Susylilly's Blog

And also ...

http://www.oncewed.com/  this site is lush too!  They have some lovely DIY projects espec

Inspiration

As mentioned in my previous blog I am now engaged & therefore planning a wedding!  Argh!  This is not something I am prepared for as also mentioned previously.

So being  a young, hip, trendy thing I immediately turn to the blogosphere for inspiration.  I am amazed at how few people seem to be blog focused.  Also how few people are interested in craft and making stuff.  I thought everyone was doing it now, but when I mention it to friends I still get a look like I'm mental.  Anyhoo.

I now have some favourite blogs relating to weddings which I thought I would share:

http://www.zoelingard.co.uk/blog/  very classy and tasteful, based in London, some lovely mood boards and useful information  - I'm considering this colour scheme

 


http://www.rockmywedding.co.uk/ UK based fun blog but what I really like is the lack of the US b*ll*cks that are on some of the following blogs.  Its v down the line.  And this wedding is lovely and those shoes are fierce.

http://100layercake.com/blog/  bit more fun and trendy, US based, lots of real weddings

http://www.i-do-it-yourself.com/  for crafters really but some gorgeous inspirations

http://junebugweddings.com/blogs/ more inspriation from the US - why are Americans so much better at this stuff than us

Seriously there are some AMAZING wedding suppliers who do weird and wacky and beautiful stuff if you live in America.  I imagine there is stuff available here too but they haven't managed to make it on to the web.  Grrr.

Not to mention the complete lack of info some suppliers provide - you have to phone them and let them know its for a wedding just so they can add the compulsory 50% increase in prices.  Double grrr!

I'll let you know if I find anything else fab.

All Change

I have just finished reading The Diary of a Provinical Lady which made me feel better in a strange way.  Its nice to know that even back in the 1930's the condition of being a woman was not much different.  What struck me especially was the diarist admitting to that crippling agony of thinking through a social event where one had fun at the time but when you think through what you said ... urgh.  It is very well enunciated.  Much better than I have put it here.  But I think it is a peculiarly female condition.I am very much enjoying the inter-war, female literature being reproduced at the moment by the likes of Persephone Press etc.  Books seemed to have been written by women I could identify with and understand in a way I don't feel towards most modern writers.  It feels as if they were not trying to prove they were clever or accepting they were just writing rubbish books for reading on the beach.  They were trying to appeal to other women in an intelligent and sympathetic manner and to talk about the condition of being female or just to provide well written escapism with kind ideals.  For instance The Making of a Marchioness is a silly frippery but very enjoyable and suggests that being kind can be a perfectly good way to live.Alternatively William: An Englishman was the most disturbing and harrowing book I think I have ever read and would not suggest it to anyone unless they really like to be depressed about everything ever.  It was good though.The condition of being a female has had a big impact on my life.  I have given up certain aspects of myself for my man.  I consciously chose this.  Safety over excitement and balance over imbalance.  My brother wrote recently that at 23 he chose to be happy (he stopped listening to Joy Division and listed to S Club & instead - v effective).  When I chose Fluffles I chose to be calm over being over-excited.  The flip side of being a very excitable person is that the highs are very high and the lows are very low.  Fluffles gives me the option to be calm most of the time.  That means I don't have nearly as exciting a time as I used to but I don't have to get super blue either.  Some people have doubted us over the years but I've always known the investment of time and energy was worth it and 2010 looks set to be very exciting. 

On New Years Eve Fluffles and I stayed at the Dorchester and at midnight he proposed.

Since then we have also managed to organise a little house in Tooting/Wandsworth to rent which we will be moving into at the end of February.  We have a lot of dinners to make up to people who have very kindly had us round in the past.  We've been through a lot together but this is going to be very different.  We haven't woken up together for more than 7 days in a row since University.  And I am going to really miss my Mum.  I know most people would go mental but I have been living at home for 28 years with only a very short gap of about nine months in my first year of Uni.  I'm not sure I can cope.  Let alone having to do my own washing.  Yikes!!!  

I think its going to be okay.  In fact (taking a lead from lovely Steven) I think its going to be great.  I choose to be happy.  I am also trying very hard indeed to get excited about weddings.  I have bought every magazine and have feeds for half a dozen blogs.  Its one of those times where it would have been easier if i'd been a proper girl and dreamed of weddings since forever.  I'm not and I haven't so I don't know what I want.  Big, small, gushing, prim ... all I know is I want an amazing live band and some serious dancing.  Now that will make me happy!

