I have just spilt...

I have just spilt yoghurt all down my shirt. How uncouth.

There has to...

There has to be a limit to the number of times I can stagger in for 9am and work straight through til 7pm, knackered out of my wits, doesn't there?

I am...

I am now party to the recycling facilities in every single one of the 22 unitary authorities in Wales.Aren't I the lucky one!I bet everyone out there is really envious of me.Seriously though, despite having spent all day trying to cut through the bureaucracy of council telephone systems, I actually feel very accomplished. I bet that's the first time anyone's actually done a round up of all the different councils. I have shown INITIATIVE which is what they're always banging on about at work, so I feel pleased.Hard work though, but recycling officers seem to be nicer people to talk to than press officers. Funny that.

I am su...

I am such an evil woman. I don't know quite how it happened, but I've found myself running an office book...on whether the office fundamentalist christian will finally lose her virginity to her boyfriend over her two week holiday abroad.I feel soooooooo mean. But she's not exactly quiet or subtle about it, and really has set her sexlife up as a topic of conversation.And we aren't going to keep the money - when she gets back and reveals all (because she will - she's that open about it), the person who picked the nearest date will take the money and buy cakes at the bakers for everyone.But I still feel like I'm being evil.

Hmmmmmm...

Hmmmmmm. Strange lunchtime for moods. Spent part of it giggling my head off at a column a mate of mine has written (he's a real find - wish I could write like that sometimes), feeling really sad because a friend's dad has been hospitalised and he's obviously really down about it (anyone out there with the means, light a candle and send a few positive thoughts his way this evening), and then spent the rest of the time emailing my friend's herbalist in the hope that she might be able to treat me. "Diagnose-your-own-dermatology" just isn't cutting it anymore, and I'm blowed if I'm going to either wait over a year to see a specialist or pay 80 quid plus to go private. So it's time to hit the buggers with the hard stuff - complimentary medicine!It'll probably do my whole wellbeing good in the long run, but I'm terrified I'm going to be told to give up alcohol, cheese and/or bread. Screw that for a game of soldiers! But on the plus side if I go there's probably more chance that I'll get Nick through the door too.

Been loo...

Been looking for listings for the green book we're putting together.Never quite realised just how many vegetarian and organic guesthouses there are out there.Now, if I can just persuade Nick...

*yawn*

Well, the gigs are over.I'd love to say that they both went alright, but the truth is only one of them did.Don't get me wrong, Saturday was a great day, apart from the rain, and it was a great venue and everything, and we all had a lovely time. We just got on stage and...something didn't click. Louis blames his guitar, which cut out for about half of the first track, and meant that we all spent the first track worrying when we should have been relaxing with the audience. The result was that no-one spoke practically at all, and we didn't bounce or involve the audience. Technically we played very well - but it wasn't enough. We couldn't win over the audience, and I'm not used to doing that. Everyone we talked to said they enjoyed it though - and despite that being what everyone says when you get off stage - it's a good sign. The rest of the bands weren't all that folkie after us, so I suspect the type of audience had something to do with it. Tim Van Eyken - can I just say "yum!" (I will always tend to go for the tall and skinny ones) - was phenomenal, and the Rags were brillant too - all flashing lights and power chords. I just couldn't cope though - all the music was great, but I couldn't stay in the hall. All I wanted to do was curl up in a corner and go to sleep, but there just wasn't the opportunity. And the exhaustion was doing funny things to me - I was wandering around acting drunk when I wasn't, and I'm sure I had various confusing conversations with people, and I can't remember what I said at all. Odd experience.Then yesterday it was amazing. We got on stage, and it was suddenly alright again. We got into the "inntinn zone" where we're able to charm audiences and bounce off each other. And it worked. We impressed an awful lot of people, and networked with even more. Felt loads better. Wish we could have stayed longer too but with the workload the way it is at the moment I couldn't afford to really.There is very much a sense of being "on show" at these things, and as the local journalist I need to talk to the right people and be seen at just about everything that's on. And while that's fun, I'm just not firing on all cylinders at the moment and can't possibly live up to everyones expectations, let alone my own.

grrrrrrrr

I come home with my hair in dual buns, all ready to do the "Princess Leia in a Gold Bikini" thing. To find himself asleep on the sofa.Now I've taken the hair down, and I've got a mass of curls and look like Shirley-fucking-Temple.Can't win, can I!?

Question of the day...

Why has someone left half a jar of pickled beetroot in the staff toilets?

This time ...

This time tomorrow we'll be on our way to the first gig of the weekend.My stomach is all in knots, and I'm half excited, half very apprehensive.I soooooo want it to go alright.If it was just friends and family I think I'd relax a bit more, after all it's only a gig and I never get stagefright anymore - busking for days in Edinburgh got rid of that for me.It's just - these are very prestigious events. If we do well at these and impress the people in the know, we could really step up a gear in terms of the music business.Of course, I'm not expecting record deals or anything - I'm not that unrealistic. But for me the real achievement would be for after this weekend, some of the bigger folk musicians to be saying "Oh yes, Inntinn, they're pretty good - could be quite big someday. Go along and see them" and to be invited to do more prestigious gigs with them - support slots with people, or something similar.I KNOW we can do it. We are perfectly capable. Our ideas are innovative, we're great musicians, we're adequate singers...but will people see us that way?Aaaarrrgggghh. Sometimes I wish I could take Elspeth's attitude and be totally unconcerned with all of this. It would certainly make life easier - but if I didn't worry about it, who would?

