Charmland

'Tis the Season

2011-12-13T09:55:00.008Z

...for loads of DVDs to start piling up in our postbox! Since Astrid was born, we don't get to the cinema much anymore (like, actually never) and last year was pretty chaotic so we didn't actually get around to watching very many of Matthew's BAFTA screeners, but this year we're really trying to get stuck in. Sadly, we've only seen one film so far, but it was a really good one: The Guard. (Okay - it's really good if you liked In Bruges, which was directed by this guy's brother, and you don't mind a lot of swearing, good-natured racism, prostitutes and casual violence. So, not your cup of tea, Mom!)

So we're trying to be conscientious BAFTA members but this year's film-makers aren't making it easy. A lot of the films they're sending are challenging, to say the least. This is the batch they sent yesterday, along with my thumbnail reviews. My analysis is based, as usual, on a mish-mash of things I've heard on the radio, headlines of reviews I haven't read in full, and posters I've seen on the Tube, usually as my train is speeding past the platform.

The Deep Blue Sea - based on a Terrence Rattigan play and starring Rachel Weisz as the ruined woman. Looks dreary, though I'm sure the art direction is very good and she looks amazing in period costume.

Melancholia - Lars van Trier. Ugh. Kirsten Dunst. Double ugh. About the actual destruction of the world, unlikely to be a real upper.

We Need to Talk about Kevin - School shooting and associated parental guilt. Although every review I've read quotes the hilarious line, "Mummy used to be happy. Now Mummy wakes up every day and wishes she were in France," I can't imagine this will actually be very funny.

Wuthering Heights - Andrea Arnold's gritty, realist interpretation of an overwrought Romantic novel - now with added race issues! Apparently, her tactic of using non-actors is not as successful here as in her earlier film Fish Tank (which really was very good).

Archipelago - according to the Guardian, this film is "subtle, mysterious, murky and utterly distinctive". Note that the word "entertaining" is not used (though the Telegraph does say it is "hilariously uncomfortable". Okay).

Fire in Babylon - a doco about West Indies cricket in the 1970s/80s. Might actually be fun to watch.

Knuckle - a doco about bare-knuckle boxing in the Traveller (Gypsy) community. Likely not as much fun to watch. The Guardian calls is a black comedy without the comedy - ouch!

Sleeping Beauty - weird, Australian psycho-sexual drama, rumoured to be quite arty. Bleurgh.

Snowtown - an "often unwatchable" Australian serial killer movie about "a twisted family and a blighted community", a "social-realist horror show". But based on a true story! Good times!

All I can say is bring on Arthur Christmas, Tin Tin and The Muppets.

2011-06-02T10:06:00.008+01:00

Our basement is in total disarray - as in, there are no walls left. Our very nice builder Paul (I'm not just saying that to butter him up; he is genuinely very nice!) spent all day yesterday hacking off the plaster to reveal some very iffy looking brick walls underneath. He's coming back tomorrow to plaster and then on Sunday to finish it up. So. Very. Excited.

Of course, the basement/bedroom won't be finished on Sunday. There are still the stairs to do. And the floor. And the cupboards. And the painting. Only then can the decorating start, though I've already got ideas. Actually just the one idea, since it's a very small space and so it has to stay really simple to keep from being too junky. So far all I've planned is making a curtain for the little window - a single panel of unbleached linen with a light lining. Woo-hoo, huh?

Since I'm putting my brick-and-mortar decorating on hold for the moment, I've been finding alternative outlets for ornamentation, like these lovely wallpapers:

Frankie magazine - an Australian fashion/lifestyle mag with a wispy, ethereal, retro kind of aesthetic. I'm currently rocking the embroidered kitten on my laptop.

Fossil - very retro, sporty/nautical, sort of Team Zissou vibe.

V&A Shop - and just one more reason for Facebookers to "like" the V&A shop - lovely vintage fabric wallpapers.

The Graphics Fairy - Not wallpaper, but another place to find pretty things for your computer. Who wouldn't love an old timey engraving of, say, a long-tailed field mouse?

Springtime

2011-05-25T21:26:00.014+01:00

We have so much stuff going on at the moment and in the immediate future, including some actual "work" on the house coming up very soon. In fact, I'm supposed to be clearing out the basement at this very moment - so, of course, I finally feel moved to write a blog post. Funny, huh? I don't actually mind clearing the basement; I have already made very good progress and boxing things up is a lot like playing with my fabric and craft supplies. But blog posts take place upstairs, which means that I can be a) playing on the internet, b) eating chips and salsa, and c) watching Ace of Cakes, all at the same time. Multi-tasking is fun!

I am very excited about impending home improvements. We've been doing bits and pieces in the garden and it's really gratifying to see the change - there's a very good "effect to effort" ratio. I spent £20 at the garden centre up the road and a month later everything is still alive and flowering. Nice! And it's been agreed with the other freeholders to paint the front of the house! I am so happy about this, because lots of other houses along the street are freshly painted while ours...has a plant growing out of the 2nd floor window ledge. I think the new paint will smarten things up, so that the exterior gives a better indication of the cuteness inside.

The biggest project (from our point of view, since painting the house is obviously a pretty big undertaking but not one in which we will have any direct involvement) is getting our basement sorted out. It's damp, so a very nice man named Paul is going to chip off all the plaster, treat the walls with a liquid PVA and then re-plaster with a mixture which includes another damp-proofing agent. Then everything will be painted bright white. Sometime after that, we're going to put down a new floor, possibly a laminate as it turns out that the rubber flooring I wanted is not only difficult to keep clean but also really expensive. Then we're having the stairs re-done - at the moment they're just open steps with no risers - and having cupboards built in underneath. When all that's done, we're going to move our bedroom down there and turn the upstairs bedroom into an actual nursery. Granted, it will be a nursery with a futon in it. I would have hoped that by the age of, well, nearly 40, I'd be living a futon-free life, but sometimes things don't work out the way you imagine. And it'll be somewhere to sleep when we have guests and the rest of the time, a nice place to read stories.

But enough of my unrealised furniture-related ambitions. In addition to the home improvements, we're also just generally busy. I've gone back to work two days a week, while Matthew stays home with Astrid. She is getting very active and very sociable, so we have activities almost every day, which she really likes and which I am finding exhausting. She is growing, hitting lots of developmental milestones, and eats well - I never imagine I would peel and chop so many apples and pears. I don't really mind, though.

Girard Strikes Again

2011-02-12T13:39:00.007Z

The poster on Craftzine writing about these wooden dolls by Mark Giglio thinks they look Scandi-Japanese, which they do, but I think they're more than a little reminiscent of my beloved Alexander Girard dolls:

While the Girard dolls are essentially two dimensional, Giglio's figures are turned on a lathe and so have very solid geometric forms. They are hand-painted, which makes a nice sort of contrast to their very precise shapes.

Giglio says his next project is quilting - which makes me instantly start daydreaming about awesome Girard-inspired quilt designs. Note that I say "designs" rather than "actual, completed quilts", since it is an awful lot easier to measure, draw and colour in designs in my graph-paper notebook than to actually do any sewing.

Local Colour

2011-01-26T00:37:00.010Z

Well, in the end we had an eventful, joyous and tragic 2010. Astrid was born, but we also lost a close family member suddenly and shockingly just a few months later and our family seems so much smaller without him. There has been a lot to think about and try to process, so I don't have anything particularly pithy to write about the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one. But here are some things I've seen (fairly) recently:

We walk past the Gaff every time we go to the grocery store. It used to be a heavy metal pub. Back then, I'd always see anemic-looking mulletheads hanging around outside wearing t-shirts that read "Evil Death" or "Kill Me". They weren't scary; I felt sort of sorry for them. Then it had a revamp and emerged with a punk/rockabilly vibe. We haven't been, because Astrid never lets us do anything fun, but as you can see, they have lots of interesting sounding bands. Matthew had his birthday party there last year and was going to have it there again this year, but as of Sunday, it was closed and is being converted to a Costa Coffee. Boo hiss, indeed. I love the idea of naming a band UK Vomit - it's so simple yet so aggressive, and informative. Is that the band Vomit from Germany? No sir, this is the UK Vomit.

In October, I went with my book group on a tour of Highgate Cemetery. I'd been to the western side before, as Matthew took me there on our first date. (I asked him about this once. He said he thought I'd be impressed to see Karl Marx's grave. When I asked why, he said, "I don't know - but it worked, didn't it?") This time we toured the East Cemetery, which is beautiful but actually quite spooky. This is the Rossetti family grave. D.G. isn't there - he's buried in Kent, for some reason - but Lizzie Siddal and Christina Rossetti are. It kills me that Christina Rossetti, who was a very gifted poet, is almost literally a footnote on her own grave.

And this is something I saw the other day walking home from the shops. The sunset turned the con trail the same brilliant pink as the other, wispier clouds and it was just so very pretty. It just goes to show that, while it's important to watch where you're going (to avoid dog poo if nothing else), it pays to look up now and then.

Ad Astrid Per Aspera

2010-08-13T18:22:00.010+01:00

As I think many expectant parents do, I had a lot of ideas about how things would be with my baby, the birth, the blissful first few days and weeks at home, my speedy recovery and all the fun outings we'd go on. I did a lot of nesting in the run up to my due date, decorating the nursery corner of our room, as seen below:

We put up two picture ledges and I arranged and re-arranged the pictures on them. I hung up little dresses (including the two I made) and put all the neatly folded receiving blankets underneath. I arranged her toys and books on her little white shelf. I bought a kit and started trying to teach myself to knit from a pamphlet.

Then the due date came. And went. And then two more weeks went by with no sign of baby. The natural water birth at the birthing centre was abandoned for an induced birth in the labour ward. Then that turned into a forceps delivery in an operating theatre. But in the end, we got our baby. I also got stitches in a tender area, but that's not the point.

The point is that Astrid is here. She is lovely and sweet and very pretty and somehow contains all the love, hope, passion, faith, integrity and goodness that can be found in me, in Matthew, and in our families going back into the mists of time. She contains all these things and yet somehow magnifies them back to us. She is small and pink. Her mouth is a perfect rosebud and her head smells like heaven. She is a flower and a star and I love her very much.

Nesting

2010-06-14T17:37:00.008+01:00

I've heard a lot about the nesting instinct and, from my own experience, I'd say it's real. In our case, it's taken the form of actual baby preparations like acquiring all the equipment (crib, pushchair, bouncer, carrier, etc), clothes, packing the hospital bag, etc, but also making some home improvements. It's sort of like how having a party can be the impetus for a good house cleaning and, I find sometimes, doing little decorating jobs you haven't got around to, but much more intensive. We have a new front garden gate, which is very similar to the old one but is better because it has a latch, swings open and closed, and isn't made of disintegrating rotten wood that breaks off whenever you touch it. Matthew and his friend Steve painted the shed, which was flaking pretty badly and looked grey, even though closer inspection showed that it was actually painted green. It's now a beautiful sage green that looks so pretty and fresh amid all the plants that I think we're going to have to start calling it the summer house - it just looks too good to be a shed!

Inside, we've rearranged and redecorated the bedroom, which used to be turquoise with red accents. Now it's a colour called "Whisper of Dramatic" - which you can be forgiven for not guessing is actually pale grey with a touch of lavender. Very calm and pretty. To go with the new walls, we've also got new bedding. This set is from Designer's Guild:

(That's not our bedroom - it's the photo from the packaging. Our front garden is looking good, but not that leafy and green.)

Then I went to Ikea the other day to get meatballs and a bedside table. I completely forgot the meatballs, but came back with two new sets of bedding. The first is sort of a Swedish toile and is so light and soft it's like sleeping on a cloud:
The second is a bit more colourful, but still manages to be restful enough to sleep on. Also very soft and luxurious:

We got rid of (i.e. donated to the charity shop down the road, who are probably getting tired of seeing us at this point in our nesting mania) all our other mis-matched or unloved bedding besides these new ones and a paisley duvet set from Monsoon Home. We also got a little chest that sits at the foot of the bed for storing the bedding. Every set has the right number of matching pillow cases and sheets - it's so grown up!

Spree vs Steal: Baby Edition

2010-06-08T00:22:00.014+01:00

One of the websites I've been compusively surfing, alongside BabyCenter.com and BabyCentre.co.uk (and yes, there is just enough difference to justify bookmarking both), is online boutique Smallable which features almost unutterably beautiful thing. It arouses the same sort of feelings I get about Graham & Green catalogues, i.e., that I'd like to live in that world. Sadly, the Smallable universe is apparently only for small, French-speaking people, but oh, the outfits. So tiny, so lovely. Please see below:

And so, so expensive. Like, the above outfit (not counting the shoes) costs £124. 27. So I concocted this alternative version:

It isn't exactly the same. My blouse has little flutter sleeves rather than long sleeves like the original and obviously the trousers are different (though I do have a cute pair of grey trousers, in case we decide to go that way). The "inspiration" cardigan seems to be sweatshirt material, while mine is soft cotton knit. Mine was also originally white, but I spent most of an evening dyeing it grey and am very happy with the results. I'm actually really happy with the entire outfit.

Of course, I feel particularly smug about the cost: blouse and trouser set, £5; cardigan, £4; dye, £3.75. That totals £12.75, or roughly 1/10th of the original outfit. Oh, yes, I am very clever.

Food that Tastes and Looks Good, too

2010-06-06T21:47:00.015+01:00

Being a pregnant lady for the past nine months or so, I've had to deal with lots of food that I can't eat (sushi, pate, stinky cheese), but also some food that I should eat. I've tried to keep my caffeine intake as low as possible for years now, so drinking decaf tea and coffee isn't a big deal for me - I try to "save" my caffeine allowance for Cokes and chocolate. And while oily fish is a very big deal as a source of Omega-3 (which is pronounced "omeega" here) fatty acids, I'm supposed to stay away from larger oily fish like shark and swordfish and limit salmon and tuna because of mercury. Little fish, like sardines, are okay.

So, at some point a while back, when Matthew was working an overnight shift, I asked him to pick up some decaf tea and sardines when he went to the supermarket for his dinner (I've been very bad about cooking practically the whole pregnancy). This is what I found on the counter when I got up in the morning:

I found it very sweet and also quite visually arresting. I'm always really impressed when Matthew does stuff like this, arranging something in a pretty pattern, and I'm not sure why - he's not a Neanderthal and he quite likes music and art, etc. But this was super-cute and made me start thinking about food packaging and how it makes something that tastes good just a little bit nicer when it comes in a pretty package.

Porridge is my staple winter breakfast, made with skim milk and with a couple of squares of chocolate or a squirt of honey. Probably the best thing ever was a bowl of porridge with an egg cracked in it. That sounds disgusting until you know that it was a Cadbury's Creme Egg.

I generally like canned fish, but it turns out that I don't love pilchards. But the can sure looks nice, doesn't it? Note, though, that they are high in Omega 3.
This is the coconut milk I use in my curry recipe, which comes from the grocery shop across the road. You'd think things would be more expensive in what is essentially a convenience store, but this costs about half what coconut milk costs at the big store up the road. Plus, the three different languages on the label makes me think it's somehow more authentic. I made a curry yesterday and, while I can't vouch for the quality before it was improved, I can say that it's quite good now.

And this isn't yummy food that comes in a pretty wrapper, but it is quite yummy. It's the jam that I made from figs that I picked in our back garden last year. The figs themselves aren't particularly delicious - Rocco tells me that the climate in England is no good for figs, but he says that about everything except spinach - but I found that boiling them for ages with an enormous amount of sugar really improved their flavour.

Good Work News, New Book, and a New Design Crush

2010-03-11T21:38:00.013Z

I've had some exciting developments at work lately. It seems that someone finally remembered that I'd done a planning degree and I'm suddenly assisting with preparation for three projects that are going to planning appeal. I'm helping the project architects draft their proofs of evidence, the legal documents they submit to the Planning Inspector, like a written version of their testimony. I've been to three meetings this week! And we got sandwiches at one of them! I felt so grown up which is quite nice, though it was a hassle trying to dress like a grown up three days in a row. I'm at a stage where I don't have that many wardrobe options...

Anyway, I'm still finishing up my interiors project and am still looking at lots of pictures of pretty, unfeasibly expensive things. I'm pretty crazy about these gorgeous cushions designed by Alexander Caldwell, who also did those wacky wooden dolls.

I am particularly taken with the moon cushion on the lower right. I think it's begging for a reinterpretation, maybe as a reverse applique. And it turns out I'm not the only person producing "homages" to Mr Girard. These crocheted dolls, inspired by Girard's wooden ones, were made by Sian Keegan. Pretty neat, huh?

I've been running into references to this book for a while now and finally decided I needed a copy for myself. Unfortunately, it is out of print and when I first looked it up on Amazon, the lazy booklover's first stop on a quest, a copy cost almost £200. So I forgot about it for a while and then next time I checked, there was a copy for £30. And that copy, once the property of Dunstable College's College of Further Education Library, is now on my coffee table. It's pretty great; the textiles especially are amazing, all geometric and organic at the same time.

Also in the course of my research, I ran across this photo of Eero Saarinen curled up in his Womb chair. Isn't he adorable?

I must say, Saarinen is definitely my new favourite 20th century architect. To be honest, I didn't have a designated favourite 20th century architect before; the post was created with him in mind. But he is great. He designed an amazing array of buildings and furniture, not to mention the St Louis Arch, which I have never seen in person but Matthew has and he assures me it is very, very tall.

In other, more baby-related news, everything is still going well. Apparently, my payback for having not had any morning sickness is that my feet and legs are still (and increasingly) swollen. I've only got two pairs of shoes that fit - and one of those only intermittently. Like I said, not many options. The only advice I've gotten from my GP and midwife is to keep my feet elevated as much as possible, which is why I'm writing this from the sofa, on my brand new laptop. It's taking me a while to get used to the little mousepad thingy, but I do love it. (And, actually, the GP told me today that I should start wearing flight socks - sexy!)

Current Obsessions

2010-02-08T16:48:00.008Z

...which obviously do not include keeping blogs up to date, am I right?!?

Actually, I've had a lot on lately, mostly in the form of this little person, who spends most of his/her time kicking my bladder and, somehow, causing my ankles to swell to elephantine proportions. This photo is from before Christmas; we have another scan next Monday, when we're supposed to find out the sex. I'm quite excited about that, not least because it should help us decide on a name. I've been interested in baby names since at the age of 12 and have always had favourites picked out - fortunately these have changed over the years, or we'd be preparing for the arrival of little Shade or Summer or Panda or Arlo. (Yes, I realise some of those are words, not actual names.)

The problem is that when it comes to naming an actual child, I've choked. I mean, it's got to be perfect, right? We're looking for something that is unusual, creative and interesting, without being outlandish or invented. It should also be something that we both like. And I've got to take into consideration naming trends in the US and the UK. We also have to consider the class connotations that come loaded into almost every activity in England so that we don't end up with a name that's too "chavvy" or too "poncey". I thought we were on the right track until the other day when - shock horror! - I found our one and only boy's name on a list of wannabe hipster names on a website I like and trust. But all that aside, we're doing pretty well and are looking forward to meeting the little stranger, whatever we end up calling it.

