Ok. life's a fact. people do fall in love. people do belong to each other.

i asked a taxi driver friend of mine* what is his favourite movie scene featuring a taxi.

and if you think about it for a second there are a lot to choose from!

while Pulp Fiction's scene with Bruce Willis is terrifically film noir (like an early version of the entire style of Sin City) complete with postmodern fake backdrop in the rear window, for me Breakfast at Tiffany's end of movie taxi ride with Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard is too romantic not to be my favourite!

his favourite was at the beginning of North by Northwest - he says the background is in 'real time' - everything you see out of the window - you should be seeing if you'd taken the same journey! that's pretty impressive considering the age of the movie. I've not seen it recently but will look out for it now - and that taxi scene!

if you think about it a taxi ride is a great narrative tool for a movie. it gets your character from point a in the story to point b without any loss of 'actual time' so enhancing the reality of your story. maybe i should make a film about taxis.

i think i'm becoming obsessed! i just love how much life taxi drivers witness. i'm so jealous! but i guess i'd get bored after a while. life does that to ya. it's like my job is fun, creative and better than any other type of job i ever did. but one too many difficult clients and it takes the fun, creativity and memory of all those rubbish jobs away! haha

we need to all appreciate what we got in this world cos i know i'm glad i am healthy, loved and have the opportunity to do a fun job! amen brothers and sisters!

don't worry... i'm not getting all pious on you, but we all know that we usually don't appreciate what we got til it's gone, so every now and again take a moment to think about the good stuff.

then you can go back to that very human trait of grumbling about the job, the weather, the price of property etc etc!


*you can read his blog here.

hungover

i am hungover. and it's hometime. thankf*ck for that!

not all booze induced. i was sleep deprived last night due to a trip to Stoke to see my friend Jonny sing the hits from the musicals which meant i stayed up til 1.30am watching the CBB re-runs! haha i'm such a sucker!

so with a night out on Friday that saw me refused entry to Vodka Revolution for being too drunk(never in my life have I been so insulted - it was my heels what made me stumble your honour, haha, not the 6 pints of lager i'd consumed! hic!), a jolly jaunt to Bradford for a birthday party on Saturday night and the theatre in Stoke Sunday - i'm knackered!

night in for me tonight!

comfort dinner approaching fast!

how do you want it?

the most pointless question you'll ever be asked.

this is what my man says and right now i have to agree with him!

i went the award winning salon The Colour Room in Stockport last night and told them what i wanted and now i have hair 2 inches shorter than that.

it's nice. i suppose. but it isn't what i wanted and so i had a severe culture shock last night going from hair down my back to hair that skirts the back of my neck?!!

how??

why??

what have i ever done to 'James' to deserve this butchery?!

i should have known this would happen ofcourse.
hairdressers are an evil breed and they hate long hair.
i very specifically asked for hair to my collarbone - that's a long way from my chin people!!!
i even mentioned i was very nervous to which he laughed and assured me it would all be fine.

i am NEVER getting my hair cut again.
i am going to cut it myself!!
at least i'll only have myself to blame if it looks hideous!!

i cried myself to sleep last night. tragic but true.

and then in the office today everyone loves it!?
pah! shame on them for liking the short hair.

Rob says it makes me look younger. he's nice isn't he. haha

i am still considering calling 'Jason' and telling him just what i think of him and his short hair cut he's inflicted on me but being English i don't want to make a fuss.

dammit!

i'll get used to it of course but why why WHY???!!!!

in a month or so i'll have hair the length i wanted it. there is no chance i'll be stuck with this ridiculous length that can't be tied up (another specific request ignored!) but it's just so rude of him to give me short hair when i didn't ask for short hair!!!!

i'm going to have a glass of water now. and a lie down possibly.

oh my.

hairdressers of the world hear me: you suck!

i think i need a skin graft

i had a bikini wax after work yesterday...
and it was a really good bikini wax. the best i've had in years!
but i'd been what can only be described as 'scalped' down there last time i'd been waxed (and i know there are plenty of ladies out there who will have had a similar experience at least once), but so many months had passed since that horrific experience i'd forgotten...
so upon being waxed again the problem area was exacerbated somewhat.
eek! indeed!
the things you do to de-fuzz!
i also had my eyebrows waxed - but this was my first time - it was wicked!!!
i have lovely new shapely brows! so i'm overusing them today haha, i'm like leslie phillips or something!
hello!
on thursday i am getting my hair cut - its very long right now and need a chop to give me some sass but i admit to being a bit nervous. hairdressers for whatever reason are quite intimidating characters and generally just do what they wanna do so unlike my friend ruth who was, in her words, 'butchered' at the weekend i will not, under any circumstances, be uttering the phrase ' i just want something different'! haha
that's like a red rag to a bull and off then go giving you some couture do that looks amazing for 10 minutes then wilts and looks terrible for 6 months! haha
it's still nerve wracking to change your hair at all though, but it's a necessary evil, it's too long and hippy right now, needs a short sharp shock in the way four inches off! haha