Stripes on a Tiger

I passed my driving test!!!  Blimey!!!  With ony 5 minors!  There is part of me that is convinced the driving tester had to pass a girl today and I was that one.  But I went out in the family car today, which is an automatic, and I have to say Hooray for automatics.  Why does anyone bother with gears, seriously.  You dont have to worry about stalling, you can just get on with it.  Woop!

Otherwise I have been to see New Moon which was a bit disappointing, but having seen too many trailers I was expecting to be disappointed and, on that front, it didn't disappoint.  Lots of sulking, some moping and not enough action.  It was a scene by scene adaptation from the book with none of the clever filming, lighting etc and consideration of how to make a 'movie' which the first film did succeed with.  However, New Moon isn't anyones favourite book so I suppose that doesn't help.  Not enough of the wolves for my liking.

And I would just like to say that water is patient.

I went to see the Turner and the Masters exhibition at the Tate with my Mum which was interesting.  Turns out Turner's not as good as a lot of the masters, but that isn't that surprising because Turner is all about modernity so plonking it next to a Poussin (which wasn't even a Poussin) and saying look Turner's copied this quite a lot but with a more painterly style isn't that illuminating.  There were some more powerful contrasts, for instances the two seascape (vs van de Velde and someone else) comparisons were actually really exciting too see different ways of portrayng the drama of the sea and ships in battle with the elements and each other.  I prefer the clean, crisp unpainterly effects of the Dutch schools and earlier French (espec Claude) but thats taste.  Also, Turner doesn't like to paint people.  Yoiks!  I've just read the blurb on the website about the exhibition.  Its supposed to be about Turner's struggle to prove he was just as good or better than the masters.  That did not come across at all in the curating.  Oh dear!  

You can vote on who you prefer ... http://turnerandthemasters.tate.org.uk/   

The other major shock was that the National Gallery actually leant two of the Claude/Turner paintings.  That properly surprised me.  I would love to know how the Tate pulled that one off.  As far as I was aware there was serious impasse between the two galleries about lending each other paintings.  The exhibition would have been a bit null and void without a little sample of these though because Turner left two paitings to be hung with the two Claude's at the National Gallery to make the exact point of the exhibition.

Turner

Claude

I could actually go on about this for some time, but I think that will do! 

Then we went to the Turner Prize and aside from a very nice bit of interior decorating and a whale skull you have to wonder why anyone bothers with modern art if this is the best they can come up with.  Rubbish.  My opinion has not been aided by having just finished The Brutal Art which was good but very cynical about the modern art world.  I also really, really hate when 'artists' set something up for other people to trample on or whatever and then claim it as 'art' but they didn't create it, which is a good thing.  Why pay for something that someone else didn't create.  Todgers and too blinking long being anal at uni.  Alternatively we did see a big panda head and a desk which was completely covered in oil paint and they were cool.  The Eva Rothschild was quite fun as well, especially when people walked around it.  Makes me laugh.

Which reminds my I'll let you know my new commuting trick.  It doesn't always work but sometimes it really does help.  When walking contra to everyone else in the entire of London Bridge train station at 9am and 6pm I have changed tack from frowning and looking cross to standing up very tall and grinning at everyone.  It amazing how much everyone gets out of the way.  I'm not sure whether its because they think I'm psycho or are happy that I am happy or what but sometimes it helps.  I am also super polite to people after pushing them out of the way or elbowing them or whatever because it makes me smile.  Then I feel guilty, then I smile again.  Crazy lady!!!

Talking of which.  I had a bit of a wold night out in Watford recently.  I had a fantastic time and danced until 3 in the morning.  If I had had maybe two less drinks it would have been perfect.  But I wasn't really drunk so thats a positive.  I'm also not sure about eating garlicky spanish before clubbing.  Bit close to other people for that sort of thing.  Big thank-you to my gorgeous girls!

I think I look a bit like the joker in this photo (old style not Heath Ledger).

I have also been doing some sewing but that is secret Christmas type stuff.  Shhh!  Also everyones birthdays are in the next two weeks (I only like Sagittarians) so its all a bit crazy.

Please check out www.theinsideman.co.uk for Christmas pressies.  Its very lovely and the staff are incredibly helpful and friendly.

