Drops like stars

is the title of rob bell's new book, just out on aug 1st! looks very interesting! his books always provoke some new sort of appreciation of the bible and faith in an actual relevant way! i find them refreshing! and am looking forward to engaging with Drops Like Stars!

'Official Description: 

We plot. We plan. We assume things are going to go a certain way. And when they don’t, we find ourselves in a new place—a place we haven’t been before, a place we never would have imagined on our own.
 
It is the difficult and the unexpected, and maybe even the tragic, that opens us up and frees us to see things in new ways.
 
Many of the most significant moments in our lives come not because it all went right but because it all fell apart.
 
Suffering does that. It hurts, but it also creates.
 
This book is an exploration of the complex relationship between suffering and creativity, driven by the belief that there is art in the agony.

a few things of note, for tonite!

• i am tired and exhausted in every way!
• i have had an outrageously fun weekend involving coffee's, deep chat, bbq's, a 4am bedtime, probably too much rosy, some great company, top tunes and a highly satisfying full breakfast brunch at stravaigins!
• this evening 6 of us went to the Arches for Alien Wars... only 3 went in, of which i was not one!! i suspected nervous disposition and nightmare tendencies would not combine well with massive alien, sharp claws, darkness, confined spaces and being chased!!
• costa coffee only charged me £1 for a mug of steamed soya milk, vanilla syrup and marshmallows :)
• fopp is my favourite shop. even when i can't afford anything it's so nice to wander about and lose yourself amongst it all! books, cds, dvds= perfect! it might (might!) even beat clothes shopping!
• in the Oxfam bookshop on Byres Rd my friend's book is being sold! 'God's Never Offside'! now sitting at front of shelf of religious books!

that's all really!

in a blink...

life is short. in the grand scheme of eternity we really are a drop in the ocean. sometimes i wonder where the time goes and wonder why i waste so much time doing silly, pointless things. i'm not beating myself up for it, just wondering why.

on friday night i saw a lady dying on the street. she had been run over by a van only a few moments before and as the paramedics worked on her my car was stopped by the police to let other vehicles by. i only saw her for a short time, probably only ten seconds, but it felt like minutes were going by as i watched her, surrounded by blood and her handbag sitting on the road. it was brown and so was her curly hair. i heard later she died on the street and that it was a hit and run- police are still looking for the driver that killed her. 

it has really hit home how fragile how life is and how in a second it can be taken away. i wonder about who she has left behind and how many lives have been impacted by her passing. about how many other people have been shaken and shocked by seeing her lying there. i had to pass the spot today on my way to work and flowers now colourfully mark the spot where tragedy occurred. our world is so full of contrasts and conflicting images... words... behaviour... opinions... reactions... and in the blink of an eye it, or we, can be gone.

so, what are you living for?

a world of readers...

My little cluster map (bottom right of my blog page!) is about to get its yearly clear and refresh so my little map of readers will be all sad and empty in a few days! on the nice side, my blog has had 819 views since 17th june last year so i hope u'v all been enjoying my reviews and ponderings! its fun to see where people are reading from and there's been some curious views from far flung lands! so here's to all of u, familiar and new!

the Britney Circus comes to london!!

and i was there to experience it!! arriving at the o2 with hazel we were both slightly tired but rather excited! we were about to see Britney Spears live in London, or as live as seeing Britney can get!! outside the venue were a variety of circus/ fun fair rides incl a helter skelter and carousel, which made us giddy on sight!! once inside we grabbed some food and ascended to the heights of level 4 where our glorious seats were to be found-not recommended for those with vertigo! the upper floor of the o2 is so steep its almost vertical, i feared that with one wrong step i would topple over the edge!!

thanx to the tube strike we were a little late 

for doors open but just in time for supporting act, Ciara!!! she was fantastic, the ideal performer to warm up the crowd with funky r& b beats and impressive vocals! then, the lights dimmed, the stage shifted and out of

 nowhere appeared... clowns!! and magicians!! and acrobats!! 

and lots of colourful and sparkly props!! there was an impressive circular screen hanging over the central stage area with videos, graphics and images of circus and britney related footage!! then came 

the opening beats of Britney's hit song "Circus' and there she appeared before us, descending from the centre of the arena 

in a golden sphere!!

the rest of the evening was non-stop!! the overall performance and show was high energy with some amazing stage props and dance moves from the accompanying dance troupe!! 

however, as much as i love and am loyal to britney, she was

 definitely lacking a certain sparkle!

 her costumes certainly tried to make up for that, but having been prepared for her miming i was at least expecting some outstanding and energetic dance moves! which were sadly lacking from the leading lady herself! lots of strutting around and being twirled on various props but not u got the impression she was just not on top her game! i am convinced that on thurs evening i was singing and dancing at the 02 more than britney!! however, she performed/ mimed a great variety of her tracks including new remixes of Baby One More Time, Slave 4 U and Me Against the Music,

 the atmosphere was buzzing and we were all on out feet dancing and singing along!!! fabulous!! and to be fair to her, she did sing Everytime (her one live song!) whilst suspended from the ceiling attached to a giant sparkly umbrella!! and did mid-air acrobatics which was pretty impressive!

