Hey Sinister, ME REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK? NO WAY! Well Ive been back on home soil again for a couple of weeks now. I must say that Ive been finding it a bit more difficult settling in again this time. I think its because its now all VERY final. My volunteering stint in Bangladesh is well and truly over (although I am going back to visit the boyfriend for Christmas/New Year - he he)*. Seeing family and friends again is great and is definitely helping me settle back to life in the UK. * Ian. Youre right Im not American but my boyfriend is. Hope that clears any confusion. ANYHWERE TO RENT IN GREATER MANCHESTER? So, I start my full on paid first graduate job on Monday. Im very excited. Accommodation hunting is still underway. The only Sinister picnics I ever made it to were in Manchester so its nice to be moving to an area Im fond of. A plea to Greater Manchester sinisterites know anyone with a room/place to rent? Pref. in Heywood, 2nd pref Bury but will consider Manchester itself. Ive been quite steady in settling back to the UK no kayaking or dragon boating or canoe polo since Ive arrived. I guess theyll be good ways of making new friends. A YEAR OF GIG DEPRIVATION After a year of cold turkey with no full on gigs I did treat myself the other week. My mate David and I went up to Newcastle to watch the return of The Delgados with support from Sons and Daughters*. A first class way to get back into the fray. * Im cheating and saying this is content because of associations with B & S Well Im saying the first gig since I got back because Im discounting being dragged to see the oh so ordinary Ordinary Boys the night before truly boring in my opinion. People are trying to re-educate me with bands that Ive missed over the year. Sadly, they got it wrong that time. Im up for suggestions of bands I should listen to/go and see. LAUGHTER YOGA Does anyone else here remember David Devant and his Spirit Wife (most famed for their You Must Be Ginger song)? I saw them on Sat after a hiatus of ? years. I went along because they always used to put on a good show with ultimate audience participation regardless of what you thought of their music. Like some other punters I was bitterly disappeared because the show had albeit disappeared. Taking growing up too far eh. Childish humour still has its place some of the time laughter yoga and all that. Anyway, as Im on some sort of a money-saving regime I have not been travelling to London for gigs (not leaving the north-east can be restricting in terms of choice). To those of you whove been going to see Le Tigre, Jonathan Richman etc. hope you all had fun. I was very pleased to see an article in The Guardian last week about laughter yoga sessions before work being all the rage in certain regions of India. Ever the advocate of the benefits of a good chuckle I wish they were brought in here. Ah, well. Id better go and enjoy my last couple of days of freedom before 40 years of (mostly) hard grind! Scary when you think of it like that. Take care all, Amy _________________________________________________________________ Want to block unwanted pop-ups? Download the free MSN Toolbar now! http://toolbar.msn.co.uk/ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+