I like Death Cab the way a fat kid loves cupcakes – too much. Last night’s gig was just amazing – although I did feel about a decade too old for the rest of the crowd.

It did come off with a bit of an MTV Dashboard Confessional Unplugged feel – people screaming as they recognised songs, mainly female voices singing along to songs off the current album. I think that for the last few years it’s been terribly fashionable to dislike Emo, but my feeling on it is that music is meant to affect (and reflect) your emotions, and in that way, bands like these are indispensable. I’d even tar Jimmy Eat World with this brush – beautiful, meaningful music that voices the confusion of youth, the rush of feeling of first love, the guilt of first one-night-stands and all-round intensity of adolescence. The lead singers of these bands are in their late 20s or early 30s, and yet they speak of fumbling in the back of a car and other such domains of the young and pimply. This kind of music is not only good, it is necessary, in my view. Rather this expression of confusion and raw feeling than the “tearing up my heart” and “backstreet’s back”s of this world. I lift my glass to the eyeliner stained tear.

Phew, intense! The only downside of the show was the merchandise, shocking selection! As such, I’ve decided to buy a tee online, and have whittled the choice down to three options.

Go on, influence the course of my life! 1, 2, or 3!

Weekend was awesome. Vern has the breakdown of Saturday here - he pretty much mentions everything except the fact that I have perfected singing to James Blunt in the style of Nikki from Big Brother ("I'm SOOO COOOOOOOOOOOOLD! GOODBYYYYYYE MYYYY LOVERRRRRR!") but I actually think that perhaps he chose to leave that out on purpose. Hey, I was proud. Also, drunk.

Which may explain the consequential purse loss. I have actually pegged losing my purse so well now; I've lost 3 purses in a year and a half since arriving in the UK. London hobos are so very grateful for the little gifts I leave them at concert venues and on buses; lovely purses that cost increasingly more each time, each with about a tenner in and my bank cards.

So at least I had the excuse to go purse shopping, but having to take my passport to the bank to draw any money at all (on payday!!! so unimpressed with this!!!) kind of took the shine off the purse hunt. The good thing is that I've now learned to deal with losing my purse without turning into a drunk boyfriend-blaming banshee - when I discovered the purse was gone I had about 2 minutes of freak out; Ian's face was a picture as he expected the meltdown to happen... but I just called Sentinal, cancelled my cards, and reminded myself that it could have been my phone with all my numbers in.

Pics from the day are here (thanks Vern).

So my PA chum and I get these free tickets to go and be part of the screaming masses in the audience for the Album Chart Show at Koko in Camden on Monday. Not a bad way to spend a Monday evening, I rationalise, completely forgetting my memo to myself last Monday that this Big Love show looked like it was going to get more interesting. Anyhoo...

So Abby emails me the line up, and tells me that she has a spare ticket. I duly invite Ian, he agrees to come. He then drops out of it at 4pm as he has some work to do that he won't finish in time to get to the show.
The thing with the line-up is that you can only see what'll be on the show and not necessarily what'll be taped on the day you're there, as in our case, the expected Belle & Sebastian show actually being a dodgy 40-year-old man standing on stage urging us to 'give it all you've got' as though we'd just seen a great set. Harrumph.

But it all turned out okay, because they only went and got the FLAMING LIPS INSTEAD!!!

That's right, the FLAMING FRIKKING LIPS were there and they did NOT disappoint! Unfortch we weren't allowed to take pics but they were so phenomenally good - the other bands (Mojave 3 and Orson) looked like such amateurs in comparison. The lead singer had personality practically pouring out of him, he created - in a three song set - an truly awesome experience. Let me tell you, the use of props like enormous foam hands to clap with, people dressed like aliens and Santas and enormous canons that spew tiny bits of coloured paper in the crowd for ten minutes solid while backlit with streams and streams of light should NEVER be considered improper. This confetti and floating and light coupled with music filled with hope for the human race generated such an intense feel-good atmosphere - well at least, it did for me. I stood there, watching people reach up to the light, watching the rain of colour descend toward me and thought: these guys have nailed it.

I may be going overboard or whatever, but I spent the whole day today trying to think of how to impart to friends, colleagues, and you, rockit-readers, just how much of an impact this show made upon me. Adjectives fail; if you EVER get the chance to see The Flaming Lips, snap up the tickets, and make them as close to the stage as possible.

Our flat. I'm loving it. Since moving in, Ian and I have been trying to kit it out and, as far as our meager budgets will allow, we've become domestic geeks.

It's almost all down to Ian - steamers, really sharp knives, energy saving bulbs, lovely sparkling white shower curtain.

A year ago, I was living in a flat where everything had already been bought, used, washed, used, washed, a billion times over. It was someone else's stuff, someone else's shower curtain. Ian and I bought our first ever joint-purchase for our room, two matching pine flatpacked bedside tables. We measured up and everything in advance of buying them. Yep, that was the day we learned that forgetting to take account of skirting boards results in wasted money and assembly.

But we're here in our new flat, everything except the major furniture and appliances is ours and hey presto - our bedside tables fit like a glove.

So I know I said there were changes happening, and I've been dying to spit it out on this blog. It's not like a secret or anything - it's work-related. I handed in my resignation last week, to move to another company, and was all up and ready to leave, when my current employer did the Godfather thing, and made an counter-offer I couldn't refuse without kicking my own ass 2 years down the line (I think). So in a day I went from leaving my company to a promotion.
Now I don't want to jinx it, because nothing's really on paper yet and most of my co-workers aren't aware of it, but in about a month I'm movin' on up, to the position I had in my sights in my 5 year plan, a year ago. Not too shabby eh Nige!

Yep, still here.

Charlene hurt her frankle. So did Ade.

Buying a big bag of pretzels is a bad idea. Becuase you've already eaten lunch. A 500 calorie tuna sandwich. And honestly, you were never going to keep them all for tomorrow, were you?

Big news on the horizon.

And a half day off tomorrow, to run a PA lunch we're having in the park waaaay into the afternoon.

Silverstone on Saturday.

Don't care about the football.

Have a great weekend!

Since being back in London, I've had a marked drop in my ability to tolerate the ineptitude and general sheep-like actions of people. Commuting is prime ground for really stupid people and their really stupid way of just standing in the doorway. You can only say 'excuse me...' so many times before huffing and pushing past, y'know?

So anyway, this song made me smile on the bus today, I wish someone would surprise me at work and whisk me away somewhere new. They'd tell me they'd cleared it with my boss and all my work was covered for the rest of the day week. Sigh. It's a nice thought huh.

"The Postal Service - Brand New Colony"

I'll be the grapes fermented, Bottled and served with the table set In my finest suit, like a perfect gentlemen

I'll be the fire escape that's bolted to the ancient brick
Where you will sit and contemplate your day

I'll be the waterwings that save you if you start drowning in
An open tab when your judgement's on the brink

I'll be the phonograph that plays your favorite albums back
As you're lying there drifting off to sleep...

I'll be the platform shoes and undo what heredity's done to you
You won't have to strain to look into my eyes

I'll be your winter coat buttoned and zipped straight to the throat
With the collar up so you won't catch cold

I want to take you far from the cynics in this town
And kiss you on the mouth

We'll cut out bodies free
From the tethers of this scene,
Start a brand new colony
Where everything will change,
We'll give ourselves new names
Identities erased

The sun will heat the grounds
Under our bare feet

In this brand new colony