In the Top 10 of 'Songs You Don't Want To Hear On The Radio When You've Just Returned From A Long, Trying Day At Work' is Justin Beiber's latest piece of rubbish. Imagine my horror when turning on my trusty stereo after ten pm I am subjected to the kind of aural defecation that is equivalent to a seriously dodgy case of food poisoning. I did not think that this Alvinesque voiced pre-teen pipsqueak (I do not believe the media when they say that the boy is 16-my voice has a deeper pitch than his!) could get any worse, but he has far excelled my expectations. For this release he has teamed up with one of those incredibly un-credible stalwarts of pop/reggae/r&b/dancelite Sean Kingston or Iyaz and produced some utter bilge that I am sure his fans will love. If someone is willing to pay me, I would love to train as an assassin and personally wipe out every single one of them, just for the fun of it. Then I can get back to my everyday life.
What this basically boils down to is that I really need to get a new stereo. I could change the station but it has a dial tuner, making it extremely annoying to tune in to or out of anything else. I have it locked into 102.2 FM, which was Choice FM, then Galaxy 102.2, now GalaxyFM. At the time I received my stereo my musical tastes weren't as diverse as they are now and I mostly listened to r&b and dance, which was what Choice FM played. When it became Galaxy it stayed the same but over the years it has become increasingly more commercial, giving the station a playlist that is mostly pop/chart, with a few specialist r&b/dance shows on Friday and weekend evenings. Some of the pop is fine to listen to, yet at other times it's the kind of dirge that makes me want to kick my defenceless Amstrad MC 800 so hard that it explodes.
The stereo that I will eventually end up getting will have to have digital radio, so I can flick through stations with the same ease that I can eat three Krispy Kremes without feeling remotely guilty. I also want it to have a USB port and MP3 playback so if such bad music moments occur I can listen to music of my own choosing.
I will admit that I am not yet ready to give up my Amstrad audio device. It will be celebrating it's 12th birthday on my 26th birthday in a few weeks and although it doesn't like the occasional CD and the back of it has broken near the speaker sockets, making the left speaker go mute sometimes, it has been my faithful friend, accompanying me when I get ready in the mornings, craft, dry my hair, tidy my bedroom (not a regular occurrence of late), get ready for bed... Until the radio broadcasters decide to do away with analogue signals I think I will stick with it. Then, AND ONLY THEN, will I shamelessly pick up the Argos catalogue and pick my ultimate dream stereo. For less than £100.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Monday, 10 May 2010
In my time away
I admit I have totally forgotten about this thing. I would like to say that I have done many and varied exciting things, but I haven't. What I will say is that I have actually done (and made) things so my time hasn't been totally wasted...I summarise as thus:
1. Journeys out of Brumland: London (March). It was a time of firsts-visited a part of the city I had never been to before (Canning Town), saw the O2 Arena (from Canning Town tube station), saw the monetary black hole that is to be the Olympic stadium (from my friend's balcony), travelled on the DLR, walked around Canary Wharf (those buildings are bloody huge!), visited Greenwich Market-at which I had a rather tasty Louisiana hotdog, an equally tasty triple chocolate caramel shortbread square and bought some wool (okay, not a first for me, but it was the first time I had bought some ethically traded yarn). In the evening I had a tasty Chinese meal in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, a bad strawberry daquiri (it was more like a strawberry colada) but an extremely good strawberry margherita. Due to my extremely funny friends I also laughed so hard my stomach hurt (again, not new but I hadn't done it for a while).
Bristol (Mayday Bank Holiday weekend). Again some firsts-a meal in a Thai restaurant (wasn't great, the lamb was very chewy), my first visit to a club night that I used to go to since I left university (ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!) I had feared that I would have felt out of place but all that fell away once the good music started. And I'd had a drink or two (first time of tasting Southern Comfort-very nice!) The falafel I had around three in the morning went down very well, despite me squirting more mango pickle on my coat than on the falafel. The downside to the weekend was that I was wearing my calf length boots and the next day we walked a bajillion miles so when I came back to Birmingham my feet ached (and my body-too much dancing!). After a good nights sleep the foot pain was in my ankles so I thought I may have done some actual damage to the poor tootsies but it was short-lived. No pictures to show, as my phone battery died.
