The Secret Life of Andrew

After the success of Wednesday, James decided to have the day off with me on Thursday so we could head out somewhere. The weather wasn't great so we didn't go out until later but when we did we went to the Royal Armouries. I've not been completely ok with museums ever since I fainted in one in June and think I have anxiety issues related back to that. So we didn't do the whole thing as it wasn't making me feel great. I'm so terrified of fainting in public, I think it has an adverse effect on me. The thing is, I never do, but I do get headahces because of it. It's pissing me off no end. But I will conquer this. Anyway, it's a large museum anyway so doing half of it wasn't such a bad idea. It's a funny place. It still seems very new even though it's about 12 years old now and it's laid out really well. It's not in cronological order though which we weren't sure if we liked. Sometimes it's good to see the development of things across time but this would probably just means a whole floor full of boring armour if they didn that. There are a lot of things vieing for your attention too, probably to keep the kids interested but still, it can be a bit much sometimes. The best bit were the interpretations which we saw two of. They solo pieces based on memoires or real accounts. We saw a Falklands soldier and Anne Boleyn and it really helped to put historical events in context.

After work on Friday we went bowling for Bev Spence's birthday. This was only the second time I'd ever been remember and I now without barriers. In fact, I came third in my lane which I was very pleased with. My arm still aches now which is really some indication of how much I need to work on my guns. It was a full house out I think so it was good to see everyone. I didn't get to chat to half of them though as we had to head off at 8 to the Cockpit (yes, again) as we had another gig to see.

This time it was VV Brown. Out of Alphabeat, Frankmusik and her she was the cheapest so I expected it to be, not more amaturish especially, but perhaps less confident. Not so. She was absolutely stunning, and from the Grace Jones like mask she came on with to the absolutely brilliant big black man of a bassist it was just brilliant. I can't find an ordered set list online but she did the following:

Quick Fix
Game Over
Leave!
Bottles
Crying Blood (acoustic)
Crying Blood (reggae version)
Viva La Vida (Coldplay cover)
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Back In Time
I Love You
Caroline (new song)
L.O.V.E
Everybody
Travelling Like The Light
Shark In The Water
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Sex On Fire (Kings Of Leon cover)

The covers I could have done without obviously but my favourite was probably the new song, Caroline which was just stunning, it really blew me away. The whole set was brilliant though. She did all the album apart from one track so kerching - value for money too. Everyone seemed really into it all, including myself. So, so good.

We've had a slow weekend. Yesterday evening we went out for a meal though, to Chaophraya, a Thai place not far from us. It was really nice inside. It's a little hidden away but we were surprised to find it quite full when we got there and by the time we left it was bursting! The staff bring you cake and sing to you if it's your birthday. We know this because we heard the same thing three times! Drinking a lovely fruit cocktail, I had a duck stir fry with a fruity sauce. I'm not a spicy fan and some people are funny about fruity stuff with meat but I love it. My duck had a peach sauce and had grapes and apples in it along with peppers and onions. So tasty. I then copped out with coconut ice-cream but James had chilled tapioca with melon ice. Weird but tasty, I suppose it's like cold rice pudding right? James paid which was very nice but really, it's how a Master of Science should be treated right? :p

We've watched a lot of TV stuff over the weekend and I don't often write about. However, over the past few days we've been watching:

Doctor Who (this really shook me up actually and has easily been the best of the specials. Lindsey Duncan is a brilliant actor)
Farscape (Just started, I've been missing Sci-Fi)
Medium
Have I Got News For You
The Thick Of It
Beautiful People (Like Gimme Gimme Gimme it often suggers from a weak script off-set by great performances, but it's set in 1997/8 so I can relate to so much).

Work is hell at the moment, today was just awful. But it's that time of year. What's that you say? Why yes, time to get a new job.

Busy busy. On Friday night we headed off to Manchester to see Alesha Dixon at Manchester Apollo. We were in the stalls which was an excellent place to sit and it was a brilliant gig. Amusingly, Alesha kept leaving the stage to have random bits of costume stuck on her, and it really did show that just because a tour is relatively small does not mean that you can't impress the audience. She was really lovely and funny too. She did a Mis-teeq medley (! Possibly the best bit, and I didn't even like Mis-teeq) and afterwards said, 'I had a great time being in Mis-teeq with the girls so I hoped you liked the medley. I understand if you don't like them though, they were a bit raprapparaprap!' Ha! She did a bit of a thank you as well and it hit me how much stuff she's actually done in the past year. Album, mountain climb, winning Strictly and becoming a judge on the same show. Not that she didn't give her all, she was a proper dancing whirlwind. It was also great that she didn't neglect her first (and un-released in the UK) album too. She did three songs off it and the music to 'Lipstick' ended up morphing into 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'! Amazing. Worst song? The awful Gary Barlow-penned new single 'To Love Again'. Dreary. Best songs? The Boy Does Nothing and Play Me.

