Back

I am back from a whirlwind holiday in Chicago where I had a flamboyantly fabulous time. I went out dancing every other night, had a Chinese massage, saw bio-luminescent fish, I even ate elk!!! AND I got to spend time with people who are... the sugar in my coffee, the hole in my donut and the twirl in my confetti. It was simply too nice! Consequently I am now completely bedridden with terminal melancholy. And a tummy ache after eating all those Reese's Peanut Butter Cups which I was meant to bring to work tomorrow as a treat for my co-workers...

After getting back home I bummed around for hours, caught up on Girls (I think Hannah's character may actually be based on my life and my face), radiated inertia. The closest I got to achieving anything was when I finally finished reading Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. It is one of the best books I have ever read. Brilliant work of philosophical literary comic genius. Wickedly smart and entertainingly insane.

Perfectly reassuring.
Profoundly unnerving.

Seriously, read it right now and/or weep.

Bed, Bath and Beyond!

If you are looking for exciting new things to do you should consider:

1. Seeing Minima Live

Minima is an instrumental wonder-band. They performed a live movie score to the original 1922 vampire classic Nosferatu at the Holbourne museum the other week, and it was fantastic! So much so that I vow to see them again if and when they perform somewhere commutable. Their repertoire includes cult silent cinema hits such as Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Aelita Queen of Mars. A must see!!! Click here for their performance schedule.

2. Listening to Ice Music

Curiosity in Corsham?! Who would have thought!? "Norwegian composer and musician Terje Isungset performs each show using instruments crafted from glacial ice to produce a haunting, ethereal sound." At Corsham's Hartham Park on Dec 1st. Sadly, I will be otherwise occupied, but it definitely sounds like something worth seeing live!

3. Watching a movie (or five) at the Bath Film Festival

Lots to choose from at this year's Bath Film Festival! 14th to 25th Nov - so better book your tickets now! Download the brochure here or pick it up from the Tourist Information shop next to the Abbey.

4. Ice Skating

Because it is so much fun when all the little kids are much much better then you at something!;-) Nov 23rd till Jan 6th will see a sizable skating rink appear  in Victoria Park with 1 hour sessions (including skate hire) under £10 per adult. The last time I put on skates was in NEGATIVE 22 degrees Celsius last February in Warsaw. I lasted a good 20min before my limbs froze off. By comparison skating in Bath sounds extremely tempting!

5. Dressing up to dance

There is nothing like a winter masquerade party! I have heard good things about this pop-up vaudevillian cabaret show night in Cambridge on 1st of December. My costume may have lots of feathers...

6. Browsing at the Market

Fancy getting trampled on by hordes of tourists? Oh shush, you'll come anyway. Because it's worth it. Because there is something magical about the randomness and thrill of browsing dozens of stalls, gaping at fairy lights and getting drunk on cheap mulled wine. I am all for it! I'm especially looking forward to the Transient Graffiti planned for the Abbey and Holbourne museum.

7. Listening to The Bookshop Band

The Bookshop Band write songs about books and perform in independent bookstores. Geek out! Live at Mr B's bookstore on the 6th and the 11th of December. Note to self: do not miss.

Oof.
Enough for now...;)

Kilimanjaro

Time for my lazy Sunday post-coffee hype.

I get excited about random things and weave dreamy unrealistic plans... It's so delightful! The best kind of time spent alone. No one to challenge my new plan of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in November. No one to point out I lack in physical fitness, funds and time off to do it. Because OBVIOUSLY now that I've decided to go to ZANZIBAR on my next holiday, it would simply be a CRIME not no climb those 5,895 metres. Or maybe it's time to revisit that idea of cycling through Tajikistan..? Or start a zine. Or a book club!
Or maybe even have a pleasant conversation with my mother.

I wish this feeling of something extraordinary being attainable and... desirable lasted a while longer. As my body metabolises away the stimulating effects of the big Sunday breakfast the reality slowly sinks me back into the realm of obstacles, deadlines, account balances and the fact that for weeks I've been walking my bicycle up hills.

