Revision revision revision.

Firstly, is there anyone actually out there? can anyone actually see this who isn't me? becuase I'm beginning to think I'm just throwing words away here. But to be honest, who wants to read my ramblings? Especially as I rarely seem to be able to spell because right...

I read an article in the paper yesterday written by a student who failed to get into oxford. And without sounding superior, I could sort of see why, because as I read the article I found myself getting more and more and more annoyed at her. But the thing that made it even worse, or perhaps simply the reason for my sudden anger towards this girl, was becuase not only could she not write, but she HAD A VERY LONG PIECE IN A NATIONAL PAPER. Which is exactly where I want to be, so I'm probably just jealous. But anyway, because this is supposed to be my serious-nuckle-down-revision week I have spent a lot of it procrastinating, and therefore have suddenyl taken an interest in this blog again.
So when I saw this article I went on the website and began to mindlessly follow links... and here are some things i have discovered:

Tina Fey. Ok, so she looks uncannily like sarah palin, and has had millions of insults thrown at her over the internet on youtube and the like, but I found her way of dealing with some of them hilarious. And quite refreshing, to be honest...

Posted by Sonya in Tx on 7/4/2010, 4.33 pm
When is Tina going to do something
about that hideous scar across her
cheek??
Dear Sonya in Tx,
Greetings, Texan friend! (I'm assuming the "Tx" in your screen name stands for Texas and not some rare chromosomal deficiency you have. Hope I'm right about that!)
First of all, my apologies for the delayed response. I was unaware you had written until I went on tmz.com to watch some of their amazing footage of people in LA leaving restaurants and I stumbled upon your question.
I'm sure if you and I compare schedules we could find a time to get together and do something about this scar of mine. But the trickier question is what am I going to do? I would love to get your advice, actually. I'm assuming you're a physician, because you seem really knowledgeable about how the human body works.
What do you think I should do about this hideous scar? I guess I could wear a bag on my head, but do I go with linen like the Elephant Man or a simple brown paper like the Unknown Comic? Too many choices, help!
Thank you for your time. You are a credit to Texas and Viking women both.
Yours,
Tina
P.S. Great use of double question marks, by the way. It makes you seem young.

So I have decided that if I ever actually get a comment at all, and it's a not very nice sort of comment, I will respond to it with exactly this mixture of forced politeness and irony. So beware, if anyone's actually there...

Another thing I discovered was this youthube video about some ignorant Americans, who I never really realised were THAT ignorant, although of course i'm sure the majority are "really rather well informed, thankyou very much". I don't know how much of it was staged, or if its really all true, but it made me laugh in the middle of a particularly tricky spot of the Russian Revolution, so thankyou youtube once again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE&NR=1

And then whilst I was in the mood for taking the piss, I discovered these pieces about the royal wedding.

Emmy the Great - she really is great....

And there was a song by Emmy the Great about the mothers whose daughters didn't marry Wills.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2011/apr/14/emmy-great-live-session-mistress-england

and so then I was in a Royal Wedding mood. Being usually very unpatriotic and very enthusuastic about being half welsh, this surprised me, and then I found this story:

http://www.guandongenterprisesltd.com/

This just has to be the ultimate royal wedding souvenir.

And then I got back to some hard core revision. But not for long , so don't worry. I'm sure I'll be back with more pointless information some day very soon...



Becuase I just love lists...

My top twenty songs... in no particular order.


1 English Rose - The Jam

2 The Story I Heard - Blind Pilot

3 Who Needs Love - Razorlight

4 Beautiful - Belle and Sebastien

5 I wish I never saw the sunshine - Beth Orton

6 She is so beautiful - Mike Scott

7 Bird stealing bread - Iron and Wine

8 Sylvia Plath - Ryan Adams

9 Fuel Up - Stornoway

10 Quelqu'un ma dit - Carla Bruni

11 Just Like a Woman - Bob Dylan

12 Rox in a Box - The Decemberists

13 Goodbye England - Laura Marling

14 Wooden Nickels - Eels

15 John Wesley Harding - Bob Dylan

16 Here Comes the Night - Van Morrison

17 Everybody Hurts - REM

18 The Blind Men and the Elephant - Natalie Merchant

19 How to Save a Life - The Fray

20 Moon on the Rain - Fairground Attraction

So a bit of a mix... but my ideal playlist!

