I've been unable to look at a computer much recently due to sinusitis headaches, and in this time I seem to have drifted somewhat from where I want to be. So this blog is me re-focussing. It might take a few days though, depending on how bad my headache gets (it's just one long headache now that gets worse sometimes).
My running goal
I think 2 months have now passed since I last ran for any length of time. This doesn't particularly worry me as the positive consequence is that my horrendous joint pain has gone away. What does concern me is that my activity levels have pretty much dropped to zero. Aside from essential walking, like getting to work and to the chemist, I have done precisely nothing. For some reason, the thought of leaving the house triggers a reaction of exhaustion. On a logical level, I know that this is bad. Not doing any exercise tends to lead to yet more lethargy and the longer I live like this, the worse it will get. What I need is to rediscover my love of the outdoors. One of the things that most excited me about getting a car was the thought that we could walk in new places. We're lucky enough to have a really nice round trip just 2 minutes away, but it's always an option of which way round and it gets boring.
The solution, I feel, is to force myself out a few times and hopefully the desire will return. Another option that I've been looking at is becoming a volunteer for a Cerebral Palsy group. They meet on a Thursday morning (my day off) and take a group of disabled adults on a walk. This would mean I would have to do it every week (or however often the walks are) in all weathers and I would be helping people who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity. My concern is that I have zero experience of CP and on a more practical level, I would have to buy walking shoes (it said so in the advert). Making decisions like this scare me and bring out my inner pessimist. Pretty much my first thought was, "What if I'm ill and can't make it one week? What if I don't like it and then feel obliged to continue? What if I'm not even fit enough to manage the walk?"
We'll see anyway. I do feel like I do nothing to help anyone but myself. I am naturally quite a selfish person but that doesn't mean I have to act that way all of the time.
My Striving to Learn goal
This has been greatly helped recently by lots of excellent TV. I've always loved TV for its ability to force information into me that I otherwise would never have learned. Stephen Fry's documentary about Wagner is a prime example. I know nothing about classical music or opera, or indeed Wagner. Or to be more precise, I knew nothing. Now I know a little. And as a tiny consequence, when I was flipping through channels later in the week and came upon the Marriage of Figaro, I didn't immediately flip past. Admittedly, I didn't watch the whole thing, but that was more to do with the fact that I had missed half of it and felt it deserved more. I did watch for a while though and really enjoyed it. I'm also loving the sudden rush of Science programmes on the BBC. Everyone knows the name Newton, but I had no idea he was such an arse, or that his Principia may never have been published if it weren't for Halley (the guy with the comet). And who knew that Christopher Wren once cut out a dog's spleen or that Boyle killed a bird in a vacuum? I really do love learning things, even if I forget them the next day. Which reminds me, my penpal has been revising high school maths and he mentioned multiplying and dividing fractions. I realised that I have forgotten how to do it. I remember subtracting and adding but have no idea how to multiply. So that's something to do this week. As for new skills in the further future, I'm getting a little anxious. It seems that every year the beginners woodwork course is on a Monday night. I work one Monday night every 3 weeks, which means I would either have to miss a third of the course, book as many of those nights off as possible, or try to convince a colleague to swap a Monday with a Wednesday. The first option is crap, the second impossible and the third highly unlikely. I suppose I shouldn't worry until I know when the course is (please be on a Thursday).
Plans for this week
In order to get myself a bit more sorted, today I will tidy my room. It isn't atrociously messy, but it's getting there, and I do find that a tidy room helps towards a tidy mind. Tomorrow, my boyfriend is driving me to Jodrell Bank and if we have time, we can go for a wander in Alderley Edge too. It will get me out of the house and I get to see a 3D film. Hopefully all the kids on half term won't have the same idea. Then on Thursday the plan is just to get on the treadmill and see what happens. My lungs have been awful recently and it can't just be coincidence that I haven't done any exercise. And then back to work on Friday where I will hopefully come to a decision as to when to hold my inter-library quiz. We never meet socially with other libraries and I thought it would be fun. My usual outlook would be that someone else would be better at planning it than me and probably nobody will come, but actually, I'm pretty good at planning things and if only 5 people come, I haven't lost anything.
