Whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn’t mean it
I just want you back for good

I’m sure this isn’t the kind of coffee cup that is meant in the song, but oh well!

We (Michael and I that is) decided to get a couple of hanging baskets for either side our front door. I’ve only been meaning to since we moved here, like, 4 years ago – oops! So it’s done :-) here be some proof:

(Hopefully they will flower quickly!)

I had to go to the hospital yesterday (nothing major!) so to get there I walked through Leaze’s Park, which was bathed in beautiful sunshine, more photo goodness below :-)

Before heading home after my appointment, I wandered into town for a bit, passing the student union/Northern Stage, where I saw some sun loving students doing some Yoga on the lawn. Why not when the weather is so nice! :-D

You may just be able to make them out!

On a random note, Michelle Branch’s cover of ‘Life on Mars’ just used played on my itunes, forgot I had it on there….it’s not hakf bad! I wonder what other music I have on here that I’ve forgotten about? *goes to have a look*

I suppose I’m writing this just so I can update the blog, rather than having something specific to write about. So consider this a warning… I am just going to blabber a little bit about what I’ve been doing over the past week or so, see where my thoughts take me!

Last weekend I spent a lot of time with my sister Jane…she stayed with me for a couple of nights at the end of the week, then I went with her stay at our parents last saturday night. While she was here we went to the new Lau’s Chinese buffet in town… whereas it is still a buffet and as such the food quality isn’t exactly amazing, we both enjoyed the Sushi bar and garlic prawns from the Teppen-yaki plate (cooked fresh while we waited, nom). When at our parents on Saturday, we kind of just spent time together, with our parents and Grandparents. Dad drove her back to Linden Hall on Sunday morning, which is lovely drive when the weather is bright, which it was. I came back home to Michael on Sunday…after having the obligatory sunday dinner at Grandad and Grandma’s of course!

Not much happened on Monday…on Tuesday however Michael took me to see Charlie Ross perform his ‘One Man Lord of the Rings’ at the Gala Theatre in Durham. I had a really good time – both Charlie Ross and his support act were fantastic. Any LOTR fan should go and see his show, and it’s left me wanting to see his ‘One Man Star Wars’  as well.

On Wednesday Michael and I went to the Newcastle Bahá’í Centre for the monthly Open Deepening evening, which was hosted this time around by the lovely James. The theme was Prayer – we read and discussed some quotes based on why, what, how and who we pray for. I found this very useful as I must admit my discipline in remembering to pray each day has been lacking for a while now – the deepening has helped me focus on this area somewhat, so thank you James!

Thursday was another quiet day after I was done with work. Yesterday was the start of a four day weekend, what with it being Easter and all, yay! So, my Good Friday was spent pretty much in front of the TV, playing FF13.  I am a good way into it now…I think I’ve clocked up about 24-25 hours of gametime since I got it (which was March 9th, release day!). I am still enjoying it…a couple of reviews I read in the run up to getting it had me a little worried. I do agree with some of the criticism…the game has been very linear so far, although I am playing on with the promise of it opening up towards the end. The story was slow to get going…I am at Chapter 7 of 13 and it has only really started to gain momentum now.  Still, I am enjoying the story and eager to move on and delve further into it. My biggest worry going into the game was the battle system….I never got very far into FF12 as I really disliked the battle system. No such problem this time around, I’m happy that I have taken to FF13′s ‘Paradigm’ system quite well :-) (I must go back and give FF12 another go, same with FF8…).

In my opinion, FF13 is no FF7 or FF9 beater. However, it is better than FF8 and FF12, and perhaps on par, if not a little better than FF10. The Character development system, the ‘Crystallarium’, is pretty much a straight-up carbon copy of FF10′s ‘Sphere Grid’ level up system…not that I’m complaining though, I quite enjoyed that aspect of FF10.

Today I slept well into the morning…oops! I missed the qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix, so I spent the afternoon so far watching it on the BBC iPlayer. I am definitely going to get up early in the morning to watch the actual race live…it’s looking like it’s going to be good one – with the McLaren’s and Ferrari’s at the back of the grid I am expecting some exciting race action…throw in some rain to mix it up and it should be a belter of a race!

For the rest of today, I think I’m going to chill, do a bit of housework and maybe do a little baking later on.  I promised Michael some chocolate cup cakes like last week, I should keep my promise to him really! If I play my cards right I may also get a couple more hours of FF13 in..if not today then definitely tomorrow! :-)

Til next time x

I discovered Muse when I was around 16-17 years old. My Grandad gave me a free CD that came on a box of Golden Grahams breakfast cereal. Most of the tracks didn’t do anything for me, except this one track called Uno, by a band I had never heard of before – Muse. I quite liked the song, so I kept that CD close to hand and played it quite a bit just for the one track.

One day when I was having a root around the bargain bin in my local Woolies, I came across a single called ‘Sunburn’, by the band I remembered from the Golden Grahams CD. It was only 99p, so I bought it not knowing what to expect, knowing I would have no regrets due to the measly sum of money I had parted with.

I loved it, and my love affair with Matt, Chris and Dom began.

MTV2 were the only music channel that I can remember who played their video’s, so I harassed my poor mother by having it on constantly, hoping to catch a Muse video. I started to buy Melody Maker and NME to keep an eye out for news and new releases from the band. Jo, my best friend at school, bought me ‘Showbiz’, their first album, for my birthday, although I sadly couldn’t persuade her to stop listening to her cheesy pop long enough to actually listen to them herself.

I used to listen to Showbiz at night with my personal CD player, mouthing the lyrics to myself, trying to remember to not wake my little sister Jane, who I shared my bedroom with. Muse helped me getting through the angsty ‘the world hates me and I want to die’ phase I went through during sixth form. I also credit them with introducing me to more ‘credible’ music – I started to listen to more guitar laden rock/alt/indie music, instead of boy bands and girly bubblegum pop…i.e. Muse replaced Boyzone, RHCP replaced Steps, and so on.

It’s very rare I buy CD’s now – the world of music has moved on so much in just a few years since my days of taking my personal CD player into school with speakers that plugged into the earphone jack socket – now we all have iPod’s with speaker docks, and music is stored in digital form, downloaded from the internet and transferred between devices.

But Muse albums are something I always want to have a ‘hard copy’ of. Digital downloads are fantastic, but sometimes you just want to have something you can hold, something more ‘real’ than a file saved to your HDD. Very materialistic of me, I know.

Anyway, here I am, listening to The Resistance. I am currently on track 4, which is United States of Eurasia. So far I am loving the album. As a die-hard fan, I would say that though! I’m not going to review the album, I’m not very good at that kind of thing!

I will say this though – in my opinion, Muse are a little bit like marmite, you either love them or hate them. I would strongly urge anyone to listen to them at least once, even if you end up falling into the ‘hate’ camp and never let them grace your ears again.