her madgesty

Good ol' Madge has a new record out so there's been a lot of chat about her and her musical adventures, and yesterday on The Hits music channel they had a feature called Madonna: Back To The Beginning or something...

It started at 7pm and was on til around midnight (way past my bedtime) and I watched the first hour, well in truth listened mostly, occasionally watching is more like it, while I read the paper and I felt compelled to say how pleasant it was... you just can't beat her pop hits!

As driven a human being as she seems to be, even she can't have thought back in '85 "I'll be working a purple leotard when I'm pushing 50 baby" haha

I'm so gutted I had to go to bed, I only got as far as 1998 and Ray of Light, I'd have loved to see the Bedtime Stories vids, and even earlier stuff like Borderline... ah good ol' Madge!

And today I got her new album for free at work, good times!

There ain't nothing like a dame

I admit that the words 'too much' and 'time on hands' spring to mind but here goes...

I've been blog-tagged by Scott at Me and My Big Mouth and since it would be rude not to take part, in this post I have to list six random things about me...

I hope you appreciate the Cillit Bang approach:

Fact: I have Christopher Biggins mobile phone number.
Fact: I like banana sandwiches.

Fact: I suspect that I enjoy colour co-ordination and alliteration more than most.

Fact: It's my mum's birthday tomorrow. Tanti Aguri Mamma!

Fact: I was once a Saturday girl at HMV Basingstoke. GTs.

Fact: I've lived in 10 different towns/cities in the last 12 years! I knows good boxes!

Now I'm to nominate and tag six other people...

New York Taxi Tales

Matt and Dave's Trip Around The World

Nicholarse - no longer updated but a good back-cat

I've ran out of people I know who blog, despite my encouragements, clearly my pals are just a lazy bunch! So here's some what I read...

The Man Who Fell Asleep

Charlie Brooker

And this one inspired my own blogging so hats off to him!

Richard Herring

The rules, if they decide to play, are:
Link to the person that tagged you - i.e. me.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about you in a blog post.
Tag six people in your post.
Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know your entry is up.

No bloggers were harmed in the making of this blog-tag.

St George's Day

Happy St George's Day!

Born in Turkey, this guy was a Roman soldier who marty'd hisself for his fellow Christians in ancient Rome... I read that the reason he is patron saint of England is because he stood for English ideals of honour, bravery and gallantry... though I can't say you come across any of those very often these days... perhaps our new patron saint would be more like Jeremy Clarkson! haha

I've got to say, regardless of how many people winge about life in England I'm a fan. I'm going to visit the Great English Seaside in a couple of weeks with my friend R and I'll be taking my wellies AND sunglasses! Cos even though you can never tell what the weather is going to throw at you, what you DO know is, since you're English you can handle any weather! haha

I know its not Friday but my Top 5 things about England are as such:

5 Bangers and Mash (veggie options available!) - what's not to love about a good hearty meal*

4 English Countryside - a walk in the peaks will put hairs on yer chest and pink in yer cheeks**

3 English Weather - what else would we talk about at bus stops?!***

2 English Culture - The Beatles, Stewart Lee, Harry Hill... I could go on****

1 Proper English Pubs! Did we invent them? I reckon we must've on account of all the rain and the need to socialise... I do loves pubs me...

So today, whether you be drinking ale or a nice cup of tea, make a toast to St George and England!


*preferably in a pub with a pint!
**preferably with a pub to stop and enjoy the view in...
*** and all that rain is great pub weather after all!
****all of which enhanced when accompanied by a nice pint of your favourite ale, hehe, do you see where I'm going with this?!

your country needs you!

like a thunderbolt from the blue it hit me...

my shoe addiction just got worthy! the economy is teetering on troublesome times and here i am willing to spend on the high street when all sensible people are closing their wallets! those pink platforms at Kurt Geiger seem frivalous? i think you'll find you're helping halt an economic downturn! haha

nu shoes = better economy! women of Britain unite! we alone can halt this crazy economic turmoil, by doing what we do best! shopping! hurrah!

Trinny and Susannah worship

I had the pleasure of seeing the lovely fashionistas in the flesh last week!

Style in The City in Birmingham was a three day event at which the Trinny & Susannah Style Academy pulled into town hoiking up bra straps and making trembling lillies of grown women who clearly didn't know any better!

It was fabulous!

