| You know you're from Wolverhampton when... |
[Aug. 13th, 2007|02:33 pm] |
One of my friends just sent this through. There are about 3 that I don't do... *cringe*
Wolverhampton... its not the most glamorous place is it. But when do you know you've been a wulfrunian( someone native of Wolverhampton) for too long? these tell tale signs may help!
* You say 'You am' instead of 'You are'
* You use the word 'Fucking' when thinking of the next word of your sentence. E.g. 'I saw John the other day he was erm...
fucking... out with bob down.... fucking... bingo
* You know 'The Man on the Horse' or McDonalds is a central point of gathering when shopping in town
* You barely batter an eye lid at football violence and you're almost certain to know someone associated with it.
* People from Birmingham are known as 'Brummy Bastard's'
* You have participated in or seen the St Peter's fountain full of bubble bath
* You recognise Wolverhampton as shit for a night on the town but you're guaranteed to be up there on a Saturday
* Talking of clubbing you know that Chicago's and New York New York are grab a granny
* Major's chip shop, Bilston, is the best chips in the world
* You only go to Walsall for something to do on a Sunday morning
* You know Heath Town needs blowing up LOL
* You wonder what happened to the black guy who preached every Saturday in the city centre??
* Depending on what story you believe 'The Tramp on the ring-road' is a polish refugee that has cable paid for him and
doesn't have to pay council tax.
* Talking about psychos you've had a pointless conversation with 'The Cowboy man'.
* You've been asked once by some twat at the bus top for money because his Mrs kicked him out and he has none
* You know that if it wasn't for the cheap Kebab shops, Broad street would be pointless.
* You know the price of 'Lazzeez's' kebabs and pizzas
* You know that Tettenhall is full of posh tarts that only go clubbing in Wolverhampton to shag someone who owns a tracksuit
* You automatically sing 'Wolverhampton' when 'Hi-Ho silver lining is played at a disco'
* We were brought up to hate anything from West Bromwich - Ay IT!
* You know that catching the train to Birmingham is better than the metro as it don't break down half as much.
* You recognise that Primark is chav central but bloody great for bargains
* You know that our train station is a planning disaster from the 70's
* We say we're Black Country but were not, were part of it, but were not in it!
* We only use Telford for Ice skating
* Despite being a city, we still get shocked if get mentioned on the news or a tv programme.
* You know that Whitmore Reans is 'drive by' central
* You know that if you want a hooker spend 5 minutes in All-saints and youll get one
* You know that people from Walsall hate us.. but no-one gives a shit about walsall.
* You know the civic centre is for pensioners, skaters and imigrants.
* You're not happy that Iraqis are in our city but £3 for a wash and dry on your car it could be Osama Bin Laden washing it
for that price
* Asda is a war zone on the weekend for middle aged moms with trolleys
* You remember where you were when Mark Kennedy scored the first goal when the wolves got promoted
* St Peters church is the place to sunbathe when its sunny
* You belive the Express and Star no matter what shit they write.
* You know that Cineworld is cheapest on Tuesdays
* Everyone was born at New Cross.. well almost everyone
* You know that if your'e lost outside Wolverhampton just look for the Blue neon lights on top of Mander House to find your
way home.
* Every taxi driver is friendly but an utter twat
* When was the last time you heard someone say 'Im moving to Ettingshall'?
* You know that weatherspoons is full of Dole dossers or retirees!!
* You know that Blackpool could quite easily be 'Wolverhampton-on-sea'
* Who remembers when Goodyears was a factory and not a restaurant
* Youve been to the Imperial at least once
* Chavs hate trendies, trendies hate gangster rappers, gangster rappers hate emo, and emo's hate everyone but garanteed you
have friends from at least one of those groups.
* We have the worst Christmas lights in the world
* We hate to admit it but we would love to nick Birmingham's big screen from Centenary Sq.
but most of all, you know your'e from wolverhampton if you agree with more than half these things |
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| 'I spat out Plath...' |
[Jul. 9th, 2007|12:49 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  Proud | ] |
Between Stratford on Friday (a conference, hence long periods where lectures were happening in another room, punctured by wild, hectic intervals where they were all with me bombarding me with questions about widening participation in further and higher education) and the coach journeys to and from London today, I've started and finished Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar'. I liked it enough to want to read more. Where does one go after that book to explore more Plath?
