we're all busy, luv, well maybe i'm not exactly busy, but it feels like it. i got back to london on thursday, then on friday stu pitched up and we went to the teenage cancer trust gig at the albert hall. ash and supergrass were great. i'd never seen either of them live, and i don't really listen to them much, but i had a cracking time. yay for stu's brother who paid for it.

on saturday i discovered that i have an "interview day" at city for their periodical journalism course. i phoned them today to confirm and ask what sort of thing i should wear and was told "well when you're a student here we expect you to dress fairly smartly in case you have to go out on a story, so a suit or something might be appropriate", looks like i'll have to buy a suit or something.

then, mum and i went to chicago, and astonishingly (especially given the last post) i really enjoyed it. i dunno if it's the twenties clothes or the tap dancing (i grew up on a steady diet of annie and the wizard of oz, if i weren't so malco-ordinated i'd have fought tooth and nail to go to sylvia young, but i learnt fairly early on i didn't have the talent. i still make up for it when we play town called malice at our club nights by doing my best billy elliot impression), but i thought it was really good. still cynical though, this is a pretty bitter movie. so, although i adored the hours, i admit it was awfully depressing, which is something which can't be said about chicago. thus, while i don't retract my earlier comments, i'm not quite so annoyed as i was.

today i was supposed to go to stratford upon avon, but the gosh darn (d'you know i haven't sworn in weeks now, it's very unlike me) strike made it impossible. i was looking forward to wandering those pretty streets in the sunshine, and it's apparently going to rain tomorrow.

oh and i bought elephant today, i've not managed to listen to the whole thing yet with one thing and another, but that cover of i don't know what to do with myself is a stroke of genius. and what with that interview in the guardian on saturday, even my mum wants to know about them.

a couple of things: i seem to be the top result if one searches for (mouse-over to see what it is) this why? why? why? it's very disturbing indeed.

also extremely disturbing are the oscar winners this year. i really really thought the hours was going to win everything going. but it didn't. i am sorely disappointed with the academy's taste. but talking to sarah and dave about it this morning it was generally agreed that it's because of the war - they want happy happy joy joy films, which don't have any suffering in them and which do have lots of songs and dances. but it's strange - as far as i can tell, the last time a musical won was oliver in 1968 - i wonder what the americans were up to that year? also, how terrible is this picture of c z-j? if i were her i'd sue the academy for "damage to her professional career because of the alleged poor quality of the photos". i wouldn't much want to hire her after seeing this pic.

oh, and i also wanted to say that if you're like me, and you can't access where is raed the baghdad blog because of that pesky underscore, try the google cache. and in case you were wondering if it's y'know 4-real, this guy has done a bit of investigative journalism here [link via evhead]. so much for head/sand. edited 23/3/03 because there's a mirror site for where is raed here which looks much better than the google cache, well done that person (also known as blogger and google)

it was all going so well, i officially declared wednesday to be the first good day of the year - the weather was beautiful, i had a letter from lcp inviting me in for a "selection day", there was a phone call from the people who are making regency house party to say that they really liked my application (*hah*) and could i send them a 5-10 minute video of myself, oh, and k came over to watch once more with feeling and but i'm a cheerleader.

but then the next morning, after k had gone (we're "dating" apparently, making me the only person i know who has ever "dated" anyone), radio 4 said what had happened earlier that day. which was a bit of a disappointment really. we missed tony blair's big we're at war address to the nation, because we were in the bar. i don't really want to just ignore what's going on in iraq, but at the same time, i don't particularly want to think about it. head/sand option is looking more and more attractive.

ok, this is where i do my minor rant about how i wish i was a) younger and b) from america. just look at this - girls' rock camp! a day camp for girls aged 10-18, which teaches the rudiments of being a rock star (like singing and stage presence), as well as related activities like fanzine publishing and running your own record label. what did i have? a dance and drama course at ealing ymca. it's not quite the same is it? and carrie from sleater-kinney's involved so you know it's good. gah, those riot grrls were just a bit too late. oh and in america :)

we had a really good meal last night for sarah's birthday and then, as we were getting ready to pay and wander into the night, i passed out. for once it wasn't the booze. i'm putting it down to too much rich food, but it's pretty scary really. i don't know how long i was out, but it was long enough for stu to think i was having an epileptic fit, and for every one to be quite worried. but i'm fine now (possibly because i've been asleep for most of the afternoon, despite the gorgeousness of the weather).

i've fainted maybe four times in my life, and been on the verge many more. you can usually tell because there are black spots in front of your eyes and voices sound like they're coming from a long way away. usually i do sensible things like put my head between my legs or put my arms in the air or lie on the floor with my legs on a chair like i was taught at school, but for some reason i didn't last night. what is weird is that i had a vague feeling earlier that day that i was going to faint. strange.

in unrelated news, i've spent most of the weekend playing scrabble on my gameboy, and reading goddess, a biography of marylin monroe. i read joyce carol oates' blonde, which is a fictionalised account of norma jeane's life, last summer, and i've wanted to read a really good biography ever since to find out just how fictionalised. the answer: not as much as i'd thought.

