TOMY: 1993 and 1992

Some sublime, some ridiculous...

1993 offering:





DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince: Boom! Shake the Room!





Reminds me of school discos and neon outfits and all that great stuff!

1992:



Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under The Bridge





One of my favourite intros ever....reminds me of a special someone too. Also just a solid rock tune. Great times.

A life in photos (1)

In the lead up to my thirtieth, I've been doing lots of looking at old photos. I thought I'd share a few (in no particular order!). Hope they raise a smile or two!

2003, graduation day. I got my MA (Hons) and mum, dad and Sian came down to Aberdeen to share the day. Such sweet memories - some of my very favourite pictures of Sian and I were taken then :).
Christmas dance in 1998, when I was just eighteen. Joining a new school at 16 was a real challenge, but I've never regretted the chance I took. I made some wonderful friends at Forres and I'm so glad I got to know Sian and Peter properly after 5 years of being away for most of the year!

First day of school, 1985! I was so excited for school! I've always loved to read and learn and get my geek on, so I was suited and booted and ready to head out the door. Those red shoes are a bit of a family legend. The school said we could wear black, blue, or red shoes. Guess who dragged her poor mummy through a tonne of show shops looking for an oh so rare red pair? Mme Muir (the artists formerly known as Mlle Wilson!), are you proud?

1992, my first year at boarding school. A real mixed time....lots I loved, much I hated. Most I got through. I just remember panicking because I couldn't get my hair to behave!

1987 - the year I forgot how to smile. For serious, in all the pictures from this time I look very very serious. The phase didn't last!
2007, my first car! I loved Jessika to pieces.....and I still miss driving. If and when I quit London I am so ready for some new wheels!
1991, Girl Guides. Weren't the old style uniforms *cute* (bwahahahahaha, evil laughter).
At my parents' wedding, 1984. Where I first caught the bridesmaiding bug!
2009, at Mme Muir's 30th. Fantastic party - I'm so glad she and Al and Steph will be heading down for my birthday next month!
Housewarming picnic, 2009. My first batch of entertaining in town. I have such a lovely group of friends here....I'm a very lucky girl!

TOMY: 1995 and 1994

Yep, it's a two year post!

A few days off blogging (quite eerily, I paused at precisely 666 posts. Shudder.) have interupted this series, and as I actually want to blog about life and love and Christmas too, needs must that we double up!


Take That: Never Forget

Take That were pretty much impossible to escape during my teens. Many an argument broke out in my dorm at boarding school over who was cuter / who was the most talented... the same arguments, I am sure, that were going on up and down the country! I liked some of The That's songs, but others I actively disliked. This track is my favourite of all their songs - a real pop gem. From the minute the brass and choristers start you know it's going to be good. When the beat kicks in? Epic.

Pop used to be good, y'all:




1994's entry is the purely for it's place as the first single I ever bought (on vinyl, people). I saved my pocket money, I did extra chores, I went without my issues of Just Seventeen magazine, all to but this "classic" track....

Mariah Carey - Without You

What can I say? From time to time, I *love* a good power ballad!



Mariah used to be so wholesome!

Thankful

As I sat down to write this year's Thanksgiving post, I realised I couldn't say it better than I did last year. Excuse the re-post, but the sentiment still holds true:

I kind of love Thanksgiving, even though here in the UK it passes by pretty much unnoticed. What can I say, having American grandparents makes me feel a kinship with the festival! I also think it's an important time to focus, and truly be thankful for what we have. In my classes this week, my boys and I have been writing about what we are thankful for, and their pieces are so sweet and thoughtful.

As for me...

....I am all too aware that I have about eleventy million things to be thankful for.

I'm thankful for living in the current time, in the place where I live. A time where I'm free to learn and live and worship as I wish to, in a place which is relatively safe, a land of plenty. I'm also so thankful to be living in London - this time a year ago this seemed like an impossible dream!

I am thankful for my health and my passions. I am thankful that every day I wake up and there is always some fun on the horizon, or a challenge to meet, or something to do.

I am thankful for Matthew, a man who loves me despite my many flaws and foibles. A man who is clever and kind and handsome and giving, who brings me lemsip when I'm ill, who has a never ending supply of cuddles, and who brightens my every day. There was a time where I'd all but given up on ever finding someone to love who would love me, and I am so thankful that somehow I found my badger.

I am thankful for my family. We may be quirky, and heaven knows we have had some tough times, but I love my family to pieces. I am so thankful for the time we spend together, and for the letters, emails, texts and calls that keep us caught up across the miles.

I am thankful for my friends. I am so very blessed to have a cast of such awesomeness around me, and love the beauty, love and wonderfulness they bring to my life. Few girls can be as lucky as I, surely? :-) My friends give so much joy to me - I can only hope that I am anywhere near as positive an influence in their lives.

