School Holidays Day 53

Friday Evening 5pm

Ed: I'm SOO bored.
Me: Well do something.
Ed: There's nothing to do. I'm SO bored. I've been in all day.
Me: Watch a movie.
Ed: Didn't you hear me - I've been IN ALL DAY.
Me: Ed, I've got to work. I need to get these invoices done.
Ed: But I'm really bored. I want a Bonsai tree.
Me: Really? They always die.
Ed: That one you threw in the bin wasn't dead. All it's leaves fell off coz it was autumn.
Me: Fine, we'll go up to those garden centres at Crews Hill tomorrow. They have a Bonsai specialist shop up there with goldfish and everything: it'll be a nice day out, now let me get on.
Ed: But I want a Bonsai tree now.
Me: The shops will be shut now Ed, it's gone five. 
Ed: This one says it's open 'till seven on the website.
Me: What one?
Ed: This one, this one in Notting Hill.
Me: Oh, that won't stay open that late tonight, not with the Carnival this weekend.
Ed: Ring them.
Me: Okay, they're open 'till seven... 
Ed: Lets go. PLEASE, I'll pay for it.
Me: Ed, it's raining and it's rush hour and I haven't made dinner... okay then, write down the postcode.

"You have reached your destination on the right"

Ed: There it is, quick park, it's 6.50, we've only got ten minutes.
Me: I'll have to park round the corner, it's all suspended here for Carnival.
Ed: What's that sat outside the shop?
Me: A cat.
Ed: It's a dog.
Me. Whatever. Quick, choose a Bonsai then. That one's nice.
Ed: That dog's cute. Look that guy out the back's holding a puppy.
Me: Let's get this one: it has little flowers on. Get your card out.
Ed: Wait, let me see that puppy.
Guy in Flower Shop: This is Margot's puppy. Do you want to hold her?
Me: How many puppies did she have? Put your credit card in the machine Ed, they want to go home.
Guy in Flower Shop: Seven. We're keeping this one, my sister has one, all the others have gone to our friends, there's just one little girl left downstairs, Thumbelina...

The following morning...

Country Diary of a Hackney Housewife

Went sweet-pea picking in Dorset while my little sweet-pea sat for his portrait. 

Dr No Thanks

Designing 007 - 50 years of Bond Style at The Barbican

I can't think of a more inspired combination! The Barbican and 007 - the stuff my dreams are made of and after a spell in the country just the kind of urban outing that I fancied. The Barbican never disappoints and after dozens of visits I am still moved by the scale and drama of the place - lusting after a flat on the 27th floor with a curved concrete balcony and quietly sighing at every carefully considered period detail.

Sadly the 007 exhibit was padded with the kind of fakery and gimmicks geared to impress children and blokes. Alongside golden guns, diamonds filled briefcases and model cars that turn into submarines, Ken Adam's elegant, dried-up-felt-pen sketches stand out as the most beautiful and desirable objects in the exhibition. 

Opulent costumes were inadequately modelled by shapeless grey mannequins made of the kind of bri-nylon used to make Miss Piggy and Kermit. The gold waistcoat worn by Pussy Galore was tantalisingly displayed in a bullet-proof glass case but it turned out to be only a copy of the original. Clips of the best bits of the Bond movies over the last 50 years shown on big screens were popular but with Goldfinger priced at £1.49 on Amazon it seemed like a cheap and easy crowd-pleaser. Still, we had a nice time. Shunning the Bond bar (rigged up indoors and selling only Martini's to 007/Jeremy Clarkson wannabes and their dates) we sat out on the terrace and admired the architecture some more before heading to Mayfair for a spot of window shopping. 

Pay £12 to shuffle past these dummies or...

Stroll past these Bond Street girls for free.

 

50 Shades of Pink (again)

 Lordship Park is the setting for September's Living Etc Modern Pretty story. 

Cloak-and-Dagger in a Jacobean Manor

Ed and I have just returned from a top-secret mission to deepest Dorset. A portrait of Ed is to be used as a prop in a forthcoming Hollywood movie and the backdrop for the painting is the magnificent Jacobean Hanford School. In term-time it's teeming with 120 girls between the ages of 7 and 13 but because it's the summer holidays we were free to wander through the empty corridors, spook ourselves in the deserted dormitories and eat our sandwiches in the splendour of the vast refectory.    

A souvenir of our visit - a bunch of crazy dahlias bought from a roadside table.

Week Spots

It's been the week that...
The conkers suddenly got huge,

Ed started a dancing course at Urdang Academy - situated in the splendid Old Finsbury Town Hall on Rosebery Avenue..

and I got annoyed about this not so splendid pile next door to it...

... as well as being annoyed with...

... so cheered myself up with these...

£20 from Rokit.

Princess

Capri, photographed at Lordship Park for the Autumn 2012 Asiana Wedding Magazine