My kingdom for a title...
It has been a while since I updated. Long enough, in fact, that I was surprised when I looked at the date. So I am very obviously still alive, and life has been happening, as it tends to when you aren’t looking, and I suspect I can fill a post with lots of my usual rambling.
So! Good news:
The Hack is employed again! He is now the deputy news editor at Zoo. Not, as one of my colleagues thought, London Zoo, with lions and tigers and bears, oh my! It’s a very different kind of Zoo, where the wildlife is more, um, commonplace. Yes, in a job that has made all his dreams come true, he works for a lads mag.
In recent weeks, his life has featured such highlights as...
Go-Karting with Lewis Hamilton!
Doing stand-up at the Comedy Store!
Starring as an extra in the Only Fools & Horses Christmas Special thingy! (With a truly hilarious haircut)
And also more embarrassing things, such as wearing a snugglesuit. It is a real word, and it is a bright red fleece bodysuit with paw prints on. I nearly burst my spleen laughing when he walked in wearing it.
In other news! I have changed jobs again. I now run Foods in Watford, which is very good for my career and very bad for my waistline. New job, new boss, new challenge. It has been hectic and a little scary and a lot stressful, but hopefully it is starting to calm down now.
Weddings! I had the joy of not one but two brilliant weddings over the season. For one I was a bridesmaid, and because the bride is kind and lovely, the dresses were beautiful. There was a fun night beforehand drinking champagne and letting loose sky lanterns in the garden. Comedy fake-tanning took place, which involved the Macarena in a bitingly cold September night and more champagne.
The wedding itself was wonderful; in a local church, very traditional, and packed out with people who’d known her since she was a child. She swept down the aisle like a princess, streaming tears and sequins. The priest had toned down the fire and brimstone (seriously: he was a little overexcited in the service we attended a few weeks earlier), and the readings were classic.
A frantic dash to the reception ensued as we raced to get there before our lucky couple so we could break into their room and leave gifts. On one side of the bed, flannel pyjamas. On the other, kinky stuff from Ann Summers. In the middle? A note, saying You decide. We still don’t know which they chose...
The second wedding was fantastic, in gorgeous Richmond. The bride looked ridiculously beautiful, and having feathery fans instead of flowers was brilliant. The bride and groom wrote their own vows, and they were funny, touching, and heartwarming. And I adored the fact that they danced out to We Go Together from Grease. Definitely my favourite ceremony. It all felt personal and fun.
There was also friends and dancing and Pimms, all of which are very good things. And cupcakes! Cupcakes at a wedding turned out to be genius. I managed to slam my shin into a bollard on the way out - everything to do with the dark and nothing at all with the Pimms - but the scar was well worth it. As was staying up till 2am chatting.
We continue to fail hopelessly at our pub quiz in Hampstead. Once a week, four of us gather to pool our knowledge, although it’s more of a puddle than an actual pool. Once a week, the questions fly over our head, the quizmaster mocks us, and we get delicious buttery crepes after another humiliating defeat. It’s huge fun.
Cocktail night has become a fixture at our flat. Once a month or so, everyone rocks up with mixers, we raid the booze collection, and cocktails happen! We have a book that we annotate (which has notes like WHY??? and LOOKS LIKE CHICKEN GRAVY scrawled across the recipes.) and we have had both some great and some heinous drinks. It doesn’t help that one of my friends manages to pick, unfailingly, cocktails with some much alcohol they could retail as paint-stripper. Her red wine gravy is lethal; she puts an entire bottle of wine into it.
After we broke the food processor on some vodka jelly beans that didn’t take the damn vodka, life became harder. But happily, since the hack acquired an ice-crusher, we no longer have to break the bag of ice cubes with a hammer, which must make the neighbours wonder what we’re doing. We have discovered the joy of the jammy dodger (Chambord, vodka, and cream. It tastes exactly, exactly like a jam donut.) and the peril of the Blue Hawaiian. (Could be mistaken for fabric conditioner. Both appearance and taste.)
As a gift from me to me, I went to a colour analysis day. This is where they tell you what colours suit you, which may seem fairly self-evident, but is something I have always struggled with. I now have a snazzy palette of stuff I can wear, and - joy! - three lipsticks that suit me, which may sound trivial but is my personal Holy grail of make up.
I have read many amazing books. Among my favourites - The Demon’s Covenant, I Shall Wear Midnight, Crown Duel, Monsters of Men, The Dead-Tossed Waves, Cheat The Grave, and The Magicians and Mrs Quent.
I have also started a torrid love affair with the music of A Fine Frenzy - her album One Cell By The Sea is amazing, lots of lovely haunting acoustic music. And I am also loving Lazurus by Porcupine Tree, which is pure melancholy.
It is also coming up to Christmas again! One of my favourite parts of it is writing Christmas cards. If you’d like a card, please drop me a comment (they’re screened) and I shall get a card out to you full of festive joy and wishes!
