bag love

I have a weakness for handbags, I'll admit it. I came over to the UK with 2 and now have a small suitcase full. I know some won't be making it across the world with me at the end of the year but that doesn't mean the choosing will be easy.

I came across these bags which I have fallen for big time. They've totally inspired me to go searching through op shops for oddball material and to sit down and sew me some creations. I think they're the schizzle.



The picture on the right is the inside of the image on the right. Wow! I would happily have that as a normal bag, let alone the inside. I wonder if it's reversible...





These photos are great. I think taking time to show detail proves that you've taken time to create something and think about the finer points of its design.

just coz I think it's cool

I wish...

that I could draw like this:

I came across this guy's site and his illustrations just blow me away. I'm a sucker for a good sketch at the best of times and will usually choose them over a painting and of course I have a weakness for fantasy subject matter. I'm just amazed that someone has such an awesome imagination that they can think this kind of thing up and 'noodle it out' while in a book store. And jealous. Very jealous.

something for the eyes

Usually gems like this would be saved for a Friday as they're Friday-suitable hilarity but I've decided to post them now and besides, for my southern hemisphere readership, it will be Friday by the time you read this anyway.

Mary Poppins - Ruined By Andy.F

OK GO
From the genius minds that brought you the treadmill video

Enjoy!

London, it's as easy as A, B, C...

My friend Sue has devised (appropriated/adapted) a scheme by which we will do more interesting things and see more interesting stuff in and around London this year- the Alphabet Weekend. On a chosen weekend we will, in order, choose three letters (or maybe 4 if we're ambitious) of the alphabet and do an activity or see a sight that starts with that letter. We started this weekend just past and did Abby Road, Borough Market and China Town.

BOROUGH MARKET
We actually started our outing at Borough Market as it worked smoother transport-wise. I love Borough Market. It's all the cool food. Witness at my look of cheese joy:


And here is me giving some bread what really looks like a glad-eye:

There is only so much of Sue and her camera that two girls can handle.

ABBY ROAD


We only had three of us but we did our best to recreate the walk... I wore by flare jeans especially and do believe I have the best walking action. Even if I do say so myself.

Sue also decided that we need to make the shape of the appropriate letter at each site using our bodies. I think we're gonna take a bit of practice... This was an initial attempt at an 'A'. I swear I thought my leg was higher but it really looks like I'm kicking Rose in the groin*




The 'B' was our first attempt at any letter creation and it took us a while to work out what we wanted to do...

CHINA TOWN
Me and Sue making a 'C' at the Gate to China Town.

At the time, I thought I was trying to make a backwards 'C'. It seems I really have to work on what I think I'm doing with my body and what is happening in reality. Still a funny photo though.




And in closing
Totally unrelated to Alphabet Weekends but vaguely related to London is this Shakespeare Insult Kit that I found on the web. I have too many favourites to name but I particularly like the sound of:
paunchy pox-marked pignut
fawning flap-mouthed flirt-gill
vain common-kissing canker-blossom

Some names I had to look up the definition for because they ended up to be nothing like what I may have guessed:
hugger-mugger
fustilarian A low fellow; a stinkard; a scoundrel
mammet An idol; a puppet; a doll
flirt-gill A woman of light behavior; a gill-flirt.

Bawdy, churlish, paunchy, saucy, surly- all great words to say. I love the way you can roll them around your mouth. Not on his list but equally satisfying are pillock and bollocks.

*I promise no Rose was harmed in the making of these images.

Look Mum, I'm on TV!

Well, kinda. Sadly I have no link to something where ppl can view what I think may be my accumulative 3 seconds of fame but I was on TV.

My friend Sue, got tickets to Dancing on Ice, courtesy of her yoga buddy who does makeup for the show. It was my first live-studio-audience experience and it was really interesting as well as great fun but being an audience is hard work, let me tell you. Stand up, cheer, clap, sit down, stand up cheer, sit down, cheer, cheer CLAP CLAP CLAP tell you can't feel your hands and then make even more noise. Sue and I are going to tape the rerun of the show and fast forward through the skating bits and just watch the audience shots so we can see ourselves. hee hee.

This is a shot of the set before anything started, needless to say, we weren't allowed to take pics at all so even this was a sneaky one.

