Saturday 31 May 2014

We Will Rock You - The Musical

So long everybody, it's time to go...

So today we bid a sad farewell to We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre in London.  12 years is not a bad innings for a show that was expected to only last 12 months!



I have been lucky enough to see the show twice, and would have liked to have seen it again.  Yes the story was a bit ridiculous, or so we thought at the time, but it seems to have been a bit prophetic *cough Simon Cowell Louis Walsh *cough.

For anyone who doesn't know the story, it is set 300 years in the future.  Earth has been renamed as Planet Mall, or iPlanet in more recent productions as a nod to the iPhone, and is controlled by the Globalsoft Corporation. Mainstream commercial conformity reigns, Ga Ga Kids watch the same movies, listen to computer-generated music, wear the same clothes and hold the same thoughts and opinions. Musical instruments are forbidden, and rock music is unknown.


Photo courtesy of Last.fm

Galileo and Scaramouche refuse to conform and meet up with The Bohemians, an underground group who believe that a Dreamer will come and bring back real music.


Photo courtesy of BrianMay.com

Cue lots of contrived situations to enable many, many Queen songs to be performed (no-one goes for the story, it has to be said).  

The prophecy says that the Dreamer will come and a shining star will show him the way to the Place of Living Rock, where instruments are hidden.

Cue more Queen songs.

The shining star has been identified as the Freddie Mercury Statue in Montreaux and it is pointing towards Wembley Stadium, the Place of Living Rock.

The group of believers arrive at Wembley to find that it is in ruins with no instruments to be found. Scaramouche inspires Galileo to perform the opening of "We Will Rock You", and an electric guitar is revealed. Galileo cannot play it, but Scaramouche can. Another member 'Pop' hacks into Globalsoft's network so their music can be heard by everyone on Planet Mall and Killer Queen (head of Globalsoft) is defeated. 

After the curtain call, a question appears that says "Do you want "Bohemian Rhapsody"?" Everybody in the audience is supposed to shout yes, and the answer appears as "Oh...alright then" and the entire cast perform "Bohemian Rhapsody" as an encore.

It was great night out, and I wish I could have been there tonight.

This is one time when the show WON'T go on.




Sunday 25 May 2014

Retro Chick's Vintage Inspired Swimsuit Giveaway with Bettylicious

You wouldn't know it to look at me, but I do love vintage clothes I just don't have the courage to try wearing any.  I certainly don't have the skills to be able to do hair and makeup to complement them, and so a swimsuit seems to be the perfect way to dip my toe into the water (see what I did there?).

As luck would have it, Retro Chick is currently running a competition to win a vintage inspired swimsuit from Bettylicious so I thought I would enter.

These are my favourites from the website.

 
Photos courtesy of Bettylicious

One of the rafflecopter options is to write a blog post, so here it is.

You can enter the competition here.

And, if you would like to know more about Bettylicious, click here.

Good luck x




Perfume Sensitivity

I am sensitive to perfume, yes, yet another chapter in my myriad of issues.

The perfume doesn't have to be strong, I don't even have to be able to smell it my nervous system will be reacting like Usain Bolt reacting to a starting pistol.
Like some of the issues caused by my depression, I struggle to get people to understand the problem of perfume sensitivity, they all seem to think that if I am not in the room when they spray, then I can't possibly be affected. Yes, spraying aerosols make me cough, but they don't necessarily cause any further reaction, unless it is Lynx which I think could possibly be used as a paint stripper and seems to affect everyone except the wearer.

I have blacked out because of the pain a perfume caused me, it was only for a second, no more than a couple, but long enough to come back to a sea of concerned faces, one of which was the perfume wearer which didn't help.  After this, despite the staff entrance being out of sight of the office, I knew exactly when the she had arrived thanks to a stabbing pain in my head, this would be followed by a waft of perfume and later still, a cherry hello as the wearer arrived at her desk.  I had started to build up a tolerance by the time she stopped wearing it.

I went on holiday with a friend one year who wanted to buy some aftershave for his son, he knew about my sensitivity so sent me to look at the alcohol at the other end of the shop, he promised me that he wouldn't spray anything.  When he reappeared, not having bought anything, I had stabbing pains immediately, and apparently my eyes sunk back into my head, my under eyes turned black and he was horrified.  He thought that as I hadn't seen him spray the aftershave, and he had then washed his hands I wouldn't know.

What he didn't realise was that he had washed off the carrier, but not the fragrance.

Our office cleaner is a lovely women, but her perfume sends me reeling, worse still, she is an Avon lady and leaves her books in the office so we can place orders.  There are perfume swatches in them that you can rub to release the fragrance, and again, people think that because they are not spraying anything than I cannot be affected.  But rubbing the page sends the perfume into the air and I react.

I have to be careful with shampoo and shower gel, I have used Head & Shoulders for as long as I can remember as it does not affect me, I have lost track of how many other brands I have bought and had to throw away after one use.

It is yet another thing which is not fun, but which has to be dealt with on a daily basis.

