Mr K-E hates saxophones

Mr K-E doesn't like jazz, so I was surprised when he wanted to come along to see Polar Bear at the Roundhouse. Polar Bear are an "experimental jazz-electronic band" - not really my thing either, but they sounded interesting and I was curious to see what the music would be like.

The warning bells rang when there were two saxophonists and no vocalist. Okay. The drummer was truly awesome and no doubt the saxophonists were too; but as the performance went on, I could sense Mr K-E becoming more and more agitated. The venue was sold out and the rest of the crowd were obviously loving it. There were people shouting, "yeah man" and not in an ironic way.

After Polar Bear finished their set, they came back on for an encore and Mr K-E lost it. He said, "OMG, I cannot take anymore of this crap", grabbed his coat and walked out. I had to apologise to my confused friends and tried to leave discreetly. Not an easy task, as it was cabaret seating (little round tables) and Mr K-E was practically stomping as he left.

I guess "experimental jazz" isn't for everyone.

On a different note (geddit, hahaha) we saw this Banksy original on the way to the Roundhouse. So it was worth a trip to North London anyway.

Lost in London

On Thursday night I was out on a girlie night with other women from my team. We were defying the credit crunch. Yes, spend your way out of the recession :)

We went to Meza in Soho which a pretty cool place to hang out, although we all thought the food was over-priced. The cocktails were super though, so that made it worth it. In the basement, there is a Cuban place called Floridita where you can dance the night away. I left after dinner but the others continued into the night.

Anyway, we had a really interesting discussion during dinner about our "local communities". There were 4 of us : one Bruneian (me), a Korean, an Iraqi and one Bulgarian. We are all about the same age; two married and two single. One thing we all had in common was that we didn't hang around with people from our "home communities" in London - in fact, most of us actively avoided them.

Although it's nice to meet people from home sometimes, I just don't think it's worth the hassle because (I've found) that they can be the most nosy and judgemental. They will ask you lots of questions, not because they are genuinely interested, but because they are trying to weigh up your income, your husband's income, your lifestyle etc.

As my Bulgarian friend said - the killer questions are : Where do you live? In a house or a flat? Where do you work? What car do you drive?

You can practically see the wheels in their brain turning while they try to calculate your "standard" ..... whether you live in a four bed penthouse in Chelsea (envy) or a one bed council flat in Croydon ( oh dear).

My Iraqi friend added that the worst is when people judge your lifestyle and drag your family into it as well.

This is why you will never find me hanging around in Brunei Hall or tramping around the streets near Bayswater/Queensway. I like being lost in London.

Mr K-E's Cruise

A few days ago, Mr K-E and a few friends went cruising on the River Medway in Kent. One of his friends has a cabin cruiser which sleeps 4 people and they spent a nice afternoon cruising followed by an evening in the pub.











They had to negotiate a series of locks on the way. According to Mr K-E, it's quite hard work dealing with the locks because you have to open the paddles to let the water through the lock gate.











Then once the water levels have equalised, you push against the big timber arms to open the gates. You really need to put all your weight into opening the gates.










One person needs to stay on the boat to keep it steady because it's very turbulent in the lock when the water is pouring in.











This got more and more complicated as the afternoon went on and they drank more and more beer.....










Most of the way there are no roads nearby, so it was peaceful countryside. They didn't pass another boat all the way.

Another Sunday night

Is it Sunday night already? What exciting happenings have going on in the K-E household?

• Mr K-E got completely smashed at a wine-tasting event at his work. Well, it wasn't so much the wine tasting but the beer afterwards...
• ...and the next day his parents came to stay for a night. So I had to do all the tidying up; I wasn't impressed!
• Big Brother has started again, which means Mr K-E hogs the TV from 9pm onwards every night. This will last for a couple of weeks until he gets bored of the idiot contestants.
• We went to a friend's housewarming/birthday party yesterday. It was a barbeque so we were mainly outside all afternoon. There was a stack of cupcakes inside, which I didn't realise was the "birthday cake" and the letters actually spelt out a birthday message. So I ate one....hey, it's cake... I couldn't resist.

Will the excitement never end?

