well - i have a job interview that i have to arrange. I'm still mulling over my abillities and what i can add to the post, but it's pretty much a dream starter job in photography.
and when i say "starter job" of course i mean FREELANCE FEATURES PHOTOGRAPHER for a magazine who's circulation hits 6 figures.
If the wonderful young lady who offered me the interview is reading this - there are many G&T's coming your way and multiple big hugs.
a LOT of people i've talked to have told me i have enough game to carry this hootenany off - i just have to grow a set of balls and believe what i'm being told by people and that they aren't just patting me on the head and saying "good boy - now thats a good try, but thats all it was". Yeah, EMO, i pwnz it.
anyway.
The next Prom Night is on may 23rd - and you will all see pictures from that in due course, i'll be hitting Ronnie Scotts on the 30th too. there will be other events in the interveneing periods.
ok. have to love you and leave you all now.
if you are not on my facebook just drop me a msg and i'll add you.
i would normally have posted something by now about all the crazyness around the "teabagging" happening in the USA...... the financial situation generally and all sorts of other stuff. But there are people around saying what i'd say much more elequently than i can.
if theres a request for my take on things i'll give it to you, but i doubt you'll ask/ which is fine.
i'm just very very sad about the state of things generally. I'm watching whats going on in the media and its just sad. it's really just so damn predictable.
I seem to be back. funky new and fresh (yeah right)
bitter and cynical - probabbly.
operating at 100% capacity - definately not.
i can't remember my last substantive blog post - i can't remember the last time i actually sat down and wrote something for fun.
I've been co-opted onto a lot of committees at my bowls club (4 and counting) so my energies are firmly in that direction at the moment. alas.
i've tried to keep things upto date on the efx2/efx3 facebook group - but as always i'm behind the curve - can someone who is on top of events please step up and and volunteer to be an officer?.
I feel the facebook group with the capacity to reach almost 70 of us in one shot is a valuable resource which has not reached anywhere near it's full potential.
All in the last 4 days. i've just started a book called Metrople by Ferinc Karinthy which is going to be a complicated couple of hundred pages but hopefully worth it.
I've got a long list of books i haven't read to get through - usually when in one of these fits of verbage i read old familiar books that i've read a million times - at the moment it's out with the old and in with the new
My own work of the snow falling in london during January:
some of you may have seen them already on facebook - but well, my blog, my rules.
and 1am the previous night with a delicious red sky:
The below is a cheat from www.befunky.com and not one of my own edits, but i still think its cool :-)
it wasn't a pass/fail type deal, i just had to turn up for 5 weeks...... but we took a lot of pictures and learned how to splice them together halfway decently
my local area in a 10 picture composite panorama:
(large size here)
and, well, three of me in one shot (trade secrets, and photoshop, and a tripod, and an assistant, but still..... ok that kinda killed the mystery didn't it?)
30 October 2008 - diary post (so y'all can keep tabs on me)
ok, i've been a busy bee, and there'll be a picture post in a few days.
DIARY
Saturday 25thwas a mad one.
mates birthday - 7-9:15pm
At the Shugapush club night down Warren Street way. He was dj-ing, made broken conversation about comic books between records. Had a couple of good chats with Theo and Kid Krupa, so was good time.
another mates birthday - 9:45-11pm
Ben Crouchs tavern rock pub by the Plaza on Oxford Street. Few old faces, few new faces, good music
yet another friends birthday - 11:30pm-3am
club in Camden. again, mix of the old and new faces.
fairly dire dj in the main space, but second small room played indie/soul/motown so i slipped in there with a young lady for the last hour. Which was nice.
my heart was considerably richer, but my wallet considerably poorer.
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Sunday was mate 2's birthday meal
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monday - bowls (a win)
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tuesday bowls, twice (two losses)
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wednesday lazy day in avoiding important paper work, future descisions, and making doctors appointments. Watched an animated documentary about a penguin who enters a surfing contest.......... "Surfs Up", very good movie. More in it for grown ups though - Jeff Bridges seemed to be reprising his role as "the dude".
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thursday Library to sign up for/check availabillity of courses
will be meeting a friend from Junior school for the first time in 15 years, she got in touch through facebook. she was then and seems to remain un-utterably lovely.
a lot of girls i knew in my past seem to be getting in touch and telling me how much they remember me and that i was always one of the first they thought of. I've never been a ladies man (til the last couple of years anyway (wink) but i've always had more female friends than male ones,
attending a guestlisting i got at a Halloween Funeral type thingy at the Soho Revue Bar as the guest of Hooligan Night - who are a great band i've shot a couple of times now.
Their lead singer is going to be in the ceremony and then the band will be doing a set.
Hopefully i can keep expenditure to a minimum, sof drink all evening, and maybe last tube home........ money is running out badly,
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Friday Massive fancy dress burlesque/rock spectacular in central london. Again a guestlisting job to take pictures - am taking one of my girlfriends who is mad as a badger (and who we love very dearly).
the Shellac Sisters are djing (again, we love them muchly), lots of my mates (who will have had to have paid the £25 each will be there). I will not be rubbing my 2 free tickets in their faces.
It's gonna be tough to keep costs on booze down, but hell, you only live once.
went to see a club night over in Bethnal Green called "Dollhouse Days Are Over..." i wasn't quite sure what to expect, i just knew a band i liked (Hooligan Night) were playing a set...........
There were a couple of other acts on the bill i had no preconceptions of (brief reviews follow of each). The club night itself promised "A haven for Punk Rock Princes, Electro Ballroom Bitches, Neon Clad New Ravers, Riot Grrrls and Grimey types." Music policy was new stuff i hadn't heard before along rock/indie lines through to CSS and the Cure (which was nice)
Miss Ruby Blues, lead singer of the excellent Hooligan Night..... Hooligan Night photoset Fab and just a bit sleezy (which we like......), not got much of a yardstick for them for influences - a bit electro, a lot rock, a bit bluesy - uber cool :)
We like them very much, their myspace tracks don't have the energy of the live perfomances (which are really fab).
Great sound, great songs, great live 8/10
Guitarists from The Pepys Pepys photoset (slight edit)
The Pepys are a good solid band - cross between Bloc Party and The Libertines, much better live than their myspace tracks suggest, 7/10
a member of MC Gaff E MC Gaff E photoset Odd, just very very odd. Foul mouthed antipodeans with CSS pretentions. Strange stage antics, fowl lyrics..... yet oddly compelling in a way that is desperately unhealthy, 7/10
but spent this evening (monday) at the Theatre. Watched a play.... The 39 Steps.
It's a revival of a stage adaptation from a few years ago, but it's not staged as a thriller - but as a rip roaring comedy. It is staged like a student play - chairs and a ladder for a bridge in a climactic scene, hand held squares for windows, 4 actors playing millions of roles. But trust me - it works.
And i'm not just saying that beacsue one of my friends was pplaying the lead (Richard Hannay) tonight, the Charachter of Hannay seems to have his own myspace which gives you a flavour of the tone:
http://www.myspace.com/love39steps
I hadn't been to the theatre in ages - but have remembered what i missed the last couple of years. I'll have to pick up a ticket to a matinee or two before the end of the year.
ok, i got some news............... i've made my first bowls final of the season.
i won a marathon semi-final that went all the way to 21-20 in my favour. it was entirely my fault that it was that close, i slacked off a bit in the middle, but in the end i had to come from behind on the last possible end to record the win by playing a great takeout shot.
It's my third semi in that comp in the last four years but my first win. YAY ME.
in other news...... welshpixie has a definitive lowdown on the ups and downs in our little community.
AND....... also has a post on renaming our collective consiousness. i have dibs on...........................
i'm ok, feeling a heckuva lot better, but thats all still relative
i've got no money at the moment so unfortunatley no tales of clubland derring-do lately.
i seem to have missed all the excitement over downtime. i hope no ones lost anything. i've just done a full 50 entry a page html back up. will do the sourcecode back up later/
IF ANYONE HASN'T JOINED the EFX2 facebook group (just search "efx2") now's the time - great way of staying in touch during downtime and a one stop shop for peoples alternate blogs
11 May 2008 - good photo newsy type blog.............
ok - i take pictures, i have done for a year with what is by now a very dead entry level camera that i have ragged to death in clubs and around town.
It has been replaced with this....................... a Canon EOS 400D 10 megapixel camera :-)
and it's lovely.
seriously.
really really
lovely
There is a terrible terrible pain aspect though to all the pleasure it's given me - which is essentially i'm re-learning everything from scratch, And well - learning a massive amount of new stuff too, It's going to be an uphill slog for the next few months, but i'll keep you all updated.
here are some of the first entries in the the DSLR fray:
ok, yours trully at a famcy dress party the weekend before last.
i was attempting che, who morphed into fidel who became generic south american military type.
Outfit essentials - khaki shirt, beret, dark specs, cigar and can of beer. well, ok the can of beer is not entirely inkeeping, and the ceremonial sword is from a pirate.
I distributed medals to many many people, and won much loyalty for the medals. Although the cat's medal was for best in show - rather than unfailing loyalty in the cause of "the people".
there are some rather interesting conundrums of a relationshipial nature to come out of the party - and there is going to be a members only post coming soon on such.
firstly - i hope each and every one of you is well. You have to hunt me down on facebook or msn these days and bitchslap me for neglecting y'all.
msn= zathras_2260 @ hotmail.com
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basically lifes been hectic, have taken lots of pictures at lots of events and venues, done another london shoot and most of it paid for by guestlisting :-)
i really have a tonne to say and nothing to say at the same time, so i'll leave it at this for the moment.
A couple of snaps i haven't posted before, and a youtube vid that makes coldplay bearable.
a night shot in the heart of Soho
DJ78 picking another tune at the Bakelite Bop
and an immortalisation of coldplay by one of those lovely youtube geeks:
ok, i've been teasing this news for a while, and i can finally reveal it...........
I AM IN PRINT
Yours truly was approached some weeks back by the photography editor of a national magazine to use one of my pictures from the White Mischief club night i attended a while back. Naturally i agreed - and have been holding my breath since - when today i turn up at the newsagents to flick through the latest issue of the mag and there is my picture, on pg 68 :-)
The article and picture (mine being top right - and that is my name by it) are in a magazine called Bizarre (not work safe) and it's billed as "The Worlds Biggest Alternative Culture Magazine". It basically encompasses fetish, alternative lifestyle, twisted sub-cultures, counter culture, freaks, geeks and some stuff generally seen on rotten.com. It's on the News Stands now in the UK - and anyone who wants to see the small article that directly relates the photo can be found in large size in the link above the picture.
The article about White Mischief is part of a wider 5 page spread on Steam Punk (explained in the article above).
yours truly logged into his flickr account today and found a message - nothing unusual about that. The message contained good news - i like good news, there hasn't been enough of it recently.
The message said
"congratulations - one of your pictures has been shortlisted for inclusion in the next edition of theschmap.com guide to paris".
