Almost Christmas and I remember having some sort of anti Christmas rant last year.... so do I repeat myself or has the year been such a remarkable one that I am filled with awe and wonder at the pleasure of simply getting up everyday and smiling to myself in the knowledge that life is bloody wonderful! Ha! Dear Reader! it is the latter! I am sooo stupidly content that I am smiling whilst I write....

Life recently has, somewhat oddly, involved meeting lots of people connected to Cambridge... and it is nice, there is something wonderfully comforting about the familiar.. conversation rushes around what's on at the ICA, cool indie music to listen to, the worry about Blairs policies, drinking too much wine and where to get the best organic olive oil!!! Ha! it is refreshingly far removed from supermotards and the discomfort of biking in the cold and rain, now conversation is more concerned with environmental degradation from overuse of motorised transport.. suddenly everyone I know rides a bicycle! Feel almost guilty that I am borrowing a car over the christmas week. Love Alex to bits for lending me the car though, as it gives a wonderful sense of freedom even if it is a left hand drive! So the plan is to head to Bedford via Cambridge on Christmas Day morning, pick Jake up and head to my brother's. That might be a bit awkward though as I think my brother overheard me say something about 'My little fat brother' when I hadn't switched my phone off the other day after speaking to him! Oh dear Oh dear.. ... Hopefully he will be full of the Christmas spirit and overlook it!
Have bought all my pressies now, gave Alan his last night and it was really difficult to hand it over.......

On my way to some graphic artists place next to Cantaloupe I discovered a really sweet shop that deals almost exclusively in 50's and 60's Scandanavian Kitsch..... found a pair of really cute onion shaped candle holders that hold the really thin tapered sort of candle, they are weighted so that they can tip slightly.... the design just makes your toes curl it is soo good! But I did hand them over and they were appreciated.... Its all going very very well........ will update later in the week

a while back when i was staying with friends in Bethnal Green i mentioned the wonderful grafitti I saw on the way to work, particularly the punk with wings, well I have recently discovered it is more or less all done by the same bloke.... Banksy..... So thanks Banksy for making me smile on my way to work!!!

and so much is happening world wide too. ..... so to posit this firmly in the early 21st century as I should have done 2 days ago but was so wrapped up in parties/gigs/work/hair dying and all the other mundane stuff of life, so while all that was going on Saddam Hussein was found in a hole near a farm house in the village he came from. He emerged still looking remarkably like my Uncle Geoffrey in an unkempt sort of way. Oddly he gave no resistence so now the West has to decide what should be done with him, and it MUST look fair, there should be no Guantanamo Bay affair with this man. I am sure though they would have much preferred to have him put up a fight so that they could just broadcast pictures of the body and that would be it, now there's potential international unrest and disagreement over physical treatment over judicial jurisdiction over where in the world they should hold him... and why is the death penalty being mentioned so often?????? Whose laws will apply?

There seems barely enough time to fit in writing this blog as so much is happening.......... it's an interesting exercise to get enough of a jist of what is going on without becomeing utterly boring with the details...... Saturday decided to go to Canary Wharf to do some Xmas shopping so went to catch the riverbus from the Hilton.... but alas as we were heading up the covered walkway to the jetty the boat was pulling away, but then it seemed to hesitate and we realised it was going into reverse! It was coming back for us!!! It actually reversed back to the jetty as we ran laughingly to greet the boatman! Amazing indeed, certainly like no other form of public transport in London!

After shopping had a bit of a clothes trying on session and discovered or should I say rediscovered the mini skirt!!! Bought the appropriate black tights and now have something else to break up the monotony of jeans wearing!! and it is really comfortable too which did come as rather a surprise...... so headed off to party saturday night and met interesting people again ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh can one ever tire of this I wonder???????

