Weddings and babies

It was my cousin Becky's wedding on Friday, above is a pic of Becky with husband Andy and her parents, my Uncle Adrian and Auntie Linda. We don't get together much as a family and I am ashamed to say that it was 14 years since I had seen Becky and her sister Clare. It was a lovely reception we had a lovely time dancing and knocking back a few gins! Having not seen many of my relatives for so long did give me that unusual feeling of seeing them as if for the first time and I could really see for the first time the family resemblances between us all.

My parents has a great time too and hopefully I'll be able to add some photos of us all in the next few days and in particular a picture of my Dad asleep!

Yesterday feeling a little fragile we went to visit Selina and Tim and their two sons, Lucas who is 2 and a bit and baby Jack who is 5 weeks. Jack was tiny and just like his Dad whilst Lucas was sprinting everywhere and rifling through draws and toy boxes and just full of beans! It was lovely to catch up. University now seems like a long time ago.

Tomorrow I am going to Glasgow for a conference on Tuesday, should be a quiet conference but a good chance to meet NHS people from places like the Shetland isles which doesn't happen very often. Tomorrow night when we get to Gasgow Andrew and I are going to Tony Roma's which is an American chain of rib restaurants. There are only a few in the UK, one of which is in Glasgow. I'm looking forward to it although I'm not going to have ribs!

Not much to say really

It's been a quiet month really - and my posts show that. I haven't been feeling well for a lot of August with my bad knee and a stomach bug. But I haven't completely become Dot Cotton spending my days moaning about various ailments. I've been watching the Olympics, reading a lot. I just finished the Bone Setters Daughter by Amy Tan which I loved. It was so refreshing to read something so funny and moving that wasn't sentimental or simplistic.

That "Olay" (that's Oil of Ulay for anyone over 30) advert that makes me really cross has just been on the TV. Its the one that starts with "Not ready for cosmetic surgery yet?" I hate it because it assumes that at some point we all will be ready to go under the knife and implies that a totally normal part of aging is to have plastic surgery!

So other than getting cross at face cream adverts it has been a quiet summer.

Knee injury, drunks and traffic

The road outside our house finally opened last Sunday after the flood and it has taken about a week for traffic levels to get back to normal. (There are other road works which have been restricting use of the road.) So it is a shame to have the rumble of traffic back. To add to the traffic noise the bar over the road has been very noisy yesterday afternoon we had 40 odd drunk South African rugby supporters drinking, shouting and playing guitar outside our living room window. Now I can see that for some this might be a good thing - and when I was a student I probably would have loved it - but I am getting old and grumpy and so I have had to complain yet again to the council. The glass and vomit on the pavement this morning just confirm that I was right to complain!

I also injured my knee in the week which meant I was unable to run the 10k this Saturday. I was pretty fed up about that. Not just because my knee has been pretty painful but I had trained really hard (too hard I guess) to do the race and I couldn't actually run! I have been consoling myself watching the Olympics and praying that I can get to the gym in a week or so. I will now have to concetrate on swimming and cycling instead of running.

Weekend of theatre

Last weekend my Mum and I went to see West Side Story at Sadlers Wells. It was an excellent production. In the evening we went to Soho Japan and my Mum had her first proper Japanese meal and used chop sticks. We all had catsu don meals which were delicious.

On Sunday we went to see King Lear at the Globe. My Mum and I disagree on how the Globe has faired since Mark Rylance left as Artistic Director. I think it hasn't been the same since Mark Rylanc left whilst Mum thinks it has improved! But King Lear was good better than the reviews made out but not a stunning King Lear either. Edmund was suitably panto villain about it all which was good.

Kylie

Wednesday night was Kylie night. David, Francesco, David's brother Stephen, Jens and I went to the O2 arena to see Kylie in concert as part of her X tour. I had a fantastic night. We started the night off drinking rose in the Ha Ha Bar. We then had a bite to eat - I had posh fish fingers and chips that was delicious and not that posh really.

David and Francesco raise a glass to Kylie

Our seats were all scattered across the arena. David and I had great seats but Francesco was up in the gods and he said that the view was rubbish. David and I had a fabulous time though. I danced for 2 and half hours. The feel, style and music of the concert was totally different than the Show Girl tour that David and I saw last new year in Wembley. X is more stylized but with a less coherent theme through out.
I particularly liked the Japanese section pictured below.