Completely out of the blue - i'd never even heard of schmap.com (but, of course - they are now my favourite online travel guide)
the picture on the shortlist is this one of the Opera at the Bastille -
there is no voting involved, it's an editorial decision at the Guide from what i gather, but heres hoping - i'll let you all know if it makes it.
this weekend yours trully has been guestlisted at Hellzapoppin, Stitch'N'Bitch and WhiteMischief.
Hellzapoppin was tonight - i was asked on the strength of my Shugapush photos to do the pics for the night, i'm trawling through them now and it's gone better than i thought. I was bricking myself to be honest - i saw the size of the venue and really almost lost my nerve. It was a HUGE room, and my lil camera only has a dinky built in flash - but, i think i got away with it, It wasn't as much fun as usual taking all those pics, but enough seem to have come out reasonably - i need a better flash before i try something like that again.
Stitch'N'Bitch - Now, i have no idea what the heck this is about. It's something to do with knitting, Why am i going? - thats a good question, the lovely Shellac Sisters wish me to document their presence,
White Mischief - is an "eclectic" idea being put together at the Scala in Kings X. From Vaudeville to circus to burlesque to indie music to 78rpm 1920's. Again, i'm there for the shellac ladies.
British Sea Power are headlining, but i might be missing them :(
The actual schedule for tomorrow is going to be interesting, I gots to be out about 10:30 or so, stay at the knitting thing til 4 or so, run home, change then go to a friends housewarming/birthday from 7 for a couple of hours and then go to white mischief til 2 or so.
ugh.
Lucha Britannia's mix of insane luchador wrestling, cabaret and burlesque. This is a post by itself - but will suffice to say that the wrestling was awesome, the burlesque was fab and the cabaret awesome.
SATURDAY was shugapush - but alas i don't have any Burlesque pictures as i had to skip out half way through for my sisters birfday meal but there as, as ever, dancing -
after the past few days, despite a frantic tidy round and vacuum session - a family day for sisters birthday. Gran, aunts, uncles, munchkins and nibbles. Sis got a LOT of toblerone and some cool cd's and dvds.
this is my regular mea-culpa post - sorry i haven't updated, sorry i haven't been to your blogs, sorry i haven't commented anywhere - and in short order i will return to the naughty bloggers corner and reside in my bought and paid for seat of shame.
however....... we do have some house keeping to do:
and we shall do that of the community first - most of you will know (because i'm the last to update) that there is a great scheme afoot for a book singular or plural to be put together by members of the efx2blogs community. You can submit short stories, poems, recipes and artworks or photographs.
For details see the efx2cafe.
I will be submitting a couple of photographs and vainly hoping they make it :(
the house keeping of yours truly is thus - i may have some super mega awesome wonderful news in the next week or so, I'll let y'all know as soon as it's safe for me to do so without looking like an eeejit if i doesn't happen.
and in other news - i've been cleaning the house and washing windows for the last few days, managed a game of bowls in there somewhere but i don't really know how i found the time. The garden is a wreck and my mum is realy getting on my last nerve - but now that she is back at work after half term i'll not feel like bludgeoning every hour of the day,
Some sad news - the honorary president and life member of my local bowling club (the one i was with 15 years) has died. He had been in bad health for quite some time, his wife and son passed on earlier this year. The funeral is wednesday. He will be missed.
But i have the rest of this week to look forward to - and i'm in a position where i have to turn things down :( (anyone fancy being my representative on earth for a night?, the pay is shit but the craic is good)
Thursday - Shellac Sisters at Gaz's Rocking Blues (may not be able to do this, but the shellacs need pictures....... arghhh, decisions)
Friday -Lucha Britannia Night of Mayhem, an allnighter 9pm-4am of lucha wrestling, cabaret, burlesque comedy, drinking and dancing. (ticket booked)
Saturday - a girlfriends get together and birthday drinks at hers mid PM, 9pm my sisters birthday meal, after that it's shugapush.
Sunday - arsenal on the television and sisters family birthday gathering.
it's never too early in the week to talk about Friday and even more when it's Woza Friday :)
Now, you are probably all asking how Wozza gets his own Friday :) ?????- and it's a good question, and i'll bet some are curious as to how i got onto the Woza tip anyway????.................. i'm glad you asked ;)
I think I've explained - or attempted to- at least - the genesis of the Wozza moniker. But for the recap - it started as just a phonetic sound Woz-a (occasionally prolonged) i was using periodically as a bit of nonsense (before the Budweiser Adverts),
Eventually i had to spell the darn thing and came up with "WOZA" - but when it was written down no-one pronounced it correctly so i had to go to a double Z.
Now onto some actual etymology - by chance after i had used my word for some time i discovered there was a South African play called Woza Albert from 1979. Woza is not a Christian name in that context - it turns out it's a meaningful word - and a Zulu word at that. "Woza Albert" translates (loosely) to "Rise / Come Forwards Albert". Since then i have searched for a definitive definition of Woza, but i can only seem to find invitations to advance/rise/come celebrate - and all in positive and friendly contexts - so when your's truly was looking for something to call his blog it seemed a nice way to go - to actually name it with an invitation to come hither.
Funny Wozza Fact - i am pretty much the only Wo(z)za on the world wide web not to either South African or have Warren as a christian name - and believe me i've checked,.
And - that - in a rather round about way leads me to Woza Friday - which is actually a song by a south african group originally recorded in the late 70's the song itself because of it's mix of English and Zulu ran into much trouble during the apartheid years with the white South Africans and even with some Zulu purists.
It is a song about a man longing for Friday to come after a hard week - but no sonner than it does monday comes again.
The Lyrics (with translation) Woza Friday - Juluka with Johnny Clegg
Webaba kunzima kulomhlaba (Oh Father it is difficult upon this earth)
Webaba lomsebenzi uvukile (Oh Father this work has awoken)
Webaba nemali ayingeni (Oh Father the money is not coming in)
Engathi leliviki lingaphela (It is as if this week could end)
Ngithi woza woza Friday my darling (I say come, come Friday my darling)
Woza Friday umsebenzi uvukile (Come Friday, work has awoken)
Woza woza Friday my sweetie (Come, Come Friday my sweetie)
Woza Friday ilanga lingiqomile wena (Come Friday, the sun has chosen me)
Goodbye I'm going now I'm going
Tomorrow monday
Just Press Play to Listen to a streamed version.................
if you want a high-res version drop me a comment and i'll hit you up with a link,
do you ever feel like theres just one big fucking loop.............. and that your right outside of it? That you go somewhere and do something for so long - but theres things "everyone else" knows that you don't?
and that what makes it worse is that you thought you were in the loop - or whatever loop there was to be in.
A couple of hours ago i was eating a beigel in london's trendy Brick Lane after schlepping from Liverpool Street Station...... my companions were an ace marketer/advertiser, a professional photographer, and an NME favourite (currently sporting Amy Winehouse eyebrows) with her tour manager.
The only problem i have with media-land (for it is shoreditch/dalston)......... it takes an hour and three quarters to get home.
the actual plain text blogging mojo hasn't really caught up woth me for a while, i can only apologise. I've wanted to get a few things down but haven't been able to put them in a way i want.
we have finally got a colour printer that can handle photos - i'm still working out the kinks, and they aren't great on A4 size yet, but who knows come chritsmas time i may be offering to ship Wozza original photos around the world for framing ;)
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I wanted to do a political piece today but couldn't get the technicalities straight on the page regarding a new law the Government here wants to pass. I might have another go in a couple of days.
I'm listening to some old Bluegrass music at the moment - about 1930 or so. The kind of stuff that was on the O'Brother Where Art THou? sound track - but delving a bit deeper than just the sound track and it's worth it.
Little Maggie (With A Dram Glass) and Bamalong Blues are really good tracks.
I've also got a lot of African music on rotation at the moment - Africando All Stars, Vieuz farka Toure, Baaba Maal, Femi Kuti, Orchestra Baoba are all worth checking out.
Japanese wise - Dragon Ash, Stance Punks and Polysics at the moment.
I haven't been enthused by the line up for teh wwe pay per view on Sunday and didn't buy it - i won't buy the replay either.
My soccer team is top of the english leage.
I haven't rejoined to play bowls indoors yet this year, will have to soon though.
It was lil cousin mollys birthday today - she got lots of cool stuff. A pink bike with stablilisers, a doctor who toy (k9 remote control thing), some "my little pony's" and roller skates.
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the shellac sisters had a gig at the London Design Museum - to celebrate the late evening opening of a few of the exbibitions - this month the star attraction was Zaha Hadid (of who's exvibition i saw nothing) as the upstairs entertainment was too good :)
On just before the shellacs were a couple of ladies doing some cockney cabaret in old fashioned music hall costume - it was a low tech singalong of Cockney hits from an A3 flip chart - along with the Lambeth Walk we were encouraged (although some didn't need it) to sing along to the Minder theme tune and the Only Fools and Horses theme, weird act that came off very well in the end.
My friends the Shellacs didn't get a very long set, less than an hour, but they had people up and dancing and rolled out a few classics :-)
a couple of of girls get into the swing of things:
JAne, Theo and Jenny Shellac with their gramophones
This evening was spent much more pleasently than most - i had the fortune of meeting the one the only.......... Chandra Moon before she headed back to Bristol.
I have to say - and this is the highest compliment i can pay any blogger - Chandra was exactly as i imagined from her blog...... funny, charming, honest, engaging (that was just the start of the list).
We went to pizza express at Victoria - i heartilly recomend pizza express :)
There were a couple of hours to kill before her coach back to bristol and the time fairly flew by - pretty much evreything under the sun was talked of - i think we covered just about every topic - edited highlights - travel, food, family, music - and more
we downed a bottle of wine between us, laughed, ate Italian food and then struggled through our respective deserts - helping each other out along the way. Chandra had Banoffee Pie and i had a tripple chocolate sunday (it was scrummy)
Chandra And Banoffe Pie
i saw Chandra to her coach and wandered off down the thames and i took some pics:
1 October 2007 - untimely return of a domestic god.....
so it's gone midnight and i've just washed the floor. On my hands and knees, with my good washing up gloves, and while wearing my nice brown slacks - both of which are now half way to ruin.
I'm waiting for the floor to dry before i tackle the cooker top. It's gonna be a nasty job :(After that i'm probbaly going to be wiping down the kitchen sideboards and work surfaes,
all of this generally happens at the dead of night when something is up, and well - again somethings up, my gran is back in hospital tonight and i'm waiting by the phone to relay the family messages.
started off at Hannahs going away to china drinks:
hannah and myself at her drinks (she wanted to be there...... honest guvnor)
she has a very lovely friend called Rachel, who is so easy to scheme and bounce ideas with...... last time i saw her we devised the official rules for crashing houseparties, this time we created her path to tabloid stardom via professional Blondness.
Ok, so more pics from Shugapush taken by my own fair hand........
