dom.blog

I hope you’re as excited as I am to introduce this blog’s new name – Da Spittings ov DALEK RED! I feel it successfully communicates the site’s energy and youth-appeal much more than our old name, and I’m sure you agree*.

In other news, I should post about The Lives of Others which I saw on Friday night. It’s a German film set in 1984 (no co-incidence there) about an agent of the Stasi, the secret police of East Germany during the communist regime. Purely in terms of film-making, the style and pace was certainly different to a Hollywood film which made it interesting to experience, but the story gripped me too. Not always in a terribly comforting way though: at some points I was secretly urging the Stasi agent to turn someone in! A worrying sign of accepting authority there

Another worrying sign is how I’m rather falling apart at the moment. My cold is still with me, though I think the tides of sneezing and coughing are going out, but I woke up at 5 yesterday with conjunctivitis and have a tiny patch of dermatitis on my hand. Signs of stress? Well pretty stupid signs of stress, if I’m perfectly honest. How is making me ill supposed to help, body? You think that’s going to de-stress me? I was fine beforehand! Jeez, I think I should start up a new emo subculture: “I’m so misunderstood (by my immune system)”.

*As you may have guessed, Da Spittings ov DALEK RED will not be an entirely permanent arrangement It started off from a discussion about Coco Pops, and that brief foray into being renamed Choco Krispies in 1998, with seemingly disastrous consequences. Or maybe it was all a carefully planned marketing stunt? Anyway – no need to kick up a fuss – I’m sure I’ll have a change of heart soon

… I swear, cross my heart and hope to die. But then I did it and ended up with a rather freakily cool result, so I will. The idea is to put your media player on shuffle and then use the song titles as the answers to these quiz questions. As everyone of the MySpace generation will already know

How does the world see me?
Future Pleasure

Will I have a happy life?
Après Moi

What do my friends really think of me?
Pretty Fly For A White Guy [hahaha!]

Do people secretly lust after me?
Life in the Fast Lane

How can I make myself happy?
Saturday Night

What should I do with my life?
Faithless (Live at Live 8 ) [I agree with this ]

Will I ever have children?
Songbird

What is some good advice for me?
Charles, I Need Help Please

How will I be remembered?
Don’t You (Forget About Me) [How appropriate]

What is my signature dancing song?
Crosses (Breaks Mix)

What do I think my current theme song is?
Good Time / Rhythm is a Dancer

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Waltz

What song will play at my funeral?
Madonna (Live at Live 8 )

What type of men/women do you like?
Lucy []

What is my day going to be like?
My My My

“Over the past week I’ve meet up with all four of my Holy Quadrinity (look, the word exists now) of Birmingham \ technically-Worcestershire people. Andy came to stay, then I went back up with him to stay with Lucy, with the trip also including early-morning hot chocolate with Nic and a chat on the Lickey Hills with Josie and her bloke. (I like saying ‘and her bloke’, but I’m not trying to imply anything blokeish or otherwise about him. It’s just to avoid saying ‘Andy’ again and getting people all confused, really.)”

– Excerpt from Babble e-mail blog preview

And so it was, basically. I’ve really enjoyed my Easter holiday! It threw up some fun and surreal situations, like having Ms Hook sitting on my bed acting as Edgar’s mum for a film whereby Holly plays a wounded immigrant living in an alleyway and the subject of his affections. While Andy and I watched from Tasha’s staircase with the rest of my family, enjoying it all. How downright weird is that?

Not to mention that on the train to Birmingham I ended up having a good old media chat with the guy sitting opposite me, who’d spent most of the journey pitching programme ideas to his boss. That’s downright cool, but only because I’m a media geek who enjoys talking about the long-term sustainability of Teacher’s TV without yawning.

Oh, and on the final day of the holidays we had a traditional big family get-together meal in a rather swanky hotel. (Well, swanky for my tastes. But then Andy and I managed to dine at McDonald’s a few minutes after leaving the British Museum, so I guess that might not count for much.) Which was great, since we don’t seem to have many Big Family Divisions (TM) at the moment! I actually felt a burst of pride at being the only household to have used public transport to get there, too

Right, back to school. My final full half-term of lessons. Oh that’s downright scary…