Ten Things

There's a lot of stuff I want to talk about at the moment.  So much, in fact, that it was paralysing me, stopping me from writing anything at all.  I would get so far into a paragraph about one thing and then I would think I should probably be writing about something else.  So, anyway, I decided I needed to write a bit about all of them and then I can move on to something more interesting instead.  Ten things then.  It's like a list.  A very rambling one.  (Get on with it Jim!)

1.  The series finale of Doctor Who starts next week, which means this series is, by definition, almost over and I haven't mentioned it once.  It's been spectacular - so complex and emotional and rich.  I love Russell T Davies, but his era suffered a bit by occasionally lapsing into slapstick.  Moffatt hasn't done that at all.  And Matt Smith is just stunning - I am completely sold on him as The Doctor in a way that I never was with David Tennant.  Favourite episode so far?  Definitely Cold Blood - it was spectacular and the bit when Rory was killed and then erased from history genuinely shocked me, even though I was kind of expecting it.  The Lodger has been the weakest episode so far but I understand that something lighthearted was needed before what is inevitably going to be a very harrowing finale indeed.  Anyway - I'll write more about this when the series is finally over.

2.  I should probably stop caring so much about what people think of me.  The only people I have clashed with have been people who were behaving like assholes.  Everyone who matters seems to think I am pretty ace.

3.  I'm going through a phase where I am finding city living really claustrophobic.  I think it's because I can't afford to get away from here at the moment.  And then I was insanely jealous that Mark got to go to Jersey and get sunburnt on the beach.  It IS only a phase though.  I'll be back to loving being here in no time at all.

4.  This government of the ConDemmed that we have been landed with are outrageous and wrong.  They are messing with the constitution in a way that they have no mandate to do.  Fixed Term Parliaments are a good thing, but a vote of no confidence should require 50% of MPs plus 1 to bring the government down and force an election.  They are proposing to change that to 56%, which seems a really arbitrary figure until you realise that it's been set at that level because all the other parties put together wouldn't be able to reach it.  And what is all this shit about asking the public to decided what the government should be doing to save money??  That's what we pay THEM for, isn't it?

5.  I'm liking my music increasingly complex these days.  Most indie music irritates the hell out of me because it seems so banal.  And, yet, at the same time, I LOVE Gaga.   But maybe that's my queerness and very little else.  Anyway - it's a Debussy chord sequence that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end now.

6.  I would happily eat nothing but sushi nowadays.  This is strange for someone who adores French food as much as I do.  Having said that, I would sell my own mother for a bowl of moules at The Boathouse in St Aubins.

7.  I won't be watching any Big Brother, even though it's the last one.  I watched the housemates going in and there was no-one fit, funny or in any other way engaging.  I will write more, instead.  Tonight I will watch Who Do You Think You Are?, which is on at the same time.  But don't get me wrong - I wouldn't dream of dissing anyone else for watching it - I have enjoyed it myself in the past.  But I was in my twenties when it started and I'm now nearly 40, which is a real sign that it's been going on too long already.

8.  Speaking of which, I really can't decide how to celebrate my 40th birthday.  I would like to get a gang of friends together and go to somewhere like Center Parcs for the weekend - I have never been and I feel like I should.  I doubt that will happen, though - it's so hard organising people for something like that.  Other ideas include having a hen party up Canal Street, or just hiring somewhere and having a really big bash, with the only demand being that people dress as fabulously as they can muster.  Anyway - I have nine months to come up with something and that's long enough, I think.

9.  I need to be more healthy, lose some more weight, not drink so much.  But this month has been a really shit month and I think I was bound to go a bit silly and not look after myself.  I'll do something about that starting now.

10.  There are always ten aren't there?  Or are there?