Tuesday, April 25, 2006

catch up

well now.
the move is set - i head for manchesterish climes a week on wednesday. the garden shed is going to be turned into a writing den :) gonna be having a housewarming 'ball', and i've got myself a new frock for the first night of pizza and champagne.

i had an incredible week and a half in welsh wales. the first part of it was spent helping turn an old barn into liveable, teachable-in space. we didn't get as far as the straw baling, but i helped to brick up an old doorway, make a window frame and build an entire new doorframe. i'm a dab hand at mixing cement now, and have got muscles. i was lent a fantastic lesbianian outfit of waterproof dungarees, safety goggles and para boots - a comedy picture will be posted :)
i stayed with some fantastic women, made some firm friends (including a cat called amber who slept on my belly every night) and am going back in summer. outdoor baths coming up - huzzah! and a field of cows next door, who come to say hello if you sing at them. also wood-chopping, long walks, drumming, horses, owls, bats, big spiders, magic rooms and a thousand trees growing in the next field.

the second part was the cwwn conference, which was amazing. maj, who i met earlier in the week, came along too in her romahome with a crazy dog - which, at one point, made biting advances towards internationally renowned lady novelist sarah waters. hehehe - something to tell the grandkittens. so yeah, i had unexpected excellent company, and an ally for charity shopping and coffee breaks :) at one point we got mistaken for kitchen staff - i think we were the only un-academics there, and it got quite fun at times..
i have a posh-looking delegate badge with my name on, and obtained a poster for the new house, along with an armfull of second hand books i'd meant to pick up for ages. and a shedload of notes to write up, along with uni applications (english lit and lang, or combined studies to include both of those and maybe a little french). one of the conference organisers is moving to be the head of english at salford, which is quite a happy coincidence...

if uni doesn't happen, then i'm gonna try enrol on a beginners welsh course :)

the zine has halted production temporarily - more copies will be done in the next fortnight though, and should hit the streets of manchester too.

on a zine-related note, the new issue of no quarter magazine is out and heartily recommended, as is the fantastic knockback magazine. check them out :)

musically, i'm in love with shattered star's music links page click the 'stairs' icon on the far right) - thank you for those!
i have a 'novel 23' album to collect from jumbo, which im really excited about, and a plethora of manc gigs to go to from the day after i move in - hurray!

3 Comments:

Blogger radical supergirly said...

and a field of cows next door, who come to say hello if you sing at them.

I have a song for singing to cows. it's very simple and goes like this

'you are cows, my friends, you are cows,
you are cows, my friends, you are cows,
you are cows, my friends, you are cows,
oh cows, you are cows'

'you are brown cows, you are brown...'
etc etc etc
I wonder if you can guess the tune.

anyway the cows seem to like it

11:12 am  
Blogger zoe said...

for some reason, i can't make myself do anything but fit it around 'she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes'...

go on, what should it be? :)

10:19 am  
Blogger radical supergirly said...

try Kum Ba Yah

PS - Truck is great! Always managed to bunk in for odd gigs never stayed for the whole thing. Have fun and be sure to visit Orwell's grave while your there, it's just across the way in Sutton Courtenay.
xx

10:58 am  

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