I know, I know...

Yeah, I'm crap at posting nowadays. Apologies.

I got myself into a big project and that along with the Uni and work stuff conspired against my lack of time.

So what is this project, well if you feel curious you can check it out at www.wikipole.org. Yep, that's my baby, and it aims to bring together pole dancers everywhere. Nowhere else is there such a comprehensive pole moves catalogue, and it was doing that which sucked up all of my time, and it's still not what I'd consider finished.

Anyway, I hope my next post will be sooner, and I'll hopefully tell you all what I got up to on a week long conference in the lovely city of Liverpool.

Nearly There

Thanks all for the welcome back messages. I will hopefully be able to get in a longer post soon, my last two exams are imminent.

But for now, enjoy this pic, which kinda shows how short my hair is now (isn't it terrible when the only recent photos I seem to have are of me upside down?)

Exam Period has begun...

Anyone got any cramming tips?

Short Hair = Unsexy?

Firstly let me say, I apologise for my absence (if anyone is still out there reading this), I've been a lovely little ball of stress recently and nothing much has inspired me to write, though I have still been looking in on other peoples' blogs (even if I haven't been commenting).

Today I found this article and I must say I think this is pretty much the most outdated codswallop I've read in a long time.

Why is Lola so offended by this? Well by sheer coincidence, about 6 weeks ago, I had my hair lopped off and I love it.

Does it mean I'm not sexy? I think not, I keep looking in mirrors and loving my reflection staring back at me. Does it mean I'm uninterested in sex? Quite the opposite actually, several months back I finally got over the ex, spent some time on my own and now feel that I'd be more open to the idea of a relationship if the right guy came along.

Personally I think short hair = confidence. I'm not saying I have bags of the stuff, but I do feel more confident than me several months ago. The short hair is here to stay.

Hey

Apologies for the absence, I am alive, it's just been a very busy summer.

Will post again soon-ish with an update for anyone who's still out there.

Thanks

Spreadshirt.com

Hey all,

In gaps in my revision yesterday I came up with this.

Just like to know your opinion on it, I've only currently got one design pic as I'd done the silhouette from one of my pics earlier and it does take me a while to do. So after exams, or when they calm down a bit I shall do more.




Spreadshirt Market Place Design

Pole Dance 1

Where I am

Publius left a comment asking where I was, so I just thought I'd reply as a quick post.

I am alive. I'm severely stressing over exams and all the Uni work I have to do, so chances are that there will not be posts off me for the next few weeks.

Sorry guys :-(

Pole Kitten

Right, this is going to be a bit of a begging post, so please bear with me as I explain.

This Monday at 3.00 a great group of girlies from one of the pole dancing forums I belong to entered a big glass box in the middle of Bristol city centre to perform on BBC's Upstaged. They won that day, and the next, and the next. Yesterday they were in the box on their forth day (the max allowed) and they won yet again, so they have a pass through to the final.

Here's where the begging comes in, they will have some fairly stiff competition in the final as some of the other acts have massive online support so I'd just like to try and raise Polekitten's profile a little. Please, please go to the Upstaged website and register. Then go to the Polekitten page and click to become a fan.

I'll know more about when they are back in the box for the final in a little while. Once I know I'll let you all know. There's live streaming on the Upstaged website and voting buttons just below, voting can be done once every three minutes.

Please pass this on/post about it in your own blog, as the girls are doing an amazing job of promoting pole dancing and showing that it's fun, sexy, good exercise and can be hard work. The more people who find out about them and vote for them, the more chance they will have of winning.

If you want to see the girls in action, click on "Thursdays story" on the Upstaged homepage, or if you are reading this after friday then you can see highlights from their time in the box here click on episode 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Thanks guys.

Six Quirks

Ahem. I was tagged aaaaaaaages ago by the lovely Kinda Blue, and I kept putting it off and putting it off. So I decided to get my rear end in gear and get it done. So here we are six quirks all about me.

1) I can be obscenely paranoid, not in a "people are stalking me" kind of way but more so in a "nobody likes me" way. I'm going through one of these spells at the moment at Uni.

2) I randomly skip/jump/hop/make weird noises for the hell of it. I blame my sister.

3) My elbows bend backwards, this is great for freaking people out.

4) I religiously check my email at least twice a day, more if I can.

5) Every exam I have sat since GCSE's I have taken in a small Piggin' figure for good luck (Piggin' Exams to be exact)

6) When I'm feeling blue I buy cake, not so good for the old waistline.

Now, I'd like to tag Karen, MB, The Thinker, Mosher and anyone else who fancies it. If there is actually anyone still out there that is...

Absolutely disgusted

Today I was horrified to hear this story on the radio. The mothers of the murderers of Gary Newlove are defending them. One says that her son "isn't as bad as he was made out to be". I'm sorry but her son attacked a man, kicking him in the head repeatedly in front of the mans young daughter, how the hell is that not bad?! This is typical of today's society, people make excuses, look out for themselves, don't give a shit about anyone else, and don't seem to know how to bloody well raise children. And when the shit hits the fan, instead of being righteously shamed and keeping their gobs shut they come out with crap like this, calling these murderers "decent" and saying that the murder made them "angry and bitter". I just can't get my head around how there are people with this mindset out there. You can say mother's love all you want, but if I had a child that did something like that, they'd be on their own. I feel sorry for Gary Newlove's family, having to grieve for him while these idiots spout out this shit.

