The Best Thing About Today #2

This dance:

Happy Birthday JC

Happy Christmas!







I hope you have all had a really great day.

Today I went with my mum to help out at a meal that her church organised for people in the area who would otherwise be alone on Christmas. We helped serve the roast dinners, and my dad hid himself in the kitchen furiously washing up. We were there for about 5 hours, and even though I was really sceptical about going and was miserable for the first hour due to a combined cold and bitterness about not being at home opening presents, it was a great experience. There were lots of old people there that would otherwise have been without anyone, so I was pleased to be a part of something which seemed to celebrate a real spirit of Christmas. Getting old and lonely is such a scary thought to some people, so it was really lovely to see that people weren't on their own and could celebrate with other people and meet some new people. It made me realise what I actually have, and so I really appreciated everything after that, which made the day alot better!

It was a quiet Christmas for the rest of the day, but tomorrow it will be busy when all my family are coming to our house. I had several epic fails at the dinner table including pouring almost an entire bottle of wine over the parsnips, then dropping a load of carrots so they spilt all over the table, and then when I tried to cut a roast potato in half it flung across the room. My mum was convinced I was drunk and so sighed alot, probably not helped by the fact that I just couldn't stop laughing at all my stupid little fails. I got some lovely presents including a book and CD about this new project called CompassionArt which is a music related idea from Martin Smith of Delirious fame to raise money to tackle global poverty. I find him slightly irritating, but the project is wicked and the book looks great. Oh and today I also called the potatoes tomatoes. What a knob. After presents and food, I spent the rest of the day listening to this little beauty:





Which is the new Coldplay EP, Prospekts March. This I feel, has gone toward making up for the bitter disappointment that was Viva La Vida. It's got some really lovely songs on it.

Anyway, I digress. Merry Christmas all! And God bless us, everyone!


(NB: Not me and my dad after a couple of glasses of wine.)

The Best Thing About Today #1

This song:

Injustice.

Ignorance is such a killer in our society. Closing doors to things we don't understand or can't comprehend or don't know how to solve. Costing lives, and encouraging people to be foolish and uneducated about the world's issues and despair. Life is such a wonderful gift, such a massive privilege to be a part of and to experience, but a part of me wonders how many of us really know what it is to truly live. I am so guilty of focussing my attention on the self, and on what my ideals and goals in life are, and I too can't see past my own front door, or my own town or my own selfishness. I watch videos like that and I sigh and I think I can't do anything practically and I forget about it. But perhaps a part of doing 'something' is just being aware of it, not taking poverty and injustice as buzzwords but taking them seriously. Realising what we have, how lucky we are, being grateful. Maybe then the practical stuff can flow, people can begin to show love to the needy, take a real interest in current affairs, become educated about what is going on in the world. I wish I was profound enough to suggest a way that even I could make a difference to peoples lives who struggle with poverty and unclean water and disease and desperation. But maybe it starts with something smaller, something that is taken for granted and a word that gets thrown around to describe how we feel about the latest CD or film or website or celebrity.

Maybe it just starts with Love?

Massively Great Quotes #4

image from google images

"It does not do well to dwell on dreams & forget to live."
-Dumbledore, Harry Potter

Photo Post #1

Living On The Edge

image from Daily Mail online

Today I mainly watched the entire series of Living On The Edge. If you don't know what that is, then congratulations to you, you're a better person than I am. It's basically a very poor British imitation of 'Laguna Beach' or 'The Hills', 2 MTV 'reality' shows that center around the lives of hideously rich teenagers living in Orange County in America. In this version though, it's about a load of British rich kids living in Alderley Edge which apparently has alot of millionaires and I think is in Cheshire. See what they did there with regards to the title of the show? EDGY. I really don't know why I did this to myself, but somehow found myself truly sucked in to their lives, coveting their care-free walks by the sea and wondering how it is possible that they could all be so ridiculously attractive human beings in a 'we-are-rich-and-thin-and-need-a-haircut-real-bad' kind of way. It's quite clearly the most scripted thing in the world, just like the American version, yet strangely inviting for an unemployed twentysomething living in rural Dorset.

