At last…! Another blog entry!
Sadly it’s probably not going to be that interesting for many of you. I just need somewhere to ramble away.
Every day when I get the bus in, I start thinking about amazing blog reflections I could write and by the time I get home at night I’ve forgotten what they are. Dear me, but at least I’m writing today. I’ve had a couple of extremely fun and helter skelter weekends; now I finally get to catch up on a lot of missed sleep and life.
Last weekend I was out and about seeing the Goodies and meeting up with Jess and Liv for that. We had a great time and I’m still thinking about the firemen. It was great to see Tim and Graeme again as well; last chance for a few months which is a shame but there’s going to be some Clue shows… I can’t let a tour like that pass me by! Shall write more about Derby soon.
Saturday night, I was out in Newcastle with the girls for H,S & J’s birthdays; had a good night but sadly my tiredness caught up with me and I slumped in Revolution. Don’t think I dampened the night though and it was great to chill out with the Newcastle chicks for a few hours. Hopefully we can do it again soon when I’m more on form!
Sunday was funny; despite going to bed at 4am, we all randomly woke up at 8am! Luckily we got to sleep again by J, H and I all left around 10.30 – 11am. Yes early I know, but J had to pick up her dog from somewhere and as H lived near her, she gave her a lift and I had a further 70 miles till I arrived home.
Absolutely lovely weather when I got home so I took the opportunity of airing my sun lounger and having a rest. Then on Monday it was back to work.
Work is improving on me mind, I love the division I work in; just need to get over my strange fear of using the phone. Don’t know why I struggle with the phone at work – it’s weird. But as I have a whole load of phone calls to make next week, I better start improving fast! I can handle phone calls in other situations but I guess it’s because I am still not entirely sure what I’m talking about with regards to my division so I feel a bit inadequate that way.
Anyway work is going well; have more things to do now and it looks like I have some more training to go on in the future so that’ll open up even more work to me. Just wish they’d make me permanent it would really help because I’m starting to get involved with long term projects and I would feel so much more secure in life.
Had a great week as well; on Tuesday I gave blood (finally) for the first time ever. I have a great fear of the unknown but the experience isn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. I got more bruising from the plaster cute Dave stuck on after giving the blood. I went home that night and asked my mum if I looked a pint lighter.
On Tuesday I also met up with K for lunch; it was great to see her again (well it had been over a week!) and we had some awesome chats. We went to BHS for lunch and my god did they pile the plates high! I had a PJ smoothie with my lunch purely for the name. After a quick venture in Fopp we walked to my work and agreed to meet for a coffee the next night after work.
Coffee was great; in Costa except I had a massive hot chocolate (I actually wanted a small one) and K and I chatted for ages. Edinburgh is the home of Wrong Conversations. I can’t wait to live in Edinburgh properly with K; we’re going to have such a laugh.
Anyway one really nice aspect of my life is being slightly tarnished right now which is a shame. Before I carry on it might be easier to establish the groups of people:
Group A – the poor people this who problem seems to revolve around
Group B - Me and my friends
Group X – the annoying people
Basically, Group A and group B have a special rapport of which Group X only know about 40% of the details because that is all they need to know.
Group X seem to think they are really liked by Group A (and Group B ) despite a lot of subtle bitching and hints. Group X seem to be a bit (deliberately?) oblivious to this and carry on trying to make out to Group B and others that they are actually becoming chummy with Group A. Group B aren’t stupid and cringe at their embarrassing messages. Group A, who most certainly read these messages as well, must surely shake their heads in despair.
Still following me?
One member of Group X in particular seems to want to be a member of Group B but really has endeared herself to anyone in Group B and wouldn’t fit in anyway. This particular member seems to be wanting to create a competition out of the whole situation. Group B, although irritated, aren’t all that bothered as Group X have no clue and based on past and present behaviour would never have the same rapport as Group B do with Group A.
It’s hard to describe here without naming people but I really don’t want to name and shame because it’s not very nice. I don’t think Group X will actually realise who they are if they read this… they seemed to have missed every hint so far.
