Corrupted (plus photo recap)

Well, it's official, my mind has been broken.

I was helping out with the lounge today, which is an event not unlike Soul Café for an older patronage (so, no dance mat. Boo!) It's held at our church, Woodville Baptist. It was a lot of fun, and I even know how to make lattés and stuff now (although, hey, let's not test that knowledge just yet).

But yes, the guys I was helping refer to the various coffee contraptions by female pronouns, as you do. And at one point, someone was making a hot chocolate, and that particular contraption was a bit tricky to use, and he said "Ooh she's a squirter... nice." And I was the only one who laughed.
Ok, right now half of you are laughing, and the other half are thinking "I don't get it," because I have a wonderfully diverse readership like that. But essentially that was the moment I realised that I have been seriously warped by the people I hang around with.

Hang on. I didn't say that was a bad thing. The way I see it, I just have a whole new sense of humour to supplement my regular sense of humour. Only, the new one involves piles of dead babies, and ducktaping cats.

In other news, I realise I'm stretching the term "almost daily" to breaking point since about mid-December. I'm not sure whether to apologise or not. On the one hand, my blog is suffering and my readers aren't getting their regular injections of wit and humour that I so skillfully bring to their otherwise drab lives. (I know. Thank me when you see me.) On the other, the blog isn't the only aspect of my life that's suffering, and you people don't pay me anyway. CONUNDRUM.

But I will try to be better. Really, really I will. Since I've been taking tons of photos lately, I'll use them to jog my memory about all the things I need to update you on.


Ah yes, this is the Elm Street legal graffiti wall. The girl in the picture was interviewing the artists as Ross and I walked past, so she found me on Flickr and emailed me a few questions. You can read what that was all about here.

Next...


Lucy! My lovely lovely Lucy! I had a great time with her. She's an old friend from the Isle of Wight, whom I have mentioned on multiple previous occasions, and she's very lovely and special. We went for a walk up past Roath Lake to a place where there was a river and squirrels and trees, which made me happy. (It was actually SUNNY, too!) We also went shopping - I bought a dress! And a not-diamond not-silver ring that was £1! It's so shiny! And we did face mud mask thingies, the pictures of which will NOT be finding their way online. Nope. Also we went to see Aladdin with Anthony Costa in the starring role. It was my first panto! And it was amazing! Ok, Costa (from Blue, don'tcherknow) was shit, but the 3d glasses made up for it. Then we had sushi, watched Iron Man, slept like babies in my lovely lovely bed, and had pancakes for breakfast round the corner from my house. It was so great to see her again.


Oh oh oh and then the other day, I spent from 1pm till 5am - holy poop, 15 hours?! - at Ross's house watching movies n' stuff! I know, I know. Shocking. But it was so much fun, and Ross, Rich and Dan are just about some of my favourite people. Being cuddled up under a duvet watching great TV with them (again) is no great hardship. We saw 3 Batman movies, several episodes of Nighty Night, some League of Gentlemen, the final episode of Avatar, and several hilarious personals on Gumtree. A++, would do again.


Ahh! It's Gav's Rock Face! Yes, last night I finally got to see Gav rocking out on the bass. Apparently his energetic performances I've seen thus far have been the restrained ones. The band, Gary and the Gutners, did some quality covers at a birthday party in Buffaloes. I took hundreds of photos - probably around the 500 mark! - and danced with some of the lads from church. Oh and also! A lady got talking to me about my photos, said she works in media... I'll definitely follow that up, she gave me contact details and everything. Exciting!

So, yes. While I have been low and am not getting on with uni work or organising my life AT ALL, at least I'm making time for the important things.

Messy canines

Have you ever noticed how "filthy dog", "mucky pup" and "dirty bitch" all have such radically different meanings? So different that to confuse them - calling a chocolaty-faced child a dirty bitch, for example - would be hideously inappropriate? It's at times like this I'm glad English is my first language.

