Sweet

Feeling really virtuous and productive at the moment. Driving is going really well and I hope to have passed within the next two months. Wish I had more internet access so I could record all that I'm up to, but alas, I don't. Holiday next week with Spanner, then a party that weekend that two of my oldest and dearest friends will be attending. Yep, life is good.

Highlight Me

I've been meaning to write a new blog for aaaaages, but I just haven't got round to it. I'm not gonna right an update on my new job, my relationship, my friends, where I'm living, what I think, how I'm doing....Oh no, I have bigger issues to discuss:

For some time now, I've been irrantionally fascinated by the otherworldly, magical qualities of Yellow Highlighter Pens. I may just be commenting upon a widely accepted notion (ie, that yellow highlighters are indeed superduper) but I find them so amazing. Notice how average highlighter pens don't really highlight. Take blue, for example. The blue highlighter is the same colour as your average blue felt tip. The type of pen a toddler might use to do the sky. It doesn't appear to be embodied with any superior luminscence that a Crayola lacks, does it? You don't suspect it might glow in the dark when you turn the light off, do you? No. The same with pink. Just the type of felt you expect a white child to colour in Mum in with. The same can be said of green (could be used for grass), orange (could be used to depict a fruit of the same name) and then those weird reddy shades that Stabilo started producing when the international thrill of highlighters had waned a bit. But yellow. Oh no, one wouldn't dare colour a picture of the sun in with a yellow highlighter. Or use it for a banana? Were a child presented with a packet of highlighters to colour in a new colouring book, one can imagine yellow would be the last to dry up simply because of it's unique limitations. And this is because of the previously mentioned magical-ness of yellow highlighters. A pen not created to realistically colour in yellow things, but a pen whose charisma and charm make it a queen among stationery goods, suitable for one task and one task only: highlighting text. In a world where we love to create items that multi-task (phones that are cameras; mp3 players that can play films; fridge magnets that can open bottles) I truly respect the singularity and impossibly limited quality of the yellow highlighter.

Argument

Feeling pretty crap about lastnight’s argument. I know I won’t bring this issue up again with A, so I suppose she might as well read it here. I think it’s very constructive and normal (dare I say it) to have a shouty argument every so often. I felt ill-treated by A yesterday, and still maintain that conviction. I tried to vent my anger and frustration, but was met by tears. Tears in an argument = me in the wrong, again. And so the issue remains unresolved and, yet again, I am the one required to apologise.

Adminge

Despite the fact that the current/newly-recruited Admin Team is made up of two females (one 36 years old, one 23) and one male, certain members of the office still insist on referring to us as 'the girls'. I resented this title when the team comprised of only females, but now that there is one male working with us too?...Pah! It seems that some people are struggling to grasp the concept that males can also perform subservient positions within the office hierachy. Apparently only women should serve other members of the office (do their photocopying, stuff their envelopes, write their letters...) and men should be in charge. J is finding this so impossible to comprehend that she seeks to castrate the male member of the team by referring to him as 'one of the girls.' Apparently he doesn't find this nearly as offensive as I do.

Hair

I’m feeling a bit queasy today, and I can’t really locate what may be the source of it. I had pasta for dinner yesterday. I had a fag and a glass of wine and I stayed up quite late. Perhaps it’s because of this? I haven’t been drinking much lately (not that a glass of wine can really be considered drinking) and I haven’t smoked in a while and the pasta was (allegedly) flavoured with squid ink (it was nice. Not a particularly strong flavour, but the pasta was black) so perhaps the combination of these has contributed. Also, I’ve been going to bed quite early lately so 1am to bed may have thrown me a little out of kilter. Perhaps perhaps perhaps. I’m sampling a different breakfast cereal today (S&M Muesli with bran) so maybe this has contributed?

Overall, there seems to be a number of small factors that could have potentially contributed to this feeling of mild sickness. I’m not usually of such a sensitive constitution though, that a slight change in dietary patterns and evening habits could make me feel sick. There is a smelly man visiting the office today and I can smell his BO a mile off, so perhaps it’s that. I’m also getting my hair cut this afternoon for the first time in a year and eight months, so I’m probably a bit nervous about that. I have been cutting my own hair, but the uneven length and weight of it, and the generally haphazard style of it has finally gotten too much, so I’m off to the barber’s for a crop. Well, off to Toni & Guy for some pseudo-trendy, low-maintenance, short style.

Here’s a rough approximation of what my hair currently looks like:



Imagine this hairstyle as brown, with some random sticky-out bits and not looking as smooth.

And here’s how I’d like it to look (ish):



I like this style, but my hair is considerably thicker than the model’s so I don’t think it’s physically possible to make it look like that, plus the unspoken law that new hair styles can never look the way the picture does. So yeah, I’m feeling quite flexible about the whole thing.

The BO man is strolling around the room without purpose, presumably with the intention of projecting himself as a wise old king. It’s very annoying and has the additionally unpleasant effect of wafting his vile sent in my direction.

Sun Indoors

Apparently Boss set a trend wearing her sunglasses indoors the other day, and Shirley Whirley has now decided to follow suit. Allegedly her usual glasses are giving her agro so she’s reverted to her prescription sunglasses instead, but I don’t believe it. I think she’s modelled herself upon a younger, whiter, female Stevie Wonder, using her computer keyboard as a non-musical piano.

Rich Deep Colours

I was out of the office this morning, helping at a training event my work organised. I showed everyone in, gave them a delegate pack and badge and then just sat…and then sat some more…went for a wee…sat some more… Until the organiser appeared and released me from my boredom, sending me back to the office (a fifteen minute walk through town). I’ve been meaning to go the to art gallery to see the ‘Paranoia’ exhibition for a while now, so I thought now was a good time, especially since it’s en route back to work.

I don’t know if I have a good eye for art. I’m probably being grossly provincial even writing such a sentence, since so much one comments about art is loaded with historical/cultural/social significance, and therefore it would seem that if one has eyes at all, then one has ‘a good eye for art’. Anyway, I really am not well-equipped enough to enter into a debate about art, so I’ll get to the point of this blog: Martin Effert. A few of Martin Effert’s photographs were used in the exhibition and I couldn’t keep my eyes of them. They seem so evocative of something (I don’t know what) and I really enjoyed just looking at them.

They seem so enigmatic and alluring, but I don’t really understand why, nor what it is I like about them beyond the perceived conflict between vividness and dullness, light and colour vs. darkness. They’re just great! Have a look.