At work lately I've been doing research on and writing biographical blurbs about famous designers, mostly of furniture, lighting and other interiors products. It's been really interesting and has given me lots of opportunity to get lost in pretty pictures. Last week, I got really into Ray Eames's fabric designs. We've bought a rocking chair with black cushions for nursing the baby and I thought this would look gorgeous in it:

And it really would look great. However, it is the tiniest bit out of my price range - the cushion costs about 150 euros and I haven't been able to find the fabric for less than $112 a yard. I'm now thinking that I will produce my own "homage" by embroidering a similar design in white on black linen. I've recently done some sewing for work (embroidering and making up some linen cushions for a hotel room mock-up) and got very excited about working with linen, especially since I found a place that sells it very cheaply.

Another thing I've stumbled upon is this series of wooden dolls by Alexander Girard. He was heavily influenced by folk art from around the world, especially Mexico, and his collection formed the basis for the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Apparently he made these for his own home, just because he wanted to and thought they'd be nice to look at. That's why I do a lot of the things I do, much to Matthew's consternation, I fear, so I think that's nice. However, it does not really justify them being "re-issued" by a high-end furniture manufacturer and being sold for about £80 each, simply as decorative items.

That said (in a disapproving tone), I am really intrigued by these little guys. I imagine that making some would be quite satisfying and I'm already thinking about how to do it. They're mostly flat shapes cut out of wood; a person could probably reasonably approximate the shape with a jigsaw. I don't have a jigsaw, so now I'm wondering about painting a set of Russian nesting dolls in imitation. Or, rather, homage.

But one thing about which I am unreservedly excited is the quilt exhibition that's opening at the V&A in March. The V&A has probably the greatest museum shop in the world anyway and they always have themed items to go with their special exhibitions. In this case, they are reproducing textile prints from quilts dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and selling them in fat quarters, by the metre and cut to measure. And they're not insanely expensive - only £11.50 per metre.

Now I just have to wait until next week to find out if I'm going to be making a precious little dress for Yoyo (the working title for our sprog) or if I'll be crafting a lovely present for my niece. Either way, my sewing fingers are itching...

Graduation Aggravation

2009-12-01T11:09:00.002Z

Well, it didn’t go off without a hitch, but the important thing is that it’s done. Like so many aspects of my time at Westminster, it was annoying and frustrating but actually wasn’t that big a deal, and everything worked out fine in the end.

I went early to check in, pick up the tickets and get “robed.” The check-in and tickets were fine, but when I went to the robing area I realised that I didn’t have the reservation number for my gown, hood and cap. The people from Ede and Ravenscroft gave me a number to call to get it, so I went back upstairs to try it – the Barbican is on several levels, most of which have poor to non-existent mobile reception. The people on the phone, who were (I guess) at the head office, couldn’t find my reservation at all. I will admit, I was pretty upset about this. I actually stamped my foot on the floor. I said, “I am really unhappy about this. I’ve paid £60 for tickets for my family to be here and now I may not be able to graduate because you’ve lost my reservation,” to which the woman on the phone replied, “We haven’t necessarily lost it; we just don’t have any record of it.” To which I replied, “Well, since I definitely made it, I’d say you lost it.” Then I said, “Thank you very much for all your help” – but I didn’t mean it! I didn’t actually think she’d been very helpful at all!

Anyway, I went back downstairs, where a very, very old (and really very nice) man told me that they always bring extra regalia so I could rent a robe, etc, on the spot. I’d have to pay again, but he would make a note of it and I could sort it out later. But they only took cash, and I hadn’t brought an extra £50 to graduation with me, so I had to go back upstairs to find a cashpoint. There was one in the building, but it charged £1.95 for a withdrawal, which I found deeply annoying. I eventually got back downstairs and the nice old man gave me a receipt that looked like something you’d find in Bob Cratchit’s wallet, on which he wrote in spidery handwriting “paid twice?”. They gave me a robe, which I think was too small, a hood and a cap.

From there on out, it was pretty smooth sailing. I ran into my friend Nigel and chatted with him and his parents for a while. Matthew and his parents showed up eventually and we all got seated without incident. I finally cooled down – I’d been overheated and was literally pouring with sweat throughout the whole lost reservation situation – and found my place among a few friends and lots of people I vaguely recognised from my classes. It was a tiny bit anti-climatic. We finished classes in March and I turned in my dissertation in August. I got my results in mid-October and even got my diploma in the mail a couple of weeks ago. So on the day, we listened to a couple of speeches, and then walked across a very wide stage to shake the chancellor’s hand. That was it. Then Matthew, his parents and I went to lunch at a cute, tiny gastropub nearby. It turned out that, after so much excitement, roast pork belly and chips was a bit too rich for me, and I had to go home and take a nap (though, to be perfectly honest, that was part of my plan for the afternoon all along).

2009-11-04T13:47:00.007Z

So I’m settling into the new job. Well, it isn’t actually very settled – very much oscillating between panic and boredom at the moment – but I’ve started to learn InDesign, the program the architects use for putting together brochures and other documents and which did NOT come at all intuitively to me. As one of my new team mates pointed out, progress is being made – I started out disliking it, then moved to ambivalence, and have now reached a “mehh” sort of shrugging, hand-waggling stage.

Other than that, things have been pretty calm. The weather has changed. Though it still isn’t cold, it definitely isn’t summer anymore. I haven’t been in the back garden for any length of time in weeks. In one sense, we’re already settling in for the winter, getting used to coming home in the dark, eating dinner and snuggling on the sofa under a blanket. I can certainly think of worse ways to pass the time…

But on the other hand, we’ve been doing quite a bit. In the last month, we’ve visited Long Melford, the village where Matthew’s grandmother lived in retirement (very charming, full of antique shops) and been to the theatre (to see War Horse, which was genuinely very impressive), a birthday party that featured food, billiards and karaoke, and, since the screening season has started in earnest, at least one film a week. We’ve got several concerts coming up, and my graduation from Westminster. The ceremony will be held at the Barbican Centre, widely considered a Brutalist masterpiece and, in my experience, very difficult to find your way around. One of my classmates joked that maybe the final test is actually finding your way to the ceremony - if you can do it, they'll give you the degree and if not, you've just wasted a year of your life. (I think that last point may be debatable, even if we find the auditorium, but spilt milk, right?) So fingers crossed on that one...

After graduation, I’m going to Edinburgh to visit my friends the Bednars. I’m looking forward to several days of pretty much non-stop chat, interspersed with thrift-shopping and eating. I feel a little bad to realise that their younger daughter Josie is almost a year old and I still haven't met her, but if her Halloween photos are any indication, she is a very cute little piggie. I mean, girl.

Work is a Four-Letter Word...

2009-10-03T23:35:00.003+01:00

...but it turns out that "payday" is like sweet, sweet music. I've been back at work for a month now. There have been ups and downs - there has been a change of landlords, half our staff has relocated to a different floor and, most disruptive to me personally, my friend and co-worker Amy is going back to South Africa to continue her architecture studies. I'm moving to a new role starting next Wednesday, so there will be two new people to train from Monday. It's been challenging, to say the least, but it's not too bad. And I got paid on Tuesday. I was used to being paid weekly, so a month's pay in one check made me feel like I was suddenly very rich. I celebrated by ordering this dress.

I've had my eye on it for a while, but as soon as I placed the order, I started to lose interest. I might send it back, or it might be my new favorite thing...

Beatlemania

2009-09-12T18:28:00.005+01:00

It's not 1964 around here, but you'd be forgiven for thinking so - and not just because I've got a really cute new, mod A-line tunic dress (which I washed today and was hanging up to dry when I spotted a "dry clean only" tag. I simply harrumphed. I don't believe in dry cleaning and, besides, in my relationship with my clothes, I am the boss. If they can't stand a gentle cycle or a swish in the sink, I don't want them around!). Anyway, I was actually going to write about how there's an incredible amount of Beatles synergy around lately. A couple of weeks ago, thousands of people congregated at the zebra crossing on Abbey Road to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album being released - and, from what I heard, caused quite a bit of traffic congestion in the process. There's the release of the Beatles Rock Band game and a boxset of re-masters of all their albums, which I think happened on the same day. The BBC has been showing lots of Beatles documentaries and specials, of which we watched about 6 straight hours last week. This culminated in Help!, which was just as funny as I remembered from seeing it as a teenager. We decided that George has to be our favourite, certainly in this film, since he was the Action Beatle, tackling nefarious henchpeople and leaping onto the back of a speeding car, etc. Add to that the fact that he wrote "Here Comes the Sun" and he's obviously the best.

And then today as I walked to the grocery store, I saw two people wearing Beatles t-shirts. One was an album cover, but the other was the shirt pictured above (black letters on white). I like how simple it is, but as I thought about it, I became increasingly annoyed - the names are in the wrong order! Honestly, everyone in the entire world says John, Paul, George and Ringo. Right? Right??? Hmmm. I'm guessing that some people will say that they don't really care and as long as you don't actually leave one out, there is not one proper way of ordering the Beatles. To this, I would respond that there is a proper way to do everything.

...And We're Back!

2009-08-29T12:54:00.005+01:00

So, in the month since my last post, I haven't been having lots of fun and not sharing it, or taking lots of really artistic photos and not sharing, or even going about daily life and not sharing my insightful and amusing thoughts about it - I've been writing and, more importantly, completing and, most importantly of all, handing in my dissertation. Yay for me!

Before you get too impressed, this was an MA dissertation, only 35 pages long and more what we'd call a thesis in the US, not a real, proper PhD dissertation, which can run into the 100s of pages. Still, it was hard work, especially as I never really got the hang of "social science" writing versus "liberal arts" writing. During the course, I wrote a paper on environmental economics, in which I literally did not understand what I was writing but got a pretty good grade. Then I wrote one about wind farm implementation, on which I worked really hard, did lots of research in local newspapers, and thought I really nailed it - and made a letter grade lower than the previous paper. Then there was the paper that I forgot about. I'd neglected to write down the amended hand in date and was reminded of it the day before when I ran into a classmate at the library who just happened to mention it. I ran home and wrote it in about 18 hours, with no outside sources and a very questionable central metaphor holding it all together. And, of course, that was the highest grade I got the whole year! So it's been a struggle and I have no idea how it will be received. We don't get our results until the end of October, so it will be a nice, long wait - argh!

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to rejoining the land of the living. I've been been keeping my head down for most of the year and have avoided most social occasions over the summer. For the last two weeks, except for morning walks, I literally did not leave the house. I think the guys at the Turkish shop across the road were getting worried about me - I normally go in there a lot, sometimes several times a day. I have a long list of projects I want to do, like finishing reupholstering my chair, gardening, making jam, and lots of sewing. And, of course, Christmas. It's already the end of August, which means I've got to get my butt in gear. I've already got a theme, with a runner-up in place in case I change my mind, and have preliminary lists started. Last year I was so busy with school that I felt like I didn't get to really enjoy Christmas, so this year I'm going to do it right. I'm getting excited just thinking about it!

Saturday at the V&A

2009-07-26T18:44:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum with my friend Amy. We went specifically for a screening of Handmade Nation, a documentary about the DIY/indie craft movement in the US. It wasn't a cinematic tour de force, but it was really interesting and I came away with notes of people to look up and ideas of things to do.

While we were there we also saw the Telling Tales exhibition, which I thought was very good. Or, at least, very interesting. My favourite piece was probably the Linen Cupboard House, though the mole slippers were sort of lovely. (The micro-website is pretty good, so have an explore.) I think I like this little guy, too. It's hard to see, but he has golden grubs in his ears - which is disgusting but sort of beautiful.

The DIY ethos of the film inspired me, so when I got home, I hand-crafted some roasted vegetables and sausage, then resourcefully combined it with some spinach Matthew'd cooked earlier for my dinner. I must say, I was very pleased with my work!

Dreamland Theatre

2009-07-19T16:24:00.008+01:00

For the past few months, I've been having very interesting dreams almost every night. It started when my parents were visiting in April. Being gracious hosts, we gave them our room and we slept in the basement/guest room. It is passably comfortable and we didn't have trouble sleeping or anything, but I think my sleeping mind knew I was in a different environment and went a little bit haywire. One night, for example, I dreamed that I ran a marathon with Willie Nelson.

The dreams continued after their visit, when we moved back into our bedroom. About a month ago, just before her birthday, I dreamt that I was at a masquerade party with my friend Jennie which featured all sorts of activities. I listened to a lecture about alternative energy sources and Jennie kept telling me the yoga/massage area was amazing. She wore a Regency style dress in a multi-coloured sari material and a paper mache mouse mask; I don't know what I was wearing because I couldn't find a mirror. I looked all over, but I couldn't find the toilet. Then a woman asked where we were parked because there was a monster at the party. I didn't believe her, as it was a masquerade party, after all, and I figured she had just seen someone weaing a monster mask. She seemed pretty adamant. I still couldn't find the toilet. It was weird, and then eventually I woke up.

Last week I dreamed that I bought some hand-knitted socks from my old friends and former co-workers Mayanna and Ashley at a craft fair. The socks were lavender, but had red and white stripes on the inside.

This morning I dreamed that I'd gone to visit my old friend Russell Brand (?!?) because he was getting married (?!?) and I'd taken my mom (?!?!?!?) with me. My mom got the guest room and I slept on the sofa, which was fine the first night - this was a really long dream - but the second night he had lots of noisy people over and I couldn't sleep. Then I was back at my house here in London, with Matthew and my mom and sister (and presumably my dad and brother-in-law, though I didn't see them). A baby pigeon flew into the house and the cats started chasing it. I got it away from them and carried it around to keep it safe. At some point, while sitting around a table on our patio, I realised that the pigeon had turned into a real baby, though it was still cooing like a dove. I decided I would keep her and that we'd call her Frankie.

So that was weird.

Garden Update

2009-07-16T18:28:00.009+01:00

Matthew always says it's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and while I'm not absolutely certain what that proverb actually means, he uses it as an alternative way of saying that every cloud has a silver lining. (There is some cloud/wind connection that makes sense to me.) Thus, I suppose one nice thing about last year's garden being such a non-starter is that I'm very pleased with the limited success I'm having so far this year. It's been very rainy the past few weeks, but I'm holding out hope that we will still get enough sun overall for a successful season. My little plants, if not exactly thriving, are at least alive and growing (in general - I had a bean and a pea plant that just sort of gave up the ghost, but what can I do if the plant does not have the will to survive?).

These are some peas waiting to be transferred to larger pots, which just arrived in the post yesterday, with the new compost, which has not been delivered yet. They're still a little delicate and it's been chilly lately, so I've been moving them inside at night but back outside during the day in the hopes that they'll get fertilised by passing insects. As you can see (if you look really closely), one is already growing a little pea pod! I've got four pods on the go at the moment, which - admittedly not an enormous crop - is enough to add to a very small salad.

This little pea has one of the other pods. I just don't get it; the peas seem to have almost sprouted from the soil with flowers just waiting to burst out, but the beans, while growing quite tall, aren't ready to flower yet. I guess they're shy...

It looks like the Great Tomato Debacle of '08 may be behind us - I've got at least 4 baby tomatoes growing and I reckon I could get as many as 10 or 12, just from this one pot! A couple of other plants have flowered, but most haven't. It isn't a completely unmitigated success, but I am getting pretty excited about the possibilities.

But speaking of unmitigated success, the spinach patch continues to amaze. We have eaten spinach every day for weeks and weeks, and it just keeps growing! This photo was taken after I picked two bags this morning to take to my friends Monika and Amy. And that was after I picked some for our dinner two nights ago, and enough to make a "Welcome to the building/sorry your stove doesn't work" spinach lasagne for our new upstairs neighbours just a few days before that! I've used it in quiches, lasagne, sag paneer, quesadillas and shredded it in tacos, though usually I just wilt it in a pan with a tiny bit of olive oil and water. A little salt and pepper and it's magic.

I don't know how these little guys are going to turn out, but so far they are doing brilliantly. On a whim, I planted parsnips, because we really like them roasted but they tend to be the most expensive of the root vegetables - several times more expensive than carrots, for example. If they carry on as they've been doing, we should have some fairly decent ones and probably enough for several batches of roast vegetables, so I'm already planning to plant loads more next year.

In fact, I've got lots of plans for next year, most of them half-formed and flying around my head randomly. I'm feeling pretty ruthless about some of our ornamental plants, especially the ones occupying our few sunny spots. Rocco has an apple tree of which I am getting very jealous. But I'm most excited about a current project. I have always heard that mint is very hardy and spreads, almost to the point of being invasive and that you shouldn't put it in a flower bed because it's so hard to control. We have a separate little bed built into the wall at the end of the garden. It doesn't get much sun and is in one of the paths that the cats and foxes use to get in and out of the garden. I've put a little mint plant in it a few days ago; for now, I'm watering it and waiting and every day I whisper to it, "Go wild! I know you can do it!"

We shall see.

4th of July - Cupcakes and Bunting

2009-07-05T19:31:00.019+01:00

As per usual, we had a cook-out to celebrate the Fourth of July. The novelty this year was that we actually had it on the Fourth. Last year's was on the fifth, since US Independence Day is not recognised holiday in the UK and everyone had to work on the day. This despite the fact that, as Matthew points out, you'd think the British would've been glad to be rid of us if we were going to be so cranky and rebellious. Or something like that. He has a similar line about Thanksgiving, like being thankful to not have to deal with those dreadful colonials anymore. And then he usually says, "Present company excepted." Usually.

Anyway, we had some people over and had a nice day in the garden. It was lovely and hot, unlike the preceding week, which had been hellish and hot. Our practice barbecues paid off - in a way. Matthew has gotten pretty good at setting up the barbecue with the briquettes and firelighters but his attention still wavers and neither of us is very good at determining when things are cooked as opposed to just charred on the outside while still harbouring dangerous bacteria on the inside. Fortunately, the guests were there to help out. It was sort of audience participation, with everyone taking a turn to flip burgers or turn sausages or say, "Actually, this is still raw inside, I'm going to put it back on."

My position is that I cook inside the house, not in the garden, so I focused more on the baking. We had cupcakes again this year, with flags, sprinkles and little decorations that my parents sent in a pre-Independence Day care package. This is just a sample. There were many, many more than this. Thanks to my friend Adrienne for helping with the icing and decoration. To anyone who got little bits of paper stuck to the back of their flag deco, that was my fault, not hers! I think I have discovered the secret to good icing. I've tried margarine and real butter, with very disappointing results, but apparently the key is shortening. Or as they call it here, vegetable lard. Sounds yummy, huh?

I also made a Victoria sponge cake, which English people just love. It's like a layer cake, but without the icing. There is jam between the layers and the top is dusted with powdered sugar. I added fresh strawberries to this one and dusted the top just before cutting. There were obviously some issues with the filling, which was on the oozy side, but it still tasted very good.
To continue this summer's theme of all bunting, all the time, I made some special red, white and blue bunting, with fabric kindly supplied (and even cut!) by my mom. All I did was lay it out on the floor to decide on the order, then pin and sew. It was great. The flags are raw-edged, with the top folded into seam binding and zig-zag stitched.

And you know how at a party, everyone congregates in the kitchen, no matter how cramped? Apparently the same principle operates at barbecues, as you can see below. Everyone is crammed within 20 feet of the grill (just out of site to the left), while the other 2/3 of the garden is empty, except of deck chairs and a red/white/blue picnic blanket. I just don't get it. Though, to be fair, they may feel they need to keep an eye on the grill in case the cook wanders off.

