Spring-time for Di-va in Wal-tham-stow.

[reddragdiva]

B-Movie was splendid, of course. And everyone was there. No proper beer on tap, which is obviously damerell's fault for starting drinking again. Got the usual metric shitload of pics, and the camera didn't crap out on me this time. jezebel_z was this month's couchsurfer.

The trouble with Saturdays is being in any condition to do important things after a night at B-Movie or whatever Gossips happens to have on. But get up and simulate humanity I did, going out to Walthamstow to look at flats. Called first agent to confirm:

Him: "Oh ... You're quite sure you're looking for a flat in Walthamstow?"
Me: "Yes, please. As we discussed on the phone yesterday afternoon."
Slug: "Oh ... That flat in Walthamstow has gone. We have quite a few going in Leyton!"
Ex-customer: "No, definitely Walthamstow." (Definitely not Leyton, thank you so much.) "Bye now." *click* "Fuckwit."

The two o'clock was a little more productive. Saw two flats, one of which was lovely. But £180 for a one-bedroom is a bit much for us, sadly. Gorgeous place, though, and well-located. teqkiller, hurry up and get rich.

I could hardly believe what a beautiful spring day Saturday was. Of course, Australia has spring days like that all the time. If England did, you'd be a much more cheerful lot on the whole. And get a reputation for being such.

Back into Camden to meet jezebel_z at the Dev (and pick up my Whitby tickets - Resurrection seems to have them in stock, if you fear you've put it off too long) and, of course, the usual netscum were present and ready. Wave to mr_flay (who went on at length about what a goth he wasn't - curious, this subculture that seems to consist almost entirely of people who aren't members), grahamb, gothicbarbiecat, ins0uciance, faerierhona and, a happy surprise, arkady! Who I proceeded to monopolise for a lovely catchup chat.

I walked into the Dev with a full pack of cloves and walked out with two.

Thence to meet zoo_music_girl, childeric, ladymoonray, swisstone and augeas in Islington, so as to go to the Hope & Anchor and see the Gin Palace, Fiona's new fave band. Lengthy review to come (written with the drunken assistance of childeric and augeas), but the précis is: go and see the Gin Palace or Michael Dracula (despite the name) if you ever get the chance. The legendary Hope & Anchor is a small foul basement toilet of a venue. You people don't know how lucky you have it in Melbourne! Got surprisingly good stage shots without flash (at least when they used the blue or green lights rather than the red), which zoo_music_girl has kindly promised to harass me about on a daily basis until they're up.

Back to childeric's for drinks. Damn him and his incredibly nice mead, and the hangover it caused. Staggered home and pottered about a bit online before collapsing in a heap.

Up at six this morning - they'd been doing electrical work over the weekend and I had to be in at eight to make sure the workstations came up okay. Blerk. Some days there isn't enough coffee in the world. At least I go home at four today. One hour! My missing co-worker has returned. So I've lost two of my precious late starts per week. Bah. At least Friday evenings will be less of a hellride.

May I also say just how much I love it when other people break things and don't tell you what they did until you've spent quite some time working out what the hell happened.

Update: zoo_music_girl has just posted about the next Gin Palace gig, and how to get in free. Furthermore: Gin Palace and Michael Dracula pics!

Comments

Gin Palace

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

They're not my new fave band. Penthouse (http://www.fiftytons.co.uk), the Gin Palace's guitarist's old band are my old fave band, but the Gin Palace are yet to be quite *that* good.

I'm actually utterly besotted with Michael Gira and Jarboe and anything they've ever released at the moment.

Re: Gin Palace

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

BTW Giles has his photos up already. ;)

http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=zoo_music_girl&itemid=232835&thread=1634179#t1634179

[phelyan.livejournal.com]

£180 for a one bedroom? We would have killed for something like that in London. Our crib in Walm Lane was £200/w for a shitty little 1 double bedroom thingy (which is still up for rent)...

[reddragdiva]

Walthamstow is the 'burbs - far end of the Victoria Line. (Which is as close as the tube system gets to a rollercoaster.) It's much cheaper than it should be - it used to be a shitty area, has improved noticeably over the past few years and prices haven't kept up.

