Just basic ramblings about stuff for today.
We put up most of the Christmas decorations last night. We’ve got a decorated artificial 5ft tree by the lounge room window and we’ve got a dinky little 3ft fibre optic tree at the bottom of the stairs on the other side of the lounge room. We’ve got a fibre optic Father Christmas by the TV and have a nativity scene, an advent Santa and a Santa snow-globe on the gas fire mantle, and a wreath on the door. Over the weekend the fish tank needs a good cleanout. JUST in case we get guests over the festive period. Not likely, but it’ll be a nice pressie for the fishies to have a clean tank for Xmas anyway. After that, I’ll have to clean out the freezer section of the fridge, to make sure we can house the goodies over the Xmas period. On a separate note. I tried to get tickets for Hamlet today, as I’d heard there were some limited seats available from the box office for today’s performance. I lucked out sadly, but the guy on the phone said I should keep trying as some tickets do become available through the day. I will try again in a few weeks though, as I have to watch the pennies until the rent is paid. Anyway, that’s about it for now. Catch ya later.Happy 200!
This is my 200th post on my blog, yay! You’d have thought I’d have so much drivel in me (me!)?
We got woken up this morning by the sound of knocking on the door. A Parcel Force man was at the door, delivering this Christmas gift!
Snacks for Em…
And ones for me…
What a lovely surprise they were. Not long after mum called, so I was able to thank her profusely.
I started thinking I had a more substantial post than this within me, but it’s gone now 🙁
I’ll come back later…
Playlists.
I’ve just finally got to grips with making playlists on my Zen. I grasped the basic concept but found tweaking the playlists to my exact tastes a little harder to work out initially. But I’ve got it all worked out now.
Here are the playlists I have so far: U2 Mix – most of all U2’s stuff on there. Boy, October, War, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum, Achtung Baby, Zooropa, Pop. I haven’t got ATYCLB or HTDAAB on yet though. Then there’ll be the new one to put on after Xmas – Yay! Bowie – Not EVERYTHING Bowie yet. Just a selection from Space Oddity, Hunky Dory, Ziggy, Aladdin, Pin-Ups, Diamond Dogs, Station To Station, Low, Lodger, Scary Monsters, Buddha, Outside, Heathen. Antipodean (ha) – Tracks from all Oz/Nz acts like Icehouse, Split Enz, Crowded House, Headless Chickens, Hunters and Collectors, The Cruel Sea, You Am I, Spy vs Spy. I’ve got two 80’s mixes lists. One is ALL the 80’s music I have on the player, and the other is a cut-down version of my absolute faves. When I’m playing tracks from the playlist I put the player on shuffle mode so all the tracks get mixed up. I love it!He Might Not Be God – But He’s Goddam Sexy!
The TV Times readers have voted David Tennant sexiest male on TV. Receiving his award Mr T says “Well, I’m not sure what to say about being called the sexiest actor of the year! But I’m very flattered and somewhat bewildered. All I know is that I voted for John Barrowman!”
He then goes on to say how delighted he is that Doctor Who got the gong for favourite TV show, finishing with “See you at Christmas. We’ve got Cybermen, snow and David Morrissey…it’s going to be glorious!” So there…He might not be God, but he is one sexy man! I’m not alone in that thinking 🙂
The Trials and Tribulations of Blogging.
Why does it seem that as you get older, the time goes quicker? Well, in some respects. I found myself thinking yeterday “December 1st already? I must get all the Christmas decorations out today.” Then the next minute I find myself saying “When was it we went to see U2:3D on Imax in Birmingham? It feels likes AGES ago? March? Seriously?! It feels farther back than that!!”
