New Year, new blog...sorta

After a year of not being able to use blogspot, I have finally gotten around to the big move to Wordpress, so this blog will continue on http://youngblondesandblackrappas.wordpress.com/.

Rivington Street, Shoreditch, December 2010

Sailing home for Christmas

As I made my way to work on Tuesday 22nd of December I read my horoscope in the Metro, as I usually do. Who was to know that they would be (sort of) bang on about my prediction for that day, if by a 'close one', they did in fact mean myself.

Oh holy god part 2

While perusing the aisles of my local turkish grocery store this very evening I came across THIS HOLY SHOW.


Yes, dear readers, this is EASTER MATERIAL before Christmas is over. In fact, some of us are only getting in the Christmas mood now and this shop is building up to EASTER! Well needless to say I am raging. I have written here before that since I work at Westfield I have basically been listening to Christmas carols since late September and was pretty must outraged that they tried to skip over Halloween earlier this year, but this is a new low. I remember when I was young, we had this cleaner who was called Brigid and she was from the exotic pastures of the United Kingdom. One time over a cup of tea, I was definitely no more than eight, she told me that in England the minute they Halloween was over they would put up the Christmas decorations in the shops. Naturally I was shocked and thought the english were a crazy lot, also I partly didn't believe her. Well if only I could show Brigid this picture now, she'd go wild. I'm sure she'd say I told you so.


On another (equally raging) note, this week's snow is putting my arrival home in jeopardy, this is a view from my sitting room this morning, while all London airports remained closed...

December 16th

If you have five spare minutes in your life you should watch this, it's the song that is being pushed to make Christmas number one in Ireland instead of the woefully bad boy-next-door-who-actually-voted-for-him, Matt Cardle.

I spent a few days in Boston earlier this week, and fell in love with a bus driver who took me from my hotel to the city centre. As you'll see he was wearing a Santa hat and didn't look a million miles away from the man himself. He offered each person a candy cane on their way onto the bus, you can see his little basket on the right hand corner of the pic. He was the type of character you'd see in Home Alone!

Shortly after I got off of the bus I stopped a man on the street and asked him where Newbury Street was. This is how the conversation went:

Me: Hi there, can you tell me how to get to Newbury Street
Stranger: Newbury Street, great idea, welll....

Now this is all you need to know, GREAT IDEA, I know what he meant, we all know what he meant, but what a funny thing to say! Like, 'great idea, I hadn't thought of that', or 'great idea, I'll come along so', or 'great idea, you'd love that' (we just met). This thought crossed my mind while he was giving me directions and I couldn't help laughing in his face. He was one of these American 'swell guys' and quickly thought I was a bit mental and rushed off.

Finally I conquered airport security (well sort of) by buying wooden knitting needles which I proudly brought on the plane with me. Unfortunately having been borderline obsessed with getting them for the plane I promptly left them down to watch a movie the moment I sat in my seat.

Funny

When I bought my laptop last Christmas it came with this sticker on the touchpad...... I wonder how this got the go ahead!

In which I go back on my word...

Now I know I said I didn't really have anything to say about the bailout, but I actually do. I was reading about the proposed social welfare cuts in today's Irish Times and the story was supported by the pic below. I guess I think it's a bit difficult to see that that the finance minister is travelling to a meeting to discuss financial cuts for the most vulnerable people, the unemployed, in a chauffeured car. What poor messaging to be giving out, it goes against everything I was taught about image when studying.

I have really been hating Wagner in the X factor and most weeks I don't bother watching him, but I think the pic below is hilarious and I think he's going to be in the competition for a long time to come. According to the Daily Mail* he has been in the top half of the votes every week, and we all know that the Daily Mail is a top class publication.

*read 'bible'

Oh holy God

This has been an action packed week.

Firstly, Old nibblers left the house for her fave spot in London, Clapham. Sure we were devo. So devo that Sharon texted her the day she left and asked if she wanted to come over for X factor and that she could stay the night, on the day she moved out.

Downfall of Ireland

Can I really not make reference to the Irish bailout this week? I came across this cartoon in the Irish Times which I liked. I don't really have anything else to say about it, though I welcome a general election but not the protesters at the Dail.

Downfall of me.

