Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Tuesday 29 March - Cheers and gone





Current location: Kitzbühel, Austria
11.11pm, In O'Flannigans pub in town, having some goodbye drinks for two of our friends, Adam and Cheryl. There was a really nice group of people and and it was really fun just chilling out, chatting and drinking, but the air definitely had a tinge of sadness, as everyone is slowly drifting off to leave Austria for the summer, or perhaps for good. I'm off back to London on Friday and have no idea when I'll be back, so a lot of these goodbyes seem a bit more permanent than I'd like!

Monday 28 March - Delish dish


Current location: Kitzbühel, Austria
11.11pm, Eating a late and delish dinner of roasted veggies (my staple diet at the moment) and pork medallions. We were at Steemy and Paddy's house having a Gundhabing evening (the tiny bit of Kitz we live in), but we were a girl down because our amazing Emma is in hospital with a kidney infection! Poor litte lady, wishing her the speediest of recoveries.

(Picture taken from PK)

Monday, March 28, 2011

Sunday 27 March - Papa H parties on...






Current location: Kitzbühel, Austria
11.11pm, Calling my dad because today is his birthday! He is 61 years young and is the finest man I have ever known. Happy birthday Dad; I love you. x

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Saturday 26 March - Staying in is the new staying in


Current location: Kiztbühel, Austria
11.11pm, Watching American Dad in bed. Andy and I had half-planned to go out, because tonight is the last night of Highways, ever. It's having a closing party where all drinks are €2, but we kind of just got lazy and ended up eating dinner and watching TV instead. Rock and roll.

(Picture taken from MSN.co.nz)

Friday 25 March - Can't snowboard; can sunbathe


Current location: Kitzbühel, Austria
11.11am, On my way up the Hahnenkamm mountain with the boys who wanted to find a spot they'd seen before. The idea was to snowboard down until we found the spot that apparently had a big icy puddle, then have a picnic by it. Sounds nice in theory, but the only problem occurs when you can't snowboard very well, as I can't. So I made the slow journey down by sitting on my board and tobogganing down (as I learnt to do back in January). The boys, who were pretty far ahead of Andy and I, discovered that the icy puddle had turned to mud, so we just went to the bottom of the mountain and sacked off the idea. Which was fine by me as it left me with the rest of the afternoon to sunbathe on our balcony, in the (almost) 20-degree heat. Pretty good for Austria in March.

(Picture taken from In Every Season)

Friday, March 25, 2011

Thursday 24 March - Girls go riding


Current location: Kitzbühel, Austria
11.11am, At Emma's house, hanging out waiting for a bus to town. We were meeting up with Jen, Vicky and Frieda (the lovely girls that joined us on Jen's surprise day yesterday) to go snowboarding on the Hahnenkamm mountain. It was the first time I'd been without Andy, which meant I couldn't be a wuss but also that I didn't have to impress anyone as much. The girls were so patient with me and I had an absolutely brilliant day, punctuated by a delicious sausage lunch surrounded by snowy mountains.

(Pic of the Hahnenkamm slopes taken from Hotel Alexander)

Wednesday 23 March - Surprise, surprise






Current location: Salzburg, Austria
11.11pm, Arriving in Salzburg. Today is Jen's birthday so we had a girls' day in Salzburg to celebrate. It was all a surprise, organised for Jen by her super boyfriend, Jossi, so the first thing she knew about it was when we all turned up a her house at 9.45am. Once we'd dragged her out of bed, we had a breakfast of strawberries, before piling into a taxi and being driven to Salzburg. The day then entailed a lot of sunshine, spritzers in the sun, lunch in the sun, weird trees in the sun, shopping in the sun, park hanging in the sun, ducks in the sun, riverside hanging in the sun and then being driven back to Salzburg in time for a surprise party for Jen. She's a lovely lady and it was so good to be able to join in all her celebrations. x

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Tuesday 22 March - Sunny on the slopes




Current location: Kitzbühel, Austria
11.11am, On the way y the Horn mountain with Emma. It was a beautiful sunny and warm day so we headed up the mountain, where there is a restaurant and what could be the world's best view. It was so hot that, throughout the day, we took off more and more layers until we were eventually just in t-shirts. And I got a sunburnt nose so I feel like a proper Brit abroad now.

