is it just me

or does it seem less than satisfactory when a hospital consultant tells you to go home and find out how to get better by surfing the internet?

first day back...

...at work after 2 weeks off.

A pleasant evening with rocket dog shoe-wearing friend round to see greyhound wannabe rocket dog, Monty.

Minime has first day at upper school tomorrow which pretty much freaks me out as it doesn't seem that long since it was my first day at upper school. My form room was the metal work room so it was smelly and there was nowhere to sit. I'm sure minime will get a better deal tomorrow!

Beautiful south

A couple of pleasant days in Bournemouth,

trying to get a weeks worth of sea & sun into

a couple of afternoons!

Got to swim in the sea,

run crazy round on the sandy with loopy lurcher here

& write embarrassing messages in the sand about mini me

liking barbie dolls. Ha ha ha. Such an easy wind up!!!

Had an amusing moment in a shop where i picked up the vilest looking

hair accessory, stuck it in my hair and went up to my sister in law to make her laugh. 'It really suits you' she says. 'Oh thanks a lot!' I reply, bothered that the pinkest, featheryest, ribboniest thing in the shop "suits me". Then I look in the mirror. The damn thing looks great. I end up buying it!

Don't mention the (war) garden.

Still nothing done and the place looks like a WWI reenactment. The mortar was runny (day 1), runny (day 2) and a 2 tonne brick (day 3). Patience an increasingly rare commodity round these parts.

It's a dog-eat-chocolate-drop world

today I took Monty out for a long walk and watched him outrace every other hound at the marina. I also spent a long time lavishing him with attention. Chocolate drops seems to be the way forward for housetraining purposes.

After the horrifying discovery that our son had never heard of the A-team, despite our repeated and frankly tiresome prompts with the theme music, we borrowed some old editions from a mate and gave the boy an education.

The building work in the garden did not take place as planned today because the mortar was too runny and will have to wait til tomorrow.

minx!

Monty went a.w.o.l this morning after *someone* accidentally left the front door open. 2 hours later we got him back. grief! live and learn eh?

New family member!

Introducing MONTY!!

We picked up this beautiful lurcher X from a rescue home

today. With more bounce than the average hound, Monty is

part of our family now :)

His foster home thought he may be crossed with Pharaoh's Hound -->

but he definitely has lurcher lines to him -->

So far he seems very friendly, very quiet but very bouncy!

Had a fun trip out to a local maze. Small but still very
easy to get completely lost in!

Of course, smarty pants here gets to the middle first
and has to give me directions!


In the afternoon I loitered round the Reclamation Yard in
the hope of happening across a lost national treasure. This
monstrosity made for an interesting second best.

Am now sated on the fruits of someone else's hard work; rhubarb
crumble from the allotment. Cheers JJ.

Yah boo

This is where we ain't going...

...cos Mr K is too ill to travel.

Waaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

Due to go away the day after tomorrow but another
sudden hospital trip last night meant I had to cancel.

not to mention

...drinking til the smlal hours and cylcing hoem ina perambulatryo fashion. hee hee hee

what are friends for...

...if not to dig trenches in your back garden for wall footings, painting brickwork and mixing up concrete?

hurrah to the nice people i know. whenever you want the favour returning be sure to ring. there are a number of excellent building companies in this town. calls here are to be restricted to demands for dinners, drinks, nights out and heart to hearts. anything manual or technical is someone else's domain. which is why we asked you round today, duh!

So thanks for making my garden looks like a bomb site. Give it a month and I'll have a grin like the proverbial Cheshire Cat.

"Was it good for you? Read my blog."

awol in norfolk

this week, mini-me is away with grandparents. i miss the lil blighter.

twisted fire starter

should have posted this a few days ago.
just as impressive now though!

bright city lights

There's something loveable about these cranky old lights in
the storm porch of a Fleet Street shop.

Had a day in London for my fast track course so it seemed
reasonable to take a picture of tracks.

fresh raspberries

my parents are pretty cool folks. they sent me home with fresh raspberries, apples and rhubarb.
Not a show stopping entry tonight but a kind of online knowing smile, nod and happy sigh.

comp

What do all these words have in common?

PROFILE
BOILIE
POD
WAGGLER
CAT
P.B
SNOT
COMMON

Big, big prizes not up for grabs!!

london evening

After a day of no natural light and hours of meetings it was time to step out into loveable London. Man, I love this place. Drinks at The Cock where the bar has these groovy little swinging windows that you speak through to place your order and tables outside just made for booksellers to sit round and word process the day. Then a short step down to Soho Square, arriving just as the bells struck six to meet my good friend Joe. Drinks in the George Orwell bar and more discussions of Swedish playwrights and personal attempts at creativity and tardiness. Dinner and more drinks at the I.C.A with many fascinating questions each way about our characters, fictional and otherwise. Midnight came too quickly.

hang man

" A / L I T T L E / L E A R N I N G / I S / A / D A N G E R O U S / T H I N G;

D R I N K / D E E P / O R / T A S T E / N O T / T H E / P I E R I A N / S P R I N G:

T H E R E / S H A L L O W / D R A U G H T S / I N T O X I C A T E / T H E / B R A I N

A N D / D R I N K I N G / L A R G E L Y / S O B E R S / U S / A G A I N . "

ying yang

In contrast to yesterday, today I did not have a man breathing fire in my back garden. In fact, I sat in an office all day typing numbers into a computer and spending virtual money on thousands of books. Not a bad way to spend a day but somewhat less memorable than swirling firebrands.

