15 June 2010

It's the laptop issue that's really devastating this blog. What's holding me back from making this purchase? Money probably. And time? No. Not time. I've found time to write this, haven't I? I'm not sure where the blame lies. With me, generally and ostensibly.

I'm reading a wonderfully melancholy book which Chloe sent to me for my birthday. It's Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys. I enjoyed Wide Sargasso Sea when I was 18. Midnight is more devastating than Plath, I would say. Rhys has taken me through the weekend, which was a long one, on account of the fact that I took Friday and Monday off to haul myself up to Inverness for the festival there. I made a little promise to myself to take it easy last week, in the days leading up to the trip, but it wasn't to be. I've had far too many dinners out. Far too many. I felt a quiet longing the other day for someone to make me a home-cooked meal. But, with no food in the house and scant inclination on my part, I think it will be to the restaurant again tonight. Doesn't that sound like a romantic life? It's like A Moveable Feast, except that I don't live in a hotel and I don't spend my days at the horse races...

I'd love to live in a hotel for a spell, wouldn't you?

Let me tell you about the festival. It was sublime! Disregard the weather, and the Scottish, and the lack of clean ablutions and the mud. Only consider the aspect of the lake and the mountains and the sound of the music and that great feeling when you're just dancing for hours and you've had too much wine. We had a ball. I especially enjoyed, to my surprise, Fat Boy Slim, Leftfield and The Strokes.

I new that I'd enjoy Blondie. She looks fantastic and she still gives a great show. I was not quite sober during her performance. At the end of each song, I yelled "Go Debbie" with desperate glee. I don't think she heard me. Nick thought perhaps she could because she has a Debdar - a radar only found in people with the name Deborah - I acknowledge that this isn't particularly witty, but I will admit that I was the one who came up with it.

It's football mild-fever at the moment. No one's too crazy about it. I was taken to lunch today but we sat too far from the screen for me to see New Zealand's goal. I had to ask the waitress who had won. She said that "the team in white" had scored a goal in the final minutes and that it was a draw. Okay, fine. They've done well.

We watched South Korea on a screen at the Drambuie tent on Saturday. I think they're a great team to watch. Perhaps it was the Drambuie, but I was charmed.

In other news, I haven't written you any poetry, painting is looking neglected on the easel and perhaps the dust gathers so much that it will add texture to the execution. I'm here at work rather too late tonight, on account of my long lunch on the agency's credit card (some are accustomed to these perks which are not to be had in public service). I'm taking this little break now, to indulge myself in a post and ease some of the unease that has grown out of the lack of writing lately, but breaks end.

And this one ends here.

1 June 2010

Politically-themed sandwiches sounds like a great idea for Mr Mabey's sandwich cart. How could you push the limits? What about a Ghengis Khan sandwich where the meat is cooked between one's thighs... That could be a myth about Khan but it's something I read somewhere about him and his compadres. It could be true though. There was this awful scene in the latest Murakami novel that I read where some Mongolian soldiers skinned a Japanese soldier alive. It was horrific. The image still sits in my mind and it makes me shudder.

What a good writer.

He also wrote What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - or some such title - and that's been recommended to me on the basis of my running which, by the way, I'm still not doing. And I've definitely deflated. I think I'll deflate some more. I've taken up walking instead. I walk to and from work which takes me around half an hour. Today, I'm afraid that I didn't walk on account of the fact that I rubbished myself yesterday trying to pack as much fun into the long weekend as possible and I was dog-tired this morning.

Still going strong though and would do it all over again tonight if I had the chance. And the company.

The painting is taking some serious shape. It's been likened to a vase full of celery which didn't please me particularly, but at least the viewer likened it to flora of some kind. I've attached a photo of the latest. It's still at undercoat stage so the hue isn't perfect but it will get there. Yesterday I picked up some sable brushes so that I can do some teeny work on the petals. I went to Soho to Cass Art and also picked up a sketch book which was dire because I managed to start my first sketch whilst playing cards at midnight after a couple of bottles of red wine. What a nerd I must have looked, scribbling away like that.

Down on Regent Street yesterday, the ipad was in the throes of its just-on-the-market celebration. I was considering getting a mac, especially because they do finance deals, but I just couldn't do it. You should have seen this place - it was rammed full of people. It was suffocating. I looked around in a confused manner for a couple of minutes, wandered up and down the great glass staircase and then left. The horror of it all.

I'm not sure about the mac idea anymore. It'll cost twice as much as a PC and I really don't use my laptop for anything but word processing and internet. I'm getting conflicting advice.

Back to that fateful day.

