Ol’ Four Eyes…

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Yes it’s true…in the aftermath of my 40th birthday and after 8 years of perfect vision, I bought a pair of glasses today…

I knew when I had laser surgery back in 2001 that I might only get 7-10 years before my eye muscles started to weary with the – ahem – ‘natural age-ing process’ and my regular eye test back in January this year confirmed that this had indeed begun so I did attend my appointment with the optician on Thursday with a more than sneaking suspicion that a return to glasses would be the outcome.

However, I would like to reassure you that I am not so despondent about this as you might think.  Tired eyes and headaches are certainly no fun and it will be quite useful to glance quickly at the distant train schedule to ensure I do not end up on the wrong tube – I admit that I am currently resorting to asking the waiting passengers on board any platform-ed train ‘What line is this?’ or ‘Where is this one going?’ as I come racing down the stairs…instead of dashing along the platform until I am close enough to see whether it was actually the train I should have been on…or not!  If you’ve been to London, you know how completely shocking it is for people to make eye contact, let alone actually be addressed, during their commute so I feel that as London is my home, this aberrant behaviour of mine must stop.

As J is heartily sick of me squinting/complaining ‘I can’t read that’/borrowing his glasses, he (and his daughter, the lovely A) came with me to ensure I did not end up looking either nanna-ish or try-hard-trendy and in the end, the choice was pretty easy…and a rather cool pair of specs will be awaiting me in about a week’s time.

So peeps, ol’ four eyes is back and better than ever!

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year…

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The weekend is here again and despite the fact that during this last week, there’s been just a little nip in the air as the sun dips backs down to the horizon each day, today we were blessed with a beautiful Autumn Day…so beautiful, in fact, that the top came off…

…my car you numpty, I’m talking about my car…

Got your attention though, didn’t it! Ha!

Anyway, Autumn is my most favourite time of the year.  

(English people think I am weird when I tell them this. The usual reaction is an unbelieving ‘What about Summer?’…I try to be gentle when I tell them that we don’t all live in ‘Summer Bay’ and it does actually rain in Ramsay Street.)

The leaves are starting to turn now so we are getting some of that startling red and orange appearing in the midst of leftover summer-green foliage.  The mornings are peppered with misty puffs of breath and there is an extra layer of clothing in place on my daily, crunchy-leafed walk to catch the bus. And the daylight hours are definitely getting shorter too with my normal journey home cloaked in evening by the time I reach my door again, with the tip of my nose gone all cold and tingly.

But it’s lovely – crisp and invigorating outside and cosy inside – and a great excuse to rediscover my warmer wardrobe staples that have lain abandoned over the glorious summer that we had…and so it all feels like new.
Yes, Autumn is definitely the most wonderful time of the year…
  

The view from my front door…glorious!!!

The Absence of Blogging…

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I missed getting to my blog this weekend…not because I forgot or I didn’t want to but all the other things to do and catch up on just got in the way…and before I knew it Sunday was done – and my blog wasn’t…

While there’s an urge to apologise profusely to those of you who wait with baited breath for my snippets of opinion and activity, my bigger urge is frustration and an I-haven’t-blogged-for-a-week restlessness.  It’s addictive, this blogging caper.  I never thought it would ‘be’ me but having writing back in my life has been such a joy.  Sometimes there’s so much stuff happening or so many feelings all at once that I find it hard to choose ‘the snippet’ – although it usually ends up choosing itself as I write – and sometimes there’s an event or opinion or feeling that’s right there, bursting to get out…so get ready for loads of restless creativity and frustrated expression bursting forth!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew!

Now that’s out, I have room to say ‘really sorry I haven’t blogged peeps’.  I am also delighted to report that I have two official followers (my big half-sister and that bloody trouble-maker from my drinking days in Melbourne) and I’d really love more of you to join my Peanut Gallery of followers, make hay with these two (or not) and heckle (or not) to your heart’s content.

