| My Lawnmower Was On Fire and Nobody Could Save Me But You... |
[30 Aug 2007|03:12pm] |
We decided on Saturday that Leia the bunny needed a friend. It should be mentioned at this point that the bunny is now almost twice the size she was when we got her (about the size of a cat) and spends most of her days stuffing her face with food (try to take the food bowl away from her to fill it up and she'll grab it with her teeth and fight you for it!), as well as taking in the occasional meal of leather from the sofa and the boxes that her Dad's Star Wars toys come in. She has now been christened 'Devil Bunny' or 'Buck Satan'.
We proceeded to the pet shop with the hope of adopting another rabbit, but the only rabbit available was only to be kept on its own. Instead we decided to buy a 'first hand' one. After Leia's temper tantrums, we decided to not just go for the cutest one, but go for the rabbit with the best disposition towards humans. Our winner was a small brown and white baby rabbit who was christened 'Gizmo' due to her similarity to a certain Mogwai, one of two of the same patterning at the pet shop (remember this, it will be important later in this story). Gizmo was introduced to Leia in the bathroom, where Leia proceeded to bite a chunk out of her new sister. It was fairly obvious at this point that we would no be having to buy separate hutches for the two of them.
Gizmo had also started to sneeze - not a good sign. We took Gizmo back to the pet shop the next day in the hope that the on site vet could come up with a remedy but we were flushed off with excuses such as the stress of a new home or dusty straw. A day later Gizmo was still sneezing so we planned another trip to a professional vet. En route we found ourselves back at the pet shop. Gizmo seemed such a sociable bunny, that it seemed a shame for her to be living on her own, and the bunny with the same white and brown coat as her was still to be found there, without a doubt from the same litter. So we threw caution to wind and picked up the second Mogwai bunny. Gizmo got some medicine from the vet, which seems to have lessened the sneezing, although the cost of taking her to the vets on bank holiday Monday was £110!!!!!
Once at home we introduced the new bunny to Gizmo - no problems at all. They obviously recognised each other and our dreams of a bunny utopia were restored. Mogwai bunny number 2 has been christened 'Stripe' after the evil Gremlin. Stripe isn't so friendly as Gizmo, but is getting more sociable. At least these two are easier to handle and would make good pets for kids. Leia is NOT happy about the new arrivals and circles furiously around their cage where we bring her in for her nightly run about the house.
On Sunday I took to mowing the grass in the garden with the new lawn mower I purchased last month. I was about 3 quarters of the way through when I started to see some smoke (which I took as just being dust). I stopped mowing for a while, but when I resumed the lawn mower wouldn't respond and was sluggish. I looked down a few minutes later to see flames shooting from the grass box! I nipped inside to get a wet towel and attacked it with that, but to no avail. Alex aimed the garden hose at it, but the water just made the flames climb higher (I hasten to add that the mower had been disconnected by this point!). There was nothing left to do but call the fire brigade. By the time they turned up, the blaze was getting pretty huge (luckily I pulled it away form the nearby tree when I first saw the flames!). By the time the fire was out, all we had left of the mower was a grass box, a handle, a wheel, two spindle axels and the charred remains of a motor. The mower was despatched back to Homebase yesterday where a full refund was given.
In literary news, due to a cock up by DHL, I've still yet to see a copy of 'World Was On Fire', but understand some of you in readerland have. Any good?
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| More Book Related Stuff |
[06 Aug 2007|03:34pm] |
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Further to my last post (and for those of you who don't click on links at work in case they take you to a naked picture of David Guest), After 3 years of me rating on about it, you can now buy my book 'World Was On Fire' from Lulu.com for a mere £7.49. If you want to save the environment, would prefer to read it on your computer or are really stingy, you can download its full 184 pages of goodness (?) in PDF format for £1.25.
Just to remind you all (and because I love inserting code in these entries as it makes me feel really clever and technical)
You can-
You can read a previously unpublished excerpt here - http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=1073313
Now I've got this goddamn thing out there, I've now got to publicise it and buy an ISBN number when I've saved up the £60 it's going to cost me. I've already set up a Myspace page where I can spam mail everybody with the words 'goth' and 'reading' in their 'interests' section in the hope that they'll buy the thing, but I'm also working out the names of some magazines I could send a few review copies to so as to drum up some interest. As I don't read many paper mags these days, I was hoping that maybe you folks out there in reader land would be able to confirm if these publications listed below are likely to be interested, or even if they review books.