Ooo, also I'm in a radio play that Steven & Simon made and I am very much looking forward to hearing it.  I did lots of screaming and wailing and high drama!  Hurray for me!

I think I've run out of things to say now.

x

Jeeves!!!

Wouldn't it be great to have a Jeeves who you (and everyone you know) knew would always be able to come up with a brilliant plan to fix every crazy drama you get involved in.  That would be super.  He might even be able to come up with a plan for me to get out of my driving test which is approaching in a imminent fashion and also what I should do about my cousins wedding which is going to be in Brisbane, Australia in May.  Ah to dream a dream.  Especially if he was Stephen Fry, that would be amazing.  And I could be Hugh Laurie and that would be pretty cool too.  Okay, its getting silly now.  Sorry.

I had a driving lesson today and it was okay but roundabouts really do scare the bejaysus out of me.  Too much to think about, too many things to do with my hands and eyes and feet all at once.  Eeek!  Also not a huge fan of manouveures generally. I don't mind doing them, but its the level of perfection that worries me.  I can see restless nights in the near future.

Otherwise today I have made an apple crumble and done some work on Fluffle's new website, which is taking shape rather well but is very labour intensive.  I had high hopes of doing some sewing but I just can't actually bring myself to get the ironing board and iron and get started.  Not in the mood at all.  All I really want to do is sit down and read my book.  Its a real cracker and I only bought to kill time when I was waiting for Fluffle's at the O2 before Spandau.  It was one of only about 5 books in the WHSmiths in North Greenwich station and I thought it might be okay but its great.  I have a bit of a thing about books about the Crimean War.  I still have some difficulties with what exactly happened, but I'm fairly sure it didn't work out well for us.  This ignorance is hard for me to admit being a history student, but I would like to point out yet again that its only history if its before 1832.  After that we do not have a full concept of the outcome of the major occurences of the day because they haven't finished their impact yet.  There are lots of people who think this is utterly wrong headed but I don't care.  I'm sticking quietly to my guns.  Anyway... the book is called The Street Philosopher by Matthew Plampin and its super. 

The Crimean War is actually a bit of a case in point - a lot of the problems in that part of the world have been blazing ever since.  Chechnya for instance.  This is a very simplistic take.  Sorry for any offence.  Thats the problem with history - you can't say anything because everyone has their own view.  Like discussing old episodes of Neighbours.

I got some real photos delivered through the post (I know, its a miracle isn't it).  I downloaded my file onto an internet site, through the Boots website, and then they sent me the photos for a very reasonable price.  I am very happy with them indeed.  Its so nice to know that I am no longer held entirely in the thrall of changing information formatting of computers and will ahve these photos until they go mouldy.  Hurrah for real things.  Reality so beats virtuality every time!  It was also really fun going through all my photos since I got a digital camera and picking my favourite ones out.  I didn't have to have any where I looked ugly and life looks so much more exciting and interesting in a boiled down format!

We went to see Fantastic Mr Fox last night.  It was weird.  I enjoyed it and I feel dirty for enjoying it because it was so smug and up its own arse, and really not for children at all, so much so that I really didn't want to like it, but I did.  Damn it.  It was like they had watched The Wind in the Willows and read Roald Dahl when they were little and loved it so much that they wanted to make a movie that had those sorts of feelings only for grown ups.  In which case why didn't they just do an adult movie.  Also I really like George Clooney, but he is always the same, suave, sardonic, George Clooney.  Thats weird when it gets mushed up in your head with a fox with really skinny legs.  Oh, and I am really getting very over excited about New Moon.  I know its wrong and I don't care.  There is a quiet, secret boiling of excitement in my tummy when I think about it. 

One Vision

So ... haven't posted in a long while.  Its been super busy, I have not the foggiest where the time, or money, goes.  Its all a bit mental!

I also don't really have anything much to say.  Work has been really busy which is great, and the photographer is in tomorrow which should be interesting.  Stuff with Fluffle's website is stressful as ever.  I enjoy the book-keeping course.  My driving test is really soon and I'm really stating to panic.  I think its fairly definite now that I will cry.  I made a baguette kit for Lisa which came out really nice.

