Rounding up:

The other night out on a date with the husband to see Mamma Mia. Wonderfully funny silly film. I want to go again with girlfriends.

Last night out for drinks with colleagues to celebrate a couple of 40th birthdays (mine and a colleague's) and there were glasses of wine and there was fun.

I spent a wretched night in a nice hotel last night. Bed too small, room too hot, no husband.

This evening out to buy presents in Mamas and Papas for a couple of small babies we know. The clothes in there are super-duper cute.

My b'day weekend is shaping up. Not only have we booked my favourite restaurant for dinner, but we've booked my favourite hotel too.

...and tomorrow to Leeds.

I remember one of the very very very earliest I bought was Abba's Greatest Hits It would have been about 1979, and I bought it from Woolworths in Sevenoaks. I remember records being about £5 which was A LOT of money.

I had both Abba's greatest hits records and would play them and dance round.

I remember when I first started frequenting record shops. The first album I bought then (it was 1981) was Dare by the Human league.

Do I still listen to them? No, not really, though I did go and see Mamma Mia the other day, which was very very fun :)

Oooh.

Well, I have an oval mole in the centre of my forehead. It's the reason I have a fringe.

The really funny thing is that I never ever remember it these days, though time was I loathed it. Really loathed it.

For a long time growing up I didn't have a fringe, and as it's in the centre of my forehead, it looks rather like a bindi. To the provincial girls at school this meant asking me regularly if I was pakistani (!)

I'm not sure that that bothered me in particular, but I remember loathing it, and eventually I got a fringe. (I got a perm too, but that's another story).

How is it that something that was such a big deal when I was 13 is something that doesn't even occur to me now? If you asked me to draw a picture of my face I'd probably forget to draw it on.

Monday came round again. A day in which I got tireder and tireder (more tired) after not enough sleep last night.

Home feeling very defeated indeed. Rustled up some dinner for husband, and a chance browse revealed that the restaurant I wanted to have my b'day dinner at actually *is* open on my b'day weekend. Readers, I booked it.

The lovely Elaine continues in her war against the wild back garden. I think she's winning. I really must get out into the front garden and weeeeeeed. I think they wait 'till my back is turned and sprout.

Matt and I had one of those spooky psychic-twins moments yesterday:

Dunk and I went off to the Chinese restaurant, passing a couple of dogging sites on the way, or so Duncan claimed. (I smiled politely and commented on the weather). Our conversation mainly revolved around dogging, and going out to look at the stars and whatnot. While we were in the chinese restaurant our conversation mainly revolved around our jobs and commutes.

I'm not sure how, but somewhere in this mix of conversation I mentioned satanic cults. I guess most people do in their Saturday night conversation. Or not. I'm sure I've not said those words together for many years.

When we returned with the food I reported on these conversations to Matt and Sally who had stayed behind - and Matt reported that he had also been talking about satanic cults.

*cue spooky music* and a quick call to Derek Pakora.

I suppose it would have been understandable if we'd both had conversations about a film we'd seen together, but believe it or not, satanic cults are not the normal topic of conversation in our house.

I'd go out with my husband and my friend Noel. Husband because I love him, Noel because he's brilliant company (and I love him too).

We'd eat at St John Bread and Wine, because it's somewhere we always go, and the food and wine is nice. I've been out like this many times, so maybe it doesn't seem that special, but there's nothing better than good food with good friends.

...oh, and I'm really looking forward to my birthday lunch with my lovely friends in a few weeks.

Weeeeeeekend

Saturday into Solihull for coffee and (...some work) and some intense research into the 3G iPhone. It's not as expensive as you'd think - and maybe could save me money on my current 3G phone. The only feature it doesn't have that I use is as a bluetooth modem. I do sometimes use my phone to hook lionel up to the internet in places there aren't internet access.

We came home with lots of brochures but no iPhones.

After a nice sleep on the sofa (a recurring pattern from the weekend) we headed out to dunkdunkdunk's for ROCKBAND, baybee.

After a long journey down on the motorway we pitched up, ordered some fabulous chinese food, and proceeded to slaughter some rock classics (and not so classics). I am entirely hopeless on anything but singing. Even bass. I guess I was just born for the lead, darling.

