The Month of September.

Has felt very long.
It started with moving home and job on the 2nd
Hello Forest Hill. I've had fun finding a favourite new coffee shop (The Teapot) new nail place, cobblers and dry cleaners.
Lots of September had been spent unpacking... and working...
A Sunny Saturday Surrey BBQ with friends of Warmth who are becoming 'our friends.'
Eid Mubarak on Friday 10th September.
Drinks sitting outside on the South Bank enjoying the September sunshine and then Dim Sum.
Loving the London Overground - journey to work, so easy to get to Cowshed Shoreditch for beauty treatment, and Dalston to meet a friend and a delicious Vietnamese Huong Viet (Englefield Road).
Discovered that my favourite House of Fraser at Monument isn't open on Saturdays. Hurrah for late night shopping. Searching for The Perfect Winter Boot but did finally find The Perfect Purse.
A party at the most a.mazing flat with a view of St. Paul's Cathedral.
A dear dear friend announced her engagment.
Marylebone mooching and Wallace Collection with dear university friends, one of whom was over from New Zealand.
Discovered a good new bar and tapas restaurant in Charlotte Street for friend's birthday.
Nails Island Hopping by Essie and treated myself to Chanel 'paradoxical' I love it though must get better at applying myself.
A wonderful night with my dear 'former colleagues and more importantly friends.'
Hello King's Road I missed you. Cashmere gloves bought only to return home to discover in pile of unopened post a free postage and 10% off said company!
Drinks in Shepherd's Market.
Menier Chocolate Factory a fantastic lunch and then the final performance of 'Aspects of Love'. Not at all what I thought it would be like.
Read Unless by Carol Shields and The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald
The knowledge that autumn has arrived.

Leaves

This quote fits into 'another one my mum sent me to do with relationships ending...' As we scuff along in the leaves it seems appropriate, though thankfully I now have Warmth to hold my hand.

'Heart be kind and sign the release
As trees their loss approve.
Learn as leaves must learn to fall
Out of danger out of love'

James Fenton

leaves

Sometimes

Sometimes you read a passage at it speaks of times past. Sometimes of hoped for future times. Sometimes for struggles and joys you're experiencing at that moment. And sometimes it speaks to you for just that moment. It's brief. But in that moment it makes you Stop. Pause. Reflect. Re read. And then go onto the next moment...

'He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice for your favour. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.' F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

smile

I read this and it spoke to me for that moment. Seven am on Tuesday 21st September 2010. And then it was time to step off the train and I started my day with a smile.

Not Waving

It didn't quite get as bad as this poem, but moving home and areas and changing jobs - all on the same day was a little mind and emotion boggling at times. Thank goodness for Warmth. There were moments when I thought of this poem.

Not waving but drowning
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
.....
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

Stevie Smith

A photograph from Halong Bay, Vietnam. The mist, the islands seem to sum up the poem too. How do we know where to look for someone when it's so misty out there?

Mister Pip

On the day we moved I arrived at our new home to find that one of the first things Warmth had done, apart from make up the bed and sofa, was begin to unpack our books. For the first time all our books are in one place. Immediately it made our new flat feel like home.

As Matilda thinks as she discovers Great Expectations in Mister Pip.

'By the time Mr Watts reached the end of chapter one I felt like I had been spoken to by this boy Pip. This boy who I couldn't see to touch but knew by ear. I had found a new friend.' Lloyd Jones Mister Pip

And that's why it felt like home, we were surrounded by dear, treasured and familiar friends.

home

it's good to be back x

It's Five O'Clock Somewhere....

I've been reading Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis. A frippery book with moments of depth. One of the frippery moments which made me smile, and I hope may make you smile...

'"You don't happen to like gin, do you?"

"Like it? I adore it!"

"Goodie! Well, I'll just get out the deck and the score pad and we'll have a little game while...."

"Oh" Auntie Mame said crestfallen.'

