Deflation

Of the kind when you've been having a full on time of life and it all suddenly stops!
The three day party was great (home to change and recover for a few hours), then off up to Balham to celebrate Mr S's birthday at the pub, as well as having a drink for Christmas Eve, back home for a sleep and then off up to Balham again to celebrate Christmas Day.
A delicious meal cooked by Miss S, lots of conversation, then the obligatory lounging in front of the TV watching movies (including a James Bond one) and eating scrummy snacks until 1.30am, another quick sleep and then off to Hayes in Kent for another huge lunch for Boxing Day, more lounging in front of the TV and coming home for another sleep before heading back to work!
A very quiet couple of days at work, all three bosses on holiday, and having to even resort to the filing, ugh! It was quite nice being able to wear casual clothes as opposed to the suit though! Now it's the weekend (food shopping, washing the clothes and doing the housework as usual) and it all rather feels a bit flat! Like I'm a deflated tyre or balloon or suchlike.
At least New Years Eve is coming up, that should brighten my spark a bit!

Festive Cheer!

What a fabulous way to start of the festive celebration week!
Headed off up to London for a hair cut and a visit to the Kiwi shop for some snacks from home (and £23.00 lighter!). Beautiful day out with lots of shadow and sun play on London's attractions. It was also fab to walk through Trafalgar Square without being mobbed by pigeons! They have bought in a £500.00 fine for feeding the pigeons, yay! At least now they will be a more natural number as opposed to hundreds of them just there as humans are feeding them! As well as not having to walk through their crap!
Then it was off to the 'country' for a three day party in celebration of Mr S and Miss S' birthdays! What an awesome party.. lots of wonderful people to chat too, delicious food and party games! It was wonderful to see 20-odd people all sat in a circle playing pass the parcel! I have to thank Ms C and Mr M for such a wonderful time - definitely one of the all time best parties I have been to that's for sure!
Now time for a well deserved snooze!!

Thoughts and wishes with everyone this festive season!

Mummy I want! I want! I waaaaaaaaaaaaaant!

Good Grief!
I really hate the shopping aspect of the Christmas season! For us folks who don't get into it, are not slaves to commercialism, the festive season really sucks!
You head off to the supermarket to pick up life's necessities of bread, milk, butter and fruit and what happens? There are zillions of people meandering round, getting in your way, ankle biting snotty nosed little people trying to trip you up and those just stand there gawking types that you want to smack upside the head to say move you irritating nurk!
Not only do they have the entire extended family in tow that takes up the whole width of the mall, they also have wailing, moaning, crying, sulking, I want it, I WANT IT entourage in tow!
Why can't these people just do it all on-line like me... find a wonderful website that caters to the whole family, individually wraps the presents with a personalised gift card and delivers in time for Christmas without having to leave the house!
It's amazing how much expense, effort, hair pulling that people go to at this time of year. To me, a birthday is much more important.. you've managed to survive another year pretty much intact! A celebration much more worthy in my thinking than the celebration, that to a lot of people means nothing more than oooh, what presents am I getting and gawd I don't want to spend it with the family again!
Bring on the New Year celebrations I say.. I do like to celebrate the change of one year to another!

Feathers, Corsets, Bowler Hats & Canes!

Wow! What a fabulous burlesque joint birthday party it was on the weekend, and an all-niter one at that!
Mr S and I headed off to celebrate three birthdays at the 491 Gallery.. all decked out in velvet, drapes and comfy chairs!
Virtually everyone had made the effort to dress in something either risque or not so risque... someone had even managed not to wear anything!
It was fabulous to see everyone all dressed up, the music was fabulous and we managed to stay up until 7am! It was all rather decadent and I loved it!

Oh, I do Like to be Beside the Seaside...

I do like to beside the seaside, especially in gales and rain!
Well of course, there are not as many people there then and you can have a good look round the shops and always get a seat in the coffee shop to warm up!
A friend was exhibiting paintings and sculpture in Whitstable on Saturday night. So Mr S and I decided to head down earlier and have a look round the seaside town, and lovely it is (through the wind and rain of course!).
There were lots of local craft, vegetable shops and butcheries there. I could have spent a fortune, though managed to restrain self to the necessities: coffee, cake and more coffee!
It was then off to Horsebridge Gallery to see Ms S's works. They were lovely! Lots of other people exhibiting at the same time and it was wonderful to wander round with Christmas pies and mulled wine looking at them all! The body parts from stockings and stuffing caused no end of giggles!
After being all art-ed out, it was then off to the Hotel Continental for some drinks and food, and how lovely they were! As we were on the Thames estuary it seemed that everyone had some kind of sea food, except me! I indulged in a delicious galette with spinach, cheese and ham, and surprisingly (people are going to die of shock from this one) I actually had a half pint of raspberry wheat beer from the Whitstable Brewery. And I have to say, I actually liked it!
What a fabulous way to spend a Saturday!

For more info on Whitstable...
http://www.seewhitstable.com/