So... It's 2013.

And as usual it's been a long time. Not going to dwell on it.

Gotta say, 2012 wasn't the best year. It's not that it was bad, it just wasn't good. Barring my show, all the things that were supposed to make it good kinda... sucked. I missed festivals, The SO's gigging stopped, the househunt flopped several times, the Olympics were a bit of a damp squib work-wise and there generally was a lot of work and not much play. 

However, good things that came out of this year 

• I reignited an old friendship, with old uni friend Raya, who I travelled across Canada with years and years ago.
• The Sorcerer was really good fun
• I became Chairperson of my Gilbert and Sullivan company
• I got my first real solo role since I was thirteen
• And I have rediscovered my love of sewing. 

And things to look forward to this year: 

• Weddings! Many old uni friends are getting hitched, which will mean trips oop north to St Andrews
• A six-week secondment to the Number 10 press team.
• 30th birthdays - both mine and the SO's. We will celebrate and not be miserable. 
• I'm planning to make a lot more stuff this year. Not clothes though. Honest.
• I plan on applying for new jobs

In the meantime, we are starting the new year with a spring clean, led by the SO's loopy mother in law. Today I stood on the bathroom sink to clean the windows, fearing for my neck the whole time, knowing that she'd see the dust if I didn't. I really hate being made to feel like I'm inferior at looking after my own house, and so far most of the clear out has just proved how much I want to keep. 

But I'm trying to stay positive about it. It means that when we do find that mystical perfect house, we won't need to scour quite so much muck off the place (though the wall behind our bed is irreparable. Proves the worth of a headboard.)

Anyway that was the year that was. With any luck, I might blog more than I currently do. 

Things

Well. It's been a while. I couldn't tell you exactly what I've been doing in the last six months to be honest, but it's been pretty full.

Opera
I suppose one of the biggest things that have changed in recent months is that I'm now the chairman for Grosvenor Light Opera Company. Not quite sure how it happened, but I'm glad I'll get to help in the running of something I really love to do.

A few months ago (before I was Lady Chair) I was a chorus member in The Sorcerer, which is the best quality show I've ever been in.

This is the cast, and me in my boiling hot costume. Victorian ladies were hardcore for wearing this stuff, people. I spent the whole time with my dress up over my knees. So hot. But not very dignified.



And now we're doing a semi-staged production of Princess Ida (I got a reasonably big part by accident in this one) and we have lots of really exciting stuff in the pipeline.

We need contraltos. And men. If you are a contralto or a man and you live in London, come join us!

Olympic
Now, I don't know if you heard, but there was some sporting stuff on in the capital this summer, and I got to go get involved for a few weeks on the Government press team.

Now, I'm not going to lie, I didn't do anything terribly exciting or meet any famous athletes. But I got to meet a bunch of new people and get into the spirit of things. And I got to join in with the celebrations when it closed. Say hello to My colleague and I with an Olympic torch, and me driving the Cutty Sark in my party dress:


The Cutty Sark is an awesome party venue. Or even daytrip venue. I especially liked the collection of figureheads - see them behind me on the left?


Other
Other things in my life at the moment are a househunt (omg so confusing) and a determination to start making my own clothes again. To which end I've started following lots of sewing blogs to get inspiration.

And my hols really deserve a post of their own, because let's face it, the highlands are pretty, and I want to share the pics with you. Suffice to say the weather won.

Anyhoo. I'll post on them later.

Tara!

Works in progress

I'm making plans to up the vintage scale.

I'm not one for resolutions but I have a few things in mind to fix/improve. It's about time I sorted out my "look" for want of a better word. I do love the vintage look and dyed hair, but I tend not to live up to it very often.


My wardrobe
I have a few vintage or rock outfits, but it's just so much easier to slip on some jeans and a tshirt, especially as I have some poundage to lose - reference monster-arm below.

I've already chopped up a few of my t-shirts to make them more lady-like (no loose wotsits for me) so now I just need to throw out all the grotty clothes and wear the nice ones.

Like the peacock blue Mary dress I want to win from Heyday! How wicked is this:

Resolution: More dresses/effort, less jeans.

