My laptop is having issues with a borrowed West Wing DVD boxset, so I am at a loose end. An LJ post therefore feels right. I've got The Beatles on - Rubber Soul....'baby you can drive my car'....I've been reading a biography of Lennon that my sister bought me for Christmas, it really makes Liverpool come alive and I've been thinking back to the places there that I've actually been, the streets I've walked. Hopefully I'll be there again very soon.

'Rubber Soul' is one of a few treats I've bought for myself today, two week overdue presents for my recent promotion. It was advertised externally, so I had to interview for it. It was quite a bizarre day, because I really didn't think the interview went that well at all (though my application was pretty damn good), so much so that I thought it was a joke when, just hours later, they offered me one of the 5 vacant posts on offer. I'm now a Trial Coordinator which means I get to run a cancer trial - this particular trial is for ovarian cancer patients, and it's very much in the early stages, I need to get the various ethical and regulatory approvals before it can start, all that kind of stuff. It's all very interesting. I'm currently doing two days a week in my old role as well, just while they find a replacement - I'm on my new and improved salary though! So all is good. I'm so pleased as well, because I was starting to get cabin fever in my old job, I wondered whether I'd ever get the opportunity to move up.

Today has been a pretty awesome day - went to see 'A Single Man' too, I really recommend it, Colin Firth is fantastic, I rate it as the best film I've seen so far this year, have seen a fair few: The Road, Invictus, Up In The Air, A Prophet, Sex n Drugs n Rock n Roll. Got back to the flat around 5. I'm not sure if I've updated you on how that's all been going. It feels like a home now, and the first place I've lived in that kind of feels like mine. And Sally is so wonderful to live with. Two is a nice number, often it feels like I have my own place, we usually cross paths two or three times a week, cook for each other, watch TV, hang out. I've grown to like the area too, South London is very different to what I'm used to. Brixton has a certain grey charm to it, not desolate but quite foreboding and almost bleak, though the council are working on a grassed square outside the cinema which is looking very charming and serene. It would be great if some of you got the chance to come down at some stage.

I'm eager to hear how you're all doing, I do mean to be better at keeping in touch but it's hard sometimes - seeing Baz on Tuesday, no doubt the Hannexians currently in the UK will be meeting up again soon. Would be great to hear more from Ad about Holland, thinking of you mate, hope you're getting on OK. My thoughts are also with Dave, that boy would make a great travel writer, his emails are always so beautifully written. Must send him an email.

Love to all x

I've bought very few new CDs this year, but a couple of albums really blew me away - my favourites were 'Primary Colours' by the Horrors, and 'Humbug' by Arctic Monkeys. Both were bold statements that confounded expectation. In particular, I still play Cornerstone by the Monkeys constantly, making it my favourite song of the year.

I enjoyed the Manics latest album, certainly a return to form, though in many ways the last time they can play the 'Richey card'. Yeah Yeah Yeahs also made a fantastic record, and it was a pleasure to see them live earlier this month - I had had heard so much about how good they are live, and so they was a chance that they didn't live up to my expectations. But, fortunately, they were incredible - Karen O's voice is superb. Their album 'It's Blitz' was another that went against what people were expecting, and I admired that.

Didn't get to the cinema nearly enough. My favourite film was 'Che', which I liked precisely because it refused to explain anything about the man, and thus avoided being an ordinary run of the mill biopic. Benicio del Toro was fantastic as Guevera. 'In The Loop' deserves mention, especially as I went to see it twice and it's easily the best comedy film in years. 'Looking for Eric' was great, as was 'A Serious Man'. 'Sherlock Holmes' was the pleasant surprise of the year, very enjoyable.

But yeah, I wouldn't recommend 'My Bloody Valentine' in 3D.

Was pleasantly bizarre with to withhold the site of Mr Adam Walker driving into the carpark of a Birmingham Tesco at 11am yesterday, the randomness made more stark by the fact that I had been dispatched by Andy to return the trolley..there we were, Ad shouting 'What the fuck?', myself sheepishly pushing the trolley, on the way to get my pound back.