So far I've a list that reads as follows -
-Alternative London Magazine.
-Skin Two.
-Zillo (I know its in German but that hopefully shouldn't be a problem).
-SFX (although I'm not certain if they except unsolicited publications, i.e. those not sent by an agent or well known publisher).
-Whatever Mick Mercer is doing these days (I know he's reviewed books in his previous fanzines, does he do the same now?)
- Bats and Red Velvet (Is this still going or am I well out of step?)
- Kerrang or Metal Hammer (what does everyone think? Is it even worth me spending 2 postage stamps on these two?)
I take it that Meltdown never made a printed comeback?
Any others anyone can think of?
Now that my first book is 'in the bag' I'm already plotting a sequel . Whilst it will again be a collection of interwoven short stories, there will be tighter continuity and no jumping around time periods. If the first one was my rawer 'Mad Max' attempt, the sequel will be a glossier 'Road Warrior' effort!
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| Neph Nite at The Dev |
[17 May 2007|01:37pm] |
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I'm going to the Nephilim night at the Dev Arms tonight. Anyone else game?
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[22 Mar 2007|02:53pm] |
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Does anyone know of a website that offers good deals on rail travel? I need to get a period return from Newquay at a weekend during June. There's an airport in Newquay that flys to Gatwick, so I've even been considering flying if it works out cheaper!
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| Random_goth 4 - Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. |
[06 Feb 2007|06:39pm] |
Last night I sold virtually all my Doctor Who videos at the Music and Video Exchange in Notting Hill. For this I received £110 in credit vouchers. I also made a similar amount buy flogging some of my Dad's old LPs. This left Alex and me with over £200 worth of vouchers to spend, so we went on a mad dash throwing in every CD and DVD we liked the look of. It was a bit like 'Supermarket Sweep' in New Rocks. High points included 2 whole seasons of 'Star Trek the Next Generation' on DVD for £20 each and a collection of vampire films called 'Box of Blood' that actually has some sticky red goo that looks like blood in the front of the box in a transparent window. We still have £70-odd left to spend.
It's strange, I thought today I'd be really regretting getting rid of my Who vids, but in fact I feel like its one more piece of baggage gone, and anyway, I have all my favourite stories on DVD now (Well, except for 'The Deadly Assassin' and 'Day of the Daleks', but I'm sure the beeb will get to them eventually).
All is well between Alex and me and we become closer with each passing day. I really do think she is 'the one' and I'm not talking about Neo from 'The Matrix'! However, the other night I apparently tried to strangle her in my sleep! I don't remember any of this so I've not a clue what triggered it. I used to suffer from quite bad night time terrors a few years back and had a pretty bad nightmare a few nights before the strangling incident, so I'm hoping the isn't the beginning of a nasty new trend!
The weekend went well at Inferno on Friday night (despite the music) whilst the Intrepid Fox wasn't so good on Saturday, mainly again to a poor selection of music that left me feeling bored.
Alex is in Wales for a gig this coming weekend so I'll be having a Star Trek marathon once I've emptied my current storage facility and organised a new one in Dartford with Bianca. Should keep my mind occupied whilst m'honey is away!
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| Limey Lurgey |
[29 Jan 2007|08:31am] |
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Not much to report this weekend. Alex and me have spent the last few days holed up with flu and achy joints. The only strenuous activities involved roaming around B&Q and then assisting in doing a few cosmetic improvements to my prospective abode (for those that haven't heard already, I'll be at Alex's place full time in a few months time!). We'll hopefully all be well and proper for Inferno at the Electric Ballroom on Friday. Who else is going?
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| Just When You Thought I'd Forgotten About This... |
[23 Jan 2007|04:55pm] |
In the last few weeks I have...
* Been on a weekend stag trip to Amsterdam. Nice place to visit, wouldn't want to live there!
* Watched a man sticking bits of metal in parts of his body at the Purple Turtle.
* Seen L A Guns at the Underworld. Not quite the singer performing that I was expecting though!
* Have attended the wedding of hippymetaller and wispy_beard.
Expect more updates soon!
