ceriselle.org

1. Chain links, Clifton suspension bridge, 2. Sugar Plums, 3. Cupcat, 4. hot pink cupcake with black bow, 5. 2am donuts, 6. IMG_2518, 7. zodiac mosaic - virgo, 8. Basket o Shoes, 9. .959.

Everythings just super at the moment, I am feeling all content and good and stuff!

• Weddings! So we had Dad’s wedding in July (which I meant to write about and put lots of photos up here, but I forgot. It was just a crazy day, lots of drinking and motorbikes. And Dad’s beard was cut off and lots of money was raised for our friends baby who is all poorly) and then theres a wedding in October that I’m looking forward to quite a bit (can’t believe its so soon! I’ve not even bought a dress yet!) Then last night, I found out that my friends who were supposed to be getting married in a few years have brought the date forward to February! So soon! I spent an hour and a half chatting on the phone last night to the bride, discussing whats going to happen (because I’m special) and lets just say, its going to be AWESOME.
• Accounting Geek Reunion 2: Return of the Geek 08. Last year, Adam, Deanne, Louise and I all gathered in the ‘Creech and had a reunion which involved mooses milk, Wii and cider. I’m planning another reunion next year, and its gonna be bigger, better and more mooses milk fueled.
• New Jobs. I started a new job last Tuesday, out in Stoke Gifford (or as I like to call it, the Giff) and it is infinitly better than the data entry stuff I was doing in the centre of Bristol. I’m working in the IT department, basically sending people things they want and telling them if they can’t have it. I’m really enjoying it (I know, its only been 2 weeks, but you can still tell can’t you?). The only downsides to the job are that (a) its out in the Giff. Which was the commute I wasn’t happy to do last time. Things are a bit easier now I live closer to the train station though and (b) I can wear what I like to work, which might not seem like a bad thing, but I am crap at choosing outfits. Ah well, I’ll just have to go shopping!
• Cabot Circus! Its getting closer, closer and closer! I am stupidly excited about the opening of lots of shops, etc. I have heard rumours that its not going to be ready on time - GWR (the local radio station) keeps saying about when it will open and apparently on the site, everyone just laughs because they think they are a month behind schedule. Noooooooo!  Don’t do this to me!
• Photography. I seem to be going forward with the whole photos thingy, and its very exciting! I would love to know more stuff though, and would go on a course if it could show you how to take interesting photos, not just technically good photos. Am I just babbling now?

Anyway, time to go get a train and read the Metro. Theres another good thing about commuting!

Whilst at lunch one day last week with a friend, I pulled out my battered purple leather wallet to pay. As I dug through the various loyalty cards that actually give my wallet some structure, out fell my university ID card.

Oh no! It has my full name on it! Ah well.

She asked why I still carried the card around everywhere with me, 6 years after first starting, and 2 years after actually leaving Aber and therefore having no real use for it since. I gave the usual answer - that it was the only picture I had on an any form of ID card that I actually liked. For the same reason, I would happily shred my NUS card each year as soon as it was out of date, because the photos were normally taken when I wasn’t looking my best (e.g. when I was in the middle of being full of chicken pox spots in second year. Had to live with a picture of a bloated lumpy face all year. Hated it!)

Thinking about it a little more though, I keep it with me to remind me how much I have changed in those six years since the picture was taken.

The picture was taken in the photo booth at Boots in Chester. I probably had been working at the Twirl on a spilt, and had cycled into town as fast as I could to pick up something from Boots. I’m hot, slighty sweaty (nice) and possibly listening to the posing instructions a little too much with a smug little smile. It was around the time I would have gotten my A-Level results, and I had so much ahead of me.

Its strange to think of all that has changed in the time since that picture was taken, but although there were (obviously!) parts I wish had changed (or never happened), I realise I am a much better person than I was when that picture was taken because of those events. I hadn’t even lived away from home at the time. I was crazy about this guy who had once been mine, even just for a few weeks (I know, I know. Thankfully I have grown out of this sort of behaviour, but only recently!) I’m much more confident (I actually can go for meetings that I have set up to do something I actually enjoy. And I can even go on my own! I don’t need a friend to hold my hand (physically at least))

I miss that younger Hayley, and the life she led, but I’m loving where I am at the moment, and I can’t wait for the next steps ahead.

(A similar post was made two years ago in my LJ, but its not exactly the same)

One of the things I buy too much of are magazines. It seems that all at once, every magazine has things I want to read, and I end up buying a few in a week to devour. It of course doesn’t help that quite a few of my prefered magazines are now weekly publications.

I’ve recently been trying to cut down on the amount of magazines I buy, because in one month, I spent about £30 on magazines (damned imported magazines, and also design magazines)

One magazine that gets me every time though is NYLON. I really like NYLON, its a interesting magazine that we just don’t have anything similar over here. (Seems a bit odd actually, because I’m pretty sure theres a NYLON Japan, yet no British version) The fact that it costs £4 per issue actually helps quite a bit in my cutting down, but theres still a rather large pile of magazines in the basket next to the sofa.

So, any ideas on what I can do with the magazines? And what do you prefer to read?

Spotted on a traffic light near Temple Meads. It made me smile anyway.

