Bag It UP!

In spite of  having to wait until the end of September to get paid ANYTHING from my new job, I am perpetually being lured by the siren call of city centre lunch-break shopping.

Here's the problem: if I don't leave the office, people think I'm still working and give me stuff to do.

However.

If I leave the office, there is another issue. I am faced with a city centre bursting with pretty things to buy. A thousand retail temptations dancing past my senses like a glorious technicolour parade of wanton jezebels, sequins glistening, satin shining, whispering come buy me you need me you can't live without me.

Bag in Zara. In my opinion, unfairly priced. Because I cannot afford it.

OH! if I just bought some black court shoes then all my previously jazzy and unsuitable work outfits would magically appear demure and work-appropriate. OH! if I just had the right (expensive) bag to put things in then I would suddenly be organised enough to not leave my lunch at home and have to go to Sesame again. OH! the conundrum of dressing for the corporate office with a hipster sensibility could easily be solved with the right shirt dress. OH! a good black blazer makes everything look brilliantly smart, you just need to look in enough shops to find the right one ooh and while I'm in here look at that spotty top and those denim shorts I need I need I need

How do people do this every day? What is the answer?

Do I just need to get a promotion so I can afford it all?

Bad, Bad Boys

I was having a debate with Amy on Sunday night about whether she should watch Top Gun or Point Break.

The debate was more of a mutual consensus that Patrick Swayze as dangerous wild-child criminal Bodhi will always top tiny little Tom Cruise, regardless of how many planes he flies or how much Kenny Loggins is on the soundtrack.

THEN yesterday at work I was talking to (boring to death - no wonder she wants to leave) my colleague and fellow new starter about how I never "got" Ryan Gosling until I saw Drive....

"Oh he's a really dark, violent character, but ..." *swoon*

...."which is weird because that's exactly how I was about Brad Pitt, I never "got" him til he played a sociopath in Fight Club! PHWOAR!"

 "But it's OK because really the only actor I really really fancy is John Cusack. And he's a very sensible sort of person to fancy. Although I only really properly fancy him in Grosse Point Blank. Oh yeah, he's a hitman in that isn't he? But he's a hitman with really good taste in music."

This is all completely at odds with men I have dated, who have historically been ridiculously nice and non-dangerous. For crying out loud, my husband won't even get on a roller-coaster.

I don't have a point. And if you were thinking this post was just an excuse for me to post some pictures of some really, really attractive men you would be partly, if not entirely correct.

Vivez les bad boys!

I'm Back! Plus, the Kabeedies

I might not post every day now, but I'm back and feeling better.

HOLY SHIT my new job is full on. And obviously I'm still teaching fitness in the evenings too, which barely leaves me time to breathe. Or blog.

I've had an amazing weekend which involved going out in town on Saturday night and meeting people that have lived at the end of our street for the last four years and we have never spoken to before. I am amazed we have neighbours who are into tattoos/cats/FlamingLips ....how have we never met?*

Also, I've finally realised that margaritas are my cocktail. You know, like your cocktail is a mojito. Well, mine is a margarita.

And I totally forgot to tell you about this band, the Kabeedies. They're completely brilliant, and I want you to ignore the fact that their amazing female vocalist has just left the band because they're still great and I'm going to go back in time ten years and clone myself so they can have a Me to sing her parts instead. Because if I wasn't a boring old fart with a mortgage and a husband I would be hanging on their trouser legs and begging them to let me do it.




Proper summer music, proper ace. I got their album Soap a few weeks ago and it's relentlessly cheery. Check them out.




*FAO Mum I still don't have any tattoos, that's just Sam.

What I Wore To Work 3: the technicolour dreamcoat

No FDF today .... still trying to get myself together. Here is a nice dress instead:

Definitely getting braver now. I wore a salmon pink shirt dress on last week and now this! No disciplinary as yet.

I'm currently storing my zebra boots in my desk drawer at work to whip on if I'm feeling brave. They'd look good with this graphic print dress I reckon. Make their eyes ache, that's what I say. Maybe I'll even borrow Ken's snazzy feather boa next time.

Gold tooth necklace: Miss Selfridge

Graphic print dress: Monsoon (sale)

Green bow pumps: Faith

Blue jumper and  feather boa : model's own

Have a great weekend all.

It Finally Happened!

I broke. I got ill.

You could blame the air conditioned bacterial heaven that is the interior of an office, you could blame a very late, boozy Saturday night, you could blame the fact that I've been pushing things just a little too hard for the last few months and it was all sort of inevitable...

Still, I haven't had so much as a cold for at least 18 months and I'm feeling a little put out about the whole thing.

I am having a little rest now, when my brain feels a bit less fuzzy I'll come out from under my duvet and see you.

Back soon

In the meantime you could go and take a peek at what I did with my weekend over on Olive Dragonfly. Warning: may contain pictures of me looking slightly ridiculous in a bright blue sleeping bag suit.

People Of Leeds!*

The rotation curation thing is just a bit of a lark really - different people in different cities/countries all over the world taking over Twitter to give the world a glimpse of what it's like in their lives for a whole week.

I used to chuckle to myself about the fact that most of the PoLs so far have worked in PR or marketing. "Not me!" I thought.

Oh well.

ANYWAY, I am People Of Leeds this week! So if you want to stalk me a bit, you should add that account @PeopleOfLeeds, as I won't be on my normal @tokaipenny nun-with-a-gun account until next Sunday evening.

Marvel at my duplicity as I stop swearing as much and start being super-interested in local independent businesses and events.

*if you're not on, or have no interest in Twitter, the entirety of this post may as well be in Swahili.

First Dance Friday: What's Your Song House?

I read this article on AV Club a while ago about Song Houses.

Song Houses are basically songs you want to live inside. Songs that give you a special sort of feeling (NO not a sexy one, a special one, put your trousers back on), a feeling maybe like you've heard them somewhere before, or maybe that they've always existed somewhere in your brain and one day you found a secret door behind a hedge and you opened it and there it was, it was there all along.

Song Houses are not necessarily the greatest songs, or the most exciting, or the coolest. But they are songs that evoke an emotional response in you that's quite profound, and you just have no idea why.

This is my Song House at the moment:


M83 are one of those bands whose songs are a patchwork of nostalgic references that you can't quite put your finger on, so they are a good place to find a Song House for me. Listening to this song in particular seems to take me away to the 1980s, sitting in the back of the car, watching trees whizz by on a sunny day. It makes me think of twilight in the city, lights on in the windows of houses, people safe and warm inside. It might be because it sounds like the sort of song that would be on the football results on telly on a Sunday afternoon when I was little, and that makes me think of dusk and being in my Dad's front room getting ready to go back to my Mum's house.

Other Song Houses I have include Blowout by Radiohead, Let It Come by Hot Snakes, Pools In Eyes by Throwing Muses, Stinkfist by Tool and, bizarrely, Black Velvet by Alannah Miles. Mean and moody for me, but Song Houses can be jolly too - most of the AV staff writers choices involve deliriously happy songs.

What's your Song House?