I went around Cathays cemetery with Ross today, both of us carrying our DSLRs and snapping anything that looked good. It was a lot of fun, and although it would be unforgivable to be glad that he's currently unemployed, at least he's a full-time friend now, not just one of those crappy part-time friends! Then we went back to Ross's and edited them. We'll be doing it again soon, probably around Roath Lake (hopefully at sunset, the place is stunning then). Camera and Photoshop club is born.


I'd like to remind you all that my Flickr exists, and that lately I've been updating it every few days with things I've very proud of. Please stop by, comment if you can, maybe print one out and put it on the fridge?

Photographs and pachyderms

2 weeks between posts? Impossible! Unfathomable! Unheard-of!

Well, as it's the run-up to Christmas (sudden realisation: 3 DAYS?!), everyone's been very busy, myself included. I've made the should-have-been-so-simple journey home...

It was an interesting journey, actually. Our train broke down, so we had to board a second train that would take us two stops so that we could get on a THIRD train that would take us the route we were supposed to go in the first place. I was on the second train, wrestling my unwieldy bag into one of the less crowded corners, when I got talking to a girl called Amy. For once, it wasn't me who initiated the conversation, and I was grateful for someone to talk to.

It turned out that she had come from Cardiff too. She's studying maths at Cardiff uni, and plans to take teacher training. However I suspect that in the 20 minutes we were talking, she found out more about me than I did about her. She found out about my course, my depression, my boyfriend, and which church I'm going to. Apparently she lives just round the corner from me, and occasionally even goes to an event held at my church! Chalk that one down to coincidence, providence, fate, whatever. But it was interesting.

Last Friday was particularly lovely; Gavin always makes it very special when he gives me presents - candles, music, performing bears and the like - and this was no exception. He made a real song and dance out of giving me my present, and rightly so.

I am now the proud and excited owner of a Nikon D40!


The lens I've got is better than the one shown; 18-70mm instead of 18-55. The D40 is the camera everyone has recommended as a good entry-level DSLR. I've spent the past few days trying to familiarise myself with all the buttons. There are a lot of buttons.

It actually took me about a year to find all the functions on my little digital camera, mostly because I never intended to get as interested in it all as I did! I thought it would be fun, a toy; a way to make memories. Instead I ended up wishing I could fiddle with the depth of field... well, I can now.

I haven't taken many photos yet, and very few that are fit for the public to see, but you can always check out my flickr page if you want to see what I've taken recently.

Interesting thing of the day: Achievement Unlocked, a cute and quick little game in which you are an elephant.

Mobular Telephonium - aka Phone Rage

In a letter to the Independent last week, Ashley Martin wrote: “Congratulations to the scientists who have developed technology that enables mobile phones to be used under water. Perhaps they could now invent technology that enables mobile phones to be used in north Norfolk.”

I'd like to propose the same technology to be trialled in Plymouth. Please. I'm remarkably patient about the terrible signal, considering what it does. Which is the following.

Incoming calls:
It rings, I answer the phone. I can't hear you. The signal cuts out. You ring again, and again, and again, until finally I have some signal and the call connects. Then it's (mostly) fine.

Outgoing calls:
Oh, it didn't work. No signal.
Oh, it didn't work again. Wait until I have signal.
ONE BAR!! GO GO GO!
...
No bars. Dammit.
Repeat until it finally goes through and pray to God that it holds while I get the Very Important Information / soothing noises that I so sorely need.

My service provider, three, actually called me once, miraculously getting through for long enough to ask how happy I was with their service. You can bet the signal got 'mentioned'.

Honestly though I think it's harder on other people than it is on me. Months and months of a crash-happy laptop have taught me to be supremely patient with flaky technology.

And while I'm complaining about this, because heavens help me I'm getting so good at complaining that it seems a shame to stop now, my phone's camera is broken. Every time I try to take a picture or video, it crashes my phone and I have to turn it off and on again. That would never have happened to my 3310 (for the obvious reasons that it only has two buttons, "stop" and "go"). I honestly think I'll get one of those fabulously retro beauties next time I buy a phone.

Interesting thing of the day: Spy Phones. Utter genius. Highly immoral of course.