Sunday was particularly lazy, well we didn't get back until 6 am so the day was spent sleeping and eating the ubiquitous full english breakfast... the evening brought the best bit of the weekend as we headed to the Astoria to see the benefit gig for Shelter. First act the Scissor Sisters were excellent, with a fascinating and eminently watchable vocalist!! hmmmm quite delightful.. then came Mary-topless-bird ...not so good but it gave a bit of time to chat, look around, buy beers, queue for the loo sort of thing.... the other acts were first class, Cooper Temple Clause -exceptionally loud, Frank from Travis did a perfect little unplugged set, think my favourite was Graham Coxon, very loud and very early punk, almost reminiscent of The Undertones... evening finished off by The Music with a very ugly lead vocalist that sounded so like an early Robert Plant it was scary.. a good evening indeed

What is happening to time???? It has skipped into warp speed, it seems impossible that a whole week has passed since my last posting but what a week! It started with me entering singledom officially....... my almost-a-year-long relationship dribbled to a limp close on Monday evening when Pete finally heard me..... sad really that after such an intense and passionate start it could dwindle to nothingness ... but maybe it was too intense and hurried and desperate... so I will be avoiding any romantic intensity for a very long while!!! hmmmmmm.... !

Sooooooooooo wednesday took me back to Cambridge ... I visited the flat and gathered together a few missed and needed items, like my cafetiere, spent a bit of time with Josh and Hayley which was nice and they had tidied up which was lovely! It was a quiet time, actually the frenetic buzz of London was well and truely left behind as we walked into town through Jesus Green. It was dark and silent and comfortingly familiar. I have always enjoyed the walk through J Green as the path cuts a diagonal through the grass, it's sort of like entering another world at night as the lights from the streets become hazy and distant, it can be particularly lovely if there is a mist as you can feel like the only person in existence! Anyway. headed to The Cow which was loud and busy found Jake and had a pint with him before heading up to the train station and back to London. On my way back got a phone call, which actually wasn't altogether a surprise, from Alan! It made me smile hmmmmmmm but as I am avoiding any romantic intensity I arranged to meet him next week!

So onto the weekend.. last weeks word was luscious this week ......brilliant! Cooked food for Paul on friday and had good conversation, spent a lot of it discussing top 10 books...... came up with very divergent lists but his descriptions of a couple have tempted me to seek them out fairly soon....

another weekend over! Luscious would be a good way of describing it!!! Friday Sarah met me out of work and we headed towards Clerkenwell .. first got sucked into a place called 'Play' inexplicably finding myself seated on a deep and comfortable sofa drinking a classic martini.. (vodka of course and stirred not shaken!) very pleasant but had to force myself away to meet Neela, Michael and friends... They were all comfortably ensconsed in the Three Kings which was a warm and noisy place. One thing that jumped out at me immediately which was really pleasing was that I must have sooooo got used to pubs in Cambridge I had forgotten that public houses are allowed to contain people over the age of 20 on a friday night!! so hmmmmmmm conversation rattled around a number of topics, becoming more diverse as the alcohol consumption progressed. Sarah and Neela struck up an immediate friendship, pink fluff was explained and I even came out with a Kafkesque reminiscence which I must have dug up from some pickled memory... and it was understood! dead odd!

Saturday was much much quieter, though Sarah and I made the delightful discovery that Canary Wharf is only 15 minutes away... caught the river bus from the Docklands Hilton which is 10 minutes from the flat... so if I ever need a quick shop forget walking to Tesco's in Canada Water it's now Waitrose in Canary Wharf by boat!

and the party! The flat is now officially warmed! Sarah and I cycled to Tesco's got slightly side-tracked by pink fluffy things but purchased enough essential party consumables... cheese pineapple cocktail sausages twiglets sort of stuff. headed home tidied and by six o'clock we were ready! so headed to the jacuzzi for a half hour relax..... and then awaited guests whilst trying out pink fluffy drinks ..... guests duly arrived, met some really interesting people ... discovered I look like Felicity Kendall ( this wasn't really news to me as I have been told this for the last 15 years or however long she has actually appeared on tv for??) but if you are going to look like anyone famous I can't imagine any better! Even if I cant see it at all! well I'm not blond for starters!! Party was enjoyable but pink fluff went to my head and I sidled off early leaving the real party animals to errr? really party? Next day was really pleasant, cooked big breakfast talked lots laughed lots went to see Love actually and actually enjoyed it ... Hugh Grant ......... ahhhhhhhhhhh! hmmmmmmmmmm!

Just read an interesting article in the guardian today by George Monbiot Not only interesting but he actually posits the idea that oil will run out fairly soon and that we really should be adjusting our lifestyles/cities/farming accordingly... ie less reliance on the car for starters!! It all makes sense .... but is anyone or more particularly any politician prepared to make the change? Tough one maybe we all should bury our heads in the sand and enjoy the last few years of prosperity, use every ounce of oil there is and then panic??