i am a lady what lunches

cor, i could get used to a life of leisure!

this week off has gone to me head!

yesterday i did lunch with a friend and today i am doing lunch with some more friends! nice.

is there job that you just 'do lunch' professionally? i reckon i'd be good at that gig! haha

of course i am tres excited to be starting a new job (again) and meet lots of nice new people but everyone has a leisurely side to their personality and frankly i don't think it gets enough of a say! haha

i am even having a pedicure this arvo! get me! a flippn pedicure! haha, i've never had one before so it's quite exciting! i hope i don't giggle too much - i've got ticklish tootsies!

oh and i suppose i might squeeze in some shopping today too if i have to hehe - not that i have shopping money (giving myself a week off n all is very expensive!) but i have to get fallon a birthday pressie and the shops are such a bore on a saturday (as is dragging the man around them!)

don't worry tho, its not all been a walk in the park this week - i had to find someplace to live didn't i?
so i got proper hot and bothered looking round a load of dumps on Wednesday only to be saved by a really nice one in Didsbury that i have now secured by charming my new housemates with my nonsense! hurrah for me!

now what should i wear to lunch...?

must dash - very important decisions to make! hehe

homemade brownies

this weekend i went to London town and i'm happy to report it was sunny and sociable! i only wish i had longer to see my friends for longer, but weekends by definition don't last long enough!

but if ever there was evidence of my organisational skills it was Saturday's picnic in the park! i orchestrated 4 different groups of people to turn up at a very random spot in Regent's Park - with beer - and was even presented with homemade brownies! i think i have a special gift for organising shindigs*
not that this is my vocation. that i'm still lacking. how disappointing for nobody to have suggested anything after all my blog-angst too!**

not to presume your personal viewing tastes but i'm going to assume you've seen an episode of the american sitcom Friends in the last 10 years... and also that maybe , you too have had the conversation about which character best reflects your own? i'm afraid that as well as being a brunette with freckles, i too have Monica's tidy-organised-thing going on... only it's my own way of maintaining control - creating order thru washing up! haha

but i'm not alone. plenty of creative people can't exist in chaos. there will always be those who thrive in it. but i can't handle it. plus it gives me the perfect reason to procrastinate! whatever it is i should be doing can wait until i've dusted the tv, mowed the lawn etc...

i think i envy unorganised people a bit. only a bit mind - it mostly fills me with dread! haha but they seem to float thru life with so fewer worries than me! coasters. how do they do it? how can they just wait for things to be done for them? maybe i'm just too independent for me own good?

but if you need a party organising i'm ya girl!

FYI all the brownies are gone. and they tasted very very good.


*shindigs is a very cool name for a party don't you think? if i did become a professional events organiser i would definitely put Shindig Organiser on my business card! haha

**come on! you're being passive readers and that's soooo last century people! haha, let's get interactive!

witty quotes

so tired!

was up late drinking* and am in serious need of a power nap!

i saw my friend mark who lives in Barcelona recently, on one of his bi-annual trips to ol' blighty. we met in a favourite drinking hole in liverpool called the jacaranda many years ago - possibly as many as 5 years ago? i'm afraid there's been too much vodka** since then to accurately establish the exact amount of years...

i was with my pal kc and some chaps and a book of witty quotes. no really. that's the sort of nonsense i get up to! Reading. In pubs. The fun never stops! haha
anyways the large booth seating in this particualr establishment lends itself easily to meeting new people and Mark with his pal Amelia and some other chap who's name i can never remember were interested in finding out just how witty these particular quotes were. And so blossomed a beautiful friendship! haha

i am very good at meeting new people. i rather enjoy it. upon finding myself in situations where it's difficult to meet new people i feel a bit stifled actually. i think i'm what they call a 'people person'***

there i go again sounding like a miss world entrant...

i think the moral of this story is to go to pubs in liverpool. i always meet new people in pubs in liverpool. we're just a chatty lot us scousers!


*see previous blog entry (i can't bear to look!)