And, we had a celebrity moment, not that we knew it was one at the time. We were at the bar and Sue was behind me when the guy beside me turned around with his drinks and said to Sue, who must have been standing where his girlfriend had been previously, "Hey Babe, can you just take these back" and Sue said, "Ok." and he double-checked, and went, "OH! Sorry! I totally thought you were someone else! I was about to lean in for a kiss and everything." So we all had a little laugh and later on we ended up standing near him and his friends and all these people kept coming up asking for his autograph and to get photos taken with him and we were like, "OMG! We were talking to a celebrity, he put his arm around Sue, he's famous and we had no idea." Typical. Just so you all know, this was our celeb, he's on Hollyoaks, one of the UK's soap operas.

On another note, you should all read this entry of A Dress A Day. I was actually giggling out loud, I haven't laughed that much at a blog entry in a very long time.

they still all looked like a plate of Hot Mistake with a side of Mental Deficient

Read it.

best laid plans........

So clearly I was too vocal about geeking it up on Fri night because Fate must have heard me and threw a spanner in the works. I had just settled with my Chinese and was about to press play on the DVD when the door opened and Jane's friend, who had been looking after the place before me and was meant to be away that night, came in. Turns out there was a mixup in communications so I finished my Chinese, had a glass of wine and a chat and then trotted off home. Not exactly the Friday night I had planned but oh well...

Friday

Marie's blog is great for random quizzes and are the perfect thing for a Friday. This week's quiz is What File Extension Are You?

When you work with amateurs it can get quite ugly

Hahahahahaha. If they only knew..............

slice of heaven

Tonight I'm back out at Jane's looking after the kitty-cats and, sad though some might think it, I'm really looking forward to my night in. There's a Chinese takeaway I love 10mins down the road from her place and my rental DVD that arrived yesterday is 3:10 to Yuma so I have a pretty near perfect Aynia Night In: crazy cats, Chinese and a western. Heaven!

chocolate chocolate chocolate

I have to congratulate the people at BBC Good Food for their impeccable timing in sending out their e-newsletters. They usually arrive around lunchtime or about 5pm as I'm getting ready to home and it just starts me drooling. This morning I was welcomed by 'Romantic Meals in Minutes'.

If you haven't booked that romantic restaurant or hand-selected your scallops for Valentine's Day it's probably too late. Fear not - you can still make a special meal in minutes with easy-to-get ingredients that won't blow the budget.

Ba humbug to all that but at the bottom of the newsletter was a link to chocolate pudding recipes. Be warned: if you're going to check out that link and you like choccie, strap on a bib and tie yourself down because you will be drooling non-stop and then running to the supermarket to start making everything on the list. A few of my favourites I must share with you though:

Gateaux au chocolat chaud
I think the picture says it all. All that melted gooey choccie inside.... Mmmmm.................

Marbled honeycomb & chocolate mousse pots

I think these just sound and look interesting although I can't quite figure out if it's meant to be a hot or cold desert as it sounds like it'd be more luke-warm than anything else...

Chocolate Soufflé

I love the idea of doing these in mugs, it just seems like a really cute idea. Plus I've never made a soufflé before because they sound temperamental so I think it's time I rose to the challenge.

God only knows where I'm going to find all the people to eat all this stuff. I have already threatened my Mum that when I get to Oz, I won't look for a job, I'll just settle down in their kitchen and bake 24/7. But even with family friends and relatives, I don't think they know enough people to consume all my creative endeavours... And if I give them to my newly acquired diving and climbing buddies it'll look like I'm trying to buy friends. Which would totally be true as I have no qualm about using food as bribery but I don't like it to appear that way... ;-)

humble?

I had to laugh when I read this. Classic.

Receiving a Grammy for a package design is like winning a Nobel Peace Prize for giving up a seat on the subway to an old person.

perspective

A friend of mine wrote this to me in an email the other day and I thought them very wise words:

Terry Pratchett said making a musician go deaf is a joke that backfires on the gods, it doesn't stop him from hearing the music, it only stops him from hearing the distractions. Who knows what loss of reality will do for Pratchett's imagination

divers are a bunch of nutters

Look at me people, look at me, look at me [think Kath and Kim], I've got two words to say to you: extreme ironing. Yeah, you heard me. It is described as

the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. I don't iron at the best of times, I'm sure as hell not going to lug an iron, let alone an ironing board around for the sake of a 'humourous' photo.

