Easy Spring Touches

I can't wait for Spring. I really thought it had arrived this weekend, but I'm currently looking out on a grey London day. What have arrived are Daffodils in the supermarket.

They're such lovely flowers, I think we get a little blind to their sunshine colour and amazing shape. I couldn't resize picking up a couple of bunches with my Friday night food shop, but when I got home I realised I had no vase of the right size. What I did have was a sizable collection of Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce jars (I really like adding it to soup!), and some pretty tape I'd spied in Tiger. Do you have a Tiger near you? The website is dreadful, but they're really lovely shops full of cheap pretty bits and pieces. And tat. An awful lot of tat.

Anyway, I shoved a bit of the tape around the jars, shoved the Daffodils in and put them all over the house. By yesterday they'd bloomed into the stunners you can see above. I love a quick win.

Pretty stuff

Yet another impulse purchase - my pretty Tatty Devine sparkly bow ring. I bought a couple of other bits in the sale, which I've yet to wear in a way I'm happy with, but this is less statement-y, so easier to just shove on. Unfortunately, I appear to have mislaid it - I think the cat may have turned magpie.

These aren't at all new, but they really do make me happy every day - my bedroom curtains, from Ikea (Children's department!). Since my boyfriend moved in with me we've had odd spurts of working on making the house pretty, followed by periods of laziness where my messiness gets out of control. I've still yet to start work on my big plan of a full on picture wall in the dining room. Updates as and when it eventually happens.

Restaurant - Casa Morita

Despite the many hours I've spent in Brixton, I hadn't headed into Brixton Market before - that's right, I've yet to visit Franco Manca. Yeah yeah, I know, I'll get round to it at some point.

We were drawn to Casa Morita (that link isn't going to give you much info at the moment!) by it's colourful hangings, bustling open kitchen and cute little tables. The waitress let me sit at a four person table instead of the two person one by the door (it was snowing). We got there about the right time at 7.15ish, there was a small queue by about half an hour later. I'd advise booking for more than two people to be sure of getting a seat.

And you should definitely go! We shared a starter of quesadillas that was lovely - without chorizo slightly tasteless, so I'd recommend paying the small supplement cost. I then had Albondigas from the specials board - Mexican meatballs (picture at the top of this post). And my, how meaty they were. Densely packed flavourful and in a lovely tomato sauce. The ultimate satisfying warmth giver, and ridiculously good value at about £8.50. Coupled with a very reasonably priced bottle of house red, I believe the phrase for which is 'eminently drinkable' we were very happy bunnies heading back out into the snow.

iPhone Fisheye lens

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a new iPhone case. I was massively tempted by the Pantone

colour ones, or a beautiful Iconemesis arty one. But then I had a quick look at iwoot and impulse bought one that came with a Fisheye lens!

Admittedly, one of it's main selling points was the price, as it was quite a few pounds cheaper than any other I looked at. That's reflected in the quality of the case - it doesn't seem as 'protective' as some I've had before,
the screen is quite exposed at the case doesn't come up over the edges.

But who cares, because I've got a FISHEYE LENS. It can be easily unscrewed and kept in a little pouch for safety. Because iwoot have pretty terrible delivery times, the Lens came way later than I expected it to. I haven't had time to take any proper pictures with it yet, but here's one of a friend's cats chilling I snapped during Sunday lunch:

It doesn't work with the iPhone flash, which is a bit of a shame. Still, I'm pretty happy for an impulse purchase. I'll update this with some nicer photos once I get round to taking them!

Three Things

Reading Helen Zaltzman's blog (if you don't listen to her Answer Me This podcast you really really should, I was reminded of Isy Suttie's great Edinburgh show this year, in which her mum tells her she should write down three things that made her happy that day.
It's a lovely idea, and one I'm going to start doing. But as I haven't done it before, today's Three Things will be about the last week. I'm also going to set myself the rule that the Things can't already be blog posts.

