The Carly Quarter-life Saga Continues

WIKIPEDIA defines 'Quarterlife Crisis' as:

The quarter-life crisis is a term, coined in 2001 by Abby Wilner and Alexandra Robbins, authors of Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties, and is applied to the period of life immediately following the major changes of adolescence, usually ranging from the ages of 21 - 29. The term is named by analogy with mid-life crisis.

Among the symptoms:

• Confusion of identity
• insecurity regarding the near future
• insecurity regarding present accomplishments
• re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
• disappointment with one's job
• nostalgia for college life
• tendency to hold stronger opinions
• boredom with social interactions
• financially-rooted stress
• loneliness

Dunno folks, at risk of turning this into a thought-provoking, what-is-my-purpose-in-life-drivel, I do believe I'm going through an English version of Carly's Quarter-life crisis, (having gone through a NZ version just before I left Kiwiland), and more than one of those symptoms applies to me!

Doh!

THIS sums things up nicely too!

Caffeine! The cure for everything

I found it rather amusing that my Lemsip Max Sinus Capsules (maximum strength formula) has caffeine, apparently for the relief of lethargy and sluggishness.

Maybe I should have bought a big bottle of Coke or some Nescafe instead.

I just think thats a bit dumb.

They had better work!

its all catching up.....

Im sick : ( my sinuses feel like they are going to explode.

Not happy! Its the price you pay.... probably spending 2 hours cold and wet coming home from Reading on Sunday- although this is just an old housewive's tale?

Bad england

Ive just read through my last post and notice I have used the word 'largely' three times.

Im fed up of concerts!!

The Vines with support from The View- The Forum, Kentish Town

I was half excited, half scared, about seeing The Vines, as I've had mixed opinions of their gigs from otheres. Largely to do with how many drugs/how much alcohol/or the general mental state of lead singer, Craig Nichols who is diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome (their website has a really interesting rundown of the whole sorry saga, actually).

Fortunately for me, it was all good and The Vines put on a great performance. They opened with some song off their new album, which I don't have, then erupted into Highly Evolved. From there on it was a good mix of old and new, and I'm happy to note that it was largely material off Highly Evolved, and the Winning Days- both of which are absolutely brilliant albums.
The gig, had clearly not sold out, which was kinda good, as it took me a whole 20 seconds to reach the front to get into the thick of it for Get Free and a mere 20 seconds to get out. Which was good as there no sweaty Carly at the end of the night, and I had just the right fix of moshing, if you could call it that.

And did I mention Craig Nicholls hair was a bit mad?

The crowd was comprised largely of...... surprise, surprise- Australians! Celeste apparently overheard someone ordering a snakebite at the bar which is quite hillarious. Lots of accents in the loos too!

Ah well it was awesome. IM JUST SO TIRED! The encore was very good actually, they played Ms Jackson, Get Free, and finished off with F*@ the World. Then Craig Nicholls proceeded to lay into the drumkit smashing the big white bit in the middle to pieces. Nice one mate!

I got home tired, but stayed up for lost........... which just had the most bizzare ending- that god damn programme is so unpredictable!

Oh to be a Boro supporter

What kind of team beats Chelsea 2-1 and then looses to Portsmouth 4-0?!

Middlesbrough, of course.

Not a repeat of last season, I hope!

Such a good weekend

A rundown of Sunday

It was a bit of a later start on Sunday so that was kinda handy for a sleep in although I didn't/can't sleep in due to my stupid lumpy mattress.

Anyway the train ride up to Reading turned out to be a bit of a random dog-fest with one woman on the train having a little toy dog in her hangbag...... (come on I thought this only happened in America) actually she got off at Slough which is a bit of a dump really- ha! And some really dodgy looking guy bought his Rottwieler on the train. I was just expecting the Rotty to see the toy dog and go mental, but it didn't, thankfully. But really WHO BRINGS THEIR DOGS ON THE TRAIN????!!! Idiots, me thinks.

Anyway more rum was sneaked in and promptly consumed and good times were had. I managed to get about three rows from the front to Pearl Jam which was amazing, but my pics came out all fuzzy coz I got water on my camera which was a bit poos, but never mind. My muscles are so wasted today- I think Im getting too old to mosh!

Bands I saw:

Goldie Looking Chain- They dedicated their hit 'Guns don't kill people, rappers do' to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and played their hits, Your missus is a nutter and Your mums got a penis.... classic!