Monday, 31 May 2010
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Conchord review
It was unbelievably amazing. Well, they were. The crowd, especially around where we were sitting, were very sedate and some people barely chuckled throughout. And something I really can't get my head around is why you would spend £35 on a ticket and then miss loads of the show because you can't last 2 hours without beer. I wouldn't mind if they were on the end of the row but making 10 people stand up and blocking the view of everyone behind during some of my favourite songs is out of order.
So, my anxiety about getting pissed off by the crowd wasn't really warranted. The standing up got on my wick but other than that everyone was very respectful and nice. There was an abundance of checked shirts (including Bret and Jemaine), which is generally a sign that people are well-behaved.
My anxiety about being late was also unwarranted as I got there pretty early and got to sit in the sunshine and peruse the new university buildings that have popped up since I was there. I also enjoyed the trip to the museum and the food at the pub was lovely and very cheap. I ordered a massive cake and had to give half to my boyfriend.
When we arrived there was a queue all the way down the road, but we only had to wait 5 minutes. The bouncers were only checking the girls' bags (still haven't worked that one out) so I gave mine to my boyfriend. There was a bit of a crush around the merchandise table so I decided not to buy anything, which I will no doubt regret in a few weeks time but it's only stuff. I was amazed at the number of men in the audience. The on-line forums are almost exclusively ladies but I'd say around 70% of the audience (that I could see at least) were male.
Eugene Mirman was wonderfully funny. We all booed at the mention of David Cameron and we got to pretend we're superior to Birmingham with a joke about it looking like it lost the cold war. And being the childish person I am, I loved the joke about building a time machine and sending a child's semen to hitler. :-)
20 minutes break and people rushed to get more drink. Then we got to see the Visit NZ video that Fotc put on their MySpace page in big screened glory.
The sound and the big screens were brilliant. I was concerned that being so far back it would be a bit fuzzy but the sound was crystal clear. It would have been great to have been closer though, just as I felt I was watching the screens more than the stage.
Something that made me laugh was the complete lack of enthusiasm whenever they mentioned Manchester. From watching some shows in america, I know that the crowd tend to go wild when you mention their city, but all we had were a few whoops. :-) Either everyone had travelled in or the people of Manchester require a lot more than that to get excited.
I liked Bret's comeback to a shout of "Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin" of "Oh that's who it's by". :-D And at one point a man shouted at the hecklers to shut up, which was quite amusing.
I had a question answered last night too. Last year on a message board I was lambasted for saying that I'd be really interested to know Bret and Jemaine's political/religious/philosophical viewpoint. I didn't even suggest that I would ever ask, just that I'd be interested to know. Apparently my parents dragged me up if I think it's acceptable to discuss politics with anyone ever. Anyway, I can't remember how he (Jemaine) got onto the topic (of God) but santa was involved and then he said something along the lines of "I better not go there", although the audience was laughing along.
The songs themselves were magnificent with a few added extras (I particularly liked the use of "a plus-sized model" during The most beautiful girl in the room) for people like me who have listened to the songs so much that I'm almost immune to the comedy. The cello sounded beautiful throughout. I'm not crying was a particular highlight of mine but every single song was perfectly executed. Even getting the words wrong during Hurt Feelings was wonderfully done.
Then we got to see Jemaine's chest, which is always a bonus. :-) I loved the way that when he put his normal trousers back on they kept falling to the side and revealing his sparkly ones. I think sugalumps would have been better had there been more women in the crowd as it went quite quiet! I guess men aren't going to whoop another man's cock. :-)
I really didn't want it to end, even though my mouth was killing from laughing and my hands were numb from clapping. I'm so pleased that my Mum ordered the tickets for me whilst I was away on holiday. I hope they come again some time.