On a nicer note, I’m part of a group of Goodies fans called ‘The Giddies’. There are 6 of us; two Aussies and 4 UK based. Tim B-T asked at Darlington where the name came from and, after a lot of um-ing and ahh-ing, we think that we started using the name around about the time of the Edinburgh Festival, possibly before. As our Minx pointed out, there is actually an episode of the Goodies where they are called ‘The Giddies’ but we couldn’t remember which one it was. Anyway a bit of research (I love saving emails some times) provided this:
30/07/06 Me to J: We should call ourselves the Giddies if anyone asks!
30/07/06 J to me: Hahaha, The Giddies, perfect! I will definitely be giddy in front of the boys, just like I was at ISIHAC. That will definitely have to be our name, "Giddies... Giddy Giddy Hee Hee" 
So sometime after that, the name seemed to stick. The word ‘giddy’ describes our little group incredibly well –
Giddy: Attended with or causing dizziness
Frivolous and lighthearted; impulsive; flighty: a giddy young person.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/giddy
Depends on how you interpret ‘dizziness’…
Anyway the name has stuck with my friends and I and we’ve been using it since September as we swap messages between ourselves. It wasn’t meant as a way of singling ourselves out from other fans or anything like that; it’s just a bit of fun. Why am I justifying the use of our name?
Anyway, an UK tour of ‘The Goodies Still Rule Ok’ has just finished and just before it took place, we launched a UK fan site called ‘The Saucy Gibbon’
http://www.the-goodies.co.ukWe basically set it up because we were alarmed at how little hype there was on the official site for the tour.
Anyway we decided to set up the site combining the knowledge and skills of all 6 of us within our time constraints. I designed and built the site with the co-operation of the other Giddies and between us all we created and are still creating pages for the site.
We cover all sorts of info – about the Goodies (TV shows, music, tours etc.), ISIHAC, ISIRTA, Hamish and Dougall. We’ve created biographies and information on significant shows they worked on before the Goodies and we’re currently developing pages on shows the guys have done since or during the Goodies. They’ve been bloody busy I’ll tell you that. In amongst all that are some fan contributions; fun things people have done as well as photos and the like.
Something that tickled me pink with pride was that during a radio interview with Graeme, forget which one, but the DJ quoted from the Internet and I thought; I recognise that sentence! Sure enough, I logged on and there in Graeme’s biography was the quote.
Anyway, what has been interesting since we started the website, has been the surprisingly many people who seem to know about us. It feels quite odd. One of the memories that sticks out in my mind was of the last night of the Edinburgh Festival. For a laugh my friends K, J and I went to the show dressed in dungarees dresses with a white ‘G’ on the front; like female Funky Gibbon Goodies/ Giddies.
Anyway towards the end of the night, we asked for a group photo with Tim and Graeme and it was bizarre. The 6 of us were stood in a line and we looked around and suddenly the bar area we were in was full of people looking at us and in front of us were probably only 3 cameras although the number of flashes that went off made it feel like more. It felt very strange indeed; I’m not sure I liked it – the eyes of the room were upon us.
Anyway something happened at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre that reminded me of this episode. We met two Australians as they were leaving the stage door area having met Tim and Graeme. It transpired they knew one of the Australian Giddies and had only gone to the show in Edinburgh because they’d seen an advert in the paper that morning and known this Giddy loved the show.
Anyway once we called to them we knew their Australian Giddy friend, they demanded a photo of the three of us. So we stood, rather self consciously as a threesome with Tim and Graeme standing to either side of us. That was odd in the first place because they’re the famous ones! Then a voice says
“And you two. Tim and Graeme get in the photo as well!” It was the way she said it that made the whole scenario even stranger.
Those were perhaps two of the strangest nights in my life.
Any blog readers, I’m afraid I’m going to have to split. I am so tired and I have a lot to do this weekend. But if I can point you towards the Keane website www.keanemusic.com just go and read El Blogs – they are so fun. Keane’s website is an excellent example of how an official fan friendly website should be run; a lot of people could learn lessons.
Toodles!