Creative things: Cushions. Made as flat-warming presents for my Canning Town dwelling friends. Tunisian crochet, using three colours. I used multicoloured yarns that had long colour changes so there was subtle variations in tone to add interest
Mario Mushroom-one of the cutest and coolest things I have ever made. I really wanted to keep it but my completely selfless self gave it as a gift.
Shawl-I have used the yarn that I moaned about in a previous post to create a rather fabby shawl. I have worked on it on and off over the past few months and it is about 75% complete. Now I have reached the good bit where I am decreasing so it is progressing quickly.
Bags- Four(ish). One is complete, two are in progress and one I totally ruined because I assumed that the wool was feltable but after I shoved it in the washing machine on a hot wash it came out slightly bigger than the big size that I had made it, assuming it would shrink. Okay, it was my fault as the care label said machine wash but the instruction was 30°C minimum action, which I thought was an indicator that a hot wash would ruin it (in they way I intended).
Scarf-started today. I pilfered the pattern from a lacy panel from a throw in a crochet magazine. Also got a bargain with one of the colours of yarns used because it is discontinued, therefore it was reduced from £7.95 to £2-bargain!
And that's about it methinks.
1. Journeys out of Brumland: London (March). It was a time of firsts-visited a part of the city I had never been to before (Canning Town), saw the O2 Arena (from Canning Town tube station), saw the monetary black hole that is to be the Olympic stadium (from my friend's balcony), travelled on the DLR, walked around Canary Wharf (those buildings are bloody huge!), visited Greenwich Market-at which I had a rather tasty Louisiana hotdog, an equally tasty triple chocolate caramel shortbread square and bought some wool (okay, not a first for me, but it was the first time I had bought some ethically traded yarn). In the evening I had a tasty Chinese meal in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, a bad strawberry daquiri (it was more like a strawberry colada) but an extremely good strawberry margherita. Due to my extremely funny friends I also laughed so hard my stomach hurt (again, not new but I hadn't done it for a while).
Olympic stadium-the wire looking construction to the left of the white building
A slightly crappy pic of Canary Wharf at night (balcony view)
Bristol (Mayday Bank Holiday weekend). Again some firsts-a meal in a Thai restaurant (wasn't great, the lamb was very chewy), my first visit to a club night that I used to go to since I left university (ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!) I had feared that I would have felt out of place but all that fell away once the good music started. And I'd had a drink or two (first time of tasting Southern Comfort-very nice!) The falafel I had around three in the morning went down very well, despite me squirting more mango pickle on my coat than on the falafel. The downside to the weekend was that I was wearing my calf length boots and the next day we walked a bajillion miles so when I came back to Birmingham my feet ached (and my body-too much dancing!). After a good nights sleep the foot pain was in my ankles so I thought I may have done some actual damage to the poor tootsies but it was short-lived. No pictures to show, as my phone battery died.
Creative things: Cushions. Made as flat-warming presents for my Canning Town dwelling friends. Tunisian crochet, using three colours. I used multicoloured yarns that had long colour changes so there was subtle variations in tone to add interest
Cushion-detail
Mario Mushroom-one of the cutest and coolest things I have ever made. I really wanted to keep it but my completely selfless self gave it as a gift.
Shawl-I have used the yarn that I moaned about in a previous post to create a rather fabby shawl. I have worked on it on and off over the past few months and it is about 75% complete. Now I have reached the good bit where I am decreasing so it is progressing quickly.
Bags- Four(ish). One is complete, two are in progress and one I totally ruined because I assumed that the wool was feltable but after I shoved it in the washing machine on a hot wash it came out slightly bigger than the big size that I had made it, assuming it would shrink. Okay, it was my fault as the care label said machine wash but the instruction was 30°C minimum action, which I thought was an indicator that a hot wash would ruin it (in they way I intended).
The finished bag that was made from feltable wool
Scarf-started today. I pilfered the pattern from a lacy panel from a throw in a crochet magazine. Also got a bargain with one of the colours of yarns used because it is discontinued, therefore it was reduced from £7.95 to £2-bargain!
And that's about it methinks.
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