26 September 2007 - Saturday spiel and a saucy pic
ok, sorry this one has been a few days in coming - am very ouch at the moment :(
got out on Saturday to two events - the lovely Hannah's going away to china drinks. It seems that she solitarily finds it a good idea to go to china and attempt to find a job without a word of the lingo, but hey ho. I gotta say however, i love her to bits - and not just because my ego is mahoosive now. Apparently - I'm sweet, cute, funny, adorable, wonderful, mature, awesome and deserving of a fine young lady - who she may or may not set me up with, that all got a bit hazy after a while. It was a long drinking session.Is awkward when at her drinks i get pulled aside for a heart2heart and a string of compliments - le'sigh
I think i'm sparking with her crowd - which is an almost unknown quantity to me, met a couple of them the other month and were stil hitting it off. H left me under instructions to look after them....... again, awkweird as i've known her four months and her friends less.
and Shugapush was the late evenings entertainment, will post a few more in the next post, but will leave y'all with this.....
i won my match tonight against the club president, and i advance to the final of the Handicap Singles* to meet JS.
i've won three matches to get through to this final and not needed my handicap advantage in any of them. i made the final against all comers including thrashing the clubs overall open champion (BA).
First Round -
Wozza 21 - 14 GL (we both needed 21)
Second Round
Wozza 21 - 7 BA (i needed 21, he needed 29)
Semi Final
Wozza 21 - 11 El President (i needed 21, el pres needed 23)
SO.............. on either Saturday or Sunday night i shall be able to report back as to whether i am a champion in my first season at my new club, or whether i merely add "Runner Up" to my other two semi-finals and three second rounds.
For what it's worth i will need 21, and my opponent 27 as he has to give me a six point head start.
* The handicap system acts as a balance to enable better players to play on a more even field with those less skilled. to do this, the target score of the better player is raised by a predetermined number, their handicap ) so that they have to play a harder game. the points of the poorer player remain unaffected.
This is the same as making an athlete run a mile when someone not as fit only has to run half that distance to win a contest between them.
The ratings for each bowler are decided in one of two ways - a competition win allocates a player a certain ranking for the following season, as does a runner up slot. Alternately if someone does not place top-two their handicap rating will be decided by committee.
The handicaps only apply in this one particular competition out of the clubs 7 competitions. The others are played on "Open" rules - both players are engaged in a race directly to 21 shots and no account is given to one players weaker status over another.
so, it's an update you want then?............ youv'e come to the right place.
Bank Holiday monday spent in lazy fashion. Met cousin liz in the afternoon for coffee, cake and chat. Her exam rexults weren't great, and we had a long chat about that, and multiple world domination plans
Tuesday - dad and I lost the two-wood pairs semi final. I had a stinker, but dad played well. I could not do a thing right after having two great games. grrr.
I'm playing another semi-final on Monday 3rd at 3pm (wish me luck)
Wednesday - Fixed up a new laptop and wireless internet connection for a friends mum. Took several hours, most of which was niggly little jobs like registering new software and a chat to the broadband company.
Thursday - nada
Friday - lazy then hectic.
A friend i haven't seen since sixthform (but kept in vague touch with) is headed to NEw York for a couple of years so i headed into town for her leaving drinks. There were going to be a couple of other poeple from back in the day attending so i wouldn't feel tooo out of place - but they didn't show.
The first half hour or so was pretty grim - we spotted each other as we were walking in, and had a very nice catch up chat, but i didn't know anyone and was gonna skip out early on. I realised there was hope when i was at the bar and one of her girlfriends engaged me in beard-centric conversation (she wished she had one, apparently), i thought with conversation like that it was worth hanging around.
We get back to the tabela nd a bloke beside me strikes up a movie conversation, and there was some general facebook-based banter which was good fun. One of the smokers taps me on the shoulder and a group of us head out to the quiet (i don't smoke, but i chat, sue me) - had a really nice chat with some more of the peeps and the evening is looking bright.
We move onto a nice Thai restaurant and the 9 of us have to wait to be seated for a while, we pass the time outside in highspirits and peculiar conversation so random as to be just riffing on and on.
Sarah is in the blue dress, and i'm behind the camera. I wasn't the only bloke - but the three of us were heavily out numbered, i was behind the camera, and the other two were having a sly fag i think.
my awesome ginger and chilli beef with spring onion
anyways, was an awesome night, i have some new friends, and might be meeting again before sara goes (she might be delayed a week :( )
after a heavy friday night i was tea-total on saturday night, which is of course the monthly and inimitable Shugapush club
I got in free courtesy of having affiliation to the shellac sisters (photographic division, and no i don't have to wear a vintage couture frock)
our venue for the evening, and new permanent home is Positively 4th Street:
Our host, as ever is the irrepressible Pete -
The Shellac Sisters on duty are Theo and Roni -
the joint was jumpin -
poses were struck -
more dancing was done -
and the crowd loved it -
there was alas no Burlesque show this night - which was a shame as i'd had great fun being photographer for Le's Appaches
and your humble correspondant was a hit with a wonderful polish lass who invited him onto a further venue (not her flat you filthy pups) but a "Hillbilly Hop" - unfortunately the previous nights exertions, and the state spent most of saturday was insturmental in my decsion that sometimes paracetamol is the better part of valour.
24 August 2007 - Tuesday through Thursday update (scotland pictures)
i got back home from Scotland about 11pm last night (thursday) - the business that took me to the Auld country was hat of a family funeral. My fathers uncle - a dear old man whom i hadn't seen for many years lost a battle with cancer that he had not shared with any outside his wife and remaining daughter.
The funeral went as well as could be expected - there were a couple of hundred people who came from his various incarnations as scotland wide publican, merchant seaman, bowls and golf club stalwart and great family man.
i took some pictures of the area they finally settled in East Fife - it is an awesome area of outstanding beauty and sandy beaches. Get's hellish cold in the winter - but on Thursday afternoon it hit 20c and the sea was calm, (sigh)
Thursday 9thNorth London Semi FinalI lost on Thursday night 21-18 to a guy that beat me 21-3 last season. I out played him and lead most of the game, but he was a lucky sod towards the end of the game.
Sunday 12th Wood Green Lost Cornish LEague final (see previous post)
Monday 13th Wood Green and Southgate Hospitals 3rd Round Lost 21-19 to a steady bowler - he outplayed me at the death, i had a wobble in the middle. meh
Tuesday 14th Bounds Green Handicap Pairs 2nd Round Lost 17-15
Blew my top with one of my opponents who said the wrong thing at the end of the game - it took 3hrs from start to end, raining most of the time very heavily, we finished at 9pm in the almost pitch black.
My partner and I led 90% of the game then when it got so dark you could barely make the other end of the green it became a lottery that we lost.
Wednesday 15th Bounds Green Junior Championship
Lost 21-14
Started at 10am, and hadn't woken up - by the time i did i was 9-1 down. I fought back to 17-14 and should have gone on, but i screwed up big and gave him game in a single end.
Bounds Green Championship
Lost 21-8
Bob now leads 2-1 in our meetings this season, a very good bowler who outplayed me through out, he's a much more consistent player than me. I had a couple of decent situations in the game but he managed to save shots - hence my low score.
Our opponents in the postseason League Final were Pymmes Park (who won the northern division) and they had a severely weakened team, but over the course of an 18 end match across three rinks our first 12 (as is) was no match for their second string.
My rink, with Darren Steve Wh, Stan and myself were Wood Green's best rink, losing only by three having been winning the first half of the game.
I played out of my skin and had a couple of bad ends - but the front end of the rink (steve leading and stan as two) provided almost zero support for myself and darrens efforts against Pymmes back end bowlers. I was bowling tp save shots rather than make them for most of the game and i bowled two of the greatest pressure woods i've ever played
the other rinks fared even worse, Pete's rink with my dad (who's not had a great season), Tim (who can't bowl on fast greens) and Eamon (he tries) were our lowest rink down 34-7 at the death.
Steve Wi skipping, Pat, Paul and Scot was in a similar position to Darren and me, leading for half the game - but they let it get away, going down 30-12
i am utterly exhausted mentally and physically - it shouldn't be a tough game physically but i gave it so much - running up and down the 30 meter strip every end and jogging back to the mark, geeing up my side, holding myself together as the team crashed and burned.
i gave up my last chance at the County U25 squad (equivalent to representing a US State at junior level) to play this final - and i played as well as i ever have done. Without the consistent support of the bowlers at the front end, and even with Darren playing blindingly it was never going to be enough/
I turned down the county because my club has given me every opportunity over the last 15 years - in turning down the county i won't be able to look a lot of people who have backed me square in the eye for a while, but if i had turned down my club i wouldn't have been able to look at myself in the mirror - on that the decision was made.
Wood Green still finish the season as divisional champs south - which is a blessing considering the shocking state of our green and the patchwork nature of our squad.
29 July 2007 - and they just figure this out..............
ok, i think there is a shit storm brewing on facebook................. and not because of the current legal case, no - it's something much much closer to home.
My age is apparently on the agenda among some - i do not know with whom. I was informed this evening (by an anonymous source) that comment had been passed and that virally the true extent of my years on this planet was dawning on people.
I don't know how old people trully think i am - there were raised eyebrows at the table when my source mentioned it. I have never lied about it - and the fact has been on my myspace since i've known these poeple and certainly since they have been my "firends" on there, and have indeed commented on said profile.
I know i've been out several times in the past when respective ages have come up and people think i'm in my early-mid-thirties or just later. I don't know why - i suppose because that clique of my friends at the moment are in the 30-40 bracket and they may think because i have a beard and don't act like a complete twat i must be their age.
ho-hum
(alas no pics from tonights Shugapush as didn't get home in time to pick up the camera - some details on the activitives will be forth-coming tomorrow or day after)
Wood Green (with little help from my last two dismal performances) are almost in the final of the Cornish Shield having steam rollered our division thus far (touch wood)
I am in the North London Thursday Bowling Association Singles semi-final.
I have got to the second round of the: Handicap, Championship and Two Wood Pairs at Bounds Green.
My next couple of singles matches should be quite winnable - i'm playing a relatively new bowler on Friday in another regional association - i should beat him. On monday i'm playing an older bowler in a club singles tophy who used to be very very good, but who from watching him yesterday seems to be struggling after recovering from an Operation.
I seem to be doing ok when i've been picked to play for Bounds Green in the friendlies and the league matches - anmd the captain has said i should put my name down more (onto already crowded sheets, which is a good sign as it seems i'll be picked)
The "right people" seem to be making the "right noises" about me - which is nice as before this season i'd only been a quite small foot note in the area but my potential now i'm playing on decent surfaces is starting to come through.
All i can hope is i make it into a couple of third rounds now at Bounds Green, win my semi final coming up and stay in the Bound Green match team after the set of local superstars and assorted prima-donnas arrive at the start of next season. When the North London bowlingGalacticos arrive.
some pics from earlier in the month that didn't make the initial cut - i don't know why i missed them as most seem to stand up by themselves. It could have been that i wanted a very tight 35 picture set originally, but these have forced their way in.
