Sunday, December 31, 2006

Holiday (It Would Be So Nice)

The good news is that I appear to be free of my digestive troubles, and gradually finding my appetite again. Less pleasurable is being surrounded by several days' worth of food I couldn't eat, with the added amusement value of my newfound interest in domestic hygiene that appears to be taking over from my traditionally flexible approach to use by dates and the like. The kitchen's a lot cleaner, that much is definitely true! The period between Christmas and new year has been a staple holiday time for me for many years, so not getting away for the first time in over a decade has been a little frustrating, especially so as I had already started packing and as yet haven't unpacked in the hope I would wake up in a fit state to go. No real harm done, it's not like I was going especially far, or had any bookings to cancel and I have achieved quite a bit around the house in between episodes of difficulty, though there's a certain inevitability about that if you don't leave the house for 72 hours straight, just for the sake of combating boredom. All the same, I can't say it's been much other than a pretty good year - I finally got to see Journey after all, not to mention Robbie Fulks, Jonathan Richman, Robyn Hitchcock and The Icicle Works who've all been on my wishlist for some time. And of course I've managed to visit a few places and do a few other things that had either never come up at the the right time or remained undone for some other reason, so I have little cause for complaint. For the next year, it seems appropriate that eating more healthily should be on the agenda and maybe this will be the year where my iron grip on my finances finally sees me in the black - time will tell. I wish you well in whatever you hope for yourself for the coming twelve months, and the right mix of peacefulness and riotousness to suit your tastes for what's left of the party season.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Ooh, Ooh, Dioralyte

I'm getting bored of this. Ok, so I'm suddenly half a stone lighter than I was not very long ago, but I'm rather running out of amusement now. Today I managed to eat some toast with marmite, some broccoli and half a cup-a-soup - not exactly the diet of champions. On the other hand, if you're reading this 'Dr' Gillian, boy have I got a late Christmas present for you!

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Good Times, Bad Times

Until about this time yesterday, I was just about reaching a splendidly chilled out state of having caught up on some sleep, and done very little beyond making some progress on the long term tidying front. I watched 101 Dalmatians which I'm fairly sure I've never seen and was reminded just how much I miss my dog, and then I watched the latter part of Back To The Future and found that these days it comes with striking levels of pathos with all the lines about the unknowability of what may come in the years ahead when watched with the knowledge of Michael J Fox's future Parkinson's. So I was very much in a counting my blessings state of mind. And that hasn't completely disappeared, even after a bout of food poisoning that has seen me lose five or six pounds in fifteen hours, and a host of related exciting moments, for which you probably don't need to hear the details. It looks like I'll be toasting the start of another year in rehydration salts, but worse things happen, and I hope you find plenty to look forward to in the new year.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Context And Content

It's been a funny old month, and it's not over yet. Taking a week off appears not to have agreed with me so well, at least in terms of keeping to a regular routine, and so I'm still lurching from late nights to late mornings with less than a full night's sleep every night. This time of year has rarely been an especially great one as far as I'm concerned, but it's something else with someone hovering just outside the intensive care unit's doors. A good few years into a variety of illnesses, there is a certain inevitability about it all, and even with several years' estrangement I've found it harder than I might have expected at certain points. There's a tough choice ahead of me, and while I can see how people can find it hard to do anything other than being there at the bedside, there's a definite appeal for me in leaving things at having visited on a particularly good day as happened the other week. I'm not interested in hurting anyone, I don't take any pleasure in doing something that might not be what is expected, but the prospect of someone that I live without seeing for years at a time all hooked up to a variety of monitors and medical apparatus is not a sight I'm especially keen to go looking for. One visit was hard enough. With all this on my mind, it's perhaps no surprise that I've been a little distracted, slow to react, ungrateful when given good advice, and generally less than useful. For that I can only apologise, and for the reason that I know it's taking a certain amount out of me, I'm keeping my thoughts to myself rather than opening up. It's one of the things I like about e-communication, that content is the starting point, but I'm not a lot of good at the moment so where I can cope with factual content, like answering straightforward computer questions, I'm even less of a net contributor in other areas than normal. This story is going to keep going up and down, maybe for weeks, maybe for months. Today is a definite up point, which is how I'm here talking about it rather than busy dealing with it. In the meantime I'll stick to my traditional seasonal methods of distracting myself with inappropriate gifts and making plans - life goes on, and I somehow now have a new pair of boots to get used to. Reduced to barely twenty pounds, I could hardly leave them there. Happy seasonal merry-making!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Seasonal Adjustments

At the moment I'm watching tonight's edition of The South Bank Show, which is about Grayson Perry. I've mentioned Perry before, and how his dress sense in particular is something I don't share, and how the specifics of his media exposure is something that makes me feel ever so slightly uneasy. Of course, Perry's only talking for himself, not for me, so I guess my uneasiness may be based on the perception of one member of a large group being taken as representative of every member of that group. The more seasonal counterpart is my enjoyment of the cover provided by the fact there are a hell of a lot more men buying women's clothes and make up etc at this time of year than at most parts of the year. I'd claim I'm used to shopping, and by now I really should be, but I won't deny enjoying the safety in numbers effect of that particular perception! This comes in the territory of buying myself presents, compensating for what is taken for granted at this time of year, perhaps. In less frivolous news, it would seem I'm going to be facing a choice about making a late dash to a hospital bedside in the next few days. This I am not expecting to be an easy choice - my natural inclination is to expect that I won't, but I can't rule out the possibility I might. The prospect of a three or four hour drive which may turn out to be too late anyway would be the worst of both worlds - the literal dead-line chasing would be hard enough, but having decided to go through with it to then get there too late would be significantly worse. As ever, I reserve the right to change my mind. Only time will tell.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Long Days, Black Nights