After a fun night out on Saturday, I managed to leave some possessions behind in the pub. There is something horrifically shameful and equally enjoyable about returning to the spot where you have spent the previous night. Firstly, it always looks completely different in day time. I remember the first time I saw the inside of Coppers in Dublin during the day time, it startled me how I had absolutely no perception of how it might look other than after midnight and in that case I was making an expedition for a similar purpose to my trip last Sunday. Though I have to say I did enjoy my trip to Dalston, partly because Sunday is the only day of the week where you might not be running around the place and you (I) might have a bit of time to have an amble. But also because it was one of those freezing, dry evenings that I love. After an unsuccessful trip to the pub (they had none of my stuff) I I got to take the east end line from Haggerston to Hoxton and let me tell you, it was a pleasure. I can only fantasise about what it would be like if they moved those wonderfully wide tubes onto the central line. I'd certainly have to stop complaining for a bit. Though I still have reason to complain, because one of the aforementioned possessions held a great many pics that I had intended on sharing with you in this here blog. One such example, is a story from the Evening Standard where a robber was trying to break into a house but he had to be rescued by an ambulance because his bottom was too big to fit in a window. That is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the gold I had. (depending on your attitude to the word gold)

Downfall of uk. Ok joking now!

The big engagement! Well obviously the most exciting news story of the week came in the form of the royal engagement! I have taken a keen interest in all media surrounding the event facilitated by working in a PR company, so I've seen my share of the supplements, though I have to say The Sunday Times really got my attention by featuring an article written by the infamous Andrew Morton. He first came to my attention when I read his biography of Victoria Beckham (yes, I did just admit that) and he has a reputation for being sensational, but he came out with some real jewels in the article. Here are two examples.

"Penny Thornton, Diana's astrologer, contact me when she saw the ring and said "The portents don't look so propitious with that".

"One presumes that he (William) is in love with Kate and not somebody else. Or one hopes".

Hilarious. They have also profiled what the couple will look like in 2035 and featured a really bad short article written by the former press secretary to the Princes who hasn't worked for them since 2003. Seven years ago. Pretty rubbish tabloid style reporting from what is ordinarily a good paper.

On a separate note, I'm hoping to be a proud owner of some memorabilia like below asap.

As if this week wasn't busy enough, there was a raid on the house across the road. Well actually I don't really know what happened, but there was at least 5 police cars and curiously, an ambulance, parked outside a block of apartments for a few hours and then at LEAST one sniffer dog, and I say at least because there may have been many many more, but I only saw the one. And the next day there was a load of plain clothes police men outside the apartment, but again, I have to be very straight and declare that they could very well have just been loiterers.

I also finished my balaclava, but I don't have a pic so it's going to have to wait, but let's just say that it finished beautifully and more than one person has made an IRA reference while I have been wearing it. Though I can't say I didn't egg them on.

Knit one, drop one. Lose one, purl one

My knitting career has really taken off and I'm now even doing commissioned work*. But as you'll see I've just finished my first tea cosy, I had a lot of trouble with the bobble on top, not as easy as you would think. I know the wool bears a striking resemblence to the wool used in my cushion. It's because I've the same wool, a very economical way of using up my stash. I wish I could put these two pics beside each other, but I can't. WHEN will I learn how to use blogspot properly??

*Bit of an exaggeration here, I'm knitting something for my brother, as a present.

Greenfingers

I am a little ashamed to look back and my posts and see that I never gave an update on my growing plant collection. That is because all but one of them has died. Some would argue that the final one is dead too but I would not agree. In truth, plants have been and gone since that pic was taken. At the moment I have a bright pink fuschia and some chilli seeds (which are DEFINITELY dead) growing in our kitchen. When I was talking about my lack of success in work one day (with flowers that is) one of my colleagues Roberta decided to buy me a plant that is unkillable. She bought three crosuses (croci?) which have to be kept in a dark area for 12 weeks before being brought out into the light.

Although we have a watering schedule, there seems to be a little ambiguity surrounding the level of water required and what way the bulb should be put in correctly. Some members of the team have entirely immersed their bulbs in water, while others are only putting the tip of the bulb in water. Who is right? I don't know. The bulbs have also been taken into the light at least once a week, though I can't see any other way of watering them. If you have any crocus tips please let me know, for an unfallible plant there seems to be a lot of complications.

These are the people in my neighbourhood

My sister is moving house in London so I have taken to looking in every rental agent's window that I come across. Because of this, I have only lately noticed this gem, which is sitting in the top left hand corner of the shop front 3 doors down from my house. It's so far out of sight that it was difficult to get a good pic of it, but if you can't read it, it reads as follows:

"We are very sorry to hear the Grievance of the Landlords and tenants caused by the previous Occupants of 493 Cambrideg heath road, London E2 9BU.

