Just when I thought it was safe to relax...

So my wellies are packed along with a raincoat I am ready for anything, expect the worse and...

then this,teachings grim reaper is on its way and so I will be committed to hours of needless paper work and for what? Will it make me a better teacher No.

Plus double cherry on top of my rain sodden cup cake is I now can no longer go to the RCA degree show on Wednesday, but I will get there trust me, where there's a will.....

Toast and Tonsil Hockey

I completely forgot I had taken some photographs whilst being fleeced on Friday, but this one reminded me of the most surreal vision. So there I am sipping the most expensive dry martini in the world when I look up from reading my Guardian app, (best value app ever) I see a very well dressed woman, designer glasses, stripy top, expensive grey cardigan, two pluses on the sartorial barometer of taste and class, what more could you hope to measure a stranger by? Well let me tell you she was an absolute strumpet, the man made a move on her and they proceeded to play tonsil hockey whilst he was copping a grope of breast which lasted for ages, I honestly did a double take!
I am seriously getting old.

This sartorial creaminess was caught as I whipped around the BP portrait awards, most were as dry as dust and I will return later for a more leisurely meander. I can't see her .... well maybe she would, how would you know?

Toast is more a lifestyle than a style, the fabrics are weighty, the designs are chunky, but I do love them and wish my finances could stretch to them a little more often. If I break the COS cycle of profligacy maybe I could. This necklace is divine, it was reduced from over £200 but is still a lot of money, so I am going to try and make one. We are buying some gold ceramic glaze and I'm going to cast some pebbles before making them in clay. I reckon I can make it for £25, a hefty saving. I have however bought the following two in the sale, I love the beads they use and reduced they would not be much cheaper to make myself, plus is it not lovely to unwrap a package every now and again?

Moderation over I now have to prepare for some training sessions with primary school teachers, however come what may I'm going to get to the RCA degree shows next Wednesday and that will be fun, and I will of course be taking some surreptitious snaps.

The view from here

Gratuitous floral decoration

OK you have my undivided attention for a couple of hours, I appear to have lost a whole week somewhere, I finally realised it was June 21st yesterday, I truly thought we were on or around the 16th. Thar's a whole week of my life I've lost and have not a clue where. I last saw you Friday as I schlepped up town in the pouring rain. So those idiot journalists proclaiming from the media roof top A Drought Riddled Summer, I hope they rue that fuck up of a prediction. All they had to do was check to see when Wimbledon started, which if you throw in a slew of open air festivals including Glastonbury, you pretty much have a copper bottomed guarantee of rain, LOTS and LOTS of it too.
So too have joined the festival melee, by taking my sister to a concert in Hyde Park for her birthday. I normally go for something civilised but decided to play my 'still wish I were young' joker. So we too will be waist deep in the mire of mud, sucking flat cider through a straw and clutching the remains of a soggy hot dog. Sounds great, no?

After walking up to COS last Friday I lost the will to live and decamped to the bar for a bite to eat at Les Deux Salons. I was royally ripped off by the barman charging me double for my Martini. Bastard.

Dumb Bitch"A dry martini please"
Bastard Barman " Gin or Vodka"
Dumb Bitch"?"
Bastard Barman "Do you want a vodka martini or a gin one?"
Dumb Bitch " OK, Vodka"

Oldest trick in the book, Dumb Bitch asks for a martini, Bastard Barman upgrades it to a cocktail.
The food was delicious as usual, so I guess I shall look at it as a cover charge for staying dry whilst waiting for the play to begin.

I give Betrayal 3/5. Kristin Scott Thomas was excellent as was Ben Miles. The 'other one' was crap, I thought he'd forgotten his lines, but then I realised that was the way he acted. Pinter is never uplifting, but yet I am warming to his particular brand of duplicitous self flagellation.

