Wales is Best (above the equator)

The autumn rugby union internationals have come to an end this weekend. I'll tell you, I have burned a lot of calories over the last few weeks shouting and jumping up and down in front of the tv. 

I am a big Wales fan. I'm a pretty big rugby fan, but I am a MASSIVE Wales rugby fan. My home team is the Ospreys and I am a huge fan of them too.  I have been to see them play and everything. I saw them lose against Saracens in the Heineken Cup quarter-final in April. That was a miserable day - the day it snowed all over London.

It was a real nerve jangler this weekend. Wales beating Australia 21-18, Australia scoring a try in the 79th minute to take them within a single try. I could've given myself a hernia if that was possible.

Last week against NZ I nearly peed my pants when the squad faced down the haka - it was so exciting. I wish they had another one before starting the second half because it clearly gave Wales a platform to go out and believe in themselves. I wish I'd been at the Millennium Stadium to see it live. 

I'm pretty excited about the six nations coming up in the new year, I'm definitely going to try to get tickets for the home matches - and for the others I'll get to a Welsh centric pub in London - somewhere like the Famous Three Kings. 

Lyrical Christmas

The Christmas show at the Lyric this year is a production of Cinderella directed by Melly Still (who directed Coram Boy at the National and the lovely Watership Down at the Lyric.)

I didn't see Coram Boy but it had terrific reviews. I did see Watership Down and it was a really great show - theatre at it's best really. Engaging, creative, imaginative, clever, well performed, beautifully directed.

Cinderella this year looks set to be a real Christmas treat for all the family (as long as everyone in your family is 7+).  I saw the first preview night and will be performing during the interval so I can confirm it's a brilliant show and will be especially brilliant when I am performing during the interval. 

Under 25's can get £10 tickets for most shows, and I'd say it's definitely a show worth seeing if only for the musician alone - who is INCREDIBLE. He plays instruments made of ice!

Coooold

Why has it been so bloody cold recently? Is it global warming? Is it because high gas prices mean that everyone (including me) is not putting the central heating on, resulting in a lower overall temperature for London?

That sounds like laughably bad science. I hope it's true. 

So, I'm trying to think of where is good in London to go when it's cold. 

Well,  I think a hot chocolate at Paul in Holland Park is always a warming treat. It's so thick and chocolaty it feels like swallowing hot melted chocolate. Yum yum. 

On a particularly miserable day which does not encourage running or other outdoors exercise - I like to go to the Janet Adegoke swimming pool. It's a good place to work up a heart rate and stay under a roof and in a warm (although stinking of chlorine) environment.

Albertine's is another great place to avoid the cold outdoors - warm yourself from the inside out with a big glass of rioja and a hot pudding. 

Is Christmas starting earlier or am I getting faster?

It's a big fat cliche isn't it? It gets whipped out every Winter - 'Christmas starts earlier every year'. Even in the belly of a monstrous credit crunch, the tinsel made an appearance in October and now, in November we are in full festive swing.

Westfield had barely been opened for a week before all the decor inside changed to Christmas decorations.

I don't mind it though. It's quite nice isn't it? When it starts getting cold, it makes you feel a bit warmer on the inside seeing all the sparkly lights above Oxford Street. It's certainly a better sight than the hoards of zombie shoppers underneath the lights. The Debenhams display went up quite early and I walk past it on my way to and from work. There are often tourists taking pictures of themselves in front of the dancing little reindeer. 

My boyfriend loves Christmas time - especially when Starbucks brings out the red cups. He adores their gingerbread lattes, which you can't get for the rest of the year. He bought one on the first day they started doing them (Nov 6th I think). And I reckon has probably had one every day since, though he won't admit it to me.

I'm actually quite excited about the Ice Fair that the posters all over Shepherd's Bush are promising for the Green. £1 entry (profits to the NSPCC- my top charity) and delights like a temporary ice rink, rides and stalls. I'll keep you posted - I think it's opening next week.

Venetian Highlights

on the stansted express on the way home :( 

the rialto bridge bathed in sunset (and tourists)

the 3rd day when the sun came out and with it, the gondolas

an umbrella using boat driver

sexy, mysterious bacaro

Ciao Bella

Ah. I went to Venice. I wish I was back there. What a wonderful city.