We had a really busy week last week.  On Tuesday we went to see Inherit the Wind with Kevin Spacey which was a nice play.  It was interesting without that sort of theatrical 'ooo we're so clever with our intellectual thoughts' rubbish.  I can't be doing with that. We went to see Arcadia recently and that was the kind of thing I mean.  Some young person on stage explaining something 'complicated' and 'philosophical' and everyones going ooo and ahh like its earth shattering and I'm fairly sure its all fairly bleedingly obvious.  Inherit the Wind wasn't like that.  It was actually quite clever and raised some interesting issues without shoving them under your nose.  It did mean however that it seemed the audience missed most of the more subtle nuances.  Being a bigot is being a bigot regardless of whether its in favour of accepted wisdom or not.  We had dinner at Chez Gerard.  It was fine.  Pizza Express quality level but pricey.

The next evening we went to see Spandau Ballet at the O2 which was surprisingly brilliant.  They were having so much fun it was difficult not to be swept along with the excitement.  

They have joined my growing list of music that can only really be listened to out loud and preferably live.  Some music really just does not work on personal stereos.  They finished with GOLD, which was a cracker and even Fluffle's stood up to dance in an eighties manner.  Among my highlights were

• Tony Hadley, I always quite liked him and he has got a proper good voice, by crimeny. 
  
• The mature ladies a few rows in front of us who were doing proper hardcore eighties dancing despite ...
• we were sitting in the 'VIP' ish section where no-one stood up until right near the end.  The rest of the stadium were on their feet from beginning to end but not the Barber clad people around us - they were not only too cool to get up but they were also on average 20 years older than the rest of the audience of 30-40 year olds.  We brought down the average age quite a lot.
• Herta hot dog stands
• Lots of toilets - hurrah
  
• Organisation of O2 centre - not too shabby 110% better than Twickenham but would suggest no-one attempts to eat there before a gig because

of my lowlights

• how many people!!! Crumbs!  The queues were outrageous... even outside such places as Zizzi and other such institutions that I would only eat at under serious duress.
• Mean people and general weirdness of being in a completely artificial high street that only has restaurants ...  weird, weird, weird, and no bars, just restaurants.  Weird again I say.
• food inside, plenty of options, good chips, bad fish so thats kind of up and down kind of thing.
• they ran out of white wine, weird again.  Obv didn't think ahead to the crowd who are going to turn up for Spandau!
  

Oh and Louisa, my cousin, got engaged and they are getting married in Brisbane in May.  Thats going to cut into the savings painfully!

I read a Jeeves and Wooster book and then listened to a radio play and now I'm feeling a bit obsessed.  Thats odd.  And I've just started a book about the Crimean War which is a bit of a stonker actually.  I'm not coping with the change in the time and its too blooming dark all the time.  Bleurgh. 

Do you really want to hurt me!

Paying for travel in and around London is really starting to get me down!  In my previous life as a properly employed person I had a travelcard so I had no idea how much I was being scr***d for travel - I just bipped my Oyster card and run.  No longer.  I have to go to a machine and put between £10 & £17 into it so that I can have the pleasure of the Northern Line for 25 minutes!  Hurrah!  What good value for money.  Its almost as good as going to the cinema only it doesnt smell as good. 

Excuse my spleen - but it really irritates me.  And dont even talk to me about petrol prices!!!

Ooo and the other thing thats really getting me down is that I'm trying to make the dress that came in one of the sewing magazines but I can not for the life of me figure out what the heck they want me to do with sewing the arm straps together.  I have shoved the whole thing back in the cupboard and I am ignoring it for the time being, but the instructions seem to make no sense at all - argh!!!

Anyway ... other than that I am really looking forward to seeing Julie & Julia and then I think I will have to read Julia Child My Life in France as recommended on Jane Brockets blog which is such a yummy blog & does, as India Knight has pointed out, lead to severe case of lifestyle envy!  Her blog makes me want to live in the countryside and then Fluffles reminds me I'd hate it.  Oh yeah.  Ideally I'd like to live in Leicester Square or Bloomsbury.  I dont think either of those is especially likely to happen anytime soon.  Just moving out of the two parental abodes into one place so that I dont have to deal with the complications of two wardrobes, two make-up bags, two of everything & never having the right pair of shoes because they are at the other place, that I currently inhabit would be lush.  But you have to appreciate the kindness of parents who have to put up with their kinder never leaving the blinking nest despite nearing thirty!  I am definately a kippers - kid in parents pocket eating retirement savings!