I particularly liked the imagery around the fig tree.
London was wonderful. The walking around bit was a little chaotic, insofar as we had three people with various back or limb difficulties, which made the pace of movement very slow with many rests along the way. We also had about 80% of the group who'd never been to London before, so wanted to see things without any concept of the distances between (tube was out, we had someone phobic about enclosed spaces); plus two blokes who wanted to stop in every pub we passed. Nonetheless, all the London tourist virgins appear to have seen enough to have enjoyed themselves and none of the invalids are terminally broken. Success!
( So proud of Jessica Stevens, West End star ) |
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| People Send Postcards... |
[Jul. 3rd, 2007|06:57 pm] |
Judging by the amount of attempts to contact me over the past couple of days by different people, I'm taking it that I appear more disappeared than normal.
Mind you, it's hard to see how much more disappeared I could possibly be than at the back end of last week. I had every e-mail account bouncing, except my work one, which would have just said that I'm out of the office, speak to Karen Jones. Then I was out of phone range, gone wandering right at the tip of the Lleyn Peninsula. Only Ian knew vaguely where I was, with everyone else assuming that I was somewhere in the depths of the Black Country, but I'd left him in a chasm up the top of the Braich y Pwll, meditating.
I climbed down the cliff, right to the very bottom, where the Bardsey Swnt crashed up against spiky rocks, reaching like talons out to sea. These in turn appeared to be attached to great paws, either side of a body, with the waves smashing up between them. I sat there, legs dangling and leaning over as far as I could, watching the sheer glorious violence of it all. It didn't take a lot of imagination to see the claws and forebelly of the ddraig there, facing Ynys Enlli, with that island itself seeming only a short swim away. So peaceful too. I sat there for a long, long time and, since I've got back, it's pulled me back more than once.
( The Holy Bible on repeat ) |
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| Ho-hum... |
[May. 23rd, 2007|03:43 pm] |
The Unexpected Consequences of a Smoking Ban
I'm a smoker, which means that I've already accepted that I'm going to die any moment now. Perhaps before I even finish this live journal entry. I'm also going to take out everyone else, especially small children and cute, fluffy animals. Inherently evil and all that, I DESERVE to die, painfully and horrifically. I know all this, because the anti-smoking publicity has REALLY stepped up in recent months in the lead up to the smoking ban in enclosed public places in England.
( Possibly my dying words ) |
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| Sometimes I can be just too academic... |
[May. 23rd, 2007|02:28 pm] |
Your Score: Edmund HusserlYou scored 38 realism, 55 rationalism, 27 materialism, and 38 atomism!Your philosopher is Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl, (April 8, 1859 - April 26, 1938), philosopher, was born into a Jewish family in Prostějov (Prossnitz), Moravia, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). He is known as the "father" of phenomenology. You concentrate on the ideal, essential structures of consciousness. You think that that the world of objects is normally conceived of in what he called the "natural attitude", which is characterized by a belief that objects themselves have certain properties and in seeing these objects we come to understand what is inherent in them. |
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| 'You have broken through my armour...' |
[May. 23rd, 2007|12:04 pm] |
Magic happens. I should have remembered that. Not just in episodes that defy a rationale beyond the Mysteries, but as something constant that just needs us to reach out to access it.
Yesterday morning, high on the adrenaline of having seen the Manics the night before, and not wanting to face the inevitable return to self-doubt and nightmares once that had faded, I went outside. I had a little chat with Arianrhod, though it was a beautiful morning, not the night sky that usually signals her presense. Nothing really planned, nor scripted, just me with a cigarette on a bench, chatting away to the Mother in my mind. I asked some really specific questions.
That evening she replied.
( Listen to the words of the Great Mother... ) |
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| 'Please sing to me our song...' |
[May. 21st, 2007|04:20 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | weird | ] |
I figured that it's time for an update, especially since I appear to have fallen off the planet in terms of most people's radars.
So what's happening? Just to remove any potential rumours, there hasn't been any big falling out between me and anyone else. The world ended with a whisper, not a bang. The long and short of it is that I burned out. I've been going at full pelt for so long that I simply stopped and couldn't move again. It's been the weirdest sensation and led me to unchartered lands in terms of my emotional state and the way I'm living my life. By necessity, there has been much more playing and work has been scaled back. Not completely, which is probably why I'm still largely exhausted, but getting there.