Saturday 17 May 2014

Pop Up Dating Agency Needed!

Bit of a silly post today as I am obviously in an upswing.

As regular readers know, I have issues with meeting people and also leaving the house, the two together are not conducive to meeting someone.

However, when I am away from home I am a different person, more happy, more confident, more outgoing.  And this is when I also more open to getting out and meeting someone, which is a bit silly when you are thousands of miles from home.

So I need someone to set up a dating agency that you can join, whenever and wherever you are, to meet people who are local to your home address, after all, who wouldn't want a holiday romance to carry on if it could?

So, there we go, an opportunity for an enterprising soul.




Thursday 15 May 2014

Is there an approved winners list?

I think there is, it certainly seems that way.

I enter a lot of competitions, I don't enter every one I find as I only enter ones that are relevant.  There is no point in trying to win Afternoon Tea for 2 at xxxxx venue in London, as (1) there is only one of me, and (2) by the time I have paid for a return ticket to London I have probably paid out more than the prize is worth.

Similarly, there is no point in me trying to win a Spa Day for 2, or a catered night in for upto 8 friends.  Up until recently I didn't enter any baby competitions, I do now as my boss is pregnant (she does do my annual appraisals after all).

I know there are people who enter every single competition they find, and that possibly goes some way to explain why they are more successful but I don't see the point.

I see the same names come up over and over again, and it does feel as though you have to be a member of a club, or as the title of this page suggests, if your name is not on the list, tough!  


There was a period of a fair few months, when if there was a twitter retweet competition to win a dress I would know EXACTLY who was going to win, and 9 times of 10 they would.  I currently follow someone on twitter, because if I know that they have entered a competition, then there is no point anyone else entering.

I see regular posts by fellow bloggers detailing their wins that month and as much as I try to stay positive I can't.

A month ago I booked a holiday, I wasn't going to go away this year as I have just saved up and bought a car but I gave in to a really good offer.  The accommodation, flight, transfers and insurance is paid for, but I could do with a few new bits to take and some spending money, and I was determined that I was going to win at least something towards that, I know keeping positive is key.

To date, I have won absolutely nothing and my positivity is waning.

I need a boost.

Friday 9 May 2014

Why I didn't go out tonight

I was supposed to be going out for a meal tonight, I didn't go.  I just couldn't face it.

It was a joint leaving do for a few people at work, there are supposed to be 20plus people going so I won't be missed.

Some people feel confident when they look good, new dress, new hair, perfect make up. But that is not me, as long as I am showered, hair washed and brushed (I don't bother drying it, it will dry eventually) and I am wearing clean clothes I am good to go.  I feel confident when I am happy and for the last two years I have been happy at work, I felt that I could do anything I wanted to.

But that has changed.

We have had an office move, and the team is now split.

I don't like it.

And because I don't like it, I am not happy.



And because I am not happy, I have lost all my confidence.

And because I have lost my confidence, I don't want to leave the house.

I don't seem to be able to make work colleagues understand the difficulties I face, any more than I can understand what it was like being pregnant at 16 as a colleague was.

So I am now sat on the settee wondering about the grief I will get back in the office for not going tonight.

Friday 2 May 2014

Too depressed to work but not to party.

So 'White Dee' from that wonderful television programme 'Benefits Street' is in Magaluf to host a party for fans of the show. To be a fan of the show I am guessing that you have to be claiming benefits, no right-minded working person could ever call themselves fans.

Apparently she is not being paid for this shindig, but hopefully, as she is out of the country and therefore unable to work, I assume that her benefits are being cancelled and that she will have to reapply on her return to the UK.  (I know this is what happens as I was made redundant and had my benefits stopped for the week I spent in Spain, even though it had been booked 4 months before I had any inkling that I was being made redundant).

Apparently she cannot work because she is too depressed, obviously doesn't stop her going out and enjoying herself.

And she is not the only one.

I know someone who has not worked in all the years I have known them, apparently due to depression.  However that depression has not stopped them going out drinking, partying and meeting up with friends to go shopping to spend their hard earned benefits.  Although too depressed to work, they were able to meet someone and get pregnant.  They are not too depressed to go on holiday (I still don't understand why you need a holiday when you don't work).

My depression affects me in the opposite way.  I have always been able to get myself to work, apart from two periods of redundancy for which I received the absolute minimum in benefits (JSA and council tax paid), and the brief period which actually prompted me to seek help, but once I get home from work I struggle, and I mean really struggle, to leave the house.


I have lost count of the times I have gone to bed hungry, because although I could afford to buy food, buying food would mean having to leave the house.

Even now, after having my meds doubled, the only place I ever want to be is in bed, with the covers over my head. 

I can count my non-work-related nights out over the last 5 years or so on one hand.  

On an 'up' day, I have booked tickets for concerts, I have booked nights in hotels, all of which I have not turned up to as I just couldn't leave the house when the time came.

I think it says a lot about how you were brought up.  I was brought up to just deal with things and get on with it.

There are some days when I wish that I hadn't.