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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Anne's LiveJournal:
| Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | |
| 9:27 pm | a thought I may have mentioned this anecdote before, but I'm on a Facebook group for an unofficial reunion of school pals that's happening in Glasgow on December 5th, and various reminiscences on the threads there have reminded me of it. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, my Dad gave me a piece of advice over the kitchen table, as we were doing something else - playing chess or something, possibly. I don't know what prompted it (maybe the story below), but I remember it very clearly, because even at the time I was immediately aware that this wasn't the usual sort of advice a Dad would give to his 8-year-old daughter, but also it seemed to me immediately true and valuable. It was this: "I'd say, Anne - if you lie - and obviously, don't lie; it's a bad thing, so don't lie (and there was a certain amount of "blah blah *wink*" about his manner there). But if you *do* lie - if you *do* lie - lie until the end." My God. Possibly the most pragmatic, best advice I've ever had. I think we may have been talking about an incident that happened at school, which I have just reminisced about on the Facebook group. Something happened in primary 5 - I can't remember what - and the teacher finally narrowed it down to three boys, and made them stand up at their desks while he interrogated them, waiting for one of them to crack, which one of them finally did. And I remember thinking at the time that if he had only held out, Mr. Jamieson would have had absolutely no way of knowing who had been culpable, and would have had to give in, given that he had to get on with teaching us all. Those of you who are parents: if you are not too shocked by such a move, I'd heartily recommend you give your children the same advice. :o) For one thing, the respect you'll get for suggesting something so humanly honest will echo down the years, as this has with me. Current Mood:  cheerful |
| Saturday, November 14th, 2009 | |
| 8:18 pm | Wordreference forums Just registered with this fantastic resource for people brushing up their languages. I thought some of you might be interested. It covers a wide variety of popular languages, not just European. When you register you say what your own native language is (or languages, plural, if you're bilingual etc.), and people help each other out with translating tricky phrases into whatever language it is they're dealing with. It's just really handy to get native speakers' input. I've already posted a few suggestions for English translations and nuances, but I've not asked for any help as yet - just reading through the boards is absolutely fascinating in itself. Current Mood:  impressed |
| Saturday, September 5th, 2009 | |
| 3:11 am | Good mashup Here I am, as ever, on my Friday night beer-fuelled musicfest, and I found this one. Hope you like it. I'd say I'm off to bed soon, but to be honest I'm music-high so may not make it for another hour or so. Still. Nothing on tomorrow, so that's OK. :o) I do enjoy my little Friday night vice. Ladies and gents, I give you Girls on Film Freaking Out. Current Mood: cheerful |
| Friday, July 31st, 2009 | |
| 12:07 pm | burgled Online last night, listening to music, I didn't hear some opportunistic thief climbing in (I think) through the living room window I had left slightly ajar, grabbing my bag and my coat and making a run for it out the back. I had thought it odd when I went downstairs to visit the loo and found the back door open, but I just thought that I must have failed to close it properly when I'd put the laundry out earlier. Until this morning, that is, when I finally noticed stuff missing. It could be worse, but it's actually a bit awkward because Stef is already away for the weekend at his folks' place in Kent, and I'm about to leave for Cambridge this afternoon as I'm going to a friend's wedding tomorrow. I'm coming towards the end of a long string of phone calls: bank, Stef, locksmith, police etc. Damn. Current Mood:  pissed off |
| Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | |
| 10:06 pm | Moment of surprise on Tuesday Just thought I should update to relate to you a little anecdote concerning something that happened to me on Tuesday evening which resulted in a moment of what I can only call sudden surprise. I had gone for a nice leisured healthy swim after work, and afterwards was walking up Tottenham Court Road on my way to Warren Street tube station, when I suddenly spotted a trail of clear liquid on the pavement in front of me, and as my eyes followed it back I saw that it was seemingly emanating from a (shall we say) 'hoboesque' chap sitting, head down, with his back against a nearby building, legs on the ground pointing forwards, carrier bag beside him. I was alarmed to notice that he seemed to be bleeding at his wrist, so I thought I'd go over to him to ask after his health, perhaps offer some help, that sort of thing. As I got closer, I saw that he was indeed bleeding, and the wound seemed relatively recent: a nasty gash on the upper side of his right wrist, with a fresh tear of blood weeping around his arm. So I approached him and asked if he was all right, mate, and immediately he snapped his young strawberry-blond-bebearded face up at me and commented, ( Read more... ) Current Mood: cheerful |
| Saturday, July 25th, 2009 | |
