Boo

Helloooo? Anyone thought I was dead at all?

Nah – just a lazy blogger. In that I’m not really what you’d call a ‘blogger’ as I don’t do it much. Just felt I needed to add some updates on here. People have left the proper blogs for things like facebook/twitter/iphone apps etc. Pfft. I can’t be bothered with twitter – I quite like reading what Stephen Fry does on a daily basis but otherwise it’s a bit boring. I myself have not much to write on there. I’m not good at short updates. 

So… news – work.. still fairly normal. Well.. normal for GO. 

I bought myself a new ipod yesterday. I was so tempted by the fanciness of the ipod touch and and how easy it is to use but the capacity put me off as the biggest you can get is 32GB which would cost approx £270. As I have to admit, I prefer buttons to a touch screen and I’m more used to the classic style of ipod, so I went for the silver ipod classic. 120GB capacity, can hold many more songs than I currently have but also videos – handy for boring train journeys and it even matches my laptop. 

I’ve spent most of the morning filling it up with new music. Downloaded some stuff by White Lies. They were recommended to me by Amazon.co.uk because I own U2’s new album No Line On The Horizon which I can just say is excellent. Very U2 so if you don’t like their other stuff, not sure if this would be any different but I am a big fan of them. I’m also still exciting at getting tickets to see them in Cardiff on my birthday. 

Anyway – White Lies seem like a mix of U2, Joy Division, bits of Franz Ferdinand and maybe a bit of Depeche Mode all thrown into one. Pretty good. 

I’ll now trawl through Amazon looking for other stuff recommended to me. I find the iTunes store is also good for sampling stuff even if you don’t download it from there. God bless them. 

Me and mum are going to Bath Spa this afternoon. I love it there – best place to go on a day off also it would be nicer if the sun came out.

Twitter

Who else is into this new up-and-coming website. It may catch on. I’m here if anyone wants to know what I’m doing.

Ramblings and music

Oh good god, I haven’t written anything on here for a long time. I seem to have been a little distracted with Livejournal comms and friends on there as well as just outside the internet kinda life. (what’s that?)

I actually have a proper job. I’m starting next week. Go Outdoors – the outdoor shop chain is opening a new massive superstore in Bristol just down the road from me and I’ve got a job there starting in monday. They aren’t opening for a bit so most of the work will be unpacking stuff and making it look like a shop.

I’m graduating on friday. We’re off to Plymouth tomorrow afternoon. I can’t wait to get down there and see everyone. Obviously everyone off the coruse as well as a few others who are back down in Plymouth. I miss being at uni. It hit me that I’m not going back cus people’s facebook status’s seem to be all going-back-to-uni related and I’m staying here now.

I was watching Jools Holland musicy showy thing the other night. I just wanna say R.I.P Rick Wright. He was the keyboardist in Pink Floyd and more recently has been playing with David Gilmour on his solo stuff. He died last week after a short battle with cancer.

I also saw a bit of Elbow. For a band that have been going on for quite a while I seem to have never really heard one of their songs. They performed the first track which I thought was rather banal. It just sounded like every other white middle class male dominated indie band.

The second track they played was one called One Day Like This. It started with a great violin piece and is a really good song. I downloaded it and have been playing it quite a lot. Great track.

I’ll write more blogs on here. I think I’m starting to settle back in Bristol properly now. I dont seem to have much of a social life anymore which is depressing me but it’s so different when you’re not living with your friends with other friends round the corner and meet up daily in Uni or for a drink. The Parentals don’t seem to be as enthusiastic about things like going to the cinema or for a walk to down to the sea. The Sister is also not quite in that area, even though she is young she is college age and not moved away or got to that more student/young adult state of mind.

I’m off to catch up with blogs now.

Balloons

It’s Bristol Balloon Fiesta this weekend!!

I’ve just been watching a load of them fly over from the upstairs window. From there you can see them coming out of Ashton Court and going across Bristol. It’s a wonderful sight. As well as beautiful coloured and stripy ones, there are the weird shaped ones. Amongst those I saw – a house, a barrel with something written on the side, and a fire extinguisher. There was also one which, as it was coming up above the trees looked like Sonic The Hedgehog. However, as it came closer, it turned out to be a crocodile type creature with a big open mouth, spines down it’s back and big googly eyes. Bizarre!

I’m off on holiday on Monday. Just down to the same old South Allington. It should be fun this year as there are quite a few of us in our pitch. Mum’s friend is joining us with her son and a friend plus my sister’s friend so lots of people. I haven’t decided whether lots of teenagers is a good thing yet or not.

Hopefully I’ll take some many many good pictures. I want to get up really early one morning and go down to the beach and take photographs. There is so much out at 6am I want to capture it.

I’ve also got an interview tomorrow for HMV. I’ve been practising my interview questions so hopefully there won’t be anything that takes me by surprise too much. Wish me luck!

One last thing – check out this new album by a wonderful musician called Steve Jones. It’s available for free download here. I recommend it.

Steamy

I went on this steam train yesterday. Quite by chance, we were coming back from Weston-super-mare with all the T4-on-the-beachers and because of all the people, they needed extra trains. I was able to get on this one with a normal FGW ticket to temple meads.

Love it!

How to…use Condiments

Guy Browning
Saturday July 12, 2008
The Guardian

English food leads the world in the variety and richness of its tracklements, ie tasty little relishes. Most cuisines work on the basis that you start with tasty food, whereas we traditionally boil up some tasteless food and then add a powerful, overwhelming taste on the side of the plate. These tracklements are the underarm deodorants of traditional cooking.

English mustard is basically napalm with colouring. Its function is remarkably similar in that it is designed to burn away the inside of your digestive system so that you won’t notice anything that comes after it. That’s why it’s so popular with British beef, which used to be little different from the part of the animal used to make shoes. By contrast, French mustard tastes like the mouth of an aged French lover.

