Tuesday 31 July 2012
Monday 30 July 2012
Dry The River- New Ceremony
'But after we danced to the shipping forecast, the words escaped your mouth: "I know it's got to stop love but I don't know how'"
London 2012
If you had asked me a week ago would I be watching the Olympics, I probably would have given you a look that said 'I'd rather poke my eyes out with a blunt rusty spork' but HOW THE TABLES HAVE TURNED!
I managed to avoid the olympic ceremony on Friday night by watching the Ukulele Orchestra of GB then stubbornly ignoring the TV in the pubs, chatting and playing ukulele's with my friends. But the constant chatter about James Bond, fairytales and nightmares and nurses boogieing caught my interest. So I watched it on Iplayer.... then we started watching swimming events on TV and then I couldn't stop checking the live news feeds at work and now I want to watch it all!
Sucked in as usual to the hype. So far I have been thoroughly impressed by:
Ryan Lochte
Shiwen Ye- 400 meter medley and she smashes the world record- all of that and she is only 16!
And finally
Lizzie Armitstead for just being brilliant in the road race, in THAT weather.
So far it has been entertaining and interesting- looking forward to watching some more! Congratulations to all of the athletes on their fantastic performances.
Mrs Beast from The World's Wife- Carol Ann Duffy
Mrs Beast- Carol Ann Duffy
These myths going round, these legends, fairytales,
I’ll put them straight; so when you stare
Into my face – Helen’s face, Cleopatra’s,
Queen of Sheba’s, Juliet’s – then, deeper,
Gaze into my eyes – Nefertiti’s, Mona Lisa’s,
Garbo’s eyes - think again. The Little Mermaid slit
Her shining, silver tail in two, rubbed salt
Into that stinking wound, got up and walked,
In agony, in fishnet tights, stood up and smiled, waltzed,
All for a Prince, a pretty boy, a charming one
Who’d dump her in the end, chuck her, throw her overboard.
I could have told her – look, love, I should know,
They’re bastards when they’re Princes.
What you want to do is find yourself a beast. The sex
Is better. Myself, I came to the House of the Beast
No longer a girl, knowing my own mind,
My own gold stashed in the bank,
My own black horse at the gates
Ready to carry me off at one wrong word,
One false move, one dirty look.
But the Beast fell to his knee’s at the door
To kiss my glove with his mongrel lips – good –
Showed by the tears in his bloodshot eyes
That he knew he was blessed – better –
Didn’t try to conceal his erection,
Size of a mules – best. And the Beast
Watched me open, decant and quaff
A bottle of Château Margaux ’54,
The year of my birth, before he lifted a paw.
I’ll tell you more. Stripped of his muslin shirt
And his corduroys, he steamed in his pelt,
Ugly as sin. He had the grunts, the groans, the yelps,
The breath of a goat. I had the language, girls.
The lady says Do this. Harder. The lady says
Do that. Faster. The lady says That’s not where I meant.
At last it all made sense. The pig in my bed
Was invited. And if his snout and trotters fouled
My damask sheets, why, then, he’d wash them. Twice.
Meantime, here was his horrid leather tongue
To scour between my toes. Here
Were his hooked and yellowy claws to pick my nose,
If I wanted that. Or to scratch my back
Till it bled. Here was his bullock’s head
To sing off-key all night where I couldn’t hear.
Here was a bit of him like a horse, a ram,
An ape, a wolf, a dog, a donkey, dragon, dinosaur.
Need I say more? On my poker nights, the Beast
Kept out of sight. We were a hard school, tough as fuck,
All of us beautiful and rich – the Woman
Who Married a Minotaur, Goldilocks, the Bride
Of the Bearded Lesbian, Frau Yellow Dwarf, et Moi.
I watched those wonderful women shuffle and deal –
Five and Seven Card Stud, Sidewinder, Hold ‘Em, Draw –
I watched them bet and raise and call. One night,
A head-to-head between Frau Yellow Dwarf and Bearded’s
Bride
Was over the biggest pot I’d seen in my puff.
The Frau had the Queen of Clubs on the baize
And Bearded the Queen of Spades. Final card. Queen each.
Frau Yellow raised. Bearded raised. Goldilocks’ eyes
Were glued to the pot as though porridge bubbled there.
The Minotaur’s wife lit a stinking cheroot. Me,
I noticed the Frau’s hand shook as she placed her chips.
Bearded raised her final time, then stared,
Stared so hard you felt your dress would melt
If she blinked. I held my breath. Frau Yellow
Swallowed hard, then called. Sure enough, Bearded flipped
Her Aces over; diamonds, hearts, the pubic Ace of Spades.
And that was a lesson learnt by all of us –
The drop-dead gorgeous Bride of the Bearded Lesbian didn’t
Bluff.