can anyone tell i just got paid? new year, new you! haha

daytime adventures

i was ill last week and off work as a consequence.
being home during the daytime is quite the revelation.

the first very strange thing that happened occurred while i was at Tesco getting orange juice, paracetamol, pineapple, chillis and tomato soup etc etc - y'know, healthy comfort food...

since they have a cafe in my local store i figured i could get breakfast in there to save me making it myself when i got home. a chap commented on my choice of toast spread - flora over butter - saying i'd gone for the healthy option, so i chuckled lightly and said indeed, though i could hardly speak as i had lost my voice from the dirty bug!

then about 20 minutes later while in the greetings card aisle he turned up again and commented on my new tres healthy looking basket. now i'm a friendly girl. my mum says i've always been too friendly, like its a bad thing? so i explained i was ill. then he said i needed chillis to help my cold die. i said thanks for the top tip.
as he didn't seem to be going anywhere i walked off asking him - in rather an accusatory manner not befitting the situation at all and i'm still confused as to where it came from! haha - why aren't you at work?! haha
what business was it of mine?! well indeed what was his business stalking me at Tesco! haha
anyhow he told me he ran his own business and when i told him jokily he wouldn't get rich being a slacker he told me he was rich already.
then he offered to fetch me chillis. so i agreed since i was going that way for grapes...
once he'd delivered me some chillis he asked me if he could give me his phone number.
now taken literally the answer is ofcourse yes.
he CAN give me his number. though i was quite embarrassed at the prospect mind and probably blushed while explaining that i had a boyfriend and well y'know that i probably wouldn't be using it, but he wouldn't have it and ran off to get a pen!
then i was in the cheese bit when he found me again and gave me not one but several contact numbers! haha, a thorough chap! he said 'don't worry, i'm nice!' haha
it still makes me laugh and yet feel slightly uncomfortable! what kind of guy goes for obviously sick women?! kinky! haha
i didn't, nor do i plan to, call him. sorry Leo.

the other really strange thing that happened - and on the same day mind - was i was cold called by a computer! is this allowed?! and TWICE!
what is going on in the world where a computer says: Hello. (polite pause) I'm calling you to tell you about X product... I hung up! It was surreal!

Then another computer called me: Hello. (polite pause) This is an automated response call. Do you receive Sky through a dish? and waited for my response.
i didn't say anything and waited to see what happened. and you'll not believe this!
it responded like a real person with: Hello?
like it was concerned it couldn't hear me or something! then it hung up.

Freakn bizarre ville! So it's come to this has it?
no more grumpy students working part time down the call centre - just computers! haha

the daytime world is indeed a strange and wonderful place.

the art of conversation

i'm currently reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde.

i've always been a great fan of Wilde's witty quotes but have never read any of his books so while i was down in the old book district in Londinium last weekend i thought i'd pick one up and was glad to find him in a dusty basement floor of a used book shop on Charing Cross Road.

i find it quite distressing that i haven't read a lot of classic books, but when i pick a lot of them up it's so hard to relate to the prose. the settings, the point of view of society at the time, it's difficult to get your head around. however i am pleasantly surprised by Dorian, for while it is obviously from another era, it's so gloriously camp that it seems timeless. (in my head i'm imagining Rupert Everett as my protaganist Lord henry as he played another Wilde character so well in the film An Ideal Husband...)
if anyone knows of any classics that don't hurt your head to read please do let me know! in 2007 the jodester reads the classics! haha

this weekend i also realised that conversation is my favourite thing in the whole world. whether it be with a taxi driver for 10 minutes on the drive home or my friends for hours with a pot of tea, nothing beats it for good vibes! this was after all a weekend full of conversations. with girlfriends about babies and careers (have it all girls, have it all!) with the man's friends about homeless people - don't ask - and with random people who i came across in my travels - especially taxi drivers who i think are the world's great conversationalists!*
i think good conversation is the key to a good life really... how many times have you spent a few hours chatting and putting the world to rights with like minded souls... it's so enjoyable!
next time you have a really good conversation - appreciate it! haha life's too short not to!

i think i'd like to make a film like 'Waking Life'** on the art of conversation - a series of interviews filmed then animated over in an entertaining manner! can't remember what that style is called but it's ace!

