The inconsistant ramblings of a Kitten

WOo!

2007-06-03T22:37:22Z

My Burma article is on the interweb!

https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372310.html

http://www.tayzathuria.org.uk/bd/2007/6/03/e/pg.htm

Both links are the same article but for different places. How exciting. I like getting vaguely published. It means that all the hard work Paul (the guy I wrote it with) and I really did pay off and it's a good piece that should be out there!! WOO WOOOO

More updates are coming, just had the week off after all my work was in.

p.s. Saw Chemical Brothers on thursday and it has to be one of the best gigs I've been to this year! Go get the new album and go see them live. They fucking rock! They're playing a free gig in Trafalgar Square in September so you should definitely bop along!!

Finished! (for now)

2007-05-28T15:37:19Z

So, last wednesday I handed in my features article for my course which was incredibly exciting and a relief. Phew. It was however annoying to discover for 2 weekends in a row that, The Observer and The Sunday Times both did features on the pros and cons of travelling to Burma, which was the crux of our article! ARGH! They both did seem to favour travel to Burma, and were promoting it loads, as both of the journalists went there, whereas ours showed both sides of the arguement, but kinda leant towards to agreeing with the tourism booycott. I may post it on here so people can see just how good it is, but we are in the process of trying to get it published somewhere, so we'll see how that goes.

Next task is my dissertation, which is going to be on the death of print journalism and the rise of online journalism (well music journalism) but the same is true for both news and music and all sorts of journalism. Gotta try and get interviews of the people who did that 'Pulp' magazine as it folded in the first week of printing. I thought that would be an interesting features, yes I did.

I'm getting down with this last.fm malarkey, but it's had a few teething problems; not the programme but meeeeeeeee. It's very confusing but highly wicked. You type in the name of a band you like e.g. Radiohead and it finds and plays music by the artist and matches it with other bands you might like. It also tells you if they have a gig on and the similar artists gigs. It's music social networking. Like myspace and facebook but with music. It's ace, I like it.

I suddenly feel it's time for a cat nap, so more from me tomorrow

TA TA, HAHA I'm back!

I'll be back... (soon)

2007-05-13T11:21:09Z

Sorry! I haven't been on here for 2 months! Whoops! Degree kinda took over my life and I have been ill with my no voice disease. It is rather plesant, ok no it isn't. I am briefly back to say, how come Ukraine didn't win the Eurovision song contest? It's madness! I was doing some highlighting for the fast approaching deadline for Writing and Editing for the Internet and this absolutely crazy act from Ukraine, who wore holographic shiny clothes and danced like it was Popstarz on a Friday night, brightened up my screen when my sad saturday night was reduced to work and Serbia won. Serbia?? They were CRAP! Stupid Serbia.

Right, after the 25th May I'll be properly back as that's when all my work is in. But just to keep you updated: I changed my Human Rights Features to tourism in Burma and got some wicked interviews.

AND here's 2 reviews of mine that got published on this extreme sports website:

http://mpora.com/lifestyle/music/155/the-good-the-bad-and-the-queen-gig-review

http://mpora.com/lifestyle/music/198/css-cansei-de-ser-sexy-at-the-astoria

I'm too cool for school. Gonna write up my Kosheen gig, which I went to on Thursday.

But for now, this is all you get until I have completed my work!

See you soooooooooooooooooooon

Yawn

2007-03-12T02:46:42Z

Not sure why I'm up at 2.30am but I am so I might as well make the most of it. Actually I'm looking up info for my Human Rights project on Aung San Suu Kyi who has been under house arrest in Burma for a fair old while. There's so much information about her on this world wide web and it's a lot to take in. Basically for my project I have to write a 2000 word features article on a Human Rights issue and I decided to choose her. The only problem I have is that I need to find an angle or a hook to make it worth writing about. Not that she's not interesting enough to write about but I've been going through reems of articles on Lexus Nexus and reporters seem to tell the same story and I don't want to do that. I want to tell a different story that people wanna hear, not regurgitate facts and figures and history as that's unoriginal and frankly been overdone. I want to tell people what it feels like to be under house arrest and get her perspective on it, not sure how but something a little bit different. So I'm off to the Burma Campaign UK people in Old Street with my partner on friday to see if they can give me some info on her and her current situation and maybe get an interview with the people there who are campaigning for her freedom. That's if they're willing of course. What a stress!!

Tense football game with Chelsea Vs Spurs. I was certainly not happy with the result and am anxious about the replay at White Hart Lane, but we'll see.

My recommendation of the week is to go see The Science of Sleep which is directed by Michel Gondry. A truely remarkable film which is surreal and deeply touching simultaneously. It's like a quirky love-story that goes on in your head. The interplay of the dream world and reality was superbly done. I saw it at the Barbican with my friend Ro, and I had never been to the Barbican but my God was it vast and quite dauntingly scary. I defintely have to go back to explore it further!

Right back to the net...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/0,,970917,00.html - here's a good link at what I have been looking at.

As is this link - http://www.bdmauk.org/burmavideo.html

Ta ta

The Brunch Club

2007-02-25T20:14:47Z

This week I have been mostly... out. After the glory of pancake day I had a hardcore human rights lecture and toodled off to the ICA to go see 'Iraq in Fragments'. I had never been to see a film there before and when it said cinema 2 you'd naturally presume it to be a reasonably sized theatre. However, when I entered it was dinky and could fit about 30 people in it, which I found incredibly quaint.

