Funnel Cake!

It is quite possibly, the most unhealthy thing you could ever eat, but oh, it's goooood…

A Chilled Apple And A Piñata By Starlight

Yesterday, then. A day of “OH MY GOD, IT’S THE APPLE CHILL!”

For those of you who are either not native to Chapel Hill or spend enough time here that people think you live here: the Apple Chill is an event that takes place in the centre of Chapel Hill at the end of April. Franklin Street is closed off, and the road is filled with little stalls, bouncy castles, motorbikes, candy floss sellers, and gunshot victims. The latter is perhaps not quite so much fun, but everything else, yay!

I led Stacie and Srav up and down Franklin Street, in blistering sunshine, until I'd seen everything (and to the point where they were willing to put aside humouring the British person and thinking about stabbing instead). But where else can you have a funnel cake, candy floss and a balloon monkey? Exactly. And they had fun really. Inbetween the death glares.

My favourite part of the afternoon though, was when I was ordering the funnel cake. There was a girl in front of me waiting for a hot dog, and as soon as she heard my voice, turned around and said "Are you English?" in an English accent. She was an exchange student from Canterbury, and she sounded so happy to hear a similar accent. It was very endearing…

Now, we were also supposed to slaughter the piñata last night, as it has been sitting unloved in Laura and Collin's house for a couple of weeks now. The plan was to head over to Heather's house, drink the bottle of wine she got me as a birthday present, and then indulge in massive violence. But Heather never called anybody after she got off work, so Christa and I ended up thinking maybe the two of us should just kill it.

So we went into the woods. At night. I'm very impressed with Christa's night navigational skills - you have her to thank that I wasn't eaten alive by hungry centipedes last night. Anyway, after a fun walk across creeks and through a wood that wanted to make sure we knew who was boss, we ended up at one of the adventure playgrounds, and proceeded to destroy the poor piñata. Definitely the best way to spend a Sunday night.

currently playing: Althea & Donna - Uptown Ranking

Summing Up Yesterday

The Scrap Exchange is a lot of fun, but it’s probably a good thing that I don’t live here, because I’d spend far, far too much time there. Magnet scraps, boxes, foam tubes, biohazard bags, stickers, IV lines, and Catholic school uniforms - it’s all there. I only spent two dollars, honest (and had a lovely conversation with the girl behind the counter about my Invisibles wallet and comics, as well).

The rest of the day? Well, let's just say that a little too much alcohol was consumed. I'd say by all, but being honest I think it was me who came off worst. For those of you keeping score at home, there was at least a partial recital of Eliot, plus lots of cowering in the corner from embarrassment. Oh, and we played Parcheesi, which is a bit like an evil version of Ludo.

I have pictures, but I'm a bit scared of actually looking at them…

currently playing: Girls Aloud – Whole Lotta History

Confessions 1,2, and 3

Actually, despite all the worrying beforehand, the MODERNEXTENSION dance performance was good! It proved, at least, that Coldplay album tracks are indeed worse than the singles, and that you can have lots of fun with exercise balls. And Christa’s vitriol at her past in the group was highly amusing (to paraphrase: the modern dancers hate the ballet dancers, the good dancers hate the bad ones, and everybody hates tap with a pathological fury. Who knew that it was such a hotbed of simmering rage, eh, readers?).

Weirdest part of the evening: all week, I've been wondering just why I recognised the name of one of the people we went with last night. It was oddly familiar, but I couldn't place it. And when I met her, it was even worse, until it was mentioned that she used to be a CS undergrad at UNC. I'm fairly sure that I was her TA for a course during the 2002-2003 year. The algorithms one, I think. Which was a little freaky.

Tetris DS update: the world is beating me down hard. I used to think I was a reasonable Tetris player; that illusion has been swiftly ripped asunder. I've won about six games since going online - these people are machines.

currently playing: Stars – one more night

What?

How else would you spend an afternoon?

A Quieter Day

Not much going on just right now; some washing, some charging, getting mystified as to why somebody from Seattle wants to be my friend on MySpace, and looking worryingly at the increasingly angry-looking sky.

Tonight? Modern dance! And other things! My final Friday in Carrboro for a while…

currently playing: Spearmint – Sweeping The Nation

Sexy Gypsy Dancing

“It’s like the pizza: if you don’t dance with me, I’ll kill you. Sorry.”

