The Departure of The Lady Miss Roberta! (Or 'Get Thee To The Nunnery!)

Another shock, with The Lady rather spontaneously deciding to leave Gay Gables to go and live with three other girls and a 'Landlady' who objects to people 'stopping overnight'. We have come to the conclusion that the place is some kind of nunnery, the 'Landlady' is a Mother Superior and her room is a monastic (or should that be nuntastic!) cell. Needless to say we're getting her 'appropriate' presents. IE a foot long 'Jeff Stryker' a 'tomato' plant and a still.
She's moving this Saturday and it's going to be a bit of a wrench. She'll be around on Sunday for lunch so it fortunately won't be a clean break.

A party has been organised at very short notice for her leaving. The theme is vaguely nuns and I shall be making my Compline Cocktail to obliterate any survivors.

Magical

I now have my Blackberry killer. The SPV M5000. It's quite similar to my previous phone (the SPV M1000) except a little larger and considerably more snazzy with a good quality fold out keyboard and improved connectivity with a direct USB port which also charges from there, the same SD/MMC card slot and this time a standard size headphone socket, perfect for speakers on trips away! I'm rather pleased with it, though as ever it's taking a little adjustment. There are some differences with the interface which take a little getting used to. To all intents and purposes it's a tiny laptop which even has Wi-Fi so in the right places you can get internet without costly call charges. As with all these things it takes getting used to but the potential is enormous. We will have to see if it's glamour fades! And my sister’s getting my old one!

The After Morning from the Before Night. A story of time and space travel.

Well, yesterday was, as I mentioned, the 42nd anniversary of the creation of Doctor Who. It's quite startling when I can remember the 20th anniversary so clearly. We had the lovely Rob round for one of my usual sizeable dinners consisting of Garlic Roasted Potatoes, Roasted Roots, mixed veg, Pot Roast of Brisket and gravy followed by Black and White Bread and Butter Pudding. This was assisted by substantial quantities of red wine and cava to the point that the Hot Chocolate with Brandy became somewhat redundant. We also had The Web of Fear on the box follwed by some music/Who clips, and the end of The Doctor Dances with a finale of the Extra on the DVD Making The Christmas Invasion. All very entertaining. We also got another additional guest, a friend called JP who works with The Lady and much merriement was had therof. He, having rejected the pudding outright, proceeded to wolf it down in quantity. Motto: always try things when away from home, you never know you might like them!

Tonight on the other hand should be a much quieter affair with wholesome soup and bread rolls followed by some pennance and Stargate Atlantis.

I feel quite pure and virginal!

Saturday 23rd of November 1963

For those of you not in the know, it is the 42nd anniversary of the start of Doctor Who. As a fan this is quite significant to me, particularly since we came so close to the programme disapearing from the schedules forever or, maybe worse still being produced as a high budget, plot thin, special effecs extravaganza that the Fox network would have produced. In spite, or maybe because of its unfortunate and unloved recent past it was farmed out to BBC Wales and given, as a last ditch attempt to woo him to the Beeb, to Russel T Davis. He has managed to turn the series into the most successful series on the BBC for 2005 and probbably the most successful so far in the 21st Century, considering how it trounced all the others at awards. It appeals to young children, teens, twentysomethings, pensioners, girls, boys, familes and poofs.

And you can't say many things that do!

Flurry of updates!

I think the problem with blogging is that I have problems with updating it regularly. I write it all down but then have problems with getting it onto the web. I also end up providing updates that sometimes seem less than pithy and which do not seem to be up to my usually high quality. Such a perfectionist eh? Anyway, this is by way of explaining why my entries (phnarr phnarr!) seem so inconsistent and have so many gaps.

I soon hope to resume normal service and apologise for any incovenience!

Bacon & Egg sandwiches

Aren't they the Acme of civilization? Just when you're really hungry in the morning, there's a café on the horizon which serves this food of the gods. It's at times like this that I realise that this is one of the many things I'll miss if I do have a sabbatical in Thailand. On the other hand I'm sure I'd be able to cope with a year by a beach. These are the sacrifices one must make.

Anyway, you can come and visit!

I'm blogging...

Well, now I'm doing it it seems quite cathartic, getting some of my thoughts down on electrons. sometimes it's easier to do than others but on the whole quite enjoyable!

Frantic Friday

Another casual walk across the Heygate estate avoiding the pimps, murderers, drug dealers and prostitutes. Has to be said that I only saw mothers and fathers taking their children to school rather than the underbelly of society. There were also cleaners who, I have to say, I admire enormously. They do a good job in the face of some of the nastiest stuff stuck to the pavement I can imagine. Frankly I’m always impressed by anyone at work 2-3 hours before me who’s also earning a pittance.

Thanks to all those people who keep our streets clean. If you weren’t there London would be much nastier.

Cloves and Spices

TLMR (The Lady Miss Roberta) has toothache, bless her and is going to have a tooth out on Monday. I considermyself to be very fortunate with my teeth having had the flouride treatments as a child and now have no fillings and no teeth pulled out. See not bad eh, 33 years old and nothing but a bi-yearly scrape of the teeth! On the other hand it does leave me with little knowledge of dental pain apart from one excruciating visit to a locum dentist who scraped at my gums rather than my teeth leaving me in some pain and not a little amount of blood in my mouth. Anyway I’m purchasing her some oil of cloves to deaden the pain and some Tea Tree oil as the base of an antibiotic rinse. Herbalist Goddess at work!
I shall also be making Curried Parsnip soup for its palatability and the fact that it should be able to be tasted above the cloves. Culinary Goddes also at work!
Queen Orlandina (Diva Stropp to many) is plainly enjoying his new work. Wonderful to watch someone pull their way out of depression with such a positive attitude. Certainally it’s going down well at our work where the words Breath of Fresh Air are bandied around with alarming regularity.

And I just got £60 out of my previous broadband provider who neglected to stop billing me. That should cover the Guilbert and Sullivan Boxed set I’ve ordered.

What never? No never!

Banging like November the 5th

An enjoyable time was had by all over the weekend. Saturday night was spent enjoying the fireworks at Tate Modern (Photo’s on http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=30754 ) as well as special hot chocolate (with brandy) and mulled wine (also with brandy) and then Sunday we had a lovely Beef Stroganoff (also with brandy, is a pattern forming here?). Sunday was supposed to be a visit to Brighton Pier for the Doctor Who Exhibition closing ceremony but The Lady Miss Roberta had toothache so I (as Goddess) took an executive decision that it was pissing it down and we were going to stay in and indulge. One episode of Buffy and the extended Lord of the Rings, Return of the King later and we felt much stuffed, wined, dined and relaxed.

All in all a positive but relaxing weekend. Just what we needed.

Now time to manage my life!

Another 'Interesting' night!

Well, it's all go at 'Gay Gables'. About 9pm last night a friend of a friend turned up begging for a bed for the night, her partner being in hospital and them both suffering some domestic strife from their neighbors.
She is also 7 months pregnant which does not help! Couldn't turn her away obviously so she stopped over. After that the neighbors suddenly kicked off with with what sounded like screaming, swearing and fighting. The police were called and much further yelling ensued. On top of this Diwali was being celebrated last night with all the associated fireworks banging around during the night. Sometimes London takes it out of me!

The area of London I live in is pretty close to Elephant & Castle which is about 10 mins walk south of London Bridge and Waterloo. I love living here. To be so close to the centre of town is wonderful despite the associated problems. As a friend who lives in Herne Bay said, "We don’t have anything like that here... Just murders."