Reinvention

I want to reinvent myself. I could do with some money for some new clothes. Unfortunately I have none. I guess reinvention will have to wait *sigh*

The moments that we live for

Last week was an amazing week. It was full of big events, of the moments that we live to see in life, they were all packed into one week. I went to a funeral, a wedding, two concerts and a birthday celebration. It seems so unreal that they all took place within just one week. Anyway, I've saved up my writing until now, so here goes my account of the week...

Funeral
This was the first funeral I have ever been to. It was that of a lady from church who died rather suddenly. I was asked to play the organ at the funeral which I was rather nervous about, but I think that I did an okay job. It was quite unnerving when they brought the coffin in, but it was okay. It's sad that she's gone, because we miss her, but she had so many health problems I know that she will be very comfortable where she is now, so I am happy for her. But my heart goes out to her family. It was awful to see some of them in tears throughout the funeral. I hope I don't have to go to another one for a long time.

Manel Concert
Manel are a band who are really big in Catalonia who I went to see with some of my friends and our Catalan tutor. Arriving home after the funeral I had to go out to town to get a few things, upon arriving home and getting everything together I realised it was 5 o'clock and we were supposed to be going down to Manchester at 6 for the gig. I backcombed my hair and got dressed in record time, and met my friend at the bus stop where she had been waiting for a while, because no buses had been going past. Upon arriving at uni I had to run to the library to print our bus ticket for getting back to Lancaster. I then got in the car and we set off for Manchester. We got a little lost once there, as is customary on the roads of Manchester, but eventually found the Café and met our friends. And who should be standing outside the café but Manel themselves!!! Our tutor was talking to them and they were talking like friends, they were so nice, we got a picture with them and everything.

We had arrived quite early, Manel weren't on til after 10, so we went to a lovely little place next door to get something to drink, and we had some chips. When the time had arrived we went back to Night & Day and watched Manel play. They were amazing. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We all had a great time, and went crazy when they played our favourite song "Al Mar". After the concert my friend bought a CD and we hung around for ages trying to find each member of the band to get it signed, we managed to get 3 out of 4, so pretty good.

Afterwards, me and one of my friends were getting the bus back together, but it wasn't until 1.10 so we went to try and find somewhere to get pizza, and we found a place, I forget what it was called, but I'm pretty sure it had Istanbul in the name(?) Anyway, the guy who worked there was a right laugh, he was telling us all about his facebook and wanted us to take our pictures with him, which we naturally did. It was rather bizarre, but the pizza was good, especially in Manchester's heated coach station ♥. The bus ride was uneventful except for a completely totalled car wreck we saw on a roundabout between Garstang and Lancaster. All in all, it was a brilliant night.

Lady GaGa Concert
This was my first ever big concert. It was at the MEN (massive). I loved EVERY SECOND. I adore Lady GaGa. I was so full of energy afterwards that as soon as I got home I just had to jump on the piano. It was also her first UK show of this tour, and she completely changed it from what she did in USA, so I felt privileged :) ♥. She changed outfit so many times, it was brilliant. The setlist was amazing, Brown Eyes and Speechless were awesome. It was just amazing. I couldn't stop smiling. And even now I smile thinking about it. I want to go to more concerts!

Wedding
This was lovely! It was great to see two friends finding happiness in each other. The reception was wonderful too. The tables were amazing, the bride designed them, they were themed around flowers, and it was beautifully done, if I ever get married, I think I may have to enlist her creative table talents.

Birthday Celebration
This was Saturday. We went for dinner at The Station in Morecambe, which was great, haven't been there in AGES, and forgot how nice the Italian chicken was! :P mmmmm. Then we went back to watch movies. We watched The Ring and The Ring 2. I'd never seen them before, and I enjoyed them, it was scary!

So yes. All in all an amazing, shattering week! I'm so lucky to have a great life ♥

Don't make me angry :)

My rude housemate incenses me. I need to vent to avoid really getting angry with him.

Most of yous know about the ridiculous letter he left myself and my other housemate at the beginning of the year about how untidy we were and our "apathy to the squalor we were living in." Anyway, so we expected him to be a very clean person. However, he is quite the opposite, peeing on the toilet seat, rarely cleaning the kitchen/living room, leaving the floors soaking wet, messing up the kitchen and leaving such things as a single chip out on the side for weeks, letting crap drip all over the fridge... etc. This doesn't really bother me that much, cos he's not extremely dirty.

I'm the only one that has ever cleaned the toilet and bathroom sink and he has rarely cleaned the kitchen, I'm the one who does the recycling, I'm the one who vacuums. So as far as I'm concerned, his facebook status "i don't think they could get much more un-fucking-tidy" is very irritating. But rather than showing him the real meaning of untidy, or biting his head off, I am dealing with my anger and not letting it out. Instead of screaming and taking various types of smelly food and soil to the furniture I am writing here.

Hair

I love big hair. I haven't got a clue why. Most of you will know that I experiment with various big hairstyles, to varying degrees of success. My friend posted a blog mentioning her hair and it made me want to write about mine... I do love hair.

My hair just isn't long enough at the moment to do too much with (much to my chagrin... I can't wait for it to grow!). I think I did pretty well with it today though, I used some texturising stuff and kept the top tied up for longer with gel in the roots before I dried it. I was pretty pleased with the effect at any rate. It wasn't huge, but it was not small.

Today we watched the beginning of Almodóvar's Carne Trémula (Live Flesh) in our Spanish culture lecture, and Penelope Cruz's hair was AMAZING. It's always amazing, but in this film it's GIGANTIC. I. ♥. IT. And I loved that it was just some simple backcombing, or rather, a lot of backcombing...