So, my anxiety about getting pissed off by the crowd wasn't really warranted. The standing up got on my wick but other than that everyone was very respectful and nice. There was an abundance of checked shirts (including Bret and Jemaine), which is generally a sign that people are well-behaved.
My anxiety about being late was also unwarranted as I got there pretty early and got to sit in the sunshine and peruse the new university buildings that have popped up since I was there. I also enjoyed the trip to the museum and the food at the pub was lovely and very cheap. I ordered a massive cake and had to give half to my boyfriend.
When we arrived there was a queue all the way down the road, but we only had to wait 5 minutes. The bouncers were only checking the girls' bags (still haven't worked that one out) so I gave mine to my boyfriend. There was a bit of a crush around the merchandise table so I decided not to buy anything, which I will no doubt regret in a few weeks time but it's only stuff. I was amazed at the number of men in the audience. The on-line forums are almost exclusively ladies but I'd say around 70% of the audience (that I could see at least) were male.
Eugene Mirman was wonderfully funny. We all booed at the mention of David Cameron and we got to pretend we're superior to Birmingham with a joke about it looking like it lost the cold war. And being the childish person I am, I loved the joke about building a time machine and sending a child's semen to hitler. :-)
20 minutes break and people rushed to get more drink. Then we got to see the Visit NZ video that Fotc put on their MySpace page in big screened glory.
The sound and the big screens were brilliant. I was concerned that being so far back it would be a bit fuzzy but the sound was crystal clear. It would have been great to have been closer though, just as I felt I was watching the screens more than the stage.
Something that made me laugh was the complete lack of enthusiasm whenever they mentioned Manchester. From watching some shows in america, I know that the crowd tend to go wild when you mention their city, but all we had were a few whoops. :-) Either everyone had travelled in or the people of Manchester require a lot more than that to get excited.
I liked Bret's comeback to a shout of "Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin" of "Oh that's who it's by". :-D And at one point a man shouted at the hecklers to shut up, which was quite amusing.
I had a question answered last night too. Last year on a message board I was lambasted for saying that I'd be really interested to know Bret and Jemaine's political/religious/philosophical viewpoint. I didn't even suggest that I would ever ask, just that I'd be interested to know. Apparently my parents dragged me up if I think it's acceptable to discuss politics with anyone ever. Anyway, I can't remember how he (Jemaine) got onto the topic (of God) but santa was involved and then he said something along the lines of "I better not go there", although the audience was laughing along.
The songs themselves were magnificent with a few added extras (I particularly liked the use of "a plus-sized model" during The most beautiful girl in the room) for people like me who have listened to the songs so much that I'm almost immune to the comedy. The cello sounded beautiful throughout. I'm not crying was a particular highlight of mine but every single song was perfectly executed. Even getting the words wrong during Hurt Feelings was wonderfully done.
Then we got to see Jemaine's chest, which is always a bonus. :-) I loved the way that when he put his normal trousers back on they kept falling to the side and revealing his sparkly ones. I think sugalumps would have been better had there been more women in the crowd as it went quite quiet! I guess men aren't going to whoop another man's cock. :-)
I really didn't want it to end, even though my mouth was killing from laughing and my hands were numb from clapping. I'm so pleased that my Mum ordered the tickets for me whilst I was away on holiday. I hope they come again some time.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
F of the C
I haven't blogged for a little while. Things have been a little stressful but I'm hoping to have a non-dramatic few weeks to make up for it.
Tomorrow I am doing something very exciting. Exciting things tend to make me nervous, but as one of my TYSIC goals is to do things that scare me, this is a good thing. I'm going to see Flight of the Conchords at the Apollo. But even before I reach the venue, there are fearful obstacles to cross.
1. Getting the bus. It's something that I used to do every day to get to uni, but then I got a job just down the road so it has been some time. It's not something that I'm consciously scared of - I know how to get the bus - but there's an undercurrent of anxiety due to the lack of familiarity. And I've always been irrationally worried about being late. The rational part of my mind says, "You have a mobile phone so it doesn't matter if the bus is late" but the irrational part says, "This is the worst thing that could ever happen". I'm not even thinking about the bus home yet as that's even worse.