I did have very good African Peanut Soup for lunch though.

And I'm spending tomorrow night swinging round Soho.

Mustn't grumble.

Is that ying yang or karma? Or swings and roundabouts?

dragonian measures

Today I had a man eating fire in my back garden. Weird huh? What's more, he kept doing it over and over, drinking white spirits, fire breathing and generally being my mate P, all round crazy man who jumps out of planes and takes impromptu trips to venezuela and the arctic circle when he isn't dicing with death. Or a burnt face at least.

The best we could offer in return was an afternoon kiting. With no wind. And too many glasses of wine and hunks of home made carrot cake.

As soon as this stupid thing allows me to put photos up again, I'll show you the type of insanity that visits me from time to time.

thspeeking funny

...my dentist.

Just had my head excavated and didn't feel a thing. The echoing has stopped at last. Have had more pain from getting my nails done or going to the hairdressers than I did having a drill in my head spitting out enamel across the surgery floor.

and then there were 3

whittled our dinner party down to three and had fun at the pub after writing beer mat postcards. Something I initiated and hadn't done since the olden days when i were a lass.

Can't beat an evening that starts discussing slug psychology and ends with promises of more fine dining with best mates.

this blog entry comes with uncharacteristic sentimental hugs for all the people i know who are the stuff of happily anticipated evenings and days out.

very full...cant'move....must....stop

It was a modest little 6 course affair and my guests actually turned down the 4th . Can you believe that?

First course - avocado crisps, chilli crisps, olives, hummus and cucumber dip.

Second course - Stuffed vine leaves with hot tomato sauce and falafels.

Third course - Spanakopita, tabbouleh and mixed bean salad.

Fourth course - Marrakesh vegetable curry, filo tarts with pine nuts and Iranian rice.

Fifth course - Strawberries, raspberries, vanilla bean Green & Blacks ice-cream with single cream and creme fraiche.

Sixth course - tea, coffee and a slab of white and milk chocolate swirl with dried raspberries from Hotel Chocolat.

Various wines.

Celebrating nothing other than having good friends we want to spoil with good food and punish with our company.

ick

i stood on a slug in only my socks. brrrrr

reading again

after spending weeks on, the promising yet ultimately unfulfilling not to mention downright dull, dante club, i am 2/3 of the way through something i only picked up today. 'Strangers' by Yamada. Spooky as hell, jittery and unnerving. What fun!

So I made it!! 30 degrees out and further than i've run before.
I made £266 pounds for Cancer Research so it's well worth the effort.
The first 4k were easy enough but the last kilometre was a killer. Felt
pretty nauseous and done in by then. I just kept thinking I could never
face having to say 'I ran most of the way' so I kept going. The picture is
of me at 3.5k feeling pretty confident...by the end of the road I was wondering
where I was and what would happen if I collapsed. Quite a day!

HP6

back in from a 6:30 a.m start at work having comprehensively out reserved the competitors and refused to drop to their levels of (unsuccessful) queue pinching at midnight. made lots of kiddos and i'll-have-read-it-by-tomorrow adults happy.

i think i'm going to curl up in the corner for the rest of the weekend and sleep. on second thoughts, i think i'll do a 5k run.

i got it :)

well that was fun

Nice evening out with friends, new and new but seem like old.

Drinks at nice pub, chat, laugh, drink, slur, giggle, drink, interesting urinals, drink, strange foam tandoori pigeon poo on the wall, laugh, drink, not nice pub, rude people, swig, stagger, lurch, laugh, drunken heart to hearts, drink, slump, laugh, pizza, talk, where did dil go, taxi, noyoucantwalkmehome, slate very late, roundandroundaroundabout, dizzy, nothisroadnotthatone, hereyeshere, thank you, hello, dirty stop out, giggle, yeah well, all black, mmmm.

070705

What can anyone say after a day like today?

I'm glad to report that both of my brothers who were on duty in London today are well. One of them was very close to the scene and heard some pretty grim things from colleagues who had been down in the tunnel.

I hope everyone you know in London was safe.

yum

why are all my friends veggie when i start discovering amazing dishes with meat in and i can't share them?!

chorizo soup with chick peas and spinach, garlic, tomatoes, onions etc. spicy and tasty. three cheers for jamie oliver and tupperware boxes.

humph

feeling grouchy that i can't make saturday 16th festivities with mates in london because of running the next day but it's all for a good cause and i'd only be drinking, laughing, flirting and having an absolute blast if i was out in the capital for the night. who would choose london night life when you can stay in the provinces and torture yourself by running with several thousand other people in front of half the town who'll be out to point and laugh. just at me.

lbs

2 weeks til my 'race for life', i keep running and yet....i weigh more than i did when i started. no-one gimme that stuff about muscle weighing more. yadda yadda yadda. it's marks and sparks cheese scones but i can't live without them.

999

Am having quite a week with the emergency services.