1. Winning the pub quiz - the first time at our local pub quiz, and we romped to victory by half a point. This was in no way because the music round was about musicals. which brings me on to

2. Hungover Sunday - having had enough red wine the night before that I felt justified in lying around in my pyjamas, but not enough that I was lying with my head in the toilet. Watched West Side Story and Strictly ballroom. West Side Story is a little schmaltzy even for me, but perfect hangover cheese.


3. Fireworks in Blackheath. Not as impressive as usual, but I get ridiculously excited with fireworks. Especially when you're so close up it feels like they're aimed right at you. Less fun was standing next to two men, who were both recording on two devices each. Pah, these young 'uns. I did take my phone out for two minutes however, just to snap the below.

Lovely Sounds - Fortuna Pop!

Every now and then there seems to be a gig line-up made expressly for you. Tonight was one of those nights. Celebrating Fortunata Pop!'s 15th birthday, Tender Trap, Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern and Allo Darlin' are pretty much among my top 5 bands of the last couple of years. That's not killing with faint praise, but if you're of the indie twee persuasion the last couple of years have been good to you.
Tender Trap, I must be honest did not live up to my memories of them at the last Twee as Fuck all-dayer. But then, neither does the last album.
Darren Hayman. Aah, Darren Hayman. The most attractive unattractive man. Happiest whilst singing the saddest songs. It's one of those voices. If you don't like it, there's no persuading you it's good. But if you like it you love his songs. With the Secondary Modern behind him it's a more joyful, full sound. Other than playing NONE if my favourite songs I couldn't have asked for more.
Allo Darlin' are the most adorable, heartfelt songs I've heard in a long time. Parts melancholy, parts brilliant dancing, they create such a warmth it's impossible not to get swept up. New stuff sounds great.
Lovely lovely loveliness.

Georgette Heyer

I am utterly unashamed about my love for Georgette Heyer's regency romances. My grandmother has many of them as first editions (no dust covers left, alas), and I must have read each of them many many times over my teenage years.

So imagine my delight when I found that The Book People are currently selling 10 of her Thriller's for £9.99. Written between the 30s and 50s, they are undoubtedly dated, with the odd shocking use of the 'n' word. But so wonderfully and utterly of their time, when the local vicar's wife was really rather a drag, and no murder can get in the way of a spot of tennis. And the covers! Oh the covers.

Oh my dears, such utter bliss.

Desert Island Discs

I listened to Morrissey on Desert Island Discs on Sunday. I very rarely listen to live radio (iPlayer all the way), but I felt that it was important to listen to it at the same time as everyone else. Plus I was painting my kitchen.

It was wonderful. Morrissey was amusing and warm, and Kirsty Young utterly starstruck. You should listen on iPlayer. Really you should.

Inevitably, it brought up the question of what my seven tracks would be. Marc and I were in a lovely tapas bar in Honor Oak (Tapastry) and spent a few minutes looking like losers, tapping our respective lists onto our iPhones.

This is the list I gave. I don't think it's the right one, but I'm going to have fun going back to it every now and then, to see what stays, and what doesn't.

In no particular order;


The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba





Le Tigre - Deceptacon





Pulp - Mis-Shapes





Prokofiev - Romeo & Juliet (Dance of the Knights)





Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else but You





Patrick Wolf - Magic Position





The Carpenters - Yesterday Once More





So yes. I'd like to point out that I've always loved the Prokofiev, even before the awesomeness of The Apprentice. But I suspect it's appearance in this list is just to make myself appear to be slightly cultured.

And yes - I've always loved Moldy Peaches. Neither to I make any apologies for The Carpenters.

What is most surprising is how few of my favourite bands appear on this. I'm pretty sure I should have a Smiths song on there - but which one? That's more the problem.





Back to work. I've loved listening to all these songs this afternoon. Go on YouTube and find the proper Pulp video (it wouldn't let me embed) - it's ace.

Friday afternoon is made for blogging

I had a lovely chat in the office today, about the evolution on book covers.