Setlist:

• Welcome To The Alesha Show (Introduction)
• Fired Up
• Let's Get Excited
• Cinderella Shoe
• Chasing Ghosts
• Breathe Slow
• Can I Begin" (Acoustic version)
• Don't Ever Let Me Go
• Mis-Teeq Medley ("All I Want", "Can't Get It Back", "One Night Stand", "B With Me", "Why?", "Scandalous")
• Hand It Over
• "Dance Break" (contains elements of Alesha's dance in the N.E.R.D song "She Wants to Move")
• Play Me
• Lipstick
• Knockdown
• To Love Again

Encore:

• The Boy Does Nothing

On Saturday we went to Skipton. Had a hair cut and got to hear all the Skipton gossip from Alison. I like going back but I'll never understand why we spent two years there. I don't miss it at all, but then you never realise these things until you change your circumstances do you? We were back to take James' Mum out for lunch as it's her birthday today. We went to a new cafe where the bear shop was but I can't for the life of me remember its name now! Very nice though. I had lasagne and it was a jolly day out all told.

We were quite glad to get out of Leeds on Saturday actually. There were two protests going on. One was a fascist march and then the other was a anti-fascist march in protest. It turns out that just as we arrived back to Leeds it was coming to an end so we didn't quite miss it in the end anyway! Between this and Nick Griffin being on Question Time I have to admit that it shook me up a bit. I know that the chances of them gaining power is next to none but isn't it scary that this thing, this threat to civil liberties that we've fought years for, exists at all?

On to better things. We had most of Sunday off. I made brownies and we watched some stuff we'd taped. Then we watched Hocus Pocus as we'd not got to do anything Hallowe'en-y! Fun stuff. Bette Midler is hilarious in that film. It is a little bit Disney film by numbers but it has some really funny moments, and some slightly adult ones too - hangings, virgins, child death. The lead guy (who's also the lead in Eerie Indiana) is now a hairdresser in LA, ie, a professional gay.

Last night we went to see Alphabeat at the Cockpit (how is that not a gay venue?!). I'd never been before but I didn't expect it to be that small. It was a good thing though as we got a great view. They were really excellent as well. there are a lot of them to pack on to a tiny stage! I knew they'd be good but my god, they were just excellent in every way. Usually I don't like bands doing loads of new stuff but the new stuff sounded so good live that I really didn't mind. It was about half old stuff and half new. They were only on for an hour but they packed a load in. To be honest, if they'd have been on for any longer Andres SG might have taken someone out with his flailing arms and tambourine. James seemed to think that the crowd were miserable and were only there for 'Fascination' but i thought that the crowd in front of us were really into it in general. I didn't feel out of place dancing my feet off anyway. Best songs? 'The Spell' went down a treat as did 'Fascination' obviously. 'Touch Me Touching You' was also great due to the audience participation (there was quite a lot of that anyway!) I dunno if I could pick a worst song really. It was excellent. And isn't Stine the cutest? I'm tempted to import the album but I've imported so much lately, plus I've just spent too much on the Skunk Anansie Best Of. Boo. Setlist:

• Go-Go
• The Spell
• Heart Failure
• What Is Happening
• DJ
• Chess
• Ain't Nobody (Chaka Khan cover)
• Touch Me Touching You
• 10,000 Nights
• The Beat Is
• Boyfriend

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• Hole In My Heart
• Fascination

Well we had a great time in London although our usual plan of walking around everywhere utterly failed due to where we were staying but I'll come on to that in a bit. On Friday afternoon I finished work early, came back home and got our train, so we got to London at around 4pm but as it turns out, after getting to the hotel in East India, then coming back to find the theatre we only just had enough time before our show started. I love going to London. When I'm there I realise that I've missed it quite a lot although I still wouldn't live there.

We went to see Hairspray at Shaftsbury theatre and it was hand down one of the best shows I've seen, and I've seen some shows. There was just something really compelling about the thing, everything flowed and there was nothing, absolutely nothing during the whole thing where I thought, 'that was a little off'. The films are also wonderful and I can't quite put my finger on why I love them all so much as I don't really like 60s music at all. It's all just so fun, enegetic and infectious. I really enjoyed the whole thing from start to finish. The sets also had a distintive style which was really nice too. The show is half way between the two films I think. More plot than the new one but more musical (obviously) than the original and it's fun without being stupid. I mean, it is stupid but it's not entirely farcical. Oh, and Michael Ball makes a great woman and seemed to really enjoy the whole thing. Loved it.

On Saturday we headed off out at ten with the intention of walking from our hotel to Greenwich. We had to anyway as the DLR was mostly down anyway. The tube and DLR being down became a problem throughout the weekend actually as it turns out that the public transport links around the area aren't great if something goes down. Anyway, we walked south and it was really nice, being by the river but God it was a long way. With that and all the walking around Greenwich I felt it the next day, especially at the top of leg/hip. Every time I sat down and then got up I had to limp as the muscle had seized up. That's not normal for me as we're used to walking.