The journey home was fun - a packed jubilee line train but unlike in rush hour everyone was happy including the train driver. My legs ached and my knees were killing me the next day worse than after running. Fabulous!

After the flood

Merton High Street is still closed to traffic at our end. This with the warm weather has brought on a strange village feel to the area. For the first time since I have lived here I can hear children playing outside our flat. People are stopping to chat to one another. The local businesses are all trying to recover their stock and throw out what is ruined and they are all out on the street chatting. The eradication of the traffic noise is just blissful. Long may it last!

Stranded in York while Wimbledon floods

We traveled home on Sunday afternoon by train. When we got to York we were informed that we had to leave the train and there would be little chance of us getting to London in less than 4 hours and there were about 3 train loads worth of people trying to get on this slow train. (From York it should take 2 hours to London.) It all had something to do with some unspecified problem with over head lines near Doncaster. We were advised that our tickets would be valid the next day if we were able to stay in York.

We decided that we should stay overnight and get an early train back to London in the morning. I was very, very stressed by all of this. We found a room at the Hilton and were settled just after 6. Jase then tried to get in touch with his computer at home to check his email. The computer was dead, as was our phone answer machine when we tried it. This could only mean a power cut. Jase was very, very stressed by this. I had a search on the web and discovered that a water mains had bust near to our flat and flooded neighbouring streets and the busy Merton High Street. Water was off in 15000 homes and electricity in a few too.

Above is a picture posted by a local resident. Although the water was back on in the afternoon and the road cleared of water, the road its self is still closed to traffic. Returning tonight the area is eerily quiet without the traffic and a thick dust crusts the road and pavement. The heat of the sun has dried out a lot of the flotsum and jetsum from shops and businesses. There are big piles of cardboard and discarded signs and newspaper stands at the side of our street.

Glasgow

Jase and I arrived in a humid and hazy Glasgow on Friday night. Our hotel was right next to the exhibition centre and auditorium on the river. Te auditorium has a distinctive shape like an armadillo. But like many river / dockland redevelopments it is a bit of a ghost town when there isn't an exhibition or concert on. We resisted going on an adventure to find a chippy nearer to town and ate at the hotel.

On Saturday we went shopping and Jase managed to upgrade his iPhone and I bought a couple of books. I had completed a 2 and a half mile run that morning in the hotel gym so I was starving and I had crepe with chili beef for lunch. We both decided that next time we would go back to Edinburgh. Not that I don't like Glasgow (I wouldn't dream of speaking for Jase) but I just prefer Edinburgh.

Jase had a haggis supper on Saturday night but the chippy had run out of haggis after Jase' s and they didn't have any sausage or pies or anything that looked appetising so I just had chips. When we got back from eating chips by the river I took the photos from our bedroom window.

It was all very uneventful until Sunday...

Brighton

I went to Brighton today with David. It was a lovely day not too hot and not too busy in Brighton. David is off to the South of France this week so wanted to get a taste of the Riviera, apparently Nice is very similar to Brighton. (well it has a pebbly beach!)

We kicked off the day with a huge veggie breakfast (well I did anyway.) The sea gull doesn't look too impressed with the idea of a veggie breakfast - he's looking for fish and chips.

I made sure I called into the Sussex in the City shop, which sells jams, preserves, chutneys cheese, biscuits and wine all sourced from Sussex. We discovered that the shop is closing this week but the good news is their produce will be available online. We then had a nice sun bathe on the beach in stripy deck chairs and watched the brave hardy types swimming in the sea.

We then enjoyed a glass of champagne on the Terrace Bar over looking the beach and the pier. After a walk and having our palms read by Professor Mirza (very entertaining,) we went to a lovely fish restaurant for posh fish and chips. (Well David getting into the mood for Nice had lobster thermidor.)

We then made our way home on the train and at the station from our train window I noticed this fantastic pillar which I think sums up Brighton!

Dr Horrible's sing a long blog

A project Joss Whedon worked on during the writers strike last year. Click on the link above and it will take you to the website where you can watch the episodes for free for a limited time only. After that you can download it from iTunes. Lots of fun!