Hair

In January I dyed my hair red again like the pic on the left

But I'm so awful at keeping it up  that I spend most of my time with tangerine-head like this: 

But I want to spend more time with pincurled hair, which I've managed about three times last year. Like this (please ignore scary monster-arm)

So many split ends as well. I need to cut it baaaaadly. So, resolution - More hair maintenance. Someone on twitter suggested mixing some dye into my shampoo, so I'm going to give it a go, and generally make more time for hair-setting.

My weight
A constant torment. Biscuits are so delicious. Apart from said biscuits, my diet isn't terrible. It's time to actually move around a bit maybe. Resolution: Go swimming in the mornings.

I realise I'll be in need of a very good swimming cap for this. Any suggestions?

Winter is still coming... very slooooowly. There's been, like, a frost.

Reading. I have been doing it. A lot.

A Song of Ice and Fire is compulsive. I started the series in January, I'm halfway through book four. And let's be clear, these books are tomes. My handbag is constantly weighed down by them but I cannot. Leave them. At home.

Characterisation remains amazing. I love that George RR Martin has managed to make me care about a character I hated in the beginning - Jaime's transformation from an arrogant, privileged young knight to a war-weary and unwilling leader is very sympathetic. Cersei's insane suspicion of everyone and pride in her ridiculous decisions make me despise her more with every word. And I just can't stand how absolutely wet Sansa is. STAND UP FOR YOURSELF, GIRLIE!

The constant changes of direction keep me guessing too. I think I know how to play the game then someone pulls off a massive bluff and I don't even know who I am any more. What's that? Where am I? Where the effing eff did that come from?! I'm itching to know why the Imp confessed to a crime he didn't commit; I want to know what the hell Littlefinger is playing at; Where has Arya gone; who the hey is Coldhands and where is he taking Bran; is Catelyn alive or dead?!

Compulsive. I must know.

Four books in though, and I do wish that winter would hurry up and come. Arya has crossed the country about five times and never made it back to the north. There have been about five weddings but no babies, about eight of the main characters have died so far, and we've met the Others (bringers of winter) once.

 I feel like I know where we're going, now we just have to get there. My theories:

• --Bran and Arya are going to hook up with Dany and ride some dragons
• --But first Samwell is going to meet up with Arya. 
• --Cersei is so going to die/go mental before this book is up
• --Brienne is going to help the Starks take back their realm. Duh. 

I'll have to go back to these when I finish book four. I bet the majority of these folks are dead. 

Anyhoo. I've loved the series so far, but I do think it needs to get somewhere or I'll lose interest soon. After watching the TV series of course. 

PS. I am ready to kill if I have to read that bear rhyme again. 

Winter is coming.

Hello, T'interwebs!
To continue with my reading theme, I bring you my thoughts on A Game of Thrones, which I devoured like an enormous black forest gateaux with eton mess on the side. To whit - ravenously and with relish.

I feel the need to add a disclaimer - I have not seen the Sky series. I WANT to see the Sky series though. My only knowledge of it was that the illustrious Sean Bean was in it, so I spent a lot of time trying to guess which character he was and putting his head on different people. This made the whole reading process very incestuous ad most people of the right kind of age had the same face which - considering the lineages in this series - was not entirely inappropriate.

For years I've steered clear from any high fantasy beyond Terry Pratchett and the occasional teenage magician saga for fear of becoming a whole new level of geek. But I capitulated this Christmas and, having heard some good things about the Song of Ice and Fire series, I decided to give it a whirl.

Anyway, enough waffle. Let's talk story.

Family Stark are the oh-so-serious lords of the north, whose leader, Eddard, helped put the current king on the throne. However, when the King asks him to come help out with southern political machinations, his family is torn apart because he's just not devious enough. His heir is left behind to protect the keep, another is sent north to guard the frontier between civilised lands and the supernatural border, his daughters join him to learn the ways of the court and his wife sets off on her own mission of revenge. War happens. It's awesome.

You may have noticed, I rather loved this book. The scope of the storyline is absolutely vast and the world in which it's set minutely realised. The shifting perspectives every chapter means I get to see the war from (almost) every side - I love the fact that I've ended up caring about certain baddies even when I'm rooting for the goodies.

The lore is immersive - I want to know what the warrior princess Nymeria did that impressed Eddard's youngest daughter so much. There are rumours and remnants of long-gone elves and dragons, and at least three fully realised religions/cultures, with other bits on the side.