They showed a film before the feature which was this 15 mins short called 'Weddings and Beheadings' which was aptly and nicely done. It was about this guy who used to film weddings for a source of income and now shoots beheadings as they are more of a regular occurrance. He went into detail about the right light and conditions for shooting the footage and it was a wonderful biting satire that complimented the feature.

Iraq in Fragments was the story from 3 different people's prospectives about life in Iraq during the war. Incredibly moving and powerful imagery, I was glued to the screen throughout and somehow managed to take down notes through the film.

After the film I met up with my school friend Ro and thought that it would be good to go for a bite to eat as whenever we meet up we tend to consume large quantities of tasty food! So, I took her to 'Leon' on Carnaby Street as we were feeling we should be slightly healthy, for once. Leon is this wonderful small chain where all the food is organic and very tasty. They even had hot apple toddy's which were delectable!

http://www.leonrestaurants.co.uk/

We opted for a tapas selection as we are both nibbly eaters which suited us to a tee. Which brings me onto my next event which I am going to go to next week.

We are going to go to the Barbican to go see 'The Science of Sleep', which is directed by Michel Gondry (the same person that did eternal sunshine and numerous music videos) so that should be really visually spectacular.

Thursday, I was back at the ICA for the talk on 'Is the BBC Institutionally biased?' where I saw Joy, from the Indy on Sunday who seemed a bit awkward to see me, nevermind. It had Robin Aitkin conveying his views on the BBC which is all in his book and was incredibly persuasive and enthralling. He had no qualms about interrupting speakers or passionately defending his views as he 'knew' he was right and no matter what any of the speakers or the audience said, in his opinion they were wrong. I'm definitely going to write that up as it was an intense but enlighting discussion which is highly relevant to my course.

Saturday, I was supposed to go to the march at trafalgar square but had too many domestic responsibilities before I had to be at my gig at the Astoria. I went off to see 'The Gossip' which have recently become a bit of a household name here due to the face that their song 'Standing in the way of control' was featured on the adverts for the new e4 series 'Skins'. I may have already said this before but I foolishly thought that the gig was last week and went all the way there only to have an epiphany at Kings cross where I realised that last saturday was not the 24th of feb. DOH! However, went and saw them yesterday and the lead singer, Beth Ditto, came out on stage in an electric blue, skin-tight leotard with a black belt around her waist. Now, Beth isn't a small girl, she is in fact the opposite. But she just stood there at ease, with immense confidence and grace and screached out her fantastic songs. The set only lasted an hour but the ambience in the Astoria was electrifying. The way she was strutting and stopping on stage throughout every song with her ridiculous black killer heels on was applaudable. They played their most famous song, 'Standing in the way of control' last and the Astoria went nuts! Everyone was dancing and screaming and rocking the place down, it was fantastic. I was really buzzing straight after the gig, which is why I went for a tasty cocktail at 'Nordic' afterwards. The best thing about this cocktail was that is had white chocolate shavings and white maltesers in it. Immense!!!

http://www.nordicbar.com/

Today, I met up with my friends in Curtain Road to go for brunch. I have recently been going to more brunches as I find them really fulfilling and great as it's a nice way to spend a sunday afternoon. Good food, good company, very chilled. We went to 'The Diner' as my boyfriend and I said we would go to their brunch place if they went to ours next week. The deal was made and we came to Old street. However, as we predicted their place was nowhere near as good as ours, which is the 'Chelsea Bun' just off The Kings Road. The 'Chelsea Bun' has been named the Number 1 brunch place in London because it is just that good! They'll see next week, mark my words.

Phew, a lot of text there to digest, but I have been a busy busy bee. The same is true of next week, I just want to put my feet up, bring on brunch next Sunday!!!!

PANCAKES

2007-02-20T17:37:08Z

Hellloooo! It's Pancake day, or Shrove Tuesday. I've already eaten 3 chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup and they were damn tasty, obviously cos I made them!

It has been a while since I last posted but I've been engrossed in uni, (me? engrossed in uni? never!) I'm really getting into my class on wednesday afternoons which is journalism and human rights. I even tried to go and see a film called 'Iraq in Fragments' on Sunday eve at the ICA but when I got there it was totally sold out, which was slightly frustrating, but I am going to go tomorrow instead as that is the last showing. I am also going back to the ICA on thursday to go to a talk on: 'Is the BBC institutionally biased?' which has guest speakers and people from the BBC, which should be incredibly interesting, I'm really looking forward to that!

Also, on Sunday it was Chinese New Year, The year of the Pig, and when I was pottering around China Town on sunday it was so much fun. There were loads of stalls and quirky chinese toys being sold, and the aroma from all the chinese restaurants was overwhelingly tasty! I nearly had a bite but I was off to The Blue Elephant in Fulham for my Valentine's day meal treat. The Blue Elephant is probably one of the most beautiful restaurants I have ever been to. You enter and there are little bridges that go over tiny water features filled with Koi Carps and in the the centre of the restaurant is a Thai boat with fruit and vegetables on it with a delicate waterfall adjacent to it. It was superb and sumptuous, I am definitely going back. Even the jasmine tea came out of the trunk of an elephant tea pot, brilliant!

