I seem to be doing this here these days.
www.myspace.com/itssusan

A letter from Edinburgh

My blogging is all over the place these days. I am currently on a train from Edinburgh to London and I think we have about another half an hour or so til we arrive into Kings Cross. Half way through the journey I realised how splendidly idiotic I have been in forgetting to pick up my house keys, so unless my brother can find his set I am going to be staying with him and his wife and tiny screaming 12 day old Joshua. That would be quite nice actually - except I wanted to pick up a few things from home. I'm sure I'll live without picking up more socks and bags. And shoes. It's been quite nice being in a contained space for 5 hours with only my laptop and wireless internet access to keep me company. Oh and my ipod Jack. I've been working unbelievably hard the past few weeks in Edinburgh. And if you go here www.channel4radio.com (then Comedy then Edinburgh Bites) and here www.laughtercast.com you will see what I have been up to. I am assistant producer on the Channel 4 project and Producer of the Laughtercast project. So that is very very exciting indeed.

So I am heading home to London for Tim & Kat's wedding and to catch up with loads of my friends who I've not seen in ages. It'll be really nice to see everyone but I can't help but feel as though I should feel I am missing out on stuff in Edinburgh. But I don't. Which is odd. I spent most of yesterday afternoon going round the shops with Kerry looking for a dress for the wedding. It gradually became apparent that it wasn't a dress that I should have been looking for. Managed to find a really nice black satin pleated skirt from Miss S for £27 and teamed it up with possibly the most expensive piece of material I have ever bought in my life, a black and white tailored top from Karen Millen for about £60. Sheeesh. That is a *lot* of money. But at least I won't feel underdressed for a change.

As well as working on the radio programme and the podcasting site, I have been officially asked to do the PR for another show. I can't tell you which one but it does have a dog in it and I have seen it and it is brilliant and deserves to be reviewed and have more coverage. I just need to work out how the hell I can help with this. I also am unofficially doing PR for Skinner & Bell cos I think their show is brilliant - right up my street. And I have decided to knock out a few comedy lounge reviews for shows that I love that aren't being reviewed. More of a public service thing! We are also hoping to have an angel if we have one this year then I will be one of the hosts - which sounds like brilliant fun.

So far I am having a brilliant time and I am really happy being in Edinburgh all month. I can't see that changing in a hurry. Joe is going to be up on 24th and Sarah is coming back for another visit on 20th so it's going to be ace!! Loads of people to stay for a change. None of whom I've known for over a year! I just keep on meeting brilliant people in Edinburgh. I've met loads of PR people at the festival this year and contrary to popular belief 99.9% of them are really lovely and friendly. Also trying to see as much new stuff as possible but that's not happened much as yet. That's for both comedy lounge and in my capacity of new talent scout for angel eye media.

What else can I tell you? I can't think... too much has happened that I am just enjoying it happening and seem to immediately forget it and move onto the next enjoyable thing! I don't think that's such a bad thing. I am looking forward to getting off this train.

www.myspace.com/itssusan

Serious about cash...

As of today I am getting serious about cash. I'm determined not to live at home or be in debt by the time I hit 30 - and time is running out, fast. I've been staring at my budget spreadsheet for most of this morning and it seems that I'll have paid off my 0% credit cards by Jan 07 - which is *just* about in time for my 30th... I need to work on making that a bit sooner I think, it was sposed to be November 06 so I'm not sure what I've done to my spreadsheet to make it change. And that's with just paying the minimum payment until the 0% runs out, by which time I will have saved enough cash to pay them off. It's tempting to just keep moving the balances but the credit card people have cottoned onto the growing trend of credit tarts and have started charging a 2% handling fee, which is still a good deal but it's not free so not worth doing if you can pay off your card.
I am also going to speak to my parents about the possibility of lending me a huge chunk of money as a deposit on a flat... I am going to offer them a big chunk of interest in return - a lot more than they'd get in a high interest account (I think). So we'll see what they say... it's time to take control. Well, it's always time to take control but I actually feel like I'm beginning to get somewhere now. I've always said that this year of my life would be pivotal and that seems to be the case so far.
I'll be very proud of myself once I've cleared everything, I can't wait for it to happen. I am going to be very careful and try to live on as little money as possible til it's done - and beyond I spose. Having said that, until I earn enough money, I'll always owe the student loans people about £850 - which isn't much at all really. When I worked for RBS and earnt £28k I could pay it easily and I earnt way over their cut off for deferment... it's only £90 a month and hardly any interest so it's not too much of a dent but there's no point paying that off til I need to. I think I might throw a bit of a bash when I'm finally out of debt - or maybe I'll save that for my housewarming party!!

