New Year Resolutions

My New Years Resolution last year was to read some of the 'classics' and it is probably the only NYR that I've kept too and enjoyed!

This year, I've decided that I will keep on reading classics, obviously as there are 100s of books left for me to read, but 2014 marks the year of finishing all projects which I've started and given up on.

I realised the other day that I haven't truly moved in to my room, the wall which I intended to paint is still green, my clothes rail is still held to the wall with wool (from where my clothes tore it down), I haven't painted my chest of drawers, etc...the list is long for my room alone, let alone the rest of my projects which I've squirrelled away and ignored, instead of completing.

It's finally time. I don't have a boyfriend to blame for taking up my time, so why the hell not! I've started to pull them all out from the wood work and will be setting to it asap. In fact, I've already completed my new clothing rail, although it bows in the middle due to holding too much, so time will tell but it's an excellent start at least...

My Year of Books: Various

I've read various books since I last updated. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Quirk Books.

To Kill a Mockingbird was incredible. I saw the film when I was a teenager and remember enjoying it but I had never read the book until now and I'm now wondering what took me so bloody long. It is a wonderful read, which sums up the relationship between the adult and child worlds, the conceptions of both worlds from the opposite points of view and also captures that period of time in Alabama and the racial tensions which existed.
I may have shed a few tears and also gasped aloud on the tube ride to work in the morning but it was the kind of book which I got incredibly wrapped up in and wanted to carry on all the way to Brixton, so I could continue reading it, rather than go to work.

Five Quarters of the Orange, isn't exactly a classic work but I wanted something slightly lighter to read and my housemate suggested this. It wasn't really a light read but it was a very good one. Although, I'm not exactly sure that I had the right amount of compassion for the main antagonist.

I'm currently reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is Pride and Prejudice rewritten to incorporate zombies (one of my favourite topics). I wasn't 100% convinced that it would work well but it does exceedingly. It has been both entertaining and well considered, as well and kept to the original storyline without detracting. My only criticism is that the cover makes the average person give me a raised eye brow, when read in public spaces...

Veggie lifestyle

My housie is a vegetarian, well a vegetarian who is coming out of being a vegetarian slowly and rarely eats meat, therefore most of our meals are vegetable based. Which isn't an issue obviously, it's just strange eating such little meat and so many vegetables.

I've always tried to eat lots of veg, but it was hard when living with Tom as we'd have a couple nights out a week and what we had in the house would go off, etc. and now here I am, getting more than my 5 a day. For the first time in 10 years (since leaving my parents home) my body is a temple! Well it would be if I got my arse back in gear and went swimming or running.

Earlier today, while making a 'shit load' of curry, I dropped a tin of tomatoes on my keyboard and now my laptop has a dip in the middle. Oops! but at least all the keys still work - hurrah!

My prediction

I'm making a random prediction about a situation and it won't mean anything to anyone, other than two dear, dear friends: 4th August 2014...

...and if I'm wrong, I just look like a right dick and that happens most days, so ce la vie!

The next gig at my local Train Station?!

I wonder how much it would cost to get Carly Simon to play live? Let alone, at my nearest Train Station, or Dock, or Room? Maybe, it would be like the film 'Little Black Book' and she would just appear and sing?! Or maybe life is just 'Working Girl', where Carly's songs just crop up constantly?!

Here's to wishful thoughts...

Kolmanskop

There aren't that many places in the World, that I'd love to visit. In fact, I could probably count them on both hands:

China - to see the Terracotta Army and Great Wall of China.
Japan - just generally but mostly for the architecture and impressive scenery.
India - Taj Mahal, various festivals and food.
Iceland or Finland - to see the Northern lights.
Tuscany and Greece - food, sea and scenery.
and I'd like to drive across North America and around Ireland.

Saying this, doens't mean I wouldn't like to go to other places, I just really want to go to these places.

BUT

I've now seen Kolmanskop and I think it has to be added, right near the top. It looks haunting. I remember seeing it in Vogue some years back in a photo shoot and thinking that it looked remarkable.

It's kind of unbelieveable, haunting and enchanting!

A conversation with a disgruntled 70 year old man, otherwise known as my Dad

This is a snipet of the typical telephone conversation I have with my Dad -

Me: Hi Dad.

Dad: Oh hi.

Me: I’m coming home this weekend!

Dad: Are you, why?

Me: It’s Grandma’s birthday.

Dad: Is it?

