Life and pondering the merits of a NO REFUND CULTURE
Loved stuff
Loved stuff: Su-Bo is just amazing
Nov 27th
I have downloaded Susan Boyle’s new album. It is stunning. I am getting Streisand-like goose bumps just listening to it. Wild Horses, her first single, makes me well up with tears every time I hear it. Her voice is absolutely beautiful: totally, overwhelmingly stunning. I know I am gushing but it is fabulous.
Apparently the album is breaking records left, right and centre in terms of number of downloads, blah,blah,blah. I am not surprised and wholeheartedly encourage you to get yourself a copy (or at least get one for your Mum for Christmas but load it up on your iTunes first). ;+)
Never has the saying about a book, its cover and judgement been so apt. The stylists have really gone to town on her mind and she is looking much groomed. I hope she stays her quirky slightly dishevelled self (great to see her with neat eyebrows though).
I want Mr Cowell to set up a Leona and Susan duet on the night of the X Factor final.
Actually do you know what, on second thoughts this might be unwise, I might end up hospitalised with emotional exhaustion!
Loved stuff: My advice… get on and commit to ‘The One’
Oct 16th
Now you may or may not know, but on the 29 August, six odd weeks ago, I married my boyfriend. I am so pleased that I have done it. Chad and I are officially partners in crime.
There have been a duo of recurring questions that people have asked me:
Question one (in the one hour lead up to and after the ceremony): Are you feeling / did you feel nervous?
Question two (from about two weeks after the ceremony): Do you feel different?
So the answers to these…
In response to question one the answer is ‘no’ – I’d never felt so serene and content in my life.
The response to question two is ‘yes’ and also ‘no’ – let me explain myself – yes I do feel different, but not different different – just a more intense range of emotions than before: more secure, happier, more loved, more committed, closer, just more of a range of positve feelings that started in the first few days of meeting my (now) husband.
In the finale of my official wedding speech I talked about one of my favourite characters from one of my favourite TV shows of all time: Charlotte from Sex in the City. I loved her character – she always believed that there was ‘The One’ and she never lost the faith, despite the disappointment, despite kissing many frogs that never morphed into the prince.
As I mentioned in front of my friends and family (having consumed a suitable volume of bubbles) – I’ve ‘kissed’ many (many, many) frogs and had the most disastrous and toxic six and a half year relationship (that a therapist [I need a whole separate post on my belief in the power of talking to a professional] decided was with a narcissistic psychopath). But I never lost my faith, like the fictional Charlotte, that ‘The One’ is out there.
My toast at the end of my speech was: ‘To Chad, to my amazing Chad, my The One’.
He is just that, and I am going to work really hard to make sure of it.
I am sorry that this post might come across as ’smug married’ but I don’t apologise and I don’t care if I sound preachy.
So many of the people I know don’t throw themselves into a relationship – they hold back, play games and quite frankly waste time. You know if the one you are with is a keeper or a stinker who needs to be binned.
If your partner is your best mate (who you love doing intimate stuff with) then just go for it.
Loved stuff: Bring back The West Wing
Oct 1st
The night before last we finished our The West Wing box set – seven season, 157 episodes of total and utter brilliance. Chad calculated that we have watched it all in 160 days (since I got it from Claire as a birthday present back in April) – now that is dedication.
I’m sad that it is over and that I’m not going to get to see how the Santos presidency differed from the eight years of Bartlett’s. Ho hum.
If you don’t know anything about the programme then the Wikipedia entry is really good. I can only encourage you to buy a box set – it is totally ace. My friend Sally has recommended that I watch the one season of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip that was also written by Aaron Sorkin.
Well at least I have achieved one of my goals of 2009 to watch the whole thing – it’s good to achieve one’s life ambitions ;+)
Loved stuff: Post-It notes
Aug 23rd
I have always loved Post-It notes (they are just to pleasing). When I was small we used to occasionally visit my Dad in his office and we were allowed to raid the stationery cupboard. They were only the boring pastel yellow ones in those days but I loved them. I use Post-It Notes for everything these days at work and I still think they are fab (although I avoid the pastel colours at all costs).
Check out this video – it is so much fun (and brings a huge smile to my face)…
EepyBird’s Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.
