Sausages.

This has been up for a little while, but I feel I must draw your attention to it.

http://whatkimcookednext.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/tied-to-the-mast-rock-n-roll-sausage-curry-from-sawmills-studio-in-cornwall/#comment-196

My mum is really clever.  My boyfriend is really clever.  Sausage curry is the best.

Sunny Saturday Mixtape

So, it's a sunny Saturday morning here in Brighton.  I have been for a run and then home for a breakfast burrito and a cup of tea.  Later I will be going to the pub with some lovely friends  haven't seen for ages.  Good times.

As such, here is a mixtape of my favourite songs to listen to on such a day, preferably with the windows open and singing along loudly.  As Saturday is also often my day for household chores, these also work pretty well while you push a Hoover about, but I may give that a miss today.

ELLIOTT SMITH bled white
JONI MITCHELL free man in paris
BLONDIE island of lost souls
MADONNA nothing fails
MADONNA secret
PIXIES here comes your man
REM imitation of life
NO DOUBT artificial sweetener
VERUCA SALT volcano girls
HOLE malibu
PRINCE strollin'

The Decorated Hole

For some reason, I was thinking about this today.

"The Decorated Hole" was a play I wrote at the age of 13 - mostly on a family holiday in Spain, longhand in red Biro and a spiral notebook.

"The Decorated Hole" was also the name of the fictional tattoo/piercing parlour where the play was set. Genius name, no?

So, it was a hipster-mystery ("hipstery" - have I totally invented a genre?) about the staff of the 'Hole, their hipster musician mates, and (get this!) a conspiracy involving poisoned needles as murder weapon!

I was evidently undeterred by the fact that I had never before set foot in a tattoo (or, for that matter, piercing) parlour in my life. I still think it's rather a cute idea (although I'm not sure, despite the fact that it went on for multiple notebooks, I ever came up with an ending - mostly people just kept dropping dead, they all kept crying at funerals where bands played, then they'd get tattoos of the dead person's name [something like 'Evan' or 'Laine' or 'Troy'] and it would all happen again).

I wish I'd kept a copy. Maybe time for a 2012 version, just for fun?

Articles - new permanent page

In case anybody in the whole world is vaguely interested,  I have posted a new permanent page on this weblog (to sit alongside 'Questions' that nobody asked): a non-exhaustive and self-indulgent list of articles written by and about me, as well as some other random stuff that I have done or has been done to me.

Fin.

Brighton, in the morning

This is hardly a new observation - many people, including me, have made it before, but it never fails to make me smile.

I live in Brighton.  This morning, having a free Saturday, I pulled on my trainers and headed out for an 11-mile run at 07:45.

At that time of the morning, particularly on a weekend day, every single human being you see is guaranteed to fall into one of the following categories:

1. Runners.
2. People on their way home from last night.
3. Cyclists.
4. Dogwalkers.
5. People doing community service litter-picking.
6. Occasional metal-detector.

A note about each of these:

1. Lots at the moment, as there are only two weeks to go until the Brighton Marathon - I got overtaken a lot more than usual.
2. Usually sweetly bemused (a girl this morning, beautiful, teary, chewing her face off, luckily being cuddled by her boyfriend); occasionally aggressive in a 'you-think-you're-so-superior-don't-you' sort of way (this morning, a drunk and leery fat couple - for some reason, the man saw fit to walk in front of me and grab his lady companion's tits as I passed).
3. Often friendlier than the runners (although there is a pretty excellent ratio of 'good morning' all round).  Also, some fabulous bikes on occasion - a man on a penny farthing, one who carries his ferrets in the basket, a lot of gorgeous Dutch bikes).
4. Usually little poofy dogs, only very seldom a big one - I think this is due to a combination of general taste and that most of us here live in small flats.
5. I'm so glad they exist - you should see the state of Brighton seafront at around 4am before they descend.  Such a symbiotic culture here.
6. Always a joy.

Also joyous is the fact that, with around a mile to go on my way home for breakfast, I get to see this:

Mixtape - Sad, sad songs

I should clarify: these are sad songs for when you really want to stay sad.  I may post an alternative mix for when you are ready to Get Over It and Kick Arse.

But there's a  place for wallowing, for thinking that this is the worst thing in the world that has ever happened to anyone in the history of forever and your heart will never be mended.  This is where it lives.

Each of these is inextricably linked to a sad moment in my own life, and I may cry whilst writing them down.  Then listen to them all, and drink, heavily.


LEONARD COHEN: famous blue raincoat
PJ HARVEY: angelene*
JOHN PARISH & PJ HARVEY: that was my veil
CAROLE KING: so far away
JONI MITCHELL: blue
JEFF BUCKLEY: lover, you should have come over
MARIANNE FAITHFULL: the mystery of love
CAT POWER: good woman
NICK CAVE: west country girl
TORI AMOS: little earthquakes
MARY-LOU LORD: camden town rain
NICO: these days
NIRVANA: penny royal tea (unplugged)
YEAH YEAH YEAHS: maps
JEWEL**: you were meant for me
PLACEBO: without you i'm nothing
SKUNK ANANSIE: secretly
HOLE: northern star
HOLE: dying
NO DOUBT: don't speak***
SMASHING PUMPKINS: disarm
PEARL JAM: nothing man****
BRIGHT EYES: it's cool we can still be friends
EVAN DANDO: if i could talk i'd tell you
LISA LOEB & NINE STORIES: stay (i missed you)
KYLIE MINOGUE: put yourself in my place*****


That is A LOT of songs - man, I'm a miserable bastard...


* actually, most of the album 'Is This Desire?' fits the bill nicely, as I discovered in spring 2003 ('2000 miles away/he walks upon the coast').
** she did some good songs, ok? (and some embarrassing crap.)
*** one simply cannot be cool when one is this broken-hearted.
**** yet another song I love by a band I actually hate.
***** this is not a joke.

More Caroline de Maigret

Oh!  And she has a tumblr!  Oh!  And it's amazing!

http://carolinedemaigret.tumblr.com/