If this flat had been two-bedroom, we would have gone for it. But not at that price for a one-bedroom.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

My brain missed a gear, I think: are the rents quoted for weekly or monthly?

[girfan.livejournal.com]

weekly.

[reddragdiva]

That was one hundred and eighty pounds per week. Don't try to convert this into any other currency, you'll scream in sympathetic pain. In fact, don't try to convert it from London pounds into pounds anywhere else in the UK.

A pint's a pound, the world around...

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Hmm... yes. A bit on the steep side. For comparison, in the burbs here I'm paying the equivelent of £125/wk.

Re: A pint's a pound, the world around...

[reddragdiva]

A pint's a pound the world around, if your entire world is the USA ... real pints are 25% bigger!

And London rents are in an entire different measurement system.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Augh! There was a decent gig at the H&A and I missed it! I've been waiting for something good to come on there for months....

Ed's not a goth though. He's an 80's slingback of a whole different flavour. That of the [shudders] New Romantic. ;-)

[reddragdiva]

No, duranorak is a New Romantic who just happens to hang around lots of goths. Ed, on the other hand, asked me for advice on how to get the planned Vanian stripe in his hair whiter than white. There's a word for people with that hair style, AND IT STARTS WITH G.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Geriatric? ;-)

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Speaking of things bleach-related, I think perhaps I may have to enlist help to get my fringe right (i.e. bleached to death so it will actually take the blue dye!)..... I do actually still have about half a liter of 40% peroxide left. I need to get more powder bleach though; but hey - that's what Paks next Saturday is for. Well. That and buying hairpiece-making supplies. And more Directions Blue Lagoon dye....

[reddragdiva]

Any decent hair-abuse shop should have powder bleach to spare. I mean, I got my last lot at Boots ...

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I'm going to Paks anyway for hair, so I may as well pick it up there.

By the way, what happened about the flat then? On Saturday you seemed pretty keen on it...did something else come up then, or did you just decide it wasn't worth it at that price?

[reddragdiva]

Liz inspected the photos closely, thought about it a lot and decided that it was entirely too much (since, unlike in Australia, council tax isn't included in the rent).

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

~laughs~ Well, quite. And, thank you, there's nothing wrong with New Romantic at all.
I assume the Ed in question is mr_flay and have to confess I had him down as being more at the Adam Ant end of goth, i.e. New Romantic in denial, though. :)

*Nothing*. Wrong. With New Romantic. Grrr.

E.
x

[reddragdiva]

Nothing wrong with it. But Ed's a GOTH. A flouncy one, but still!

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

You're probably right; I've not been around him often enough to notice what he dances to or how he dances. It's a huge giveaway. :)

E.
x

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

could I have a copy of the likeness you obtained of me on Friday night?

[reddragdiva]

One will see what one can do. To the listed email?

[ksta.livejournal.com]

ditto the request for photo of me please, assuming it wasn't so dreadful that you deleted it instantaneously.

[ali-in-london.livejournal.com]

Ohh, ditto please.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

yes please, that would do nicely.

[zotz]

You know, I've never played Springtime For Hitler out at a club, and I imagine I never will. I can't stop myself speculating about how it would go down at *cough* certain clubs or gigs, though.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Mmm, but it's only a matter of time 'til some smartarse writes "Springtime for Dubya"...

"Springtime for Dubya, and To-ooh-neee!
Iraq is very far away.
We're financed by merchant bankers
Look out, here come the oil tankers!"

Or some such rot, no doubt...

English Weather & such

[the_axel]

> I could hardly believe what a beautiful spring day Saturday was. Of course, Australia
> has spring days like that all the time. If England did, you'd be a much more cheerful
> lot on the whole.

I am convinced the two main reasons for the British Empire were
1) Better weather (Canada incidentally was colonised primarily by Scots rather than English).
2) Better food.

Incidentally, what's so bad about Leyton?
I lived one stop up in Leytonstone for about a year, and thought it was fine.

Re: English Weather & such

[reddragdiva]

At the moment, the severe lack of public transport - the Central Line is still pretty much out. And I can't say the number of tower blocks in Leyton makes me keen on the area.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Plus, I ended up drinking snakey and black all night, which made me very drunk indeed - fortunately I don't remember any of the babbling done while in that state.