Yummmmmmm!!!

I've been in Asheville a week as of today and we've eaten at the same restaurant twice, Bouchon. I'm looking forward to the next time I come to visit so that I may go yet again. Monday through Wednesday is all you can eat Mussels and boy-oh-boy are they good! There are five different preparation s of them to boot. We started out with a baked brie appetizer, Le Brie en Croute Chaud. Then, my father ordered the Parisienne Mussles, I got the Bayou and my mother got the South of the French Border. We had seconds of course. Both my parents had the Bayou and I got the French South of the Border. Yummmmmy!! My tastebuds did little dances in my mouth. In my humble opinion, I believe that they Bayou for all their spiciness and andouille sausage was the best. For dessert my mother ordered the Creme Brulee Flight; four mini crem brulees rosemary, espresso, saffron, lavender. She was her usual giving self and shared with my father and me. They were all amazing. My father and I, on the other hand, had liquid desserts. My father had a Milky Way, and I had a White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle. We shared sips of out liquid desserts with my mother, of course. The Raspberry Truffle came VERY close to replacing the Espresso Martini as my favourite drink, but it didn't.

So, if ever you find yourself in Asheville, NC I HIGHLY recommend that you go to Bouchon. It's lovely, affordable (especially on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays) and absolutely delectable. Yummmmmmm!!!

It's Official!

I'm going to be spending Christmas in Tucson and New Year's in Seattle!! My grandmother lives in Tucson, is 88 and is sharp as a whip. She hates to travel partially due to her limited eyesight. When she last came to visit my parents in Asheville she told my mother she couldn't stand it. Her exact words were, "Everyone's butt was in my face. I can not stand all these butts in my face." So, my parents found tickets that were insanely cheap to Tucson at the end of December. Thus, when I am back in the UK I will look into buying a 3 pronged ticket as I have done for the last 4 years. I will be emailing dates, etc. once I know them for certain.

Yay!!!

Away in Asheville

Relapse is Part of Recovery

Not Suffering Fools...Really Really part 2

Ahhh but there's more...

Remember Poopy Pants who blew me out from our first date on Friday? If you will recall, we made a date for Sunday (today), but I decided to cancel as I frankly just didn't want to deal with a first date 3 days before leaving for 2 and 1/2 weeks. So, I rang him yesterday afternoon. I asked him how he was feeling. He said he was feeling a bit better, but still a bit ill. I told him that I didn't think I could meet up Sunday as I might possibly be staying up in North London where my friend's party was. This wasn't entirely true, but he understood. He asked me if he had ruined his chances by cancelling our first date. I said no, and at that point I did mean it. I figured that perhaps I would give him another chance when I got back from the US. After all he is tall, cute, and funny. Plus, his illness did seem quite genuine even if very vulgarly stated. Then he asked me if I had a moment and could he ask me a question. I told him he could, but I was in a bit of a hurry.

"Okay," he said, "Why aren't you married?" At that point I could hear the gun go off as he had just shot himself in the foot.

What I really wish I had said was this:

"I'm not married because I keep dating idiots like you."

Of course I didn't say that. I gave him the answer of not meeting the right people blah blah blah. I asked him why he wasn't married and he gave me a similar answer. We exchanged pleasantries and I bid him good-bye. I have no intention now of giving him that second chance.

Onwards and upwards. I'm done wasting my time with fools.

Not Suffering Fools...Really Really

Blown Out

I swear I live in a big city, but

...there definitely seems to be plenty of nature around. I cycled from my house to Richmond Park today. It's a rather large park and when you are there you would have no idea of the urban area that surrounds it. It's known for his deer and they are not afraid of you as I found out when I was cycling through it today.

These guys were rather young. I'm willing to bed this guy is either daddy or distant uncle.

I love that although I'm in one of the most vibrant cities in the world and yet I can get this close to nature. Granted it's not the same as being able to drive an hour out of town and go hiking up a mountain in the summer or skiing down it in the winter as I could have done in Seattle, but this is also lovely.

Speaking of urban nature, I'm a little worried about Foxy. I've not seen him/her since his appearances last April. I miss our staring contests as he curled up in the ivy on the wall just outside my kitchen window. I hope he's ok.

The weekend was quite eventful. Interesting cabaret-type show on Friday with May and a few of her friends. Ended it with the most recent one on Sat afternoon and got confirmation that I did the right thing as I sat through a few patronizing comments before springing the news. I went from there to a festival in St. Margaret's with Nana, Mel, and Pat. Then on Sunday Carolina had a wonderful brunch at her place and we went for a walk in the woods just by her house on Sunday. Then we went to see some music in a park, which was part of the Leytonstone Festival.

I'm shattered after today's bike ride (18 miles or so in total) and this weekend's festivities, so I'm off to bed.

The Weather Gods Are Toying with Me

I now remember why I always retreat back to the US at this time of year. You can count on the weather being like summer. When I lived in Seattle, I always travelled during my summer holidays. People always thought I was nuts. Why leave a lovely area with such natural wonder, like Seattle, during the part of the year where the chances are high that it won't be raining constantly? Then when I moved to Mexico and subsequently here, I always returned to Seattle (via New Jersey where my parents used to live on Lake Hopatcong-weather seemed to always be nice there too) in the summer. Every time I did the weather in the US was fantastic. I did stay in England my first summer here, however, and my parents came to visit me. The weather was lovely here then. Thus, I thought that perhaps I was making the same mistake I used to make when I lived in Seattle. After all, there's meant to be nothing like the English Summer.