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| Whatever Happened To Random_goth? |
[02 Jan 2007|12:36pm] |
I suppose an update of sorts is in order. The weekend before Christmas I ended up going to see a Bon Jovi tribute band in Gillingham with Alex and Bianca, and we went to Slimeshite the night after as it was the birthday of one of Alex's friends. The music behaved itself for once as somebody remembered that its supposed to be a goff club and played 'This Corrosion'! The Thursday beforehand I received my Christmas present from Alex, put it this way, there's now something in my nipple that will set off metal detectors at airports!
The Christmas period wasn't much fun for me. Alex was in the States visiting her Dad, our first period apart since we got together and I've missed her terribly. We've been speaking on the phone every day, so thank goodness for BT post office international phone cards! For the latter part of Christmas week I had the move to my new abode to occupy my mind (not that I missed Alex any less), and on Friday I officially became the third crew member of the Starship Liberator. After almost a year of living without a 'fixed abode' it is nice to once again have 4 walls that I can call my own. There's so much space I'm still trying to work out how to utilise it all! I'm planning to down grade my storage unit with Big Yellow Storage to something smaller. As part of this I'm planning to get rid off nearly all my videos (more about this at a later date) and yesterday I spent the evening liberating some of my carded Star Wars figures from their plastic prisons, so a lot of the carded toys are loose, and thus far easier to store. Avon (my new land lord) kindly gave me some more Star Wars toys that he had the other night as well, so my shelves are bulging under the weight of Lucasfilm related merchandise! The move took a lot out of me physically though, and my back and legs are still killing me!
On New Year's Eve I found myself at Slimeshite once more. There was a visit to the all new, all different Intrepid Fox first to catch up with Kristina and Devin who were over for the new year, but once we were at Slimes, the usual chaos ensued. Yvonne made a surprise guest appearance, and the music wasn't too awful as the Trad floor did what it said on the tin for once. The steps also began to ice over and I fell over at one point, waking up the next day to discover that I'd badly bruised both my elbows and lower back. Still, it was good to see so many people I haven't seen for a while and I apologise for my drunken state. In an echo of NYE 2003/2004, I also managed to crack the back plate on one of my New Rock boots in two at some point as well!
I'm at work for the next 2 days, then off Thursday to meet Alex at the airport, so I can now count the hours until she is back in my arms.
Its come to my attention that it's Inferno at the Electric Ballroom this Friday, although with all the high jinks planned for Matt's stag do in Amsterdam on Saturday, I'm not sure if its really a good idea....
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| Foxy Lady! |
[18 Dec 2006|03:32pm] |
I had a good time down the Dev Arms on Friday and it was good to catch up with people. The visit to the all new, all different Intrepid Fox was an eye opener as it's possible the best 'alternative' venue I think I've ever seen - ample space, but enough people about to keep it lively. Methinks this may be the base camp of many future adventures.
Bianca's dad was over from Germany this week and at Alex's on Friday, attempting to set up a wireless internet connection. In doing this he required all the utility discs for the PC, unfortunately amongst the discs was my DVD of a film entitled 'Cathula', which I'm sure many of those of you who have been round my house will have seen, due to the immortal line echoed by it's heroine in a west country accent - "You are now my vampire of sex!". Accompanied by the constant creaking of bedsprings he no doubt heard in the bedroom next door, I'm sure that he may have formed some interesting ideas about the activities of people in England...
Most of Saturday was spent travelling to the chavsville of Staines to drop off my Grandmother and Uncle's Christmas presents.
Due to bad traffic we had to bail out of going to see the Blue Man group, and by the time we were ready, the last train for London had left Dartford, so we ended up going back to Alex's and staying the night there, so we didn't get to the Intrepid Fox that night.
Sunday involved another present drop and walking Aurora. Alex made some Mexican food which I tried for the first time.....and thought was really tasty! Yes my English attitude to food is changing rapidly!
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| The All New, All Different, Adventures of Random_goth. |
[15 Dec 2006|09:39am] |
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The Cult - 'The Saint' |
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So here's a proper update at last. Last Saturday my beloved and me went to see a few glam metal bands. And yes, a certain Scandinavian ex of mine was there, but there was no issues or ill feeling between us (well not on my part anyway!). We all had a good night. Alex came back with me to my parents home the following day and proved extremely popular.