Things I found out from my highly educational day:
It's easy to get a part in Hollyoaks if you're on an MTV reality show playing a warped version of yourself being a 'struggling actor'.
It's also easy to get an internship at Glamour Magazine if you're on an MTV reality show wearing alot of Topshop clothing.
It's also easy to get a meeting with a top record company if you're on an MTV reality show and happen to be in a band. You could also be a model if cameras follow you around and you look a bit like Paolo Nutini.
Money doesn't buy you happiness, I mean these kids face all kinds of issues including having too much money, having fit boy/girlfriends, and getting all As in their A-Level results. Also, don't you think that getting a part in Hollyoaks or having your band 'discovered' or going to indie festivals is easy, because it is clearly not.
Oh yeah... Ugg boots are still fairly bad.

And that was about it.

Folie A Crap?

Am I the only one who is like :| at the new Fall Out Boy album?

Tell me it's a grower?

Me & My Friends #1

Hayley O'Toole

Me and Hayley became friends during our first year of Univeristy. We were at a student lunch at one of the churches in Winchester, and had the same t-shirt on in different colours. She made some kind of sarcastic remark whilst we were getting a jacket potato and i distinctly remember thinking how mean she was. Then someones cardigan had a hole in it and she got out a sewing kit (!!) from her bag and fixed it. Then I remember thinking how mental she was. Who carries around a sewing kit? Er yeah. Then after Christian Union one night we were walking to the pub and I was singing a song which she promptly joined in with. I remember thinking then that she was probably alright. After that she came to my halls and we talked for ages and ages about loads of things. Pretty much from then on we weren't really apart during the first year of University. I used to think we worked really well as mates because we were similar, but we aren't really similar at all. Maybe that's why it works. We've done loads of things together in the 5 years we've known eachother, including holidays, gigs, days out, and countless memories which would take far too long to mention. She usually wins @ life and she even went to help starving kids in Bangladesh in the summer. Wow. Although she's not so graceful when she falls off the bed when dancing to Paramore. Video evidence to come.

Massively Great Quotes #3

image from google images

"It's weird that whatever else is on your mind, whether it's the downfall of global economics or terrible environmental troubles, the thing that always gets you most is when you fancy someone."
- Chris Martin

Wicked Cool Bands #2

"You cut me out in little stars
and place me in the sky.
I lose my sense of time."
- Kaleidoscope, Kate Havnevik

Kate Havnevik is a Norwegian solo artist along the same lines as Imogen Heap (okay so this is Wicked Cool Bands but she still counts thnx). Her comparisons to Imogen arise mainly because she's great as is Imogen, but mostly because she too has worked with Guy Sigsworth on her debut album Melankton. Guy Sigsworth is well known for working with Imogen in the electronica/pop outfit Frou Frou, in which he produced and Imogen Heap sang. Noteably their most famous song is 'Let Go' which was used in a very poignant and lovely moment in the Zach Braff directed film Garden State. They sadly only released one album entitled 'Details', but Guy continues to produce music for such wonderful musicians such as Kate and even massive artists like Madonna and Bjork have had him involved in their writing and music making process.

I was introduced to Kate by two of my old housemates, both massive fans of Imogen's work. What struck me about Kate is that she has a really haunting voice similar to Imogen's which sort of lingers, all whispy and breathy. It's beautiful, and although lyrically her songs are quite simplistic, if you like the sound of her then listen to her album Melankton now. Right now.

Christmas vs. New Year

Essentially Christmas is awesome.

