is having some sort of crisis and refusing to work, so I thought I'd just come along here and see how we're all doing. Hey you guys! How are you? I am fine thank you.
So, stuff that is happening, firstly and most excitingly we are pretty much moved in to our new place. It is odd what you will put up with when you are renting, certainly when you are renting in London. The new place is like some sort of magical fabulous dream. Here are some of the things that I can't actually believe about it:
The hot tap runs hot.
The cold tap runs cold.
The taps all turn in an intuitive direction (three years I lived in the old place and I still got soaked everytime I turned the kitchen tap on.)
The lights all work.
The outside light works.
There are curtains! In each room!
There is no 'knack' to opening the front door. Or any of the doors, for that matter.
There are pictures on the wall. Hideous pictures, but they are steadily being replaced by our own pictures.
The shower works.
The clicker on the oven works.
The light in the oven works.
The radiators all work.
There is an airing cupboard.
There are window boxes and a teeny teeny raised bed by the front door.
There are stairs. STAIRS!! To the two double bedrooms. TWO BEDROOMS!
Other stuff that is happening:
Oscar is still not well, I think he really is asthmatic and won't grow out of it, but the docs still don't want to say when he is so small. Thinking of taking him to a proper asthma drop in clinic.
I have wasted a hell of a lot of money on myself this month (a hell of a lot) and now I am in a stress about money. But I guess as long as I don't buy anything at all for the next couple of months it'll even up.
I am doing stuff at work that is really interesting and in fact quite good fun but... BUT... I am only a Grade Three and this is going way out of my payscale. But how else would I get the experience? And they did mention it in the interview and I did say it was okay. And anyway I'm not going to stick at this forever. And I'm enjoying myself. So why am I moaning? I don't know! I'm not really moaning. I'm more saying 'look how clever and trusted I am.' I think. I am really really unconfident at work for some weird reason. Oh well. i am just generally feeling a bit uncertain of my own abilities at the moment.
I've been archiving my 20six blog, on and off, for a while now, so I've been reading and not writing. Also I am ashamed to say that at one point I wrote 'I am 23 and impressed with someone being in a band. Sad.' I am 29 and, uh, still totally impressed by people being in bands.
So stuff wot has happened...
I am moving house, from SW to SE and I am kind of happy because I think the new place is fabola and everything (it's a HOUSE! with a GARDEN!) but also kinda sad because I'm leaving Streats. Even though it's only a 15 minute walk away. I pick up the keys this eve. Wowzer. Never. Moving. Again, by the way, although these new estate agents have been really great.
I am gonna do NaNoWriMo again this year cos I have a totally stonking chick-lit-murder-mystery-campus-novel which really needs to get out of my subconscious before I go bonkers.
Oscar is a genuis (Uh. Genius. I mean. I can't believe I just mistyped that.) apparently, according to his Sing n Sign teacher but really it's just that he's about 5 months older than all the other babies in the class so he is more able. Still his childminder also said he was good for his age, as he can say 'digger', 'swing' etc. I mean WHAT?! He's never said that to me. He's never even said 'Mummy.' Kids are weird.
Work is uh... work is... work will look good on my CV once I've left. And I am committed to at least another year, I think. The people are great, the job is okay, but I miss the students so hard. I miss the structure of the academic year as well, this is much more like working somewhere 'proper'. Ha! That looks awful. Oh you know what I mean. I don't actively dislike being here. In fact often I totally love it. Although one of my many bosses (one of the ones who isn't actually my boss although he totally is my boss really) is at least aware this isn't my 'proper' job (my 'proper' job being swanning around being an arty dick, although obviously that isn't really my 'proper' job either. My 'proper' job is being a mum, I suppose. I don't want to do that full time either though! Oh what do I want? When am I going to know what I want to do/be when I grow up?! When am I going to grow up?)
I'm not drinking. Again. Which is working out for me, actually.
Oh, I know what happened, we went on a BRILLIANT holiday that was BRILLIANT and one day (when I'm not at work and have an hour or so to myself) I will actually put the pics on Facebook.
I... nothing interesting is happening to me right now! My 20six blog is very high drama. Do I miss the drama? At least I kept a record.
I wasn't always this boring.
No.
A new blog just for photography....
What's one thing you can't say no to?