Monday 5 June 2006

Of the 48 hours that made up last weekend, I spent 14.5 of them driving around the UK in my little car, Tony. The reason being that Zenazee asked me to do her a favour and drive her up to Bury to collect some of her stuff from her mum's shed... in return I got a free trip to Blackpool. Admittedly I had to drive us both there but Zena sorted out the glamorous B&B and paid for all the petrol which was excellent of her. She also massaged my shoulders a bit on the long drive home when they began to get a bit tense. That was my favourite part of the weekend.
We left my house on Saturday at 7.30am and thanks to all the bastard football fans heading to Old Trafford for the England match, it took us about 2 hours to go 3 junctions on the M6 past Manchester... if only I was more of a football fan and had known about the match, I would definitely have chosen an alternative route - it would have been quicker to go via bloody Scotland. Anyway, we arrived in Blackpool at 2.30pm (I was the first to spot the tower as we headed in so therefore I win), dumped our stuff and headed out into Blackpool. Did a bit of shopping and then did the long walk from the tower to the Pleasure Beach. Which isn't a beach at all, it's a Theme Park. So it should really be called Blackpool Theme Park, but that's not quite as catchy. It was pretty cool though and Zena and I got some stickers made of us which are pretty funny - we didn't realise the camera was going to take 16 different photos of us so it's more of a photo story of us gradually realising and laughing like a pair of twats.
We had fish and chips for our tea, being in Blackpool it would have been rude not to, and then we headed back up to the tower on a tram. We went back to the B&B and lay down for a pre-night out nap. This was at 7.30pm. At 9.30pm we woke up. Ha ha... oops. I am blaming this on the long drive up and early start rather than my advancing years. We watched a bit of telly and went back to sleep at about 1am, got up for breakfast, and drove down to Bury which was a comparitavely short drive. We stayed at Zena's mum's for lunch, packed up the car and made our weary way home. We zig-zagged all over the place on the way home cos I was too impatient to stay on the same road and in the end it was a very easy drive. We had lots of stops which broke the journey up well... blah blah blah. God I am boring myself today. Zena was a very good co-driver, with map in hand, steering our course down lots of A roads between the M6, M1, A1 and then onto the M11. I had a really good weekend - we did lots of singing in the car, especially when I found my Smash Hits 1990 tape.
Last night my dad gave me a big hug and told me how proud of me he was for giving up a whole weekend for my friend! I think it's the kind of thing he would do cos my dad is a very selfless and brilliant person - always wanting to help people if he can - but I like to think Zena would do the same for me. Except she can't drive - so whatever the equivalent may be!

Friday 2 June 2006

Last night I let myself be taken to see the Beautiful South. Never in my lifetime did I think I would ever go within 10 miles of one of their live gigs but last night was beyond my control. The lovely Zena Barrie is quite the BS fan... probably their biggest, longest serving and most lovely fan. So much so that our tickets and wristbands were provided courtesy of the band themselves. I'm not sure why I am showing off about that. I certainly never expected to be name-dropping Paul Heaton into conversation or recounting the time he held my hand and kissed me on the cheek. I think I was a tiny bit starstruck through osmosis from Zena... knowing quite how much she adores him made me realise that there was more to him than having written two of the songs I have most hated in all my life. They were entertaining and made nice sounds with their instruments, damn them. I'm by no means converted but I did have a good night. Ended up back at the Barrie's flat, sleeping on her bedroom floor on a very comfy matress.

