Answer For Everything Syndrome

spacedmonkey — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 07:23:50 GMT

Being proactive so as not to mope. So far this morning I have hung three pictures, rehung the clock that had to be moved, filled two bin bags with rubbish and packed a bag of unwanted books for the charity shop.

Moving On

spacedmonkey — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 06:44:54 GMT

Yesterday, horribleness aside, I spent the morning helping Open City London unload 843 boxes from trucks into their building. 843 boxes full of boxes and weighing more than one of my class. I then helped them reload the trucks with 720 boxes of old books that were down in the cellar.

Today I ache like an achy thing and I'm meant to be going to lunch with some-one from school (so that I can rant if needed).

spacedmonkey — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 06:26:02 GMT

Well, yesterday was quite awful, but time to move on.

Having lost the whole day to an argument that escalated from ridiculous to just plain nasty and then working myself up so my body ran out of sugar and I crashed, I am today of the opinion that I don't need that person in my life any more than he needs me, so it's for the best that they have gone.

Today will be filled with manual labour and such when I'd much rather be curled up in bed since I feel bloody awful.

Today

spacedmonkey — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:15:29 GMT

Managed to sleep until 5am, but that may be because everyone fed me yesterday and I was simply too full to move.

Today I am off to London where there may be lunch and will definately be a lot of pottering.

Eynsford

spacedmonkey — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 09:46:44 GMT

This should have had the soundtrack of some heavenly choir and point the way to the Ark, but generally you could just hear crickets going mad on the neighbouring field and it pointed to a tree.

Lots of these.

The ford, full of children, and St. Martin's Church.

Interior of afore mentioned church.

Half of my week...

spacedmonkey — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 08:21:10 GMT

Having been asked by various family and friends what I want to mark my turning 37 (besides a general look of amazement that I haven't managed to explode myself) and coming up with little more than a shrug (because "my own Watson" is met with "yeah, but really?") my family have given up and gone : "Right, day of Sherlock Holmes in London" which oddly includes Tate Britain, but I think that's pandering to my Hogarth obsession on the side. So, that was how I spent Wednesday.

I'm not going to argue. There is no bad with London and I have learnt over the past two weeks to ignore the Olympics in the same way that I can ignore the sparkly vampires and 50 Shades books that I am surrounded by at work, on buses and on trams.

Thursday was spent in Eynsford, which is very countrified and nice and then I was stupid and went bell ringing for the first time in 15 months which has left me in a lot of pain.

Yesterday was a quick run to the skate shop to buy a birthday present for Lukey who turns 14 on monday and then a lot of taking pain meds and pottering around the house.

No nightmares last night, which is a first for a while and I don't know how much this is to do with having got a lot of my paperwork out of the way. Very odd dreams though, but not screaming nightmares. Just confusion.

Today will include hoovering, laundry, London, a pub and then scribbling which I have dramatically failed in doing.

High point of the week - Finding out that I actually had three weeks of holiday left instead of the two I thought it was.

spacedmonkey — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 09:24:20 GMT

Very much in a "The world can piss right off!" sort of mood.

Nightmare

spacedmonkey — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 07:27:33 GMT

I suppose I have to applaude my unconscious mind for being creative in the way it terrorises me but it is exhausting.

Last night was new, as most of the recent ones have been. No getting lost or trapped or performing CPR quite uselessly. Last night's was just nasty and while I didn't wake screaming I did wake with my heart trying to beat its way out of my ribcage and a huge sense of dread. Also, a dislocated shoulder and bruised knuckles.

spacedmonkey — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:38:28 GMT

Dear nightmares,

I don't want to dream about git face or being attacked.

Dear body,

Calm the fuck down. We've been awake for ten minutes so we should be breathing normally and lowering the pulse.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

spacedmonkey — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 08:35:56 GMT

So far this morning I have worked out the scheme of work for ICT, PE and Listening for next academic year and nearly sorted my day plans.

I need a life!

spacedmonkey — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:56:18 GMT

On the whole, nightmares can just fekk off. This goes doubly for new nightmares that make no sense at all.