I’ve been finding myself thinking about how I used to keep my diary and wish it translated onto my blog a bit more than it does. I think I had more to write about at thirteen than I do now. Which is worrying! I wish I could write more about things. I used to keep a thing going on a site called Ourstory. You’d be asked a whole set of questions about your life that you had to answer. I worked on it for ages. It became a bit cumbersome in the end and I haven’t done anything with it in over a year. I loved the piece I wrote about losing my virginity and my sexual awakening. It didn’t quite read as I wanted it to in the end, but I loved putting it “out there” as it were. I really love writing and wish I was far better at it than I am. I love reading books and always have from a young age. I admire anyone who can write a book. Everyone is supposedly meant to have a book in them. I wish I felt I had one. I dare say mine would be more – whatever is thought to be universally a crap book – less To Kill A Mocking Bird. That was Harper Lee’s only book – and what a book to have in you! I suppose keeping a diary/journal/blog has been my way of writing a book all these years. There have been LONG gaps in between. My initial reasoning for keeping a diary was nothing to do with self-promotion or any sense of ego. It was prompted by me reading Anne Frank’s diary at thirteen and feeling as though the diary, for her, was a way of combating loneliness. Which is why I started mine. I even used a similar ploy to Anne Frank and referred to my diary in the second person and gave it a name, Pet, much in the way Anne Frank wrote to “Kitty” and referred to all of us readers in the second person. It was like letter-writing and gave me the sense that I was writing to a friend. One that I obviously didn’t have in real life at the time. But one I desperately wanted.I see the blog as another friend, in much the same way as I kept my dairy all those years ago. The only slight worrying problem with the blog is that I am aware I have an audience! Be it ever so small. I know people are reading, unlike when I kept my diary, which was a totally private thing. I don’t mind that so much – knowing there are people reading. It has its advantages. It keeps me motivated to keep the blog up-to-date. But on the odd occasion there are some SUPER private things I’d like to talk about that I wouldn’t feel comfortable expressing here.
It’s odd because I don’t consider myself too much of a private person – HELLO – I have a blog for Pete’s sake! And not just that, my own domain names: www.larelle.co.uk and www.larelleread.co.uk (both with my blog page). But there are thoughts and events that you do want to keep to yourself. My diary probably was incredibly cheap therapy! That, and talking to myself. Another thing that I’ve done for a VERY long time. And another thing that combats loneliness, I suppose.
I don’t know where this post is headed. I suppose I just wanted to air that I wish I had more flair at writing. Even if my time on Earth is boring, I wish I could at least write about it with flair. Or write down more of my inner thoughts. After all, what did Anne Frank (bless her heart) have to write about from day to day other than the mundaneness of being trapped within an attic for a home, sharing a confined space with her family, the Van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer for two years? But she brought it to life. All that mundaneness. All that claustrophobia and tedium. All the fear that at any moment they could be discovered and captured, which mores the better is what eventuated. But without it, I dare say we wouldn’t have been blessed with her incredible diary.
I wish I had the writing prowess that she had at 13/14 that I still don’t have at 38!
My Sexual Awakening.
This story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7754247.stm prompted me to write about my sexual awakening. It probably happened much sooner than many people would think.
Mind you, I didn’t act upon it until a was 18, but it would’ve happened MUCH earlier in my life had the circumstances permitted. If I’d have had my way, I’m sure I would have lost my virginity at a ridiculously young age!
My mother was very open about sexuality with me. She started my sex education when I was about 4-5 years old. She was worried about the things I’d pick up in the school playground and didn’t want me to be misinformed. So many of my contemporaries were given stories of cabbage patches, storks, magic and had silly names for anatomical parts like “pipes” for penises. She taught me things like how impregnation takes place. So I knew when a woman was pregnant she had a baby growing in her stomach, not she was ballooning for no good reason to only be “sent” a child by a stork, or randomly “find” one in a cabbage patch!
I wasn’t banned from watching certain things on TV either. I’d watch adult oriented soap operas and drama series. By the time I was around 11, I was quite interested in the “delights of the flesh”. When I saw people acting out sensual or even sexual scenes on TV, I found it utterly intriguing and thrilling.
Perhaps it’s my Scorpio nature, but I’ve always considered myself a very sexual being. It’s by the age of 11 that I am (I do beg all of your pardons) masturbating regularly and having many sexual fantasies, particularly about older men. I think that perhaps this aspect stemmed from me growing up without my father around, although my brothers are all over 9 years older than me. I looked up to older men, be they teachers, sports stars, actors. I’ve had MANY crushes on older men. Not so much these days, as I’m so much older myself now.