Apologies for the rant but this story really got me pissed off

Reasons why I'm annoyed by my part time job

I've been a bad little blogger recently *slaps wrist* so much so that many of you won't even realise that I do have a part-time job. I started in late October, and haven't blogged about it yet as there wasn't much to blog about. But yesterday, after an 11 hour shift with me getting increasingly wound up I decided that had to change. So here it goes.

I have to work part time to fund my going out and getting pissed University education. This realisation caused me to do much applying for jobs but there was one in particular that I wanted, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't for the money, because it was. I had an interview and got offered the job of a store assistant at a well known discount supermarket which shall remain nameless. All was well at first, but over time little things have begun to niggle at me, about the job, about the customers, about everything. So in the name of blowing off steam, I give you the top five of things that annoy me at work.

1) Children. Now you may say come on Lola, that's not exactly fair. They're little and can't help what they do. All I know is that this job is encouraging me more and more to have my tubes tied. Try sitting on a till in a busy as hell store with a few parents in the queue with a screaming kid in tow. I can forgive babies for this moreso although the crying noise does still set my teeth on edge. It's the "old enough to know better" kids having tantrums because they can't have what they want that really winds me up. I'm going to generalise here but most parents I see with a kid in that situation are only feeding this kids tantrum (the kid is invariably called something like Charmayne or Reece). In a lot of cases as well, both parents are present, so why doesn't one take the kids outside while the other sorts out the paying and packing of the food? It's not rocket science and it will stop the nice cashier from suddenly snapping one day and going on a homicidal rampage. Seriously though, the last two saturdays I've worked 11 hour shifts, why should I have to spend the majority of it listening to crying kids?

2) People who are unobservant/ignorant. We have specials coming in on certain days of the week. Please do not ask us what day they are due in if it is in large bold font at the top of that page! Also we get people coming in looking for certain things, and have no idea when they came in, while this in itself is not a sin, getting snotty about it when the staff haven't a clue about what you mean, is. The only person who has been extremely rude to me was one of these people. She came in looking for a portable television with inbuilt dvd player. We had had small 7' portable dvd players in recently, so I assumed that was what she meant. When I showed her one she looked at me as if I was retarded.
"No," she repeated, "A portable television with inbuild dvd player."
I replied that we hadn't had anything of the sort in and asked where it had said that we had them, as I thought they may be due in, in the recent future. She told me that a friend of hers had gotten one from a store elsewhere. I again said that to my knowledge we hadn't had them in (at this point I had worked there for about a month and a half, and I knew we hadn't had anything in since then.
She then said, very snottily, "You don't sound sure, can you find me someone who is."
I was fuming, but another of my colleagues told her exactly the same thing and she disappeared in a huff. I'm sorry but rudeness is not acceptable. In general the staff know a lot more than the customer about what has been in and what hasn't, so be polite for gods sake. I later found out that a different discount supermarket had them instead. Moral of the story, if you're going to be rude to the staff then make sure you have the right shop first, idiots.

3) People who put things on the till but don't tell me that they are returning them and want a refund until after I've scanned it. I then have to void that transaction (with manager approval) then do a refund (with manager approval). Save us a lot of trouble by just telling me it's a refund before I scan it.

4) People who bag stuff at the till. Now I don't mind this when we're not busy, but when there's 4 cashiers on and we're still struggling to manage please don't bag up your shopping as I'm putting it through, whack it in the trolley and bag it in the designated bagging area, like everyone else!

5) The fact that we are worked extremely hard. Now I don't mind hard work, but when I'm running about, sweating, and picking up heavy things and it's only 7 am that's when I'm likely to get tetchy. I had a shift that started at 6 am on Xmas Eve. I wasn't awake, I probably wasn't safe to drive to work as one point I had to look down to see if I had my uniform on (I couldn't remember getting dressed). Then when I get into work I have the store manager following me around telling me to speed up, grrrrr. Then when the store opens, there is no chance of getting things done in peace, people constantly ask you things like, "where are the eggs?" when they are standing in front of them, or you are getting called to hop on the tills. And yet the day still goes slowly!

Ok, rant over until another time...

Firstly I'd just like to draw your attention to my tongue in cheek pole fund. The jist of it is that I want a pole at home, and I can't afford at pole at home due to being over a grand into my overdraft. Prevent my purchase from adversely affecting my ability to buy textbooks. Seriously though if you have nothing better to spend your money on and fancy a couple of pics posted later of my practicing on said pole then you know what to do ;-)

Thank you to everyone who donated for the world record attempt. We are still to hear back regarding that but I believe that the money raised was phenominal.

Lola turned 23 today at 6:18 pm. That is all.

