Well, well, well it has been a strange week...very end of an era/beginning of something big feeling (perhaps related to the solstice???). Very busy at work, board meeting on Wednesday that I literally had to run out of to get to The Libs gig at the Forum. It was a good gig, but you could feel Pete missing from the stage...). We (Lorna, Carla, Jess and Courtney) left early to get to Candy Box before they charge loads to get in. We got to Propaganda on Wardor Street to find that due to a throat slashing 'incident' the previous night Candy Box would be taking place upstairs...it was all going quite well until Courtney had to buy 10 drinks to be able to use his card...madness ensued. The sort of madness that leads to mates having shouting matches, ignoring each other, almost 'proper' fighting, a 'proper' fight happening between one of you and someone else in the club, Courtney getting kicked out, making a fucking fool of himself outside by shouting at anyone who would listen and me (as per fucking usual) being the one to pull him off and take him home.

Jess was cool though and brought me back Brick Lane bagels to cheer me up!

Thursday was really busy at work (5pm deadline for copy for a programme...). Lots of rushing about, get home to a bomb site mess, get in a bad mood, get in a good mood, go out to meet Jess from work. We end up talking Shaz and FuFu into coming out to the last Smash and Grab (for a while). Lorna turns up when we're already in there getting very drunk...

While at Smash and Grab, odd things happened...one of the IR London board members almost smiled at me (for a moment - it didn't last long), we annoyed lots of people by playing with our 'hand creatures'...y'know when your hand has a personality of its own - it's perfectly normal mate, try it, really good fun ;)

Lots of other odd things happened too but a little too weird to go into today...

Tonight my cunning plan is to stay on my 'sofa' (I use the term very loosely - those of you who have been to the squat will know why!) with Richie-poos and surf the net looking for hot men to date (Dating Direct is a new passion in our house!), eating nice dinner and watching shit telly.

Tomorrow, Chris K is having a house party with camping in his garden so we should really test the tents too (our Glasto replacement). Parties with all the gang tend to be wild so I'm really looking forward to it! Hurrah, hurrah!!!

And as I won't be online tomorrow - Happy Summer Solstice for tomorrow, Blessed Be!

Bouxxxx

Y'know when you're so excited about going out that you have a fizzy tummy? Well, I've got that today...I did go out clubbing on Wednesday but I had to leave early due to a) tiredness b) lack of funds to buy £1 whiskey(!) and c) not being able to bring myself to fancy any of the 'feathercut boys' (who are all tres ugly and rude and who would want a man like that? - even for one night). So I'm gonna go mental tonight.

I gotta celebrate too - I am now a PA to my Excutive Director and Artistic Director! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.

Possibly Hamstead Heath tomorrow too (hangovers permitting!)

All in all I had a fun weekend, although not all of it went to plan!

Richie and I met Harriette in the Retro Bar (and it turns out that Harriette and I have been friends for over 4 years, which is odd seeing as we met at a poetry gig - Patrick Jones (he of the famous Nick Wire MSP bro fame) and kinda just clicked, now we email and meet up ever so often esp. at Manics themed events!). We had a few bevies and then went onto Popstarz. Now, I haven't been to Popstarz in ages (I used to go a lot when I was just 18/19 - 7/8 years ago!!!) but I always enjoy it. People there are literally there for a good time but for some reason (possibly the Skin PA???) it seemed full of twats (this is an ongoing theme of mine - maybe it's just me getting old?). Anyway, we met Darian who I haven't seen in ages...Courtney and his/her crowd were there (and that last time I saw them it was at a second world was murder mystery dinner party - David looked tres different without his Nazi gear on!). So, we had lots of fun anyhow!

Lazy weekend was maximised by Courtney popping around for an hour or two (and staying for two days!). We watched The Others and drank wine and iced coffee and played trivia games on Saturday, and then Damaris came around on Sunday and joined in! Damaris and I tried to go to a mates gig on Sunday evening but missed the train and ended up staying in and watching MonkeyBone (with Brendan Frazer - ummmm!).

Monday at work was the first day of rehearsals for our new prod of Pericles so lots of back and forth from office to rehearsal space!

Tuesday morning I awoke to my ladies coming back from Turkey - hurrah! They had a lovely time and have come back very brown indeed (however, mine and Richies presents were left in Turkey - whoops!). There are no good clubs in Turkey so we're out tonight, possibly tomorrow and defiantly Friday (finances are tight but I'm we can get in free/tres cheap to the nights and vodka will only be a £1/£1.50 each...).

Here's to noisy housemates! The house feels extra lovely now the ladies are home!!!

Your magical style is Witch.

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Had the lovely, divine Chris K around for dinner last night (pasta with roasted garlic, thyme, goats cheese and vegan pesto plus salad with basil tofu and roasted pine nuts - uummmhhh yummy!). It was really wonderful evening, we ate in the garden and chatted about live, love and close friends. We also agreed that our circle of friends really needs to start working damn hard at keeping in touch (so hopefully bbqs and the such will manifest tres soon!).

Apart from that, my life is very work based at the moment (rehearsal for our new production start on Monday) but I did see the film Secretary last week and ever since I have literally been obsessed with James Spader, be still my beating heart!

one good thing though, the Jack White being at our club was an evil lie (which, on the negative, means I will no longer trust anything that Chris says again but that's his loss)

So, this weekend was fucking stupid. It started ok, Saturday morning telly, nice bath, getting ready to go out, when I suddenly realise that I don't have Darian's house details on me as I'd left them at work...so, I go to ring him but my phone still isn't working, therefore no numbers are forthcoming...*thinks* must have Darian's number somewhere. Proceed to place everything I own into the middle of my room looking for my telephone book. *thinks* fuck this, I'll ring Virgin and find out what's wrong with my phone. Turns out that although they do have equipment down in my area, it is my fault for having an old phone that is not automatically looking elsewhere for a reception (to be fair I would love a new phone but I barely have enough money for bills/food/life let alone £100 plus for a new bastard phone!!!). So it is now 5pm and I am in a very, very bad mood...all dressed up with nowhere to go...so I stay in and rearrange furniture....(always a good anti-stress tool!).