I can totally understand why so many writers choose to work in Venice, it's a place that commands creativity within it. I can also see why so many detective novels are set here - the place is so full of mystery and intrigue.

I had a pretty great time and did the thing of buying books set in Venice and reading them while in Venice. Daunt Books is a great place to stock up for that sort of thing. I read Death in Venice and also Don't Look Now. Every book I picked up seemed to involve some sort of death. But it never seemed like a dangerous or unsafe place, but it did feel like a place where strange things happen.

The main problem with Venice is that tourism makes up almost the entire business of the city - but the locals have a real disdain for tourists and will often try to rip you off. For example, we had a great time one night enjoying wine in Do Mori but then the next night the waiter totally shortchanged me and was pretty rude.

It has made me really want to learn to speak Italian.

Additionally, I think it would take years to review all the places in Venice. There's millions of tiny places everywhere, I think even if you lived there you would still discover new streets and alleys and churches and museums and shops and bars and restaurants and cafes....

Boom! Bang! Bleurgh!

Bonfire Night 2008.

Last year I had a tremendous bonfire night. Some friends of mine have kids and they live down the road from me and they had a big party with loads of kids and loads of homemade delicious things like soup, sausages and cakes. So I was really looking forward to it this year, perhaps a little too much.

We arrived and almost straight away I left again to go buy more marshmallows for the fire and more sparklers. You cannot begin to imagine how excited I was.

We return laden with marshmallows and sparklers and there are kids running around, dangerously close to fire and explosives. I am giddy with joy. I have some pumpkin soup. I have a sausage. I have a homemade toffee apple with a real stick in it (from a tree!) I have a brownie. I have some crumble. I have a potato. I have some marshmallows toasted on the fire.  I have way too much food. I have so much food that I am ill the next day.

Despite that it was still a great night. For the actual fireworks - being set off in a garden far too small to be remotely safe - the kids start chanting the names of the fireworks. So there's a gaggle of children all shouting 'Ring Shower Rocket! Ring Shower Rocket!' and we're setting off fireworks at an hilariously pedestrian rate. These are all things that I deeply love about Great Britain. Did you know you are not allowed to buy fireworks in the states? We're allowed to set them off in our own tiny gardens! And we're encouraged to do it every year!

Brilliant. I cannot wait for next Nov 5th. 

A New Bathroom and Nearly a New Month

So after nearly plummeting 3 feet into the foundations of my house after the floor of my bathroom had nearly disintegrated I have a lovely new bathroom floor. What a delight.

It was quite scary realising how much space there is beneath the floorboards. You could easily fit an entire gaggle of dead bodies underneath your own house. And yes, gaggle is the correct collective term, so there.

This is a pretty exciting time coming up in the next two weeks. First we have Westfield opening on Thursday - I intend to go and see if they are giving out free things (If you ever want me to go anywhere, just offer free things) and try to evaluate how much of my time will now be spent there. I'm really hoping the cinema will rival the Vue across the road and they will lower prices.

After that we have Halloween. Oooooooh! I'm going to a party where the theme is 'Aliens from Planet Terror Vision'. I have no idea what to wear or bring.

Then a few days later we have the US elections which I have been obsessing over. (OBAMA! OBAMA!) I intend to stay up all night watching it unfold and getting infuriated by the stupidity of Americans, whilst being soothed by the intelligence of other Americans.

The day after that is Bonfire Night! Woo! I am going to the same party I went to last year, which was a bloody hoot. Essentially it was a kid's party, at a friend's house. It was ridiculously dangerous. We were setting off fireworks in a tiny garden with about 20 small kids running around. There will be pumpkin soup, sausages and cakes. I can't wait.

So I'm getting pretty excited just writing about all these things. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Free Fair Trade

I was browsing through the H&F news - the free paper that gets delivered to everyone in he borough - I was specifically looking for any competitions because hardly anyone ever enters them so the chances of winning are pretty good. Annoyingly, there were no competitions but I did see a little notice for a fair trade stall that would be giving out free fair trade items in the Broadway Centre in Hammersmith on Friday at 4.30pm.

Seeing as I had nothing better to do on Friday afternoon and getting something for free is better than any chances in a competition I thought I'd go along to have a butcher's.