So, I decided due to money and a course I'm taking to stay here this summer (with the exception of two weeks where I will be in Asheville, NC where my parents now live). Up until Tuesday the weather was pretty good. It has, however, not been so great since then. Yesterday it rained so hard that I wondered if I should start building an ark. Today I woke up and it was SUNNY!!! Hoorah!!! I got ready to go for a bike ride and the temperature dropped and it began to rain, Boo! I waited for a bit in the vain hope that it would clear up. But, it did not. So I took a bath, got dressed, sat down to do some coursework and guess what??? Yes, it's sunny-ish and warm.

Ok, why are the four elements toying with me like this???? It could be I'm looking at this the wrong way. Maybe I'm being protected. Perhaps going out riding to day would have ended badly for me. I've not had the best luck lately (almost took a finger nail off trying to peel a celeriac yesterday and I did have a nasty fall last week) Then again this could be nature's way of telling me to just get to work.

Happy Birthday to My Mom

She's 21 years and 10 months older than me. (I'll let you do the maths) Hallmark has these cute little slide show cards you can create and I just created one. Thought I would share.

Make a Smilebox free ecard

My mother doesn't know about this blog (unless my brother told her and he better not-hint hint) because I sometimes post that I'm feeling down and my mother tends to worry. I don't like making her worry. I did enough of that as a teenager.

She deserves to have a very happy birthday. I wish I was there to celebrate with her.

Emotional Clearinghouse- Everything Must Go!!

I need to make way for a new stock of emotions so I'm getting rid of some old ones. They are in pretty good condition and available at extremely reduced prices.

So come on down to the emotional bargain bin, but hurry before they are all gone.

Yeah, I'm feeling a bit dark. Had a a pretty good weekend until Sunday when I got ill. Then, I sunk into a depression and didn't leave my sofa. I'm feeling better now and am able to eat, but I'm still feeling dark and realised there are some things in my life I need to be rid of so I figured I'd have a sale.

And, it's never fun when you realise that the person you are seeing is not the person you want to be seeing. Not that you want to be seeing anyone else in particular, but just not this person. I have a difficult talk coming my way.

On the upside the weather held for the medieval party, and here are some pics from that day.

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I decided the rat best lived at the Lamb so I gave it to Adam, but then Roland the Rat attacked him.

Happy Freakin' Fourth of July

So, this happens to me every time I am not in the US on The Fourth. I forget about its significance. My hairstylist reminded me this morning. Oops. I made certain to wish all my American friends a Happy Fourth on Facebook. There will of course be no fireworks here.

And, because I was getting my haircut this morning I missed a delivery from an overnight courier. The package is my medieval costume for Adam's (owner of The Lamb where I had my 40th) fancy dress birthday party. The guy dropped by minutes before I got home. I was expecting that I would be able to pick it up from the local post-office but no. Since I ordered this costume and had it expressed delivered, I would have to go all the way into Guilford to get it and not just to the town part of Guilford. I would have to go about 3 miles away from the station to the warehouse area. Living in the London area and not out in the country, I don't own a car because there is no reason for me to do so (also have an ethical issues with needless waste of fossil fuels). However, this is a time when I would need a car. So, I rang the company and asked if there would be anyway for them to come back and was told that they would try, but no promises. As I type this, it is 4:59PM. No one has come by. I was told the delivery time would be until 5.

It has been a beautiful sunny day and I spent all of it inside waiting for this costume. The weather is beginning to turn. It's getting colder and cloudy. I checked the forecast and it will be raining by tomorrow morning. So, it looks like I wasted a beautiful day inside and will be going to Guilford with my bike to head to this delivery place in the rain. Poo!

But in honour of The Fourth of July I have been watching episodes of Commander in Chief, which in all honesty has been distracting me, and it is now 6:09.

So, I'm off to join my friends at The Lamb and then up early tomorrow to go into stupid Guilford.

But before you stop reading this, look how short my hair is now!


My neck will be nice and cool when I'm in North Carolina.

Nasty, Bad Pagans take 2

This is Kathy Lee's ignorant hateful comment on national television.


And this is her supposed apology:



What a stupid, bigoted woman! I'm never watching the Today Show again. Still waiting to hear back from the Today Show.

Nasty, Bad Kathy Lee Gifford!

Running Is Dangerous

I went on a bit of a fruit diet yesterday and went for a run. Not having run for a month I did not go nearly as far as I had intended. This new health kick was spurred my my shock when I got on the scale. Apparently 2 weeks of no exercise, BBQ's, leaving-do's, and dates with a man who will buy you pricey drinks puts the pounds on much faster when you are 40. Shit.

Thus, yesterday I began this diet and exercise plan. It went fairly well. I'm even logging what I eat on this website to track my calories. My running could be better, however. Plus, starting last week my hip starting acting up from that ski spill I took in Feb. It now has decided that since the weather is nice it would make its presence known. I personally think it's begun to hurt because I haven't been exercising lately. So, running again seemed to be the perfect solution.

Today while I was running, I was thinking about how to best improve my speed and stamina, and then made the fatal decision to run along the gravel path next to the Thames. On one side of this path is the river and on the other side is a retaining wall about 2 feet high, which separates the lawn and the proper foot path from this gravel one. I should have been running along the lawn, but I wasn't. Right when I was mapping out a training plan in my mind I stumbled and wiped out quite dramatically. I fell against the wall and sprawled out along the gravel. My hand and elbow are both bruised and scraped but they do not compare to my knee. If you're squeamish, best to avoid these next two pictures.

As you can see my knee is quite bruised as well as scraped. This pic was taken after I cleaned it up when I got home. I walked home with blood streaming down my knee...nice. Oh and I can still walk, but it is a bit painful.

I'm still going to exercise, but tomorrow I'll be on my bike. Yeah I know, I've fallen off that too. With my brand of clutziness you just can't win when it comes to exercise.

At least I didn't fall into the Thames.