Meet my little friend

He's been reading over my shoulder for a while. This is B.J. Vorster, former hardman of South African politics. He creeps my parents out when they skype me. 

This weekend (I say weekend, I mean yesterday), I ate a lot of strawberries. 

A lot. And plenty of cream. 

I also did a wee bit of shopping, of which more anon. I don't wish to alarm anyone, but I may have solved the world's skirt problems. 

This evening I have also been eating lots! Almost all of it from the garden. The Godmother's vegetables all seem to be ripening at once, and I feel like I'm living on a farm. We've had corn from the garden"

(The remains)

Also broad beans and French beans and probably other kinds of beans I've forgotten about. My favourite way of eating them is straight off the vine, so I can pretend I'm some sort of garden-raiding outlaw. Also they make a wonderful squeaking sound when you eat them raw.

Also diverse other produce. I think she should set up a farm stall!

The potatoes and raspberries are particularly sublime. 

Right, I'm going to have to go to bed now, as I have had a long day at work and seem to be coming down with something. Not convenient!

Goodnight!

Almost Autumn

Today was properly chilly. I went out wearing a cardigan, a jacket and a scarf! Goodbye summer, we hardly knew ye. 

There is one upside to colder weather, though. I may actually get to wear my new coat:

I bought it in some sort of sale last month for £20, so I'm feeling smug already. 

In some ways, cooler weather is a lot easier to dress for, as you just assemble disparate elements, rather than trying to find one clean item of clothing that will cover all the necessary areas without adding to your body temperature too much. I will have changed my mind by October, though! 

I'm going to bed now, as tomorrow will be my sixth day in a row at work, and I need all the sleep I can get!

Goodnight!

Here, fishy fishy

I made these earrings last week, with extremely awesome fish beads that my parents brought me back from South Africa. Making jewellery is a surprisingly relaxing hobby, apart from the mental strain of coming up with designs. I like these, though - they're the kind of jewellery that cheers you up! 

Although it was Monday today, it felt like Tuesday as I was working yesterday. The upside of this is that I didn't have the same Monday bad mood as everyone else and was positively cheerful by comparison! We had to fill another whole page at rather short notice. In some ways, it's quite good fun to race against the clock, but only when people don't want you to do other things at the same time! All was well in the end, though, and I even got to work in a topical fragment of news from 1819, about the aftermath of the Peterloo massacre. Today's rioters should be glad that the police aren't allowed to bayonet them. 

I have also been given sole charge of a work experience person, as I am going to be the only person in the office who will be in all week! Very nerve-wracking - I think I need to get used to being in charge of people or I will never make it to editor!

I'm off to bed now, another exciting day tomorrow!

Goodnight! 

The best bit

Look familiar? 

I am going to get back into blogging properly, I promise. Just as soon as things are a bit less hectic at work and I actually get to do fun stuff to tell you about. Until then, I'm afraid snippets are going to have to do.

Tonight I want to mention something incredibly important in my life, as illustrated by the delicious, sadly 2D carrot cake above. Without getting too oversentimental, my family is awesome. My little brother is somewhere in the Pyrenees at the moment, eating horrible blue cheese. And I have just gotten off skype to my parents who, despite the recent swamp-ifying of the sitting room, are just the most incredibly cheerful, cheering people I know. So, even though my vision is starting to go a little bit fuzzy through lack of sleep, I am going to go to bed in a good mood.

Goodnight!

Tickets, please

It feels like Autumn is already drawing in. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'm not going to be on holiday again for a good while, so a change of seasons would at least be something of a diversion. On the other hand, I'm not that keen for it to rain all the time.

Today's picture is a handy visual demonstration of something I complain about a lot:

Travel.

This picture also represents a few thousand pounds. Those are some expensive little pieces of card. 

I have been taking steps to make my commute more bearable. Most recently, I have started reading on trains again. I got through Ian Rankin's Tooth & Nail in two days, and will be starting another one tomorrow. I think the trick is to pick the lightest books possible. 

I am going to have to go to bed now, as I am back at work and back to not getting enough sleep. 

Goodnight!

Mellow

All I want to do this evening is listen to the Corries!

I had another busy day at work (full page again, so lots to come up with), but I did manage to put Superchef's blog in the paper, and fully legitimately. It's here, in case you want to check it out. Lots of recipes with very few calories!

I am hopefully also meeting Normandy for lunch tomorrow, if all goes to plan. I haven't seen her in ages, so it is quite exciting!

That's about as much as I can type for now, so listen to the song!

Goodnight!

Milkshake mania

OK, so maybe not that much mania. But it did take us ages to find it!

To start making sense, yesterday Percy and I went on a magical mystery tour to try to find this place:

Picture from here, where there are also reviews

Personally, I blame Percy's smartphone. 

We had just seen Arietty (the new Ghibli film, which was really good. Although Percy complained that there was barely any flying in it) and decided we wanted milkshakes. As we were in Soho (the Curzon cinema is another recommendation, if you happen to be in those parts and fancy watching a film with drink in hand, and maybe a meringue or two), we had to go to the aforementioned diner. The milkshakes are good (and huge), and if you're sitting in the jukeboxes are hours of fun. 

Earlier in the day we had met Whizzkid (actually, Whizzkid and I met up first, and then Percy rucked up an hour or so later, with some lame, just-got-back-to-England excuse) and sat in a park while under aerial attack from a squirrel. If you want to eat conkers, that's fine, but don't drop the skins on people! 

Whizzkid had earlier helped me on a Secret Shopping Mission near Waterloo, where he met a dog that behaved like a cat. There was also a baby in its own backpack tent. 

I'm going to go to bed soon, as being at work all day has made me slightly crazy.

Goodnight!