I am thankful for my job, and my lovely class of boys. How fortunate to have a job which makes me laugh, stretches me intellectually, makes me think, and keeps me on my toes. I love coming to work (even if I don't always love the 6 am alarm!). I know how lucky I am.

And I am thankful for myriad other things too....I am thankful for cups of coffee, for long cool drinks, for healthy nourishing food. I am thankful for afternoon naps and late night chats and still mornings. I am thankful for books and music and film. I am thankful for daydreams, and time to bake cupcakes, and the month of December. I am thankful for blogging, and new pyjamas, and Stephen Fry. I am thankful for The Daily Show and Christmas and Lego. I am thankful for Sam cat and Dave the tree and tomorrow.

And last, but not least, I am thankful for you guys - anyone who's ever read my blog, or emailed me, or commented. What a wonderful thing, to create this web of friends and bloggers, over continents and oceans.

Happy Thanksgiving!

TOMY: 1996

Another two-for-one year...


Reef ~ Place Your Hands

Ah, fifteen year old me. I loved this song, and a few years later it would become quite the singalong on various student nights out...



Also....



Ash ~ Oh Yeah

The perfect song for daydreaming about the boy you were crushing on in orchestra / English class. As well as loving this in '96, it also became my wistful-daydreaming-go-to-song for most of my late teens. And early twenties! ;)



(another video I'd not seen previous to TOMY!)

TOMY: 1997

Hanson - Mmmbop

Up until this post, I like to think my music choices have been fairly good, quite credible. A splash of cheesey dance and RnB, but for the most part quite solid. And then we hit 1997. And Hanson.

Confession time...the 16 year old me *loved* Hanson. Especially Isaac. There may have been fan letters (or rather, a fan letter, non plural). And a pilgrimage to a Radio 1 roadshow far, far away to watch them live. And even now, all these years on, the sound of 'Mmmbop' can still make me smile....

TOMY: 1998

Air - You Make It Easy

I heard Moon Safari (the album from whence this came) the other day an couldn't believe it was twelve years old. Where does the time go?

TOMY: 1999

The Magnetic Fields - Busby Berkeley Dreams

An alt-pop collobaration/group. Who made a 69 song long album of love songs. Including this one, which name checks the awesome Busby Berkeley? My little mini indie self rejoices...

TOMY: 2000

Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby

A bit of a change of pace - this reminds me of student clubbing and dancing around with my girls. Happy humpday, all!

TOMY: 2001

Ben Folds - The Luckiest

I really like Ben Folds, both his stuff as a solo artist and his work with Ben Folds Five. But with this romantic slushfest, he had me from the first chord! If I ever get married, this is one of two songs I'd like to have my first dance to. Just beautiful.

TOMY: 2002

Travis - Flowers in the Window

Just one of the sweetest, happiest, most lovely songs ever. :) Enjoy!

TOMY: 2003

Jay-Z and Beyoncé- 03 Bonnie and Clyde

Looking back on 2003, it was not a great year for music (from where I was listening, in my student flat in Aberdeen). Maybe I was just too distracted writing my senior dissertation? I did, however, love a lot of what Beyoncé and Jay-Z were producing. Especially this song!

PS Isn't it weird to think that at this point MP3s were just starting to catch up with CDs popularity wise? A world pre Applemania....

TOMY: 2004

Yeah - Usher

A total change of pace for this year's submission. This song reminds me of Paris with Cat (we had one (German!?) music channel in our hotel room, which we listened to every day and evening as we got ready to go out. They played this song roughly three times an hour. It's also a big club song from the mid noughties, so it brings back silly dancing memories too!

TOMY: 2005

First Day of my Life - Bright Eyes

This song always gives me an attack of the *happy sighs*. Just one of those songs where the lyrics speak straight to me, and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. I hope it makes you smile today too (the video is also adorable - I had never seen it before!).

TOMY: 2006

Lost Girls - Tilly and the Wall

I got into Tilly and the Wall after my friend Ross put this song of theirs onto a mix for me (the band Ross is in, Be Like Pablo, have just finished their own album - so excited to hear it! Ross makes killer mixes). Tilly and the Wall are a cool quirky bunch, and their first two albums always bring back happy memories of the good times of my mid twenties. Gigs and driving and late nights sharing bottles of wine with dear friends, putting the world to rights. And long long walks in the country, listening to this song on my iPod...

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

This much marking requires tea. And plenty of it!

Music memes....

.....are perfect for dark autumn evenings!

