2010 Will Be My Year...I Hope!

Sorry for lack of updates yet again, although I don't have many readers so I'm sure it's no big deal. I think I'll be packing a few things in this blog post I'm afraid.

Firstly, happy new year! Last year I wrote a blog post saying how great 2008 was and how 2009 didn't hold as much promise. It did and it didn't I guess. Nothing hugely exciting happened to me in the first half of the year, the second half was definitely more eventful! Due to a few changes at work I managed to progress further in my job than I'd expected and things have gone from strength to strength there in the past 3 or 4 months. A good team of great people is a valuable thing indeed and I'm proud to work in one.

I was introduced to some great music last year and I hope it continues in 2010. My new favourite band has the be The Darling Buds who did a great acoustic set at Victoria Gate a few months back. Their music is stunning and you should check them out immediately. I managed to go and see Skint & Demoralised quite a lot and that's just always great fun, I can't wait to hear new stuff from Matt Skint this year. My two favourite bands, My Chemical Romance and One Night Only have had quiet years but should be back in 2010 with a vengeance! I can't wait. So far this year I'm all set to go and see Gallows (I'm very excited about this gig) and Rolo Tomassi. I still plan to get a Gallows inspired tattoo this year if I can afford it and get an appointment with the amazing Valerie Vargas.

Talking of music, have you seen the Lady Gaga video for Bad Romance? Best video of 2009 by far...

Things got really great for me just before new year week when my gorgeous boyfriend of 7 years proposed to me! Having spent a fortune on amazing xmas presents for me he waited until 1am Boxing Day morning to present me with a card (with a photo of Bob Dylan on it) declaring that we were going to Rome for 3 days. He popped the question next to a beautiful ancient fountain on the Palatine Hill and of course I said YES! So it looks like 2010 will be filled with bridal magazines, wedding shows and money saving for me. Bring it on.

That's it I guess. Maybe I should set a new years resolution to update on here at least once a week and make it more topical....I think I'll fail outright but I'll give it a go.

I've Been Away

Once again I've not blogged in a while. I was on holiday for a few weeks. Oh my god I needed those two weeks but I've come back and feel like I was never away :( So what have I been up to?

Firstly I've gone blonde. I'm still not sure it was the best idea I've ever had! I went blonde when I was at uni, which coincided with when I was obsessed with Eminem and liked to dress like a bit of a boy. The hairdresser fucked my hair so badly I had to have it all cropped off. For the reason I’ve just stated I didn’t really mind but my family (in particular my brother) started calling me Pat Butcher. Not surprisingly I dyed it back to black fairly sharpish. That was about 10 years ago (fuck I feel old now) and the boyfriend had never seen it blonde, he’d heard the stories but still encouraged me to lighten it again (fuelled by his crush on Jenna Jameson I suspect). I always liked the colour, just not the cut, so I took the (very expensive) plunge. Oh dear.

I was in the hairdresser’s for 7 and a half hours. In that time I had my hair bleached twice and the ends still wouldn’t go any colour but copper. I was meant to be having a messy bob cut but to save me having to be a redhead (that would have washed me out, trust me) I had to have it cut off. It’s not a good cut really. It’s meant to be a very short version of a bob that will grow into the style I want but to be honest it’s more of an overgrown pixie cut gone wrong. I was told they’re a ‘statement salon’ when they were half way through butchering, I mean cutting, my hair. I don’t want a fucking statement on my head thanks very much! Plus since, once again, I fried my hair they can’t bleach it again for two months. It’s meant to be peroxide blonde but won’t be until I have the second bleaching. Aaaaahhhh. Stuck with a yellow mop on my head with black roots. Not so sexy. Thank god I’ve got boobs or I’d have no male attention ever again. The boys at work have started calling me as a little boy. Nice.

So me, the hair and the boyfriend took ourselves off to Cornwall to stay with the in-laws for a week. We had the best weather you could ever imagine. Even I, the office emo, popped on a bikini and sat sunbathing. The only problem with holidays is you treat yourself far too much. I managed to put on a lot of weight that I still can’t bloody shift. This is not helped by the fact that I’ve not done any running or exercise for over a month now (even though my half marathon attempt is getting closer). We then came back to Camden for a week and just lounged around, watching DVD’s, eating even more and drinking even more again. It was heaven.

I’ve managed to catch a few gigs as well. I was double booked to see Air Traffic and Skint & Demoralised on the 18^th June. I planned to catch half of both with the aid of a taxi but AT’s tardiness meant I only caught one song before I had to leave (although I hear the gig was an amazing 15 song comeback) and then S&D’s tardiness meant I actually could have caught a lot more of AT. Although I was glad to catch the whole S&D set and you should all go any buy their new single, Red Lipstick, on iTunes NOW!

Last night we went to see La Roux as part of the iTunes Festival. Dan Black supported and I thought they were both really good actually. It’s not really the type of music I tend to like but La Roux has a pretty amazing voice and was really sweet and funny with the crowd. The sound in the Roundhouse was great as well which has got me all excited for my next gig, Placebo and General Fiasco on Tuesday!

Also went to see a few films. Public Enemies is a must see. Excellent direction, fantastic acting and all the guys look proper fit in their suits ;) It had me crying like a baby at the end as well. Transformers 2 was such a letdown. It looked great but made no sense and dragged on for far too long. Plus the comedy Transformers were just a joke – for all the wrong reasons. Still, Shia LaBeouf looked hot! Terminator Salvation was nowhere near as bad as people will have you believe. I’m not sure Christian Bale was the right man for the job and I found the action just too unbelievable but it worked better than Terminator 3 and breathed some new life into the franchise.