Spitalfields

spacedmonkey — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:12:15 GMT

I have fallen a little bit in love with Spitalfields. To be honest, I've always rather loved the place and covert a few of the houses there ever since I went to university there and spent my lunchtimes wandering around looking at things.

Princelet Street, Spitalfields.

There is Christ's Church, which is a massive Hawksmore church that is rather wonderful and apparently now has a very enthusiastic vicar from Belfast who is very chatty. As a person with selective mutism, this can be a bit daunting, but he didn't seem to mind that all I could do was nod and smile.

Down the road is the old Huguenot church that was then a synagogue and is now a mosque, changing needs as the population demands. It appears in Hogarth's "Four Times of Day - Noon" for anyone who likes Hogarth as I do.

And then finally I went back into the City and they have decorated some of the statues for the Olympics. To be honest, Wellington doesn't look best pleased. Perhaps he wanted an Irish flag on his hat.

Bad Night

spacedmonkey — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 13:06:15 GMT

There's a lot of not good going on in my head at the moment. Today I have mainly dealt with that by completely OD-ing on sugar and am now a little hyped.

Last night I managed to smack my head open in a nightmare. Have taped it up, with steri-strips rather than vinegar and brown paper as advised, but it still hurts like the devil (and would have hurt equally as much had I used to antiquated cure).

No idea what I was dreaming of, but never mind. That's probably for the best.

Since then I've faced the horrors of Tescos, watched the hail, rain and lightning and had various folk songs in my head (The Captain's Apprentice, followed by O'er the Hills and Far Away) and no, I don't know why but I'm not sure I can blame the bang to the head.

I am currently waiting for the cat to wake up so that I can make the bed and tidy my room.

132 Years Ago Today

spacedmonkey — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:00:51 GMT

Richmond

spacedmonkey — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 06:41:24 GMT

Yesterday I went to Richmond which is the other side of London but because the Oyster Card readers were being bizarre it not only took me less time to get to than it generally takes me to get to work, it cost me a damn sight less as well.

Richmond is lovely. There's the river, there are boat huts, there are two very shiny bookshops (well, technically four but two don't count) and ducks. I bought two books (one on the history of executions in London and one a 1789 bound copy of London Gazettes), had a small pub lunch and got horribly sick in the sun (even with a hat on).

Completely Wraithwitch's Fault

spacedmonkey — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:26:10 GMT

1995 was about the time that I really started to bother with music. Don't get me wrong, there has always been music and I bought my first single when I was 4, but 1995 was when I started to share some of my taste in music with my then friends.

So, I thought I'd inflict it on you...

Most of this came from Git Face, who played music all the time and probably brainwashed me, but, frankly, it's 17 years later and while he's buggered off, some of this stuff is still on my ipod. Also, while I may have some major issues with him, these songs were from when it was good.

Technically the year before, but I didn't get hold of it until 95.

This was nothing to do with Git Face, I just liked the song a lot. I have no taste.

Dr Dee at The ENO

spacedmonkey — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 05:49:24 GMT

I never mentioned how it was.

To be fair, if you take me to a theatre, I am probably going to be over excited. I just like theatres and The Coliseum is an amzing bit of Edwardian Over-the-Topness in all is glory. Honestly, take me to an empty theatre and I'll be perfectly happy looking at all the height and space and listening to the echos.

Our seats were up in the Balcony, or nosebleeds to be more descriptive, and if you are taller than my 5ft3, you might have an issue with legroom. It became rather apparent that we should have brought opera glasses with us, especially Michelle who was only there to droll over Damon Albarn and ended up squinting a lot.

The actual opera is quite shiny. It opens with a real raven flying from the Royal box to the stage (cue Michelle, who is bird phobic, having a panic) and then a sort of journey back in time as historical figures parade across the roof of the stage and promptly drop backwards out of sight which felt like the stairway in A Matter of Life and Death, only not. (This is why I don't review things).

The music was typically Damon Albarn but neither demanding nor distressing. The real "yay" for me was the visuals. A sort of 21st century Pepper's Ghost as a mesh comes down in front of the actors so that all of Dee's therums and diagrams and proofs can be projected as he speaks is rather lovely and, what Michelle called "Slinky Books" which were books of ever increasing side that cascaded down from hands or stairs or ran across the stage, were visually spectacular.

