Ummm, where’s my bag?

Other appropriate titles for this could be ‘How much was that pint?’ or ‘My cheeks hurt!’, or a million other options referencing Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, or something about awesome silver flares…

My oldest friend Liz is getting married later this month! They’re jetting off to Vegas to do it, so unfortunately I can’t be there (*sad face*). But we decided to send her off with style by heading up to Edinburgh for her ‘hen’ do (in an apparently controversial twist, boys were allowed). Of course, no trip goes without a hitch, and I decided to provide this straight away by forgetting to pick my bag up when we got off the train in Edinburgh. Gladly, the train’s final destination was Glasgow, so it was only a 3(!) hour round trip to go rescue it…

Having missed the first night, due to an 'accidently drinking a bottle of wine on an empty stomach’ mishap, I don’t know first-hand, but I am assured that an awesome night was had by the others. I provided a little entertainment by falling over (my knee is still pretty sore and scabby 10 days later, which is a little worrying!) in pretty spectacular fashion…

Saturday found us being joined by Liz’s family, and sloping round Edinburgh having a nice lunch and indulging in some absolutely hilarious shopping for outfits for the Vegas themed evening… Cue Elvis, Marilyn, 70s flares and ‘untrue’ eyelashes. The effort put into the costumes was awesome, the comments on the street were plentiful, the shapes pulled were pretty spectacular, and the photo taking was immense! So many random people have photos of the guys in their costumes on their cameras. So much dancing fun…

… followed by supreme hangover day. Bahahaha.

Hat-tip to Liz and Stephen for their Vegas wedding, a huge thanks to everyone for allowing me and Louise to boss them around and making it great! Bring on the post-wedding party!

Five days in "La Ville-Lumière"

I never knew they called Paris that… but now I can definitely see why.

As those of you who have seen my facebook photos (or heard me going on about it) will have noticed, I went to Paris with Euan last week! The only time I’ve been before is with the school when I was about ten and I have no real memories of it except the dodgy people in the park we were told to avoid, being terrified by the Eiffel Tower lifts, and eating some completely disgusting food (I was a picky eater then).

A little luck in finding an awesomely cheap and well-placed apartment right on the gorgeous Ile Saint-Louis (next to Notre Dame), some recommendations from friends, and good company meant for a great (and much needed) trip :) It meant I could catch up with Allie too, after she moved there at the end of last year. Hooray! I also shook off the dust my neglected camera had been gathering (tsk tsk) and have gotten the bug again (click here, for a selection - or see my facebook).

If you ever find yourself in Paris, do (amongst many other things):
• go to the Louvre and lose yourself in the statue galleries (perhaps not as literally as we did, it took a while to find our way back out again).
• take a walk in the Jardin de Tuileries outside the Louvre and down by the Seine (packed and probably better in summer, but still nice).
• go to Stolly's bar off Rue de Rivoli near Saint-Paul.
• give the epic queues at the Eiffel Tower a miss, and head to the Tour Montparnasse for no queues, and an awesome view over the city and of the Eiffel Tower.
• take a night-time cruise on the Seine.
• sack off taking the metro and walk instead, there’s so much beauty in those winding streets.

It was difficult to come back...

In retrospect...

I don’t normally do this, but there’s a first time for everything. It's been quite a year and I think it deserves a mention.

I began the year in a cabin in South Gippsland on the coast of Australia with friends - we spent the day on the beach and visited the caves on the way back to Melbourne. A rather odd experience for me, being my first summertime new year. Later in January my gorgeous nephew William was born. Life continued in the party format it had acquired a few months earlier, and all in all, life was good.

In March I bid a sad farewell to Melbourne and its most beautiful inhabitants and returned to the UK, went back to my old job, reconnected with old friends and made some new ones, began an A level Biology (and have thus far completely failed to actually complete any of it or get my exams booked in), and discovered the Star and Shadow cinema where I started volunteering. It was a manic few months, especially because I was house hunting at the time, and nursing a broken rib. My first ever broken bone.

June saw me moving back into Newcastle from my parent’s house, where I fell in love with Heaton and the whole Ouseburn area. I started dating Euan, turned 30 (everyone made a bigger deal out of it than me) and began salsa classes. I also finally took the plunge (not literally) and went back to rowing, if a little lazily.

After deciding not to go on any more holidays for a while, I went on holiday to Poland, where discovered that I am probably a little too laid back about travelling these days, and developed an insane fear of flying after a rather epic non-landing episode at Leeds-Bradford. A few weeks later I overcame my fear of flying after being sent to Cornwall with work, and then later, flying to Dublin to visit friends. I bought the macbook I have been wanting for years, and finally submitted my application to university.

