What happens when you mix sugar, Ellie and Hilary

Intermission

There will be a short intermission here. If I had the power I would add a Monty Python stylee yellow intermission sign and some wurlitzer music, but sadly I a) can't be bothered and b) I have no power over anything any more.

The shit has truly hit the fan, and it's gone all over me.



Oooh... it works! Yay, I can do something after all!

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

"I go to the hills when my heart is lonely..."











My top list of musicals that are also films:

1. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (this comes top of my list cos I watched it the other day and couldn't drag myself away - Gert Frobe as a camp castle owner? I would never have thought it!) Favourite Song - Hushabye Mountain
2. Monty Python And The Holy Grail (if only for the Camelot song. Works even better as Lego figures... I laughed, and I laughed) Favourite song - well, it's got to be Camelot
3. Grease (Favourite song - the megamix? can I have that?)
4. Rocky Horror Picture Show (despite the freakyness) Favorite Song - Time Warp (why not?)
5. The Sound Of Music (Favorite song - um. The Sound of Music)
6. Mary Poppins (This used to be my very favorite when I was little. apparently I used to make my parents put it on endlessly. Unfortunately has slipped down the board due to its inability to keep me interested as an adult) Favourite Song - Jolly Holiday. If only for the cow singing "Moooary makes the sun shine bright"
7. Chicago (Favorite Song - He Had It Coming)
8. Moulin Rouge (It's been so long since I've seen this I can't remember what it's about)
9. The Lion King (cute animals. Favorite song - I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts)
10. Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat (they had to put donny osmond as Joseph. Aaargh. It'll never be the same with a female narrator as well. Favorite song - Potiphar).

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good:
Doctor Who this week! My god, are the Cybermen scary! By the end of the episode, I was truly scared. I have a feeling I may have seen them in an earlier incarnation and this is the root of my fear, or maybe it's just because it was just genuinely scary. Hmmm...

The Bad:
My friend was doing his DIY this weekend and managed to give himself quite a bad electric shock and hurt his left hand quite badly. He's spent two nights in hospital and may need a skin graft this morning. Get well soon Tony!

The Ugly:
David Tennant with a beard. One word: NO! Please shave it off...

Men, You Suck

No, I'm not sorry. I'm going to steal a bit of Ellie's rant here in my list of why men suck at the moment.

The man who was supposed to send me my nice pretty plant still hasn't, after five days of waiting.
The postman who's supposed to be delivering me my plant didn't turn up before I had to go to work.
The plumber didn't turn up this morning before I had to go to work.
Men who fancy me. Stop it! I can't cope!
Two men I know were in such a depressed mood the other day they made me feel down and like it was all my fault.
The man of my life decided last night that we shouldn't see each other any more. Again.

Go Away! Stop making my life more complicated than it all ready is!

I swear, it's a conspiracy...

Tryffids!

I swear my plants are growing into tryffids at the moment. One minute they're small and sweet, the next they're going to be climbing all over the window and threatening me with their long vines.... eek!
Take, for example, my hoya carnosa. Here it is as a pretty, tidy plant
Now it's attacking the curtain pole!


Ok, so maybe I DID undo it. However, I measured it at the same time - it's 11 and a half foot long, which is a probably enough to catch you if you were trying to run away.... or creep up on you if you were peacefully watching the television... They could even possibly run around on their roots...




The other day I showed you my brand new seedlings. A few weeks later they've got a bit bigger... My mother, nicely, tells me these tomatoes are going to get to 2 feet high - ok not as big as the hoya but big enough.... whimper

So, if you don't hear from me for a while, and you don't know where I've got to, it's because the plants have taken over...


Graaaaaaah!

Things That Are Great About The Matrix

5. Keanu Reeves only says about 30 words.
4. Trinity.
3. The simplicity - less scenes, less CGI
2. The slo-mo bits where gun cases fall slowly, concrete explodes etc.
1. Keanu Reeves only says about 30 words.


I can do Kung Fu?
Maybe, but you can't act...

Why I'll Always Be Clumsy

I'm 26, and for my entire life I don't really remember a day when I didn't have a bruise, scratch or other injury to myself. The other day I was cycling along and tried to grab the free newspaper off the bloke giving them out (people may say here that I was trying to show off, but just seems easier than stopping). Unfortunately I'd kind of mis-timed it and bounced off the bloke in front of me's shoe. So, I end up with bruises and much embarrasment.