The postscript is that today I have eaten half a blueberry muffin (Matthew's friend Vincent brought 2 dozen homemade muffins!), two cupcakes, a hamburger and sausage sandwich, and some baklava (brought by Adrienne). I feel slightly sick, but mostly in a good way. I like to think, the American way.

P.S. Apologies on the wonky formatting lately. Blogger is doing my head in!

Paradise Gardens: the Vintage Arcade

2009-07-02T20:12:00.008+01:00

The other weekend we went to Paradise Gardens, a free festival in Victoria Park. There were bands and food booths and lots of people sitting around in the grass. My favourite part was Carter's Steam Fair, an old-fashioned carnival that tours the southeast of England with vintage attractions and rides. I took a lot of photos, but my favourite part was the vintage arcade, with all the old penny games. They don't take pennies anymore, but the tokens were 8 for £1, which I thought was pretty good, and according to Matthew, they are the size and shape of old pennies, i.e. really big and flat.

As you can see, these aren't really games of skill, more just "pull a lever and see where the little ball goes". I preferred the ones where I knew I would win something, or at least get some info. We didn't do this one, but a more traditional Love-o-meter said Matthew is a cold fish! I think he was a bit disappointed, but I found it pretty funny.

I consulted the Matrimonial Bureau regarding a future child and this is what I got:

I'm not sure what I think about it. Not only is the baby black - I'm not a geneticist, but I believe that would be a highly unlikely outcome of the two of us procreating - but it also seems to be poor! While we are so solidly middle-class! I wonder if this machine is perhaps not terribly reliable and that it might have given me a picture of someone else's baby.

I was much happier with the results of the X-ray photo machine below:

As you can see, they were very accurate:

Cabbages and Frocks

2009-06-17T15:05:00.010+01:00

On Sunday, we went to the Marylebone Village Street Fair, which featured Cabbages and Frocks, a craft fair that normally takes place every Saturday in the churchyard of St Marylebone Parish Church. Almost every single thing was very, very cute! These are some of my favourites:

The theme for the day seemed to be bunting and cupcakes, and although these ladies didn't have actual cupcakes at their table, their items were so sweet, I almost went into a sugar coma anyway. As with all the vendors, I asked if they minded if I took a photograph; when I said it was for a blog, they said, "Oh, we love blogs!" Me too!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a card or web address for them and can't find anything Google-able in my photos, so I have no choice but to go back next weekend so I can link to them.

Linda of Handmade to Measure had a gorgeous table dominated by owls, but also featuring cats, cushions, little coin purses and a dachshund draft excluder. She uses vintage fabrics and some carefully chosen reproductions to make these really bright, beautiful designs. As I was taking these pictures, I heard a passerby say to her friend, "Didn't we make owls like that at school? With fabric and bits of felt for the face?" The friend murmured something vaguely affirmative, and the woman said, "Well, I know how to do that, then!" You may know how to do it, I thought, but you didn't do it. Linda did.

Oh, and there was a roast pig.

Stella James makes beautiful organic knits, mostly for little people. This booth actually made feel a little bit sad that I'd managed to buy and send my niece's birthday present (more or less) on time!

Tarts of Temptation are Cabbages and Frocks regulars. They have cupcakes, tarts, cake by the slice and cake-y things like candles, magnets and little knitted cake ornaments (or maybe pin cushions?)

Just a few tables down was Peggy's Cupcakes, which does what it says on the tin - all cupcakes and nothing but. I am sick with jealousy over her gorgeous, fluffy icing, having recently tested and rejected a new recipe for my 4th of July cupcakes.

I'm also quite jealous of her precious cake stands. I've got my eye on a rather different one on Amazon, but these are so sweet.

And it's probably rude to call Chelsea Pensioners sweet, considering that they are all former soldiers, so I asked these gentlemen if I could take their photo because they looked so resplendent. They couldn't refuse after that - who could?

Toys

2009-06-11T15:02:00.005+01:00

I found out the other day that my young friend Bo (you may have seen her wearing a tiger dress and a leafy fairy dress) is a big fan of Winnie the Pooh. So big a fan, in fact, that according to her mother, she has been absolutely weepy on learning that "there are no more Pooh books" beyond the ones they have already read. I know that heartache - I was pretty upset myself when I realised the severely limited size of JD Salinger's ouvre.

Anyway, the discussion of Pooh made me think of Eeyore. Not just the depressive donkey in the books, but my very first toy, bought for me by my dad before I was even born. All things considered, I think he's holding up pretty well. He still has his tail (unlike the original) and while he only has half a smile left, I don't think the Eeyore in the book ever really smiles at all.

While I'm getting nostalgic about toys, I thought I'd also photograph Munka. As far as I know, he doesn't appear in any classics of children's literature, but I think he'd very nice. He's been in the wars and has the scars to prove it; as I was posing him in the chair, I found another seam that could use some mending. He's also incredibly lumpy. But a very nice monkey, I think.

Who Needs a Beach?

2009-06-02T20:07:00.003+01:00

I had a very productive meeting with my dissertation tutor yesterday and have a big research day planned for tomorrow, so since Matthew had the day off, we spent it hanging around the house. We were actually much more productive than the following photographs would suggest. Matthew did more painting on the conservatory doors and frame. I did a lot of weeding and general gardening, washed and hung two loads of laundry, and put away my winter coats and scarves. Once that was all done, we sat in our deck chairs under the fig tree and read. I even read a school book - that's how dedicated I am. It's a pretty idyllic scene:

And so you can really see what it's like when in use, please see below, in which Matthew reads about crazy German terrorists while soaking up the sun:

Home Grown

2009-05-30T21:16:00.005+01:00

This may not look very exciting but it really, really is. This is a lovely big bunch of spinach, which happens to be the first thing that we're eating out of our garden! It turns out that in addition to being quite strict with the plants, Rocco is also a bit sneaky and secretly planted spinach in one of our flower beds. I noticed the similarity to the spinach in his garden, so I didn't weed it out and the whole story came out today when I asked his opinion on whether our leafy things were edible.

And they are ever so edible when put into Turkish style baked eggs, which is what I had for dinner. The original recipe used rocket instead of spinach, but I like spinach better. Also, we now have a bunch of it growing for free in our back yard, so we're going to be eating a lot more of it. That said, I think you could probably make this with any cookable leafy green.

Baked Eggs with Yogurt and Chilli

300g spinach (or one bag of pre-washed)
4 eggs
150g plain yogurt
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
50g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp kirmizi biber (or chilli flakes mixed with paprika)
6 sage leaves, shredded (or a good shake of dried sage)

Pre-heat oven to 300F/150F. Wash the spinach and cook in pan over medium heat for 5-10 minutes - the water from rinsing should be enough to cook it in.

Transfer the spinach to a small, ovenproof dish and make four indentations in it. Carefully break an egg into each crater, taking care not to break the yolk. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the egg whites set.

While the eggs are in the oven, mix together the yogurt and garlic along with a pinch of salt. Set aside - but do not chill.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the kirmizi biber and fry for a minute or two or until the butter foams and turns a nice golden-red. Add the sage and cook for a few more seconds, then remove from the heat.

Once the eggs are done, take the dish out of the oven. Spoon the yogurt mix over the centre and pour the hot chilli butter over the yogurt and eggs. Serve piping hot.

This makes a nice brunch item but I feel it isn't quite enough to go it alone. It needs accompaniment, by big mugs of tea or hot chocolate(!), fat slabs of toasted granary bread, a big bowl of oatmeal or muesli, and maybe some nice sausages. Or whatever you have for breakfast. That sounds really good to me and now I want to have breakfast for dinner - except that I've already had dinner. Oh well. A big mug of hot chocolate will be a pretty good dessert.

The Back Garden

2009-05-29T12:55:00.006+01:00

I know it's almost June, but only in the past couple of weeks has it been consistently warm enough (though not necessarily sunny) that I'm convinced that it's actually Springtime. We've had fits and starts of nice weather for a while, but now it really seems to be sticking. Yay for sunshine! To celebrate, I took a tour of the back garden a few days ago.

This may not look like much at this point, but with any luck, this planter will supply us with tomatoes and lettuce. The lettuces are coming in really well, actually, and are already noticably bigger than in the photo. I've planted another container with lettuce and several more with tomatoes. We eat a lot of them in the summer and I'm hoping to improve over last year, when I got not a single tomato. Everyone I've talked to says it was generally a bad year for gardening, so hopefully it wasn't my black thumb that did it.

Our next door neighbour/gardener Rocco did a lot of work in our garden last year. We're trying to keep it up to a degree - he did clear out a lot of weeds and overgrowth, which definitely needed doing, but he is much more of a garden disciplinarian than I am and left the flowerbeds a bit bare - and even wanted to get rid of more. He divides plants into two general categories: pretty flowers and rubbish. Needless to say, we had a lot of rubbish. He wanted to get rid of this little rose bush, but I vetoed the removal. Its flowers aren't very impressive, but I find them very sweet and tiny.

I bought these little carnations last year and am happy to say they're doing well. They are just under the rose bush so I can see both from the back door.

This camelia is so impressive - the bloom is larger than my outspread hand. Another bloom is just opening up and there are two more buds, so I'm looking forward to a lengthy show.

I don't know what these purple flowers are, but we've got several clumps of them. I've seen them in other gardens and in parks, so they must be good. Plus, they made it past Rocco's cull last year, so I guess they qualify as "pretty flowers".

We have a single hollyhock (I think). It gets ridiculously tall, like three or four feet, and lasts a long time. I imagine a bunch of them would be very impressive, but for now we're making do with just one. Don't want to overdo it.

Rocco gave us several beautiful purple lillies (or irises - I don't know the difference). They're all blooming very impressively against the wall of the shed. I can see them from the kitchen window.

This jasmine also grows against the shed and it is gorgeous. I brought a sprig in the other day and you could smell it as soon as you walked in the door. Lots of fat, lazy bees hanging around, but they aren't too aggressive so we're co-existing peacefully.

And this vine I just don't get. The bottom of it is brown and shriveled; we thought it was dead and almost pulled it out. Then it started growing leaves and produced these very large, sort of alien-looking buds, which opened into large, strange flowers. I don't know what they are, but I like them.

Spring Cleaning

2009-05-12T17:21:00.003+01:00

We did most of our heavy-duty spring cleaning in March, in advance of my parents coming to visit. We are having some more houseguests (the DJs for Matthew's brother's wedding) next weekend, so that's a good excuse to do a few more things. Today Matthew painted our new conservatory door* and while, he had a brush in hand, also threw a lick of paint on the kitchen window sill. It is blindingly white and so pretty now!

I spent the day reading in preparation for starting a draft of my dissertation. I would much rather be painting, but had to confine my creative urges to making us an afternoon snack (toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches toasted on the George Foreman grill - yummy and easy to clean!) and changing my desktop wallpaper. I can't afford real Cath Kidston wallpaper, but these make a pretty good substitute...

*The conservatory door had to be replaced after we had an attempted break-in last November. The would-be burglars splintered the door frame but didn't get in. Then they climbed on top of the glass conservatory and kicked in the window to the flat upstairs, which has been empty for over a year, so they went away empty handed. That only made us feel mildly better, though, as it took three months for our insurance to sort out our door being replaced, during which time we got very, very cold!

A day by the sea

2009-05-09T16:45:00.010+01:00

Monday was a bank holiday in the UK, but we celebrated in our own way - by staying at home on the day and then taking a day trip to Hastings on Tuesday. We'd had several days of nice weather in London and a day at the seaside sounded like fun. It was fun, but not in a warm, beach-y sort of way. In more of a blustery, slightly freezing, "if I'd forgotten for a moment how cruel the British summer can be, it's coming back to me now" sort of way...

We decided on fish and chips for lunch, which seems like a no-brainer, but a historical pub was very tempting. We pencilled it in for dinner, but didn't count on the fish being so unbelievably huge and greasy. It was good, but despite the labelling, it actually seemed quite UNhealthy.

Neither of us was able to finish and we'd ordered the regular portion - I can't imagine the large! I also had a pickled egg. I've never had one before but the concept has always intrigued me. The flavour was less complex than I'd imagined, essentially just "hard boiled egg" plus "pickle juice". I mean, I know that's what it is, but I thought it might taste like more. I have resolved to try a pickled quail's egg at the next opportunity (no, I don't run across them very often, so I have no idea when that will be). Maybe that will be the flavour haunting my imagination.

Of course, the natural thing to do after a very heavy, greasy meal is to climb a hill so steep that it has a funicular railroad running up it. We cut through a graveyard on the way up, which is now a lovely little park.

Apparently the graves are still there, but to make it more park-like the headstones are now just leaning neatly against the wall. This seemed weird to me, but it is a nice little park.

This is practically my only photo of Hastings Castle, which was built by William the Conqueror (he actually built the first fortifications even before the Battle of Hastings), that isn't full of French high school students. There was a group of them roaming the town and we ran into them just about every time we turned a corner. They weren't horrible, just adolescent. Very rambunctious, wearing silly clothes as badges of their youth culture, chasing each other around and shrieking as signs of affection, etc - in other words, teenagers.

Later we wandered around on the beach for a while. As you can see, it isn't the kind that makes you want to spread out your towel and soak up the sun, even if there had been sun for soaking.

Hastings is home to England's biggest beach-launched fishing fleet. That means that all these sort of sad looking little boats aren't abandoned, but at high tide are pushed into the water by tractors. We learned in a film at the castle's interpretive centre that Hastings's harbor silted up in the 13th century, so how they fished between that time and the invention of tractors, I don't know.

We don't know what these flags are for, other than whipping around violently in the wind and looking very spooky and pirate-y. On those counts, mission accomplished!

Despite all our tramping around, we never worked enough appetite for dinner, so we had a nice cream tea instead (big, hot homemade scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream and mugs of boiling hot tea), then walked along the promenade to St Leonards, the next town along the coast. I counted nine charity shops on one street, but it was late in the day, so we just called it a day and caught the next train home, where we still weren't hungry for dinner but did sleep very, very well indeed.

I am a good person

2009-04-29T15:16:00.003+01:00

An insane thing just happened to me on the tube home from school today. I got on a carriage and noticed a transvestite/transgendered person standing near the door. Sitting just on the other side of the plexiglass divider, literally inches away, was a group of teenagers falling about the place. Specifically there was a girl shrieking with laughter, looking at the person (who, as I mentioned, was standing about 3 inches away) and then shrieking again, saying, "Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod!" Technically, her friends were more laughing at her but they were still carrying on and making a scene that was obviously focused on this person. I was listening to my iPod, so it took me a couple of seconds to clock what was going on. When I did, I turned off my Fresh Air podcast, went over to the girl and very calmly and non-confrontationally said, "Are you okay? Because you're making a lot of noise. Do you have a problem or something?" She just sort of sputtered a bit, obviously surprised and embarassed to be called out. Her friend looked really pointedly at her and said, "No, we're okay. She's just being childish," to which I replied, "Yes, she is." I went back to where I'd been standing near the person and said, "I guess they don't let them out very often."

I was pretty upset the rest of my journey and started thinking that I should have been more forceful, so there would be mistaking my disapproval of their behaviour. So as I was getting off the train, I went over to the girl again and said, "You should be ashamed of yourself. You have been very offensive and very rude." She seemed surprised at that, too, and it made me feel a bit better. The best thing, though, was that walking along the platform, I heard two guys talking about it. One said, "I can't believe those kids." And the other said, "Yeah, I'm so glad that woman said something."

It's been about an hour now, but I'm still feeling quite emotional. I am so angry at those horrible kids for thinking that they have the right to make someone feel bad like that. I feel proud of myself for standing up and trying to stop them. I feel pleased that other people noticed my little show of heroics, but I'm disappointed that no one else said anything to the kids. Mostly, I hope that girl is ashamed and that she never forgets how it felt to be embarassed in public.

It's all been a bit much; I'm going to drink some juice and have a lie-down.

Advice

2009-04-29T08:51:00.004+01:00

I saw this on the Free People blog, which I like because there is always lots of content. Most of the blogs I follow are done by women who have families and houses and if not jobs, then at least pretty busy Etsy shops, so they sometimes take time away from the computer to make dinner, do some crafts to post about, have family holidays, etc. Free People's blog is somebody's job, so there are always lots of fresh posts. Is this a slightly hypocritical stance from someone who aims to post about once a week and can't quite manage that? Hey - I'm not a professional.

Anyway, I noticed this list of "whimisical" instructions and realised that almost all of them also apply to doing urban design site appraisals. Interesting, huh?

And just 14 short months later...

2009-04-21T17:36:00.007+01:00

...and I've got this far with the chair. Actually, there is a little bit of progress you can't see - I've also borrowed a staplegun from my friend Jane. The project is basically done. All I have to do now is use the original upholstery pieces as patterns for the new material, staple it on very neatly, figure out how to cover the back of the back panel, which doesn't have anything to staple to, find on the internet and order decorative tacks, then use said tacks to cover all the stapling.

I have a paper due on Thursday, but once that's done maybe I'll make a move on the chair. I really should, since I'd like to have it done in under two years and there are only 10 months left to go...

I also have some gardening projects lined up. At some point during the winter all my basil plants died. I was disgusted with them, and put them outside on the patio so I wouldn't have to look at them all brown and sticklike. This tough love approach actually worked with a clematis that's recently put out new leaves, but the basil just died, so I got a little new one at the grocery store yesterday, along with an assorted herb 6-pack and I need to repot them all. I've also got some begonia bulbs or seeds or pips or whatever they're called, and some tomato and parsnip seeds. Last year's tomato plants have pretty much all died, except one that has just recently produced two tomatoes (currently .5 in and .75 in diameter, respectively), which if they ever ripen will be the only fruit I got out of that crop. I'm going to try again this year and be very diligent about pinching shoots, fertilising, making sure the plants get enough sun, leaving them outside to be pollinated, and all that gardenerly stuff. I'm also going to use potting soil rather than dirt I dug up from the back yard, which I'm confident will make a big difference.

So far in the garden we've done some weeding and I planted some bulbs. I also decided to spruce up the three hanging planters on our garden wall since you can see them from the kitchen window and they were empty except for a dead geranium, some moss, and a handful of scraggly looking weeds. One of our challenges in gardening is that we have no idea what most of the plants are. Our neighbour Rocco, who is a retired gardner, seems to have only two categories of plants - "pretty flowers" or "rubbish". By his standards, most of the stuff in our garden is rubbish. So I took some things that I'm pretty sure are weeds but have pretty flowers on them at the moment and transplanted them into the planters. Pretty nice for weeds, huh?

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T15:17:00.006+01:00

We've had a busy spring thus far, with lectures (but, alas, not assignments) ending in March and my parents visiting for 10 very busy days at the beginning of the month. After all that excitement, our Easter weekend has been very low-key. We celebrated by having hot cross buns this morning. They weren't one a penny (or even two a penny), but at 99p for four and half off the 2nd pack, they were still a pretty good deal.

That's a picture of our last one. Matthew is currently chowing down on it, toasted with butter (the bun, not Matthew).