However, if I hadn't looked up what it was about before I went, I wouldn't have had a clue. I know about John Dee. I recall learning about him when I was at school and have read about him as a teenager, so I wasn't going in blind, it was just that the story told itself in a way that a person with concussion recounts events.

"Oh, you're in one of those moods..."

spacedmonkey — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:56:45 GMT

It is very close to the end of term. I do not do well with holidays. I think this sums it up...

So, yes, anyway I have not done a lot today because I am out of breath quite easily. I have created the new timetable for next year's class, (There is much uproar about this at school because the powers that be that decreed that all timetables will look exactly the same. Don't care. They can have one that looks a carbon copy of the others while the one up in class is colourful and in a font I like.), I have read rather decent fic, I have listened to music ...

I am quite loving this and want to vid it...

And am now going to feed the pigeons, feed the cat and then do some scribbling while tea cooks.

spacedmonkey — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 11:19:27 GMT

Sick.

I have a cold and a latent chest infection (again).

Because of this I am stuck at home, watching the rain and "Going Postal" on Sky1.

Dr Dee

spacedmonkey — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 10:59:53 GMT

Am being taken to see Dr Dee at the ENO (Coliseum) by a friend at work who mainly wants to look at Damon Albarn for two hours and, to be honest, I'm good with that.

She has been pre-warned that I can be a bit over excited by theatres but this was before I saw what the interior of the Coliseum looked like and now I am completely over excited by the whole thing. I probably won't even notice the opera.

On a side note, today is John Watson's birthday, which is quite delightful.

So Tired

spacedmonkey — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:04:08 GMT

My hand hurts. I know that this is a minor complaint, but it's my complaint and it hurts. If I take the pain meds, they turn me into a zombie but if I don't the pain makes me ratty.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

spacedmonkey — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 07:48:10 GMT

It's been a horrible week filled with horrible people and situations, but it started to pick up from Friday.

Friday night I was taken to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Live" which is the original radio cast (those that are still alive) on stage with random special effects and general silliness.

It was an early birthday present from mum who feels responsible for my Hitchhiker obsession because she put the radio on when I was three and I sat glued to the first ever show. I've never grown out of it. Of course, back then I wanted so desperately to be Ford Prefect that it hurt. As I've grown up I've realised that I'm far more Arthur Dent in a tea seeking, it must be Thursday kind of way but I'm good with that.

To put how excited I was by this in perspective let me offer you this...

I think we all know how obsessed I am with Holmes. No doubt about it, it dominates my life and keeps me sane. Last December I had, in the space of a week, the preview of BBC Sherlock's Scandal in Belgravia with a Q&A at the BFI and the new RDJ Holmes film. I was excited, obviously, but that excitement was nothing compared to Friday night waiting for Hitchhiker to start. I was in Geek Heaven!

I think a lot of this has to do with fan girls. I do not consider myself a screaming fan girl and the BFI seemed rather full of them. Nothing against screaming fan girls or boys as they tend to keep things going; it's just not me.

What I am is obsessive. I know this, I'm fine with it. I like to know my subject matter inside and out. I like in jokes and knowing nods but I like clever too. I'm not just there to scream about cheekbones (largely because the second I'm not looking at something I have no idea what it looks like anyway so the cheekbones are greatly lost on me anyway).

And Hitchhiker with Arthur and Ford and Zaphod and Marvin is something that has been in my head for 33 years. I love it in its many forms from the radio to the books to the TV to the film. It makes me happy and, while Holmes is my safety and security blanket that protects me from the world, Hitchhiker is the safety net that catches me when I fall.

Bomber Command Memorial

spacedmonkey — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 16:50:19 GMT

spacedmonkey — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:25:20 GMT

Many many people who are pissing me off, you can fuck right off now!

spacedmonkey — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:41:43 GMT

And the nightmares are back.

Knew it was too good to last but honestly, have woken up this morning not wanting to go in to work and, frankly, not wanting to leave the house.