2. Meeting a friend whom I have only spent about 10 minutes with face to face. We e-mail regularly but we've never actually spent any real time together. What if she thinks I'm a dick? What if there are lots of long silences? What if I make an inappropriate joke? So many possibilities. On the other hand, we are going to the museum, and there will be lots of things to look at and talk about.
3. Going for food. Last time I went for food before a gig, the bar had run out of potatoes. I had decided on a baked potato but there were none. This threw me. This time I will make a back-up food plan.
4. Entering the Apollo. I heard some terrible stories about Saturday night's gig with bouncers checking everyone's bags and taking their water. I can't not have water with me. It's not very pleasant but the phlegm in my lungs gets too viscous and I can get 'plugs', which make me feel like I'm going to choke to death. Will a bouncer understand this? Will he even bother to listen? What if they think I'm being argumentative and don't let me in?
And then there's the gig itself where I know I'll get agitated by everyone else in the room. People who talk, people who keep getting up for drinks, people who laugh at the wrong time, people who sing along too loudly, people who heckle, and the very worst, people who bump into me. This is made infinitely worse by the fact that I adore FotC. I have been looking forward to seeing them for so long that I want it to be perfect. It's annoying enough that our seats are so far back when we phoned as soon as the lines opened, and that there are still better seats for sale on these stupid websites for astronomical prices.
So, do I assume it will be terrible and hopefully have a nice surprise? Or do I assume it will all be fine and risk the possibility of having my expectations dashed? Or do I stop overthinking everything and just act like a normal human being? I think the latter. :-)
Tomorrow I am doing something very exciting. Exciting things tend to make me nervous, but as one of my TYSIC goals is to do things that scare me, this is a good thing. I'm going to see Flight of the Conchords at the Apollo. But even before I reach the venue, there are fearful obstacles to cross.
1. Getting the bus. It's something that I used to do every day to get to uni, but then I got a job just down the road so it has been some time. It's not something that I'm consciously scared of - I know how to get the bus - but there's an undercurrent of anxiety due to the lack of familiarity. And I've always been irrationally worried about being late. The rational part of my mind says, "You have a mobile phone so it doesn't matter if the bus is late" but the irrational part says, "This is the worst thing that could ever happen". I'm not even thinking about the bus home yet as that's even worse.
2. Meeting a friend whom I have only spent about 10 minutes with face to face. We e-mail regularly but we've never actually spent any real time together. What if she thinks I'm a dick? What if there are lots of long silences? What if I make an inappropriate joke? So many possibilities. On the other hand, we are going to the museum, and there will be lots of things to look at and talk about.
3. Going for food. Last time I went for food before a gig, the bar had run out of potatoes. I had decided on a baked potato but there were none. This threw me. This time I will make a back-up food plan.
4. Entering the Apollo. I heard some terrible stories about Saturday night's gig with bouncers checking everyone's bags and taking their water. I can't not have water with me. It's not very pleasant but the phlegm in my lungs gets too viscous and I can get 'plugs', which make me feel like I'm going to choke to death. Will a bouncer understand this? Will he even bother to listen? What if they think I'm being argumentative and don't let me in?
And then there's the gig itself where I know I'll get agitated by everyone else in the room. People who talk, people who keep getting up for drinks, people who laugh at the wrong time, people who sing along too loudly, people who heckle, and the very worst, people who bump into me. This is made infinitely worse by the fact that I adore FotC. I have been looking forward to seeing them for so long that I want it to be perfect. It's annoying enough that our seats are so far back when we phoned as soon as the lines opened, and that there are still better seats for sale on these stupid websites for astronomical prices.
So, do I assume it will be terrible and hopefully have a nice surprise? Or do I assume it will all be fine and risk the possibility of having my expectations dashed? Or do I stop overthinking everything and just act like a normal human being? I think the latter. :-)
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