Unsurprisingly it was a tiny stall overwhelmed by commuters with a disappointing amount of free stuff. Here's what I managed to swipe: one fair trade tea bag, one fair trade individual packet of coffee and THREE fair trade snack bars. They were limiting the snack bars to one per person but I had walked all the way from Shepherd's Bush so I managed to purloin one of each flavour and didn't feel too bad about it.

Especially as I knew I'd blog about it here and raise the profile of fair trade in the borough even further among my readership of 3. That was the point of the freebies - to raise awareness about fair trade in H&F and the whole of London as it's Fair Trade London month or something.

I love fair trade. You should too. There we go, job done. Awareness firmly raised.

WestField

Westfield is due to open at the end of this month. Up til now I've only really felt a bit of anger and annoyance at it, but as the grand launch is approaching I guess I am starting to feel a bit excited about it.

For those of you who don't know what Westfield is, here is a brief explanation. Westfield is supposedly going to be Europe's largest shopping and entertainment complex within a city (i.e. not an out of town one). There will be over 250 retail shops, nearly 50 eateries, people who will park your car and carry your shopping, a big cinema, places that'll look after your kids while you shop. It sounds insane. Like the spaceship in Wall-E that all the humans live on. The transport links to it are to die for. About 4 tube stops are within spitting distance, there's a brand new overground station which spills directly into the complex, a new bus station in the same place and 4,500 car parking spaces.

It's going to be bloody massive.

But Shepherd's Bush is one of the most culturally diverse areas of London with a lot of independent businesses that may suffer deeply from the huge competition that Westfield poses. On the other hand, it may bring a lot more people to Shepherd's Bush and the local businesses may benefit from additional custom. However, I don't really see that happening as the entire place is designed to be self-sustaining - like once you go there you need never go anywhere else. For the rest of your life.

I am quite excited about it now though. We'll have an Eat. and a Yo! Sushi!

New Hair Yum Yum

So I have really neglected my hair over the last year. I got it salvaged by Rick at the Rose & Crown who did a sterling job and then I made him bleach it blonde and I failed to maintain it to any standard at all for the last 9 months. So I had half dark, half blonde hair, that I'd cut a bit myself as there were bits at the back, as it grew longer, that really annoyed me.

My hair, suffice to say, was a bloody shambles.

I thought I'd go back to being a brunette as it is a lot easier to keep up, but my manager said she likes it blonde and reckons it should stay blonde. So I thought I'd invest in it and had a look on the net and especially on Qype (of course) for someone who comes recommended as a good colourist. I found Sarah at Wedge and booked myself in.

I won't go into the details but she has done a terrific job on what was a very challenging prospect. Also, I didn't feel really judged for having failed to look after my hair and for self administering dodgy cuts. The salon was really cool, and Sarah was just great. I'm really pleased with the job she's done on my hair and I've definitely go back, because the cut is excellent too.

Sinking into Narnia

A great start to the day. My boyfriend tells me the toilet is broken - not that he broke it, mind - that it is broken. It broke all by itself. I'm not surprised though, because we have a problem where the floor in our bathroom is subsiding and when you sit on the toilet it feels like you're falling into Narnia.

We complained about it to the landlord months ago when it started, but they said it was fine so it's almost been like we've been waiting for something like this to happen to prove that every time we use the bathroom we're in danger of slipping into the underworld.

Now hopefully they'll sort it out properly and replace the bath which is seeping damp through the walls.

It must sound like I live in a real palace. It's an old London house, so you expect a bit of nonsense, but extreme toilet adventures is going a bit far. Dodgy insulation, high heating prices and ridiculous water charges I expect - but not the danger of falling into an early grave every time nature calls.

Annoyingly, as it's a Saturday they can't get the contractors in to fix it properly so a little Irish plumber came around to temporarily fix up the loo until Monday. We just have to make sure we go about it very daintily. The worry is that Monday will come and the contractor comes and says 'oh, yeah, this is a big job. You won't have a bathroom for 2 weeks'. Eeek. I think the landlord is contractually obliged to put us up somewhere that does have a bathroom but what a pain in the arse that'll be. Excuse the pun.

Hair Bear

Some people are awful, aren't they?