So, I got a ICI (Identified Cycling Injury). I didn't break anything and I'm a bit crap at keeping my balance even when sober (don't even ask about when I'm drunk!). Just another couple of bruises to add to my collection. I'll probably get a few more soon...

P.S.

I planted some seeds and they're germinating! It's amazing! (Yes, I do know this is supposed to happen, but it always comes as a surprise to me when things work out the way they're supposed to).


Yes I guess I did just take a photograph of my seedlings. This is the power of digital cameras and Blogger.

Things That Go Boink In the Night

I discovered recently that most things I watch these days don't scare me. I was watching Dr Who the other day and there was this big werewolf out to get everyone. Was I scared? Not really. Despite the fact that the werewolf looked pretty good. I don't know what it is. Maybe my realm of disbelief doesn't work when faced with big monsters (on TV, that is). Even with King Kong I wasn't really scared of Kong himself. Faced with having to watch people being attacked by giant insects, however, wasn't as nice. Eeeek! This made me reflect on programs/films that I have watched that have actually scared me. Be prepared to say "you wuss" or perhaps, "What?!?"





Sit doggy sit... goood doggy...






I can't actually remember if An American Werewolf in London scared me. I think it just weirded me out, as it didn't really seem to make much sense. I believe the last time a big animal scared me, it was Jurassic Park (well, the kitchen scene was done pretty well!). Believe it or not, the first time I watched the first Scream I did, actually, scream. Hey, I jump at surprises easily. The last film that scared me to my boots was Shaun of the Dead. This was because I wasn't really expecting lots of scary zombies, I don't know why, but I thought they'd be a bit tamer with the nasty zombie bit. So, since I've never watched a zombie film before, I refused to go to a pub after the film since I was convinced we'd be trapped in there with a hundred zombies outside trying to eat us. Oh, and the final (and most embarassing) film that scared me is The Blair Witch Project. I don't know what it was, but I didn't want to go to sleep that night, and I was scared by my dressing gown. You know how you can see shapes in things in your bedroom in the dark? No? Er....

The New Ghetto Blaster: The Mobile Phone?

Every time I go to London these days somebody has a mobile phone that is capable of playing music using its speakers. And they want everybody in their general area to know about it. Also about the music that they like.
Not only is this the most annoying thing I've ever experienced, the quality of sound is truly awful. Even my tinny radio alarm is better. So, I get to listen to someone else's R&B (aargh) at high volume (aaargh) on a machine that was never made to be acoustic for tubes, buses etc... AAAAAARGH!
These people make me wish I had the targeting of the new Strongbow advert.





Die Mobile Die!!!



Mmmmm... Strongbow...

HNT time again

It's Saturday Night. I've been spending too much time in heels (this hardly ever happens, so my feet get sore!). So, I put my feet up...

Happy HNT everyone!

I'm a Muppet!

You Are Rowlf the Dog

Mellow and serious, you enjoy time alone cultivating your talents. You're a cool dog, and you always present a relaxed vibe. A talented pianist, you can play almost anything - especially songs by Beethoven. "My bark is worse than my bite, and my piano playing beats 'em both."

The Muppet Personality Test

Ok, not so hot on the piano, but I can sing. I managed to freak Ross out with my singing on Saturday...

Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball

I love Blackpool. If I didn't love Bristol so much and I'd had more than a 2-day fling with the place, I would put it as my number 1 town. The reason for this is that I just had a brilliant weekend "oop t'north" that was so good I didn't really want to go home...

