Cosy Winter Evening In

Made lasagne (both meaty and veggie) for Jon, Kirsten and Hannah B, lovely to see them all and have a cosy evening in. Also made the Jamie Oliver Portuguese tarts again, much better the second time round!

The London Film Festival Marries Itself

A whole throng of us, 13 I believe, gathered at the BFI on London's Southbank to watch a collection of short films which culminated in The Man Who Married Himself, the short fiolm Charlie wrote based on his short story of the same name. Some odd and some good films before it, but it definitely shone as a funny, bright and pacey piece.

Dinner afterwards at Pizza Express, lovely to see the Keats, Jacksons, Smiths, a Toth and a Jongberg!

Hail to the Chef

Lots of cooking in preparation for the weekend ... nothing better than having delicious food ready at minimal notice.

Christmas Planning

Made some good progress in planning this year's Christmas card. Pleased to realise I will soon have 10 years of handmade cards under my belt. A cosy thought.

A Belated Happy Birthday ...

... to the blog, which turned 1 year old on 5th Oct without my noticing. Must have been distracted by something ;)

Caroline's Hen - Back in Time!

Met at Westminster Abbey for a 1940's themed Treasure Hunt at 10am, which had us traipsing round the Cabinet War Rooms, asking a nice young man to sing 'pack up your troubles' for us and kissing various Churchill statues. Met back at the Red Lion on Whitehall, and then to the restaurant Sarastro.A fabulous, theatrical venue, apparently they have people singing opera on some nights. Gold fabric and harlequin flashes cover the walls, and some tables are completely set away in a stage or audience box setting.

We all brought Caroline a pair of knickers for her 'bridal trousseau' (I still don't know what that is!), and one brave and brilliant soul (not me) knitted some!

Then back home to prepare for an evening out in Shoreditch, hairpins and red lipstick at the ready for full 40's glamour.
Had lovely chats with Caroline, the South America ladies, and another pregnant lady Claire, who is 7 months and was happy to chat about her NCT experiences.

Moseyed on home to meet with Fish who had been writing at the Ritzy all day, and yet again indulged a craving for a Macdonalds Cheeseburger (why that? I never usually eat Macdonalds?!?!) on the way home.

More Pottos ...

Just in case you don't know what one looks like, here is a pic from Cincinnati Zoo:

In some parts of Africa it is called a 'Softly-Softly' ... I love it!

Pottos and Meercats and Piranhas ... oh my!

Finished work at lunch and spent a lovely day with Mink at London Zoo ... so exciting! Some mild threat of disappointment in the night zone when the pottos seemed to be hiding, but they made up for it when we went back a minute later ... they are so stretchy and furry and lovable!

Highlights include the pottos (of course), meercats, penguins, the spotty stingray. Then joined a bit bundle of lovely ladies for the first meal to kick off Caroline's hen weekend ... a weekend of fun awaits!

A Confession - Some fabulous news!

Dear Blog, I have not been telling you the ENTIRE truth over the last 3 months. Various entries where I have been hungry, not 100% well and exhausted betrayed some predictable symptoms.

So, Charlie and I are expecting our first baby, due in the middle of April, the above scan is from 28th Sept. We spent a wonderful weekend telling the whole family, just great to be able to tell all of them face to face. It is a relief that we can now start telling people at work too.

Not feeling sick anymore, just a bit worn out from time to time ... taking good care of us both :)

Jean Michel Jarre - Lasers of Fury!

After a scrumptious lunch with T and D, took the train back to London, and had some brief time at home before meeting Mum, Dad, Andrew, Erika and Matthew for dinner at Azzurro near Waterloo, before heading off to the O2 at Greenwich to watch Jean Michel Jarre.

The jumping Frenchman leaped down from the audience at the back, chequered trousers and floppy hair all ready for the electronica-fest that awaited.

Was a fun evening, of course so lovely to see the family as well.

A great way to spend 10/10/10!

Chocolart!

We met up with Robin, Marion, Erika Dan and Ellie to celebrate Robin's birthday in Reigate at Pizza Express, and then proceeded to celebrate further by attending a wonderful chocolate making workshop.

Was great to learn some basic tips about chocolate, creating delicate (and sometimes slightly too clunky) choccies and generally making a chocolatey mess.