In short, I loved it. I wish they hadn't killed certain characters off, and both sorry and excited that the next book should delve deeper into the supernatural (I liked the sense of mystery), but I finished it on the train into work today, and you can be damned sure that I'll be buying the next instalment on the way home.

Three other books on my 'need to read' list

• You can't read this book, Nick Cohen
• Room, Emily Donohue
• Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan

End.

2012 book list

I read a lot. A lot. Mostly trash though. Joined a book group last year to up the class of book I read, time to start recording my thoughts on them

Book devourer

Books I'm currently reading/waiting to read:

A Game of Thrones - Loving it
Gone with the Wind - Not impressed so far.
Lord of Chaos

Ironically, none of these are classy at all. Gone with the Wind is awful, Scarlett O'Hara is just a horrible imaginary human being.

Books of note in 2011:

The Help - excellent

The Poison Tree -  Highly recommended.
When God was a Rabbit - Not bad at all
How to be a woman, Caitlin Moran - Highly recommended
We Need to talk about Kevin - Excellent
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series - pretty cool
Dark Matter - spooooky
A whole bunch of Terry Pratchett, particularly:
Snuff - not bad, not amazing
I Shall Wear Midnight - great story, perfect end to the heroine's story arc

So that was 2012

Everyone appears to be doing their roundups of the year - I'm not usually one for a bandwagon but hey. Might help me actually put my resolutions into action...

2011's been a weird year. The over-riding feeling I have moving into 2012 is "good riddance" and I think that's mainly because of work which has, to be honest, been a bit pants for the majority of the last year. It's a real shame that work is such a large part of my life, because outside of that there have been a lot of really great days, weekends, moments.

It's stating the obvious to say that nobody enjoys a redundancy process and my work has been no different. Fortunately I do still have a job. Unfortunately the process has made most of this year no fun at all. However, the last two months have seen some big improvements and I'm remembering that one of the best things about it is how engaging and challenging it can be, underlining the absolute importance of a decent line manager. My new manager has been refreshingly honest with me about my work and actually made me want to apply myself again.

Onto the funtimes
It's always hard to choose the best moments among so many. I'm incredibly fortunate to have an amazing social circle, which has grown considerably this year Plenty of opportunities for dressing up, which as I've said before is amazing fun, yay!

Going to an 80s party as Cyndi Lauper with Adz as Brian Blessed in Flash and Tris as a glam rocker

I've already mentioned the yearly reunion with fellow meat-and-metal lovers, Gattysburg. This year's Burg was particularly carnage filled, with cars in ditches, foxhunts and ping pong galore. There were some great excursions into Devon - spent a few days hostelling with Adam, then went caravanning for a weekend with his brother and a few friends where we ran into the sea at three in the morning.

Adz and I in Salcombe, Torbay

I also had a lot of fun rediscovering my love for Gilbert and Sullivan when I joined the Grosvenor Light Opera Society, playing a small part in The Gondoliers this summer. It's there I met and got to know my good friend Hazel, who joined us at Sonisphere festival - the best I've been to in my ten years going to these things.

Doing my hair in the dressing rooms

Playing Inez in the Gondoliers

Fellow Dethonator-WAG Lyndsey's hen-do in Sheffield was awesome - I have very few female friends so when I do have a girly night I do enjoy it. Dressing up was fun. And of course the wedding was also a lot of fun.

Hen do! Pirates!

Oh and this year has been a year of celebrity sightings! The SO's brother met John Schaffer and the SO himself met Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson, who lived up to his reputation for being a bit of a knob. And, of vital importance, Dethonator supported Kerrang darlings Glamour of the Kill.

My resolutions
We're not aiming high here, just trying to fix the things that are broken.

1. Lose some goddamned weight. Goal is to lose at least a stone. 
2. Keep the house in better order by establishing a workable cleaning routine. Want to start this one with a big ol' house-purge
3. Improve my work ethic. I need to start thinking about a promotion or a change. Figure the best way to make a start on that is to focus on improving where I am already.
4. Remember how good my life is and db more cheerful. It's a new year, new opportunities await. time to stop being a pessimist. 

Lets see how that goes...