So despite my slight disappointment at her lack of effort we still overall had an amazin time! the show was a colourful explosion of some classic hits, impressive stage performance and lots of sparkle!!! and i got a circus mask for free!! what's not to love...! :)

Millport Magic!

fresh sea air, picnics on the beach, entertaining island features, the joke shop, a bitter wind, 10 miles, 3 bicycles and 3 of us.. why yes, it was a day out to Millport!! sadly minus the luvly ing, but karen, roo and i braved the elements for our fun trip round the isle of cumbrae!! i think we also beat the record for most modes of transport used in one day: taxi, train, ferry, bus and bicycle!! we set out from sunny glasgow and as the sky became increasingly grayer the hilarity heightened! i had already changed my outfit at least 10 times before leaving, and the nearer we got to millport the more layers went on!

it was such a funny day out! we got our bikes, helmets, waterproof gear on and after cycling for, oh, about 8 mins, stopped for picnic: part 1! this was closely followed about 9 mins later with picnic part 2: at the cafe! :) however, we then got some serious cycling under way, had some photo stops to capture those classic millport sights- the indian rock, lion rock, crocodile rock, to buy some rock! we also create some art of our own in a tribute to dear ingrid who had been got by the hangover monster!!! the day was complete with a visit to the joke shop for some exploding bangers and fake cigarettes, haha!! and a trip to the very retro Rio cafe on the sea front where we proudly presented each other with our We Cycled Round Millport certificates!! the perfect ending to a jolly day out at the seaside!! and now a little achey and very appreciative of a seat which isn't made solely of rubber and springs- ouch!!

the beauty of Bell X1 :)

Bell X1 have long been one of my favourite alternative bands and having just release album no 4 'Bluelights on the Runway' they were winding up their tour in Glasgow on Thurs nite at the mighty King Tut's! along with Ing, Miss Bliss and Olivia Lovely (genuine name, amazing, and claim to fame of being David Kitt's 2nd cousin!!) we began in Nice and Sleazy's for a few drinks, which brought back fond memories of singing at their open mic nights in years gone by!

The Villagers were supporting but we missed most of their set being too distracted by our own entertaining chat! we managed to claim a decent spot before the band came on and opened with How Your Heart is Wired, which wouldn't have been my first choice, not the catchiest opener but it seemed to do the trick! They played a great selection of tracks from their earlier albums which was pleasing, including Alphabet Soup, Eve the Apple of My Eye and Rocky Took a Lover!! I sadly missed Flame due to a trip to the loo but was back in time for The Ribs of a Broken Umbrella, hurrah! It was a fairly mellow and chilled out gig but every now and then they upped the ante with a more upbeat song and lead singer, Paul Noonan, was full of the Irish banter!! Overall I loved the whole nite and the others seemed to enjoy it too- Olivia has also been a die-hard fan since day one but this was Ing and Miss Bliss's first encounter! I even kept up gig tradition and bumped into a couple of folk i knew and hadn't seen for ages! Lovely!

Andrew Bird at the Oran Mor

Last nite was spent most enjoyably experiencing Andrew Bird present his musical genius at the Oran Mor! what a guy! after a tasty (and massive!) burger in Ashton Lane's 'Loft', myself, Karen, Rich and Scott made our merry way to the corner of Byres Rd to the basement of the Oran Mor, which was a pretty cool gig venue! after some deliberation we chose a drink in the bar over listening to the support act, and a fruity pimms and cranberry later we meandered down to the gig! 

Andrew Bird has a really unusual style, his newest album Noble Beast is lovely but i had completely not appreciated how multi-talented he is! His performance had me in awe! basically, he began his songs playing an instrument, mainly violin in which he is classically trained, but as he performed he also recorded it and played it back on a loop! he would then do the same with another instrument, record, playback on loop, etc until the track was layered with various rhythms, sounds, melodies, whistling, glockenspiel, etc, before his vocals rolled across the top as the icing on the cake!

his lyrics are always interesting and the overall sounds merged beautifully throughout the evening- i actually felt transported at times into different places! like, during one song i felt as though i should have been running thru a victorian house in the country; in another that i was in China- it was reminiscent of the movie Memoirs of a Geisha; during another i felt like playing with a giant dolls house! the rose wine perhaps contributed to this too! i felt happy and excited and inspired by his creative musical genius!