Still, I feel I have dreamt, and it tasted good.
Not all is lost because no amount of growing up will take those Sunday mornings away...

No biggie.

London in April

Just a few snaps from my phone...

 

  

 

I love London Street Art!:)

Watch and read

These photos make my eyes twinkle and my travelling bone ache. Unbearably.

The author is the talented Ms. Erin McCown (featured recently on Booooooom). I can't believe just how much these images made me think of The Sisters Brothers. Maybe not SO surprising given Ms. McCown's current residence in... yes! Portland Oregon.

For those who spend the last few months in a book-less kindle-less cave, The Sisters Brothers is the flavour-of-the-month whooping success of a novel by Patrick DeWitt. It concerns two killers travelling the wild west of the 1850's on a mission which proves to be... not exactly what they expected. But oh! there is so much more to it (of course). The consuming story is packaged tightly in sublime crisp prose. It's almost suspicious that a book this good has gained actual popularity. Weird. Don't let it stop you from reading it!

North Wales

Saturday's sunset

Sunday's sunrise

One sunset and one sunrise in Snowdonia is all it takes to become completely besotted. New spring in my step, stupid smile beaming from my frost-numbed face - the works! I watched Never Let Me Go last Thursday and it was a very good movie but so painfully sad it got under my skin. Suddenly all these emotions I keep at bay started vibrating inside me. Louder and louder. I was mourning. I got scared.
When I woke up the next day I craved to be somewhere that didn't make me feel dead inside. Then P. - in a stroke of planning genius - sorted everything while I was at work and didn't let me know where we were going until we got in the car Saturday morning.

Bingo.

For years friends have recommended North Wales as a definite to-go-to place but again and again I remained sceptical, defiantly skipping the British isles altogether at the earliest holiday opportunity. Now I feel silly. First, my trip to Scotland last April and now this! This... discovery! The dramatic landscapes of sharply contoured towering mountains, valleys dotted with smooth bold lakes and the ocean - THE OCEAN!!! Hiking trails through rich undulating landscapes of copper-browns, frosted whites and deep sea blues. Views that are really REALLY to-die-for (as opposed to views that English estate agents and people in house-hunting TV shows claim to find orgasmic).
Anyway, back to North Wales and its stunning mesmerising emptiness. The silence. The stillness. The rawness. The freedom to just be.
I feel like I've regenerated a limb! A soul limb!
Seriously.

Happy New Year!!!

I was lucky enough to celebrate at the spectacular Salon Rouge! It is a once-a-month burlesque/variety show night which runs at the Junction in Cambridge. There is plenty of dance floor space, vintage boogie music and quality shows up on the stage. It is absolutely fabulous and delicious and has such a good chilled out/frolicky vibe, which is really what I love it for the most. A true night-out gem!:)

More pictures by Martin Bond here!

My London Weekend

Adventure begins with Friday night mulled wine...

Up bright and early(ish) for a wander around Shoreditch...

Erm... What's that lurking in the side street shadows...?

Oh yeah.
A TANK.
!?!

Next: the Chapel Market - a mix of the expected...

...and old taxidermied animals. And pimp coats. Seal-fur hats. And piles upon piles of dusty fascinating vintage crap you can't even get close enough to touch, for more stuff is in the way. All in what seems to be a very posh crazy lady's living room.
Love. At. First. Sight.

I had to get SOMETHING from there, obviously!

Bwahahahahaha...bargain!!!

Fruit tea in some basement before the evening entertainment...

...with HypnoPug!

And finally: Dr. Clive's naughty Circus!

An "adult circus show in a tent in Hackney" DOES sound a bit... iffy, but I had a good hunch! To be distastefully amused and visually titillated catch the next Dr. Clive's Circus show in March!

SIGH. I need to have more of these amazing weekends, really...