Loved stuff: Being horizontal
Jul 29th
OK – I know I am meant to be in off-line mode (see today’s other post below) but as I wean myself off the laptop (this was a hybrid day after all) a ‘happy holiday’ tweet from @jonmoss inspired this post as I waxed lyrical about the fact I had been horizontal for most of the day. So hear is the post…
There are times when you cannot beat being horizontal – in this bodily orientation I get to do some of my favourite things:
- Sleep
- Lying on the couch listen to music / watching a movie on TV
- Sunbathing with a book (normally under an umbrella)
- Floating on a lilo in a pool
- Lounging on the grass after a picnic
The best horizontal moment of the day is when you first get in bed (especially if the sheets are brand new), you get in position, nuzzle with the pillow and feel the day drain away as you drift into unconsciousness – perfect.
Thankfully for me sleep arrives very quickly and unless I have something pressing on my mind normally I go to sleep in under 60 seconds (normally less than 30). My definition of insomnia is sleep that takes more than 2 minutes to come – if this happens there is something huge in mind and its best to get vertical again and get out of bed (horizontal and over processing a problem in bed is the only time that horizontal is not good).
I just thought that being dead involves a lot of being horizontal – so that is actually probably the worst type of horizontal and is generally best avoided.
There are lots of great things about being vertical – but being horizontal is definitely my favourite.
PS: I actually wrote this post while laying on the couch!
Crumptales: Two wheeled love rediscovered…
Jul 25th
This week I became something that I haven’t been for 13 years… a cyclist.
Having totally failed at my recent gym visiting attempt (stats: three visits / seven months / £640 = £213 per visit [ouch]) I was inspired by a cyclist colleague in the office to get on a bike. With the prompting of inspirational colleague my business has joined the government cycle scheme (you get to deduct the tax) and three of us have now bought bikes and have the all the paraphernalia that goes with it (and cost as much as the bike!).
Now as some of you may know I am a car lover and have been lucky enough to have to avoided the dreaded Tube to get to work for years now by driving. I have been in my silver Merc bubble for a long time and get to indulge my other love of listening to BBC Radio 4 (especially Today in the morning and the comedy shows at 18:30). This week I have been got in my car a total of zero times.
I have cycled to and from work through sunshine, wind and rain (we have been having a typical London summer). I have huffed and puffed my way to and fro. I have arrived at work with a weird pale and blotchy purple pallor, as well as slightly damp looking hair… I have absolutely loved it.
It takes exactly the same length of time to cycle the four and a half miles as it does to drive, and I think that with time as my sluggish (to non-existent) fitness improves I will be able to do it quicker.
Now cycling is dangerous and the cyclist is an unloved road user (check out this excellent post from willc.me), but given a bit of care and planning the risks and level of interaction with other traffic can be minimised. Chad prompted me to look up a route on the Transport for London Journey Planner – you put in that you want to cycle from X to Y and hey presto a route is recommended. I now have a lovely cycle to and from work through the quiet and very gentrified (totally untouched by the credit crunch) streets of St John’s Wood.
The Chad prompt was stimulated by the fact that on my trip back from the bike shop to home with my sparkly new bike and zero fitness I went via Swiss Cottage Roundabout. Now if you know this delightful road intersection I appreciate that you will have just gasped at my stupidity. If you don’t know the roundabout then think Arc de Triomphe in Paris (three /four lanes of fast crisscrossing vehicles) and you aren’t far off.
As I approached the roundabout I thought ‘this is a bad idea’ and guess what, it so totally was. I pulled into the traffic as fast as I could and then started squealing as I attempted to cross two lanes with a car almost touching my back wheel with horn blaring. Anyway, I lived to tell the tale and will not, under any circumstances, be doing that again.
So the bike looks like it is going to work out and hurrah and hurray I might have found a way to get exercise back in my life. Cyclists might be despised (especially by mean arse bus drivers) but the liberation that you feel on a bike is fantastic and is why so many people are revisiting life before they were seventeen and got their driving licence: when your bike was your escape pod to adventure.
Loved stuff: Cecilia Magdelena Sandrini
Jul 16th
Some friends and I went to a do yesterday – the lovely Wenche’s PhD graduation dinner – it was a fabulous evening and Dr Wenche Torrissen (who looked like a beautful angel) was, as always, amazing.