Finished off a lovely day by getting the train down to Brighton and having a yummy moussaka with Theresa and Demitris, had a lazy evening in their beautiful newly arranged lounge before bed.

Veggie-fest with Nat

Took the lovely Natalie out for a belated birthday present to Vanilla Black, a vegetarian restaurant spectaculaaaar! Food was amazing, beautiful and pristine. Lovely to catch up and hear all her news about the Corsica holiday, the boyfriend and the job. She is always so busy, so it was a joy to get some good quality Nat time, just me and her.

Roll on the weekend and seeing the family!

Ai Wei Wei at Tate Modern

Spent the evening at the Tate Modern at a preview of the new turbine hall installation sponsored by Unilever (the hosts for the evening), many millions of handcrafted handpainted porcelain sunflower seeds. Lovely food, including a main course where jasmine tea was poured on top and dry ice fizzed and smoked in front of my eyes. Heston, eat your heart out!

Oof Monster

Ruth came down to stay with us this evening, and we went to Pizza Express with Mink for a lovely dinner. So good to see them both!

Not too disadvantaged by the tube strike. Actually, as some of the stations were closed, the journey was quicker than usual.

Coffee and TV

Met up with Caroline this afternoon for a lovely lazy coffee at the Hive. Was really good to catch up with her, what with her approaching wedding. Followed by some good impactful sorting out, plus finishing off some minor work bits and pieces with TV on ... some good lazy Sunday activities. Especially as we have a few busy weekends coming up!

A Cosy Day Inside

Though the ran fell outside, we stayed in and had a lovely time. OK, so I snuck out to Brixton in the morning sunshine to pick up some food, and went for a swim in the afternoon, but mostly spent the day inside playing board games and eating!

Andrew, Erika, Kirsten and Alex came round, and mostly played Carcasonne. Even I played a couple of games, and it wasn't bad, though a bit challenging for my very short attention span. Andrew and Erika went out for dinner, so the rest of us ate in (the fabulous beef and ale stew I made earlier in the week, and a pasta bake foe me and K) and watched a film.

'Dark City' was odd and creepy. Not bad, but scary at points.

Tired Bees

Juts had a lovely dinner in the Hive with Mr Fish, now zoning out after a long week, possibly watching the film 'Waiting'. A relaxing weekend awaits, joy!

'Comedy', by the BBC

Erika and Dan had a spare free ticket to go and see 'Live at the Apollo at Hammersmith along with them and Gilly. Managed to get to the front of the queue pretty quickly as I arrived early which made everything much easier.

Some good comedy with Stephen K Amos, Sean Lock and others, though by the end (having arrived at 5 and leaving at around 11) I was pretty tired and hungry and ready for bed!

Good to see them all too!

Poor Charlie could not join us as he was still finishing his dissertation, which is now on the brink of being finished ... just one more day!!

3,500 people were packed into the Hammersmith Apollo, a good audience for a fun night of comedy. I wonder how much they edit out, as there were a few technical hitches and risque comments by both the comedians and the audience.

Managed to get home pretty speedily, good thing too as it is a school day tomorrow ...

An Unexpected Guest

Feeling much better.

Left work a bit early to make up for my very long day on Friday. Had a wander round Notting Hill and Oxford Street, but to no avail. And had a call from Barry Drew when I got home who was on his way to the Academy to watch Placebo (long story). He popped in for a cup of tea and a chat, quite a pleasant diversion for a normal Monday evening.

Feeling A Bit Peaky

Something has clearly disagreed with me, as my tummy is complaining and I feel a bit sick, and have been doing since I woke up. So, I have been having a relaxing day in bed trying to figure out what is up, felling at various points quite sick and then much better. Can't really blame the chef of last night's feast, as it was me, and besides Fishy is fine.

So now I have at least showered and started sorting out my wardrobe, going through to ditch and store summer things, replacing with brown woollen skirts as I tend to in the season of dark evenings and mellow fruitlessness.

Just popped out to take a load to the charity shop and pick up some chicken for dinner from M&S, and caught both shops before they shut. A brief feeling of success, before once again feeling sicky. Am going to see if the soothing tones of Michael Palin's 'Around the World in 80 Days' can fix me.