the Personal is Political

07:40 pm - late

2007: http://amymay.livejournal.com/2006/12/29/
2008: http://amymay.livejournal.com/101249.html

1) Was 2008 a good year for you?
I can, without a doubt, say that 2008 has been the worst year of my life.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
According to this questionnaire last year I wanted to take things more slowly: eating, talking, thinking.
For (Jan / Feb) 2009 I will be much more specific and say that I want to pass my shorthand exam, stay in my job and finish Infinite Jet

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Shiraz begot Matilda.

3. Did anyone close to you die?
No

5. What countries did you visit?
Spain, Orkney

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Sanity

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
So many:
12 April: In Manchester with Karen when C phoned me to tell me he was not re-signing the lease and I sat down on the pavement at Piccadilly Gardens, my world falling away
1 May: night that Boris got in and C moved out
13 May: day before my birthday when I was told I was losing my job.
27 June: the night I got arrested
18 July: the night I got attacked

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting my new job

9. What was your biggest failure?
Losing my old job, boyfriend and flat

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
My face is never going to be quite the same after that punch

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Jelly Pong Pong

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Tom and Peggy, for supporting me in the summer – and all year – and letting me stay with them when I was homeless.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
People who I realized weren’t really my friends

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, train tickets up and down the country, fags and alcohol

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The promise of a new dawn

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
Hercules and Love Affair – Blind
MIA – Paper Planes
Laura Marling - New Romantic
MGMT - Time to Pretend
George Pringle - Carte Postale
NeonNeon - I Lust U
Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
Simon Bookish – Flood
Bon Iver – Skinny Love
Max Tundra – MT Vs Tunng


17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. Happier or sadder?
Sadder

ii. Thinner or fatter?
Thinner, but no longer ‘underweight’ as I was in the summer

iii. richer or poorer?
Same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Moving on

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Sadness

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Spent last Christmas in Canada, this in Orkney

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Remained

22. How many one-night stands?
Two

23. What was your favourite TV program?
Summer Heights High

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
The man who attacked me

25. What was the best book you read?
The Gathering by Anne Enwright, since I read this novel in August so many of the phrases and ideas have stayed with me

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Bob Dylan

27. What did you want and get?
A bright yellow purse and a new windowsill to moon on

28. What did you want and not get?
A job on ‘Mining Today’ (phew)

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
Man On Wire? Control?

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
A hastily-organised and poorly-attended Turkish meal followed by gin and tears. I was 27. Although earlier in the day I had cycled from London Bridge to Dalston with helium balloons and flowers on my bike, wearing a bright pink skirt.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less loss

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Schizophrenic layers and clashing yellows

33. What kept you sane?
Not a lot, clearly!

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Barack Obama

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Elections: London mayor and US President

36. Who did you miss?
You know

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Marion, Danielle, Kerry, Adam

40. What was your least favourite moment of the year?
God so many but I keep remembering the wave, looking up to the kitchen window, he gave me as he drove away from our house with all of his stuff

41. Where were you when 2008 began?
A house party in Hackney

42. Who were you with?
Craig, Ashleigh and others

43. Where will you be when 2008 ends?
Somewhere in Liverpool

44. Who will you be with when 2008 ends?
Karen and Sean

WILL BE BACK WITH THE POETRY LATER

06:53 am - geometry

i have four freckles on my wrist in the shape of a parallelogram.

off-kilter

07:01 pm - North rocks

North rocks, originally uploaded by bothy photo.

Upper Garson second from left

02:16 pm - Atlantic spray

Ramnageo spray, originally uploaded by bothy photo.

Feeling homesick yesterday evening, I was idly searching flickr for photos of Orkney when I found a picture of the farm I grew up on: A sunlit view of my house taken by someone else more recently than I have been there. For a moment I was stunned and was glad that there was no one else left in the office to see me upset.
For balance, the picture above is more typical of the climate of the isles.

02:12 pm - Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

11:07 pm - At the latter I was informal, at the former I wore my suit...

I wore my swimming suit.

Tomorrrow I'll be at Hampstead Heath Ladies pond from around 2pm. Women please join. Men will be shot on sight.object width="425" height="350">

10:12 am - NIGHTBIKE

Tomorrow night at 8. Who can make it?

12:19 am - "Don't let your friends cut yr hair / don't cut yr own hair"

I tried to go to bed at 10.30 like a sensible person but I couldn't sleep, I was twitchy, I needed to change something.

I had read in a women's magazine that haircuts were what one did after a break-up. I'd also read in a psychology journal that the suicidal cut their hair often. It was the perfect moment!

I was tired of my mediocre, hippy-hair (and weird nose in this pic. Maybe I should cut it off to spite my face?)

Nurse! Bring the Instrument! (Blunt kitchen scissors)

I tied it into a ponytail...

...and hacked it off, listening to Nirvana. It took about 60secs. Fuck you Toni and Guy.

At least 18 months worth of blonde. I reckon I can sell it to a wig shop in Brixton.

Et voila! Asymetrical summer hair. Have to wait for someone else to take pics of the back (v short).

