spring is springed

hellaaaw hellaww

well haven't i been a busy bloody bee lately?

as you know, chloe came to stay for the grand unveiling of country house cooking contest which was thoroughly enjoyed by all, despite my incredible fury at the injustice of it all, and the fact that JBR was pissed so was not fit to judge anything.

ricky came up too and we ventured off to Bradford to the Film and Media museum which is really brilliant, i can't believe i haven't been before, have i already talked about this? i can't remember! anyway, the ground floor is just free computer games and arcade games from all decades including the wonderful Goldeneye, which brought back MANY a memory and was thoroughly enjoyable to watch chloe try to get a hang of the controls after all this time while her gun waggled about in the air shooting straight into the clear blue sky while a baddie shot her in the gut, then the old familiar desperation of try to slap them to death, remember 'slappers only' on Goldeneye? great times.

anyway, loads and loads to do there, lots of sets from animation which was amazing, including a wallace and gromit and a wombles set, we (perhaps ill advised) attended a talk about the Fairy photos from the 20's (we were the only ones there, i may also add that i forced the others to come) two old men wandered over and joined in, when i say joined in, they blurted out irrelevant information every few seconds 'oh, we're from london' 'i saw a programme about this on telly' 'weird to think my auntie was alive when this happened' and so on and so on, i made exaggerated 'hmmm, oh wow' noises every time they spoke in order to make chloe laugh, but she stood quire resolute.

The photos were ridiculous, you know, the ones of the little girls with fairies, even in those days it was a real struggle to conceive that ANYONE had believed them for a second, all i can think is that there was a mass-nervous breakdown going on cause of the First World War? they look like flat white bits of paper and are awkwardly drawn at that, not to mention that the girls are staring into the middle distance, clearly not interacting with the little faries, there's even an elf with a belly button and curly shoes, it's rank, Arthur Conan-Doyle said it proved that fairies reproduced like humans which is a foul idea to say the least.

anyway, because they were quite posh no one ever had the nuts to say 'you little bloody liars!' and they only confessed to it in the 1980's!!! honestly.

spent friday in the studio getting on with ricky's album covers ahead of him album launch in april. Came home and cooked an insanely massive curry for the first time all alone without the guidance of someone who knows what they're doing, turned out pretty good. PLayed streetfighter on the wii, one of our classic games.

saturday was an insane day of activities,we went to saltaire to the mill which in all honesty is pretty lame, the only thing that redeems it is that it's an amazing building, however the hockney's are hard to look at cause of all the people bundling about and shopping and eating. went to a mental little cafe in a basement and had toasties and tea and teacake and fundge cake and all the other good tearoom things, then we headed to the main event: LASERQUEST! yes! at Castleford Xscape. i haven't played laser quest since i was about 10 so i was almost nervous! however it was insanely fun, there was a team of evil blue (there were 3 teams, blue red yellow) children who were about 2 foot so naturally i concentrated on taking them DOWN however they were easily the scariest and when me nd chloe stormed their base they shoved us out! little bastards, i easily got most satisfaction from shooting them. I did the best out of us all by a long way, coming 10th out of 37! clearly my reckless drive to eliminate the bases paid off, combined with my ruthless gun skills of course.

went to the chippy restaurant which is honestly like something from the 60's and was informed that they cooked everything in beef bloody fat so i had to have some insane vegetarian dinner! never mind that fact i've been eating their chips for ages! finally ended the day at the pub playing staring contests and laughing uproariously at the mental faces we were inventing.

the good news? i had an interview today for a library job, and i actually GOT it, despite my resolution to the fact that i definitely wouldn't. to say that i was overjoyed would be the understatement of the century. maybe things will turn around for me in 2010? better not speak too soon but anyway, for once i am optimistic and have the prospect of some money and some self-esteem.

so here i have added some pics i just took in the churchyard next to my flat, i love crocuses so much and no picture will ever show how totally vibrant they are. they are also really fragile and disappear so suddenly once their job is done, i always imagine people in the old days who relied on warm weather so much more than we do, seeing them and feeling suddenly like things were going to be okay after all.