I had a casting last week to do some hair modelling. I was pretty surprised they asked me back because my hair is a state at the moment - two tone, shapeless etc etc. But they did, and I thought, oh great, maybe they'll sort it out and I won't have to pay for someone to do it.

I went back to the second casting, where they were deciding what to do with all the girls' hair, and I waited around for 2 hours, yes TWO BLOODY hours for this Italian old geezer to come up to me and try to bully me into getting my hair cut much shorter than I wanted. He literally backed me up into a corner and said "with deepest respect your hair is in terrible condition and you should let us start from the beginning". What I should've said was, 'with deepest respect, up you!' but I just said that I thought that would be the case and I didn't know why I'd been asked back.

Grrrr. He was so rude and such a bully. With every girl he tried to coerce them into having a cut they didn't want. He was oleaginous and awful.

At the very least it has provoked me into going to a salon to get my hair done by a professional. So, watch this space and we'll see how it goes.

Olympic Parade

Today was the Olympic parade through London. I only realised when I saw live coverage of it on the BBC. That's a bit of a shame because I might've gone down to join in with the celebrations as I bloody love the olympics and paralympics.

It seemed to be under publicised - I'm saying that because I was unaware it was happening and as an obsessive reader of sports news, I would have thought I might have read about it.

Thankfully it was a lovely day for it. The sun was shining and there were a fair few people out to cheer on our awesome athletes. Not as many as for the rugby world cup winners parade or the ashes parade (wasn't that a boozy hoot), but I hope there were enough people to make the athletes feel as celebrated as they deserve to feel. Which is loads and loads. There's something about sporting achievement that is so pure and heart-warming, it really gets me. And putting that alongside Britain's usual position of 'also ran' being smashed to the side as our nation became a nation of champions made me genuinely really proud to be British.

I can't wait for 2012. Well, I can. There's the Ashes of next year, several Six Nations and the next rugby world cup to get involved in before then. I'm still very excited about it, nonetheless.

I Wish We Had A Barack Obama

Me and my friends have been getting way too interested in the American elections, with the big one less than a month away we find ourselves reading an insane amount about it on the internet.

When I think about it, and gosh, I do get wrapped up in thinking about it, I'm always left with a feeling of exclusion. Because as excited as we can get about the idea of Obama becoming president, it doesn't directly impact on our lives here in London. The thought of British government elections fills me with ennui, like I've over eaten salty porridge. What exciting choices do we have?

Take the Mayoral election - a choice of Ken, who'd clearly had it, or Boris who is clearly entertaining, but mental. What sort of option is that? It's difficult to even say a labour vote is a given for me because the party seems to be operating beyond, through and out of party principles. Where is our Barack Obama? It is obviously not Gordon Brown.

Maybe we are not so desperate for change. Perhaps Britain isn't in so terrible a situation that we need something as re-energising as a Barack Obama to refocus our country. I can't help but feel that if Obama wins, it will help us here in the UK.

I think I'm in love with Obama. What a dude. If he doesn't win, I'm going to freak out.

Bleurgh

I have a bloody stomach bug. Oh, it's horrible. Perhaps it's karma because I've had such a nice two weeks, but if it is karma, karma is being a real dick.

I had a similar thing a few months ago. This time it's not so bad because the last time I couldn't leave the house, I could barely leave the bathroom. With this one, it started last night when I started feeling queasy so decided to go to bed early. I couldn't get to sleep because of the nausea and I had chills alternating with a fever. I spent a good few hours trying to sleep until at about 4am I bolted to the bathroom to be sick. I thought it would be a relief to have finally puked, but the nausea, chills and cramps continued until I had to get up for work at 7am.

Fortunately, today is a very slow day at work and after describing my previous night's adventures to my boss she said I could go lay down on one of the sofas for a while. So I did, and I feel slightly better but still like someone has stolen my insides and I'm walking around trying to stay upright without having a skeleton.

I can't wait to go home and go to bed.

Does anyone recommend anything? I'm just drinking water very slowly, and I had a banana. The problem I have is that I'm still not registered with a GP in London (that's a sort of long story, perhaps the subject of another blog) so all I have is NHS Direct, or the pharmacists in the Bush Pharmacy. They are great but I can't rely on them for all my medical queries, it'll get embarrassing.

