Nothing Can Stop Us

Right, let's get the exciting news out of the way first - we're moving to Leeds! Our application was approved yesterday so unless my boss says she's never heard of me we'll be there in about a month. James poked me in bed this morning (oh get your mind's out of the gutter!) and said that he was getting up because he was too excited. I know what he means, it is exciting! All the stuff that we'll be able to do, but mainly, imagine the money I'll be saving. No mister train line, I won't just sit there and take that £8 a month/£96 a year price hike you've forced upon me in January. Piss off. So yeah, having an extra $144 a month to spend on top of saving on joint account stuff like council tax and gas will make a huge diffence. There are just loads of plus points in its favour. So yeah, we said we'd never do but yes, we are indeed moving to Leeds. Anyone know any good removal firms? :s

Truth be told I've been having a pretty crappy month. Thinking about moving and fretting about Uni hasn't really helped me but I'm glad that in the past week I've been sorting both of these things out. I was in Uni yesterday and met my dissertation supervisor and I no feel tonnes better, even though writing the damn thing still doesn't exactly fill me joy. But my project has shrunk which can only be a good thing. I have to say that I'm enjoying my management module much more that I thought I would too. It ties in quite nicely with the training I'm doing too. Funnily enough the Director of our unit at work thought I was in my first year still and on being told that I wasn't responded with 'Oh God, we're going to lose him soon'. Yes, yes you will. But it'll be nice to be missed.

We watched David Attenborough's wonderful programme on Darwin the other night. I was talking to James about it afterwards and I was saying how important it is that the BBC airs programmes that don't pander to religious criticism. I know Sir David has got a lot of criticism over the years for not acknowledging God in his work but rightly, he's never caved because (to put it bluntly) what is written in the Bible did not happen. And in a world where Creationism is getting scarily more prevalent it's so important to keep airing programmes like this. This ties in with me finding out that 50% of people in this country do not believe in evolution. 50% of people in this country are idiots. Don't get wrong, I'm not anti-religion but I am scientific at heart and refuse to believe something when the plain facts prove otherwise. I remember being taught evolution when I was 11 and my teacher said explicitly that 'this is not what I believe but I am required to teach it' and there's me thinking, 'but it just makes so much sense'! I know that evolution doesn't explain everything and it is hard to comprehend but still, I know it's a valid theory.

I didn't really mean to go off on one there! In lighter news, I got the wonderful new Saint Etienne best Of this week. Yes, I own nearly everything on but it's beautiful and it's made me more obsessed. I've been dancing around the house to it all week. It's just perfect. i shall watch the DVD this weekend. Hoorah!    

Jaqui's starter for five

I forgot to write about Bolt in my last entry. It was a genius idea to go on Valentines Day as all of the couples were elsehwere and it was late enough so that no kids were there. We had the entire lower floor to ourselves. Brilliant. And it was a good film. The only let down was the seen-it-before storyline and the fact that it didn't get properly funny until Rhino entered the frame. I did like the clever set-up though and the action sequences were really good, so yeah, I enjoyed it.

Anyway, Jaqui schmackattak has asked me to write about the following five things:

1. Skipton
I love Skipton and I'll be sad to leave it behind, especially as I'm lucky to live so close to the Dales. It's not called the gateway to the Dales for nothing. I'm also very lucky to have the canal at the bottom of my road as I never realised how much I like living next to water. When I moved to Skipton 2 years ago I was determined to make new friends but I never realised how hard it would be. My volunteer work at the theatre showed me that everyone in the area was older than me and my book group doesn't have anyone in their 20s. So yes, it's not a place that attracts people of my age which is probably its main failing. This is easily linked to the fact that there are no jobs here really (and the one place that might have them, the library, wouldn't employ me!). We haven't ruled out moving back here one day, perhaps when we've got more time to dedicate to walking which it's great for. It's just unfortunate that everything that happens in this county happens over the other side!

2. Your favourite book
This is too difficult! There are a few books that I'd probably say are my favourites. I'm mainly going by whether I've re-read them of my own accord as I don't re-read novels often. The first one that spring to mind is Michael Crichton's 'Jurassic Park'. It was the first book that I remember reading and being glued to when I was about 10. I'd bought it to read on holiday with me one summer but ended up reading it in about three days before I ever got to a beach. I loved dinosaurs and so that appealed to me, but it's also a scientifically interesting book as well as containing exciting, life-threatening stuff. My Dad took me to see the film when it came out in 1993 and I loved that too. It just totally captured my imagination. And I still love the book and film today.

The other one that springs to mind is David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas' which is a stunning piece of work. I have to say that I don't really get on with 'old' fiction as I find the language had to concentrate on but Mitchell manages to make every genre, every style and every character utterly compelling. It's just such a skillfully written book, especially as he manages to cleverly weave a thread through such differing styles and times. There's just so much to gush about.

I'd also mention 'Watchmen' which blew me away when I first read it, Sarah Water's 'Night Watch' which deals with human characters and emotions so damn well and Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History' which is so amazingly well written.

3. Board games
I bloody love board games. All kinds too. It's probably linked to me loving all kinds of puzzles as well as words of course. And between the two of them that covers a lot of board games. Scrabble, Cluedo, Jenga, Trivia Persuit, it makes sense. And I love the fact that they can be social. Wine and board games with friends are my favourite way to spend an evening! I think my favourite is (Super) Boggle. Thinking about it, I also like the fact that a lot of board games look fun. Kerplunk is colourful, Trivia Persuit has funny little cheese things, Pop Up Pirate has a pirate in it for God's sake. So yeah, I love the whole package.

4. 80's pop music
I'm very much an electro fan at heart and while I obviously keep up with modern synthy lovelies it makes sense that I mine electro's history for all its worth. So the 80s tends to be gold for this kind of thing. There's something quite grimy and dirty about 80s synth music which appeals to me and often (not always) it's linked to the North which is also great. So you've got Depeche Mode, Human League, Soft Cell, all making dark stuff. It's not restricted to electro though. I've recently discovered Kim Wilde who's amazing and Duran Duran are pretty good too (not Wild Boys though). My love for 80s music has been a fairly recent thing, possibly because my music collection has filtered out a lot of the stuff from 90s over time so the 80s is a new mine to dig through. It's also interesting seeing where the bands I like now come from as a lot of the have roots in the 80s. I can't see myself going back to the 70s though as I'm not that keen on that era of music. the 80s is much more about having fun with interesting sounds, making great pop music and dressing up, which is all brilliant when combined. 

5. YOUR ultimate fancy dress outfit
I have to say that I am not really a fancy dress person, it's too much effort (sorry). Saying that though, every week when I watch Harry Hill's TV Burp I will always mention how amazing one of the outfits is. Last week there was a man dressed as a massive cake where his head was the cherry. It was AMAZING. So yes, if I went to a fancy dress party I'd go as a massive fairy cake.

If anyone would like me to suggest five things to discuss then comment and I'll rack my brains!