For the past 40 days I've posted a blog, sometimes silly or funny, long or short, but every day there's been something new. And it's been quite a challenge, especially if at 9 in the evening I'd not yet posted anything, but I had had a glass of wine. Because if I just kept telling you all I loved you, while there may be a lot of love flying around, it wouldn't have made for very good reading! I've worked out how to blog from my phone and thanks to y'all have had more readers than ever! And I've been very pleasantly surprised by all your wonderful comments :) So now I'm looking for a new challenge: if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Otherwise, please keep reading and I'll keep writing! Lucky

Lucky

I hope you don't think I'm referring to the beautiful tree, a delicate blossoming island, surrounded by her fallen petals. Cause I'm actually referring to the goalposts and trampoline, hosts of this evenings active entertainment. Also featured, but out of the picture: bubbly, cigars, dessert and a burning brazier... Back to the soccer football, I'm no closer to understanding the offside rule, but am under the impression - if the game played this evening is anything to go by - that it's highly complicated and fairly non-sensical??? Think, to play up to my skills I may stay out of that picture... Lucky

So perhaps I went to bed a little late last night, and perhaps I should have packed before that glass of wine. And I definitely should have checked the route the sat nav gave me out of London. But that's hindsight for you!  I did check the air pressure in the tyres though - even if I did have to ask for help  on how to use the machine - and did the oil and windscreen wiper water all on my own! When in transit people tend to display a different persona - best seen in a Welcome Stop (or similar) car park. Observe the drivers, in their travelling outfits, extracting themselves from the seated position. One limb at a time is dangled out the door until the whole chair-shaped body is standing on the Tarmac. Next come the finger and toe flaps, followed by neck rolls and bizarre blinking. And when these rituals are complete the somewhat jaded driver heads for the delights of a public bathroom and a fast greasy meal! But at least you don't have to lug any bags :) Lucky

Lucky

Watering the garden on a warm evening, after a long hot day - languishing your toes under sporadic splashes of water from the hose, refreshing G&T close at hand. Or that first cup of coffee, made by habit, but surprisingly, to perfection in the morning that sets you up for the day. This morning I did the coffee. Now I'm on the garden... Lucky

Lucky was no longer a virgin strimmer But it took her a glass of Rosé to pluck up the courage! Lucky

Like a big pizza-pie, that's amore! So when it's 24 degrees Londonians: find a park or common, strip down to just acceptable, get a soft-serve ice-cream and if you're in Wimbledon - on the common - beware of a man wearing a woman's tennis skirt: he's a flasher! This is a true story, I overheard the policeman sitting at the table next to mine at lunch! So later I played a little game of Where's Wally... Never was much good at it, but did spot a potential swimmer and a conveniently located skip! Lucky

As Easter draws closer (and I wonder around supermarkets purchasing excessive amounts of Easter eggs) I'm looking forward to saying 'hi' to Ameba, who is currently in the air, flying back from Cape Town to Blighty and lands at a rude hour tomorrow morning. I'm hoping that having spent yesterday in the sun I may be a similar colour to her - if not, the spray tan is coming out! With PLW still away this morning's dressing decision - which I was expecting to be hard - was much easier than expected. I've just tried not to look in the mirror much today. And I thought I'd be super organised this evening, the problem is I'm not used to the time that it gets dark. Not that I'm complaining, but I still think it's about 16:00 when actually it's 20:20 and I still haven't had dinner / done anything I actually wanted to do. I can guarantee that I will have been distracted though and done loads of faffing. So what was that word we were talking abo...

This weekend began with a crazy yoga class on Friday, and I'm still feeling the effects. Which is surprising, considering that I spent most of Friday night listening to music, reading my book and sipping on a large glass of wine while relaxing in a bubbly bath - or is it? Saturday saw Lady Liberty and I visit Borough Market  where we made some delicious purchases. I can totally recommend the delicious mushroom pate from  Pate Moi . We also had some delicious salami with black truffles (there is also a wonderfully subtle fennel one too). And some fabulously smelly cheeses - guaranteed to keep a large piece of the park to ourselves! We then wondered over to St. James's Park, after stopping off for picnic supplies: waterproof blanket / tablecloth, cutlery, paper plates, bubbly glasses and of course princess-esque hair-clips - it would have been rude not to! On the subject of rude though... When promo girls wear long dresses! Today was such a lovely sunny day - I just had t...

