Berrycosmotastic

I think I'm turning into a lush. All because I've discovered the delights of the raspberry cosmopolitan. Lately, in fact almost every night I've been making myself one or two. I'm sipping my second right now actually. And I'm not entirely sober. My version is;



1 shot Absolut Raspberri
1/2 shot Cointreau
1/2 shot lime juice
1 shot M&S Raspberry & Cranberry juice
Ice & a slice


Its delish. Try it. (eclair optional btw)




I discovered it in the Grand Cafe in Oxford last week. Me, my mum & bro went on a short break to take in the pubs... sorry culture. We had a bit of a troll round when we first got there as we had a couple of hours to spare until it was time to check into the hotel (Pear Tree Travelodge which was cheap but the Beaumont Guest House is rather lovely). So we went round the covered market which I've not been in before. Lots of interesting food stalls and jewellry shops as well as one cafe serving the most fabulous looking pies I ever did see. Then we had a snifter in the Turf Tavern which was full of oddly dressed students (I mean odder than usual) presumably celebrating graduation or something. Once we'd popped back to the hotel and had a brief snooze we went back to the Turf for its tempting looking scran. Only to find that they stopped serving food at 7.30! And we got there at 7.25. What kind of business is that? So we went to the Kings Arms instead which didn't have as fab a menu but by then we were starving so we'd eat anything.



Tuesday morning we headed out early and got a very nice breakfast at the Queens Lane Tea Rooms, had a gander round the gorgeous Botanical Gardens and a couple of colleges - Brasenose and Exeter which were stunning and gawped at the numerous film crew trucks and vans which I think may have been for the filming of His Dark Materials but I may be wrong. We then repaired to the Grand Cafe for a delicious high tea and cocktails. At £7 a pop they had to be good so thank god they were. And £12 for sandwiches, scones, tea and chocolates. Heavenly. I had the aforementioned Raspberry Cosmo, mum had a Kir Royale and bro had a Brandy Alexander which I had a sip of. Yum. We were then a bit stumped for evenings entertainment. Mum was up for the flicks but wanted to see Oceans 118 118 whereas I wanted to see Zodiac. By the time we'd decided what to do and had a drink or two in the Bird & Baby/Eagle & Child me & mum had no energy whatsoever and just wanted to go back and veg out in the hotel. Which, incidentally only had four channels on the telly. FOUR CHANNELS??? Not even Channel 5 so we could watch CSI. Bastards. So we stayed in the pub. And then moved to the Lamb & Flag across the road for another.


Next morning saw the usual brekkie at Queens Lane, a walk round Christ Church Meadow to the Thames then back into town so I could buy some silver jewellery and a quick tour round the Ashmolean museum. Very fine Greek/Roman/Egyptian exhibits which I took lots of pics of and we saw some art upstairs but didn't have much time until our train home so we had to cut it short. So all in all we had a good time. There was the usual bickering between mum & bro. How delightful. Maybe one of these days we can actually go somewhere without them spoiling it but I won't hold my breath. Weather was fabulous despite the doom and gloom forecast and my alcoholism is coming along nicely thankyou. I've just polished off my second rasp cosmo and am as drunk as a skunk and finding it increasingly difficult to type coherently.

Saw Zodiac the other day btw. Fab film but there was one bit I didn't quite follow. There's one bit where Jake Gyllenhall visits a chap who supposedly knows who the Zodiac killer is. But it turns out a vital bit of evidence was from the chap he was visiting. Cue a very jumpy Jake getting the fuck out of there.... ah so it looks like its him then...? Er, no. He's completely forgotten and we move on to someone else. Wha?


Is it me?

Happy dance

KT Tunstall has announced her next UK tour for October and November this year. Tix are available thru her fan site or on general release at 9am this Friday.

Yeeee haaarrrgghhh!

Bees knees

Oh the humanity! Or the, er, bee-anity?!

Yesterday I opened my bedroom window to let some air in, it being a nice day an' all. When I returned to my room a few hours later an errant bee was sat waiting for me on my windowsill. Ever the animal lover I decided to rescue the bee and gently coaxed it onto the side of a box lid to then flap it gently at the open window to get it to fly out. Only to see it fly straight into the side of next door's extension and into a spiders web. Feeling incredibly guilty I stood at the window with my hand to my mouth willing the bee to escape, which it did. It then plummeted to the ground faster than Jade Goody's popularity within the muslim community.