In fact if I were to be honest, it isn't just divers that are a bunch of nutters. All kinds of people seems to think this extreme iron malarkey is a laugh and a half.

gogogo

This weekend I went go-karting for the first time ever (witness me all homie-g-cool in my fire-retardant overalls). Sexy. It was such awesome fun although I turned out to be quite shit. That or my friends are all speed demon drivers because I was second last going in to the final. I managed to overtake Rosie, thereby bumping me up a placing and I've never been so proud of myself as when I managed to sneak up behind her and swing past inside a hairpin turn. Not that we're a competitive bunch, oh no, not at all...


Sue is back from training around the Asian continent for 3 and a bit months and you can tell because suddenly everything is caught on camera. In this photos I'm delving into Rose's overalls because her top had ridden up so I was pulling it down. But of course it looks snoop-dodgey-dodge. Focus instead on my new haircut. It's short again and I'm loving it, it is just what I asked for. (As it should be really, I took in photos of when I'd last had it looking like that...) I also have another hole in each ear, after thinking about it for a couple of weeks, I decided that I really wanted some more bling in there so now I'm patiently waiting out my 6 weeks so I can put in the teeny weeny studs I have in mind.


I had to put this one up because it cracks me up. The lady shaking her booty with me is Brenda. That girl has more spontaneous dancing energy than me- probably even more than my sister, and together we are a fearsome sight. Needless to say, Sue sees us starting up and hardly knows where to point her camera...


For those who have known me for a while, this should be a familiar sight- Aynia tending to the birthday cake (made by moi, of course). I am also familiarly resplendent in stripy polyprop and this is one of my less eye-assaulting numbers...

tastes like home

My parents emailed me pictures of their new home and it looks so green and lovely and amazing that I just want to be there now. It's a really nice feeling to look at pictures of this new place and be able to go, "Yeah, that looks like I could call that home." Hell, it looks like it already feels like home. But as a result, I'm back in justwannabeinOz mode. Or more accurately, justwannabewiththewhanau mode. So then I did the dangerous thing and started looking at job recruitment sites in Brisbane. There is no point in my doing this yet as I'm only going to be there AT THE END OF THE YEAR. And then yesterday I started looking around the web for dive clubs and rock climbing walls in Brissie... again with the end of the year comment...

But it's exciting. I have a whole new adventure coming up and dive clubs and rock climbing could well be the only way to stop myself from being Little Miss NoMates but the problem with getting excited about the new adventure is that I lose sight of the here and now and I must remember to carpe diem what I can of Europe while I'm here. I already know that with my priority on diving holidays, I'm going to miss quite a bit of Europe and I'll get back home and people will be like, "So did you see this?" no "Did you go there?" no "How about this place?" no "So what exactly did you do with your 3 1/2 years over there?!" umm........ Egypt?

wedding singer

I came across The Wedding Singer fairly late in life and so have only seen it about twice but it was on (again) late on Sat evening and I caught one of my favourite moments just in time- Adam Sandler singing Somebody Kill Me Please. The video of it is on YouTube. Go watch, it's hilarious. And for those who know the tune, here are the lyrics so you can start singing it to yourself.

You don't know how much I need you.
While you're near me I don't feel blue.
And when we kiss I know you need me too.
I can't believe I found a love that's so pure and true.

But it all was bullshit.
It was a goddam joke.
And when I think of you Linda,
I hope you fucking choke.

I hope you're glad with what you've done to me.
I lay in bed all day long feeling melancholy.
You left me here all alone, tears running constantly.

Oh somebody kill me please,
somebody kill me plee-ase,
I'm on my knees,
pretty pretty please kill me.