Just because I wasn't writing doesn't mean I was doing stuff, so I plan to sprinkle catch-up photos throughout my upcoming posts. Today I've got a photo of our little Christmas tree. We spent Christmas at Matthew's brother's house this year. He and his partner live in London, only about a 25 minute bus ride away, but we made a 4 day mini-break of it. They are very good cooks and we ate and ate and ate. At one point on Boxing Day, I thought I was going to be physically ill from eating too much goose and cheese. I pulled through, though, and we had a wonderful time.

Since we were "going away" for Christmas, I didn't do much by way of decorating at home. I wasn't planning to have a tree at all, but eventually I just couldn't take it anymore and I got a little artificial tree at Argos for £7.49. It came with ornaments and lights and was insanely cheap, which I like, but the most intriguing thing is the weirdly 1980s theme: the tree is black and the ornaments are all day-glo neon colours. I don't understand it, but I really like it.

Of course, I match my gift-wrapping to the tree, even though we were taking them all to another house for exchanging. I found some very good paper - matte black at Habitat, dark purple with silver stars at Heals, and sequinned disco balls at John Lewis - and finally found a use for a silver jiffy envelope I've been saving for a couple of years. I was very pleased with the results.

The black tree was a lot of fun and got me thinking about some possible Christmas themes. I'm keeping my eyes open and if I can "source" the materials, it's looking like we might have a punk rock Christmas this year!

Jan/Feb

2009-02-03T00:30:00.004Z

Okay, maybe I can tear myself away from my studies long enough for one post a month. No guarantees, but I'll try.

January had its ups and downs. We both had birthdays, which were good. I had 4 deadlines for school assignments, which was really stressful and made me cry - not good. Obama was inaugurated - very good. I've been spending too much time on Facebook - neither intrinsically good nor bad, but quite time-sucky. At the moment I am on top of my assignments and feel cautiously optimistic that this semester will be less stressful than the last - probably good.

At the moment, though, the big deal is the snow! It's the heaviest snowfall in London in 20 years, but we've mostly experienced it by looking from the kitchen and conservatory into the back garden. Turns out, it's very cold out there! The first photo was taken around midnight last night - because of the cloud cover and snow in the atmosphere it was almost as bright as day (at least as bright as a typically overcast winter day).

The other photo is from around noon today. Brrrr!

A Short Announcement

2009-01-02T01:02:00.004Z

As you may have noticed, the blog has been on haitus for a while. It turns out that the degree I'm doing is a bit more work than I anticipated. Actually, it's been a huge amount of work, way more than I expected, and it's been taking up every bit of brain power I've had for weeks and weeks. Our next semester starts week after next and then I'll have three more months of lectures before writing a dissertation over the summer.

I should be back around the beginning of April, with all sorts of anecdotes and pictures of things I've baked and new style obsessions. Until then, I'm off to learn everything there is to know about the UK planning system - and to contemplate Gwyneth Paltrow's new detox diet. Don't worry; I won't do it. I refuse to do any diet that bans "nightshades" and wants me to drink lukewarm lemon water every morning. It might work, but I reject it for sheer goofiness.

So until I return, I leave you with photos of some Panda cookies someone brought to me as a souvenir from China. They look lovely on the box...

..but when you look inside, they're so angry!

Boa Noite!

2008-11-10T21:46:00.009Z

I'm so sorry I've been away so long - especially since there has been so much chatter about the spaghettios! I do have a very good excuse for being away - I was actually away. And by that I mean out of the country, not just away from the keyboard.

I spent most of last week in Portugal on a field trip for the Making & Managing Places module of my planning course. It's one of the more urban design-y classes, so I enjoyed it a lot. (It turns out that planning is sort of boring. Urban design, though, is cool!) Anyway, we left on Saturday and got back on Thursday and spent pretty much every moment between walking around, taking photos, sketching, drinking very strong sweet coffee, and eating lots of seafood and pastries. The Portugese, people after my own heart, like a lot of flavour in everything. Lots of sugar, lots of salt, lots of garlic - whatever it is, there's a lot! The two most typically Lisbon dishes we had were bacalhau and pasteis de nata. Bacalhau is dried, salted cod which is re-hydrated and served in a variety of ways. I had it grilled, shredded and cooked with potatoes and cream, with spinach and cream, and in fishcakes (not all in the same meal, of course). The pasteis de nata are custard cream tarts - but so much more. They are unbelievably good; incredibly sweet but not cloying and perfect with a double espresso, called a bica and the default drink in Lisbon. I tried lots of other desserts, and they are all pretty good. Many are egg-based and, against all odds, I found one that was actually too sweet to eat. I couldn't believe it, but my sweet tooth had met its match.

Having done a couple of years of high school Spanish, I find that I can sort of read most Romance languages, usually enough of navigate a menu or public transport system, and I can sometimes understand what's being said if I concentrate, but I can't pronounce any except Spanish. I figure I could probably get along as well as any mute, half-deaf, semi-literate Portugese person, though, so I'm pretty proud of that...

Like the food, the trip was quite intense. We left the hotel every day at 9am and got back around 5pm. The entire time between was spent walking (Lisbon is very hilly) and looking at interesting buildings or neighbourhoods or streets. (One day we divided into two groups and my group got a short lunch break and no coffee/pastry stops - it was inhumane.) We sketched almost non-stop, too, which was really challenging but good. I will definitely consider taking a sketchbook on holiday in the future; it forces you to look at things much more actively and really imprints them in your mind. Of course, I also took over 250 photos, so those will probably help me remember, too.

I took lots of photos of grafitti - this is one of my favourites:

I was in Lisbon for the election but because of the schedule I didn't stay up to watch the results. I did, however, burst into tears of joy when I jumped out of bed and turned on the news first thing Wednesday morning. Everyone in our group kept congratulating me, which was funny. I mean, I voted, but I can't take full credit (unlike Sean Combs). Regardless of your politics, though, I think it will be a little bit easier to be an American abroad now. At the moment, the whole world (except Russia and Iran, that is) is just so happy and want to tell me all about it. I read one article that said it was as if the entire world had won the World Cup. Since it will likely be a very long time before the US or the UK do that, let's enjoy this now, shall we?

Kids Today

2008-10-21T14:46:00.004+01:00

This is a thank you card I recently received from my 4-year-old friend Bo. (We'd sent her some little presents for her birthday.) This reminded me that I also got a thank you card from my niece Mattie after we sent her birthday presents. Say what you will about gangs and street crime - in my experience, the kids today are extremely polite.

Is This How Everyone Dresses in Helsinki?

2008-10-09T11:30:00.008+01:00

I look at several street fashion blogs semi-regularly, but I sometimes find them frustrating. A lot of them seem to be shot guerilla-style – very little posing and bad lighting so that you can’t even really see what the person is wearing, much less be impressed by it – and with little if no commentary. And I know that many, many people love the Sartorialist, but I am not all that interested in what he thinks about the people he photographs. Also, his taste is sooo conservative and he only seems interested in thin, good-looking people who are wearing, you know, designer clothes. That’s why I like Hel-Looks so much. It has pictures of interestingly dressed Finnish people (mostly young but sometimes older people and children) and, believe me, they are never conservative or boring. Each photo is accompanied by a paragraph of the subject talking about the outfit and his or her philosophy of dressing. Some of them are pretty much what you’d expect – the clothes came from such-and-such shop and my style inspiration is a famous person with “good style” – but sometimes they are wonderfully off the wall. Lots of people wear second hand or homemade clothes, often as a response to obsessive consumerism. Lots of items are borrowed or handed down from parents or grandparents. One guy says he only wears denim. People seem to have strong views on colour and use it to respond to seasonal changes. Some of my favourite “inspirations”:

Swedish Elle and the city of Vaasa inspire me.

I want to make people smile with my style. Ten year old skate boys and fake tattoos from chewing gum packages inspire me.

Gipsy men have a great style. Personality is always stylish, too.

I adore my parents' style at the time when I was born. I wear their clothes from that time. (This person is 25.)

My moustache is my favorite accessory as it gives a certain je ne sais quoi to my outfit, regardless of what I'm wearing. I admire people with humour and something thorny in their style.

Wikipedia inspires me.

My obsession of the summer has been Ultra Sonar Bat Calls bat detector. Actually bats have inspired my style for years.

My inspiration & my style: quiet resistance.

Naturality, randomness and sky inspire me.

This jacket was so shockingly ugly that I just had to buy it. (Who hasn’t been in that position? What, just me?)

Semiotics, Finnish folklore, Beverly Hills and crazy thrifted things inspire me.

Ugliness inspires me. I get more self-respect when I dare to wear ugly clothes. Like these tights.

Some Interesting Things I've Seen Lately

2008-09-25T12:00:00.003+01:00

Morris dancers at the Regent Street Festival. Almost all English people consider Morris dancing unbelievably naff i.e. ridiculous, lame, silly-looking, uncool in the worst way. It was pretty impressive, though. Essentially, it was a group of older gentlemen (in their 50s and 60s), heavily be-jingle belled and jumping around waving handkerchiefs and hitting big sticks together. Their flyers invited people to join, saying Morris dancing "is healthful. It's social. It's English." Matthew is not interested. I predict that in the next 10 or 15 years we will see punk rock Morris dancing, as a certain generation ages and looks for ways to enjoy more traditional pursuits but with the punk attitude they seem so determined to preserve. It will be ironic, see?

A burning motorbike! We were on a walk last night around dusk and noticed a fire and huge plume of oily, black smoke in the distance. It's not Bonfire Night (5th of November, Guy Fawkes Day), so we went to check it out. It turned out to be a motorbike burning very robustly on the edge of a football pitch in the park. Neither of us had a phone, so we couldn't call it in, but after a few minutes a fire engine showed up, along with a gaggle of kids on bikes, the two 14-year-old girls who did call it in, and a woman and her daughter who were just walking by and, like us, were attracted by the spectacle. The firemen hosed it down, which sent up a massive cloud of smoke and steam (very bad smelling). The police man who came along shoo-ed the kids away, then summed up the situation by saying, "Moped. Kids." We continued our walk, then went home and ate pork chops. Exciting stuff all around.

A peregrine falcon at the art museum. Apparently, they also hang around the BT Tower, which is very close to my work (I can see it from the windows in the upstairs ladies room), though I have yet to see one there.

The Lady Vanishes. I think this is supposed to be suspenseful and intriguing, but I've never laughed so hard at a Hitchcock movie. It features very funny depictions of English people abroad, which say a lot about how they see themselves and their relationship with the rest of the world. From what I see every day, not much that has changed.

Saturday Morning (and Early Afternoon)

2008-09-20T13:45:00.005+01:00

Well, the stay-cation is over but it was fun while it lasted. We went to two dinner parties on the weekend, took long naps every day, ordered pizza and ate out, and watched movies every night. We went to Ikea, which was good but not awesome. The last time we got some nice bowls for 25p each (!), which we're both still really stoked about, and some great, cheap shelves for the conservatory, but this time we found that they don't have any smaller bowls at similar prices, or the ideal wicker laundry hamper, or very interesting shower curtains. However, I did get a set of two very adorable bowls for my morning cereal and some cookies, so it wasn't a total wash.

On Tuesday, we went Tate Modern to see the Cy Twombly exhibit. Matthew was not impressed. I had only seen the four paintings in the Tate permanent collection, which I kinda like, but I must say I was not impressed either. We agreed that it's a cliche, but his work looked like it was done by a 3 year old. Or a chimpanzee, as there were several with suspiciously "scatological" looking smears.

The next day we went to the London Transport Museum, which was completely awesome. It was pretty loud, but that's to be expected with so much going on in a 3 level open plan building. There were lots of old Tube carriages and buses that you could get into and try to imagine what it was like to be on the Underground in 1905 or whenever. (There are still a few Routemaster buses on "Heritage" routes that run along the Strand; when we lived in the West End and I worked in the City I took then whenever I could and I always ended up humming "A Day in the Life" because of the part in the middle where he says "grabbed my coat and found my hat, made the bus in seconds flat...") They have a great shop, but I only got a couple of presents for my friends Brandy and Jason who used to live in London but are now in Edmonton, where I'm sure they don't see as much TfL tat. Though, come to think of it, I bought my Tube map tea cozy in Lawrence, Kansas...

I also went to the V&A (not bad, but I enjoyed the shop more than the exhibits) and trekked up Camden High Street visiting about 6 different charity shops (all rubbish) and got a haircut. Actually, I got two haircuts, because the first one was frankly untenable and I had to go back and get it fixed. On Wednesday, I went to a new place, not too far from our flat and had a nice chat to the girl about what I wanted. I even showed her a picture of Michelle Williams. But then I had to take my glasses off while she was cutting my hair, and when I put them back on, the damage was done. It wasn't what I wanted - all choppy and too short - but I thought I'd try it. However, it just didn't work. In fact, the bad hair might have been what ruined my V&A visit and thrift-shopping. On Friday I went back and got her to fix it. Unfortunately, she'd chopped it so much that there was nowhere to go but up, so my hair is now really, really short.

It's actually not that bad, but it's been a while since I had short hair and I felt suddenly exposed as looking quite old and pudgy. However, I've been getting really enthusiastic positive reactions. People at work say they love it and think it really suits me and when my yoga instructor saw me, she gasped and said, "Your hair is beautiful!" The evil, self-defeating part of my brain interprets this to mean that I must have already looked old and pudgy, even with longer hair. The sassier part of my brain says, old and pudgy, whatever - I've obviously got a very cute haircut, so yay for me!

Last weekend we dressed up and went to see a Club Whoopee performance at the Thames Festival with our friends Sean and Michelle. It was really crowded, so we got some dinner from the foods stalls (Caribbean fried fish and a crepe for me, curry for Matthew) and hung out behind the amphitheatre. At the end of the performance, they invited everyone down to the performance area for a waltz and then played some more music so it was like a disco by Tower Bridge. Sean was in 1930s-ish tweeds and bow-tie and Michelle looked like Marlena Dietrich in a black suit and red satin shirt. I wore a little black dress with red, white and purple hearts all over it, which I think of as slightly Minnie Mouse-ish. Matthew got the most attention, though - he was in full cowboy regalia: black cowboy boots, jeans, Western shirt embroidered with guitars on the front and a Cadillac on the back, and white cowboy hat. A hipster in skinny jeans and a trilby hat literally stared open-mouthed at him on the Tube. It was great. The next night we went to see Snake Bone, a retro rockabilly band fronted by the guy who plays guitar in our friend Paul's band Number 9. They had two guest vocalists, a girl in western gear and braids and Lady Kamikazi, a Japanese girl who also DJ's rockabilly and swing music. They were both, er, not very good. The girl in the braids actually caused us both to wince involuntarily. When Lady Kamikazi sang "Summertime," I said to Matthew, "I actually know the words to this song, not to mention the melody, and I've got no idea what's going on." Later we ran into Sean and Michelle, who were out with their heavily pregnant friend Liz and her husband. We skipped the fireworks and went to dinner with them, then caught the last Tube home.

Then next morning I got up and rejoined the world of work, but only for a short while longer. Next week is my last week at the company where I've been all summer and then I'll be back in student mode. I've got two of my numerous textbooks already - and haven't made it past the 2nd page of the introduction in either one. Yay for graduate school!

Oh, and if you really must have some political content, Garrison Keillor is giving me the feeling that he probably won't vote Republican over at Salon.

Crazed Political Rant!

2008-09-04T14:43:00.002+01:00

It’s an election year and this is a blog, after all, so I thought I’d better post some ill-informed political opinions post haste!

I don’t like Sarah Palin. This isn’t because she is a powerful woman or a former beauty queen (okay, maybe a little bit). I don’t like her as a prospective vice president because she is a Republican. To me, an intelligent woman being an enthusiastic member of the Republican party just seems contrary to nature. I view female Republicans with only slightly less scepticism than I do Log Cabin Republicans. Have you not read the brief, people? This party is not for you, it’s against you.

Everything I’ve read about Sarah Palin’s record and beliefs (and, yes, all my research was done on the internet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong) suggests that she is pretty much the opposite of what I’m looking for in a VP. The idea that McCain may have picked her to appeal to Hillary supporters who haven’t yet warmed to Obama reveals the contempt in which the Republicans hold the American public, how very stupid they must think we are. (Unfortunately, the last couple of elections haven’t done much to disprove that notion, but I won’t get into that. I can’t – I still actually cannot believe the outcome of the 2000 election.)

I know that living in the UK, I don’t get to see the situation “on the ground.” But I do see what the past few years have done to the way the rest of the world sees America and Americans, and I’ve got to say, it ain’t good. It’s no fun to be lectured about the evils of imperialism by citizens of the British Commonwealth (formerly the British Empire) or about the US government’s genocidal treatment of Native Americans by a German. But Europeans love Obama – let’s have him, okay?

My one and only comment on Bristol Palin: Matthew informs me that “Bristol” is cockney rhyming slang. Bristol City (football club) – city – titty. Example: “Phwoar, look at the pair of Bristols on her.” That’s all I’m saying.

Michelle Williams

2008-08-22T15:12:00.008+01:00

As part of my ongoing campaign of sassiness, I am trying to inject a bit more "oomph" in my appearance. Overall, this isn't that hard. Although I've never worn much makeup or had very elaborate hairstyles, I've always had strong ideas about my hair and clothes, to the point of often having stated theories and philosophies about them. I like to think about clothes in terms of "outfits", which you would wear out to school/work/dinner/the grocery store, as opposed to "just clothes" that you'd wear around the house - though I see no reason why those shouldn't be cute and colour-coordinated, too.

However, for the last year or so, I've been working in architecture practices, and it may be a cliche and by no means universal, but architects do generally wear a lot of black and have very serious black-framed glasses. I wear black-framed glasses but they aren't heavy enough to be very serious. Anyway, being around architects has meant that I've somehow ended up with a very dark wardrobe. I say somehow; last autumn I went out shopping with a list that read: trousers, blouses, jumpers - black, navy, grey only. I think that had something to do with it.

So I'm currently re-injecting colour into my routine. The first big success has been red. Boy, do I like red. In fact, last week I had to acknowledge that it is my official favourite colour, edging out pink/green, a combo that has been number one for probably 8 years now. This acknowledgement came after we'd gone out for our friend Sean's birthday and I wore a red skirt, a red t-shirt and a red flower in my hair. It was kind of hard to miss - like a red flag, if you will.

So that's the wardrobe component sorted. I've not made any real changes to my make-up routine, since I don't like to wear too much, though I am now wearing mascara every day. Well, on days when I leave the house. But today, I'm focusing on getting a new haircut. This is such a fraught subject. In March, I went to a very fancy salon and got what turned out to be the most expensive haircut of my life. The cut itself was pretty pricey, but it was the colour (which I didn't love) and tipping the stylist, the colourist, the guy who washed my hair and the girl who gave me the aromatherapy mini-massage that put the expense over the top. But I loved my hair! It was sort of messy on purpose, so it never looked like it was messed up. Does that make sense? Matthew said he thought it was the best haircut I've ever had (though he might have been trying to help me feel better about spending £187 at the salon). And, yes, it really did cost that much. Check the exchange rate - are you choking on whatever you were eating/drinking? After a while, I went back, but the second time around, it just wasn't as good. It was a good haircut, but not magical and maybe not worth £85 (no colour that time). Since then, I've had a trim at a cheapy little place in Covent Garden, but it's getting to the point where I have to do something. I don't want a drab, yucky haircut. I want something cute. Something sassy. Something a little bit like Michelle Williams is sporting these days.

