Music: Björk
Iceland’s favourite kooky fairy princess, one time fiancée of Goldie, famous for her weird sounds and wacky outfits (remember the swan dress? That was cool).
I love Björk (her patronym is Guðmundsdóttir. Try saying it with a mouth full of Maltesers – I find it helps).
“The Hunter” makes for good walking music – it sounds much better through headphones, as the sound switches from ear to ear, which is a bit trippy. Give it a go.
Enjoy!
Art: Bobsmade custom shoes & headphones
I toyed with the idea of filing this German genius under “crafty”, but really, it is art. They were the inspiration behind my own handpainted Kitty-Fox shoes (which will be featured in a post… some time later. Watch this space)
Bobsmade is a German-based company, established in 2007. Anne, a graffiti-style artist, designs and produces gorgeous, original artworks with her brother Hannes, and will happily customise anything for you, be it headphones, glasses, shoes, bags…
I have followed Bobsmade on deviantArt for over a year now, and peruse their new creations with great admiration – they really play into my great love of bright colours and cuddly animals.
Out of respect for the artists, I won’t be republishing their designs here. So please head on over to either their shop or their dA account and have a browse. Warning: you may lose a considerable portion of your day.
The Christmas haul, part 1
Yesterday’s post was a bit ranty, eh? So I’ll go back to what I promised, and ease you out of the rest of 2010 all gentle, like. By sharing some pictures of the Christmas presents I received! Friends and family alike have all been heartwarmingly generous this year, and I hope they all liked what I got for them. Of course, the best gift of all was being able to spend time with so many wonderful people (and eat until I felt sick – the rumours were true, Ben’s sister DOES cook an amazing roast!!). However, you can’t photograph the spirit of togetherness. So here are my material goods:
Lovely new red satin bedsheets are from my brother and his new wifey (Alec&Katie), whilst the St Andrew’s cushions are from my uncle and aunty. Mr Foxy was a little gift to myself – he has a heaty wheaty tummy 
Not one set of headphones, but TWO! Ben made my music-related dreams come true, by buying me these lovely over-ear Skullcandy headphons (HESH in hot pink, and red Lowriders). I’m happy to report that they are awesome.
A squeaky clean and sleepy-looking Ben, standing in the kitchen doorway which has been adorned with all our Christmas cards. He’s also holding one of the four mugs we received this year – quite an achievement! However, I drink a LOT of tea, so this is no bad thing. We got two union jack mugs from my parents, an awesome Ford Capri mug from Alec&Katie, and…
Pac-Man mug!! From my friends Sas and Matt. This is brilliant – it’s plain black when it’s cold, but poor hot water into it and PAC-MAN APPEARS!! Also featured is the adorable sugar shaker Sas and Matt got for us. Oh, and both are sitting on top of the new chopping board Beth got for us Sas and Matt also got me some cute little cupcake-shaped lip balms.
I love love love Marmite. So I was tickled pink when I opened this gift from my mum. There seems to be a lot of Marmite merchandise around at the moment, but a lot of it is frankly quite naff. However, this serving dish (and ceramic spoon) is charming. Not suitable for actually cooking in, and I don’t exactly host dinner parties (no dining room, you see), so in a moment of drunken genius, I decanted my home-made dry porridge mix into it (and spilled a lot of oats all over the kitchen in the process). My parents also got me a bar of “Very Peculiar”, the marmite flavoured chocolate, but that is long gone: it is indeed very peculiar, but also strangely delicious.
And I think that’s about enough for one day! I have so much more to show you, but that can wait for another day.
What about you chaps? What were your favourite Christmas gifts?
100!
I made it. This is officially my 100th blog post. I have managed to blog every day since mid-September, and nearly all my posts have been useful or interesting (yes? No?)
This has come at a perfect time as well, because today I need to concentrate all my efforts on finishing a lab report that I have barely started – so I thought today’s post could be a good excuse to do a bit of a round up of the last few months. And share some pretty pictures, yay!
Well, on the topic of my lab report: the most obvious milestone for me in the last few months has been starting my Psychology MSc. Since then, it has been non-stop – most of it fun, a lot of it stressful but all of it fascinating.
Unfortunately, starting my MSc has meant that I’ve had to leave some things behind, such as my beloved Horniman museum, but I still get a chance to go back and visit. And of course, there are little reminders of the Horniman all around me…
I haven’t lost all my fun though: I still sing quite frequently, and even got a couple of double bass concerts in this season (although one had to be cancelled last week due to snow). I managed to go clubbing once or twice, did a lot of cooking and baking, and had several wonderful meals out (including finally trying out Time&Space for Ben’s birthday).