I went to the Futurism exhibition at the Tate during the week.  Great paintings & sculptures, I really love some of this stuff, its just such a shame their philosophy was such childish tripe (opinion, obv).  I've never really gone in for the whole anarchism bit but I do like the concept of the modern world and the creations of man being just as beautiful as nature.  Some of the paintings breathtakingly capture 'that universal dynamism ... rendered as dynamic sensation.' 

This is one of my favourite sculptures ever, Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913. bronze, coming in a close second to Brancusi's Bird in Space.  I think this painting by David Bomberg called In The Hold, would make the most sensationally dynamic patchwork quilt, but yoiks getting those bits to sew together would be a complete 'mare! Also I'm not sure it would be terribly soothing as a quilt!  This picture really does not do justce to the power of this piece.  If you have time I would really suggest this exhibition - the Tate have done an excellent job yet again. 

My other success this week has been completing all of the Harry Potter books!  Hurrah, Voldemort is dead and I no longer need to worry whether Snape & Dumbledore are bad guys or not!

Where do I begin?

All blogs at the moment seem to be starting with - ooo its been a long time since I blogged.  Well, it has been a long time and I've been a bit busy and a bit lazy. 
Since there's quite a lot to cover I think I might do it in bullet format -

• I have been reading Harry Potter. I'm into my fifth week and I've just finished the fifth book - not bad I reckon, the speed of reading has been aided by next bullet point but was slowed by the one after that.  They're alright, I think JK got better.  I also saw a little bit of Goblet of Fire movie last night and it was pants - shocking.  Edward Cullen is still a bit dishy though - swoon.
• I started very part time work with Lisa from lovely U-Handbag.  This has caused a massive commute time of around two hours each way, hence much progress with Potter.  Its a very nice job with very nice people and I am enjoying it.  Its also utter bliss not having to work in a skanky office with skanky people!  Beans is also very nice but I think it upsets Hugo when I come home smelling of other dog!  Poor Hugo, he's only tiny!

• Fluffles & I went to Champagne - it was a super holiday if way too short and no planning time (as always with Fluffles) so I get none of my favourite bit ... anticipation!  But it was fabulous.  We stayed one night in Folkestone at Hotel Relish, lovely small English hotel (I think its a first) and a lovely town.  We were kind of expecting it to be a bit scummy and run down like most sea side resorts but it actually seemed rather nice.  Then we got the ferry to France.  It is definately the best way to get to the continent if you have a patient, more or less T-total chaffeur who can cope with driving on the wrong side of the road.  We were on and off the ferry in no time despite the fact we in fact missed our actual ferry due to me being a complete plonker.  But you dont even have to change tickets or anything - you just get on the next one.  Priority is well worth the £12 as well.  There was practically no passport control and we paid to get into the club room where you get free drinks and there are no people.  It was super duper!
• Off we went to Les Crayeres in Reims -  holy mackerel thats a nice hotel we stayed in and we made it in one piece despite Fluffles going the wrong way around a round-about.  Then we a had a fabulous dinner at their restaurant -wow.  Didier Elena is the chef.  That is mainly for my info cos I always forget the names of the chefs unless their restaurants are named after themselves!  It was all excellent but my personal favourite was the pudding trolley that had all sorts of sugary contrivances - madeleines, marshmallow, toffee, chocolate, cherries dipped in chocolate, other little cakie treats it was AMAZING!  I of course asked how many you were allowed and then proceeded to have more or less one of everything.  I felt quite contented afterwards.  We also had some amazing champagnes including a glass of the Dom!!!
• After that we visited lots of champagne caves and had a very jolly time indeed!
• I think I'll do another post about Champagne, I feel a bit tired at the mo!

 

• And after all that excitement we spent the bank holiday weekend in Norfolk where we did a spot of shopping, caught up with Ralph, which was lovely, had dinner with Aunt Lottie which was very interesting and then went to Fluffle's cousin Marcus's wedding to Laura Maya at the family estate - Westwick.  A lovely time was had by all!