This month I got my first tattoo! I am planning the next, but it will be a long time coming. I started going to yoga again, and realise that while I always enjoyed it before, I am now a lot more in tune with the spiritual aspect. I am reading Krishnamurti's 'Think on These Things', and am finding myself for the first time in my life totally engrossed and underlining phrases - actually defacing a book, which is something I never thought would happen. I am looking into meditation as pain control after many years of 'the drugs don't work' and feel empowered by non-reliance on medication.

Am I turning into a hippy? Quite possibly! But I don't see that that is a bad thing. I am calm and in control, and happy. It's not all been sunshine and roses - I have been ill a lot this year, and have had some major headaches thanks to our friends in the tax office (both at home and abroad), but all in all, it's been a good year :)

Ch ch ch changes

What was it Andrew said? Only the cool kids don't update their blogs (or something like that). Obviously, I'm just cool... ;)

I'm not one for New Years resolutions, but it being the season for it and all that I've started thinking about it a little. Maybe one too many snow days has left me a little starved of mental stimulation... I try to make the changes I want to make all year round, and this year has been a big year for me in that respect. I'm a better (well, I think so) and happier person because of it.

As I've gotten older I've become more squeamish, more scared of hurting myself and, apparently, a bit of a wuss it seems. Maybe that's because being the klutz I am actually entails hurting myself more than the average person?

This week I took the plunge - for the past 10 years I have been trying to make myself give blood. Sometimes I've even gotten through the doorway of the centre. Its not the needles - those I don't care about at all. And its not the blood per se. Its the same feeling I get when I think of losing teeth... nausea comes over in a wave and the world spins in a progressively greying manner. I feel like my life-force is about to drain out of me (to which, unhelpfully the nurse at the blood centre replied 'well, it kind of is'). So this time I actually did it! Yay! And it was fine, and I feel good about it. Roll on four months time when I can go again.

And much like everything else this year, I sit wondering why I didn't do that before now. So much wasted time. No more! Well, maybe a little, since I am still sitting in the house a bit scared of slipping on the ice (again)...

Chaotic Crazy Coolness

Yikes. Well it's been a while. The main reason for that is the fact that I am ridiculously busy and haven't had a moment to actually think of anything to write. I described life to someone recently as chaotic, crazy, cool. Yes, I’d say that's pretty much the long and the short of it. I’ve been hearing a lot of 30 jokes recently, but you know what? I might be perilously close to being ‘over the hill’, but the view is pretty damn good from up here.

So, what's been happening in the last month? Well, the answer to that is A LOT!

Since my last post, I have (amongst other things):
° Been to Liverpool to celebrate the 30th birthday of an old friend.
° Watched a rather insane version of Salome at the Northern Stage.
° Become addicted to watching old French movies on my own at the cinema.
° Indulged in the EAT! festival which was in Newcastle at the start of June.
° Watched a slightly eccentric dance production perform Love and War at the. SAGE. I still haven't figured out what it was about (love and war, presumably), but it was kind of cool in parts.
° Celebrated my own 30th birthday at the Corbridge Beer Festival, and with copious amounts of food and friends - food, beer and friends: what more can you ask for?
° Accidently worked behind the bar at a death metal gig whilst shockingly hungover (I actually enjoyed it, though my head didn't so much)
° Became a new-look climbing frame for 3-year-olds at an old friend's BBQ.
° Signed up for the Great Cumbrian Run – a half marathon in Carlisle in October – and have completely failed to do any training for it.
° Took part in It's a Knockout with my colleagues for charity in South Shields. Painful and embarrassing, but kind of fun.
° Went back to salsa for the first time in years. I’ll be going back.
° Had my first ladies race day experience at Nottingham Races for a hen do.
° Took in some of the Vamos Latino festival that was in Newcastle earlier this month - flamenco, art, and Cuban dance. I wish I'd had time to see more of it.

Intersperse all that with hanging out with friends, nights of crazy dancing, writing, and working hard, and you have one extremely busy (and exhausted) lady. That probably explains why I am sitting at home on a Friday night drinking red wine and updating this. Actually, I WAS studying (for the first time in weeks) but procrastination is, quite frankly, a disease. Is there a Procrastinators Anonymous?

While I’m settling back into life in Newcastle, and surprising everyone by showing no signs of moving on (in fact, quite the opposite), all across the globe big things are afoot. Friends are getting engaged, married (two more before mid-September), having babies. They are moving on to pastures new (near and far), getting new jobs, moving in together, buying houses. Me? I have a million and one things ahead of me. If you learn to look in the right places, the doors open to a whole new world - this is not the same Newcastle that I grew up in. These are exciting times.

The Forest Cafe

I have been discovering all kinds of awesome creative collectives recently. One of these is the Forest Café in Edinburgh: a volunteer-type establishment in similar vein to the Star and Shadow Cinema here in Newcastle but with a more literary focus.

