For Tina and Charles’ party this weekend, I was put on cake duty.
Tina had a very clear idea of what she wanted, that was piles of cake. So chocolate brownies, ginger cake and a raspberry cake with very pink frosting…
Christina and Suzanna decorated the piles with flowers.
Tom sent me a text on Sunday morning to say that the chocolate and ginger cakes were helping with the hangover, I wish I’d thought to take some home!!
Saturday was the day and I’m in the flat. It’s good and I’m gradually getting it all in order and trying not to be too frustrated that I can’t get it all done right this minute. I do want to know what happened to the wok though…
It has been commented on many times but I have a lot of stuff…a huge bed, chest of drawers, my lovely chairs that we got from my godmother and so much kitchen stuff it’s not real and we won’t talk about the camping stuff.
So I was determined that I would only have an unfurnished flat and I have one, but over the last 4 and half years, I’ve got rid of/given stuff away so there are things that I really need and don’t have. Over this weekend I have bought: an iron, an ironing board, an airer, a kitchen bin, a house phone, a radio, a bathmat, a laundry basket, a toilet brush, some baskety things, a lampshade, a mop, a bucket, a broom, a dustpan and brush, a soap dispenser and various household cleaning items (being clean requires a lot of stuff and the person who had my flat before me, wasn’t clean!) It’s a big list and there is more stuff to buy, a wardrobe, some shelves and some lamps being the most pressing….and mum agrees…and as she leads the ‘you have too much stuff’ cheer squad.
But I am excited and looking forward to being in the flat and finding out what else there is in storage that I’ve forgotten about, roll on 4th July..
my new kitchen…
…my mother is back from holiday.
One of the things that she likes to do is the codeword puzzle in the Evening Standard (yep it’s right wing – she likes to know what the enemy is up to!!) Anyway the puzzle, it’s similar to a crossword, but all the letters have a number and you have to work out what they are and you find the codeword. There’s a prize but Ma never calls for the prize, she just likes doing the puzzle…
However, the puzzles have been getting harder, Ma thinks that more people have been entering the contest so they are making the puzzle harder. After a week of not doing the puzzle, it’s extra hard tonight, and she’s struggling a bit and getting more frustrated, until she suddenly utters the immortal words “I don’t even want a f***ing camcorder…”
I love my mother…..
I moved out of Ian’s at the end of April and it’s felt like a huge learning curve, like this time will lead to lots of other things. Inspired by something else, I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned from this very short time:
I’m more like my Dad than I’d like to admit
My mum and brother are so like my grandfather….organised, good at maths, slightly anal about train and bus times. I am not, much more ‘caught up in the moment’ like Noel. And also like him, a bit more ginger…
I’m really looking forward to being an aunty
Sorry Ben and Lu, but it’s way past three months and pretty much everyone knows. Roll on Dec and from then on, you may address me as Aunty Nic…
I really love my mother
But more than that, she absolutely one of the best people I know (slightly obsessed by recycling but still amazing) also that she is a lot like my Grandad…
Support comes in many forms
Stop looking for people to be there all the time, remember to appreciate the other stuff
Oh Brother
Even though he never phones me, can be a git and needs to have everything his own way, I love my brother and think he will be an amazing father
I do want to travel more
Cote D’Ivoire was an amazing holiday but I was spoiled being at the Residence and with a set of such brilliant people to show me around and if I haven’t already said it thank you – John, Matt, Lazare and most especially Jo.
I would like to spend more time with Jo who I have known for nearly 20 years and admire for being so damn clever and talented but also this year I remembered why she is important to me, she just opens up my world – always has… (sorry Jo that was a bit soppy)
bisap
…and how to make it…
I love my job
despite how annoying it can be….I’m enjoying myself
Camping can be fun
It just needs a bigger tent (and a tent mirror)
After 6 years, I’m ready to live in on my own again.
Wasn’t sure that I could but am really looking forward to it
Not very profound but enough for the minute……
Living at my mother’s house has been a revelation. There’s a magic laundry basket – you put dirty clothes in and they come back to you washed and ironed*.
There is also a lunch making fairy, strict recycling rules** and a front door that needs a new lock***
But there is also a long, three train, commute. So just after the 7am news, I leave the house, I walk to the station and catch the 7.27^ to Waterloo.
At about 7.45, I get to Waterloo and get Tube to Paddington. At Paddington I get the 8.15 train to Reading. I’m at my desk at roughly 8.45am.
Going home is the same journey in reverse.
It’s such fun….
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*It should be pointed out that when I was a teenager there was a washing fairy at home but no ironing fairy, you did it yourself or paid Mum…£1 per item ironed – no really..
**Thank you Kingston Council for your rather bizarre rubbish collecting rules
***I know you read this Ma and you need to sort it out!!
^Ma, in common with her father and her son, can always be relied on to memorise a train timetable. I, like my father, cannot.
Dean and I met for a coffee on Sunday, we went for a walk along the river and he spotted this bench, just made us laugh…
Yesterday, I applied for my visa for Cote d’Ivoire. It was an experience.
The form had to be filled out in French (good job I know a native French speaker or two!). Now I know that technically an embassy is another country but it was a whole other world. You can only submit a visa application between 10am and 1pm. They had computers but everything had to be written down. The fee for a single entry visa was £100, and they only took cash.
I have to go back on Thursday between 2pm and 3pm to pick it up.
Next I have to get the malaria tablets and then I’m all set.
Two things, I’m too lazy to be a proper traveller and 8 days in the Cote d’Ivoire is more expensive than going to New York for a couple of weeks!