(sorry if this is getting repetative, i'm going to try and have a quiet, spend free week apart from Lucha on Thursday)
21 July 2007 - Zelle visitation, parish notice and bowls result
ok, start off with a Parish Notice - for those of you who haven't noticed our Queen is back.............. TC has returned to us. Go hail her, fall at her feet for you are not worthy................
and onto other news.......... Zelle was in old london town on Tuesday - i met her and a compradre of hers from her work in a pub in waterloo.
her and her friend ate food from the English pub menu and drank cheap cider. I didn't eat and drank nice Czech lager.
if you have read the dear girls blog you will know what kind of time she is having at the moment in her job (hint, it isn't a happy one generally) - but she enjoyed breeze shooting and drinking in the big smoke
in retaliation for a picture of myself being compromised by a statue...... here is zelle groping street art
i returned her and her friend to their london digs in good spirits
in other news - yours truly has won 3 of his last 4 bowls matches. I'm in the North London semi final, the second round of Bounds Green's Handicap and Championship cups.
yay me.
I'm happy with the way I'm playing in singles at the moment - i sucked big time Thursday night in the fours league tho :(
and a London skyline pic (best viewed and linked to as full screen, just click on it):
last thursday -
went to aunts in the mid-afternoon to sort her business post wile she's on hols.
played bowls at City Of London (not my pic) in the evening. a wonderful little club tucked away in the very heart of Londons Business district. i had a bad game, and the tripple i skipped lost heavily, but Wood Green won over all 7-3.
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friday -
dropped some flyers into a club in Crouch End for RObs Country Music night on sunday. sayed out for a little while, had a couple of beers and a bite to eat.
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saturday -
bowls in the afternoon against Selborne. hard fought game, Bounds Green lost badly but my tripple eaked out a draw to finish 18-18 after 18 ends. Had a couple of beers after the game and rushed home to get ready for Theo's partayyyyy
get to theo's drinks at a pub in Primrose Hill - walk in with the wonderful Shanthi (which raises a few eyebrows) but we'd been on the same tube t'was all.
i took a couple of pics:
from left - shanthi, theo and roni
had a great time, chatted with (almost) everyone - HEather was stuck in a corner sofa and i couldn't get in, nor her out - so was going to circulate there later, but she had to figh ther way out and leave before i could get around :(
eveneing was wonderful, then got txt from sister to go to electric ball room where there was atrashy night club :) very very bad music, horrendous dj - but awesome fun. util the pint of cider and black ended up on my good shirt :(
sunday -
lazy morning, lazy afternoon when i should have gone to a music festival in Finsbury Park to see sister, cousins and friends. but i'd drunk a lil too much the day before.
fianlly got to Nashville On Thames at about 8:30 or so, natetered to andrew and T and went for food, came back paid, chatted to Rob behind the decks.
Crowd really wasn't much better than last month - the Band were fantastic Boomer Mclennan. They played an absolutely awesome set at the fag end of their UK tour to possibly the smallest audience they have had since starting a few years ago (no more than 15-20 paying customers)
they took it all in good humour and played for an hour or so, 6 piece band, professionals ended up with about $60. But they said themselves that they would only have been in a hotel room if they hadn't taken the gig. Wonderful professionals.
anyway - to the pics (full set here) :
from left - Theo, Boomer, Jenny
monday-
bit of a hectic day, had to play bowls first thing in the morning and lost - gargh.
Get home and start the image selection for nashville set when the doorbell rings - a deaf lady from across the street hands me a note - her flat broken into. I call the police for her - and tell them they will need to send a sign language translator or some such, catch the post man who is still going around and ask him if he has seen anything (he haddn't).
Have to rush to second bowls game of the day - a very tight affair which i win in a hard fought squeaker of a game - 21-18 after 27 ends. I am in the North London Singles Semi FInal. yay, i don't know who i'm playing yet.
This is the first concerted effort at landscape photography - after a couple of nights out clubbing with the new camera.
Any comments/hints/tips constructive criticisms gratefully received, please have a look at the full set too, is a little more rounded.
whining and bitching probably returns tomorrow or the day after.
this is going to be for registered members only - after a couple of friends have read it, as the girl it's about has my blog address.
at the top of the last post i mentioned i felt a twinge of regret after the prom - i'm going to try and explain why.
I've got a couple of really good girlfirends i can gossip with about this kind of stuff to, but i need to talk about this wider.
you can tune out now if you want.
i don't post about women often, certainly not like this post, but well, it's here and make of it what you will.
The Hannah i mention in the Promnight post i met on Thursday at the weird lucha wrestling thing:
she was lovely, she laughed at my avant garde heckles and i apparently "boooo" very well.
This was before we were formally introduced by Mike (who is a really really nice guy) - he introduced me as an "incurable romantic" because a couple of months back discussion somehow got to my blog and the Miss B entries - which he read and enjoyed.
She heard "a romantic" and well, was sold - kept asking when i was meeting this girl and what she was like, and time lines and why I'd held on and, well, very inquisitive. At the end of the evening we vowed to facebook each other - and i would link her to the entries about Miss B.
I believe by this point she could technically have been described as having been "giddy" through a variety of reasons, our chat, the alcohol, the wrestling, the burlesque acts - heady is a good word that could be used to have described the atmosphere.
The evening ends with HEather and myself having persuaded Hannah to come to the prom - Mike would normally have come with her, but he will be on a plane.
Fast forward over a couple of days of general facebok pleasentries.
Prom Night, the pics are in the last post, she looked amazing - funny, lovely, witty, intelligent, works at a cool place - she loved the first couple of chapters of the Miss B saga that she'd read. First thing she said to me was that i'd scrubbed up "very" well - and gave me a hug.
Things are going really really really well - a couple of nice dances, some more lovely small talk. I will have her phone number by the time the night is out definately - we have a couple of drinks, a couple more dances.
Then the thing I've been kicking myself over - and I've been looking back at how i played it - she mentioned her last boyfriend and then immediately compared me favorably to him,
he didn't do this - i did that,
he liked that - i like this,
he liked things easy, i like them complicated (referring to my blog) and she likes complicated things too.
That last one, that last one is one that got me a little perplexed - particularly given the end of the evening.
But for now the eyelids are still fluttering, her head is almost on my shoulder and i'm in a spot.
I like her and she's admitted she likes me - but in a way that i really have a problem with - she likes me because i'm not like her last boyfriend.
I think at this point i'm meant to be flattered that i'm not as much of a bastard as her ex.
what do i do now?, jump her bones?, kiss her passionately on the lips for such a ringing affirmation of my status as an individual? - I didn't run off screaming to the hills, i stood there - with her and unfortunately reverted to type - i jabbered, "yes things are better complicated than easy - not everything should be laid out on a plate etc etc".
things cooled.
we lost each other a couple of times - we bought each other another drink, and danced with common friends,i had to dissapear a few times to take pics, and she to chat with a couple of people she'd met earlier in the evening.
As i moved round and round in my photographic dutes i noticed her in a couple of clinches, and come the end of the evening she is in a full on embrace and pashing session with a guy in the corner - who i know she didn't know before the start of the night.
So much for the girl who respects me so much for liking things to take time, and so much for the girl who doesn't want things easy.
Ok, i missed my chance, fine i get it - but she must have been a hugging on two or three other guys after she pulled the ex-boyfriend trick.
What do i think of her now? - did she chase me because she thought i was a challenge?, because Mike had said i was a nice guy - a romantic?. What did i do wrong? - didn't snog her when she compared me to her ex? - when it was plain i was a rebound?.... and thats it?, she didn't try again later, in fact she found male company rather falling over themselves.
I still like here, but i know more about her now - i might try and speak to mike on the sly - but if she wanted to give things a go i'm sure i would too, but after the other night I just don't know what she was after.
We won't be seeing each other again until the start of August - time for prom memories to fade and things to be re-assessed.
One or other of us might contrive a meet for a beer in the mean time - i don't know, and i hate when poeple say this - and i'm understanding what this means only now...........
Its Complicated
i think too much, perhaps i should just act on impulse a bit more. everything i do is mapped out and planned meticulously. And i shouldn't hold people to my standards - or expect anything of them - maybe i should loosen up a bit, maybe i should take the stolen snog more often with the young lady in the club, maybe i should be a bit more active in the phone number stakes.
But that has never been me - i like to go to a club and have fun, see friends, dance and have a few drinks.
2 July 2007 - Prom - June 2007, the lo-down (many pics)
another prom has come and gone, this is the first that has passed when i have woke up the morning after feeling a twinge of regret about anything.
but that is for another post.
This one is dedicated to................. pictures and jolly japes.
The poster for this years event was:
a film Kiefer Sutherland was in.......... and well, Kiefer was at the venue a few nights before and saw the poster - alas he did not come to the event (which would have rocked super hard) but he did sign a copy of the poster which the bar staff gave Rob :)
decorating commenced at 6pm, with Lucy, Callum, Rikki myself and the Robmeister.
i looked like this:
a young lady i met last thursday looked like this:
she said i scrubbed up rather well, as half my beard is missing now and i'm in a suit instead of a shabby leather coat
together we looked like this:
well, as if that wasn't enough:
the venue looked like this:
later in the evening
and the end of the evening
I drank a lot, and was official photographer :) - which rocked. I took sooo many pictures - danced with a lot of young ladies, took pictures of everyone, the specifics are blurred, but it was a freakingly awesome night
Friday 22nd - Transformers preview screening at Leicester Square.......... the entire movie kicks 1001 kinds of ass. Sorry UK peeps, it's not out here til 22nd July ;)
That was followed by drinking in central london and then back at the local, and a couple of games of pool, and then a Kebab.
Saturday 23rd -
Bowls against Aveling Park in the pissing rain - only a friendly match, so after three attempts to reach half way the result stoof and Aveling Park won by 3 or 4.
After the match there was a wet BBQ - tarps were hastily erected over the brand new brick bbq pit and food was inside. Mixed event with the community and bowls/tennis club.
took off after that to Shugapush (where i took the pics) - it is such an awesome event every month, and they seem to have found a gfreat new home at positively 4th street.
I didn't dance - but i promised Si i'd try and make it along to a lindy refresher day at some point.
The official photographer didn't turn up (a friend of Pete the Promoter) so Pete saw me with my new cam and asked if i'd take on the honour - which i did and i'm pleased with the pics.
I got home at 2 put the pics on the PC and eventually went to bed about 4am.
Sunday 24th up at 7am to catch a lift to Maidenhead bowls club - get to maidenhead at 9:45 and eat three bacon rolls and have 4 cups of coffee before 10:30, at which point i find out i'm not playing and resolve to try my new camera during the daylight hours.
Middlesex (my county) won a handsome victory
tuesday 26th Went to Grans to do a couple of odd jobs - she seemed better than she has been for a while, but she took a really serious dip a couple of days ago.
Wednesday 27th Log into Freinds Renunited and discover that Miss B has two children........ as does another young lass from back in the day (married and serperated), another one of my friends is now married to his school sweetheart and they have a sprog on the way.
yours trully remains young, free and single baby ;)
Thursday 28th game against springfield tonight has been called off at their request - which gives us anpother 10-0 walkover and puts us firmly at the top of the league.