My proudest moment was singing Manu Chao by Les Wampas, entirely en francais. I knew that French 'A Level' would come in handy one day.

Oh, and Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which I only knew from the Duke Special cover.

I seem to recall falling asleep sitting up in my chair, while Duncan, Matt and Sally rocked out to Metallica. I'm *so* cool, and not at all old and tired (!)

It was a lovely, chilled out evening and we should do it again, soon. I shall never look at Judi Dench in the same light again, thanks to people invoking her in Beetlebum.

Today back up the motorway to some laundry, some ironing, a brief amount of tidying round. And some pizza. And another sleep on the sofa. I am the incredible sleeping woman.

Thanks to the lovely Duncan for his warm hospitality - we were very well looked after, fed, watered, put to bed in clean sheets and woke to clean towels, hot water for showers and a cooked breakfast. Thanks, babe.

Another looooooooong day. Came home tired and incapable of coherent speech.

Nick Cave on Jools Holland taped off the telly the other day. Warm husband on a cold night.

Good weekend ahead. Friends and fun and frolics. (Though I'm not sure what counts as a frolic these days, I'm out of touch).

Last night out after work into the city with colleagues. There were some pitchers of cocktails and some dinner. There are some photos :)

Matt is sitting giggling at the Guardian's review of Mamma Mia. I think us seeing it may be at risk.

In a hilarious slice of fate the IRON blew up tonight.

We do iron more than the average um...laundry, but still. We had a good iron, and I think it burnt out or something.

No more ironing for us tonight, and we now need to pop to Argos or somewhere to get a new one.

It's very rainy today, sort of heavy showers then a bit of sun. July, it is. July.

Lungs not terribly happy today. Need steroids. Need doctor's appointment for steroids. Need a couple of hours off work to book doctor's appointment for steroids.

PC still broken. Needs geek love. Is a too-full C:\ which means I can't boot into XP (yes I only have one bootable drive).
Need to either boot into DOS to delete some files or is Partition Magic bootable into so I can resize my partition?

Today to the 4th July barbecue at Matt's workplace.

It being England it rained and rained and rained (except when the sun came out). We stood in the marquee, and ate some barbecued food, and chatted to Matt's colleagues and their wives and girlfriends.

Here is Matt's little friend Neil. Am sure neither of them will thank me for this photo - Neil is one of the only people I know taller than Matt.

Neil and Matt go bowling together, and occasionally to the cinema, and they have nicknames for pretty everyone who they ever come into contact with. I think they are like the Mean Girls at their workplace.

From the barbecue we went into Birmingham to see The Mist. If you are of an easily upset disposition (like me) do yourselves a favour and don't go and see it.

It was terribly scary and a bit upsetting. It's a good film - but not for me. I think even Matt was surprised how scary it was.

And now all that remains is the Sunday night ironing. Hooray for that, at least.

Marry my husband. It was foolish and sensible and is certainly the biggest adventure I've ever been on.

Marriage makes you say "yes, I'm imperfect, and I know the odds are against us, but let's have a shot at trying this together".

For me it was the right thing to do, precisely because I didn't need to marry.

We've not even scratched the surface of marriage yet, we're almost 3 years in, but our marriage is the centre of my life. It's the hardest work something effortless has ever been.

...well, except for the best husband in the world. And lots of lovely friends. But you know.

So then. Up with the larks today and into Birmingham for coffee and to buy a jacket for the husband. Didn't get him the jacket we wanted, but did get him a couple of t-shirts, a couple of pairs of trousers, and a jacket, which he looks very lovely in.

I also hunted for a wedding outfit (to no avail) and a birthday outfit (to some avail) and we shopped and shopped.

Just after 2, we headed off to The Mailbox for a spot of lunch, and some light browsing in Harvey Nicks. I came out having indulged slightly in the Mac Electro-flash collection.

We had a little moment over lunch, where we both texted "Oy Oy, Saveloy!" to people in our contacts list on our mobile phones. If you're not in our contact lists, think yourselves grateful. I think we confused lots of people.

We'd sort of planned to go and see The Mist this afternoon, but the cinemas of Birmingham seem to be singularly unhelpful on show times, so we came home and watched the Dr Who finale instead.