On Sunday I had a phone conversation with my son that went something like this.

'Hi Mum, can you come and pick me up?'
'Well no, you're on your bike. You can cycle home.'
'Well, you're going to have to really.'
'Why?'
'I have to go down to the police station to make a statement.'

Of course it was a conversation milked for it's last drop of drama by mini-me, so full points there. Actually some brattish thug had pushed him off his bike, ridden off with it, jumped up and down on it for a bit then noticed a police car hurtling across the grass and wondered if there might be a connection. Anyway, he was arrested and we have the bike back. Two buckled wheels and a knackered derailleur.

Tonight, it was hospital for Mr Kumquat. Heavy duty painkillers and a dose of anit-emetics later and he's sleeping off a nightmare migrane. You know the sort where you spend most of the evening making sypathetic noises and emptying buckets of puke.

Don't anyone let me near matches tomorrow.

leaving. again.

another leaving 'do' back with the old branch chums. yes, the leaving do that they had that was a joint one with mine but ... they get another one. hmmm. sounds good to me! lovely chinese meal out and driving home in the incredible thunder and lightning.
coffee back chez nous with all the lights out and the french windows open watching the spectacle.

You've been blogged!

Last night we had a splendid nosh up chez Jamie Oliver's restaurant "15". Fabulous food, very good service and reasonably priced considering it was central London and has a big name attached to the place. Jamie failed to put in an appearance but the wine was so good we might not have noticed if he'd been the girl serving extra bread!

After the meal we staggered out, feeling excessively full, and headed into Islington to add decandence to indulgence. We sat for a long time at the organic bar putting the world to rights.

Heading back down into the underground we watched, with bemused horror, a young man lose his step on the escalator, twist 90 degrees, fall down several unforgiving metal steps and grind to a halt, legs showing ten to two. He said 'Ouch' in a overly controlled manner which made the whole episode absolutely hilarious. Gallant Mr Kumquat ran to see if he was ok but once he had dusted himself off and scuttled round the corner to hide his embarrassment, we all fell about.

Got home some time after 2. Great evening out. Must do more of this kind of thing.

visit

a good mate wandered past work today which was a complete surprise now i'm 20 miles away from home. as usual i was standing with a furrowed brow and a piece of paper.

still ploughing through 'the dante club'. the writing is not great and the characters are rather dull and 2d but a couple of people have been murdered so i'll keep reading it just to find out whodunnit.

bought up a stack of penguin 70's yesterday and lined them up on a kitchen shelf so i can read while i cook. i anticipate the quality of our meals plummeting.

and now i'm off for two days in a row (gasp) with exciting plans for tomorrow evening, two friends, a large amount of money and the vain hope of seeing a celebrity with only the hope of copious amounts of alcohol to keep our spirits up.

join us, after the break.

under the stars

So hot last night I camped out under the stars in the back garden in a sleeping bag on a bed chair. Brilliant!

nb

it's hot.
i've discovered t'chai latte.
i have an interview on monday.
it's very hot.
i watched batman begins this evening.
i have a party to go to tomorrow.
que calor!

kumquat's blog

not a great deal to report. working at the new job and liking it enormously.

running whenever i can to train for my 5K. can regularly run about 2/3 of that so shouldn't be tooo much trouble on the day to keep going a bit further.

rip van winkle

last night i slept for 11 1/2 hours, woke up exhausted, dragged myself through the day only to collapse asleep on the sofa for at least an hour this afternoon.

phone call

i have just had the weirdest call ever!

we get inundated with calls from people trying to sell us new kitchens and double glazing but today was a call unlike any other.

the girl said what sounded like 'hello is that miss ***?',
'yes.',
'do you love me? i'd like to let you know that your house has been selected as a possible trial home for a new kitchen. can i ask you how old your kitchen is?'

i thought i MUST have heard wrong so i gave my usual line;

'thank you but i don't want to pursue this.'

to which she replied;

'yes but do you love me?'

i asked who was calling and she said something like never mind and hung up.

has anyone else had this???? does this person know me do you think? she sounded really quiet and upset, not like someone doing it for a dare. weird huh?

this week

new job fab.

hayfever reducing me to a self pitying wreck outside of air-conditioned rooms.

day 5

Visited the Secession building which is about 2 minutes from our apartment. Really beautiful place done in what the non art student would recognise as art nouveau but is in fact, Secession! There was a pile of tat on the first floor that made me feel middle aged and grouchy. Call this art? There was a muddy puddle, for instance. How many puddles do you think they created before the artist cried out with relief 'yes, YES, this is the definitive muddy puddle, my life has been building to this moment of clarity'? There was also a video of a girl riding a bike backwards and a squashed ant on top of a Conan Doyle novel. Thankfully, the Beethoven Frieze was downstairs to make up for the fraudulent trash upstairs. Klimt is my favourite artist and Ive wanted to see his stuff for a long time. I got to see some in Venice last year but Vienna has the bulk of it because he was based here and it was from here that the whole fin de siecle thing began and ended. So I was blown away by the Beethoven Freize and felt awful knowing that as I left I may never get to see it again.
After that we went to the Leopold Museum where we saw lots more Klimt and Scheiler too. Some of the Scheiler was great but generally you could see why the police busted his house and chucked him in prison for having young girls visiting. Who knows the truth.
In the afternoon we wandered round and happened across the Town Hall and got escorted off the premises of the Leichenstein Palace. Long story.
After eating, we went to the cinema at 10:55pm to see The Third Man. It was superb. A first for me and it was so interesting to see Vienna at war and of course anything taken from a Greene novel is a delight.