| 5:35 am | Greensleeves Good morning all! This morning, I'm listening to lots of versions of Greensleeves. And not a single one of the versions I've heard does the tune I expect in the first line. I expect something nice and modal. Perhaps at a party I can put it to you better, but for now I'm just saying that it doesn't quite sound right. So we have : doo doo doo doo di di doo doo doo.... It's the first 'di' that sounds wrong to me: a semitone too low. Any other musos with me on this? |
| Sunday, July 19th, 2009 | |
| 3:02 am | the moon I, like most of my friends, was born after the Apollo 11 moon landings, so when my generation grew up, we simply learned in school that it had happened and that the first man on the moon was called Neil Armstrong. If you're particularly interested (or watch the Simpsons), you know that Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was second ("second comes straight after first!"). And if you're a particularly tiresome pub quiz geek bore like me, you know that Michael Collins was the third man who stayed in the module. Associative learning-wise, it helps if you know your 20th-Century Irish history. But I digress. Sometimes I like to chill the fuck out and take a step back. I've noticed, for example, some articles in the press that seem to suggest that there are some women in their early twenties who are doing great feminist stuff who nevertheless seem to think that they are the first generation to come up with their ideas, and, despite ones delight at their good work, that can still be a bit irritating for those of us who lived the hell out of our lives in a fantastic way when we were their age. Because it's irritating to think that these young women think you must be something out of 1876 in your attitudes, misascribing them to 1995. I suspect this must be common - and I suspect it is only something you notice when you get into your thirties. Perhaps I was simply doing the same irritating arrogant thing when I was 21. So I like to take some time these days to respect the achievements of previous generations. And so I get to the moon landings. Because, when you actually think about it, it goes a bit like this: YOU DID WHAT THE FUCK?!!!!!!!!! WITH *THOSE* TYPES OF COMPUTERS?!!!! SHIT!!! HOW CAN WE FUCKING COMPARE?!!!!!! So I'm enjoying ITN's playful homage ATM, which is taking it day by day and doing a mixture of as-if-it's-happening-today reports interspersed with some cool Peter Snow fancy graphics. Ladies and gentlemen, here is what they've given us so far that I can find on YouTube (I suspect there were others last night and the night before, but they don't seem to be up yet - Monday is the magic day of touchdown, in case you want to tune in): Day 1 - July 15th 1969 Day 2 - July 16th 1969 Current Mood:  excited |
| Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | |
| 10:06 pm | |
| Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | |
| 12:40 am | for francophiles mainly, but the chicken one is fun anyway OK, before I head off to bed, a few more songs from the French guy I keep ranting about. Firstly, a chillout number, his first ever hit - Je vous emmerde, where he goes around chatting girls up in a club and they all tell him to fuck off: Je Vous Emmerde. Then, a political one. The lyrics are mostly spoken: he's walking down the road, spots a pretty woman in front of him with long blonde hair and, in the mood for a shag, follows her. But then she turns round and it's Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen and equally mad NF person. So he calms himself down at this fright and heads back home. But then it turns out she's following him, and he can't get away from her. Ah non! Marine Le Pen! Mais non! Marine Le Pen! And then one that's enjoyable even if you don't speak French (thank fucking Christ for that, I hear you cry), 'cos someone's done a blinder of a cartoon video. It's a song about how he bought this chicken to eat, describes where it came from and how he enjoyed it with a nice bottle of red wine, and he has an abiding love of this chicken. But the video shows a man being tried in a chicken court for chickencide: Poulet numero 728120. Poulet, je t'aime; je pense a toi... Current Mood:  chipper |
| Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | |
| 3:14 pm | Woo! Cycling competition today at work; pay a donation to charity and see how far you can go on a stationary bike in 5 minutes. I took third place in the women's section, and have won a nice bottle of Veuve Clicquot for my efforts! :o) Current Mood: chipper |
| Monday, June 29th, 2009 | |
| 4:49 pm | indoor Wimbledon Hey! They've closed the roof! |
| Sunday, June 28th, 2009 | |
| 2:10 am | more Katerine More of my fave French tranny. Oh my word, he's so bloody pretty. Excuse my lust. Oh, and here's Borderline: More music.(I'm thinking this might be a good one for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} duranorak), (particularly the shit-hot boyish blond). Good man. |
| Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | |
| 10:59 pm | Further to previous post... It will surprise no-one, I think, that this is how I discovered the chap... |