Well, I *slept* through the Dr Who finale, but who's counting?

Tonight some wine, some husband, some hanging out. Hooray.

Cake, obviously. And Pie, but not pie. (Pie is husband's nickname).

Plain. But with coffee. And even better, with friends.

Things:

1) My PC is currently...stuffed. I think I know what's wrong with it, but that's not helping currently.

2) PC being stuffed means that I can't synch my iPod, as it's synched to *my* PC, not Matt's PC or the MacBook Pro. This is irritating.

3) I'm listening to This American Life. I'd never heard of it before this morning. It's good.

4) It's my 6 weekly maintenance appointment this morning. This afternoon I'm at work.

5) Time to dash. Am very glad it's the weekend. It being near to the 4th of July, and the husband working for an american company means that we have his company pic-nic this weekend. I think there will also be a film (Matt wants to see the Mist because he loves Stephen King...almost as much as he loves me).

6) I'm mainly hoping for sleep at the weekend. Well, sleep and coffee. Maybe some wine.

One of those days.

One of those Thursday evenings. Met husband for coffee after work with a couple of nice people from work. The four of us hung out and coffeeed and chatted, and stuff.

From there the wander back to the car took us past shops. Shops!

There was a small purchase for me ...this book, and a little perfumey thing (because it was very cheap). Oh and a magazine.

There is now some sitting on the sofa, some flight pricing on expedia (there's always flight pricing on expedia) and some thinking about dinner. Not actually cooking of dinner, but maybe there's some of that in a moment.

This may be the happiest moment of the hour, the day, the week. I don't know. How do you measure the most happy? I don't have a convenient happy scale. There are no metrics around happiness, no convenient three colour pie charts. I think you just have to grab hold of the happy and sink into it.

I touch him all the time. Awake, asleep and the thirteen stages in between. Every separation (for a drink, to answer the phone, to shift off of rapidly-stiffening limbs) is a wrench, a small loss.

Happiness is just this: some open doors, some cold rain on hot baked concrete slabs, some random music and some solitude.

Embrace the contradictions, I think.

Out and about today. I had some more work to do, so we went out for coffee to save me sitting at home working, which was cool. The city was busy today, but I have an amazing ability to tune out hustle and bustle and focus on something, which can be very useful.

From there to emma_emily's for late lunch. Very nice afternoon, and was lovely to be cooked lunch for - much as I love having people round and cooking for them, it's nice to be the one being entertained sometimes.

From there to J&J's. J is at glasto, so J we had drinks and cakes with J and admired a conservatory-in-progress.

Home: I did ten minutes weeding in the front garden, twenty minutes tidying the kitchen, and now comes the inevitable Sunday night task of ironing.

Oh, and I still need to do something about my non-functional PC. (Like buy a new Mac!)

And I finished that trashy cocaine book, and I started another trashier book. Go me.

And before the husband posts about it, I said two really stupid things today, and managed to throw a plate in the bin, when I only meant to throw the tissue on it in the bin. It's been one of those days.

I have a bit of a poorly husband, still. That can be the only possible reason I was forced into having First Shower this morning.

We've had a quiet day. We went into Solihull so Matt could get a haircut, I could have some coffee and we could have our usual Saturday morning wander round the shops. It's saletime (the John Lewis sale started today) so town was very busy indeed.

I sat in Starbucks and sifted some CVs and looked out the window. It was charming.

Every year Glasto comes around, I idly think about going, but then remember whole tent thing (where do you plug in your hairdryer?) and the whole mud thing, and how miserable I am if I'm not clean, and I'm glad that I'm not there. Still, there's always good coverage on the telly, and that'll do for me.

Most of you who know Matt and I know we have a pretty harmonious relationship. Sure, we enjoy a bit of a heated debate at times (mainly over politics...or you know, world events) but I think we argue less than...well pretty much everyone we know. I think it's because I'm really rubbish at arguing and because we have a pretty similar outlook on life.

There's one thing though, that is guaranteed to divide us. Well, when I say 'one thing', actually I mean 'one musician'.

