14 posts tagged “birthday”
Yesterday was a real tonic. Anyone who knows me knows how excited I get by my birthday and planning what I'm going to do but there have been too many horrid things going on in my life to really give it the usual build up this year.
Nonetheless I had a lovely, lovely day (even if I was at work for some of it). Got so many lovely cards and pressies and messages and I feel very spoilt indeed.
Just a few highlights include the beautiful opera glasses that Soph gave me for use when in the cheap seats at the back of the theatre, the huge selection of chocolate from my favourite chocolate shop, Montezuma's, and a speed boat trip on the Thames (both from Mosh) to the bottle of rum, limes, mint, sugar and mojito making instructions from Francesca.
Dave, previously of the vox parish, sent me a link to this poem for which I'll be eternally grateful not least because it confirmed what I think about Bono (that he is a cock) and one day I hope to have the time and inclination to read the whole thing.
Had a lovely dinner at one of my favourite restaurants, Josephine's, with friends and came home feeling thoroughly cheered up.
And it doesn't end there, having another bunch of people over for lunch on Sunday!
Right, off to spend my iTunes vouchers and here are a copule of tracks from CD's Mosh bought me. The first is the fabulously engergetic but slightly mental PJ Harvey from her collaboration album with John Parish. It has some great tracks but I chose this one because of simple, sweary lyrics (you've been warned) and the second needs little introduction except it is from the Donnie Darko sound track and has to be one of my all time favourite cover versions.
PS some pics from the day are here
Yesterday was National "Make Up Your Own Holiday" Day. If you could create any holiday, what would it be?
The day after my birthday should be a holiday - a sort of birthday Boxing Day if you like (although only the Brits will understand the concept of the Boxing Day). Why not have your birthday as a holiday I hear you ask? Well, it can actually be fun going to work on the day because there is cake and cards and pressies and a general feeling of celebration and people being nice which I'd miss out on if it was a holiday, plus if it the next day is the day after it means you can really enjoy yourself on the day and have an extra day to recover/enjoy.
Yesterday was National "Make Up Your Own Holiday" Day. If you could create any holiday, what would it be?
The day after my birthday should be a holiday - a sort of birthday Boxing Day if you like (although only the Brits will understand the concept of the Boxing Day). Why not have your birthday as a holiday I hear you ask? Well, it can actually be fun going to work on the day because there is cake and cards and pressies and a general feeling of celebration and people being nice which I'd miss out on if it was a holiday, plus if it the next day is the day after it means you can really enjoy yourself on the day and have an extra day to recover/enjoy.
Wouldn't have chosen this but Mosh really wanted to see it and it's had glowing reviews from some film reviewers whose opinions I respect so decided to the treat him (well it is his birthday tomorrow).
I think my favourite scene sums it up. The heavy metal band whose five minutes of fame was twenty years ago are on 'tour' in Europe. They turn up to play a gig in a bar where there are about a dozen people, one of whom is sat in an arm chair near the 'stage' moshing away.
It's a very entertaining film and quite touching in places. Definitely recommend it even if you don't like the music.
Have a friend who is living and working in Moscow at the moment. Her birthday is at the end of November so I sent her a small present and card to her work address copying it from her email signature.
It never arrived.
Stolen I thought.
Then yesterday it turned up in my office, in London, card and gift opened but intact. The return address I'd put on it was my home address.
So where has it been for the last five months?
I know it's been bouncing around south London for a while because of the scrawls of different postcodes written on it. My return postcode was a little unclear and, as I'd reused a padded envelope, a postman with initiative had partially ripped off the Moscow address to reveal the original label which was to me at my work address.
But there are no clues as to whether it got to Russia and why it came back.
Once I received a postcard a friend had sent while on holiday in Italy a year after she got back.
Is it a case of it maybe falling down behind the sorting bench and being forgotten about until someone decides to do a thorough tidy up or do posties play postal roulette and if the bottle stops on your package it get lobbed in the corner for six months?
What are you most looking forward to this weekend?