COS? no, I spent an age trying on the whole shop. Torture no, but I did succumb to a mans T-shirt in an awesome indigo blue. It reminded me of Cornwall, where the sun never shines!,

Saturday I played shop my wardrobe, which was more fun than it sounds, as was pissing Emin off by failing to provide a cooked meal on the table after he had spent the entire day at his sisters house. I was quite cruel in pointing out that if he failed to communicate his desire for hot food then he only had himself to blame. Why should I play the 'marital second guess' when he never even tries?
He sucked it up like a trooper, which means he needs me to sign something.
I am now drowning in a sea of effing reports and external moderation and marking and, and and...
but guess what?

OMG OMG

I got some tickets for the 'eventing ' at Greenwich next year

YES I GOT TICKETS FOR THE OLYMPICS

OMG

My sister didn't, so I feel wretched as the ticket was for Kitty plus moi, but maybe she will give it up for her favourite auntie!
The bizarre thing is I missed out on the football, how? Plus they were for Leyla who now has nothing, so I may try again next week. The whole thing has been a shambles really. Had it been like getting tickets for Richard II @ the Donmar WarehouseI would have done a lot better.

Suno

I found these wonderful images on style.com they are from a previous collection by Suno, I just love the whole presentation/ look of them

iPhone fun

The view from the Tate Modern via a tilt shift app'. What I really love about all these gimmicky app's is you really do start to see London through a whole knew set of viewpoints.

The tide was out on Saturday and Leyla and I actually walked along the beach, I have never done that, sometimes it takes a child to make you see this place differently too.

Not an app' this time but a child's toy held over the lens.

an appropriately multifaceted image of Leyla who can be a little, shall we say, multifaceted herself!!

It has been a busy week of external moderation, the build up and wind down begins again next week for the A level.

My treat tonight is to see Betrayal, no one would come with me to see it, my sister declared she would rather stick rusty pins in her eyeball's and I felt it not a wholly appropriate play for a 10 year old. So as it hopefully will have Kristin Scott Thomas in, an actress I could happily watch read the phone book in her pj's I decided to go on my own.

No, the theatre is not close to any COS sales at all..... I may need some extra will power for that one!!!

Resort Love

Theysken's Theory

What I love about the resort collections is the amazing diversity of presentation images, they have almost become works of art in there own right, the above image taken from here is not resort but is in fact the dress I lovingly held and lusted after recently. The quality is astonishing so it is no surprise that this blog featured it recently. I love her style and whilst it looks simple it is very well cut, and so many of his clothes are creeping into my look book.

Michael Angel

Is a new one on me but are the colours not luscious

Tate Modern

The lighting was very way too tricky for my poor iPhone to deal with and yet curiously I quite like the softness of the edges, they create a sort of stillness in a place that was actually very frenetic. I saw many people snapping, I don't know if the rules have been relaxed, however I am more interested in how the public interact with the art so would only get away with the phone anyway. I saw some wonderful artwork it was as always a great inspiration and wished I had a little longer than I did, it was a busman's holiday sadly but hopefully if I can get this trip sorted I will be back next month.

10 X I Like

Well for some reason the ever entertaining Belgian Waffle has requested the low down on my likes. Strange really, I was just lamenting the loss of being tagged, they are blogging gold for narcissist's such as myself. I can't think of anything more entertaining that blowing my own self satisfied trumpet! No seriously I do why else do I write this blog? So to the low down ,what can you newbies glean from this?

Well if you are new you may not know my list of well regurgitated givens that shape me.

1. Grey cardigans you would think I would have grown out of that silly phase by now but on;y last Thursday was I fingering a lovely cropped cotton one in Noa Noa desperate to buy it but some how the thought of it joining 30 others just..just about stopped me, but it is still gnawing away at my Psyche so I am praying someone buys it by next week.

2. COS well what I can say ditto above, only the presence of my mother prevented me from buying yet another cotton shroud last week, the fact that I was going to bleed her for the meal later meant I could hardly rub a COS purchase in her face..could I?

