My sister's spending XmasTM in New York but due to an ongoing health problem would have had trouble carrying her suitcase on the Tube to the airport, so yesterday I went along with her to Heathrow. I'd started reading Count Karlstein a couple of days before, but it's not a long book so the bus journey to her house and then the Tube back from ( Read more... )

The other day I felt I'd better apologise to triomakesmehot for the fact that she's missing out on seeing Marc Warren onstage (she's a Hustle fan,) but I think yesterday's trip may make her explode with jealousy, so I'd probably better embed something here for her as consolation - breathe, it'll be all right. Friday was Children in Need night, the annual BBC ( Read more... )

Today's the two-year anniversary of my dad's death; right on cue, I had a dream about him this morning. It was vivid enough that it took me a couple of minutes after I woke up to remember he's actually dead.

I dreamed that I was in a new fringe theatre that had recently been converted in a wing of a large old building. As far as I can remember the ( Read more... )

So right now my sister should be en-route to her new job in Cairo. I think she's picked the right place out of the ones she was offered - it's certainly closer than Santiago or Singapore, so if she needs to come back (or if she just feels homesick and fancies a weekend at Mum's) it's only a few hours' flight away. And it'll be a completely ( Read more... )

Oopsie. Remember this? Not content with being the Gaymaker, my sister's now accidentally cast herself as the Sunday papers, and is now outing the gays, whether they like it or not. Since that post last year, Vangelis was very much Penny's GBFF while she was living in Greece. They even went on a trip to Paris for her birthday, prompting his mother ( Read more... )

So just a few words on not-quite-the-wedding-of-the-century yesterday. I was a bit annoyed when I got to Mum's place and found Barry there - I know it's low-key and everything but they could have at least pretended to do it properly and not see each other before the wedding. At least I got a compromise in them not having any photos taken together ( Read more... )

My mum's getting married tomorrow, in a ceremony that redefines the phrase "low-key" - I get the impression she only just about got around to telling me about it, when she remembered she'd need a couple of witnesses. In fact she let me know by text, adding "if you can't get the afternoon off work, don't worry about it ( Read more... )

I'm off for a couple of days - it's nearly a year since my dad died and there's a memorial on Saturday in Greece. I have to get the 3:30am Gatwick Express so I can check in at 4:20, so I'll probably book the cab for around 2:45. Not much point going to sleep really, it'd just be harder to get up again. Hopefully that means I'll fall asleep on the ( Read more... )

Today's my mum's 60th birthday - she got a totally unpredictable surprise, in that it snowed fairly heavily overnight, so she got to have a quiet day and look out at the all-white garden. We didn't do anything for her birthday because when Penny comes over in May we're going to jointly celebrate her 60th and Penny's 30th - I'm taking them both to ( Read more... )

Happy birthday Penny!

It's my sister's 30th today. She's having a long weekend in Paris with a friend to celebrate, and from the couple of texts I've had from her it sounds like she's enjoying herself.

And just because it's all about ME! ME! ME: How old does it make me feel that my little sister is 30?