My sunburnt legs are more than just sunburnt. They are burnt. Just my shins down to my ankles. I am such a nob its unbelievable. The skin looks like an old lady's and my legs have swollen up a tiny bit meaning my ankles don't really look themselves. I put loads of aftersun on last night but I think I'm going to need something a bit more industrial... this is the second ridiculous thing I've done in May. The first one was falling into the sea in Brighton at 4am and getting my phone wet, well drenched, and all my numbers floated off into the English channel. I am such a twat.

Holiday..! Celebrate..!

What a weekend. It started off quite mental and then took me the rest of the weekend to recover. Met up with Sarah and went to see the Divine Comedy at St James's Church in Piccadilly on Friday night. It was absolutely bloody brilliant. We got there relatively early but there were already hundreds of people queuing cos it was unreserved seats. The man told us we were best off upstairs but because the church architect had overlooked the fact that in 320 years time someone would see fit to rent out the space for gigs, it was quite hard to get a good vantage point. There was no support and they came onstage just after 8.30pm... I mentioned to Sarah that it was a shame we couldn't sit in front of the front pews with our legs crossed so we could see but we didn't just in case. But a few songs in and Neil Hannon told the people standing at the back of the church to come and sit down the middle aisle and get cosy so Sarah and I looked at one another and a second later had grabbed our belongings and were bombing it down the stairs. By the time we got downstairs half of the aisle filled up so I offroaded to the right hand aisle, ran down the side and we ended up right at the front just off right - what a result!! So from then on in we had an amazing view, sat cross-legged and got a glance from Mr Hannon every now and then. It was like school assembley and he'd tell us when to get up and dance and then when to sit back down. For the last song of the main section, Something For The Weekend, he got everyone to gather round the barely raised stage and jump around. We did as he asked and while we were doing it, eyed up a couple of set lists which were later to become ours. They came back on for two last songs and were just incredible. They did "Party Fears Two" by the Associates which is one of my favourite songs ever and as a result I spent the rest of the weekend with it on repeat. Neil Hannon is a musical and comedy genius... he's just such a brilliant, brilliant man and just so talented. After the gig we went back to our stuff, which had thankfully not been nicked cos we did abandon it in a rather cavalier way to jump around at the front and bumped into the lovely Steve Furst so said a brief hello and then wandered off with Charlie and Carl for a few pints which snowballed into Charlie, Sarah and I going to the metro club and being amongst the last to leave. Four buses later and I got home - thankfully Sarah and I live in the same direction so it was handy for getting home. I got home at 5.45am and the NTL men arrived at 7.45am as predicted to install my broadband. I could have cried but managed to style it out in my bright pink dressing gown... urgh. Spent most of the rest of the day in bed either asleep or dozing and of course listening to the Associates. Had to miss Nalini's unofficial birthday drinks cos there was just no way on earth I was going to be able to safely leave the confines of my bedroom without disasterous consequences.

On Sunday I woke up feeling much brighter despite the gloomy weather. I drove into Bromley to do some final holiday shopping and managed to spend £62 in Primark - yes, that's right, I now own the whole shop. Pretty much. I did get a hell of a lot of gear for that though including some ace knee length shorts which I intend to get a lot of wear out of and possibly wear for the Race For Life, even though they're not very sporty. They cost ten whole pounds, which by Primark's standards is very bloody expensive. I also got 3 bikinis, a kaftan type thing which shall never be worn in the UK, a belt, some bright blue beads, loads of vest tops and a sarong. Result. Then I went to boots and used the millions of points on my card to buy £70 worth of stuff including some new speakers for my ipod so Michelle and I can dance around a bit before we go out in Cuba. Did I mention I am going to Cuba?! Actually no, it would seem that I haven't!!