Monday 21 March - An Ellis birthday






Current location: Kitzbühel, Austria
11.11pm, In Highways, celebrating Mark Ellis' (Mellis) 30th birthday, which is this week. His lovely parent had flown all the way over from Australia to surprise him, and we all went out for dinner and then for drinks. Lots of his best friends from around the world (Amsterdam, Australia) were also there, including some of our loveliest Berlin friends, so it was ace to see a lot of familiar, if hungover, faces. Yesterday was the main celebration, which I was still in London for, but everyone did a good job of carrying on the celebrations.

Monday 21 March - Flying fish



Current location: Gatwick Airport
11.11am, Eating sushi and waiting to board my flight to Austria. It might seem like a weird time to eat sushi but, for some reason, I always want it when I'm at the airport. I'm off for my final two-week stint in Austria because, as of next month, Andy and I will be in London.

I was pretty excited about getting back out to Austria and, as I flew into Innsbruck, I had an amazing view to welcome me. As I said last month, there's one point on the descent where all you can see is snow-topped mountains as far as the eye can see, and this time I managed to photograph it. It was kind of scary because the plane flies really close to the peaks, but also surreal and beautiful.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Sunday 20 March - Keep on moving


Current location: Lewisham
11.11am, Looking at a potential new home for Andy and me. We're planning to make the move to London full-time and so need somewhere to house our belongings and ourselves...Our fourth home in under a year! There are a few places around so fingers crossed we'll find something wonderful.

Saturday 19 March - Roller girls (and boys)!






Current location: London
11.11am, Getting ready to go to Hyde Park. It was a beautiful sunny day (look at the lovely blue sky!) and the first weekend since everyone moved to London that no one was working, so we decided to go roller-skating!

Last week I wrote about my perfect Sunday and today was my perfect Saturday. Bacon for breakfast, roller-skating in the park (with obligatory girl pile-up and group fall), lunch by the lake, and then sausage and mash and wine for dinner with my amazing friend Gemma. Awesome doesn't even come close.

Friday 18 March - Freaky Friday




Current location: Finsbury Park, London
11.11pm, At Sarah Potts' house, helping to diminish some of the drink that was left over from her birthday weekend. After a busy week at work, we felt we'd earned some Friday wines and, as we shared dinner and drinks, we decided to go out. Arriving in Angel at about 11.30pm, we met Jack, Ruth and Kir and proceeded to dance to terrible music and then eat chicken burgers. Just how Friday nights should be with my lovely girl Potts.

(Pictures taken from last weekend)

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Thursday 17 March - Happy St Patrick's Day!


Current location: Angel, London
11.11pm, In the Winchester pub just up the road from our house. Me, Ruth, Nicky, Jack and a friend from home, Kir, were all celebrating St Patrick's Day with two-for-one cocktails! The pub has an amazing, extensive and creative cocktails list, which includes ones with chocolate buttons, with eggs and even one with parsnips, relish and cheese. Sounds gross, but I can't vouch either way because I didn't try it. I tried one that had a Jaffa Cake floating in it. Pretty awesome.

(Image taken from Ghost on Toast blog)

Wednesday 16 March - Flapjack fun


Current location: London
11.11pm, Watching Grey's Anatomy (naturally) and feeling absolutely stuffed after eating three flapjacks in a row. I decided to make some after my sister and I made some on Sunday... It's a bit sad that I'd got to the age of 25 without ever making flapjacks... But I'm making up for lost time now!

(Pic taken from Uppercrusts, but mine looked just as delish!)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Tuesday 15 March - Bad bike behaviour


 Current location: Soho, London
11.11am, In work, catching up after having got there late thanks to bad behaviour from my purple Rapid Reactor bicycle. It unhelpfully got itself a flat tyre on the way to work, so it doesn't react too rapidly now. It doesn't react at all in fact, because it's locked up to a tree by the side of the road.

(Picture taken from Weheartit)

Monday 14 March - City girls


Current location: London
11.11pm, At home after having had dinner with City Girls again (the girls I did my Master's with at City University). They are super lovely girls who have all done a good job of staying in touch since we left City nearly three years ago...They meet at least once a month for dinner and, since last month, I have managed to bust in on their gang. Even more amazing was that our friend Chloe joined us for dinner last night, who I haven't seen for years because she's been living in China. Thank goodness she's back and we are all reunited again!

(Pic taken from 2008 of me, Jenny and Chloe).

