I felt I had to share this. Never has a video fitted a song so well, in my opinion. The video consists of footage from Joe Kittinger’s famous parachute jump from 19.5 miles altitude, and later slow-motion footage of big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton. (Thank you, Wiki.)
It’s quite an experience.
P.s. I’d watch it direct from Youtube, the snow is kinda distracting 
…Mistletoe and wine ? Masters essay and tea, I’ll thank you kindly.
‘Ugh’ sums it up rather nicely I feel. When did the Christmas holiday suddenly become about work and no play? This year it seems. You’re in the adult world now Ms. TF time to start acting like one.
Do I have to?
Listening to: The Antlers – Wake
It’s always awful when pets die.
I remember when I was 7, my father came back to the house after leaving for work and said to my mother he needed to talk to her about ‘the wardrobe’. I remember being slightly puzzled by this odd request but didn’t think much of it. My mother got annoyed because she thought he’d end up late for work and so didn’t want to talk about ‘the wardrobe’, instead choosing to try and get him back out the door. Eventually he succeeded in getting her to go and see the wardrobe and we went off to school.
It was when my brother and I came back from school that my mother chose to tell us. As he’d left the drive in the car, my father had discovered a little, black, curled up bundle by the side of the road. Chloe our 10 month old kitten. She’d been hit by a car during the night and had crawled to the side of the road to die.
Kinks was a gentle adoptee who entered our lives about 4 years ago. As pets do, he became very much part of the family and kept Amos busy by letting himself be chased. It’ll be very odd not seeing him sitting on the bench outside; or curled up in front of the fire; or keeping my lap warm in the evenings. He was the best cat because he always came for a cuddle when you were upset, it was like he knew.
Love ya, Kinks.
And definitely not the exception to that rule.
I can see how it would be easy to coerce yourself into thinking that you might be that exception but no, you know better and you’re not. So stop thinking you might be and move on with your life. No point dwelling on the past, it’s gone.
I am going to try now. I’m fed up of feeling slightly less than crap.
I will never do long distance again. Thrice I’ve managed to end up in one and each time it has been pretty much disastrous. The last time has been the worst because I was not ready to let go and he wants his cake and to eat it. And you know what? I’m letting him despite the fact he broke nearly every promise he ever made me.
Boo me.
I’m sure it works out perfectly well for some people but three times unlucky has told me I need to avoid them like the plague. So I will. I’ll actively walk away from them. There are only so many times you can take being metaphorically punched in the stomach, repeatedly.
The worst thing? They’ll never care as much as you will.
Listening to: Placebo – Flesh Mechanic
…baby Inigo. Brother to Amos.
Born December 2nd 2009.
It’s a funny old world; one minute you may be riding high on the glorious success of a two-week school placement and then the next minute you’ll be brought crashing down to earth by the sheer awfulness of an essay you just received back.
And the award goes to Ms. Teacherface for her performance in Friday’s ‘Humanities Seminar.’ She captured so intently and so realistically a person in meltdown mode. Highly commendable.
It’s a funny old world; one minute you may be striding forward purposefully with all the best intentions in the world that it will be ok and you will talk and be merry and forget the pain, and then the next minute you’ll be brought spinning down to earth by something so simple as an ignored message.
And the award goes to Ms. Hopelessness for her performance in Saturday’s ”I’ll Let It Affect Me Again, Even Though I Was Doing SO Well.’ The way she mimicked a foolish young woman, affected by love is undeniably breathtaking. Illuminating.
I don’t do well in much recently.
Listening to: School of Seven Bells – Iamundernodisguise
I want to take a few moments to plug a little beauty of a blog:
A bit of self-promotion hurts no one 
More seriously, it’s a baby at the moment so would very much appreciate some comments, queries, love, hate etc etc
Listening to: John Mayer – Heartbreak Warfare
In a sense I suppose.
I am engaging in some good, old-fashioned procrastination: an essay to write that I can’t be bothered to start but once I have it should be all fine!
I started back at uni today after two weeks on placement in school. Before I started my placement I was in a deep well of despair. I was centimetres away from quitting the whole damn thing – never quite felt so desperate. I had said to myself that I would finish my two weeks in school and if I’d not had a change of heart by the point it was time to do some serious thinking about a ‘plan B’. I don’t see myself as a quitter, I’m pretty stubborn when it comes to most things and the idea of giving up on something usually makes me wrinkle my nose in distain but this was something different, I wasn’t coping and more to the point I couldn’t see the point.
The two weeks didn’t start well in that the school wasn’t expect myself or my school partner (who is lovely and really helped me enjoy my time there), so that didn’t kick-start everything in the most positive of ways. Secondly, our PST (personal school tutor/class teacher) doesn’t teach on Mondays so we were flung into the classroom and left to mooch around, I suppose. Not the best Monday I’ve ever had but we soldiered on and, it was worth it. Our class teacher is the most lovely person I could have wished for and completely reinstalled my desire to teach…along with a little help from the children, too. The school is small; a smidge under 100 children with 3.5 classrooms (a Foundation unit is in the middle of being built hence the .5) there is such a community spirit it’s quite enlightening and we both felt part of it from the second day onwards.
It was brilliant taking Phonics lessons; or reading a story about a boy who flies his aeroplane to the moon and meets a martian who crash landed there; or taking a P.E. lesson where the children were aliens and had to move around at different speeds and in different directions according to how they felt an alien might. I felt entirely in my element.
Monday 23rd November 2009 and all aboard the university train once more. Boo.
As I sat in a lecture this afternoon I felt all the enthusiasm drain out of me and run, screaming for the door. But I wasn’t about to follow it. These last two weeks have taught me, if nothing else, that this is where I want to be and I’ll just have to take the rough with the smooth – however mind-numbingly dull and awful it may be.
So back to the essay train I shall take myself, dragging my heels as I go – but hey, no pain no gain, right?
Listening to: Marina and the Diamonds – I Am Not A Robot
I feel I must reignite the ’song a day’ theme just this once (but it’ll probably be more down the line) to tell you all about a band.
I’ve not ever fallen in love with a band as quickly as I have with The Decemberists. They featured on Jools Holland a few nights ago but I missed it. If you’ve not seen their performance yet, I suggest you click here. Listening to that on its own may be all merry and nice (or not as the lyrics may tell you) but you won’t understand. You won’t understand the story of Margaret and William and a jealous forest queen and a wicked Rake. It’s an amazing journey of an album; a story told through song that had me mesmerized from the 7th note. The Hazards of Love is just…have a listen. Grant you, you may not like it; it may not be your cup of tea but it is worth a listen. I recommend The Crane Wife by the same band for something a little gentler but just as good.
Listening to: The Decemberists – O Valencia!
*colourblind.
I took this test to measure my colour blindness. It turns out I am not so good but I think I knew this:
A score of 40. Which isn’t all that great since you’re aiming to get a zero. However, that print screen was of my second attempt. The first, which I didn’t think to keep a copy of, showed that I had major problems distinguishing greens and blues with a score of 57…my third attempt told me I had issues with greens and blues once again with a score of 63. I wouldn’t like to say how accurate this is but I imagine it’s not all that – a lot would depend on your screens colour calibration et al. But let us not make excuses, I’ve always known I’ve had trouble with greens and blue, simply from conversations with people along the lines of ‘Oh, that’s a nice blue colour!’, ‘No, that’s green.’ ‘Oh.’
It has now baffled me somewhat that the test is telling me I have trouble with reds and, to an extent, purples. Do I have no concept of colour at all? Maybe I see the world in black and white.
It would explain a few things.
Listening to: Bat For Lashes – Travelling Woman
Utterance