And how could I forget...

On Sunday as Maya and I were wandering back towards Southbank we walked past The Clink museum and on a whim decided to go in... Funnily enough the website is under construction - perhaps they should focus on the museum itself rather than the website!

Fortunately it was only £5 as it certainly wasn't worth more than that! It was a very strange museum - lots of very detailed historical stuff to read, a few rather tatty displays and that was it!

Although we did learn that in York it is still legal to kill a Scottish person with a bow and arrow as long as it isn't on a Sunday between 11-4. (Or something like that anyhow!)

'Pan'-tastic...

OK - sorry. I couldn't resist that cheesy tabloid heading!

I went to see Pan's Labyrinth today and it was fantastic. I just loved it. Some very disturbing scenes, but the imagery was wonderful. Its up for an Oscar for best foreign language film, and I hope it gets it. I really enjoyed it.

Too much torture in my life tho - quite a lot in the first 2 episodes of 24 and a bit some in this film as well. I'll be quite happy to not see any for a while.

Saturday shopping

Had a lovely time with Maya on Saturday afternoon wandering around Borough Market. It felt a bit like going to work as Borough Market is just by my office but once we got there it was fine! We started off with a sumptious falafel and then just ambled around tasting and buying. Maya was more spendier than me - I succumbed to a pot of jam and a chocolate brownie, but she went for tea, chutney and jam, and a re-stocking of wasabi peanuts... The peanuts may sound odd, but trust me they are pretty delish!

Spent Saturday night watching Sideways, a great film about drinking wine (amongst other things). I felt like I was drinking the wine as I watched it!

PS: Normal service has almost been resumed - I'm now using Firefox as my internet browser which allows me to do the links the normal way!

View of snowy road from bedroom 24 Jan 2007

View of snowy road from bedroom 24 Jan 2007 (2)
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

And the view over the road from my bedroom window!

Snowy back lawn 24 Jan 2007

Snowy back lawn 24 Jan 2007 (2)
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Wow - woke up to this view from my lounge this morning - fantastic!! Until I got to the trains and cos there was 1 inch of snow the trains weren't working... Sigh!

Lovely weekend afternoons

Saturday was spent catching up with my friend Kristie, who has just moved back to the UK from the USA. So we had a lovely time wandering around Greenwich Market (a particular fave of mine), then I walked back to Lewisham with her to check out her lovely new pad. Via a pub called The Union which is a microbrewery - had a very lovely ale there (the benefits of not being on the wagon anymore...). Check out the review here...

Sunday Julia and I went to see the movie 'The Queen' which was great. All about how the Queen dealt with the aftermath of the death of Diana. Really odd to watch the scenes and be able to remember it all happening. As Julia said when we came out we felt like we had been in a time warp and we were now back in 1996. I think Helen Mirren is expected to get an Oscar nomination for it, and she was superb. You really felt like you were watching the Queen. One thing I thought was particularly interesting was the scene where the royals are first got up following the accident, and they are told that Diana had a broken arm and concussion. I remember one of my flatmates saying that he had got in about 3am and that was the story on the radio. He couldn't believe it when he woke up and heard she was dead.

And now I'm just starting to watch Day 6 of '24'. Jack Bauer is back and I'm facing another 6 months of tv watching...

Drowning in tissues...

Woe is me. I've spent the last week fighting and then succumbing to the cold that is doing the rounds over here at the moment. Two days off work, then back in on Wednesday as I was going stir crazy in my flat, but I still feel like it is loitering around the edges at the mo. What is the point of not drinking if you end up getting ill anyhow??

So for lots of different reasons I've fallen off the wagon :-). But am not beating myself up about it too much - I'm happy enough with what I've achieved...

Before falling ill I did go to the exhibition at the National Gallery - 'Manet to Picasso' which was great. The only Picasso painting was one that looked really familiar to me - then as I was going up the stairs back at my flat I realised there was a print of it hanging in the hallway!

Check out the National Gallery blurb here.

Underground, overground, wombling free...

I got a fantastic CD from Tracey the other day - a real throw back to our childhood. "The Best Wombles Album So Far" - with so many songs that I remembered from the records we used to have. Absolutely fantastic!!

Which made me wonder how many internet sites there were dedicated to Wombles... And there are quite a few!! If I could link to them I would but I'm unable to from home... So for those of you who are interested...

http://www.wombles.easyweb-solutions.co.uk/
http://www.scuzz.com/wombles/

Or you could get distracted by the anarchist website of
http://www.wombles.org.uk/

Fantastic photos

I went to see the Wildlife Photographer of Year exhibition today at the Natural History Museum which was fanastic. Its been going for about 20 years now, and the photos were just outstanding. I wasn't that keen on the one that was the overall winner, but some of them were incredible.

