My new wallpaper makes me smile.

Navel-gazing. And cows.

When I first moved to this WordPress blog, I have to say, I went on a bit of a blogging frenzy, publishing 1 post per day, or 1 per 2 days. Maybe it was the novelty of having a new platform, or because I felt free to write about my business now that I had put certain measures into place, or because the best way to advertise a new blog is, quite simply, to write lots, isn’t it?

I imagine most people would disagree with me regarding the latter, but hey, it’s not like I make money from this blog, anyway.

I’m still not sure why I blog, whether it’s simply as a place to have a record of thoughts, and conversations I’ve had, ie. a personal diary, or whether it’s to share certain experiences, or simply for me to be able to hold forth on an opinion for paragraphs & paragraphs uninterrupted. A luxury I wouldn’t otherwise have in real-time real-life.

What I have learnt, however, is that sometimes, blog-posts are better for letting them stew for a while. Of course, I have discovered certain drafts of blog-posts that I have let stew for so long that they have now become completely irrelevant. And of course, some blog-posts demand to be blogged in that moment (read: when I’m royally pissed-off).

But, for the most part, a topic which I would think was bloggable, if I did indeed have anything to say about it, would still be around a couple of days later. A little more chewed-on, but (hopefully) better for the added ruminations.

While we’re on the subject of cows, Grace & I were at the Natural History museum in London last weekend. An information-man, an Italian, was handling Grace’s application for membership of the Natural History museum, when we were interrupted by man, who absolutely had to know what was standing before the Natural History museum was built.

Visitor: What was here before the Natural History museum?
Information, ie. our dude: It was always the Natural History museum.
Visitor: No, what I meant was, what was this building used for before it became the Natural History museum?
Our dude: This was always built to be the Natural History museum.
Visitor: (still insisting) Wasn’t there a building here before this?
Our dude: No, there wasn’t.
Visitor: (disbelievingly) Fine, what was here before the Natural History museum?
Our dude: It was a meedow.

(I’d clocked what our dude meant at this point, but clearly the man hadn’t.)

Visitor: A meedow?
Our dude: Yes, you know, a meedow. The place where cows… (grabs air repeatedly)
Visitor: Ohhh, you mean a MEADOW.
Our dude: Yes, that is what I said. A meedow.

Totally reminded me of why I love the Italians

And there was this cow, I remember, in Miri, which was tied by a piece of rope to a stake in the ground. You could see around this cow, this perfect concentric area of shortened grass, but beyond the radius of the rope, long grass. Poor cow. I wonder what happened to it.

And now we’re off the subject of cows.

Like I was saying, I noticed blog-material, which I would consider blog-worthy, would normally be around after a couple of days, as opposed to other blog-material, which I might rush to blog on that day, but look back after a couple of days and think, “What was the point of that??”

Having said that, I do quite like some of my stuff which I’d written in the moment; the humour seems fresher, somehow. And ‘cos it’s a shame to forget random conversations, which is wont to happen after a couple of days.

And now, I shall, or shall not, look back on this post in a couple of days’ time, and wonder, “What was the point of THIS??”

[Updated] My favourite excerpts from Scrubs Season 8 Episode 15:

Script:

JD: You already know I love you. I shouldn’t have to make some crazy gesture. I’m not a big fan of those. Besides, weren’t you the one who said we were past all this dumb relationship drama?

Elliot: And I meant it! Then.

JD: But you don’t now.

Elliot: I’m a girl. That’s how it works.

Loves how this captures EXACTLY what I’ve had to say to people boys A boy

Song:

Loves, LOVES this version of Hey Ya.

I JUST realised Ted’s playing a left-handed guitar. I feel so clever for noticing

[Updated] Britain’s Got Talent: Susan Boyle proves you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Or a singer by her appearance.

“But the tigers come at night,
With their voices soft as thunder.
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame.”

- I Dreamed a Dream, Les Miserables.”

Before I watched this video, I had already read the news articles about her, and knew she was going to be pitch-perfect.

The audience, and the judges, though, Simon Cowell included, clearly had no idea what they were in for, and you could see from their facial expressions that within the first 5 seconds of Susan Boyle walking out on stage, they had already dismissed the next act as old, ridiculous, frumpy, and an uncool, unlikely singer.

Much the same way people had dismissed this uncool, unlikely singer.

I loved how when she started singing, she made everyone take those looks back. And I bet that girl in the video is mortified at how she was caught rolling her eyes at this 47 year-old woman, who might well turn out to be this year’s Britain’s Got Talent winner.

“I am so thrilled, because I know that everybody was against you. I honestly think that we were all being cynical, and I think that’s the biggest wake-up call ever. And I just want to say it was a complete privilege listening to that.”

- Amanda Holden.

“In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging – the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts – the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace.”

- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly.