100 - The Return of The King

Becks will play his 100th England game tomorrow against France. Who would have thought this would happen a year ago?

And after the FA completely scrapped his name from the pre-order list last year, look what they've done now. This is unprecedented. No player ever got his own page at the shop. Dramatic times seem to ask for dramatic measures! Guess the new shirts just weren't selling with the fans not travelling to Switzerland/Austria this summer ... what better thing to do than getting football's biggest cash cow back from America for a sentimental game...

Not that I'm complaining ... I love him, but this screams marketing crisis control.

Now it would be perfect if Gaz would finally be back (it's been a year last week... scary!) and I could watch it, but I'm relying on a two minute summary... grrr.

Oh and Rio is captain for this game... I approve! He's earned it.

Yeah, I know I haven't said a word about Cornwall yet, but I just don't know where to start. So not today... just one word: L.O.V.E.!

PS Isn't it kinda freaky how much Romeo is starting to look like his Dad? Cute though!

ICE - Could never be as cold as you

Lately I've been surfing the net for infos on Manchester quite regularly and on one of those occasions I suddenly stumbled across a site that had me laughing.

The 'Barlow' Name, which at first sounds not that spectacular... but the site is part of the Barlow DNA Project, which if you think about it, sounds kinda freaky. There used to be a Barlow forum (now deleted) and there still is a mailing list ... to bring back together all the Barlows from all over the world.

Now of course this wouldn't have caught my eye if it wasn't for the "dullest man in showbiz" ... so you might understand my indignation: the great Gary Barlow isn't listed on the Barlow
in the Arts and Entertainment World index!!! He of Take That fame and songwriter extraordinaire... not listed! I'm shocked and appalled!

Here at the factory Mr. Barlow has his own shrine!

You gotta watch these behind the scenes clips...



Having watched the entire thing I have sooo many favourite moments.

but my favouritest is: the ice baths (if footballers do it!)

the "Take That" high five moment - "they all have strengths in different areas" (I think we know what he is talking about!) - GB explaining how TT "invented" the B-stage - visiting (naked) Howard at the hospital - the whole Berlin bit ... how much they loved it ("great crowd!"- yay!), Howard taking notes sitting in front of the stage and then telling Gary off for not doing the arm movements right at the beginning of Sure (which we noticed and loved!) - Mr. Barlow getting a massage and talking about tight shoes - "Take Three" - the David Hasselhoff look - Gary getting his hair cut ... forever - Guest Lists - Baked Beans - Skippy - the celery and cucumber drink - Star Trek - Mr. Barlow working out + having TEA - Jason Orange Solo Artist - weird pre-show rituals - showers

L.O.V.E.

PS I'm off to Cornwall with the girls ... I can't wait!

Mission Completed

Last night the other stalker and me went to see Nick Hornby and that pretty boy we fancy AND well, we had to realize we're NOT the only ones in this "secret" society.

We didn't arrive particularly early ... but early for a reading "event". We would have been late for a concert, but then it was no concert! Little did we know ... we arrived to a large crowd perfectly lined up in a long queue in front of the theatre. Once inside we managed to grab the last 2 free seats in the last row (no joke) ... which was a success as a lot of people didn't even get a seat.

The audience demographic was rather shocking ... it felt a bit like a school reunion party as almost every person was exactly our age! And most of them were girls! Now there was the question: "Is this the usual audience Nick Hornby attracts? Or are all these girls also here for the pretty boy?" It was a conundrum we didn't manage to solve for the rest of the evening!

To cut a long story short: Nick Hornby was ace! To listen to him read from his own book and explain stuff was great! The pretty boy did a good job too... I would even say that he is better at reading live than on those CDs. His obsession with both his scarf and his hair was hypnotizing! He was a bit nervous and his hands went through his hair constantly... which made me wanna touch it even more. It looked perfect and whatever he did, it didn't lose its magic ... but seriously that hair is outta control!

One of the highlights: when the publisher lady talked to Nick Hornby and our pretty boy in English and wanted latter to answer in English too so that Mr. Hornby could understand... it was so funny. He tried, but he really didn't want to and I liked how he "talked back" at her "Can you repeat the question please?" ... cute!

There was supposed to be a party ... but honestly it didn't look that way when we left ... the chairs were all still lined up, so we didn't hang around.

But I got a poster for the event signed by both of the guys. We debated the uncoolness first ... but to be honest, speaking for myself "I'm not particularly cool anyway" and it was a proper signing so "what the hell" (I did regret I didn't bring one of my Hornby books... stupid!). And I didn't get into fangirl mode like most of the people asking to sign my name or to take pictures, I just smiled and said "Thx, have a nice evening"... which is a bit dorky, but hey, that's me!

Having said that ... I adore both of them and specially Nick Hornby for taking a moment for every single person ... looking at them with a smile! I don't think I could do that...

Meanwhile the other stalker had her own little moment with the pretty boy when one girl repeatedly requested pictures to be taken and my partner in crime gave him an understanding smile and he smiled back ... now that made me a just a tiny bit jealous!

As I already said, we left before the whole thing was done ... and before the true stalkers could really embaress themselves ... there was one girl in particular who was nervously clutching her camera and she forced herself upon us asking if we could take a picture with her and the pretty boy when he came off stage ... needless to say we were shocked and appalled ... "NO"!

