!

:D :D :D (unapologetic smilie overload)