What a feeling dah, dah, dah d dah!
Gosh! It's been absolutely ages since I updated properly.
I am currently feeling accomplished. This evening I finished painting my living room/kitchen ceiling all by myself. I'd never painted anything before and didn't expect it to be an easy job so it's good to know that it's now complete without any major disasters occuring. One problem I hadn't anticipated was that it is quite tricky painting something the same colour it is already as it's difficult to tell which bits you've painted already and which you haven't. I tried to work in a logical order but once you've gone down the ladder, put more paint on your roller and then climbed back up the ladder again it's easy to forget where you were. Anyway, it's done now. It's not the best paint job ever. You can clearly see that it's patchy and some areas are better covered than others however it is just the ceiling and I'm hoping people won't look to closely. Most importantly, the patch of Coca Cola blotches over the sofa are now gone so it's mission successful. I've spent the last few days living in chaos as the furniture has been all over the place. The process of moving stuff out of the living room has reminded me of two things (a) what a nice, big space it is and (b) how much better it looks when it is tidy. I'm now considering some changes to the furniture. Also I was given a large piggy bank as a late birthday present which won't fit on any of my living room surfaces at present. It'd be good to have a nice big display shelf to put it on so it doesn't languish in my bedroom forever.
I'm doubley pleased with myself for completing the painting as I'm really quite unwell at the moment. I woke up with a sore throat on Tuesday morning, wasn't too bad on Wednesday, sore throat returned on Thursday and has now turned into a chesty cough which I have a horrible suspiscion may be an 'upper respiratory tract infection'. I had my tonsils out when I was six and I now seem to get such and infection when everyone around me has tonisilitis. Fingers crossed it goes away with me having to go to the Drs for antibiotics. I didn't sleep well last night as I kept waking up to cough which is why I'm still awake now. I'm hoping if I make myself tired enough I'll sleep through. Typical that I get ill whilst I'm on annual leave. I was talking about this to Mr Mole earlier on and it probably is the fact that my body has 'allowed' me to get ill this week whilst my guard is down. Bother.
While I'm here I feel I should update on last weekend's festivities before I forget what happened. Last weekend I attended the hen do of one of my dearest friends. The theme was 80s and a whole day of fun had been arranged by her two lovely bridesmaids. I started by making my way over to Clapham Junction to meet my friend who was one of the organising bridesmaids. We were then due to meet our other friend, who was putting us up for the night, at Streatham Common Station. I was late which caused friend #1 some stress so I started the day feeling bad. Fortunately, someone then got stuck in traffic between Hammersmith and Streatham which worried her more so I felt like I was off the hook a bit. We got ready and friend #2s flat, met up with the rest of the party and then made our way up to Tottenham Court Road on the Tube. It would be fair to say we got a few funny looks from our fellow passengers. I don't think luminous pink leg warmers are considered 'normal' fashion even by Londoners. We met a few more people in All Bar One of Tottenham Court Road and then made our way to Fitness First to learn an 80s style dance routine. The bride had requested the theme from Flashdance. It was lots of fun. Our instructor was very enthusiastic and very understanding of the fact that some of us weren't very good. I'm really not very co-ordinated and generally rubbish at anything involving moving arms and legs together but I think I managed to keep up quite well. Especially, as the bride and some of her other friends do a lot of dancing. There was one bit towards the end of the routine where we had 8 counts to form a line across the room. It was hilarious, all sorts of chaos ensued. On one occasion I caught the eye of one friend and there was absolute panic in her face! The final performance (including a lift!) was filmed and should be on the internet at some point soon. Sadly, the bride is adamant that it won't end up anywhere public so I won't be able to link to it here.
