Change...

Well this Christmas has certainly been different so far...

Yesterday my brother, his girlfriend and myself kept saying how it didn't feel like Christmas eve as we sat outside waiting for lunch in Valletta . Christmas eve was further made surreal by my brother insisting I came with him to the local park (which has been built into Birkirkara's old train station) to see the masses of cats in the park. He wasn't joking. There must have been in the region of thirty to forty stray cats living in this park. And my brother and me took great glee in feeding the cats some ham. I was very reassured to see a cat lady come along to feed the cats cat food and give them fresh water.

Today (Christmas day) feels more like Christmas - although I am in Malta, there has been presents, phone calls to family and yummy Christmas dinner (I supplied the paxo as Malta does not have any it seems!).

Far too Excitable

I am very excited at the moment...

Lots of stuff is going to happening over the next week or so and I am so EXCITED about it all.

This evening I am taking Garfield to see Fantasmagoria by Vodoo Vaudville at the Komedia - he wasn't supposed to know what we were doing but he guessed... Anyway very much looking forward to seeing it as neither of us has ever been to the Komedia before.

I now only have three work days left and then I am off until the 4th of January! And after my last day on wednesday I am going to watch the Burning of the Clocks on the beach... Last year's was amazing and the first time I had ever been - I want to go every year now! After the fireworks myself and Garfield will hopefully be going to see King Kong and making the most of the orange wednesday offer.

And then best of all on Thursday I am flying off to Malta. I am sooooo looking forward to catching up with my parents - I haven't seen them since the end of August and it feels far too long to have not have visited them. I am also looking forward to the warmer weather!

The Yellow Shop...

I have been recently wondering what the 'Yellow Shop' sells on Oxford Street in Brighton... Me and Garfield keep imagining that if you went in there you could by a bag of pure yellow... I think if you went out back they would be able to show you the sun in a cupoboard. Garfield thinks they keep the purest yellow hidden at the back.

(PS. If any says they sell watches etc. I'll beat them up with a bag of yellow)!

Scaring Myself Silly

Although halloween has been and gone I seem to be in the mood for scaring myself. Tonight I watched Deadbirds which for a good part of the film I was hiding my eyes in Garfield's arm. As the film went on, in typical horror film fashion it just became more grusome as it could not in story terms sustain itself.

On Wednesday evening me and Kira are going to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose which will probably be even more terrifying as its based on a true story, apparently... Anyway looking forward to it! Ooooh I do like a good scare! I wonder if its acceptable for me to take a cushion to the cinema to hide behind? Obviously if I should ever become possessed my cushion will save me ;-)

(Garfield is the name of some who wishes for his real identity to remain secret so shall always be referred to Garfield...)

Spells!

Last week I got a wonderful delivery from Amazon...

Two brand new and brilliant magic/spell books.

1. Eileen Holland's Grimoire of Magickal Correspondences - this book is going to make spell making so much easier! It lists every ingredient or deity that you have ever needed for any type of spell - extremely useful!

2. Judika Illes's The Element Encyclopaedia of 5000 Spells - I wasn't sure about this book, I thought it might turn out to be a bit fickle like a Titania spell book. Fortunately the book proved me wrong and is actually very useful. Its more like a history of magic in the sense that it lists thousands of spells from many traditions and goes as far as having a disclaimer saying that the writer does not expect some of the spells in this book to be used as they were only relevant a long time ago. Its also very handy that this book mainly lists the actions required for a spell, allowing the reader the freedom to add their own chanting and ingredients if required.

Both will come in very handy for something I am working on that hopefully will make the whole spell making process, much, much easier... (even if just for me)

The Weekend

Had a great weekend.

Visited my brother on Friday night in Sandhurst to help him with his CV and to get him signed up to MSN messenger. For my visit he specially bought a box of fireworks for us to set off in his garden! Which we did - unfortunately we picked the biggest and best ones first so the last few were a bit of an anticlimax...

...And unfortunately whilst the fireworks were going off I inhaled just a bit too much smoke which is not good with my current sinus problems (seems to be made worse by smoke) so I couldn't breathe properly on Saturday - I struggled to walk up the Lewes Road! Anyway thanks to a bit of homeopathic medicine its getting better now and in short while I hope I will be able to play a game of squash. Fingers crossed.

Ooh and at my house it was Jemma and Rachel's joint birthday party - which was fun - apart from the smoke and far too much archers...

Maybe Third Time Lucky?

Yesterday I had a day off.

Had it all planned.

Yes a relaxing breakfast, to be followed by some listing of stuff on Ebay.

I took my time preparing the stuff for ebay - leisurely putting items on the Turbo Lister. Listened to Marilyn Manson (haven't done for a while - had an urge to listen to the 'Nobodies').

