Spending more than I'm earning...!

9.4thirty-eight

Uneventful flight back, other than watching The Duchess with Keira Knightly and Ralph Fiennes. Brief stop in AMS - leaving the arrivals hall to see if I can pay for my phone - no luck. At least I got 4 biscuits on the flight :-)

Vida's tattoo design went down well :) Haircut and discovering another little second-hand record store! Monkees LP acquired. Leaving drinks in Richmond for Mike, Del and Wendy - turns into a bbq instead! Bought Sketch and started looking at UXUI.

Sister Act with a live gospel choir in church! Brunch with Mel in Greenwich, and a little walk around the village. Stumble upon a second-hand record store. (War of the worlds full story discs, Deep Purple 24 Carat Gold (mostly live though), Breakfast in America, Storm Front, Bridge over troubled water (which i already have, ugh), and cocktail soundtrack (sentimental buy!)). Also Beyonce Lemonade (digital though).

Kicking off Blackheath with Elgar Variations :)

DOING ALL THE THINGS

9.3thirty-seven

Lazy Monday at Misty Cliffs. More ukulele and wave watching.

Week filled with the mini shop! Thursday advanced yoga class pain! Great to see Catherine again, and also to see Anette! Remaining videos one after the other with mom (The affair of the Necklace, Serena, Oyster Farmer, Amazing Grace). Wednesday morning rendezvouz in Cape Town Central to check out a second-hand record store. Met Brian, the owner and had fat chats. Left with R600 worth of records! (Carike ontmoet Groep Twee (wrong record in sleeve), McVicar soundtrack, Don Francisco live, Rubber Soul, Hollies best of "Everyone's invited" (turned out to be re-recorded), Springbok radio silver jubilee album, SKY Masterpieces, and Mike Batt Synphonia).

Also bring back the two children's records dad bought me (they turn out to be a little disappointing), Kimera's Lost Opera (absolutely fantastic, as it has the remix that i know on side B, and side A is the mix i grew up with), Francesca Napoli and Graceland from mom's collection.

Joined the D&D evening with the group! Princess Lena, dwarf and axe-handler extraordinaire is born :) Saturday Photo albums, and then off to Nes' for intensive mini shopping. Craft so hard my head hurt! Wax doughnuts, chilled freezers and fridges, total mini happiness.

win some, lose some

9.1thirty-five

Flight to Amsterdam! Early morning drop-off by the lovely SJ. Bags checked all the way through. Day in Amsterdam; bags in locker, adventure go! Walked all the way down the length of the city. Record shop stop, lunch near Vondelpark. Walk back up, finally catch the science museum (NEMO). Best part was doing experiments in a lab coat. Glass of red on the roof terrace for sunset. Dinner near the station (Thai!). Lose phone on train back from Centraal. Yotel, the conductor, going through security 3 times in one night. Change rooms, finally sleep.

Day flight to CT - watched The Danish Girl, and a Bigger Splash. Bizarrely, the same actor appears in both. Brand new plane!! Thank god for the USB and Macbook chargers. Vida's tattoo design, bedside cabinet design finished. Nes and Raz at the airport!

Phil Collins One more night on the drive through the woods to get to Kenrock. Bath and sleep. Best flight to SA in years.

Condensed milk coffee with rusks. Squash with mom! Drive to Knysna at 5am. The mini shop :-O Tannie S, B and his new gf, (was even nice to see Oom D). Dad and Ruan arrive met die langpad. Ouma and Oupa looking just the same. Oxtail, boat rides, drank. Hours lost at the hardware store and The Deckle Edge. Delving into De Bruyn history. We have (had) a family home in Tulbach!

Work heating up!

8.2thirty-two

Catching up furiously on GoT. Mandela painting prepped, mystery just about ready to go! Trying to implement various ingenius solutions to problems around my room. Album cover holder done after Lego blocks arrived :) Trying to invent a simple device to skip tracks on a record with, and/or lift arm at end of record. Messy area in room finally cleared up!

Ukulele. Back at RZF for Perspectives booklet (and website!). City Index flaring up. Working in JSON.

Jen at Camden Fringe with Su and SJ; VICTOR! Friday night out with V, Rz and SJ in Clapham! Saturday morning lunch with Ams and Rz, then home after a long absence. Chiiiillll.

Mandela is looking good! Beef salad with Thai dressing more or less out of my head!

Cherry-picking

8.1thirty-one

Tif&Bri over from Oz to stay with SJ. Free 1 hour UI session with a senior in the field. Ams in London Bridge - with the PAINTING!! Gruelling session with John. Training to lift 1.5 times my body weight :-O Currently at 3/4. Start of the Olympics.

Lz&On over from Oz as well - meetup in LBG on Friday; drinks at the George all night with Cm and Shz. Slipped out to catch Carina Round at the Lexington.

Saturday Visions festival, attempting to get into Netil House for street food. Q too long, so went for indian. Anna Calvi, Lightning Bolt with Dave.

Sunday in Kingston with the girls at Patisserie Valerie, seeing them off at the X26, then shopping in Lakeland and Claus Ohlsen for amazing things.

In double rainbows

7.1twenty-six

All week at RZF. Pingpong with the lady every day - so much fun! Trying out a new dimsum restaurant near TCR. Tattoo discussions with my besties. 3D sketches for Nes' shoji screens, as well as my bedside table.