3. House Porn, love it, if only I could live my life vicariously through the interior decor of others.

4. Bird song sad I know but is there a better sound?

5. London Yes, I did say these were old ones and pretty much half this blog is a love letter to the city I love most in the whole wide world, she may not be pretty, but she scratches all my itches.

6. Muse, no arguments THE BEST BAND EVER EVER EVER

7. Photographing flowers Since picking up the camera again I have failed to tire of this, and the introduction of apps has given me a whole new lease of life.

8. Tea & Toast has to be marmalade of granary bread, all washed down with tea in a glass, one of my weirder quirks is I like coffee in a mug, tea in a glass, marmalade on brown toast , apricot jam on white!

9. Spring THE best time of the year, now it's at an end I feel sad. SAD in the summer not good!


10.Cornwall Is there a better place to look forward to holidaying? OK, Hawaii might be up there too, but realistically.

New 10 X I Like

1. iPhone, a revaluation truly my life has been positively embellished by this gift.

2a Clinique Lipstick the best by a country mile for me and trust me I have truly been around the blog with lipsticks
2b. Liz Earle again no slouch in the beauty tart department I will trade up for the price of the above, but recently these products have taken hold and I am liking them a lot.

3. Travelling anywhere by train, since giving up my car I have been forced to use trains more and more and as I do I must confess to loving it, especially that view, no matter how industrial, framed by the window it will always have a sense of romance to me.

4. Desert Island Discs pod casts OMG seriously I just love them, what makes them doubly amazing apart from hearing peoples voices, (you can learn so much from a voice) what makes them perfect is the music has been cut for copyright reasons, they are so much more bearable once you ditch the Dylan!


5. Lomo & Hipstomatic apps just how much more fun does it get


6. Painting sadly not the walls of my house but on raw unprimed linen, just moving the oils across the surface gives me pleasure

7. Magazines, I can't imagine a single one of you has been with me for the full 5 year stretch, if you had you would think this was old news, but magazines and I had a bit of a falling out and they lost there lustre, it seems I was not looking in the right places and I am now very much liking quirkier publications like the amazing apartmento as well as some of the more esoteric glossies like POP

8. Photographing people, I never would have thought it but over the last 5 years I have almost shunned The View From Here to wholly focusing on capturing people.

9. Theatre, how high brow am I? Sorry, but I love it, never tire of watching the real deal.

10 Eating standing up....why? I really don't know but food just tastes better on the hoof! trust me the Germans are brilliant at it too!

Why are these paragraphs so spread out? WHY, WHY, WHY does this idiot blogger do that? It does it with images too. I love blogger to bits yet the simplest of things seem beyond it's capabilities, I spend hours backspacing! now a list on 10 dislikes that I can do in a flash!

So I know I need to tag one sensible one

materfamillias

And just for fun

The Sartorialist I just have this wonderful vision of him scratching his chin contemplating whether to list creases in his jeans V turn ups? Button down collars V double cuffs?

Erdem

Wonderful clothes, wonderful images.

Wakartu Cory Surprise

My second favourite artist from Australia, I just love the colours and shapes.
Whilst the earthiness of Rover Thomas's colours are very traditional, these paintings show the exuberance of colour now many of the artists have access to polymer paints.

Images from here

Rover Thomas

Wandering around the RA Summer Exhibition Mother began to question why I didn't buy anything here or anywhere else for that matter since in the past I have bought original art. The art I own I bought for the evocative memories they unlocked but nothing here really pressed any of my buttons, certainly not in the same way a COS dress would, is that too sad? No, I just didn't see much I liked. These painting however I would buy, they really really hit the spot for me, abstraction in its purist form, untainted by the influence of anything other than a sense of place and history. I love them.

images from here and here

Wishing my life away or planning for the future?

It's a fine line isn't it? I don't make many lists, what I have are visual scrapbooks, but they amount to the same thing, looking forward to something I hope will happen. It may not, anything could happen to divert the dream and yet if I don't have the dream I wonder at times what is the point? What happens if we don't plan for the future? Which in turn becomes living for today. Lost? How do you think I feel?