And of course the whole I knew that I should leave about 2pm so that I could visit the psychic in Worthing...

...Of course I then encountered some technical problems with my internet connection - spent ages faffing about with that and actually left around about three!

Somehow, magically got to the shop in Worthing about 4:30 - only to find that the shop had closed early! Oh well maybe third time lucky...

Not a completely wasted day - listening to 'The Nobodies' has inspired me to start working on a particular story again.

I'm Learning!

As you may now be able to see the Custard Pie posting has pictures!

On friday at work I was able to attend a workshop on how to use Adobe Photoshop - it was very well taught and as can now be seen equipped me with the skills to put pictures here! Although I don't have Adobe Photoshop - at least I now understand better the picture editing software I have.

Very excited as tomorrow I have day off work - which I am intending to spend writing and visiting the midget psychic in Worthing...

Meet the Boyfriend Party

Over the weekend I went Worthing to spend some time with my friends Jo and Sass. We were all hoping to see a midget psychic, but unfortunately she was having a day off :-( anyway we are now hoping to see her on Halloween which will be interesting!

And I was very much looking forward to giving Jo her present from Cadburys World which I got her in August. Sadly our Joey was suffering with gallbladder problems but now its been removed she is able to enjoy the chocolate again! I given loads of people chocolate as a present over the years but watching Jo open the box and being delighted at the smell of the chocolate was quite wonderful.

In the evening we went to Portsmouth to our friend George's house were she was holding a party so that her friends could meet her new boyfriend. Really it should have been curry party as the amount of curry that was available was unbelievable! Anyway the curry was great George's new man is lovely and best of all it was highly entertaining to watch George continually nearly fall over in her heels due a little too much booze (it used to be me who always fell down).

Alone in the Office

Currently all alone in my office at work and bloody Xfm keeps featuring an advert with a screaming person!!!!!!!!!!!!! But no must focus on my work.

But first I just have to say that I saw the worst film last night Alone in the Dark its based on computer game and probably should have just stayed that way. I slept through the 'scary' bits thanks to years of de-sensitising myself by watching the Aliens films over and over (ooh and going to the Alien War thing in London).

Hopefully I won't get eaten in my office...

Hanif Kureishi

Had a great time on Monday evening. Myself and my friend Sass went along to a reading/book signing by Hanif Kureishi at Brighton Uni. He started off with a reading from his newest book My Ear at His Heart' which was quite entertaining as it described his Father's first visit to a brothel...

There were lots of questions put to Hanif about his books and stories that look at racism particularly after recent events. Despite the seriousness of the questions he was still very witty about it all!

Was quite nostalgic for me and Sass as we felt as though we were back at university in a lecture... Ah if only!

Custard Pie Fight

Last night my house celebrated my best friend Kira's (and house mate) birthday. Kira had always wanted to have a custard pie fight and last night she sort of did... Instead whipped cream in a can was put on plates and the fight began. Well not before having a civilised discussion as to how the fight would work. It was decided that Kira could throw the first 'pie' which she very kindly threw at her brother Trev...

I was the photographer so stayed custard free! Will put pics on when i figure how.

Promiscuous Old People?

Was quite shocked today to see a big queue of OAP's outside the family planning clinic...

Upon closer inspection I found out that they were not waiting for free condoms, pregnancy tests or STD tests, but to receive the latest flu jab.

Amused though for a few minutes...

The Beginning!

Well I have decided to do this as part of my new commitment to make sure I spend more time writing and doing stuff that makes me happy.

Working, paying the bills and a social life is just not enough - my brain needs more!

So I will do the following when I can:

1) Write creatively
2) Write with aim of making money (sooner I am debt free the more freedom I will have!)
3) Make stuff with my sewing machine to find out if I am really doomed to make them break (one broke when I used it at school and more recently when my mum was teaching me stuff on one of hers that she was about to give me, something inside it exploded and smoke came out... I have new one now!)
4) Read (probably do more than average person - but I must read more!)
5) Learn Astrology
6) Learn more about witchcraft

So thats my list of all the stuff I'd like to do more of and know more about. I am sure over time there will be more stuff that interests me but I think thats a fairly realistic set of aims for me now...

There is also my passion for ebay but I am not sure how much more time I should dedicate to it. I have made a fair bit of money from it but equally so I love buying stuff on there! I am just going to have to assess over time how much commitment I should give it...

Oh and ginquinn? Thats nickname someone gave me a while ago. We both had very stressful jobs at a university in London, I won't say which but the bizness students who we dealt with were pure evillll! So we used to work hard and party hard - which meant a lot of drinking. And a lot of gin which rhymes with my surname Quinn.