The last time I went to this exhibition it was still staged with photos on the wall - in the new digital age it was digital photos displayed rather than actual prints - how the times have changed!

Use this link to check out the site and the online gallery. The current winner of the Visitor's Vote was also one of my faves - King Penguins slapping each other - fantastic!! (I don't seem to be able to do the old links in my blogs like I used to - I think it is something to do with the browser that Macs use, so until I work something out it will be back to these unattractive links sadly.)

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/index.jsp

Me on the ice

Me on the ice
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Me nervously gliding in to where Kevin was minding the bags on the safe side of the rail!!

Somerset House before we hit the ice

Somerset House before we hit the ice
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

The ice had a sheen of water on it - I think cos the weather has been so mild. So it was a bit of a scary skate!

Ice Skating at Somerset House

I went ice skating again this evening - this time at Somerset House. Kevin was the bag boy while me, Sue and Andrew had a turn on the ice. I didn't enjoy it as much as I had at Hampton Court Palace - the ice was a lot wetter tonight (almost a puddle of water over the ice) which seemed to make it much more slippy - if that makes sense! Plus I think my confidence was a wee bit dented from falling over at HCP so I was a lot more cautious. But Kevin took some great pictures which I'll post shortly.

But that is definitely me done for the ice for this year!!

Day 4 of January - the sober month...

So here I am on a Friday night - day 4 of my sober January (I didn't start until Jan 2nd in case you were wondering...).

I have now been to two things where I have had to make the conscious decision not to drink. Ricky Gervais last night and ice skating/meal tonight. I found it really hard last night - it was a Thursday evening, it was comedy and he was over by 9pm - plenty of time for a drink on the way home! Tonight was a bit easier, but it was still odd to sit round a table and be the only one not drinking!

It has got me thinking about how much of drinking is just habit tho, and how much is because I actually want one. This isn't a New Years Resolution as such - I just want to see if I can be disciplined enough to not drink for a month. It helps that Julia is also doing it - I don't want to have to go and tell her that I've had a drink!

But Feb 2nd does seem a long way away - in some ways I think the idea of not being able to have a drink is worse than actually not having one. It kills me knowing I 'can't' have a drink, even if I don't really feel like one.

I doubt this will be the last post on the subject!

Ricky Gervais - funny man

In the nick of time Kevin remembered that he had booked tickets to go and see Ricky Gervais last night at the Bloomsbury Theatre. So although feeling very tired we both toddled off to see him.

It was a great show - he was doing a 3 nights of a benefit show to try out new material before he starts his next nationwide tour. You can't get much better than second row from the front, right in the centre! Luckily he isn't really into heckling the audience so we felt relatively safe sat there!

I would try and describe how funny he was but it never comes across well - suffice to say that he looks and sounds just like he did in 'The Office' and 'Extras'.!!

Tui In The Flax

Tui In The Flax
Originally uploaded by m0rehu.

Stolen this from Maurie's blog - this is such a fantastic photo!

Films - both good and bad...

A good recommendation - Casino Royale, the new James Bond movie. Absolutely fantastic - Daniel Craig has the most incredible eyes! And the action isn't all that bad either!

A bad recommendation - The Holiday. Even in terms of chick flicks this one was pretty dire... Jack Black almost rescued it but it was still bad... I'm not even sure I'd recommend that one as a DVD rental!!

Many new toys...

So in between walking, ice skating and trying to avoid thinking about going back to walk I bought myself some new toys... top of my fave list is my new Mac Book.

Bought on the glowing recommendations of Mhairi this new toy is absolutely fantastic! My broadband now works like proper broadband and the letter 'e' also works - my life has been transformed. And that is even before I've explored all of the other cool whizzy things it can do... Prepare to be amazed in the future - once I've worked out what to do!!

Foggy morning from my lounge, December 2006

Foggy morning from my lounge, December 2006
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Taken from my lounge window on one of the many foggy mornings before Christmas.

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2007 to everyone :-). Right now I am typing this on my super new cool MacBook, but more of that in another post! I have had a lovely evening eating a delish Indian dinner cooked by Julia. Had a loud train trip back full of 'young' people - I felt very old!!

So lets all have a good 2007 - onwards and upwards!!

January 2007 is a non-drinking month for me and Julia so watch out for my posts monitoring my progress...