day 4

another 'what a day' day.

took the 930 train back from budapest and met up with a really interesting retired guy living in lichenstein. talked about a load of cool things hes got up to in the past... herding cattle in wyoming on horseback, skiing marathons in st moritz etc... Got off the train in vienna and had a drink with him for half an hour or so while he waited for a train to switzerland.
in the afternoon we made good from having spent a night without toothbrushes and deodorant!
Shopped again in the afternoon at the huge food market for our dinner.
This evening we went to the Vienna opera to see Verdi`s Don Carlos! Stunning. Of course it was wonderful quality but the coolest thing happened in the middle. We went for the first interval and there was a woman wandering round with a microphone so wherever you were in the building you could hear her. There were cameramen following her and projecting what she was saying onto a huge screen in the foyer. She was announcing the arrival of King Phillip and other members of the cast due to appear in the second half. The camera also scoured the audience having their drinks and watching the screen and chatting among themselves so we looked like extras in the opera waiting for the king to arrive! Then I noticed on the screen that the cast was back on stage so I ran over to look out of one of the boxes (not our seats!!) to see what was going on. Half of the act 2 scene I was taking place on stage and the rest was taking place in different places over the building. Wherever you were you could follow the story. Suddenly a gang of policemen were storming through the bar with a group of prisoners in chains! I was running from the box to the bar and back to try and work it all out!! If you didnt see it first hand it was on the screens. Finally the king and his entourage walked through everybody slowly gathering in the main auditorium surrounded by journalists with flashes going off everwhere. It was a real spectacle.
We came home on a real high, ate my seared tuna steaks in mustard marinade with avocado and lemongrass salad and drank coffee.

day 3 cont'd/...

As you will have gathered, we took a train to Hungary yesterday. Budapest is a really beautiful city. Its made up of two parts. Buda, and yes you guessed it, Pest, with the Danube flowing through the middle. We spent most of our time on the Buda half seeing the Fishermans Bastion, the Church of our Lady (which was like no other church i have ever seen. breathtaking) and the national art gallery.
Dinner was in Pest and I think I would have travelled to Hungary just for this restaurant. We were given free starters of bread with apple pickle, dijon wholegrain mustard and piquant tomato sauce for starters. I had a beef tagine with vegetables in an amazing sauce. The meat was perfectly tender and the sauce was rich with a touch of sweetness. The couscous was amazingly light. Margaret had smoked chicken with honied pineapple and it was really tasty too. I had chocolate soup for dessert which I had never tried before and I could taste cinnamon and cardamon in there. Plus it came with fresh strawberries. Margaret had dark chocolate souffle with candied orange, morello cherry compote and ice cream. The souffle was so light really, you could hardly feel it in your mouth.
As you can see, Budapest is a city to visit!
We missed our return train by ten minutes so had to find accommodation. We stayed in a nice little apartment 15 minutes from the station rented by this older guy who told us about his daughter in Florida and showed us pictures of her winning tennis competitions! Quite an adventure.
Before bed we drank at a jazz bar and decided we were glad to have missed our train back to Western Europe!

day 3

all i am saying at this stage is that i missed the last train back into austria so i am staying overnight in budapest!!

check in tomorrow for further details!!!!!!!!!!!!!

day 2

This morning we went to the Albertina gallery in the hope of catching some Klimt. There were three very simple pieces of his there but a host of other interesting artists including Bonnard, Picasso, Rembrandt, Monet, Mondriaan and Fuselli. My favourite piece was the Fuselli called something like A Shepherds Dream (?). Very much like some of Blakes illustrations. Interestingly there was also a painting by Victor Hugo. It wasnt so great but I never knew he painted.
Schnitzel for dinner set us going for an afternoon of walking around the Hofburg complex. After half an hour of looking at case after case of King someone or others cutlery, I was beginning to wonder why Id paid E9.50 to admire his silverware. Thankfully we moved on and saw some very cool art in the Imperial Apartments next to the Spanish Riding School.
After a foray into the cultural experience that is apfelstrudel, we took the ´scenic route´to the main train station to buy tickets for our trip tomorrow. Youll have to check in tomorrow to see what we have planned!
This evening I made a pretty good salad to go with our pizza and an unidentified baking object is in the oven. It looks like it might have chocolate in the middle but we may yet be eating minced beef patties for pudding.

wien

so my apartment has free internet access. life is sweet.

sat on the tarmac at heathrow for an hour which was a delight as you can imagine. of course, the air con had failed at that point and its been pretty much the hottest spell of the year so far. eventually took off and enjoyed turbulence a lot of the way there, but whats hurtling through the air if you dont notice how close you are to death every few minutes, right?

the apartment looked liked a dive from the outside and as finding accomodation was entirely my remit, i was nervous. inside, the place is lovely. really modern and clean, lots of beech wood and with free internet access!

i should say im here with my travel bud, margaret, that i met about 18 months ago on a trip to the states. off the cuff we thought it might be a crack to travel together so last may we spent a week in venice and now here we are in vienna. so although ive only known her for about 2 weeks in total face to face contact time, we will be travelling like this most years i think.

excuse the lack of punctuation, this keyboard is unfathomable.