I want to die.
Put a bullet in my head.

cirque glory

On Wednesday night I went to see Varekai, the current performance of Cirque du Soleil at Royal Albert Hall. It was absolutely amazing, just incredible. I have to admit that I wasn't sure how good it would be live. Which sounds every bit as blasphemous a comment as it is but when you watch it on the tele, you know that all the action is being followed and you can see everything closeup and I was worried it would be hard to keep track of it all. I scoff at my fears now. Being there as it was performed was incomparable- to actually see people flying through space and be part of the amazing atmosphere... I was caught between speechlessness, going, "Oh my God" and nearly being in tears due to the beauty/ amazingness/ wonderfulness of it all. I would go again in a heartbeat (if I could afford it) and am so glad that I finally got organised enough to go. All I can say is that if anyone ever gets a chance to see Cirque du Soleil perform, DO IT.

God etc

I haven't read Mimi Smartypants in a while and was doing some catchup today and came across an entry which struck a chord with me:

Nora: Dead people live on in us, right?
Me [taken by surprise]: Oh, you mean because we remember them? Right.
Nora: But dead people don't really live, like inside you. Like a tapeworm.* That would be crazy!
Me: It sure would!
Nora: Some people believe in God, though.
Me: Yup.
Nora: And they say that the dead people go live with God.
Me: Uh-huh. That's what some people say.
Nora: Is that true?
Me: Well, no one knows for sure. People believe different things.
Nora: Do you think it's true?
Me [mental sigh]: No, I don't. It doesn't make sense to me, so I don't believe it. I think dead is dead, and then the alive people do the remembering.
[pause]
Me: But you can learn about both---the God idea and the no-God idea---and then someday you can make up your own mind. [to myself: Yeah sure, after I just SHIT ALL OVER THE GOD IDEA GOOD ONE SMARTYPANTS]
Nora: I don't think God is real. But I will think about it more when I am five.
Me: Good plan.

Because I wonder- what will I do when I have kids? I think it's important to know about religion because it's a major part of how the world works/how people think but when it comes down to it, I think organised religion is bullshit. (Which is not to say that I don't believe in God/gods/high powers etc, that is a different matter.) But is this something I should let my kids decide for themselves? I guess when in doubt I can take a leaf out of my parents' book on child rearing because whatever they did, they clearly did it right.

*We are very interested in tapeworms around here. I keep emphasizing how rare tapeworm infestation is in this country, as a kind of veiled plea for CAN WE STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS PLEASE, but Nora still brings up tapeworms a lot. I sort of explained (simplistically) how a tapeworm eats the host's food before it can be properly digested, thus resulting in severe illness and malnutrition. However, it is clear from the way that Nora giggles throughout my dire pronouncements that she thinks of a tapeworm as a sort of lovable prankster, a little friend who snatches that last cupcake before you get a chance to eat it.

Irish farmer joke

I got this joke forwarded to me today adn deemed it worthy of sharing:

A farmer named Seamus had a car accident.

In court, the lorry company's fancy hot shot solicitor was questioning Seamus.

"Didn't you say, to the Garda at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine,'?"asked the solicitor.

Seamus responded, "Well, I'll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favourite cow, Bessie, into the..."

"I didn't ask for any details", the solicitor interrupted. "Just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine!'?"

Seamus said, "Well, I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road...."

The solicitor interrupted again and said, "Your Honour, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Gárda on the scene that he was fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud.
Please tell him to simply answer the question."

By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Seamus's answer and said to the solicitor, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favourite cow, Bessie".

Seamus thanked the Judge and proceeded. "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favourite cow, into the trailer and was driving her down the road when this huge lorry and trailer came through a stop sign and hit my trailer right in the side. I was
Thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurt, very bad like, and didn't want to move.

However, I could hear old Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans. Shortly after the accident a garda on a motorbike turned up. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her, and saw her condition, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes.

Then the Garda came across the road, gun still in hand, looked at me, and said, "How are you feeling?"

"Now what the F*ck would you say?"

tragedy

Heath Ledger is dead. I couldn't believe it when I heard. Apparently he died of a drug overdose and I can't help but thinking, "What a waste." What a waste of talent, of life, what about his poor 2 year old daughter, just what a waste. I don't think I'll be able to watch 10 Things I Hate About You or A Knight's Tale for a wee while now as all I'll be able to think is, "He's dead. He was so young. What a waste."