Finally! I bought a copy of Q magazine last week as I am struggling to find a music magazine/publication that is any good, so I thought I'd go back to what I used to read, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. When I used to read it years ago, it was filled with boring article after boring article, but it seems these days they've condensed the content into happy 'bites' of info which is slightly better. Although they did have a 20 page spread on the history of U2 which was wuite frankly a bit tiresome. I did like the way they have a top 50 recommended download tracks every month, which means they are keeping up with the times as downloads are the most important and integral part of the music industry today!

Phew, that was long. I better stop as I have a class soon, yes at 6pm in the evening. How odd! I'll try and update more frequently, I just get easily distracted by pretty colours and quacking ducks. (I fed the massive white duck near me yesterday and he was most happy)

:o)

GRRRR

2007-02-02T17:44:23Z

So the status on my 'work experience' hasn't changed and I'm still here sitting at the computer doing nothing.

Over 3 hours a go the other work experience girl, who I became friends with, walked out and no-one has noticed at all. No-one's asked where she is or asked for an explanation, it's utterly ridiculous. They simply don't give a shit. She sent the guy who is supervising us an email and got up and left. She felt so miserable that over lunch today she said she was considering a different career because of the way she had been treated. How appalling is that?

She told me that she had done work experience in Italy, which is where she is from, and it was a lot different. They included her in tasks, spoke to her, the environment was lively and positive, the complete opposite to what it is here. I feel like I'm a nuisance and that it is an enormous waste of my time. I have learnt that I can surf the net for 8 hours straight. Brilliant.

I'm not going back tomorrow because I can't stand another day of being ignored and doing sod all!

I certainly do NOT want to be an Independent journalist, I think I'll stick with my ambition of being a music journalist. At least I'm snobbish enough to challenge music journalists as I have a silly knowledge of music.

Only 15 mins and then I can leave.

YAY

Oh my god!

2007-01-30T16:29:07Z

Oh dear lord I am bored. This is my 2nd week at The Indy on Sunday and I swear they just ignore me and this other work experience girl. They give all the work to another girl who I guess has been here longer but I think that is beside the point. I got here at 10am and it is now 4.22 and today I have done nothing. I have been sitting here all day surfing the internet doing sod all. I even suggested an article idea just like they said I should and I've been completely ignored.

My idea was the whole health benefits if the Wii as I saw an article about this guy who played Wii Sports for 30 mins a day for 6 weeks and lost 9lbs!

Here's his website:

http://wiinintendo.net/2007/01/15/wii-sports-experiment-results/

I just thought it might be interesting to cover, but I didn't even get a yes or no.

I'm finding this work experience a little unrewarding and I just think it's a waste if you have 3 work experience girls eager to do research or help in anyway and only 1 is getting the work whilst the other 2 have to aimlessly look on the internet for some 'interesting story ideas'. I'm just a bit fed up.

So so so bored. Why won't they acknowledge us?

The guy even said that work experience people don't usually return for the 2nd week, and I don't bloody blame them. If you're just ignored and shunned, what kind of experience is that.

Oh well back to surfing the net

how odd

2007-01-27T12:26:16Z

I find it odd to be in on a saturday when everyone else was celebrating that the week was over by gettng slaughtered in the pub whilst I was working until 9pm and had work to do at home which I finished at 12am. I don't even have a hang over! Woo hoo! WOW! It's been a very busy week.

I'm nearing the end of my first week of work experience at the Independent on Sunday and it has been a very busy week. I've been helping finding facts and figures on rape within all the police forces in the country and it has been a very arduous task. I had to call all the police forces and attempt to get figures and facts out of them which proved time consuming and difficult. I got the impression that the police forces didn't trust me and certainly don't trust newspapers so it took a while for them to be at ease with me. I've been covering the rape story all week cos it's top priority and I think it's gonna be on the front page.

Being a journalist seems very full on and extremely high pressure. I don't know if I could do a daily newspaper as that must be really stressful! I like doing research for stuff, I've been doing it practically all my life as I've been in the education system for ages!!!! It takes a lot of time, patience and dedication but once you find the vital thing you are looking for then it's just SUPER!

Whoops, better get back to it. I need to find more figures for my Excel table.

zzzzzzzz

2007-01-23T12:17:34Z

I have been slightly absent recently but I have been a very busy Cat. Last week was Matthew's, my boyfriend, birthday and he turned 25! Yikes, that means I'm 25 in 7 months time, wow! His birthday celebrations consisted of going to the Hollybush pub in Hampstead and getting very drunk there followed by bopping down to Camden to finish the night in the classy joint Belushi's. Nice. Luckily I have pictures of the night which shows the progression of drunkeness of people which is quite amusing.

Today, after a rough night on a sofa bed, I am doing my work experience for the Indy on Sunday. It is a bit of a slow day, the guy who I'm working with said so I'm having a look for some news stories or something that is news worthy on the netty net. However, the last time I properly used a MAC was about 10 years ago so I'm having a few teething problems. It's very strange indeed and it was very odd to see Netscape rather than Internet Explorer.

Also, I was watching the news yesterday before bed when I caught a glimpse of the container ship story. I had kind of glossed over it when it first broke, but watching it on BBC news24 I was shocked. They were showing people going down to the beach and just stealing all the cargo, be it some nappies or trainers, to the extreme of a BMW motorbike. They all even seemed really chuffed with themselves with their amazing find. Why would you be pleased about looting? And also why are the police letting them do this. It's illegal!! Honestly, the morals of some people are shocking!

