The Parts Of A Heggie

Just over a week ago someone queried on Twitter:

"Part punk part panda part vampire? Just how many parts are there?"

To which I replied - Not entirely sure tbh. I am a complicated being (^_~)
Well, let's just say I've been thinking about this a bit and I thought I'd better write it out.

Part Punk Part Panda

This is in reference to my name on Twitter (not my @ name - that's @Heggie31; I'm HeggiePanda on Tumblr). I picked the name cos a) Punk - fucked up hair, piercings, tattoos and b) Panda - dark circles around eyes (which have mysteriously faded after 35 years...), cuddly, tendency to sit around eating. So those parts of me fit fairly well.

Part Vampire

The original tweet was about wanting the sun to come out and I said I was part vampire so I wasn't keen. As I am pasty to the point of sparkling in the sun and I've been known to burn even on overcast days this also seems reasonable. My eyes are also very sensitive to light which has caused no end of trouble getting eye injuries seen to at AandE...

Next let's consider my Twitter bio which reads:

FVK ;; ~ OU student ~ single mum of two teenage girl-beasties ~ 

got funky coloured hair ~ I cinderella at a castle

So other parts of me include:

• FVK fan (Lost Heart) - since January 2013
• University student - since April 2012
• Mother - since 1996 (so you know I am also female and of a certain minimum age - I'm 35 as it goes, I started early)
• Single - since I am so not telling you!
• Employee - you should be able to figure out what I do and where

Is there anything else?!  Well, yes actually...

My current Twitter header is a painting of mine so you might say I am an artist - in a purely for my own pleasure kind of way; I am an avid bookworm; I am a devoted farmer...on FarmVille that is (^_~); I am a daughter, a slob, a loner and heaven only knows what else.

Can anyone identify as only one thing?  You can stand in front of the mirror in the morning and say "I am a goth...that is me" but is that all you are?  Of course not!

I wear a bracelet with the phrase life is about creating yourself on it, as a reminder that I am not finished.  As long as I am alive I am capable of change, of reinventing myself, of discovering new parts of who I am - and that what I have been is not who I am or will become, just a part of the journey.  I decide who I am and who I will be.  Perhaps when I am gone there will be a definitive list of the parts of me, but I doubt it.  

Perhaps my kids will have "I was a Heggie...that was me" on my gravestone.

Fearless Vampire Killers: Bridgwater - 26th April 2013

Just over a week since FVK played Remedies Bar in Bridgwater so it's about time I wrote it up.

I didn't take any photos this time although I had the perfect opportunity to do so...I was stood pretty much in front of Drew which was nice cos I could barely see him at Oxford (^_^)...part of the problem was that I was feeling quite unwell.  I had been down with a stinking cold and a nasty cough all week and it was only at the last minute that I decided I was even well enough to go.  The other part of the problem was being in such a perfect spot...I'm used to being anonymous, hiding at the back somewhere and I felt so shaky being up close and personal I didn't fancy wrestling with a camera I still haven't had much practice with.

At my 1st concert back in 1991 I was about 1/2 way back in a crowd of 15,000; my 2nd concert was at a 5,000 capacity venue where I was up in the balcony.  I thought seeing FVK in Oxford two weeks earlier in a venue with a capacity of only a few hundred was small...but blimey! this was unexpected.  When very few people moved up to the stage at the start of FVK's set I felt obliged to physically move out of my comfort zone!

FVK were the 5th act on stage that night following Out For Tomorrow, Karl Ficarotta, Scout Killers and Ashestoangels.  I had to run off straight after FVK's set or I risked missing the last train home.  Taunton and Bridgwater aren't far apart but it's a fair old hike and I had work at 8am.  I would have liked to hang around but even if there had been later trains I didn't want to make the boys sick.  As it was I had a mad coughing fit during 'Palace In Flames' (sorry Laurence!) - most unbecoming.

The guys played a great set and I enjoyed it immensely although it was in some ways quite a difficult night.  It was the first time I've left my teens at home while I go out of town - thankfully they didn't murder each other or burn the house down.  In fact, it was the first time I'd been to a bar on my own in getting on for a decade and a half!  Not knowing anyone and being socially awkward it meant standing on my own for some three hours before FVK's set which is not the easiest thing in the world to do, but if that's what I have to do to see these guys then so be it.

To have them play so close to home and not to go would've been ridiculous.