See ya later. This might be my most-regreted late-night LJ post yet (and that's saying something)

10:06 am - More supermarket news

Is it possible that Asda could jam my ipod? I was just picking up some groceries (before work which is unheard of, I think I might be having a nervo) when it mysteriously paused in the middle of Herman Dune. I hadn't pressed anything and no pause sign was showing. This coincided with a loud annoucement about 3 for 2 offers on selected fruit juices. As soon as the announcement was over it started working again. Sinister forces are at work my children.

07:57 pm - So long and thanks for all the pish

I'm going to miss Bounds Green. When I got here this evening to pick up the last of my stuff there were ribbons of shit-encrusted toilet paper blowing around outside the front door.

03:01 pm - Lunchtime jailbreak 2

A walk to Mudchute city farm and a talk with the llamas just now flushed my cheeks and put happiness in my chest. I think communing with animals in your lunchbreak should be made compulsory. I finally feel like I can make London work for me instead of the other way round. On Saturday we found a new flat in Bethnal Green and I intend to cycle to work, last night I tarted up my CV and am sending out pitches galore, I'm going to Give Blood later on and feel smug (and possibly get drunk on one pint). Spring is just around the corner oh my brothers and sisters and animal-friends.

10:22 am

I met my friend Regina for a drink last night. She has just moved down from Liverpool to do an MA at St Martins. She needs to get a part-time job and told me that she is looking into becoming one of those abseiling window-cleaners. This excites me a lot. Another job opportunity we discussed was delivering organs for transplantation from country to country. These sensitive organs obviously can't just be chucked on the plane like normal packages but need a person to carry them. Great job for those with steady hands into international travel.

Then Diego and Natalia came along wearing matching jumpers. I am glad to see that the Lazy Ones have adopted a uniform policy. Nametags are only a matter of time. Diego told me that he can only love animals with eyes on the front of their faces (monkeys, cats) rather then on the side (rabbits, sheep).

Daniel was in a happy mood too.

09:47 am

This morning I had a strong urge not to go into work but to visit the London Transport Museum. I think I dreamed it.

10:15 am - British mammals

American mink
Atlantic white-sided dolphin
Badger
Bank vole
Barbastelle bat
Bechstein's bat
Black rat
Bottlenose dolphin
Brandt's bat
Brown hare
Brown long-eared bat
Brown rat
Common dormouse
Common otter
Common seal
Common shrew
Daubenton's bat
European polecat
European wildcat
Fallow deer
Fat dormouse
Field vole
Greater horseshoe bat
Greater mouse-eared bat
Greater white-toothed shrew
Grey long-eared bat
Grey seal
Grey squirrel
Harbour porpoise
Harvest mouse
Hedgehog
House mouse
Leisler's bat
Lesser horseshoe bat
Lesser white-toothed shrew
Long-finned pilot whale
Mole
Mountain hare
Nathusius's pipistrelle
Natterer's bat
Noctule bat
Northern bottlenose whale
Northern hemisphere minke whale
Orca
Orkney vole
Pine marten
Pipistrelle bats
Pygmy shrew
Rabbit
Red deer
Red fox
Red squirrel
Reeve's muntjac
Risso's dolphin
Roe deer
Serotine bat
Short-beaked common dolphin
Sika deer
Stoat
Water shrew
Water vole
Weasel
Whiskered bat
White-beaked dolphin
Wood mouse
Yellow-necked mouse

03:50 am - hahahha

I'm in alex tea's office! On his mac! I've entered the MAINFRAME. Gonna look at his internet history now. gonna get found out. I have to meet 'clients' at 10.30!

07:24 pm - I have my own 'Opie'!

Thanks to 'jus d'orange' AKA Dan.

03:21 am

I'm back in the BG from NY. I want an 'I heart BG' tshirt.
What's with the potatoes? Single tatties on street corners? Art?

10:01 pm - i love bbc

in support to the lees and mira:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/thickofit/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/downloadtrial/

i might be slow with this...

07:02 pm - I use google instead of my brain

Two contrasting shopping experiences today. The farmers' market at Alexandra Palace where ethically-produced foodstuffs are sold to wealthy Muswell Hillbillies, then Peacocks in Wood Green which practices a stack 'em high, sell 'em low, don't think about the sweatshops approach to clothing retail. A new work outfit cost about the same as my lunch. The cow that made my cheese probably has a better life than the 12-year-old who made my pants. Ho hum. I made it to TK Maxx ('heavenly labels, earthly prices!') but was a bit soggy by then. Now I'm 'doing a Phillipa' dancing in tights and t.shirt with the heating on.

It was my second trek up to Ally Pally in 24 hours. Went with Daniel to the fireworks last night intending to meet up with people but discovered half of north London was trying to do the same. There was no phone reception despite being right under a massive transmitter. The fireworks were the most impressive I've ever seen, though, and I was genuinely 'oooh'ing. It was nice to look back over the city and see all the different displays. Millions of people united in celebrating a failed terrorist attack. I wonder if in 400 years people will be remember remembering July 21 by firing lazer beams out of replica rucksacks? (no Amy, probably not). I always end up comparing London to Orkney on here but it was interesting to relate this expensive spectacle with its soundsystems, dodgems and clean-up operation to a bunch of farmers burning their rubbish (possibly toxic) by the windswept beach while the kids (us) ran wild. I'm content to be living here right now but often something just feels disconnected.

06:18 pm - This is not the kind of thing I usually post but...