Oh yeah, I handed in my Journalism coursework and I'm a bit worried about my essay. I don't think I conveyed my point very clearly, but hopefully I'll pass it. On the other hand, my features article on the evolution of the UK singles chart I was most pleased with. I'm quite confident that it is a good piece of writing so not so much worry there.

Better get back to it, need to find some news in the tangled world which is the web

Yikes!

2007-01-11T16:06:16Z

I got an email from the guy at the Independent today and I'm slightly in a panic now. I really should start having a think. He said that he won't be there until wed but on the tues (23rd) i'll have to sit and think of some ideas for articles! ARGH! I can't even think of any ideas for my features article let alone for a real newspaper. My mind is complete blank! Maybe it'll kick into gear this weekend as I'm doing lots of reading for my journalism ethics essay. Maybe so.

Also I asked about dress code and told him that I usually wear jeans and a top and he said that would give a bad impression, but nonetheless it is smart/casual. Balls! I have no smart/casual clothes! EEEK! Looks like I'm off shopping on the weekend to smarten up my wardrobe!

I'm just in a stress cos I wanna do really well and make a good impression so that they remember me when I am looking for a job. This is a great opportunity for me and I really do not want to mess it up! STRESS!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jittery

2007-01-04T00:31:35Z

So I handed my Media Culture essay on Media ownership and the problems with it at 4pm and by that time I was a blithering wreck. I've been ill since I've come back from Florida so had little time to prepare myself for the essay. I got all the notes and relevant chapters photocopied and did a fair amount of highlighting before I started. The problem with the last 24 hours is diet redbull. My god that stuff is toxic and lethal! By the time I had put my essay in it's cubby hole my hands were shaking and I was in strange overdrive mode. I've calmed down a lot now but goodness!

One essay down one essay and a features article to go. I wish I had a better idea of what I want to do for it. I might go read through some examples of feature writing so that I can figure out and see what topics jump out at me.

I've noticed that my brother, Gerard has put some simply awful pictures of me on his Flickr account and I'm not best pleased about that! There will be some stern words when he eventually gets in.

I think that's enough typing for me today. I'm back at the jolly Roehampton tomorrow to try and get all the books needed for my Journalism essay. I'm hoping that no-one has taken my books or there'll be trouble!

Farewell

also...

2007-01-01T00:41:46Z

Those Fantastic Pussy Cat Dolls have a remarkable song called: 'I don't need a man'. Shove that in the face of postfeminism! HA!

Carry on

fluffy_cat_girl @ 2007-01-01T00:36:00

2007-01-01T00:37:36Z

Hellooo! Happy New Year and what not. So it's 2007 is it? How odd. My posting was quite absent over the Christmas period and whilst I was in Florida but I fancied some time off to shop and be merry and ill apparently.

Got back to UK on Christmas Day at 9am and I have to say Premium Economy on Virgin is Brilliant! They gave me champagne and fancy alcohol on my journey and I was most impressed and I suppose drunk! A marvellous way to spend a flight, slightly inebriated and docile. Good stuff. I watched The Queen on the flight and as Ros said, it was a good film and showed how the media and how The Queeny dealt with Princess Diana's death. Helen Mirren was simply fantabby doosy in it. She emulated HRH perfectly and with immense class. I really hope she wins an Oscar for it, yes I do.

Florida was warm and pleasant. A nice change from the UK which was slightly grating against before I left. I didn't have to be subjected to horrid christmas shopping or shoppers in London or indeed be stuck in immense traffic due to incompetant drivers. 2 thumbs up for that! I went to Sea World and fed and touched a dolphin and saw some manatees! I adore manatees and I love their nickname 'Sea cows' cos that's what they are. Massive, charming sea creatures. I also saw Shamu and his friends, which is the killer whale show at the park. However, I did not like going on the rollercoaster my brother made me go on which was called Kraken. I hate rollercoasters. I'm petrified of them! So I closed my eyes the whole way and when it slowed down my brother said it was over so I opened them and was presented with a loop where you go upside down. I was not happy to say the least, not at all!

To go back to Christmas. I do just jump around my points and ideas, a downfall of my essay writing unfortunately, oh well. I spent it with my gran and my great uncle fred who is 93! and obviously my dad and bro. It was a pleasant occasion and I enjoyed it greatly.

However, on boxing day I acquired some form of unpleasant illness and for once it wasn't drink induced. I am still ill now which is why I said to my boyfriend to celebrate new years without me and I'll just sit at home and highlight for my essay! A massive turn around from last year! I cannot believe that I am home on new years eve preparing for my Media Culture essay that has to be in on wednesday. Hmmmm should've started it earlier, ho hum, nevermind! But seriously, there must be something wrong with me. I would've laughed in the face of the me a year ago and said "Hush now Catherine! Get off your arse and go be drunk! You are letting your irish side down, have a shot or 10" But this year I sit here, typing away on a blog for goodness sake ignoring my friends in favour of education. A sorry sight. Tut tut, Cat you're getting old and responsible. Cough, cough.

Right, that'll do for the start of 2007. More ramblings will commence when essay stress hits in. KAPOW!

At least I won't have a hangover! HA HA HA HA! Happy New Year!

;o)

YEAH! YEAH! YEEAAAH!

2006-12-17T13:42:43Z

I'm off to Florida today for a week and I'm far too excited! My brother, Gerard, is meeting me at Heathrow as he is on a flight from Doha today. He's gonna be knackered by the time I see him. I haven't seen him for a month, which is a long time if you've always had your brother around! YAY!

