Seven year itch

So, today is our seven year anniversary apparently. I am crap at remembering, but Chris has assured me that today is the day.
Seven years ago today, at 3am, I was lying in bed at number 35 texting self-conscious messages to this mate that I fancied at number 97, until he eventually came up the road in his pyjamas and kissed me. I will never forget that kiss. (And no, they weren't THAT sort of text message, get your mind out of the gutter).
We are celebrating by sitting around, knackered after hideous weeks at work and doing nothing more exciting than over-feeding the cat. It's lovely.

South Africa 2009

In March I spent seven days alone, with my parents in Africa. Amazingly nobody died and I only had to sneak off for one illicit cigarette. There were frozen margaritas, crocodiles and several unnecessary references to my Dad's horn when we were sharing a room. Still, nice to know that even in your seventies you can still be, um, exciting. I suppose.





"Wedge the open end into the cavity of a chicken" says all you need to know about South African cooking. Vegetarians not welcome.

There's been an unusual and extreme vowel shortage in Cape Town this year. Strictly one per child so you've got to get creative with your names.

This is what my brother looked like age 16 when he was channeling Robert Smith. Only this ostrich has less eye liner.

Museum of Victorian Huguenot houses. I took this picture because this is how I would imagine Ian and Antonia's front room if I had only read her blog and never actually seen it. I am assuming the card table is where Nick was playing poker. Esme would be doing tapestry in her quarters.

If I look this good and this happy at 72 then I reckon I'll be a winner. They've both had near death experiences this year which scared the life out of me and makes this picture all the more special.

Right, that's probably enough for about another 3 months. Phew.

Favourite People

Ahhh, look. I love them all to bits. What a great weekend at my brothers, doing Xmas with the kids, a bit early. (Don't they all looked thrilled with the telly).
And then today we drove to "Horsey Gap" (yes, really) and saw the baby seals flopping about on the beach before a pub lunch. Lovely.



Proper Xmas will be a much more grown-up affair at home, no children, lots of wine and buckets of cheese, courtesy of C's Mum. Even better.
Happy Solstice, and here's to the mornings getting lighter from tomorrow! Not a moment too soon.

Good start, boring middle, very poor end. C minus, must try harder.

Right, I am going to do this blogpost.

I am intimidated by the internet. I like to blog, but it terrifies me that I will say something to make myself look stupid, or accidentally incriminate someone for being where they shouldn't have been, or piss someone off.

But I am blogging today to build up my confidence as on Tuesday I will be reading at Cringe!! There, I have commited to it. I dug out all the old horrors of my teenage diaries last night and am still reeling at what an awful, selfish person I was (probably still am), so hopefully this will be cheap therapy. If only I can work out how to extract the funny from the endless data about what I had for tea.

Also because I got to hang out with not only the hilarious and lovely Antonia but also the hilarious and lovely Jaywalker and her family on Saturday and being around cool and funny people like that somehow inspires me to bite the bullet again, albeit in a much less interesting way than they are capable of.

So..um.. yeah. Think of something to say...

Well, I started my cool new job, which is only 2 hours! away from my house and has necessitated a commitment to mid-week sobriety and hard work. I've never had a job before where you had to actually use you brain to think and do research rather than just rocking up in the morning and taking home your money later. It is exciting and frightening in equal measure, but at least the car park is way cool, being next to the runways.

I went to a cool art exhibition with my friend Susanna.

This exhibit was made from reams of video tape and moved with the breeze of people walking past it. I'm so glad the photos came out looking like it actually did. Awesome, even without the movement. I can highly recommend the first Thursday of the month at Vyner street, we go most of the time. And you get free beer too!

Most fun is looking at the art students though. Such a shame I haven't got good photos of their crazy yoot fashion. Ah well, next time.

Also loving the impromptu galleries that quite literally roll up in the back of vans. There is usually a reason this art didn't get into the galleries though.

I love Susanna, she takes me to culture in the East End...she helped me strip the woodchip off the spare bedroom...she only speaks catalan to her english husband...and they both have even crazier tattoos than me.

I'm very glad she has moved to London, even though we no longer get to spend our summer holidays being looked after, in her flat in Barcelona. Does anyone else have an interesting house we can spend our holidays in?

After galleries, I was brave enough to accompany her on her first mission to buy maternity clothes, since her husband's trousers no longer fit her five month bulge and she has been walking round with half a T-shirt wrapped around her middle and getting funny looks from lesbians.

Buying maternity clothes is fucking horrific, they are all frumpy horrors with bows at the neck. Even in Topshop.....as if being pregnant wasn't annoying enough, the High Street is out to massively humiliate you too. I did not need to learn this.

The only moment of lightness was in Mamas and Papas, where they have a big fake bump you can strap on. To be honest, even that was a bit weird, I just wish Chris had been there, so we could have forced him into it as well. You got lucky there Chris.

(I actually find this photo very unsettling and weird. Just looking at it make me feel uneasy)

Oh yeah, and Chris and I had a great weekend catching the very last drips of summer, in the Forest of Dean.

It's only a really short distance from where Chris spent his early years and is stunningly beautiful, so it was lovely to actually go there when it was sunny for once, instead of the wet January visits we usually manage.

See, I only blog once a month and blogger makes me wait a week before it will upload my photos and by then I have lost the will to write anything interesting. Or anything at all, if I am honest. Bah!

Right, I feel I have achieved enormous amounts fighting the internets to even get something up here. So I am going to retire and leave you just with the fantastic discovery I made on Friday morning of hot porridge with minstrels in it. TRY IT! It is amaaaazing.

More later...including the Belgian Waffling prize for Epic Failure. Oh yes.

Best birthday card ever.

From my friend Kate. Who now has her very own knitting blog too.

Too slow for photos

Stuck in traffic on the M4 yesterday when Dizzee Rascal came on radio 1. The moment it did, we turned it up and started bopping around the car, then the wide boys in the car next to us started waving their hands through their sun roof in a rave fashion. And so did the posh couple in the convertible behind them.
I really hope we were all listening to the same track. Motorway raves. Woo!

Frog blog

This is another boring wildlife post. I'm sorry about that, but I am too tired for witticisms on account of the fact that I am now a full time "Aunty Hella" at my sister's house.


It's lovely hanging out with the kids all day but I am now a very tired lady. People keep telling me that it's different when they are your own. But since I can't confirm that, the advice is rather lost, and isn't getting rid of the eye bags much.

Anyway, from one house where the wildlife looks like this...

...to quite another (more selfish and infantile) house where the wildlife has caught itself a rather enormous worm.