Me: Yes, it’s been her birthday on November 3^rd since her birth, in the 20s.

Dad: Well no one tells me these things?! (this is his own mother, we are talking about, bloody men!).

Me: I think we’re going to hers and eating Fish and Chips.

Dad: Oh joy!

Me: I was calling to talk to Mum about logisitics.

Dad: I’ve no idea where she is.

Me: Oh right.

Dad: It’s not like we make plans and she then buggers off and does her own thing.

Me: Ok, well I might come home on Friday, you can tell me all about it then?!

Dad: Will you want picking up from the station?

Me: Possibly, will that be a pain?

Dad: Depends. How about you call when your mother is at home?

Me: I didn’t realise she wasn’t when I initially rang, it’s not as though she has a gps and I’ve got a tracking system?!

Dad: Well she’s not here.

Me: Ok, love you.

Dad: Bye.

Ooops!

A few years back, my old housies bought me a 'whiteboard clock', which meant we could write away, erase and redesign...when Tom and I moved to E1, we wiped it clean and had every visitor add a little something. When we broke up and moved on, I wiped it clean for a new start and it's been hanging in my room, plain, for a few months now...

...I finally decided what I wanted to put on it and wrote away, one spelling mistake and I tried to erase it, ooops! a permanent marker...bugger!

Worse still is probably the thing I was writing was a little personal/uncool/funny/bloody marvellous. But the mistake made it so much worse...a lot of scrubbing and the top layer has dissolved and I now have a dirty whiteboard clock. I need to repaint it but in the mean time I continued with my redesign, which was a very simple lyric:

"...and getting caught in the rain, if you're not in to yoga, if you have half a brain. If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape..."

Good damn, Rupert, you were one cool muthaflipper!

The end of BST sucks!

This week, I have mostly been tired! I hate the last week of British Summer Time so, so much! It's horrid. Dark, damp, windy and tiring...I can not wait for Monday morning, a sentence I would not normally say, no matter what the circumstance.

A friend was saying the other day that she doesn't think we should change the clocks. I highly disagree. I could not survive Winter with mornings like the last week of BST...it would be nightmarish and scenes like this every morning would make me most depressed!

And I'm not a depression kind of girl, I'm a 'happy go lucky, sunny side up' kind of girl!

Roll on 2am on Sunday, I shall be saluting the sun rise and extra light with both hands! Plus, winter evenings are extremely enchanting and magical, especially with all the fairy lights that Christmas brings.

My Year of Books: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

For a small rest bite of new books, I picked up one of my old favourites. It's taken me about a week to finish...good damn, Douglas Adams was a wonderful writer!

If you haven't read it, do! Enough said!

My Year of Books: The Beast in the Jungle

I picked up this novella due to packing a small handbag one day, after I'd finished Frankenstein and I'm so glad that I did, as it's wonderful. It's by Henry James, who I've never heard of...sorry literacy fans, as I've stated before I'm uneducated and rubbish with books and classic works.

The Beast in the Jungle is a short story about John Marcher, who has a constantly dread that some spectacular event will happen to him. It opens with John being reunited with May Bartram, who he met ten years earlier and shared his secret with. I don't want to give too much away, as this book is wonderful. It's a lovely read and has such charming sentiments, I'd highly recommend to anyone. Especially those who aren't quite sure what is expected from life or what life is all about...

My Year of Books: Frankenstein Pt. 2

I've finished Frankenstein! Now I have two friends who sit firmly on both side of this book, one loves it and the other one thinks it's pointless (I guess, similar to how I feel about Anna Karenina), I sit somewhere in the middle. I really enjoyed it and never tired of it but at the same time it was relatively long winded and I felt certain parts weren't as conclusive as they could have been.

Regards though, I'd recommend it to everyone, as you can always skim read the long winded parts.

N16

On my second weekend as a N16 residence, I decided to go for a wander...

In my immediate neighbourhood, I'm lucky to be surrounded by the following parks:

Abney Park Cemetery
Clissold Park
Springfield Park
Hackney Downs

During my wander, I pottered down to Stoke Newington Church Road and was planning on walking around to Clissold Park, but decided the cemetery looked more interesting, plus I've never ventured in before.

I'm so glad I did. It's incredible! Check it out for yourselves, it looks as though the caretaker died and no one noticed.