Broken Social Scene- seemed good enough, there were about 13 of them on stage at one point, a bit a-la Arcade Fire

Boy Kill Boy- Gets a bit drunky hazy here

The Kooks- Likewise but they were really good and so cute in their little bucket hats....ah bless em. I actually sacrificed seeing Placebo (saw them at the Auckland Town hall a few years back and they were awesome so thought Id see something new....) for these guys and don't regret it at all!! I had just drank too much and desperately needed to go to the toilet at the end!

Placebo- Saw 'See you at the bitter end' as I madly dashed from the toilet, and then by some miracle managed to find Celeste and Tim and Finn who I was with in the crowd (good instructions Timmy).

Pearl Jam- Got a bit caned in the mosh and now my muscles hurt all over! Soaked through to the bone too. Big ups to the guy that pulled me up again when I fell over- I don't think I would have gotten up otherwise! Even Flow was probably the best song of the weekend

Interesting Tee-Shirts:

Stop Forest Stop

Will dance for food

Dip me in chocolate and feed me to the lesbians


Other incidents:
I accidentally stood on some guys head, who was passed out- that was kinda funny.

The girl I was standing behind the Kooks said she would put my bag in front of the barrier for me as long as I kept my hands off her..... WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT??? YOU ARE AT A GIG HOW CAN YOU EXPECT PEOPLE NOT TO TOUCH YOU WOMAN?? What a dick, and then when I left the Kooks just before the end I asked her for my bag and she said 'no'. So i put my hand on her shoulder and she gave in and grumbled about it. Idiot- she was a bit young and ......NAIVE!!! hahaha what a good joke (and for those that are in 'the know' will realise the Kooks sing a song called naive).

I was talking to some American guys on the way back to the train station and they ran away from me..... maybe it was the semi-drunk slur or the fact that I was absolutely soaking wet..........hehehehe


Anyway, in conclusion is was an absolutely brilliant weekend yay for music!


SORRY FOR SOME REASON I CAN'T PUT ANY PICS AT THE MOMENT

Festival Heaven

A run down of Saturday

How easy was it to sneak alcohol into the Reading Festival?! I had a 500ml bottle filled with rum (350mls) and juice (you do the maths- not much of it) which I had wedged down my gumboot, and then stuffed socks down too, and they didn't even open up my bag, just felt it.... so so so easy. Ill be repeating this feat today too!

English music festivals rock- gumboot and funny tee-shirt heaven! Reading is the only place you can get away with wearing a skirt and gumboots! (If it wasn't for the fact that mine were rubbing on my shins, I would have attempted that one too today!), and just the whole atmophere and the cool people and it was just all good- sorry not to mention the great music HELLO CARLY THATS WHAT YOU ARE THERE FOR!!!





















Bands I saw:
Wolfmother (think Kings of Leon with massive afros and tashes and more thrashy music with Aussie accents)

Futureheads (All good)

Dirty Pretty things (Very good set you will be pleased to hear, Mel!!)

Feeder (don't own any albums, but was surprised at how many songs I knew! That was really good)

The Spinto Band (for a whole two minutes, which was mainly spent chatting to Sally from my 5 a side team who I randomly met!)

The Streets (Awesome, not really a fan or anything but definitely a hightlight of the day)

Artic Monkeys (too drunk and too stuck in the crowd to really enjoy it sadly.....)

The Fratellis (Nice dancy music!)

Muse ( I kinda wanted to see the Raconteurs, but you just can't beat Muse live sadly....)

Im trying to think of my favourite song for the day... can't really remember, but Plug in Baby by Muse is always a goodie!


Best tee shirt of the day: I came on Eileen (in reference to the Dexy's Midnight Runners song, Come on Eileen)

Worst tee shirt of the day: My dick hurts, kiss it better (the guy wearing it was really ugly too)

Best comic act of the day: Mike Skinner from The Streets taking the piss out of the Artic Monkeys, The Kooks and Razorlight

Worst sight ever: The naked man on the shoulders of someone at The Streets

Worst sight ever #2: Carly at the end of the day with nice smudgy mascara, a nice scabby chin where I tried to squeeze a pimple the night before, and generally looking and feeling a bit worse for wear....

Bring on Sunday!!!

More music rants!

I find this hillarious..... The lead singer from Keane, Tom Chaplin has gone into rehab..... Pete Dougherty could be his room-mate.... or they could form a super band. I just find it very funny.

Also is it me or is the New Scissor Sistors song really really catchy!?

Im in musical heaven.....