Another tragedy, although this is somewhat old news by now, is that Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's. Now that one is really tragic. I think Alzheimer's has to one of the nastier diseases to hit us later in life, or maybe it's just a personal thing for me and the idea of the deterioration of the brain that is quite horrific and scary and the contrast involved between the person that was and the person they become. It seems though, that at least on the public face of it all, Terry (I did a phone interview with him once for Radio One, I'm entitled to be on a first-name basis) has a very healthy attitude to it all.

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell. I know it's a very human thing to say "Is there anything I can do", but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

I like the Granny Weatherwax reference and hope that Terry proves to be as crotchety and tencious as the good lady herself.

And on a completely different note, I read my most crap horoscope in ages the other day. Shelly von Strunckel is losing her touch, let me tell you. Listen to the inane rubbish she had for me the other day:

It will take weeks, if not months, to fully understand the potential and extent of the ideas and events triggered by Jupiter's stunning alliance with Saturn this week. What's already clear; however, is that the more options you explore, the better informed you'll be when it's time to turn these concepts into lasting plans.

No shit Sherlock. Regardless of what Jupiter and Saturn are up to, exploring all my options always seems like a good idea and I'm all for being best informed to make my decisions. I DO THIS ALREADY. Frankly, I expected more from the lady who liberally sprinkled words like retrograde and ascension but apparently she was having a non-motivated day and reverted to wordy tree-hugging-hippy crystal mumbo-jumbo speak. Shame on you Shelly.

AND...

I'M GOING TO DO A YOGA DIVING COURSE.

Also very berry excited about that one. God knows exactly how Mr. Credit Card is going to juggle it all but I have faith in his superpowers. Eeek- I also have to start getting diving gear. Would a very very old and very very rich man marry me ASAP and then die (also ASAP) and leave me everything (or failing that a nice tidy sum)? If you could, that would be great and very muchly appreciated. I am an excellent cook and do great baked goods.

I'M GOING TO MARSA ALAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After much persuasion, I finally succeeded in my pitch as Marsa Alam as the ideal location for my friend Kerry to celebrate her 30th birthday. She wants to swim with dolphins and Marsa Alam came highly recommended by people at work and with all the internetting I've been doing on it, well I've fallen in love and now we're gonna go and it's awesome. Now I know I may not get to see dolphins as they're a wild pod but the whole place in general sounds amazing with even great snorkeling and coral opportunities just off the beach. And even better, since our birthdays are 5 days apart, we'll be over there for mine as well. Woot!

oh woe is me

I definintely fall under the stereotype of the person who hardly ever gets sick and when they do, they do it in style. Yesterday, just after lunch, I started to feel like someone was slowly stuffing my head full of cotton wool. Then they started to slowly pour in a viscous liquid. And then, clearly feeling they needed to ice the cake of discomfort, they decided to take to me with a piece of 2x4. I ache. Everywhere. So needless to say I'm not at work but I had to venture out this morning to get supplies and I am now going to retire to the sofa to continue ODing on vitamin C. I've had so much of it already in its various forms that I wouldn't be surprised if I start sweating it out my pores. But to sweat I would need to be warm and I even have my thermals on under my trackies. I'm about to go put on a Die Hard movie (probably 2 because I watched 1 again at the weekend) and am hoping I'll pull my party trick of falling asleep when the action gets going. I don't know what it is about the constant noise of gunfire and explosives but it lulls me to sleep...

feeling better now

I am, by now, well over my ohmyGodI'vecommittedtoleavingtheUK angst and am instead well into hallelujahI'mgoinghome mode. Even if I have no idea where 'home' will be. That aspect doesn't actually bother me as much I thought it might. I'll be with the family and that's what counts. (At least to me.) As for what happens when I get there... well I have some ideas but really it's just gonna be one more big adventure which I'll have to take as it comes- which is fine by me. I have till the end of the year to wrap things up here which even me, with my supreme powers of procrastination, should be able to do. Also, it was good talking to friends at the weekend about it because even though they will be sad to see me go, they were excited for me doing this awesome thing and were the first ones to remind me that this is what I want. And it is. Sun, sand and, most importantly, WATER and out of this concrete jungle.

life changes

For someone who was (is) definite in her mind that she wanted to leave the UK for good at the end of the year and has just booked the ticket to enable that action, well I'm feeling a little bit more unsettled than I imagined I would.

