iPod Recently Played for the last week

Everyone Nose - N.E.R.D.
Moi... Lolita (Single Version) - Alizee
Rifles - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
It's A Girl Thing - My Life Story
Make Mistakes - Infadels
Secretly Jealous - Coyote Shivers
Dying - Hole
Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins
Comes As No Surprise - Mansun
Crazy For You - Madonna
Shiver - Maroon 5
Buffalo Stance - Neneh Cherry
Do I Lie? - Alisha's Attic
Payback Time (Nellee Hooper Master Mix) - The Dysfunctional Psychedelic Waltons
If You Leave Me Now - Chicago
Taking On The World - Gun
The Winners Song - Geraldine McQueen
Cars That Go Boom - L'Trimm
Set The Fire To The Third Bar - Snow Patrol & Martha Wainwright
Hate That I Love You - Rihanna
So Sick - Ne-Yo
Under The Thumb - Amy Studt
LOL - Little Jackie
The Hill, The View & The Lights - Cajun Dance Party
Ain't No Rest For The Wicked - Cage The Elephant

iPod Recently Played for the last week

On The Attack And More - 20 Fingers feat Gillette (Album)
Kala - MIA (Album)
Empire Records OST (Album)
Don't Trust The Ones You Love - King Adora
Littlest Things - Lily Allen
Keep Your Hands Off My Girl - Good Charlotte
Another Night - MC Sar & The Real McCoy
Runaway - Lush
Don't Mess With My Man (Album Version) - Lucy Pearl
Debbie Loves Joey - Helen Love
Big Bang Theory Theme - Barenaked Ladies
Boyfriend - Alphabeat
Joga - Bjork
Secret Smile - Semisonic
Don't Call Me Baby (Original Mix Edit) - Madison Avenue
Forget Your False Mess'iahs - Ciccone
Push - Matchbox 20
Wings Of A Butterfly - HIM
Shut Up And Let Me Go - The Ting Tings
Ready To Go (Radio Edit) - Republica
2:1 - Elastica
Burn Black - Hole
500 (Shake Baby Shake) - Lush
Guiding Star - Cast
Turpentine - Hole
Off The Hook - CSS
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) - Dead Or Alive
Free - DJ Quicksilver
Everything Is Good For You - Crowded House
Antmusic - Adam Ant
The Eternal - Joy Division
Bedtime Story - Madonna
In The End - Green Day
The Happy End (The Drunk Room) - Mercury Rev
Hold On - Razorlight
State Of Grace - Caprice
Lost Horizons - Gin Blossoms
Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner - Fall Out Boy
Black Pearl - MN8
I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow
Cock In My Pocket - Passenger To Nowhere
Work (Freemasons Radio Edit) - Kelly Rowland
Bubblegun - Placebo
M+M's - Blink-182
On Days Like These (Instrumental) - Italian Job Original Score
We Are Detective - Thompson Twins
Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
Time Of My Life - H-Blockx
Naked (Garden Of Eden Vocal Mix) - Louise
Ain't That A Lot Of Love (Phats & Small Mutant Disco Edit) - Simply Red
Death Disco - P.i.L.
Nightclub People [pas serieux] (Alternate Take) - Ex-Rental
Baby - Brandy
Breathe - Depeche Mode
Polly (Live) - Nirvana
Played-A-Live (The Bongo Song) - Safri Duo
Many Bars And No Money - Alec Empire
Come Home - James
Dub Be Good To Me - Beats International
Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft - Klaatu
5 Minutes - The Stranglers
Valerie - The Zutons
Papa Don't Preach - Kelly Osbourne
Space Odyssey - I Against I
Bom Digi Bom - Ice MC
The Day We Caught The Train (Glastonbury 97) - Ocean Colour Scene
A Brief High - The Free French
Children - Robert Miles
Autosuggestion - Joy Division
Fillip - Muse
New Generation - Suede

Nice weather for ducks

Yesterday, given the unseasonally sunny weather, me and Pete went to Barnwell Country Park to feed the ducks. I hadn't been there since my parents used to drag me out for some exercise and family bonding so that was some years ago. This meant I just got Pete to drive in the general direction of where I thought it might be, with the instruction that if we hit Norfolk, we'd gone too far. It was further than I thought (well, I knew it was near Oundle, I just didn't have much of an idea where Oundle was) but we got there about 4.15 and it was still warm enough. We had a wander round for half an hour, feeding ducks. I did find the seagulls lurking about slightly unnerving in a Hitchcock kind of way, but I ignored this and enjoyed the late afternoon sun. I think geese have got smaller than they were when I was a kid. I used to find them terrifying. I remember my grandmother chasing them away a lot.