Probbabbly going to lucha britannia tonight - yay. Wrestling and SInister Cabaret at a dingy working mens club surrounded by freaks :) (gotta love it)
Friday 29th - last desperate attempt to bnuy some black shoes before the prom.
Saturday 30th - THE PROM, YAY
getting there early to use my mad paper streamer hanging skills. It will be a bomb, there will be pics and i wil get drunk until 4am.............. but unfortunately
Sunday 31st June 10am County Under-25s at Bush Hill Park (which is luckily local to me). This is my last season of availabillity - and i'd love to have played every COunty match this year, but the prom is something i've been planning for weeks and only found out i might be needed for this game last sunday :(
So i might have to play only 5hrs after gettoing home and with a raging hangover - but atleast we'd have a fuil team. I hope the boss finds someonelse
Sunday evening entails visting the Honky Tonk in Camden run by a young lady i met at the last Nashville On Thames - will be going to distribute flyers and have a few more beers.
was gonna go to Rocakabaret on Saturday - but didn't get down there, kanckered after Fridays pub trip - well not so much that - as the uncomfortable few hours kip i managed on the couch.
the shoe and present shopping sunday didn't go well either :(
ended up buying rubbish shoes that don't fit for £10 for an emergency wearing - and the Borders didn't have the book for fathers day.
PLayed for Bounds Green on Sunday (we lost overall by 4 shots) but we won on my rink by 8 :)
Made it out to Islington for Rob and Andrews country and western night :) the band kicked ass. Met a nice lady called Tina - who also runs a COuntry and Western event monthly - am going to try and make it down, but is the day after the prom - so will be pretty hung over, but what the hey, you only live once.
Dani is now in london, but we haven't been able to make contact yet :(
otherwise were gonna tear up camden on Sunday also.
my new camera arrived tday, and despite the fact it's going to be obsolete in about 3 months i'm still happy :D
Canon A460
* 5 Megapixels
* 4 x Optical Zoom
* 4 x Digital Zoom
* 16 x Combined Zoom
* 1cm Focusing Distance
* Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H and
Custom White Balance Settings
* 2.0" P-Si TFT, approx. 85,000 pixels
* Auto, Manual, On and Off Flash Modes
* Red Eye Reduction
* Maximum Image Size 2592 x 1944 Pixels
* 640 x 480, 10fps Movies up to 1GB
* PictBridge Compatible
had some vouchers for amazon, so checked out steves digicams and found that this cam has the best zoom and picture quality under £100, so i snapped one up. in a rather fetching shade of blue :)
side note - i think the colours and layout are basicaly as i want them. I think the main orange used as the blog text might be able to be toned down a notch, and i could lose a line or two here and there. Otherwise comments gratefully recieved. i think it's less fussy than my old design by a little way, so heres hoping i can get my profile pic back and menu with my blog counter codes. My position in the top 200 UK bloggers is at stake you know ;)
my threat to pack up and take off is still pending, i love you all but if this whole thing takes a turn i'm going for a while.
i've rescued what i could from the situation, a couple of the colour and font placings don't ring true, but i've found some of my old colour scheme in a text file i'm still not 100% i've matched the main text colour.
it's looking quasi-passable as somewhere a wozza might operate (see here and here)
i have to do the whole thing again when i want my third column back - because apparently thats just "too difficult to be arsed with as standard" not a direct quote from the forum - i have to import some design or another, fuck that - i don't want a design, i want a blog with three fucking columns and an orange/black colour scheme, is that really too fucking much to ask?
just logged in - my blog is stripped to the basics again. Fine i can deal with that, as long as i figure out how to get my three columns and old colour scheme back.
it wasn't complicated - but if recreating that has been made difficult i might just say fuck it and i don't particularly know what i'll do.
this post is basically just to warn people that i might take my ball and fuck off for a little while until things settle down around here and i can get some semblence of design back - my mojo has been fucked right off.
well i'm playing in 12 hours, and gotta do some ironing in the morning.
not long back from the pub, i've got the kettle on for some tea or warm squash and i'll watch the telly for half hour then bed me thinks. :)
pub involved several massive rows about nothing with little richard - urgh @ little richard.
still haven't spoken to Tom in ages - may not be a abad thing but he's not a bad sort
couldn't mend a work colleague of mums interweb tonight, spent an hour trying to rebuild the connection, didn't work. Couldn't get onto the companies website for obvious reasons and had almost managed to cobble together a working adsl connection when everything went belly up again.
i might have a day in bed sunday :) first for ages./
Thursday 7th June. Wood Green beat Tottenham Hale 56-35 and secured 8.5 of the 10 available points.
DG. wozza, SS and Steve Wh won by 20 shots to pick up three points for a winning rink and the bonus point for the overall win.
There was another winning rink and a drawing rink picking up 3 and 1.5 points respectively.
Saturday 9th June. Bounds Green @ Mansfield - wozza and pops are making league debuts for Bounds Green.
Monday 11th June Wozza and Pops V Un-named from Bush Hill Park.
First round of the Whiskey Pairs competition - winners after 5 rounds get a bottle of whiskey. Under Wozza guidance this has been quite a successful pairing for the last year or so, we've won a few games.
Thursday 14th June Wood Green V Markfield - Wood Green still flying high and turning out fullsides face our hard drinking rivals. The matches are usually good ones with a lot of fun and booze. Wood Green has maintained a good record.
Friday 15th June (afternoon) Bounds Green @ Pymmes Park.
Pymmes have a snotty reputation but a host of good bowlers, Wood Green have had several run-ins with Pymmes over the last few years and lost to them in the league final 3 years ago.
Grudge match for Wozza and Pops.
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found this intro to bowls n the youtube - doesn't get into the way the games are played or the league structures/tactics/rink explanations but is a good primer.
ok, so last sunday then............ my second game for the County Under 25's.
It didn't go as bad as i thought, which was nice. It wasn't too hot - i put on plenty of sun cream and drank plenty (some water) ;)
Middlesex (my mob) won as Buckinghamshire turned up short two players - so we basically won by default - but played the match any way as they had come 60 miles. Middx won 3/4 rinks - guess who's lost?....... yeah, mine.
I didn't have much to do with it - all 4 of us had a bad last end which cost us the game. But the win overall was crushing.
My guys weren't too upset - we had been well down on the rink 13-1 and only lost by 5 in the end, it was a very tough attritional game - very hard fought, i played as well as my opposite number which is all you can really hope for after only a couple of matches this season.
That Sunday afternoon was my first match for my (now) other Club, Bounds Green - i played well in a position i haven't played for a few years (lead), i didn't disgrace myself, i heard nothing but good things. and my rink was the highest scorers and won by the highest margin.
Wood Green (me) beat FInsbury Park overall last week (7-3). We won 2 rinks and the match overall, they won 1 rink, against me, dad, stan and luke, We put up a good fight and it was close all the way. When we get Steve Wh back we have the srongest rink in the club - and the competition.
This Thursday we are playing against Tottenham HAle, and wood green have Steve Wh back, it's gonna be a close game and i don't want to call a winner yet.
(fear not if all that was gobbledegook, i shall unleash a bowls primer in the next post)
should have kept everything uptodate but is now too much to say.
where did i leave off?........ ah, my weekend residence at the Buffalo Bar.
saturday 26th was Shugapush ............... it kicked mighty burlesque ass. Two of the best i've seen yet.
Theo was DJing with the Sheallacs - who were again awesome, and then she had her own slot later in the evening.
Sunday 27th - club beer, kicked mighty drunken ass. trashy pop music played very loud and lots of sleazy rock. There was much young lady hitting upon me - i have the mad drunk dance skills.
monday 28th - parents anniversary, lazy day.
tuesday 29th (actual b-day) was around Cousins house to play some PS2 and then had a meal with Niall, Jean, Kitsy and cuz Alex
had some amazon vouchers, a painting Niall did of Jessica Rabbit, a couple of Transformers DVDs, couple of cd's, cash, booze, books
wednesday - day in
thursday - Bowls against Finsbury Park (we kicked ass) followed by Lucha Britannia (mad wrestling thing i went to last month).
The wrestling kicks asooo much ass - almost knocked flat on my back when the action spilled out of the ring onto the floor - but i got to mess around in the ring again afterwards with some mad dance skills on the canvas (and jumping too and from the ropes kicks ass)
friday - day of rest, apart from getting a call up for the Under 25 County Squad to play on sunday morning. Yes, in less than 12 hrs i shall be endeavouring to justify my pace as the last minute stand in for someone. I'll probbaly do rather badly - but my soul is prepared
saturday - had a quick bowls practise session this morning in oirder not to be as utterly woeful as i might be. Also find out who i' playing with Sunday afternoon.
yes i'm playing two games in a day on Sunday - in the staggering heat. It's gonna suck. but it's the price i gotta pay for well - being a weak weak individual.
am listening to Habanera from Bizet's Carmen, and it's fab :)
i've had to give up my bowls match tomorrow night in the Under 25 county competition - my leg is fucked. I managed to stagger through the league match tonight against City Of London................. we won, (natch)
very frank discussions had about paerrilous state of club - almost non-existent despite being top of the league after two matches. It only exists one night a week and thats just not enough to justify the maintainance of the club house and green. I don't think it is - i think we should shut the green and clubhouse and play our remaining home games away this season.
but i now have some soul searching to do - i think i've said that dad and i have joined another club for weekend games, well a bowler there i know very well has told me i have the abillity to make it as far as i want to go. A couple of other people (including county reps) have said the same thing, given a couple of years bowling on a good surface - i will be purely limited by my ambition. I've got another 40 years of bowls to look forward too - maybe more.
how do i view it? - extra hastle of more games, more practice, less fun - or the possibillity of regular county level caps and eventually try to push to a national trial.
do i want to be a success in other peoples eyes?, or be happy as i am in plodding along playing games i want to play, gradually improving and seeing how far i can go while it's still fun. Sure, it's a competative sport, but it's also a massive social element. I know a lot of the bowlers my age who've decided they want to make it to the top - they are generally selfish bastards who change cliques and clubs to get ahead. I don't do that - i've stayed at the same club for 14 years, my entire playing career so far, and despite joining Bounds Green i'm still also bowling for the club that gave me my start in the game.
it's not easy, the answers aren't going to come from the sky, i'll probably just cave in at the end and start to take on more high profile games and try to get noticed, i just hope when i do i still have a soul.
well this weekend was another blur, and my bank balance isn't happy with me.
Saturday was at a strange weird thing.
a debauched guestlist only club night with a collection of londons bad and badder (they wouldn't appreciate being called great and good). There were numerous dj's and band members of assorted chart troublers in attendence.
there were fire eaters, flaming nipple tassles, a drag charlie chaplin, an acrobat suspended above our heads and a couple of stilt walkers mingling with the crowd.
i don't particularly remember much in specifics other than :
the beer was good
^i danced with a nice german girl, a lot
^i was being followed by a young lady dressed as a fairy.
^my dark glasses in a night club are COOL. people kept stealing them from my face and my hat too :( i wouldn't have minded but the glasses are prescription and i need them to see ;)
^ the girl on stilts kept tryiing to chat to me - but the height difference and music level made my our mutual chatting up impossible :(
sunday:
nashville on thames again. made more bearable by a slightly more commercial country music selection and a great band. last months were good, but this months were fab.