We Room corner estate agents does not have any connections or association with any of the previous occupants.

We have informed the Metropolitan police about the threats made to our staffs. We will prosecute any abusive behaviour and violence towards our business."

I have a number of things to say about this:

1. What the hell did the previous tenants do?

2. Who do they think is going to read this sign, as I say, I struggled to read it and I was LOOKING for it

3. Do they honestly think that this sign will act as a deterent for anyone that wants to air their grievance? I sincerely doubt it.

I asked the only person that could possibly know - my finger-on-the-pulse landlord. Even he didn't know who was there before this tenant. I don't like to make empty promises... but I'm going to do my best to find out what went down.

Great Eastern Street, Sunday 24th October

I’m ordinarily not a big fan of autumn but this year I’ve sort of welcomed it, partly because I’ve had no choice with Westfield introducing their first Christmas tree before September was out. Anyways, I was enjoying an autumnal wander through the London Fields park near my house when I came across this lovely promotion that I thought tied (geddit?) in nicely with the leafy landscape of the park.
As you might be able to see from the pic the text says ‘THIS IS YOURS so take me home and have a listen’ and the little ‘leafs’, in pink and beige, were tied haphazardly along the railing on the outside of the park . On the back of the leaf there is an address for a free album download from ‘THE LONDON FIELDS’. I love this little promo and it's the sort of innovative fun campaign that I'd love to work on. I’ve still to download the album myself, (due to my dodgy internet connection and my reluctance to pay for the internet and to steal it instead from the chinese nextdoor)... but if you want to, you can get it from thisisyours.org. They even signed it off ‘kind regards’ which I thought was the funniest thing of all, very office-y to be throwing around in the park, don’t you think!
On that very same stroll I came across the sign below in one of the shop fronts in Bethnal. What the hell could it mean? All suggestions welcome!

Transport for London

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It took me four and a half hours to travel 13 miles on Monday. There was a tube strike and you know I don't know who's side I'm on, but I do think that London cannot cope without the tube and I can't cope living in London without the tube. I had the unfortunate experience of walking through central London on Monday evening and it was like a war zone. People were throwing themselves at buses in a fashion only matched by the clips I've seen of American women scrambling for cabbage patch dolls in the early 90s.

My knit in shining armour

I have been out of action for a long time which has been noted by my legions of followers. I have been busy holidaying in Ibiza and upskilling, developing my talent* for knitting. Thanks to my kind colleague Anna I've learned plain, pearl, casting on, casting off - the lot, with only a few dropped stitches along the way. I knit(ed) every single day to and from work on the tube for six weeks to meet my (self-imposed, far too tight) target of 24th September. I set that target because I was visiting my Mum for the weekend and I knew she'd finish it off much better than I could.

During the final two weeks, as my deadline loomed, I took it up a notch and was known to knit while in pubs, on the phone and even managed to stick my needles into Denise's checked-in luggage for our holiday.(she maintained a 'disgusted' face at any mention of the knitting). But, I did manage to turn this:

Into this:

and this:

In the pipeline I have a navy balaclava to match my camel winter coat that I have yet to buy, a tea cosy to go on our very unusual shaped tea pot and a surprise for sharon which I will reveal after I've made it otherwise it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it.

I've managed to find that pic we took in the belt shop, which gives a good view of the vast RANGE of bizarre stock they have as you'll see I'm holding up what I think might be a rather large belt for dogs...

* v loose attitude to the word talent.

Tuesday 31st August

We bought this poster to do up our already deadly (v 1991) apartment without realising that it was actually a photo of graffiti about 5 blocks from our house. So naturally we headed directly down there to have a look a few weeks ago.

It's a poster of Banksy graffiti, though when I got there I saw some of it has been graffiti-ed over (is that a term?) as you'll see from the exceptional photography below :)

Tuesday 24th August

There is an age-old story about the time I and two un-named mates booked a holiday a week too early and so ended up in Madrid rather than Gran Canaria. I still can’t really bring myself to go into detail about it, but I can reveal that we did show up at the airport, bikini clad, (under our clothes obviously, it was March in Ireland) only to be sent back to our house to book a Ryanair flight to Madrid. I won't reveal who was with me on this 'holiday' since we actually lied to a lot of people about it because we were so embarrassed about our stupidity. So, it is understandable that I am approaching my upcoming holiday to IBIZA with TREPIDATION. Everything is booked correctly, and even though I’m borderline terrified ta sceitimini orm!