So chop chop…

Hot chicks & hens

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Last night 10 lovely ladies (or as we prefer, hot chicks) gathered to salute the last single days of our gorgeous girl, A-down-the-hill who, in two weeks time will ‘I do’ and morph from Single- to Marry-dom.  So how does one do this with appropriate pomp, circumstance and little finesse in this day and age?  Being a bunch of foodies and self-titled gourmands (ie. basically little piggies), we all went cooking.
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The Underground Cookery School lies beneath St Mary’s Church just behind Finsbury Circus and London Wall and allows participants to drink, prepare a 3-course meal, drink, eat the meal they have prepared, drink and…drink.  Last night, under the watchful eye of Missa and Happy (our two chefs) we made tagliatelle, sea bream with roasted potatoes and salsa verde, and souffle.
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It got competitive right from the get-go starting with pretty vigorous dough-making and followed by some serious pasta-machine action.  As with any daunting enterprise (ie. 10 women ranging from mildly tipsy to seriously ‘sociable’ preparing a 3 course meal that they are willing to eat at the end of it all), an early victory can be quite motivational and cries of success soon filled the room as each of us produced a proud little bundle of pasta ribbons.
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So what’s next? we asked.
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There was sea bream filleting (getting those pesky bones out is more difficult than it looks!), then tomato-(for the pasta sauce)-and potato-(for the sea bream)-roasting and salsa verde-making (again for the sea bream).
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There was also Thai green curry prep-ping (for the vegetarians in the group) and then finally the piece d’resistance, the raspberry souffle. But lo and behold, how did that ramekin of salt end up in the saucepan of raspberries – it wouldn’t have been one of we enthusiastically helpful ladies who thought it was the sugar that Missa requested, would it??  Just as well Missa had some other fruit ‘out the back’ so we did not have to go ‘souffle-less’.
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Dear oh dear.
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After over 5 hours of underground cookery and a delicious meal (with more wine), we bid our patient chefs a fond and rather noisy farewell and moved on for a cheeky cocktail at Lounge Lover in nearby Shoreditch and a quick boogie-on-down in Beach Blanket Babylon next door before dispersing for home – which for three of us was a rather nice hotel – Club Quarters opposite Leadenhall Market.  We agreed that this had two distinct advantages: (1) it was significantly better than dealing with a long trip home and a large cab fare and (2) it provided a rather fabulous opportunity to continue our festival of foodie fun into a rather scrumptious breakfast at The Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell.
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Seriously people, the best coffee I’ve had for a long time, really yummy scrambled eggs with haloumi, spinach and tomato and then a shared plate of pancakes with berry compote and creme fraiche…you London-ers reading this must go!
So that’s the night (and morning) that was – a tribute to friendship amongst fabulous women and a fitting farewell to singledom for our fair foodie friend.
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Strictly Super…

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Dear Strictly Come Dancing

How excited am I…you are back – with two nights and 16 dances a week…wicked!  Brucie’s on form, Tess looks great and I’m lovin’ the new two night format. Giving the celebs the chance to do a Ballroom and a Latin routine right from the start is definitely ‘the goods’…just think, we’ll never know what hidden talents all those poor early-exit-ers from the prior series may have had that we never got to see. 

So who are my faves at this early stage?  Well here’s my top 3:

  1. Craig Hollins – he looks way too cute (bit like Dec from Ant ‘n’ Dec don’t you think?) to bring on a mean tango and then a rauchy rumba. But bring it on he did – way to go sunshine!
  2. Ali Bastion – gorgeous and talented and can’t believe she’s not danced before. But time will tell – I’m not so sure I can see her in a cheeky salsa or sexy samba but amazing for week 1 – you go girl!
  3. Ricky Groves – the dancing technique may be a bit suspect but man o man the boy can give it some!  Could not stop grinning at his cha cha cha…fab-u-lous!

And about Martina Hingis being the first to go? Honestly, I was not really fussed either way and Len did hit it bang on with the donut-without-the-jam comment (looks great on the outside but a bit disappointing once you get into it) but she was very gracious and kept smiling so good for her.  More gutted about Matt Cutler exiting with her…sigh…

5 days to go until my next fix of sequins, stars and Strictly…how nice to have your glitz and glamour back for a few short months…and looking forward to your brightening up the chilly evenings ahead.

Yours in dancing

Quickstep Kym

The wisdom of Mr Curly

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In 2001, Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig published The Curly Pyjama Letters, a small book of letters between two friends – Mr Curly of Curly Flat and lone voyager, Vasco Pyjama. Leunig’s characters and witticisms have featured in the press for years, yet this book was (and still is) my only purchase of Leunig’s works – here’s why.

In one letter to his friend Mr Curly, Vasco bemoans the world he finds on his travels and poses the seemingly unanswerable question “What is worth doing and what is worth having?” to which Mr Curly replies:

Dear Vasco

In answer to your question “What is worth doing and what is worth having?” I would like to say simply this. It is worth doing nothing and having a rest…otherwise you will become RESTLESS!

I believe the world is sick with exhaustion and dying of restlessness…Tiredness is one of our strongest, most noble and instructive feelings.  It is an important aspect of our CONSCIENCE and must be heeded or else we will not survive. When you are tired you must HAVE that feeling and you must act upon it sensibly – you MUST rest like the trees and animals do.