After the dancing we sorted ourselves out in the gym changing rooms. I'd never been in the changing room of a private gym before - when I used to go to the gym I just used to walk straight home and have a bath - so it was a bit of a shock that people just strip off in front of everyone else. I spent most of the time looking at my feet! In between avoiding making eye contact with anyone, I changed into my second outfit of the day. My first outfit was inspired by 'Fame'. It comprised of sparkly plimsolls (most people had bare feet but the verucca of doom meant that wasn't an option for me), black leggings, luminous pink leg warmers, tiny grey shorts (£2 in Primark!) and an off the shoulder top with a day-glo design on the front. My 'evening' outfit consisted of: a t-shirt dress with a black, grey and yellow blocks on the front, a thick blue elasticated belt with very tasteful silver and blue butterfly clasp on the front, blue stilleto heels (I originally wanted white but decided there was a chance I might wear blue ones again) and big yellow earrings. Both outfits were finished with a side pony tail. Everyone made an effort to dress up and we all looked really good. Nearly all of us wore bright pink leg warmers which looked excellant in the video.
Our next stop was a restaurant called Imperial China located appropriately in Chinatown. The restaurant was really cute. You go in through an ordinary looking shop front, then you go outside again and there is a little wooden bridge over a little pond with a waterfall which has real fish in it. Then you enter the main building. We had booked a private room where we got to control our own Karaoke. It was great as it meant we got to sing all the time and we didn't have any strangers laughing at us. We had to choose from either Western, Chinese or Hong Kong songs. Clearly the people in the room next to us hadn't chosen Western as they were singing extremely loudly (and badly) in a foreign language all the time we were there! We had the set menu which wasn't amazing but definitely edible. Lots of singing was done by lots of people. I only did Toxic by Britney Spears. I'm such a dreadful singer that I daren't have tried anything mildly difficult. I noticed that many people were encouraging me to sing, but after I'd sung they didn't ask me to go again!
Our final stop of the evening was The Loop Bar which is just off Tottenham Court Road. We ordered taxis from Chinatown to the bar. I'd never been in Soho on Saturday night before. It was crazy. We saw some guys chasing someone which was clearly going to turn into a fight, and the roads were chaotic. China town is cool though. I can't understand how so many Chinese restaurants in such a small area all stay in business. All the signs for the businesses above the restaurants are all in Chinese and the road signs are in English and Chinese.
I'd been to the Loop Bar before, but a long time ago. On that occasion we'd stayed upstairs and had food. On this occasion we'd reserved a booth in the second basement. It was quite strange going down to the basement and then going down to a second basement. Quite a good range of music was played however the DJ's mixing skills left a lot to be desired. He was trying to show off and failing miserably. Towards the end they played some old rave classics which made me happy. At 1am we got cabs back to Streatham which was big treat for me and we were in bed by 2am. It was a great evening and the bride seemed to enjoy herself. Only three weeks until the wedding now and I have nothing to wear - aarrgghh!
I took this week off work as annual leave. The main purpose was to paint the ceiling, however on Monday my Dad suggested that we go on a trip to Blenhiem Palace. Blenhiem Palace is in Oxfordshire. It's famous because it's a Baroque style building and it's enormous. It's also famous because Winston Churchill was born there and later proposed to his wife there. It is quite an impressive place. The architecture is certainly different. It's made out of a yellowy coloured limestone which is quite unusual. You enter through a big courtyard which is covered in gravel. It wasn't a very sunny day when we visited and it all seemed quite bleak. Mum said that it could do with a few pot plants for interest! Inside, the decor is all about excess. The palace was built in commemoration of the first Duke of Marlborough's victory at the Battle of Blenheim and the whole place is full of references to this. There's a massive mural on the ceiling of the entrance hall showing him giving the note stating that he'd won the battle to none other than Britannia. When I say massive, I mean massive. It's in a similar style to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. There is also a whole series of huge tapesteries and a silver table centre all about the battle. In the grounds there is a Nelson's Column style column with the Duke on the top, with a blow by blow account of the battle written on the lower parts. We walked over the the column through a field full of very woolly sheep who were doing a good job of keeping the grass short. It would be fair to say that the Marlborough's weren't modest at all! The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough still live there some of the time. The Duke is in his 80s and married his fourth wife in December. He's disinherited his oldest son because he doesn't approve of his lifestyle. Don't you just love the British aristocracy!
That's all for now. I'd better get some sleep. I've got a trial at the hairdressers for my bridesmaid hair tomorrow afternoon. Very excited (and nervous!)