Patrick Dennis Auntie Mame

Well it's Friday, it's Five O'clock in London and hopefully next week we've the internet back in our flat

Would you care to join me for a G&T?

Mansfield Park

I find it surprising that I only have one quote from Jane Austen in my notebooks. I remember reading this sentence for the first time. How it challenged me and has had an impact on how I am to others.

Fanny has just arrived at her cousins...
'Nobody meant to be unkind, but nobody put themselves out of their way to secure her comfort.' Jane Austen

This springs to my mind, probably selfishly, as we move to a new area and I into a new job. Due to the move and BT not connecting our landline and therefore no internet until the 15th September....) there will be a blogging break (writing posts and leaving comments). And due to my new job I won't be able to find those cheeky half hour blogging moments during the working day either. So.....

There will be almost no blogging activity until the 15th September.

flowers

A gift to all of you for making me feel so welcome in this blogging community.

Thank you and see you soonish x

Buying Clothes

I love the changes in season. By about April I'm desperate to be in summer clothes and at this time of year I just want to wrap up all cosy and warm...

Having spent alot of August wallowing in memories here we are thinking about the future...

'Buying clothes is a gesture of optimism about the future...' Linda Grant in Vogue November 1996.

This is what I unattainably daydream of wearing this autumn...

Paul Smith

DKNY

This is what I have bought for autumn.

All Saints

Still on the search for the perfect boots.... these maybe....

Episode

Not forgetting some new winter gloves....
What will you be buying/coveting this autumn?

The Month of August

A fantastic holiday in The Loire. Drinking Pouilly and Sancerre, bbq's, reading and chatting with friends. Visited La Borne for pottery.

Flirting with Twitter.

Testing which Annouck Goutal perfume to buy.... Tail end of sail bargains.... Cocinelle black leather bag, Jigsaw purple patent t-bar shoes. All Saints denim jacket. Discovered my sunglasses were broken right at the end - do I replace now or next year?

Finding a flat to rent before we become homeless after selling ours... Resting for two weeks at Warmth's parents whilst they're on holiday and we were homeless. Perfect timing.

Toes 'Lacquered Up', nails 'Coral Reef' Essie. Love Coral Reef toenail perfection... 'Mod-ern Gal' OPI on toes and fingers. Then two days back in the classroom sorting it out and my fingernails were wrecked!

Read 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' Lionel Shriver - absolutely loved it. Holiday and house packed brain can't remember what else.

A bbq where I wore hunter wellies rather than summer dress.
Friday night cocktails at The Leather Market and then The Woolpack London Bridge.
Tate Modern 'Exposed' and Francis Alys (strange but absolutely fantastic.)
Anniversary luch at The Oxo Tower, chosen as we bought our rings at a jewellers there.
A random twice in one week mooch along Northcote Road. My godson's sister was wearing a very pretty party dress. She came down stairs wearing it that morning saying
'I just felt I needed to be pretty today....'

Last Friday mooch around Portobello for a while but.... it really will be easy to catch a bus to Spitalfields for after work mooching.

Enjoying the last few days of the summer holidays....

Forming People

So, the start of a new academic year. I've always liked this passage and today as we look ahead to our hopes and dreams for the next year it seemed appropriate. Who knows where this year will take us, what changes will happen. (I feel those who are making those decisions should read this passage.) This is what education means to me and why I'm looking forward to the year ahead.

'Education is about forming people who have the moral strength and spiritual depth to hold a course and weather its ups and downs.

It is about forming people who know that economic competition is not more important than family life and love of neighbour, and that technical innovation is not more important that reverence for beauty of creation. It is about forming people who. however academically and technically skillful, are not reduced to inarticualte embarrassment by the great questions of life and death, meaning and truth.'

Archbishop of Canterbury quoted in Lord Dearing's Report 'The Way ahead' quoted in The Daily Telegraph 31st July 2002

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