Thoughts from a train

Wrote this in my notebook travelling to Cambridge the other day...
I came back from Bodeaux yesterday. There is something about travelling that always makes me reflective; maybe its the music, and the accompanying sense of being the protagonist in a Hollywood romcom. Looking out the window, the landscape flicking by, like snapshots of other people's lives, holds endless metaphors for our lives, the metaphor of a journey. Or perhaps more than anything its simply because there is little else to do.

On route from Bristol to Paddington

 So there I was, thinking these thoughts, in the back of a french car, u2 on the radio, with a filmstrip of Southern France reeling past. Everyday in the Desmars family had passed the same. Wake, relax, save energy, go for a walk in the afternoon, comment on how tiring it was, agree on a more relaxing day tomorrow, sleep. Oceane, 17, had never drunk alcohol, never been out after 8 without an adult, probably never broken a rule. It's almost like they're waiting for something, waiting for life to start for real. I always used to believechildhood was a preperation, an aperitif, a chance to learn and improve myself as much as possible untill that moment. 18. When the oppurtunity was lost, and I would be stuck as i was for the rest of my life. I thought all this without realising I thought it.

       But this is my life. I have been living it for the last 17 years. That is probably nearly a fifth, and after 80 its not much of a life anyway. So why save the fun for later, why be serious now, and focus on a good future, when today is just as important? That's what I so desperately wanted to tell Oceane, but I thought it might be mistranslated.

      A really famous person once said

"Bridget Bardot said "I want to do three things in life: smile, be nice to people and eat icecream". I would't like to die knowing I could have eaten more ice cream"

    Although I can't decide if this is deliberately shunning smiling - I am a huge fan of smiling - and without embarassing myself by revealing the celebraty, I get what they mean.

      It's early morning now, and a flourescent rape-seed field is reflecting the light through the window. The carriage is deserted, but I love moments like this. When all the important things in life become streched and compressed and distorted, and time stands stilll, and is dreamy. And then I feel like I, an impossibly ordinary 17 year old, can emphasise with the like of Anna Kerenina and Manon from that old french film. All the huge things, like life and birth and the universe, seem to spiral in towards this one moment. THe greenneess of the fields, the delicate roseness of the skies, the rock of the shabby train. And then the moment passes, the sun is eclipsed by a long tunnel, and we stop at swindon.
      A girl walks in, with really long blond hair, enviously tall and skinny, and opens too killl a mockingbird. One of my favourite books, and I want to say something, ask her about how she finds it, but I don't want to be that annoying person on the train who doesn't shut up. And that is how I know the normal world is back, and suddenly I feel foolish for feeling so special a moment ago.
     And so before I ramble any more, I think i'll wind this up. It must be the early start this morning getting to me. But first back to Oceane, and her family, becuase I've been unfair about them, and they really were lovely people. I learnt a lot. I discovered that my greatest fear is not having seen, travelled, done enough before I die. After all, I don't want my last thought to be that at least I didn't get too tired.

A day at the theatre, a night at the o2 and some calimocha...

Ok so my plea for followers obviously didnt turn out very well. But here are three things that happened to me this week, if anybody out there is actually listening...
1) I tried some calimocha! A spanish "cocktail" which all the spanish kids drink as far as I can tell, in the massive drinking gatherings called "bottelon". So, spanish lesson over, but I can confirm that calimocha is DISGUSTING. It is red wine and coke. It does not work, do not try it. And adding elderflower cordial does not make the taste improve OR save the ruined wine.

2) I went to the o2 academy (unfortunately not the one in london...) to see the decemberists. Which was AMAZING.


THE DECEMBERISTS!

and 3) i went to the theatre to see some shakespeare, so pretty high brow as things go. But my wonderful mother managed to tell everyone is was richard the third, not second. So i preread the plot and knew everything there is to know about the princes in the tower issue, only to find THAT richard was not yet born. But i still felt sophisticated, so it wasnt all bad...