Anyway, we got to the Canary Wharf area which is an odd place. We'd walked through it the evening before and felt so weird. Everyone was in suits apart from us. We went through the tunnel under the river and then walked round Greenwich which I love. So pretty. We had a cake, sat in a churchyard and then went to the CD fair being held there. After that we headed up the hills to Greenwich Observatory. The view from there is brilliant. I got to stand on the Meridian line which I was pleased with until Eleanor later told me that you can also do that in Cleethorpes which took the shine off a little. It's an interesting little place. The stuff there have there is fairly unique. We went to one of the Planetarium shows too, 'Ice Worlds'. I'd not been to one before but it was fun, although the seats being tipped back made me want to go to sleep, especially with all of the walking we'd been doing. We had lunch there too and I bought a Black Hole T-shirt which was very cute.

After that we headed to the Maritime Museum (In the buildings opposite they were filming The Wolfman at night. Exciting!). Boats don't really do that much for us but it's a very well put together museum. We saw Nelson's uniform though which was interesting. After that we went around Greenwich market which I looooved. I had to drag myself away as I bought myself so much wonderful tat. I bought a funky chicken doorstop which is now full of rice and sitting by the bedroom door. So cute. I also bought a Sock Pig which is what it sounds like really, a pig made of socks. Again, cute. There was also a hanging Totoro thing which also became mine. I will take pictures at some point and put them on here. We got a smoothie and then headed off to the O2. Now we thought that with Greenwich being so nice the walk to the O2 would be great. It wasn't. It really is horrible and it's surrounded by industrial and business parks. No wonder it failed when it was the Millenium Dome. It was in the arse end of nowhere! Still, when we finally made it we were quite impressed. It really is massive and with plenty of restaurants. I've never really understood why people go to the same old places to eat. The queues for the steak houses and Italians were massive (don't get me wrong, Italian is my favourite) so why not go to a place with no queue? We had tapas. Yum yum.

And so the main event - Girls Aloud. I wasn't wary as such as I knew it would be good. But with Out Of Control not really wowwing me much I did wonder if they could top last year. Thankfully they really did. The screens they had were amazing and they had a bit of a no ballad rule which was brilliant. It's funny though, they did The Loving Kind and it really showed it up as quite a boring song. Not their best. But it was brilliant and our seats were great - around the side but two rows from the front. Best song? Untouchable was brilliant on account of the moving platform and I was estatic that they did The Show, even though it was part of a medley. It's my favourite song of theirs. They chucked in Waiting as well which was weird, they didn't do any other old album tracks but it made for a nice surprise. Full setlist:

The Promise
Love Is The Key
Biology
Miss You Bow Wow
The Loving Kind
Waiting
Love Machine
Rolling Back The Rivers In Time
Untouchable
Sexy? No No No...
Broken Strings (yawn)
Love Is Pain
Call The Shots
Revolution In The Head
Sound Of The Underground
Fix Me Up
Womanizer
Something Kinda Ooooh

ENCORE
The Show/Wake Me Up/Jump/No Good Advice/Can't Speak French/The Promise (Reprise)

So yeah, really good fun overall.

On Sunday we went for a boat ride down the Thames. We'd not done it before and we thought that as we were near Greenwich it would be a good chance to do the full thing. It's interesting seeing London from the river. I didn't realise quite how much you can see from there but we got some great pictures. I finally found out why Canada Water is called that too thanks to the hilarious boat driver!

We got off at Westminster and went to Leicester Square where we had a mexican at Chiquitos, complete with cocktails (non-alcoholic though). Honestly, I'm getting so used to them. But it was 22 degrees so I needed a cooler! Then we had a wander up to Euston Road and hung around the train statiion for ages. We could have done with getting an earlier train really but no matter. We were back in good time. An excellent trip which seemed like a long time really.

Didn't do much yesterday and then back to work today. Anyone want to hire a librarian? West Yorkshire Archives don't. No interview for me which I have to admit I don't get. There's not much else out there really. Grrr.

We've watched a few films over the past few days. On Monday we watched In Bruges which I really enjoyed. I liked the fact that it was low budget but still looked very nice (due to the location). It was very funny too despite the somewhat dark content. Yes, a good film. Tonight we watched Clue which was also about killing people but played as a farce. It worked really well which surpsied me and it was quite clever overall. Very funny overall which says something as it's the kind of humour that could have been played out really badly. I'm glad that we're back into film watching. Wolverine tomorrow. Hurrah!

I really don't have that much to say at the minute. The fact that I packed 5 boxes full of books yesterday suggested what I've been up to. I know it's only a week until we move but I want it done now! I can't be doing with hanging around. It also doesn't help that James has been getting on my nerves slightly, stressing about all the stuff we need to do. I know there's lots to do but stressing about it isn't doing either of us any good! Things are a little better now though, I have to say.

On a better note, we've booked tickets to see The Saturdays, the Girls Aloud for the recession, in Manchester in June. I've bought the tickets for James' birthday as he got me Girls Aloud for mine. Should be good though. We were going to go to Sheffield to see them but it turns out that the last train back on a Saturday is earlier than the last train back in the week. Yeah, because that makes sense. So Manchester it is!

We;ve finished the first season of Yes Minister which was very good. Funnily enough there was a bit about pushing through an unpopular idea, specifically ID for all citizens - "We didn't fight two world wars to do that!". Quite.

Oh I finished my book on public libraries. I pretty much stick by what I said before, although American public libraries don't seem to be as nice as ours. It was a good book which was probably lacking a bit of depth really.