I turned on lappy, the trusty little guy that I've been using since 4th year university (you just can't do law school without one, I think), and up came the dreaded blue screen. I've had this problem before. It was during my professionals course, when I'd almost finished drafting my statement of case and all my notes ready to devastate opposing counsel at the mock trial, and then the blue screen tells me that I've lost all my work. Boyfriend of the day managed to restore the previous settings, but the trial notes were lost and I had to start again with time fast running out. How dramatic. Obviously it all worked out because here I am, sitting at my desk, being a lawyer. Well, no, I'm taking a lunch break and writing my blog post, but I was being a lawyer this morning. And I will be again right now if the phone rings.

I took lappy to the shop last Saturday and discussed the problem with the man behind the counter and the outcome of the conversation was that it was time to get a new laptop. He showed me an IBM. I thought about it and walked out, promising to return.

Part of the reason that it's now unsalvagable is because of that time that I was a little drunk and I knocked water all over it. Lucky for me it wasn't damaged, but for the fan which makes a terrible whirring and grinding noise every now and again.

It's a very good thing that I have the iphone. It's also a bad thing when it comes to posting random thoughts and photos on facebook. It's like making that drunken phone call but worse because your calling the world and laying your thoughts on display. Splash! All over the newsfeed. Irrevocable.

I've started this post in such an awkward place, it must be diabolical to read. Back to the beginning.

Its been a tiring couple of weeks. Fraught with the loss of lappy, amongst other things, as some of you will know. And you've offered your condolsences, which are appreciated. Some things just aren't meant to be, huh? Even with the best of intentions.

Work has been mad! But I did manage to get out to the Portrait Gallery after work on Thursday. What a great permanent collection! I only managed half, once again. I've still the third floor of the Tate and the second wing of the Tate Britian to do. It seems that I have a tendency to leave galleries half-finished. I took off to meet Nicola for a drink and she was nice enough to hop on my iphone and order Daddy's birthday present which I had been meaning to do for days and just hadn't managed to get round to because of the computer disaster. I would have much prefered to have seen the book with my own eyes and wrapped it up with the card I was yet to buy but it wasn't to be. And it will get there late. I've bought him the Bolano, 2666. Hopefully the translation isn't rubbish because it's supposedly a dense read. Nothing like the Pynchon I bought him for Christmas, of course.

I called him on Monday morning. We'd been out inordinately late the night before but I woke up early, duly, and managed to reach him as he was drinking his champagne and eating his roast chicken. Sounds like a brilliant birthday to me.

I can hradly remember what had happened the night before that. I think it involved Rock Band. Ugh. I can certainly remember the night before that though. On Saturday, it was Eurvision night. We'd decided to throw a BBQ, regardless of the fact that we have no outdoor space, save the entrance balcony, and we have no BBQ. We bought one of those instant party size disposable ones and managed to smoke the whole neighbourhood out by placing on a vinyl stool with scant insulation. The stool melted, the smoke alarm went off and there was a late night clandestine trip to dump the stool in a skip or some such receptacle.

I'm sure that it can't be healthy to eat sausages which are cooked in plastic fumes.

I was much surprised by the Eurovision voting. It's as if everyone had forgotten the world wars one night. Well, that's not strictly true because Israel didn't vote for Germany for example. But what about the Baltics. They supported their neighbours as if the devastation of the end of last century never happened.

Last Friday was the Greenwich Jazz and Beer Festival. We went along because Nick has an insatiable love for the Fun Loving Criminals, who were headlining that night. I don't drink beer, but I made an exception and I was plesantly surprised. Especially by the chocolate flavoured one. My word, did they make a tasty brew. It was a nice night. I was impressed by FLC. They conjure up memories of listening to 96.1 when I was thirteen or fourteen.

We happened upon a tapas bar on the way back to the tube and instead of getting home before the tubes stopped running, we bought a nice bottle of wine, ordered tapas and following it by dessert and yelled at eachother across the table in an enthusiastic manner. Nick and I carefully avoid talking about the nature of positivism. It gets ugly.

Then we passed out on the night bus and were kicked off in Russell Square.

And good times were had by all.

I'm sure there's more. I have a lot of musings that I haven't laid bare for you here because my lunch break is swiftly coming to its end.

Roll on the era of the new laptop.

4 June 2010

I have a post all ready for you. We'll have to live in the past for a while as I catch up on previous musings and we re-engage. I'm very much trying to get the new laptop organised so don't despair. We have the rest of our lives to post/read/laugh.

I'm going to try to post a photo from my iPhone in order to satiate you in the meantime...

Oh. Goodness. I can't.

Things could be worse for us.

But, boy, couldn't they be better?