The secret life of me...

So the weekend was nice - I had moderate fun and good days of no-work...

I had a lovely Day Off on Friday - didn't utilise it particularly well, but was good anyway - I straightened my hair, had a singing lesson and then went off to Hammersmith to do my Opera Pops show, which was pretty fun

On Saturday, I didn't get up very early, had breakfast and spent afternoon singing v tiny bit of Peter Grimes with new opera class - was cool - the music is obviously quite hard, as the three hours fairly flew by
I can't remember what happened on Saturday evening - I think we might just have watched DVDs in the flat...
Have a vague memory of something Spanishy with chicken thighs - think that was Saturday...

Yesterday I didn't go to the Farmers' Market (hurray for me ) but instead persuaded LBF to utilise the fantabulous sunshine by wandering over to London Fields for some outside and lunch...
We were slightly thwarted by an unexpected (for us, presumably not for the participants) carnival, which was a rather splendid bonus - the costumes and stuff were absolutely amazing and LBF was quite taken with all the scantily clad samba girlies
We had (delicious) spontaneous lunch at La Vie en Rose on Broadway Market (though not, sadly, the much-feted creme brulee - must go again soon and remedy this) and then wandered home...
I dropped LBF off for some Sunday afternoon wine tasting (his preferred weekend activity) and spent the remaining afternoon slobbing and making flapjack.
Was a good day

Back to work now though - looking forward to a pretty heavy week....

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend and is happy!

What to do today?

...Because, aside from the fact that I ate enough pizza to sink a small ship on Tuesday, you people have been woefully poorly informed about the adventure that is MY LIFE recently...

I hope you've not been toooooooooo sad

Sooooo - what's been happening in my jellicious life in recent days....?

Well - work has been (and still is, in fact) fairly frantic for the last week or so because of the whole Lehmans thing... Banking suddenly looks a bit more scary than it did a month or so ago!
Has been quite interesting though - dealing with crises is the thing that makes my job (and those around me) entertaining, really - day to day it's hard work and probably not that wild, but when things like the past week or so happen, it can be pretty challenging and exciting
Having said that, I'm definitely going to try to build up some savings, as I know that, at the moment, I couldn't pay the mortgage for very long without any income, and city jobs are by no means certain at the moment

Apart from that, I'm in a showcase type concert in West London tomorrow night (all welcome ), which marks the end of the class that I've been doing since June/July this year and should be quite fun.
My bits are going pretty well, though one of them is a bit outside my usual sphere...

I also, yesterday, started a new opera class which I've not done before, which is pretty exciting - there are some people I already know and lots that I don't - will be nice to work with a new group I hope, though I'm really going to miss the old one - I wanted to do both in parallel, but there are too many clashing times...
The new class is three times a week - two evenings and Saturday afternoons, which sounds ok, but I can already tell that it's going to be a bit of a scramble to be there by 6.30 twice a week without pissing off the bosses here too much - guess I'll probably have to do some early mornings to make up for it

Hope everyone else is ok, and that you're still awake after wading through all that!

....

Have eaten too much pizza...

May be going to die

... the promised cookies

They don't look like cookies, but the book assures me that they are - they're a chocolate and cashew based variation on 'tollhouse cookies' which are apparently the oldest American cookie recipe in the world!

EDIT: Yes - definitely cookies - scrunchy (though pleasantly chewy in the middle)...

Chocolate and macadamia cookie progress severely hampered by lack of macadamias...
Would cashews do instead?

So I just suddenly remembered a poem I had to learn when I was Brownie (some time ago now)...
I think it was for my Entertainer's badge, though it doesn't seem terribly entertaining now:

I felt sure that the elves had a party,
Last night in the meadow below,
Where the buttercups gleam like gold goblets,
And the petals of May drift like snow.

For as I looked out of my window,
When the house was all silent and still,
I thought I heard faint elfin laughter,
And voices excited and shrill.

So this morning I crept down the garden,
Before anyone else was astir,
And squeezed through a gap in the hedgerow
And just as I thought, there they were.

Right at the edge of the meadow,
Where the grass is all covered with dew,
A circle of real fairy toadstools,
And as soon as I saw them, I knew!

Twee, no?

I really wanted to do the other designated brownie poem - it was about a cow with an umbrella - can't remember the story or anything, but the last line was:

With two holes, where her horns poled through!

....fresh from the oven:

Hope they meet with your approval

more animals

It's all go here...

