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?

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...

Hallowe'en is awesome

I do love Hallowe'en. I love the history and ideas behind it and the simple joy of the rituals, from pumpkin carving to scary stories to dressing up and seeing kids going out with their parents to trick or treat.

Adam is amazing to be with at Hallowe'en. He becomes a kid again - we've carved four pumpkins since Friday and watched at least seven horror movies. He's so committed he got angry over leaving some fake spiderwebs at home when we headed to his gig this weekend.

My own favourite part is the costumes - I love to make them, though they never save you the money you think they will. I made parts of both Adam's costume and mine this year. 

I was Ursula the Sea-witch (who is the coolest of all the Disney villains) and Adz was Death. 

Death and Ursula. Perfect match.

I made his cowl and my skirt out of sheets from Primark. Proper fabric is not easy to find at short notice if you work 9-5 in London. His cowl was a dressing gown with added hood - he went out in it on Monday night too and terrified the small children, poor things. 

My skirt was a bitty more complicated.  It took two evenings, much in-the-head planning and a LOT of alteration in the making. It's made of sixteen panels which turn into tentacles at the end, which are stuffed. The purple turns up to become an inside lining. 

"Poor unfortunate souls..."

My tentacles, complete with suckers

I had fun doing it and would make a million improvements - but it's nice to know I can do things like this without a pattern, and I plan on doing lots more. 

Adam's gig was... not the best. Serious tuning issues thanks to a broken string just before the show. But he always looks great on stage, if a bit mental - as you can see on this pic, which I can't insert. And it was a great crowd. 

I've rambled enough. Farewell for now!