girlofprey

Well. Yesterday I was going to post and say I was sorry for America, and everyone living there. And now I just feel sorry for Britain, and everyone living here. What a mess.

To think this morning my main concern was whether or not to buy new Christmas shark wrapping paper.

I have been going through Terbil Draems, because I am quite easy for daft humour. I quite love it.

Went to the Nutcracker tonight. It was very nice. And I've been meaning to go see it at a Christmas for a while, so it's nice to have that done.

It's really weird that Christmas is a week today, but after all my flailing last week I'm basically done with my preparations for it (all the necessary stuff anyway). Went to Leeds last Friday and Wakefield yesterday, and have presents for everyone but dad, and I've decided to just get him some booze, which is pretty much just a trip to the local supermarket. Then, bar the wrapping, it's sorted.

I'm going to the ballet tomorrow, as I haven't been in months, and I'm going to pick up a few more bits there and possibly stop into that supermarket I just mentioned, and then that should be done. I can have a nice, hopefully quiet weekend.

Coronation Street is still stupid, Tina has never shown an interest in chasing anyone else's boyfriend before, askdjasjkdasjk, and the papers have started going on about the fact that Michael LeVell's back soon. But I love David and he makes an excellent sheep. So yay.

A mere two days after deciding I would have to cut back on my spending for a bit, and I am already contemplating going to see Batman Live after cakesy gave it a pretty good review, going to see Northern Ballet's Hamlet after spending the last five years or so wishing they'd put it on again so I could finally see it, and whether or not to finally go through with my dream to own a white(-ish) faux fur coat. And a feather skirt.

Come on, Rachael. You can do this.

Tonight on Coronation Street Gary Windass was home on leave, even though he was actually AWOL from the army, and just as he was leaving the house David - who hasn't been in it for a week or so as far as I can tell - came down the street, and saw him, and said "Well, go on then. Make a joke about my mum. "Gail in jail", or has she got a tattoo yet?, or something". And Gary just said "No, dude, I wouldn't wish what's happened to your family on my worst enemy." And David asked if he was making a joke. And Gary was just like no, properly, I hope it all turns out okay, and let your mum know we don't believe a word of it. And David was like "Okay. Thanks". And then later when Gary was just leaving the house again David was coming down the street the other way, and stopped and said thanks, or something, for what he'd said earlier. And said maybe the next time Gary was back he might want to go for a drink or something. And Gary said yeah, that sounded good. And they were both trying really hard to be civil to each other without actually looking at each other. It was a bit beautiful and perfect. I HOPE THAT IT IS THE START OF THEIR LOVE, AND NOT THEM TYING UP THE LOOSE ENDS OF GARY'S LIFE SO THEY CAN KILL HIM LATER ON. It's probably just them making Gary seem mature and everything, as his mother mentioned in the episode, so it made it all the more difficult when his parents find out he actually ran away from the army. I am just worried they're going to kill him. Mostly I'm worried because someone said the writers were going to kill him, with no source backing them up, on a soap forum, and even though I know that people just lie on those places sometimes I still worry it might be true. Given that he is in the army and a 'killed-in-action' storyline might be something Coronation Street wanted to do. I like Gary. And he is David's true love. I don't want them to kill him, really.

I do love that they try to give him scenes with David whenever he's back on the Street though. Because David is one of the most important people in his life, obviously. ::LOVE::

Also I am back from my holiday in Filey. It was in turns hard, horrendous, and quite nice. I might post more about it later, but given that I haven't been doing that very often lately I can't really promise to. It was nice though, parts of it. But suffice to say, coming on my period on the day we were going out there didn't exactly help. And then on Saturday, I set out - in lovely weather - to go to see the Nacional Ballet De Cuba perform Swan Lake at the Lowry in Manchester. Despite some early morning problems with getting the train from my local station, Manchester proved really quite easy to get to, and cheap, and it was pretty easy getting to the Lowry from the station as well. And the ballet was good, although I think by that point I was feeling pretty exhausted from the holiday and travelling and everything, and was almost falling asleep in act 2. But it was good, and the dancing was lovely, and I got talking to a couple next to me when I tried to explain part of the plot to them. We talked about what ballets I'd been to, and how I got into it, and the fact that the woman and I were both there because we really liked Cuba, even though she'd never been either. The man had though. A part of me hates him. But still, they were lovely, and it was really nice talking to them. And then I watched the rest of the ballet, had a really nice simple train journey back to Yorkshire, and I was home. Hurrah.