**my tipple of choice - last night it was the polish bison grass vodka with apple juice, this weekend i will be taking a trip down memory lane (where?) (see what i did there?! haha) and having vokda, lime and soda, once coined a 'jodie lime and soda' by my friend emma, such was the frequency it went down my neck in 2000/01

***tho this sounds hideous! haha

it was the longest day

i literally put this blog title into my mobile phone as a reminder so taken was i with it.
what do you think about that?!

i am 31 today and i have been drinking with my mum, bro, friend clare and her man thomas.

mmm, vodka.

but now i have to pack a week's worth of clothes and undies and frankly i feel a little tipsy for the job!

i can always buy more undies along the way. there's always a place in one's knicker drawer for something new.

but choosing a wardrobe to get me to next wednesday is very serious! and i've been drinking polish vodka with apple juice!

did you know todaY is the longest day of the year? it would be cool to be at Stone Henge today - the summer solstice! but i have the second longest day to celebrate instead.. - i know it's pretty cool but y'know being next to the longest is so annoying! haha

it's my last day at work tomorrow before i start my new job. still writing ads but hey, no more catalogue letters right?!

brilliant!

i went to see some more places to live tonight - oh dear, not good! dirty! they were all so dirty! how do people live like that?! i'm pretty sure i probably lived like that as a student but not recently man... oh searching for a new gaff sucks!

so far for my birthday i have a guitar instruction book, a take that mug, an ipod nano* and a kt tunstall guitar book - all very cool!

i like birthdays : )


*it's so wee! how does it fit so may songs on?! how?!

young professional seeks large double room

i am looking for somewhere new to live at the moment.

i am trying to find a house-share cos i can't afford a place of my own but i don't want to be the only person who cleans the bathroom!

you'd think it would be easy enough!

i went to see a place this week (i won't name and shame!) and the girl had squeezed three bedrooms where there should only be two - it was a good size room for sure but the girl had one of those baby voices* and a limp handshake.
what is the point in a limp handshake? if you're not into shaking hands why offer your hand at all? and what's wrong with you if you don't know how to shake hands anyways?! it doesn't seem cricket to proffer a limp wrist!
so it was also described as being just 10 minutes from a lively town - not within sight you understand - these are minutes plucked out of the air to make her ad sound good and waste my time looking at a place deep in suburbia! pah!
sufficient to say i won't be moving in there!

somehow i may find a place that suits my requirements and isn't inhabited by socially disfunctional sorts...

somehow!


*baby voices are so irritating. you never hear a bloke sounding like an 8 year old do you? they can't be real! i refuse to accept it! it's not possible to really have a baby voice! it's only ever put on to evoke some kind of sympathetic reaction form normal folk. well it don't work with me girlfriend!

and another thing...

Sir Paul Mccartney is 64 today.

whatever went on with heather mills you gotta ask couldn't she see the irony of a lonely old Macca at 64 given 'that song'.

i think it would be nice to be a doddery old couple. but i guess that was the problem. Macca didn't consider himself 'doddery' at 60 and bagged himself a twinkie*

and i won't know how it feels to be 60 for another 30 years but i hope i'm not as silly as to want to hang out with 40 year olds in the hope their 'youth' will rub off on me. but i'm sure heather was only too pleased for a former Beatle to take an interest. they really probably had a go at it and then realised they got married before they really knew each other. they were still in the honeymoon period when romantic old Macca popped the question. C'mon, he is soooo romantic, have you heard 'Things we said today'?!

i like Macca. when i was a young lass in Liverpool i went to John Lennon's old school so i guess that gave me more of a leaning towards the Lennon factor of the Beatles, y'know, 'He's just like me! I bet he bunked off Double Maths too!' that sort of thing.

but later i heard about the alleged wife beating, nasty druggie behaviour, neglecting poor old julian in favour of hanging out with crazy yoko and i kinda felt maybe Paul wasn't so bad after all. yeah he lived with Jane Asher, but he was a Veggie and did you see the cover of the first solo album? what a big softie! and he said my Aunty Tina was a 'great girl' when i met him backstage at a Madness gig in Brighton a few years ago**

i read a book written about Paul called The Long and Winding Road by Barry Miles and really enjoyed it - that's how i know about Jane Asher - he even gave insight to how he got started writing songs and it sounded so easy i tried myself! those classics are now in storage forever, haha. But he had a tough deal being The Nice Beatle against Lennon's 'difficult childhood' persona. and what's so wrong with being nice anyways?! surely it's something to aspire to?!

