LHR - JHB

3b saturday morning, house party in the evening. B and C for lunch, pumpkin carving Spidey sunday evening! Monday shopping in Oxford street till late afternoon, lunch with Su. Tuesday more shopping, iphone camera miraculously heals itself in a sunny street off Oxford Circus en route to the Apple store. Shop there anyway - new cover and screen protector now my phone feels brand new. Gardening everywhere! Pack, cook, 4 day visit from Esh, Stab in the dark murder mystery, last league squash match, wednesday morning hapiness sleeping in next to my lady!! LHR, JHB - watched Belle, Amelie, Khumba. Dad and Dew at airport, SP in Rosebank, Ouma and power outtage, mozzies and HEAT! Gautrain bus, Hatfield car with an AUDIO JACK.

Sandton, dad, Protea Balalaika hotel and mom! Bone SA 20th anni, Ana, Tina, Tannie L, Gail, Gilly and Anton, Vivienne, Frank, Prof Louis, WACKHEAD SIMPSON. Fantastic, emotional evening.

Is that ANOTHER WARM WEEKEND??

Drums early on Saturday, session not too bad. Mosey around TCR, Forbidden planet. Cymbal bag phase 3, with all materials now arrived. TRIANGLE EPIPHANY ∆

Made my own salsa:
Cherry tomatoes, onions, parsley, coriander, ginger, BLITZED TOGETHER MOFO. Amazing with basa. El's parents in London for an NHS demonstration.

SNOWBOARD VIDEO DONE, MOFOS!

Sunday afternoon squash with my lady. Jazz at the Grape & Grain FINALLY! Dinner at Kish Mish Persian restaurant. Sherlock Holmes and terry Pratchett on BBC radio.

LONDON INNER CITY ADVENTURE IDEA!

September quiz in the bag ;-)

Watching Dogtown and Z-boys (documentary following Lords of Dogtown movie)

Third squash match done - fairly lost all games! Won the last freeplay one though :) Thai green curry for supper, baking a pumpkin pie at 10pm! Attempting to look at the debris of Haley's comet.

Pistorius gets 5 years.

Suuuuu and Esh in London Bridge Real Greek :-D Leaving do at the Tapestry on Thursday night, LC makes a rare appearance! Last lunch at Pickle & Rye.

Anticlimactic departure. The sky there to say goodbye, as always.

Unexpected productivity

Flu weekend, with sewing (added elastic ankles to my kickboxing pants and finished my SHAWL COLLAR jersey from H&M. Brunch with Su, but had to cancel Ams' birthday drinks in CJ, then my squash match on Sunday, and even kickboxing with Esh. Monday leaving work at 11 after shouting at colleagues. Unexpectedly productive Tuesday off sick - 5 month's expenses receipts backlog cleared up, phonecall with Oumies, Snowboard video in final stages of timeline edit. Raiders bowling cancelled too :(

VIDEO DRAFT 1 DONE! Cymbal bag has a DC Fix backing. Al's leaving card and present done in an afternoon! (phew). Al's leaving do at Ye White Heart.

Music collections for SA DRIIIIIIIVE. Dinner with Di and Me at an Ethiopian restaurant in Denmark Hill was amazing. (Zeret kitchen)

Ahhhhhh and another one!

Fantastic weekend with my girl! Another warm weekend, even with the rain. Lazy Saturday morning with Sudoku, the Evening Standard crossword, fooling around >:-) Breakfast of shortbread biscuits, followed by a 3-hour kickboxing session with my new pads! Hungry House Thai after dashing out for wine, repotting the little chillis. Giving Johnny Greenwood and the Ozzie orchestra a miss. Blue is the Warmest colour and a bottle of red! Hoovering up spiders and smoking out the window. Sunday gardening and making preparations for my cymbal bag. Short Kentridge-inspired animation - first draft not great, but i have plans for the next iteration. The girl is off to NYC! Mudskipper reunion drinks in Richmond. Wednesday night sewing while chatting to Esh. Snowboard video edit creeping towards the end! Cymbal bag ready for part 2. Metro moderate sudoku done in 4 stops. I love Random.org.. Successfully changed work trousers from US size 6 to 4 using trusty Bertha Jones. IT'S CALLED A SHAWL COLLAR!!! Friday night in bed early with flu :(

Do not go gently into that good winter

Drumz with the boys on Saturday morning - great session. Cancelled other plans for the day (foodie festival with the housemates and a house party with the Silver team. Lunch in Tottenham Court Road, Brazillian restaurant and 2 glasses of wine. Asleep by 8pm. Beautiful gift of a Sunday - hot, sunny, BRAAIWORTHY. Made a fantastic spur-of-the-moment Prawn and Butternut Thai stewish thing...

Butternut, oiled with chilli paste and honey - braai in the skillet; Courgette and onions, oiled with chilli and coriander, add to skillet; prawns flavoured with coriander, chilli and garlic paste, and sweet chilli sauce, added at the last 5 mins to skillet; Remove from fire, and prepare red thai curry paste into a sauce to pour over veg and prawns; DEVOUR

Animation project phase 1 complete...

Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Royal Opera House after dinner at Sophies! Impromptu shopping spree on Regent Street, and PingPong dinner afterwards.

"Oh I can't be bothered" preview show at the Soho Theatre with Da&El - absolutely beautiful.



BFI bar with IC and SJ - SO MUCH red wine :)

Ouch fcking ouch

Insane tournament weekend, pushed to physical limits! Cock-up with rooms. Fantastic team breakfast, one game won, team supper with salad by H, Cards Against Humanity! Lame school dance at the student union, sleep! 8 games in total over the weekend, DRIVING in Audi A1!

Wednesday night Med chicken 2.0 with turmeric - fantastic. Mel's peach / apricot cake for dessert. Order of Service for Ams' uncle. Refund from Leicester Uni. Squash league match against Ozzie Jerome. JB has twins!! Thursday drinks at the Jam Circus with M. Meeting AJ's boyfriend Co in Teddington with RH and JH.

Doing crossword puzzles by phone

The weeeeeeeekend baby!

Gardening! Sewing! Braaing! Playing drums!

Su over early on Saturday morning - long chats while mowing the lawn and making food - saffa chicken and butternut on the braai. Then crack out the sewing machine and work well into the evening with a glass of red. Reading bracelet :) Sunday morning finally oil the wooden garden border out the front, and then do the long-awaited second coat on the deck. Back to sewing - two custom pillow cases for my tempur pillow. Lots of other items fixed. Some drums, with my new cymbal. Plans for a cymbal bag underway.

Sunday evening cooking Spanish chicken for two with parsley from my own garden :) So easy!

Ingredients 8 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in 3 onions, thinly sliced 2 tsp paprika zest and juice 1 lemon good handful parsley, roughly chopped 150ml stock 1 tbsp olive oil

Method Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Put all the ingredients into a large, wide ovenproof dish. Mix everything together with your hands and season. Bake for 45 mins, stirring the onions after 20 mins, until the chicken is golden and the onions tender. Serve with rice. Recipe from Good Food magazine, October 2009

SUPERHOT game is addictive...
My first squash league match! Took one game off my opponent :)

Streetcar named Desire screening of the play was out of this world. Free diet coke and Topcorn. Wednesday off work cycling in Richmond Park! What a fantastic day, taking photos in the half-mist. Fingersmith part 2. ESH NEW JOB INNIT!

Car booked for the Leicester weekend... :-O

Paul Temple and the Conrad affair :) Band practice and packing for LEICESTER. Haircut... Asked for Roxette, got Sam Smith! D-:

In the world: Scotland votes 'no' in the independence referendum