Life

[lproven]

So, in the last few weeks, I have...
- travelled to Yorkshire on the trike, for only the 2nd time - last time was to see Nadin (theladyeve/squashed_lime).
- also visited Birmingham and Solihull by trike. Twice.
- done a spot on ghosts and the afterlife on BBC Radio London (from Sheffield).
- visited the illustrious Ian Sales, WINOLJ, and Francis Witkowski, who isn't either but who is on MySpace now but hasn't picked a URL yet.
- travelled across the High Peak at sunset, which was spectacular.
- spent an afternoon up on the North York Moors, which are rather lovely.
- been to my 4th InFest, thanks to sisterxmisery (for the ticket) & flavius_m (for the room).
- waved my glowsticks like a good 'un and generally had a splendid time there, thanks to heroic (for me) amounts of caffeine (by Sunday night).
- been on stage in London cabaret once again, narrating an escape by mr_flay at Dr DiMaglio's Secrets in the St Aloysius Social Club in exotic sun-kissed Euston.
- been told both that I have "a lovely voice" and that I "sound like a posh fog-horn".
- caught up with the long-lost molesworth at jamesb's last night.
- not only gone to IKEA of my own free will, but joined their loyalty scheme. I am nonetheless chuffed with my £15 backpack and £5 frying-pan. So there.
- met up with niallsdiary for a beer (at Skeptics in the Pub), only a year after we said we'd do so.

I was going to write lots of stuff about Infest but I didn't take a laptop this year - all mine are knackered or completely dead - and most of it's deserted me now. I enjoyed Portion Control and Rupesh Cartel both, who various friends did not seem much taken by. Hugely enjoyed VNV Nation, who to many's surprise I'd not only never seen before but didn't know a single song by. (I guess folk at Infest are not so used to the fact that though I own many hundreds of CDs and know the lyrics to thousands of songs, I am terrible at remembering band or album or track names and often don't know who made some of my favourite music.)

There was no International Festival in Bradford this year, so no Bavarian bierstuhl in Turl Square, which was a shame. ebmsmidget & I were compelled to drink in a Wetherspoon's instead. There was much after-hours talking with him and cities_of_sound and the lovely Eva, though. I felt less drawn to the rather more munted room and corridor parties I saw as I crept home at 4am every night. :¬) This is apparently less true of _whitenoise, who seemed rather broken by Saturday and was on lemonade, being the hardcore technohead that he is. ("Happy 40th", indeed. Pah.)

I was planning on writing down some musings on people-watching at Infest, but I'm afraid my scintillating insights have mostly left me. It's an unparalleled place for it, though. A much more relaxed, less in-yer-face posing crowd than Whitby; some have speculated to me that this is why it sold out, that it's the "we are not going to sodding Whitby again" crowd. Could be. Most still dressed to the 9-and-a-halfs, though, natch. For me, a pair of urban camo combats and an all-white ensemble is dressed to the 9s, but I still attracted some favourable comments, which is always good. Discovery: glowsticks show right through the pockets of a white cotton shirt. Phear the scary green nipple man!

I am insured for some 5000 miles a year on the trike. I have, so far this summer, used about half that. Which isn't bad but makes me think I need a last-minute silly impromptu trip somewhere distant. Maybe I should go surfing again?

P. S. Happy birthday to djpsyche, and to drplokta for yesterday, and to khnark and feorag for Friday!