Temptation. But you guys knew that already!
Are you more attracted to people whose personalities are similar or different to yours?
Hello internets. I am going to answer this question - well, wait technically I'm not because, I am going to answer this question by exploring my theory on attraction. Yes, my Theory on Attraction. It's got nowt to do with similar or different personalities. My theory is thus:
Say we really did have past lives. Say we are all just doomed to keep going round and around and around again. This would explain SO MUCH. Like, for instance the way some people are freakishly smart (they have been around loads of times - they just don't remember) and some people are just such dumbos (it's their first time.) So, okay, now you're with me on the past lives thang, stay with me...
All the people you ever knew, all of them, everyone you'll ever meet this life time, you already met. In other life times. You're all sort of tied together, and the ties loosen or tighten each time around. So for example, your husband in this life time might just have been the guy who worked in the corner shop that you thought was sort of cute in another life time and your best friend at school in another and some guy who stole your missus in another. Do you still follow me?
Because this totally explains how sometimes, when you meet someone and you are totally like 'oh my god! hello!' well, that explains what's happened. You were brothers in a past life, or something. But it's up to you how you navigate your way through these relationships - it's no good just dropping everything each time you have an 'oh my god! hello!' moment. I know, I am a fine one to talk, but anyways. I have made my choice now, and that's all there is to it. I am aware there will be some more 'oh my god! hello!' moments in my life - well, hopefully, because they are quite good fun - but it doesn't mean I actually have to do anything about it. Apart from be delighted our lives have crashed into one another again.
Also, this completely explains things like half of us 20sixers spinning about in quite similar social circles or clubs or workplaces or cities several years before we ever met. We easily could have met before, we just didn't. But now I think maybe I'm thinking of parallel universes.
My head hurts.
How times change...
So I'm at work on a Thursday to make up some time I owed, but I think this might backfire because I FEEL LIKE DEATH and there's every chance I'll end up wanting to take tomorrow off. Eurgh. I feel unwell.
This Sunday If You Dare have a slot as part of the Camden Fringe. It's 10.15pm (I know) in the Camden Head. Ask me if you'd like tickets, I have a couple of comps (if you've already bought a ticket send me the confirmation email and I'll sort you out a free drink or two.) There'll be a poet, I've written a crappy ten minute play for it (selling it, ain't I?) and we've a beautiful singer/songwriter. Should be good.
Work is... work is... so many different things. Work is not what I expected and everything I expected and difficult and tiring and funny and fun. The people are just fab. I am planning on writing a chick-lit murder mystery campus novel come NaNoWriMo this year, because it suddenly struck me that all campus novels concentrate on the academic staff or the students, when there is a rich and unexplored vein of simmering resentments, hopeless crushes and out and out insanity in the administrative staff (er, I mean, the admin staff in ALL unis, not just this one. Although obviously this one as well.) Watch this space! It's A-level results day, which in my old job meant a very, very, very difficult and long day (week, really) spent shattering peoples lives. I can't decide if I'm glad I'm out of it or not. I miss the students, very much. More than I thought.
Oscar is hilarious. Here he is on his birthday present, a trike (he had to go on it before he even got dressed.) :
We have been given £410 by child tax credits that they underpaid us last year- hurah- we can now think about actually going away for a week this year in semi-sunshine- a week in September in Majorca, fingers crossed, but shhhh, don't jinx it.
I've also gone back and got another job offer from the company I was kicking myself about turning down, a level up from the initial offer and higher salary. The only down point is that it is only intially a 1 year contract, but to compensate for the fact that I cant join their pension scheme for the year they are throwing more money at me- yay!!
So- things are on the up, touch wood and all that- yay yay yay!
so you only need to read it once!
1) What author do you own the most books by?
I think probably Jeanette Winterson.
I don’t think I have any duplications. You wouldn’t think two people with enough in common to get married could combine their libraries with no duplications, but you’d be wrong.
3) Did it bother you that both those
questions ended with prepositions?
No I hate all that shitty ‘eats shoots and leaves’ rubbish. If u av writ
sumthing ppl can read then u r communicating, I fink. Language ain’t static.
Just look at Chaucer, ffs.
4) What fictional character are you
secretly in love with?
Muzzlehatch from Titus Alone or maybe
Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie.