I like weird quirks of fate like that. Was a pleasure to see you Sir, will have to visit you properly another time.

Hello all.

How are we? Has been a while I know. I can't kill off LJ, or divorce it, 'tis part of the Hannexee - well, that's the reason I started using it, Sarah and Rich. The ironic thing is that now's the time I should be using it more, 'cos when I was updating 5 times a week I was at uni, and you guys were either up the fucking corridor or watching me at the time!!

I'm very busy at the moment, but have managed to get out of London and come home for a few days - I'm too much of Londoner now, as is Baz....I had signs telling me to get out yesterday, little things like nearly being run over by a Cockney taxi twat who decides that pedestrians aren't allowed to walk over zebra crossings, plus it took me nearly 20 minutes to find the sock section in the Topshop on Oxford St ('why?' you may ask, and quite rightly, the answer is that I wanted to get my sister a present and some stylish socks seemed like a good idea at the time).

Women's clothing shops are a fucking minefield, and are the definition of the male-female divide - can we not just have them laid out in easily definable sections??? Maddening.

I'm properly embracing writing now, I think that it's fundamentally wrong to go against your instincts, and my instincts are telling that writing is 'in me' so to speak. Rather like syphillis, but writing is twice the fun and about half the inflammation.

I'm so switched on to writing poems at the moment, it's superb to feel so wired and full of ideas, I'm currently trying to write a sestina which is a form that is actually really simple in practice but ridiculously complex when you read the theory!

Anyways, I really hope you're all well, and good look to the 3 peak posse - for any of you not turned off by my pretension who want to listen to the poem I recorded by haven't, go here an follow the links, I believe you can only play the recording if you have the following software, iTunes, Winamp, Quicktime players, RealMedia/RealPlayer, Media Player Classic, and the Dell Media Player, among others...

http://thegreenpress.co.uk

Much love, Lee x

I can't believe I have two blogs, what a cunt! I'm also blasting music because I listen to stuff far too much on me iPod lately...so I've got 'Everything Must Go' coming out of the Hi-Fi.

Looking forward to Sunday, I went shopping on Oxford St on Sunday - £10-fucking-99 for sun-cream...spose Boots can just blame it on the credit crunch. Also bought flip-flops for the pool area (at 5 quid they're not exactly durable beyond that), a white hat with blue band and trainer socks. Yep, fascinating isn't it?!

Today dragged a little, partly because I can't be arsed, partly because I work in a half-bay (does this make sense, open-plan office speak) and my colleague is on leave this week. Friday will drag like...hmmm can't think of an analogy...like a never-ending cigarette, cancerous, yellowing end!

I like the fact that our Northern contingent will be flying in separate - looking forward to seeing you all over there. Gonna meet up with Baz on Sat and get the train over to MK.

I'm addicted to Twitter...Ad, please shoot me with scorn...!

Toodlepip. What what!

this week has been mad, almost like a whole month/year in the space of a few days.

So the anthology has been launched, and on thursday i read a new poem which went down pretty damn well with the group. Writing keeps me sane, and leads me to believe that I am not defined by what I do for a job. Even if poetry/prose takes me nowhere, it is a really nice feeling when someone likes what you have put down on the page.

I really miss all of you, not that I would want us all to remain at uni, but you guys are the best friends I've ever had. I really mean that. I met up with Ad and Baz a couple of weeks back and it's just ace, an instant connection. I really don't have that with anyone else. Yes, I have had a few drinks this evening, but I want you to know this,,,though given LJ's decline noone will actually read!!

anyways, i have a new blog for more writing-based stuff....

http://stretch-out-and-wait.blogspot.com

Do not speak unless spoken to. Wear hair long over right side of face. Wake early, warm shower for aching skin. Remove earplugs, replace with earphones. Met line tube train, stand at doors. Walk on the left. Grey corpses of buildings, dirty air. Work place. Smiles are needless, show calm determination. Laugh at the jokes of others but not at your own. According to health and safety regulations, spend 10 minutes of every hour away from the computer screen.