Did I do more harm than good rescuing it like that? Would I have been better leaving it in the relative safety of my bedroom? Or had I discovered the Frank Spencer of the bee world and nothing I could have done would've helped? Who knows.

And while we're on the subject, who decided bees knees were so bloody great anyway?

Love and hate (and monsters)

Well, my mood today has been up and down like a whore's drawers. But then that's what its been like for a few months, god bless hormones. Been shopping and mooching around Manchester today and for most of the time felt strangely elated. Full of the joys of the world. Didn't let setbacks get me down, shared the love with complete strangers and all that. Not in a saucy way just being, oh I don't know, nice... charitable. Not that I'm nasty the rest of the time or anything. Bought some pretty undies and some nice pyjama type things that I'm wearing right now from M&S, had a nice healthy lunch at Caffe Nero and later an iced mocha and piece of cake at Starbucks and didn't let the fact that my order at SBs was missed and I was waiting a long time get me down. No sirree. But suddenly on the bus home my thoughts turned to love and a certain person in my life who's been mentioned here before. And I got a bit maudlin and emotional. Why do I always fall for unavailable women? I really wish I knew the answer to that. I'm sure I read something a few months ago that made sense. Probably something on Outpost Gallifrey... they're an insightful lot they are. Something to do with it being safe falling for someone unavailable... bah, I'll go back and find the post. I can honestly say I love her. I'm not sure I'm in love with her.... is it possible to be borderline between the two? A big part of that is that I'm suppressing my feelings as much as I can for fear of getting hurt. Been there a few times and its bloody shite.

Uh, anyway the result of that today has been that I texted a psychic hotline type thing. Yes, yes... foolhardy I know but I went into it with my eyes open. Well, slightly hooded maybe. I knew that I may be wasting my money on a load of old bollocks but I thought that even if the 'psychic' wasn't psychic at all they may be insightful enough to offer some advice or at least some comfort. First question was, "Does X feel the same way about me as I do about her?" (gave her full name in the text btw). The answer was that she was 'interested' so why not make a move & tell her how I feel? Oooh risky business that. I've done that before & it didn't turn out well. Second question, "Is she attracted to me sexually?", answer that there's a chemistry there and she (X - not the psychic) feels this quite strongly. I'm not sure if its wishful thinking on my part but yes, there is some chemistry between us. Next question - the biggie, "Are we destined to be together?". Answer - I must be patient, if I want a future with her I can steer it that way gradually. Do I see that its possible for me to get what I want and that I'm being guided by my spirit guide? Hmm not sure about that one. I've kind of got that feeling anyway but again there's the self doubt that its just wishful thinking. I decided to test the psychic a little, I asked if my spirit guide had a name. I've read before how you're supposed to ask and I think I know - I wanted to see if he/she came up with the same answer. Crafty bugger said that I had to find that out for myself. Ah well. I thanked him/her and that was it. On a final, positive note I'm glad that he/she didn't then reply again and left it at that. Now they could have sent me another message which I would have been charged for but they didn't. Interesting. It remains to be seen if I get text spammed from now on.

In other news I made a bit of a big decision last week. I mentioned some time ago that I was unhappy with a particular 'friend' who'd been making racist and homophobic comments. I finally decided not to be in their company anymore - that I had more self respect than that. I didn't make a fuss, didn't confront them or anything, just left quietly. I wasn't sure if that was a cowardly thing or not, not telling them how I felt but that was what I wanted to do at the time. No mess, no fuss, no bother. Another friend later told me that they'd said I stormed off in a huff. Well, if that wasn't an indication that I'd made the right decision then I don't know what was. How pathetic. To blatantly lie like that, overdramatise something that they didn't even witness (they'd gone to the bar at the time - I left before they came back)... how utterly utterly childish. Not sure what it says of me that I was more annoyed by that than by the original comments. Hey ho.

And no I don't care that they might read this. Or that mutual friends may read this. If you can't stand the heat...don't be a bigoted twat. Not even in jest.

And on a last positive note, Dr Who tonight was fucking superb. I shed a little tear at the end and I don't get emotional about telly on the whole. The last time I got teary over Dr Who was at the ending of 'Girl in the Fireplace'. I didn't even cry at the Sarah Jane episode. Hats off to you Mr Cornell and a bloody big Ascot stylee hat off to Jessica Hynes who was also absolutely fucking superb. A star in the ascendant there.