And it would be rude not to have the odd glass of bubbly! Just another way to spend a fabulous day in London :) Lucky

And I'm at home with a glass of red wine, a pizza hopefully en route (would have popped into M&S for their £10 meal deal if a) I could find a small one close by & b) if our oven was working - it isn't, making cooking a tad hard). The decision for a pizza was made when I climbed out the car after a particularly taxing yoga class - if I'm honest I'm still shaking - and delicious pizza aromas met my nose. I did debate whether I'd drive and fetch it, or get it ordered (ie whether or not to wait for the glass of wine) but I tend to spend so long faffing that it would probably be cold by the time I got there. And it's just arrived, so no use in musing over that decision! This evening is one of those rare home-with-the-house-to-myself Friday evenings. They don't happen often and I know I should enjoy it, relax, pluck my eye-brows and polish my finger and toe-nails. Maybe - if I can work out how to use the remote - watch a movie? Ooh, and read my book. It...

It started this morning, when I tried to go swimming without car-keys, gym card and phone (I know, do I really need the phone? And the answer is 'yes' - any number of things could happen over the hour that I'm gone.) I could have walked out the door, but lets face it, it's a little hard to start a car without keys - or even get in it! I then managed to run late by faffing and falling over my toes, but luckily I don't work far from home! I managed to miss a hair-cut - something I wasn't too concerned about until I actually looked at my hair - and now I'm just irritated with myself for reading the newspaper instead. I took a pair of spectacles home with me that don't belong to me. And left my water bottle in the car and hair-band at home when I went for a run this evening! So now I'm playing it safe in my slippers on the sofa... Lucky

This evening three of us are sitting around the table, we've sipped on the new G&T for the spring / summer 2011 season, eaten our meals and are now pondering life... So far we've talked about: the Wednesday rule and pondered why do boys ask for our numbers when they know they won't use them. And why do we give them to them when we know we don't really want to hear from them? Boys who are high maintenance and resemble Ken Dolls. An article in the Guardian about porn. Alarm clocks early in the morning & big Tuesday nights out. Actually big nights out on any school night. And coping the next day, or not.  The guys from work. And hairdressers. So a good evening I think! Lucky

This evening I'm selflessly staying at home, sitting outside in my garden (albeit in my new Mac - just to take the chill off the air) and sipping on two different G&T's. It's a tough life, but someone has to do it. And this is not easy decision. This choice will influence many happy summer sunshine moments: how fatal if it weren't perfect! As legend goes: in the beginning there was G&T. And it was good (generally served with a slice of lemon, or maybe even pink - with a splash of Angostura Bitters.) Lets call this version The Little Black Dress - it's a classic. But as evolution continued the slice of lemon was lost and in it's place a splash of Elderflower Cordial was added to the glass. And this was good too. But the sands of time continued to trickle through the hour-glass, the following summer plain Elderflower was no longer good enough. No, the people wanted more. So they added Elderflower and Pomegranate cordial. And this was very good. Thi...

It may be a good idea to take a rain-check.  So here's a mac! Lucky

This afternoon PLW and I headed out to Richmond for lunch, what with it being such a fabulous day and all, it would have been rude not to! Lots of people seemed to have the same idea as us, they had just given themselves a slight head-start, actually getting there by lunch time. So preferring not to rush ourselves (it is Sunday after all) we set about lunch in a slightly reversed order and began sensibly with tea and savoury pastries, before wondering off to Gelateria Danieli for a few scoops of heaven... Mmmm Loving the licking :) Our next port of call was the Richmond Boat Hire for a little splash of the paddle. The timing was perfect, we (I) would row around on the river for an hour and then have our main courses at  The Boat , the boat restaurant on the river, conveniently next to where we'd hired our water steed from. When I first suggested hiring a boat PLW wasn't too keen, and in order to entice her suggested that I would do all the rowing. She was fine with th...

PLW and I are currently sitting on the tube, with something near 14 stops to go - yes, we're venturing North of the river - and the question of how to amuse oneself soon comes to mind. The first thing I always do is count how many stops I have to go, but as you can imagine this does not (usually) take too long. After that if I've nothing to read I begin to ponder about the people sitting around me. Where they're going, what they're going to be doing or what they've just done, but most strikingly: what they're wearing! There's the wheeler-dealer in the oversized hat, freshly pressed trousers and overstated bling - he wants people to think he's a big deal. Then there are the two girls, dressed up in too-young-for-their-clothes outfits - playing at grown-ups and comparing texts on their phones. Or the exhausted single mom, resting her head on the glass, thankful to catch a quick nap while she and her child travel. The two young guys, about my age, sneaking ...