I have to interrupt myself briefly, just to say that doing this round up is making me realise that I have actually been quite busy over the last few months, which is reassuring and also quite emotional. Ignore me.
I have been to visit friends, I have had friends come to stay with me, I have been to soooo many extra-curricular lectures, and had wonderful cultural days out. I even had a silly day out sledding with Ben when the snow hit.
In amongst all the shenannagins of having my brain scanned but not zapped, all the cocktails and the pottery painting, and even my first trek to IKEA via public transport, I have still managed to sit back and relax.
I have read a huge amount (by my usual standards) of books this year (so far! I aim to read a few more before 2010 is out) – 37 is the count so far, and that’s excluding all the text books and journal articles I’ve had to read for uni. I’ve dabbled with Kesey, Banks, Parker, a very special seagull, and then a whole bunch of NON-fiction (madness!) – Music from Sacks and Levitin, Language with Pinker, Neuropsych with Broks and a mammoth book on depression.
I’ve been busy, you’ve been busy – we’ve all been busy bunnies. Maybe it’s time to chill out and enjoy the holiday season? I have a wedding to go to this weekend (my eldest brother got married in August, and now it’s my other brother’s turn!), and that pretty much heralds the time for festivities. I best get this lab report out of the way, then…
Thanks for indulging me – it’s been a fun 100 posts. Here’s to many more!
Cathedrals and Goths
Wouldn’t that be a fab combination?!
No, it didn’t happen like that, but that’s what my day yesterday involved. I did two of my favourite things yesterday: sang in a cathedral by day, dressed up and danced at night. Fantastic.
I’m sure you all know by now that I have eclectic tastes in what I find enjoyable. I sing in a choir, but I also love the goths.
My day started a bit lamely – I was rudely awoken at 4am by a blinding leg cramp. I didn’t really sleep properly after that. So, around 7am, Ben and I clambered out of bed and had some breakfast, etc. He played on the PS3 whilst I tried to have a power nap, but needed to head out around 10am. My destination? Guildford!
I got in at Guildford station around 11:20, and decided I NEEDED coffee before my lift arrived. Grabbing a vanilla latte for sustenance, I headed out the back of the station to meet my fellow choir members for a lift to the cathedral.
The service was a re-dedication for the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (St John’s Ambulance), and therefore quite important for our choir in terms of getting ourselves established as a top notch choir. It was doubly important for our choir master (Leslie Olive) as one of the psalms we sang had been set/composed by him (finished only a few days ago). Despite the very last-minute learning of said psalm (Psalm 121, I will lift up mine eyes), it did all come together and sounded absolutely lovely, in my opinion.
The service itself was full of ceremony and everyone was dressed up in rather frightening black robes (I said, more than once, “THEY LOOK LIKE BATS”. I’m sure I was very annoying).
The choice of hymns (and the anthem, from Lauridsen) was lovely, and whilst I’m not religious (I am a non-aggressive atheist) I did enjoy the readings. We were all done by about 3:30pm, and everyone processed out very solemnly. Outside, waited a St John’s brass band. We got a fanfare as we drove out of the grounds 
A short train ride and I was home – I was met by Ben furiously cleaning the flat. I should have friends to stay more often: I’ve never seen our flat so tidy!
About 7pm, the Taylors arrived! Sas and Matt had come down from Milton Keynes to join us for a fun night out in town. We’d set up an inflatable mattress for them: there’s nothing that ruins a night out more than having to leave early to catch a train. So, we hung out in the flat for a bit, before putting on our glad rags and getting moving. Ben wasn’t drinking, so he decided to drive us up to the club (travelling in style and luxury! No need to worry about rapists! Hurrah). It was a dream come true for Matt: going through London in a Capri belting out “choons” was apparently like being in a movie.
We arrived at Slimelight shortly after opening, so it wasn’t too busy yet. But that was soon changed: people filtered in, mostly wearing black but with a variety of intriguing accessories. Ben and I had chosen coloured contacts (me in black, him in white) as our added weapons. Slimelight is a big, members only goth club. If you’re a non-member, there are two ways to get in: know a member, or look the part. We looked the part.
As well as many dance rooms (with varieties of music: Ben and I liked the ravey room best), the club also serves food (they had a barbecue!), has pool tables, many bars, and runs occasional events: we were privy to goth bingo, and participated in karaoke! Brilliant.
Mainly, I loved dancing in the electronic style room because the UV lighting made my outfit look AWESOME.
As far as karaoke goes, I went for a nerve-wracking rendition of Love Cats, and later on, Sas and I teamed up for a blinding performance of 99 Red Balloons. Both were REALLY well received
Great fun. Thanks to the chaps at Slimelight – you’re a lovely lot