What with all this City based excitement, it's quite nice to still have a job

Yesterday I:

Unpacked from my holiday
Finished and hung out the last of the washing
Didn't have tasty porridge based breakfast, because one of LBF's drunken friends was asleep in the kitchen
Picked up mouli from parents house
Purchased enormous bag of ericaceous compost from garden centre (and managed not to buy anything else at all)
Ate breakfast/lunch bacon sandwich from Costa, which was horrible, but I was extremely hungry and grumpy by that stage.
Had singing lesson which was v good
Had small rehearsal - also good
Came home (about 5.20pm) to find that drunken boys had just managed to wake up
Formulated tasty tomato based pasta sauce
Stewed and moulied all the apple and blackberries that we brought back from holiday
Made chewy chocolate cookies
Planted two lovely new blueberry bushes
Made stewed apple cookies - actually came out a bit more like rock cakes, but still pretty good...
Ate tasty pasta sauce with tasty pasta
Made some of blackberry and apple puree into fluff (not fluff, like fluffy kitteh - is pronounced floof, like Northern pronunciation of bus, or (LBF says) like woof, such as a dog might say) which is officially the tastiest thing in the world, as well as being the taste that has sponsored all my summer holidays since time immemorial
Did mountain of washing up
Listed many thingsthataretakingupflatspace on Freecycle

Am v v good girl, I think you'll agree

In other news, am still not really over holiday yet - wish I was still there - may have to go back next weekend.

Off for shower now, then maybe lovely walk in park...

Hope you all have nicelovely day

... with a bump

So my holiday is all over and am very sad...

I've been off for two weeks (with a small gap in the middle for month-end) and I've had a really lovely time.

I had to go to Prague (as you probably already know) for the bank holiday, which was a little bit better than I though it would be, but headed off to Suffolk for my proper holiday the next day...
I spent the first week sailing, swimming, rowing and generally having fun - quite a lot of my family were there so there were plenty of people to play with and I don't think it rained at all - the weekend was utterly glorious, in fact...
Then I had a brief break-in-holiday to do month-end and ran straight back to Suffolk afterwards - my dad was there with me for a couple of days - again we had a good time, but it was very windy and we managed (not our fault, I hasten to add) to slightly break the boat (or, at least, the biggest of the boats) - the forestay (which is one of the things holding the mast up, for people who don't know) snapped and the mast fell down - it all fell into the water (rather than onto the boat) so there was no damage (actually, it was weirdly undramatic - one minute we were sailing along, the next, the mast was in the water...), but it was very windy and it took us an hour or so to fish it all back onto the boat (v heavy and the sails were full of water) but we managed it without significant injury (just a few small bruises) and motored back to the mooring after lunch (we have a small outboard on the boat - we only got it a few years ago - if we hadn't, we'd have had to wait for someone passing by to rescue us, or we'd have had to tow the boat home from the rowing dinghy, which would have been no joke... I'm not a big fan of the outboard generally, but have to admit that there are times when it comes in handy ).
I had to go home for rehearsals on the Saturday, but I brought LBF back with me that evening, and it was just the two of us for a little while...
LBF isn't overly keen on the outdoorsy things (to clarify - I'm not maligning him in any way - not everyone likes that stuff - and, as such, it was v nice of him to come at all) so we had a few days of different type of holiday - we slept inside in the cottage and not in the tent (which is what I normally do when I'm there) and didn't really play any boats at all, other than to row out to the (mastless) yacht to drop off a few things - LBF is a pretty good rower, given that he's only tried it a few times - most people just go round in circles
We went walking, pubbing, wine-shopping and blackberrying as well as to Colchester Zoo, which was great (I can utterly recommend to anyone - you're allowed to feed the elephants and giraffes) - they have loads of really good animals and enclosures, and there are lots of fun interactive things to do - I've never been before, but would definitely go again
LBF went home on the train on Tuesday night (after helping me take the sailing dinghy out of the water, which was extremely nice of him - is much easier with two), to look after the cats and because he wasn't feeling very good, and I spent yesterday morning alternately basking in the sun and packing and the afternoon hiding on the boat before I had to come home...

I'm back at work today and v v sad that my holiday is over.
I'm tired today already and always feel a bit grim when I come back to London after being in Suffolk-based-happy-place - I think it's to do with the change of air - it's all headachey and oppressive here...

Expect I'll get over the disappointment soon though - holiday will be distant memory in no time!

