I finally plucked up the courage to drag Tom along to a Ceroc dance class. Ceroc is basically Modern Jive, which is reasonably easy to learn and is for all levels of fitness and age. Well, we were both pretty much bricking it before we went in, but once we did it, went through the membership process with Colin (lolz), and got sat down at a table, we settled our nerves. Then we had to get up on the floor for the beginners class. You have to rotate partners every few minutes, so that you can learn more by dancing with people who're more experienced etc. That's a really good thing (despite Tom and I thinking it really definitely certainly wasn't, to begin with), because as soon as we ended back dancing with each other, after about 30 other people, we completely frakked up the routine. However we managed to learn it all and were even asked to dance for the "Freestyle".
Tom was asked by the best dancer woman in the whole place, which I found h i l a r i o u s! Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy my observation of his immense discomfort and terrible, desperate feelings of inadequacy as a dancer properly, as lovely-but-very-enthusiastic-Colin (now known as Lbvec - sounds east European) asked me up to do some 'stylin' (oh yeah, girl - watch me bust some damn fine Tyra moves on that floor - ahem). Lbvec decided to deviate from the routine - the routine I had only just secured in my mind moments before, and swizzled it all around, throwing in a shoulder drop here and a push spin there
when it wasn't supposed to be there. I had no idea where I was going - I was still spinning three hours after we got home. I'm really pleased we went, though, and what is intensely surprising is that Tom enjoyed it and "wants to learn more - yeah! *high five*" (I didn't make that up). So, we'll go back and learn three more out of the 18 beginner's moves - holy hell.
The only negative about the dancing is that it's pretty much wiped me out health-wise. I'm really not in a good place physically right now, so it's had a lot of repercussions. I think I just overdid it a bit - we were dancing for three hours, so considering I'm nearly unconscious due to high blood sugars most days, I don't think I did
too bad.
Have I ever mentioned that I despise printers almost as much as I despise Gwyneth Paltrow? Dude! Seriously. My old printer had just become friends with me after three years, then it packs in and goes loco on me. I go get a new one and it messes up immediately! I called the support line to get help on Thursday morning and still no call by today, after promising me a call within 48 hours! I've been incensed! Anyway, I finally lose my rag this afternoon, call them in a hell of a temper (unlike me because I'm usually a bit of a mouse when I have to make phone calls - but so strong was my fury), only to be told by Roberto
"I'ma sorry, Misses Stepha, you have faulty preenter and you musta take backa to da store for 'mediate, ah, replacement, yes?" ERM, NO! I've waited nearly a week for
that? I could've told you that last Thursday, dickwad! I was raging. Anyway, I'll take it back tomorrow and no doubt end up with squat. I really do have the very worst luck with printing equipment indeed.
Can I just say that I love the Monsoon 75% sale. I just got two cardigans, a dress and two skirts for £25. I totaled it up to be a regular price of over £375, so mucho pleased. Oh, and Tom bought me the Prettiest Skirt In The World from there last Tuesday because I have to have my Wizzie Teeth removed: read below.
I went to the hospital to the dental part to have a specialist look at my wisdom teeth last week. Unfortunately an x-ray revealed that I need to have one extracted from the top and bottom on the left side. I'm absolutely terrified. The man explained that there's going to be some complications, too, due to my diabetes, so I'll have a local rather than general anasthetic. The healing time is usually a week, but because my healing process is trashed it'll be more like a month. This means I'll have a swollen face and bruising for a month - I want a fucking high octane face lift for that kinda side-effect! Bloody hell, that's just not on at all. Consequently I'm panicking internally for 67% of each day, and will continue to do so until the morning of the 28th, when I have the surgery, then I'll be very, very visibly and vocally panicking. *sigh* I need to go to my Hungarian Well for a little while to just sit in the dank and contemplate my wretched luck.
I've been baking. Well, I haven't been baking. I've been concocting. I decided a couple of weeks ago that I NEED to get some weight lost. I've put on ridiculous amounts in a year - about 20lbs and my already fragile health can't handle any more, so I've been trying to ignore Tom and his disgraceful-but-tempting diet of crisps, chocolate and refined, fatty foods. It's not an easy thing to do (especially when he's eating and offering me Mars Bars all the time) but I'm eating a good healthy selection of foods. A typical day at the moment is as follows:
Breakfast - Green Tea with Lemongrass, Half wholewheat bagel with no-fat cottage cheese.
Lunch - A rye crispbread thingy with tomato, cucumber and a scraping of low-fat cream cheese - blergh
Dinner - Cesar salad with no dressing (*sob*), grilled chicken, apple and blueberries.
Snacks - Apple or orange, pumpkin seeds with chili seasoning, green pepper and carrot batons.
Now I've been doing this for two weeks and I haven't lost any weight. I've also tried to be more active, even though it's a struggle energy wise. My thoughts on this are FUCK OFF. So, I wonder where I'm going wrong ...
Anyway ... I've been going out of my mind with the need for something sweet, so I decided to make my own flapjacks (yes, I'm re-visiting flapjacks, despite
flapjack-gate of 2004). Not only were they flapjacks, but they were flapjacks of my own recipe. I bought some oats, flobbed in a bit of honey, milk, red grape juice (why?), creme fraishe, broken up bits of Ginger Snap (I was winging it ala Nigella at this point. I'm surprised I didn't add some camel hump & ochre stock at this point) and swished it all around in a pretty bowl, while I sung Doris Day songs tunefully. I plonked it all into a tray and slapped it around until it was laying obediently in a nice even layer and shoved it in the fridge. Two hours later I returned, retrieved the container from the fridge and skipped merrily (with a little Ceroc armjive spin thrown in for kicks) to the island to enjoy the fruits of my labour. I joyfully cut into the layer of oatyness and ignored the fact that it was slightly "liquid-esque", and prepared to faint from the wondrous taste of my oat-creation. ..
If we now kindly skip ahead five minutes and pretend that oats have never been discovered I'd be quite grateful. It was woeful :( I'm just not able to be a freestyling, flapjack-baking chef *big sigh*
I've just downloaded Limewire again, so please to be offering me fantastical songs and artists to download - I'm in the mood for new sounds.
A couple of film reviews:
Sweeney ToddI saw Sweeney Todd last Tuesday with mum and Tom. I really enjoyed it and was deeply in love with the styling and aesthetics of it all. The daydream scene was wonderful. I almost cried at the gorgeousness of the clothing, locations and styling. I want to live in that dream sequence until the end of my days. I really need to make some icons. As for the rest of the film, I was a little underwhelmed after all of the amazing reviews, but I do think it's a film that you could watch again and possibly enjoy more the second time around. The actors voices were adequate. Helena sounded pretty, and Johnny reminded me slightly of David Bowie - definitely has that tonal quality. Overall I would give it a 7.75 out of 10.
EnchantedWell, I didn't go to see this expecting anything amazing and my prediction was well-realised. It's fluff and magic and girly and silly and pink, but it is rather sweet and sometimes you need a little innocence to balance the cynicism. It's an empty and pretty way to spend a couple of hours. I LOVED the wee squirrel, though. 6 out of 10.
AdriftTom and I watched this over the weekend and it was a strange one. It was firstly incredibly frustrating and agravating. You can't quite imagine how a group of people can be quite so stupid and to think it's based on true events! Then the ending ... wtf was that about? I didn't know what way to take it. I will say that the suspense was reasonably played and I did keep watching, so in that sense it did its job. 5 out of 10
Eh, it's getting late - I should go to sleep - I've need all the strength I can get for returning this Printer of Doom tomorrow. Wish me luck <3
But first, a meme:
( One Word )