some pix! at last! not at all comprehensive in any way!

central park west. or east. one of those.

times square:

ze met:

now that’s a view:

and another:

can you tell this was my favourite part of the trip?

» more…

updated update: well done everyone! just one and a half quotes to go…

i saw this on gabrielle’s blog, and thought it was appropriate oscars day fare…

i’m going to post quotes from 15 of my favourite films below. (take note: some of them are two-parters…) guess in the comments if you know the quote and the first one to each gets the credit. NO GOOGLING or otherwise trawling the net - play fair! (and if you know ‘em all, be nice and just guess one or two so others can join in, k?) okay, here we go…

1. - “You are so self-righteous, you know. I mean we’re just people. We’re just human beings, you know? You think you’re God.”

- “I gotta model myself after someone.” - yay for sally! it IS manhattan.

2. “I’ve had it up to my ass with sedate.” - LOTS of guesses about which one was thelma and louise, but finally helen nailed it!

3. “Waiter, there is too much pepper on my paprikash.” when harry met sally - good work, keris! i *knew* you’d get that one. (honorable mentions to sue and claire, just not quite fast enough!)

4. “Claustrophia and a dead body - this is a neurotic’s jackpot!” - well spotted, pom! it’s manhattan murder mystery.

5. “He’s all right! Aren’t you, cat? Poor cat! Poor slob! Poor slob without a name!”  breakfast at tiffany’s - helen TM got it! (and was the first to get one, btw!)

6. - “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

- “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.” sally nailed it - classic babs streisand (and ryan o’neal making fun of love story) in what’s up doc? (which i lurrrrrrrrrrrrrve).

7.”That’s it. Out you two pixies go - through the door, or out the window!” - it’s a wonderful life, isn’t it, peepo?

8. “I am so glad that I got sober now so I can be hyper-conscious for this series of humiliations.” - postcards from the edge - right again keris! :)

9. - “I already know an awful lot of people and until one of them dies I couldn’t possibly meet anyone else.”

- “Well, if anyone goes on the critical list, let me know.”

10. “Don’t worry. We can walk to the curb from here.” - annie hall, of course! pom said it first.

11. “Lawyers should never marry other lawyers. This is called in-breeding; from this comes idiot children… and other lawyers.” - after a hint or two, peepo finally got it: adam’s rib. if you haven’t seen it, why not? katharine hepburn, spencer tracy and (my favourite) judy holliday in a classic almost-feminist film.

12. “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” - goodfellas, good stuff peepo!

13. “”Abt natural, I’ve got a gub!” - jas gets half a point for flagging it up as a woody allen quote… but which movie?

14. “You and your lousy letters. Just to get one of them made me special even before I opened it. All your crappy stories, all your big dreams.” - good work again, helen TM! it *was* the biggest girlie weepie of all time, beaches (remember all those letters they wrote?) - sob!

15. “Okay, so you’re probably going, “Is this like a Noxzema commercial or what?” But seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl.”  - sally got it again! - she’s not clueless… (geddit?)

good luck!!!

i know i was (am?) having a hiatus (i’m still feeling a bit rough to be honest, also: grumpy) but the site wasn’t supposed to totally freaking disappear!

after two days, i got in touch with my blog host, and it transpired they had changed some of their settings (why? why?) and made my blog go ‘way as a result.

so i had to go and change my settings with the company i bought dianeshipley.com from, where it was a dark world of ‘nameserver this’ and ‘DNS settings that’ and ‘this is not the email address you registered with’ and ‘please log in again’ until i nearly tore my hair out.

but i made it back!

and if you missed it, while the site was down i got another blasting in wrote another piece for the guardian: don’t bite the hand that feeds the inner you.

is there a good self-help book for dealing with criticism and blog disappearances, do you know?

i’m sorry, i know i owe emails left, right and centre but i’m busier than i’ve ever been, ever, at the moment, and now i’ve been hit with some sort of virus that’s making me sluggish and overheated: i literally cannot think. my brain has gone. also, the thought of food turns my stomach - that can’t be good. hopefully i can take this afternoon off and come back fighting tomorrow.

i’ll be back blogging when i can, but i don’t have any idea when that might be. i need to do loads of stuff for australia, reply to all those million emails… and what was that other thing? oh yes, work. and i have two days training and an interview next week, too. (not that i’m complaining!) it’s very nice to be needed and wanted and have things to do: having spent years lolling on sofas, i know. but still… pass the smelling salts, someone.

browsing the times website, i came across this column which made me see R.E.D.

yes, david aaronovich, let’s all pretend that prostitution is a fun and sexy lifestyle choice rather than the sad symptom of a society which reduces women to a series of body parts designed for male consumption. let’s agree that women who’ve been abused shouldn’t be encouraged to stop serving up sex on a plate, but that we should say ‘oh well, carry on then!’ instead.

that seems reasonable…

or so ANNOYING i can barely speak for spitting feathers.

one of those.

arrrgh!

*implodes*

my mum: “is it all right if i start to be senile now?” 

with this article.

okay, not all of it: i do believe we shouldn’t sneer at people, even politicians, because of their age. and i know the older and the disabled get a bum deal in many ways, such as wheelchair access, which is still awful almost everywhere you go.

but america as some kind of nirvana for the elderly? i don’t buy it. i spent two weeks there in november, and the large number of over-70s i saw working really hard in the service industries (i doubt for the joy of it; most likely so they could eat) was really eye-opening, and a little bit heart-breaking, to me.

and, in other news, i have some problems with the probable end of the writers’ strike. am I the only one disappointed? the paltry DVD figure is unchanged and there’s no info about shows bought for iPods etc. the internet agreement is a step in the right direction, but worth calling an end to the strike for just that? it seems to me that the studios will still think they have won…

…except when i say ‘going to the chapel’, i mean [drumroll please…] i’m going to australia!

and when i say ‘i’m gonna get married’, i mean i’m not. (and perhaps i should have picked a more appropriate lyric to title this post).

anyway… i leave (i think) on april 10th for about three months.

so i’ll either be blogging loads or not blogging much at all until then.

is it wrong - or so very very right - that i’ve already started packing? 

the idea for this site is so funny and endearing, and the instructions could actually teach you something, too.

i love the internet.