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the friday five.
You have just won one million dollars:
1. Who do you call first?
Andrew then my mother..
2. What is the first thing you buy for yourself?
a new house to live in ... maybe a brand new warehouse conversion with open plan everything and lots and lots of space for mc to roam around in. with direct river views, exposed brick and beams, close to a good school and with a green space nearby for mc to wiggle her toes in in the warmer months. (can you tell i've been property hunting lately?)
3. What is the first thing you buy for someone else?
i would pay off my parents' house..
4. Do you give any away? If yes, to whom?
i would give an amount to crisis the homeless charity... homelessness really sucks and really bothers me.
5. Do you invest any? If so, how?
i would probably invest a little - but not that much. investing to me seems like legal gambling. i'd put a chunk of it away for mc's education and future.
weird
okay - not that i'm sitting at my desk trying this over and over .. BUT.
try this... and it's going to drive you crazy!
While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your right foot will change direction and there's nothing you can do about it.
well? have you tried it yet?!!
it's the week of non-original ideas!
was over at aimee's and picked up this brand spanking new meme.
How often do you...
...clean your bedroom?
well - i should start off by saying that we have a housekeeper. and she's wonderful. she looks after the three of us like we were her own children and our house stays nice and clean thanks to her. of course, we manage to mess it up royally between visits. i try and keep our bedroom pretty tidy. but since i live in the country of no storage - our room is always a mess. too many clothes even though i keep weeding out our clothes. i swear they multiply.
...wash your sheets?
weekly - i can't the thought of people grime on sheets! plus, there's not much nicer in life than snuggling down in a bed with clean, cuddly, smell-good sheets. bliss.
...mop the kitchen floor?
ludmila does it weekly. i spot mop when i drop something - which is far more often than i'd like.
...vacuum?
weekly - fortunately, the room we spend the most time in has a wood floor, so i can just sweep it with brush and dustpan if needed.
...dust?
weekly - ludmila again. ;-) i'm so glad - because i hate to dust. my mother always made me take part in our house cleaning (which i'm actually glad that she did - don't tell her) and it was always my job to dust. so i think i have a lack of love for dusting because i've been doing it for so long. or maybe i hate picking things up and dusting underneath them - yet i'm repulsed if that doesn't happen. i think i have cleaning issues. (!!)
...clean the toilets?
weekly - thanks to ludmila. we have such hard water that we often get stains from it in between, so i do clean those if they get too noticeable.
...scrub the tub?
uhh... ludmila does it weekly. although i do rinse it out before and after each use.
funny.
i am sharing these because i haven't an original thought in my head at the moment... a and i are thinking about buying a house and i'm all a-flutter with mortgage worries and stuff like that. who are we - thinking we can afford to buy a house? *sigh*
After the christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, "That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys."
A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?" "I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied. "Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered. The daughter bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
and in the darkness, blog them...
the belated friday five.
At this moment, what is your favorite...
1. ...song?
i guess my favourite song is the same as always - carolina in my mind, by james taylor. brings back so many happy memories of college, camp and leafy trees on mountain paths. sappy, i know.
2. ...food?
tesco salad in a bag - the caesar salad variety.
3. ...tv show?
the life laundry..
4. ...scent?
molton brown's heavenly gingerlily
5. ...quote?
"I'M what Willis was talkin' about"
we had a very cool weekend.. hanging with friends for large parts of it. i'm glad that we have such great friends - sometimes it's what keeps me from missing home too much. anyway - until a proper post forms itself in my mind... enjoy some pics..
  
random friday findings..
a new toy! [i'm under limehouse and tottenham court road, fyi]
and check this weirdness out!
next week we're supposed to have horrible, life as we know it-stopping weather. crikey!
man today is good.. well - this morning at work is, at least. andrew was a bit snippy with me in the car this morning. thought it might mean a bad day ahead. instead i'm at my work computer, being productive with a grande, skinny, wet, xtra hot mocha in my hand listening to some frampton on itunes. amazing what a little 'do you feel like we do' will do to a girl.