I don't think I felt very Christmassy until the weekend, when I walked around Winchester and Southampton consecutively in the freezing cold seeing all the markets and decorations and hearing lots of great Christmas sounds. I also went on a walk up a hill with a great friend of mine called Hayley, but because we were lazy/tired/sensible (delete as applicable) we decided to walk about a tenth of the way up and then go back down again because we weren't wearing appropriate shoes. Still, it was beautiful walking towards the hill, and very very cold and lovely. I love Winter. I love smelling mulled wine, and cinnamon and orange and mince pies, and eating too much and the general feel. And then of course, after Christmas is the monumental evening of New Years Eve.

I lived in Weymouth for 13 years and New Years is pretty much a massive deal. The whole town dresses in fancy dress, anything and everything, and it's said if you don't dress in fancy dress you get thrown in the harbour. Knowing Weymouth, this probably happens. For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of the great New Years Eves of the past. Ignore severe drunken glazed over faces.

New Years Eve 2005-2006: some superheroes, some greeks, some pilots, a mexican and little red riding hood.


New Years Eve 2006-2007: some pirates, and some playboy bunnies




New Years Eve 2007-2008: some burglars, a mexican, a french maid, a school girl, cleopatra and peter pan.

This year we are having a circus theme and it will be WICKED.

Massively Great Quotes #2

image from google images

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events and in the total; all of these acts will be written in the history of this generation."
- Robert F Kennedy

Massively Great Quotes #1

image from flickr

"I have learnt that what you look for, you will find. If you want to be a cynic, there is plenty to be cynical about. If you want to be a sceptic, there is plenty to be sceptical about. If you want to be a pessimist, there is plenty to be pessimistic about. What you look for, you will find."
- Rob Bell, Everything Is Spiritual

Wicked Cool Bands #1

"We are made of love,
And every fracture caused by the lack of it."
- 'Needle & Thread' Sleeping At Last

image from google images

Sleeping At Last are really really great. I heard about them when I was at the beginning of my final year at University from my old and lovely housemate Zoe, and spent alot of time in a fair amount of awe of how beautiful they are. Describing their sound is quite hard mainly because I'm rubbish at describing music styles, but it's quite ambient... but not in a really boring way. If that sparkling review hasn't put you off, and you have good taste and like super awesome lyrics, then you might like them. Visit their myspace and have a listen to Needle & Thread. Then buy their albums and revel in the lovely-ness.

Today I've mainly listened to Kanye West classics, watched Summer Heights High (amazing), drank tea and been excited about the fact that I'm going to see Sigur Ros on Friday thanks to Bethan. How wonderful. Hope your day has been a bit more productive than mine, and that you are happy and great.

Why are people dicks?

I'm currently in a Bed and Breakfast in Weymouth with my friend Vicky, whilst she watches some really weird musical on tv called Camelot which mainly features an old guy repeating the words 'how to handle a woman'. I don't think the song demonstrated how to handle a woman or I suspect the film would've been more successful than it actually was. Plus, the woman in question doesn't look like she really wants to be handled and is in fact just chillin' on a medieval style bed looking pretty bored with life. She's also got shit hair. Anyway, on Monday, I went to Portsmouth to see Noel Fielding and Julian Barrat, aka The Mighty Boosh. If you've never seen The Mighty Boosh before, it's basic silly and ridiculous humour with a cerebral mix of fantasy and weirdness. Colourful costumes, crazy characters, insane adventures and general strange behaviour all ocurr with the 2 main characters Vince Noir (self proclaimed Camden Leisure Pirate) and Howard Moon (self proclaimed Geography teacher lookalike). There's also Bollo the gorilla, Naboo the shaman and Bob Fossil who would be pretty hard to sum up in one word.

It was pretty great overall, although I didn't really know what to expect, as the previous live DVD had taken loads of ideas from the first and second series and mixed them up in to a little story that panned out over 2 and a half hours. This time though, it was more about the characters and little sketches between them rather than any sort of plot. Still, it delivered, and there were lots of the usual classic Boosh jokes ("Don't touch me. Don't ever touch me. ...Heyyy!"). If you are going to see the Boosh on the tour and don't want to know what happens, I suggest you stop reading now!

