Hi all

I turned 31 last week (24th) and just had a random conversation about music in our youth. Anyways we were talking about music we listened to when we were very young. Here are just a handful of songs i remember. Enjoy!










Mark

Hi All

Well it's been since i did one of these. Not sure why, i use to write on here very frequently even if hardly anybody read them!

But anyways i think the biggest changes over the past year have been thus:

* Grandma passing away
* Joining a Theatre (as an actor)
* House hunting


"Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them." ~ George Eliot

My Grandma was ill on and off for the past 5 years. She was in and out of hospital but she always pulled through. But it got quite bad and she was eventually put into a home where she could get 24/7 care as she was very weak and got easily out of breath.

It was sad watching somebody i really cared about slowly waste away. It some ways it was worse having somebody suddenly taken from you but it gave me the chance to visit and spend time with her. I always thought she'd pull through but that time i knew it was literally just a matter of time.

I think in some ways it made her death easier to take. When my Grandad died in his sleep it hit me like a sledgehammer. I didn't take it well at all and, shamefully, i took to drinking very heavily for a few weeks. I did get over it but it was really hard. With my Grandma it was the opposite. I knew she was going to die so when she did pass away in some ways i was happy that she was no longer suffering like she had been for the past 5 years.

Especially when we found out that during her time in the home she had been mistreated. There were bruises over her body from where she had been "manhandled". It's something my mum and auntie tackled before and after my Grans death.

I was close to my gran and i think she is the only person in my family who properly understood me. Just little thing she would say and do just seemed to click with me. I didn't take her death hard like i said but i do really miss her.


"Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made" ~ George Burns

K, my mate who i've known since pre-school, is an actor and model and is a member of an amateur dramatics. I've seen pretty much every shoe she's been in over the past few years. One because i like the theatre (Phantom of the Opera and La Miserable are amazing!) but mainly because K would always say "it won't be the same if you don't come to see". Slight emotional blackmail but i enjoyed going and i was supporting a friend so no harm done!

Anyways i would always hang around after the show with K and the cast and over time i got to know some who where in multiple shows. K always kept on saying i should join but i just brushed it off until i got to know more people and they started saying the same thing.

So i joined and on my first audition i got 2 parts! They were small but it was for a Christmas showing (yes people do pay to come and see the shows) and the whole experience, from rehearsals all the way to the finish was a complete and utter blast! Even though it took it a whole load of my time i literally loved every second i was involved and show night was such a rush each and every time.

During show week i was on a constant high. No sooner had the show finished i wanted to go straight into the night and the next show. Of course all good things come to an end and when the final show finished it was a massive come down. But i made a load of new and great friends who i still see 4 months on and as more than one person predicted. I have firmly caught the acting bug!

I have auditioned for 2 more shows but failed to get parts (the most recent show i was kinda glad i didn't get offered a part). I badly wanted to get another show just to be involved with the theatre but i am now stage managing for a show i didn't get a part in. As before i'm glad i'm involved with the show and once again have meet new people and made yet more friends.

So if you're looking to do something socially and want to make new friends, join the closet amateur theatre and get acting!

Joining has been one of the best decisions I've ever made!


"Home is where the heart is" ~ Pliny the Elder

Well title says it all really. Have enough saved and i'm earning enough to get a house. It's taken far longer than i would of liked but i am single so trying to buy a half decent house is a very big ask.

At the moment not much has progressed but i've only recently started viewing so it's eatly days.


And that's a slightly longer than expected catch up.

Hopefully i won't leave it so long until my next entry!

Mark

Mark

Mark

Hi All

Well i'm deaf in my left ear, my right isn't that far behind and to top it off, i've got a cold and red raw soar throat.

It started last weekend and it's gradually got worse. Sadly there isn't a quick and easy solution apart from pouring Olive Oil down my ear as often as possible. Swiftly followed by a ball of cotton wool to stop it all pouring out of my ear and onto my shoulder when i stop tilting my head to one side.

I went to the nurse Tuesday morning and i was told to put olive oil down my ear for two weeks then go to a walk in clinic to get them syringed. I doubt i can manage two weeks of this so i'm going after one and seeing how things go. As long as they get something out, it'll be be better that nothing.