Franz Ferdinand with support from Tapes 'n' Tapes at the Forum, Kentish Town

Best bloody gig I have been to in London last night ..... and possibly up there with Coldplay, Stereophonics and Supergrass in Auckland.
I last saw Franz Ferdinand in October or something last year and on a much more grande scale at Alexander Palace. This time around a much more smaller, intimate venue made for a much more upbeat raw and less correographed performance which was breathtaking (besides the fact that I was jumping up and down all over the place and it was like a million degrees inside!).



This is a cool pic aye!? And for someone who loves to be in the thick of it and preferably right at the front it was nice to get a really good view of the stage from upstairs and didn't matter at all. I was so grateful to score a ticket anyways... considering the small venue it would have sold out so quickly and it was rather annoying to see people clearly not enjoying the gig, and even leaving early before the encore even (the people in front of us did that- hello people!!!)

Anyway they opened with This Boy played all the goodies and ended with I think with This Fire, which is what they closed with at the last gig. Again, the song The Outsiders saw the addition of another two people on the drumkit, just like they did last time... however, a four person was playing another big drum and they added a three-piece brass band into the mix too. A bit of fun and was really cool.

It was just really good stuff!

So whats next in the musical stakes for Carly????

THE READING FESTIVAL BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay its this weekend, and then on Tuesday its The Vines. I hope the lead singer trashes the set or does something really mental. Good stuff and once more, Yay for music!

Poos

You will remember how stoked I was that re-runs of Party of Five were showing on the telly?

Well.....................

Today I get up feeling rather worse for wear (I rather like Tuesday-night drinking!!) and discover to my horror that Party of Five has been replaced by that stupid comedy programme, Less than Perfect! How gutted am I!? Obviously they were only going to show the first season.... such false advertising.

If it wasn't for the fact that ABC1 show heaps of Scrubs I would seriously think of boycotting the channel.

The spider saga continues

Imagine my horror to discover, last night, a dead spider in my pillow case.

Im hoping it was the spider of a week or so ago ...... but it kind of means that it has crawled into my pillow case since that fiasco, because at the time it was in my duvet and not my pillow case. I assume it died too because it was squashed by my head. The fact that it was by my head gives me the creepies, and merely adds to my growing paranoia of spiders in my room!
!

Busy busy

Busy week for Carly, visiting my lovely Grandparents on Tuesday and Wednesday.... and now I've been working this week at Canvey.

Anyway if anyone wants a new band to love you should check out Bell X1. I went and saw them on Wednesday night, and would definitely see them again. Good stuff..... apparently it was the band that Damien Rice used to be in. Good music, good night!

Museums Galore!

Because Im broke (thanks so much for still not paying me Catherine.....grrrgrrrgrrrrrrrrrrrrr) Ive been going to lots of the fantastic museums that London has to offer. Heres Carlys guide to some of em...

Monday....... Destination: Victoria and Albert Museum

I was primarly there to see the free exhibition on 60’ fashion but had a good browse at the random items the museum has to look at (think everything from Dyson vaccum cleaners to paintings by Raphael). The free map was a bit hard to navigate and I spent a good 15 minutes trying to locate the exhibition before asking a security guard the directions. Toilets were a bit crusty and the air-con either didn't exist or was broken because it was roasting. It is, however really easy to get to and was still an enjoyable visit.

3.5/5


Tuesday.......... Destination: Imperial War Museum
I had previously been to the Imperial War Museum but didn't quite manage to do it all so I thought Id make the hike back out there and browse at my leisure. Its quite cool because the first thing you see when you go through the doors are all these cool old tanks and stuff. The kids would love it! Kinda scary that I had to go through a bag check. Of course being a museum about war and the impacts of war it was kinda depressing. The section on the Children’s War was really awesome and was really interactive, brilliant for the horrible youth (and my generation too, for that matter) of today to realise how sweet they have it. There was also a really insightful section on the holocaust and a documentary showing on the top level that looked at genocide and crimes against humanity. Lots of gore and dead people.
Overall its not too difficult to get to, the layout and free map was much more user friendly and all the collections were well-labelled with interpretative signs. Toilets were mint. Air-con was just right.

4/5

Wednesday.......... Destination: National Maritime Museum
I forgot this was here the last time I went to Greenwhich so I was quite excited about heading out there again. Such a great day out! Anyway this was brilliant, with heaps of cool very interactive exhibitions focusing on all aspects of the sea. Explorers, ocean liners, history of sailing, you name it. My highlight was seeing the real original maps of NZ by Captain Cook, along with original botanical drawings from Joseph Banks (at least I think he was the naturalist on board) of Flax, Manuka and the Tui. Brilliant! My only gripe was that the interpretative signs were too far away from the collections so if you wanted to know what sometime was you would have to keep moving from where you were standing. But it was all good otherwise.