Got a call from a guy at The Independent and they've confirmed my work experience. It's from the 23rd Jan until 3rd Feb. So it seems like everything is slotting into place and working out which is brilliant. It's gonna be a long trek though cos it's based in Canary Wharf which is the furthest a place could be from my house in Uxbridge, ah well nevermind. Maybe if I dazzle them with my amazing writing skills they'll ask me back. Hmmm, I guess we'll have to wait and see about that.

Nearly done all my packing. I know I'm gonna forget something which is incredibly integral or important to my holiday experience, oh well!

I need to go off to Sainsbury's now as I need to go get a sandwich bag to put all my liquids in. Apparently lip balm is a liquid, who knew?? :o)

Posts will become more fluid after the Christmas period, don't you worry but it's hard to concentrate when it's Christmas time! YEAH!

Expect some confused talks and dabbles about Media Policies and control in Europe as that is my next essay to be written. I bet you can't wait!

See you soon!

huh? wiiiiiiii!

2006-12-13T01:17:19Z

On Friday my boyfriend Matthew and I trundled off to Camden to go collect my brother's Nintendo Wii. Little did I know how amazingly fantastic it is! We got home and instantly started playing Wii Sports which has bowling, tennis, golf, boxing, baseball etc, and got stuck into it. I held the controller like a tennis bat and played a game. It was as if I were actually playing tennis. Phenomenal! The boxing one is just plain super. You get to use two parts of the controller and do actual punches! It really tires you out but I guess it is a fantastic work out. Who knew that computer games could be part of a healthy fitness regime! I adore it and I don't think I'll be seeing any of my friends again! Nevermind, didn't really like them anyway ;)

However, my Wii experience has been slightly soured by the fact that my best friend kimberly came over today to tell me that she's quitting the UK and is off to live in New Jersey tomorrow (wednesday). Now that was a shock to the system. She said that she's got a return ticket for February but is not sure if she'll come back. I'm finding this very difficult to take in and I am left a bit bemused and upset. It's all a bit too sudden but I guess I have to respect her choices and just hopes she sorts herself out there and comes back!

Hmmmm blog, no good today. I'll talk about the Tony Grant talk which I was at today, tomorrow as the creative flow is dwindling at present.

Adios!

down down down down

2006-12-05T15:24:27Z

I was supposed to go see Idlewild at The Scala last night but I bailed out hard. I really love the band and I have for years but I couldn't bring myself to attend. You see, the last time I went to an Idlewild gig was the 5th of August 2005 and that was when I received some horrific news. I had got a missed call from my ex-boyfriend Theo, dad. I thought it was Theo calling me as he always did when he ran out of battery, which was practically all the time. I didn't answer my phone cos I was at the gig. We both loved the band and I was gonna send a text saying, 'i'm at a gig, it's idlewild! i'll call you later', but I didn't, which was fortunate.

After the gig I checked my voice mail and it was Theo's mum leaving a message. As soon as I heard her voice I knew something was wrong cos she always calls me when there's something seriously wrong with Theo. She told me that he had been killed in a car accident and those words still make me shudder. He had been having some problems because the last phone call I got from her was that he had gone mad and had to be sectioned. But this time when she left the message I knew it was more serious, I knew he had gone.

Theo and I had a very close relationship, even though we had split up but we were far from over each other. I'd always help him out and be there for him we were practically inseparable. He had been there when my mum died of cancer when I was 18 and he helped me get through a very difficult part of my life. He understood me, which is why going to that gig would've been too painful.

I thought i'd be alright but seeing his mum last week and talking about the whole Independent on Sunday event made us both realise that for the first time in a long time we wanted to tell him something and we couldn't. I love seeing his mum, it helps me with my grieving and we can chat for hours without a care in the world. Which is probably why I'm sad at the moment.

I'm finding it increasingly more difficult to concentrate but that's probably to do with the fact that it's the last 2 weeks of term and I'm off to orlando in less than 2 weeks but it's not easy. It's never easy.

Phew, that was a bit heavy! Let's try and put something vaguely positive in this post. Ah yes! My tutor's talk about her book tonight! Yay! That'll cheer me up! Mulled wine, here I come!

zoooooooooooooooooooooom

2006-12-03T20:18:07Z

It's only 2 weeks until I go off to Florida with my brother and I can't contain my excitement! My bro Gerard, is in Doha at the moment and he has been gone 2 weeks. He's doing all the computer wizardry at the Asian Games and he says he is very bored of all the sand and the camels. But in just 14 days I'll be zooming on a plane bound for Orlando! woo!

On the flipside, crikey! I've only got 2 weeks left until the end of term and there's simply too much to do. I've gotta finish my post-feminism article this week for Ros, eeek! Decide on my essay for both media culture and journalism ethics. Figure out which books I need to obtain from the library before all the grubby undergrads nick them for the christmas holidays! Pesky undergraduates, they're incredibly annoying! And figure out what Ros means for the 2nd features article. I'll be having a little word with her tomorrow just so I am crystal clear about what I can do. Phew, what a stress!

