Off to a wedding

We are off to a wedding....hooray! One of Mr K-E's friends is getting married tomorrow in Staffordshire (North West England) and we are travelling up this afternoon.

We were supposed to have an extra-long weekend but Mr K-E has to go into work on Monday, which means that I might as well go into work too. Oh well, never mind. We will just do it some other time.

Nice Noodles

I'm still very self-conscious about taking photos in restaurants but I was so impressed by the presentation of these seafood crispy noodles that I asked Mr K-E to take a quick snap.

The noodles were served in an unusual boat-shaped bowl. They were delicious, too.

We were at Dragon Castle at Elephant and Castle in South London. The other dish you can see is Sizzling Black Pepper fillet. Also very good.

Dancing in the streets

Guess where we were on Monday. Carnival!

Oh, the crowds, the crowds!
2 million people were there and I was one of them!

These guys were quite cool. They had a great set, pity I don't really like ska.

Transformers

Very good. Action all the way with no boring bits. Autobots roll out!

We went to see this on Sunday night and really enjoyed it. My younger brother had some of the transformer toys the first time around and I remember the cartoon series.

I had read lots of nice things about this movie but I was still pleasantly surprised to find out that it was very good. Great effects, good use of of humour and likeable cast. OK, the storyline is not the best in the world but let's face it, you are watching a movie about robots who can turn into everyday vehicles and stereo systems. I think you have you suspend your disbelief in this case!

Mr K-E and I loved every minute of it.


Mr K-E's favourite bit : When the truck-sized robots are trying to "hide" in the garden. Also the high-speed transformation scenes.

My favourite bit : I like the yellow Camaro. He's the best transformer.

True Tales of American Life edited by Paul Auster

Highly recommended.

In 1999, America's National Public Radio invited listeners to send in their true life short stories. Stories that were true, but sounded like fiction, to be read on-air as part of the National Story Project. The response was overwhelming: more than 4,000 submissions were received and this book is a collection of 180 of the most fascinating submissions.

I really enjoyed the stories in this book. They are all short, mostly two or three pages, but they are such a reflection of human experience - happiness, sadness, regret, love, tragedy, comedy and almost unbelievable cooincidence. Knowing that these are all "true" stories adds a layer of emotional engagement and there were stories that made me wipe away a tear on the bus on the way to work.

Some of the stories are better than others, of course, but as each story is only a few pages, you never feel that you have wasted your time. The book is divided in sections i.e. Animals, Objects, Love, Death, War etc in an attempt to organise the stories sensibly. I found the stories in the "War" section incredibly intense; I often had to close the book after reading a particularly good (or bad, depending how you look at it) story. Just to gather my thoughts before moving on to the next one.

The only slight criticism of the book is that the final section "Meditations" was the weakest section of the book to me. It seemed a shame that these were at the end of the book, when we had read so many stronger stories in the beginning. However, this is only a small criticism - afterall there is nothing to stop you reading the stories randomly, dipping in and out as you please.

Coffee and croissants

Saturday was warm and sunny, which made a nice start to the three day weekend.

We tried to recreate the breakfasts we had in Paris. Happy food!

Friday Night Date

Mr K-E and I have both been really busy with work all week, so we decided to have a date on Friday night to catch up.

We booked a table at our favourite Indian restaurant for 9pm and went out for drinks on Friday evening. It was really nice to chat and talk about our week - it's strange how, even when you live together, if you are really busy you hardly talk to each other.

We barely speak to each other in the morning as we are both in a daze and rushing to get out the door. Then in the evenings, we have been getting home at nine or later .... and you just want brain "shut-down" at that point.

So I really enjoyed our night out together : drinks, delicious food and spending time with someone you love.

(And to think we don't even have any kids. It must be hard when you are busy looking after a family as well)

Welcome to your new home

Welcome to your new home, my darlings. I love you so much already.

Mr K-E was away on a stag weekend so I spent Saturday afternoon shoe shopping. Yes, the new season's shoes are now in shops. All the heels are super high with platform soles for added height. I wanted to get a new pair of high heeled boots, so when I saw this pair....that was that.

I love the fetish-y ultra-sexy style. Very Madonna ;)

I also spent ages lusting after the luxury shoes ...Gucci, Prada,YSL etc. I just can't bring myself out £300 on a pair of shoes...yet...but I must admit the call of Louboutin is getting stronger.

At the races.

On Wednesday we had a company outing to the races. We left the office at 2 o'clock and travelled to Sandown Racetrack for an afternoon's races. We had a private room and terrace so it felt really posh and exclusive. If only I could do this all the time, hahaha!

We had a delicious late lunch buffet - chicken pie, salmon roulade, roast beef, coronation chicken, roast beef, asparagus, new potatoes in hollandaise sauce......and more. Sorry, I didn't take any food pictures because I completely forgot in my hunger and excitement.

