Purple Realm

I took some photos of a statue the other day:

"Where was this?" I hear you say.
"Did you go to New York?" the perceptively-challenged might ask.
"Was it a New York-Themed amusement park or diner?"
Well, it wouldn't look out of place in a cheap theme park or tacky diner, would it?

It was none of these.
Nor a gift from the French.



Yes, in the city of Leicester, England, we now have a 20-foot-high (at most, including the plinth it's on) shoddy, almost cartoon replica of the Statue Of Liberty. And it looks suspiciously like polystyrene.

"So, what's the deal? It's gotta have some connection to the real article, right? Otherwise what's the point?"
Well, dear readers, the placard upon the craptue says something about commemorating aquaducts.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't aquaducts been around since Ancient Roman times? This statue is NEW! And where'd they put it? On a roundabout in the middle of the sodding road in a part of the city not well travelled.

So, there you have it. For some reason they thought it'd be a good idea to make my part of the city look like a shitty amusement park sign.
What's the correlation between any of these?
The French, New York, The Statue Of Liberty, Aquaducts.

"We don't get it, Kimmie!"
Neither do I.

So, behold the Craptue Of Leicester City and weep with shame.

Listening to Reef. Obviously.

Anyway, went to get my eyes tested today. I needed new glasses - I knew this anyway. It's ok, because the NHS helps me pay. Usually I don't have to pay any extra, but today was told I should buy anti-glare lenses because both of my eyes have worsened, the left one a little more than the right. Joy. That's £30 for those . My eyesight can't get much worse... can it? The frame selection was fucking awful, I looked at all of them, and finally found some I liked... With £85 price tag on top of the lenses. Eh. Luckily I only have to pay £20 for the frames, so that's pretty good. But usually, as I said, I don't end up having to pay anything. This time it's £50, so I gotta wait until next week until they'll make them for me, because I don't have that.

Add to this the fact I'm typing slowly and painfully as it's so cold, and the stupid energy companies STILL haven't reduced the prices, like they've been ordered to, so I'm freezing to death and by the end of the month will already owe them at least £120.

Then there's the rowing machine I've been waiting for - and I need it, for stupid head reasons - and the fact I've not gotten Christmas presents for two of my sisters, their mum, her partner and his kids yet. And one of my sisters has her birthday soon.

AAAARGH!!

That's like, £250+ I gotta pull outta nowhere in a month.

Add that shit to my current malais and we've a very unhappy Kimmie. All I can think of is how fucking guilty I feel that £100 of this stuff is for me, personally. But I can't put it off, I really can't. As I said, you wouldn't get it if I told you.

Oh yeah, and my trainers and dvd player are all but dead .

Why does everything happen at once? .

Government decided to pay everyone on benefits an extra £60 for fuel costs and stuff, between January and March. Which is really helpful, but if we don't get ours until end of March, we're fucked.

I HATE LIFE SOMETIMES!! WHINGE WHINGE WHINGE!!

*stops to breathe*

*shrugs*

*leaves*

So, December's here and the city is decorated in so many pretty lights and so many damn people rushing to hand over their hard-earned (or hard-scammed) money for mountains of presents because everyone does it.

Christmas here is, to most, nothing but Gift Day, Be Nice To Your Family For One Day Out Of The Year Celebration, Stuff Your Fucking Faces Cause Tis The Season... Fair enough if you're not religious, Christmas was originally nothing to do with Jesus anyway, right? I guess I just don't like the commercialised Christmas, the false little smiles at get-togethers, the unabashed gluttony. I'm the same with Valentine's Day - it's a day raped by commercialism, twisted and distorted into something fucked-up. I mean, one day to love your loved one? Sod that!

Anyway, we've decided to have a non-traditional Christmas this year. Sure, we're giving presents, but few, and to people we actually WANT to give them to - and we're even going to have to give a few in the new year as money's tight.

Christmas day will bring no gifts for either of us. We will eat a simple, small, roast chicken dinner, and go for a long walk in the park. We'll watch a movie together and live life as we usually do.

That's what I want.

It's gonna be really good.

My parentages wouldn't accept my "nothing" as an acceptable answer to, "what do you want for Christmas?" but that's sorted, seeing as my Grum (Gran - she adopted me though and I used to call her Mum but stopped, now it feels weird so we compromised on Grum) bought my present early a couple weeks ago while we were shopping together and gave it to me on the day, and my father's visiting a few days before Christmas, and he wants me to set it all up on the day so it can be played, so, it's really worked out well.

As for the traditional family gathering this year (I asked, and made sure it was known I'd not be attending if there were - she always understands) Grum simply said, "Not this year. I want a Kimberley Day instead." *My heart bleeds...*

Still not sure about the birthday plans - depends how I feel. I am getting the rowing machine I so very, very want, though, so, AWESOME! And I don't really care if my dad or Grum forget. It's usually forgotten, I'll either smile and shrug or spend the day under the duvet with a large bottle of Southern Comfort clutched to my chest . I dunno. I wanna go to the sales to get Mik a new coat though.

Despite my hatred for most things Christmas, I do love the pretty lights in the city. I'll see if I can get a night photo or two in the next couple weeks, no promises.

In short:
Hate stupid holidays and what they stand for these days
Having a very understated Christmas
Daddy's coming to see me
My Grum is just so nice I could die!
Birthday is still unclear
Oooh pretty lights!

Just got back from town. We went to buy a new Xbox 360 as ours had stopped working - we traded our old one and my Wii, and this time we got 2 year cover against all damage.

This is not particularly relevant, but is part of today's events nonetheless.

Anyone that knows me knows I dress entirely in black. Because I'm only comfortable in black. I also don't have a lot of self-esteem, and I'm agoraphobic and scared of people. On a few rare days I do quite well - this day I was not feeling great, and my clothes were chosen accordingly.

I chose black trainers, black combats, my huge Metallica tee, my hair down and wavy, as I would have even if I felt good - but I chose no makeup and I put on my plain hooded jumper, with the hood up (It's a security blanket situation) or sometimes hood down rather than makeup on and my long black coat, buttoned and tied around the waist.

What a difference a coat makes.

Entering an old time sweet shop to buy 3 Kinder Eggs (I collect the toys, if you didn't know) I saw an old man and lady in front of me in the queue. He held himself in a rather rigid manner, and spoke with a rather pompous air. He was carrying a large framed picture, and he noticed me. A few seconds later the sharp corner of the picture frame dug into my thigh, bringing a suprised "OUCH!" from my lips and my hand shot to my leg.

The man turned around at this, and without blinking, turned back, no apology, nothing. Just him looking down his nose at me. Conversing with the shopkeep, he then quoted Oscar Wilde's "I can resist anything, save temptation", which brought a smile from the three, as the old man said it in reference to his own vice for chocolate, and a small smile from me, as the quote is actually a reference toward gay sex.

Upon uttering this quote he looked back at me with an uppity air, confident that I must not even understand what he thought to be a witty reference.

Of course, being who I am I said nothing to the fuckwit, but I wanted to!

You know, if I'd gone out in my long, nice coat today, events would have been completely different. It happens all the time - people treat me with a load of respect when I'm out in that coat. They talk to me like I'm of high class or something, like they look up to me. They fall over themselves trying to help me... It's unbelievable!

You know, I don't like either treatment! Just treat me like an equal! Class is nothing, as is appearance... Don't complain about my generation when you're passing bigotry onto them yourselves, you elitist FUCKS!