I don't know, things actually happen to me and I struggle to write about them. When there's nothing going on I obviously have more time for meditative thoughts about such important things as ANTM and my hair. Exciting things that have happened to me recently:
The Fake Aunts visited a folk club which was a little slice of heaven. Really clever and talented people singing and playing instruments, some of which I have no idea what they were even called. When we weren't singing ourselves, we were given freedom to join in and every so often I will have a happy memory of staring at the carpet and trying to work out a harmony. One of our songs, a Kate Rusby cover, was just a joy to sing as everyone started picking up their instruments and joined in, with one guy on a penny whistle improvising a hornpipe over the top. Lovely loveliness.
I won an award. Yes, people, you are reading the blog of The Portsmouth News Guide Award Best Amateur Actress Runner-Up. Okay, so I'm not the best but I'm pretty close and I have an actual physical object stating this with my name on it. I also looked good. This is still something of a surprise to me.
My Dad had to go to hospital. This was not nice. As I said to him and Mum when Big Sis and I popped in to see them in QA last Wednesday "seriously, can we get through a year where one of you isn't hospitalised, please?" This meant that he missed the first week of "What The Butler Saw", which was upsetting for him and terrifying for the rest of the cast, especially for Zombie as director who had to step in. Dad's started back in there now so I'll be watching it on Saturday.
I have done a lot of baking. I had a moment on Thursday last week where I didn't even know who I was any more and started thinking I was Big Sis. Then I thought something mean and remembered who I was. Having said that, she's been swearing a lot lately. My favourite is when she's driving and the lights change to amber as we're going through and she goes "shit shit shit shit". Cracks me up every time.
More Fake Aunts News: We recorded a song and now have a MySpace page and a facebook Fans page. This is all done by Mrs DA really as I could never be called the driving force for anything. Good for her but I get a little bit freaked out by it sometimes. People are listening to my songs, you say. Hmm. This is perturbing.
I have taken to listening to Radio 6 even when Adam and Joe aren't on there. It's ideal for sewing along to and it helps me feel like less of a musical retard. Everytime something comes up that I like, I make a note of it and then look it up. When this happens every five minutes, my potential iTunes bill starts looking rather expensive.
So yes, it's been a busy week (obviously, I have barely skimmed the surface of my activities. I also turned into a werewolf, ate Chinese takeaway and met the man of my dreams (well, the last one is clearly fictional. That dude don't exist. I am a picky be-yotch) so I've really been cramming it in, timewise).
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Scattered
I'm somewhat unfocussed. I think it's fair to say that this is a pretty accurate description of me throughout all of my life. I read instructions but only of short-term stuff, stuff that can be done quickly and filed away. Like flat-pack furniture. Which I both enjoy assembling and am reasonably good at. I should advertise this ability for the people, like Mrs DA, who loathe assembling flatpack furniture with a fiery passion and for whom I can provide a service. I'm helping! However, I have a whole heap of paperwork for things that are actually quite flipping important that I never read. Ever. This is stuff like my pension, insurance (life and pet), savings, loans etc etc. And it contains a whole heap of stuff that is probably either costing or at least potentially saving me money that I never bother with. I never do research on anything, I just go with the easiest option. I'm very much of the opinion that life is short. Way, way too short for me to go through life in a sensible manner. I think of myself as a spontaneous girl and being a spontaneous girl is, in many ways, a good thing. I'm quite a lot more relaxed than people who are organised and plan things. Any stress that I have is short-lived and essentially goes like this: argh, stuff to do, very little time to do it, get it done, end of argh. But as I am reaching a milestone birthday, should I start planning for stuff a little bit more? And it occasionally worries me that my lack of focus, if allowed to continue, will lead to idiocy and poverty in the future. Well, idiocy is something of a given anyway (I always, always want to say gibbon but worry that people will think I don't get it if I do. Promise that if I ever slip and say gibbon instead of given you will be amused at my whimsy rather than correct me). But then I forget about it because not worrying is so much more fun than worrying.
Also, when I have reached 30, is it weird if I still think of myself as a girl? Should I change the language with which I refer to myself? I still feel like a girl. I strongly suspect that I will still feel like a girl for a long time yet, probably my whole life. I get a bit of a jolt when other people refer to me as a lady, like ""Small Child", watch out for the lady" rather than Lady Alice, although that would be all kinds of awesome. I like my name better when it's preceded by a title. Note to self; marry a Lord. Actually, is it possible to get knighted to be a Lady so that marriage is unnecessary or can you only ever be a Dame? Because being made a Dame is rubbish. I think of pantomimes and South Pacific and old ladies when I think of Dames - none of these are good. So peerage and knighting experts, help me out: How do I officially become a Lady?. But how do other people refer to themselves in their head? Like my Mum, do you think of yourself as a woman, a lady or a girl? It's funny, isn't it, does anyone else have these thoughts?
I kind of need a focus though. It helps having The Fake Aunts to think about - I sat down and wrote the lyrics for two more songs last Tuesday and as I was falling asleep the other night had a great idea for a song and had to switch the light on and scribble it before I forgot it. I haven't worked on it any more so it's still an eccentrically written four or five lines but it's a start. I'm also planning to do a bit more sewing as I haven't done it for a while - I do like making things even if I approach it, as I do everything, with more enthusiasm than skill. But what I need and want is the remarkable sort of tunnel vision that I only ever get when doing a play. I am so jealous of the actors in the current Bench show - they get to turn up and rehearse for hours and then go home exhausted and not have any time for anything else except learning lines and work and sleep. It's the only sort of focus I can cope with - short-term and all-encompassing. Heaven.