See, I really enjoy the music of the charming David Ford, and Matt doesn't. When I say he doesn't, that's a bit of an understatement. Goodness knows why, but he has taken exception to him. There was even nearly an incident at Euston once when he and casca decided to debate the point. casca has the DF love. In fact, I caught it from her.

I don't really play DF a lot at home. I get too much grief.

Tonight, I needed a bit of DF love, so I opened up some youtube songs. DF does charidee shows every year where he plays requested covers. Some of them are hilarious. I think I managed 30 seconds before Matt left the room.

I seized the opportunity. I just had a whole half hour of DF love. I had the sofa to myself, the volume on the MBP up loud, and made the most of 'no husband'.

It was fab.

Currently reading: that trashy book about cocaine
Currently listening to: Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, Townes Van Zandt
Currently watching: (I'm too embarrassed to post about it)
Currently wishing: for more time, more wine and more song, mainly
Current favourite breakfast: Organic yoghurt, museli and blueberries
Current favourite husband: mrhig

Monday roundup:

1)Good weekend.

Saturday into Birmingham. Shopped 'till we dropped. Nice new suit and some very exciting shirts and ties for the husband (and a pair of shoes). New pair of trousers and top for wife, together with a couple of bras.

Home to a short nap, half an episode of Dr Who, and a wash-and-brush-up before heading into the Mailbox for dins with the birthday girl and her husband.

Some cocktails, some champagne, some dinner and some fairly scandalous conversation - we celebrated well.

After all of that, Sunday was a let down. I woke with a headache, and gradually faded throughout the day with headachyness and feeling sicky. Ewwww. All my plans went out the window, and I had to go to bed.

To cheer us up we watched Michael Clayton on FilmFlex. It was quite a good film. I do like a legalish thriller.

2) Today I woke with a headache, but it's a lot better now. Sadly my PC has succumbed to something nasty, and I need a kind soul to sort it out for me. I can't decide whether it's a virus or a virtual memory problem. Either way I can't boot into Windows at all (not even in safe or last known good).

3) Hmmm. Anyway.

Last night I dashed home from work (late) and realised I had no time nor sufficient mental capacity to cook for J&J who were due round in under an hour. Instead I greedily unwrapped a mix CD sent to me as part of a european mix trade (mine was from Belgium!), stuck it on the stereo, and sat on the sofa listening to it and talking to the husband.

Our guests arrived, we ordered curry from the wonderful Rajnagar, and we drank wine and chilled out.

I faded pretty much at 11pm, the tiredness of a long week had caught up with me.

I've been up a while now, the husband is still asleep - it's raining and actually quite cold. Has no-one told the weather it's flaming JUNE?

You don't get a lot of updates from me during the week. I've been spending most evenings sat in front of my work laptop and then finishing and going to bed. It's no life, but hey, it's a living, as some cocky melody-stealing no mark would say.

Tonight, I've taken a break, been to the supermarket, cleaned up the kitchen (not sure how it go so messy in such a short period), done some laundry and made myself some dinner. Matt tonight is out to dinner with his colleagues - so I am home alone which is all kinds of fun. (I made the most of being husbandless in the supermarket by buying chocolate and a trashy novel - you know, for when I have a life).

And then Monday came.

Another 11 hours in the office. One latte, several chipped fingernails, a leaflet about the Severn Valley Railway over a swiftly snatched lunch.

Home to a loving husband, a hastily pulled together spaghetti bolognaise and some trashy telly for 45 minutes. Now to go chase round after things I need to do tonight (not least of which the chipped nailpolish).

Supporting it all, a bottler of Aspall dry 'Premier cru' Suffolk Cyder. I'm sure it wouldn't taste half as good if it was merely cider.

Shrubbery update: it's sitting in pots in the back garden awaiting TheLovelyElaine. Tomorrow it will be an *actual* shrubbery.

I'm sitting on the patio, playing Josh Ritter, waiting for husband to deliver barbecued food from the barbecue over there. Lovely, it is, all sunshine and loveliness. If I squint, I can even ignore the washing swaying gently in the breeze over there.

It's been a busy old day, but very productive.

I insisted we went out today to buy a shrubbery (and some herbaceous plants) for the front garden. TheLovelyElaine has done a grand job of clearing the front, and re-edging the lawn, so it's time for plants.