I am currently feeling accomplished. This evening I finished painting my living room/kitchen ceiling all by myself. I'd never painted anything before and didn't expect it to be an easy job so it's good to know that it's now complete without any major disasters occuring. One problem I hadn't anticipated was that it is quite tricky painting something the same colour it is already as it's difficult to tell which bits you've painted already and which you haven't. I tried to work in a logical order but once you've gone down the ladder, put more paint on your roller and then climbed back up the ladder again it's easy to forget where you were. Anyway, it's done now. It's not the best paint job ever. You can clearly see that it's patchy and some areas are better covered than others however it is just the ceiling and I'm hoping people won't look to closely. Most importantly, the patch of Coca Cola blotches over the sofa are now gone so it's mission successful. I've spent the last few days living in chaos as the furniture has been all over the place. The process of moving stuff out of the living room has reminded me of two things (a) what a nice, big space it is and (b) how much better it looks when it is tidy. I'm now considering some changes to the furniture. Also I was given a large piggy bank as a late birthday present which won't fit on any of my living room surfaces at present. It'd be good to have a nice big display shelf to put it on so it doesn't languish in my bedroom forever.
I'm doubley pleased with myself for completing the painting as I'm really quite unwell at the moment. I woke up with a sore throat on Tuesday morning, wasn't too bad on Wednesday, sore throat returned on Thursday and has now turned into a chesty cough which I have a horrible suspiscion may be an 'upper respiratory tract infection'. I had my tonsils out when I was six and I now seem to get such and infection when everyone around me has tonisilitis. Fingers crossed it goes away with me having to go to the Drs for antibiotics. I didn't sleep well last night as I kept waking up to cough which is why I'm still awake now. I'm hoping if I make myself tired enough I'll sleep through. Typical that I get ill whilst I'm on annual leave. I was talking about this to Mr Mole earlier on and it probably is the fact that my body has 'allowed' me to get ill this week whilst my guard is down. Bother.
While I'm here I feel I should update on last weekend's festivities before I forget what happened. Last weekend I attended the hen do of one of my dearest friends. The theme was 80s and a whole day of fun had been arranged by her two lovely bridesmaids. I started by making my way over to Clapham Junction to meet my friend who was one of the organising bridesmaids. We were then due to meet our other friend, who was putting us up for the night, at Streatham Common Station. I was late which caused friend #1 some stress so I started the day feeling bad. Fortunately, someone then got stuck in traffic between Hammersmith and Streatham which worried her more so I felt like I was off the hook a bit. We got ready and friend #2s flat, met up with the rest of the party and then made our way up to Tottenham Court Road on the Tube. It would be fair to say we got a few funny looks from our fellow passengers. I don't think luminous pink leg warmers are considered 'normal' fashion even by Londoners. We met a few more people in All Bar One of Tottenham Court Road and then made our way to Fitness First to learn an 80s style dance routine. The bride had requested the theme from Flashdance. It was lots of fun. Our instructor was very enthusiastic and very understanding of the fact that some of us weren't very good. I'm really not very co-ordinated and generally rubbish at anything involving moving arms and legs together but I think I managed to keep up quite well. Especially, as the bride and some of her other friends do a lot of dancing. There was one bit towards the end of the routine where we had 8 counts to form a line across the room. It was hilarious, all sorts of chaos ensued. On one occasion I caught the eye of one friend and there was absolute panic in her face! The final performance (including a lift!) was filmed and should be on the internet at some point soon. Sadly, the bride is adamant that it won't end up anywhere public so I won't be able to link to it here.