Lovely :)

10k accomplished!! :)

hooray!!! i did it!! i can now say with pride that i have run my 10k race!! in precisely 1 hour, 13 mins and 13 secs!

so... last sunday i woke at 6:30am, rather anxious about what my day held, had a wee breakfast, a luvly tropical Berocca energy drink and got my running gear on! chris dropped me near the start point which, despite reading all the pre-course info, wasn't where i was expecting it to be! as in, not even in the park but on a street! i braved a portaloo before the queues became utterly mad, found the Yellow Zone and hovered around trying to look casual and nonchalant as i scoured the sea of faces for a familiar one! amazingly, the meeting place which sandra and i had agreed was actually successful and we did the warm up, smiled for photos and psyched ourselves up!! i swung rapidly from being outrageously excited, soaking up the atmosphere to the dreaded realisation that i was about to run for a very long distance!! 

we were started in stages depending on our colour group and at 10am the race kicked off with the very fast people taking off at a mighty pace, followed by fairly fast runners, followed by us, followed by people dressed as banana's and bumble bees!! classic! there were over 10, 500 runners and the atmosphere was VERY exciting, i kept laughing, at nothing really other than how brilliant it all was!! the first km flew by the quickest, and throughout the race there were hundreds of people cheering us on- crowds lining the streets, people hanging out of their flat windows, drivers tooting enthusiastically, members of the public handing us water/ energy sweets, and at every km mark there were bagpipers!!! 

sandra and i both successfully ran the ENTIRE way, of which i feel very proud of us!! i think back to when i first started running and literally couldn't run more than 2 mins at a time! we had some luvly chat on the route round, cheering each other on and being generally impressed with ourselves that we hadn't collapsed in a ditch along the way!

crossing the finish line was magical, and a wee bit emotional too! as i approached the final stretch i heard my name being shouted and managed to spot my plews cheerleaders, gave them a quick wave and pressed on for the finish! what a feeling!! we were then given a medal, banana and goodie bag (which was potentially exciting but contained pretty random things including a herbal sweet(yes, just one!) and a jar of cranberry sauce!) 

there have been many positive things related to training for and running this 10k- general feelings of health and well-being; becoming part of an informal community of fellow runners; actually disciplining myself enough to complete what i set out to do- this was a biggie as i tend to love something passionately and then find something else and move on and love the new thing passionately, and then find something else, etc...! but best of all has been all the support and money raised for Stop the Traffik through my JustGiving website, it has truly blown me away! Your generosity has been incredible and going to a really worthy cause! so a final MASSIVE THANKYOU to each of u! :)

a new running phenomenon!!!

eek, it is finally here- RACE WEEKEND!! having now been training for roughly 9 weeks and starting from scratch i must say i am rather pleased with myself to have reached this point!! i went out for my final pre-race run this morning, a quick 15 min blast round the park, in the lashing rain! gripped by the clutches of spontaneity i dashed out into the rain, not fully appreciating the icy drench until it had overtaken my entire being! thru gritted teeth i pushed on, and started enjoying it! and, haha, i had watched Friends the other nite, and it was The One Where Phoebe Runs Like a Maniac, so feeling inspired i decided to try it, and it was invigorating!! for those of u who have somehow missed this episode, Phoebe runs with limbs flailing at full pelt, just because its more fun that way, and reminds her of when she used to run when she was little!! i did feel a tad self-conscious but the mad flailing of arms enabled me to shake that off and i ran like an out-of-control maniac!!! i would SO recommend doing this at least once in ur life!!

this week has been a bit of a struggle due to feeling a bit under the weather and having a bad few days with my stomach, but i am now recovered i think, have my race pack through and am all set!! Race pack is quite exciting and includes: a free underground pass for 4 people for sunday; a parking permit; information on the race and route; my cool electronic chip which will give me my time, and a brand new race t-shirt!! having spoken to fellow runners, apparently it is not cool to wear this on the day, but afterwards u can wear it with pride!

i also want to say a massive THANKYOU to everyone who has sponsored me so far!! i have been overwhelmed by the amount of support raised for Stop The Traffik, and the total before gift aid is currently at £450.01!!! and incl Gift Aid it comes to an amazing £562.83! You people are wonderful! And for anyone still wishing to donate to Stop the Traffik, my sponsor page will be live for the next wee while so if u would still like to give then it's not too late :)

only 2 sleeps til race day....