I consulted Matthew for his thoughts, but he had never heard of Michelle Williams, so I had to give him the following primer:

Michelle Williams is the tragic ex of Heath Ledger and tragic mother of his tragic little girl Matilda. (Does that seem like a funny name for a half-Austrialian child to anyone else? Isn't it like Matthew and me naming our kid Britannia or Yankee Doodle Dandy?) They met when she played his tragic wife in the tragic Broke Back Mountain. She has recently been spotted having dinner with Spike Jonze - I don't know if it was tragic or not. I also read that she is rumoured to keep a diary. Undoubtedly contains lots of tragedy. Oh, and she used to be on Dawson's Creek. Is that tragic? Her ex-boyfriend died, Katie Holmes became a zombie (or not - not looking for a lawsuit here!) and James van der Beek and Joshua Jackson turned out to be much less attractive as grown men than as teenage boys. Could the show be cursed?!? More evidence: the WB network no longer exists and Paula Cole's career hasn't exactly been red-hot lately. Ooh - spooky!

But curses aside, Michelle's hair is pretty cute. I'm going print out the picture, draw on a side part because I can't wear a fringe/bangs, and see if I can get a stylist to make something pretty happen. Exciting, huh? And once he'd seen her picture, Matthew did say that it looked like a haircut that might well suit me, so that's a ringing endorsement from him.

On the subject of eyewear, I feel like if I'm going to wear glasses, I don't want to try to hide the fact by wearing invisible wire framed ones. I'm not ashamed! Just very near-sighted. My friend Krystal and I had a conversation in Scotland that illustrates my feelings on the subject:

Drunk man (thinking he's flirting): Can I see you without your glasses?

Us: Er, whatever. (raising glasses but not actually taking them off)
Drunk man: Wow, you're really pretty. Why do you wear glasses?
Us: So we can see better.
Drunk man: Yeah, but why don't you wear contacts?
Us: To prevent us being attractive to people like you.

This happened some years ago and I can't remember which of us he was trying to flirt with, as we are both really pretty, with or without glasses. But the same thing happened again, almost verbatim, in Austin once when I was out '80s-retro-dancing with my friend Julie. But, for all my fist-in-air, "we're near-sighted, we're here, get used to it!" rhetoric, I am starting to entertain the idea of getting my eyes lasered. I've always been against it, out of a combination of fear of new medical procedures, squeamishness at the thought of someone messing with my eyes, and glasses-wearing pride. But I would really like to be able to wear non-prescription sunglasses.

Italy, part 2

2008-08-16T12:38:00.005+01:00

Argh. I don't know what the problem is, but obviously I'm having trouble posting images so that you can open them at a larger size. You know, so that you can actually see the images as opposed to just a small, colourful blob breaking up my text. I will keep working on it, but here are my Italian pictures in a bigger format for your viewing pleasure.

This is Isola Comicina, the island where we saw the attractive (and not quite so attractive) Italian people. We were all so hot by that point that Zach, one of the sons/groomsmen, actually stripped down to his underwear and jumped in the water. It looked so cool and inviting, but all the other guests just looked on with longing, as none of the rest of us were 19 or quite so, um, athletically built, shall we say.

This is the menu from the reception. As you can see, the cover features a lovely painting of Villa D'Este in 1847, which if anything, is even fancier now.

Un Fine Settimana Rapido

2008-08-12T09:41:00.010+01:00

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Italy for a quick visit – we flew on Friday, arriving around 7pm, spent all day Saturday attending the wedding of Matthew’s cousin and related festivities, then came home on Sunday. We had a great time, but it was exhausting. And I got sun-burned on my scalp, where I part my hair. Who would think to put sunscreen there? How would you even do that?

The people getting married were Matthew’s cousin Tone and her partner Deen. They have been together for 25 years and have two grown sons, but two years ago, Deen whisked Tone off to a chateau in the south of France and proposed in front of a room full of assembled friends and loved ones. That sounds pretty impressive in itself, but for the wedding itself, they really pulled out all the stops. Thus I attended my very first Norwegian-Nigerian wedding. In Italy. With the adult children of the couple serving as groomsmen. It was awesome.

The wedding was in Como, in the north of Italy. There is no family connection with Italy; as far as we know they picked it because it is absolutely beautiful. We had an unremarkable flight to Milan, then took a train into Como, through very picturesque countryside and little towns. From my admittedly limited observations, I'd say Italians like to have some green outdoor space; almost every place had a little garden or patio or even just a balcony with potted plants and a chair where one presumably sits in the morning and enjoys the first espresso of the day. Although Como itself is fairly flat, it is surrounded by extremely tall, steep hills, which makes for very dramatic scenery. We stayed in the old part of town, which is utterly charming, with the slightly run-down, romantic look of Cinema Paradiso or Il Postino. (We took a taxi back from the reception and saw that the newer part of town is much less charming. It has a lot of concrete buildings that seem to be crumbling in the humidity, rather unromantically.) It was a short, pleasant walk through a couple of piazzas from the station to our hotel, which was itself on a piazza. After a quick freshening up, we went to yet another piazza to meet everyone for dinner. This was quite relaxed - we sat around with some cousins and ate pizza while a street artist recreated "The School of Athens" on the pavement in front of the café and swallows (or swifts or possibly bats - there was much conjecture) swooped down from the cathedral bell tower eating bugs. Then we wandered through a few more piazzas, stumbling upon a Mexican/Cuban band playing an outdoor concert as part of Como's cultural festival, and ate gelato before heading off to bed.

The next day we took a boat cruise from Como to another town down the coast, to a hotel on a hill, where the ceremony itself took place. I don't know the name of the town, only that it was very, very hilly and that the hotel was not really very close to where the boat docked. I think the trek was worth it, though, as the hotel was very pretty and had a fantastic view over the lake. Matthew's young cousin Jake (age 12) kept saying, "Can you believe this is just a 3 star hotel?" like the seasoned world traveller he is. The ceremony itself was lovely, very personal and emotional. A close friend of the couple said a few words, there were two readings, and we all sang the Carpenters' song “On Top of the World”. The mayor of the town came, wearing a very impressive and official-looking tricolor sash, and read long passages from the Italian civil code, making the whole thing legal. These passages were then translated (more or less) into English (more or less) for the benefit of the entire roomful of people there who didn't speak Italian. Tone's sister Anne made a very sweet speech. I got a little misty-eyed, as I often do at weddings, from thinking about love and stuff. I get a bit overwhelmed at times, thinking about Matthew and how utterly surprising and unlikely it was that we ever met. I find weddings the perfect venue for indulging in such sentimental thoughts. It's nice, though, because when I start to get a little freaked out about how easily we could have not met, I always realise that, however improbable it was, we did meet and we are together and I am confident that we always will be because, among other factors, we have fun together, we like so many of the same TV shows, and we have an enormous mortgage together. Oh, the ties that bind... Anyway, after the ceremony, we adjourned to the terrace, where we had a light luncheon. I call it light because it was made up mainly of finger foods, but I realised on this trip that I could eat nibbles, especially crispy, deep-fried ones, for hours and hours without stopping. So not that light. And as we were waiting for the loo afterwards, Matthew and I saw a scorpion. My mother, sister and grandmother have all been stung by scorpions; I never have but I used to be deathly afraid of them, literally screaming and running away like a crazy person whenever I saw one. I guess I'm over that, since I was much calmer with this one. We took some photos, but the camera was still on the black and white setting that Matthew used for the wedding, so instead of scary, the scorpion looks timeless and romantic.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon on the boat, with breaks in another town for gelato and on Isola Comacina, an island where people dock their boats (not yachts, just regular sized ones). This was entirely populated by young, thin, very attractive brown-skinned people and older, overweight, not-so-attractive sun-damaged people. It was like a “before” and “after” for the Italian lifestyle. Along the way, we saw houses belonging to Richard Branson (rather ostentatious, with weirdly sculptured trees), George Clooney (nice, big, traditional-looking) and Donatella Versace (big but not very impressive - a bit boring). Eventually, we arrived at Villa D'Este, the venue for the reception and the fanciest building I've ever been in that doesn't belong to the National Trust. We had more nibbles, posed for more photos, and I was blown away by the beautiful ladies’ room, so much that I went back later and took photos. I will post those pictures later, but let me just say pink marble, real linen handtowels, and, the best part, bidets in the cubicles, which were, of course, lovely little rooms far larger than our bathroom at home. In fact, the whole restroom “complex,” of foyer, hand-washing area and cubicles, was larger than our old flat.

When we sat down to our five course meal, I realised why even if I can eat nibbles for hours, maybe I shouldn’t. I felt very unsettled and could only pick at my salad and risotto. Jake was in even worse shape. Being a 12 year old boy, he has even less self-restraint than I do when it comes to small fried foods and I don’t think he felt good at all. He eventually bucked up, though, and he and our other young cousin Amy (age 10) had a good enough time sticking the heart-shaped confetti all over their faces. I recovered, too, enough to enjoy the main course, which was beef and veal with a big blob of fois gras on top. I know that geese are treated very cruelly in the making of fois gras – so why, oh why must it taste so good?

There were about a dozen speeches, which could have been torturous, but they were all quite short and either funny or sweet or touching. Then there was cake and dancing and then we got a taxi back to Como, where we fell into bed too exhausted to even be very annoyed with our barely air conditioned room.

On Sunday, we had another uneventful flight back home, then got up the next day and went back to normal life. Except for the sun-burned scalp, of course.

A note: Tone's name is Norwegian. When properly pronounced, it is quite musical, with the "o" stretched out and a lift at the end. However, when I (and most other non-Scandinavians) try to say it, it sounds like "tuna." So I just call her "Toni." Deen is short for the rather majestic sounding Moyadeen (unsure of the spelling), but has the benefit of sounding exactly like "Dean" so I can just about manage it.

Goody Two (New) Shoes

2008-08-09T14:59:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I got a new pair of Bass Weejuns sent all the way from Connecticut, courtesy of my grandma and mom. Now I'm all set for school to start. Just seven weeks to go. I'll probably buy some books and a notebook or something, too, but this was the most important element of my school supply shopping.

More Amazing News!

2008-08-05T19:12:00.002+01:00

I have actually packed up and posted my sister's birthday presents! Only 5 1/2 weeks late!

Once she receives them, I'll post the photos I took before they went in the box. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of them post-wrapping, so you'll just have to trust me that they were ridiculously cute. But then, my presents always are...

Attitude Adjustment

2008-08-05T17:03:00.002+01:00

Two Fridays ago, Matthew worked a day shift, which means that he left around 6:30 and I got up at my regular time of 7:00. I sort of woke up while he was getting ready for work - I do that a lot now that he’s gone deaf in one ear and our new routine is that his alarm wakes me up and I shake/nudge/poke him until he turns it off – and he came to say goodbye on his way out. In a bit, I got up, went about my daily ablutions and went to work.

We had plans to meet after work for dinner and a movie that night, but during the morning, I remembered Matthew saying specifically that he would be using his work e-mail that day. I just couldn’t remember why I was supposed to e-mail him. I thought I could just e-mail and ask, but then I realized that I didn’t have his work e-mail address saved anywhere in my work e-mail. So when I had a minute, I browsed through all the e-mails from Matthew that I’ve saved in my Hotmail account to see if he’d ever sent me one from work. Now, Matthew and I met five years ago and since at that time he lived in London and I lived in Lawrence, Kansas, we spent the first 16 months of our relationship communicating primarily via e-mail. Often, we wrote several times a day, so we're talking about a lot of e-mail. Being a sentimental person, I seem to have saved almost every single one of those messages. I did lose a bunch of the very oldest ones in a Yahoo-related mishap, but there are still plenty. Some might say, more than enough.

I spent most of the afternoon reading dozens of old messages, which I found extremely entertaining. We were obviously trying to impress each other, but who wouldn’t have been impressed with a couple as witty, romantic, quirky, sweet and really, genuinely funny as we were. Matthew’s messages were great, of course, but I was especially struck with the picture of myself that emerged – funny, confident and sassy. This, even though I clearly remember actively pining for Matthew during my last few months in Lawrence. Of course he’d fall in love with that girl, I thought. She’s awesome!

Then I compared that girl to the way I’ve been for the past little while – instead of funny, confident and sassy, I’ve been feeling snarky, insecure and irritable. Still funny, of course, but in a cranky sort of way. I could imagine someone who’d fallen in love with the e-mail girl might feel slightly annoyed at the current state of things. And, to be honest, it was a lot more fun to be that girl than to mope around and be grumpy most of the time.

So I decided to do something about it. The next day I got a haircut and it’s been blue skies ever since! It hasn’t really, but I’ve actually maintained a positive attitude fairly consistently for almost two entire weeks. I feel like I’m remembering how to be myself. I’m having more fun with my clothes, thinking in terms of “outfits” and concepts and getting excited about dressing up for a birthday party or a leaving do or…a Tuesday. I made curtains for our kitchen window from a sweet little vintage print that my mom gave me. There’s enough left over that I might make an apron - or a skirt – or maybe a kerchief (as skirts can be tough to get just right). In addition, I have planned out several sewing projects that I think I might actually get around to doing. My plants are doing great and I’m starting to think about food crops for next year. I’ve become a weekday vegetarian (trying to only eat meat on weekends – but then it’s sausage, bacon and hot dogs for two days straight!). I’ve started using the phrase “funny, confident, sassy” as a sort of mantra which I repeat to myself when I’m feeling tired or deflated or lumpy; I think it actually improves my posture. I am considering getting my eyes lasered – but I’m also considering getting big, old-fashioned cat-eye glasses. Honestly, this is so much more fun that wearing very baggy grey clothes and complaining about English people all the time!

Oh, and I eventually just called Matthew at work to see why I was supposed to e-mail him. Apparently, I had asked him if he would be available on e-mail during the day and he said yes, on his work address. I was too asleep to remember asking (or why I did) later.

Happy Fifth of July!

2008-07-09T15:03:00.005+01:00

We finally found the camera (it was in the shed, for some reason) so I can post this with photos of our Fourth of July cookout. Or Fifth of July barbecue, if you will, because it was held on the 5th (because it was a Saturday) and because I had to amend my invitations to call it a "barbecue" rather than a "cookout" because that's what English people call it when you cook and eat outdoors. I found this a little silly because, to me "barbecue" suggests that you will be eating barbecue, with sticky sauce, ribs, etc, but whatever. (Also, I was annoyed that no one could work out the very simple etymology that "cookout" means cooking outside, but again, whatever.)

After a couple of weeks of warmth and light, the weather has been pretty unpredictable lately and it was actually raining when we woke up on Saturday. I remained optimistic (or pig-headed), though, and just kept thinking, it will clear up, it will clear up. My sister had sent some gorgeous pictures of my niece in their neighbourhood parade (riding in her Radio Flyer wagon festooned with bunting and a balloon) so that kept me positive. And, eventually, it did clear up! Which was good, because even though only a fraction of the invitees made it, we had over 30 people and I don't think they would have all fit in the house. And it wouldn't have worked to put the grill in the conservatory... We kept it simple with the food. I asked people to bring salad, buns, sausages and drinks and we provided burgers and desserts, as well as some drinks, condiments, and desserts.

For decoration, I made a garland by cutting stars out of red, white and blue paper and sewing them together on my machine. The cutting was a bit tedious (thank you, Matthew, for helping me!) but the sewing was a breeze. I draped it over and around the conservatory door and around our Jamie Reid print. Matthew said, "See, the Queen loves the 4th of July, too!" Our friend Colleen, who just came back from Texas, brought little flags, which graced the mantle. You can just see them in the photo.

The other big thing I did was make cupcakes and a cake. I know - I'm awesome!

For the cupcakes I used the same Hershey's recipe as for Matthew's birthday cake, with a cream cheese frosting. I used low fat cream cheese and low fat margarine from a tub because I can't find stick margarine around here. That affected the consistency of the frosting; it was a lot runnier than I'd anticipated. This was fine for the cupcakes, as it "flowed" nicely. I baked them in silver liners and sprinkled with red and blue sugar sprinkles - on the early ones I was a bit heavy-handed, but I got the hang of it eventually. Then I stuck a tiny American flag in every other one (to avoid flag fatigue). Too cute! Matthew's friend Kim brought beautiful, Sex in the City style cupcakes from a fancy shop. They were genuinely gorgeous (and I've just realised, really expensive), but I thought the cake on mine was better. And mine were definitely more patriotic.

The cake was more of a challenge, and not one that I met with total triumph. I made two butter cakes (from Martha Stewart's recipe) and put them together to make roughly the right size and shape. From my experience making Easter bunny cakes, I figured the seam would be hidden under frosting. However, the runny cream cheese frosting had other ideas. It hid the seam okay, but it was not prepared to stick to the sides, so I just poured it on and let it dribble. Fortunately, English people are used to that look; they regularly spoon runny custard over cake (and other desserts) and just thought it was supposed to look like that. The real problem was that the bottom line of strawberries kept sliding off the cake! In the end, I had to cut toothpicks in half and use them to spear the strawberries to the cake. Fortunately, I cut the first slices, so I was able to remove the picks and thus avoid any injury to guests. The blueberries were much less problematic. They stuck just fine.

Other than the frosting drama, things went really well. We aren't big barbecuers and the first batch of sausages were pretty severely burnt because Matthew kept going off and talking to people. Fortunately, his cousins Kathy and Tone took over, resulting in much more edible food. Also, we put the grill on the wrong side of the patio and initially a lot of smoke went into the living room, but no one seemed to notice except me. Most people left around 9pm, but a handful stayed until midnight, hanging around and (sort of) helping clean up. As after our housewarming party, I was struck by the realisation that we must really be grown-up now - people had put all their dirty dishes in the kitchen, our recycling bin was full to overflowing, and nothing was broken. In all, it was lots of fun...and we've been eating sausages and cupcakes non-stop for the past 5 days now!

Summer Time Greenery

2008-07-01T11:26:00.009+01:00

It seems that summer was finally really arrived. It’s been sunny and warm not just for a couple of days, followed by cold, grey rain, but for almost two weeks now! It was almost too warm last night for our duvet, but I’m reticent to do anything about it just yet. When it’s really warm, we take the comforter out of the cover and use the cover alone as a light bedspread. Several weeks ago, I mistook a warm spell for actual summertime and took the duvet off the bed. Of course, we froze for a couple of nights before I broke down and admitted to myself that maybe night time temperatures in late May do warrant a big fluffy duvet, even with the additional warmth of a wool blanket, my beloved brown blanket, Matthew and one or two cats.

Anyway, now it’s lovely and hot (not two words that normally go together in Texas, but work well in England) and the garden is lush and green. Our next door neighbour/gardener Rocco is working on the garden to a plan that exists only in his mind – and seems to change week to week, so my gardening has been confined to the conservatory. I don’t want to get in his way. I must say, it’s going pretty well. I have two out-of-control basil plants that I’m trying to pinch and trim into bushier, less awkwardly tall shapes, a bushy basil with mites, the convalescing orchid, three agapanthus plants that were originally a single plant given by our friend Jane as a housewarming present, another plant from Jane (I can’t remember what it’s called but it’s sort of twiggy) and some tomato seedlings. Oh, and a hot pink plastic watering can.