It was a bluegrass quartet comprised of members of former indie chart troublers Hefner, Tompaulin and another one.
Andrew can't make my birthday (he's inconsiderately going to be in sydney at the writers festival plugging his new book). (i don't get paid for these plugs you know)
Jenny shellac was there and bought me the drink she owed me from last month (i'd forgotten about it). The Shellacs ar dj'ing on saturday........... the advantage of hi-jacking a club for your birthday is you get to say a bunch of great dj's were there ;) and the shellacs are going to dig out a song with which to embarass me. which is the downside to hi-jacking a club for a birthday.
and i forgot to relay what happened last month at Shugapush - i was chatted up by a young lady off the telly and mollested on the dance floor by another young lady who wouldn't take no for an answer when it came to dancing. (i never did find that beer again)
welcome to the 286th post at the wozza blog on efx2 :)
i missed blogging my 2 year blogging anniversary which was end of march i think. anyhoos, thats not the point.
it is my mums birthday today (19th) last year (her 60th) we sent her to the Rocky Horror Show movie singalong in a posh car. this year not so grand, a bottle of sparkling wine and posh glasses case/
it's the parents anniversary on the 28th may, there are as yet no plans, but could be a large family party combining my b-day, mums b-day and the anniversary trivia note - it's also Kylie Minogues birthday.
my birthday is on the 29th may when i shall attain the ripe old age of 25. halfway to middle age (hopefully)/
plans that exist so far:
may 26th
shugapush blues/jazz/swing music and burlesque cabaret acts
may 27th
club beer music that only sounds good when you are drunk. except i like cheesey pop music when i'm sober, and always had a thing for the massive soppy rock ballad/headbanging classic.
may 31st
lucha britannia lucha libre styule wrestling with cabaret acts and beer thrown into the mix at the hottest venue in the town (seriously it gets quie warm in there, you don't want to be caught wearing too much).
and in between times theres going to be a boozy meal with friends, a boozy meal with some relatives and presents somewhere along the line.
If you are in london or around london any of those days give me a shout in a pm :)
wozza has more hats than pairs of shoes. The number of pairs of shoes being 1 - and they being tatty training shoes.
The hats include several baseball caps (varying states of decay), my blue brimmed hat, my smart black fedora, my new black woolen flat cap (worn backwards = samuel l jackson cool)
The current state of affairs with shoes came about through - ruining a pair in cambridge and not realising, wearing through one pair in paris, wearing through the replacement pair from paris and having a pair of black work boots where the sole is detaching.
ok, so this was going to be a phoenominally worked out entry on the goings on at the picnic i was at in cambridge, but i haven't had the time. USed the week to catch up with what i've missed around here.
BUT.........................
it was a fantastic day. The weather held out long enough for a great picnic and some messing around on boats.
i met:
Monkey and Nell (heathers myspace friends from colorado)
dedicated readers will know the saga.......
1 2 3 4
so, i'm sleeping, as i usually do. It's something i'm quite good a t - i take pride in my abillity to sleep, it's in my advanced skill set.
I can sleep through most things.
but about 9:30 my phone starts beeping - it turns out i can sleep through anything except the noises my phone makes when a text comes in,
"hey babes, hope your cool?, missb" *
.
it's fairly early in the morning and there are a couple of other young ladies with her first name that have my number, they are also friendly sorts - but although familiar i doubt in their first texts to me they would start with "babes".
I'd almost suceeded in convincing myself she wouldn't get in touch. i was wrong, things seem to be back in flux.
We maybe having coffee (definately, for certain, absolutely sure -ish) in the next couple of days or start of next week.
why me?. why do i do it to myself?. i know what she used to be like.
Still, if we meet and we are "just friends" - then i have a friend back in my life who shared the old days with me, and may enjoy the social hi-jinx i have stumbled into over the last year.
*real name changed for reasons of attributing fleeting anonymity
1. What's up with the Darkside and cookies. Explain yourself!
it started off really small. i don't quite know how it spiraled into this.
Just started with the little flashing 50x50 icon "Come To The Darkside We Have Cookies" i picked it up just on an AIM icon site amid a million others i used around that time, and it just stuck.
People started demanding cookies everytime they visited my blog, so i set up the Darkside Poll, and then things became a bit more serious and well................ i just snapped and started baking the darn things :)
I've always cooked and baked since i can remember, i get it from my mum who has always been a great cake cook.
2. Have you ever been to American (when, where?) and what is your overall impression of Americans?
never been, but want to.
I'm not going to throw stones in glass houses. America has it's fair share of loud-mouthed hypocritical ass-holes, but so does everywhere else.
The only two americans i hang around with at the moment are great people (i wouldn't hang round them if they weren't)
It's very difficult to give an over-arching impression - i would say they were selfish for not wanting universal healthcare - but they do want UH (every poll says it). I would say they were greedy and self serving - but percentage of income they are some of the most generous individual givers to charity in the west.
It does seem to be the most polarised society in the West - hopefully we won't have to fight for the Enlightenment again, but it might go that way :(
3. You keep several blogs. Why is that? Do you treat them all differently?
theres a chronological answer to this, when Modblog died the first time i picked up a myspace account - as i knew several of the MB'ers were there - and most of my old RL friends (who unfortunately went native and become Emo) were also there.
I didn't really like the blog interface - so i picked up a Blogger account and did my serious blogging there during the MB downtime.
Then i had a shout that people had moved over to efx2 - i signed up and within a few weeks i'd pretty much moved here lock stock and barrel.
I still maintain the other accounts for a couple of reasons - my new circle of friends (Dj's, swing dancers, rockers) are all on Myspace now (grrr) so gotta be there to find out whats happening. I blog there occcasionally - mostly it's cross posting from here, but my nights out posts are exclusively here - due to the fact that everyone involved in them reads my Myspace so gotta be careful what i say over there.
The blogger account i keep because it's where i've been posting my infrequent political posts - they seemed to be dying on their feet here so i switched them to the other account.
4. What's your dream vacation?
can i cheat and say a round the world ticket to everywhere and anywhere with a bank balance of several million pounds?
no?
um................. i've seen a lot of Europe and Australia - (asia is too hot) so i'd probably say a trip across north america (including canada). Would be fascinating to see whats happening first hand.
5. If you could have any job you wanted, what would it be?
this is a really really tough one.
if i could only do one thing a Member Of Parliament being able to vote my concience would be a peach.
3 May 2007 - return of the Bowls season :) (and match report)
Today Marks the return of the Worlds Best Damn Bowls Blog, Period!/
Wood Green kicks off it's season tonight against local rivals Noel Park. The fixture has been reversed as we (wood green) are still working on our club house.
Questions remain as to whether Wood Green can field a full team this evening, and as to how playable the Noel Park green will be. Last year the green was spongy and you were bowlin gthrough your own footprints indented on the running surface - this year is hopefully better.
(results to follow)
Match Report -
Wood Green swept the board tonight on all rinks against fierce local rivals Noel Park to take all 10 of the possble points awarded.
Wozza was bowling 3 to DG. with SW1 and SS Lead and 2 respectively.
Wozza's rink was close all through until the last couple of ends when they pulled away by 4 shots to win their match by 5.
The other 2 rinks, Skipped by PG and SW2 also won handily.
The Noel Park green was playable and the bowls rolled relatively consistently.
Questions about Wood Green's strength in depth seemed to be answered this evening when there were 13 players to choose from for 12 spots with others to come in. It was well that it were as Wood Green had to use a late substitue on Wozza's rink after SS was hit in the ankle by a bowl after Skip DG fired into the head.
just back from the Doctors. I haven't seen my own doctor in months (she is semi retired and i can never get an appointment with her).
BUt this morning i saw the practise nurse to pick up some antibiotics (which i've had more times this past 12 months than i want to count).
She took my bloodsugar - 6.7 is fine.
Blood pressure is elevated on the Top number
need to lose a few lbs again.
the problem with my neck and back has been bad since last september, longest run of the ugh-bad-ow since i was on the COnsultants list at the local hospital for it. I had every test under the sun to no avail, practice nurse and i came to the conclusion i'm just pre-dsposed to the Ouch (no shit after 10 years).
The annoying thing is they aren'rt permanent, they come and go needing the antibiotics and painkillers roughly one per month, sometimes two, sometimes concurrently.
One of the main reasons i've not been able to get myself back on my feet the way i'd hoped (permanent volunteering opportunity or such)
anyway, i don't know if i've said anything about it before, but thats hopefully that on that front.
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Mr E and Minda - the answers to your interviws will be posted in the next couple of days
questions set by the wonderful miztrz (questions set by minda will be answered soon as i can (eek) )
1. What is the one thing that you wish you could do at any given moment? You know, the thing that you'd rather be doing other than washing dishes.
But I quite like washing dishes :(
Walking around a different city, finding my way with my feet and a subway map. That makes me happy :) . Everything that doing that brings – meeting new people, finding new places to eat, drink and dance, watch the sun set in different places. (contented sigh)
I don’t really know what else to add – but the possibilities created by being somewhere new and exciting – with endless scope for new things is just an awesome prospect, and luckily I’ve had more than my fair share already.
2. If you were elected Prime Minister tomorrow, what would you immediately change, and how do you think that would that create a better UK for tomorrows population?
1) stop charging University students for learning and start taxing employers for the service provided them by the universities in graduates.
2) Become serious about desalination plants and hydro-electricity.
3) increase the minimum wage, and bring illegal workers into the tax system.
4) national network of youth and social clubs in all areas to give young people something to do other than stand on street corners or stabbing each other.
5) End privatisation in the Health, Education and Postal services – generally removing market forces from services that you can not run for the public good while making money.
3. Describe a moment in your childhood that you could say has effected the person you are today. I don’t know how far back you are angling at here – middle teens ok?. Good.
I believe it was the end of my fourteenth year – I had managed to mess my knee up so couldn’t do sports for a few months. I started hanging around with the “space cadets” – you know the ones – amazingly bright but who never seemed to be “present” on this plain of existence. Oh, they were never late, never absent – but no matter how much you saw them they never actually seemed to be “there” with the rest of you.
Well, I was one of the brightest in my year and was welcomed into the narrow clique of sick jokes, tech-speak and rock music.
The last of these being the most important – as I couldn’t play football I started hanging at their houses – and that was when I was first exposed to the utter majesty of the music they call “Rock”. Bands like Thunder (i recomend Dirty Love and Backstreet Symphony), Aerosmith, Terrorvision, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Boom Town Rats – it was all there, and became lodged in my brain, my cd collection grew and grew, and I started going to gigs and clubs as soon as I could (maybe even a lil earlier ;) )
My serious interest in music was sparked then – and it’s carried through to all the types of music I have in my collection nowadays.
4. If you could star in one movie, who would your ideal character be? Let your imagination run wild, you can be whoever you want, even someone you make up.
this is a toughy.