This week had been very drunken and I'm not too sure why. I think I am rebelling against the fact that I can't eat or drink anything that's vaguely nice so alcohol is the solution? Is it? Hmmm. It's very difficult trying to stick to this no wheat/gluten, chickeny, egg, tomato and beer diet. It's utter madness! I didn't realise, until I was in the supermarket buying food, how gluten and wheat are in most products. Why? What's the point? They can even be in stock and other silly products. I tell you wheat and gluten free bread is probably the most disgusting tasting bread substitute that ever existed. It crumbles and is dry and strange tasting, I would NOT recommend it to anyone, ever. So for the time being my lunch consists of boring salad and fish and vegetables in the evening. Boring, boring, boring!

On wednesday some idiot broke into my dad's car and stole my boyfriends laptop but curiously left mine. The thug smashed the boot window and I suppose went for the first bag in there, but what a horrid thing to do. Well we were outside UCL student union which is a stone throws away from Kings Cross but, I've parked there many times and not had any problems. Still, instances like this make you a little bit more wary and less complacent about leaving your stuff in the car.

Thursday was St Andrews day and I wore a tartan skirt to celebrate the momentous occasion. We all went off to UCL union and participated in the quiz. I love doing student quizzes, they're always so much fun and the prizes are always alcohol which is the best prize of all. Unfortunately we only came 7th but there were 23 teams this week so it wasn't a bad attempt.

Friday I zoomed down the M40 and M42 to Birmingham for the Clothes Show Live at the NEC. I wasn't too interested in seeing the fashion show but decided I might as well as I was already there. My idea of fashion shows are haughty models parading down a catwalk looking uppity and gaunt with ridiculous clothes on, however this was not the case for this show. It involved quite decent and interesting outfits and was far from boring. All the models danced along the catwalk in time and put on a right show for its audience. Some of the crazy dance moves were incredibly impressive. Maybe fashion shows have changed and if they have it is definitely for the better!

Yesterday involved a trip to Selfridges with my cousin as it was the 20% off weekend for friends and family. I discovered that my cousin lives a 15 minute walk away from Selfridges which is completely unfair but she did take me to probably one of the best pubs I have ever been to. It is called the Windsor castle and is just off the Edgware Road. It is a traditional english pub with old fashioned interior and jovial and welcoming owners. This sort of pub is a dying breed in London as chains take over and the rise of gastro pubs prevails, which is a shame because the old tradtional pubs are part of our national identity. I even heard the other week that the oldest pie and mash shop in greenwich had to close as it was being bought by a chain and the competition had won. I say bring back truely english establishments or we are just going to be another country which has Burger King and McDonalds everywhere so we can't have that!

Today I got an email from the lady from the Independent on Sunday and she gave me an email address of a guy who can help me get work experience. Yay! Journalism rules!

So all in all this week has been fully packed and it's only going to get busier. 3 weeks until Christmas! eek! Time for some mulled wine says I!

My Goodness

2006-11-26T09:48:08Z

Well the story did run and here it is on the internetty web:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2016131.ece

How odd. I'm still a bit taken back by Wednesday and talking to a proper journalist on the weekend. But this whole week has affirmed my choice of career. It's taken me a long time to decide what I wanted to do in life and I have had many hurdles along the way but Journalism is what gets me buzzing.

Although I did enjoy my English Language and Linguistics degree as it honed my writing and language skills, I didn't feel passionate about it, whereas in this MA I do. I guess it's lucky I can write eh?

I'm gonna look through the article and keep it so it can be an example of a good piece of journalism and hopefully through out this course I will acquire better writing skills.

This post might be a bit of a ramble as it is far too early on a Sunday morning for me to even be awake, and getting through quite a few bottles of sparkles makes the computer screen look a bit foggy.

Back to bed for kitty!

How odd

2006-11-25T20:36:53Z

So, it's all been going down in Cat's camp since my last post. I'll try and do it all in order.

Firstly, Muse, wow! They were phenomenal! One of the better indie/rockers out there. They played all the tunes I wanted to hear and they just rocked the Wembley Arena. I was standing quite near the front so I was moshing away and screaming at the top of my voice to all the songs! However, some idiot punched me in the head and it still hurts. He looked like an 18yr old indie kid wannabe. I nearly smacked him in the face but I have class, sometimes.

What I didn't realise was that the new Wembley Stadium is now situated right next door to the arena. Seeing it up close was very surreal. It's sooo HUGE! The old stadium was a little way down the road from the arena back in the day, so it was a bit odd seeing it next to the arena.

Today has been an extremely eventful day. I went off to Wimbledon this morning as I had an appointment with a nutritionist as I wanted to find out what foods I was allergic to. I kinda knew that beer, white wine and bread didn't agree with me and I am already allergic to cheese but to my horror, I discovered that I am allergic to not only wheat, eggs, tomatoes and yeast, I'm allergic to CHICKEN! Now, I love chicken sooo much and I told her that if it were chicken or chocolate I don't know how I'd cope. Chocolate was fine thankfully but chicken, chicken!? This made me very blue as I have chicken practically everyday and now added to that no wheat. So no cake, bread, pastries, pizza!!! ARGH! This was not good news. I'm eating all the chicken I have in the fridge this weekend and then I am stopping. :(

The most exciting news of the day was that I was contacted last night by someone from The Independent on Sunday and they wanted to run a story on the Cherie Booth visit which happened on Wednesday. She said that she found out about it cos she read my blog. How odd!! Other people in cyberspace read my blog. I just didn't think that anyone would care, but they do. Blogs are still a bit of a sketchy area for me as I find them a bit bizarre. Writing your thoughts, feelings and opinons for the net to see/read seems a bit fake to me, but if you just write as if no one is reading (as my brother told me) then it's not as strange.