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Sunday 13 March - How Sundays should be


Current location: Balham, London
11.11pm, At my sister Kate's house, after the perfect Sunday. I'd had a late wake-up after last night's fun and made my way to south London, where I met my lovely friend from home, Matt, and my German/American superwoman, Meg. We whiled away the afternoon in Trinity, which might be my favourite coffee shop south of the river (the picture doesn't do it justice – it is filled with bunting inside!), with coffees, cookies, fizzy juices and lots of fine conversation. After that I went to my sister's, where I got to play with my beautiful niece, eat fish tacos and take the mickey out of my brother-in-law.

(Pic taken by Kake Pugh)

Saturday 12 March - A Potts Party!



Current location: Angel, London
11.11pm, In Keston Lodge, a fun bar in Angel, where we were dancing, posing and celebrating Sarah Potts' birthday. We'd had amazing food and lots of game-fuelled drinks at her house earlier in the eve and, by the time we got to the bar, we were in full party mode.

Sarah Potts is a top-notch lady who has been one of my best friends since about day two of uni, where we did the same degree and used our friendship with each other as a plausible excuse to not make any other law friends. She's been there in my darkest hours of 3am revision sessions with mushy cornflakes and tears of fear, my high times of fancy dress, nights out and hours of laughter on middle-aged holidays and all the other funny, silly, real, important times that cement a friendship. x

Friday 11 March - Ivy-clad local


Current location: Finsbury Park, London
11.11pm, In the pub with Cat, Sarah and Emma. When the clock struck 5.31pm, I joined my workmates for 'one drink' just around the corner from work and, a few hours later, decided to make my way to Finsbury Park where the girls were. It took a while as I made the journey by bike, without knowing the way. This led to me going via Archway, which isn't on the way, but when I finally arrived at the pub, the girls had a lovely glass of Rose waiting for me, so all was good. Phew! The pub is a really nice one, just around the corner from where they live, the Faltering Fullback, and I love all the ivy that covers it.

(Picture taken from Fancyapint)

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Thursday 10 March - Liverpool lady (from Ireland)


Current location: London
11.11pm, At home after having had dinner with Karen. We lived together in Liverpool and she was an absolute dream housemate. She'd bring me wine when I was miserable, crisps when I was hungry and laughter when I was bored. In the (almost) two years that we lived together, I've never watched so much crap TV, called the police so many times or done so many weird and random activities, including Neighbourhood Watch meetings in our front room, starjumping off our stairs and stalking girls from Take Me Out. And now, to my joy, Karen has moved to London! She was looking as beautiful as always and made me laugh like I haven't for ages, so I am super glad we are sharing a city again, if not a home.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Wednesday 9 March - PC press day


Current location: Soho, London
11.11am, Working on layouts for Computeractive, one of the magazines I work on at Incisive Media. Today we went to press for issue 341, and press day is always a busy one. It's exciting though; they run a pretty tight ship so it's not too stressful, and there's a bit of a buzz in the air. Yes, I'm a loser, but it's true. I've actually learnt a lot about computers while I've been working there, though the main thing I learnt today was to not use InDesign shortcuts when I'm working on Quark. Especially on press day. Oops! Luckily my mistakes were easily fixed and the mag will be in the shops (hopefully mistake free!) on 17 March.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Tuesday 8 March - Spring has sprung


Current location: Soho, London
11.11am, At work, admiring the sunshine out of the windows. This morning was the first time this year that I haven't worn a coat to work. And the evenings are getting so light now that yesterday was the first day that I didn't need my bike lights on for the cycle home from work. Spring is coming and I can't wait!

(Beautiful picture of sunshine through a window taken by Shutterbug Cel)

Monday 7 March - Laughing heart


Current location: London
11.11pm, On our way back from Camden. Ruth, Nicky, Jack and I had gone to a pub in Camden to meet Willy and Sarah. We'd gone to the Black Heart, where they were meant to have a film night showing The Big Lebowski. But when we got there, we found out it was a comedy night instead. I love going to see live comedy, however dire it is, so I was pretty happy. And even better was that it wasn't dire! There were seven acts and I would say that four of them were really good... I laughed a lot anyway, which I guess is the sign of a good comedian.

(Picture of the Black Heart in the snow, taken by M.J.S)

Sunday 6 March - I'm here too


Current location: London
11.11pm, Watching I'm Still Here. It's a documentary about Joaquin Phoenix making the transition from acting to rapping... Though it has since been revealed that it's a mockumentary, some of the reactions that people had to his decision were pretty extreme, and it showed up a lot of negative things about the showbiz industry, and how fickle it is. Poor little Joaquin. Good film though.