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.

soaps up, dudes

I was going to write something about the god awful band I saw tonight at the Queen of Hoxton with my house-buddy Cristina but in an effort to look on the bright side I think I'm going to reflect instead on the joys of bathing.

Upon moving into my shitty council flat in London I was horrified when informed that the 'shower' is only a bath with a very low-pressure shower tube thing that you have to hold the entire time.

Although I found out later this is quite normal in these here parts, I was initially mortified at the idea of having to clutch the nozzle between my bare soapy knees while trying to lather my hair every single day.

Turns out sitting is the only option in this particular situation and it suits my laziness perfectly! Combined with the lack of daily government-sponsored guilt trips about wasting water I often find it the most enjoyable part of my day. I now have a legitimate excuse not to shower in the morning as a nightly bath seems much more suited to my current facilities, and if I am feeling particularly lazy I just lie down and ponder the loveliness of my rainbow Missoni towel, the spotty shower curtain and the fresh smell of pear body wash.

Now what am I going to cook Amanda for dinner tomorrow night?

oh how I love to be by the seaside

brighton on the weekend

the thousands

The best thing about living next to Shoreditch is being able to just pop down and see interesting stuff in five minutes when there is nothing else to do on a Thursday night after work.

Tonight I checked out The Thousands exhibition and am kicking myself for not taking my damn camera as people were snapping away the whole time. Although is it a bit of a faux pas to take photos of art in an exhibition?

My absolute favourite was a sequined canvas of a cartoon boy on a bike by Brazilian art duo Os Gêmeos. It simply shone and made me grin like a Ye Old Cheshire Cheese cat.

Some of the other artists that warmed my cockles on a cold London night were Swoon, Adam Neate, Anthony Lister and Know Hope. Not knowing much about street art I hadn't heard of any of these people but a lot of the stuff was super familiar, most likely because I've seen lots of the work by the artists wandering around the streets of London and Melbourne.

Now I'm going to do my best not to watch some crappy show on my computer and read one of the many books I have collected since landing here. S'long.

I've posted some pictures by the artists I loved, not ones from the exhibition sadly but beautiful none-the-less.

know hope


swoon


adam neate


anthony lister


Os Gêmeos

funny leaf art

The Abstract City blog never fails to make me smile. Here are my favourites from the last post. What a guy!

kiva believer

I hate to say it but I am a bit cynical about traditional charities and their donation tactics. I know charities do good works but I can't help paying attention when I read an article about how this charity spends more than half the money on administration costs, or that charity outsources fund-raising to a company which pays sales bonuses to charity collectors. To be fair it might be the only way the massive charities can manage to collect the large amounts of funding they need to operate, but I just can't help think of that when I see a pushy Red Cross sales person on the street or see an advertisement for Oxfam.

That is why I was so impressed yesterday when I found out about a new organisation called Kiva which links tiny business entrepreneurs in third world countries to people willing to loan them very small amounts of money to help them start a business which can help them become self sufficient. The website features stories of all sorts of people including African seamstresses and Asian farmers who need as little as $100 to get their idea off the ground, and potential donors are able to decide which projects they want to assist with and within a year have the money returned to them in full.

Brilliant!

don't take me to space....maaaaan

I saw Brakes tonight at the Garage in Islington. After nearly falling asleep at work today I didn't think it would be that enjoyable but it definitely was despite them inevitably not playing the one song I was aching to hear.

I know it's not a legitimate reason to like a band but I love how whenever it seems appropriate the singer slips a rolled 'r' into his lyrics. When I first listened to the album I imagined this being some sort of recording in-joke and after tonight I feel like my initial thoughts have been validated as in-jokes came thick and fast and were funny rather than being annoying as they sometimes can be.

Other things I liked were a political song called Pineapple Porcupine with the line 'Spikeyyyyy', the guitarist's poncho, the seemingly genuinely unprepared encore and the single slow sad song of the night about divorce using the metaphor of record shopping.

wine time

Oh how I miss impromptu weeknight red-wine boozing, chats, big two, drunken Scrabble and late night kitchen dancing with my besties and Mango the cat.

PS. Thanks in advance for the picture I stole from your Facebook Catherine!

museum of everything

In a very tired and dehydrated state (read hungover) I eventually left the house today to meet up with Stu and Kim at the Museum of Everything in fancy Primrose Hill. Not knowing exactly what it was about we were drawn in by the close proximity to our respective abodes and the arty looking website.