Yet tiredness has become a matter of shame!…Tiredness has become the most suppressed feeling in the world. Everywhere we see people overcoming their exhaustion and pushing on with intensity…and being congratulated for overcoming it and pushing it deep down inside themselves as if it were a virtue to do this…We live in a world of these consequences and then wonder why we are so unhappy.
 
So I gently urge you Vasco, do as we do in Curly Flat – learn to curl up and rest – feel your noble tiredness – learn about it and make a generous place for it in your life and enjoyment will surely follow. I repeat: it’s worth doing nothing and having a rest.
 
Yours sleepily
Mr Curly xxx

Extract from The Curly Pyjama Letters by Michael Leunig

For the whole letter, you’ll have to buy the book yourself!!!

Back in 2001, having ended every work week in exhaustion only to face a commitment-filled weekend stretching ahead of me, this struck such a chord.  I have just started on a two month project in digital media, a sector entirely new to me, and I have spent three days brimming over with the thrill of learning something new and the joy of making things happen…but my head is full and and my whole self tired.  So this reminder about being generous with myself is timely and this weekend…

I am going to do nothing

and

will be having a rest.

 

Ladies Who Lunch…

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Today was a not-so-brilliantly-sunshine-y day in Kingston, and while this was disappointing, the grey clouds did nothing to dampen the spirits of four lunching ladies on Kingston Hill. 

It has been a while since I’ve entertained with such gusto but this afternoon was a leisurely 4 hours of eating, drinking and girlie gossip under the trees and my guests left replete with good cheer and I do believe that there was even a little waddle or two going back down the hill.

There was also a little surprise guest who had invited himself along and managed to engage the ladies with his sparkling eyes and disarming smile…but he left soon after, disappointed with the lack of honey fare and bear-y conversation…

What a cutie…I wonder where he will turn up next?

Life in the UK…Done & Dusted…

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Well today I took my first step towards my official settlement here in the UK by passing the ‘Life in the UK’ test – 24 multiple choice questions over three quarters of an hour – which I managed to complete in about 5mins!  Hooray for me…

Now all I have to do is collect 5 years of bank statements, document my travels in and out of the UK over the last 5 years – which is quite a lot given the travelling I’ve done for my various jobs – acquire two passport-sized photos (Sainsbury’s photo booth, here I come!), fill in the application form (19 pages), pay £820 and wait…

I have been feeling quietly nervous leading up to today’s test, in retrospect more than it seemed to warrant.  But it is really unsettling to think that I’ve worked hard and built this wonderful life for myself here in the UK and my future here lies in someone else’s hands.  Only time will tell I guess but let me just say that I will be so thrilled to get my ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain) status sorted…

Last of the Summer Wine…

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Well, here we are at August Bank Holiday Monday and the official last day of summer here in the UK and the weather has put in a simply splendid show of sunshine to remind us all that summer was actually pretty good over here this year. 

It’s 26C, and whilst I submitted myself to a rather unruly burst of spring-cleaning this morning, I followed this with a couple of hours of luxurious reading under the trees out the front…and we are bbq-ing in earnest tonight to give this English summer of 2009 a proper and fitting ‘cheerio’.

So it’s a toast to farewell Summer…goodbye to tomatoes and blackberries and rosily,sun-kissed cheeks and noses…and to welcome the brilliantly-hued and softly sunshine-y days of Autumn…

Disney Studios…Or The Invasion of High School Musical

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Well day 2 of our Disney Extravaganza was spent at the Disney Studios Park, a peek behind the magic of making movies right next door to the original park. 
So after starting my 40th birthday with all my new friends at Cafe Mickey (see The Happiest Friends On Earth…) it was time to get into some ‘action’ (geddit?…action…movies….). This park is reasonably new so I have been reliably informed that some of the areas lack the depth of the other Disney Studios parks in the States (partic. the backlot area) but it had a different feel from the Disneyland park and we spent a great day amongst the rides, shows and streets of the Front Lot, Hollywood Boulevard, Toon Studios, Back Lot and the Production Courtyard.
One of the best things about our day was the Moteurs…Action Stunt Show Spectatcular.  In front of 1000 plus people in an open air arena, the director, stunt drivers and a few special guests (like the Love Bug himself, Herbie) took us on a 45min stunt ballet of screaming engines, smoking tyres and special effects all wrapped up into the final ‘movie’ reel at the end.  I will NEVER look at movie car chases in the same way again…completely awesome!  Here’s some pics but they don’t really do it justice….

And one to prove we were really there…