Missus off to Scotland. Grateful that we managed to iron out wrinkles and reconnect before that. Asian food market in Peckham with Mel on Friday evening - double rainbow is the payoff for the rain! 15 minute wait for bubblewrap dessert.

March against xenophobia in central London with Mel, Gita, Dan and Ellie, Jck and Lz. Spotted one of the LGBT traffic lights Jan pointed out! Jim Morrison tribute band at the Brooklyn Bowl with Davex2. Sunday full day session at Blackheath! Rossini Overtures conducted by Herbert von Karajan vinyl picked for £4 (but actually free).

Surrounded by art

6.1twenty-two

Spring bank holiday! Prep for BIRTHDAY BRAAI and house-leaving party. Packing is in full swing. Lucky to have CI work from home.

Making my garden the prettiest it can be for our last party. Clearing out that big garden box - I should have done it years ago! Rediscover the easel I thought I'd lost. Small side-project for Jim's dad's leaving present. Both the Harringtons leaving for Ireland.

Going to see the NXG place again, after paying a holding deposit. Huge about-turn!

Score a great little burgundy top and two boxer shorts from Bjorn Borg sample sale. Mel buys a huge rack of ribs for the braai, and a beautiful box of mini artisan eclairs from Maitre Choux. Finn's Adventurers party invite! Planning out Mel's Mandela painting, and drawing Ams' superhero painting to a close. Rediscover my drawing of my grandfather. So much arting!

Mel's amazing chocolate pear experiment (that will follow us into the new house). Nes is on a house hunt! Finding lots of memories in the packing process.

BIRTHDAY BRAAI IS AWESOME. Playing Sharades, so many friends in and out all day. Great food, great fun. Su chatting to Ben and Cam.

Going to see the new Jungle Book at Canada Water.

Broken drum

3.3eleven

Dentist at 9:30 :-O

Trial animations for Aviva. SheSays designs submitted - attending the WYMM event on Tuesday night and networking. Some inspirational talks by Refugee phones and Crack and Cider. Wine Skype date with NES! Dad's birthday. Solo PT session with a lot of kicking. Ankle still hurting. Pico players orchestra with Nico :) not going too badly! Ams' painting comp submitted. Not sure about it...

Dave's Kurt Cobain shirt done. Research into shared ownership, reply to Leon's copywriting, further research into content strategy and business plans.

Band recordings sorted out and shared on Dropbox. Orchestra performance went well! I actually felt as if I deserved the applause for once. Drinks with percussion afterwards. Weekend of sewing, D&E moving out, cleaning, planning Fort BlanketFort.

Courtrai offers.

Jim's gran.

Ams.

Happy Persian New Year!

I don't like cricket, I LOVE IT

2.1five

Criiiiicket! SA ENG First ODI. Back at Tag for a day. Emergency afrikaans translations for Adw, Lunch with my girl, two gym sessions, one with a proper kick bag! First two ODI's not gone well for SA. Beatles Ukulele is a LOT of fun! Birthday album for Stephan (Simple plan), attempting Tatami (like sudoku), ironing all the pollocks, phone ouma (sounding much happier!), phone nes and sort out her site! Saturday with my girl, making chinese stirfry, coffee at hopscotch. Incongruwitty finally back on track.

3D pen doodling - Eiffel tower!

Back to Black. Heath halls. :-D Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky:

Stuffing in even more

1.5four

SA vs ENG test series. Lamb chops, delicious chicken, silence. Quadbiking, turn down stargazing, rock-climbing (real rocks), bushmen paintings. Kaggakamma rocks and sunset, twist of the ankle :( Reading the Tao of pooh with mom :) SA win last test! (Lose series). Drive back on longest dirt road ever. Stop at tolhuis and have moerkoffie and carrot cake. Listen to lost opera. Whirlwind last few days: Nes doc, More pollock!! Tote bag, scarf for sj, iPhone cover, Mountain experiment (making a mountain out of sand and stone and pine needles), High tea in 15 mins, Selecting beads for solar system bracelet, Planning balcony adjustments, Hannes hair (fight), threading at Skin, Mangwanani!! Yoga at houtbay gym, Yoga photoshoot, Kickboxing at gym. KFC, Smiling skull necklace / armour for NES! nanodots. Dad, Ruan and Janis at the airport. Janis's swearing colouring-in pics. Music shop with dad and Ruan after Steers burger. Sleeping on plane! Troy and Friends on the plane. Lovely lady fetching me at the airport at 6:30am!! Chilling, watching Archer and Pretty Little Liars. Happy :)

Stuffing in as much as I can

1.4three

Su in houtbay! 12 apostles spa, Cake shop (Charly's bakery), Eeeeaaarly morning beach yoga and body boarding! Two golden labs on the beach. Hiking in kirstenbosch. Some city index work. Vinyard hotel. Black bean soup. Doctor in Houtbay. Braai on the balcony, sangria and Eton Mess! Swimming pool sangria and chill; bollemakiesies! Su back at the airport. Terrified of next week. Pollock pants and dress with nes and Raz! Leaving for 5 hour drive to Kaggakamma with mom. Harvest table stopover light lunch. Pool with Bernard. Near divorce, chinese restaurant.