The venue only opened a month ago with the first exhibition featuring only artists called 'Outsiders', or artists who make their art at home due to passion, necessity or obsession with no intention of selling/showing their art to anyone. The rickety 'museum' is accessible through an old door at the end of a crooked little damp laneway, and the visitor is greeted by a volunteer in an old carnival ride ticket booth who directs you up the crooked little stairs.

Each small and cramped room of the museum featured the work of a different artist or groups of artists and had blurbs written by famous art critics, artists, family members, musicians or associates. Floorboards creaked, people squished by each other and and I spent the whole time trying not to think about the delicious half eaten brownie in my handbag while also vying for decent viewing positions where I could actually see something.

Finally I found a bench in front of a dark window in a quiet room with walls lined with crazy political and religious protest placards and got some space. After 10 minutes the window lit up with the most beautiful minature versions of retro carnival rides and I oohed and ahhed.

I managed to quell my museum store obsession and resisted buying a nifty canvas tote bag then headed home to procrastinate some more by writing this, watching X Factor and eating dry bran flakes because apparently every supermarket within walking distance closes at 5pm on a Sunday.

some people think im bonkers

Stu and I made a Portobello Market photo expedition today due to the unseasonally sunny weather and our non-hungover states. Yes, it was good, but my god it was so crowded I nearly had a crazy attack. I bought a vintage sheer black dangly top for £5, a linen knit from H&M, some new cute coloured socks and some "Heat Tech" thermal Uniqlo tops to help me deal with the winter chill which has descended upon London. Now I sleepy. G'night.

no eye dear

I accidentally watched 6 hours of Skins tonight instead of going out and doing fun stuff or even doing hours of work at home which I am way behind on. Whoops. It isn't even that good. Pretty much every character is an annoying and completely unbelievable 18yo with awful fashion sense. It took me about 5 episodes to realise one of the characters is the kid from About a Boy and the main reason I could tell it was him was that he has the same pointy eyebrows. The worst thing is I have 2 seasons of Mad Men on my computer that I haven't started yet. Oh the humanity.

I only blogged about this because I promised myself I would write something every day and apart from going to work today I haven't done anything else. I'm not sad about it or anything just vaguely amused about my lack of motivation and apparent talent for getting sucked in to crap telly.

Oh yeah, I joined Spotify today too. I am yet to use it properly but am well excited.

future dinner pondering

A few weeks ago I was drunk at a friend's house and ate a delicious salad of organic carrot and baked pumpkin seed. I know there were more things in it than this recipe stipulates but I was drinking duty free and didn't pay enough attention. I found this recipe online and I might attempt it for dinner tomorrow and pad it out with some rocket/watercress mix. That is if the vortex of Friday night after work drinks doesn't suck me in.

carrot and pumpkin seed salad

pumpkin seeds
1lb carrots
soy sauce
juice of half lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Scatter a handful of pumpkin seeds on a baking tray in a single layer and toast in a moderate oven for about ten minutes or until they just start to brown and taste good. A splash of soy sauce can help.

2. Shave the carrots into a bowl. Mix in the seeds and dress to taste with the juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper and about 3 tbsp of olive oil.

I wonder if any of the following will happen if I eat a giant bowl of this orange goodness...

a) My night vision improves.
b) Feel like hopping around in the grass.
c) Slowly turn tangerine like the spring racing girls on The Age website.

Most likely it will be...

d) I'm still hungry and eat a second dinner of four slices of vegemite toast.

I will still try!

frozen toes

I propose,
my toes have froze,

I concur,
my mind's a blur,

I believe,
it's up your sleeve.

dog day afternoon

I won't talk about draining our broken washing machine today and the dirty water gurgling up into the kitchen sink. I won't mention that the stagnant water was more than likely tainted with three day old vomit from a sleeping bag that was spewed on by a drunken guest (not mine) on Saturday night. I won't even discuss how the fetid smell made me gag and I felt like running away and never coming back.

I will say that the best thing that happened today was eating lunch with my lovely and friendly new Spanish housemate Cristina who loves Gossip Girl, Phoenix, coffees and charity shop shopping. Cristina says English people would describe what I did today as a 'dog day' because I didn't do anything but eat and relax. Que chido!

london monday

Despite the closure of the Museum of Everything, Stu, Kim and I managed to have a fabulous day of cider, crackling autumn leaves, tomato sauce smothered chips and for-real ghost stories.