The bushy, mite-y basil is sequestered on top of the CD shelf, with the orchid, which doesn’t have much to lose at this point, and an agapanthus and at a (hopefully) safe distance from the tomato plants. Since this photo, I have divided the tomatoes into three pots – none have died yet! – and the basil has moved to the table.

The orchid isn’t up to much at the moment. I did some research and apparently dark green leaves mean that the plant could use more sunlight. This one couldn’t get more light unless it were under a spotlight, but it still doesn’t look too happy. I think I’m not giving it enough water. Or too much. Hard to say.

This is our new plant table, which provides space for more plants and hides the cat box! We were having a problem with the cat box getting a bit smelly in the warm conservatory. Since the conservatory doubles as our dining room, this meant we were mostly eating at the coffee table. However, covering the box with the table and table cloth has made a huge difference – as has a can of industrial strength air sanitizer. I’ve been looking for a table for some time and even considered getting my dad to build something, then break it down and ship it, but Matthew found a little flat pack table at Argos for about £12.99, we bought and assembled it together, and our lives were significantly improved, all in the space of a single Sunday afternoon.

Keeping Busy

2008-06-22T15:55:00.007+01:00

So what have I been doing with the time that I should have been posting over the last week and a half? Let’s see…

We got our new washing machine last Friday and have been blissfully laundering since. Matthew had several days off so he has done more than I have, but I’m trying to catch up.

Last Saturday we went over to my friend Virginia’s for lunch and got back at 2am. Hampstead Heath, hippies and Spanish people figured in our adventures, more on which later. My niece's birthday party was on Saturday, too. Judging from the photos, there were 4 grandparents and at least one federal judge present, so it had to be fun!

This was supposed to be my last week at work, but they like me so much they want me to come back! I was originally contracted to work for four weeks at an architectural practice in Central London to cover one receptionist being in the Czech Republic for a week and the other receptionist being in South Africa for three weeks. Near the end of the fourth week, we heard from the second girl that she’d developed a blood clot in her leg on the way back from South Africa and so couldn’t come back to work just yet. However, she’d been hospitalized in France and her doctor’s note was in French, so there was a bit of confusion about what exactly was going on. She’s coming back on Monday so I was prepared for this to be my last week, but on Tuesday, they asked me if I’d like to come back to do another role, which involves entering all their project contacts into a data base for use on the intranet they are setting up. Should be pretty boring, but not difficult. I really like the people there, the location is great and the office is very laid back and friendly. Also, this project should last for several weeks, which will take me almost right up to the beginning of the school term. So yay for me! To celebrate, we had a slap-up meal of George Foreman-grilled steaks, broccoli and thick-cut pan-fried potatoes. So tasty it made me wish I got a new job every day…

Also on Tuesday, I found a book club I’m going to try out. I was aimlessly googling and found a group that meets in Central London and is accepting new members. The list of books they’ve read in the past sounded good – I’ve at least heard of most of them – so I am going to their next meeting this coming Tuesday. To that end, I’ve been reading John Fowles’s 600 page novel The Magus, desperately trying to finish by Tuesday. I know I can do it, but I’m just so busy these days, ya know? Also, I’m not finding myself really engaged in the book in a way that would force me to sit down and read for 4 hours at a stretch. So, we’ll see.

On Wednesday, I took homemade kiwi bread to work and received general adulation. There are no photos of the kiwi bread because it mysteriously disappears every time I make it. In fact, all that’s left of the loaf I kept at home is a very small sliver that I’ve saved for Matthew. It’s not a very generous serving, but should be enough to keep him from accusing me of eating it all while he was at work. Anyway, I got one request for the recipe and many, many requests for more bread. I will have do it again in a couple of weeks, if only because the kiwis are “liberated” from the fruit bowl at work so I feel I owe it to the company to give them back, value-added. Some of them, anyway; lots of them end up in my cereal in the mornings.

Also on Wednesday, I went to my new yoga class. It’s my third week and I still feel the next day as if I’ve been beaten up.

On Thursday evening, we joined Virginia and some friends of hers for a picnic on Hampstead Heath. We sat on blankets in the long grass and ate cold sausages, potato salad, olives, pate on crusty bread, and lots of other yummy things while dogs came over to say hello, families rambled by and a boot camp style exercise class kept running past being shouted at, I mean, encouraged by their instructor. It was windy and got very cold but we had a good time and plan to do it again next week. We took the overground train home, which I’d never done before, so that was interesting too. It’s like the underground, except you can actually see things out the windows.

Friday was extremely busy at work. The practice hosted an awards ceremony for architectural students doing sustainable building projects and I had about 30 minutes in the afternoon to set up the “drinks and nibbles” area for about 50 people. It was hard work, but the most annoying thing was that I kept setting out trays of beers, only to have people keep drinking them! Actually what annoyed me was that they kept leaving the bottle caps all over the tables, making them appear very messy, even though I’d set out a little cup for the caps and even “seeded” it with one so they’d see what it was for. Honestly… Anyway, I fell asleep on the sofa as soon as I got home. When I woke up I whined a little bit about making dinner and we eventually ordered Chinese food and watched several episodes of the American Office. Pretty much a perfect Friday night…

Yesterday I did some shopping (to celebrate the Summer Solstice, perhaps?) and today I went to a crafts fair. It was fun and I bought lots of things, but I will have to wait to write about it, since I mainly bought presents for my sister’s birthday (next weekend) and don’t want ruin her surprises!

Happy Birthday, Mattie!

2008-06-11T22:14:00.003+01:00

Today is my niece Mattie's first birthday. She is sweet, pretty, utterly charming and now a whole, entire year old! We won't get to attend her party this weekend, but I've sent a little package and, if the past year is any indication, I'm sure there will be LOTS of photos.

On this festive day, we tried to go to a taping of QI, one of our favourite TV shows, but they were overbooked. We actually made it through two cuts (were literally the last two people in line after the second), but in the end there was no room at the inn. Instead, we were guaranteed seats at a taping of Never Mind the Buzzcocks in August. Instead we had a nice walk, over the Thames toward Fleet Street, then came home and had an excellent meal of stuffed mushrooms, mashed potatoes, broccoli and salmon croquettes. So we've had a lovely Mattie's birthday even without Mattie herself.

Happy birthday, sweet girl.

Oh, and...

2008-06-08T23:21:00.002+01:00

We're getting a new washing machine. Yesterday, I had a load of towels going when I heard a loud bang followed by loud thudding. When I got downstairs, I saw water streaming out of the machine. The drum had come off one of the springs that hold it in place. The machine is old and a bit rusty, so we decided to get a newer, better, more energy efficient one. We'd done some research on new washing machines last year before we moved in, so we ordered this year's model of our favorite from John Lewis today and it arrives on Friday. I am absurdly excited about this.

Weirdly, the new machine, with delivery and disposal of the old washer, costs £308. This is exactly how much I earned last week. Huh.

Baby Velvet

2008-06-08T23:02:00.009+01:00

Two weekends ago, I went to a baby shower for our friend Mia. (Matthew went to Nashville last year with her husband Paul to co-produce his album. He described it as the best holiday of his life and returned with a Western shirt, a cowboy hat and a mustache. He'd obviously had a good time.) Anyway, for Mia's tea party shower, I made scones and customised a set of onesies (or baby-grows, as they are called here).

I made one batch of strawberry scones and one strawberry and kiwi. They were well received and two people asked me for the recipe – just the sort of reaction I like.

Strawberry Yogurt Scones

2 C flour
3 T sugar
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
4 T butter, cold, cut into ½ cubes
¾ C chopped strawberries
¾ C plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 425F/220C. Stir together dry ingredients. With a pastry cutter or two knives (or, if you can’t quite coordinate two knives, a potato masher) cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in strawberries. Stir in enough yogurt to form dough into a ball (up to ¾ C, but I used less). Turn dough onto a floured surface and with floured hands knead a few times. Press into a 9 inch round, cut into 8 triangles. Place onto cookie sheet lined with parchment. Bake until golden, about 12 - 15 minutes. Remove to rack to cool.

Note: For the strawberry-kiwi scones, I used just under a half cup of each fruit and added an additional tablespoon of sugar. The dough is very sticky and was hard to deal with when I used all the yogurt; it was much easier when drier.

The onesies elicited oohs and ahhs, especially the one with Paul’s album cover. That one was Matthew’s idea and it was genuinely adorable. The images on the shirts were straighter than it looks in the photos, by the way.

Mia looked like she was ready to pop the day of the shower, but she didn’t actually have the baby until last week. She is a very pretty little girl named…Velvet Giselle. Well, they are rock-n-rollers.

Plant Hospital

2008-06-04T23:50:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I rescued a bloomless orchid from the office where I've been working. It had been on the desk for about 4 months and finally lost its final, withered flower that morning. We got a new one at Marks and Spencer and to keep it from going in the bin (and having heard that they will eventually bloom again), I took the old one home. Lots of people seemed interested in this and offered advice. One girl said she has one that is finally starting to bloom after a year. She keeps it in the bathroom because they like the humidity. Another girl said that if you give an orchid a contraceptive pill, it will bloom continually. I said, "Do you crush the pill and put it in the water?" She said she just sticks it in the soil. Then someone else asked if she has lots of extra contraceptive pills laying around. She said it only takes one. I don't know what her boyfriend thinks about this, but I didn't think it was my place to ask.

When I left in the evening, I got several comments:

Comment 1: Is it your last day? Are you taking your little plant?

Comment 2: Are you stealing that? (When I explained I was taking it home as it'd lost its flowers) Oh, are you good with orchids?

Comment 3: What is that? (I explained) Hmmm. (This was from the founding partner of the firm, when I ran into him on the tube platform. I couldn’t really read his “Hmmm.” It didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic.)

I don't have a picture of the plant in question. I'll try to take one tomorrow, even though right now the orchid is just five droopy leaves and some creepy-looking roots snaking out of the holes in the bottom of the pot. I'm not sure it was worth the effort of getting it home (in the cold and rain), but if it does bloom next year, I'll be thrilled that I got a £14.99 plant for free. Woo, and indeed, hoo.

Battle of the Bins

2008-06-01T20:45:00.003+01:00

We live in a terrace house divided into three flats. We own and live in Flat A, which is the ground floor, the basement and back garden. Flat B, on the first floor (2nd floor to readers in the US), is vacant. Flat C, on the 2nd and 3rd floors, is rented by three girls. We have never formally met them, but in the past few months they have become an increasing part of our lives. Some of the reasons include:

- We have been awakened several nights by loud noises. Specifically, the noises of several people staggering up the front walk, banging the front door open and closed, then slowly making their way up the stairs while shouting drunkenly at each other. This normally happens between 3 and 5 in the morning. It's been a total of 5 times over the past few months and each time I vow that the next time I will get up and yell at them. And next time I very well might.

- Also, they never shut the front gate, which I think makes the front of the house look sloppy.

- Someone keeps throwing cigarette butts from their terrace into our garden. This doesn't happen that often, so I think it must be visitors rather than the girls themselves, but if their friends behave this way, it certainly speaks ill of them.

- They do not recycle. The house has four large recycling bins out front provided by the Council, but we are the only people who use them. This would be a bit of eco-self righteousness except that we find that recycling drastically reduces the amount we throw away, whereas...

- They fill up all the bins so we don't have room for our garbage! The Council provides recycling bins, but not rubbish bins, so residents have to supply their own. When we moved in, there were two bins out front. We thought, two occupied flats, two bins; should be fine. Lately, though, we take our rubbish out to find that both bins are completely full. And not only do they not recycle, they don't even crush their cardboard boxes to take up less space - and I know this because they don't even tie their rubbish bags closed! Honestly, I'm surprised they even bother with bags and don't just toss garbage out the window whenever they empty a milk carton or finish a roll of toilet paper.

To date, I have written them a note, spoken to one when we met on the front walk, and confronted one (with her mother!) as she was actually shoving rubbish indiscriminately in the first bin she could find. I've only raised the bin issue; I decided to concentrate on the biggest problem so they wouldn't think I am a cranky old lady griping all the time. However, now that I keep griping at them everytime I see them, they probably think that anyway. I don't care!

And now, as a cranky old lady, I am going to drink some hot milk and go to bed. (Actually, I'm going to have a 7-Up and watch Dr Who, but it's the same thing, really.)

2008-05-21T21:28:00.006+01:00

Last Saturday was my grandmother’s birthday. If you have ever spent any time with me, you have probably heard about my grandmother because she features in some pretty good anecdotes – like the time she shot a deer out the back window (possibly out of season) and had it field dressed by the time my grandpa got home from work, or the time she and Aunt Pat got jobs at the chicken processing plant and only made it to the morning coffee break on their first day before deciding to quit.

My grandma hasn’t always had smooth sailing in her life. She grew up during the Great Depression, in a tiny East Texas town where life was probably pretty difficult even without a worldwide economic downturn. She’s lost plenty of loved ones – though, by the time you get to 87, that must be par for the course. She didn’t graduate from high school and never got a driver’s licence – so why is she so unstoppable? She can do anything. She’s made me dresses and costumes and play clothes and taught me to sew. She can cook catfish, chicken livers and pork chops (she’s even fed me squirrel – and yes, it tastes like chicken) and bakes a cheesecake so rich and dense that it will stop your heart dead in its tracks. She is very good at Forty-Two and Scattergories (among other games), but won’t quit until she’s ahead. She can reupholster furniture. She made one of my favourite “toys” when I was little by nailing 1x4 boards between two trees to form a ladder that I climbed up and down, over and over and over again. She made most of the curtains for every apartment I’ve ever had. She hates snakes and at ever opportunity chops them to bits with a garden hoe. She once made a couch.

This is my favourite photo of my grandma, taken in the early 1920s. She is the little girl on the right, standing in a creek and grinning. The expression on her sister’s face (can I actually call such a small girl “Aunt Sis”?) suggests that the water is plenty cold, but I can almost see the little person who would one day be my grandmother wiggling with delight.

I’ve actually been working on this post since last week, but haven’t been able to work on it during the workday. Normally, if I have a few free minutes, I’ll type a bit and e-mail it to myself at home for later posting, but every time I tried to think about my grandma, how I really feel about her and what she means to me, I got very emotional and teary-eyed. Not a good look at work. Grandma would probably say not to cry, just concentrate on our happy memories together, but all those warm, fuzzy, happy and loving thoughts are exactly what keep getting me so emotional! But I’m sure I’ll manage…

My grandma’s philosophy is that, in life, if the door is locked, she’ll go through the window. I’m sure that at some point in her life, she has literally done just that.

She is my hero.

Hot Town, Summer in the City

2008-05-08T21:35:00.002+01:00

As anyone who knows me can attest, I do like to complain, and the weather in England is one of my favourite subjects. It's probably my 2nd favourite, right behind the behaviour of other people (particularly on public transport). But as much as I gripe about how grey and cold and rainy it can be during the winter (and, to honest, the spring, autumn and sometimes summer, too), even I have to admit that when it gets going, the English summer is glorious. I think I am beginning to understand what Matthew means when he describes a day as “lovely and hot.” Growing up in Texas, I am more used to days being “oppressive and hot” or “blistering and hot” or even “deadly and hot.” I’ve been working in an office near a little urban park and have spent the last couple of lunch breaks quite happily sitting in the sun, watching the pigeons, eating a sandwich and listening to comedy podcasts. It’s so nice to be outside after months of seeking shelter.

My only real gripe – there has to be one! – is that while the weather outside is quite mild by Texas standards, most buildings are not air-conditioned and those that are, are in a rather ineffective, English sort of way. So it’s nice outside but when you go in, it’s clammy and close and sort of sticky. That’s one thing at home, where you can eat ice cream and lie on the floor with the windows open, but it is murder at work, when you are expected to sit at a desk and behave in a professional manner while sweating through your bra! Also, I get sweaty hands, which is disgusting when typing! Using a mouse is even worse! And photocopying – yuck! I’ve been drinking lots of water to stay cool; yesterday I went to the restroom so many times that someone asked me if I was okay. I just muttered something about hydration...

Our Glamorous Life

2008-05-05T11:07:00.002+01:00

Last week’s mention of Pete Burns reminded me that I promised to write something about our (sort of) encounter with the Rolling Stones. So here it is:

A couple of weeks ago, Matthew got a package in the post containing tickets for Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones concert film “Shine a Light” and booking info for a hotel in Soho. It seems that he’d entered a competition online and won. The premiere was the next night, when he was scheduled to work, so there was a bit of worry that he might not be able to get off and we’d have to give the tickets to someone else, but his boss got very excited and let him off (on the condition that if possible, we give Charlie Watts a hug). So we went to the premiere along with loads of other celebrities – ha!

Actually, there were lots of celebrities there. We had pleb tickets and so got ushered in pretty quickly, but they were showing the red carpet on the big screen in the cinema so we got to watch as each mildly famous person stood blinking under the barrage of flashbulbs. The woman “hosting” the red carpet portion of the evening asked all the celebs which was their favourite Rolling Stone – most said they love them all and couldn’t possibly choose, except for Liam Gallagher, who staggered up looking very drunk and unkempt and said he liked Brian Jones best. Which was pretty funny. Considering the quantity of celebrity, the quality wasn’t very high. They were mostly British television and music personalities; Matthew was impressed (and not completely in a good way) that I was able to identify a girl who is famous for a) being the daughter of an actor, b) dating the brother of a singer, who is himself a television actor (and the singer has a TV talk show, too), c) wearing very “edgy” clothes at fashionable places and thus getting her picture in the papers, and d) being in a futuristic kung-fu show in which she had purple hair and a pair of magic gym shorts once owned by the Buddha (but I don’t think that’s gone anywhere).

We got several looks at the Rolling Stones, both on the red carpet and because, while the celebs were upstairs in the balcony so they wouldn’t have to mix with the regular folk, the band walked right past us as they went up to the front to introduce the film. Actually, if our seats had been slightly worse (a couple of rows back and farther to the side), they would have walked right past us. As they went past, Mick said, “Not too much making out in the back, please” and the superfans around us thought that was the funniest thing they’d ever heard. If I think about it, though, it was probably the funniest thing ever said directly to them by a member of an iconic rock band, so fair enough. Up to this point, we were quite entertained. However, then we had to sit through the film.

To be fair, it was pretty entertaining as well. However, I think this was mostly down to being in a really big cinema with a really good sound system, surrounded by people who were really excited to be watching, so that it felt at times like we were actually at the concert. Several times I found myself almost clapping at the end of a song. But I don’t think I would watch it on TV at home. The most interesting parts were the archival and behind-the-scenes footage and there wasn’t much of it. And although I was impressed by the band’s physical stamina at their age, it did drag on a bit.

Some other impressions:

They are all really tiny! They aren’t very tall and most of them are wraith-thin – Keith Richards is the only one with even a hint of an old man potbelly. Mick Jagger was wearing shiny patent leather platform sneakers. I wondered if they might be orthopedic to deal with the havoc all that jumping around and twisting might have done to his back, but I now think they might be because his girlfriend is about 6 inches taller than he is.

Speaking of Mick Jagger’s girlfriend - she is a professional stylist, yet all his stage outfits looked like they came from the ladies’ resort section at Kohl’s department store. He wore black satin trousers (very slimming) and a burgundy shirt with pintucks down the front, which he took off to reveal a black t-shirt with subtle sequin details, which added just a touch of sparkle.