We hit up Homebase (I wasn't hopeful frankly) and they had all sorts of stuff. We got some cistus, a dwarf lupin, and lots and lots of other things. I Even inisisted we bought an agapanthus africanus even though they are expensive because I love them. A lot.

The best thing of all is that all the bits we don't fancy doing TheLovelyElaine will. She's a wonderful woman.

So, apart from a hundred quid's worth of front garden, we also bought a hose. It's very exiciting, being retractable and stuff. We had a hilarious half an hour or so working out how to put it together. It means much easier watering of the front garden and indeed the pots on the patio.

We also had to change a tyre on my car (clearly I can't do it because I am hopeless) and for some reason I decided that a wholesale clear-out of the garage was required. Stupid mistake - as there was loads to clear out. We absolutely filled Matt's car with old boxes, polystyrene packaging and other random stuff.

We did a tip to the trip, a trip back, and decided to combine lunch with dinner and have a barbie on the pation.

...

since I started this post we've eaten the food, listened to more Josh Ritter, and enjoyed a short sit down.

I'm not sure what the rest of the evening has got in store for us - my bet is ironing and chilling out, but it'll have to go a long way to beat this.

(photos of the nascent shrubbery later...)

Saturdays have settled into a gentle routine for us.

We wake early, usually before 8am, and cuddle for a while, or read for a while, and then, when hunger starts to get the better of us (steroid hunger hits me mostly first thing) we start the regular Saturday morning wrestle for who should have First Shower. First Shower is universally unpopular on the weekend, meaning as it does that one of us has to leave the warm, cuddly bed and break the spell of the early morning. I'm ashamed to say that the First Shower wrestle has even turned physical occasionally - this morning, the lovely husband tried to force me out of bed by moving on to my side of the bed and pushing me out. (He failed)

Once showers are had (Second Shower isn't an issue, the moment he gets out I am happy to get in) we head off on an assortment of errands to Solihull (or sometimes Birmingham). There's usually the library, the dry cleaners, Boots, the barbers, Paperchase or some other collection of stuff. Before the tasks, however is The Breakfast.

The breakfast is always the same. Starbucks. Grande skinny latte and a cheese and marmite panini for me, some drip coffee and a cheese and marmite panini for him. We bring along all the newspaper supplements we've not managed to read in the week (my faves are Film and Music from a Friday, and Technology from a Thursday) and spend an hour and a half in companionable peace upstairs in Starbucks. Sometimes we discuss the articles. Sometimes we get so engrossed in conversation and debate (the US elections have been a recurring topic this year) that we don't get to read at all.

Once that important business of the day is done we head out for the errands. Sometimes we pick up lunch from M&S to bring home (today was a roll, some smoked salmon, some cream cheese and some crinkly crisps).

We arrive home in time for some late lunch - usually 2-3pm, though sometimes later. We have our lunch, and then settle down for our Saturday afternoon indulgence - a nap for me, some shows from the TV drive for Matt. We top-to-tail on the sofa, and sometimes I have to have the magic quilt.

Saturday afternoon naps are the best, purely because they are so decadent. I get to catch up with a couple of lost hours sleep from the week, and usually wake groggy and slightly achy in time to discuss the forthcoming evening.

I don't like going out on a Saturday night - the restaurants are always too full, the cinemas too full of popcorn-munching bores, so unless we're entertaining, or out with friends we sit and watch Dr Who, or a film or something.

Tonight, after dins, we decided to clean up. A little gentle housework on a Saturday night feels subversive too. Weren't we supposed to be having fun?

And now I'm off to bed to read my new book. I would tell you what it is, but it's so trashy I'm ashamed. It was in the library, I was weak...what can I say?

Loooooong week.

Last night home to dinner then straight to bed for The Apprentice. SirAlan proving again that he can't deal with strong women...by chosing the guy who lied on his CV.

Still. Early night didn't quite work - (I'm the only person I know who can FAIL at having an early night) which means I was tired today.

Today to London. Coffee with husband after work. Home to this week's veg box which contained PINEAPPLE! AUBERGINE! and other exciting things. I made myself an aubergine bake for dins, which was really really nice. (Matt hates Aubergine so he didn't get any).