I'm sorry I have lost the plot now - I'll come back tomorrow and put some proper pictures on and tell you about lovely champagne!
Bon nuit
x

Its not a bad number - it divides by three

I have cunningly got straight to blog 15!  Hurray!
We all have our little superstitious foibles even though they dont actually work.  I never, ever leave a book on a page that adds up to four.  Ever.  I hate it when books end on pages that add up to four.  The worst though is when there are chapter numbers in numerals & I dont know whether I have to add them on as well or not.  Super stressful.  It also means I havent finished a chapter & not started the next one since I was about twelve.  Fruit Loop!
I have been applying to teacher training college, which I think I have now given up on after going to have an interview in Clacton, which I'm sure would be nice for a holiday.  My mum (lovely mum) drove me up there Wednesday night & we were due to stay at the Premier Inn close by.  We both like Premier Inn because they are generally clean to the point of hostility and quiet.  We also like Lenny Henry, so you know ... yeah, anyway.  But about twenty seconds before Premier Inn Clacton came into view I got a call telling us Premier Inn was flooded & we couldnt stay there and the nearest available one was ... Ipswich.  I'm told Ipswich is perfectly nice but I think Fluffles would actually dump me if I actually visited the place (he supports Norwich, nuf said).  So we drove into Clacton proper, thinking there was bound to be some accomodation we could cope with.  No.  Not the case at all.  Impersonal & bleached to within an inch of its life is really the only suitable accomodation for us ladies unless its Five to Six star.  Clacton is an odd place.  I'm sure its very nice, but once we'd had a little walk around the completely dead streets, bought some expensive fags, checked out the very open & nice school with good facilities we decided there was no way in hell that I could live there for nine months even if we could find some accomodation for the night.  And so after a six hour round trip we got home & I thought I might faint which was unrelated. 
Poor old Clackers.
I'm sorry if I have offended anyone but you probably dont want me anyway!
On a more positive note I have bought  kit from ClothKit for a skirt which I am looking forward to making & am properly impressed with how fast it came.  I ordered it yesterday late afternoon and it was here when I got home from work.  Postal worker strike - Schmostal Perker pike.  That is impressive stuff.  How come nothing ever comes from Amazon that quick?
Also I have booked to do a Basic Sewing Skills at Chelsea college during my 'summer holiday' which looks like fun.  In case youre wondering I am taking a month off gainful paid employment in order to be Fluffles slave.  Its not what you think, naughty people!  He is changing his website so I am going to be database entry clerk no 1!!!  Woopdy doo!
But he is taking me to Texture for dinner tomorrow.  Yum!  And he did take me to Joel Robuchon two weeks ago and that was yummington spa.  So I suppose its not all bad.
Sorry for the lack of photos & over doing the wittering on.  I'll be quiet now.
Ooo, but Jodie had swine flu, just thought that should be documented.

Ooo I found a nice photo ...

  Ok - more looming & ominous but there you have it!  Arundel.

The World Beyond a Quilt

Since finishing the quilt I havent had much time to sew - its been oddly manic.  I've started taking driving lessons which is pretty terrifying but its going quite well I think.  I passed my theory test with flying colours if nothing else.  All that education & all I can really say is that I really am very god at passing tests!  Completely useful life skill once you finish school. 
I have made a cute handbag from a U-handbag kit, its a bit diddy wee for me but it is very cute & quite handy for when I'm running out for my driving lesson.  It fits my provisional licence, AA pass book, inhaler, telephone & purse quite comfortably.  It would actually be fine if I didnt insist on carrying so much tat around with me.  Two books probably isnt necessary on most occassions!

God I have got some really awful music on my I-tunes - lawks, (where do I begin) love story is truly awful right up there with Matt Munro and his creepy and weird Were Going to Change the World!  Yoiks!  Also I have managed to fill up my Ipod which I thought was almost impossible but it is actually full & I actually had to delete stuff!  Horrific!  I was tempted to just buy a new one with more memory just to make a point but I re-thought it and decided that was really silly given I dont like half the music on there and I have an awful lot of Radio 4 podcasts on there that I have already listened to so maybe I ought to have a clear out, but theres always that feeling of 'But what if one day walking down the street the song I really, really feel for is Coat of Many Colours by Dolly Parton!  Its not ever going to happen is it, but still difficult to get over.  I do like lots of the songs on the Dolly Parton album, Jolene, Islands in the Stream, the mighty 9 to 5, and yet my ipod insists on playing the awful ones like AppleJack and Joshua instead of Eagle When She Flys.  What is that all about!!!  I'd love to know how the ipod decides what to play when its on shuffle - I just can't deal with the idea it is actual random.  Its a computer, there must be a sequence, what is it!!!


How is this true!!!