Let's bring back 'nice'! I want people to mostly say about me that i am 'nice'. Yes i am other things, but surely in this hard, cold world being nice is something to be proud of! haha***

And then there's Ringo. But that's another blog.****

Well Sir Paul, Happy Birthday you old swinger, don't ever put down your guitar because you are very clearly loving it!



*The One where Richard has a Twinkie
**This was a very exciting moment in my life - little pleb that i am shook the hand of musical genius!
***See how i laugh, but i am very serious in this campaign. It's good to be nice!
****It's been said, somewhat controversially, that Ringo is the reason The Beatles got so big!

he was funny once

Billy Connelly once said 'there's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing'
I had a smile at that. Not sure where he's going with that purple goatee tho so we'll leave Billy there...

However, today i was inappropriately dressed!

This morning as i chose an outfit for Wednesday 14th June. i considered jeans as yesterday it had 'tipped down' to coin a phrase. But this morning it was really hot and sunny. At 730am! So i figured i'd be too hot in jeans.
So i chose a vest, long shorts , Birkenstocks and a cardie, topped off with a flat cap. How city chic am i?!

But by lunch time the sun had been kidnapped and it was actually quite cold!
Ruined!

i am happy to report it didn't actually rain but i felt very silly getting off the bus this evening clearly dressed for a sunnier climate.

ah Manchester weather how i love thee...

soul searching part III

it's my birthday next week. the second longest day of the year. always second. dammit!

i like birthdays. and i really have never understood people who don't like birthdays.
cake. pressies. cocktails. birthday kisses.
what's not to like?!
you can never be too old to enjoy cake.
that must be why grannies love tea and cake so much - it reminds them of birthdays!

i guess that this annual event has made me a little introspective of late. it's a bit like new year really isn't it? because you can't help but think 'what was i doing this time last year?' and making comparisons whether good or bad.

i'm happy to report being 30 has been alright. feel the most secure in myself than ever before. ah maturity. haha
but y'know i'm not so bothered about being the shape i am. i'm not so shy about things i'm good at. i'm more confident in my opinions. essentially i can't have gotten to such a huge age (!) without learning somet!
well that's all we can hope!

so i'm arranging a birthday weekend in London to see my friends and perhaps the monkeys at London Zoo.

i like that London. i have lots of friends there and it's a nice place to visit. i used to live there and i'm taking my boyf to meet some of my friends for the first time! which is so cool! i'm very excited.

and so i should be - it's going to be my birthday!

i just wanna do something... useful!

define useful though... therein lies my problem!

i am 31 a week on Thursday.

when i was 8 i wanted to be an actor*

when i was 11 i wanted to be an author.

when i was 13 i wanted to be someone else...

when i was 15 i wanted to be on the radio and did some hospital radio with my best friend Tequila**

when i was 17 i wanted to get laid.

when i was 19 i wanted to be a journalist.

when i was 21 i wanted to study linguistics forever because i thought it was so cool.

when i was 22 one of my lecturers told me that Freud would say i sucked my thumb because i missed my mother's nipple.
i called and told her about that lesson! haha

when i was 24 i was drunk for two years in London.

when i was 26 i lived in Brighton - the bestest ever place to live ever, with one of my bestest friends Vicky. Oh, and I got a job writing radio commercials.

when i was 27 and two thirds i met my lovely man. and was still writing radio commercials.

and when i was 30 i got a job writing advertising copy in a marketing agency posing as an advertising agency.

hmm.

so what's next?! i like people. i like writing. i like radio. i like movies. i like reading. i like music. i like chocolate cake...

answers on a postcard to...

