Showbiz October

Well my October started off with a bang. Boom! Just like that.

I was flown to Dublin for 6.5 hours and then I was flown back again. BA sandwiches all paid for and everything. Glamorous. It was for a radio show which is quite exciting, and my gran will be able to listen to it when it gets broadcast. It's not Hollywood, but I've never been to Ireland before so I was delighted. Not so delighted to only see Dublin from a car window. However, I did manage to get my flatmate a great birthday present from the airport. 

I flew from London City airport. Goodness, that's how airports should be run. What a delight it was to check in on one of those fast-ticket type machines, then saunter to your gate without so much of a queue or a whiff of baggage handlers messing things up.

I also went to see some friends in a show they were doing at the Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue on Sunday night and that was great. Good show, good show. 

I've also had a casting to do some hair modelling at an expo next week, so I'm really hoping they will pay me, and do my (by now absurd) roots for free. I'm having a pretty good time of it really. I only hope it continues for....well, the rest of my life would be ideal.

Funny Ha Ha or Funny Peculiar

My housemate has just started up a monthly event called the 'open arts cafe' (which I think sounds a bit rude, but I've got a very juvenile sense of humour). It's a multi discipline event which means it has actors doing acting, writers getting actors to read out writing, poets doing poems and musicians doing music. The first one (which was the 25th) also included us doing some comedy.

Now, the problem with doing comedy in the middle of a bunch of other things is that comedy is its own unique form of communication and has its own relationship to an audience. So to stick it in between a scene about domestic abuse and a duo joyfully larking about on ukuleles, it doesn't quite work. Because with comedy you need an audience to understand that they are the other person in the conversation, and if you've just had them sitting and quietly listening in to a scene, then they don't realise they have to step up to the plate and engage mentally and vocally when the comic comes on.

Anyway, it went alright, but it was a tough gig for us. It's a very interesting night though, with free entry (donations only), free wine and nibbles provided. So as an audience member you can't complain.

The other funny thing is that it's in a synagogue. Funny peculiar that is.

A Kick up the Coca

This week I have been very busy doing a full time job in town, right near Oxford Circus.

It's been quite pleasant, but mostly unremarkable.

Here are some things I will remark upon:

Lunchtimes have been alright. I have been going to Boots and doing the old 'meal deal' which consists of any sandwich/salad plus drink plus snack for £3.49. Aside from the fact that it is cheaper outside London - in Swansea it was £2.79 at one point but I think it's up to £2.99 now - it is an excellent lunch deal. What I also like about Boots' food is that they label the nutritional advice very clearly and the traffic light system (red = bad, green = great, yellow = ok, but don't go overboard) means you know exactly what you are putting in yourself each day. Every day I have got an Innocent smoothie as part of the deal (they cost nearly two quid by themselves) and a snack that I have munched on to pass the time in the afternoon.

Something that amused me:

There was a fire alarm in the building opposite so when I went out there were hundreds of business and fashion people just hanging around the street looking like fish out of water. Take away some people's desks and they don't know how to function.

Today I found a gift that my very good friend brought me from when she used to live in Columbia. Kokasana, which is coca tea, which is tea made with coca leaves, which are also used to make cocaine. There was a drive a few years ago in Columbia to de-demonize the coca leaf and reclaim it as an essential part of indigenous culture. And also they believed that every leaf they used for harmless, natural products was a leaf taken from the hands of the narcotics gangs.

If you've seen Bruce Parry's Amazon show you'll know indigenous peoples chew the leaves and drink coca tea to stave off hunger and to fight the effects of altitude sickness. As I've got 4 hours til lunchtime I thought I'd have one to start off the day. It was alright. What was good about it was I did some research about it and sadly discovered that the indigenous people's attempts have been totally overturned by the government's new ban on any coca products in the shops - just when an energy drink called Coca Sek was rushing off the shelves (and just as Coca Cola kicked off a law suit about the use of the word 'coca' - an indigenous word 1000's of years old).

It seems to me a sorry thing if the fights the indigenous people are trying to develop strength for against the cocaine industry's destruction of Columbia are undermined by the government. That's not a terrifically written sentence I'll grant you, but I'm just trying to express some concern and frustration towards the seemingly chaotic relationship between government and indigenous peoples.

So there you go. Lunch deals at Boots and concern over Columbia.

November the 9th

Well. It is 9/11. Thought I'd mention it.

Seven years have passed. That is bloody terrifying. I was 17. Young. Naive. Thin. 

What's changed?

I am not naive for starters. I am no longer a provincial Welsh girl but a hardened Londoner. I speak fluent cockney rhyming slang. I can sell you 5 for a pound - of ANYTHING.

This is not a particularly insightful or interesting blog post. 

Back to Black

Hello!

I am back in London after a rather wet August in Edinburgh. Did you miss me? Of course you did! You nearly packed it all in for want of some words from my keyboard!

Well, calm down, boil the kettle, get a Yorkshire gold down you and we can all relax and get on with the harvest month of September. Is September a harvest month? I don't actually know. It sounds nice though doesn't it. Like it has a point, other than kids going back to school or an excuse for my landlord to try and raise my rent in an horrendously louche manner.

You've got a lot to look forward to ladies and gents. A whole host of my opinions on where's good and where's awful in Edinburgh and particularly about the festival. Stock up on tips now for next year! It'll come around so fast you won't know what hit you.

Other highlights coming up between now and the end of the year:

My housemate's birthday!*

Halloween!*

Bonfire Night!*

My brother's birthday!

My auntie's birthday!

My dad's birthday!

Christmas!

My little brother's birthday!

* denotes an excellent time was had in 2007

As you will see from the birthdays - I will be spending more money in this latter half of the year. I will be seeking out good places to get gifts and cheap places. Ideally what I want is something that looks expensive but is not at all. Any ideas?

Arts & Crafts

My house is currently a big mess with newspapers all over the floor and bits of paint and card everywhere.

We have been making props for our show, you see.

We went to CAS - the art shop on Tottenham Court Road and ended up spending a surprising amount of money. Their slogan is 'let's fill this town with artists' and I imagine the next part of the line says 'and charge them loads of money for simple things'.

So I've been scouting about for better places to get arts and crafts products. My favourite is probably the many £1 shops around London that sell a huge range of items including paints, stationary and toys - and all for only a pound each! Also, Smiths is usually quite good for affordable things - and was the only place we could find t-shirt transfer paper (although this was quite expensive).

Of course, schools are a good place to steal things from and your own work - but this can often prove tricky.

Latitude

What a great festival!