Head in Burrr

on Saturday I'm off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for a week of comedy and beer - oh and most importantly - lie ins! haha

can't believe its that time of year again already! and how my diet will cope with all the naughtiness available i don't know! ah well there's always September to be trim...

hoping to see lots of free fringe for up and coming funny people, but will start off with a bang to get us in the mood with Simon Munnery's AGM and Stewart Lee's latest offering Scrambled Eggs... and of course we have to catch the marvellous despite diminutive Phil Nichol...

i have to get my cheeks ready for the faceache that comes from a) laughing so much at all the funny and b) smiling so sympathetically at the not-so-funny, and take it from a seasoned comedy fan, the latter is much worse as there's no pay-off! it's a one way street for those guys! haha

Dan Nightingale - a great stand up from the Manchester circuit - is also doing a show in Ed so he's on our list, as well as Wil Hodgson, Sara Millican, and Joan Rivers was on there but sadly is sold out (don't even go there - i'm livid at my shoddy forward planning!!)

The great thing about the festival tho is its 'up-for-it-ness' if there were such a word, you can smell the effort and enthusiasm in the air as you get off the train at Waverley, so many people having a go, i love it...

I shall report back once the inevitable comedy comedown has subsided!

everything's just peachy

i was wandering around myspace when i came across Missy Higgins

what a great songstress!

that is why i will forever love the space that is my and for-go any book of the face haha

reminds me a bit of KT Tunstall now i come to think of it, another current fave of mine... she wears her guitar well that girl...

High School Musical

or rather Grease - The Ripoff! haha i had to watch this kids film phenomenon to see what all the fuss was about and it was soooo like Grease i nearly fell off my chair! s'funny how the same ideas get recycled and recycled over and over...

it's good, don't think i'm slagging it or anything - i can totally see why the kids are LOVING it, but all i'm saying is if they watched Grease they'd love that too right?

i don't know any kids, so oft i don't see kids tv/ films but i think a film that the whole family can enjoy is a really important life experience, i was thinking back to what was the first film i saw at the pictures today and i think it was E.T. even tho my mum says i saw loads of Disney prior to this and possibly even Star Wars and Superman! I also really vividly remember seeing Flash Gordon (Gordon's Alive!) at a little film club in the Dingle, i guess they had little projectors, seems so technically advanced for the late 70s early 80s!

what's interesting is seeing films again as an adult that you watched as a kid and suddenly realising there's loads of gags for the parents that just went straight over your head as a kid, haha...

so since it's friday and i've not done this in a while.... here's my personal top 5 kids movies:

5 The Goonies - amazing feel-good kiddie adventure that made me want to look for treasure!

4 Ghostbusters - this is still one of my all time favourite films! Bill Murray rules!

3 Bugsy Malone - i soooo wanted to be in this film! They had so much fun with all those custard pies!

2 The Princess Bride - i think somehow i didn't see this amazing film til i was about 19, it's too funny! And Shrek certainly has a lot to thank it for...

1 Labyrinth - oh David Bowie in tights, you're such a legend!

sunshine on my shins

sounds a bit like a summery song waiting to be written 'sunshine on my shins' doesn't it? haha

after weeks of dull, cold and frankly frightful weather the sun has been trying to break out this week so i got my shins out! and what a sight they are! at least 3 shades paler than the upper, more oft exposed parts of me!

i tried fake tan lotion last summer but it's so much hassle getting it 'just right' and avoiding the streakzone... i was even professionally 'fakebaked' a couple of Christmas' ago but i don't feel the need to be quite so bronzed as an everyday thing... what i need of course is simply a fortnight lying down in the sun!

as we speak my mum is packing for a spell in Greece, how jealous i am... and how pale i'll be sat next to her at the forthcoming family christening! ruined!

a school in Lancashire made the news today for banning fake tan which i think is brilliant! while i feel their pale pain - Billy Connelly wasn't joking when he said northerners were so pale they're 'see-thru' - it's ridiculous how obsessed westerners are with being tanned! while fake tan is definitely healthier than sunbeds, it does what it says on the tin - makes you look like you have a fake tan! which surely isn't the point? or is it?!

i always clung to the 'pale and interesting' mantle but knew on the inside this simply wasn't glamourous for the times i'm living in, altho it does seem to be making a comeback as 'fakebake' reaches its critical mass and its popularity with the hoi poloi makes it 'unsuitable' for celebs... but then my freckles always got in the way of the pale thing anyway, not even an English Rose me, just Irish pale with dark hair and a Roman nose haha! bless my ancestors!

the worst thing about being pasty is when you're photographed next to more colourful pals... oh how i shine like a beacon! i must make a mental note to quit all tanned buddies in an effort to rid myself of embarrassing photo moments!

i cheer myself up with the fact that i am not alone and that many of my countrymen and women are knocking about with the same pale issues... it's not much but it'll do! in the meantime if you see me out n about in my summer wardrobe, do me a favour and avert your eyes from me pasty shins!

oh but you would...

oh my. i'm such a sucker for a good looking older gent! gorgoeus george, the hoff, i have a list! but the old flames of lust have been fanned for the Brosnan after seeing Mamma Mia this week!

he was of course a fabalas Bond but i ain't seen him on screen for such a long time it was quite a surprise to find myself being wooed once more by this blue eyed bit of yes-please! haha

and yes i understand why everyone has had a go re: the singing, but hey, he can croon at me anytime! and the film is sooo brilliant it's gonna become a cult hit for sure!