ä ö ü § ß

so for the first time in weeks, my blog actually has something to say! watch this space for more kumquat adventures!!!

how far?

something distinctly odd happened to me this morning. I woke up early and felt like running. I got up. I ran. Two miles! I didn't feel like tagging on another 24 just to keep up with my marathon running pals but this is the furthest I've run before. Try not to laugh! Here starteth the training for my Race for Life sponsored run.

tarra

So I left.

I got book vouchers and a miniature bottle of champagne. The champagne is still unopened but the vouchers went straight away! I bought Persepolis and Persepolis 2. Graphic novels about Iran. They look great.

The heat is ridiculous and I've promised to make moussaka for two friends to celebrate the new job.
Off to find the cinnamon and turn up Carmen on the c.d player....

Race for Life

I did a silly thing. Agreed to run 5k. Anway, I took the plunge so perhaps you'd like to do the same, only into your wallets! Please sponsor me online to raise money for Cancer Research or I'll flood your email with sob stories about sick children. ha ha ha ha.....

http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/puttingdownmybook

Leaving do was fun. Mini me was down one end of the table entertaining the troops with full scale inter-planetary war complete with horrific bloodshed, staggering casualties and personal tragedies enacted with only his hands and an impressive repetoire of sound effects.
One place round was my best friend (ex colleague) doing her best to encourage him in aforementioned military endeavour whilst getting him to try anchovies and bruschetta.
Three of us are leaving within a month of each other so we had a joint knees up eating far too much, drinking far too much and attempting to scale trees on the way home. Two of our number ended up in the gutter, one had to leave early they were so hammered and for once neither of them were in my immediate family!!
It was great. I should leave work more often.

fool of a touk!

slight oversight on my part re: impending vienna trip. seems i'm a night short at the hotel. and just as i was thinking i was omnipotent.

leaving

looking forward to my joint leaving do at work tomorrow evening. still can't properly compute that i'm moving to another branch and leaving everyone behind. i'm sure they'll negotiate the change effortlessly!!

paris

On the champs elysees, this guy was offering to cut out your silhouette for 2 euros in one minute. We watched for a while, very impressed that all he had was a piece of black paper and a pair of scissors. Then of course we parted with our cash and enjoyed being tourists.

In the Sacre Coeur we sat watching the constant stream of visitors pouring in to stress out the attendant at the door. He made more noise telling everyone to shush and move along than the visitors themselves. Just as we were beginning to be irritated, eight nuns appeared at the front and sang the most amazing, haunting piece. It was a special moment.

At the bar, a German couple couldn't get the waiter to understand that they wanted him to make a recommendation from the menu. Eventually I couldn't stand it any longer and offered to help. They were all smiles and thank yous. It was most gratifying until the waiter, whose linguistic problem clearly wasn't limited to foreign languages, proceeded to translate the menu instead of recommend.

back home

...but only two weeks til Vienna!

the obligatory snap of the eiffel tower.

l'arc de triomphe staircase.

je suis de retour

spent a fab weekend doing this http://www.flickr.com/photos/87781832@N00/

paree

demain je serais a paris, forcement, je ne serais pas ici. essayez-vous de ne pas vous inquieter trop. je suis bientot de retour. si vous voulez une carte-postale, envoyez moi votre address, si vous preferez un cadeau, envoyez moi cinq euros, si vous voulez une vrai surprise donnez moi votre numero de carte et je vous promet de ne jamais t'inquieter plus.

palimp bdo

Well that was a rather splendid day. A couple of token gestures towards art and literature then the rest of the day drinking ourselves garrulous in London pubs. When else can you go out with people called Wav, Col, Gil, Bak & Digger?
Eleven of us from the www.palimpsest.org.uk site met up today. Everyone seemed younger than their avatars suggested and we even enjoyed the disembodied presence of Mr Self via photo messaging.
All agreed after the first three drinks that we were all smashing and special. 'Special' came to mean different things by the end of the day! Some people were 'awww', some 'heeeee' and still others a combination of 'whaa?' and 'yes but i mean why er what .....?'
Roll on the next Big Day Out.

eyeball

Gone are the days of 1-2, 1-2 do you copy, are you up for an eyeball.