*some however are quite grumpy and i don't understand why they're in the job! they're working with people everyday - how can they not talk to them?! mental...

** directed by richard linklater - watch it!

Gee's linctus

now there's a remedy you've never heard of i'll bet!
the nice lady at Boots sold it me for my chesty cough/sore throat that arrived without warning on Saturday, nice...
i also purchased Difflam Spray recommended by my friend Belle and just sprayed a bit on the back of my throat - a very strange sensation i can report.
i've already had Meltus and Aspro Max since the bug took a grip but i'm feeling no better!
well i'm probably feeling a lot better than I would without all the modern remedies for modern illnesses i'm sure...
if i start hallucinating during this blog you know why...

my site meter says i had no readers last week. which is a good job i spose given the state of entries! haha drugged up/tired/ festive hangover fuelled blogs do not a good read make!
i decided last night my life was boring and meaningless. that's not very nice is it?! haha
i told my man and he said i should just listen to Hitch Hikers Guide, that always cheers one up! and it did! it was disc 3 - the restaurant at the end of the universe, which is ofcourse impossible. hehe

i watched a load of movies this weekend - not too impressed though.
First up i saw Napolean Dynamite and while the lead teen was spot on in moodiness and uncomfortable vibes it was a bit of a non-plotter. Style over content me thinks.
We also watched Perfume which was just SO boring i fell asleep and then the dodgy dvd threatened to expire my little mac so i wouldn't let the fella watch the ending moments.
can't imagine he missed much though!
basically some supernatural powered peasant has a thing for redheads and murders them to create a scent that has the power to rule the world... yawn! whatever!

Last night i watched Memoirs of a Geisha which i only wanted to see for the costume because i remember when i read the book thinking they couldn't possibly adapt it to movie length and i was right! but the costumes WERE beautiful and it was a good love story for a sunday night.
Boyf wants to go see Apocalypto by Mel 'FundaMentalist Christian' Gibson but i don't want to give my hard earned to monkey boy! gotta love dem movies tho!

another thing i enjoyed this weekend on the gogglebox was a tv show on sky3 of all things! happy hour with dom joly. he is going around the globe on a big pub crawl with his mate pete finding out about different cultures attitudes to drinking, was really entertaining!

back to the drugs for me...

more of me to love

argh! the post xmas bulge is upon us...

too many glasses of baileys and too many slices of xmas pud mean my waistline is ever so rounder than it was before December! haha

so i - along with thousands of peeps across the land - am trying to cut down on the naughtiness.

but it ain't easy! i am trying to wean myself off the sugar my body has become very used to by eating lots of fruit but sometimes you just need chocolate! haha
i reckon its loads easier to give up booze i january than chocolate! when it's cold somehow a nice choccie makes you feel better! it's so fr*ggn brrr out there and booze being generally served cold, it just doesn't appeal as much!

as soon as i have sorted out my zeds i'll be back in the gym - i am on operation catchup and invested in some new pillows* today after waking up with neckache today.
how rock n roll is that baby?!

i wish you could get a fat eraser like a pencil eraser - and just rub out your fat bits! haha that would be amazing! maybe i should work out a way to exercise at my desk! haha

still not back into the swing of blogging...bear with me!


*at the weekend i made the man get some new pillows and they felt amazing so i didn't want to miss out on the sleep action! haha

telly envy

oh my god, i watched the new episode of This Life last night at my friend Ruth's but it was really weird watching a normal sized screen after the veiwing pleasure that was Matt's HUGE new telly in Sheffield!

he has literally ruined my normal telly veiwing experience! i have telly envy! argh!
i don't even like telly as a concept! it's so anti-social...

i don't have any new years resolutions but perhaps i should have one that says i won't watch rubbish telly anymore. it can literally suck time out of your day. (Deal or No Deal, Sleb BB and Desperate Housewives fabulous exceptions! haha)

now watching movies is different. this is what telly is useful for! we watched some splendid movies over the last week - Star Wars, Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the lost ark! Brilliant stuff!

i am suffering today from a nick hangover - couldn't sleep last night cos my bodyclock all topsyturvy like. took nytol too in preparation! didn't work a wink!

weird to blog when you've had such a break.

more later...