I saw half a dozen badly dressed women transformed before my very eyes! I don't even care if it was a set up - it was truly marvellous hehe

They even divulged their own secrets to looking good despite short legs and baby bellies... It was so cool seeing them in person, they're TV royalty as far as I'm concerned! My only regret is that I was flying solo and only had the camaraderie of the mostly female crowd, it would have been great to be there with a friend but it was during the day when most people work and well, iIdon't have too many female friends in Brum just yet... But so as not to miss out on post-show euphoria I called several ladies who I knew would be greatly jealous not to have been there!

Having thought it through afters, while it was a compliment not to have been picked from the audience for a makeover, I should have 'dressed-down' to win a one-on-one with the fashion experts... pah!

beanbag riff

i recently invested in a beanbag for our flat...

while there's enough seating for us, when we have guests we need extra bum-space so a beanbag seemed ok cos it doesn't take up too much room in our bijou pad and doubles as a footrest if needs be!*

trouble is, i have had to replace this beanbag twice now due to splitting - the Achilles heel of any good bean-based furniture! And now i'm loathe to sit on number 3 so weary am i of it! we are now on day5 of the latest bean-bag and its okay so far... But really you'd expect the seams to be extra tight on such a piece of soft-furnishing!

i went into a fancy bean-bag shop in Dublin last year, you know the giant £500 ones, bet they don't bust after just a few sits!


*i'm sure the the joy of elevated feet is a wonder to only the over 30s amongst us, hehe

cesar superstar

Oh. My. God. The Dog Whisperer is the best TV show ever invented!

This gorgeous* guy tells dogs who's the boss and is on telly every day at the moment... I looked him up on the interweb and discovered there's already been 5 US seasons of this telly treat!

If you've not caught him before, he's on Sky Three (freeview) at 6pm weeknights and has a magic power over all dogs! ALL of them I tells you! he also has a strange power over me! hehe I can't get enough of watching him be 'calm and assertive' with dogs with behaviour issues only to turn to the owners and 'train' them to be a better pack leader - FABULOUS! haha

I've even tried using some of Cesar's 'sshh' and 'stance' techniques on the boyf and some certainly seem to cross over! Altho to be fair he certainly does calm and assertive tricks on me when i get over-excited about him not doing the washing up hehe...

we can't have a dog at the moment since our lifestyles don't allow it at the moment but I reckon its justa matter of time cos we're both big doggie fans, tho I'm not allowed a handbag doggie - no matter how cute they are! ruined! my friend R joined a dog-walking charity that gets volunteers to walk dogs for elderly or sick owners - maybe i should look into that for the time being, I'm desperate to become a great pack leader! haha

*he's only gorgeous since I've seen him do his magic with the pooches! haha

quorn extras

i had an unexpected dinner guest t'other week!

there i was tucking into my micro-protein when i came across this little fella...

now this happened a month ago and its still not funny! makes me feel all 'orrible to think of it...

poor old caterpillar joe was having a nice walk (does a caterpillar walk? that's a whole new blog...) when he fell into a batter machine at Quorn Towers and ended up in my tea!

i wrote to said company about this tragic accident and sent them the 'foreign body' as they called it, and pictures too... they said "we think he may have smuggled himself into the factory in an onion and here's a cheque for £5 for the trouble." Hardly generous given my emotional trauma but then if you will eat processed foods, you never know what you're getting do you?!

i'm not taking it any further, though i think perhaps they've not given much thought to poor old caterpillar.

there he was, going about his caterpillar business, checking out an onion for dinner, before he was rudely kidnapped from a field! he must've been a bit confused when he woke up in a factory that's for sure... and what if Mrs C was at home with baby caterpillars looking fwd to some onion soup!

it simply doesn't bear thinking about!

celeb family tree

at a gathering recently i asked the question: if there was a movie of your life, which actor would play you? the idea is they have to have some slight resemblance, however slight...

after much umming and ah-ing, i decided mine should be someone like Sandra Bullock but then my friend A topped me with Britney Spears! That's way more rockNroll than Sandra Bullock... I coulda had grunge grrl Juliet Lewis but she turned into a dodgy religious-type which just wouldn't do... perhaps i could have someone like Drew Barrymore, she's hot but kinda quirky right?! haha

but this got us to thinking, who's your celeb family tree? Celeb Mum would have to be someone unorthodox like Cher (my friend T thinks she looks like my mum ayway haha), Dad would be a rugged lovely like Tom Selleck, my celeb Bro would have to be Howard from Take That haha, or maybe David Schwimmer and even tho i don't really have a sister, my celeb sister could be Sandra Bullock! haha got her back in there... and as far as love interest goes... well that'd always be George Clooney (swoon)

i really have to stop wasting my life thinking about such guff don't i? haha