Rainy Days

Somehow i managed NOT to get wet over the last couple of days.
Hardly earth shattering news i hear you say, but actually it is.
:D
It has been typically april .
Beautiful sunny skies one minute then pouring rain the next [ repeat at intermittent intervals ]

And what has this to do with anything?

Well, not content with scooting round the country last week [ a funeral in Yorkshire on Monday then a work related event in Leicestershire on Thursday and Friday ] I dragged D off to see Jose Gonzalez at the Shepherds Bush Empire last night.



Which meant staying over at the
Hilton Kensington.

OK, it didn't ABSOLUTELY need that to happen.
We could have got the train home.
But that always means rushing because the last train from Victoria is before midnight.
So staying over seemed like a far better idea :D

As indeed it turned out to be.

By the way, if you have to stay there I can certainly give it a thumbs up on most things.
The bed was massive and comfortable, and the air -con worked [ not always as much as a given as you'd think ].
There was loads of room to hang your stuff, should you have taken any [ unlike me ].
A decent iron [ see point above ]
And they have Douwe Egberts as their instant coffee.
Oh, and very pleasant reception and door staff, plus the offer of 2 free glasses of wine to trial when we stopped off back at about 6pm.

The only 2 small points against were the Stella Artois at £4.30 a pint in the bar [ i think ... it wasn't my round ] and housekeeping checking if the room was free at 8.30 in the morning!!!!
I mean, high beer prices I can accept, but being woken at 8.30 on a saturday morning when check out is at 12.00!?!?!

However, I'd certainly go back there again.

Jose Gonzalez was ok too, though lacking in something that i can't put my finger on.
Technically and musically it was excellent.
But.....
But what?
The nearest I can get is to say it lacked, well ... atmosphere or soul?
Something like that.
Hell, I'm no critic and his music is hardly upbeat, and i think that the fact that I enjoyed the performance should be enough, so i'm going to leave it there.

Nothing at all was lacking from my long delayed re-visitation of Bodeans.
Every sticky fingered mouthful was totally delicious, and left me all round bellied and replete.

The same can be said for breakfast at the S & M cafe too.
Wonderfully soft poached eggs, fat buttered toast and crispy bacon, plus lovely, lovely PG tips.
Plus one of those ' He looks familiar but I can't quite put a name to him' moments about a rather attractive english actor [ i think ] who was also breakfasting there.
What more can a girl want for breakfast?
*answers on a postcard please*
:D

Seriously though, it's been far too long since I got to do that kind of stuff , and i need to do it far more often.

memories

It's 9.00pm on a saturday night and I'm slowly fading.
Dave and jo are working out what they'd like to order from the Tottenham catalogue, play-fighting and generally messing around.
I on the other hand , am sitting peacefully listening to my favourite tracks , headphones on to block out the family guy episodes that Jo has on the TV, and thinking about the next few days.
I'm travelling up the country on Monday morning in order to be at my great aunts funeral, and it'll be another long day there and back.
But I know I'd regret it if i didn't go.

Damn, I've just realised that I forgot to get a card too.
:(
It's always far harder to write an 'in sympathy' card than any other kind.
I need time to get the words right.
And now I've forgotten to pick one up.
I had to stay on at work after we closed at 2.00pm so that I could get at least part of the stocktake done that ought to be done on monday [ when I'll be half way up the country instead ].
I gave up at 7.30pm and came home, totally forgetting the card, but there's only so much you can do in one hit, and I'd reached my limit.

However, I digress.

It's strange how we remember people.
I get snapshots of snatches of time, filled with texture and sounds, with the occasional scent adding depth.
Most of my memories of my Great Aunt are of her laughing.
It's the picture that springs to mind when i think of her.
A tall slender woman, angular and always busy, brown hair rollered into a fifties style shoulder length 'do', harassed by children [ of which i was one ] and generally happy to see you.
I didn't get to see her as she got older, but when my mum talked of her, it was of a woman gradually ailing but of someone who was positive and happy, and who never lost her sense of humour.
She died peacefully.
I guess its the most any of us can hope for.

this is my only photo of her.


Taken c1967 in Cayton Bay in Scarborough, with 3 of her children, her niece and me.

So many memories.

Eggs, Underwear and Ukelele's.

