Lemonlight

domesticated randomness

blue satin

I'm still around, I promise! Like everyone else at this time of year I am super-busy and running around chasing my tail (haven't caught it yet). I've just applied some (rather lovely Chanel 'Blue Satin') nail varnish and as a result have to sit relatively motionless for a few minutes so thought I would check in (I'm typing slowly with just two fingers).

This crazy indulgence is due to the office xmas 'do' being tomorrow - can't wait! I then I have a super-crazy weekend of wrapping presents, discovering I have missed some presents, going out into the cowds to buy more presents, wrapping those presents and then realising I have no tree up to put the presents under.

There's a bottle of Disaronno somewhere with my name on it... at least there blimmin' better be!

miscellaneous tuesday

Well, the cake is nearly all gone - it's a good job it was nice as there was a heck of a lot of it.

I saw this cup in a shop window and thought I was looking into a mirror!Confusing.

Have just returned from IKEA - we went for a cheap dinner (haddock, chips and peas plus a drink for £2.25 each, and yummy too). Trouble is we ended up spending £100 on new bedding - bit of an impulse buy - s'luvverly.

Very excited about The Impossible Project breaking the news about their new film for Polaroids - I may have to start snapping more enthusiastically with my current stash of 600 film. I love that the first batch of new film will be black and white (and that the packaging is so awesome) - something new to tinker with.

I bought a big flashgun for my Canon 40D - I haven't got a clue how to use it but I understand you can do amazing things with it. I need to read the manual. I also need about six more hours in every day. At least.

I sneakily took this photo of some great-master-or-other when we were away, just as Mark walked up to admire the handiwork. I quite like the contrast though of real and painted people - may have to try this at the art gallery in town. Some sort of spy camera in a hat maybe required though.

That's all for now. Smell you later!

miscellaneous monday

* Everyone I have met today has had a really bad case of the Monday bleughs, never mind, it's nearly over!

* Why are my feet so cold?

* Garden birds go mental with delight if you put out dried worms for their dinner.

* I really need to tidy up my working environment but I really can't be arsed. It may look like chaos but I bet I can lay my hand on anything you might care to mention within seconds... well, minutes for sure. Definitely no more than half an hour.

* I don't think my digestive system is cut out for eating huge slabs of brontosaurus steak (perhaps it was cow actually). The steak we had last night (Valentines 'treat') was very big, very meaty and is currently lodged just above my pancreas. I feel like I've eaten a house brick.

* Tonight I had sushi. Much more my thing.

* Here is Alan the sea urchin, he lives on my windowsill (now)...

Don't stop dancing or you'll fall off

Today's random word is... Fall

Because I am British and not American when I think fall I think 'ouch' not 'autumn'.

Boring assemblies at school (sat cross-legged on the floor listening to parables and singing hymns) were made all the more enjoyable by comparing scraped and damaged knees from various and frequent falls (and if you were really lucky, a big scab to pick at)! We were always falling down. Always. And then we jumped back up again and got on with it.

You know when you're a proper grown-up because falling over becomes a really big deal. As well as the mortifying humiliation and the whole being a laughing-stock thing there's also the PAIN!

Being on the ground is an alien thing for a fully-grown adult. Even in happier circumstances than falling arse-over-tit to get there (such as lying on the beach or sat on a lovely picnic rug) it feels quite... strange. Gravity is definitely in charge!

1. Very Low, 2. More grass, 3. Untitled, 4. flipping heck

There's a scene at the end of Gregory's Girl (I love that film, grew up with that film) where they are lying on the ground talking about how we're clinging to the surface of this planet by "the mysterious force of gravity" and then do a lying-down gravity-defying dance. Our foot print on the earth is just that, our footprints. When you're sprawled on the ground, either belly down hugging the earth or looking up into the infinite space above it's really quite a spiritual thing, makes you feel more in tune with all things elemental. Don't wait to fall over your shoe-laces to experience it, keep your dignity and ease yourself gently down until you're eye-to-eye with an ant - it's a whole new world (and the childhood memories come flooding back).

[fast forward to 2 minutes if you don't have time to watch the whole clip]

NB - was horrified whilst searching for this clip on YouTube that the non-UK version is DUBBED. I guess there was a need to or they wouldn't have gone to the bother, but it was weird hearing different voices saying the words I know so well - especially as the new voices are only about 3% less Scottish than the originals.

modification

In a bid to heave myself from my blogging rut and back into the increasingly social and collaorative world of t'internet I have come up with a plan, it involes a 'random word generator' and actually doing some work.

This is the website I used. I set myself a rule of absolutelypositively only using the first word it generates. Has to be the first one, no cheating. OK, well the second then, but no more clicking!

Your random word is:   modification

When I saw the word 'modification' my immediate thought was about modifying myself - namely changing my ways and improving my physical-self (the two things being inexorably linked, I'm sure). It's not that I hate myself, I'm just all too aware of the things that are holding me back.

The chaos and cacophony of thoughts and ideas in my head; the plans and wishes and dreams and memories are very much echoed in my surroundings, so one thing I need to modify (soon before I am totally swamped) is all the 'stuff' that's anywhere and everywhere in my home! My head and the rooms in my house need decluttering and organising. The head stuff will improve (I am sure) when the house stuff does. Have joined freecycle in a bid to give away stuff I can't be bothered to sell on ebay, all I need to do now is sever the bonds with the books that I'm never going to read, the magazines I'm never going to look at again and the rest of the COMPLETE RUBBISH I insist on giving shelfroom (floorspace) to.

I definitely need to modify my body. Specifically I need to lose weight. OK, so I am working on that, but when you're predisposed to laziness and have a job that involves sitting at a desk all day it requires a whole lot more self-discipline and denial than I am generally comfortable with. So, so many reasons why I have got to this place but am determined to beat this weird love/hate relationship and so hopefully will be successful.

So, there you go, modification. Change is good.

[This blog post was brought to you through the power of unravelling]