--------------------------

Step 1: Put your music player on shuffle.
Step 2: Post the first line (or a few ;)) from the first 30 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Italicise the lyrics and post the details when someone guesses both artist and track correctly.
Step 4: For those who are guessing -- looking the lyrics up on a search engine is CHEATING!
Step 5: If you like the game post your own

__________________________

1. Risin' up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive

2. Go, go, go,
It's time to make a move and we both know,
It's time to step it up a notch,
I'm ready to lose touch,
Baby boy,
Go, go, go.

3. I can't light no more of your darkness
All my pictures seem to fade to black and white
I'm growing tired and time stands still before me
Frozen here on the ladder of my life

4. You're my love, you're my sweetest thing,
Don't shy away, don't shy away

5. Do I look like a liar?
Do I look like a liar to you?
Fighting crime in this town brings a girl down
Makes a body sink so low

6. Gray light, new day leaks through the window
An old soul song comes on the alarm clock radio
We walk the forty blocks to the middle
Of the place we heard that everything would be

7. I said, "I wanna touch the earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something
Wild and unruly"

8. Try not to get worried,
Try not to turn onto,
Problems that upset you, oh...

9. Woah, wait a minute - not so quick
You go from zero to ticked off and losing it
Could somebody please tell me what just happened then

10. Oh yeah.
All right.

Somebody's Heine' is crowdin' my icebox
Somebody's cold one is givin' me chills
Guess I'll just close my eyes

11. So long ago
Certain place
Certain time
You touched my hand
On the way
On the way down to Emmiline

12. Hit it
Nah, na na na nah, na na na nah, na na nah, na na nah, na na na nah

13. Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I'm not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I'm still waiting

14. I'm five years old, it's getting cold, I've got my big coat on
I hear your laugh and look up smiling at you, I run and run
Past the pumpkin patch and the tractor rides, look now, the sky is gold
I hug your legs and fall asleep on the way home

15. She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge,
she studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College,
that's where I,
caught her eye.

16. Standing at the back door she tried to make it fast
One tear hit the hard wood it fell like broken glass
She said, "Sometimes love slips away
And you just can't get it back, let's face it"

17. I plant the kind of kiss
That wouldn't wake a baby
On the self same face
The lie wouldn't let me sleep

18. It's like you're a drug
It's like you're a demon I can't face down
It's like I'm stuck
It's like I'm running from you all the time

19. And the problem is this
We were bought with a kiss
But the cheek still turned
Even when it wasn't hit

20. Where can a sick man go
When he can’t choke down the medicine,
The old Doc knows.

21. Baby
why you not home yet
baby its getting late
i wish you would be home by now.

22. I was always strong as long as we were a team
I crawled into somebody's heart who meant the world to me
love made me strong enough to be alone and set me free
but with my friends friends till the end is where I wanna be

23. Rise in the morning at sunrise
Strangers around me sleep soundly at rest
Phones and computers become me
Signals stretch back to the lands that I've left

24. Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girlchild in the dark
Comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

25. Call you up in the middle of the night
Like a firefly without a light
You were there like a slow torch burning
I was a key that could use a little turning

26. I'll be sitting on the left side
You'll be sitting on the right
Dying to share our problems
Make everything alright

27. Yeah yeah yeah yeah-yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah-yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah-yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah-yeah

Usually I don't do this but ok...

Ok I see you checking me out (checking me out)
I think I know what you winkin' about (winking about)

28. It might have been a while
Since you've been loved
Like you should be loved

It might have been a while
Since you've been kissed
Like you should be kissed

29. I've been cheated by you
Since I don't know when
So I've made up my mind
It must come to an end

30. What have we done with innocence
It disappeared with time, it never made much sense
Adolescent resident
Wasting another night on planning my revenge

Good luck my lovelies! A real mish mash here! :)

TOMY: 2007

Frank Turner: My Kingdom For A Horse

Frank Turner is great! This song is one of my all time favourites by him. How can you resist lyrics like…

So if I tell you all the little things that I think that I need,

Will you tell me how to tell the world from the woods from the trees?

Because I've been stuck inside this comforting familiar disease,

And I nee you now because I can't get out,

And all over Europe the lights are going out,

And I'm pulling down the curtain, but every time I reach out,

You're gone.

The man is a genius. He's also brilliant live. I need to see him play again soon.

And....I have second choice for this year too....

Folding Stars - Biffy Clyro



This song reminds me of love and loss and friends and learning to drive, and listening to this song again and again and again. And again. The above is an acoustic version I love....below is the cranked to ten version.



'Mon the Biff!

TOMY: 2008

Elbow: One Day Like This

Oh, happy sigh. I loved this song from the first listen, and it’s come to mean so much more since then. I remember driving around all that summer in my beloved Jessika, listening to this on repeat. Little did I know then that at the end of that summer I would meet my Matthew, and the soppiness and wonderfulness of the lyrics would take on a whole new level of meaning…