Last Tuesday, Michelle came and met me at the office after work and we booked our holiday. All the bargain prices on Teletext were very misleading and once transfers/tax/fuel etc were added the prices were about £100 more per person. We found three identical holidays on three different websites so I set about callling them up to try and bring them down a bit as lovely Martin Lewis suggests. To cut a long story short, I got £90 off the total price and we are going to Cuba for a week, all inclusive 3* for £350. Which is another result. I couldn't sleep that night from the excitement of going to Cuba and also the thrill of doing such an ace deal! Think it's a bit rainy out there at the moment but I am told that it rains for 1/2 hours at the end of the day and then clears away - it's still almost 30 degrees so woohooo!!! I have my factor 50 and am raring to go.

Nipped out at lunchtime today too to buy myself a £20 mp3 player that I can take on the beach. There's no way I am taking y lovely £220 ipod on the beach in case it gets nicked or, going by past form, it gets dropped in the sea... I can live with having a crappy £20 mp3 player nicked but I can't deal with having no music if we're going to be lying down not doing anything for a week, even if I'm reading a book I need music. So I am going to have to pick 80 or so songs that I really can't live without! Rock on! It really doesn't feel like we're going tomorrow... how mental.

Also in other good news, the date for my surgical procedure has come through and its at the end of July. It's not an operation or anything so nothing to worry about but I can't wait just to get it done and hope it sorts things out almost once and for all. The new doctor I am seeing is fantastic - she knows exactly what she's doing and didn't even blink before telling me what she wanted to do. I am thrilled at last something seems to be being done... Not bad, it's taken the NHS practically half of my life but they have got there in the end - at least I am getting the most out of my NI contributions!

Christ, what a weekend. Took the afternoon off and went down to Brighton to see the lovely Joe for the night. Ended up on the beach at 4am and I was trying to skim a stone, didn't let go properly, lost my footing and fell backwards, legs akimbo. Like a twat. Then my friend decided to get in to make me feel less of a twat, then we started showing off in front of two cowardly Italian men who wouldn't get in the water and decided to go in up to our waists and then we both started swimming. Fully clothed. As a result I am covered in cuts and bruises from the pebbles. Then had to squelch through reception at the hotel. And my phone is fucked. And my camera is fucked. And all the numbers are gone so I am emailing everyone to email me/text me. So I've had a little influx of texts from people telling me who they are and telling me I'm an idiot. I was drunk. Obviously. It was quite funny though. Still, I've gone pretty much 8 years of mobile phone usage without losing or destroying one so it was bound to happen. I did transfer my numbers from my previous phone onto the one I ruined using my computer but I can't seem to find the numbers on there anymore... which is a bugger.
Then on the Saturday, Zena and I just laid about Brighton - on the beach, in the park, on the beach again, basking in the sunshine which then turned into a bit of a gale. Zena headed home after tea time and I went to meet Helen & Chris who had come over for the big fireworks display to check out their rivals... met up with Joe's friend Mike as Joe was up in London, and then tried my best to stand up for 40 minutes to watch the amazing fireworks. Ended up missing the train so went back to Hel & Chris's and sleeping on the sofa with their rabbit Chester. Finally made it home on the Sunday with a very damp return ticket from Brighton which thankfully no-one checked. So now I have a spare return trip from Brighton to London - which I am thinking of sending to Joe so he has no excuse not to come and visit.
Feeling a bit more normal today - can't wait to book our holiday tomorrow - Michelle is coming over to me so we can blitz it... at the moment I am hoping we'll end up in the Carribean, whether that happens or not is another matter. I just need a good rest, a break from work and hopefully I'll come back refreshed and raring to go - which may be an argument against a really long flight and potentially jet lag... hmm.
Anyway, I am meeting young Kerry tonight which is good, haven't seen her properly in a very long time. That is all for now.

I am eating a cadburys vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate lolly. There is no joke on the stick. What's this country coming to?