Listening to: Buffalo Stance – Neneh Cherry

Nothing like sharehousing for political clarity. I need firm decisions and centrally administered services! Whose turn is it to buy the fucking toilet paper? I bought the last lot and the hand soap.

I am not an anarchist.

Listening to: Love Her Madly – The Doors

Firstly, when did this happen? Suddenly it’s autumn! Awesome.

Secondly, this is our oven:

It’s hard to photograph grease.

Thirdly, I found a new way to walk home today. Google was directing me kind of the long way round (and I’ve been lazy since the move and usually catch the bus from Acton to Hammersmith, halving my walk), but I knew there had to be a way through Chiswick so I printed a couple of zoomed out Google Maps to keep me in the right general direction and set off to explore. It was fun not knowing quite where I was going to end up next! And eventually I made it to the Thames Path (my old nemesis), which was probably not the wisest move because it got quite dark by that point (winter is really coming! Yea!) but it worked out okay. I took quite a main roady route to be on the safe side, so there’s still more to explore in the back streets tomorrow!

Finally, Heather has been emailing me some completely awesome Mills & Boon titles. I am ashamed to say how long it’s been since I even set foot inside a library (not only ashamed but completely distraught, really – what am I doing?) – I’ve missed these and I need to start looking for some of my own again, too! Here’s a selection (seriously, these are some of the best ever):

Listening to: When I Get to the Border - Richard & Linda Thompson

I think the keyboard issue might actually have something to do with the internet – I’ve switched to writing this in Word and it’s fine. We’ll see how WordPress copes when I paste it in, though. It doesn’t generally play well with others.

Primark on Sunday was kind of a bust (I briefly considered a red wool-blend skirt for work and was going to do it up with new buttons and rick-rack, but it was so cheaply-made that the lining felt like an actual plastic bag so I gave up on the dream), but I did finally find a full-length mirror in a cheap shop on King Street in Hammersmith for 12 quid, so I came home happy. It’s currently propped up on my singles box, but I need to think of something taller because it cuts my head off.

I am in love with the fibre arts lately! I’ve had my crochet hooks out to work on the neverending afghan and have recently begun to turn them to smaller, more creative projects – crochet is so full of possibilities! I made a little tiara out of scraps on Sunday night (I had season 4 of Weeds to get through) – it’s hard to make out in the photo because there are a million ends to weave in, but I like it:

And I’ve been trawling the Craftzine crochet archives – there’s nothing there I specifically want to make (I think amigurumi are cute and everything, but what do you do with them once you’ve made them, really?), but they’re really inspiring! If I can find a cheap enough cotton/blend yarn, I’m going to try my hand at a freeform laundry basket (I’m thinking of something like my Year 12 Ceramics assignment [a massive great coil pot that kind of collapsed in an aesthetically pleasing way shortly before I finished it - my mum now stores her umbrellas in it], minus the clay). And my Elizabeth Zimmermann pi shawl continues to grow. Its awesomeness isn’t really down to anything I’m doing because it’s all about the self-striping yarn and genius circular formula (I haven’t made it remotely lacy – maybe when I get to the border), but I’m so looking forward to the finished product. It’s just starting to get cool enough to wear woollens here and yesterday I tried out the simple Gaia shawl I made a couple of months ago – it was like wearing a hug! So cosy.

Finally, this is insane but I would have loved this when I was a kid.

Actually, no, really finally I have a question – is anyone else having trouble with iTunes 9? I upgraded to it without thinking and now it comes up with a fatal intallation error every time I try to use it. Don’t they know I have podcasts to download?

Listening to: Worrier God - The Underground Lovers

IS FEMINISM GIVING BRITISH JUSTICE SWINE FLU? Qwghlm’s Daily Mail-o-matic is my new favourite toy.

So hey. How’s tricks, blogosphere? I spent about 36 hours pissing about on Facebook last night, becoming a fan of everything I could think of, and it occurred to me that I should probably just start blogging again.

Oh, man – I think I might need to send the new laptop off for a service first, though. This keyboard is driving me insane! This is what it looks like when I don’t go back and correct every other word:

Arg this stpid kyboard i compltely insntive and I worrythat i’s ging to gve me some sortof stress-relatemedicl condtin.

(Translated: “Argh, this stupid keyboard is completely insensitive and I worry that it’s going to give me some sort of stress-related medical condition.”)