I’ve always liked the Swan character in “The Warriors” – tough but sensible, and with an air of something slightly “higher” about him. Endlessly practical, with a woman throwing herself at him through the streets of New York, on a quest with a small band to fight his way home.
I don’t know what, if any, of that relates to my life in any way at all (apart from having women throw themselves at me, and trying to be practical)
If I were to make up a character, he’d have to star in a Noir movie – an honest pressman (with a hip flask, sharp suit, addictive personality and great hat), in search of scoops on the mafia underworld with a jazz era sound track and Jean Harlow as my sassy on again off again fling in the underworld.
5. What song sums up the mood these questions have put you in?
terrrorvision - Perseverance (one of my first rock forays)
Reminds me of the great days kicking back with friends in the late 90s just listening to rock at it’s most British and self-aware.
Happy days.
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Now it's your turn...
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” If you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your weblog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
theres something about listening to the Pogues that makes you loud and incoherent, even sans alcohol.
ooo, and i'm wearing a brimmed hat indoors - how rebellious is that ;)
set up a wireless broadband connection for an effendi - got twenty squid :) (just about covers the overspend on sunday)
ideas for my birthday end of next month are fluttering around in my head. it might involve a burlesque show and cakes :)
i don't really have anything substantial to communicate today, but i found a fantastic blog entry a couple of days back:
http://solnushka.wordpress.com/2007/...-yourself/ found it through googling a random phrase and voi-la.
It's worth reading, if only to exhibit the level of wit and style i've always wanted, but never even come close to.
(songs now playing again)
---------------------------------------------
sunday was cool.
yours truly was his social party animal self and atteded two events.
firstly the hootenany at the big chill house in Kings X - where the glorious Shellac Sisters were plying their wind-up gramophone trade. A damn shame that it was a nice day, no-one was inside to hear them :( everyone was on the sun terrace.
MAkes it worse that i was the only friendly face to go and see them - i've been to a few of their things because Theo is of their number........... and not even T was there. She had to help set up the Nashville night in Islington.
But, the ladies and I had a lovely afternoon chatting the time away and drinking, then we moved to the sun deck upstairs - and i was in a s"shellac sandwhich" (they made me scoot into the middle of the bench, i'm not complaining mind ;) )
I could get very ised to the company of ladies in exquisite vintage dresses of an afternoon whiling away the hours drinking and listening to old music. (contented sigh)
The ladies left and i hung around for Guns'N'Moses..........how to describe G'nM??????....... hilarious is a word thats applicable.
It's four british-jewish comedians in their late thirties one dressed in Hacidic gear, one as Axl Rose, one as slash and one as generic arab fellow........... there were lots of wise cracks. And they proceeded to go through some of the all time classic rock tracks "My Generation" morphed from "Hava Nigela", Ace Of Spades (about Dave and Goliath, etc), Eye of the Tiger (laughing too hard)...... and others, was too good.
ugh, then the short hop to islington to see Rob, Andrew and their COUntry and Western Night. "Nashville On Thames" - with houseband for the night "the Snake Oil Rattlers"
Country isn't my favourite kind of music (to put it politely) but it's better than some, and mates are running the night so i persevere. there is a picture of me at the first one just been put online by Rob (the swine.......... find it here suffice to say, by that point i as feeling no pain. That was the night of the Blazing Zoo's.This time around tho it was Snake Oil Rattlers, and they were quite good - had my foot tapping.
One of my fabourite authors for a while now has been Kinky Friedman (erstwhile jewish country songster) so am trying to get into the music that way, i mean, there are country tracks i enjoy - but most f it is stil anathema
--------------------------------
saturday was spent changing the battery in the family car - whith the help of half the men in the street stanbding around with various screwdrivers and wrneches as things became frustrating.
Monday (today) was spent in the garden getting stung, beat up by brambles and re-roofing a shed in 20 something degrees.
Thursday Night............ well, ok then - if you insist (and this leaves stuff out).
you really want to know?, really?............ well, don't say i didn't warn you.
Had a really nice meal with big little (6'1) cuz Alex at Cafe Rouge - for my money the finest restaurant chain in the UK. Rustic french food and really nice booze at reasonable prices. £10 for two courses plus 1 drink.
I had a lovely goats cheese salad (salad, me?) and a couple of bottles of french cider - yay. Meal was fab, and i had two courses plus booze and coffee for £20. Honestly, go to cafe rouge.
Alex and i had a long chat about politics and the state of teh world etc over dinner - he seems to think i have opinions on mosty matters (where ever did he get that idea?)
Then it happened - and i'm not proud of it - I was exposed to something called - and i have to make sure i get this right - culture. yeah, that was it, culture - i was expoosed to it for 2 hours. I think i survived intact - one can never be sure that one will emerged ones unscathed phillistine self, but i think i managed it.
What was this heinous mis-adventure into civilisation? - it was a play and not just any old play - it was a modern one, about Poets to boot, deceased poets who often congregated in societal fashion. It was potted bio-play about KEates, SHelly, Byron when their lives intersected. Now, i can see many eye brows being raised at this point - what am I doing at a play about dead poets who's stuff i never read in the first place?................ well, you see theres this girl ;).
Yes, one of the cast members is a friend of mine, Kate from Kit Kat who is a lovely young lady - and a very talented actress (one would have to be to carry this off)
It was not good. Well, i thought it was quite enjoyable - except it wasn't particularly good. It was too long, had modern linguistic abberations, a Keats who fluffed his lines, too many scene changes, too many scenes, not enough sharp dialogue in all the "how d'you do's" and when the good zippy dialogue came there wasn't enough of it.
The play was being staged in "the round" at a small thetre in the suburbs after a succesful "off broadway run" in America (Delaware judging by how far off the West End this was) myself and Cuz were sitting on the very left hand most of the first row - and as a result were almost run over during the scene changes.
And i was shouted at by Lord Byron for most of the first Act (karma). I wasn't personally being shouted at by a deceased peer - Keates recieved his wrath as he was stood inches from us acting like an immature naif.
The second half of the play fairly wizzed by (in comparrison) Kate was fantastic - her celery patch had stood up to a Canine savaging admirably and it continues to do well. But we did learn that dogs don't eat celery - and that Keats didn't need sugar when he was trying to borrow a cup from the young lady he was attenmpting to woo (the resplendent kate)
did i mention the seats were uncomfortable, the red wine was utterly unconvincing, it was difficult to sympathise with any chrachter (ok, thats enough, ed.)
but after the (interminable) play comes the drinking - with actors no less, and well a couple of other peeps i know who came to see the play in their capacity as friends of kate.
Her parentage were also there - and well, how to put this it's lucky that her father doesn't snore. He had to be poked in the ribs several times by wife.
Heather had scootered from Pimlico, and edu-hack Mike from another teachers dinner both love Kate dearly and were (politely) unimpressed with the production as a whole. The usual happy chatting - i updated Mike on my blog (he asked) and narrowly avoided becoming a social secretary to ms D before the cast arrived.
In whose number you can count a part time apple engineer (Tom Keates) and Peter o'Tooles son Lorcan (who played byron). Banter batted back and forth - much drink was consumed and things become hazy.
Altho Lorcan believes that i have the styling of an Amish Egyptian Pharoah - which is quite possible.
Tom Keates, Alex and myself had a quiet chat about varying things, Alex's degree course, mac's, the vagueries of the acting profession, what he was in next etc.
Miss B didn't call. So what, right?. I mean, i can't know her anymore properly, it had been, well – several years.
It's not like we'll never run into each other again, we should, our little part of the metropolis is only so big – but when?.
Has she been trying to call?, did she take my number down wrong?..... possibly – and then it's just one of those things.
I mean, she's probably seeing someone now anyhow. Its not like it would ever have worked out.
She's probably busy, a job and a kid – it's not like she'll have any spare time, a teacher to boot.
Why didn't i take her number?, time's a bitch. I was late to take Gran to a hospital appointment and I'd over ran my stop by three already just chatting for that few minutes. It's a miracle she has my number.
But maybe, as I'm coming to believe, it was one huge trick played by my cruel mind on all my senses. A multi-sensory hallucination?. The hug, her perfume, the sight and the sound of her – all just created to drive me to insane distraction?.
All the missed heart beats, the dozens of extra skips in my step those days after – all for naught?
I reexamine my phone and find a message sent to a mutual acquaintance on the very day – he hated her, but so what?. The whole thing must have happened.
Which is worse though?........ a multi-sensory hallucination of a ghostly apparition from the past with a plausible back story and a new looks for the 00's............. or the only girl i think I've ever loved suddenly re-appearing in my life and then leaving as soon as she's arrived.
Assuming that the encounter was reality based – and given that she hasn't called me – and given that i bought her chocolates from Paris and given that I'm changing my phone number in the next month............ what is the only considered response?.......... I'm venturing something along the lines of ARGGHHHHHHHH
And none of you know who she is yet – must be a killer, huh?
met the young-lady-blacklisted at the Paris Eurostar station.
We proceeded to my Hotel, which was fully booked (even though had paid for it..... and they sent us to the Hotel Aris Nord:
It's in a very local area of paris, not at all touristy, which i like - being in a mixed Turkish/African area and only a couple of minutes from the station. Not dissimilar from my area in london.
got settled in, freshend up, checked the teevee channels (nothing in English) and went a-wandering with Ms Listed............... we had a lovely dinner in a little restaurant with jazzy soul music, and then we went to look at the Lourve and went our seperate ways for the evening
(lourve)
then i walked to the champ elysses and up to the Arc De Triumph passed the posh shops and through the park and had a crepe. (dodging the rain drops all the way)
The Arc
Napoleons Obelisque
Champs Elysses
I went back to the hotel, flicked around te teevee and had, for me, quite and early night.
I woke up feelin grefreshed and went to Montmartre............ via the Moulin rouge again dodging all the rain drops.
Moulin Rouge
The view from Montmarte back across paris
Went back to the hotel very wet and quite cold, had a kip for a little while and then headed back out to meet Blacklisted. We were going to go around the Lourve, but i didn't make it was really really rough so we agreed to meet again the next day.
Was back at the hotel by 7pm, and didn't get up again til 9 in the morning had some breakfast bought some new shoes (my others had been leaking, gach).
Saturday I went to the Bastille............. and had some lunch and a walk around. It was a bit more pleasent, hadn't actually rained (yet). I'd been there before (as with most other places in paris). I like the area, little restaurants, some local shops, and arts market, a lot of history and the new opera house.
Bastille Monument
Opera House
Met ms Listed again at the university, and we proceeded to a market with parades of shops undercover, and it's all very historic. (the rain again was lashing down)
Some actual shopping, and lots of window shopping later we ambled off to walk around and around and around and around. had a bite to eat at a place called Pasta Papa's. very good value. And we split again, as i went to the Stade de France to pick up a match program and scarf for the league cup final between Bordeaux and Lyon............ without actually intendning to go in........ as i had no ticket
but guess who bought a ticket from a person outside and went in:
I was with the Bordeaux fans and stood for the whole game - i had a seat, and there was no standing area, but well, it was the only way to see a everyone else was standing.