I thought Keith Richards looked a little bit like a grandpa - if your grandpa were actually a Berber tribeswoman. He had so many things tied in his hair or dangling from his belt, I thought I could hear him jingle when he moved, though I guess that could have been his old bones and dried-up, leathery internal organs.

Charlie Watts could be a vampire. He certainly looks like one and have you ever seen him in the daytime?

Anyway, we had a good enough time at the film and then spent the night at a nice hotel and had a big breakfast (included with the room) the next morning. We definitely like staying in hotels in town – it’s like traveling without all the hassle of actually going anywhere.

2008-04-28T21:44:00.002+01:00

On Sunday I bit the bullet and went to Oxford Street for a bit of shopping. It was insanely crowded, as I knew it would be on a Sunday afternoon, but I had a fresh podcast to listen to during the 40 minutes I was in the queue for the changing room at Primark, so I was okay. I mean, my arm got very tired and I jettisoned several items before I even tried them on, but I was entertained. I ended up with a dress and some birthday presents for my lovely niece Mattie. I got some other bargains – even though I had to go to all three Uniqlo locations on Oxford Street. Their flagship store is almost completely given over to a range of artsy t-shirts they’ve done in collaboration with international artists and very large photos of Chloe Sevigny wearing said t-shirts, so that there is very little room left for anything else. I finally found some actual clothes at the third, oldest and by far least fashionable location – a couple of tops for £2.99 each and a trench styled jacket marked down from £39.99 to £19.99.

I also saw Pete Burns (of Dead or Alive and horror plastic surgery fame) in American Apparel. In a very ick-making move, they were playing “You Spin Me Right Round, Baby” when I walked in and about 30 seconds later I bumped into him. He was relatively small, only about my height, which surprised me because I always thought he was more statuesque. However, he did look a little bit like a monster in a fairy tale. I was telling this to a woman at work and she said, “You know, they’re people, just like us,” but I had to say, “No, actually, he’s not.”

Good News...and More Good News

2008-04-26T12:29:00.021+01:00

The main good news is that it’s now official that I will be going back to school! In September I’ll start on an MA in Town and Regional Planning at the University of Westminster. It’s a full time course, just one year, and then I will finally have a degree that actually allows me to get a job. So far I’ve had the kind of liberal arts degrees that make one a more well-rounded person, very good at chatting to strangers at parties about the “arts” but prone to analyzing movies far beyond the point where other people are interested. With this new degree, and after jumping through a few more hoops (mostly racking up enough hours of work experience), I’ll be a town planner and (hopefully) a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute. Membership in anything Royal is pretty exciting. Also, the campus where I’ll be taking classes is across the street from Madame Tussaud’s!

For those unfamiliar with it, town planning in the UK is like zoning on steroids. There are national, regional and local levels of regulations or “guidance” as it is euphemistically called, some of which can conflict, and which take into account everything from the aesthetics of a design, safety, impact on local traffic, accessibility for the disabled, environmental impact, archeological sensitivity of proposed building sites, to even whether new buildings will block too much sunlight to existing ones or “overlook” them and thus infringe on current occupants’ privacy. These things have to be considered in pretty much every construction situation - whether someone wants to build an extension on their house or a huge shopping centre. In some historical buildings, permission has to be given before changes are made to the internal layout.

Obviously, there is a lot to it and while planning has a reputation for being really boring, I find it fascinating. Last year I read what is considered the seminal text in the field The Death and Life of American Cities by Jane Jacobs and got really hooked. (I borrowed it from a friend and now have it on my Amazon wishlist - hint hint.) I’m now working my way through an anthology on urban design and have been scavenging magazines from the architects’ office where I’m temping. Last night I said to Matthew, “You know, this course only lasts one year. I don’t know if I’ll have time to learn everything I need to know!” His response was something along the lines of, “In that case, stop watching TV and get to reading your book.” I ignored this, as we were watching a Dylan Moran stand-up special which I was finding very funny.

More good news – Thursday we got cable! For free! Matthew works for a TV network which has recently decided that all their UK employees should be able to watch at home so they’re paying for us to get cable. I expect this will substantially improve our quality of life, or at least allow us to watch cricket on TV.* As Matthew says, woo and, indeed, hoo!

*Actually, we won't be able to watch the cricket, as it is on a different cable network. I am pretty disappointed because I actually do enjoy watching cricket. It is so English - they break for lunch and tea - and the game is so famously complicated that even a rudimentary understanding of it makes me feel that I might finally be cracking this "English" thing. (They have a phrase, "that's not cricket," which means something isn't right. It can be used about something really horrendous, like the Zimbabwean elections, but means that's just not the way we play the game. It came to a head last year when a Pakistani player was accused of ball-tampering, a racism row erupted, and all everyone could say was that it was just so not at all cricket!) Anyway, Matthew suggests that I start watching Formula 1 racing with him, but that's obviously ridiculous. However, we do have a "pick of the week" on-demand feature, which means that last night we watched Dr Who six days after broadcast without taping or downloading it or anything. So that's cool.

The Kids Just Wanna Dance, plus an Interesting Exchange

2008-04-18T21:12:00.005+01:00

So we went to a children's party at a bar, but it wasn't like that. It was like this. Even without a kid of our own, we had a really good time. There were lots of cool kids (both little and big) in their alternative finest. Our friend Jackson was in a Ramones tee and his girlfriend (from nursery) Kitty had on skinny indie kid jeans and a black sweater with a skull. She also has a coon skin cap(!) which is cute almost to the point of ridiculousness. Here we see Jackson rehydrating after a bit of running around/dancing/bouncing off the walls:

All the grown-ups seemed very cool (i.e. lots of heavy-framed glasses and tattoos) so I was very surprised to find myself in a conversation straight out of a chick flick - and a cheesy one that uses cliches in place of creative writing, at that. Below is a word-for-word transcript of an exchange between me and a woman I had met no more than an hour earlier.

Woman: So, are you two thinking of having kids?
Me: Oh, uh, well, yeah. We were actually going to make that our project this year, but, uh, mmm, instead I'm going back to school. So, ya know...
Woman: How old are you?
Me: (truthful answer).
Woman: Well, don't leave it too long.
Me: (shocked silence).

First, I could not believe that anyone would ask a nearly total stranger if she intends to have children. This is a very private matter and potentially so emotionally fraught! I know people who have chosen not to have children because they are content with their lives without offspring, and others who've made the same choice because their own childhoods were less than idyllic. I also know people who want kids but have run into various physical/medical roadblocks. And there are myriad other reasons people might put off procreating. For example, after a lot of discussion and soul-searching, we decided I would go back to school (more on that later) so that we could afford to feed/clothe/spoil any eventual kiddies. Regardless of the reason, I wouldn't expect someone I just met to want to discuss their most private hopes, fears and dreams with me. Even if I were desperate for a topic of conversation, I would probably open with something like, "Have you seen the US Office? I think it holds up really well against the original." It's still provocative (Brits are insanely proud of the Office) but less likely to make someone cry.

Secondly, who asks a woman her age? Honestly? You can ask any Borscht Belt comedian from the 1950s on - we don't like it!

Third - thanks for the news flash. Is there a woman in her 30s who hasn't been bombarded with horror stories about swiftly-ticking biological clocks, artificial hormones in our food, the dangers or benefits of the Pill, etc, etc, etc? This is not new information. This is information that I have to go out of my way to avoid, skipping entire sections of newspapers and holding my hands over my ears and going, "Nah, nah, can't hear you, nah, nah" whenever it comes on the news. The media really, really want me to know about this; I don't need casual acquaintances to fill me in at social gatherings. But thanks for the tip!

The Trailer

2008-04-12T22:59:00.002+01:00

Yes, it's been ages since I've posted. I've been very busy, what with not working very regularly, sleeping, reading Stuff White People Like compulsively and conducting some cooking experiments. My findings: turns out risotto is simple - but hard at the same time. Matthew does not find the sight of a turkey carcass boiling merrily very appetising and, honestly, doesn't understand why we can't just buy stock cubes (I have no answer for this). And, while a splash of Worcestershire sauce perks up homemade turkey soup nicely, vinegar not so much.

I've done more than that, of course. I'm just not going to write about it right now. I would, but have decided instead to watch TV while mending my beloved brown blanket. But I will expound soon enough and here are just some of the exciting topics you can expect to see covered:

- houseguests! My friends Tasca and Jim and their daughter Bo came to visit from Edinburgh and we had a brilliant time!

- we saw the Rolling Stones - sort of!
- degrees that actually help people get jobs!
- we went to a child's birthday party at a bar/night club!
- Shakespeare!
- new television obsessions!
- and probably lots more!

Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Bad Weather = Homemade Cuteness

2008-03-25T12:02:00.007Z

Obviously, I complain a lot about the weather, but no one can deny that the weather over Easter weekend has been genuinely awful. There has been rain, snow, hail, high winds and bright sunshine - sometimes all at once! This was the view from our conservatory door yesterday. The little white streaks are chunks of ice falling from the sky, aka hail. Please forgive the glare from the window glass, but there was no way I was going to open the door just to get a better picture.

Anyway, being stuck inside, I got to work. Our friends in Edinburgh (one of whom is 3 years old) are coming to visit this weekend, so I started thinking about what might be fun for the visit. For the older ones, I am offering good food and charming conversation, as per my usual. But the little one is getting a dress-up box! So far it contains three scarves, some Bonne Belle Lip Smacker lip gloss, and these two dresses, which I whipped up yesterday.

The black and white animal print is made from the dress I made for myself for my company's Christmas costume party last year. After a lengthy search for reasonably priced animal print fabric, I bought a muu muu from a stall at the market. It's made from a very slinky polyester, which is difficult to work with but very forgiving. I don't know how tall Bo is at the moment, so I made it very long and will cut it off once she specifies her preferred length. It is lined with a black t-shirt, so the whole thing should be soft and stretchy.

This dress has a detachable black satin sash (currently detached) and a cat mask. How cool is that!?!

This, which I am calling a woodland fairy dress, is made from the trimmings from our conservatory curtains and lined with the trimmings from some other curtains. Thus, the only parts not from Ikea are the bodice material and the two buttons (iridescent rosette button and natural brown button in back), all of which came from my grandma. It has a coordinating scarf that I got from my Secret Santa two years ago, so 100% free materials. Unfortunately, I just got some measurements for the intended wearer last night and this one might be a bit tight. Fortunately, though, I have loads more of the materials and so can make any necessary adjustments.

I made up these patterns from what I remembered from making my Christmas dress, so I figure I can invent any alterations, too.

Texas Independence Day

2008-03-18T23:35:00.003Z

March 2^nd was Texas Independence Day, a holiday that most people outside Texas are convinced I made up as an excuse to throw a party. I get the same reaction with Dia de los Muertos, no matter how many links to Kathy Cano Murillo’s website I send. But I can’t help it if people don’t want to have parties. I try to celebrate Texas Independence Day in some way every year. Two years ago I had a big party with homemade chili (beef and vegetarian), barbecued chicken, sausage, brisket and veggie burgers, and chips with salsa, guacamole and queso (made with Velveeta, of course). Last year, we gorged on nachos. This year, Matthew worked a night shift on the day, so I didn’t plan anything. At the last minute I got a tiny little roast and cooked it with Rudy’s BBQ Rub, then put it and some sausages in the oven on low heat to simmer with barbecue sauce. I made myself a little combination sandwich (my favorite barbecue menu item) and cut some pickle spears. It looked pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Unfortunately, it just wasn't quite right. The beef was okay, but it wasn't slow-cooked brisket that falls apart under a fork - it was roast beef with sauce on it. The sausage was all right, but it wasn't tangy enough. The pickles were a little too sweet; they're quite good on their own but really nothing like Del-Dixi's.

Overall, it was a bit of a drag, like a Charlie Brown Independence Day. Next year, I'm definitely going to have to throw a big party again. It's what Sam Houston would have wanted...

Home Improvements

2008-03-15T23:38:00.007Z

I haven't spent every moment of the past two weeks not at work immobile on the sofa. Last weekend I hung new photos/pictures, including some I brought back from Texas at Christmas, on the wall above our sofa. This is what it looked like before:

And now it looks like this:

Can you spot the picture of the lemur that I adopted for Matthew for his birthday? I'll give you a hint: she's furry and black and white, not posing with her sister - that's my grandmother!

Tonight I finally filled the shelves that Matthew hung for me in the bedroom. This project has literally taken months to complete. We are both extremely un-handy, so it's practically a miracle that it was finished at all. But Matthew figured it out, hung the brackets, painted the shelves and put them up - over a period of about 8 weeks. I'm not allowed to put anything very heavy on them, but I think that's reasonable.

And to show that I'm not totally useless, this is a picture of my bedside table, which I got unfinished at Ikea for £6.99 and stained. The stain was way more orange than I'd anticipated and was very streaky, but I put on a couple of coats and when I still wasn't very happy with the results, put a shawl over the top to disguise any weird spots. Clever, huh?

Oops!

2008-03-15T23:03:00.004Z

It's been almost two weeks since I last posted. I don't have a very good excuse. It's mainly that I've been working and that has put me in a really foul mood. I know most people have to work almost every day - and I've been there, believe me - but it is so annoying!

My commute has been pretty challenging lately. I think we had two days last week of certifiable "transport chaos", which is what the papers call it when there are major problems on public transport. It took me almost two hours to get to work on Monday. Fortunately I have a well-stocked iPod and used the time to listen to almost two entire episodes of This American Life. The only problem is that their stories are either really funny, causing me to snigger or even laugh out loud, or quite emotional, in which case I get all teary-eyed. Either of these circumstances can be kind of embarassing on the Tube. But I heart Ira Glass. I miss NPR so much. It's right up there on the list of things I miss, with my family and Target and driving and 24-hour grocery stores and people who pronounce oREGano correctly. (English people pronounce the name of this herb oreGANo, which for some time I was convinced was a put-on but this seems increasingly unlikely, since the entire country would have had to get together before I arrived and decide on the joke. My annoyance is exacerbated by the fact that they pronounce the "h" in "herb" too, making any discussion of food flavourings completely maddening.)

Anyway, the point is I have been spending long hours working in a job that is alternately very boring and very stressful and, as a result, all I want to do when I finally do get home is eat dinner, watch television, and sleep. Ergo, no posts.

Another reason I haven't posted is that we haven't had a very happy week. One of Matthew's co-workers suddenly fell ill and died last week. He was younger than Matthew, and had three young children. Everyone was quite shaken. And, my uncle died yesterday. He had been ill with cancer for several years, but knowing that didn't make it any less shocking and distressing. I might write more about it later - it's prompted me to think a lot about family, mortality, love, the meaning of life, etc - but it will have to wait.

On the Tube

2008-03-04T22:11:00.010Z

I ride the Tube almost every day. It's generally hot, crowded, loud and smells not so fresh, but I like it. It's very easy to navigate, you can get almost anywhere in town, and it feels wonderfully London-y to me.

These are pictures of our Tube station, Caledonian Road. It is small and, to be honest, not terribly way out, despite what the sign says. I like the tilework, though.

I saw this guy Friday night on my way home from having dinner with our friends Sean and Michelle. I love that he had rings on every finger (though just on the one hand) but was otherwise totally unremarkably dressed. Just jeans and a shirt. And a handful of crazy devil rings.

This is from the Art on the Underground series of posters, at Kings Cross. I see it every day and it almost always makes me want to pump my fist in the air.

It took me about an hour to get home last night instead of the usual 35 minutes or so. I got on the Circle line at Bayswater, but we only went 2 stops before stopping at Edgware Road. We sat there for a while, until there was an announcement that this particular train wasn't leaving for at least 5 more minutes (an eternity to a commuter) but there was another eastbound train arriving 2 platforms over. Everyone left the train, went up a flight of stairs, over the tracks, and down another flight of stairs just in time to see that train pulling away from the station. I was still on the stairs going down when the train started moving. Several people ahead of me just stopped on the steps, trying to decide what to do, but the people behind me kept coming. I had just been reading the day before about the Bethnal Green tragedy during WWII, when people seeking shelter in the Tube during an air raid were crushed when someone fell and there was a crush on the stairs. I freaked out a tiny bit and sort of squeaked, "Go!" to the man right in front of me, but there wasn't a stampede. We just all went back to our original train. When I changed trains at Kings Cross, I saw this sign. As far as I know, under a train is not a good place for a person to be, so that put my annoying commute in perspective...

I was looking for a job and then I found a job...

2008-03-04T21:57:00.002Z

...and Heaven knows I'm miserable now.

I am working again, though just for the month of March, as office manager (really just a receptionist plus some facilities duties) at a very swanky interior design firm. It's in Notting Hill, which I really like, but the hours are 9 to 6:30 and I only get half an hour for lunch, which I don't like. However, it is not very hard work and I get to listen to the radio, which I do like. Oh, and I 'm getting paid rather a lot, which I really like. As Matthew would say, it's swings and roundabouts.

Wordsworth in the Back Garden

2008-02-27T17:55:00.005Z

I didn't notice the earthquake that apparently shook most of England (and some of Wales) in the wee small hours of the morning. But I did notice this morning that several of the daffodils in our back garden had fallen over. I don't think the two incidents are related. I brought the fallen soldiers inside, where they lend a springlike air to the mantel.

I never thought about it (and I'm not particularly "in tune" with the natural world) but I strongly associate flowers with particular places. These flowers seem so English to me; I can't look at them without thinking of Wordsworth wandering lonely as a cloud. I had a similar thing with the lilacs around my neighbourhood in Lawrence when I lived there. These flowers are so different from the ones I associate with spring and summer in Texas, the bluebonnets, wisteria, Queen Anne's lace, mimosa blossoms, azaleas, etc.

P.S. Ack! I've just made myself massively homesick by visiting the Texas Highways website in search of images of wildflowers. I am definitely going to have to have barbecue this weekend...

More Style Views

2008-02-26T23:48:00.005Z

I have now had extensive conversations with Matthew re Tilda Swinton, whom we have decided we like very much. She's so willowy. Also, as Matthew points out, she sort of looks like David Bowie (a can't-miss move in his book). We give her weird Oscars dress two thumbs up!

(These images are from the BBC's article on Oscar dresses. Nice overview, but I wish people would stop trying to make me look at Cameron Diaz. Enough already!)

My New Style Crush

2008-02-26T16:03:00.003Z

I didn't see the Oscars. For some reason, we have stayed up to watch the Super Bowl the past two years, but neither of us even considered staying up for the Oscars. However, thanks to the wonder of the internet, I know who won what and, more importantly, have seen lots of pretty dresses (and some not so pretty ones).

I am totally entranced by Diablo Cody's dress! For one thing, the press here hasn't had very large pictures of her, so I had to do some actual research to see the whole thing and even then, I haven't quite got my head around it. I found lots of other pictures of her throughout the award season and, I gotta say, I love this woman's wardrobe! It seems to consist of black, cardigans, funky jewelry, touches of red and leopard print and, almost exclusively, flats! She wore flats to the Oscars! I can so get behind that! I am not completely sold on the tattoo, but I like that she shows it off. Maybe everyone in the States is in love with her and she's been named the official new Style Icon of the nation and is getting her own TV show, but in the UK press all I've read is how she's very clever and talented. Which is good, but these clothes demand some attention too.