I had the pleasure of listening to their music and readings as part of their Golden Hour tour at the end of May, where I was working behind the bar. Sadly, it was a bit under-promoted as it was a bit of a last minute affair, but their enthusiasm more than made up for it. It was a fun and inspiring evening.

If you’re ever in Edinburgh you should definitely see what they have on and pay them a visit. If you’re interested, they publish small collections of literature and poetry and the Forest Publications website is well worth a browse. Great music also by Hailey Beavis, Jed Milroy and Maybe Myrtle Tyrtle. I really wish more people had seen it.

When I said things had to change, I meant it...

Things are incredibly manic right now so a list of exciting stuff will have to suffice for this post (it’s been a while in the writing). The excitement is subjective of course.

HOUSE! I found a room! I’m moving in to a shared house next week. I’m so looking forward to being closer to the city, closer to my friends, public transport and work. I will miss the coast and the countryside, but not the driving.

HIKE! A friend and I went for a walk around Dunstanburgh Castle a few weeks ago – albeit a brief one, but I was still very much recovering from illness and nursing a ‘drawing pin in the foot’ injury from that morning – and decided that it was something that we should do more often. I’m looking forward to making plans (and actually carrying them out).

CLIMB! My move will also take me closer to the climbing wall, which I intend to utilise A LOT more. Illness has taken its toll on that aspect of my life recently so hopefully, with wellness and proximity, I can remedy the lack.

WELLNESS/BREAKAGE! [Okay, so this is only half exciting.] Speaking of being well – finally, I am! Well, except for a healing rib, which I actually managed to break through coughing. I didn’t think that was even possible. Now just to stay well! It would help if Britain would decide if it wants to be in spring, summer or winter…

RUN! Before I realised my rib was broken, I went on my first run in a very long time. I ran over 5 miles and cannot wait to get out there again – just without the broken bone. There is something very special about running long distance. It can be painful, but creates a certain sense of mental freedom and release.

VOLUNTEER! I’ve started volunteering at The Star and Shadow Cinema in the Ouseburn Valley. I’d never heard of it, but went to a gig there and loved the venue so much that I looked it up to see what else they did there. Discovering that it was completely volunteer run, I decided to get involved and worked my first shift behind the bar at a gig soon after.

ART! I am rediscovering my photographic obsession, and learning a lot more about image manipulation (when I should be studying of course). I have recently ‘discovered’ zines (through a combination of totally unrelated events), and am excited at the prospect of learning how to use the dark room and screen printer at the cinema. I have finally started printing photos (something I haven’t done in over four years) and am getting out into the galleries and exhibitions – including catching some of the Late Shows where galleries across the UK were opened late into the evening with events running.

VOTE! For the first time, I took my vote in the general election seriously. Previously I have really just voted because of the guilt I felt about the women who fought hard for my right to do so. Unfortunately, just as I realised how important it all is, I also experienced my first political rage. I felt embarrassed to be British as we demonstrated to the world: our lack of ability to organise a general election; just how undemocratic our society is; how well we can turn an election into something akin to a game show. I am galled by the unfairness of our voting system, genuinely scared about what a future under a conservative government means (I remember the riots), but hopeful for the new coalition government, and, right at the end there, I gained a new respect for Gordon Brown and his eloquence in departure.

FRIENDS! Actually, while my friends are all awesome and much loved, this is a shout to one particular friend. When I moved back to England I was a little lost without Rom. To use her sentiments; I had lost my wing(wo)man, and that person who is able to be exactly the right kind of friend at exactly the right time. BUT, with the help of the internet, snail mail, a mutual love of letter-writing, and a series of Incredibly Awesome Parcels™ she will always be there to inspire me and make me smile. Love.

WRITE! I’ve been told I should write by various people throughout the years. Thing is, I do and then I don’t do anything with it. Usually through shyness (yes, me). Even continuing to write this blog after my year in Australia was up is a bit weird for me. I kind of think it’s fine because I don’t think anybody reads it really… BUT, I have bitten the bullet and have gotten involved in a local online news and entertainment site written by and for members of the community that I’ll be moving to. And with a mild tremor of terror I think about what to write for my first editorial…

WEDDING! Massive congratulations to my old housemates and good friends, Andy and Lisa who got married in Lincoln last weekend. The reception involved an awesome reunion of old friends on the most beautiful weekend of the year so far. Caelidh dancing extreme. I managed to pack in visits to see my brother and his family, and catch up with the lovely Lauren for a bit too… All good.


Let’s just say, May’s been a big month! And it’s not quite over yet…

Lots to look forward to and lots of stuff happening. Watch this space.