The thing about Abney Park is that there are loads of people looking around, sitting on benches and drinking in public (obviously the last one isn't so attractive but it all sets the scene). The park is huge and continues for miles, with little earthy tracks, and rows and rows of graves. It looks as though certain parts of the cemetery are overgrown hedgerows but when you take a closer look, you realise that graves lie underneath. The entire place is so enchanted and when you think you've seen everything, a derelict church appears out of nowhere.

I highly recommend trips to Abney Park Cemetery (this is their official website).

After I'd finished pottering around Abney, I headed over to Springfield Park, which is the other side of my home. It's a lovely little park, which has a nice set of hedges with benches in them, looking Eastwards over the River Lea and Walthamstow Marshes.

Some good deeds, aren't worth it!

I had a rather funny/strange conversation with my mum the other day: It consisted of me telling her about my helping a bitch (I happen to know) out.

It starts like this: a couple of friends and I had planned to go to the pub, this individual invited herself along - isn't that always the way?!

A couple of drinks in and the bitch seems to be getting pretty merry, she tells us about cheating on her long term boyfriend with Colin Farrell in LA (whoop de do, you whore!)...I mean come on, we all talk about our Top 5s, but how many people would actually cheat on their partners if they had the chance?! I doubt that many would, I know I couldn't. Anyway, I'm lost on a tangent... So, we continue to drink and the bitch starts to walk around and place drinks down, hardly touched, orders a new drink and then place that one down, etc...in total, she basically drank about three large reds. I appreciate this is on an empty stomach, and not everyone is as epic as I am at drinking, but if you reach your limit, stop drinking don't continue to waste money on new drinks, especially tasty large reds!

Anyhow, we get about five drinks in and she disappears. I assume she's gone out the back door of the pub, I continue to talk to the random people I've found for a bit, eventually I decide it's time to leave. Now, in this particular pub, there are three doors and two ladies lavatories (this bitch is lucky that I didn't use the lavatory I'd normally use, otherwise it could have been a much worse story for her). As I walk into the pub, I see her asleep on one of the tables. I pop to the lavatory and have to decide, do I
a) walk pass her and leave?
b) wake her up and try to get her to a taxi rank?
or
c) take a photo and then do either a) or b)?

Due to my parents raising my correctly, I perform b). As soon as I do, I regret it (did I mention she was dribbling?!), I wake her up and she is instantly rude to me. Fun times for me!

I support her up the road and all the way, she tells me that I'm lucky she's there to help me, she also repeatedly asks me why I'm doing this? And also is incredibly rude and horrible to every bloke who walks past, to whom I have to apologise to.

I finally get her to a cash point and she refuses to withdraw cash, at one point she tries to withdraw cash with random membership cards, she continues to throw her designer bag on the floor and empty the contents onto the pavement, which I then scramble around and pick up for her. She also starts to bitch about the fact that she can't believe that her boss didn't give her any cash for her taxi and how dare he leave her up shits creek. After about 5 minutes of this (by the way, Barclays will be having a field day if they ever watch the cctv of the cash point from that night), two guys start to wait behind us, at which point she tells them that she knows what they want and there is no way their ever going to get it. They, understandably, look horrified. I apologise profusely and move her to one side, so they can get cash out. It ends up with me, having to offer to get cash out for her. I explain that I'm at the end of my overdraft and that I'll get charge, I also explain I'd expect her to pay it. I finally flag a taxi down and put her in it, at which point she refuses to tell the taxi driver where she lives. I see this as my chance to leave  - I'm free!

Side note - Dear Mr Taxi Driver, I am very sorry for leaving you in the lurch with such a horrid drunk person, but I hope you can except my apology. I'm sorry that you may have thought that I was also coming along. Please accept my apologies from the bottom of my heart.

The next time I see her, after about 2 hours I had to bring up the fact that she owed me cash. I also had to wait till the second time I saw her to a) get it and b) receive a thank you for helping her. You know what, some times good deeds just aren't worth the effort.

So, why was the conversation about this with my mum so funny?!
Firstly, once I told my mother this and she had gotten over her initial rant about 'stupid girls getting so drunk and being irresponsible', she told me that I should have taken a photo (remember, this is the woman who has instilled all of my morals).
Secondly, when I told her that I've always felt this girl wasn't very nice, and having her behave in such a way, reassured me that I had possibly been right first time round. She told me that maybe I shouldn't have bothered to help her and that some people won't learn until they end up in a situation which isn't ideal (once again, this is my moral guide?!).
Thirdly, towards the end, when I explained that I thought this particular girl may have always been over looked by her own mother and that maybe she lacked parental love and that I will always choose loving parents and a family unit over all the money in the world, my darling mother laughed and said "Oh dear, maybe I failed at raising you properly!".