Now very tired (due no doubt, to failure of early night). TFIF tomorrow!

Good day yesterday (in a sort of 'feet didn't touch the sides' day.

I'd had an email from foreignbird suggesting we went out for CAKE last night, so we duly did. We met at 5.45 (well, we would have done if I hadn't been late) and I talked at the poor woman until gone 8pm. I'm not sure I came up for breath. At all. We ended up in a Costa Coffee 'lock in' (do pubs even *have* lock ins any more?) and laughed and talked some more.

After that, we got a bus (a bus!) to Moseley, met up with some bloke (mrhig) and had some great dinner and conversation until too late.

I'm not sure how I managed that on 4.5 hours sleep - but it was certainly worth doing, and I'd certainly do it again.

I keep neglecting to update. Oooops.

Very good, quiet weekend. Friday night I got home at a reasonable hour from London, so we had our traditional Friday night in with each other.

Saturday morning I had a maintenance appointment - I now have two eyebrows again (result!) and I had an amazing restorative pedicure. From there into Solihull for an array of chores - taking books back to the library, drinking coffee (most essential chore), buying moisturiser...ah all dull stuff.

We came home to a late lunch of salad on the sofa, and had a short nap. All the excitement, see.

Saturday night we made the most of the balmy evening - we fired up the barbecue, opened the pink wine, and sat out talking and listening to songs until it got colder.

Today we've been the amazing sleepy couple again. I have done some weeding, some kitchen tidying up and some ironing, and well...napped some more. It's all been very exciting.

A really gorgeous day today, and Matt has done the lawns, so I'm looking forward to sitting out in the garden over the coming week in the evenings.

I've been carrying these around with me since the weekend.

These are the little jewels in my brain. The little bits of treasure I think about when I need some perspective. I'm no great philosopher, I leave that to the earnest singer-songwriters I spend my time and money following.

I guess the closest I ever get to a world-view is this: "You've got to celebrate today, 'cause sure as hell it's all going to go to shit tomorrow". It's funny how often that comes up in my life.

Anyway. No Proust, no highbrow philosophy for me. It's all about the pop-culture.

( So: two little snippets that sum up what life is about for me. )

Ah, before I descend into and I love all my friends and you're all beautiful and I love you and you're beautiful and.....well, you know. I'd better get on with some ironing.

Tonight to the Glee Club to see Duke Special. Fantastic performance, even better than when we saw him last. More tomorrow.

Now there is drizzle.

Tomorrow is one of those split-site days - starting in B'ham, then going to London, then after work back home.

Duke Special has had an amazing effect on my painful hip. From being barely able to stand today (I think I slept on it funny) I could now dance the fandango...or something,

The ironing pile has been slain. The interview was written up. Didn't do the interviewee justice, but it's hard sometimes when you get a great guy.

So another update. I've not posted about it, because I needed some time to work out how I felt about it, but now I know, so I can.

So, finally, after much lung shenanigans after the virus of doom last year, which led to some damage to my lungs, and a battery of tests, and some ineffective treatment, I got something I'd been trying to avoid: an asthma diagnosis.

I knew in my heart of hearts the wheezing and coughing and stuff was asthma but I wanted it to be a chest infection or something. Something that would mean that it wasn't forever. Or if not forever, something ongoing.

I finally got the diagnosis a fortnight ago, and am delighted to say that the steroid inhaler has been absolutely completely brilliant. I feel like a new woman. I can't believe the difference in a few short weeks. (I'd been on the steroids just under a fortnight before the diagnosis).

So, anyway. I suppose the good thing is that with a diagnosis I can get the appropriate treatment. I can recognise an attack as it's happening and take the top-up inhaler. I no longer have to listen to Matt nag, nag nagging me about my cough. I no longer cough so much I lose my breath and get dizzy. (I fell off my chair at work a few weeks ago - now *that* was embarrassing!)

I can't take Ventolin (it makes me go funny!) but the drugs I do have are good, and I just feel like I got a bit of my life back.

And that's got to be a good thing.

This weekend both Matt and I have been very tired. Not sure why, but it's meant lots of sleeping, which is never a bad thing.