It was inspired by this book;

A copy of which was brought into the office by Matt. I've blogged elsewhere about my obsession with buying Agatha Christie novels for their covers, but this prompted a different discussion, mainly about the evolution of book covers over the years.

This is particularly relevant as we have just published new editions of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. I had never before seen these covers

(apologies for the quality)

shown in the Front Cover book, and published by Pan in 1987. A quick Google search shows a raft of different covers. Of course, this can largely be explained by different countries publishing with entirely different covers, but it is fascinating to see that the first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book was published with this cover;

And is now this;

An all singing, all dancing sticker edition, where you get to make your own (my favourite so far, on the Sci-Fi now Flickr stream is this little beauty

- Do Panic!

That this evolution has happened via this;

and this

I think is pretty amusing.

Well that's an image heavy/low content post!

Well this is terribly exciting. I can now blog from my phone. Still unlikely to say anything interesting... Far more likely that they will just be extended Twitter posts.


-- Post From My iPhone

How strange it is to read words wot you have written, and not remember them at all.

I should start again. Twitter gives me endless pieces of useless information on which to muse.

The Music Room

This is a little bit of a shameless plug for the day job, but I'm shoving this up here in the vain hope that someone will chance across it, take a chance, and buy The Music Room, by Will Fiennes. The story of his childhood in the family's moated castle, and the impact of his brother's epilepsy on the family life, it's rather slight, sensitive, and most wonderfully written.

I'm providing an easy link here, so all you have to do is click buy here, and then 'buy' on the website, and then sit back and wait for this really lovely book to arrive, improving the standard of your like immeasurably.

Honestly, it really is that good. Don't take my word for it though, listen to those lovely people at The Guardian Review, who made it their book of the week last week.

Sunday Express plumbs new depths

Occasionally you come across something that turns you into one of those doom-mongers who wail that society is broken and there's nothing we can do about it. Today's story in the Sunday Express has had that effect on me.

Am I naive? Of course I don't expect a high standard of reporting from the Express. There aren't many that read it for an incisive view of current affairs (actually, I'm not sure there are many that read it at all), but I was absolutely shocked that the chain of command at the Express decided that this;

story about the survivors of the Dunblane massacre was a good idea, and no

t the disgustingly offensive piece of vitriol it seems to me. How DARE they? I had intended to write a rather longer piece about how this is not only a massively unpleasant invasion of privacy, but the sort of misplced holier-than-thou preaching which has become the norm in certain parts of the British press, which exist apparently only to keep us all in a heightened state of outrage. But just thinking about it has made me tired, and it should really be patently obvious to anyone who reads it quite how abhorrent this piece is. The rest is below;

I came across the story on Twitter, via @Glinner, which creates an interesting topic, perhaps best left for another time. The second image is thanks to @OneInchMan.

Shocking news...

I'm alive.

The blog hasn't been updated because I was busy, and didn't really have anything interesting to say.

I still don't have anything particularly interesting to say, but due to personal circumstances, am back having a bit more time.

Long, rambling, rather pointless musings to follow.

Book Review - Engleby

Engleby - Sebastian Faulks

A substantial departure, Engleby is the first of Faulks' books that one imagines has some tinge of autobiography about it, the protagonist being of the same age and education as himself.

An engaging, but not attractive persona, Engleby is a pedantic and supercilious commentator of all that goes on around him, yet singularly unaware of his effect on others. The majority of the novel is an interesting meander, but it is not until the final third, in which Engleby's part in the preceding events is revealed, and his subsequent mental breakdown, that there is any emotional impetus. Touching on many different themes including class, education and politics, it is when the novel is looking at psychosis that the story really has something to say, as Engleby thinks about his own awareness and self-medication of mental illness.

As ever, Faulks has a beautiful style of writing. Sparing, yet lush in the atmosphere it creates, the phrasing is simple but draws the reader on, further into Engleby's experiences and mental processes.
Faulks' biggest success is in making one feel for a character that is massively unprepossessing. A distinct change from his previous novels, Faulks would do well to maintain this level of quality.