Pointless Nostalgic

I was reflecting on the Tube home today (in the rare sedate moments!) that memories have such power and influence. They must be a good thing, because what would we be without memories? And yet it seems sometimes they are frustratingly inescapable. They can pop into your head so randomly and be hard to shake off. I hadn't come across this Jamie Callum song until tonight, but it sums it up perfectly:

Aint thinking about love today, lost in the sunlight walking down memory lane
Aint thinking about you today, people from the past that I knew were slowly slipping away
Seems so long ago, since we were carefree
Photographs lost in time are all I see
A pointless nostalgic - that's me

Thoughts running 'round my head today
Times from the past popping up, where they're from I don't know
Reminiscing my cares away
Wishing I could go back and change the points that were low
Till I realize that life's meant to be
Photographs lost in time are all I see
A pointless nostalgic - that's me

He comments on nostalgia in the album cover:
Nostalgia takes hold dishing out its rose-coloured glasses to watch the show that is past as you remember it. This is the show I love to watch, pointlessly, again and again.

3 weeks to go

It's only 3 weeks till I'm off. Feels quite surreal. I can't quite picture Argentina or what it'll be like, exactly. Everything here seems fairly final. Final phone calls to friends, final goodbye to my bro and Lyndsey (tomorrow!), final clear out of my room. Only 2 more weeks at work is so hard to believe. And I've just remembered that tomorrow morning I have my final injection (which means I better get to bed....)

Karaoke crisis

Have you ever been forced to do karaoke against your will? Then you will know how I felt tonight singing 'Wannabe' with four others who clearly didn't wannabe on a Wednesday night in my living room in front of all our parents either. The song seemed to go on forever and before long the colour of my face matched my red shirt and my glass of Rose.

I love the idea of karaoke. I even quite like listening to others. But as soon as a microphone is thrust in my hand I panic. Of course, karaoke without an audience is a different matter altogether. You can go wild, dance, sing out of tune, pretend you are a rockstar - without the reality check of seeing your audience clutching their ears and begging for mercy.

I will never forget an ex-boyfriend's initiation into my family. On one of his first - if not his first - visit to my family home, the karaoke machine came out and he was invited to sing. Unfortunately he picked the longest song on offer - 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay'. You would have thought the family would have had mercy and erupted into a round of applause halfway through or something - but no, he was forced to sing right to the very end. Needless to say, after that effort he was accepted into the family forevermore.

I don't quite know what the fascination is with my family and karaoke, but I do know that it's one thing I won't miss in Argentina! Not even at Christmas... well, at least I'm saying that now.

Me and Carola (and the back of Hannah's head) at Al's BBQ... giggling - for a change!!

Dancing in the Streets

Tonight I saw 'Dancing in the Streets' - a Motown musical. "If you came here to see the 'Woman in White', you are going to be sorely disappointed... there ain't a single white woman in this show." Great line. Shame the narrator used his best gag first. It was downhill from there.

The glamorous female singers as the Supremes and others were the highlight, but I wouldn't have cast a single one of the male performers. One actually seemed to go to sleep during a dancing routine. They were all insanely annoying, smug looking, and highly unwatchable. Stevie Wonder was, frankly, disturbing.

There was no story line holding the musical together (not even a really naff one as in Mamma Mia), and if you're not going to have a story line, the performance needs to be exceptional. Otherwise you are neither at a musical, nor at a concert - but a mediocre halfway house that qualifies as neither.

I thought it might warm up in the second half but my yawning only increased. About halfway through, they predictably enticed us on to our reluctant feet. So it looked like we were all having a good time. But really, there's something about having to be cajouled that isn't quite the same as spontaneously jumping to your feet of your own volition to dance with unbridled enthusiasm.

The most enthusiastic dancers in the audience were definitely the middle-aged women, and watching them go for it was possibly the most entertaining part of the evening. Especially the voluptuous woman a few seats down from me who was the first out of her seat and had clearly taken to heart that saying 'dance as if nobody's watching'. I was just so glad that she wasn't my mother.

So the curtain went down - and came up again. And suddenly the singing and dancing became brilliant. If only it had been like that for more than all of the final 10 minutes.

Hannah

Lovely pic of Hannah (with me and Carola in the background).

Memories

A kind friend googled me today and emailed these photos that he found online! Don't you just love that blazer?

The sport that rules

Touch rubgy - the love of my life. This girls team was actually the best in the world!

Elvis the King

Elvis aka Ben, Jenny's fiance!
This photo reminded me that I watched footage of Elvis last night, spurred on by my mate who recently saw the DVD and is now a big fan. I thought she had lost the plot a bit, going on about Elvis in this day and age... but it turns out he is AMAZING!
I feel like I've just discovered this cult personality, whose talent, for me, up till now has been clouded by his fame, reputation and impersonators. Encountering the real Elvis is something else altogether. Seeing him perform has made me feel ashamed I ever religiously watched Pop Idol or bought the Hear'say CD - and it has taken quite something for me to turn my pride in those things to shame! Are there any other Elvis fans out there or have I lost the plot?

That hat

My little bruv Dave. He wore that hat for about a year. Honestly. He was even spotted coming out of the shower still wearing it. He's in Thailand now, successfully winding up the family by saying he's going to get a 'tiger' tatoo.

Hammersmith

Mike, me, Jamie... a night out that ended up with a Blair-Witch-Project-like walk around Hammersmith till the early hours. These guys are not the best to go out walking with if you are at all jumpy! The fact that I'm off to Argentina with YWAM is largely due to Jamie, in whose footsteps I'll be following. And being from Argentina himself, Mike also played a big part in persuading me to go... maybe they just wanted rid of me?

Journo Joe

My mate Jo the Journalist. Not only can he write, he can sing too - as the photo proves... (just as well no video clips were taken!) His website is wicked: hambahamba.co.uk

Starry-eyed

Some friends I will miss, pictured here after a 'Stars in Your Eyes' evening (except, on reflection, I'm the only one visibly in costume!). Of course there are lots more friend I'll miss, but I don't have digital pics of them all!

Ouch!!

I would just like to advise anyone who is thinking of having a filling in their teeth done without an anaesthetic.... DON'T!!
It is absolute agony.
Especially if the hole is much deeper than the dentist thought.
My trip to the dentist this evening didn't get off to the best of starts. First of all I couldn't find them because they had relocated (not due to my usual direction dyslexia, I hasten to add), then they kept me waiting for ages, then the patient in front of me walks out of the dentist clutching her mouth and moaning 'she was so cruel to me today....'
That's when I started to feel nervous.
The dentist reassured me that if the pain got too much, just raise a hand... I raised a hand, and added in a few squeals to the bargain, all to no avail.
I have vowed to never again drink fizzy drinks, eat sweets and to floss every day -- I never ever ever want to have another filling again!! And definitely not on the NHS!

Grampa Tigar

Me with my Grampa Tigar at my parents' silver wedding party. Dad in the background!Do I always look that moody?

Sing it in the valleys...

My colleagues from the Web Department where I used to work, 'singing it in the valleys'!

Argentina... one month to go!

It's almost exactly a month till I leave for Buenos Aires to take part in a Discipleship Training School with a charity called Youth With a Mission (http://www.jucum.com.ar/jucum/_index.htm).
So I'm hoping to use this blog to chronicle a bit of my experience out there and in the meanwhile to publish random thoughts, and a few photos to remind me of home.

Pastorate rugby tournament

We got through to the finals but were pipped to the post! Amazing how competitive 'friendly' matches can get!!

Alpha UK Team

My lovely colleagues - exhausted after hosting our Strategy Day in February.