belated post-concert, now post-coccoon

first item: the eatliz performance. i know now that their name means "abattoir". for anyone who's missed my previous impressions, they're an art rock group with simply fantastic ideas. and until wednesday night i hadn't actually noticed how much their songs have tunnelled into my head.

the eerie power of a band that sounds identical live to their studio-recorded album while maintaining such a high level of emotion was simply awesome.

aside from a bunch of new material that we were treated to, they had a jamming session that was surreally synchronized. it was disappointing that the experience had to end, and a bit odd that i was still going to be in bed in time for the following workday.

the club itself is great - it's underground with incredible sound, although the lighting caused the band to prove themselves on a number of occassions when everything went suddenly pitch-black.

upstairs is a bar out of futuristic noir, and they're purists meaning that anyone sitting down in sitting down to drink. they have decent live performances every night, so i'll definitely be visiting there more often.

my thursday morning post-concert wake-up was quite tardy, but i managed to get to base at the usual time in spite of the too-much-guinness-induced cotton wool in my head. unfortunately, for the second day in a row, the guy selling slap chips and i were out of synch, and i had to go without in spite of sNv being exactly what i needed.

after a number of weeks of waiting those of us who ordered finally received unit shirts. after my last experience with long-sleeves i expected them to be comfortable, warm and elastic enough to roll up quickly. the horrid-sleeved shirts we received proved to be quite the opposite, to the point where later on i didn't feel bad using one of them as an impromptu towel.

on the flip side of the release coin for the soldier i mentioned on wednesday, we talked over lunch about the perfect (and perfectly mean) gift. we had such fun with the idea that we couldn't stop laughing, and suddenly one of the mess-hall staff rocked up and asked if we could please stop enjoying ourselves because other people were waiting to be seated.

superb.

i had my hair cut by the new hairdresser, the first female practitioner i've seen in the army. she's not very good although she did me something passable, but i have to admit that it's the first time in years that i wasn't happy about having my hair trimmed. yesterday specifically it was simply splendid, and rather symbolic of a level of freedom that i'm not due for a very long time.

a few of us worked late yesterday, and i discovered that nystire (who's my project's primary resource) has apparently returned to working with me... without informing me. so he managed to waste a workday and the next couple of weeks are going to be rough time-wise anyway. i really expected a little more maturity than that, in spite of his being a right jerk the last while.

i caught the pointy-haired boss for a little chat regarding project limitations, and reminded him again that i'm going to be on holiday in a couple of weeks.
so? that's not a problem.
i'll be in france.
who authorized your taking vacation??
YOU did. and i've been reminding you ever since the deadlines were redefined
can't you defer it a little?

NO. we've been planning this snowboarding trip for ages, you need to book well in advance, and we're NOT deferring it. i'm praying that he now understands that if i say we might experience future difficulty with something that he should probably pay attention instead of giving me the "it'll be fine" line.

the bus i took back home was similar to that scene in invader zim - walk of doom. all the characters come out (or in) when the weather's miserable.

i discovered when i arrived home that my chequebook is invalid. i only ever pay attention to it when rent is due... so i defaulted on the rent payment and will have to get organized on monday. our landlord seemed in good humour about it, but i feel awful about the whole deal.

for almost four hours singer and i sat working on her cv. i wasn't expecting to need more than twenty minutes to finish it up, and we just kept running into problems. i was stressed out and already not feeling too hot, and when she eventually left i just passed clean out.

i wasted an hour or so on moo card designs this morning, and i'm completely unsatisfied with the results.

this morning i was stupidly freezing cold because i childishly couldn't bear wearing anything over my new penny arcade shirt on its first time out. the chilly twenty minute walk to the center, hopping from sunbeam to sunbeam unhelpfully, was an unnecessary mistake. i went to check something out and had brought the wrong thing (i might have a better explanation in a couple of weeks).

i walked into the disc center and bought the two alter bridge discs by quickly greeting the guys but not giving them a chance to talk :)

i frozen-meat-popsicled my way to meet with the kid for a great breakfast, although sitting outdoors after walking cold was not a good idea. after quick shopping, i got into bed and shivered fitfully until just before 6pm. i still have a headache but at least i've managed to turn the external aircon on.

singer introduced me to a band called ozric tentacles (not osric testicles - singer couldn't figure out why i wasn't taking her seriously when she tried to find one of their videos).

i'm trying to decide if i'm going to send fn a message - i haven't spoken to her since last week, and that's unusual for someone i'm sleeping with... unless we're no longer doing the bad thing. i'm a bit ambivalent myself, you see.

my head aches.

*cough*
*HACK*
*spit*