But behind each player stood a line of ghosts
Unable to win. Eve, Ashputtel. Marilyn Monroe.
Rapunzel slashing wildly at her hair.
Bessie Smith unloved and down and out.
Bluebeard’s wives, Henry VIII’s, Snow White
Cursing the day she left the seven dwarfs, Diana,
Princess of Wales. The sheepish Beast came in
With a tray of schnapps at the end of the game
And we stood for the toast – Fay Wray –
Then tossed our fiery drinks to the back of our crimson
Throats.
Bad girls. Serious ladies. Mourning our dead.
So I was hard on the Beast, win or lose,
When I got upstairs, those tragic girls in my head,
Turfing him out of bed; standing alone
On the balcony, the night so cold I could taste the stars
On the tip of my tongue. And I made a prayer –
Thumbing my pearls, the tears of Mary, one by one,
Like a rosary – words for the lost, the captive beautiful,
The wives, those less fortunate than we.
The moon was a hand-mirror breathed on by a Queen.
My breath was a chiffon scarf for an elegant ghost.
I turned to go back inside. Bring me the Beast for the night.
Bring me the wine-cellar key. Let the less-loving one be me.
I’ll put them straight; so when you stare
Into my face – Helen’s face, Cleopatra’s,
Queen of Sheba’s, Juliet’s – then, deeper,
Gaze into my eyes – Nefertiti’s, Mona Lisa’s,
Garbo’s eyes - think again. The Little Mermaid slit
Her shining, silver tail in two, rubbed salt
Into that stinking wound, got up and walked,
In agony, in fishnet tights, stood up and smiled, waltzed,
All for a Prince, a pretty boy, a charming one
Who’d dump her in the end, chuck her, throw her overboard.
I could have told her – look, love, I should know,
They’re bastards when they’re Princes.
What you want to do is find yourself a beast. The sex
Is better. Myself, I came to the House of the Beast
No longer a girl, knowing my own mind,
My own gold stashed in the bank,
My own black horse at the gates
Ready to carry me off at one wrong word,
One false move, one dirty look.
But the Beast fell to his knee’s at the door
To kiss my glove with his mongrel lips – good –
Showed by the tears in his bloodshot eyes
That he knew he was blessed – better –
Didn’t try to conceal his erection,
Size of a mules – best. And the Beast
Watched me open, decant and quaff
A bottle of Château Margaux ’54,
The year of my birth, before he lifted a paw.
I’ll tell you more. Stripped of his muslin shirt
And his corduroys, he steamed in his pelt,
Ugly as sin. He had the grunts, the groans, the yelps,
The breath of a goat. I had the language, girls.
The lady says Do this. Harder. The lady says
Do that. Faster. The lady says That’s not where I meant.
At last it all made sense. The pig in my bed
Was invited. And if his snout and trotters fouled
My damask sheets, why, then, he’d wash them. Twice.
Meantime, here was his horrid leather tongue
To scour between my toes. Here
Were his hooked and yellowy claws to pick my nose,
If I wanted that. Or to scratch my back
Till it bled. Here was his bullock’s head
To sing off-key all night where I couldn’t hear.
Here was a bit of him like a horse, a ram,
An ape, a wolf, a dog, a donkey, dragon, dinosaur.
Need I say more? On my poker nights, the Beast
Kept out of sight. We were a hard school, tough as fuck,
All of us beautiful and rich – the Woman
Who Married a Minotaur, Goldilocks, the Bride
Of the Bearded Lesbian, Frau Yellow Dwarf, et Moi.
I watched those wonderful women shuffle and deal –
Five and Seven Card Stud, Sidewinder, Hold ‘Em, Draw –
I watched them bet and raise and call. One night,
A head-to-head between Frau Yellow Dwarf and Bearded’s
Bride
Was over the biggest pot I’d seen in my puff.
The Frau had the Queen of Clubs on the baize
And Bearded the Queen of Spades. Final card. Queen each.
Frau Yellow raised. Bearded raised. Goldilocks’ eyes
Were glued to the pot as though porridge bubbled there.
The Minotaur’s wife lit a stinking cheroot. Me,
I noticed the Frau’s hand shook as she placed her chips.
Bearded raised her final time, then stared,
Stared so hard you felt your dress would melt
If she blinked. I held my breath. Frau Yellow
Swallowed hard, then called. Sure enough, Bearded flipped
Her Aces over; diamonds, hearts, the pubic Ace of Spades.
And that was a lesson learnt by all of us –
The drop-dead gorgeous Bride of the Bearded Lesbian didn’t
Bluff.
But behind each player stood a line of ghosts
Unable to win. Eve, Ashputtel. Marilyn Monroe.
Rapunzel slashing wildly at her hair.
Bessie Smith unloved and down and out.
Bluebeard’s wives, Henry VIII’s, Snow White
Cursing the day she left the seven dwarfs, Diana,
Princess of Wales. The sheepish Beast came in
With a tray of schnapps at the end of the game
And we stood for the toast – Fay Wray –
Then tossed our fiery drinks to the back of our crimson
Throats.
Bad girls. Serious ladies. Mourning our dead.
So I was hard on the Beast, win or lose,
When I got upstairs, those tragic girls in my head,
Turfing him out of bed; standing alone
On the balcony, the night so cold I could taste the stars
On the tip of my tongue. And I made a prayer –
Thumbing my pearls, the tears of Mary, one by one,
Like a rosary – words for the lost, the captive beautiful,
The wives, those less fortunate than we.
The moon was a hand-mirror breathed on by a Queen.
My breath was a chiffon scarf for an elegant ghost.
I turned to go back inside. Bring me the Beast for the night.
Bring me the wine-cellar key. Let the less-loving one be me.
One of my favourite poems.
Sunday 29 July 2012
Thrill
Being alone in the house is great
until you hear a floorboard creak, or what sounds like a muffled cough
I am my own worst enemy sometimes!
Saturday 28 July 2012
The Ukulele Orchestra of GB
We saw the UOGB last night- They are incredible!!! Very funny and so talented. I would recommend anyone seeing them.
The highlight for me? Nirvana of course :)
Thursday 26 July 2012
Wednesday 25 July 2012
You've got a secret smile and you use it only for me
I hope everyone is enjoying the sun. These amazing songs are the first songs I heard today.
Currently reading: Agatha Christie- Curtain, Poirot's last case
Tuesday 24 July 2012
Competition
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/get-a-job-the-craigslist-experiment/
well this was interesting! I knew that the influx of CVs would be high but 653 responses in 24 hours is staggering. This makes me think that I am definitely going the right way about trying to find a job!!
Monday 23 July 2012
Sunday 22 July 2012
I would like to buy you a gold canary
Today was all about this song while strolling around in the sun.
Also, I suppose I should mention that I have seen The Dark Knight Rises twice already. For those unsure about it from the first viewing- the second definitely helps you make up your mind: it's damn good.
Been feeling pretty up and down over the last couple of days- job searching is dull and depressing, being away from your friends sucks, learning how to live at home again is limiting- everything is just a bit meh. But saying that, I have got awesome friends here and I do love being around my family. It is just one of those changes again and I'm finding my feet.
Wednesday 18 July 2012
Sunday 15 July 2012
Amazing vs Adequate
Also, Walter Smiths sausages in Knowle are amazing, and I won a sausage-off with my mate with them. Amazing vs Adequate.
7 Things and a video
I rode a bike today for the first time in about 3 years... it was fun. I will definately be biking more when I get home.
I graduate tomorrow- Rational fears of tripping/being late/embarrassing self are sprillialing into irrational thoughts... not sure I'll sleep tonight
Started cooking things from scratch again... everything so far has been pretty tasty
The idea of leaving Cardiff permanently is bringing me down... friends are placing bets on how long I'll last
I have begun to enjoy wine.
Sometimes right now isn't the right time but life is short.
King Charles has it right:
I graduate tomorrow- Rational fears of tripping/being late/embarrassing self are sprillialing into irrational thoughts... not sure I'll sleep tonight
Started cooking things from scratch again... everything so far has been pretty tasty
The idea of leaving Cardiff permanently is bringing me down... friends are placing bets on how long I'll last
I have begun to enjoy wine.
Sometimes right now isn't the right time but life is short.
King Charles has it right:
'Treasure every beating heart that sets your soul on fire'.Also, this song is pretty banging.
Wednesday 11 July 2012
Captured
My Grandparents are amazing. Little things about my Grandad keep popping into my mind and making me smile. Miss him a lot but I am so glad my Grandma is still about- she is such a strong, kind woman. These pictures are brilliant. I would love to know what my Dad has seen to make him pull that face!
Monday 9 July 2012
Sunday 8 July 2012
Saturday 7 July 2012
Thursday 5 July 2012
Tuesday 3 July 2012
Some pictures to fill the space between the words
My lesbian pictures with Elly make me happy :)
And these are the best :D
Monday 2 July 2012
Goodbye
As I sit in a new house filled with foreign noises and plain white walls I feel contemplative of my future, knowing that this time I won't be part of making this house a home.
Everyone moves somewhere at sometime in their life. New friends are made, old ones either nurtured or forgotten. Whatever happens in life there will always be change- and goodbyes. Now I can deal with change, and I often enjoy it (my friends always tease me for getting antsy- I can't be in the same place for too long), but goodbyes are different for me. Obviously sometimes they are for the best, and other times they are unavoidable, but they are hard.
But these aren't proper goodbyes... just see you soon.
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