Backcombing = life

In other news, my housemates are away so I'm home alone this weekend. I'm (not-so) secretly hoping for some company. I mean, I don't wanna seem desperate, but everyone likes company, or even a nice chat on msn/faceyb... don't they?

I feel stronger now

I hate being ill! Monday I felt so awful, I just stayed in bed all day, I was so ill I missed out on our weekly ASDA trip.

:'(

That's right, that's how ill i was... too ill to go to ASDA.

Luckily I was better by Tuesday, ready for my lovely 9 o'clock class, which was all about words to do with pleasure and happiness. There was something which made me very uncomfortable about the prospect of discussing how intense I think orgasme is on a scale of 1-9 with my French writing tutor...

Catalan class was pretty cool on Tuesday too (despite the fact that we had an aural test which involved transcribing phone numbers which were said ridiculously quickly, and two phone calls from two guys with different names who sounded suspiciously alike...). Anyway, our tutor told us about a gig in Manchester by some Catalan band called Manel and asked us if we wanted to go along with her, so me and a couple of friends have said we'll go. It's next Wednesday (17-2-10), the day before I go and see GaGa (soooo excited for that), it should be a right laugh, we've decided to scream "MOLT BE" (very good) and "TREU-TE ELS PANTALONS" (take off your trousers) to them, hopefully we won't embarass our tutor too much!

Also did the workout on Tuesday. I find a great satisfaction in becoming more and more flexible, I always have, there's just something about being able to reach my chest to to my knee sat in straddle position that I find satisfying. I'm proud to say that I'm becoming "flexy" again. I'm also noticing a difference in how easy I find it to do the actual workout, not that I find it particularly easy, but it's getting less difficult to do, so i'm getting fitter. Yay!

Today I'm listening to some old Lady GaGa stuff: The Stefani Germanotta Band's Red and Blue EP. I'm liking it, I also got some remixes to listen to, it's ages since I got a remix single, so it'll be cool to listen to, gotta love the sick beatzzz hahaha!

The Catalan Poem

It's been a long time since I really read a poem. High school sort of put me off them, forcing me to read and analyse. I don't like doing things I'm forced to do.

A couple of weeks ago I decided I would look up some Catalan poetry, because I find the Occitano-Romance languages and their history so interesting. I came across a book of poems by Salvador Espriu called Lord of the Shadow. I read through many of them and have really enjoyed them, I love the Catalan and I love the poems. Though his work is rather tragic I find I can relate to it and lose myself reading through them. I decided I would read one in the literature festival that the Dept of European Languages and Cultures is holding at uni, and I wanted to share it. It's called Pel Meu Mirall, Si Vols, Passen Rares Semblances (Or in English Across My Mirror, If You Like, Strange Images Pass)


Davant el meu últim mirall, en veure’m

sencer, malalt, potser acabat,

potser damnat, tan pàl·lid,

vaig dir molt lentament clares paraules

beles, fràgils, altes, les més nobles

que trobava en la foscor del meu record.

Des de sempre, però, allí hi havia

grasses, molles, llefiscoses bèsties,

que dels racons venien fins als llavis,

a rosegar-me els mots mentre naixien:

no sents encara la remor profunda

de pergamí, d’ossos trencats, de vidre?

I al mirall, entretant, es reflectia

a poc a poc una perversa imatge,

el signe de la qual podràs entendre,

si fas també, com jo, l’estranya prova

d’esguardar el teu bon fons, quasevol hora,

tot intentant de nou una impossible,

inútil creació per la paraula.


Here is an English translation by Kenneth Lyons:


In front of my last mirror, seeing myself

Full-length, pale, possibly done for,

Possibly damned, so pale,

I said, very slowly, crystal-clear words,

Beautiful, fragile, soaring words, the noblest

That I could find in the darkness of memory.

But there had always been present there

Fat, soft, slimy beasts

That came out of the corners to my lips

And gnawed my words away as they were born:

Can you not still hear the deep crackling

Or parchment and of broken bones, of glass?

And meanwhile, in the mirror was reflected,

Little by little, a perverse image,

The sign of which, you will surely understand

If you try, like me, the strange experiment

Of gazing into your depths, at any time,

While again attempting an impossible,

Useless creation through the word

I miss my camera

I miss my camera.
I miss being able to document all the little things that happen in my life, as well as all the big things.
I miss taking pictures of myself.
I want to take a picture of my wall.
I want to be able to take photographs again :'(

The Mystic's Dream

A clouded dream on an earthly night
Hangs upon the crescent moon
A voiceless song in an ageless light
Sings at the coming dawn
Birds in flight are calling there
Where the heart moves the stones
It's there that my heart is calling
All for the love of you

A painting hangs on an ivy wall
Nestled in the emerald moss
The eyes declare a truce of trust
And then it draws me far away
Where deep in the desert twilight
Sand melts in pools of the sky
When darkness lays her crimson cloak
Your lamps will call me home

And so it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
And now I feel you move
Every breath is full
So it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
Even the distance feels so near
All for the love of you.
- "The Mystic's Dream" by Loreena McKennitt -


This is one of my favourite songs of all time. The soundscape is so indescribably lavish it gives me butterflies just thinking of adjectives to describe the lush instrumentation and production. The text also enchants me. Even the title, "The Mystic's Dream" draws me in, and from the first seconds of music I am completely and utterly captivated. Loreena's music takes me to another world. There's nobody like her.