Parthenon Huxley

Hopefully, this post might actually work this time...

As many of you who have me as a friend on the beautifully renamed Facepoke will know, I recently posted a picture of a tiny poster I made for the Rewind Henley festival which Liz and I attended at the weekend, which said "I <3 and="" confused.="" explain="" feel="" generally="" hux.="" i="" p.="" p="" should="" the="" this="" to="" u="" undereducated="">
Parthenon Huxley is the guitarist for the Orchestra, which is what's left of ELO (the Electric Light Orchestra) now that there's no Jeff Lynne or Bev Bevan in the line-up. Apart from having one of the best names in the world, Huxley's key claim to fame (in our household at least) is his excellent album "Homemade Spaceship", on which he sings (and has arranged) several covers of ELO hits, my favourite of which is probably "Don't Bring Me Down." (Not, as Ella claims "The day my toaster killed your grandmother with a cat".)

Unfortunately, P. Hux's work is virtually unknown in the UK. This means that it is nigh on impossible to find anything by him online, but here is what I could find in the YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glsawak-ceA -  (10538 Overture, another excellent cover.)

[SIDEBAR:] Yes, I am aware that P. Hux can be read, deliberately or not, as "phux", but I am not that immature (usually) and I ask that you aren't either (except when I am). Yes, Dad, I know you think it's hilarious and that's why it's like it on iTunes...

Anyway, this man is amazing. If you ever want to see me fangirl with the best of them, take me to see the Orchestra with P. Hux in concert; I will be the only one there excited about this guy, but it's so worth it :)

Soooooo...

No need to look surprised, Roy -
I've been talking about it for years!

... I haven't written for a while. I've been meaning to and wanting to, but I've just not had the time. Anyway today I am pondering dying my hair, once again. Anyone who's known me for any length of time will know that it is currently one of my five life dreams to dye my hair bright pink. At the moment, I am looking at which is the best place to buy the colour from.

This particular ponderance has been brought on by seeing my old friend Sally for the first time in ages at the weekend (Happy Birthday, Sal!) Sally now has blue streaks at the front of her hair and they are super-awesome, they really suit her. When I asked her about it, she told me it was part of her new "Art College persona", which is fair enough. My plan since my parents said "not in our sink, sunshine!" is to change my hair once I get to Uni.

But Sally isn't the only reason for this particular strive to change my hair. My last A Level exam is on Wednesday, so naturally I am looking to the future. Hopefully from September onward I'll be talking to y'all from a small room in Nottingham, rather than an even smaller room in Hertfordshire! That's got me thinking really, what sort of person do I want to be at Uni? I want to be the same as I am at the moment, except for the enormous pile of onlookers who only remember how awkward I was for the first three years of my secondary school career. But I also want to be interesting to talk to; intellectual. Not that I want every conversation to turn into some massive political or ethical debate, I'd just like to be able to discuss things a little more interesting than the weather and who's going to leave the Apprentice this week.

Maybe that's why I like Radio 4 all of a sudden...

Anyway, I've spoken to a lot of you about this I know, but I'd like to hear other people's opinions too. At the moment, I'm agreeing with Leila on the shade of pink (there are thousands). I don't want pastel or baby pink, as I think my face will look round and the overall effect would be babyish. Plus, it's not the look I was going for. At the same time, I'm not planning to go for something too bright; I was at one point, but I think it's become too overused by trashy girls and people who just make it look tacky (this is in no way meant to offend anyone with pink hair - I love you - but there are people who have "dirtied the name" of pink-hairedness.) So my plan at the moment is to aim for a sort-of-magenta shade and pray that it turns out OK. Of course, my icon in this whole shenanigan is Roy Wood, King of the Pink Hair Brigade* (having famously gone prematurely pink) and his hair is that sort of colour, primarily because I guess he doesn't bleach it beforehand.

Thoughts?


*The Pink Hair Brigade is in no way affiliated with or similar to the Tolmers Pink Triangle, or any other Pink Triangle for that matter.

Thanks

Lots of things have happened to me recently, and nearly all of them have made me realise how extremely lucky I am to have my friends and family. I am always so surprised by how little I appreciate them in everyday life when times like this roll around and I have sudden revelations about how important they are to me.

So far this week my friends have made me cry at least three times with their kindness (make that four) and thoughtfulness towards me and members of my family have made me cry at least twice. Yes, I know what you're thinking; it must be really easy to make me cry and, well, you'd be right. Anyways, this isn't a post about how often I cry, it's a post to say thanks to everyone for all the things they do.

It shouldn't take times like this, or last Easter, to remind me of how great my friends and family are. I know I should appreciate them more and tell them so, but I only ever seem to realise this when times like this come around. So basically guys, this is just me telling you how much I appreciate everything you do for me, especially the little things because they do make the most difference really.

Take last Easter for example (I can't believe it's really been a year), the fact that my school friends phoned me to make sure I was OK rather than just trying to communicate with me via texts meant the World to me at the time - it still does - because they knew it was important to me  (Maria even offered to take me clubbing!) and they love me enough to just phone me and listen while I tried not to cry.

So anyway, this wasn't a whinge about my life. Thank you so much everyone, I've never done anything to deserve you guys and I know I sound like a terrible poem, but I needed to thank you somehow.
So here is a picture:

Soul Band

My favourite people in the entire world (minus one). Except that several of this year's members (Chris, Harry, Harry, Hugo, Asa, Irene) are missing, so pretend they're there too :)

Another fantastic night last night guys, especially the choreography of the trumpets! I am going to miss you so much next year, but I'm sure you'll be glad to see the back of me (especially Jack, who has to put up with my playing at the closest range!!!)