Today I'm off to meet up with a bunch of random individuals I only know through a highbrow internet site. If they turn out to be serial killers and I never appear again, let me say now that if I am to perish at the cruel hands of strangers then take comfort from the thought that they were at least well spoken and my last moments were probably taken up discussing literature and art. It's not a bad way to go.

culinary trimuphhhsplat

made the famous african peanut soup this evening followed by the promisingly delicious lemon tart by gordon ramsay. but the lemon didn't set so we ended up having savoury soup then sweet soup. the pastry was good and the lemon sauce ... unconventional but tasty.

this is not a criticism of gordon ramsay. don't sue me. i just can't get his lemon tart to firm up. this also is not a veiled insult to the man.

i ate two pieces as consolation and now i feel rather bloated.

a lemon yellow day.

it takes a girl

Thank goodness I arrived at the boys bonfire and BBQ to take charge. They had the cooking under control but gee whizz, they didn't know how to keep a bonfire going ;)

After a day working without any natural light it's great to sit by a lake in the evening with mates, eating BBQ, gathering sticks from the woods, drinking beer and waiting for the rod tip to move.

today's colour chart

pale blue all day then a dark purple evening.

special mention

special mention to boyf of borrower who bought us a rather splendid indian nosh last night. fanks mate. welcome to the piratha elite.

"which was nice"

seems i have a new job. didn't see that coming a week ago. nothing exciting for the outside blog reader - internal transfer blah blah blah - but a pretty big change for me and rather exciting too.

culkin roadshow

watched 'igby goes down' this evening. granted, i had to suffer it with a settee full of girls talking the whole way through but even so it was a disappointment. got back to read one rave review on amazon. hmm. well, the main character could have had so much more depth. he was an interesting idea but not half as raw as he should of been if they were trying to portray a really rebellious young man. my 13 year old has more attitude than him and we were meant to be convinced he was a drop out from a string of schools and dealt drugs. no he was too preppy by far. the estranged, mentally ill father figure could have been so interesting as well but guess what, they kicked him out after the first scene and shove him in an institute. there's a slight twist at the end when you discover the 'murder' was assisted euthanasia. not really enough to turn it round!

rent something else.

Marsh Arabs

Call me a lightweight but I've never really tried travel writing before and I always feel slightly unnerved when I read non-fiction. For some reason I think I'm going to tire of real life in a way that fiction continues to grip me. Anyway, no need to worry with Wilfred Thesiger. Really good. I haven't finished yet but I am really glad I picked this one up. After seeing his photos at the Natural History Museum in Oxford last week I knew I had to read this book. I suppose he's the last of the explorers. I'm entranced by the way these people build homes from reeds. Not only protection against the elements, as you often see in the 'mut hut' approach to foreign travel, but beautiful structures that look Arabian even though they are essentially a bunch of weeds a la three little pigs. http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mariposa/images/11-Mudhif.jpg These Arabs live in Iraq and, from what I've read so far, seem to be entirely uninfluenced by the outside world. Does anyone know what has happened to these people since Thesiger wrote about them in the 50's?

Kitchen

have just finished 'kitchen' by banana yoshimoto which has a short story, 'moonlight shadow', at the end. They both gave me a similar feeling to Murakami even though the themes were quite different. They are quietly impacting. Not a lot seems to happen but after you've closed the last page you think how that was actually a very touching and enduring read. I would recommend them both but don't expect action.

Small Island

Finished reading the prize-winning Levy novel this evening. By half way I really could not put it down. It's essentially about two couples, one pair black, the other white, whose lives are shaped by the second world war and racial issues. This is not a simplistic colonial read though as each of them have their own barriers to overcome. Their lives draw you into the story and you wish you were able to follow their story beyond the final page. A really well crafted and utterly human story.

I'm away two days and you're bickering already! heh heh
Just had an ace weekend with the people whose wedding we went to in the states a year past christmas. I had met the bride online in a literary discussion group about the writings of Iris Murdoch. We are firm life long friends now I'm sure :) She is not only about to graduate from med school, specialising in neurology but she also retains the most amazing knowledge about everything. We went to Pitts River museum as recommended by borrower, thank you (!), and she had comments on so many exhibits. Oh these are the....did you hear the story about.... I read about this once.... etc. I really have to read more non fiction and get myself an(other) education. Oh and she runs marathons as if being a junior doctor wasn't enough pressure!
In the evening we had a pudding soiree which pretty much was what it says on the can. I made ye famous kumquat special - pear and almond tarte. Also cream teas, trifle, peanut butter cookies courtesy of mini me and drinks-a-plenty. How rare to sit in a room full of eloquent people discussing politics and making social comments in a reasoned manner. Of course I only listened!!
Monday, we went to Oxford as an Iris Murdoch pilgrimage. I bet we are the only ones to yell out on the top of a bus when we saw St. Anne's College! The pub clientelle over there is another breed - bow ties, tank tops and immaculate shirts tucked into chinos. The afternoon was the museum trip which included a "bunch" of natural history. Of course I was thrilled by the heaps of bones and unidentifiable mishmash of curiosities whose labels shed no light but there was a stuffed cheetah in the entrance which i rather took to and he didn't object to being tickled under the chin and rubbed on his belly. Whole lives may be passed over by a careless reader (im) but whole millenia can be passed over in a museum. We saw the photographs of William Thesiger which were stunning. They were about the Marsh Arabs which is also the title of one of his better known travel books. I bought the book today and can't wait to get into it.
One life isn't enough. 5 years of lit study is one thing but now i need some other lives to dedicate one to science, one to art....

News for y'aaall

Having a couple of South Carolinian friends staying for the weekend so here I am at quarter to ten waiting for the sauce to finish cooking to go with the meatballs I prepared earlier before I start on the desserts, the cleaning and the nervous break down.

