Magpie Queen

Birthday weekend

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 12:54:07 GMT

I had a lovely and very busy weekend. Saturday was spent in central London with Ash, shopping for my birthday present, eating amazing food, drinking deliciously fruity beer and then at the British Museum. They have a small exhibition on Middle Eastern word art, and with my new-found appreciation for Farsi and Arabic script, I enjoyed it very much. I could even read some of it!

On Sunday I had a vegan family meal in Peterborugh, and apart from the inevitable snide comments about the lack of meat, it went down very well. In the evening Ash, some friends and I went to the Barbican to see John Zorn's tribute to Aleister Crowley. There were three sections; the first, Mike Patton, a drummer and the bassist from Fantomas performing music by Zorn, the second, a film of Crowley's artwork accompanied by Zorn's mixing, and the third part was a mainly choral work. It was a very interesting evening. Mike patton seems to like performing on my birthday!

Success!

Tue, 30 May 2006 15:26:27 GMT

UCL just informed me that they are offering me a place on the MA in conservation that I had applied for! So now I'll be in London for another year - actually in London this time, rather than practically Reading. All I have to do is work out how I'm going to afford it...

I'm also just finishing moving all my stuff to Willesden. Whilst it is in London, it's still remarkably difficult to get to Camden. Definitely an improvement on Hounslow though.

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 12:47:59 GMT

Our house was broken into last night. The bedrooms have been turned upside down, but nothing really was taken, only my housemate's ipod and a jewellery box of mine. I'm annoyed about that, because my jewellery was probably worth only a fiver, but it had all my silver rings in it. When they look properly and discover they're worthless, I suppose they'll chuck them, but they were worth something to me! It could have been worse, I suppose, but I really don't own anything that's worth nicking. Except my mp3 player, and they left that. It wasn't as good as an ipod I guess! Well, I've got a lot of tidying up to do tonight...

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 01:33:02 GMT

I'm in Mongolia right now, halfway through the Kids' Project. It's an awesome country, just so different to everywhere else I've ever been! We're staying in a wooden cabin with no running water and electricity on average every other day, so we all smell awful. The kids are amazing, they're all so loving but tough at the same time. So many random things have happened - on Wednesday a coachload of Miss Mongolia contestants turned up!

Now I'm in Ulaan Baatar because we're having a trip for the weekend to Karakorum, Chinggis Khan's capital. Hopefully I'll even get a shower later!

I hope you guys are all having as much fun as me!

Book meme

Fri, 20 May 2005 13:02:18 GMT

I was tagged by silkyraven

1)Total number of books owned?
I don't really know, probably a couple of hundred.

2)Last book I bought?
In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu for Bibliogoth. I don't normally buy books though, except from charity shops: I tend to use the library instead.

3) Last book I read?
Currently I'm reading In a Glass Darkly and Interview With a Vampire (which I don't like much, incidentally!), but I just finished a collection of stories by Bernard Shaw

4) 5 Books that mean a lot to me?
Le Petit Prince - Saint-Exupéry
Vanity Fair - Thackeray
The Way of All Flesh - Butler
All Quiet on the Western Front - Remarque
The Bodley Head - Saki

5) Tag 5 people and have them fill this out in their LJ.
No, because Silkyraven got them already!

Overlaying

Thu, 19 May 2005 22:39:59 GMT

I have spent a rather lovely evening drawing in biro and charcoal and chatting to P whilst listening to Nurse With Wound, Boris and Swans. Drawing makes me feel a bit more artistic as oppose to being just a scientist. I don't really care that I can't draw, or even what the picture looks like when I've done with it, but it makes me think slightly differently and it gives me something else to analyse.

my musical world

Thu, 12 May 2005 22:12:38 GMT

The soundtrack to my life is currently:

Skinny Puppy - I'mmortal
Wolfsheim - I don't love you any more
Eels - Guest List
Marilyn Manson - Down in the Park
Skinny Puppy - Pro-Test
Skinny Puppy - Amnesia
Hole - Miss World

And also Alec Empire's new album, Futurist, because I'm going to see their gig on Sunday.

Next week it will be mostly Neurosis and Merzbow I think, with some Swans for good measure.