Hope everyone else (and particularly anyone who made it to the end of this post - well done!) is having a lovely day

Today is almost the end of my holiday...

LBF is here and the sun is shining, but it turns out we have a minor difference of opinion over what one should do on a holiday....

As a result we're compromising and are off to Colchester Zoo now (or in 5 mins - as soon as he's ready)

Hopefully will be fun - is not the usual thing I would do here, but it is supposed to be a very good zoo - am looking forward to it.

LBF doesn't like it here very much - there is too much outdoors for him (this is the crux of our aforementioned difference of opinion, I think) and he is sad without the kittens so he's off home tonight.
I'll still be here tomorrow to clear up and hopefully also have afternoon on the river, but then I have to go back to work too

We met a little fluffy kitty called Frazzle yesterday - she was totally cute - I think she made LBF's holiday

He's ready now - must go.

Hope everyone has a good day

Ooh - and is LBF's birthday soon (ominously soon, in fact) - please someone tell me what to get for him that would be fabulous?
Last year was the kittehs - will be hard to top!

HAve just had friend invitation from my future husband:

Dear Sweet Heart,

Love is like the wind; I can\'t see it, but I feel it. Whenever you hold my hand or touch my face, not only do I feel love inside of me, I feel your love for me. It\'s so real.

I never thought that I could ever love anyone as much as I love you. You are my one and only. One day, when we are old and gray, sitting on our porch in our rocking chairs, we\'ll be able to think back to all the fun we\'ve had. We can think of how we stayed with each other through thick and thin. We can think of all the fights we\'ve had, and how we always got back together. Our fights are what make us grow stronger and, if I could change one thing about our relationship it would be that we would never get old; that way I could spend eternity with you.

I love you. You are my heart, my soul, and my life. Most importantly, you are my true love and my future husband.

Love always
FELIX
PHONE(002389971672
Emial( ebomsfelix2008@yahoo.com

Who could have known I'd find such pure beautiful love simply by blogging....

Goodnight kiddiewinks

Today is last day of work (mini-work-break-from-holiday) and first day of Act II of my holiday

At 6.30 tonight, I shall be leaping onto a train and wending my way back to sunny Suffolk...
Am v excited

Will be working v v hard today in order to get evrything done in time!

Hope everyone else has nice day!

1. What was the name of the first Roman Emperor.

Augustus

2. In which part of the body are red blood cells made.

Bone marrow

3. What is the largest mountain in Africa.

Kilimanjaro?

4. Who is Captain of Blogship Lollipop.

La Spice

5. Where is Nelsons Column.

In his trousers?
Ooh - or Trafalgar Square...

6. What are Bonsai.

Tiny little treeeeees

7. What is a baby Kangaroo called.

He's called Joey

8. Who runs the blogships boutique.

Rubychoo!

9. In which Ocean is Christmas Island.

Indian

10. Who is President of New Zealand.

Does it have one? I thought it was a prime minister...

11. What blogger makes the best cocktails on board ship.

Definitely not Bob

12. Is the Tropic of Capricorn north or south of the equator.

South

13. What is a Samoi.

Dunno - Ko Samoi is an island...
Is it some kind of animal? A cat? They like those in Thailand

14. What year did the Titanic hit an iceburg.

1912

15. Who painted the Sistine Chapel.

Michaelangelo - or possibly a load of slaves in his employ

WANT!!!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Jennie!

1. Jennie will always turn right when leaving a cave!
Untested - will definitely try to corroborate in future... Ooh - unless this is an instruction? Will try to obey at all times.

2. Marie Antoinette never said 'let them eat cake' - this is a mistranslation of 'let them eat Jennie'.
Meh...

3. A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but Jennie can not.
Probably true - or is it simply that she doesn't always like what she sees and therefore won't admit it?

4. India tested its first nuclear Jennie in 1974.
Coooooooool

5. Baby swans are called Jennie.
All of them? That must be a bit confusling for the parents? Or perhaps it just keeps things simple.

6. If Jennie was life size, she would stand 7 ft 2 inches tall and have a neck twice the size of a human.
Almost certainly the case...

7. The first toy product ever advertised on television was Mr Jennie Head.
Or maybe Mrs - or Miss...

8. About 100 people choke to death on Jennie each year!
She does come with a health warning...

9. Jennie was the first Tsar of Russia!
Was fun for a while...

10. Jennie was originally green, and actually contained cocaine!
Unfounded accusation - don't pay any heed

Get your own here!