The company must be making lots of profit because there was a free bar all day and loads of food.

I had a lovely day out although I didn't win any money. There were 6 races, and I bet on each one as part of a little syndicate. The minimum bet was £2, and most of my colleagues were just having fun and betting £5 or so each race.

I only had one big bet, which was £10 on a horse called Dar-Es-Salam. It was the favourite and I thought it was fate! A horse named Dar-Es-Salam! Unfortunately it wasn't even placed! **Grrrr***

Here are some more pictures.

You can see the "public" grandstand. It was empty when I took these photos at around 3:30pm. The first race was at 5:30pm, and most people arrived around 5pm. So we had a good two hours of drinking before the races started ;)

Private Park

We were walking around our neighbourhood the other day when we stumbled on this little private park.

It's locked and only the surrounding houses have a key to the gate.

Doesn't it look inviting?

I want to be Angelina Jolie...

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit blah at work so I got the tube to Covent Garden at lunchtime and had a look around the shops there. I bought a top in Reiss (my favourite shop), a gray t-shirt in Gap and new Clinique lipstick from The Garden Pharmacy. I had my shopping "head" on, and was thinking - oh I'll just have a look in Hobbs when I realised oh shit, I'm supposed to be at work, not shopping....

It was 2:30 by then, so I had to get a cab back to the office. Lunchtime shopping is dangerous indeed.

Anyway, today I thought I would stick to the shops around my office. I was poking around in Boots, when I saw this.




I'm such a sucker for good packaging. It's almost too pretty to open :) Maybe all it takes is some lip-plumping gloss to turn me into Angelina Jolie?

Royal &*$%ing Mail.

Mr K-E asked me if I was losing interest in blogging. The answer is no, but what with all the stuff going on at work, I haven't really been up to anything interesting. Well, nothing that I'd want to broadcast on a public platform anyway :)

One thing that really hacked me off this weekend was my purchase from strawberrynet.com. Someone recommended it, so I tried it out but was shocked to find charges of £13.95 before it could be delivered!! £5.75 VAT because it's been "imported" from outside the EU and £8 Royal Mail charges.

OK I can accept the 17.5% Value Added Tax because it is imported etc etc...but Royal Mail's £8 admin charge is just extortionate! Aarrrggghhhh. And the free lipstick they sent me was a disgusting shade, not the one I ordered.

*Grrrrr*

Intensity

I haven't blogged all week because it's been really intense at work. I was contemplating going in to work today, but by Friday night I was pretty much burnt out. Just mentally and physically exhausted, but had a nice dinner with Mr K-E in Chinatown which made me feel much better.

I've spent most of today sleeping.

South London skyline

Mr K-E took this without a tripod. Clever Mr K-E.

Hot Weekend

Oh, it's been soooooo hot this weekend! Please, I need air-conditioning. I know it's so bad for the environment, but sweat is so unattractive....

Mr K-E has been out in the garden weeding, mowing the lawn etc while I have been hiding inside with the blinds down and eating ice cream.

I went to the Friday drink-up at the pub for the first time in ages. I've been avoiding it lately because of all my Boss woes, but it was the leaving-do for two of my best friends in the office. Two women, actually, which skews the office girl-boy ratio even more.

Baaaaa (or Mr K-E and the sheep)

Isn't this a lovely view? Even a self-proclaimed urban chick like me can appreciate the rolling fields of England.

Every two weeks, Mr K-E has to travel to Hereford (on the English-Welsh border) for all day meetings. The train journey is a bit of a pain, but once he gets there he quite enjoys the change from London. The view above is of the area surrounding the office that he visits.


In the meeting room they can see and hear sheep outside. Mr K-E says it's hard to be serious when all you can hear is "Baaaa, Baaaa".





The office is a converted barn. Nice, huh? By the way, Hereford is famous for its beef not lamb.

Carmen Jones at the Royal Festival Hall

I went to watch Carmen Jones at the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall last night. I thought it was very good - both the show and the new auditorium.

Mr K-E had already been to the new hall as his company was involved in the refurbishment. He and his colleagues were invited to an acoustic tuning concert to test the new baffle boards, drapes and other acoustic tweaking devices.

The show is based on Bizet's opera Carmen. It is a Hammerstein musical, with English lyrics set to Bizet's music. Most of the music is really familiar, most people would recognise it if they heard it but the modern twist is refreshing and interesting.

The production was full of energy and the woman who played Carmen - woo hooo! She had long, long legs and boy, could she work a red dress. Her accent was all over the place though.

Another unusual point was that the orchestra was very casually dressed. T-shirts and hoodies! Not even wearing a colour scheme or anything like that. It's very deliberate I'm sure as the orchestra was right in the middle of the stage, and the performers ran around the orchestra.

Highly recommended. Go see.