Another song title, but by someone else this time. This morning I got up remarkably early so as not to miss a delivery I was expecting and filled the time watching rubbish cricket and then slightly less rubbish football/comedy. Somewhere in the middle of this I've seen a bit of daylight, and made a big dent in my accumulated paperwork. Six months of bills are now filed, and my bikes have been re-arranged in a way that leaves my living room bike-free for the first time in a couple of years, so it does seem like a vaguely productive day. At the same time, my traditional dislike of the season of mandatory joyfulness is tempered with dealing with events elsewhere, though that'll no doubt spill out here in its own good time. What I do like about this time of year is getting a bit more time to myself - with under four working days left till next year, I still have reasons to be cheerful. Hope you have a good time, whether that's traditional turkey style, or something else entirely!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Ticket Collector

It's that time of year for putting things in order and tidying things away - below you'll see this year's crop of tickets, prior to adding those for which there remains sufficient room to my current album. Just don't ask me to add up the accumulated face value, and that's to say nothing of the additional booking fees and handling costs of certain unavoidable parasites. That's only thirty four tickets in the picture, as there were a number of occasions when I didn't come away with a paper or card based souvenir! Not a bad year at all!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

There'll Never Be Any Time Better Than Now

That's a line from a Mega City Four song, but then I'm more than prone to dropping them in everywhere as even this blog's title Overlap is the name of a MC4 song, so there's nothing new in that at all. But I wanted to come back a couple of steps, now I'm catching up on a 900 mile week where tonight will be the first evening at home since last sunday. I've added my own small tribute to Wiz on the furtive tribute site at last, but it took me a couple of days to work out what I wanted to say. I'm rarely without something from the MC4 catalogue, in the car, or on my mp3 player, and always in my head - indeed I've been in at least one particular situation where my own carelessness threatened to give me a bit of a problem and singing (after my own tuneless fashion!) was a fine way to distract myself from panicking and concentrate on getting on with what I should have done properly the first time around. It would be unrealistic to claim friday as directly consequential, as it's been on my mind for quite some time that I've wanted to go to a gig fully dressed as a woman, but somehow the right event in the right place has never come up at the right time till now. All the same, I was having certain reservations but the combination of starting somewhere familiar, heading for somewhere familiar and meeting someone there meant that the only really hard bit would be the getting there - this is where the prepaid travel card comes into its own, especially when I realised I had something of a bus ride option that would avoid the more scary prospect of sitting directly opposite someone on a busy Tube train. I had a lovely time, helped by the time honoured truth of nerves being soluble in alcohol, and having previously said that it was time and I was ready, it was great to be able to confirm that to be the case. When you look at something as a problem for long enough, you can build it up to being much more than it is. But the world didn't end, the sky didn't fall in and while it would be naive not to remember that in the modern world you're never that far away from the potential of a 'look at this freaky tranny I saw the other night and took a picture of on my phone' story on someone's blog or worse, it's sometimes important to remember that not all the things that can happen do happen. And even then, there's a degree of comfort in knowing how recognisable I would actually be to anyone else in a rubbish cameraphone picture with my peroxide bob. On which note, I can see my adventures in artificial hair continuing in the not too distant future. Which brings us right back to Wiz, singing... The future is never certain, so I'll make the most of every moment No matter what happens now, I'm grateful for everything so far And I'm not afraid it will end, 'cos I'm taking everything as it comes Which is hardly my natural style, but it is what I'm working hard towards, and especially now.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

All Dressed Up And I'm In My Prime

This evening I have been to see My Life Story again - no big deal except that for the first time I have been out out as a girl to see band. Which is a big deal, for me, anyway. It's been something I have been hoping to do for some time, and since this is the closest I am going to get to a Christmas party or any other expressions of seasonal festivity, I'm pleased to report my having a) spent three quarters of an hour on the bus, b) walked from London Bridge to Tottenham Court Road, c) come back on the Tube and d) been to the bar, no less, all things I have not done en femme before, and which I have very much enjoyed. It's been a good evening, and my consumption of alcohol limits my further posting. Wahey!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Of Consequence To Someone

I've done a fair few miles over the years, but there are only two bands I've specifically left the British Isles to see. Last night I had the perhaps appropriate experience of learning from the singer of one of those that the singer of the other had died aged, I think, 44. I really can't say quite how much this upsets me - I've had the privilege of meeting almost everyone in music who's touched my life, and I can honestly say that Wiz from the Mega City Four was virtually without equal in the unassuming, nice guy stakes. A real gent, and a mighty talent. Wiz saved four lives by being a registered donor. Tribute page here.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Head Out On The Highway

It's been a funny few days - after an ongoing discussion between other people stirred up a load of stuff that's been left well alone for a couple of years, and happily so, which gave me a bit more food for thought than I really needed. The timing could have been better. There followed a weekend of distracting exercise in pretty ropey weather, and of a few more minor steps towards a cleaner, decluttered house. The last twenty four hours have been largely spent on getting over having another rotten tooth removed, and over the rest of the week normalish service will be resumed with football matches, gigs and plenty of driving. Hope you're enjoying your festive shopping!
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