That’s it really. I’ve got a busy month ahead so I’m sure there’ll be more updates soon.

Little Catch Up

I really neglect this blog, last time I wrote anything I'd just been to Camden Crawl, that was like a month ago, so I should update everyone on what's been going on since then.

Firstly I tried to get fit and healthy. This mainly involved me not drinking and putting my new running shoes to good use around Regents Park.

I managed 3 full weeks with no booze, which isn't easy when you live in Camden, work for a company that embraces a drinking culture and class the Hawley Arms as your second home. I managed to slowly start getting better at running, although to be honest my lungs felt like they were going to implode. I haven't smoked for at least 7 years, and even then it was never much, but oh my god my lungs don't like exercise. Never the less I was loving popping on my ipod and trying to find my 'power song'  to run to, so far it's a toss up between half the songs on the new Lily Allen album and Gallows 'The Vulture'. It all went tits-up when a gig I was going to on Monday got cancelled, Skint & Demoralised at the Camden Roundhouse, and we ended up having a bit of a drinking session with Mr. Skint himself, Matt Abbott. We got a rather intimate spoken word session with him in the beer garden (see video and ignore my ridiculous laughing and cackling in the background).

So that was the end of my health streak. I've not had a hangover like the one I had the next day for years. You don't even want to know how ill I was. I wouldn't mind but that much alcohol wouldn't have had much effect on me 3 weeks earlier so trying to be healthy actually made me sick....well that's my excuse anyway.

I also managed to catch a really odd gig on Tuesday night with my mate Sam. We went to the Lock Tavern to try and see Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong do a dj set but ended up leaving after the first two bands. The first was great but we didn't catch their name, bloody typical, the second was called something like Sparky and the something or other deathcap. Oh my god it was the most surreal experience of my life, he had an OHP! So we left and got chips instead which just fucked up my diet even more....along with the pint of cider.

Next came Gallows at Kentish Town Forum. Fucking amazing, out of this world, perfection! That band are fantastic live, they give everything and Frank Carter is so engaging. The only down side was we were up top and you can't stand up up there, we eventually did for the last couple of songs but I'm sure it was way more fun down the front. I managed to spend £30 on merch and have a pint so this time my purse was feeling the pain as well as my liver. I left adamant that a Gallows tattoo is the way forward and I'm searching for a great lyric and an image to pull together as a start of my sleeve.

I also went drinking Friday and Saturday, as well as shopping, so I pretty much cleared my bank account and the health streak is dead and buried. Next steps? Polish off the vegan cakes I bought yesterday, finish this blog and go for a run. Well, maybe I'll have a nap first. 

This week maybe wasn't my finest, god I did some stupid things, but it sure as hell was a lot of fun.

Camden Crawl

Last weekend saw my beloved Camden host its beloved Crawl. We had weekend passes and so did our friends so my flat was like a hostel with two bodies on the sofa bed and a body at the bottom of our bed. Cosy. But I tried to be a good hostess, I made tea and toast on Saturday morning. Sunday I was tired and grumpy so everyone had to fend for themselves. Sorry guys.

The problem with Camden Crawl is you think it's going to be a whole day long event but actually you get your map at 11am and then have to find something to do until the bands start playing at 6pm. Sure there are things going on during the day but they're not promoted like the main acts so I'm sure we missed a few hidden gems. Thank fuck for the Halwey Arms is all I can say. Lovely Dougie treated us like rockstars (Halstars ;)) and gave us some free drinks and let us queue jump lots the whole weekend. Thank you Dougie. The Halwey had loads of live music throughout the day and I managed to catch Sam McCarthy's set both nights, featuring Dee Plume (wearing and amazing Kiss jacket) on Saturday. We also trotted around aimlessly and managed to bump into George Craig which was quite random but a nice surprise.

We were adamant we wanted to see General Fiasco at Dublin Castle as our first proper gig on Friday and so got there about an hour and a half early. We were first in the queue at the doors and then 10 minutes before the gig starts they tell us all to get out as the queue will start outside. Bastards. This meant the people at the back were now at the front and by the time we got outside we were right at the back. We managed to finally get in and caught the last 3 songs. Luckily GF were playing Saturday at the much bigger Electric Ballroom and so we managed to catch them there. They were great and I'm looking forward to seeing them back in London on the 6th May.

Next up we went to see Skint & Demoralised. I'd only ever heard one song and was really surprised, Matt Abbott is much better live and we managed to catch him on the Myspace Bus too, although we were outside.
Skint & Demoralised

I think we'll go and see him when he hits Camden next, I'm now following him on Twitter and find his rhyming tweets hilarious. I know I'm a loser and I have been told off already for liking S&D. The only other band I saw was Daniel P Carter's band Hexes. Oh my god they were too good and if you like a bit of hardcore I'd give them a listen.

So that's it really. Throw in a few badges, some humous and chips, a lot of cider, a Subway, late night McDonalds, running down Camden High Street (twice, don't ask), getting asked for id at KOKO and probably a million other random things and you have my Camden Crawl weekend. I'm sure I could have seen more bands and made the more of it but we had a laugh and the sun was out so it was all good.