this song totally reminds me of my teenage days as a radio groupie. i remember when i would be in my bedroom at 4am talking to a particular dj on 96rock in atlanta and he'd put this song on so we could have a lengthy chat. later, when i got into college radio - i'd put this song on so i could have a lengthy wee. i guess things aren't the same for guys and gals sometimes.. i remember that aa (mr smooth talking radio dj's initials) would take calls from other girls while i was on the line and i'd laugh at how stupid they sounded. yeah - i never realised that i probably sounded that stupid as well. yet - i was 'hanging' with him, not some giggle girl calling up to request some bon jovi. i was cool - i knew my music. i would request floyd, zeppelin and the stones. not poison and whitesnake. when i finally kissed said smooth taking radio dj a few years later when i was in college, i was probably just as giggly as the rest. but not in my mind. go figure.
i have weird obsessions about radio. one day i'll go into them. but i'll leave it by letting you know that i only got into radio because of him. and here's where you'll think i'm weirder than you already do - it all had to do with the fact that he dumped me. heh - life is funny. i've never said it, but i'm actually glad he did because i absolutely loved working in radio and really super miss it. not that what i do isn't fabulous - but radio rocks. this morning mc and i were lying in bed just listening to the radio and it was bittersweet.
it's a pie-gon.
right now there is a pigeon sitting outside my work window.. it's a very dirty and unorganized looking pigeon, to say the least. think anyone would know if i slipped it some salad with tomato and basil pasta out the window? i could have my own work pet! seriously, this is one dirty pigeon. pollution sucks.
i'm going to call him bert.. after bert (a'la bert and ernie) from sesame street. i was always intrigued by his love of pigeons. i mean ernie had his rubber duckie and bert had his pigeons. weird.
"When there is trash on the sidewalk
They can't see breadcrumbs to eat
Crackerjacks get in their feathers (awwww)
Chewing gum sticks to their feet
So put your trash in your pocket
If there's no basket around
Please, keep it to throw away later
Remember that bird on the ground
And .... people! "
- from keep the park clean for pigeons - sesame street
news from the front..
mc's been sick. i was out from work yesterday at home with her. on the door ding front - we lined up the car doors and it didn't match. whew. so the guy nicely apologized. all that stress for nothing. i really need to learn to let things wash over me a bit more, i think. more later.
been playing with colour again.. it's an endless source of amusement to me.
geeky fun ... see how fast you type! I type 63WPM in case you were interested.
this weekend we bought mc some new shoes! although i went on a bit of a rampage, as all the 'girls' shoes had glitter hearts, flowers or other weird things on them and most of them were pink. i originally wanted a plain black pair of mary janes (why, no i don't want the patent leather pair with burgundy and acid green flowers on them, thanks).. but decided on a pair of red & cream leather trainers. (see photo below) the sales dork couldn't help but remind me that i was buying my daughter 'boys shoes'... i said that we'd buy 'girls shoes' when clarks made some worth having. so there. anyway - mc loves them so much that she walked out of the store on her own two expensively clad feet!
copied from an email to a friend.. but can't be bothered to type it again..
i'm really in a snit at the moment - a guy has been parking his 13 year old range rover (if i'm honest, it's in pristine condition) next to our car and we got a note under our door yesterday that he thinks we've dinged his passenger door twice in the 10 days he's been parking there. andrew and i noticed that he was parking there but certainly don't recall dinging said door... twice to boot. i remember looking over at it on friday and thinking 'hey that guy has two dings in his door' - which makes me think that i definitely didn't do it if i noticed it. does that make sense? they're pretty significant dings (one has a bit of paint scratched off in the middle)... i called him last night and he was not the nicest person and i was oozing (or at least trying to) charm - he was really snippy.
so we're meeting with him tonight and i don't know what to do or how to handle the situation. i am 99% sure that we didn't do it .. he's probably 100% sure that we did. the dings are the same height at the sticky out part of our door and he claims that he's not driven the car in 10 days. the only thing i can think of is that while we're away 13 hours a day, someone parked in our space and did it? otherwise i'm clueless.
i just know that it's not going to be pretty and i'm dreading making an enemy. i think we will come off looking worse as we're on the defence. andrew says that we'll just tell him that if he'd like to blame us he can go through our respective insurance companies. which i agree is probably best, i just know that he probably won't want to do that and will be looking for an out of pocket payment to unding his door which i'm sure we didn't ding in the first place.
ugh. so hey, how's your day? anyone have any advice? please?
this shit makes me mad.
does this look like something that requires censorship?
read this article.