Spoilers coming up...! So the highlights included The Moon singing 'I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one' (during which I think tear of laughter might have sprung from my eyes), The Crack Fox getting all involved in some 90s dance music, Vince's outfits which were pretty amazing including a big Amy Winehouse style bouffant hair do courtesy of Jean Claude Jaquetti's amazing hairdryer, general Howard-ness (courdroy, elbow patches, dodgy dad jokes and constantly trying to find good comebacks at Vince's jibes) and many more. They even had a live band at the end to perform some of their famous crimps and some songs from all 3 series of the show. So, to sum up; it was great.

The title of this blog however refers not to the musical I'm currently being made to watch, nor the reason why I'm in a B&B in Weymouth (longer story than we have time for folks), nor to The Boosh. It mainly refers to people being dickheads.

So after we went to see The Boosh, me and my friend, her boyfriend and her housemate all went out in Portsmouth. These 2 drunk guys approached where we were sat and basically behaved like a bit of a knob towards said friends housemate and general all round winner. When asked by my friends boyfriend if his mate could stop being a knob, we were greeted with plenty of abuse from both blokes. Not only did this massive idiot decide to grab my friends wrist and get a bit physical but he also saw it fit to tell me to 'shut the fuck up bitch' and also try and shove me back down in my seat when attempting to stand between him and my friends boyfriend (who, for the record didn't want a fight at all). So, why are people such dicks? Okay, so when you've had a few drinks you generally do feel like you can take on the world, but I don't think that's ever an excuse for a) shouting in someones face b) swearing at girls c) grabbing girls by the wrist and attempting to throw them in their seats. Are these people who go out looking for fights inept of social skills or aware of any kind of social boundaries? Probably not. Anyway, that's my rant over. Don't be one of these people.

In case you're itching to know the latest goings on in Camelot, this guy thinks he can serenade anther woman now. She's got slightly better hair and looks like she's enjoying it a bit more, but I don't think she's feeling his padded medeival jacket. OH! Hang on, this news just in, she's just swooned (swoon –verb (used without object) 1. to faint; lose consciousness. 2. to enter a state of hysterical rapture or ecstasy) so she's clearly loving it. You're in there mate.

One last thing, if you like great pop music (and let's face it, who doesn't?) then hop on over to Luke Leighfield's Myspace and listen to 60000 Miles and Have You Got Heart? 2 new songs by an awesome guy by the name of Luke Leighfield (shock lol). He's well talented and great.

Bye! x

Intro!

Hi! So I was thinking about how I used to have a blog which was public and everything, and then how I deleted it ages ago, and how I like blogging, but the only blog I write anything on was my Myspace one and even that was ages ago. So, here we are. I always thought blogs were kind of pretentious unless you actually had something interesting to talk about, but then again, musings of other people can be interesting to some, so on we go.

I guess I should introduce myself in this first post, as that is what it would be polite to do! So, my name is Emmah-Louise Geraghty and I'm 22 years old.



I'll let you in on a secret, I don't really have an h on the end of my name, but the story of me adopting it is fairly long and boring so let's just pretend you haven't read this sentence and be on our merry way. I currently live in the worlds most boring and weird town (I resent calling it a town because it's really not) in North Dorset, which, I don't know if you can tell just from these mere words, I don't like very much. I live with my parents, who are pretty great. My major issue about living here isn't to do with them, because they're alright really, it's mainly to do with boredom and being away from all my super wicked friends who I miss greatly. I moved here after I finished University in Winchester (yeah that's right, WINchester), with the intention of moving back to Hampshire asap. Things haven't quite worked out that way but it's alright because there is still a shred of hope.