Another thing it turns out they're doing at the Lowry in August is 50 Years of Coronation Street - over 2,000 storylines packed into a 2-hour stage show. A part of me really wants to go. It seems a bit ridiculous given that most of the things I love in Coronation Street have happened in the last year or two. Still. Alternate David Platt. IT IS TEMPTING.

I just watched The Apprentice Does Comic Relief, but Jonathon Ross did keep me from enjoying most of it. Jack Dee sort of made up for it. But anyway. The point of this post is that I have been around doing stuff. This stuff is:

• I had my first Jobseeker’s appointment for my current claim on Monday, and I gave in the book with my little diary in it as I came in, and when I got called to the person seeing me's desk, he asked me how the job search was going, told me about a Jobseeker's job that I'd already heard about, had me sign the little signing on form, and told me I could go. IT WAS A WHOLE NEW EXPERIENCE IN JOBCENTRE APPOINTMENTS FOR ME. I liked it. I get the feeling the appointments will get longer as the claim goes on, however.



• I saw Watchmen on Monday. I really quite liked it. Well, apart from ( Spoilers )
  . I'm speaking as someone who has not read the book, though, I read a few pages a couple of months ago and liked it but never got around to finishing it, so I don't really know what issues there were about adapting the comic to the screen, or (I assume) shortening the story. But as a film, I thought it worked really well, and I didn't feel lost for not having read the book. And no, I really liked it. It will probably surprise no-one that I liked Rorschach the best, and I thought Jeffery Dean Morgan was great even if the character of the Comedian is a bit 'hmm'.
  
  What I'd like to know now is if there's an AU out there where it's just the masked heroes and Doctor Manhattan never existed. I get that the story is mostly about nuclear power and the bomb and stuff, but from a character point of view, since they don't seem to actually be super-powered like I was sort of expecting them to be. ( Vague spoilers for the plot )



• I went to see Northern Ballet Theatre's Swan Lake on Tuesday, even though I probably can't afford it. But I missed the one on at Christmas, and I did want to see a traditional version. It turned out this wasn't a traditional version at all, they'd changed the story so it was about an 1920s/1930s-ish boy in a wealthy family whose brother drowns in a lake on their estate one night while they're both out playing, and who then grows up into a teenager struggling with this tragedy and homosexual feelings for his best friend, and who sees visions of swan maidens one night when he's upset and sitting by the lake. It was very good though, I really enjoyed it. I really like ballet, it's just a shame it's so expensive. Oh well.



• Speaking of dance-y things though: Sadler's Wells, what is up with you putting on the very shows I'd like to see at a time when I can least get to them or afford them? A Flamenco festival. An entire festival of flamenco, just as I found out I couldn't go see that Tango show I wanted to in April because it's sold out. Beginning THIS WEEKEND. Honestly. Is there a flamenco festival in Nottingham? No. Is there a tango festival on in Nottingham anytime soon? No, but there's apparently a show on in London in, oh, a few weeks time. I suppose I should just take the ballet and the dance things that are on in Nottingham and be happy with them, and possibly get a job so I can go to these other things. Still. Hmph.



• On the other hand, I was looking up British lighthouses, and I found out about one in Whitley Bay that's decommissioned, and which visitors can go look round at low tide. it turns out it's about one stop down on the metro from where you have to get off to get to the hotel for Connotations. I might go and have a look around it if I have time before the con starts. Rah.