Three Countries in two Weeks

I had my jet set trip to Ireland last week so I thought I'd top that off with a trip home to the motherland this weekend. I needed to go home to record some things for my brother, and it was one of my cousin's 30th birthday parties, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and get on the train to Cardiff.

What's really annoying is that had I booked my tickets just a few days earlier (1 week, instead of 4 days) then the price would be halved. So I paid pretty much full price for an off peak return with young person's railcard discount (£40 ish). If I'd booked a week in advance I could've got singles for about £10 each way. Curses. Spontaneity is not cheap.

An additional concern for my bank balance came in the fact that I was feeling quite generous so I bought, for the first time in my life, a dozen assorted Krispy Kremes for the family. I felt like some sort of American style hero carrying the big box of donuts from London to Wales. I didn't even eat one on the train. You see, you cannot get Krispy Kremes in Wales and my brother loves them. So they are a real treat for my family who rarely come to London. It did cost me £9 though. For 12 donuts, that isn't terrific. I could've bought a quality pub sunday roast for that.

I Heart London

I had one of those days where you end up in the middle of town for some work reason and when you leave your meeting you discover you have some free time, and you're on the Thames.

I came out and crossed back over Westminster Bridge from County Hall and decided to walk to Fleet Street. The sun was shining, it was a beautiful autumn day. I walked past the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, The Mall, Trafalgar Square and the Royal Courts of Justice.

The whole time I was wondering around and actually looking at all the stuff and thinking 'I am so grateful to be living in London, what a beautiful, detailed, historical, impressive, glorious city. I really must appreciate it more often.'

I had lunch in Fleet Street and then got the bus to Paddington. i was going to Ladbroke Grove but because of the bus strikes the 23 wasn't running so I went to Paddington and then walked to Ladbroke Grove. I got to see another amazing part of London that I rarely get to see - aimly the grand Georgian architecture of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It's quite wonderful how many people actually get to live in these beautiful houses in this Mary Poppins area of London. How lovely it must be to live in one of those buildings and have keys to the private gardens. One day..

Then I walked through Portobello Market, met some friends for coffee and after that walked home to Shepherd's Bush from Ladbroke Grove.

My legs ache a bit, but my mind is jiggling with how much I love London. It's days like this that make you forget about how horrendously expensive it is to live here. And walking is always free.

Showbiz October

Well my October started off with a bang. Boom! Just like that.

I was flown to Dublin for 6.5 hours and then I was flown back again. BA sandwiches all paid for and everything. Glamorous. It was for a radio show which is quite exciting, and my gran will be able to listen to it when it gets broadcast. It's not Hollywood, but I've never been to Ireland before so I was delighted. Not so delighted to only see Dublin from a car window. However, I did manage to get my flatmate a great birthday present from the airport. 

I flew from London City airport. Goodness, that's how airports should be run. What a delight it was to check in on one of those fast-ticket type machines, then saunter to your gate without so much of a queue or a whiff of baggage handlers messing things up.

I also went to see some friends in a show they were doing at the Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue on Sunday night and that was great. Good show, good show. 

I've also had a casting to do some hair modelling at an expo next week, so I'm really hoping they will pay me, and do my (by now absurd) roots for free. I'm having a pretty good time of it really. I only hope it continues for....well, the rest of my life would be ideal.

Funny Ha Ha or Funny Peculiar

My housemate has just started up a monthly event called the 'open arts cafe' (which I think sounds a bit rude, but I've got a very juvenile sense of humour). It's a multi discipline event which means it has actors doing acting, writers getting actors to read out writing, poets doing poems and musicians doing music. The first one (which was the 25th) also included us doing some comedy.

Now, the problem with doing comedy in the middle of a bunch of other things is that comedy is its own unique form of communication and has its own relationship to an audience. So to stick it in between a scene about domestic abuse and a duo joyfully larking about on ukuleles, it doesn't quite work. Because with comedy you need an audience to understand that they are the other person in the conversation, and if you've just had them sitting and quietly listening in to a scene, then they don't realise they have to step up to the plate and engage mentally and vocally when the comic comes on.

Anyway, it went alright, but it was a tough gig for us. It's a very interesting night though, with free entry (donations only), free wine and nibbles provided. So as an audience member you can't complain.

The other funny thing is that it's in a synagogue. Funny peculiar that is.