Dealing with Rejection

So you find someone you used to be friends with in Facebook and you send them a chirpy message eg Hi, remember me, we used to go to St Rudolph's when we were eight blah blah blah. Then you get a reply, might be Hiiiiiii! *Scream* Great to hear from you! blah blah blah or a more subdued Hello, yes it's me. How are you?

But sometimes you get a deafening silence. And you know that they have been updating their account because you can see their profile and they have been busy bees high-fiving other people and baking them pies and all sorts.

How do you take this? Well, I take it badly. Really badly. Like, well, fuck you too. You could at least reply. Bitch.

(Please excuse the bad language, I seem to have over-reacted. I'm normally a well-adjusted person, honest.)

Who are you again?

You know what, I must really be getting old because little things are starting to annoy me when they (maybe) wouldn't have annoyed me before.

Now, take Facebook. It's great and the best part is finding people that you have lost touch with. And once in a while, someone finds you...which is also cool.

But why do people send a "friend request" but not even bother to send a message? Like Hi, remember me? I mean, the name might be vaguely familiar and we might have some friends in common - but who are you again? I can't really be bothered to add people for the sake of it. See, I told you - I'm turning into a real grump.

Watching England

Sigh. We are watching England lose to Croatia 2-0. Oh dear, no European championships for England next year unless there is some kind of miracle.

On another note, we got an e-mail from an old friend a few days ago....a baby boy for him and his wife. It's great news from them but it feels scary that all our University friends are having kids like it's going out of fashion. Some are even on Baby No 2. *shivers down spine*

Pide and Shakespeare

I met Mr KE on the Millenium Bridge (aka the wobbly bridge) before a quick pre-show dinner at Taz Pide.

Tas Pide is just round the corner from the Globe, but we have never noticed it before. We went to the show with a colleague of Mr K-E and her husband, who suggested having dinner there. Good suggestion, because we tried a new food - pide - Turkish bread with different toppings. I've been to other Tas restaurants before but this is a specialist "Pide" one. And we got complimentary starters, always a plus.

(Sorry no photos. We forgot the camera)

Love's Labour's Lost was good; Mr K-E and I were a bit worried because we read somewhere that it was one of Shakespeare's less accessible plays. But I enjoyed it. OK I didn't get all the wordplay and there were times when I couldn't understand what everyone was laughing about... but I got most of the dirty jokes ( I think).

The building itself is great, but I'd definitely advise a) wrap up warm b)rent the cushions.

(someone else's picture but Mr K-E insisted...)

And hey, I'm off to see Ricky Gervais tomorrow night. It's typical isn't it, the busiest time at work and suddenly I have all these events. *Happy sigh*

Guns and Roses: Shotgun Wedding

This was a particularly memorable wedding, you'll see what I mean later :)

The wedding held in a sweet little church. There were only about 130 guests and we completely filled the church, that's how small it was.

The bride arrived in a horse-drawn carriage, which took the couple back to the reception after the ceremony.







Don't the horses look smart?

It was a very intimate and emotional ceremony. J, the groom, was crying at one point...awwww...

Here they are drinking champagne as they set off to the reception.








It was a very organised wedding. There were coaches to pick the guests up from hotels, ferry us to the church and reception and return us to our hotels.

The reception was held at the the bride's parents' home.

Here are some guests walking up to the beautiful house. 10 acres! Now that's a big plot!













The reception was held in a huge marquee in the garden.

There were portable toilets set up in the gardens for the guests. OMG! I have never seen portable toilets like these...forget all the portaloos you have seen at festivals and concerts.

These toilets would not look out of place in a 5-star hotel. Certainly much more presentable than my own loo at home!












Here is the bride and bridesmaids with the official wedding photographer.










My main course - chicken pie. I tried to take more food pictures but the red wine was doing some damage.

The food was exceptionally good. Normally for these "mass-catered" events it can be a bit dodgy but we all thought it was delicious.

The menu was goats cheese with cranberry or pate to start, chicken pie/roast beef/roast vegetable quiche for the main and profiteroles/cheesecake/cheese platter for pudding. Followed by petit fours with coffee.


We were all starving by time "lunch" was served. The wedding was at 2pm, so most of us had skipped lunch. Then champagne was served at the reception while the photos were taken before the main meal was served at 5pm. Which meant lots of drinking on an empty stomach.



