Back, back, BACK!!

Am I actually capable of using a different phrase to herald my return?! Apparently not!

Well, here I am. After a few weeks of hecticness (doing extra work in addition to my full time job) I finally have a bit more time on my hands. A bit. Life STILL seems to be fairly full and bursting at the seams at present...

My first and biggest piece of news is....I GOT A NEW JOB!! I have been waiting to announce this one for some time (should I say I've been bursting? Maybe...) but now I can tell y'all officially. I am so pleased. It's a lecturing post at an FE college in South London, teaching English Language and Literature A Level and GCSE to 16+ students. It's only a maternity leave cover post so it's not forever, but it's much more in line with what I want to do job wise and will enable me to use my teaching skills and creativity, as well as being a more dynamic role overall (frankly, what I am doing now just doesn't allow for any of that). Anyways I start there at the end of August and have already given my notice in my current job. Can't wait!!

And here are the rest of today's news items...

I have started having Brazilian-Portuguese lessons. In a bid to keep up with my husband and also if we ever move to Brazil (well it's a slight possibility). Not an easy language to master what with all the masculine and feminine, different "to be" verbs etc but I am determined to try. I think I need to be more conscientious with my homework though...

Dr Who has finished!! At least until Christmas! And a pretty good finale it was too, perhaps not a true classic but infinitely more satisfying than the Master-mess of 2007. More on that one in a while...

The OC spotted some famous celebs on a train last Saturday. Well, C list ones to be precise. Miaow. But it was soooo weird and funny!! More on that one a bit later, too...

Fellow blogger Deemer is leaving us!! Noooo! In case you didn't know who he is, Deemer is a gay Pakistani American from Chicago (or thereabouts) and he's lovely. In some respects, he's a lot more sussed about the real world than me - well the world of Islam and American politics for instance - but he's also written a lot about pop culture and there our tastes and interests gell. Oh and gay culture too - lots of interesting debates have been had there. So I (and many of us) will really miss him. Wishing you all the best, Deemer!

Went to see Sex and the City (the movie, that is) a couple of weeks back and thoroughly enjoyed it, despite some negative reviews. Okay so it was quite predictable and not exactly world-shatteringly different, but the four actresses slipped back into their roles seamlessly - like meeting up with your best friends again. There was some excellent drama as well as weepy bits. Loved the Samantha suishi scenes and Carrie's ditching of her old wardrobe bit.

I haven't watched the latest series of Big Brother atall. All that I know is there was a nasty black girl from Croydon who got booted out for bullying (I pray I don't run into her as Croydon's only up the road from where I live) and a strange blind albino man (that's not meant to sound prejudiced in any way, but he IS strange). Has anyone else bothered with it? The impression I get is that they haven't.

And THAT is about IT for now, folks...laters!!

OC x

Celebrity spotting with the Cheeser

OH MY GOD!!

Last night I was out with friends in a bar close to Moorgate and in there was Victor Ebuwa from Big Brother!! That's him above. Although when I saw him he was actually looking relatively ordinary in jeans and a bomber jacket I think. And he didn't have the pencil-thin moustache.

In case you didn't know, Victor was one of the contestants on Big Brother 5, which was broadcast in 2004. He was a bit of a straight-talking, sometimes aggressive fellow and somewhat arrogant too. I confess I didn't like him much back then. At the time of BB, Victor claimed that his nicknames were 'the milkman', because he always delivered and 'Mr Slick', because he always got the job done. Not too modest, then. Other charming statements that he came out with were: "My DNA stands for Dis Negro is Attractive", "Mess around with me and I leave you R.I.P.", "Shizzle my nizzle. You get me?", not to mention his chat-up technique with women: "I have an extremely large penis. I just pull it out."

Lovely. What a fine specimen of male heterosexuality he is. I suppose Victor was capable of some degree of self awareness however, as he also described himself as being like Marmite - because people either loved or hated him.

Anyway. It was rather bizarre seeing him in the flesh right in front of me, as it would be running into any famous person or celebrity. As I said he looked relatively normal and actually rather subdued and quiet, nothing like his TV persona. Having consumed several glasses of wine, I was brimming with courage and went up to him to ask: "Are you Victor from Big Brother?" To which he replied: "Yes". Great conversation eh?! I actually don't remember much of what we said but it was brief - I did ask him if he'd seen the recent BB and he said he hadn't watched it atall. Then I said something like I was sorry for having bothered him, but he was fine about it. So that was that.

It's kind of difficult making conversation with famous people I guess. Do you comment on their work, the films, tv programmes, music or whatever they've done and are famous for? As they talk about that kind of stuff all the time in interviews and elsewhere, they probably get bored sick of people asking them the same kind of things. So the alternative is to talk about ordinary, "normal" stuff. But how can you make small talk with someone well-known, acting like they're your mate, when you are both strangers? Odd. That's why I kind of ran out of stuff to say to Mr Ebuwa.

Anyway. The excitement of it all was almost too much for this Cheeser to take.

Now. What I really want to know is - who was the last famous person YOU saw for real? What was the experience like? Did you dare to talk to them? What did they say and do? DO tell!