Help!

I'm meant to be finishing off the rest of my mid-winter cleaning and starting my exam revision, instead I'm sitting here surfing through other people's blogs. Please someone give me a good (and well-deserved) kick up the arse!

Happy New Year

So it's now 2008. How long is it going to take for me to stop writing 2007 every time I pop the date down? I hope your journey into 2008 was a good one, whether it was quiet or not.

Last year I did a highlights of my year. For some reason this year doesn't seem as memorable, so instead I'll look towards the future. I've never been one for making New Years Resolutions but this year I've though long and hard about what I'm going to do. Here they are;

1) Become a kick-ass poledancer, or at least try to get a lot more time on the pole (if I get a pole for my birthday then this will work out quite well...)

2) Every time I get a new Olive/Good Food magazine then I must cook at least one thing from it. I'm a bugger for treating it like food porn, just drooling over the recipes and never doing anything about it.

3) Focus on my Uni work, in 2007 I've let far too many things affect it, so now I need to do things for me and perhaps be a little blinkered in terms of my goals for this course.

And three seems like the magic number so I shall stop there.

So what are your aims for 2008?

Belated Wishes to all

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

A late post

Sorry for my recent absence, but I wanted this to be my next post and I wanted to write it at a time when I could concentrate on the words and my memories without bursting into tears.

You see two weeks ago we had to have my beloved dog put to sleep. His name was Toto and he was one of the most good-natured dogs you'd ever come across. He was a lovely sandy colour with a white stripe down his nose, I had originally chosen him as a puppy due to this white stripe as it made him resemble my Grandad's dog Benji.

We'd first got him when I had just turned seven years old, I had begged, whined and moaned for a dog, and for my birthday I was allowed to pick out a puppy from the RSPCA. Toto and his siblings had been abandoned while they were very young. I remember that we took Toto home in an empty ice cream tub, that's how small he was. From that day on he settled into our family. And he grew, and grew.

The RSPCA had told my parents he wouldn't grow much because he had small paws, they were wrong. We ended up with a medium sized dog with tons of energy. I remember his tail constantly wagging, him running up and down our back garden and him chasing his tail. I remember being taken for a walk by him rather than him taking me and I remember thinking he'd be around forever.

But he'd aged an awful lot in the past two years and his back legs were stiffening up. It was time to let him go before he started seriously suffering.

I miss him. He was a brilliant dog.

Just a little tid-bit to show I'm still alive!

Click here if you'd like to see what I got up to at the weekend.

On a related note please see the little bit of info at the top right hand side of my page, please give whatever you can, because a) it's a good cause and b) have you ever tried doing a fast pole dancing routine for 10 mins straight? It's tiring!

Google search hilarity

As much as I dislike being referred to as "it" this last search nearly made me wee, I was laughing so hard.

Apologies for the short crappy posts, the stress monster has currently taken over Lola.

Pole Dance

I still can't believe that's actually me, I'm so pleased with myself.

And now for the musicals

In my last post I promised the songs from musicals that make me cry. I apologise to the majority of the people who commented on my last post. Depressing songs actually make me happier as I can have a cry and get things out of my system, I know it's not the same for everyone.

I'll Cover You Reprise from Rent



Why does my favourite character always have to get killed off? The first time I saw Rent live, I sobbed though most of the second act. This song in particular set me off, perhaps it was the way Collins helplessly clutched the coat Angel bought him.

A Little Fall of Rain from Les Miserables



Is there anything sadder than dying in your unrequited lovers arms? It's the line "I'll sleep in your embrace at last" that gets me.

Goodbye Until Tomorrow from The Last Five Years



For those who don't know, The Last Five Years documents a five year long relationship. The female partner shows this from the end to the beginning, and the male partner shows this from the beginning to the end with them meeting at their wedding in the middle. This song is the finale where both of the partners are saying goodbye, the woman at the end of their very first date and the man at the end of their relationship.

My Brother Lived in San Francisco from Angels Punks and Raging Queens



This is a song about having a brother who died of AIDS.

They liked it so much more than anywhere they'd been and we thought they would be there, when we made it back again

And the Rain Keeps Falling Down from Angels Punks and Raging Queens



About losing someone.

In Whatever Time We Have from Children of Eden



Two lovers facing the prospect of being separated by The Great Flood as one is the son of Noah and the other is a daughter of the race of Cain.

Johnny Can't Decide from Tick Tick Boom



The video to this isn't particularly relevant but it's one of the only videos on youtube to include the part of the song that makes me cry. The song is beautiful anyway, but the reason why I cry is the man himself, the writer of this musicalJonathan Larson. He died from an aortic aneurism before his famous musical Rent's opening night. The part that makes me cry is the spoken part of the song when Johnny says "I want to write music, I want to sit down right now at my piano and write a song that people will listen to and remember and do the same thing each morning for the rest of my life."

Without You from Rent



I was never a fan of this song until I saw it live. It affects so many others than just those who are singing.

In His Eyes from Jekyll and Hyde



The best song in the show.