5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
1984. I have read that book a ton.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
The Ghosts of Motley Hall which is actually a book of a TV series. There was a copy of it at my junior school I got hold of somehow and then had to give back. I bought it for myself when I was about 20 through one of those out-of-print dealers. Worried it would be rubbish, but actually it stands up pretty well. I’ve now got the series on DVD and that’s surprisingly good too!
7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?'
I just finished Paul Torday’s The Girl on the Landing and it could have been so good, but unfortunately it was rubbish.
8) What is the best book you've read in
the past year?
I finally got around to reading Case
Histories (Kate Atkinson), god
it’s good.
9) If you could force everyone you
tagged to read one book, what would it be?
1984, I think.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Jeanette Winterson!
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I want to see some Jackson Brodie action now I’ve started thinking about it, so Case Histories, or One Good Turn or When Will There Be Good News
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
You know what, I don’t know. I don’t feel particularly possessive about books like that.
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Like everyone else who’s answered this, I’ve not had a memorable one.
14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
The first book in the
Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman – Wine
of Angels – I definitely would NOT describe as lowbrow (you must read it,
it’s fab), but as time’s gone on I think they’ve got more and more formulaic. Sorry
Phil but there you go.
15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
The Gormenghast Trilogy I really
enjoyed but it’s very dense. I read them so slowly. They’re like eating really
rich fruitcake, you can’t have too much at one go. I made some brief inroads
into Ulysess at uni when I vaguely
thought I might write my dissertation on Joyce. Needless to say I went mad and
then legged it from uni during my dissertation. Then again I’ve never read The Hobbit cos I found it impenetrable, so
maybe I’m just not that great a reader!
16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
Ummmmmmmm… no I’ve only seen the main lot.
17) Do you prefer the French or the
Russians?
Russians.
18) Roth or Updike?
Updike.
19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Eggers.
20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Milton.
21) Austen or Eliot?
Oh the shame for I have read neither.
22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
See q21!
23) What is your favorite novel?
I don’t know! Too difficult. Almost everything by the writers mentioned so far
and also I love Douglas Adams and Ali Smith Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel
and Diana Wynne Jones and, oh check my facebook page.
24) Play?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I think. Though I saw Dancing at Lughnasa recently and it was just as good as I thought.
25) Poem?
Oh how could I ever, ever choose? I
love the Liverpool poets – Patten, Henri, McGough
and I have a soft spot for Hughes and Simon Armitage cos of our shared heritage.
And I LOVE Wendy Cope. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten people. Anyway, here is my
favourite Wendy Cope poem:
Two Cures For Love
1. Don't see
him. Don't phone or write a letter.
2. The easy way: get to know him better.
And here is a link to a more traditional long poem by Alfred Noyes that I keep meaning to learn by heart so I can do it as a bedtime story for Osc
http://www.potw.org/archive/potw85.html
26) Essay?
No clue. Have I ever read an essay? Probably cos I did ‘Essays and Case Studies’ at uni, but I can’t remember anything.
27) Short story?
The Monkey’s Paw. You haven’t read it? Go now and read! http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/mnkyspaw.htm
28) Work of nonfiction?
Some of you won’t count this as non-fiction but Natural Magic by Doreen Valiente.
29) Who is your favourite writer?
Jeanette Winterson. No, Kate Atkinson. Or maybe Sarah Waters. Ali Smith? But of
course probably Douglas Adams. Oh I don’t know!
30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
JK Rowling. She’s okay but she’s no Diana Wynne Jones is she?
31) What is your desert island book?
Has Bear Grylls written anything? Or that nice Bruce Parry? Something useful by them and if it turned out not to be useful I could just look at the pictures.
32) And... what are you reading right
now?
I’ve just just finished The
Little Stranger, which was just so my cup of tea it was untrue. I think I’m
going to reread it cos I powered through in about a week and I missed lots of
nuanced stuff, I think. Layers upon layers. Really enjoyed it. That woman can do
no wrong. Very amused by one of the reviews on Amazon which felt strongly enough
to point out (disappointedly I feel) “p.s. no lesbians!”
Show us your favorite philosophical quote.
Submitted by Chicago Shadow.
"No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times greater than the pleasures themselves."
- Epicurus
And don't I know it.