My best mate from school is also in London but what with my phone not working and me not having found my goddamn address book, I don't get to see her either...

Then on Sunday Jess falls through the door in the morning to find me cooking apple crumble (at 10am). She proceeds to call me "mum" for the rest of the day!

So we watch Candyman 2 and drink too much beer and have dinner cooked by the lovely Lorna (which Jess throws on the floor - oooppps!). Jess and I watch the Up In Smoke tour video (Eminem, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Snoop Doggy Dog) and surprisingly the other housemates leave the room...

To make my life worse - Jess, Lorna, Carla and Hels are going to Turkey this afternoon. For a week. Without me (due to lack of funds and the fact we have rehearsals starting next Monday...).

Aaarrrggghhhhh.

*sobs*

AND THEN a bill comes this morning threatening to cut off the electric. I ring to check that the payments had gone through. Mine hadn't. I thought that I was doing really well on the money front but now it turns out that I have £90 more than I should have in my account. Which means I have minus, minus, minus to live on till next pay day (which is only 2 1/2 weeks away). It's fine *hyperventilating* no, it's fine.

For some reason I woke up this morning in the worst mood, it maybe because I have a bad sinus cold and sore throat...maybe because we've all lost our deposit on the house...maybe because we have to all move as soon as possible. Fuckin' hell I'm sick of being skint and scraping by (well last month it wasn't so much scraping by as being very, very hungry too!)...my life does have its positives - I have great mates, we always have a good time when we go out but it's soooo boring not being able to buy cds, new clothes, um food. I really thought that when I started a "real" job (after, it has to be said fucking about for years...but I finally knuckled down and went to uni - just as my school friends were graduating!) that things might get easier...that I wouldn't have to eat those cheap flavoured noodles for lunch anymore...that pasta and rice wouldn't be the main stay of my diet...that I might be able to go to a pub and buy a few rounds for my mates.

Actually, shut up, you self indulgent bitch - you have an amazing life which you manage to do on the cheap....jesus...blah...blah...blah.

Having thought about this, I think the mood is to do with the supremely crap, cop out ending to Angel Season 4 that I saw last night. What a pile of shite.

Whoop! - go sign this petition to keep the tubes open later (courtesy of Darian)

His Girl Friday was really good fun last night. I love the film, so seeing the stage show was a treat. I went with Cardboard Citizens Young Actors Company as part of the Playmates promotion. It was an amazing chance for our young people to actually get to talk to cast and crew after the show - very inspirational for them (plus free beer!).

Update on awful Thursday night last week - this has been made ever the more awful by the fact that Jack White from The glorious White Stripes went to our regular club 'Smash and Grab'...so upset...and I had to tell Lorna and Jess this morning...don't ever want to talk about it ever again...bad, bad, bad.

So, after a shit Thursday night (and upsetting Chris by not going to Smash and Grab) we had to miss Bedrock on Friday too 'cos Lorna and I had to get up at 7am to get to the Download Festival. We were working on the Vodka Jelly and Herbal High tents. It was the hottest weekend ever...and I have actually, wait for it friends and neighbours GOT A TAN!!!!

I only went to see a few of the bands (through choice!). Amen were fun, their music isn't great but I happen to be in love with Casey Chaos and he didn't let me down at all - throwing himself around the floor, hitting himself with the mic, climbing the rig and throwing himself off...fuck I LOVE HIM SO MUCH...then we went to see Marilyn Manson, who I love too but the show was odd, actually no scrap that, the audience was odd. Iron Maiden were on afterwards which might have explained some of the atmosphere (they don't exactly have the same fan base now do they?). The new look is amazing, and some brilliant costumes - the opening song with two drummers with Marilyn masks on looked fantastic, two dancers who came on later...but no reaction from the crowd at all...I was the only one excited in any way.

We had a fun evening in the stalls taking Poke (coke substitute) and drinking copious amounts of vodka (a birthday pressie for Lorna from Rich the lovely guy who runs the stalls), the next day was pretty uneventful music wise and stall wise but I kinda had fun anyway. Most of the group working was pretty cool and good fun and we had the chance to chat to people buying from us (mainly about getting wankered!). All in all a lovely weekend, until Lorna and I went to get a train. We left early, managed to get the coach to the train station pretty sharpish but wanted something to eat. Loughborough doesn't have anything like a restaurant or a cafe to sit down in (being fair it was Sunday evening). We did find an Indian Take Away (who wouldn't let us eat there even though it had started raining really badly) so we walked back up to the station. We sat in the station eating away (mind you, when you live near Brick Lane nothing outside London seems to compare - except Bradford). Then it turns out that lightening had struck...so we were delayed...and tired...and hot...and thirsty. Lorna even saw my grouchy, tired boo self (poor Lornie!).

Got home eventually though. Then I had to get up early for work...(a new Forum training week and a meeting at the RSC about our joint production of Pericles - all very exciting). Am now about to go out to the National for 'His Girl Friday' with our youth theatre and home to bed. But then of course up again early and then to Chris' for an Angel session - very excited about that one!