( Update on a life ) |
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| Arlington |
[Apr. 23rd, 2007|12:50 pm] |
I'm reading Connie Willis's 'Lincoln Dreams' at the moment and there's a fair bit in it about Arlington Military Cemetery in America. I never realized why Arlington is Arlington. Apparently it was General Lee's house and, as the American Civil War pushed the boundary between Union and Confederancy further south, his family were forced to flee. The Union troops took over the house and the general vowed that Lee would never get his house back. In order to assure this, even should the Confederates win, the Unionists buried their dead in the front lawn. The general who ordered this himself ended up being buried only 100 yards from Lee's front door.
As it was, the Confederates lost the war and Lee never did get his house back. But if he had, he would have been living surrounded by the Union dead.
( American Civil War ) |
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| Ho-Bo Care Boxer Rescue Fundraiser |
[Apr. 19th, 2007|10:21 am] |
Posted in Boxer Pixie's livejournal and repeated here for a little extra publicity.
Pixie writes:
Hey everyone! Just wanted to put a quick request for help out there!
We are having a special picnic for Hobo Care Boxer Rescue over Memorial Day weekend. Most of you know that this is an organization that is very important to me, and I spend quite a bit of time with and we spend a lot of time, effort and money to try to help the pups that come into us (on average we have approx 30 dogs in our care at all times, this is a constant, and often the number is higher. Last year alone, the operating expenses for the rescue were over $40,000 .. OUCH!) Part of the picnic is going to be a raffle/silent auction to help raise funds for the rescue. Since I know so many of you offer various services or are crafty as hell, I wanted to see if any of you might be interested in donating services or goodies to be included? All donations are tax-deductible and I can provide you with a receipt as well. If you're interested, please shoot me an email paislipoo@yahoo.com
Donations of course are ALWAYS welcome as well (also tax-deductible).
Myself, everyone at the rescue, and especially all of our babies, will be eternally grateful!!
Thank you!!!
(Thank you paisli for posting this in your LJ and letting me steal the wording for mine.... paisli is an awesome dog mom to Beau, a Ho-Bo Care dog and has been a kick-ass foster mom to a lot of our pups) |
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| Nicked from Roxanne, amongst others |
[Apr. 5th, 2007|02:07 pm] |
You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
ONE.
Word.
(Not as easy as you might think.)
1. Where is your cell phone? bag
2. Describe your boyfriend/girlfriend? non-existent
3. Your hair? dreaded
4. Your mother? Saggie
5. Your father? Leo
6. Your favorite item? book
7. Your dream last night? dark
8. Your favorite drink? tea
9. Your dream car? flying
10. The room you are in? stressed
11. Your ex? beautiful
12. Your fear? fire
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? sedated
14. Who did you hang out with last night? Katarat1
15. What you're not? superwoman
19. The last thing you did? filing
20. What are you wearing? green
22. Your favorite book? december
23. The last thing you ate? sandwich
24. Your life? Whoooosh
25. Your mood? Changeable
26. Your friends? Amazing
27. What are you thinking about right now? sleep
28. Your car? Dirty
29. What are you doing at the moment? meme
30. Your summer? Glastonbury
31. Your relationship status? distant
32. What is on your tv? dust
33. When is the last time you laughed? muffins
34. Last time you cried? Sunday
35. School? please
Copy.
Paste.
Answer.
Questions.
In.
ONE.
Word. |
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| The Cavalry is Coming! |
[Apr. 5th, 2007|02:01 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  determined | ] |
Job Advert
Which means the time is closer when I can stop facing spears, whilst singing 'Men of Harlech'.
This comes a couple of days on from me passing the level 5 bar at the University. This is an incremental pay-rise, which is subject to performance. The boss signed it immediately with the comment,
'You'd have got this on what you've done with finance alone'.
:-) |
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| Race for Life |
[Apr. 4th, 2007|03:04 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  Proud | ] |
Half of our office are running in the Race for Life. I can't because all the dates coincide with the Glastonbury Festival. Saving lives... Glastonbury Festival... saving lives... Glastonbury Festival... what would you have done?