I'm sure it's down to a combo of things (and these are in no particular order):
1- going "home" will actually involve going to Auusie, not NZ, as my parents have moved
2- that is strange in itself
3- I was expecting to be able to book this in about July but happened to look online and since I'm using my airpoints to get back, there were only 4 seats on one day available in the month so I realised that I pretty much had to book then and there before they all disappeared and I was left with another UK Christmas or worse, having to pay actual money for my flight. *shudder*
4- making choices like this because they are 'life choices' and not I-hate-this-place-I-want-to-leave-and-set-fire-to-it-on-my-way-out choices is always hard

And so I am feeling unsettled. I should probably be heading out for someone's birthday drinks tonight but I think that I shall instead be making a lame-ass excuse and heading home to watch some comforting chick-flick and I try to re-zen myself. I should be happy, I really should. I should be jumping for joy because I know more than anything that this big city is not the place for me. That said, after almost 3 years, it is home and I have great friends here and love my work and the people I work with. Maybe I should just go home and look at pictures of beaches, that'll refocus me. Or I could go to the pool and try out my new pro look as my goggles and swim cap arrived today. Oh yes I will be the hottest thing in the pool. *cough*

the long overdue post of miscellaneous interesting links

This stuff reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes illustrations where Calvin is a skeleton.


interesting sculpture
http://thinkorthwim.com/2007/10/12/a-few-sculptures-by-erwin-wurm/


cool but bit dark
These paintings are a weird mix between girly adn cute and yet somehow a bit dark and sinister. Definitely interesting.


intricate


cute ladybug animation
The pacing on this animation is great. I like how it takes the time to enjoy itself. Be warned, it's fairly long and might take a while to load.

cute body art animation
www.ondanews.com/2007/11/25/body-love-animation/

amazing cakes
www.mikesamazingcakes.com/default.asp?audvar=true&aud=Turn+Music+Off

technology these days
It's amazing how far animation has come.

speaking of cool but disturbing...
www.raycaesar.com/pages/GalleryIndex.html

cool cat pics

I like the idea of photographing cats as naturally as possible and treating them like human portraits.

carved pencils
This is just cool. So intricate. I'm in awe.

selfridges birmingham
Does it make me sad that I would go to Birmingham just to see this building?

like I really need another baking site...
www.joyofbaking.com

ceramic cans
www.detterer.de/xue.htm

yet more interesting art
www.raquelissima.com/web/index.html

best Christmas card ever

Thanks J! xox

bobbing along

Okay so I'm officially back to hating Kura again- which is how my raging jealousy chooses to manifest itself- otherwise it'd be depression and I find the anger side of emotions far easier to manage. I get back from a cold and wet Edinburgh to a colder if not-at-the-moment-as-wet London and find her facebook status to read "Kura Carpenter is back from a great day cruising the lagoon of a neighbouring tropical island." hatehatehatehatehatehatehatehategrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I want to be snorkeling in a tropical lagoon. [enunciated in a whining 4 year old, stomping my foot on the floor voice] I'm thinking I'm going to have to cut back on how often I look at her blog. Today her largest trial seems to be deciding how to eat her pawpaw.

Eat it raw? Blend it with crushed ice and vodka? Maybe bake it with brown sugar and serve it with ice-cream?

Oh my heart bleeds....

I've started swimming in the local community college pool and although it's chlorinated water (not unusual for a pool, I know, but I prefer the ocean), it's usually VERY empty and being in water in any form makes me happy. But I need goggles because the chlorine kills my eyes and I'm thinking of getting a cap so I don't have to always wash my hair, all of which combines to make a vision of total hilarity, the humour of which is only increased by the fact that it turns out that I'm quite a spaz when it comes to swimming. I'm fine underwater with fins and an air supply but all this flailing around on the surface and being made to coordinate by arms and my legs and my breathing, well it's all a bit much... So I'll be dressed like a professional but without the body and the actual swimming ability of a Labrador. Brilliant.

2008 already?

