Thursday, 26 November 2009
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Why I dislike Cardiff...
I live just outside Cardiff and work in the city centre. It's great for shopping and there are some amazing restaurants and bars. But there is one thing I cannot stand about Cardiff...
Sport.
I've previously been delayed getting to work because the cricket was on and the trains were packed with drunk Australians... at 8am... If there is football on, I cannot risk going into the city for fear of getting molested by obnoxious perverts. But the best is the rugby...
I like rugby fans. They are good-natured and you can have fun with them but the sheer volume just fucks up my day. I worked from 8 til 5 yesterday and then had to dash to the shops before heading home. It took me 40 minutes to walk a distance that normally takes me 10 because of having to dodge vomiting people and elbow my way through the compact crowds. I did what I needed to do and then headed to the train station to go home. The security had lined everyone up outside and would not let them in to the station until their train arrived. I only needed to go one stop and could have caught any of the numerous trains leaving Wales. Instead I had to wait for over an hour and watch so many trains come and go and our queue still had not moved. At that point, I was so tired that I called my mother and she had to drive into Cardiff to come and get me. I'm so angry with the state of the system. They should have layed on buses if they were not willing to let us catch the trains. Absolute wankers.
I am going to try my best never to work another sporting event but while the Welsh Assembly think they can gain money by overloading our weak infrastructure, it's not going to be easy...
Sport.
I've previously been delayed getting to work because the cricket was on and the trains were packed with drunk Australians... at 8am... If there is football on, I cannot risk going into the city for fear of getting molested by obnoxious perverts. But the best is the rugby...
I like rugby fans. They are good-natured and you can have fun with them but the sheer volume just fucks up my day. I worked from 8 til 5 yesterday and then had to dash to the shops before heading home. It took me 40 minutes to walk a distance that normally takes me 10 because of having to dodge vomiting people and elbow my way through the compact crowds. I did what I needed to do and then headed to the train station to go home. The security had lined everyone up outside and would not let them in to the station until their train arrived. I only needed to go one stop and could have caught any of the numerous trains leaving Wales. Instead I had to wait for over an hour and watch so many trains come and go and our queue still had not moved. At that point, I was so tired that I called my mother and she had to drive into Cardiff to come and get me. I'm so angry with the state of the system. They should have layed on buses if they were not willing to let us catch the trains. Absolute wankers.
I am going to try my best never to work another sporting event but while the Welsh Assembly think they can gain money by overloading our weak infrastructure, it's not going to be easy...
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Celebrities I have known - Part 1: Eric Singer
Thought I would share some of my previous experiences with famous people. The title is meant in an ironic sense...
I've never been a fame whore; I've met people either by accident or because I admired them enough to just want to say hello.
Eric Singer of KISS was one of the first famous people I met and certainly the first I actively sought out.
I initially discovered Eric when he played drums on Brian May's Another World tour. I went out of my way to dislike him because he was replacing Cozy Powell (who was irreplaceable) but Eric was talented and his stage personality seemed to suggest he was a fun guy. I started buying KISS CDs and also bought the ESP CD, amongst others. He then went on the road with Alice Cooper and me and my then friend Judy (no idea what happened to her... she just faded into the background...) decided to go to a few gigs. At Newport (our first), Eric walked out of the stage door right by where we were standing and it dawned on us how easy it would be to meet him. We waited afterwards and got autographs and photos. Eric was... off-hand with us...
Bad night, maybe? We didn't mind though so we headed off to the next gig. Same thing. He really wasn't a sociable person.
Gig three. This time he was friendly and had a chat with us. Maybe it takes a while for him to warm up to people?
Gig four. He didn't come out to say hello (though everyone else did). Oh well. Back home to my "normal" life.
I then heard word that Eric collected bootlegs of his shows. I managed to get hold of one from the UK tour and so mailed it to his PO Box in LA (Studio City to be precise). Eric emailed me and thanked me which I thought was a really nice gesture. We exchanged emails for a while and he was always really friendly and nice.
Another Alice tour rolled around and I went to the Cardiff gig. Again, Eric was the only one who did not bother coming down to say hello to the fans after. Again, OK with me. I can live with that...
Then it was time for me to move to Los Angeles to attend university. I did not want to live on campus and I had been chatting with another Eric fan online and she suggested we get an apartment together. Seemed like a good idea at the time... What I didn't know was she had managed to get Eric's address and insisted on getting an apartment on the same street as him. I also didn't know that she had severe psychological issues (paranoia bordering on schizophrenia) and would end up stealing a lot of money from me. I would name her but what's the point? She still has no direction in her life even though she is in her 40s and she now suffers from a rather painful medical condition.
Karma's a bitch, huh?
So anyway... I start my nice new life in Southern California and I occasionally see Eric in bars and stuff but I don't speak to him. I'm not a total stalker, like... I would have to walk past Eric's house to get the train to uni and often Eric stopped and stared at me. Intimidating? A little...
At this point, a friend asked me to write a biography of Eric for her website. With Eric's (online) help, I managed to knock out a pretty decent effort for a first attempt. Great.
A few days later, me and psycho roomie go to The Baked Potato in Studio City and Eric is there. I am pretty drunk but I am a mellow drunk so I just sit and observe. Roomie, however, follows him outside and tries to listen in to a conversation he is having with a friend of his and hides and watches him get into his car.
