2006

I didn't realise it had been so long since I'd posted.

Happy Christmas to everyone and in case I don't post again soon, happy new year.

Its been a fairly average year really with a couple of ups and downs. I'll have to have a look through my posts again but off the top of my head:

Ups

My new job which I started at the end of February. A welcome change from the absolute hell I was in at the time. The new people are mostly lovely especially my boss who I developed a major crush on after two months.

Booking my holiday for San Francisco and LA. Its been too long since I had a proper hol.

The works Xmas do at the ultra posh Hilton Hotel in Manchester.

Meeting the cast of Bad Girls even if the con itself was a bit shite.

Meeting some of my heroes at the Collectormania thing in Milton Keynes* especially Dempsey & Makepeace.

The trip to Cardiff to see filming locations for Dr Who and spotting the Tardis in someone's back garden, not realising until later that it was *the* Tardis.

The subsequent trip to Swansea for the Dr Who con but missing most of the con in favour of the lovely beach next door.

L & T's stag do in Blackpool and their Civil Partnership in Durham.

Paying off my student loan.

Acorn Antiques the Musical and meeting Victoria Wood

Assistant directing Educating Rita, it being a hit and my best mate winning a Bolton Evening News award for her role as Rita

Watching a footie match, paid for my work on corporate expenses and with my boss getting a bit girly and close with me. Mmmmmmm.

The birth of the Farrow babies.

Gigs - The marvellous KT Tunstall. (Dear god is that the only gig I've been to?)

Albums - Muse: Black Holes and Revelations, KT Tunstall: Acoustic Extravaganza and Keane: Under the Iron Sea.

TV - New Dr Who, Torchwood, so much CSI that I don't know what to do with it, more Bad Girls, the excellent Life on Mars, Lost.

Downs

The recent loss of a friend to kidney disease & heart problems, my best friend losing her mum to motor neurone disease and now another close friend has lost his dad to cancer. My thoughts and love are with them and their families.

My brother has been recently diagnosed diabetic and while he's started to get the idea he should be eating proper food not junk he's still not really buckled down to it. He's got another blood test tomorrow apparently. I'm hoping that it'll then finally sink in and/or the doctor will give him a kick up the arse.

My send off from my old job - or rather the lack of one.

The demise of Bad Girls. And the con being a bit shite.

*Milton Keynes - whatta soulless dump.

So actually having written it all down it seems that this year has had more ups than downs but some of the downs have been awful. I'm hoping 2007 will be a whole lot better for myself and for my friends.

So far in 2007 I've got my holiday to look forward to as well as various gigs - Keane & Eddi Reader in Feb/March and the Scissor Sisters in July and Rich Hall at some point if I could only remember when. I'm so looking forward to them. Oh and the play at the end of January. Which I'm very very nervous about.

WTF *is* that?

Hearing the telly on downstairs has reminded me of something. What the buggery fuck is that music on the Lockets (or some kind of cold medication anyway) advert? It starts with all luvverly and tinkly piano stuff then there's someone screaming at the end, just for a second. Is it from a song? It sounds like James Blunt with a bit of Kelis' 'I hate you so much right now' tagged on the end. Which I'm sure would be entirely appropriate for some people...

Maybe its James but with an axe wielding psycho bitch running into his recording studio just as he's about to sing.

Getting Wood

So. At the weekend I went to see Acorn Antiques the Musical at theLowry theatre in Salford. It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody that it was absolutely freakin' hilarious, from the opening Chicago piss take to Mrs Overall rising at the top of the stairs resplendant in gold pinny, to the Fatkins diet jokes (I've got no emotions 'cause I don't eat carbs) to, oh everything really (they were even selling coconut macaroons in the lobby). If you get a chance to see it on tour please do. You won't regret it, even if none of the original cast are in it. Best bit was the interval though. I had just finished looking through my programme and was resting it on my lap when a lady sat a couple of seats away from me tapped me on the arm and said that if I wanted it autographed, Victoria Wood was stood in the doorway. And lo and behold she was. And I did. I now have a small pink programme that looks like a two year old has scribbled on it. At least *I* know its her anyway.