It was such a good game, really end to end stuff, luckily Bordeaux won in the lastminute with a header. The celebrations were wild. YAY.
Sunday packed and checked out of the hotel, then had a leisurely breakfast at the trainstation.
Ms Listed and i met up again at the unversity and went to Notre Dame cathedral and the Seine, and we spent a day walking through the "Island".
The sun was out, the scenery is lovely and the company grand.
Me at Notre Dame
Napoleons bridge over the Seine
Stalls by the Seine
We stumbled upon a Canadian pub that showed all sports (and hockey night canada at 1am) it served traditional canadian fare and many canuck beers. I had molson, moosehead and a full brunch. yay
Lunch and Beer
Back to the train station via some Gardens (which name i can't remember) but there were ponds and ducks and little toy boats, and sunshiine.
got back home just gone midnight Monday mOring 2nd April.
had a great time, took a lot of pictures.
But the pics of Blacklisted are embargoed entirely - and i tried you guys, even with a copy of the newspaper and just fingers showing........ but theres lots of pics of paris.
Not many of me in paris, well, none on my camera, blacklisted may have a couple of me.
Ok, i'll blog the trip and post some pics tomorrow, but tired now, 2:30am monday.
less than 48hrs and i'll be in paris, am i excited? you betcha sweet (well, amuse yourselves with that)
i did the last little bits of shopping, got a couple of mags for the trian, a diddy bottle of shower gel and a small shampoo. ALso restocked on socks.
theres so many peeps i have to get back to on various posts around the efx2'sphere.
If someone hasn't heard head nor tail from me in a while don't take it personally, i love that you all still come here while i've been such a shit to everyone else about returning the love.
you are all the absolutey bomb-diggy and i have to stop something, my side blogging in the political sphere, my myspacing, or just give up posting entirely for a while and concentrate on spreading the love back around here.
my eclectic social stylings are taking a toll, i feel great now we have sunshine, but over all everything feels rotten to the core. damn i'm looking forward to that break. i'm not even out that much overall, but with everything else
looks like my bowls club will have 6 playing members next season, you need 12 to put out a league team, (not going to happen) so we are going to ahve to find something to do like enter a single rink (4+1) into invitationals etc.
me and the family will do most of our bowls at a local club with an actual membershipand playable green, the Wood Green Bowls CLub is going to be held together as a shell organisation as best i can figure. But we made our 100th year last year a special one, so i suppose that was good enough.
i haven't seen gran in ages, it's so difficult now, logistics of visting are insane now - how can i euphamise this?....... she is struggling to cope with her basic personal care needs.
i'm listening to punk music again,
i'm working on the last part of the "Miss B" series of entries, everying is just ver taking everything else. like i said, i've beenn a shitty excuse for a blogger recently.
if i think of any thing else i'll just add it to this post for a while.
i'll trya nd blog tomorrow, but after that i don't know if i'll blog in paris or just take copious notes and photos. (blacklisted, i have the piexelations for photoshop ready, your anonymity is assured)
i might change the blog quote, my signature and the song here, but not in that order, i might tidy up the side bars here and do some other shit. fuck knows
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EDIT
i've knocked the music on the head for now, i wanted to be really self indulgent with some miles davis or some elgar, but couldn't face mixing that with this post, maybe i'll find something tomorrow, but i'll leave you with a song playing while i'm away for sure
headed down to the club about nine with cousin alex:
line of the night Honour was Kate's very early on:
"the dog is in the celery patch.... again" it is apparently the first, and best line she has in a new play about Keats and Percy Bish Shelly........... which doesn't sound promising, and from the horses mouth it isn't
We (Andrew, Alex and I) advised her that it was required to receive confirmation from the author as to how many times this had occurred previously so that she could deliver the line with adequate pathos.
but beer is cheap. I'll go and see it, and doubtless report back, if i remember anything from £1.50 beer.
Her SO is in a Greek tragedy at the Union Playhouse in Waterloo, sounds good, if a tad depressing.
Ok, the meat of last night consisted of standing around talking to Andrew (he hates being called andy), Kate, Cameron and Alex, and a mad scramble to find out the name of the bar in "the Sting" - apparently there wasn't a name mentioned according to my internet source.
I don't know how Alex really felt about it, he isn't the most demonstrative people at the best of times, but he liked that there were lots of ladies there........ but not so much that they were mostly attached.
The name of the club has to changed as of next month, as the Kit-Kat Club is a sex club in Berlin, and everything they had come up with previously was terrible.
The music was pucka as ever, Andrew hates it though, Alex was confused and Kate was being annoyed by all of us (bless her, she doesn't deserve it).
There was dancing:
merry djs':
and burlesque nuns:
and earnest conversation with hacks (Andrew) about the state of Iran............. open revolt in basements in Tehran, and people who follow you around from the Government who want America to start bombing now. It's complex, apparently, and we can read about it in his new book.................... out in Australia in June just $35 from all good bookshops (allegedly).
sorry i've been off recently, things have just been far more meh than i would have liked. It's not even like things have gone cataclysmically wrong, things just are, well, meh.
Things should pick up in just over a week, am in Paris from 29th march to 1st april and will be hanging with the efx2's very own and ever lovely blacklisted.
I'm not sure what i should let on is the total cost of a return train fare, and hotel room for three nights over a weekend and breakfast, nah, i won't tell ;)
I haven't had a proper vactation for a couple of years, and not been to paris for a few years more than that, when i was tied to doing the touristy stuf and back at hotel by 10 or whatever with the family. Now........... i get the chance to try and rock out over a whole weekend, yay.
This saturday comes first tho :
should be good.
general musing:
i'm wearing a jumper from Next that is getting on for 10 years old, and was only in stocke for one season, yet i still sometimes see people wearing them. What this says about how my fashion sense has developed over the last 10 years who can say :0
this is the first as-it-happens "just rolled in" entry for sometime.
grrrr.
had to get up this morning (saturday) which i hate doing and go into soho (which i love) and pick up a cake (i like cake)
I picked up something for Heather (who's birthday was tonight) from one of the shops on carnaby street, a metal ciggarette case with a 50's b-movie poster on it, was very cool. Except i later find out she doesn't smoke - but loves it anyway becaiuse it's perfect for business cards etc.
ANYWAY, so after i watch the football (Middlesbrough 2 - Man Utd 2) i head down to Heathers b-day drinks thing. The drinks are being held at a hotel in Pimlico (i didn't need my passport), some bar with a lot of red sofas and chairs i nthe middle, but cream ones around side, we colonised the red ones.
walked up there with Gabby and her friend , gabby was waiting a pimlico station for her friend, i spotted her, we chatted, i had a map, i waited for her friend and then lead the way.
Andy was there looking not happy with the world, Theo wa sthere (looking radiant), Rob looked smart, Roni looked gorgeous (as per), the Birthday Girl was sober (and liked all hert gifts).
I apprently wrap presents better than most men - the addition of some patterened crepe paper from papaer chase wi;ll do wonders to anything - inclduing cheesey ciggarette cases.
The presents mounted up, as did the recomendations for the whiskeys, but i went straight for a beer..... not justy any beer, but one made with water from a hill i walked many many moons ago ........ Schiehallion the spring water on the mountain is very crisp and it comes through in the beer, has a citrus hop taste, beautiful.
Moved onto a Canadian Club double rye, most i've ever spent on a whiskey double (£6.50) but it was sooo nice, very crisp and intense. Slightly pissed that it was a rip at £6.50 for a double, considering a whole bottle is less than £16, but still lovely.
Mike (friend of kate who's parents may live a couple of streets from me) turned up a little bit before people decamped, he'd been at a Black Tie dinner for headteachers, he's a hack.
Kates boyfriend's (cameron) family come from Uruguay...... buyt not orinigianlly, there are like a 100 jones's in uruguay or some such, kind of like patagonia but not.
chatted to Roni, she loved that i was going to paris - she is maintainging bbc 2's website and doing an open university course, which is cool.
Rob, Theo, Andy, Roni and others decamped for the last tube as poeple wer being made to feel uncomforatable about hanging around by staff (11:30pm).......... a few of us stayed and helped heather and Yalson (her SO) back to the flat.
Assorted 10 of us proceeded to drink them out of white wine, and sit in the garden (which wasn't cold) and sit inside and listen to Glen Miller and others.
gpt chatting to a bunch of people who turnedup at the flat who weren't at the hotel, were al cool. I was given a sticker f the parthenon but lost it. There was some dancing.
Mike (the hack) said he hated myspace (i don't know how we got onto the topic) but he is apprently now converted, and similarly i don't know how (probbaly via blogging) he was fascinated by my tale of Miss B........ and said he would start reading my myspace blog - and sign up for a myspace account. FOrgive me lord, i have added another myspacer, well, afetr i told him he could be private and control people who became friends by knowing his surname etc.
He was so fasicnated by Miss B she took up some time in our conversatiuon, he probed and prodded about possible over-friendliness, i assured him not and all manner of otherstuff was discussed.
Oh, and Kate hates "west wing", but loves the "Thick Of It" - she's got it the wrong wayu round, but apparntly enjoys watching bad tv programs that make you feel uncomfortable and have no redeeming features. pah, she's still coool thoughh, as is her SO, Cameron, he very cool.
Mind you, everyone was very cool, Heather seems to have a way of collecting cool people (your's trully excluded of course). She may jot make it t0o my birthday, i know i have to book her in advance (she v popular), but she may be home in America the last weekend in May that i might have my big shindig., grrr, ach well. was a nice night anyway/
sorry that was so long, but i'll have to get drunker and remember less next time.
sorry kids, i know youv'e been waiting for info on "miss B", that will be forth coming, but it's something i'm not going to just type up any-old-how.
It's been an absolutely hellish week, i've barely slept, been out most everyday for stupid time, and i'm sinking into a bottle of red wine
so i guess i'm just going to throw this out to you guys............... run with it, it's your blog
Miss B asks me what i'm doing these days, i tell her that i'm in paris at the end of the month - the jealousy in her eyes flashes bright for the briefest moment. More generally i say that i'm now in computers after ditching law.
She said she wasn't suprised.
I ask her what she is doing, and the answer so previously out of charachter i almost fall: primary school teaching.
I hear some of my friends are married, more have children, time has past - people have moved into new phases she seems to have stayed in touch with many poeple, i meet some here and there when recognised despite my new outer shell.
The sense of disbelief over the two of us, now chatting on the bus is hanging like a pall - almost like neither of us is 100% sure it's happening, for my part it's still that way.
All too soon my stop approaches, i motion i have to leave, she pouts and demands* we meet for coffee before i go away............. she practically rips my phone off me to get my number.
As i go past old ladies and young women with prams Miss B waves and smiles..... she tells me i'm getting her something nice from Paris.
Together again for 15 minutes and running my life?........ i couldn't be happier. :)
Miss B is still waving as i scramble off the bus (so dignified) and towards the tube station............
(next time, "who is Miss B?")
* = when (hopefully) she calls full report will follow.