During the dinner, we had the traditional speeches i.e. the bride's father, the groom and the best man. Very emotional and entertaining. I had to wipe away tears during the speeches and I wasn't the only one.

Then there was a free bar (hooray hooray), live band and disco till late.








The inside of the marquee. The band and dancefloor are at the far end.

Then just before midnight, while the band were finishing their set, music suddenly stopped and the lead singer said, "Can someone get that guy out of here please?" and made a comment about a "shotgun wedding".

We were all stamping our feet and howling for more music so the DJ started up Guns and Roses's Sweet Child of Mine which sent us off into another frenzy - but suddenly that stopped too.

We were just standing confused on the dance floor. Then friends of ours who weren't dancing came over and said - you guys should move away from the dancefloor. A man with a gun just walked in and pushed over one of the amplifiers.

It turned out he was neighbour who was unhappy about the noise and decided to barge into the party with a shotgun!! He had to walk past lots of people who thought what? did I just see man with a gun??

I mean, you expect this of thing in South London but not in the "peaceful" countryside. Or maybe people are more crazy in the woods?

The bride confronted him (very silly of her) and said, "What are you doing? This is my wedding!" and he shouted, "My children can't sleep because of the noise".

The band wanted to call the police but the father of the bride tried to defuse the situation and walked the man home. The band were not happy - and I think they called the police - because they felt they had been directly threatened. What a crazy guy!

It was funny how the bar staff and waiters all disappeared in a flash! Suddenly, the bride was behind the bar serving people drinks, trying not to spoil the atmosphere. We all tried to start dancing again but it was difficult because the DJ was shitting himself and refused to turn the music up beyond level "one". We joked that we would get him a kevlar vest if he turned it up, but he refused. He looked really scared and sat down hiding behind his speakers for the rest of the night, but Mr K-E says at least he didn't leave.

So we spent the last hour dancing to music that was being drowned out by the noise of our feet!

I just hope that J and N don't feel that it was spoilt by that guy. It was still fun although we might have been a bit more nervous had we been less drunk. Anyway, when they get back from their honeymoon in a couple of weeks we will get the full story.

Friday Night

A group of us were staying at the same hotel, so we had originally planned to do something together on the night before the wedding. But by the time Mr K-E and I reached the hotel it was nearly 8pm. After nearly 5 hours driving on busy motorways, we weren't really up for a curry and late night session with everyone else.

So we made our excuses and had dinner in a pub next to the hotel. I had chicken supreme and Mr K-E had scampi and chips. It was a cosy country-style pub and we had dinner by candle-light. Very civilised.

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.

Friday night

New shoes from L.K Bennett. Who needs comfort when you have can high heels?

I also tried on some silver high-heels but although they were lovely, I was unconvinced. Silver is hot right now, but there's a fine line between looking fashionable and looking like a granny on a cruise.

After my Friday evening shopping, I met Mr K-E at Ha! Ha! (yes, stupid name, I know) on Great Titchfield Street. One of his colleagues is leaving to go home to Australia, so we met up for drinks and dinner. Unfortunately it was after 9:30 when we sat down for dinner and the kitchen had sold out of many items including burgers, duck, fishcakes and chorizo salad. After some unhappy muttering, I had the salmon and it was nice.

I love mojitos but absorbing alcohol is not my strong point! So a taxi home for me and immediate drunken collapse into bed.

Visiting Friends

We went to visit some friends on Saturday. They used to live near us in London but they moved away when they had a baby boy. Now they live in a proper "grown-up" house in Oxfordshire with a huge garden.

You quickly realise that people with kids are on a different time zone to people without kids. We had to get up at 8am to get to their place by noon. Noon is when we normally get up!

We arrived late, of course, after getting lost and driving past their house twice. Unlike our friends, Mr K-E and I are not grown up, so as we tried to find their house there was much bickering and sulking and throwing of mobile phones. OK, that was just me.

Despite all this, it was lovely to see them and their cute son. We went to a local Italian restaurant for lunch and had a walk around the castle grounds. Unfortunately it started to rain heavily do we had to beat a quick retreat to the car.





The afternoon was spent lounging on their sofa drinking coffee and eating cake....the best way to spend Saturday afternoon.