Today, this has made me laugh.
A lot.
(Actually, he really can dance, and he is a RIPPED little guy!)
And if you feel you need more Spandy Andy.
Further to my previous post, here is another time that my (lack of) height always becomes an issue – in an ‘audience’.
This is my view of David Lammy MP last night at the House of Commons.
Just a teeny-weeny bit of David Lammy was visible to me!
Luckily, his voice carried incredibly well – which is good, because he had some good stuff to say about the riots, what had obviously happened in his constituency, some lovely words about what we had all achieved etc.
By the time Yvette Cooper came to speak to us, I had managed to move forward. But to be quite honest, I think I would’ve preferred to hear David Lammy speak a bit more 
I could see almost ALL of Yvette Cooper! (ooer)
(PS – although this was in the House of Commons, I do NOT want to get into any political discussion (hate it!) this is purely meant to be about my literal view point, not my political one!) 
No wonder they're called the 'happy couple'!
I am on call all this weekend, which has been a great excuse to NOT do anything about something that was happening in London yesterday.
I have managed to avoid all things Royal Wedding, which has made me a VERY happy girlie indeed. And what is making me EVEN happier, is the fact that the media (both commerical and social) can just go back to normal – hurrah! I no longer have to cringe while I read or listen to anything at all!!
I have managed not to see the dress, not to see anyone’s outfit, not to see the apparently ridiculous hat that one of the Fergie princess’ was wearing, not see Fearne Cotton and not see how miserable they were looking – but unfortunatekly, I have obviouslymanaged to HEAR about all these things, thanks to Twitter & Facebook!
No, I am not miserable (as I said, I am actually very happy indeed – I will get extra money for having been on call for an extra Bank Holiday day, so thanks for that royalies) - and I wish them all the luck, just like I would with anyone getting married (with a few exceptions), but I couldn’t give a toss about the royals, and I don’t ‘do’ weddings generally. Although at least it was probably more interesting than when Charlie-boy married that God-awful bint 30 years ago!
Anyway, tomorrow night, I get to go to a party, which I am really looking forward to – and has nothing to do with any of it at all. Yay!!
Oh yes, and I finally finished watching Season 2 of House, so I can drag my arse into 2007!
Twenty years of annoyance with a ‘family mystery’’ came to an end a couple of weeks ago – and I finally laid it to rest this week.
When I was very young – probably about 7 or 8, my mum was very into electronic music – think Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield and the like. That wasn’t ALL she was into of course, I was also brought up at that time on a pretty varied vinyl diet of Boney M (love), Beatles (hate), Rolling Stones (ambivalent), Simon & Garfunkel (love), The Carpenters (secretly love), Abba (indifferent) and The Soundtrack To Hair (hate!).
Anyway, there was one particular album that I remembered my mum playing quite frequently, that to my juvenile ear had a track that sounded just like aliens singing. I used to love it at the time, and used to sing along in my bestest alien voice.
When I ‘left home’ at 17, CDs were just coming out and I gradually built up my collection, but there were a few CDs that I admit I bought simply because I used to put them on and think of my mum and childhood – I got War of the Worlds which was always a favourite, but I also got Oxygene and Tubular Bells simply for the memories.
So, at about 18/19, I asked my mum “What was that album you used to have with the aliens singing on it?” and she looked at me like I’d just murdered a family pet “Aliens? Aliens singing? Why on earth would I have an album of aliens singing?!”. So, I tried to sing it…difficult to sing an electronic song that you last heard half your lifetime ago that doesn’t actually have any lyrics.
This obviously meant absolutely nothing to my mum, and she dismissed it with a well-rehearsed glare.
Over the years, I have heard this particular track in my head many many times, but never heard it anywhere else. And even with the fantastic invention of the internet, how do you find a track that has no words?
There have been occasions when I have thought I am on the verge of remembering it, or finding it, and none more so than a couple of weeks ago when I was watching Dog Soldiers with The Man.
As we were watching, a piece of classical music started (just a piano) that was vaguely familiar. I realised I’d heard it a few times – but then suddenly realised that in my head, I was hearing it electronically. I sat up suddenly and reached for my laptop.
This wasn’t the aliens singing track of my memories, but…it was the track before it on the album!!!
I crossed my fingers and typed “Dog Soldiers Soundtrack” into Google. Result! I found a listing that included Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Hmm, that sounded familiar.
I typed “Clair de Lune” into YouTube and found the exact piece of music that had been in the film.
So, from there I typed in “Electronic Debussy Lune” into Google and started sifting through the results.
I got a link to my favourite Last.FM of all things! Isao Tomita meant nothing to me, but when I clicked on the sample, that was it! That was the album!!
