Birthday plans

In case you want to join in. After the Wright Stuff

12ish Brunchy lunch venue to be confirmed

1.30pm Cocktails at 5th View mine's a My Man Godfrey Vodkatini

3pm portrait prize at the portrait gallery

4pm Gordon's Wine Bar and no its NOTHING to do with Gordon Ramsay

Possible final venue Ship and Shovell or Lamb and Flag more news as it arrives

Hope to see you there - presents not compulsory

(as you can see this blog is very neglected - probably best to ignore other posts to avoid my embarrassment)

one year on...

....and what have I done?

I can't believe it is over a year since I painted my bathroom black!

paint it black

should I paint my bathroom black? Answer yes!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon 'staining' some untreated Ikea furniture - I wasn't terribly successful at it which is odd as have managed to accdientally stain many things quite well over the years. I am slightly concerned that my whole flat will be decorated with black items and thus reflecting some sort of 'Oh poop I'm 40 and everything is going down hill' way however I cheer myself with my idol's life journey when I am reminded that Susan Sarandon didn't meet Tim Robbins, 12 years younger than her, until she was in her 40s and had the first of their two children when she was 42.

She says Sexuality ... is something that develops and becomes stronger and stronger the older you get... If you can continue to say yes to life and to maintain a certain generosity of spirit, you become more and more of who you are.

I didn't realize that everything was supposed to fall apart at 40. So I just slid past 40 and 50. When you're an outsider and not paying attention to the rules the hurdles are a little lower.

Lovely

catching up

So many things have happened since my last post and yet at the same time, nothing has happened!!! I am a naughty blogger as have not been updating as regularly as I should ..... should I? That's why I have always been rubbish with a diary as I never remember or have time to update it so in a whistle stop journey through recent events.....

Fete poster is done and dusted
Lovely supper at Mikey's East End WI Picnic

Mother India at Rich Mix

August EEWI meeting (see eastendwi.blogspot.com) Making Morsbags and coffee tasting






plus drinks at Sorella's, beer at the Palm Tree with John and Tracy, Jake's AS level results (mainly great news), meeting the man who made a twenty foot robot out of recycling wheelie bins, organising The Welcome Wagon at Shoreditch Church, up to the eyballs with Fete admin and don't get me started on the Hackney Wick Festival .... must get back to work

it was only a matter of time

A couple of days ago my friend Sarah, who was having a particularly bad day, was walking her lovely little jack russell Jack through her home town of Penryn, Cornwall. In the street, she told me, she met a woman who informed her that she had once owned a pair of jack russells just like Jack and that she had loved them very much. She then went on to explain how one of them had died and the other had tried to kill itself. She suggested to Sarah that she love every moment of Jack's life as if it were his last. My response to this was 'What a lovely story..' and Sarah went on to explain how the woman had slightly mad and was carrying a radio in her hand.

Time passed and we reach today. I cycle a lot and when I do, I like listen to music on my iPhone, especially on longer journeys. I also like the fact that the iPhone headphones mean that you can answer a call hands free while cycling and go back to your music afterwards without having to get your actual phone out of your pocket. This saves loads of time and money calling people back when you have missed there calls. You can imagine my frustration when I realised I had misplaced them somewhere in the flat. So today when setting out on the bike to go to White City to work I thought I know I'll play the iPod part of my iPhone and turn the volume up and that way I will have a bit of music on my way to work. Once on the bike I thought I would try out a new 'app' on my iPhone and tuned into Gold FM. It was only really once I had got to Holland Park Road that I realised I was essentially a slightly mad lady with a radio.

It was only a matter of time

green tomato chutney and sand between the toes

Yesterday was such a fantastic day. What had been planned as a visit to the WI Federation of Essex Annual Show became an adventure to the coastline of the Blackwater Estuary.

The day started with an outing with Colleen and John to Towerlands Conference Centre for the annual Essex WI 'show' where branches from within the Essex Federation exhibited their submissions for this year's theme - The Orient. Although some of the entrants, especially the crafts, were amazing and very beautiful, the less said about that particular part of the day at this stage the better. We did accidentally go to Hatfield Peverel first before checking where we were supposed ot be going which was actually Braintree which didn't help but I did purchase some green tomato chutney and some marmalade. However we left the show fairly swiftly as, despite our purchases, we felt a little deflated by the event.

C and J whisked me off to the coast at West Mersea that they knew really well from numerous visits since childhood and it was amazing to be on a beach, paddling in the sea when only a few hours before (including the 'show') I was in grubby old Stepney. We saw jellyfish, ate ice cream and bought plants and cherry plums from someone's front garden, leaving the money in a cashbox in the porch...wouldn't work in E1! The day didn't end there, we then went off to East Mersea and walked along the estuary where we met a family of swans who had to negotiate a grassy bank then we sat in a bit of a daze in a bird hide watching the wildlife before making our way reluctantly back to the car and East London.

I had to go into town afterwards about three hours late for a birthday party which

I didn't get to until 10.45pm and I still had sand between my toes. Lush.

WOMAD 2009

Ok so I've been back over a week but it isn't the easiest thing to find the time to keep the blog up to date. However on the eve of my next blogworthy event I figured it was time to report back on WOMAD 2009, plus I am avoiding doing actual work so...

After an extremely lovely evening in the not so lovely Cheltenham Spa with my gorgeous friend Archie, Sarah, Oscar and I met up in 'Nam and drove to Charlton park via the supermarket - very important for my frist festival by car as opposed to public transport. This would be our third WOMAD together (my 12th or 13th) but so much has changed for Sarah since we last went we guessed we would probably have a much better time than before.

Highlights of the weekend included camping with Judith and Nigel and their friends and friends of friends, strange smelling cigarettes and dancing to Shlomo. Solomon Burke was one of the headliners and apart from the fact that he had to be wheeled on as he was so obese (I may have been because he was old, but I doubt it) it was a pretty amazing performance from a man who has 90 grandchildren. Peter Gabriel was fab although his set was quite serious as he was campaigning for the charity Witness, so no Sledgehammer, and Biko made sarah and Judith cry.

Sarah and I danced like nutters to Shlomo and laughed so hard we cried - not necessarily at Shlomo more at ourselves due to the influence of aforementioned cigarettes. We also really enjoyed Charlie Winston and Deaf Shepherd on the Sunday although the fact that the latter were not allowed to do an encore on the BBC Radio 3 stage did cause me to shout a lot! Down with BBC Radio 3!!!

It was a fantastic weekend, the only thing wrong with it was it only lasted til Monday morning. Roll on 2010.

Both Sarah and I are yet to finish our poetic tributes to 2oo9 but when we do I will post them