• And I finally watched Mohabbatein, some weeks after whatho sent me the discs. ( Spoilers )
  . whatho, I will mail it back sometime next week probably. THANK YOU FOR LENDING IT TO ME. Sorry for keeping it for a bit.



• Tomorrow and next week my plan is to actually get around to applying for some jobs. I get the feeling I should be getting a move on with that.

::love::

Nick Cave is touring again in November. That's not very fair. Bad form, Nick. I have three other gigs to consider in October/November. And most of them are at least conveniently situated. However. It seems like it would be great to see him play somewhere in the North of England. I don't know why. It just sort of does.

Other news includes the fact that I'm going to London next week to see K, who's split up with J, I can't remember if I mentioned that. We're going to see Avenue Q, but she also has a friend who's having a street party on the Sunday, which is 40s themed. I have so far yet to find anywhere or anything which will tell me definitively what the 40s look is, never mind gone out to see if I can find anything suitable, or find anything suitable and cheap. I think I'm going to need shoes for this party. I'm not sure white and pink trainers will cut it.

Also I still need to tidy the flat. It's fine. I just need to put the books on the floor on the bookshelf, the paper on the floor into the drawers, and the paper behind the couch into bags to go to the recycling bins.

Also, I went to see Swan Lake with Chinese acrobats (in the show, not accompanying me), which was great, although I think it might have spoiled me for any other performance of Swan Lake. I will probably be going "But where are the hat jugglers? WHERE ARE THEY?". But it was great. The main ballerina, who was brilliant, danced on tiptoe on the prince's shoulder. And the swan maidens were briefly on rollerskates. I quite want a piece of clothing that is white and has feathers on it now. And possibly sequins. Hmm. And I went to see You Don't Mess With The Zohan. I still don't know quite how I feel about Adam Sandler playing an Israeli soldier/ex-soldier. I could be wrong and he's very, very Jewish, but still. But there was a guy who was playing a Palestinian terrorist who was his arch-nemesis (sort of), and he was crazy and great and cool and funny, in a really exaggerated way of course, but still, and then it turned out it was John Torturro! He's just brilliant, I bever recognise him. Although the fact he was wearing sunglasses and a scarf over his face for a lot of the film probably helped with that in this case. But anyway, I love him. I quite loved Adam Sandler too. Hmm.

I'd also like to go on record saying that the other day when I said I loved the O'Connells, I wasn't including Alex. I'm not crazy.

I went to the ballet last night! To see Dracula. Without my friend whose ticket I had unfortunately, as my phone simply died about 45 minutes before it started, and we hadn't really done the whole planning thing beforehand, and she thought it was in a completely different theatre. Whoops. But she didn't seem too pissed off about it, which was nice. And it really was very good - they played around with the book a lot (Renfield as a welt-ridden savage? Quincy Morris as a person who doesn't exist? What?!) but it worked well on the stage. It was kind of a halfway thing between the book and Ford Coppola's movie, in that they focused a lot more on Dracula and Mina's relationship than on Dracula and Harker's, which is clearly the much more interesting. But they did have a nice moment of bare-chested Harker, exhausted from being fed on by the three brides, being sort of rescued/cradled by Dracula (who started off the play naked, by the way). But lasted all of two seconds before he just abandoned Harker to run off with his picture of Mina.

But yes, it was good. I think I quite like ballet. It takes a little while to stop going 'right, that dancing means she loves him', 'that dancing means he's angry', 'oh good, just what the plot needs, a DANCE!', and just be all 'wow, the dancing!'. But yes. Pretty costumes also. And I dripped sticky toffee ice-cream on myself. And then ketchup. Woe.

My sister has apparently moved into her house, finally. And is doing fine, although to be fair she's only been there three days, and mum and dad have been round every day to see her/help. But I'm hoping she'll just be sorted and cope when she has to be, all on her own. Fingers crossed.