Grumpy
I’ll be honest, I’m pretty grumpy tonight. For the following reasons:
1. Mainly, because I have to go back to work tomorrow after five days off and I’ve been having a lovely time and I don’t want to go back. I really need to do something about that.
2. Renting sucks.
3. Letting agents suck.
4. Our landlord sucks.
5. I’ve been putting off ironing all day but now I really have to do it or I won’t have anything to wear to work tomorrow.
6. I’ve been ranting about my general feeling of injustice in relation to the widespread concern about bankers leaving the country if they don’t get their bonuses that doesn’t appear to extend to our incredibly valuable public sector workers.
7. Today, we spent over £200 on brake discs and pads and over £100 on a dehumidifier.
Reasons to be cheerful:
1. Only a two day week!
2. Omar’s visiting at the weekend. And we’re going to see Where The Wild Things Are. Really looking forward to it 
3. We’ve got banoffee pie.
4. I have dinner and Seth Lakeman with Leigh and Katy to look forward to tomorrow night.
5. And my team Christmas dinner at Chesters on Friday. Mmmm…burritos…
6. And Leigh’s festive open house on Saturday. Mmmm…mulled wine and mince pies…
7. After some serious trawling of the shops, I found the perfect Christmas gift for my mum this morning.
Will write about my long weekend soon (maybe).
Oh, my teenage years…
Ally texted me last night with a list that I wrote 10 years ago, at the age of 17, of my top ten favourite songs. There are some “what the bloody hell was I thinking?” numbers in there (you know I’m just saying that, don’t you?), as well as some rediscoveries and some enduring favourites.
I was going to make a spotify playlist to share with you but because I was a somewhat pretentious teenager, partial to a bit of musical snobbery, there are a few obscure B-sides in there so I can’t find them all. So you’ve got some youtube links:
‘Queen of the Troubled Teens’ by Idlewild (I genuinely believed this should be my anthem. I was such a loser.)
‘Tame’ by Pixies (the first Pixies song I ever heard. And so began a lifelong obsession…)
‘Silence’ by Delirium (no link because it was the radio edit that I loved but a VERY SPECIFIC mix, which I can’t remember and subsequently can’t find)
‘Nights in White Satin’ by The Moody Blues (this isn’t even the one I’m ashamed of)
‘Blackpool’ by Delgados (still awesome – but no proper video sadly. Would encourage you to seek it out)
‘You Just Have To Be Who You Are’ by Idlewild (I liked Idlewild, ok? Still do, in fact)
‘Blue Flashing Light’ by Travis (I’d just like to point out that the first two Travis albums were actually very good and perfectly acceptable listening material)
‘Genie in a Bottle’ by Christina Aguilera (what the bloody hell was I thinking?!) (I still have a soft spot for really well written pop music and yes I do happen to love ‘Beat Again’ by JLS)
‘Everlong’ by Foo Fighters (this won’t ever stop being one of my favourite songs)
‘S.O.F.T.’ by Elastica (see above)
Some observations: I was not only a pretentious teenager, but also a noisy one. I’m not sure that I’ve changed a great deal. I’m still noisy but I suppose I’m more inclined towards some quieter moments this days. And my husband has had some influence over my musical taste too, which is only natural.
I am so spending the weekend coming up with my top 10 favourite songs…
American Office
(This is the first blog from my new MacBook. The plan is, now I have my own laptop and am not sharing my husband’s PC, that this happens more…)
Anyway, Chris and I watched The American Office tonight. It’s on ITV4 now. We’ve seen bits before but not whole episodes.
Some observations:
1. There is not enough background noise. It’s noticeable.
2. Chris kept trying to figure out which American character was which British character.
3. I can’t watch Steve Carrell now without remembering how great he is in Little Miss Sunshine.
4. I need to watch more of it, I think. Didn’t strike me straight away (mainly for the above reasons).
Vocation Theory
It’s nice to think of all the exciting stuff my school friends do for a living these days. In our circle of friends, we have a counsellor, a couple of journalists, a landscape architect, a banker, an accountant, a school secretary, and a couple of musicians. I like the variety of it. And the fact that I can remember little characteristics about them all as teenagers that mean that their current career is no real surprise.
And, of course, there’s me. You understand what all the others do, right? But not what I do. Ho hum.
Here’s a list of other things I’d quite like to do, if I ever got the chance:
1. Be a wedding florist (and make people happy)
2. Teach adult literacy (and make the world a better place)
3. Work in a bookshop (and make myself happy)
4. Do a PhD and be a lecturer (see above).
Also, I did a careers search last night (mainly because I haven’t done one since school and wanted to test my ‘Vocation Theory’ outlined above). When I put in that I’m not motivated by money, it just gave me crap jobs that would be nice and everything but that I couldn’t afford to do without some serious lifestyle changes. So I put in that I am motivated by money and it gave me unbearably ruthless jobs that wouldn’t fit my moral code AT ALL.
Rock and Hard Place.
Some things
1. I just had a horrible hospital appointment that took two whole hours of just sitting in various waiting rooms and then I made the stupid mistake of looking up my new medication on the internet and discovering that the side effects are *hideous*. So I bought myself the following albums to cheer myself up:
Dark Was The Night
Glory Hope Mountain
2. I also considered buying the last Alela Diane album but then didn’t because it has gone up £5 since I looked yesterday.
3. I really quite like Office 2007.
4. I’m thinking about twitter.
Things I need to blog about
1. The wedding dress shopping experience (and other marriage-related items)
2. My job (which is genuinely thrilling at the moment)
3. An update on my new years resolution post below
4. Elbow and Blood Red Shoes (next week)
5. I can’t think of anything else