Also, when I have reached 30, is it weird if I still think of myself as a girl? Should I change the language with which I refer to myself? I still feel like a girl. I strongly suspect that I will still feel like a girl for a long time yet, probably my whole life. I get a bit of a jolt when other people refer to me as a lady, like ""Small Child", watch out for the lady" rather than Lady Alice, although that would be all kinds of awesome. I like my name better when it's preceded by a title. Note to self; marry a Lord. Actually, is it possible to get knighted to be a Lady so that marriage is unnecessary or can you only ever be a Dame? Because being made a Dame is rubbish. I think of pantomimes and South Pacific and old ladies when I think of Dames - none of these are good. So peerage and knighting experts, help me out: How do I officially become a Lady?. But how do other people refer to themselves in their head? Like my Mum, do you think of yourself as a woman, a lady or a girl? It's funny, isn't it, does anyone else have these thoughts?
I kind of need a focus though. It helps having The Fake Aunts to think about - I sat down and wrote the lyrics for two more songs last Tuesday and as I was falling asleep the other night had a great idea for a song and had to switch the light on and scribble it before I forgot it. I haven't worked on it any more so it's still an eccentrically written four or five lines but it's a start. I'm also planning to do a bit more sewing as I haven't done it for a while - I do like making things even if I approach it, as I do everything, with more enthusiasm than skill. But what I need and want is the remarkable sort of tunnel vision that I only ever get when doing a play. I am so jealous of the actors in the current Bench show - they get to turn up and rehearse for hours and then go home exhausted and not have any time for anything else except learning lines and work and sleep. It's the only sort of focus I can cope with - short-term and all-encompassing. Heaven.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
The Fake Aunts
Despite heads full of mucus and general cold- and swine flu-related malaise, The Fake Aunts performed for their first professional gig last night. And oh, but that it was fun. We rushed down to Southsea thinking ourselves late at about 7.30 only to be met by a very relaxed Bob who wasn't entirely sure when he'd asked us to start (it was 8.30) and then asked if we wouldn't mind waiting until the end of the readings to do our first set (so, looking at 9.30 at this point) and then we'd go pretty much straight through into our next one. So we sat around in Rosie's for a couple of hours trying to warm up with a background of quite random jazz. I tried to run through one song but ended up matching the beat and key of the song playing from the speaker behind me, it's all good and well having an ear for those things but it got a bit silly. Even though it was a very long wait (at about twenty to ten we were starting to get a bit frantic as with the whole illness thing, this was basically eating into our bedtime. Bedtime!) I did have a good time. Jaaams is down from Liverpool and was there as moral support and watching him and Mrs DA together is very entertaining. He ordered a bottle of wine to himself, and we watched him have his dinner, while nicking mange touts from his plate, I was very virtuous and drank tea and room temperature water, the latter request got a huge amount of scorn from Mrs DA who was on Diet Coke and ice but I'd spent hours drinking warm drinks and as good as the Diet Coke looked, it wasn't going to help me very much.
We eventually went in to the Writers' Workshop that we were playing for. Part of me would have liked to have listened to the stories being told but I would have struggled to concentrate, I think. They seemed quite keen to have us back though so, next time. But we ran through our set list and the response was really pleasantly positive. It was odd singing but not sounding like myself and I did struggle at points, although I like to kid myself that that adds character. The thing that really made me extremely happy was the overwhelming response to the song that we wrote. Originally called the Magic Song on the basis that we actually made it from scratch ourselves, we decided that we had to give it an actual name otherwise we'd keep writing songs and they would all be Magic Songs and it would get a bit confusing, it's called What We've Not Got. Dude, even the title got an appreciative giggle and we got, like, an actual laugh on "I'm stupid, I'm silly, I'm possibly mad", which means that writers are obviously our perfect audience. Then, after we'd finished our second set, we were asked for an encore and they requested that we do that song again. Then a group of guys who'd been quite vocal throughout, Jaaams had even heard them commenting on goosebumps, yay, came up to us at the end, two of them even volunteering to play with us if we had need of a bassist and drummer and the overwhelming opinion is that we're good when we play other people's songs but we're really good when we play our own. I just keep having little happy moments when I think of it. We wrote a song and people really like it! Anyway, the journey home was me snuggled up in Big Sis's scarf and a feeling of achievement in Mrs DA's car while she and Jaaams belted out showtunes and I just giggled and occasionally joined in. Better get writing me some more lyrics.
We eventually went in to the Writers' Workshop that we were playing for. Part of me would have liked to have listened to the stories being told but I would have struggled to concentrate, I think. They seemed quite keen to have us back though so, next time. But we ran through our set list and the response was really pleasantly positive. It was odd singing but not sounding like myself and I did struggle at points, although I like to kid myself that that adds character. The thing that really made me extremely happy was the overwhelming response to the song that we wrote. Originally called the Magic Song on the basis that we actually made it from scratch ourselves, we decided that we had to give it an actual name otherwise we'd keep writing songs and they would all be Magic Songs and it would get a bit confusing, it's called What We've Not Got. Dude, even the title got an appreciative giggle and we got, like, an actual laugh on "I'm stupid, I'm silly, I'm possibly mad", which means that writers are obviously our perfect audience. Then, after we'd finished our second set, we were asked for an encore and they requested that we do that song again. Then a group of guys who'd been quite vocal throughout, Jaaams had even heard them commenting on goosebumps, yay, came up to us at the end, two of them even volunteering to play with us if we had need of a bassist and drummer and the overwhelming opinion is that we're good when we play other people's songs but we're really good when we play our own. I just keep having little happy moments when I think of it. We wrote a song and people really like it! Anyway, the journey home was me snuggled up in Big Sis's scarf and a feeling of achievement in Mrs DA's car while she and Jaaams belted out showtunes and I just giggled and occasionally joined in. Better get writing me some more lyrics.
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