A new leaf...

When Adam comes back to Melbourne, we are going to look for a new house. One where we can both have our own studio space to work on our passions/hobbies/businesses.

When I get my new studio I think I would like to paint it yellow:

You Should Paint Your Room Yellow

Bright and bold, yellow is truly the color of inspiration. Your yellow room will drive you to think clearly, develop new ideas, and be organized. Yellow is also energizing and very powerful. So don't expect to rest in there!

What Color Should You Paint Your Room?

I feel as if the new year is the start of a new chapter for me. At 28 it's time to pull the finger out and make those dreams come true before it's too late. So the past few weeks have involved quite a bit of soul-searching and list-making (i love lists) .

A list of personal goals was the starting point. The rule was that they had to be goals which didn't rely on anyone (or anything) else to achieve. So "have a #1 record" was out. I came up with 8 or so things that I really want to achieve this year and gave each one a time frame. They are all things that have been floating round my head but none of them really had a deadline or action plan attached. Now, they do. I'm excited!!

It is going to be tough, I am not the most disciplined person, but I think the way I have broken everything down to a daily level of what needs to be done will make it easier to not get distracted. I very much need things in bite-sized chunks. If the task seems too hard or I don't see results I quickly become discouraged.

So... it started this week and so far so good. I have already done more piano practice this week than I probably did in the previous month. Plus guitar and singing.

I have also been to the gym every day. My new gym plan, BTW is to alternate cardio & weight training so I do a little each day rather than everything a few times a week. When I have to do everything it takes too long and by the time I get to the end I'm completely over it and get slack. So this week, for the first time since I started going to the gym four weeks ago, I have been able to do 20 mins of cardio!!! This is a breakthrough for me, previously I did 10 mins and thought I was going to die. I know it sounds pathetic but I haven't exercised regularly for a long time. The trick has been to increase and decrease the resistance on the bike/cross trainer in a saw-tooth pattern:
So you increase the difficulty in 1 min intervals and then after you've hit the hardest one for a minute drop it back to the lowest one for a minute & work your way up again. I know most bikes etc have a workout roughly like this built in but I think I prefer doing it manually because I am in control of it and have to be the one to push myself harder. Anyway it's working well for me so far!!

Another goal has been clearing out clutter - I know D'Jen was talking about doing that recently - must be in the air!! I have started by selling a bunch of books we don't need on Ebay - it's the first time I've been a seller and going ok so far. Quite time-consuming by the time you photograph the books, type up the blurb, etc, but since time is one thing I do have, it's worth it. Next step is to sell some other, trickier, stuff, like excess musical equipment, random slide projectors and pretty much anything else not bolted down. I am a hoarder big time so it's hard to let go of things, but I know I'm going to feel much better when it's done. Why do I need a blow up purple plastic couch under my bed gathering dust??? Why??? So, Ebay + Hard Rubbish Collection and/or Garage Sale = Happiness.

Anyway I will fill you in more about my goals as time goes on but it's an exciting new start!!!

Other things going on...

Adam has been not well. Some sort of infection causing quite a lot of pain. He will probably kill me for telling you. Since he likes to think he's invincible. Please make sure they play something nice at my funeral. No Whitney Houston crap, okay? Anyway, he has to go for an ultra-sound tomorrow. Sounds pretty serious, doesn't it? Hmmm we will see... (It is very hard not being there when your partner is sick. Who's going to hold his hand in the waiting room? Yes, I'm such a girl!)

Chester has been pretty stable, his poor little heart hasn't exploded yet. He had a bad coughing day today, I gave him cough mixture in the morning to soothe it a bit. He left me two presents on Tuesday. Right next to the Sex & the City DVD case*. Good thing it's a rental. Hopefully they won't notice if it smells a bit like dog shit!

*Chester has this weird thing where he has to poo in the most uncomfortable places. Usually not in the house but every now and then if he doesn't get walked he will. But not on the lino in the kitchen or the bathroom, always on in a carpeted room, and very often on a DVD case. I don't know why, something in his training must tell him not to do it on the carpet but there's a crossed wire somewhere. Once he even did it on one of my keyboards. Ew. And when he goes outside, he doesn't just pick a nice patch of grass to poo on. No, he has to pick the spikiest twig or weed to back up to... it must be so uncomfortable!! But every time without fail, he does it. Bizarre little creature, he is. But SO adorable!!!

Just look how freakin' cute he is would you!!!

Chester The Cutest Dog In The Whole Wide World curled up on a beanbag with my dirty clothes... awww...

Hmm what else?

Oh, saw Dr McSleazy going into the gym the other day as I was on my way out. Looking forward to running into him in there.

Band things have been... up and down. Rehearsal was pretty good on Tuesday but took me a while to snap out of the feral mood I got in when I found out the thing I had waited over a week for which was supposed to supply power to my new mic was the wrong thing. It did technically supply power as required, but it also complicated things a whole lot unecessarily. For those in the know I was sold a pre-amp instead of a simple phantom power supply. And to run the mic through the pre-amp on stage would require a DI, or for the pre-amp to be at the mixing desk. Which is not what I wanted. I just need a simple 48v phantom power supply. Today I got a refund and will be buying the thing elsewhere. I must learn you can't rely on people in shops to sell you the right thing. But it's hard when you don't know what you're talking about!! You assume they do...

Almost got in a fight with Paris the other day, she sent an email asking for certain things to be done and I felt like she was starting to delegate her entire job to me and I got over it. There are some things I'm totally happy to do like putting up posters and spending time on myspace, but liaising with our publicist... I don't think that's my job. Same goes for ordering posters from the printer. I'm happy to pick them up and distribute them and all that, but I don't see why I should be doing the negotiating. That's why we have a manager!! On the other hand I understand that she's only one person and working for not much money so she does need to delegate some things. It was just bad timing, there were too many things in the last week that pissed me off just a little bit, and this was the proverbial straw.

Anyway I called her rather than playing email tennis and managed to talk it out in a non-fighty way. I'm not very good at sticking up for myself but I think I got my point across.

Got an email from Tom today to everyone in the band and Paris, asking us individually to name the three songs of our repertoire that we think represent the "present and future direction of the band and why". Interesting question. I, being difficult, gave two answers. One for where I feel we're being "guided" to at the moment, and one for where I'd prefer we were heading. He said "this is not a test, nor is it an expression of what will/won't be on the album, i'm just curious in regards to peoples impression of where we are and where we're going". Hmmmm... so what happens, Tom, when everyone has a different impression of where we are and where we are going? And are you going to share your impression with us??

Sometimes I feel like there is a grand plan in his head and the rest of us only find out each clue as we need it, if that makes sense. So perhaps this question is a part of some bigger picture...

After I sent my response I sent another email saying I'd very much like to hear his response to his own question. Because honestly I really have no idea. Especially as he spent last week mixing album tracks so I don't even know how half of them sound now or which ones he's excited about.

You should see the bruise on my thigh. From tambourining. I was going to give you a picture but decided the internet would probably break if subjected to a close-up shot of my white flabby bruised thigh. Suffice to say the bruise is bigger than my fist. Ouch!!!

Ok - a gold star to you if you got through this one... I swear I should write a novel not a blog, but anyway! Time to turn my computer off and curl up with Chester and an episode of a slightly smelly Sex and the City (I'm up to series 3 by the way. Bring back Big - I miss him!).


Over & out.