I've been spending the last few days at Alex's and I couldn't be happier, I long for the hours to pass when I'm not with her, yet when we are together they fly by without hesitation. All that's happening now is a new experience for me. No one else has ever made me so ecstatic and fulfilled.
The breaking news is that Steve is moving out of his room at Avon's on 29th December and I'll then be able to begin my tour of duty on the Starship Liberator. Considering how hyped up I was about moving in a few weeks back, I'm taking the news that its finally happening pretty much in my stride, since so much has happened in the intervening period. All the things I bought for my new home are still ready and waiting to be used at my parents.
The evil Xmas cold has caught me, so I won't be going to Synthetic Culture tonight (well that's my excuse...), but will be in the Devonshire Arms for a while, from about 7pm. There's talk of going to see the Blue Man group and maybe visiting the new Intrepid Fox tomorrow.
I've also got to drop some x mas presents off for Chloe and Karlene (Jen's kids) with Gary (Karlene's dad) next week. I don't see why they should go without in light of everything that happened earlier in the year.
Will definitely be at Slimesh*te on 23rd December.
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| Update 1 |
[11 Dec 2006|11:17am] |
And so an update. As some of you may have gathered from posts elsewhere, Alexandra and me are now an item. We got together a few weeks back, when our friendship turned to more and I couldn't be happier. And to think that after all the trepidation I had about telling her how I felt about her, it was HER that came on to me ;-).
We've been spending lots of time together over the last few days. I tried Greek food on Thursday but copped out and we went to a Wetherspoons for dinner Friday night.
We also went to Inferno last Friday and caught a rather overcrowded (and lifeless) gig by the Cruxshadows on the Saturday after.
Anyway there's obviously a few new faces in my soap opera now so lets introduce them -
Alex (obviously) , The beautiful Greek/American/ Romanian lady in my life who a lot of you have already met and is my own personal Aphrodite. I'm crazy about her!
Bianca - Alex's mate, who's originally from Germany and owns the largest collection of 1980s hair metal albums in the South of England!
Aurora - Alex's border collie who's absolutely adorable! Aurora's not around all the time as she still stays with Alex's ex-husband sometimes.
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| Something for the Weekend. |
[06 Dec 2006|02:40pm] |
Friday -
Alex is planning on going to the opening of the all new, all different Intrepid Fox on Friday.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=21379180
So in true stalker fashion, there's a high likelihood I might poke my head around the door there at some point. The only thing is that as its the first night, it might be slightly crowded, which might put the mockers on the occasion.
Saturday -
I'm going to Hotter Than Hell (Dodgy Hair Metal Night) at the Purple Helmet, sorry Purple Turtle with Alex and Bianca -
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=86879967
As you can see from this, the band of a certain guitar player is on this bill, meaning that an appearance from a certain Scandinavian who was formerly of my acquaintance is highly likely. Should be 'interesting'!
And if you're all wondering why I'm suddenly posting links to Myspace, its because I can now finally get to Myspace at work! Hmm, wonder if this means the guys in IT have now got a page there for their band?
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| Cruxshadows |
[30 Nov 2006|11:52am] |
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Oh F***! Its the Cruxshadows gig THIS Saturday, and there was me thinking it was next weekend! I think we need to arrange a meeting plan - quick!
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| A-Gender |
[29 Nov 2006|05:55pm] |
Agenda for the remainder of the week-
Tonight - Meeting Eastbourne John for drinks in Clapham Junction.
Tomorrow (Thursday) - I'm playing boy wonder again and going in the Ralph-mobile to the Ralph-cave at it's secret location in Kingston to try and have a second bash at connecting Ralph's freeview box to his TV (The shop had given him the wrong lead last week, so I was only able to set it up on his portable. His main TV has no SCART socket, so that's why we had so much trouble) I'm again being rewarded with a slap up vegetarian meal (Ralph's a great cook!).
Friday - Inferno at the Electric Ballroom. Who's going?
Saturday - No plans yet, although I need to buy some Cruxshadows tickets at some point and an item for Matt's (wispy_beard's) stag do But I'm not saying what! BWAH HA HA HA HA!!!). If I get lonely at the weekend I might have to put it to use! If memory serves I also should have some LPs waiting for me at the Pit in Hounslow!
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