But regardless, consider the blog back on! I’ve just cooked properly for the first time in the new house (pumpkin soup, stewed apples and plums, and brown rice for breakfasts), I have a ticket to see the Lemonheads next Saturday and I’m about to spend the afternoon in Hammersmith Primark. How could I possibly justify letting such an exciting life go undocumented?

Listening to: That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore - The Smiths

Oh my god, oh my god, this is the greatest thing ever: Christina Aguilera and Le Tigre to collaborate. How genius is that? I knew Christina Aguilera was cool. I’m so excited!

Also, this is not exactly the greatest thing ever, but some of that laughter you hear might be mine – my housemate B and I were at this taping last week!:

It was so much fun to go to! I hate Johnny Vegas – cannot stand him – but they seem to have cut most of his stuff out anyway, because it was utter incoherent nonsense. Jimmy Carr seemed to find him as irritating as I did and did lots of quiet huffing and pointed ignoring. (I’ve been listening to Jimmy Carr’s Writers’ Room podcast lately, and I have a new appreciation for him. He’s quite funny and surprisingly interesting.) The team captains didn’t have as much to say as the edit makes it seem – Sean Lock pretty much stared into space for much of the last hour or so of taping (everyone was a bit tired, and he apparently has a new baby at home). But there was a lot of really funny stuff, and it was interesting to watch it all happen. Also, the BBC employs some very attractive camera crew people.

P.S. Also from The Guardian - new Lemonheads album!

Dudes!

Koko Taylor died. She was brilliant. Check her out.

Listening to: You Broke My Heart in 17 Places – Kirsty MacColl

Argh! I just tried to rewrite my CV to get it down to 2 pages, and now it’s about 63 pages long.

Is your CV full of achievements? Do you find it hard to think of public library assistant work in that way, or is it just me? I should have viewed the past year in terms of CV fodder, and instead I frittered it away. Even things that I sort of think are “achievements” sound wanky when I try to write about them as such. Should I have been keeping a tally of how many books I personally catalogued? How do you quantify ordinary customer service to make it more marketable when you haven’t actually been selling anything?

Yeah, it occurred to me recently that my resume is complete rubbish and is probably the reason I haven’t got a job yet. Still, as I get on with it, this is making me laugh:

Listening to: May You Never – John Martyn

Hello!

I think I should start blogging again, or I’ll probably missing out on what is potentially the most interesting content this blog will ever see. And having set the bar that high, I find that I don’t actually have time to write about anything today - think of this like a trailer for the main event.

(Making this more appropriately English than you may realise – trailers here suck! They’ve been advertising a couple of films on TV lately – In the Loop and The Boat That Rocked - and they don’t tell you anything! Or rather they tell you but don’t show anything! The In the Loop trailer basically has a couple of shots of Peter Capaldi and Tom Hollander not saying anything and a voiceover going “Critics are calling it the funniest British film in years!” – and that’s it, ad over. Who would go and see anything based on that?)

Listening to: The Old Main Drag – The Pogues

I’m at an internet café, so don’t have much time left for anything, but I just wanted to quickly let you know that so far I am so, so pleased with everything. So far, this is not a disaster! Who’d have thought?

Shepherd’s Bush is really – everything that Adelaide is not (for me! I mean, I did actually take a few moments before I left to appreciate that it’s quite a nice city, sort of, and I seek to disparage none of you who choose to stay there). And obviously the grain of salt there is that I’m two days in and everything is still new and exciting, but I do like it so much. The house is not a dump. The area is pretty but interesting. There are things to see and do, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg – out there, beyond Shepherd’s Bush Green, which is far as I’ve yet ventured, is London.

Oh! And today it was properly cold until mid-afternoon – scarf/gloves/beanie cold. So awesome.

Listening to: airport music

Hello! I have very little to report, but I am blogging from Changi Airport just because I can (!).

(Changi Airport is awesome, by the way. I can’t believe the time I’ve wasted at KLIA and Denpasar in the past. They have a butterfly garden here! And a free cinema, which will shortly be screening Juno.) And free internet! Being stranded here for 24 hours would probably be fine!*

I immediately burst into tears upon disappearing through the customs gate at Adelaide Airport, but I’m doing okay now. (If any of you would like to drop everything and move to London with me, that would be great, though. Give it some thought.) Singapore is exciting, and I can only imagine actually leaving the airport in London will be better still (right?).

I’m off to explore – thanks, everyone, for all the well wishes, etc. (Eeeeee! I’m actually doing this!)

*Yeah, ask me about that sometime.