(thanks aimee)
husbands.. sheesh.
a would like me to change my list of movies to reflect the fact that i have indeed seen amelie. but i can't be bothered. so please, could you just remember that? ta.
anyway - just got a new version of photoshop at work and it's sweet. and i'm a little worried that i'm so excited about it? do you think, possibly, in some way, shape or form, that i might be a geek? i love well designed software ... the new photoshop cs makes my professional life easier. that's what is so awesome about it. i'll stop now.
enjoy the pic of mc.. it's her fresh from a bath time to roll around on a towel look. ;-)
could you imagine?
man told at burger king that he's too fat to have a whopper v. funny.
on another note.. i bought stock today. dumped my seriously arrogant awful stockbroker (if you could call him that) left over from what we like to call 'the joe era' and joined forces with scottrade.. i now own 70 shares of apple. so please keep buying those ipods folks.. baby needs a new pair of shoes!
only ONE out of the top five.. and he made me see it.
apparently this is seen everywhere (according to aimee!) - so i'd hate for you to not get it from me as well. the ones i've seen are in bold.
1 Godfather, The (1972)
2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)
3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974)
4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003)
5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002)
6 Casablanca (1942)
7 Schindler's List (1993)
8 Shichinin no samurai (1954)
9 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)
10 Citizen Kane (1941)
POST EDITED [cos it was too damn long!]
ah monday
good monday morning to you.... more later.
the latest mutterings
- Mitchell::Joni
- Mercury::Freddy
- Cycle::28 Days
- Engagement::Rules of
- Alternative::Music
- Gang::Bang (!!)
- Emotional::Drunk
- Skinny::Stupid
- Hypochondriac::Needles
- Insecure::Tentative
i'm feeling strange and flustered right now.. my stomach hurts and i'm not concentrating on anything specific but sort of enjoying the senstation of being all over the place mentally and thinking of strange things. i just got back to my desk with all sorts of weird things to write down but they escape me now. my muscles hurt from water aerobics and i'm thinking of songs from the 80s that i used to enjoy yet now seem incredibly relevant. i wonder if i'm high on ibuprofen. could those pills have been out of date .. can you get a buzz from year old household remedies? did my favourite barrista drug my mocha today? does starbucks really have crack in the christmas blend? i've been reading through blogs better than mine and some worse than mine waiting for my phone to ring with an interesting call on the other side. no such luck at the moment. stuck at my desk pondering if bruce springsteen shaves on a regular basis and if i'm weird for thinking about that. i worry about the world more than i used to when i was single. i worry that people will break into my house and steal things. i feel mental. i smile at the idea of my daughter and laugh at the woman i hope she will grow to be.
i wonder if i'm a good influence, mother, companion and friend. am i being all i can be? i should draw more, be weirder and happier. i like to be original - have i been lately? do i apologise too much and try to conform to ideals that aren't healthy? sometimes i talk to myself. don't worry - i very rarely answer. do you think about the world around you? do you stop and think that news that focuses on the weather instead of world events is strange? does it bother you that life is ticking by and things are changing and that if you blink you might miss things? i do. last night on my way home i saw moonlight reflecting from my building's roof. actually, it was bathed in a shimmer of gleam and i wonder if moonlight like that falls onto houses in iraq. and if there are strange women with beating hearts watching their moonlight wondering if it's the same here, far away from their repression and daily life.
moonlight is strange. it does weird things to people. my stomach doesn't hurt so much anymore. maybe i just needed to write. writing is good. moonlight is good. babies who smell like sun and clean laundry are good. husbands you can message all day are good. drinking clean fresh water and living in a house with a roof over my head is good... i am thankful.
that's why it's called a drawing, not a drawn..
the following is from danny gregory...
Everything I know about life, I learned from drawing:
Always carry a pen.
The best way is to be still.
Everyone can do it, except those people who say they can't.