It was only a couple more clicks that helped me get to this video. Listen to the whole thing for a taste of my childhood, but especially listen from 1:20 to hear what I believed were the singing aliens.
Obviously, the first thing I did was go onto Play.com and find the exact album that my mum had owned (I checked the track listing) and a couple of days later it was in my grubby little hands!
So, I took it away with me, and when my parents turned up for a couple of days, I sat them down and went through with my mum again “What was the album you used to play that had the singing aliens on it?”. And then I tried the electronic music angle. “Jean Michel Jarre?” she said, “Vangelis? Mike Oldfield?”
Nope.
So I put it on – and she happily joined in with all the various sounds, and remembered it all, but couldn’t for the life of her remember the name of the album, or who it was by.
"Mr Spock, bring on the singing aliens!"
Snowflakes are Dancing by Isao Tomita, you have caused me endless frustration, but you have been so worth it – even just to see the enormous smile on my mum’s face when we sat and listened to it together again yesterday – the first time in 30 years. 
(and not only are there aliens singing on it, but the picture of him on the cover looks like Mr Spock!)
Mystery solved. Case closed.
Yes, I Googled 'Silver Surfer'. This wasn't quite what I was after...
Yesterday, I took my parents out for a lovely lunch as part of my mum’s Christmas & birthday presents. More on that later though, first of all I promised them that I would blog about something that they experienced recently as they were worried about someone else being scammed.
My parents are pensioners (as you would expect at my vast and lofty age).
So, on Wednesday, my dad answered the phone and a (foreign-sounding) man asked him
“Good afternoon, is that Mr P?”
“Yes”
“Mr P, I am calling from Gold something-or-other, affiliates of Microsoft and I am sorry to have to tell you that you have a virus on your computer”
“Do I?”
“Yes, we can see from here that there is a virus, but I can talk you through the steps of how to get rid of it”
“OK”
“Are you at your computer now?”
“Yes” (even thoguh he wasn’t, good old dad!
“OK, can you see the icon that says XYZ etc etc………..”
After a while, my dad cut him off.
“Look, you might as well just stop there, I’m not going to be doing any of this.”
“But Mr P, we need to get rid of your virus”
“Thank you. Goodbye”
And my dad hung up. Immediately, the phone rang again.
“Mr P, you must not put the phone down on me. This is very serious. Do you not want the help with your computer?”
“No, I don’t. Can you give me the name and number of your supervisor?”
“Yes, I can, but only AFTER I have gone through these important steps with you to get rid of this virus”
“No, if you do not give me your supervisor’s details, I am putting the phone down again. I will not be talking to you, please do not call me again.”
“I can’t do that Mr P”
So my dad hung up again. And the guy immediately called back again.
“Mr P, you are a bad, bad man, you must not hang up on me again. This is vital.”
“This is harrassment, do NOT call me again.”
“I will keep calling you until you listen to me Mr P.”
So my dad hung up. And the phone rang again, but my dad didn’t answer. And the guy left a mesage saying what a bad man he was, and how the virus was very nasty and he didn’t know what he was doing.
The guy rang another 5 or 6 times, and then eventually got bored. No number showed up, 1471 didn’t work, and my dad hadn’t caught the supposed name of the company.
I was horrified. My dad said that the only reason he hadn’t actually fallen for it was because ages ago I’d told him about VPN etc and how you could access one computer from another as long as you entered codes and protocols etc giving them access. I am SO glad I told him about that, as my dad does all his banking online and has a load of stocks and shares that he maintains too. I am NOT the most tech-savvy person in the world, and I hate to think what they could get access to.
Then my mum said “This isn’t the first time either”. A woman called in December and said that my mum had a virus on her computer, and to go to it now so that she could talk her how to get rid of it. When my mum asked how she KNEW that she had a virus, the woman said “Well, when you first turn the computer on, do you get a little egg-timer appear before you are able to use it?”, “Erm, yes”, “Yes, that is how you can tell that you have a virus.” My mum just said “Oh, go away.” and put the phone down.
Now, I hadn’t heard of this before, and all I can think of is that my parents are somewhere on a list of PC-user pensioners. I really think that this is targetting older people who are more likely to be less tech-savvy than younger people, as I don’t know who would get away with saying that an egg-timer is the result of a virus!
I know that WE wouldn’t fall for it, and you probably wouldn’t either – but please, warn your parents/grandparents not t0o fall for such a scam! I have promised my folks that I’d spread the word – and I have now done my duty, like a good daughter.
In my next entry – food!!!
Lots of yummy chocolate!
Last week I succumb to another Groupon offer – after all, how could I possibly turn down the opportunity of creating my own chocolate bars?
