Mum

My parents came to visit us in Cambridge yesterday and we took them punting. This may not sound like a particularly amazing thing but it really is. Last October my Mum was diagnosed with Secondary cancer and was really ill. She could hardly walk and was in a lot of pain and we didn't think she would be around for much longer. Now she is on some cool medication and is able to walk about and travel enough to come and visit us! It's not cuarable and I know there are difficult times ahead but she is so much better now than she was and it's like we have bonus time at the moment because things looked so bleak 6 months ago. Praise God for modern medicine and for his timing.

Love Thy Neighbour

As anticipated, madam downstairs is indeed having another episode (not that she ever really finished her last episode) and kept us up for most of last night slamming doors full whack every half an hour or so. I am usually quite a patient person but this is getting ridiculous.

'Pray for those who persecute you' - does being 'persecuted' with noise from downstairs count? She certainly seems to be getting at us for the heinous crime we have commited of living in the flat above her. To be honest I think she's already one prayed for lady judging by the Cheesy Christian CD's she plays at full volume any hour of day or night which I think have been lent to her by a local church. I wonder if she'd appreciate some drum and bass as much as we appreciate her musical interludes? Stop it Mel, 'love thy neighbour.....'.

Surely there are only so many times the Council can mend someones door because they keep slamming it so hard it breaks. Surely there are only so many times they can buy her a new TV because she has put her old one in the garden (she is on TV number 5 in the last 2 months), along with her hoover, suitcases, bookshelves........you get the idea. Surely there are only so many times she can fill up the communal bin with all her household items (mugs, plates, pictures from the walls, DVD player etc) so that the bin men won't take it away for weeks. Surely there are only so many times she can be bought new household items only to throw them away again. Surely there are only so many times the police can be called because she's put a suicide note on her door only to find she's perfectly alive. This woman is clearly unwell. I just fail to see how unwell she has to be before she gets the care she obviously needs.

Latitude

Went to Latitude Music Festival for the day yesterday www.latitudefestival.com It was really good. It is much more about the Arts as a whole and not just a festival for music with a few extras thrown in. There were 4 music stages/tents, as well as a Theatre Arena, a Comedy Arena, Poetry Arena, Literary Arena, Music and Film Arena, Cabaret Arena and Live Arts Arena.

It was the first one of this Festival and although it had not sold out there were enough people to give it a good vibe. There were loads of nice little touches such as picnic tables and bridges and toilets all painted green with white flowers so the whole places looked really nice (granted we only went for the first day, before things had a chance to be puked on etc). They had even sprayed the sheep in the field you walk through to get to the tents red, green or yellow!

We saw some good bands - Snow Patrol were the headline act and they were really good, although I couldn't see much when they were on. We also saw the Lemonheads, the Crimea and Cord - who were all good, although Cord were quite ordinary. The lead singer of the Crimea started the set by stumbling his way into the audience with his microphone and stand and stood among us for the first song. He looked absolutely wasted but put on a good show.

We also sat in on most of a play in the theatre tent - a really endearing little play with one actor and 2 guys in guitars who seemed to be strumming quietly over the top of a CD soundtrack - that was a bit strange but the actor was good and we got badges at the end which said 'I have more trees to climb' which made me happy.

Simon Evans performed in the Comedy Arena and then again alongside some guy off the TV (can't remember his name) and 2 others in a kind of 'Have I got News for you' thing in the Literary tent - very funny.

The Poetry tent was really good (expect that it seemd to have loads of beetles and spiders in it that crawled on you when you were sat on the ground trying to listen!) - it was great to hear some quality poetry and see it performed well. I used to write a lot of poetry but haven't written much lately - it's inspired me to have another go. I may even post some on here. We spent quite a lot of time in there and saw Saul Williams and lots of other equally good performers. One guy did a poem about how much he hates Victoria Beckham which had some comedy lines:-

"Little girls want to be her and she just lets them
No, there's no one I hate more than Victoria Beckham"

and

"I'd like to get her on the playstation and beat her up on Tekken
No, there's no one I hate more than Victoria Beckham"

We also saw Howard Marks, who was actually quite an engaging bloke had some interesting things to say.

All in all a really good day out and well worth the £40 day ticket. I reckon we might go for the whole weekend next year.

Films

Hello fellow bloggers. Anyone seen a good film lately that you would definitely recommend watching? We are on a free 1 month trial with www.lovefilm.com at the moment and making the most of free DVD rental for a month. Would definitely recommend it.

Off again

The neighbour's off again. The violent door slamming has been increasing in frequency and volume over the past few days and she's just chucked her big wooden bird table in the communal bin. Looks like we may be in for another episode.....

My first fight!

Got into a fight last night, my first ever one!

We were walking up the Parade in Leamington Spa (one of Britain's most likely places to have a fight - not) and this girl asked us if we had 40p so she could make a phonecall etc etc. We said no and I must have smiled without meaning to particularly beacuse she looked at me and said 'Are you laughing at me? Don't F***ing laugh at me' and grabbed my arm and flung me across the pavement!!! So there I was tottering a bit in my heels and saying 'I'm not laughing at you' and she was pushing me around a bit, blatantly wanting a fight and Anna was saying to her 'leave her alone, there's 4 of us'. Not that the 4 of us looked threatening in any way but it was worth a try. Thankfully her equally scary friend then came out of a phone box, grabbed her and yanked her away saying 'what are you doing?' and we took this as our opportunity to make a hasty exit (as hasty as you can be in heels mind you) to Zizzis.

Another of life's rich experiences there. I seem to have had a few of them this year - I've been on strike, been made redundant and now I've been in a fight. I wonder what will be next? Travelling to the other side of the world I suppose, bring it on.....

Holiday!

After years of talking about going on a long holiday to New Zealand and months of planning a trip to New Zealand, Australia and a stop somewhere else interesting it seems we are finally ready to book some flights! Went to STA Travel today and had a really good chat with a guy there about our ideas. We've come up with a plan, flying to Singapore for a few days, onto Sydney, up to Caines and down to Brisbane, over to Aukland and around NZ ending in Christchurch and then back via Bali, Hong Kong or possibly somewhere else. Am well excited about it now is actually seems real. Will confirm flights and start sorting Visas and all that tomorrow. Yay!

Weekend

Went to Bassingbourn Church weekend this weekend. We camped in a field owned by a couple who live opposite the church and enjoyed a couple of days of gorgeous sunshine and good fellowship. It was a really good weekend and had a really great family feel to it, we ate together, sang together, learnt together, chatted together, played stupid games together, watched England lose the football on penalties together and were woken at 4am by a Cockerel together.

'Mr and Mrs Dean' (weyhey) came over on Sunday and we had a fun few hours punting on the River. Was good to see them all newly married and brown from their honeymoon. There is something so special about these friends who we have been through Uni with and grown up so much alongside.

Have come down with a stinky cold after having a sore throat over the weekend so was off work today. Is about 31 degrees and very sticky and just feels wrong to be all sniffly and drinking honey and lemon drinks!