Awesome!

What an awesome birthday I had!
Got up at 7.30am (no way I hear you say, well yes way!), had a lovely cooked breakfast, then it was off to the Battersea Vintage Fashion, Accessories & Textiles Fair with Mr S.
It was wonderful. Looking at all these items from some time in the 1800's to today. Beautiful embroidery, sumptuous fabrics and the gorgeous furs! Have to say I was sorely tempted to buy a fur wrap from the 1920's, though didn't. I did purchase a handbag, a pure silk peignoir, a hat and a feather. Mr S managed to secure a great waistcoat and rather spiffy 1930's bowler hat! We ended up walking round it for nearly two and a half hours!
Then it was a walk down Lavender Hill for a well deserved cappuccino and wander round the shops of Clapham Junction.
A quick dash home for some pizza and well deserved hour or two rest to rebuild energy for the evening's event - dinner!
What a lovely dinner it was! A delicious Chinese spread at Ly Bar in Balham, with fabulous company, thanks Miss S and Mr J! We had the whole restaurant to ourselves, well I guess it was a Sunday night, and it was all rather awesome!
Yay to birthdays!

Wicked Day Off!

What a wicked Friday I had!
Was woken by Miss Yo Yo sitting on my chest and tapping me on the nose about 8.30am - quite good for her as she is used to getting up at 7.05am! Then the usual morning ablutions and it was off to see the animated adventures exhibition at Woking's new gallery, The Lightbox. A lovely little gallery it was, though the man greeting us was rather weird!
They had a great room on the history of Woking. Woking's Story, how it has the first purpose built Mosque, the Shah Jahan Mosque, how the rail link really started the town - trains from London would come with people visiting Brookwood cemetry (the largest in Britain and since 1854, over 235,000 people have been buried there!).
Currently they also have a fabulous photographic exhibition by Matthew Felton, Life on Ice. The images are just awe inspiring, to think that such a thing as ice can be so beautiful, and how animals and birds actually live on it!
After that it was then to see the animated adventures part: a hands on display of the history of British animation as well as sets from ‘Wallace and Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’. It was wicked! Not only entertaining, it was also educational. You have to check out the Aardman website, one of my favourites... well I am a Gromit fan!
Then is was off up to London to visit Portobello Road (PR) - the world's longest antiques market. And a great start to that part of the day. Bought pizza from a great little shop where there was a man singing to a karaoke machine! Well funny that was.. he was wearing a suit and tie as well!
It was a fabulous day to be out and about along PR. Didn't have the crowds of a Saturday, was able to have a thorough look at the shops, though not all of them open, and even saw a couple of famous people (well it is Notting Hill dahling!) Headed into Portobello Green part of the market - lots of lovely clothes shops, I could have spent a fortune, not quite did though! Visited my current favourite lingerie shop "What Katie Did" - it was lovely to browse the product and see them in person as opposed to on-line. The store has just recently opened and ooh it's lovely!
After that it was off to the Natural History Museum for the yearly visit to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. I do so enjoy this exhibition. The most incredible shots of nature around. If you're in London while this is on, it's definitely worth the £7.00! Entry to the rest of Natural History Museum being free!
Then is was off to the tube in rush hour, up to Balham (on the dreaded Northern Line - it was actually working well!) to meet up with friends to watch a movie. We headed to a great theatre in Brixton called Ritzy Picturehouse. It's fab! Nice comfy bar/cafe area to wait in, you can take your beer/wine/etc into the theatre with you, it's just fab! We were watching Beowulf, a film based on the epic English poem, that starred Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich, though as computer generated versions of themselves - I liked it!
It was then off to catch the train home and surprise surprise managed to get every connection and didn't have to wait any longer than five minutes for any of them!
I do love it when the public transport system works!
What a wicked day that was!

If you're now thoroughly bored, here's some links below to bore you even more!

http://www.thelightbox.org.uk/
http://www.shahjahanmosque.org.uk/
http://www.brookwoodcemetery.com/
http://www.aardman.com/
http://www.portobelloroad.co.uk/
http://www.whatkatiedid.com
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/?cam=hp-promo
http://wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/beowulf/

Hot Chips, Great Music!

On a cold winter's evening it was off to see the Stereophonics play at Wembley Arena (WA).. well anticipated, as saw them play over a year ago at a much smaller venue. So intrigued to see how they would come over in a large venue!
We didn't have much interest in the opening band, I can't even remember their name, so we stood outside, eating hot chips, watching the fountain out the front of WA change colours, and silly people wearing t-shirts (had on a wool coat, wool hat and wool gloves!) running through said fountain!
It was then off in to WA to watch/listen to the Stereophonics... they rocked! Nothing like thousands of people singing one of my favourites of theirs "A Thousand Trees"

"Only takes one tree, to make 1000 matches
Only takes one match, to burn A thousand trees"

Everyone in their seat was tapping their feet, nodding their heads and those down near the stage were waving their arms and bouncing about.
It was great!
You know what I wish though... I'd love it if just once that when the bad stopped their playing, walked off the stage, the lights came up and that was it! None of this encore scream and clap and stamp your feet so that they'll come out and play again palaver. We like you, we came to see you play, we paid to see you play, no need for the encore we love you stroke the ego crap!

We're All Just a Bunch of Cookie Lovers!

Around 2.30pm today a tantalising smell began to waft round the office. You see it making it's way through, the lifting of a head, a tentative sniff, then a full on SNIFF and a blissful smiling appearing on people's faces.
Our chief had decided to cook a batch of double chocolate cookies!
You see people sneaking off down to the kitchen to ask when they would be ready and could they book one, yes, book a cookie!
I managed to secure one of the crispy on the outside, gooey in the middle, nearly too hot to eat delights of deliciousness, mmMMmm.
I even saw two of the sales guys running down the hall, not quite shoving each other, in the pursuit of a chocolate, gooey, crunchy mouth experience!
We're all just kids wanting their cookies at heart!