Friday 25 September 2015

Life Things

Whew, that was a long accidental hiatus! Didn't realise how long it's been since my last blurt at the people who live in my computer. Too many Life Things have happened to me at once.  I can only handle one Life Thing at a time, and even then I need a ring binder of lists to keep me from cry laughing into a fistful of cheese.

1.  Hoose

A and I are packing our belongings, uprooting our lives and upping sticks... to the house directly behind ours.  It's actually attached to ours.  And it's literally the mirror image of the house I'm currently furiously typing away in.  

Differences: 
  • It has a garden for the imaginary dog I nag A daily for.  The hours I work are too long for it to be fair on Future Dog, but it doesn't stop me from dreaming.
  • You can see the sea from it! And horses. And grass. And rainbows. And... more grass!  Essentially Swansea in a nutshell. 
  • It's decorated so much nicer.  Wallpaper and curtains and shit! Like what grown ups have!  I've managed to live in this shoe box for nearly four years and have successfully avoided making it look like anything other than a student hovel with a cat in it.
  • The landlords are much friendlier and more relaxed.  We won't have to hide the WalterKat, devourer of human flesh (see below), and they are refreshingly supportive of Mission Get-Becky-a-Puppy.  Shame A isn't quite so on board with my desire to acquire another household fuzzy to bully into loving me.

    "Hold still while I gum you to death, human subordinate!"
     
    2. Jerb
     
     I got a new jobby!  I'll be moving from my position as a call centre lackey and going back to being and all around office bod.  Disclaimer: This is going to sound sarcastic, but bear in mind that you're reading the words of someone who gets lady boners at displays fresh new notebooks in supermarkets. Mmm.  Was going to make a joke about Back to School Season being sexy, but that would be wrong on so, so many levels.  I like stationary, not youths in education.  
     
    ...Shut up, Becky!!  God.
     
    I can't wait to get stuck back into admin! I bloody love forms and files and notepads and pens and being busy.  The job I'm in right now is plenty busy, but it's hard to avoid clock watching when you are literally sat down answering questions with very few breathers in between.  I need to be doing stuff with my hands as well as my brain, and it's in a smaller, more tight knit environment.  I miss working with a little office fambly.  Just hope my new carers (colleagues! My new colleagues!!  What is wrong with me today?!) take kindly to an eager-to-help stationary obsessive.  "Pick me, pick me!  I brought pens in eighty colours!"
     
    3.  Ow + Ew
     
    I must have a long distance race coming up, because I have a case of both man flu (complete with death rattle cough and a face that feels like it's taken a punch) and the ouchies.  I got a bit too good at running away from Zombies on Zombies! Run! And have since been shuffling like one of the undead since I resurrected my marathon training ankle/foot injury.  I have the Cardiff Half Marathon to "run" next week, and have trained for it by doing next to sweet chuff all for a month.  Should be a breeze.  Pray for me.
    4. Fun

    Seen two bands (more if you count the support acts) live since you've seen me last.  I know. Cultured Woman of the World, me.  I've also discovered that I have a natural talent (for want of a better word) for beer pong, but that's another story for another time.  I don't want to go into detail.  I just wanted to segway that into my post to brag about it (suck it, Phillip!!)

    Anyway, bands:

    Foos!!!! There waaas....Royal Blood, Iggy Pop, cameo from Roger Taylor off of Queen and that bloke off of Led Zeppelin, a throne with Dave Grohl on it (!!!), Pat Smear constantly grinning like he'd been caught doing something naughty and chain smoking, Taylor Hawkins singing, two hours of dancing and screaming, "Break a Leg" merch in homage to Mr Grohl's recent "stage dive", smiles, a LONG drive home from Milton Keynes... etc etc.  No big deal, like. NBDee...
     
    Wheatus!!  This was my fourth or fifth time seeing these guys.  My sister and I couldn't get tickets to see them in Swansea and so we traveled up to Bristol to see them play on a bar/boat hybrid called Thekla (pretty cool, no?).  This was also the fourth or fifth missed opportunity I had and blew to speak to Brendan Brown (lead singer).  The band always make themselves accessible to their fans, and every single time, I chicken out of saying "Hi!" and opt for awkwardly staring anywhere but at any band member when they're nearby enough to chat to.
     
    Wheatus were the first band that I decided all by myself that I liked aged 13. First album I bought, first single, first gig (Radio One's Big Sunday in Morfa, back when Morfa was literally all fields and not shops..."Oy remember when this was aaaaall fields!").  I wore the bucket hat.  I coveted the glasses.  I recorded their telly performances on video.. Jesus wept, I'm old!  Anyways, because they basically shaped my taste in music (they have a lot to answer for.  Oof!), I experience abject panic and terror whenever I get within greeting distance of a band member.  Wussy arse.  Anyhoo, the band performed with pure joy as per usual - it's quite rare that you see a band who clearly would still be doing it if no one was paying to see them.  Maybe if I see them a few hundred more times I might grow a pair and say "sup?"  For now I shall continue to do what I do best and stalk from afar, sniffing my notebooks and window shopping on Gumtree for puppies.

    I leave you with this beauty from Gabrielle Sterbenz, who supported the band and is my new favourite person to listen to when I want to pretend I'm the star of an early noughties chick flick.  Byee!


     Gabrielle Sterbenz - The Breakup