my own private hidey-hole

d'you know, i think i'd like it if every day could be rounded off by watching / listening to lovely john hegley for an hour or so.

must relaxing, entertaining, joining-inny fun.

(heh, if you go and see a different show at the BAC whilst ....red death is still running, and need the loo, they have to smuggle you into the forest at the bottom of the stairs in masks. most entertaining.)

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i played proper (i.e. non-facebook) scrabulous yesterday. blimey, but that's a different sort of game. if you're a dunce with the options, at any rate. not only trying to beat your opponent, but in a set time as well. needless to say, i won...

the teaandcrumpets review: it was rubbish, he did stars and for your babies, forgot the words to a new flame and stormed off in a huff. stop. reading. now.

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sometimes, the internet has its uses. sometimes, the internet pays off BIG style. and if it hadn't been for toriar entering a competition on myspace of all places, i wouldn't have found myself at cafe royal last night, watching lovely patrick wolf playing a gig for no more than 100 people, in a tiny room, with a free bar. you heard me.

we both turned up ridiculously early, and sat in the candlelit hotel bar. after looking at the cocktail menu i was jonesing for an old fashioned. and so i had one. a properly made one. nom nom. delicious. bad spending, good booze.

and then we meandered in, restrained selves from shrieking at the tiny size of the place, and drank tasty free champagne whilst being photographed by someone or other. very bizarre.

and THEN i discovered the free bar, which had run out of anything that wasn't vodka or beer. mmm, vodka.

more importantly, patrick wolf. just him and a piano / moog / violin, plus lady violinist where required, and bishi. he opened with teignmouth. joy!!! i can't remember the last time i heard that live. it's one of my favourite-songs-on-repeat. in fact, when in my workroom the only things i've been listening to of late are wind in the wires and, er, crime of the century. they seem to be perfect music to keep me serene and happy and concentrating. except when teignmouth comes on, at that moment i usually stop whatever i'm doing and just listen, and grin.

old stuff. low key stuff. beautiful stuff. i find myself mesmerised by the mirrors by the stage, in one arch is the reflection of his shadow, in another his reflection proper, and the last frames the actual violinist. we find ourselves right at the front of the stage. i'm almost embarrassed to find myself catching his eye whilst singing quietly to myself. ahem.

anyway, despite the best efforts of some media tw@ts (probably the same ones leaving mountains of white powder in the toilets) braying loudly at the back whilst swigging the booze (to mr wolf's vocalised annoyance) it was pretty darned excellent. and it was ace to have a good old gossip and natter with toriar too. london's brilliant, isn't it? (unless you have the flu, argh, guilts.)

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on the way there i walked through leicester square, stumbling across the preview for fred claus en route. er, warning. tried to watch that film the other day, and it's pretty poor. don't see it. save your pennies! it certainly isn't worth getting chemical snow in your eyes for, peons.

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the scrabulous roll-over advertising is really winding me up. chuck and larry can sod right off, thanks.

...is being far too irritating with the fancy flash upgrade thing making my games an extra click away at the moment. boo.

also, can anyone enlighten me as to what the black arrows you can bring up on the board actually do?

Ever since I found out that the high scoring two-letter scrabble 'word' ZA is allegedly slang for pizZA (I mostly refuse to play a word if I don't know what it means) I have been jonesing for some ZA action. And lo, verily, god my_red_dream did speak to me and say "you will be favoured on the fourth day of the ninth month, for it is my birthday and I decree there will be ZA!"...

...and so we all went to Pappagone last night to celebrate. And it was lovely and there were people I don't see often (and usually then fleetingly in loud clubs) and indeed there was ZA (Americano with extra anchovies and LOVELY CHILLI OIL) and wine and ace. Hurrah!

Lovely evening, innit. And last r@petrain home for me.

***

Today I am mostly friending people on Facebook to get more games of Scrabble, oh dear oh dear, addiction STRIKES AGAIN.

Tonight I am running stupid errands in the deepest south, though I do get to see JJM, most excellent person that he is. YAY.

At some point I should really get organised and pack for Bestival, though I can't work out when. I'll probably do it tomorrow morning. Potential outfits include Dorothy Gale, Batgirl, and random piratey wench. Minimum effort required. I am NOT feeling the love.