Please sponsor them to help me party on with a clear conscience |
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| I'm going to Glastonbury! I'm going to Glastonbury! I'm going to Glastonbury! |
[Apr. 1st, 2007|10:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | jubilant | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'In My Place' Coldplay | ] |
How important was this to me? Well, let's put it this way, a work colleague asked me on Friday what my plans were for the weekend. I told her about the Pagan Federation Conference on Saturday, then said that Sunday afternoon depended on Sunday morning. 'Why's that?' 'Because the Glastonbury tickets go on sale, so I'll either be celebrating wildly or...' (long pause) 'Or what?' 'Probably hanging myself.'
I've been bursting into tears whenever I hear Coldplay, because 'In My Place' is the sound of the Glastonbury Festival in my head. If I thought about getting the tickets, I felt sick to the stomach. Every other year, I've been the calm one and the only one utterly convinced that we'd be going; this year, I was the only one really panicking. The stats would come through - first 200,000 people had registered, then it was 300,000... I thought the books had closed, but it was extended. It closed at 400,000 people registering for just 140,000.
Carter USM weren't helping, singing to me:
'I guess a 50/50 chance
Wasn't good enough...'
( Operation Glastonbury Festival Ticket Buying ) |
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| The Danger of Trolls |
[Mar. 25th, 2007|12:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
I got killed yesterday. I thought I was going to be ok, because the tourist guide I'd been reading simply said, 'Fill up your spare spots with a bit of food, because you'll be running into some nasty trolls'. I'm a veteran of Trollheim, so I thought I'd be fine. Divine intervention will protect me from anyone close up hitting me or, for that matter, anyone throwing things at me from a distance. Just in case, I took a full bottle of prayer potion and five lobsters, then set off to fix a bridge.
These trolls were nastier than Trollheim. They attack with BOTH melee and range AT THE SAME TIME, so you can't protect from both. All the lobster in the world wasn't going to save me, particularly when I'd forgotten a simple, one-click teleport. I had on a games necklace, but the top option is 'remove necklace', which I accidentally did, whilst on 10hp. Then my prayer ran out.
( Little deaths and rebirths ) |
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| Review in White Dragon! |
[Feb. 13th, 2007|08:39 am] |
On Saturday, Kate and I had just emerged from several hours in the British Museum and chose a street at random to walk down. I'd always known that Atlantis Bookshop was somewhere close by, but hadn't been able to find it when I hunted for it before. This was the shop which looms large in Wiccan history, not least because it published 'High Magic's Aid'. We walked down this street and suddenly there it was! I begged five minutes to look inside, which Kate was only too happy to oblige. Just inside the door was a stack of magazines and I noticed a new 'White Dragon', flicked to the reviews and... WOW!
( The Gushing and the Jammy ) |
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| Review from Witchcraft!! |
[Jan. 6th, 2007|12:13 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | excited | ] |
Look! Look! Posted at The Witchcraft Shop
TOWARDS AN ACADEMIC STUDY OF BRITISH WICCA
AN INVESTIGATION INTO ITS ORIGINS
Dissertation by Jo Harrington M.A
Is British Wicca a Survival, Revival, or Reconstruction of an 'ancient' religion? Under the usual classification is Wicca a religion at all? Examine the evidence interrogated by Jo Harrington, and see what you think"! Easy to read, and not at all 'stuffy'!!
Jo makes the excellent point that not enough research has been done - by pointing out that many of the original secondary sources - most of whom are still alive - automatically become the 'experts' in the field.
She discusses the position of Gardner as either founder or finder - and sensibly leaves the conclusion open to our own beliefs - i.e. the jury is still out.
This thin volume is nowhere near big enough to cover the subject in any great depth - and such an exercise would indeed be a lifetrimes work - but neverthless, this is an excellent introduction to the proper study of the largest new religion in Britain and as such is an important addition to our library shelves.
What is most excellent news is that her University were enlightened enough to allow her to study her own path and present Wicca and the modern Craft to Academia. This shows a healthy level of acceptance which must be praised.
Our grateful thanks to Jo for such an important contribution to historical literature.
Trevor Jan 2007. |
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| Book Stuff |
[Jan. 4th, 2007|09:39 pm] |
On the day that I also finally turned up on Amazon, I got a text message from my delighted Mum - I'm in the local free newspaper, The Chase Post.
( More news ) |
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| I got interviewed |
[Dec. 14th, 2006|09:40 am] |
I forgot to mention this, but I got interviewed by Anna Alexander, look!