I've found Dave's emails from Vietnam very inspiring, they're so well written, some of the images are fantastic. It has given me an idea for a poem about someone who is liberated by visiting a far-flung place, and returns home to re-evaluate their perceptions of the comfy lifestyle they have come to take for granted. I may use some of Dave's notes and writing, he seemed happy for me to do so when I replied to one of his updates the other day. I especially loved the description of stairs cut into mountains, and precarious power cables sprouting from the tops of telegraph poles.

I've been feeling inspired to write for the first time in ages, and have a few new ideas for stuff, I'll be devoting some time to writing tomorrow.

For the purposes of promotion and also personal publicity, see here for the website of the anthology I'll be appearing in, from the writers group I attend in Willesden Green, it will be launched on the 28th May - exciting stuff - http://thegreenpress.co.uk/?page_id=3

(If you navigate to the contributing authors section there is a pithy bio-note for yours truly....)

I've been feeling quite guilty lately as I haven't been going along to the group at all this year, largely due to a complete lack of creativity on my part and also personal blips that I won't go into here. I'm looking forward to going next week on the 30th and throwing myself back into stuff, hopefully I'll have something new to read! Plus I want to get involved in promoting the anthology and put some effort in, rather than just sit back and let others do the lion's share. The people I've met at the group are a lovely bunch, and they've been really welcoming and constructive in their criticism of my writing, I'm still quite in awe of some of the writers there as they're very talented, can't quite believe I've managed to get a poem into the anthology to be honest, much of the stuff in it is fantastic. Looking forward to going back and seeing everyone again.

Banal news: spilt a cup-a-soup on my room carpet today, surely one of the worst spillages out there, all viscous sticky sludge with bits of orangey carrot and green of some description, rather vomit-esque really. My floor is now clean but smells of chicken n veg and hints of Vanish. I then topped this off by spilling a whole glass of water onto my bed, it soaked the duvet, sheets and also most of my clothes, which I hastily removed amidst a cacophany of swearing. I'm the clumsiest person in the world. Fortunately it isn't urine so no stains (I haven't wet the bed for months).

Fuckety bye!

It's hard to know where to begin again, and so I'm not going to.

Someone tagged a horrible school photo of me aged 11, one of those class pics you'd have done periodically. I'm a little anti-Facebook as a result. I've reached the conclusion that I have a terribly unphotogenic smile so I'm not going to smile for any camera for a while, and see if the snaps improve. I'm also considering a Facebook friend purge of idiots I never really liked. I deleted one because I was sick of hearing what him and his girlfriend were up to in every status update. To think of all the mundane crap I would have missed out on if the status bar hadn't been invented!

I'm not doing 25 things about me, but I do have a number of embarrassing and painful memories of school. Like getting hit right in the hairless testicles aged 10 while playing a harmless game of cricket on a camping trip. The teacher trying to comfort me by shouting 'deep breaths' didn't help. Only a year later I started crying after missing a penalty during a semi-final InterHouse shootout. I was made man of our team by a pragmatic teacher in order to stop me from flooding the pitch with tears. Gazza eat ya heart out.

Plus there was the stigma of having a fringe whenever the Van de Graf generator came out in science lessons.

I'm going to do a proper post soon, have a lot to report on the last couple of weeks, but wanted to muse for a moment on my favourite album of this year. I can't really put together a Top 10 this year. I haven't done nearly as much listening to new albums and music in 2008, but my favourite is Alas I Cannot Swim, by Laura Marling. Folky, poetic, mystical, thoughtful, a slowburning masterpiece about youth, the prospect of adulthood and troubled lovers. I love it.