I always seem to be afraid for my life when Christa is around. I can't imagine why. Last night's death threat stemmed from going to see Luminescent Orchestrii at the Cave in Chapel Hill. There was supposed to be a rather large gathering going, but it looked as if only Christa and I would end up being there. And as she was intending to dance, I was going to be press-ganged into service.

As it turned out, Mary and Stacie showed up a little later, which was good, as it meant that Christa could go off and dance with a group who don't have two left feet, and I kept Stacie company as we stuck to our guns and watched from the sidelines. I can't say that I've heard too many Romanian gypsy punk bands, but they were good, and certainly got people up and dancing.

(Weirdly, I think I saw somebody from UNITAS last night; she looked an awful lot like Jenny, and blocked our view for a considerable part of the concert.)

Oh, and I had a crumpet! Yes, Carrboro even has those; although without the obscene amounts of butter, they're just not quite the same.

And for those of you in the area, I had my first pizza from IP3 this afternoon. Shocking, I know…

currently playing: Stars – set yourself on fire

The Transformation To The Dark Side Is Complete

Yet, even with a messenger bag, I think my unironic love of Hilary Duff will probably save me from the clutches of hipsterdom. That, and I’d just feel silly as one.

Today! Fun and games with the bank! I got a shiny new debit card yesterday from my American bank, so I decided to dump all my traveller's cheques into my account this morning. Afterwards, I tried to check my balance. "Invalid transaction or account". Jeepers. I tried a different ATM, but with the same result. So, after a quick (when I say 'quick', I mean 'expensive') visit to the comic shop, I went back to the bank, begged them to help me, and they did! Apparently, my account was marked as dormant, and this was causing the trouble. It should be active again in the next 24 hours. Something of a relief seeing as how it now contains all my dollar currency. And they let me have a raspberry lollipop too!

That brings us to a side point - why are raspberry things blue? It seems a little strange. Christa and I have a theory that the strawberries and cherries got there first and wouldn't let the raspberries into the red house, but if you know an actual reason, I'm sure we'd love to hear it before discarding it in favour of our 'evil fruit' hypothesis.

Then! An afternoon in Battle Park, writing sentences on index cards. Because I do that sort of thing. Do you?

We are apparently promised sexy gypsy dancing tonight. I will keep you posted.

currently playing: Hilary Duff – Wake Up

I Am A Consumer Whore! And How!

So, erm, yes, I’ve bought my clothes for winter…what? They were on sale!

More disturbingly, I looked at the clothes I got afterwards, and noticed something. Aside from the outer jacket, I seem to have obtained The Tenth Doctor's outfit. Oh dear.

I also obtained Brain Age: Train Your Brain for my Nintendo DS. It's a set of games that is supposed to increase brain activity (although it's more fun than science, I think). On my first go, I had a brain age of 65, but after figuring out that the handwriting recognition was mistaking my 7s for 5s, I managed to get it down to 25 fairly easily.

Okay, hopefully now I've finished my consumer cravings for this holiday. Just a few presents to go now. Oh, and an WXYC t-shirt, because I've wanted one for ages, but always seem to forget…

Oh, and I also caved into the messenger bag, buying a reasonably cheap one at Gap. It's very plain, which is good, as I intend to do evil things to it muahahahaha!

currently playing: The Dresden Dolls - Me & The Minibar

I don't know where the sunbeams end

The only downside about coming to Carrboro is the period a week before it’s time to leave; I wake up feeling that I actually live here, before realising that in a short time, I’ll be back in the UK.

Of course, all that means is that I have to fill the last few days with as much fun as possible. I may have also just signed up for total humiliation. Oh dear.

You can spoil New Earth all you want now. My thoughts: much the same problems as last series, but still enjoyable enough, although again, I think the non-RTD stories may turn out to be the better ones.

Oh, and from back home (nicked from The World of Stuart): watch a BNP spokesman get completely outclassed by a BBC News 24 reporter, as he goes from 'we're not racists!' through to 'Labour, the Tories, the Liberals, and the Church of England are all Marxists!' before finally ending up with 'well, ideally, we'd like to send every person of foreign origin back home. Erm…we're really not racists, honest.' Apparently, 1 in 4 Britons is considering voting BNP at the next local elections. Do I really have to go back?

currently playing: The Flaming Lips - Vein Of Stars