But all of this i can deal with, the worst thing is not being able to sleep. I'm not a great sleeper when all is well but since Monday i've been getting about 3/4 hours sleep. Tuesday night i got about 1. I had to take Wednesday off work and i went back today but badly struggled in the afternoon and i'm not sure if i'll make it back tomorrow.

So that's me at the moment. Half deaf, half awake and wanting nothing but to be clear of this bloody ear ache.

I'm now off to pout yet more olive oil into my ears.

Mark

Hi all

If you've read any of my previous blogs then you know i hate Valentines day and this year is no different. So here's wishing you a happy unimaginative, consumerist-oriented and entirely arbitrary, manipulative and shallow interpretation of romance day!! (also known as "singles awareness day!". Now enjoy the below and if you see Cupid, punch the little shit for me...


My type of card:



Lovely Poem:



Sums up me at the moment...



Great song with a pic of me at the end!


Mark

A very clever and moving advert for Anti-RetralViral drugs for AIDS.


And in case you were wondering here is the full song. A fantastic and moving piece of music.



It was dark when i found you

I'll build you a house
in the oak tree outside
and you can come back
whenever you'd like
don't be frightened
i'll set you up right
'cause everyone needs somebody sometime

i'll leave the light on
so you know i'm at home
and you can come in
you won't be alone
don't be scared of the night
'cause i'll fix you up right
'cause everyone needs somebody sometime

and if you forget
how to find your way home
call out for me
i will carry you
and if you need rest
i'll stay right by your side
you won't have to ask
i won't let you down
don't be scared of the night
'cause i won't leave your side
'cause everyone needs Somebody sometime
sometime

Hi All

Not been a great few weeks. My Dad is being made redundant and my Grandmother has taken a very serious turn for the worse.

While my dad's redundancy is actually turning out to be a good thing my Grandmother's decline isn't.

She has been ill for a long time and been on a slow decline. But a few weeks ago she was taken into hospital. Ever since she's been out she's been really ill and bed ridden. My mum has arranged for a sitter (somebody who visits twice a day and stays awake during the night) to come but due to the snow last Saturday the sitter couldn't attend.

Saturday night was also the night we had to call a doctor out as she was being sick whenever she ate or drank anything. She hasn't been eating or drinking for a while and has started to show the signs of renal failure. That combined with the face her lungs are about knackered (due to a lifetime of smoking) and things aren't looking good.

My Auntie stayed with my gran through the night and, along with my mother and brother, I ended up driving all around Nottingham from about 10:00pm until 1:30am trying to get the prescription the doctor who came out had written for my gran. And that was after me and my brother spent and our digging my car out of the snow.

I got naff all sleep that night and i got naff all sleep last night either. My mum was with my gran all of yesterday and most of today.

Things aren't looking good and i think it's a matter of when rather than if. Although if i was being philosophical i guess you could say that about all of us.

But still, trying just to carry on as there isn't a great deal to do.

Mark

Something I find quite inspirational, uplifting and proud to be English, enjoy...


SCENE I. France. Before Harfleur.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'


Mark

Hi all

I can see a pretty awkward situation coming over the horizon and while it might not come if it does it isn't going to be pleasant.

I've got two friends, K & C (the same C I've mentioned in previous blogs). K has been a friend for a very long time and was somebody to talk to about C when it was dragging me down. K has devolved quite a negative view of C and doesn't really have a great opinion of her. Since the new year me and C have got on pretty well. There hasn't been any heartache, tears or arguments.

Anyways, in the past they've kept themselves to themselves but they had a bit of a tiff on facebook (thank you facebook!) a few days ago. K was quite nasty and cutting with some of her comments, which weren't directly aimed at C but heavily hinted towards her...if you know what i mean.

I met K on a birthday night out and we briefly had a chat about it. I asked her not to continue to comment on facebook when it came to C. Especially after K texted me and told me not to talk to C as it was a "waste of my time". I found this a bit hypocritical but that's a fault K has.

I then spoke to C and she said K needed a slap as she was quite horrible regarding her comments and if she does it again, C said she wouldn't hold back and would go back at K.


If this happens i don't think it's going to be a pleasant scene. I'm also fearing that i may get an ultimatum from one of them along the lines of "you're either friends with me or them". They both have their faults (as we all do) and i'm going to struggle to pick sides.

But apart from that, everything is fine! (^-^)b

Mark