Bits of life in London.....but mainly squirrels.

Dengue Fever

I really really like this. I have a particular soft spot for the female singer. I love how she almost sings like a child, just shouting the words enthusiastically.

Second Life

A couple have divorced after the husband was caught having a “virtual affair” with a female character in an online game.

David Pollard and Amy Taylor met in an online chat room in 2003 and married after discovering a shared love of the internet game Second Life.

In the game, players create characters known as avatars, which then interact with others in a virtual world. To his wife's horror, Mr Pollard's interaction included virtual infidelity with a female character playing the role of a prostitute. Ms Taylor said yesterday that her husband had been guilty of the “ultimate betrayal”, even though he had never met the real person behind his online affair.

Mr Pollard, whose Second Life character is called Dave Barmy, and Ms Taylor, who calls herself Laura Skye, apparently spent as much of their marriage interacting on Second Life as they did in the real world.

Ms Taylor, 28, filed for divorce on the ground of unreasonable behaviour after her husband admitted falling in love with the virtual female character. She discovered the affair after a rare break from her computer. When she returned from a nap she caught a glimpse of her husband's avatar in a compromising position on a sofa with a female avatar.

She said: “I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done. It's cheating as far as I'm concerned, but he didn't see it as a problem and couldn't see why I was so upset. He said I was just making a big fuss and tried to make out it was my fault for not giving him enough attention.”

Ms Taylor's suspicions were aroused in 2007 and she hired a Second Life private investigator. The virtual sleuth, called Markie MacDonald, caught Dave Barmy in flagrante and he apologised to his online and real world wives.

Ms Taylor said: “It has been a very difficult time. I am now just trying to move on with my life. People find love in lots of different ways. Ours was a very serious marriage. It may have started online but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over. His was the ultimate betrayal."

The story made me laugh my face off, but at the heart of it is something truly depressing. Imagine calling a game 'Second Life.' It basically implies that your 'first life' is inadequate and you should create a second one for yourself where you can be slimmer, better looking, and have affairs with prostitutes. I'm not saying that I don't daydream about what I'd change if I could, but the thought of spending a lot of my day logging in and living as what is essentially a computer program is just grim beyond belief.

When I think about it, it's not completely removed from online profiles where you present yourself in a very controlled environment, but at least underneath the flattering photo and carefully considered favourite films, books etc, it's still largely you. These games are also an insight into what people think attractiveness is; check out his character's medallion.

Blog Challenge - Accepted!

Pick twenty songs that mean a lot to you.

The Shoop Shoop Song - Cher

Blue Jeans - Blur

I'm So Tired - The Beatles

Northern Lites - Super Furry Animals

Stand and Deliver - Adam and the Ants

Gin & Tonic Sky - Mundy

Everything is Borrowed - The Streets

Moonage Daydream - David Bowie

Astral Weeks - Van Morrison

If You Don't Want Me - Gary Dunne

No Need to Argue - The Cranberries

Heart Like A Wheel - Kate & Anna McGarrigle

I'm On My Way - The Proclaimers

Stop - Delorentos

Reflections - Diana Ross

Atoms For Peace - Thom Yorke

Venus - Television

Flume - Bon Iver

China - Tori Amos

Cupid - Sam Cooke

Will you top that pint up love?

1. I saw a man walking a ferret in Finsbury Park yesterday. He literally had it on a lead. It just looked.....wrong, like putting a lead on a squirrel and taking it for a walk.

2. I walked full-force, cartoon-style, into a pole on Saturday night. It was such a shock that I successfully laughed and cried at the same time. Luckily I hit the side of my head so I'm not toothless or looking like a boxer right now.

3. I walked right past Cillian Murphy last week. He was talking on the phone and carrying a shopping bag.

4. I went to my local (and by 'local' I mean LOCAL; it's ten doors down the road) pub last night for the first time. It's an old Irish bar and I spent the night sitting with three old Irish guys trying to name all 52 states of America. We did it.

5. I discovered that a 'large' vodka means a double vodka. Didn't know that. I also discovered that people who drink old timey English ale are very fussy about how it's served.

6. I realised that whether I like it or not, I am a very girly girl. I got word that I didn't get a job I really wanted so I went to play.com and bought two albums (retail therapy anyone?), and then went to meet Linn for an unhealthy lunch followed by tea and cake.

IKEA = Heaven

Yesterday I discovered the joy that is IKEA. I had never been to one before and I had been longing for a throw for the couch for weeks, so I decided to bite the bullet and journey out to Edmonton to see if this Swedish wonderland was as good as I had heard. 'Journey' is an exaggeration really, it's only 2 tube stops and a free shuttle bus from the station to the store.

I was lucky to have my own personal Swedish tour guide/sister-in-law with me, so she knew the lay of the IKEA land better than any other. I walked in and it was love at first sight. We walked around the 'showrooms' at the start and I saw displays of rooms that I literally want my future house to look like. I saw fabric designs and cups and teapots and cushions and duvet covers that seemed like they were made especially for me. I was shocked by how cheap it all was and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't have the cold warehouse-y feel that I was expecting.

I reviewed my 'Things I'm allowed buy in IKEA' list and my mantra became "well while I'm here I might as well get it." I found fabric with birds and colours that looked like it had been commissioned by me, so I obviously had to get some of that. I also got:

A blue throw for the couch
Two grey cushions
A red lamp
A red rug
A white and red duvet cover
Black and white fabric

When I got home I was so excited about getting everything out of the bags and onto the furniture that I ran around my room like someone had fast-forwarded me. I got the scissors out, cut up the bird fabric, pulled it over two canvases that I had bought in LIDL, pinned it securely, and hung the two new 'pieces of art' above the fireplace. I love them so much. I ripped the throw out of the wrapping, fixed it on the couch, got the cushions organised too, stopped for a breath, and then got cracking on my room. Within ten minutes I had the new duvet cover on, the lamp glowing red in the corner and the rug exactly in the position I had envisaged it in. I sat on the bed, looked around and praised the lord IKEA.

I can hear old 29, when she goes rolling by

This is one of my favourite songs. I love every second of it. It's also nice that they refer to the 29 bus that I'm on about 10 times a week...I'll hear no argument that it's not the 29 that runs from Wood Green to Trafalgar Square. They're surely can't be any other 29 bus...?