Mama's Back In Town

I've taken a half day today so that I can go pick up my mom at Victoria Station.

I'm excited.

All you folks in the States (that I'm related to), I am expecting pictures of your time with my dad in the next couple of weeks, and in return I shall give you pictures of this weekend. If you're lucky. Unfortunately they will all be pictures from a rudamentary camera phone, but this will all be solved when dad gets back with my new camera! Woohoo!

Till then...

20 Million Things To Do

I love music. Every phase of my life is defined by a song, an album, an artist. I listen obsessively to some tracks, and hang every emotion and thought on them. So most of the musicians I like are amazingly gifted guitar players, extraordinary poets and representatives of their soul.

So now, please forget all of that - Today I have a song that isn't so much musical genius but just coins my thoughts exactly, and it keeps just running through my head.

Pardon for the cheezyness please.

If it's fix a fence, fender dents
I've got lots of experience
Rent gets spent
And all the letters never written don't get sent
It comes from confusion, all things I left undone
It comes from moment to moment, day to day
Time seems to slip away

But I've got twenty million things to do, twenty million things
And all I can do, is think about you
With twenty million things to do

I've got mysterious wisteria hanging in the air
The rocking chair I was supposed to fix
Well it came undid
And all the things that I let slip, I found out quick
It comes from moment to moment, day to day
Time seems to slip away

But I've got twenty million things to do, twenty million things
And all I can do, is think about you
With twenty million things to do

I always have high hopes for when I get home from work - lists of millions of things to do.

But all I wanna do is hang out with my best friend in the whole world.

p.s apologies if i made you gag.

Dreaming of Sun

To celebrate the end of January and push away the winter blues a little, I've decided to post some pictures of some of the beachy summer times we had in Europe. Just looking through them has brought a smile to my face and made me realise that it won't actually be like this forever and there is sunshine and happiness still to be had.

This Means War.

Okay Mr. Mousy. We gave you a chance.

Now the big guns are comin' out.

Let's hope you decide to wander on someone else's turf.

Cloudy Brain Sydrome

I'm finding it difficult to get this week started. I pressed snooze on the old alarm clock about 5 times today - leaving myself 8 minutes to get up, get ready and leave the house. My body does not want this day to go ahead.

Just in case you're checking in to see how The Reunion went, it didn't go. It turns out he had to go somewhere on the Saturday so we couldn't meet up. Obviously I was secretly relieved about this, but at the same time kind of disappointed. I had spent so much energy mentally preparing for it - all gone to waste. At least now I know I can accept visits from random people in my past. It would have been nice to mix a bit of old with the new.

♥

If you don't know me and my sister in real life, please go read this post she has written. Sometimes I wish I could just plug into her and then she could write out my thoughts. Because she does it so well. It scares me that we feel and think the same way even though we haven't lived in the same country since I was 14 years old. 11 years ago.

I'm still applying for jobs. Every day. I'm so sick of it already (mostly sick of hiding it while I'm at work).

This Cloudy Brain Syndrome is not so good when you've got so much to do.

Way out of The Comfort Zone

I recently received an email through MySpace from someone who went to school with me in Manila. He was planning a trip to London and was wondering if I wanted to meet up. You know, chat about old times, reminisce about Manila... all that jazz.

My first impulse was to completely freak out and puke up a little bit. Emailing old pals and seeing how their lives are now is all good, being able to appreciate commonality from a safe distance through a computer screen is fine, but actually engaging with them and socialising? Taking time out of my busy TV schedule to meet up?? What was with this guy? Problem is, he had asked me this once before and I had completely ignored him. So I thought to ignore twice would just be rude. I gave the guy my number and said that i might be free that weekend, but I was pretty busy so the chances weren't so high. (translation: keeping options open so I didn't freak out about what on earth we would ever have in common to talk about)

Skip forward to today where I have a missed call on my phone and a voicemail from a very deep-voiced sounding guy who vaguely resembles this guy I once knew back in my pre-teens. I start shaking. It's him. He's here. And he actually wants to meet up. Tomorrow.

(Oh why do I have to live in a city where people actually visit as tourists? Why can't I live in some random town like Wigan that no-one would ever dream of going to?)

I really didn't think he would call. I really did think I had a get-out-of-jail-free card.

But what is wrong with this picture? I've been waxing lyrical about my time in Manila for weeks now, going on about how I never have anything in common with people here. Why can't I just get my butt in action and meet up with someone who shares a small part of my past?

So this is where I take a massive deep breath and give the guy a call. I just might need some dutch courage.

*small print: fyi, he doesn't think it's a date. And Conrad is coming too. Just in case you were wondering.

Reasons I *Might* Miss My Job

*The hours and hours of time wiled away pointlessly surfing the net. The amount of random things you can find out there, and the ultimate power of Google is amazing.

*The number of hints and tips a helpdesk full of ladies provide each other with is usefull. I've found new products to use on my hair, and I magazine-worthy fashion advice at my fingertips. I also get to try out all kinds of make-up!