it was a date. definitely. we went to ha ha and had a lovely meal, and a bottle of wine. and there was a lot of flirtage, and at one point i had to explain the concept of sinister to her. then we went back to her house... i'm still not entirely sure where i stand on the are we/aren't we question, but i'm quite a lot happier about it anyway. also she said i was a good kisser, which is always nice to hear.

had an email from pop justice saying i should fill in their census, so i did. and so should you because it's funny. it takes quite a long time to fill in though, so don't just start it and then have to go away for your tea. and yes i know that i'm an indie kid etc. etc. but i do like a bit of p! o! p! sometimes. in my cd collection, steps happily rub shoulders with steven malkmus (i alphebetize by first name because i'm obsessive like that).

today i have mostly been thinking about jeremy-the-american's question "if you could be any popstar which would it be". it's hard because you have to decide whether you go for the life or the music: i'd like to be tammi terrell, but then she died aged 24. or what about elvis? but i'm not sure i'd like the whole getting enormously fat thing. plus, he died on the toilet. in the end, i have to go for david bowie, because despite the cocaine addiction in the late seventies/early eighties, he's had a pretty good life and written some stunning tunes, and he's an icon. jeremy-the-american went for brian wilson (he's from california), stu wanted to have jonny greenwood from radiohead but apparently he's not "pop" enough. strangely though, he was allowed to have nick drake, who isn't exactly the most pop of people.

gosh i appear to have a date with k. in about, um, 50 minutes. it may not be a date. i'm not entirely sure, but there's food involved. i haven't dressed up. but i'm still quite nervous. so nervous i nearly bought shoes earlier (when i'm nervous, i shop). more later i suppose. hee.

i should have known it was going to be a surreal night when the sabbatical officers came out dressed as characters from batman. and when callie insisted on giving me her double whisky and coke (untouched because she's had a hangover for a week), it wasn't going to get much better. it felt like a houseparty when you were 16 and you knew everyone there.

there was k and there was flirty banter in a his girl friday way and there was kissage . there were people being upset and needing comforting. there were n and tom j*nes together. there were last year's sabbatical officers (meaning that i had a very disturbing dream about dan simon last night. *shudder*). and there was still more whisky and coke.

there were, of course, election results. many of the right people got in. including chris j who is now our president-elect. i wrested the decks from the cheese dj and put on get me away from here i'm dying just for the lyric "with a winning smile the boy with naivety succeeds", although i don't think the dj was very happy about that.

it hasn't quite sunk in yet (so heaven knows how he's feeling). our jonesy president of yusu! well he deserves it.

updated on 10/3/03 - paul has got a few pictures of the election night here, including this one which is way better than vision's effort. yay.

i was going through some old sinister posts just now and i found what may well be the gratest picture in the whole world on gina's website. it's from the time we all went to see belle and sebastian in scarborough and met the band afterwards on the beach, (you can read mine and stu's account of it here). just look at the pair of them grinning away, struan looks properly cheeky. and what about chris with short hair!

i currently owe tommy's campaign £2.50, for swearing (at 50p a throw, i think i'm not doing too badly). let's hope chris does win the presidential election tonight or that total could rise quite sharply (as voting has now finished, i think i'm allowed to say that). actually, let's hope i don't drink too much at the election party: last year i ended up emailing, er, katie on the way home, her reply began "hope the hangover didn't hurt too much". oops .

since sarah made nigella's pancakes last night, i know it must be lent. and if it's lent then i should really give something up. not because i'm especially religious, but becaause a little self-denial is always a good thing. it was decided that it would be very foolish to give up any kind of food, and i was struggling to think of something and then in a blinding flash of light it came to me. i would give up swearing. i think it might be more difficult than i'd anticipated, but nonetheless i am going to try. you can probably guess the contraband words:f**k, s**t, c**t and so on, but also a**e, because i say it too much, and stu says i can't have c**p either.

henceforth i shall be damning and blasting (well you've got to give me some expletives, haven't you?). i'm interested to see if i can keep it up, it will surely be a test on my vocabulary. how on earth am i going to be able to replace my all time favourite insult (a**e-faced c**t)?

in other news, i'm sitting accross the most stunning girl i've seen in some time. and debating whether or not to buy scrabble for my gameboy. it's all that richard herring's fault. damn him. update - i did buy it, as you'll see if you click on the link :o)

a strange weekend. our landlady's bringing prospective tenants round to see the house tomorrow, so we (sarah, mike and i) all pitched in to clean up. i got the bathroom. which was nice. but the bonus is now everything smells nice and/or of bleach (including my hands). oh and we finally did all our recycling. we read far too many newspapers.

now i'm trying to finsh another essay (god it's like being at school again, writing essays at half ten on a sunday night - i remember the rows so clearly i still dream about them sometimes), today it's about sir philip sidney and the poet ovid. we studied ovid for a-level so i'm pretty confident with him. and also he's just really funny. i wish i could say the same about sidney. gah.

i'm feeling quite positive about things at the moment though. i got my city application in last week, just before the deadline, so it's entirely possible they'll just chuck it, but i was pretty pleased with what i sent in. maybe i'll put it up sometime here (but not at the moment in case it gets construed as election publicity or something). i'm also thinking about applying for an ma here at york in modern literature and culture 1850-present, which looks quite like my sort of thing. though i'm not so sure about a 20 000 word dissertation, given that i'm currently struggling with 2000 words!