I went to Blackpool to go to one of my best friend's wedding. This piece would not be complete without a picture of the happy couple so here they are:

Awww. Don't they look like they're having a good time. We were having a good time as well, despite the wind which made many of us quite cold by the time they'd taken the pictures...
The rest of the day went by without too many problems or too much alcohol getting drunk and we danced the night away to a selection of cheesy hits and indie moments... it was just great. I became the star of the show when, during the speech, the father of the bride says, "Does anyone else have random family words?" Most people were shaking their heads. I nodded mine... Our family call the bean bag the sag bag... Oh, and I won the blowing bubbles competition as well!!!
Sunday was a free day to do what we wanted before I got back into the lovely rental car (all function but no soul) so Ross and I went out along the promenade together. I was a bit worried about getting back but really I shouldn't have been as much as the trip back was fine. We went up the tower (eek, expensive!), had a jacket potato for lunch after the excesses of the food the day before and the full english breakfast (with black pudding, mmm)... and then sadly had to make our way back. We wandered along the beach, with Ross adding a little decoration to the sand along the way, including a rather large replica of me complete with my toes sticking out of my socks!!!

Comedy For A Monday Morning

Bits and Pieces

Hello. I thought I wouldn't post much today, but I finally found a photo of myself that wasn't too trashy or a random weemee. For whatever reason it won't come up on the sidebar yet (grr) but it almost counts as a HNT so here it is . Yay. That's that done.

On a completely different note I get to drive a car for the first time in six months tomorrow. Yippee!! So, for those of you on the M5 or M6 tomorrow, watch out for a couple of really tall people probably sitting in the middle lane when I get too petrified to change lanes...

Oooh, and I made sponge, and it worked! Yay! Thank God for Delia Smith! When I come off the no-chocolateness I'm going to make some chocolate cakes... mmmmmmmmm and try not to eat them all... although I think I've lost about 5 pounds...

Hellboy

Take one large gun, some sawn-off horns and a load of red paint and what do you have? Hellboy. This bloke is definitely someone you'd want on your side in a fight. Although, apparently he's only 6'5 so I'd be staring him right in the eyes. And possibly wanting to run away...

The film's premise is that the Nazis opened up a hole into the nether world in order to aid their dying cause, and before this could be shut Hellboy was let loose into this world. Ok, fine. To be honest it was a very beautifully made film but the scenes didn't seem to stick together very well and I didn't really see the point in the addition of Fishboy and Flamegirl (of course this is not what they're called in the movie but that's what I think they should be called...).

A bit too Hollywood in my opinion. Overall rating= :| (where :) is the best and :( is the worst!)

And Now For Something Full of Complicated Words

Eeek! I have to give a talk!

"From kinases to kinesins: the magic of phosphatidylinositol"
Dr Hilary Roberts will be presenting an interesting talk detailing her previous work on Phosphatidylinositol 5-phosphate, its regulation and possible functions within the cell, work done during her PhD within the University of Cambridge. Then she will move on to her recent post-doctoral work done within this Pharmacology department on the possible functions and regulation of KIF13B and its interaction with centaurin-alpha1.

There you go. If you made it to the end of that and are not completely confused, I am very impressed. It's a small insight into the scientist part of my life...

HNT

Apparently it's Half-Nekkid Thursday today. So, as someone said once, I am a game gal, so I will enter a picture of myself here. Of course most of the people who read my blog are my friends so as a result I am not going to reveal anything scary (sorry boys!). So, here goes...

Money, Money, Money

I am overcome by the urge to buy things at the moment. I don't really need them, but I want things. I think that Ebay has a lot to answer for. So, I thought, to make my life less urge-filled, I will list the things I really want to buy at the moment:

1. A House - currently I'm renting and kind of feeling like my money's being blown on a house that has some serious problems with me actually living in it as not only did the heating die, so has the bath.... nooo
2. A Breadmaker - I still don't know why I want one of these, but it would be nice to get fresh bread in the morning. I am also inexplicably drawn to the one with the raisin/nut dispenser, although whether I'd ever use it is another question
3. A(nother) Hoya - I'm obsessed with hoyas at the moment. They're vine-like plants with large leaves and flower beautifully. My favourite is the "Imperialis"... watch this space!
4. A Popcorn Maker - I love my kitchen gadgets, I could probably fill the whole kitchen with an assortment of random things that I only use once or twice a month if that. This one, however, would stop me from making nasty burn marks in my pan...
5. A Laptop - so I could have the programs I need on my computer at work. And Windows XP. This one I use is rubbish. This would, however, cause major procrastination (probably looking up the items above!) so not sure whether it would aid or slow down the work I do.

I feel better all ready. I feel like standing up and saying "My name's Hilary and I'm an internet shopaholic!"