I've read that she has lots more films in development, so with any luck, we'll all have many opportunities to enjoy her red carpet style. In future, when people complain about the entertainment industry, I will point to this...

Cross One Item off the List - Forever

2008-02-22T16:54:00.007Z

Well, I finished the "test dress" from my to-do list. Because I'm not the best seamstress, I have implemented a policy of using cheap fabric to try out a new pattern to see if I can figure out the directions and/or if it looks okay on. Turns out, I can make this one. However, after seeing how it looks on, I no longer want to. Puffy sleeves - yuck!

I've got the sewing bug now, so I'm going to try to make a pattern from a dress I do like and which seems very easy. The operative word there is "seems" - I'm sure this could easily break my head. Fingers crossed, though, that it will really easy and super-cute and I'll create an entire new spring/summer wardrobe in a matter of hours. Uh, yeah.

And, no, there will never be a picture of the test dress.

Could it please be springtime now?

2008-02-20T16:20:00.005Z

I know a fair number of my posts contain some sort of complaint about the weather, but I gotta say it is seriously getting me down! We have had a lot of fair, sunny days lately, so it could definitely be worse. There are beautiful daffodils in the back garden, which I can see from the kitchen window and thus enjoy without having to go outside. And we've cranked the heat up so that our flat is generally warm as an oven. But I still pretty much feel like hibernating for about 6 weeks. Short of actually sleeping until spring, I've coped by drinking lots of tea (I switch to decaf in the evening or my kidneys would fall out), curling up on the sofa under my beloved brown blanket (with Matthew whenever possible), eating something hot and/or spicy and watching TV. Lots of TV.

(An aside: We're having an ongoing debate at the moment about DVDs that Matthew got for his birthday, The Office: An American Workplace, and The Flight of the Conchords. They are both really funny sitcoms and we whizzed through the first DVD of each very quickly. Neither of us wants them to be over, but he is putting off watching any more as long as possible, while I think we could watch maybe 2 episodes a night and still draw out the fun. So far, he counters my suggestion whenever it comes up by distracting me with other shows, usually Skins (trashy teenage soap to which I am strangely, guiltily and utterly age-inappropriately attracted) or Scrubs.)

Anyway, I can't seem to get much done these days, apart from the aforementioned tea-drinking and sofa-sitting, but if I did have any energy or get-up-and-go, I wish I were doing things like this:

- cute dolls, stuffed things and embroidery like Wee Wonderfuls.

- pretty much everything Angry Chicken does. I hope I'm as cool as her when I grow up.

- making a really cool, intensely detailed dollhouse. Possibly not for children, just for me.

- doing vintage pattern embroidery on everything I own. I've never done much embroidery but I love love love the way it looks. Instead, I usually try to coerce my sister (who has given me beautiful cross-stitched presents in the past) into making something for me. See how I just tried to flatter her into doing more right there? I don't know why I think she will have time (with a full time job and a baby) when I don't (with no job and two very self-sufficient cats), but maybe she'll make the time.

- all the other projects of my own that I've been putting off (re-doing the chair, painting the shelves that Matthew is (slowly) hanging in the bedroom, finishing a "test" dress I started with a new pattern, making the summer dress I planned for last summer, reading all the books I got for Christmas, etc, etc)!

I am SO looking forward to spring - I imagine I will have boundless energy and will do EVERYTHING on my list and more.

It could happen.

Mid-February Food Fest

2008-02-17T19:22:00.003Z

Darn that groundhog! Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter and apparently that applies to England too, 'cause although the sun is shining, it is COLD around here these days. This is seriously discouraging me from leaving the house and seriously encouraging me to cook and bake like crazy. In fact, the only time I really want to leave the house is to get ingredients for my next food item. Fortunately, there is a grocery store across the street from our flat that seems that have everything I could possibly want. I have honestly never not been able to find something there, except a full-size canister of Cheese and Onion Pringles. For some reason, they only have the fun size. And they don't have fresh meat - but they do carry free-range eggs and three different types of olive by weight. Anyway, I'm cooking because a) it cheers me up to make nice things for Matthew (and me) to eat, and b) the oven makes the kitchen all toasty and warm!

Lately I've made:
banana bread
spinach lasagna
brownies
burritos in a bowl (a name I made up for rice, black beans, taco-spiced chicken, guacamole, salsa and cheese - essentially nachos over rice instead of tortilla chips)
a couple of full English breakfasts (sausages, scrambled eggs, toast, grilled tomatoes)
jambalaya
more brownies

We've had jambalaya several times in the last couple of weeks because I still have celery left over from the first batch and we don't eat it in or with anything else. I tried to get Matthew to eat it with hummus or peanut butter, but he wouldn't go for it. Even though we still have plenty left, I think we're reaching the end of the current jambalaya cycle. Matthew has requested more Mexican food, so that will probably be the next thing we get into. For some reason, nachos seem like warm weather food to me, so we'll probably have quesadillas and more of my "burritos in a bowl". Then I'm sure it will be back to curry and possibly soups or stews. I'm also debating whether to make a chocolate pound cake or another "birthday" style cake this week. I've decided we're just going to have to keep chocolate in the house constantly until it warms up. I just hope spring gets here before I weigh 300 pounds...

Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T17:27:00.004Z

Love is all around, etc. and we’re celebrating in our own way. We aren’t having a traditional date night with dinner and dressing up, as Matthew is working tonight. Last night we exchanged cards, had a lovely dinner of lasagna, champagne and chocolate truffles while watching not one, but two episodes of Torchwood, the Dr Who spin-off series. This afternoon we went to a matinee of Cloverfield, which is not a traditionally romantic movie, but we did clutch at each other several times in terror. Matthew gave me a sweet little bouquet of roses. Tonight I am sending him to work with a dinner of leftover lasagna and heart-shaped brownies, while I’ll stay home and watch TV.

Here are pictures of the cards we exchanged. Obviously, we went in different directions for expressing our feelings:

I made the brownies from another Hershey's recipe. Super easy and quick, and I think they turned out to be quite cute. I ate the off-cuts, so I already know they're very tasty.

The Great Chair Project

2008-02-12T15:32:00.000Z

Last year around the time we bought our flat, I became obsessed with furniture and spent untold hours poring over magazines, catalogues, decorating books and the internet. (To be honest, I haven’t completely stopped, just cut back.) I have a little notebook full of sketches, clippings and “inspiration” pictures to show for it. At one point, I developed a short-lived (and as yet unfulfilled) thing for cuckoo clocks. Another sub-obsession involved the hunt for a chair that I was convinced we needed for our new living room. I ended up with a Barcelona chair, which now resides in the bedroom as there is no room for it in the living room. Apparently my homemade floorplan wasn’t as precise as I thought…

Anyway, during my research, I ran across Jimmie Martin and became very interested in this chair:

More precisely, I became interested in copying it. We have a large Jamie Reid "God Save the Queen" print (in red, green, black and yellow) over our fireplace and solid red and black sofas. I thought with Union Jack throw cushions in different colourways and that chair, we could get a sort of mod/punk/Cool Britannia vibe going. However, space (and lack of a chair) did not allow.

Well, now I have a chair. I spotted two of them sitting outside a house up the street from ours, surrounded by bags of rubbish. This made me think they were being thrown out, but instead of being out by the road, they were right up against the house (where frat boys would keep a yard couch). After about a week of scoping it out, I got Matthew to come with me and we got/stole/acquired/liberated one of the chairs. I set it in our conservatory next to the radiator to dry out and sprayed it with Febreeze. I also checked out a book on re-upholstering from the library. That’s about as far as I’ve got so far.

My plan is to remove the existing upholstery and save it to make patterns for new pieces, sand the frame and paint it glossy black, then re-upholster with black canvas and new silver tacks. The back will be appliquéd with black and white stripes to form the Union Jack. Then it will go in Matthew’s studio, where he can sit in it while surveying his record collection.

Aside: The more I thought about it, the more I wanted a chair to re-do for myself (probably a la Squint but a bit calmer). Unfortunately (or not, depending on whether you are an easily excitable prospective re-upholsterer or the person who lives with her) by the time I went back for the other chair with our friend Colleen, it was gone, along with all the rubbish and recycling that had piled up around it. We found some other chairs in another yard and a sofa that looked to be in pretty good condition but didn’t drag anything home. Such is the nature of scavenging…

So, any bets on how long it will take me to finish this project?

Fire!

2008-02-11T14:50:00.000Z

As you may or may not be aware, there was a huge fire Saturday night in Camden, north London. It was apparently pretty massive but did not result in, as a headline I saw yesterday suggested, “extensive damage in the capital.” I mean, there is extensive damage, but it was pretty much confined to the Camden Canal Market area and one pub.

We were in Camden Saturday night for a birthday party and noticed that several streets were blocked off and there seemed to be a huge plume of smoke hanging in the sky, but we just joked that maybe the TV studio where Matthew works was on fire. When we got home, we checked the internet and found that the fire was directly across the canal from their building and the place was evacuated for almost 12 hours!

There are currently proposals afoot to redevelop part of the Camden Markets (the Stables), which have provoked quite a lot of discussion about what people want Camden to be like. It is a huge shopping and tourist destination – 300,000 people go there every weekend – so developers are keen to take advantage of that, clean it up, put in more and better shops (read: high street chains), and generally make loads of money. The other side of the argument that while Camden could use a little cleaning up (or a lot), that’s part of its charm and redevelopment would only contribute to the homogenization of London. I’m against it because 1) the stalls in the Stables specialize in vintage/second hand clothes and every couple of months I like to spend a day digging through the racks looking for treasure, and 2) I think it’s nice that there are still some places that aren’t exactly like every other place. My friend Florian pointed out what a coincidence it would be if an area being considered for redevelopment should be hit by a fire that wiped out the existing businesses; I found this idea intriguing (ooh, conspiracy theory!) but it turns out that an entirely different part of the market was damaged, leaving the Stables unscathed. However, the Hawley Arms pub was severely damaged (and may have even been where the fire started in the first place). This is Amy Winehouse’s favorite pub, so I don’t know what she’ll do when she gets out of rehab…

Sunday evening we were back in that neck of the woods for the Nitty Gritty, a monthly club hosted by a friend of my friend Virginia. The music was great and there was a good mix of people (different ages and styles) all dancing and having a fantastic time. It turns out I can totally dance to soul music. Well, I have the right rhythm, if not the moves, but that's a start. Ideally, I'd like to just do the twist (as my "signature" move), but I'm not good enough at it yet. Must practice in front of the mirror more! Anyway, we really liked the Nitty Gritty and have determined to go back every month. The pub was cool, too, and I'm considering dragging Matthew back for the folk music they have every second Thursday.

We also got a flier for another event next weekend. Matthew will be working, but I might go if I can get a cool enough outfit together. I might have to make a dress - or fall back on my 60's go-to piece, the houndstooth pencil skirt. It looks very mod with a black jumper, black tight, and my new going-out shoes, which are Hushpuppy pumps that I got as hand-me-downs from my grandma. Some might consider giving this much thought to clothes as focussing on the superficial (some people like Matthew, for instance), but the patterned tights on the flier make me think this is one of those nights where dressing up is half the fun.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2008-02-07T20:39:00.000Z

I’ve been seeing lots of stuff on the web and around town (the big celebration in London is this Sunday):

V&A Chinese Horoscope

HP craft ideas

All of this is making me very excited about my ideas for a Chinese Christmas – not the “white elephant” gift exchange, but the theme I’ve chosen for Xmas ’08. So far, I’ve got red and gold baubles, paper dragons and some little red velvet lanterns. I’m hoping to head to Chinatown next week to pick up more decorations, possibly a garland of some kind. There are loads of educations sites with classroom craft ideas, so I'm also going to see if I can adapt some for Christmas ornaments and decorations.

Salmon Croquettes

2008-02-05T20:43:00.000Z

We used to have salmon croquettes fairly often when I was a kid. I think the original recipe came from my Grandmother Mark. This version is from Real Simple. I have a distinct impression of making it in my apartment in Denton, so it probably appeared between 2000 and 2002.

2 cans salmon
1 egg
¼ C mayonnaise
tarragon
capers to taste
cracker crumbs

Mix salmon, egg, mayo, tarragon and capers. Form into cakes, coat with cracker crumbs, and fry until golden brown.

These are great with wild rice and asparagus, or as you can see I have had tonight, brown rice and broccoli. Essentially, something starchy and something green.

Speaking of Real Simple: there are many things about that magazine that irritate me, but the biggest annoyance has to be the title. I get that it is supposed to be “Real” life made “Simple,” but it’s also supposed to imply that it’s real(ly) simple. The grammatical contortion is giving me hives!

2008-02-04T13:34:00.000Z

So, the other day I saw Louis Theroux in John Lewis. I was there looking for picture frames, but that's a story for another post. He was pretty scruffy (or at least noticeably unshaven) but really quite attractive. He wasn’t nearly as tall as I’d expected, though. He is easily over 6’ tall, but not conspicuously taller than your average shopper. I've just looked at IMDB, which reports that he is 6'2", but it also says that Dara O'Briain is 6'4". I’ve seen him in person (twice) and he is genuinely enormous! Can two inches make that much difference? Or is it context? I saw one in a department store, where one expects to see normal, everyday people doing everyday things, and I saw the other on stage being almost supernaturally funny.

I did notice that Louis was buying a bathroom scale, perhaps to see how much weigh he lost through his recently televised liposuction. Or maybe his old one broke. I don’t know and, although I did lurk around pretending to look at wallpaper books so as to get a better look at him, I didn't ask.

Matthew's birthday

2008-02-04T00:51:00.000Z

26th January was Matthew’s birthday and, as is our custom, we indulged in prolonged celebrations:

- Thursday: In a low key start to the weekend, we had fish and chips from Michael’s High Class Fish Bar (which is so much more fun to call by its full name than just saying “the chippy”) and watched the Dr Who Christmas special, which we’d missed due to being in Texas over Christmas. We both agreed with conventional wisdom that special guest star Kylie Minogue is indeed very, very tiny, but noted that her teeth are actually quite large. It creates a weird spatial tension on her head.

- Friday: fish ‘n chips and Dr Who might have been enough for some people, but not for party animals like us. We had a party on Friday night with a proper birthday cake (made from Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe) with candles and everything. It looked something like this lovely cake by Amy Sedaris, except made of cake instead of plaster of paris.

I decided not to embarrass anyone by actually putting a candle for every year (and the cost of that many tiny candles would have been prohibitive anyway), but used some very cute ones spelling out “Happy Birthday” from Gill Wing. I was disappointed that they melted really quickly, considering that they came from a fancy gift shop, and dripped before I’d even got them all lit. Fortunately, Matthew didn’t wait for the end of the Birthday Song to blow them out, so wax drip damage was minimal. It did not deter the greedy pigs, I mean, our dear friends from digging in with abandon.

Since the party was on 25th January, otherwise known as Burns Night, I made Scottish-themed nibbles. I baked pearl potatoes in the oven, then stuffed them with haggis (regular and "vegetarian," which actually just looked like all other veggie fake foods - lentils, shredded carrot and some onion), and served chunks of brown bread with smoked salmon and mackerel . At the last minute I freaked out that there wouldn't be enough food, so Matthew was dispatched to the shop across the street for pita, hummus, taramasalata , olives, etc. The foods aren't indigenous to Scotland, but I'm sure they would not feel out of place at a party in Scotland. My friend Adrienne brought chips and more dips, so there was enough - though apparently just barely, since there were almost no leftovers for us to snack on during the tidy-up.

- Saturday: Matthew’s mate Steve came to visit from Plymouth and we all dressed up and went dancing at Set the Tone, a ska/reggae/60’s soul night. We looked so good and had such a good time that we’ve decided to another ska night in a couple of weeks; we’re considering making it our new “thing.” I had several outfits planned out by the time we got home. The only real problem is that I cannot dance to ska music. Matthew explained that the emphasis in ska music is on the 2 and 4 beats, while I am dancing on the 1 and 3. So it's not that I don't have rhythm; I've just got the wrong one.

Lavender Sachets

2008-02-04T00:14:00.000Z

I finally caught up with my former co-workers Jo, Adrienne and Tammy and gave them their Christmas presents. I quit my job just before Christmas and then spent 19 Dec – 8 Jan in Texas visiting family, so between training my replacements (my job being so difficult and busy that it took two people to replace me), comforting all the co-workers who were devastated at the prospect of not seeing me every day, packing, facing an early deadline for purchasing all family gifts AND hosting a Pre-Christmas Dinner and Gift Exchange for my UK family, I wasn’t able to concentrate enough to make their gifts. I fell back on the tried-and-true lavender sachet, in cute little sets of three. I also made a set for a (very late) birthday present for my friend Virginia. They seemed to go over very well, though in hindsight I probably should have presented them after dinner as they are very fragrant and so our entire dinner smelled vaguely lavender-y. Which was weird for pizza…

The Garden

2008-02-02T13:24:00.000Z

It's cold and a little bit miserable in London at the moment. I realise it's pretty feeble to complain about it being a little chilly when much of the country is snowed in, but I have come to expect London to have better (or at least warmer) weather than the rest of the country. I feel it's our compensation for being targeted by terrorists and the fact that every public space is insanely overcrowded. If I had a car, I would probably add the congestion charge to that list of moans.

Anyway, despite the fact that it's cold and grey, I took these photos in our back garden yesterday. Practically cheerful and springlike, huh?

2008-02-01T17:49:00.000Z

I was charmed to learn that:

"Aircraft carrier Charmland is a former Soviet aircraft carrier produced in 1970, it was parked in Tianjing since it retired in 1994 as a tourist attraction."

My only experience with naval vessels is a visit to the Battleship Texas as a child (very big, quite boat-y, someone spilled Pepsi on my shoe), but to me the Battleship Charmland sounds like it could be the flag ship of the Royal Sanrio Navy. Under the command of Admiral Badtz Maru, perhaps.

Joining the Blogpool

2008-02-01T13:17:00.001Z

So, my New Year resolution was "to use the power of the internet to keep in closer touch with my family and friends." Initially, this was just a fancy way to say that I would e-mail my mom more often, but it quickly grew and expanded and got almost totally out of hand (as so many of my plans do) and now means using the power of the internet to let the whole world know what I'm up to, via a blog. Sadly, this will likely often be something along the lines of: Still not working. Did a bit of embroidery. Made jambalaya for dinner! See picture (either of said embroidery, jambalaya or me not working).

So let's see how that works out, shall we?

My first task was of course to name the blog. This turned out to be a bit harder than I'd imagined. My three choices were taken by people who, really, I have to consider timewasters. Well, two of them haven't posted anything since 2005, so that's no good. My third choice was City Mouse/Country Mouse, intended to reflect the fact that while I now live in a big city (London), I grew up in and continue to have close ties to the country (Texas). However, this title is used by a person who puts out different types of food to see if mice will eat them. Which is kind of brilliant, yet also sort of insane.

And so, it's Charmland. It puts me in mind of Santaland, Candyland, Tomorrowland and other themed fantasy locations that you believe could really exist when you're a kid. And, while you might not want to live in those places, I think we can all agree they would probably be nice to visit.