We head to our apartment and I check my emails. There is one from Eric (I forget what it says). I go to get changed for bed and psycho roomie proceeds to email Eric from my Hotmail account. I have no idea what was said (this was in the days when Hotmail did not automatically store outgoing messages and I never thought to switch it on).
Eric never spoke to me again.
I would still see him sometimes when I walked to the Metro station and he still stared at me and it got to be a little annoying so I took to walking a different way through my neighbourhood so I could avoid his house. Only other real contact I had with him was when he nearly hit me with his muscle car when I was crossing the street late one night and he came round the corner too fast. I flipped him off and never saw him again...
Around the time of that email, rumours started to circulate about Eric having a violent temper and there were stories (that I will not repeat) that really put me off the guy. I guess things ended quite well in the grand scheme of things.
I was a little annoyed, I guess, that I put so much effort into promoting and supporting Eric for him only to blank me when someone else (obviously not me due to her poor grasp of English) decided to interfere. No benefit of the doubt? No second chances? Whatever.
He ended up making a name for himself pretending to be someone else. I find that quite sad.
I've never been a fame whore; I've met people either by accident or because I admired them enough to just want to say hello.
Eric Singer of KISS was one of the first famous people I met and certainly the first I actively sought out.
I initially discovered Eric when he played drums on Brian May's Another World tour. I went out of my way to dislike him because he was replacing Cozy Powell (who was irreplaceable) but Eric was talented and his stage personality seemed to suggest he was a fun guy. I started buying KISS CDs and also bought the ESP CD, amongst others. He then went on the road with Alice Cooper and me and my then friend Judy (no idea what happened to her... she just faded into the background...) decided to go to a few gigs. At Newport (our first), Eric walked out of the stage door right by where we were standing and it dawned on us how easy it would be to meet him. We waited afterwards and got autographs and photos. Eric was... off-hand with us...
Bad night, maybe? We didn't mind though so we headed off to the next gig. Same thing. He really wasn't a sociable person.
Gig three. This time he was friendly and had a chat with us. Maybe it takes a while for him to warm up to people?
Gig four. He didn't come out to say hello (though everyone else did). Oh well. Back home to my "normal" life.
I then heard word that Eric collected bootlegs of his shows. I managed to get hold of one from the UK tour and so mailed it to his PO Box in LA (Studio City to be precise). Eric emailed me and thanked me which I thought was a really nice gesture. We exchanged emails for a while and he was always really friendly and nice.
Another Alice tour rolled around and I went to the Cardiff gig. Again, Eric was the only one who did not bother coming down to say hello to the fans after. Again, OK with me. I can live with that...
Then it was time for me to move to Los Angeles to attend university. I did not want to live on campus and I had been chatting with another Eric fan online and she suggested we get an apartment together. Seemed like a good idea at the time... What I didn't know was she had managed to get Eric's address and insisted on getting an apartment on the same street as him. I also didn't know that she had severe psychological issues (paranoia bordering on schizophrenia) and would end up stealing a lot of money from me. I would name her but what's the point? She still has no direction in her life even though she is in her 40s and she now suffers from a rather painful medical condition.
Karma's a bitch, huh?
So anyway... I start my nice new life in Southern California and I occasionally see Eric in bars and stuff but I don't speak to him. I'm not a total stalker, like... I would have to walk past Eric's house to get the train to uni and often Eric stopped and stared at me. Intimidating? A little...
At this point, a friend asked me to write a biography of Eric for her website. With Eric's (online) help, I managed to knock out a pretty decent effort for a first attempt. Great.
A few days later, me and psycho roomie go to The Baked Potato in Studio City and Eric is there. I am pretty drunk but I am a mellow drunk so I just sit and observe. Roomie, however, follows him outside and tries to listen in to a conversation he is having with a friend of his and hides and watches him get into his car.
We head to our apartment and I check my emails. There is one from Eric (I forget what it says). I go to get changed for bed and psycho roomie proceeds to email Eric from my Hotmail account. I have no idea what was said (this was in the days when Hotmail did not automatically store outgoing messages and I never thought to switch it on).
Eric never spoke to me again.
I would still see him sometimes when I walked to the Metro station and he still stared at me and it got to be a little annoying so I took to walking a different way through my neighbourhood so I could avoid his house. Only other real contact I had with him was when he nearly hit me with his muscle car when I was crossing the street late one night and he came round the corner too fast. I flipped him off and never saw him again...
Around the time of that email, rumours started to circulate about Eric having a violent temper and there were stories (that I will not repeat) that really put me off the guy. I guess things ended quite well in the grand scheme of things.
I was a little annoyed, I guess, that I put so much effort into promoting and supporting Eric for him only to blank me when someone else (obviously not me due to her poor grasp of English) decided to interfere. No benefit of the doubt? No second chances? Whatever.
He ended up making a name for himself pretending to be someone else. I find that quite sad.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Bento!
I haven't made up a bento in absolutely ages so thought I would do one for tomorrow's lunch.
The bottom layer consists of fried baked potato, a slice of cashew nut roast, and some raw red pepper.
Then we have a pumpkin muffin from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and some fresh grapes.
I used my Matryoshka bento box for the first time.
All excited for tomorrow now :-)
The bottom layer consists of fried baked potato, a slice of cashew nut roast, and some raw red pepper.
Then we have a pumpkin muffin from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and some fresh grapes.
I used my Matryoshka bento box for the first time.
All excited for tomorrow now :-)
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