*i was way ahead of my time on that piece of political correctness
** its a girl not a bottle, honest!

too expensive eh?

well what a week. at least it's been nice and sunny.
found out that i'm possibly too expensive but as my boyf says - this is better than being considered cheap! haha

advertising's a funny old game.
i am now forever cynical regards anything tinged in marketing. i can sense the stench from a metorphorical mile away and it smells bad!
let's get topical. the world cup is a great example of how marketing and advertising ruin anything that is pure human endeavour.
i used to enjoy football. following my team and the national team on their way to various cups. it was fun cos anyone was in with a chance - dedication and skill the only criteria!
but then more and more money got involved and ruined it. the tv people wanted to move the game times so they could get more audience and then more money from advertising.

watching England this world cup has become ridiculous jingo-ism. corporation bosses gleefully rub their grubby paws together "ooh the plebs like football. lets put flag in the window and they might spend their hard earned cash in here!"
now i don't doubt that there are plenty of true footy fans enjoying the world cup but it's the band-wagon-jumping that gets my back up. i do not want to see an England flag in a bank window! how is that ever appropriate?!

it's like the most tenuous of tenuous links will be applied this summer in order to make you part with your cash in the name of English football! don't fall for it i tell you! for the love of all that is pure, don't buy that England mobile phone cover, those England flip flops, that England Anthems CD... none of it!

watch the game if you must with some pals and some none-world-cup-sponsoring-beer!
take the game back people!
rise up against the marketeers! - that's what they call themselves! like giving themselves a cool name akin to musketeers or something will make their jobs less sh*t??!



having said that i think i'm getting out of work early on Thursday so that the England fans can watch the next game in the pub - so it's not all bad news! haha

nice glass of beer after work

i'm a bit tipsy cos i went for a nice drinkie in the late afternoon sunshine with my friend Chris.

i got home and had a light dinner but man the beer makes gives you the munchies!

i had another dull day at the office but i read article in the guardian yesterday that if your job was dull, dull, dull either resign or do something about it. so writing copy for a business to business health and safety manual today i attempted to test this theory. so i've resigned. haha no i haven't! i tried to find something interesting about it...

nice that.

it was sunny today in manchester and if you know the region you'll know this is highly unusual. but i even wore a skirt today! it's such a shame tho cos as someone pointed out recently when i was b*tching about the weather, i complain about the lack of sun when it's raining and complain about the infrequency of the sun when it does come out! haha but talking about the weather is simply a very English thing to do!

right. i'm off to the kitchen to find some low fat munchies!

the big smoke

so I'm back from my jolly holiday to Greece.
and yes there are white bits.

The Cretians looked genuinely alarmed/bemused at my efforts to speak Greek to them - must be my
Anglika pronunciation - I hope I wasn't being inadvertently offensive!

The truth is that in this global age everyone has basic English so if you're just a passing tourist you don't need any local nouse, just the please and thankyous will do (so NM that's one of your excuses put paid to!)

On this point of English being the international language of choice, how it must annoy the French! haha
At our hotel there was an european community of French, English and Germans. Put simple the French do not understand the concept of queuing! This should be of no surprise to me. My mum lived in Rome for 5 years and the Italians don't do queuing very well either! But there's something very charming about the Italians that makes you let them off with such naughtiness.
So at our hotel it was all-inclusive food so a buffet was available for you to choose your meal. But if you didn't get in before The French turned up, by gosh you had to fight for your dinner! haha

I love French cinema (Amelie is a masterpiece! And so upbeat for the sulky frogs!). I like a lot of the French booze that finds its way to my local supermarket. But after living with a perfectly horrid and rude French girl in a houseshare at University I'm afraid to say I despair at their rudeness!
I know there are polite French people out there. I met one last week on my way to Gatwick Airport on the Virgin Train I took to London. Charming, reserved - very English in manner in fact! But then he'd lived in London for 8 years so clearly he was 'one of us' now.

I'm reading a book by Kate Fox called 'Watching the English' and enjoying it thus far, having just read about our talking about the weather rituals. Brilliant! I love it when complete strangers comment on the weather to me. But I think my affection for talking to strangers is a little un-English... Not very reserved at all. But I just can't help it, I love meeting new people! haha Now i sound like Miss World. I also love animals and would like World Peace. hehe

I guess maybe I don't dislike the French after all - maybe it's just rude people.
How very English of me.

Wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

Well... maybe some ex-pat type community in Tuscany would be nice...