The perfect combination of some time to myself to indulge in a few of my favourite pastimes followed by preparing and enjoying a boozy, long lunch on (bank holiday) monday with a group of good friends to kick-off my birthday celebrations.
What are your neighbors like? (The ones you live near or next to, not the ones in your Vox neighborhood!)
Andrew and Francesca live in the flat opposite and are great neighbours. They moved in about a year ago and we started chatting when we bumped into each other in the hall. They came over for a drink on my birthday last year and Mosh and I went to their wedding reception. At Easter we all had dinner together, preparing a course each.
They have a set of keys to my flat for when I lock myself out, we lend each other stuff and are all going to the theatre together in June.
Francesca is a knit wear designer and gives me free samples. Andrew is a bus driver and is full of amusing stories about the menagerie of passengers he encounters and tips for how to get the drivers attention when you are running for the bus.
And to top it all, they don't have loud parties.
Saw two disappointing films at the weekend.
First there was Shine A Light the Scorsese directed film of the Rolling Stones in concert on Saturday night. If you've seen the trailers, like me, you may have been led to believe that this was a behind the scenes rockumentary made by one of the leading film directors about one of the most famous rock bands.
However, what it is, is a nicely shot equivalent to a 'live DVD' with a bit at the beginning which is all 'woo the Rolling Stones are being all skitish about the details and Scorsese's getting worried about whether he can have a moving camera or not' followed by pretty much the entire concert with a handful of old interview clips sparingly edited in.
Yep there are some good guests which expose the weakness of either the guests performance (Jack White is a terrible singer next to Mick Jagger) or the Rolling Stones (Christina Aguilera is a superb singer next to Mick Jagger).
It is a charity gig so the audience is obviously made up of rich gits who may have heard a Rolling Stones song once and the Clinton's who are just embarrassing. (Why didn't Scorsese get the camera to pan around on them during the gig so we could all see Bill dad-dancing as he inevitably would be).
OK so the songs are great and I'm sure it would have been amazing to have been there but I quickly got bored and it was only my fascination with Keith Richards face (please tell me he's a muppet) combined with the large glass of red that sustained me.
Why on earth Scorsese wasted his time on it I do not know. Surely the man could have wangled himself a ticket and a back stage pass if he was that much of a fan?
He directs and stars what is actually a direction-less movie. It wants to be so many things but succeeds in being none.
You could call it a romantic comedy about a girl that is hard to get but the whole American Football thing pulls it more towards fact-based sports drama about the underdogs succeeding and how American Football became the game that is played today or something. But then there is also the media question which stops it being a sports drama and the 'what is a hero' question which stops it being about the role of the media. I could go on.
Renee Zellweger or hamster face as I like to call her (just look at how she smiles, if a fat hamster smiled it would look like Renee Zellweger) and Clooney smolder together which is about the only positive thing I can say about the whole film. Oh and the bit where Clooney gets punched in the face and falls over which is what I wanted to do by the end. Actually that was the only bit that made me laugh.
If you want to eat popcorn and ogle George for a couple of hours then it might be worth parting with hard-earned cash but otherwise I wouldn't even bother recording when it makes it onto the telly.
What are you looking forward to this week?
The weekend. It's Mosh's birthday on Saturday and we have lots of things planned starting with going to see The Cult on Friday night, Mosh wants to start his 40th year with ringing ears and for me seeing them is a trip down memory lane as they were the first band I ever saw when I was a teen.
On Saturday I'm taking birthday boy to a restaurant of his choice for lunch and then he's having a bit of a do in one our local pubs to which he's (hopefully) invited loads of our friends.
Have got some other stuff planned but if I write about it, it won't be a surprise...
Thanks to Nadia for recommending this recipe out of her Jamie Oliver cook book, which I made for lunch yesterday. It was simple and delicious. Basically you put all your veg and tatties in a roasting tin with a browned leg of lamb and some herbs.
Chuck in a bottle of white wine and a bottle of water. Cover in foil. Bung in the oven and forget about it for five hours:
