Last night I stayed out late to see my friend Dan's band MIR play... and there will be some pictures in this space soon once I have them Dan ApprovedTM. I was about five minutes late regretfully because they were the best band playing that night.
After a 12 hour long nap to help me fully recover from the flu, and a long bath to take away the smell of cigarette smoke from last night, I went to town to meet up with some friends. While in town there was a parade for the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi, their New Year. It looked like the entire Sikh population of Leeds had turned up, almost as many people who were watching the parade. Some people next to me were talking about how inconvenienced they were that they couldn't cross the street, and I just wanted to throttle them, because how often does this happen... plus, some of the Sikhs had swords, I would hate to see any blood shed because someone needed to get a duvet cover from Allders. Happy Vaisakhi!
Then we went to see Bridget Jones Diary. I must confess that I didn't know what the movie was about at all, nor did I read any reviews about it, the real reason I went to see it is the scandal surrounding Renee Zellweger being cast as Bridget Jones. Some journalists here seemed to care that an American, or a "Texan American at that" as an article in the Guardian put it, was cast in the role. I think she did a pretty good job. Was it a good movie? Well... I didn't identify with any of the characters like I was supposed to, and everything neatly resolves itself in the end so you don't have to give it much thought. It's not a cinematic masterpiece, but it wasn't a waste of time or money to see Colin Firth as another hot Mr. Darcy... and to see Hugh Grant get punched in the head.
Today is the anniversary of the Titanic sinking (thanks KVRX for playing the Gavin Bryars "Sinking of the Titanic" every year!), and the anniversary of the day Abraham Lincoln was shot (well, he didn't die until the 15th)... oh, and my birthday.
Happy Birthday to me.
Today was loosely planned. I didn't want to have too many expectations so as not to be disappointed. I encouraged Nigel to go to his friend's place in Manchester (because I know he wanted to go anyway) so I wouldn't have him to blame if I had a bad birthday. Also so I could have friends over and didn't feel like I was borrowing his apartment.
It's hard to find words to describe how happy I was when Frank showed up with a birthday cake he'd made me. This gesture alone made my birthday, and it was one of my best birthdays ever.