I don't know why I like feeding ducks so much. I used to have a tradition of returning to Geneva for my birthdays up until I turned 18, and I always use to go round the lake to Versoix to feed the ducks. Mallards, mandarins, the ubiquitous Canada geese, coots... I could happily spend hours throwing bread at them (to them, surely?) and staring out over the water. Maybe it's a Pisces thing. The marshy waters of Barnwell Country Park aren't quite the same as looking out over Lac Leman with the mountains lurking in the background, Mont Blanc appearing on a clear day, but it felt a little similar. The fact that some people passed us speaking French did help with the ambiance.

I wrote a lot of poems when I was younger. There was one I wrote at school in Balsall Common, aged about 7 or 8, called Ducks. I have no idea what this was related to, other than I remember the brother of a girl in my class used to breed and show ducks and occasionally brought them in to assemblies and such, so maybe that's the link. People seemed to like the poem and a lot of fuss was made (by 7 or 8 I was already a bit blase when people got worked up over my writing... how times change!). My mother still refers to it. I think she can see the influence of the Ogden Nash book she had bought me. I know it off by heart and am almost tempted to type it up here for posterity. But I won't. I think 26 year old me is a bit resentful of having reached her creative peak at 7 or 8.

Still, I find ducks very soothing. And feeding them bread can be considered responsible waste manangement. Ducks are eco friendly.

Lazy blogging to prove I still exist

Thanks to the amazing organisation powers of Sky, I will be without the internet at home for another week or so yet. So in the meantime, I pinched this off Lucy.

- last cigarette: About 10.20pm on 6th July
- last alcoholic drink: I had a JD & diet coke in the Shoe on Monday.
- last car ride: Becky drove me back from the Barge at lunch
- last kiss: This morning
- last good cry: Last good cry? Probably sometime last week when we'd just moved house.
- last library book checked out: I think it was a sociology book in the Weavers school library
- last movie seen in theater: Transformers ages and ages ago
- last book read: Last one I finished was Auto Fiction by Hitomi Kanehara
- last movie rented: It was about 2 years ago, and it was Click, which I never got round to watching because my grandfather died that evening. Not been to Blockbuster since!
- last cuss word uttered: It was probably 'shit'. I try not to swear at work so that would be as bad as it would have got, I think.
- last crush: Hmmm... Pete? Beyond him, I honestly don't know! Oh god, that's tragic!
- last tv show watched: GMTV this morning before work
- last time showered: Monday night I think
- last shoes worn: I have my New Rocks on now... battered as they are.
- last CD played: I mainly use the iPod now. Last CD was Gourmandises by Alizee I think.
- last item bought: Did the shopping last night and the last thing through the till was Heat magazine so that would be it.
- last download: The Flobots single of the week on iTunes a few weeks ago.
- last annoyance: The print drivers playing up at work
- last disappointment: Probably in myself that I'm doing this instead of the many other things I should be doing!
- last soda: I don't really do soda... it probably would have been the diet coke in the aforementioned drink on Monday
- last thing written: A VAT receipt cover letter for a client
- last key used: my office key
- last word(s) spoken: "What was that about?"
- last sleep: Last night until 6.30 this morning
- last IM: Probably a video conference with my Dad for work
- last sexual fantasy: LOL... about 10 minutes ago?
- last weird encounter: Woman on the street this morning asking me about a cat
- last ice cream eaten: Don't think I've had ice cream since I last went to Chi Chi's and that was months ago
- last time amused: This morning
- last time wanting to die: Oh, every 10 minutes. I'm melodramatic.
- last time hugged: This morning
- last time scolded: Probably last night for being to strict to my diet
- last time resentful: Constantly. I'm working on it.
- last chair sat in: The one at my desk I'm in now. It's a big black leather thing that looks far more important that I am.
- last underwear worn: Red ones
- last bra worn: Silver... I'm mismatched
- last shirt worn: I have a sleeveless crepe black thing on. I don't like it. It's a work top. I don't wear stuff I like for work.
- last webpage visited: Facebook

Faith in humanity

At lunchtime today I popped into M&S at Kingston, Milton Keynes to grab some lunch, as I frequently do. I chastised myself as I walked from the car for walking with my head down, but decided that since I was feeling a bit miserable, I might as well. I got in there, sighing as I had to dodge a carelessly abandoned toddler, grabbed a salad and a box of fruit, noticed the 5 items or less checkouts were closed, and joined the nearest queue.

There were 2 people in front of me, both with medium sized loads of shopping. When the women immediately in front of me finished loading hers onto the belt, she turned around to put her basket in the rack, and saw me, clutching my two items. She then insisted I go in front of her, shoving her shopping back a bit to make space, and putting in an extra 'next customer please' divider for me. I was touched, and thanked her profusely. About 30 seconds later, I realised I was standing in line smiling to myself still. Then, the woman working at the checkout greeted me with great ethusiasm (I go in there fairly regularly, but still, it was appreciated) and as I left wished me a good day with such sincerety I could have wept. I continued smiling all the way back to my car, ignoring how embarassing smiling at nothing while walking through a car park made me.