it reminded me of Grease in many ways, it doesn't take itself at all seriously and just has fun - the greek chorus is freakn hilarious! i recommend and the ABBA tunes take on a whole new light...

but frankly seeing Pierce in an ABBAesque jumpsuit makes my heart skip ever so slightly quicker just thinking about it! haha

there's something very simple and beautiful about a honest-to-goodness PHWOAR moment in life don't ya think?

i drove all night

i just happened to be doing a few long journeys in my punto of love recently and happened to have some new cds to listen including the tings tings - the latest sound sensation from Manchester!

their song shut up and let me go is such a great driving tune! great songs to drive to are probably part of the reason cars radios are so popular... forget that red light, tailgater, lady who cut you up (how rude!) and tap your fingers on the steering wheel to Dolly Parton's Joleen!

usually i don't listen to cds in the car since most my journeys are over within 3 tracks and i feel it's not worth the bother! but one of the good things about a road trip is making a tape* (or cd as the technology would have it nowadays) full of the latest and greatest to put your foot down to(or not as the case may be on the M6 all too often!)

feel free to make me a road trip compilation tho dear reader and post to the usual address!

*ah the good old days, i'm clearly a woman stuck in the past, vinyl and tape do it for me everytime! none of this virtual mp3 nonsense!

the original bunny boiler

Oh My God! How can I only just have seen 1987 classic Fatal Attraction?!

I was only 13 when it came out that's how! haha

So I must have bypassed all the TV runs over the last 20 years and I decided to add it to my lovefilm.com list (which i STILL love by the way!) but nothing prepared me for the nailbiting afternoon that ensued!

That woman was a mentalist! I'm reading the Female Eunuch by one Germaine Greer and expected to dislike the eighties treatment of this poor woman treated badly by sex-addict Douglas! haha But nope, she's just a mentalist! if she was stalking me i'd have moved state never mind my phone number! haha

There was a documentary on the extras from 2000 including interviews with everyone involved, turns out cos the mentalist was a single working woman that's why it was deemed sexist - but the producers insist they weren't saying 'all' single working women were lunatics, just this one! haha

I also discovered it wasn't the proper ending that i'd just watched! in fact the original filmed ending was more like in Madame Butterfly, referred to in the narrative, where the lead female has a more self-destructive ending, there's even a bit of footage! But test audiences (and what do they know) wanted revenge for the wife... oh dear girl on girl hate is not a good look sisters! hehe

i'm going to investigate what other 80s classics have passed me by!

blind date

i have a blind date this afternoon!

now, don't worry, the man has nothing to worry about!

having only moved to the Midlands recently i am a little short of female company and while chatting about this with a galpal in London discovered another lady in the Midlands seeking a ladybuddy!

so today is the big day - of course i have first date zits - it would be rude not too, since they always turn up for important social occasions!

i'm meeting my possibly soon-to-be new galpal at Starbucks this afternoon where we will hopefully spot each other thru the crowds and have lots to talk about... eek! or possibly not?!!

i trust my friend who has set us up and frankly life is too dull without a good portion of girltalk in your life so needs must, but it's quite daunting! i've not been on a first date in years and a blind date - never! haha

i will post an update on how it went tomorrow...

Why are Estate Agents allowed?

Did anyone ever utter the words 'Mummy, when I grow up, I want to be an Estate Agent...'?

I ruddy doubt it!

And yet exist they do, and ripping people off is what they get up to... I'm sure not all EA are ugly human beings but surely a lot I've come across are just that and so give them all a bad name!

Recently me and the man were told we had to give 60 days notice on a rented place, WTF? I can quit my job is 30 days but if I was planning on leaving the city to start a new job I'd have to volunteer a month's rent? It's disgusting! I'm going to report them to the Office of Fair Trading because it is simply unfair to expect people to be able to give that kind of notice in this day and age. No-one messes with the jodester's hard-earned! They'll be sorry the day they made my man sign up for that fascist notice clause*! I am full of PropertyRage! Argh!

Having said that I am really looking fwd to our new place which is sooo lovely and quiet and spacious and conveniently located... ah realtor heaven, haha

*yes yes, my mum has already said 'always read the small print' but i think it's safe to say this is pretty unusual and they've failed to point it out making it unfair and probably illegal.. pah!

Joleen, Joleen, Joleen, Jo-Leeeen!

I am going to watch Dolly Parton LIVE tonight in Birmingham! (you are now offically allowed to be jealous! hehe)

What a diva!

I had a look at her website and discovered you can buy a Dolly Parton cookbook full of recipes for Dixie treats and Parton family favourites including Banana Pudding! Sounds scrummy! If they're selling it at the show tonight I'm sooo getting me a copy!

A full report will follow...

03.07.08
The morning after the night before and I am fully fledged Dolly convert! Not that it took much to persuade me! She sang all the old favourites, told us tall tales about Jolene being a real lady who tried to steal her hubby Carl (who she's still married to despite marrying in '66!), told us stories about growing up in the Smoky Mountains, played a million Rhinestone white string instruments (I had severe guitar envy!) in 3 inch false nails! how is this possible?! At one point she even busted out a penny whistle! She is totally awesome and I wanna go live in Dollywood! haha