february's sweet

i have decided to chose a chocolate bar a month to review and hopefully hear your say on the bar of choice and to hopefully try new ones and discover the ultimate chocolate bar or sweet. .....now i have just changed my mind...it will be sweet or as we say in australia lolly; anything sweet and eaten as a snack to make you feel better when you are down, bored at work or in dire need of a sugar fix, basically anything bought from your local corner shop.

february has been:

aero mint bar

i love it's fake lime green colour, its minty taste and the way it is covered in light milk chocolate. no other redeming factors other than it is a taste explosion full of e numbers and 'energy'.

255kcal, 9.2g saturated fats and 0.2g fibre

another project

i started working on another painting on the weekend.

not quite sure where it is going but this is the first undercoat, hopefully i get time on the weekend to do a bit more.

happy birthday fe

last night was fe's birthday drinks at 'the island queen' in islington. for some reason last drinks was at 12 and we didn't end up leaving until 1; this is unusual as this pub is right in the middle of a residential area and the usual hour for last drinks is 11. we didn't end up getting home until 2 as we had to get two night buses home and walk in the pouring rain from the high street....my shoes are still soaking wet and i think they will take at least a week to dry.

changed jackets!

Spring is almost here and I have changed jackets!
Gone is the heavy winter coat and in with the mid-weight jacket…this could be a good excuse to shop around for a more up-to-date style.
YAY FOR SPRING!
Now all I need is for my daffodils to bloom.

swimming madness

I was swimming my usual pattern at the pool yesterday: crawl 2 lengths, use the kick board for 2 lengths, breath stroke 2 lengths, use the kick board for 2 lengths, when the guy next to me in the other lane decides to steal my kick board!! I only realised once I got back to the other end of the pool. I was dumbfounded – now these floaties are for everyone to use – you take them out of the wire cage and then put them back when you have finished, but this guy couldn’t be bothered to get his own so decided to take mine (which he saw I was using). I asked him
‘did you take the kick board from my lane?’
and he said
‘yes’
I said
‘well you saw I was using it why didn’t you take another one from the cage?’
his reply was
‘well there there for everyone to use’
I looked at him with complete disbelief on my face and he got me another kickboard! Didn’t give me back mine?
I was in the sauna after my swim and he came in huffing and puffing like most men do in the sauna (why????) and I left.
You rude man!

the plate!

well here it is...the plate i bought the other weekend.

do you think i am an old lady for buying this plate?

i think it is lovely.

xxxx

national portait competition

i was working on this self portrait a while ago and managed to tidy it up this weekend. i have decided to enter it in the national portrait awards this year. hey i have nothing to lose other than the £20 entry fee so why not. i know it is not the best i can do but it is a start after not painting for 10 years. i have got all fingers and toes crossed.

snow!

well it has snowed again in london. this time it has settled and is about 10 centimeters thick. walthamstow looks lovely, just a shame that central london looks wet and sludgy.

tea for 8

more photos of fe's weekend

karaoke!

dinner

first of fe's hen weekend photos

i had the job of organising fernanda's hen weekend:
no strippers
no silly veils
no L plates
that was fine by me! so we went for drinks at 'The International', dinner at 'Katana', a play/musical called 'Avenue Q' (which I thought was pretty bland and didn't warrant the hysterical laughter the audience was displaying, but everyone in our group liked it) then off to fe's surprise i had booked for her; karaoke at 'Lucky Voice' until 1:00. It was an exhausting evening and sitting on the night bus home on my own listening to drunk people screaming 'r-o-x-a-n-n-e' from the front of the bus to the back of the bus until 3:00am was not my best part of the evening.
saturday i met up with Fe to go vintage clothes shopping at 'Alfie's Market' everything was ovr priced but the furniture was amazing and if i had the money to decorate my flat i would buy it all from there. i did make one purchase.....a plate........yes a plate. ed thinks our flat is going to turn into an old ladies flat but i just loved the illustration on it, it is dutch and has a sweet illustration of two people sitting under very odd fruit trees (i should really have taken a photo of it to give it justice).
sunday we all met up for tea at The Ritz , i love this place and wish i could have tea there once a month. we had all the tea, cake and sandwiches (with the crusts cut off) we could eat and after 1 and a half hours we were full to the brim and waddled our way to the tube, or in my case a spot of shopping ... to walk off the food of course.