Easter is one of my favourite holidays and this one was particularly fun.
My Mum came to visit for a couple of days.
She was picking up her car from my brother's [ he has replaced the totalled berlingo with a fiat multi something or other [sounds like a cinema complex but I know that isn't correct ] and so he doesn't need hers any longer ] and stayed over with me for a couple of days.
Being Easter I'd already had fun buying Easter things for the girls and Dave plus various other family children, but it meant for the first time in ages i got one for her too.
Sort of gave me a happy feeling doing that.

And we went shopping.
It was one of those events that you had to be involved in to see the funnies for, but lets just say that we spent most of the time giggling.
We did come out with some new underwear for her after I got totally gobsmacked realising that she was wearing bra's that were COMPLETELY the wrong size and dragged her into M&S to try on some bigger cupped ones.
Result = 2 uplifted boobs instead of 4 [ well thats what it looked like ] squashed down to her belly.
Ok, so thats an exaggeration, but only a small one!

She drove home through the snow yesterday and left me with lovely memories.

Which got me remembering other times.

So when i came across this



it brought back so many more.
Of watching the film with my Dad.
George Formby.
And for those of you too young to remember...



And home.

shoe dilemma... look it's important to ME ok!

I have a dilemma.
No, nothing life threatening or world shaking, but its important.
It's about SHOES.

Now along with a significant number of other people i love shoes, nothing new in that.
But one of the things with me is that they have to be the RIGHT shoes.

i can't wear brown boots with jeans and a black jumper , even if they are the most gorgeous boots you've ever snuggled your cute little tootsies into.
I cant wear satin courts with a cotton sundress.
I can't wear thong sandals with a formal skirt.

If I try it gives me the shudders and makes me feel totally creeped out.

What is the point to this slightly rambly blog then?

Well, I'm going to a formal black tie work related thing with 3 other female collegues and for one reason or another we're doing cocktail rather than full on floor length.
Although actually I've fallen in love with the dress I've bought , so I'm not all that fussed.
But now we get to the shoe issue.

this is the dress in question.



and i could just wear some plan black courts with it.

but I've seen these.....






And now I'm not sure.

So,
anyone out there have an opinion?

Are they too over the top ?
Should they only be worn with something plain to show them off to their full glory?
Am I a total idiot for wanting to wear a pair of shoes embellished with tape measures to a formal balck tie?
Or are they just totally scrumptious?

:D

Update: they are too high!!!!!!! *sob*
I have piddly size 4 feet and the heels had me walking almost en point.
Back to the drawing board then.

busy busy...

i didn't used to beleive my grandparents when they said that life speeds up as you get older until after I had children of my own.
Then time began to change.
Life began to kick in to overdrive.
Or perhaps it's just my perception of time thats clicked over a notch or two.
Either way I blink and a week or a month has gone, whoosh, leaving me with a blurred mushed together series of after images.

Lately I've been trying to change things down a gear, with mixed success.
My meds [ for my lovely lovely thyroid problem ] weren't working properly, leaving me with numerous symptoms that were all pretty innocuous individually, but when added together left me like some aching, lethargic blob.
Luckily my blood test confirmed that it was my thyroxine level that needed boosting, so I'm now popping an extra tab and beginning to feel more normal.
Well, if normal can be used to describe me :D

So....what have I got up to now the aches are a fading memory?
Well, I managed to fit in going to see the Out of the Ordinary exhibition at the V&A.

There were some amazing exhibits , but I think my favourite was the lung made from blown glass, and lit so that it almost fluouresced.
Gorgeous.

We had our works Christmas Do in feb too, and got taken to see the Cirque du Soleil at the Albert Hall.

I wasn't sure what to expect , but it was an amazing spectacle and I had a great evening.

Then came the downside.
I had a couple of nights of uncomfortable wear in my lenses, and like a twit, didn't get anyone to check that everything was ok until it got REALLY uncomfortable.
By which time i had got a corneal ulcer.

If you look carefully you can see a tiny white spot at about 10'o'clock on my cornea....actually, given how the photo has loaded its about at 7 o clock in this blog....hard to see given the blood-shot runny nature of my eye, but it's there.
Believe me, the little bugger is making its presence felt in a major way.
Painful doesn't even half go there.
Arrrggghhhhhhhhhhh, more like.

So to cheer myself up I've just booked to go and see Jose Gonzalez in April.
*bounces a bit*

Oh, and now it's time for my hourly dose of chloramphenicol.
And something that makes it taste better.
Not that i drink the stuff you understand....its just that it runs down the back of my throat when i put it in my eyes and then i can taste it for ages.
yuk.

I hope it heals soon.
x