4.5/5

As for today, due to my interrupted sleep I might be going back to bed shortly : ) maybe the National Portrait Gallery either today or tomorrow!

Outtake TV

My flatties and I went to the BBC on Tuesday to be part of a TV audience for a show by Anne Robinson (who is really mean and hosts the UK version of the Leakest Link.... think Louise Wallace but 10 million times meaner and makes fun of peoples weight or heigh or ugliness etc. etc.).

Not much to say really but really interesting to see how shows work. We only just got in on standby as they over book shows to ensure the audience seats are full, and we basically had to watch outtakes from Eastenders and The Weakest Link and had to laugh. And then some of Annes lines were re-recorded and we had to laugh again. By the end of the night our mouths were sore and im sure im going to have premature wrinkles now. And nothing in particular was funny.

Here’s some details of the show just for you!.

Scarred for life....

This was the scene at 1.30 am this morning....

I had woken up from a horrible random dream.... (started off innocent enough with myself, very appropriately, working in a doughnut shop) and somehow ending up with Zombies, kind a-la Shaun of the Dead-styles, but scary enough as they were closing in on my Dad and I who were trying to get weapons from a garden shed- except they were all saws!

So I wake up a bit scared, go to the toilet and hop back into my bed..... struggling to get to sleep................. when i feel something crawling on my arm.......... I jump out of bed and turn on the light and theres a massive big black spider crawling on my bed!

Ew ew ew ew ew ew! I tried to remain calm, went and got some loo paper to try and squash it (yes, this is me; the so-called ecologist.... but those in the know, know how much I hate spiders!) but i started to crawl under my duvet and i lost it so I spent the night on the couch, yielding odd looks from my housemates getting up for work in the morning.

So the mission this morning was to completely move my room around so my bed is away from the window (thats how I reckon the little bastard got in). However, just having completed this I have found no signs of the spider- even after shaking all my clothes that were on the floor and on my clothes rack. Im going to be completely paranoid now- I even washed my duvet cover just in case the spider was hiding in there!
















SPOT THE SPIDER!!!!!

It was funny because we had a discussion about nightmares and whether it was caused by eating lots of cheese before you go to bed............ i didn't have cheese but I did have a yogurt right before I go to bed which I don't normally do.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Da game

It's Carlys alcohol free (bar the two pints i had before the football....) weekend, which is why im updating my blog at 9pm on a Saturday night!!!

Well the All Whites (a very young side, with players I really didn't recognise!) drew with Charlton 1-1. Not a bad result really. Not much else to report really. I kinda thought it was funny that the Charlton fans already had a chant for Jimmy Flloyd Hasslebaink, even though hes only just signed for Charlton. The hhhhoooooooooooooooow are ya! Hoooooooooooooooow are ya! In reference to NZ not being a really big footballing nation.

Heres some pics anyway. I was excited about taking pics of Luke Young and Darren Bent (both have played for england last year and are both sexy beeeeeeeeitches!)

















All whites corner!
















Its da man Jimmy!!

More noises from 'the others'

Its really wierd. Its Midday and there are noises....... strange noises like someone is running. Kind of like a dog running. Matts porche isn't there so im sure its his missus......

I think im just a bit bored and my brain is working overtime so im going to propose a few theories..

1) Shes is very clumsy and keeps knocking/walking into things (possibly alcohol related- see previous post), possibly caused by dyspraxia

2) They are looking after a friends dog and its going mental upstairs

3) Shes a compulsive obsessive furniture reorganiser and keeps dropping the couches?

4) Shes got an aerobics oz style dvd and is trying it out

I really don't know........... to be honest. Maybe I should invite her around for a cuppa tea

Old skool TV

Back when I was a moody, broody teenager I regularly watched Party of Five, it was generally my weekly cry and usually after every eposide I would ring my friend Yvette and we would be all sniffley and talk about the episode.

So imagine how happy I was to discover that abc1 are showing Party of Five EVERYDAY WEEKDAY from 9am!! Yay for school holidays, I have watched it constantly..... absolutely brilliant. Apart from the fact that its quite depressing and isn't good for my overall mood for the day. Ah well it was good stuff.

I definitely think Matthew Fox is much hotter in Lost cf his floppy hair and flanellette-style shirt in Party of Five...





















Love that shirty Matty!!! We all did love Scott Wolf too innit!!?



















Much better!


Now all we need is re-runs of Roswell... god that was my favourite show!