In the meantime, I hope all is well!
Ki
So! Good news:
The Hack is employed again! He is now the deputy news editor at Zoo. Not, as one of my colleagues thought, London Zoo, with lions and tigers and bears, oh my! It’s a very different kind of Zoo, where the wildlife is more, um, commonplace. Yes, in a job that has made all his dreams come true, he works for a lads mag.
In recent weeks, his life has featured such highlights as...
Go-Karting with Lewis Hamilton!
Doing stand-up at the Comedy Store!
Starring as an extra in the Only Fools & Horses Christmas Special thingy! (With a truly hilarious haircut)
And also more embarrassing things, such as wearing a snugglesuit. It is a real word, and it is a bright red fleece bodysuit with paw prints on. I nearly burst my spleen laughing when he walked in wearing it.
In other news! I have changed jobs again. I now run Foods in Watford, which is very good for my career and very bad for my waistline. New job, new boss, new challenge. It has been hectic and a little scary and a lot stressful, but hopefully it is starting to calm down now.
Weddings! I had the joy of not one but two brilliant weddings over the season. For one I was a bridesmaid, and because the bride is kind and lovely, the dresses were beautiful. There was a fun night beforehand drinking champagne and letting loose sky lanterns in the garden. Comedy fake-tanning took place, which involved the Macarena in a bitingly cold September night and more champagne.
The wedding itself was wonderful; in a local church, very traditional, and packed out with people who’d known her since she was a child. She swept down the aisle like a princess, streaming tears and sequins. The priest had toned down the fire and brimstone (seriously: he was a little overexcited in the service we attended a few weeks earlier), and the readings were classic.
A frantic dash to the reception ensued as we raced to get there before our lucky couple so we could break into their room and leave gifts. On one side of the bed, flannel pyjamas. On the other, kinky stuff from Ann Summers. In the middle? A note, saying You decide. We still don’t know which they chose...
The second wedding was fantastic, in gorgeous Richmond. The bride looked ridiculously beautiful, and having feathery fans instead of flowers was brilliant. The bride and groom wrote their own vows, and they were funny, touching, and heartwarming. And I adored the fact that they danced out to We Go Together from Grease. Definitely my favourite ceremony. It all felt personal and fun.
There was also friends and dancing and Pimms, all of which are very good things. And cupcakes! Cupcakes at a wedding turned out to be genius. I managed to slam my shin into a bollard on the way out - everything to do with the dark and nothing at all with the Pimms - but the scar was well worth it. As was staying up till 2am chatting.
We continue to fail hopelessly at our pub quiz in Hampstead. Once a week, four of us gather to pool our knowledge, although it’s more of a puddle than an actual pool. Once a week, the questions fly over our head, the quizmaster mocks us, and we get delicious buttery crepes after another humiliating defeat. It’s huge fun.
Cocktail night has become a fixture at our flat. Once a month or so, everyone rocks up with mixers, we raid the booze collection, and cocktails happen! We have a book that we annotate (which has notes like WHY??? and LOOKS LIKE CHICKEN GRAVY scrawled across the recipes.) and we have had both some great and some heinous drinks. It doesn’t help that one of my friends manages to pick, unfailingly, cocktails with some much alcohol they could retail as paint-stripper. Her red wine gravy is lethal; she puts an entire bottle of wine into it.
After we broke the food processor on some vodka jelly beans that didn’t take the damn vodka, life became harder. But happily, since the hack acquired an ice-crusher, we no longer have to break the bag of ice cubes with a hammer, which must make the neighbours wonder what we’re doing. We have discovered the joy of the jammy dodger (Chambord, vodka, and cream. It tastes exactly, exactly like a jam donut.) and the peril of the Blue Hawaiian. (Could be mistaken for fabric conditioner. Both appearance and taste.)
As a gift from me to me, I went to a colour analysis day. This is where they tell you what colours suit you, which may seem fairly self-evident, but is something I have always struggled with. I now have a snazzy palette of stuff I can wear, and - joy! - three lipsticks that suit me, which may sound trivial but is my personal Holy grail of make up.
I have read many amazing books. Among my favourites - The Demon’s Covenant, I Shall Wear Midnight, Crown Duel, Monsters of Men, The Dead-Tossed Waves, Cheat The Grave, and The Magicians and Mrs Quent.
I have also started a torrid love affair with the music of A Fine Frenzy - her album One Cell By The Sea is amazing, lots of lovely haunting acoustic music. And I am also loving Lazurus by Porcupine Tree, which is pure melancholy.
It is also coming up to Christmas again! One of my favourite parts of it is writing Christmas cards. If you’d like a card, please drop me a comment (they’re screened) and I shall get a card out to you full of festive joy and wishes!
In the meantime, I hope all is well!
Ki