Whimsical Kitten

I used to be scared, now I just drool……..

…………welcome back Doctor.

Today I found another great blog www.runswithneedles.wordpress.com which inspired me to take some pictures of my dogs for you to enjoy.

And I got a lesson from my friend Blutak Girl (www.blutakgirl.wordpress.com) on how to protect my photos – thanks Kate!

Today Ben and I took a trip up to London, and here are some of the sights that we took in. The tour started with some lunch in East London.

With me reeling in turns from the sedation of a large glass of red wine and piri piri chicken and then the stimulation of a cappuccino coffee we set off. Taking the tube (we later realised we could have walked without too much bother) to Southwark our first port of call being the Tate Modern, to see Carsten Holler’s ‘Test Site’ installation.

Situated in the Turbine Hall, Test site is described as “a prototype or model for a potential urban-scale slide project”. To me the idea of slides as a possible alternative mode of modern urban transportation is really exciting (yes, the inner six year old is grinning). Why? Well think about it they are fun, simple and quick to use, environmentally friendly, energy efficient and relatively simple to construct and maintain – bring it on I say. The Tate Modern was however full of squawking children tearing about and ignoring the Art, so we bailed out after a brief view of ‘Poetry and Dream’ a display dedicated to Surrealism. Walking along Bankside we took in views of the River Thames, which included the Millenium Bridge and St Pauls.

To our left was the Globe Theatre. We discovered that we were in an area that in the 15th Century spanned about 80 acres and was owned by successive Bishops of Winchester, known as ‘The Liberty of the Clink’. It was the red light district of its day with taverns and amusements ranging from Bull and Bear baiting (nasty) to theatre and as the name suggests there was a prison ‘The Clink’, unusually for me (I am quite squeamish) morbid curiosity set in and so we paid our fee and entered. A short but graphic range of exhibits that examines London’s prison system and unsavoury past, you are able to handle the restraining and torture devices, I didn’t they were horrific, the worst revelation being that many of the devices are still in use today in parts of the world.

A short walk to see Sir Walter Raleigh’s ship ‘The Golden Hinde’ and then off to Borough Market, where they shot some scenes from the Harry Potter Film The Prison of Azkaban. Finally, we stopped at the Old Mug House Tavern for a tankard and some wine before wending our merry way home – cheers!

Now that the weather has been getting sunnier, my knitting projects are turning from warm winter woollies to skimpier (and much quicker to knit up) summer items. Enter the halter neck top. The front is now done, just the back and the halter tie to go – happy days!

Now, I was given the chance to go and see the Arcade Fire at Brixton Academy a couple of weeks ago with my husband Ben, and some friends Matt and Stuart and I passed – doh!

I wasn’t really bothered until watching the Culture Show last weekend I saw them do a cover of the ‘Guns of Brixton’, which made me realise the error of my ways - now I see why Ben is such a huge fan. Attached is a live performance taken from YouTube, as I wasn’t able to embed the actual Culture Show version.

So, given my stupidly missed opportunity, I hope that the rumours are true and the Arcade Fire are playing at the Latitude Festival (for which I already have tickets ha ha!). By the way, the Latitude line up is announced tonight at 7.30pm so fingers crossed.

Thought I’d have a spring clean and ring the changes with a new look for my blog. I chose this colour scheme because it reminded me of those yummy chocolate lime sweets.

Mientras que mucha gente celebraba día del St Patrick con un Guinness, pasamos a algunos amigos y gozamos de un mexicano themed la celebración. Cenamos en una cena fabulosa de los nachos, chiles, el arroz, y refried las habas que fue lavado abajo con varias combinaciones de la sidra, vino, rumanade, té gris del earl con tiempo de algunos cafés del ron en el país.

La hospitalidad de las tardes también incluyó una competición del lookalike de Smurfette!

De todas formas que es todo de mí para ahora, espero que su las celebraciones del día de Santo Patrick fueran tanta diversión como las nuestras!

I don’t know if it is because I am due to turn forty at the end of the year but I have been indulging myself in a lot of nostalgia lately. This desire to pay homage to the 80s (along with many others it seems) has been galvanised into action on hearing Calvin Harris’s ‘Acceptable in the 80s’.  So, although a totally unoriginal idea, I plan to set up a dedicated page called I ♥ the 80s to record my favourite things about this decade. To get you in the mood I’ve attached Calvins video, the dancers really remind me of Clare Grogan the lead singer of Altered Images – what do you think?