SPOT THE ALIENS!

Didn't we all love Michael!! And I cried so much when Alex died! Maybe there'll be re-runs as Tess the evil alien is now Claire in Lost. I SO HOPE SO!!!!

The Others

In hommage to my favourite programme Lost the people upstairs and been dubbed 'the others'. They don't really sneak into our flat and try and kidnap us, or try and inject us with vaccines or any of that wierd shit that goes on lost but its just all odd....

Firstly today I have been up since 8.30am and the noises coming from upstairs.... not like the guy Matt is beating up with wife/girlfriend/whatever, Charlotte, more like they are shifting lots of furniture or something- nothing dodgy sounding or sinister, not hoover sounds or heavy feet (although that does happen occasionally) just lots of noise.

They also go through a lot of alcohol judging from their recycling bin contents. Like a least a bottle of wine a night, and the odd vodka and pimms bottle........... (maybe drugging the girlfriend/wife/whatever?? see other theory below)

Secondly we always see the guy Matt, but never his girlfriend- a classic example would be he would be cooking dinner on the bbq in their bit of garden; something he does quite often, but we never see Charlotte come down whatsoever.

One wierd scenario was that the courier had left some mail for Rich with Matt and Charlotte one day as we were all out. Rich went to collect it, rang the door bell and Charlotte couldn't open the door- it had been locked from the inside??? She was like ah Ill go and find the keys... went away for ages and then couldn't find them. All of the conversation was done through the letter box! I don't think I know anyone who locks their front door from the inside. But then not being able to find the keys to let herself out...... what if there had been a fire or something? Its just all too wierd. So there is one theory now that he is keeping her prisoner (therefore that would just make Matt one of the 'others') and keeping her quiet by siphoning top quality wine (those bottles certainly are not rubbish ones!) every day. Maybe the noises are the chains on her feet. The mind boggles.

Maybe shes an agrophobic..... maybe it is all sinister and he has her prisoner upstairs... its a wierd one. I know she must be semi-normal because there were mates over one night and a lot of drunk singing to Madonna in the early hours of the morning!

Second week

I was trying to find something witty and clever to write about but I either have writer's block or am just out of ammunition.

Hopefully Ill find plenty of material at the All whites vs Charlton game which is this saturday, which im actually quite excited about. Another cool sporting venue to add to my tally.... including

Eden Park
MCG
Lord's
Craven Cottage (fulham)
Riverside Stadium (Middlesbrough)
Millenium Stadium (my personal favourite)
White Hart Lane (Tottenham)
The Valley (Charlton)

If anyone else out there cares, Michael Ballack who plays for Chelsea has cut his hair and looks really hot!

Ha!

What a surprise- I note this morning that Catherine is looking to employ more young naive ecologists because she is such a crap boss that she can't retain staff..... heres my interpretation ( in [brackets]) from the job excerpt from environment jobs .co. uk..........

Enthusiastic [of course you are at first], highly motivated [you are gunna have to be considering you will be expected to work 50 plus weeks and not get paid overtime], ecologists invited to join immediately busy [busy because her staff are dropping like flies and she has never properly replaced on of her senior members of staff and she spends most of her time on the phone] London based environmental consultancy specialising in ecology and working throughout the UK. Recent projects include ecological assessments for a range of developments, mitigation and enhancement works on site including for protected species [lizard catching fun!], ecological monitoring [you will be generally working alone in dodgy places as she likes to skimp on money and not have safe working conditions by having only one member of staff on some sites], management plans, policy research, agri-environment scheme monitoring, and public open/green space.

Skills to include; working practical knowledge of UK habitats and associated conservation issues including management, impact assessment, policy, legislation; identification of British flora; data base management/statistical analysis; IT and communication and administrative skills [Working on crappy old computers in a crappy overcrowded paperwork overflowing hot office with Catherine barking orders at you every five seconds].

Specialist knowledge of other Groups and protected species (in particular herpetofauna and/or bat), and herpetofauna relocation an advantage as would some practical conservation management work. At least a good degree in applied ecology/ environmental/biological sciences preferably with a relevant post graduate qualification. Current UK driving licence essential [Although she might not always pay you for petrol if its easier for you to get to site by train, even if its more convienient for you just so she can save money].

Salary based on qualifications and experience [ha regardless your pay is going to be absolute shite and you will never expect to be paid on time with the correct ammount. Also expect to be paid by cheque so you will have an agonising wait for an extra 5 days when you are absolutely skint]


Im not a bit bitter/scarred for life after working for her am I????