So, we got a £15 voucher for £6.75 for Chocri. in fact, when I told The Man that I was just going to get a bar for me and a bar for The Girl, he demanded I buy two vouchers.
Oh, it was fun deciding what to add to our chocolate , the range of toppings is HUGE.
Our choices were dried banana and peanut butter drops (The Man); gingerbread spice and plum pieces (Me); raisins, sprinles and mini cookies (I chose for The Girl); bourbon vanilla and cinammon cornflakes (another one for me for paying!). We also got two mystery bars (which have turned out to be dark choc with lime cream and gummy bears and milk choc with cinammon and hazlenuts). Not bad for £13.50 inc postage.
It’s nice that you can get to name your bars too – as you can see from the photo.
The chocolate is actually really nice, although it’s no Montezuma’s – but I wasn’t expecting it to be in the slightest. The Girl was extremely excited as we never really buy her chocolate, so it was a really special treat. she particularly loved the fact it had her name on it – she loves ANYTHING with her name on it!
So, would I go to Chocri again? Probably – for very special occasions, maybe for presents etc. The P&P pushes the price up quiet a bit, but I think that’s because it comes in from Germany.
One good point is that they donate to a charity that supports homeless and orphaned children from the region that their fair trade chocolate is from – and have apparently donated over £31k so far. I’m not sure on the ethics of their trading – so please don’t quote me on it – it wasn’t my reason for ordering or recommending after all – but for those that are interested in it, it might be soemthign worth looking into!
Now I’m off to break myself another square of my self-created ‘Plum Pudding’
I IZ LIKEZ Super Swarm & Londonist
…well, that is what I think the name of the next badge up from Super Swarm on Foursquare should be.
And that is where I went last night – to the first Super Swarm event organised in the UK, for Foursquare users to get their coveted badges. I actually got my Swarm badge when I went to Field Day – and was so excited about it that I mentioned it in my blog back then. Swarm is for when you get 50+ people checked in to the same place. Superswarm is when you get 250+ and obviously takes some organising.
And very nicely organised it was too. Held at Jewel Piccadilly, not only did we get our Super Swarm badges via Foursquare and the opportunity to mingle with some lovely people new and old (new and old to me, not literally new and old…although I remember seeing a baby there, and there were a couple of fogey-looking types…) but Jewel also provided us with a free (rather cucumbery) cocktail each, which was perfectly acceptable and became decidedly nicer after a couple (find friends that don’t like the free drinks at these things and steal their tokens…) and we also got a REAL Super Swarm badge, and a badge from those lovely Londonist people who helped organise it.
I always get lost around Piccadilly Circus – I never remember which road is which, so I had walked in almost a complete circle (duh!) before I spotted the bar. I needed to fiddle with my bo0ts, so dropped my bag on the pavement and bent down and some guy walked over, grabbed my bag and said “You shouldn’t let go of your bag…” at which I sprung up and was ready to punch them. Luckily it was my mate, the gorgeous @kevplugz who I hadn’t seen since, ooo, at least Saturday and I think I maybe scared him more than he had me as I really WOULD have knocked someone out if they tried to nick my bag!
But I like being able to go into places with a bit of arm-candy, so it worked out well. We queued briefly to get in, and when I checked in on Foursquare, I got my ‘Player Please!’ badge, which is apparently when you check in with 3 members of the opposite sex…bonus!
The girl on the door asked if I was for the Super Swarm and then asked if I’d come far. “Yes, Camden” I replied, and she thanked me for making such a long journey. “I still got lost!” I told her.
It was great to see @adonisdemon and @jonchoo and FINALLY get to meet the legendary @BernieJMitchell in person! Just a shame I missed the apparently now-hippyish @dan_bowsher
As me and Lorna were by then accepting our total geekiness, we decided to gatecrash a friend’s geekfest that he’d organised that was going on at the Tattershall Castle, as that way we would also be able to get our ‘I’m on a boat!’ Foursquare badge too! (Lee/Lena/Jo, if you’re still reading by this point, yes! That IS where I had my Divorce Party back in 1998…although thinking about it, there is no way Jo would remember that…)
I had a brilliant evening, met some lovely people, had some free drinks and felt great when I came home.
AND….I slept all night, and I don’t feel like crap today. Life is sweet xxx
Photos of the event by Paul Clarke (Yes, I am in this pic somewhere!)
"You will respect my authority!"
OK, so it might sound like I’m banging on about one thing, but you’ll have to bear with me.
Further to my blog entry on Wednesday about Fortitude, I am even more excited than I was then!
