Friday night...

TGIF is something you'll often hear me say. At least once a week. I find four day weeks to be troublesome...there's always some piece of bad news. So imagine how it's been since April. And this was one of those perishing four day weeks. Thank heavens it ended on a high note.

Last night, we went off to see 'One Man Two Guvnors' at the National Theatre. It stars James Corden...and there's a man whose star has fallen. A very short time ago he could do no wrong. And then he could do no right. The Boy and I first came across him in History Boys and had been wowed, so it was a shame to see him fall from grace. He is an undoubted talent of the first order. The play itself is set in Brighton, and coincidentally references Debden which is just down the road from here, as well as the famous Floral clock just at the top of our Square. It is rip-roaringly funny. Mr Corden is brilliant...but then so too are the rest of the cast...it is British humour at its best. I would highly recommend you get to see it...except you can't because it's all sold out. However, don't despair because The National has begun an initiative which sees some of their performances being shown in the cinema for one night...we've seen some great things. And you get your chance to see One Man Two Guvnors on September 15th. Don't miss it. Really don't miss it.

This picture I took outside the Theatre...as we left. The reason I chose it is that I took it with my new phone which has a great camera...and I used a technique/process called HDR: it takes three pictures at different exposures, and then combines them to give you brighter, more vivid pictures...I think it works brilliantly.

Putting on the pounds

Day 2 of my June quest, this may not be a classic shot but it says a lot.



The Cat's Mother is an expensive item. And a bad driver. Evidently.

It's time for me to renew my car insurance, so I've been comparing meerkats. I can't remember how much I paid last year, but this year it's £439 and a few pence. Inspite of my impecable driving record being extended by yet another 365 days of accident free motoring, I still have to pay an enormous sum. But on checking my details, I realised that I was down as divorced/separated, so I ticked the box that said I was co-habiting. I expected it to make no difference, but in fact it meant my insurance went up by a pound. So £440 and a few pence. Now I may be wrong, but as I understood it, living with some one was supposed to be a less stressful experience. I certainly remember (or rather don't remember) some pretty wild experiences after my divorce, and I'd say I was a less responsible person. I may even have read that co-habiting is good for men as they live longer, whilst it knocks a little bit off a woman's lifespan. So I should be quids in. I'm not. I'm a whole pound out. Imagine what I could do with that pound. That's a whole packet of crisps and a Mars Bar. I then thought I should add The Cat's Mother to my insurance. And as I'm very bored with hearing, women are better drivers than men. The Cat's Mother has a clean driving licence and an impressive no-claims history. So surely, surely the cost should go down...even if she drives the car just one day a year, that's one day a year when the risk is less? Perhaps they've seen her reversing technique. It's available as a viral on the interweb. Maybe. Anyway, it put the insurance up by another pound. That's another whole pound. Imagine what I could do with two whole pounds. Because I can't.

So there we have it, in my dying days as a forty-something I have learnt that women make you a worse driver and are pretty dangerous on the road themselves. It's something I've always suspected. That should get me a long way.

I'm not even going to say what happened when I tried to see what would happen if I delayed until after my birthday. It's quite a saga.

Flaming June

I seem to have dropped off the Blogger bandwagon a little bit...so apologies if I've not kept up to date with what's going on in your worlds...I'm no less interested than I've always been I can assure you you.

As it's June, and at the end of the month I have a very special birthday, I thought I would take a slightly different approach. Each day I'm going to take one photo and post it up, just to see what happens over the course of the next thirty days. Probably not much. But who knows? If it is incredibly boring by the time we get to 1st July, I'll know I need to change. If it's rivettingly exciting I'll know I've got a few things right.



Fittingly, I'm starting with breakfast. I'm downstairs alone because the kids are on holiday, so everyone gets a lie in except me. I loathe eating breakfast alone, even though when The Boy and Cat are around normally we're all a bit subdued. I pretty much have the same thing everyday...either a couple of scotch pancakes and a cup of tea or a couple of crumpets...one with honey, and one with Marmite. Delicious. I read the paper to see what's been going on....we take The Times - I prefer The Guardian, but The Cat's Mother has had The Times from time immemorial. If I catch the tube, I'll usually buy The Guardian at the station. I look at the news, read the facts and then usually disagree with the interpretation...it fires me up for the rest of the day. So at the moment, we've got the incompetent (English FA) vs the corrupt (FIFA), we've got the global economy going into stall mode again (I still blame the bankers...in fact they have missed their opportunity to rehabilitate the sector as it is the financiers that are keeping the economy down whilst they continue to make ridiculous profits), we've got Libya turning into a war with no end, and an outbreak of e-coli that seems to relish killing women. Perhaps I shouldn't be reading the paper at all....except that it tells me that the James Corden play we're going to see on Friday is ace!

Once I've finished I take The Cat's Mother up a cup of tea...is that kindness or just revenge because she's still in bed? I don't know, but she seems to appreciate it.