| 10:24 pm | one for the niche market I have found a singer/actor, who has been around for ages it seems, whom I newly like. I've made a couple of comments on Facebook about him. It's a Frenchman, though, so it's all in French. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Monsieur Philippe Katerine, whom I am currently describing as a mixture of David Walliams and Plastic Bertrand. For those of you into French stuff and haven't heard him, I offer up as an example 'Louxor j'adore', a bouncy number with enjoyably questionable lyrics; he says how much he likes watching everyone dancing, and then he teases them by switching the music on and off, until they all get pissed off with the wanker who keeps turning off the sound and at this point the lyrics go: "les gens arrêtent de danser se demandent qui a coupé et commencent à m'encercler et la je me sens en danger alors je leur dis prenez moi faites de moi n'importe quoi pendez moi la tete en bas comme la dernière fois" (The people stop dancing, wondering who keeps cutting the sound out and start to encircle me and I feel that I'm in danger so I say to them - take me and do anything you like - Hang me upside down, like the last time...) Splendid stuff. :o) Of course, in the video, the angry mob is merely represented by him crowd-surfing merrily. Current Mood: chipper |
| Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 | |
| 1:14 am | not going underground... Explicit lyrics: parental/NSFW (if you get there) advisory etc. Current Mood:  amused |
| Friday, June 5th, 2009 | |
| 9:23 pm | the Guantanimo issue Quick question - I can do my own research on this, but I wondered if anyone here knows off-hand - have we (i.e. the UK) agreed to take any of the 'difficult case' Gitmo prisoners yet? |
| Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | |
| 12:59 am | Prince of Wales, Highgate The above pub is well known for doing one of the toughest pub quizzes in the country, to the extent that they've even published their own quiz book. So having been there a couple of times before a couple of years ago, my pub quiz team of me, Stef and our pal Nick went there again tonight for a challenge (I'm just back now; it's a bit of a long journey back home), managing a creditable sixth out of fifteen. They have a 'beer round', which is not part of the main quiz but comes in the middle. We were one of only three teams to get all six questions right, but unfortunately we didn't ace the tie-break, which was: "How many different five-card hands are there in a game of poker played with a 52-card deck?" My heart sank. Because I'm the maths specialist on the team and I knew exactly what I had to do, but couldn't remember exactly what the 'X choose Y' formula was. 'Something factorial over something else factorial' was as far as I could remember after several pints*. So I took a (not bad) guess, thinking close might be good enough. It says something about the quality of the competition, I think, that both other teams got it exactly right (2,598,960). Never mind: we'll be back. :o) * Tbh, though, I'm not sure I would have been able to work out 52!/5!47! or even the (n-(k-1)) etc. version with pen and paper in time from scratch anyway. I suspect the other teams may have known it as a fact. I shall certainly be burning the number into my memory for future reference... Current Mood: chipper |
| Friday, May 22nd, 2009 | |
| 10:16 pm | Advice sought OK. Asking your advice here. I may be being silly, or I may have a point - your call. Last Saturday night, I headed off to one of our local offies to grab a few beers after Eurovision. When there, the guys who owned it explained to me (I can't remember how the conversation started) that they had originally lived in Turkey, but that they couldn't return there, because they'd be killed if they did. I expressed shock at this and asked why. They said it was because they were 'something called' (not apparently expecting me to have any knowledge of this) Kurds. I immediately exploded with a friendly 'Oh Kurds! Oh that's completely different from Turks - even I know that!' They seemed happy with that. Anyway, tonight I just went down there to buy a few beers for the evening, and as I handed over the money I said 'And how are my favourite Kurds this evening?' The guy beamed when I said it, and all seemed fine. But then I was walking back down the road and I suddenly thought that what I'd said actually probably sounded a bit patronising - bordering racist, actually - but maybe the guy felt he had to express happiness at the local's recognition of his national identity. Damn. It's not something I can really find a way to apologise for or correct, but maybe I should have more recognition of the impact of those kind of words. Anyway, thoughts? Bluntness welcome... |
| Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | |
| 9:47 am | sweet dreams I had one of those lovely nights last night - which occur only two or three times a year, I find - where I had a number of (I should specify for clarity: non-erotic) dreams that I found so enjoyably funny that I actually woke up a few times laughing. I cannot remember much about them now, but it has left me wandering round this morning as if surrounded by a velvety cloud of good cheer, and smiling has been my default expression. Anyone else ever get this? Current Mood: cheerful |
| Sunday, May 17th, 2009 | |
| 12:43 am | Deutschland uber alles Eurovision. My fave was Germany. I predicted it would come 23rd. In fact, it came 20th, so not bad for my whole prediction thing. I was on the YouTube version of the song, where plenty of Germans were being upset, saying "oh, well, we've been the shittest as usual" or such like, trying to big them up, pointing out that I really liked it. The UK did give them 7 points, after all, possibly their best score. |