I didn't manage to do any weeding, but I did do some laundry, so I'll forgive myself, I think.

Last night to J&J's for dinner and Mario Kart. I'm really rubbish at that game. Still, it was fun.

Today we've woken up, cuddled, eaten breakfast, cuddled some more, fallen back asleep and finally woken and showered. We are the incredible sleeping couple.

We've got a busy afternoon - I'm writing up the interview, Matt is doing some ironing, which I shall take over later.

Last night after work to meet Matt for a coffee. Starts the weekend off properly. We talked, and cuddled too much for a married couple (aren't we just supposed to have arguments in carpet shops?) and the stresses of the week melted into our frappucinos.

Home via collecting some take-away dinner (and a chat on the 'phone with a lovely girl) to a chilled out Friday night.

This weekend I need to do a bit of weeding, but maybe also consider what plants we may like in the front garden. LovelyElaine has done a wonderful job out there, and it's probably time for some planting.

First though, I have a husband who needs to pop to Solihull (but currently is still asleep), a need to take a trip to do our recycling (which is filling the garage!) and an interview to transcribe (and I am a rubbish audio typist, so it will take me forever...and it was nearly an hour long!)

Currently reading: Alice in Sunderland (still - I only read it at weekends)
Current listening to: Bluebird - Brian Wright, Love Ire and Song - Frank Turner
Current lipstick colour: Cosmo (MAC - of course)
Current cocktail of choice: mojito
Currently wishing I was: here, actually

Good things today:

LovelyElaine picked some of our roses and put them in a vase in our kitchen for us. They are opening, smell fabulous and make the whole kitchen a better place.


Great things today:

An interview with a wonderful illustrator Lee Moyer. A hugely talented man, have a look at the vast range of styles and mediums he works in. He's also an interviewer's dream - witty, charming, and above all *interesting*.

I've yet to write about last weekend, and yet to write about the fabulous exhibition we went to on Tuesday (The Art of The Stitch, but those will have to wait.

Home safely from travels far and wide. Great day today.

Woke in a very hot and stuffy (but really really lovely) hotel room with a huge headache, just before 9am. Matt and I had been up chatting till around 2.30am or so, but I figured as we had to check out at 11 it was too late for more sleep.

I did the usual mental arithmetic to scientifically ascertain whether the headache was a hangover, or stuffy room, or dehydration/blood sugar and after some complex workings out (I really needed a pivot table) I determined it was 60% hot room, 40% hangover.

I drank all the liquid in the mini-bar (complimentary water, diet coke), splashed about in the big bath like a happy hippo as though it was going to save me (it didn't) and uploaded some photos of us in beards which made me laugh slightly more than it should.

We headed out into muggy Brighton for breakfast. I insisted on Carluccios and despite the headaches and general hangover malaise we found our way, ordered and even found some papers to read.

An hour or so, some museli, some coffee and toast and we were ready to...well, shop actually. The North Laine area is lots of fun for browsing and shopping, and we managed both. The amazing, restorative powers of breakfast. (Breakfast/every hour/it could save the world)

We met up with our lovely friends and spent the afternoon having late lunch then sitting watching some free live music as part of the Songs From The Canyon festival thing. We drank coffee, talked, I tipped a vase of water over cali369, you know, the usual bank holiday activity.

We're home now, and if there's one thing better than a Bank Holiday, it's having the day after off on leave. Hooray indeed.

I'm calling this as a success.

Six people, one gig, six beards. Many cocktails.

In Brighton. Hungover.

Excellent time at Eurovish in Brentwood STOP
Heading for Brighton, six beards in bag STOP
Give me cocktails or give me....STOP

Yesterday I left work early (5.30pm) and had that thing where you're home so early you get a bit overwhelmed by the evening because it's normally a bit shorter and you don't really know what to do with all the *time*.

I hung out, cooked dinner, watched The Apprentice (Raef.....noooooooooooooooooo!) and 'chatted' (via facebook chat) to a friend from Uni (undergrad days) who I've not seen since 1989. Just the 19 years, then. We're meeting next Thursday after work. Honestly, it's really freaky. We fell straight back into conversation.

Woke this morning tired and headachy. No idea why. Must be something they put in the water.