The lesson is thus... even when you lose faith in humanity, there's always M&S. Comforting to know.

Refreshingly honest approach

more the engrish!


more the engrish!

iPod Recently Played for the last week

Between working and moving house I've not really been blogging much. Oh, and my increasing misanthropy probably doesn't help!

Break Me Gently - Doves
Keep On, Keepin' On - MC Lyte
Pluto - Bjork
Go On Move - Reel 2 Real feat The Mad Stuntman
Suffocate - Feeder
Ain't No Player - Jay-Z feat Foxy Brown
Coming Right Along - The Posies
Numb (Live Lounge) - Jamelia
Circles, Squares And Lines (Live) - Symposium
Soul-Crusher - White Zombie
Only In Dreams - Ash
Wide Open Space - Mansun
Day & Night - Billie Piper
Serial Killa - Snoop Dogg
What's The Reason - John Trower
Sandstorm (Radio Edit) - Darude
Kiss Kiss (Stargate R&B Mix) - Holly Valance
At My Most Beautiful - R.E.M.
Bound 4 Da Reload (Casualty) - Oxide & Neutrino
Taste In Men (Alpinestars Kamikaze Skimix) - Placebo
Wannabe (Motiv 8 Vocal Slam Mix) - Spice Girls
It Don't Hurt - Sheryl Crow
Don't Chase Your Demons - Vigilance Black Special
Gotta Get Thru This - Daniel Bedingfield
Substance (Felix Da Housecat Remix) - Dot Allison with Miss Kittin
Team Theme - bis
Friday I'm In Love - The Cure
Much Love - Shola Ama
A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me" - Fall Out Boy
Swigging Echinacea - The Free French
Homer's Barbershop Quartet (Medley) - The Simpsons
Robotic (Adult. Almost Instrumental Mix) - bis
Dept. Of Her Ways - Fake Brain
I Am Hell - White Zombie
This Scene Is Dead - We Are Scientists
Easy (Album Version) - Emiliana Torrini
For Your Eyes Only - Blondie
This Year's Love (Strings Remix) - David Gray
Hanging On The Telephone - Blondie
Untitled (Live In LA) - Blink-182
One More Thing - Richard Gibbs
Do You Sleep? - Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories
L'Amoureuse - Indochine
Downer - Nirvana
Fly Away (Bye Bye) (Radio Oooooooh Edit) - Eyes Cream
Big Bang Theory Theme - Barenaked Ladies
We Are Your Friends (Radio Edit) - Justice vs Simian
Kick Out The Jams - MC5
Don't Think I'm Not (Hip Hop Remix) - Kandi
Nakasaki (I Need A Lover Tonight) - Ken Doh
Pretty In Pink - Psychedelic Furs
All Day & All Of The Night - Ex-Rental
I Love You Suzanne - Lou Reed
B.R.A.S.S.Y. - Brassy
All Black - Good Charlotte
London Calling - The Clash
Hour Of Need - Faithless
No Regrets - Robbie Williams
Hold Me (Radio Edit) - Savage Garden
Short Dick Man (Insane Mix) - 20 Fingers
Not Fade Away (Live) - Jon Bon Jovi
Bad Babysitter - Princess Superstar feat High & Mighty
Goodbye Suzie - John Howard
Come Around - M.I.A. feat Timbaland
All Star - Smash Mouth
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want - Muse
Sun Goes Down - David Jordan
You Don't Care About Us (Radio Edit) - Placebo
The Anthem - Good Charlotte
Until The Time Is Through - Five
The Kill - 30 Seconds To Mars
Lay Low - Alisha's Attic
Here Comes The Sun - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
Paper Planes - M.I.A.
Love Like Ours - Elastica
Satellite - Smash Mouth
Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra
Acquiesce - Oasis
Party Hard - Andrew WK
Where Love Lives (Dancing Divaz Mix) - Alison Limerick
Target - Pi
Apollo 9 - Adam Ant
Resuscitation - Sheryl Crow
Come Together (Hypnotone Brain Machine Mix) - Primal Scream
The Man Who Sold The World - Nirvana
If I... - Natty
Canary Bay - Indochine
Glorious - Andreas Johnson
It's My Life - Dr Alban
Thank You For The Venom - My Chemical Romance
It Feels So Good - Sonique
Ladykillers - Lush
Faster - Manic Street Preachers
Ain't No Rest For The Wicked - Cage The Elephant
The Hill, The View & The Lights - Cajun Dance Party
Young Love - Mystery Jets feat Laura Marling
I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked (Single Mix) - Ida Maria
Watch Me Fall Apart - Hard-Fi
Elevator - Flo Rida feat Timbaland
LOL - Little Jackie
Under The Thumb - Amy Studt
Uncle Jonny - The Killers
Boyfriend - Alphabeat