My Christmas was spent in Northern Ireland with family friends and apart from being with my family, these were the bestest, most lovely people I could have spent Christmas with. I only got to see Sean and Daisy for an evening and a morning and took none of the pictures or videos I'd intended to because when I was actually holding them or watching them, I couldn't bring myself to let them go or look away. Daisy has abbreviated 'Aynia Lasagne' to a very Italian 'a-lasagne'. I will be forever amazed at how 2 small children have completely stolen my heart. In this photo, for those interested, is Santa (aka Steve), Anita (aka Mrs. Claus) and Santa's Little Helper (aka moi).


New Year was spent in Edinburgh which was slightly less cold than I had been led to believe but I think that was only because I had brought enough layers so wasn't freezing my proverbials off all the time. That said, I was still bundled up to the nines. This pic was taken from beneath a fairground ride in front of the Scots Monument. It's kinda like a miniature (and non-enclosed) version of the London Eye but what caught me was the placement of something so garish beside this ancient gothic-styled monument.


This was the view from the top of the ride. Just amazing. I don't know that Kez saw much of it as she spent most of her time clinging on to the pole in the middle and telling me in no uncertain terms to stop moving.


Fear not! These people were not getting ready to set fire to the city but rather a march for charity.


Of course Kez and I took part. How I was meant to not walk around with a 60cm high candle?

As for New Year's Eve itself, well we were on the street for the 'street party' and witnessed amazing fireworks, tried unsuccessfully to meet up with Hayden (his bad, he blames the booze) and had a great laugh. The atmosphere was awesome and I was mostly surprised at people who apologised if they jostled past you. I'm not used to that in London, I've forgotten what normal manners are. That and hilarious Scottish accents although we seemed to meet more antipodeans that Scots...

breaking my heart

I'm spending Christmas with family friends in Ireland and just called up to confirm that they had all my flight details etc and got to talk to the kids, Sean and Daisy. I can't believe I didn't blog about my trip there at Easter. I thought I did but cannot find a post about it anywhere. At any rate, the relevant point about that trip was that Sean, who at 4 years old (now 5) was really getting into his words, realised that Aynia rhymes with lasagne so I spent 5 days in Portugal being called Aynia Lasagne which is something I haven't been called since I was 8 years old and thought I had done a pretty good job at stomping out. However- when a 4 year old boy with a heart-stoppingly cheeky smile is so proud of himself for 'inventing' this name for me, well I just didn't have the heart to quash it.

When I got to talk to the kids just now, Sean gets on the phone and proud as punch, announced, "Hello Aynia Lasagne!" to which I had to reply, "Hello Seany-prawny" (you say it's lame but it was his suggestion). But then Daisy gets on the phone and, bless her soul, she proudly tries to say the same thing but it comes out more like 'Aynia lagnana' and my heart nearly broke from the übercuteness of it all. I'm only going to get to see them for a night and part of a day before they fly back to Portugal so goodluck to their family getting near them in that time.

island paradise

That's it, I'm moving to Rarotonga. Or at least going for a VERY long holiday. Apparently their library is chocca-block stocked with quality literature (my penchant for this is my now-not-so-secret shame) and between that, the sunshine, the sand and the scuba, I could be happy for a veryvery long time.

pining

Fresh on the heels of my Egyptian trip, the aftermath of which is a strong rekindling of my need to live by the ocean and be on the water, I decided to add insult to injury by checking out Kura's blog. She's living in Rarotonga and the bitch (I say that with love) manages to make it sound and look pretty bloody idyllic. Her husband just completed his PADI course and saw eagle rays and sharks. Eagle rays and sharks!!!To say I'm spitting with jealously would be an understatement. I have to keep reminding myself that there are reasons for my being in London at the moment and have to resist the urge to ship myself across the world and spend all my life savings (which is sweet f*ck all at the moment and would get me nowhere) getting myself into the water. I've been back for almost 2 weeks now and it's still pretty much all I can think about, I think I've caught this bug bad. I also think I need to stop whinging and moaning about it though as I'm wearing out sympathy and starting to get a smidge annoying... ;-)

living on a prayer

I came across this photo in my weekly UK Climbing newsletter, for some more stunners check here but this one was definitely the winner.