PLW looking just as faa-boo-lis as the cherry blossoms and big wheel behind her :) Lucky

Lucky

Today was another fabulous example of a day: it was super sunny, people were happy because of that - so there was much more smiling! And everyone is just excited to be outside... And that's what I'm doing here - with a glass of SB in my hand, the sun on my face and a ticket to the Emerson String Quartet in my purse - that I spontaneously bought, encouraged by the great weather not to spend the evening on a treadmill and because the silly Tate closes at 18:00! So I may be the lady, who in a rash moment threw away the lid to my (mini) bottle 'a vino, but I'm the pleasantly relaxed one, enjoying some of what London has to offer! Lucky

So you thought your horse was amazing? Well she thinks her cow is pretty amazing too! Luna the cow showing off her prowess with the poles When you're 15 and your parents won't give you a horse what do you do? Well, if you're Regina Mayer, from Laufen in Southern Germany you pick a cow and train her to be your horse instead. Luna - the cow - is illegibly very temperamental and only does what she wants, when she wants, but she can also do this: The Telegraph has more details... Lucky

There is really only one thing to do in the evening - and that's crack open a beer, listen to music, read your book, have a moment, chat to friends and have a braai! So cheers, here's to London and many more wonderful days :) Lucky

This evening I'm curling my lashes, parlaying with my locks, slipping on the heels and shimmying into The Dress... I hope to arrive on time, the picture of serenity, with everything in place. This may be a bit of a pipe dream because it's not only rainy today, but also windy and unless I were to travel in a protective bubble it is almost inevitable that the loose branch that has been meaning to fall all day will do so the moment I'm under it! But right now that's way in the future. The preparation, excluding extra trips to the gym and restrained salad lunches, began in earnest on Sunday night. After a great gardening stint came the relaxing bath (where I only contemplated scrubbing at the end) complete with face mask, latest edition of Glamour and M&S chocolate cherry liquors - just to set the tone! I had no wish to blend in with the white of the hall and so, rather nervously, applied my first self-tan. PLW assured me that the brand was good and I made sure...

It's lambing time ! Kate Humble and Adam Henson will be following the leaping little lamb-chops from birth from the Marston's farm in Cumbria. For anyone who hasn't seen Lambing Live before, I seriously suggest you put some time aside this week (BBC 2 at 20:30) for a whole lot of feel-good moments :) Lucky

Today PLW and I took a trip out to Box Hill  in Surrey. It was such a lovely day, but we were prepared for all events. We had our all-weather coats, mucky boots, flat caps, sunnies, books / kindle, bottled water and of course sat-nav and iPhones.  Loving the sunshine and fresh air I'm sure the email said there was a path around here somewhere? Rocking that country vibe PLW was slightly scared that she might break a nail! After stumbling along the paths we came to a lovely lawn and made the most of the outdoors. We lay down and read until the grey clouds had blocked out all the sun and I could no longer feel my arms. Also until the lovely food smells that were coming from the group just over the hill got too much for us. So we headed down the winding curve and into the village of Mickleham and found an embarrassingly convenient (for those with limited parallel-parking-especially-while-loads-of-people-are-watching-you) parking right outside The Running Horse . A yummy l...

That I have a new Mac? I've spent almost the whole day trying on dresses today! I've had a personal shopper, traipsed through pre-selected department stores, been distracted and bought other items, snacked on a slice of dry bread for lunch, come home and had the left-over curry from last night before heading out for round two: more dresses and a bit of a drive. It's been exhausting and I could almost say that I have an all-over fluorescent-light tan! That's shopping for you - it's hard work! So if you're still wondering what I have underneath: well a pretty little dress of course! Lucky

This morning I sent my parents an email - just a little update on what I'd been doing and my plans for the weekend. The Mom replied by asking a few probing questions and informing me that she and Ameba had been attending a rather zen yoga class. According to the email Ameba wasn't too keen and to quote The Mom "she [yoga instructor] has taken to singing in the yoga class - kind of chanting singing get the vibes going I think - not really my cup of tea either, but whatever." Go The Mom! The Dad - whose new glass business is his new toy and as a result of no longer spending so much time at home we now have a dog who is so sad she's on Prozac - gleefully began to inform me about all things glass.  Now would be a good time to inform you: when Ameba and I were little and went to the National Museum we quickly learnt that if we wanted to find out everything about the history of printing we should head straight to that section with The Dad. And visa versa... I have...