Many of my sexual fantasies revolved around me being involved with older men. Even at my tender age, I found the age and experience of men over the age of 21 so compelling. I’m sure if I’d have had my way, I’d have lost my virginity at 11-12 and to a much older man. I was Lolita!
I am, with hindsight, thankful that no situation ever arose in which I had such an opportunity. I was 18 when I (Finally! In my eyes at the time) lost my virginity to a guy only one year older than me who I’d been keen on for the previous 18 months. Although the relationship went nowhere, he was just in it for “a root”, as we say in Oz, it still was a very special experience that I still can have nostalgia about. Not sure if I could have looked upon it so rose-tinted had I been younger.
David Tennant Is *NOT* God??!
Well, this is shocking news! This person, despite appearances can’t be that much of a fan.
Randomist, Dreams.
Just wanted to say that I am really loving and enjoying using my Zen X-Fi. It does take a while to get used to using something new, doesn’t it? I’ve just worked out the playlist bit and now have a BIG 80’s mega-mix playlist with over 400 songs. I’ve made one of all my U2 stuff and another of all my Bowie stuff. And Em worked out how to get AAC files on there for me. It’s really, really good!
Now, on to these dreams… I had a crap nights sleep really. Chris came up to bed for cuddles (she’s been doing this for the last few months). Once me and Em are both settled, she comes to my pillow and lays next to me for cuddles and smooches. She normally stays only about 10-15 minutes. Sometimes she doesn’t even come up. But over the last week, I’ve had a couple of nights where she’s outstayed her welcome, hogged my pillow and made it nigh on impossible for me to get comfortable and go to sleep. I eventually did last night, after some hours. She eventually disappeared and I finally got my pillow back in the early hours of the morning (around 5-6am). Once I was comfortable, I started to have dreams. The first one was about James May (yes, the bloke from Top Gear!). I dreamt I had a thing for him, we met up, he was driving me around in a car and I was flirting with him! I came round from that dream thinking “that was a bit weird, but kinda cool. James is alright!” I went back to sleep and had a Doctor Who themed dream then. Not too deeply DT’ed, but I saw enough of him 🙂 It more centred around John Barrowman’s character, Jack Harkness and how he came to be the “Face of Bow”. Very strange for me to dream something so plot-heavy. But it was cool. I didn’t have any other dreams after that and still feel VERY tired. Might need to have an early night tonight. I’m planning to fill my 1GB SD card with 101 Christmas songs and play them on my Zen in shuffle mode tonight! LOVING using the shuffle mode with my playlists! L8rs!Six Things (Which Will Probably Be Crap)
Wendylisted her 6 things via Plurk earlier today, so thought I might give it a go. Even though I am TRULY crap at bringing up random, seldom known “facts” about myself. Here goes…
Six Things People Don’t Really Know About Me:
In high school I was awarded certificates for swimming when I didn’t even swim any heats, or actually DO any swimming.
I got Drew Barrymore’s autograph at Sydney Airport in the newsagents in the departure lounge on July 18th, 2005. I actually tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention! She signed her name in an autobiography on Waris Dirie. It was all I had to hand.
I am, actually, surprisingly very good at retaining phone numbers to memory, just not my own! I’ve had a “new” mobile phone number for 14 months and have only just etched it to memory!
I am fascinated by Chinese culture and art and some of my favorite films are by Chinese director Zhang Yimou. My favourite Chinese actress is Ziyi Zhang and my favourite Chinese Actor is Chow Yun-Fat or “Happy New Year” as I call him due to the Cantonese New Year greeting “Gung Hay Fat Choy”. I also love reading auto/biographies by Chinese people like Adaline Yen Mah, Xinran, and To The Egde of The Sky by Anhua Gao – one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read.
I collect coffee mug as souvenirs. Whenever I go to a new town or place of interest, I try to buy a commemorative coffee mug of the place. If I can’t get a mug, I’ll buy a book mark. Last commemorative item I bought though was neither. It was a cloth bag from Lincoln Cathedral.
I am an avid studier of the history of the British monarchy. I particularly love the Tudor period of the monarchy.
There…a sad array of random facts.
Einstein and Eddington Tonight.
One of the treats I’ve been waiting for for most of the year happens tonight. Finally, Einstein and Eddington comes to the screen. Can’t wait!