*Making personal phone calls to my heart's content

*Having a massive restaurant just downstairs where I can watch the chefs make anything I choose - Italian, Mongolian Barbeque, fresh sandwiches made in the Deli, roast dinner.. and in the morning a choice of all the breakfast in the world. Yum.

*Reading blogs all day.

*Writing on my blog all day.

*Being able to go to Starbucks without leaving the building

*Doing my job without accessing a single brain cell because I could (and sometimes do) perform the mundane and repetitive tasks in my sleep.

It kind of sounds like I just get paid for sitting around doing the same things I would at home.. Hm. I need to get me a new job!

I have a lot of travelling left to do

Rachel BA (Hons) Procrastination

So the whole applying for jobs thing... I don't like it. I'm applying for three jobs right now that need to be in by the end of the week. It's the "Please explain how you meet the person specification criteria" that's a killer. Basically, Sell Yourself! Sell Yourself! Sell Yourself!

Firstly, I'm finding it difficult to big myself up when I think I am grossly underqualified according the the 'job specifications'. Secondly, I don't want to start applying because then I'm one step closer to getting rejected, thus making me panic, thus being subjected to a life as a bankrupt street-walker with a tick. But thirdly (and most realistically) I'm having troubles with the application forms because I have an A++++ in Procrastination. As soon as I have something that I have to do I will make up any old excuse to not do it. Case in point: I could be doing an online application right now on my lunchbreak, but here I am writing about how I'm writing about how I'm procrastinating on my application form. Not a good thing.

In other news, there is no progress on the mouse being caught yet. We bought ourselves a 'humane' mousetrap where the mouse is lured by a generous serving of peanut butter into a little tube - gets caught - and then we let it out in a more appopriate setting (i.e. Not Our House)

How could this possibly go wrong? Who could refuse peanut butter? So now we just wait. And hope that we won't have to go a step further and actually kill the poor thing. It's not it's fault that it was born a mouse now, is it?

You want random? You got it.

So what is up with the extreme weather? First we have tornados, and then yesterday we had wind storms with gusts up to 99mph. All train stations were closed and airports were at a stand-still. There were roofs falling in, trees falling over.. Just chaos! Absolute chaos!

So much for mild English weather.

pictures courtesy of BBC.co.uk

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I have a couple events in February that I'm looking forward to that are helping me through this long, cold grey month of January:

*My mom is coming to visit the first weekend in February (while dad is out galivanting in the States with my brother/sister-in-law, sister, aunt and cousins). We have a magical day-out planned to Madame Tussaud's followed by an evening full of excessive amounts of Sushi. Hmmm. Sushi. We frequent (insert R.P. accent here) an all-you-can-eat Sushi place that mom seems quite partial to.

*Conrad has a week off in February for half-term - which in itself is a rarity as actors very rarely get paid holiday. So, we've decided to mosy on over to Paris for Valentines Day (well, 3 days around the 14th). Waterloo Train station is about 5 minutes bus ride from our house and then it only takes 2 hours to get to central Paris! So it'll take around 2 1/2 hours to get there. We've been to Paris a few times but it never loses it's charm.

I just can't wait to dig in to all that luscious rich French food... Baguettes galore, soft warm brie, lamb, Paté Frois gras, boeuf, delectable duck, warm red wine, rich chocolate treats, pain au chocolat............ Okay my mouth is seriously drooling just thinking about it. (We will be doing some sightseeing, not just eating.. just so you know..)

*Best Bud Ben (hi Ben!) is coming to visit for a weekend. We're planning a jam-packed weekend of fun and frollicks including going to see Chicago in the West End. Yay!

*Oh, and how can I forget Conrad's 27th Birthday Week Of Celebrations?

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I'm thinking of getting a fringe cut into my hair again. I had a fringe for about 2 years recently and really liked it, and I've just now grown it out. And now I miss it. I'm fairly certain that as soon as I do cut it I'll be inconsolable for at least 3 weeks. I'm pretty schizophrenic when it comes to my hair.

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We have become one of *those people* that still have their Christmas tree in their house. Oh - the shame. Don't get me wrong, it's not still lit up in the middle of our living room in all it's glory.. Oh no! It's been left abandoned in the corner of our room all chopped up and stuff. Poor tree.

The moment we got in the door after Christmas break we were amazingly productive and efficient in taking down Christmas decorations. And then we lost all sense of reality and started chopping it up, thinking that we could fit it into bin bags and put it in the trash outside.

Ha!

This was not so. People come around to collect trees, but they will not pick up trees all chopped up in bin bags.

I don't know if you've realised this yet, but Conrad and I are pretty.. um.. irresponsible? Have no common sense? Whatever you call it, we can't for the life of us figure out how to get rid of the ol' Christmas tree.

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And here's one for those who don't live in England. This is what has been on our news channels for the past 24 hours:

Reality TV gone haywire

I just have too many thoughts about this. It saddens me that there is racism and ignorance in the world, and it sickens me to watch it.

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Well hopefully I haven't been too random for you all. I am soo glad it's Friday!