Lucinda

I won't be buying anything off iTunes or physically. I shall be using one of the other legal music download sites for my purchase. Probably Amazon. It is near impossible to find physical CD singles these days. I like how it's possible for a song that hasn't been recently released to get into the chart, it makes it more realistic of people's listening. If you want to know what people are actually listening to week on week, the last.fm chart is the place to go. I don't believe that anyone has the right to a guaranteed spot at the top of the chart. Isn't the X-Factor supposed to be all about people (paying to) vote for who they think deserves to win?

That RATM song is strangely missing from my collection, so I'll try to remember to buy it. I haven't bought a christmas week single for about 9 or 10 years, since it was a fairish race-albeit usually won by a manufactured pop group like the Spice Girls.

Happy birthday, hope you've got lots of nice things planned for it!

My new computer arrived. It's awesome, finally I can do really amazing things, like watching YouTube without it automatically rebooting. The monitor is a little bigger than necessary, but it's so much better than the shite laptop I've been struggling with for so long. I'm seeing my boy tomorrow for the first time in 3 weeks. Oh and I don't seem to have a job any more, but my boss is too busy to tell me what is actually happening with that. Kind of sums up why I quit. So I've got more free time.

I also thought this was about the early 2000s boyband and whether they should reform. Disappointing...

Aww DC I hope your mum's ok. I think I'm losing my job. I didn't think I'd be able to cope with it when I took it on but no one listened at that point. Now I am actually having a breakdown of physical and mental health. I hate the people I work with and it's a waste of my time being there. But I'm in trouble for not being there enough. I feel like I'm letting everyone down and letting myself down, but I really can't do this any more. I've tried my best to keep going. I only hope I can leave on decent terms and get an ok reference.

I had a good weekend with my friends, I mean it's not perfect, I feel pretty distant from some of them already. We went for a walk along the beach yesterday and climbed a cliff and it was so nice running around outside and seeing nature and the sea. I feel like I might be able to get through the next 2 months of working and then my friend and I are making plans to go see some places. I think I am becoming more able to accept that the life I'm living in London just isn't right for me, and that it's ok to not do what my parents expect me to. So thinks don't rock exactly, but they're looking up.

On a kind of related note, anyone with Spotify, search for The Birthday Bunch or 'happy birthday'. There's great Happy Birthday songs with different names in, and Happy Birthday Emma is the most popular Click http://open.spotify.com/artist/0DLUrbFqDNVA1G5c3Dq3Ot if you have Spotify.

I got that joke too and I'm a Londoner. I feel I've got enough things that suck in my life to fill a blog but I think it wouldn't make very fun reading for anyone so I shall suffice by summarising below what is wrong: - I'm off work at the moment because of the anxiety and depression. Being off work because of depression is making me feel more hopeless and depressed. - I spend most of my time either crying or trying to suppress the crying. - I've told my boss I'm not going to continue beyond the end of January. I don't know how to tell my parents this. I haven't told them I'm on sick leave at the moment, I told them it's holiday leave. - I don't feel capable of holding down a job so I don't know how I'm going to get through life. - My boyfriend is dropping out of uni, for the second time. He's in third year. I don't know what he's going to do or how he's going to cope. It's really not an easy time to find a job and it's especially hard trying to find a job when you've wasted 3 and a half years on uni courses you've not bothered completing. I feel like I've failed and I don't feel like things will ever really be ok again.

Is it just me or do far more female names end in vowels than male names? My first name ends in a vowel and my last name starts with a vowel, so I find it difficult to say my name without the two running into each other. As a result I never tell people who I am when I phoned them or answer the phone, because I have so much trouble saying my own name coherently.

Happy birthday! Don't worry - not being a teenager isn't all bad - you get a bit more respect off people and when you're 21 you can get into over 21 bars so they can't exclude you for potentially being a drunken thug based purely on your age.

Damn I missed this, sounds like some proper tunes sadly can't get signal in my office.

I think it would be a bit of a dull feature to print all however many thousand songs he'd have on his iPod! Smashing Pumpkins are classic. 368 by Jamie T is pretty good too, although my best friend did ask why chipmunks had found their way onto his Jamie T CD.

It's not that I want to exclude northerners. But we did a northern meetup and a number of people said it was too far away. So I think we should have some southern options this time. Oh and depending on when it is, I might be far away in a different country exploring the world, once I've worked up the courage to quit this job.

I knew it was only a matter of time before someone suggested their home town *cough*Helen! London's sort of my home town, but it's not really that close by, and it has the best transport links of anywhere. I guess we should find some more places and put up some more dates, a Saturday is best again I think, maybe around March/April time for when the kids/students have holidays?

I'm a bit worried that a London meet-up will turn into a trip to Great Portland Street which will turn into standing outside Radio 1 all day....

Awww Mike that's really bad anxiety is disabling, it's horrible. I know it's hard but you need to try to get help for it and brave the doctors. There's no shame in feeling like that and you shouldn't feel like you're wasting the doctor's time or being pathetic. Today I got a clear picture of what the problem is at work. The people I work with are like selfish young children who don't want to let anyone else near their toys. We had a 2 hour meeting about who would take on which work and despite my boss suggesting they get me to help with the huge piles of work they all have, they refused. My boss is lovely and wants to help me and so do some of the others but unfortunately the people I should be working most closely with refuse to even talk to me. I've been there 2 months and feel like I'm wasting my time and their money even being there. I'm trying to decide when to quit. Apparently the only time I'll have anything to do is over actual christmas, meaning I won't get to see the boyfriend or other friends, and for the next 2 weeks, I have to sit in the office doing fuck all all day.

4 people there. I'm thinking for the next one, Birmingham, Nottingham or London. Anyone got any other suggestions?

Yeah, it was good. I think we should try to find a time and place that more people can make. It may be more practical to have a southern meet and a northern meet separately and then work towards a goal of one big meet. So... ideas for dates and locations should start again, I think.

It really really doesn't sound like my kind of film. When I was at the cinema last weekend, the trailer for this movie showed footage of the audience's reaction to watching the film, was kinda weird and different. Lots of popcorn flying about and screaming. The film has that fake shot on a home video thing going on. If I watched it, I'd be unable to sleep or spend time alone so probably best to give it a miss.

Since we're Radio 1 geeks, I suppose the fact that work paid for me to take a taxi across to the City of London from our location (next to a mainline train terminus with an association with a fictional bear) so that I could deliver a huge pile of reports to a client. I could barely lift the pile of reports so wouldn't have managed to get them on the tube. Anyway, the taxi took me down Great Portland Street. Exciting stuff.... but since work is skint, I had to get the tube back.

I was proof-reading a report my colleague wrote and realised he's been extolling the benefits of 'pubic transport' again. I actually giggled out loud on the train. I don't know why I'm bothering posting in this thread though. Everything's shit.

Just for the day as I don't have the time or money to stay overnight. My train back is at about 6:30pm. Starbucks sounds like a good place to meet. In the last few days I've been so many places, Sunday is going to be my only chance to rest until...erm.... the weekend following Christmas day.

Demonhorse still says he's coming I have to print some eticket thing but I think I get there at about 1pm. I think we're meeting upstairs somewhere in the station? My number is on facebook if anyone doesn't have it, anyone who does have it should have the right one as I haven't changed it since 2004. Otherwise PM me. I think there's a fair chance it might rain tomorrow, but we should find something to do

I am very happy that it is Thanksgiving today because my bitchy colleague, who happens to be an American, took the day off, so I didn't have to put up with her all day. I think everyone going shopping on the same day is bound to be a bad idea. I'd much rather shop on a quiet evening when the shops are open late night.