Concerning the book: Brilliant! Funny! I just can't afford it right now. Having your main character talk to a poster of Tony Hawk has class. Now being a child of MTV-education I knew who he was thx to Jackass and Bam Margera. Mr. Hornby also convinced me in why he didn't pick a footballer ... I mean in the time of the WAGs he is right saying football is too commercial now - thinking about it, so is Tony "I make more money in a second than you will in a lifetime" Hawk, but it's different - I think this book could have worked with a footballer 10 years ago, but I get what deterred him now.
Having said that, Brooklyn Beckham was called Brooklyn, not cos he was conceived there, it was were they found out VB was pregnant ... he was apparently conceived in Denmark. At least that's what the first family of english football claims!

So all in all a great evening ... though it taught us we are just 2 of many!

Do You Know What We Could Get At Primark For That?

I was wondering why the 75 GBP hotel rooms turned out to cost just 100 Euros a few weeks back, but I didn't really think about it... I was just happy and when I did my little budget plan yesterday, it suddenly hit me.

The bloody exchange rate is incredibly fantastic. Yesterday it was at 1.3 ... that's compared to 1.5-1.55 when I lived in England for 6 months.

Which basically means you get 100 GBP for 130 Euros at the moment... while last year you had to hand over 150 Euros ... that's 20 Euros less! AMAZING!!!

Now I'm not gonna dwell on the hundreds of Euros I "lost" last year, coz that's life for ya. No, I'm just gonna be very, very happy that we can "save" a bit of money this year. Cos honestly it's exactly what I was searching for looking at my budget...

So this makes me think, that the whole exchange rate thing is a good omen and I'm therefore quite positive that the airport strike won't affect our trip to Cornwall.

Now all I need is some spare money that I could just invest in GBP ... and then sit and wait till it turns into pure gold!

On a completely different note:
The X Files' dodgy villain Agent Krycek is now a pastor on Men in Trees, who decides to abandon his church for the former town whore.

3 Is Not Enough

Last time I went to England, I basically emptied the P-Place of its fantastic weekend bags. I couldn't resist their charms and in the end I bought these three:


The P-Place seems to have an endless supply of new designs and I guess I know what I will spend my little shopping budget on in 2 weeks time (just 2 weeks girls ... I'm gonna start ticking the days off now).

Absolute favourites...

and honestly, if these were the only ones available, I most probably couldn't say "No" either...

I also like the P-Place's answer to Hollywood's "I'm not a plastic bag"-craze...

So fingers crossed, I'll get my greedy little hands on as many of these lovely thingies as I can. If not, well there is always the Pony to comfort me ...

It's QLC, Bitch!

Pretty much everyone around me has been low in one way or the other for quite a while now. Or at least frustrated with how things are going. Which is what I am.

I've enjoyed not having to worry about an upcoming exam, but it's 2 1/2 weeks now and I've been avoiding to REALLY think about the specifics of my next steps. Of course I'm always thinking about it, but I haven't really sat down to work on it. Instead I've done everything else... apart from reading Perez and other internet gossip sites and watching TV series for hours online, I've cleaned windows, the oven and even defrosted the refrigerator. Currently I'm planning to chuck out my carpet. I think it might be no longer me, I'm tired of having to explain why I got it and our vacuum cleaner is too broke to properly clean it... and that is starting to disgust me. Now I think about cutting the carpet into pieces and take it out part by part (though left whole I might be able to sell it) because I can't move all my furniture out of the room. That could give me another day of avoiding stuff.

The truth is, I don't really know what I want and that is a bit scary. All this reflection is annoying me...

So while doing some little research earlier this week on some new TV show, I stumbled upon something I had heard about a while ago, but sorta forgot and I thought "this is so true": Quarterlife Crisis (QLC) ... I wikipedia'd it and though I can't "tick off" all symptoms, I can say "check" at enough to say I have a mild form of it.

I thought being at this point now, I'd be excited no end ... and I am, but I'm also worried in a way. It's not the same excitement and buzz I felt in my last year of school when I knew I would go off to Berlin and study, which I had been looking forward to for over a year. Yes, I am excited to do something new and I actually can't wait till I can move on, but it's a lot more real this time. It means growing up and taking over the last bit of responsibility for myself... and it won't be easy to find a proper job.

I gotta find out what I want to do now. I changed my interest from journalism to PR during my studies... which was a normal process of finding who I want to be I guess ... maybe that was like 50% of the way I had to go and now I'm facing the next 50% or at least 25%. Or actually ... nothing stops me from turning around 180°. Ahhh...

While I was in England and during the last year I've constantly reflected on where I wanna go and what I wanna do. I have at least half a plan... which is good, I guess. But it seems like the options are endless... it's a freedom that feels kinda suppressing.

I'm so looking forward to finishing my degree this year. It feels like I have already moved on inside... I've kinda developed twisted feelings towards my degree as I have become slightly disenchanted by it over the course of the last few years and at the same time I'm immensely proud of it.

Anyway, I just have to think about where I wanna take it for the last few steps of the way. I am quite optimistic it will all just fall into place somehow, but it is frustrating to go in circles with my thoughts for over a year now. I'm scared to make wrong decisions and then I think that this is stupid and that there are no wrong decisions and it's all just a part of the way everyone has to go. It's hard to describe really... but I think frustrating and confusing pretty much does describe it in the end.

Anyway, it's just a phase and calling it Quarterlife Crisis makes it feel okay and less scary to me.