Forget your eraser. There are no mistakes. Only lessons.
Don't do it for fame. Do it for you.
Don't seek beauty. See it.
Everyone's perfect pen is different.
Learn from others. But don't be an imitation.
No books, no teachers, no system, can teach you as much as practice.
If you don't like a drawing, turn the page and do another.
Study how kids do it.
A forest is just a lot of trees. A tree is just a lot of leaves. And you know how to draw a leaf.
Value everything you make.
Give your drawings away.
If you can do it perfectly, it’s boring.
It's all about the Now. That's why it's called a drawing, not a drawn.
Know when to stop.
for reasons that can not be explained some part of me wants to see graceland...
ah - thursday. the baby is sleeping much better - two nights in a row in her own cot all the way through the night without waking. it's amazing what sleep can do to one's attitude. now if only the sun would shine once again adn the grey icky weather would clear out. i'd be set. but at least it's thursday, not monday and the weekend is almost upon us.
i really want to see this movie - lost in translation - anyone seen it yet? (speaking to US people as it hasn't opened in the uk yet) ... i love bill murray. such a crush. we start back to swimming lessons for miss mc this saturday ... glub glub.
lots of things going through my mind - but must sift through them to find the really interesting ones to write about. more later. sunday we're going to look at this place.. yeah - like we could afford to buy there. oh well. i love the greenwich millennium village development. even if it's really not like they say it is, the marketing bumph really makes it sound like an environmentally friendly, close knit and vibrant community.
tuesday's child is full of grace...
thought i'd post two of my favourite pictures from our trip to atlanta.. a family portrait and one of the divine miss mary catherine in her panda dress with her becky doll that a friend of my mom's gave her. you'll of course, notice that they're wearing matching dresses.. it's all the rage.
 
i'm very blah today. i am very thankful there is a blue sky to gaze up at, thank goodness. it's been pretty grey since we returned to london and i'm just not used to the lack of light once again. i can't handle total darkness by 4pm... but my sinuses are enjoying the moist air. give and take i suppose. andrew and i are very tired at the moment as mc isn't sleeping very well and getting her to settle to sleep is taking us hours, not minutes. she finally caved and passed out last night at midnight and it's wearing andrew and i down. big time. we got in a horrible fight last night and it was less than pleasant. i know it stemmed from us being overtired - but it's really affected me and i'm having a hard time getting over it.
tonight we're going to dinner at a favourite friends house and i'm hoping that the change of venue and difference in schedule will help her go to bed easily and/or tire her out so much that she just gives in. we shall see. cos mama isn't handling newborn-esque sleep patterns very well at all.
let's see - what else.. apple keynote tonight at 5pm gmt which is noon est. you can watch it here .... more later.
okay there's a new anti-smoking campaign in england - and it's grossing me out. i mean, when i saw the television ad, i was so glad that i wasn't still a smoker and therefore needing to feel guilty. it's all about the fat that clogs up your arteries when you smoke and it's basically people sitting in a bar smoking dripping gloppy fat laden cigarettes. made me want to retch. here's a bbc article on it. you can click the link at the bottom and watch it for yourself.
is it bad when you go to your local starbucks and your favourite barrista not only recognises you, but welcomes you back with a hug? either he really likes me or, more likely, their revenue streams were down whilst i was away. anyway - more later.
mutterings...
- Vintage:: clothing
- Longing:: desire
- Specimen:: urine (!)
- Mock:: turtleneck
- Shit:: fan
- Friday:: free day
- Cruel:: intentions
- Insufficient:: memory
- Pessimistic:: asshole
- Grin:: smirk
good to be queen..
we're back. the flight was great - mc slept most of the way and i got a little bit of sleep. of course, i'm a zombie now. she's in bed, let's hope for the night. pictures and more 'stuff' later. ;D
happy new year...
hello from georgia - hope you have and/or are having a nice new year's day. we fly back to the uk tomorrow so once again listen out for 'the screaming skies' - BA promise that our seats aren't too screwed up, so we shall see about that. we've had an excellent time here and are sad to leave.
but leave we must. at least we come back on a saturday and have almost two days to get ourselves back in the london groove. more later..
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