Last night I went to see my mate's band, Black Ramps, play The Marquee in Leicester Square. They were great, of course.
I met Big Dog again and marvelled at his big girly dancing, the touching moment when I led him to make a link between drunkeness and drink (it was like a light going on) and the routine late night leaping o'er phone box banter. Splendid stuff. How odd to jump over nettles when they don't grow this far south.
Who should be in the audience but Ronny from Eastenders! I had to have him pointed out, as I haven't yet watched an entire episode.
Anonymous, who frequents this site and can occassionally be dubbed 'borrower', was also in attendance and much merriment did we have listening to her stories of previous drunken revellry.
If my memory serves me correctly, the evening concluded with Big Dog promising to buy all the drinks next time we're out.
>winks and points<

classic work days

Customer comes in asking for a book by "Grievous Phinn".
Customer comes in and asks where they can buy first edition Harry Potter.
Customer comes in and asks 'how much is the 3 for 2?'
Customer comes in and stands in the humour section reading jokes out loud to himself and laughing raucously.
Customer comes in and asks about a book for which they do not have the title or author but it's something about a dog.
Customer comes in and asks if we have a list of all the new books.
Customer comes in and asks where the Da Vinci code is. (This is funny on so many levels)
Customer comes in and asks if I'm looking on the shelves for the book he wrote. It's a fictional work yet I'm in the crime section. Oh the irony. You'd think he would know it was a work of fiction. And incidentally no I'm not looking for your book. Why should I when the front cover looks like it's been photocopied and the writing makes me look back with respectful nostalgia to Peter and Jane books.
Customer faffing at chip and pin machine forces me to comment that if they struggle reading highlighted words in bold writing on a lit screen in front of them, how do they imagine they will complete a whole book.
Customer incapable of inserting card into chip and pin machine has me wondering if I should recommend they go to the Early Learning Centre and buy a shape sorter to take home for practice.

Do it yourself AKA Lou, can you do it?

I am living in a reinforced house with impenetrable walls. I suspect something in the order of superveillance and subterfuge. Possibly I just have really hard walls I can't get a drill through. Two of us were pushing against the drill to try and get a hole in the wall, for Stan's sake. All is not lost though. I have three solid hooks, two firm candlesticks and a bit of sturdy work top. Just don't TOUCH them!!!

Wonderful Web

Today nothing of any consequence happened therefore I have been trawling through some blogs to bring you the best and the cheesiest of blog entries. Enjoy the ride.

http://dvr4u.blogspot.com/
"Keller Graduate School of Management Adult students have multiple real-world demands"

Thunderbird School? So they're named after a low budget puppet show and their claim to academic excellence is that their students can do more than one thing at a time? Genius. Where do I sign?

oOo

http://5nicoleu.blogspot.com/

" 'I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.' Isaac Asimov. What this quote is saying is not to be affraid of computers and be affraid of what it could do. "

So how about you start with spell check, honey?

oOo

http://valleyofme.blogspot.com/

lately
Ive been obsessed with images,

so many things youll forget in life,

people, places, feelings,

Im terrified of forgetting,

so now I photograph,

my life and thoughts,

so Ill never forget.

With poetry like this, who wants a good memory?

oOo

http://kangelyka.blogspot.com/

"All about me!
Things About Me. I am perfectionistI am broke… not really though. I just want money to shop!I easily fall in love with something (not someone because it’s a different thing)."

What were you perfecting the day you skipped grammar class, lady?

A Prayer for Owen Money

High Lord Stanley, to whom I have already offered up an initial £17.98, instructest me thou that I should continue to sacrifice monetary offerings at the holy shrines of Do it All? I have today vowed allegiance to all things copper and steel by purchasing some screwdrivers, something zinc with hookey bits and a bradawl. Forgive me for the cheap plastic tool box, it's only a standby 'til I can pilfer the offering bag of loose change by the phone and invest in something more fitting to your cause. I will take the time to read thoroughly the most sacrasanct of treatise, the UpStanishads, in order to open my mind to all the wonders you have in the store for me. For now I drink deeply from the new red and white spotty tea cup of reverence and ponder the many tea breaks you will deign to afford me as I, in my own meagre way, try to afford you.
Amen.

Going Ape

Today I went here: http://www.goape.cc/Pages.asp?M=1&Page=27

It was a really good laugh. Took four kids for the birthday treat. The best bit was on a 'black' challenge - the hardest. Unlike the other very high and very long zip lines, this one began with a few seconds of freefall from a great height before you felt your safety harness doing what it was meant to. Exhilirating. Highly recommended but learn from me and take gloves!

"so unfair"

Today I became the mother of a teenager. The change is startling.

I have duly bought myself a twin set and pearls so that he has good reason to be thoroughly ashamed of me in public. I have invested in some sensible scholl shoes so that when his friends come round I can leave them in the hallway for him to trip over unceremoniously. I will of course be banning everything fun for the next 7 years. I will cease to make any effort to understand him. I will develop an intolerance to anything louder than the sound of the kettle boiling and try my utmost to ask him to speak properly even when he's making perfect sense. I have decided to set up a series of meetings under the guise of being reasonable but with a hidden agenda of me trying to make him squirm with guilt over things he hasn't done or over which he has no control. I will make a point of telling his friends how early he goes to bed and insist on a kiss goodbye whenever he's in public. I will deliberately choose tasks for him when his favourite programmes are on television. I'm working on a look of disdain that I can use whenever he buys clothes for himself. I have started hiding his favourite clothes so that he is obliged to wear awful clothes when he goes where there might be girls. I have put a one hour time limit on the bathroom so that he has no way of making himself presentable before going out. This is only the first day, think what miseries I can dream up in another 6 years and 364 days.

