whole[some] lotta fun!

With no forward planning today turned out to be a pretty damn wholesome affair. Starting with a nutritious breakfast of porridge and orange juice (hello iron!) Matt and I power-walked into London to see the recent family animated Pixar film Up with Stu at our favourite cheapo establishment the Prince Charles, during which we munched bananas and apples and sipped water. The film (5 stars) was a vision of rainbow balloons, floating houses, cute old people, talking dogs, a forgotten villainous adventurer, a pudgy wilderness scout and animated South American waterfalls. Laughs were loud and tears were shed.

Following that we ventured to the British Museum and wandered through rooms of 3000 year old Egyptian artifacts and dusty old books. My highlight was the insides of the first mummy dissected by a scientist in the 1800's and some of the specimens brought to Britain from Captain Cook's voyage to Australia. Incidentally while watching QI last night we learned that the moss that grows on decaying old books is hallucinogenic.

Finally we headed to Stu's for a healthy dinner of soy sausages, vegie gravy, mashed potatoes, yorkshire puddings, steamed vegies and ridiculously delicious chocolate pud, accompanied by the mind-bending Planet Earth series narrated by David Attenborough.

I think my IQ possibly increased by one point today.

pretty bright star

Don't you hate it when you spend half a movie agonising over where you last saw some no-name actor, only to miss half the movie being completely distracted? Matt and I saw the joint British Australian film Bright Star in the olde Prince Charles cheapo cinema today and I spent pretty much an hour trying to figure out where I had recently seen the brother of the leading lady character, eventually giving up and trying to enjoy a movie I had barely been following. I have been watching a lot of TV shows and films recently so had a veritable DVD library of material to mentally scan. Luckily not much had actually happened [two pretty people had fallen in love in a field of flowers and lovely words], so it wasn't too hard. The film was visually stunning in a lovely, 20yo girl-blogger-into-craft sort of way, and Matt really enjoyed the poetry, but I was a bit bored.

Turns out Matt had told me 2 minutes into the film that the character I couldn't stop thinking about was a young Paul McCartney in Nowhere Boy, but I had thought I heard him say Billy Connelly for no apparent reason due to my distraction and bad hearing. A bit of a funny looking kid to be honest.

my favourite root

Oh, beetroot how I love thee let me count the ways. According to Facebook you are my third most favourite word, and rightly so as your delicious purple-ness is a tasty dream. Beetroot soup, roasted beetroot, beetroot dip, beetroot juice, grated beetroot salad. Perhaps even a delicious beetroot curry? Oh man, now I am hungry.

Beetroot recipe suggestions most welcome.

violated

It's not a proper holiday until my christmas present gets stolen.

feet firmly planted

I don't know in what way it reflects my subconscious but recently I realised I have a tendency for photographing the ground. This means I must be looking at it a lot, or maybe it just means I like my shoes? Last weekend I went on a road trip with Matt, Gill and Af and added another two pictures of grass to my collection. Here are some of my favourite ground photos.

rubbish day

this guy has insanely good balance

ponderosa

What should I do today? What should I have for lunch? Which of my clothes would look best with my new boots? Why am I in London? How long should I stay in London? Why do I insist on ill-informed philosophical rants after last drinks have been called? Why would someone build something in the shape of a gherkin? Should I have a gherkin sandwich for lunch? I wonder what the weather is like at Meredith right now? Why is my housemates hair in my bed?

two mornings

Yesterday and today 8:30am. Old St. London. 17th floor.

wanna see something gross?

My throat is growing a pusball. I knew I was sick! Too much information Stu?

iberian summer

After returning home from work drenched and shivering from a typical London downpour I am going to take a moment to recall my recent sojourn to Spain/Portugal with Matt, in particular the oppressively stifling heat.

In my mind the blinding white beach of Ilha Tavira in Portugal meant hiding underneath stolen beach umbrellas making sure every toe was covered by shade, drinking beer quickly so it didn't go warm, freckles multiplying exponentially, Matt playing frisbee against the wind, never too many juicy peaches, ice cream for lunch and dinner and the smell of BBQ all day long.

Sevilla was even hotter than Portugal with the thermometer at the train station reading 42 degrees when we arrived at 11pm. It was so hot the plastic lilies on the balcony of our hostel were dying, the restaurants served red wine chilled and one euro bottles of lemon sangria actually tasted good.

Someone at work said it is going to snow tonight in London after hours of heavy rain, adding wryly that the weather won't improve until May. Lovely.

two interesting facts

In my line of work I often read boring newspaper articles which illuminate random interesting facts which sometimes, albeit rarely, surprise me. Today I was lucky enough to have two which I thought I would generously share on here rather than disrupt my fellow co-workers.

1. Japan has 6,852 islands. I knew there were islands but that is A LOT.

2. Last year 209 foreign objects were left inside patients after operations in Britain, with 82 patients being operated on the wrong body part. Again, a surprisingly large amount in my opinion.

Hmmmm.