I have a fair few other homes though. The spare room at my friend Vicky's house in Weymouth, where I grew up and where all my friends I grew up with live. Vicky's family are basically my family, her dad thinks I'm a comedy genius and her dogs love me. Another home is one half of Hayley's double bed in Winchester where I sleep when I am there, and keep her awake with inane talks about the world and the universe and general Emmah and Hayley related banter. I'm also partial to Abi's couch in Locks Heath, and any spare room of any of my extended family at my church in Winchester.

I'm a Christian, I think God is wicked, and I have a really awesome Church that I go to in Winchester. I can't wait to live in Hampshire again so I can be a part of it again, because I love it. It's full of life and spirit and love for people. It's very inspirational to be around and learn from so many people of all different ages, and to have so many amazing people that I know I can rely on. So that's pretty great.

I am loving Winter at the moment. Wearing hats to keep warm, big scarves and lots of cups of tea and hot water bottles. I'm a big fan of Winter. Christmas too, that's always a fun few weeks leading up to the 25th of December. And then New Year comes around, and it's another year to reflect on, or look forward to, or both.

I love live music, and music in general. Especially when it's really loud. When you're playing a song you fully love really loud and everything else is just drowned out by general greatness of that song. My favourite band is probably Brand New, I have lots of amazing Brand New related memories, and I think musically they're pretty amazing. The latest album is probably my favourite. It's called The Devil and God are Raging Inside me and I love that it demonstrates just that, how inside of us we all deal with battles of good versus evil. That was probably the worst summing up of an album ever, but if you haven't heard it you should listen to it, ignoring my inept ability to review music. I'm also very much in love with Coldplay, but given their recent efforts to produce an album that doesn't suck, I don't think I will dwell on that too much.

Another thing or person that I'm quite fond of in my life is my little niece. She is called Sophie and she's pretty wonderful. She comes out with the funniest things, and we have the best banter ever. For a 3 year old she's incredibly clever and I love her to pieces. It sounds quite cliche but when you see a child growing up, you really do realise how precious life is and how people grow and learn and how you have such a big responsiblity to be the best person you can be for the people you love. Soppy, perhaps, but oh so true. So, to sum up, she is wicked.

Well this entry is about ten times bigger than it was meant to be,so let us end this first entry with a list. Other things I like include:


- My friends: I have great friends, really great friends. And I love making new ones. Finding out about people, things you have in common, people you know, music you like, ambitions, sharing in people's excitement, having a laugh, making connections. It's exciting stuff.
- Quoting things: any TV show, comedian, film, song. You name it, I'll quote it.
- In-jokes: the best kind of jokes. Lately me and my friends have taken to playing a game called 'make it emo' which basically includes one of us singing a line of a song, and the other translating this into emo by adopting a whiney american accent and pronouncing words like 'spiders' 'spooooiders'. It's pretty great. You should probably play it some time. I also love it when people say certain words between friendship groups. My favourite thing to say at the moment to describe things of greatness is 'epic'.
- Photography: this is a new thing that I love. Just because I'm interested in it, doesn't mean I'm good at it, mind. I'm not even sure I fully understand my camera yet, but I have recently purchased a Digital SLR and it's beautiful and is my baby. Browsing flickr is my new favourite thing to do and I regular flick through the manual for my Canon 400D going 'ooh you can do that? awesome!' and then taking photos of something like a leaf to try it out.
- Making things: mainly cards. Sometimes little things with quotes on. Or things to hang up. Sometimes flags, if I can be bothered to use a sewing machine. Or random things like tiny little cushions. I get this from my mum, she's great. I love craft shops, I used to work in one, and it was brilliant. Ribbon, sequins, fabric paint, drawing pencils, sketchbooks. Love!
- The Coldplay blanket: this is a blanket with Coldplay's faces on which sounds a bit weird but is actually really warm and epic (there we go) and probably the best present I've ever been given.
- Journeys: car journeys, train journeys, bus journeys. Any kind of journey is always fun. Headphones in, doodling in the back of my diary and people spotting.

I could probably go on and on, but I won't, this is long and self involved enough! Have a good day.

:)