It's inexplicable. I woke up today and I was completely different. Trying times indeed.

Hedda Gabler

Last night I went to see a production of Hedda Gabler at the Almeida theatre in Islington.

http://www.almeida.co.uk/index.cfm?id=hedda

Richard Eyre directed and it was really very good. The set was great, some of the actors were particularly impressive and the text itself has some very insightful lines. Not at all the heavy, static type of performance you may associate with Ibsen. (I saw a ghastly 'Doll's House' and thought I'd never get on with him for a long time.) We had restricted viewing because the seats sold so quickly but it was still a very enjoyable evening. And who was sat a few rows in front of us but Alexei Sayle!

Later, over copious wine, we toasted Ibsen with the wish that Scandanavian drama may ever outstrip its furniture trade.

cat buckaroo

http://www.ashearer.f2s.com/blog/?p=2

This is not to be missed. Having a rather flighty cat I think I will have to start with small items. Crisps maybe.

achievement

today i ran.

due in no part to public transport, officers of the law or life-defending escapades involving the elderly on zebra crossings.

no, i just ran.

don't watch this space. i think the fascination with exercise will fizzle out when i clock the fact that i'm not losing several pounds simply by virtue of wearing trainers.

zoo

Took the lad to his favourite place on earth yesterday. Turning the car engine off is like firing a starting gun at the beginning of the race for him. The uber cool long haired drumming skate dude with an attitude to match anyone's, turns puppy at the sight of furry critters.
Ring-tailed lemurs, bears,birds, zebras, baby giraffes, lions and tigers and camels (brown ale and sandwiches too?)
But the piece de resistance was, of course, the penguin pool. We got there for feeding time and I had to take photo after photo for him to print off and stick on his wall when we get home.

A pricey day out but it was the last day of Easter hols and I still maintain that a lemur would make a great pet!

mind twister

http://flash.qbol.net/pl;p/youxi/images/04042203.swf

See if you can do this and not tear your hair out. Apparantly there are 13 items and only a handful of very intelligent people can find them all.

Punctured but not deflated.

Had another piercing today. My first experience with a needle rather than a gun and I can't believe how little it hurt. I have a hoop and ball at the top of my right ear. And then there were six!

to bed, perchance to sleep

Last night I woke up at 3 and lay awake for two hours, woke at 6 lay awake for an hour. The night before I woke at 5 and didn't sleep properly again. This has been going on for a week or two now. You judge how pleasant it is to have my company at the moment.

Don't mention...

I struck up a deal with a colleague. I will bake her bread and she will fill in the gaps of my film knowledge by lending me videos and dvd's. I have a breadmaker, she has the movies. I got pretty hammered on Friday night after work and I have no idea where the bag with the films has gone.

Calvin woz ere?

http://groups.msn.com/clickclicktherapy/town.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=506

belle-textes

If you thought texting had killed off the art of letter writing read this one I picked up this morning;

"I see you're now a published literary critic! I, on the other hand, am a dilettante academic-cum-playwright manque. I must start writing DRAMA soon; the warm ink of my imagination is beginning to flow. Two unwritten essays are all that stand in my way. Oh! the frailty (and loneliness) of megalomania."

making a kil'n

What a fab night last night. Went to 'The Kiln' which is a very groovy place I shall be frequenting again. Told someone earlier in the day I was going out and they laughed at me when they realised it was about pottery and not a club. Ya boo. You choose from a stash of blank pottery pieces, they give you all the paints and brushes and sponges, you paint it, they glaze it, you collect it a week later. I chose a fairly simple plate over the triangular tea pots, noodle bowls and chickens (yeah, quite) 'cos it could get really pricey. It was such fun. So was getting drunk afterwards and collapsing at a friends house and sliding around her living room floor on my back.

livin' it up

Today's high point was a cheese scone from Mark's and Sparks. Whether you pronounce 'scone' correctly, like me, or incorrectly, an M&S cheese scone takes some beating. Although competition was conspicuously absent today. Take the St Michael's challenge soon. Satisfaction guaranteed!

annual review

It's always nice when you ask your boss what he thinks your weaknesses are and he furrows his brow, scans the ceiling and begins; 'Umm...'

link for A as promised

http://www.palimpsest.org.uk/

partay

Went to a splendid party this afternoon. Was sorry I couldn't stay longer but had some family stuff that needed doing. (yawn yawn)

Think I'll sit and watch a film this evening as I have no stomach for 'Crime and Punishment' right now.

lost count

had an inordinate amount of jd&coke tonight that i presume must have been watered down as i feel stone cold sober still. heard three live bands at esquires. got home at half one only to discover it's half two. happy easter and happy british summer time.