Seriously, I am good at living in the present, I love it and try hard not to waste a minute, it's mostly about self gratification, looking forward to my morning coffee, catching up on iplayer, my current new squeeze is Desert Island Discs, you can catch pod casts of the last 50+ years they are awesome. Yes, I visit galleries, go to plays, walk, take photographs incessantly and believe it or not, I know I make it look effortless, but this blog takes some effort too. All living in the present as well as just doing enough not to lose my job.

I made the mistake recently of telling my mother that we were looking to move to a bigger house, "why?" she enquired...I then explained Emin's ridiculous plan about bunking up with his sister to save some cash to secure them a better financial future and us too. God did she rant, going off on one of her bitter little diatribes, on and on and on. I could not at any point be bothered to point out that there is more to life than rattling around a large house that I am out of most of the time living, and that I'm using the inconvenience to do an MA. I also wanted to scream at her that when she was my age she and my savant father had lost their life savings and remortgaged the house all on a bloody restaurant. At my age she was beginning again, yes, well done, but really? Was it well done? To then have to slog your guts out for nearly 20 more years just to get to where I am now, because Mommie dearest I am on my home straight, I have a light at the end of my tunnel, short term pain for a long and hopefully fruitful retirement not hamstrung by money worries or wondering where my next conversation might come from.
And, just in case he does fuck off with some one needing a British passport like my savant father I have had the presence to save for myself enough money to live on anyway. So there!


Now where was I? Dreaming of sunny climes and planning for the gulag in Cyprus. I have recently been very distracted by this blog which is where these images are from. I have figured that as the roof is now on I should preempt any further work on the gulag with a look book to avoid the Formica tiled hell that we presently endure, retro living is fine in pictures but grates to live with. So I give you my favourite kitchen for Cyprus, he loves it too, so this will be our model. The next two images of bathroom's he is less sure of since a 'finish' on any surface is challenging for Cypriot workmen but I think we could give it a try..no?

I just like the ideas of a raw surface as opposed to tiles.

I have always dreamed of a wetroom.

Viola the bedroom,I am going to keep it all white and very simple, we are putting sliding doors in all the rooms which will frame the view so no need of clutter which I am hoping to keep, in dare I say it in a studio...we shall see, it's not like there won't be room and as we are looking to make this our permanent address he will just have to suck it up so to speak.

And if he leaves me for some more attractive goat then I will buy myself a beach hut in Cornwall so win win mother.

And talking of the here and now ,I am absolutely gutted to have lost my Saturday's in the city. Leyla had the last 4 weeks of her classes cancelled, I am not sure who wanted to weep the longest her or me. I was already intending on try to say hello to Badaude tomorrow as she will drawing live at the Tate Modern, I also need to go to plan a school trip, so it was going to be a good day for me, I will attempt to get there after lunch instead, but I'm really going to miss those Saturdays.

The Royal Academy it's all about the art too

Recently one of the improvements to the summer show has been the inclusion of photography and limited edition journal's. My sister bought a beautifully screen printed one last year which she says has been a real talking point amongst her friends. Leyla had her eye on one but it was an inkjet and for me not worth the price, I like to feel the sweat in my artwork!

If I was pushed to buy one thing it would be the painted collage top right. They are by Jennifer Durrant an artist whose work I fine I either love or hate, mostly it is the small er pieces that do it for me once she scales up they lose their intimacy and become pastiches of aboriginal art.

Second choice would be this cabinet of porcelain be Edmund de Waal, difficult to see I know, but it was lovely.

Two paintings that I really liked and coming a close third were by Anthony Eyton an eye watering £7,500 so maybe another day.

Loved these but have no idea who they are by

An astonishingly beautiful piece by Tom Phillips the price?£39,000 but trust me I know how long his pieces take and this for me is worth it.

Two photographs from the amazing architecture room which is often overlooked, I love looking at the models.

Finally not a painting but a piece of embroidery very subtle and very beautiful, by Miranda Argyle