All roast dinners have their traditional accompaniments. Mint sauce is commonly associated with lamb. This is like having your after-dinner mint during dinner. Horseradish is the English vindaloo and its consumption is a traditional test of manliness in remote rural communities. The only antidote to the bite of the horseradish is the firm application of a yorkshire pudding compress to the affected area.

Redcurrant jam has never made it on to toast. Similarly, you don’t hear about marmalade on roast pork. If you find yourself having onion marmalade for breakfast, something has gone terribly wrong in your life (although there are some legitimate cross-dressers, such as Marmite, which swing between toast and stews).

British cheese and pickle should, in fairness, be called pickle and cheese. For the French, the notion of cheese being in any way secondary to its condiment must seem as surreal and barbaric as shaving one’s legs. Chutneys are generally embalming fluid thickened by apple and sultanas. Like pillboxes, they are relics of wartime. Indeed, there are some jars of chutney that have been in continual circulation in bring and buy sales since the war.

Tomato ketchup is the lubricant on the slippery slope to obesity. It’s highly likely that anything you put ketchup on is also likely to be bad for you. People often imagine that a dose of ketchup counts as one of their daily fruit and veg, but sadly it qualifies about as much as a pear drop.

Links

It’s raining here…. I’m bored.

I found some links to keep people entertained during long wet days so here you go.

Essential Life Lesson

Need some stories…

Desmond

I am now Lucy Deas BSc hons.

Isn’t that cool? I got a 2:2 in my degree. It was only 2% off being a 2:1 which is a bit annoying but good mark anyway so can’t complain. Everyone else I’ve spoken to did very well too so I’m pleased for them.

That’s it now. We don’t graduate till September. I can’t wait really to get my gown and hat and all that. Feel like it’s all been worth it. Apparently I’m the first one in my family – well second to my cousins a few years ago but im my immediate family to get a degree. My dad left school when he was 16, mum went to college and started uni but then dropped out. She told me last night that’s she’s never told either me or my sister that because she thought she might influence us and might have the wrong effect. I told her that would have made me more determined not to end up like her.

Among my morning net surfing I came across this video by a internet friend of mine. Check it out – it’s really very funny. They deserve some publicity.

I’m off to apply for more jobs.

TTFN

Comedy and parties

I’ve been ab it busy last week organising my dad’s 50th birthday. He’s been building a boat for the last 8 years but it’s nearly done now and actually looks boat shaped and as it was his 50th on Saturday, we thought we’d have a casual glass of bubbly and some cake in the shed where it is currently being finished off.

We decorated the shed with loads of bunting and had loads of fairy cakes with pink icing on them. Very twee don’t ya know.

On friday night, I had tickets for Russell Howard at the comedy box in bemmie so me and dad went to that as a sort of pre-birthday outing. Russell was so funny!!! Would recommend for young and old as he definitely appeals to both. The comedy box is really small – a room above a pub reeally so we were really close. He’s so short in real life. So cute. It was a show testing new material for his tour in the autumn which I am also seeing him in the Colston Hall. I’ll be much further away but I hope I’ll still come away with my face hurting from laughing so much.

What else… well still looking for a job. I’m just looking for something that pays really. My ambition is to be a wildlife photographer but as I keep telling uneducated people, you can’t just apply to be a wildlife photographer and get it and then ur sorted. It doesn’t work like that. I am a wildlife photographer at the moment in that I take picture of wildlife a lot. However, I’m not paid for it. I need to be able to find the right person and show them a decent amount of good pictures and for them to say, “those are good, would you like to work for me” etc etc.

Also mu uni results are out this week. They are released into the wild on the 1st July which is today. However, they tend to not arrive in the post actually on the 1st so we’ll see. The postman hasn’t been yet so you’ll find out as I’ll post something later on if I know anything. Fingers crossed, ey.. wish me luck.

How to… learn a language

Guy Browning
Saturday December 3, 2005

Learning a language is a wonderful thing. Once you’ve spent years mastering it completely, you can then talk the same rubbish as you do in your own language. You also realise that to get by in life you need only five key phrases: “Hello”, “Please”, “Excuse me”, “Thank you” and “I’ve lost my passport”.The first stage of learning is realising that you already know words such as sushi and sayonara. It then dawns on you that there are other words, often verbs, connecting the two words that you already know. That’s when you sign up to evening classes. On average it takes about 3,000 evenings before you’ll be able to order a Coke. You can then progress to the intermediate class.

Some languages are more difficult to learn than others. The hardest ones are tonal languages. In English, we have two tones: normal and sarcastic. In Chinese, they have 19 tones, three of which are sarcastic, so it’s a great language to learn if you want to be sarcastic with a billion other people

Once you start learning a language, you really appreciate English, especially the fact that you don’t have to remember whether the word for plank is masculine or feminine. Similarly, our verbs stay the same: I am pissed, I was pissed, I will be pissed. In a foreign language, you would need to include Pisa, Pizzeria, and Pizzicato. No wonder the British find it easier to get drunk.

Finding a native speaker who will talk to you is a big help. A native speaker means somebody who speaks the language very, very fast and who hasn’t yet learned to speak the language as clearly as you have. Make sure this person likes you, otherwise they will speed up rather than slow down.

When you try to speak a new language, you feel as though your brain is in a mild coma, your tongue has swollen to twice its normal size and your memory has been wiped clean. But remember, the natives will always appreciate you making an effort to speak their language – and giving them hours of amusement.

Of course, there is no better way to learn a language than total immersion in the country and culture. You therefore need to travel to the country, find the local expat community and attend evening classes with them.