Before booking the holiday I carried out extensive research on all of the neighbouring hotels and I came across one of the funniest reviews I have read in ages and certainly the funniest holiday review I have ever read.
Highlights for me are:

The fat frog!

The corrie actor

Speaking of reviews, I read a restaurant review this week that really got my goat, AA Gill wrote in last week’s Sunday Times about Bethnal Green, my fave place. Old AA properly slagged off the restaurant and the area. You have to pay to view content on The Times website, but thanks to modern technology and my craftiness, here is a very blurry sample of the review:

He is partly right about the last part. Viajiante (fave restaurant to Marc Jacob's former boyfr according to the same publication!) IS across the road from workshops that buy broken glass and fit security shutters. Which is hardly a surprise given it's location. Come on AA give BG a break.

On a final note, I do have to mention tuning in to the Rose of Tralee this evening and yesterday. Not just because it is an absolutely brilliant national institution founded by my grandad but also because I am now in the advanced stages of a proper crush on Daithi O'Se AND because the winner was THE LONDON ROSE!

If you only do one thing today...

Listen to the Sunscreen song... what an uplifting piece of music/prose. I know it's very 1991 or whatever, but really, have a listen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfq_A8nXMsQ&feature=search

In other news... well I saw this sign near Uptop Park at the weekend and something about the entire area (and the football hooliganism stories that I was being told for the duration of my time there) instilled a trace of doubt in my mind that the sign is definitely a joke.

Trials of a gardener

This week I'm full of complaints and bewilderment about plants. Sharon and I have four in our house (including a coral busy lizzie, my fave) and honestly, even though we give them SO MUCH love and attention they always seem to die.

We have tried over watering them and underwatering them and just watering them, but they always look like they're on their last legs. When my mum was visiting last weekend she gave me a gem of advice.. put the plant on a saucer of water and let the plant take water as it needs it. I've been doing this since yesterday and I can already see some improvement. Today my friend Kate suggested we put some sugar in the water, which I'm going to do tonight. Any other suggestions?

I've put the pic below so I can do a before and after style showcase. I've been thinking it can act as a sort of before and after weight loss pic, like obviously the person is totally depressed when they get the fat pic taken, but they get it taken all the same to show just how skinny they get. In the same way, I'm not too happy about exposing my limp flowers (particularly the unfortunate rosemary) but hopefully I'll be showing off some allotment-style flowers before the week is out..


Take note of the mysteriously BLOOMING orchid in the background!

In other news.. I went INTO the belt shop last week. The front door was mysteriously open as I was walking to my bus stop so we took a peek inside. We were being properly shady and since (as I suspected) there were no other customers in the shop, we attracted attention
a. because we were horsing around
b. because I made Sharon take a pic of me as evidence
and
c. because we expressed way to much interest in a really bland gold belt.

Sharon managed to persuade me to buy this belt. It cost 3 pounds and was gold. I've already worn it twice and it was just a week ago.

So anyway, on the way out Sharon, asked the shopkeeper what were the opening hours. He said:

"Monday to Friday, nine to five"

and she said:

"Well today is Saturday"

Shopkeeper: "oh yes, some Saturdays too"

dodgy.

A brush with a Boris bike

Lst week the ‘Boris Bikes’ were introduced to London, similar to the bike scheme that was introduced in Dublin last summer. I’m probably going to sign up for this, but I’m waiting to see how empty/full the docks are around my area and to see exactly where they are located before I do. So basically this is a review by someone who has yet to cycle the bikes but likes the idea of them. Feel free to stop reading now. Over the weekend we hopped onto the bikes, when I say that I mean we hopped on the stationary bikes and I took the pics below. They were taken at the dock outside Shoreditch church in case you’re interested. So far there seems to be plenty of bikes at each of the stations and I have seen a good few people out on them. People riding these bikes have that look that I remember people sporting when the bike scheme was introduced in Dublin, it’s a face of perpetual delight. Incredulous perpetual delight. Jane is giving it a fair stab below and I didn't even request it. The bikes weigh 23kg. I don’t know much about weight of bikes but I reckon that is pretty heavy.

I also came across Frying Pan Street the other day. I have no angle with this, I just thought it was funny. It’s near a market where they sell (potentially) stolen Topshop gear and I have been there so often that the vendor recognised me. Although it was probably because I was wearing the playsuit that I bought from him at the stall about a month ago!