*looks really impressed again* |
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| Stupid Laws and Ridiculous Bureaucracy |
[Dec. 9th, 2006|07:18 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
Hiya,
I'm here for a rant about the ridiculous, nonsensical rules and laws
that have crept into British life.
Last week, I walked into work to be met by a colleague. She pointed to
the little tree that we have up, with its solitary bauble, and asked me
if I was offended or if I thought it might affect my productivity.
Seeing that I'd put it up in the first place, I responded that I thought
I might cope. She was taking joking, but it had been sparked by an
incident in a London council office, which had gone national in the
news. The complaint was that non-Christians were going to be offended
by Christmas decorations and that trauma would affect productivity.
Their staff had been ordered to take them down.
Also in the news last week was the Mince Pie Incident. In this one, a
Women's Institute had opened the doors on its Christmas Fayre (a
tradition which has gone on for decades, if not centuries), when a
council official turned up. Had the mince pies had a risk assessment
done on them to see if they contained nuts or suet? No, don't be
ridiculous. Had the home-made preserves and jam had a risk assessment
on them? No. They thought he was joking. He wasn't and closed the
fayre.
Mum and I were talking about these as we walked into Sainsbury's
earlier. They have a service where you buy a ready-iced cake, with no
decoration on it, take in a photograph and they'll print the photo on
sugar paper, then transfer it onto the cake. For years, we've done
this. Kate had a Michael Stipe birthday cake this way. It's Jordan's
birthday on Monday, so he'd spent a couple of hours on Thursday
(literally) caught in the terrible dilemma of which WWE wrestling star
precisely he would like on his cake. We had the picture printed off and
we bought the cake. Took it to the counter and they refused to transfer
it. Why? Because we haven't got the wrestler's permission to do it.
They refunded us the cake and we took ourselves to a rival supermarket,
where they were very happy to put the picture on for us.
We told this story to Maggie, who had another to add. Every year,
parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles and other stray relations
congregate at their little one's school to witness the school nativity
play and, on another night, the carol service. I, myself, am due to see
my little darling play a talking sheep in 'Bethlehem's Bandits' on
Monday evening. But the law has changed and, if you haven't got a
performance licence (very expensive, geared more for rock concerts), you
can't put on the play or the concert, unless you advertise it and there
are no objections from the local community. One school in Britain
advertised and their council received an objection. After weeks of
rehearsing, and despite a demonstration on the news that the singing
can't even be heard outside the hall and surrounding corridors, their
concert has had to be cancelled.
Britain has gone mad, I swear it. |
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| Georgia |
[Dec. 3rd, 2006|06:56 pm] |
There is a feeling inside which I think will stay with me forever. We'd been driven through Atlanta (on a raised road, looking like 'Bladerunner') and had a surreal visit to a garage for cigarettes and coffee, then a liquor store (offie to the likes of me ;-)). LOL That liquor store! It was massive and I headed to the whiskey section to discover literally hundreds of brands, most of which I didn't recognize. It was like dying and going to Annwn. Then Georgia had driven us back to her house.
We stepped out of the car and there was this huge house and trees everywhere. I'd seen the vast forest from the plane and now I was in it. But for all the beauty of that, it was the sound which hit us. It was so far out of our comprehension, that I didn't know what was going on. It was a cacophony of katydids, frogs, crickets and a whooshing sound rushing through the trees. It sounded like traffic, but I knew we were miles from anywhere. I tried asking what it was. Kate was leaping around screaming that it's the beginning of 'You Are the Everything', its the katydids. But I'd distinguished that noise already. It was the whooshing, like a thousand winds hitting leaves. Georgia said, 'Oh, that's the trees', and I felt my knees going weak. I thought I was going to pass out.
I wrote in my journal about it,
'I couldn't think, only feel, and that feeling was overwhelming awe, joy and disbelief. I couldn't grasp where I was and there's Gay leaving in hugs and Georgia showing her the koi.'
Even writing now, I'm filling up. I know now what the noise was - the highway was closer than I knew, hidden by trees - but back then I thought this was the noise that wind makes when confronted by a forest bigger than I can imagine.
That first night, Kate was quickly abed, because she had a headache. I stayed up a while with Georgia, drinking the Laphroaig that she had given me for my birthday, letting the Grove know that we'd made it, then putting the world to rights.
Bed was a four-poster, without the canopy, and I was out like a light. |
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