I’ve had quite a few people asking me the same sorts of questions lately, mostly about how I have this blog set up (and also about what happened to my feet. They were cut up quite badly from wearing a pair of Birkenstocks. I thought they were meant to be comfortable?)

Anyway, when I write and publish a post, three things happen. One, I have a nice cup of tea. Two, a tweet is sent to my Twitter to let people know that a post has been made. And finally, the whole post is sent over to my LJ.

I use a WP plugin called Twitpress to make those tweets that tell you when a post has been made (and I believe that it can be done for certain posts only)

To send the posts over to LJ, I use the plugin LJXP which can send the post to LJ in whatever form you want - a condensed version so people read the rest of it on your site, or the full version. It can be friends locked on your LJ, and comments can be directed to the post on your website or made on LJ.

And, although I don’t use it on this blog specifically, I also use LoudTwitter to publish a days worth of tweets to my LJ (which was looking a little dusty from the lack of use before) which seems to be working fine now after a few weeks of sporiadic postings.

Hope that helps someone at least! Now its time for the tea!

Last Thursday, I was lucky enough to get tickets to see the Black Kids at one of my favourite venues ever, the Thekla. The history of the Thekla is actually quite interesting - originally built to transport lumber, she was found abandoned in Sunderland, and was sailed round to Bristol in 6 days and 6 nights in August 1983. Go read Wikipedia if you want to know more, this isn’t a school lesson! Anyway, I love the Thekla, because its such a random venue, where you go down into the hull to watch the bands.

I was going to go with my friend Rachel, but she was so ill that week, so I faced going alone. I know I ought to get used to going to gigs on my own, but it still feels very odd, so I asked my friend Ruffle to come with me. He had never heard of the Black Kids, but still came along with me because it has worked in the past where I have persuaded him to come with me to see Regina Spektor in Feb 2007.

The support band was called The Magistrates, and they were… OK. I guess. I mean, I wouldn’t go to a gig specifically to see them but I wouldn’t be too offended if they were supporting. Which they were. I honestly don’t have that much I can say about this band. Um. The lead singer was wearing a t-shirt dress I’m 90% sure I’ve seen before in Topshop. Thats about it.

Anyway. The actual gig. The band came on and ran through their album as if it was on shuffle. I do love the album, and was trying to dance as much as I could (you try dancing surrounded by big sweaty blokes. Ew.) but even so, it would have been nice to hear a new song, or even a random cover version (and not that version of “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover” because I’m not a fan). There was little in the way of banter, which, yeah, I don’t know. Its good, because it means they can get through the set list more, so they can play more songs, but its a bit crap because firstly it feels like they’re just coming on to do their thing then go and secondly because I like a bit of banter. It breaks up the night a bit. I guess theres quite a bit of pressure on the band to be funny, but lets face it, they only need to have a standard set of lines to use at each gig because most people are only going to see it once.

Before the gig, Ruffle and I went up to the wood panelled bar upstairs, because I needed to drink a lot (I had a really bad sore throat, was headachey and could hardly breathe, so I had munched on ibuprofen all day, and drank about 5 pints of diet Coke at the gig - I was just so determined to go to this gig!) and were sat near the little staged area. This group of people wandered in, slightly hipsterish but that was the general look of the others that were there. There was one girl however, with frizzy blonde hair, and giant Deirdre Barlow style glasses (yeah, you know the ones I mean). She wore a grubby white t-shirt with no bra and a tartan high waisted skirt. I laughed to Ruffle about her, and probably told him she was his. (You don’t know how to play “Yours”? Poor you)
So that was one of the band. Yes, we were sitting right by the band, and instead of being all starry, I made fun of someone. I was ill, what can I say?

Anyway, I really enjoyed the gig, as did Ruffle, and would definatly go again, but I would hope that there was a little more than just running through their only songs!

As some of you may know, I am VERY bloody well excited for the opening of Cabot Circus, an enormous shopping centre that is due to open in Bristol city centre next month. I mean, I was already pretty bloody well excited. But seeing these photos made me about 10 million times more excited

To link the new store to Bristol, Harvey Nichols has chosen to use Wallace and Gromit as their latest models. They could have used people from Casualty, or even the kids from Skins (isn’t that just so over done, dressing them up in lovely clothes?) but it just feels much more Bristolian to use Wallace, Gromit and Lady Tottington (I quite like her bag)

I’m hoping to see these pics around the city, I’m sure they’ll make me smile everytime I see them!

(pics taken from here and I wouldn’t normally link to the Daily Mail (shudder) but the video on this page is just far far too cute!)

Wow, its been a while since I’ve done one of these!

1. colourful happiness, 2. pretty maids, 3. Mini cup cake collection 2, 4. pink/red thursday (4), 5. a quote, 6. flickr HANAMI

• Black Kids! I’m going to see them tonight at the Thekla, and I can’t wait! I just wish I could take my decent camera with the super awesome lens. Ah well, it just gives me a chance to try out the new camera.
  