I have had a piece published that was deemed worthy of publishing on the ‘Front Page’. This has earned me a whopping $11.02 LOL. But again, it’s not the money – it’s the feeling of achievement.
I’m very proud of myself. And I am a lot more proud of this piece than the last one. I actually thought it through a lot more, and personally, I think that shows.
Again, I was so excited that I submitted another piece that I wrote last night. This was probably the most easy-to-write piece for me but probably doesn’t hold such a universal appeal. I guess I’ll find out soon if it’s thought to be good enough.
Anyway – here is a link to my front page article published today. True story(ies) – I really am scared of the grown ups.
Fortitude - innovative?
Today I am feeling that I have achieved something.
It’s nice to start the day with that feeling – so what has been the reason for this? Let’s start with a little background.
In my old job (left 2 1/2 years ago), I used to be responsible for internal and external communications for a major charity’s retail chain (around 600 shops across the country). This explains my passion for the charity sector and charity shops in particular.
I have always had a passion for writing, and this is one of the reasons that I have blogged for many years, written diaries before the days of online blogs, and also have a few (probably dire) poems and short stories knocking around from many many years ago at home.
However, my job used to involve a lot of writing, including a hell of a lot of Press Releases. And slowly but surely, this seemed to sap my personal creativeness. I found that I couldn’t face going home and trying to put loads of words together into something meaningful as I’d been doing it all day, 5 days a week. And everyone is a critic, of course. The charity being what it was, there was so much red tape and layers of management in so many areas (as my work used to cross over so many departments) that I ended up feeling that I could never write to the best of my ability.
So I gave up any form of personal writing because even the thought of writing exhausted me.
I think it took me two years for my fingers to itch and for me to start getting my thoughts down again – hence starting this blog. And last week, I actually started thinking about how I could start developing my writing again – should I go to a creative writing class for example – although in reality I’m a bit too poor for that.
So, I felt it was a sign when I stumbled across Fortitude as the site only started last week.
Fortitude describes itself as ‘a daily magazine for being human’ and is a really innovative idea. For a very reasonable annual subscription of less than £17, you have the opportunity to submit articles for publishing. This is then put to a democratic vote as once you have signed up, you can review articles that have been submitted and give them a rating of 1-10.
The articles with the highest ratings are published on the ‘Front Page’ and others that reach the minimum rating for that day are put on the ‘Inside pages’. Inside page articles earn the writer $1 and front page pieces can earn from $10 – $100 depending various factors. Also, every article you rate earns you $0.02 (in the few days since I have joined, I have rated about 50 articles with subjects ranging from doing up an old dresser, to internet dating to the Bloody Sunday inquiry – I have read some REALLY interesting stuff!)
I love new ideas, and I love projects that really make you feel a part of something, and the thought of a daily magazine shaped democratically by the subscribers feels like a fantastic idea to me.
And that brings me back to my sense of achievement. Today, the first article that I submitted was chosen to be published (please do have a read of it and let me know what you think). It’s only on the inside page, but I definitely had that little frisson of pride that I haven’t had for a while.
Reading it again, I’m not completely convinced by it, but hey – this was my first foray into public-consumption writing for 2 1/2 years, and I shot it off in half an hour just to see whether it would make the grade.
I am so excited that it did that I have put a notepad in my bag and this morning on the Tube, I started speccing out my next article, which I am hoping will be of a far higher calibre, and hopefully make the Front Page. I have a new goal.
So, if you’re interested in writing, and want to test whether others think you’re any good, Fortitude could well be a place to start!
Vicious little foxy
Do you ever have fantastic ideas for inventions/businesses etc?
I’ve had a few over the years, but I am never motivated enough to do anything about them. and then someone comes along and has the roughly same idea as me and makes an absolute fortune, LOL.
But then they’ve put the time and effort into seeing it to fruition.
I’m lazy. I like an easy life. I’m prepared to work hard, but not TOO hard. And seeing ‘ideas’ through just seems like a lot of time, effort and even more difficult, money.
So, I go through life thinking “I could’ve done that” whilst someone else actually does it. There’s no such thing as an original idea, and I wonder how many people ‘thought’ of things like Twitter or Facebook but just never got them off the ground.
So, I had an idea yesterday that I think is an absolute stonker – but to be fair, there’s nothing that I could do with it. It would need web-design, database development, a decent marketing budget etc, just to make it real – and I have none of those. All I have is my little idea. That COULD be a big idea. And I don’t want to tell anyone, cos then they might take my idea and make it real. And then I’d be gutted.
I recently turned 40 (eek - how did THAT happen?) I'm a Londoner - mother, lover and little kitty owner.
I do the normal London things. I'm really just pretty run-ofthe-mill!
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