LaraLoola

Home Again

So we went sarf. To the mouth of the port, well almost. To a small island off the mouth, where nothing bigger than a ferry docks. Which is probably a bit of a let down if ships are your thang.

The video is ‘There and Back: the highlights’ (or lowlights depending on your view). It might seem a bit odd to go all that way and show some motorways, but on proportion more awake time was spent on a road than anywhere else, so it seems right.

Points for anyone able to name all the background soundtrack…

[cincopa 6s 10472848]

The Cat on the Prat

Currently we have no sofa, the council took away the mangey old one (for £15!) and we have two weeks to wait for my mother to move house and donate her chairs. Thus in the mean time we have the cushions from manky sofa on the floor in a sort of hippy-cum-student arrangement. Mostly they’re in the corner attempting to keep curious fingers away from the gas and electric meters*.
Last night I was sat, propped against the gas meter with my laptop typing a terribly exciting document about the IT framework of a charity*, half watching Richard Wilson pootle around in an old car when suddenly there was something on my bent neck and head. The swishing around my ears and the scratching on my scalp indicated it was a cat. Naturally. Unfortunately sincemy head was bent down when Miss Thing decided I would suit a cat-hat she managed to land on my nerves and I couldn’t actually raise my arms to move her.
B was in the loft playing Red Alert with his headphones on, my mobile which I could reach had no signal and the house and office phones were at the other end of the room.
Since I was stuck in front of the laptop I tried sending an email, but pseudo-Russian soldiers are all consuming and no email was checked. I tried to see if there was a way to virtually prod him from the server, but the best I could come up with was changing his website. Which he wasn’t on, so wouldn’t have noticed. And turning the router off would have made no difference to his game, so didn’t register.

So I sat. Hunched over watching TV through the top 1/2cm of my glasses, and when eventually at the end of Newswipe Lara decided to move I could have beaten Mr Brooker at a grouchy contest hands down. Cats do not make good neck warmers/hats. Just for reference that is, incase you were ever tempted.

Continue Reading…

Just a quickie

Possibly NSFW depending on how paranoid your work firewalls are.
Isabella Rossellini is officially cool.

Le Petit Voyage

I’m the Devil. Now kindly undo these straps.

Photograph of Exorcist steps by *Photography by Chris* on Flickr.

Still feeling suspiciously like MASH here. Small person opted for the exorcist variant of whatever it is that ails me, and so Sunday evening involved a trip to the local hospital.
Though there are a lot of things about the reorganisation of the NHS that I’m not tremendously struck on I did like that the PCT lady, who called back after calling NHS Direct, was able to book us in there before we got there. Essentially it was telephone triaging. I know there are many things that such a system wouldn’t work for, but for this it was particularly good. Especially given that toddlers are not known for being overwhelmingly patient patients (though to be fair nor are most adults).
I’m less impressed by the definition of emergency pharmacies about these parts though. Apparently Sunday after 2pm doesn’t exist. Hmm.
Luckily my regular Friday visit was cancelled by the other party, in lieu of a dental appointment, which is fair enough given the last time that I cancelled a dentist appointment I got taken off their books (I was ill, I was not impressed). I’ve had to cancel this for this week in person, because though not quite exorcist level I am showing distinct signs of following π’s lead in the vileness stakes.

Continue Reading…

Adenoviridae

My throat is sore and it seems to have knocked out my brain functioning too. I’m weak and pathetic. Heh-ho.

I do feel like I’ve managed to do some stuff this week:

• About five lines of writing
• Maths revision
• Filmed and edited some dance footage seen here on their YouTube Channel.
• Wrote some emails
• Got some less crap, for seeing, contact lenses (but they’re a bugger to remove)
• Attempted to pick a new t-shirt (for me) and failed-have got it down to this, this, and this
• Bought a book. Read it.
• Bought a cake. Ate it.
• Written the world’s shortest press release.
• Did another 800 words of writing.
• Got annoyed by painful hangnail on thumb. Nearly took thumb off trying to remove.

So I’m going to spend tomorrow stewing in my own sore throated misery, until I have to be chipper, sensible and dealing with someone elses on Friday.

xx

Scanning the Past

After my very wordy last post I thought I’d share some old rehersal photos I found a few days ago. I don’t do well with flash, I wasn’t drunk. Truly. Oddly I think I prefer me now to 19/20 year old me. Although I wouldn’t mind the waistline back.

Continue Reading…

Is there anything new I can say to express my love for you? (very long post)

A couple of posts back I mentioned my “most favourite now dead people ever” lists, which mostly reside in my head. With that thought still lurking in my head I came across Time magazine’s people of the century, and the BBC’s somewhat dull 100 Greatest Britons list (though I quite liked the Brunel edition).

So I decided to come up with my list:

“The Almost (but not very) Comprehensive List of Some Very Fine People, Who May or May not be Alive (and some probably aren’t sure themselves)”

There’s 108 of them because I couldn’t knock eight people off. Not without feeling very mean. (Hence the title of the entry). So when I say this entry is long I am not kidding. Some are people you know, some won’t have even blipped your RADAR.  There’s only one who hasn’t got a weblink attached.

Some clarifications. Just because I like someone for something they have done, does not mean that I like everything about them. It does not mean I endorse their political or religious ideology, or lack of therein.  Regular readers can probably make reasonable guesses about what bits of individual personal ideologies I’m not struck on, but for the sake of clarity for lurkers I felt I should add this. So for example though I am a great admirer of Martha Gellhorn’s work and stubborn attitude I do not agree with her vehement distaste for all things (and people) Arabic. Etc.

One other thing to note I have skipped titles in an act of uniformity. Otherwise if I put Prof. X, I’ll have to put Mr Y and that looks a bit silly. Not to mention the minefield that is female titles.

Continue Reading…

Blackjack

I decided that this week I was going to do a video of my world. I sort of have, but with a few missing continents. If I actually filmed what I did this week mahoosive chunks of it would have involved; me staring at a tiny computer and trying to think, being distracted from thinking by listening to Radio Four podcasts, eating, sleeping, accumulating enough bits of newspaper to run my own newsagents*, eating Brie, swearing at my phone, and cat annoyance. Continue Reading…