• Birthday Shenanigans. Hang on, that needs some exclamation points. And caps. BIRTHDAY SHENANIGANS!!!!! I’ll be 25 on the 12th Sept, and have sorted out a weekend of funness. Friday we’ll be out in Bristol centre, working our way down Park Street, and ending up in a drunken stupor at Ramshackle. Saturday day, we’ll probably go to the zoooooo and or go shopping. Saturday night, I’m hoping for a super old school houseparty, with giant bottles of wine, random stealing missions (cups down the pants!) and crazy dancing. Unfortunately there are no horses up on the Wells Road, so we can’t feed horsies vodka and coke.
  
• Helen is coming to Bristol for my birthday! (and thus should be a point on her own because she’ll beat me up) as are Rachel and Gemma (although I’m not sure how definite they are at the moment!)
• “We Used To Be Friends” - It seems odd to link this into the above point, but its one of mine and Helens favourite songs. Not least because of the amazing dance we have to it, or that its the theme tune to our favourite TV show, Veronica Mars.
  
  A long time ago, we used to be friends // But I haven’t thought of you lately at all.
• Macs! Not just the computers, but in this super summery weather (i.e. torrential rain) I’m very thankful I have my new coat from Topshop that keeps me snuggly dry and is pretty damn cute as well. It makes me feel dressed up even when I just chuck it on over my PJ’s to run down to Tesco for milk.
• Hot Chocolate. Oooh. Definitely something thats kept me going through this weather. There is a drinks machine in work thats (thankfully) free. Number 55, Chocomilk, om nom nom nom.
• Weddings. I got an invite for two very lovely peoples wedding which is in a few months, and I can’t wait because it will be super awesomeness. I’m already looking at dresses, in a sort of 50’s style. The diet starts after the birthday. But looking for dresses can happen all the time!
• Chris Moyles. The highlight of my morning! I’m listening to him at the moment, and I just can’t help but laugh! I’ve been listening to him since he was on the afternoon show back in 2000 (bloody hell, when I was in Lower Sixth!) and now since I can leave my flat 10 mins before I start work, I can listen to most of the show. Gotta love the parodies!

Thanks to our ridiculous amount of channels (yay for Virgin), I have found some of my favourite old shows on Challenge including the Crystal Maze.

It used to be one of the shows that my sister, mum and I would sit down to watch at dinner time (Dad would often be working away) . We loved Richard O’Brien and Mumsy, and hated it when Ed Tudor-Pole took over.

Anyway. The point of the post was to share this clip from the Adam and Joe Show (one of those shows that my sister and I would watch, late at night when Mum and Dad would go out. Another show we loved was Eurotrash which Mum would watch with us occasionally. Yes, I realise how odd that seems, especially when we were about 11 or 12 at the time!)
The clip below is a parody of the Crystal Mase, but with Star Wars figures. And it makes me want to go watch my A&J DVD now

For those of you who haven’t yet used Twitter, or don’t know what it is, I guess the best way to describe it to most people is a combination of blogging and updating your status on Facebook (in fact, you can do that via Twitter anyway). There are so many ways to “tweet”, such as using the website iself, sending a text message (who the hell says SMS anyway?) or using a third party application (I use a combination of Hahlo, Twhirl and Twinkle on my computers and iPod). A tweet is text based only (although it can contain links) and is 140 characters long (so just a bit shorter than a text message)

I’ve been using Twitter since 2007 - 24th January to be exact. At first, I didn’t really use it very much, but as I began to follow more people, and as more of my “real life” friends signed up, I tweet much more regularly. I think that being jobless and moving to a new city also helped - I reached 1000 tweets on 9th May, 2008 which was just before I moved down to Bristol, and reached 2000th tweets on 5th August 2008.

Twitter is a great way to just scribble things down, random little notes throughout the day that when you read over them (I use LoudTwitter to post a days worth of tweets to my Livejournal) remind you of funny little things. Its also quite a nice way to get an idea of what your friends are doing in their normal day. People are more likely to tweet seemingly small, insignificant things than actually phone you or send you a text/IM telling you the same thing.

Its also a great way to promote something - I find that quite a lot of visits to my blog are from the automated tweet that is sent out telling people when I have written a new blog. Unfortuntaly the spammers have quickly caught on to this, which is why I have been followed in the past week by porn_website20, porn_website21 and porn_website22. I’m not sure why the previous 19 porn_website twitters didn’t follow me. Should I really be that upset? Luckily, Twitter seems to be quite quick at deleting these spam accounts, but its not much of a problem anyway.

The things I think could be improved about Twitter is mainly to do with their stability and missing features. Inevitably, as more and more people are signing up and using it as much as I do, the system had some issues which was frustrating to Twitter addicts (ahem). To keep the site up, they have removed some functionality that I had gotten quite used to, such as the IM notifications which I preferred when I was at my desk.
I think it would be great if Twitter had a similar function for your following list as Livejournal does. By this I mean having custom groups to separate people - I have things like Cult of Mac (twitter/cultofmac), Dr Horrible (twitter/drhorrible) and Channel 4 News (twitter/channel4news) on my Twitter list, but I would prefer to be able to read these separately.

Anyway, here are some of my favourite Twitters (Tweeters?) [and yes, its taken from my Twitter friends bit on the sidebar! Much easier!]