The dinner was on Portobello Road (home of the world famous street market) in Notting Hill at a great restaurant called The Muse at 269. They always have an artist in residence (who quite literally lives above the the restaurant while they work). The works of the artist Cecilia Magdelena Sandrini were exhibited and I just love her work…
This one was called ‘Routine’…
This is ‘Smile’…
This one is the ‘Economic Prayer’…
The prayer reads:
Dear Lord, please in this time of financial woe, do not worry about those who have no property, job or savings, we shall carry on the same as before. Look after those such as Kate Moss and Elton John, whose homes have lost over a million in value. They have truly known loss in the economic downturn. Amen.
Brilliant work and what an ace name. Beats Neil Crump.
Loved stuff: I want one of these
Jul 8th
At the Goodwood Festival of Speed while wondering around the exhibitors area, and burning my nose in the sun, we stumbled upon this beauty…
One day this will be a suprise birthday present from Chad
This is a Porsche Speedster and is the cutest and most lovely shaped car I have ever seen – I really want one.
Loved stuff: Dancing on the ceiling…
Jul 6th
Oh what a feeling, when your dancing on the ceiling…
This is a great song from Lionel Ritchie (my friend Rhian-Mari’s most favourite of favourite song and singer).
The ad agencies of Germany must have been playing this when they came up with these two brilliant concepts that are executed in Frankfurt airport…
First of all the Fiat 500 that is on the ceiling of the airport – it caught my eye and as I pointed my phone’s camera to take a snap, it sent out a Bluetooth signal to my phone to connect with me. Brilliant technology, only attempting to connect when had the phone pointing at it. I know this because, the geek that I am, I tested it by walking under and around the car (I wasn’t in a rush to get to the gate – this time!!!).
Fiat car on the ceiling that connects with your mobile
Second discovery occurred as I waited to check in my bag at the Lufthansa fast bag drop desks. I felt this weird sensation – you know, the one when you sense that someone is staring at you. Well I looked around and no starers, then out of the corner of my eye was a pair of men’s shoes about 10 feet above my head – I did a mini duck of my head (thank fully I didn’t throw myself to the ground). Here was what the shoes were attached to…
Full sized men reading their favourite magazine on the ceiling
This is ad for a German-language business magazine (cannot remember the name – I cannot speak German so not the target market). Great fun though.
Loved stuff: Bad yet thrilling memories
Jun 26th
Just watched a Michael Jackson tribute programme where they played his best videos – boy they were great tunes and the video spectacles that that he created were amazing.
To be honest I haven’t been a huge fan over the last decade and some of the ‘reported’ elements of his life were frankly a bit worrying – reported being the operative word. I have been the first person to be fascinated by his changing appearance and making quite frankly disparaging comments.
It is so terribly sad that he has died, especially as he was about to do the mega London concerts and was going to get the satisfaction of being back on top – where he clearly enjoyed being and with his talent for singing and performance he did deserve.
I am feeling a bit queasy about the whole thing: how the media is suddenly being so positive about the man – having torn him down so hard for such a long period. I am sure that more money will be made as a result of his death by the vultures who were doing very nicely on the money front on the drag down.
However as I said I took part in being fascinated by the man and fuelling the tear down. Yep, feeling a bit rubbish about it.
You just think that if he could have heard all this positive stuff being said now that it might have given him a boost that, let’s face it, all of us need from time to time.
All very sad – but listening and watching the videos on the box has brought back two childhood memories that I had totally forgotten and which have made me smile…
NUMBER ONE: I had the Thriller album on cassette tape – I was eight years old and I absolutely LOVED it. I played it so much that I stretched the tape. So now when I hear any of the songs from the album I actually think that they are being played a tiny bit too fast. I had a Thriller poster on my bedroom wall and Elaine (my little sister) and I used to act out the Thriller video morning after morning for months.
NUMBER TWO: I was 14 and the day that Bad came out my dad took me to town in the car and I stood in the queue before the record shop opened to be one of the first to get it. I had never done that before (or since). It was a big moment and I remember rushing home and playing that LP over and over again – it was the coolest thing ever.
All the ‘RIP MJ’ on Twitter seems on the surface a bit too much: overly media generated and desperate, but do you know what, he does deserve to rest in peace and he did inspire millions of people.
Some recent post comments