Dearest Mother, you are one very funny lady!

Revamping a Dresser

This is my new dresser, which I've acquired form my new housie. She has given me free licence to do as I see fit with it. So I thought for about an hour and decided to collage the main body of the dresser in flowery/pastel images and the drawers in black and white type.

I've ordered some flower door knobs from eBay of various colours and have started perusing my collection of magazines for flower images. I'm so excited, I almost don't want to start it, in case it doesn't work and looks rubbish. Damn you, pre-crafting worry...

All moved in

Having moved out at the beginning of August, I stayed with an awesome friend and her husband for a week and a half in Bermondsey. I then headed to Chiswick to house sit for two weeks. During this period, I had my friend, Lauren, stay with me. The house was the most lovely house, very stylish and homely, which is a hard mix to accomplish. I was also cat sitting, although I think it was more that they looked after me.

Choucas' weak spot!

During this time, I chilled, drank, crocheted, hosted a small bbq and had some good times one weekend along the river with some most excellent friends: JFo and Budge.

Choco tries to blend in!

At the end of this, I headed back to Bermondsey for just over a week and then, finally, I moved in to my new flat, with my guardian angel of a new housie: Innie. 

(In fact during the entire period after my break up, I appear to have been surrounded and looked after by so many different "angels in disguise", it's been rather incredible and has made me feel truly blessed! I've always believed in karma and this period of time has truly shown me that it exists, although I really don't think I've deserved this much kindness, it has been awe inspiring).

I moved myself in mid week and on Friday collected the majority of my crap from my parents, with the help of some wonderful friends, we got it in to my room, just about! I spent all of yesterday unpacking, but check it out!

My creative centre

Dressing Area

Alternative light

Newly made curtains

Some high brow TV shows and reading...

Some actual high brow reading (well, mostly)...

I finally got the chance to use some fabric, which I've had for seven years, as my new curtains, I'm so glad I kept hold of it. I've also got a creative area for sewing, art projects and various other crafts that I turn my hand too. Although all I've used it for so far, is storage of clean clothes and other crap.

Innie has lent me her old dresser, which I've been given permission to adapt. It's currently cream, soon it shall be collaged in flowers and type, with awesome flower handles - I'm totally embracing my girly side, after two years of being told everything has to be mutually decorated. YAY! Bring on the flowers, sequins and glitter!

Love: Old and New Photos in one!

Old and New

My Year in Books: Frankenstein

I was a little stuck for what to read, post 'Great Expectations'. All of my books were in a van in the shire, I had two books with me: Frankenstein or Pride Prejudice and Zombies. It decision was hard...but I felt that something light to carry in my handbag would be optimum! Yep, I chose Frankenstein due to it's physical size - isn't that how we all choose books? I also fancied something short, especially after both 'Anna Karenina' and 'Great Expectations' - they could both block broken panes of glass with no drafts.

I'm two thirds of a way through Frankenstein and I'm really enjoying it. I was a little surprised at how articulate the monster was, but hey, he's explained that all...understandably, here is to the rest of the book, I hope Mary Shelley doesn't let me down!

My Year in Books: Great Expectations Pt. 2

I loved, loved, loved Great Expectations.

It's so incredible! The characters are well rounded and interesting, by the end of the book I adored Pip. I was so glad that he got over his ego and became an incredible young gentleman. I also loved Joe, he was such a loving, caring character who couldn't see fault with anyone. I hated Estella for the most part and I know it isn't her fault, she was raised so but she's such a bitch! As for Miss Havisham, I loved her, twisted I know, how can you love the creator but hate the result?! I've no idea but I do. Maybe it was due to the fact that I kind of understood why Miss Havisham had behaved in such a way...I mean with the upset and twisted revenge, not the actual actions of screwing with a young impressionable mind. I know that Estella is really the victim, but she drove me mad...

My hat is off to you Mr Dickens, you are one hell of a talented writer. Yeah, I can tell that he has been waiting for me to write a review of one of this books since he started writing. He'll be so happy, he can probably rest in peace now...

Everyone should read this book at one point in their life. This is pretty much all I'm going to write about GE. It's not fair to spoil it for anyone, it's a wonderful, wonderful story! Go and read it!

This brings me so much joy!

 

I think it's the total lack of trying to brace herself, which fills me with so much joy!