I cannot stop listening to this song, it's a bubbly piece of analog synth gorgeousness from Alessandro Cortini, formerly of Nine Inch Nails, currently of Modwheelmod and Blindoldfreak, that makes me glad to be alive in so many ways. I'm also quite, quite fascinated by the Buchla 200e modular synth he's playing ... especially that touch controller he's using - I want to know how he's set it up!

It was Strawberry Fair this weekend, I had a bimble round it with the insufferably cute Nick and Maggie, Kerry and the boy named sue (who rather delightfully bought me a scarf I'd been looking at but decided I couldn't afford) and investigated festival cute, festival food (via the world's largest ever falafel, so big it had its own gravity well) and festival people with delighted abandon. We managed to catch the parade for the first time this year, (I'll put a few photos up sometime this week) and I watched everyone do considerable damage to their wallets in a fantastic second hand book stall on the market. After we went our seperate ways for the day, I wandered back to my bike via the green area, stopped for tea with Sheryl and managed to acquire a new set of poi, spin in public for the first time and even had a spin while dancing around Tim and Jean's peace labyrinth (I have been promised/threatened with photos to follow later). This pretty much meant I was ready to keel over and die by the time I got home, but it was so worth it.

As mentioned, I left the fair with a new set of poi. They've got a lot more mass to them than my old ones (making them a bit easier to spin I think), decent handles and when you spin them at night .. they glow! I've been spending about half an hour with them every evening and am beginning to realise a few things. Firstly that I need to improve the flexibility and strength of my right arm/wrist, secondly that the one disadvantage of more solid poi is the bruises if you screw up (some of them look quite impressive ), and thirdly that I need to start checking out some videos or getting along to the community circus to improve much past where I'm at. I've picked up Shireen Press and Delpha Turley's 'Poi Spinning Basics with Pele's Element' and am going to give that a go, then check out a few youtubes too until I've plucked up the courage (and energy) to get along to the circus on sunday nights. I'm aiming to be able to put on a decent display by the time the next barbeque rolls around ... we'll see how it goes .

Sunday lunchtime, I met back up with everyone and we went to see Terminator Salvation; a movie I have somewhat mixed feelings about. I liked the fact that the terminators have been made frightening again (the CGI so worked in their favour), the Michael Bay-esque hugedramaticexplosions (this is definitely a summer action flick terminator) and the gratuitous use of A10s by the resistance ... I was less enamoured by Blair Williams being a cheap plot device to mellow John Connor's attitude towards the cyborg, the loss of our conflicted cyborg character at the end of the film, the SHEER HEADACHE VOLUME of the soundtrack (loudest movie I've ever been to, I think Ezekiel could have watched it without her hearing aids) and the ridiculously cheese-laden heart transplant ending. It's definitely worth a watch, but dont' go in expecting a life changing experience.

One of the things that made this weekend so welcome (both as a break from the week and for all the contact with other people) was how crazy work has been over the last few weeks. I can't/won't talk too much about it as I don't want to make it too obvious who I work for, but things are very, very, veyr focused and busy there at the moment - we've had a very dramatic change of focus and are all being encouraged/instructed to look at what we do in a very different way. One result of this has been my working into the evenings for the last couple of weeks to finish some projects and project proposals on top of my usual job that have left me absolutely wrung out. On friday evening I felt dizzy, almost drunk and had no voice to speak of after getting everything in for the final deadline. I'm trying very hard to find a sensible balance at the moment between making sure I am in the best standing I can manage in the office and, well ... having a life outside of work (and having enough physical/mental energy to enjoy it) but it's hard work, especially when things seem to be letting me down from the inside. I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough though.