Anywho, let's carry on with my tale. I told her what Cherie said and how outlandish her comments were about journalism and journalists and as I am an extremely quick note taker I got some excellent quotes! She listened to my account, took down the quotes and now it seems it's gonna be in The Independent on Sunday tomorrow. But I'll wait and see before I get too excited. To top it all off, she offered me some work experience! Wow! I'm definitely gonna get the attachment for my I-Pod which enables you to record people, like a dictophone. You never know when you're going to need to record someone!

A fulfilling weekend so far I think! Now I am going to drown my chicken sorrows in red wine and champagne. I might have to drink some beer as well to get it out of my system before I give it up on monday. CHICKEN???!!! Why??? Whoops, I've already gone through 1/2 a bottle of 'The little Penguin' wine. I like wine with animals on it, it makes me more inclined to buy and imbibe it. MMM red wine.

Ta Ta!

What a day!

2006-11-22T17:06:20Z

It's been a long day today and it's only 4.40pm! For the next 2 weeks I am going to be woken up every morning at about 7.15am to the sounds of a mind numbingly horrific drill. This is because my dad has decided that more rooms need ensuites, god knows why, I think he wants to sell it again. But trying to doze or sleep when next door there is a ear piercing drill violating your ears is virtually impossible!

Today was the day that our Journalism MA group had the chance to ask questions to John Simpson, the BBC World's affair editor, who is also chancellor of our University. I looked up info on him last night on Wikipedia and it showed that he has been in some frightening situations. For instance he had been attacked by poisonous gas in the Gulf and shelled in Afghanistan. During the 2003 Iraq war he was hit by shrapnel and the incident was caught on film, leaving him deaf in one ear. So I was interested to hear his experiences on the stuff he had seen.

We all had our questions poised and ready and we nervously asked him them. He gave such honest and genuine answers and made us feel at ease as we obviously were a bit taken back by the whole situation. We were even being filmed by other Roehampton students. What we didn't know was that Cherie Booth was going to bop along and sit in on the talk. She was there to open our new human rights wing so we didn't expect to see her.

We didn't even expect her to speak as she said at the beginning that she was just going to listen. Obviously that was a lie because she decided to go on a mental rampage about how all journalists are basically scum. She came out with some pretty horrific howlers such as that there is "no professional morality in journalism" they "appoint their poison like the daily mail does", "do not adjudicate from what is true or not" and that they (journalists) "have no ethics"

We were all taken back by her tirade and she promptly left after her brutal criticism, which we all felt was unfair as we didn't get an opporunity to retaliate to her nasty mouth. We felt that it was a valuable learning experience as we just let her lay into our profession without sticking up for it. A mistake we will not make again. Stupid woman. It was supposed to be about the students getting info from John Simpson not her having her say. GRRR she made us sooo angry!

Afterwards we toodled off to watch Kidulthood which was harsh to say the least. It's a story about 14/15 year olds in west london who take drugs, smoke and beat up there mates, and carry knives. It also showed th effects of how horrific bullying effects teenagers, especially if they are getting beaten to a pulp everyday. There was the blatant pregnant teenager who told the father about it and they wanted nothing to do with it, which is what happens to teenage girls. It was a true portrayal of how state schools in inner city areas are like and the dialect was absolutely spot on. A good film which shows the harrowing effects of life in london and kids today.

Right I'm beat and I need to get my energy up as I am gonna be jumping around for Muse at Wembley tonight. YAY!

Ciao

whooooosh!

2006-11-20T00:06:21Z

Man, weeks go past far to quickly at the moment and it seems that every day of the week I am doing something, be it work, going to a gig, seeing a friend etc and it's exhausting. This week I have been to 3 gigs: Monday, The Flaming Lips, Wednesday, The MTV2 spanking new music tour, Saturday, Subtle. I mean it's just ludicrous.

I did however go off to the NFT to watch a Radiohead film at a visual festival called ResFes. This year it is 10 years old and to mark that they looked at the videos of Radiohead from the past 10 years as the directors for their videos the band chose made revolutionary videos. They even showed videos for songs that hadn't been released as singles and they were spectactular! I love watching innovative and thought provoking videos instead of the chod that gets churned out these days. As long as there's a luscious lady or a bare torso-ed man being provocative through out the 3 minute sex-a-thon then that's ok. If you can't tell already I am a bit of a music snob and am quick to criticise any music or video which I don't consider worhty. Hey, maybe that'll help in my pursuit in being a music journo. Hmmmm, I wonder.

Moving backwards, as that's how my mind works, Monday's lecture on sensitive interviewing was scary and eye-opening. Being thrown in at the deep end and being asked to interview people in horrible situations was nerve-racking and simply, damn right frightening. I am a shy person who finds it difficult to talk in big groups or small, ok generally talking and to be presented with such difficult scenarios was awful. I guess I have to learn how to interview people to become a journalist and you don't realise how much you need to get out of a person to get the vital info. As Kate pointed out what if the person you are interviewing muffles their voice and you don't get your sound bite, you have to ask them to do it again, and they may have just poured their heart out to you and you're having the cheek to ask them to repeat it. EEEk! Horrid! But was good to see how to deal with certain situations and that it is tough and not supposed to be easy which was a huge relief.