The caption reads: James McHaffie on the finishing jug of Masters Edge - look at that run out! For those not in the know, 'runout' is the distance between 2 pieces of kit and if you look at the photo, that lad has a looooooong stretch of rope below him not clipped in to anything and it makes my breath catch to think how big a fall he'd take if he came off. "Eeek" doesn't even begin to cover it.

not surprising really

Killing time on a Friday, I had to try this philosophy quiz I saw on Marie's blog.



Apparently I'm existentialist (no surprise) with a penchant for justice which is pretty much me.

joining in

So I've come back from my holiday all rejuvenated and inspired and all go-go-go and eager to do new things. I spent my flight back from the UK planning my holidays for next year and let me tell you, they were awesome and action-packed. But then I spent the Monday night doing some rough budgeting and planning and the sad reality is that I can't afford to do them all so will have to pick and choose. Plus there are things in London I'd like to do as well and ultimately it comes down to an annoying financial balancing act.

I've decided that I'd like to take up swimming because it makes sense to be a good swimmer if you're going to be a diver (and by good I don't necessarily mean styley, more like stamina) so after some research, my local community centre pool is looking like the best bet. They also offer courses of all sorts and reading through their brochure yesterday had me laughing out loud and regaling my colleagues with quotes.


Now I love flowers and have always though I might enjoy something floristry-esque but TEN WEEKS worth of 2 hr sessions? I don't know.... I like that the course is "open to all levels" although it made me giggle as I tried to imagine what "extreme floristry" might be like: "not for the faint-hearted and recommended for people with over 300 hours floristry experience this course is a rewarding experience in dealing with the more adventurous side of floral arranging..."


I might have been peeing with laughter over this one if I wasn't almost silenced by shock. I mean it's great that they have a course introducing people to Macs but really 1Macs are pretty bloody intuitive and you'd think it's PCs that need the intro course and 2 How the HELL do you need EIGHTEEN HOURS to decide whether "a Mac is for you!"?!?!?! You'd think just one hour (max) would be enough....


This just amused me because there is Spanish stage 1 and 3 but what ever happened to stage 2?

oh I do like to be beside the sea

This was my instructor Claudio. Or rather, this is Claudio who was my instructor. When I did things right I'd get the okay sign, if it went rather well I'd get the okay sign with both hands and when I got something perfect it was full on rock hands like in the pic. We had a ball. It's funny how well you can communicate things underwater even when you can't talk. (And yet at the same time some things are very confusing.... ;-)


Claudio again. He's inflated his drysuit to try to make it look like he has big muscley arms. Goodluck.


And here is me with some people who were on my boat and their instructor. We've exchanged emails but you never know how good people will be at keeping in contact. Jess is Irish and I think we were without a doubt the two craziest girls of whichever boat we were on, we made a right pair.

I can't pinpoint exactly what it was that made my holiday so great because it was a combination of the people and the place itself... Camel is a great place to stay and the staff are genuinely friendly and helpful and it was very cool to come back and have people remember me from 9 months ago. Now I'd like to put part of that down to the staff being cool but I will also have to take part of the credit myself as I make a point of smiling nicely and saying hello and thank you and all that. Especially traveling by yourself, I think it's important. Heading over, I had been a bit anxious about being Little Miss No-mates (3 weeks by myself in Greece seems 5 years ago, not 2 1/2) but I had an absolute ball. I was on boats regularly with some of the same people so we'd meet up for dinner or drinks in the evenings. There is definitely something to be said for traveling solo because it does force you to socialise whereas otherwise it's easy to just be lazy and hang out with the people to are on holiday with.

Despite being a busy place (even in winter, Sharm is a tourist meca), the atmoshpere still feels very laid-back. Maybe it's the sun, maybe it's being by the ocean. Regardless of what it was, it was a reality check for me. I love my job, I love the friends I've made in London, I love my flatmates but I'm not living the lifestyle I want to. I'm a seaside girl, I will have to be honest and even on my last day, when I couldn't dive, I got myself onto a boat for half a day so that I could at least be on the water. Some might crassly describe me as happy as a pig in shit when I'm on a boat but I prefer to be compared to a dog hanging its head out the window of a fast car. But my time here (London) is not yet done so I'll just have to last it out.

oh I do like to be beside the seaside

I'll write something decent very soon but for now, here's a pic of me diving.