That evening was our works Xmas do at the tres swanky new Hilton Hotel in the Beetham Tower in Manchester. Disappointingly the function room was on the first floor and had no windows so we were denied the spectacular view we were expecting. We did manage to get into the Sky Bar later on though which is on the 23rd floor and has an absolutely breathtaking view over Manchester. Its also where I chose to come out to my boss J. Bless her heart she was completely unfazed. Not that I was expecting her to be anything other than utterly lovely about it but sometimes old insecurities win out... I've only known her 10 months or so but I feel we're becoming really good friends and she's always struck me as being very cool and sweet and open minded. As indeed she is. And drop dead gorgeous but we won't go into that. ;)

I'm with stupid

She Who Must Be Adored invited me out shopping with her after work. Sort of. I thought she was joking so I laughed and said no thanks. Its not like I was doing anything else. Why the jeesis bloody fuck didn't I say yes?

Its no wonder I never bloody get anywhere...

*bangs head repeatedly on desk*

Underachiever

Ack! I've got so much to do this week and tonight I've done absolutely nothing. I've sat on my flabby white ass and watched tv or surfed the internet. Its the works Xmas do on Saturday and I need to do various girly things like paint my toenails and start putting some fake tan/moisturiser mix on (and other things I daren't mention) and I haven't done any of it. And its the first rehearsal of a play I'm in tomorrow night and I haven't even finished reading the play never mind attempting to learn lines or suss out my character. I always empathised with Charlie Brown for being so wishy-washy. Now you see why.

At least I've nearly finished my Xmas shopping.

Oh buggeration that's another thing I need to do. Write Xmas cards. Gawd!

New Religion?

I've sold my soul to the devil for a Duran Duran cd. Once I've spent 24 minutes listening to the cd Mephistophilis will come for me and I'll be doomed to an eternal damnation of reading how Diana was a true saint, how all the royals are absolutely lovely and worth every penny of our taxes (or whatever), how all gays are evil and how David Cameron will save mankind.

Yep, I've bought today's Daily Mail.

Woe is me.

"Death is overrated"

Bit of a maudlin post methinks but I'm going to do it anyway. A friend of mine died last week. Someone I hadn't actually seen very often in the last few years but who is still fondly remembered. He was a member of the Dr Who fan group I joined way way back in May 1988 and was always a lovely, laid back kind of bloke. He used to tape episodes of US cop show Hunter for me off satellite as it was back then. Don't ask me what channel, probably a proto Sky. I still have the video tapes somewhere with the episode titles written in his fair hand. Tomorrow is the funeral. I think when I get home later I'm going to watch an ep or two of Hunter from my DVD boxsets. I'd watch one of the tapes but we haven't got a working video recorder.

Fran, you'll be sadly missed.

I've also been trawling the archives of a web group I'm on with a bunch of friends. I accidentally clicked to bring up the very first messages on the group, long before I joined, and it inspired me to look for the very first message I posted. It was a few words about another friend who'd just died back in 2001. He was a lovely bloke too with an absolutely filthy sense of humour. I've just been reading all the lovely messages people wrote at the time, telling tales of his sillyness and depravity. I still think of him, especially when its Eurovision time. We all used to go to his house in Scunthorpe for Eurovision parties every year and we'd laugh like drains at the campest acts. He'd have loved Lordi winning it last year. I sometimes get this mental image of him laughing the unique way he did at such things. I like to think its actually him telling me he's still around. Then there's every time I hear Clouds Across the Moon by The Rah Band, every time I catch Showgirls on repeat, everytime I hear the name Joe Pasquale, everytime I see pistachio ice cream with chocolate sauce..... too many tales, some too gross to repeat.

Which brings me to his quote, the title of this post. "Death is overrated. Take it from one who knows."

Peter, you're still missed too.