*sigh*

I feel a bit better today. I'm not sure quite why - I've had just as little sleep, and my workload is just as big. I just feel somehow a bit calmer and I don't feel the urge to nash my teeth.I managed to finish one article yesterday, which should have helped, but hasn't really made much difference to the work load, and I spent the morning up in the wilds of Maesteg - which is a dump and a half really but at least wasn't the same old computer screen all morning.So, maybe a bit better, maybe a little more able to cope.And, for anyone out there watching, there's a new Inntinn community - find it through your user screens as I don't know how to set up links in html yet. Come and join and talk about the band online!

*fanfare*!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. Ladies and Gentlemen, could I have your attention please?Would the real Slim....*snip*Enough of that. I just wanted to announce that the celebrated young (apart from Louis) Cardiff folk band Inntinn will be playing two dates in South Wales this weekend.On Saturday at 4pm you can catch us at Pontardawe Arts Centre as part of the Pontardawe Village Festival. The programme also includes Tim Van Eyken and Rag Foundation.On Sunday at 1.30pm you can find us at the Brunell Hotel in Pontyclun, near Llantrisant (opposite the railway station), playing as part of the littleBIGone festival, in aid of the recovery of Mick Tems. That programme also includes Rag Foundation and Boys From The Hill. Both festivals continue all weekend.We'd love to see you all there.

St...

Started crying over something completely stupid last night, and then found I couldn't stop!Think I'm just over tired.Don't know how much longer I can keep this up - but there's no end in sight and I"m living in hourly dread that someone will want me to write an advertorial too...

Whoopie!!!

It's half past seven!!!I'm still in work!!!Ain't life grand.Even better, it turns out the beloved might lose his job at the end of this month. Now isn't that just the perfect ending to a shit day?

...

I should have been learning law tonight.Ho hum.I cooked, then spent an hour or so lying on the sofa reading Marion Zimmer Bradley.I have no willpower.Or brain power actually. I think it's short circuiting.Still, I was managing about half a minute of 110 wpm shorthand today, which was a bonus. A shining beacon to carry held aloft into the future. Or a minor plus point. Can't decide.I'll write tonight off I think. Call it my surrogate weekend.

Wow!

I have a home computer!This is a momentous event. I have been promised a home computer for months (my standard response: "yes, dear") but it has finally materialised. AND it works.I'm going to have a pretty seethrough purple mouse, and I'm going to be able to play Theme Hospital to my heart's content without being forcibly ejected because someone has urgent business on Hardware Central.Bliss...

An...

And another five hours. I have too much work. I'm supposed to be learning journalistic law in my spare time.I have no spare time - I'm always working. And if I don't get the law and the shorthand I don't get the seniority. And if I don't get the seniority I won't get to move on to better things.Circular argument. IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!I'm hungry and if I stay here I'll work my way through the office supply of jaffa cakes. Not a good idea.

*yawn*

Five hours sodding work on a Saturday!!!And I won't get it back as time off in lieu either I should think.Still, I've written half a guide to the metropolis that is Maesteg this afternoon, and directed random travellers from Abergavenny to Llandovery. Isn't my work FUN!!!While I'm at it, I should explain the origins of my username.You see, I couldn't have the one I wanted (moonflower) as some American girl has it already. And I happened to be hungry and craving curry when I set the account up. My favourite curry is a dish called Katchuri Dhansak, which is basically large balls of spicey lentil type mixture in sauce. I'm strict vegetarian and eat a lot of lentils anyway, and I'm slightly rotund in appearance too - hence I reckon I can call myself after a lentil ball.Or at least that's Lucy reasoning anyway.Must disappear into the ether...

UP THE ROBINS!!!!!

Bristol City beat Northampton by 3 goals to nil. Tony Thorpe got a hat trick!!!!!Whoopie!!!!!I remember who Tony Thorpe was - he was the one with the longer white bit on his socks when I last saw Bristol City play back in February. He's also one of the top scorers in the second division.And that amount of knowledge is not bad for someone who only a few years ago couldn't stand the game and refered to it as "22 men kicking a ball round a field". Blame my partner. I do ;-x

...

Is goats cheese on pizza heaven on a stick?

Well...

Well, it's the end of my first day as a live journal user.And I can safely say that I've wasted at least half of my alloted working time fiddling about on it. Still, never mind, I'm going to be in work most of this weekend anyway - look out for bored posts - so they can cut me some slack if they won't cut the workload.Off to have a pint with the boyfriend and forage for nourisment...

Success!

Hello everyone!Finally got this working, although I can't work out some of the options yet as I'm not permitted to download anything to the machine because our IT department expressly forbid it and would have my guts for garters if I tried.I would write more now, but I'm off to source some vegetarian sushi for lunch...