Handed my post-feminism essay which was fun to learn about and I think I am going to do a features article on it for one of my assessments and to post up on the WebCT. I thought i might pose the question on the Roehampton Student messageboard: 'Do you consider yourself to be feminist?' and 'What does feminism mean to you?' By posting it on the Roehampton messageboard I'm hoping to get a few replies and base mny article on the 21st Century girls perception of feminism and the post-feminist era that we are in presently. Before doing my essay I was a bit ignorant to all concepts of feminism and post-feminism so it would be good to highlight in a article, the 21st century's woman's misconception of feminism. Hopefully I will write an informative yet witty piece, but we'll have to wait and see about that.

To conclude my very long post tonight, I saw the new Bond film today. Fan-bloody-tastic, is all I have to say. Get your shoes on and bop down to the cinema to see it!

Right I have to go strain my roasted vegetable stock; it's my boyfriend's mum's birthday tomorrow and I have offered to cook. Whoops! I've already burnt the banana bread! Damn.

EEEK

2006-11-12T15:39:24Z

Hmmm, So my assignment is due in on tuesday afternoon and I have just finished all the reading for it. Uh oh. I have been watching the 'Dirrty' video over and over and over again and it's lost its sexy, raunchyness. If I have to watch Miss Aguilera grinding her hips or simulating masturbation one more time, I think I am going to be sick. I still haven't got a clear idea what post-feminism is but reading about it has been enthralling. All I need to do now is to stop having cat naps all over the place (and to stop watching the appalling Spurs match) and get back to work.

Went to see Aim on Wednesday at The Camden Palace and I knew I shouldn't have gone as soon as I entered the venue. For a club venue it is fantastic as it has many nooks and crannies (who knows how to spell that?) and different levels of wonder to explore. However, for a gig venue it is just rubbish. Unless you get there really early and get downstairs in the crowd or near the barriers on the different levels, you have no chance of seeing anything. To top it of and to make me even moodier on the night, they closed the top level, which meant the venue was far to crowded. Aim entered the stage and started their set but to my surprise they had completely changed. Their msuic style is one of hip-hop raps and beats with a break-beat and electronic sound, the music they were playing that night was jazzy, boring, bland sounds. At this stage I had enough and gave the band the '3 song' test, which means if they play 3 bad songs in a row you leave, which they did, so I left and grumped home, so no review for that band I'm afraid.

Friday night was a bit better as I went to the cinema and saw Borat. I have to say that this film is the funniest film I have seen in a long time. I don't usually like cringe-worthy viewing but Sacha baron-cohen did it so well that it wasn't too excruciating to watch. It did show that some Americans are a bit thick and you can coax them into saying anything. Anyway, an excellent film, I give it 2 thumbs up!

Why am I writing my blog when I have work to do? Damn procrastination. I'm signing off.

Aim

2006-11-08T15:32:49Z

I'm off to see Aim tonight at Camden Palace, (I refuse to call it Koko cos it's a shit name and I hate places that get done up and they lose their essence) which'll be cool. It seems like I'm going to one gig a week at the moment, but I guess it's giving me more practice to write up reviews.

I'm sitting at uni at the mo and i'm feeling creatively stifled. I just wrote up The Twisted Trees Review, which I think was ok but I'm feeling a bit lacking in my abilities to write. This isn't good as I have an assignment in on Tuesday but I'm sure it'll remedy itself by then but for now I'm just stuck. Even writing this feels forced and not right which may make be stop as I am now conscious of what I'm typing, eeeeek now I'm saying it out loud!

ABORT MISSION!

:( blue

2006-11-06T16:03:07Z

I hate being ill, it makes me so grumpy. I'll explain why in a moment. Yesterday was a good day because Spurs beat Chelsea. Spurs hadn't beat Chelsea in the league since 1990 so understandably the pub in North London which I was in had screaming and cheering Spurs fans in it. My friend was so pleased that he rolled up to the bar and ordered champagne to mark this rare and momentous occasion! The game was tense and gripping and the result was a fantastic one. My family have supported Spurs for years, I even went to some games when I was a small feline. So that was the positive out of the day.

On my way home I had a naughty inkling for some popcorn chicken from the wonderful KFC. I couldn't really be bothered to cook that night so fast food was the obvious choice. I even got some gravy so that my pieces of chicken could be drowned in its tasty goodness. However, an hour or so after my filling, albeit fattening, treat I felt excessively bloated and slightly dizzy so I had a lie down. Very soon after that my stomach was making that dull echoing sound of dismay and I was severely ill. Unfortunately a few hours later my boyfriend felt the same as he too had the popcorn chicken dinner. We came to the conclusion that it was the KFC we had chomped and we were not happy about this. I feel like going down there and threatening them or something so they don't do this to someone else.

I've had food poisoning before from a fast-food place, Pizza Hut, to be clear, and they had the cheek to say to me, 'don't worry next time you come in your meal is on us.' Why would I want to go back to a place that had given me an illness? So I told my dad about this and he called food standards and asked them to check out this PIzza Hut restaurant in Harrow. Their findings were not great and actually quite disguting. The kitchens had rats and cockroaches, some food was moulding in the fridge and out of date and none of the staff observed basic food hygiene codes. Suffice to say I never went back there and am still skeptical about fast-food establishments.

That instance with Pizza Hut happened 9 years a go and I haven't really thought about it since until obviously last night. I'm very cross and sleepy simultaneously so maybe I'll just sign off for the day. Grump.