After the dancing we sorted ourselves out in the gym changing rooms. I'd never been in the changing room of a private gym before - when I used to go to the gym I just used to walk straight home and have a bath - so it was a bit of a shock that people just strip off in front of everyone else. I spent most of the time looking at my feet! In between avoiding making eye contact with anyone, I changed into my second outfit of the day. My first outfit was inspired by 'Fame'. It comprised of sparkly plimsolls (most people had bare feet but the verucca of doom meant that wasn't an option for me), black leggings, luminous pink leg warmers, tiny grey shorts (£2 in Primark!) and an off the shoulder top with a day-glo design on the front. My 'evening' outfit consisted of: a t-shirt dress with a black, grey and yellow blocks on the front, a thick blue elasticated belt with very tasteful silver and blue butterfly clasp on the front, blue stilleto heels (I originally wanted white but decided there was a chance I might wear blue ones again) and big yellow earrings. Both outfits were finished with a side pony tail. Everyone made an effort to dress up and we all looked really good. Nearly all of us wore bright pink leg warmers which looked excellant in the video.
Our next stop was a restaurant called Imperial China located appropriately in Chinatown. The restaurant was really cute. You go in through an ordinary looking shop front, then you go outside again and there is a little wooden bridge over a little pond with a waterfall which has real fish in it. Then you enter the main building. We had booked a private room where we got to control our own Karaoke. It was great as it meant we got to sing all the time and we didn't have any strangers laughing at us. We had to choose from either Western, Chinese or Hong Kong songs. Clearly the people in the room next to us hadn't chosen Western as they were singing extremely loudly (and badly) in a foreign language all the time we were there! We had the set menu which wasn't amazing but definitely edible. Lots of singing was done by lots of people. I only did Toxic by Britney Spears. I'm such a dreadful singer that I daren't have tried anything mildly difficult. I noticed that many people were encouraging me to sing, but after I'd sung they didn't ask me to go again!
Our final stop of the evening was The Loop Bar which is just off Tottenham Court Road. We ordered taxis from Chinatown to the bar. I'd never been in Soho on Saturday night before. It was crazy. We saw some guys chasing someone which was clearly going to turn into a fight, and the roads were chaotic. China town is cool though. I can't understand how so many Chinese restaurants in such a small area all stay in business. All the signs for the businesses above the restaurants are all in Chinese and the road signs are in English and Chinese.
I'd been to the Loop Bar before, but a long time ago. On that occasion we'd stayed upstairs and had food. On this occasion we'd reserved a booth in the second basement. It was quite strange going down to the basement and then going down to a second basement. Quite a good range of music was played however the DJ's mixing skills left a lot to be desired. He was trying to show off and failing miserably. Towards the end they played some old rave classics which made me happy. At 1am we got cabs back to Streatham which was big treat for me and we were in bed by 2am. It was a great evening and the bride seemed to enjoy herself. Only three weeks until the wedding now and I have nothing to wear - aarrgghh!
I took this week off work as annual leave. The main purpose was to paint the ceiling, however on Monday my Dad suggested that we go on a trip to Blenhiem Palace. Blenhiem Palace is in Oxfordshire. It's famous because it's a Baroque style building and it's enormous. It's also famous because Winston Churchill was born there and later proposed to his wife there. It is quite an impressive place. The architecture is certainly different. It's made out of a yellowy coloured limestone which is quite unusual. You enter through a big courtyard which is covered in gravel. It wasn't a very sunny day when we visited and it all seemed quite bleak. Mum said that it could do with a few pot plants for interest! Inside, the decor is all about excess. The palace was built in commemoration of the first Duke of Marlborough's victory at the Battle of Blenheim and the whole place is full of references to this. There's a massive mural on the ceiling of the entrance hall showing him giving the note stating that he'd won the battle to none other than Britannia. When I say massive, I mean massive. It's in a similar style to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. There is also a whole series of huge tapesteries and a silver table centre all about the battle. In the grounds there is a Nelson's Column style column with the Duke on the top, with a blow by blow account of the battle written on the lower parts. We walked over the the column through a field full of very woolly sheep who were doing a good job of keeping the grass short. It would be fair to say that the Marlborough's weren't modest at all! The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough still live there some of the time. The Duke is in his 80s and married his fourth wife in December. He's disinherited his oldest son because he doesn't approve of his lifestyle. Don't you just love the British aristocracy!
That's all for now. I'd better get some sleep. I've got a trial at the hairdressers for my bridesmaid hair tomorrow afternoon. Very excited (and nervous!)