B O B B L E

Just received following text:

Dear Nicholas.

Falmouth Surgery are updating their health records.
To assist text back your current smoking status.

Thank you.

Should I be worried?

I tried to get some tickets for the 'Hockey' gig but sadly they were sold out and yeah, the were on tonight, not next week as I thought. Ack. However, they are - maybe - going to be at Great Escape in May. And Little Boots is going to be there too and a slew of others like Metronomy, rawr.

Anyway to get over the lack of 'Hockey' tickets I managed to score some tickets to the 'Wild Beasts' gig on Friday. Lawks! That shall be fun: falsetto, filthy catchy beats and irony laden lyrics. Yes a good night.

I shall be jiggling along to this one I think:

Wild Beasts - Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants

But wait there's more. From Friday I shall going to five, count them, five gigs in the next four weeks. How I am going to keep my blood pressure down just thinking about 10th March in particular I do not know.

I am a slut for gigs. Music owns my soul.

Hello campers!

Minks and I have been chatting on Facebook and discovered that we both want to go Camp Bestival.

What is Camp Bestival I hear you ask?

Camp Bestival is a small family friendly festival set in the grounds of Lulworth Castle in Dorset at the end of July. But wait! It's not just any old music festival with stinking portaloos and weak cider. No it is definitely not.

It's a brilliantly lovely approach to festivaling. It has lots of free things to do, it has boutique camping for festival lightweights, it has Blue Coats and a 1950s holiday camp vibe.

Meet you by the Bollywood tent

Things I am looking forward to at Camp Bestival (I may have to kidnap children for some of these):

• Silent Disco
• The Cuban Brothers
• DJ Yoda
• DJ lessons
• Glitter wrestling
• The sewing and knitting tents
• Champagne breakfasts
• PJ Harvey
• Frankie Boyle
• The A-Z of Shoegazing
• Bon Iver
• Mercury Rev
• Scatch Perverts
• Poetry slamming
• The Bollywood tent

So you know you all want to come right?

Minks and I thought it would be beyond fab if loads of us could go. A real 20Six reunion with added festival goodness. So what about it? Anyone else up for it? Tickets are available here right now. Best of all it's family friendly so those with kids can come too.

2009 you rock, here's to the Year of Win!

*Oh and Hugh Fernley Whittingstall is doing some catering.

BBC Breakfast are showing the business report.

B: Losses on the FTSE three days in a row.

M: Only small losses.

B: When it goes below 4,000 again, I might worry.

B stares at unknown presenter

B: Where's Declan?

M: Pesto has had him killed.

And we used to talk about the the presenters hair.

Word refuses to believe this word exists. In your faces Microsoft:

louche

/loosh/

  • adjective disreputable or dubious in a rakish or appealing way.

  — ORIGIN French, ‘squinting’.

Hah.

Thank you OED.

A question? Is 'Rouge Noir' by Chanel still sexy? My ex-boss would positively swoon when I wore it. M says it's "that purple stuff."

Rouge Noir

I think it looks like deoxygenated blood; and I mean that in a good way. 

So Voxers, a yay or a nay for 'Rouge Noir'?

1. The smell of Dettol.

2. Mini Snickers.

3. Aubergine boy shorts.

4. Snooker.

5. Christmas cards on Etsy.

6. Shocking pink fingernails.

7. The idea of Gene Hunt.

8. Supernatural.

9. Mens tailoring.

10. Remembering past scrapes.

To stop myself feeling horrible I've been looking at some of my favourite photographers. I wish I still felt the compulsion, the need, that they have to pick up a camera. Two years ago to not photograph felt like I was ill. Now the reverse seems true.

To suit my mood I've been looking at Sam Taylor Wood's 2003 series 'Crying Men'.

Daniel Craig

Is there anything as shocking or raw as a man crying? I only saw my father cry twice in his whole life. Both times I felt like my whole world had moved sideways. Something solid and immovable just suddenly wasn't. Maybe it is a product of my upbringing or our society but you aren't meant to see men cry.

If I ever see a man crying in the street or in an airport departure lounge I just want to go to them. The feeling overwhelms me. A quote from the book of Taylor Wood's work says:

"... heroic crying where stoic restraint has broken down ..."

God doesn't that just describe it? Excuse me while I go and have a cry.

Saw QoS yesterday and I really liked it. Gritty violence contained in a Tom Ford suit.

The rest of my weekend was pretty shitty so I am not going to mention that.

Gritty Bond

A note to the Bond franchise though: Stop blowing up things I care about.

In Casino Royale they felt compelled to blow up random parts of the city I was born in; Venice*. You can stop that right now please.

In QoS they have a car chase along Lago di Garda mashing a very lovely Alfa and leaving Bond's DBS with gouges that a light bit of t-cutting wouldn't fix. The tunnel they chase though is on one of the loveliest stretches of the shoreline road opposite Torri del Benaco. Please to be leaving it intact for our next holiday thank you.

But they hadn't finished. When Bond arrives in Siena he feels duty bound to trash the tiles on the houses in Via Pantaneto, not realising of course that I lived at number 14 when I was at Uni. Then he goes on to demolish half a renaissance baptistry. But hey, Leocorno won the Palio (my old Contrade) so I'll let them off a bit.

Siena Rooftop Smashing Bond

The village Bond tracks Mathis to, Talmone, is another favourite holiday spot. Thank god they didn't blow any of it up.

The recent Bond films have felt like a bit of a love letter to Italy and that pleases me. Just not the destruction: so please stop it.

*I felt worse watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the blew up practically all of Venice, the rotters.

I'm being a good girl and have been stuck diligently behind my monitor for the past few days toiling with photoshop.

Yes w*rking - don't let me catch you doing it.

Like an unsavoury traffic accident that I can't take my eyes off I am watching the markets and reading a lot of grim news over on FT Alphaville. I can't help it. I did that job for ten years.

This blog sums up it nicely through the medium of pictures: Brokers with hands on their faces

See the picture one up from the bottom? I used to work in that office. Jeepers.

Happy weekend all x