Age does not beget wisdom

I had always hoped that as I get older I would suddenly know everything, not care what people think, say wise things and behave in a serene manner.

It hasn't happened. I still have foot in mouth disease, still feel that vulnerable moment when you think you haven't worn the right dress, said the right thing and how do we actually define what is right anyway?

Perhaps the word wisdom is wrong and needs replacing with age begets the term stuff it, this is what I am and I have to deal with it so so do you!

I am not a rural person, I need concrete

Fighting hayfever, waterfilled nose and lungs, I realise, (I am a slow learner), that I need to live in the concrete jungle. I adore the new green of trees and leaves, the paperthin blossom and the soft wild rye grass fields but they reach out to my nose and I quickly wilt.

Windows on the world

Moving again to a new place, space, world and all it contains.
It is like living several different lives with different surroundings, friends, buildings, light and air, like a new set of clothes.
Old friends with shared history observe and/or come along for the ride.
New friends are made with new history and you observe as you grow up, the rent-a-crowd people are no longer necessary but the rare new people are destined to be added to the cherished library of your extended family.

London Calling

Had a great weekend shopping, shopping, going to the V & A, shopping and generally enjoying spending. Forget that stupid saying that money doesn't buy you happiness, well, they just don't know how to shop then!

Will upload some pictures tomorrow

When you talk about the weather, the conversation is over

Well, not really in the land of ice and snow. 11 degrees today, full blue sky and smiles on faces.

I vaguely recall hearing as I struggled through the mists of sleep that Switzerland used double the thousands of tons of salt this year. What this means and why I needed to know is another conversation. I think of this as I contemplate a vase of daffodils.

No, I don't ski, don't ask me, merci beaucoup!

I live in the land of snow and ice where people rush around to throw themselves down a mountain on two pieces of steel whilst dodging trees and boulders.

So, no I don't ski. Look at the teletubby outfits, that's enough to put you off!

Those I know who are rock climbers, skiers and general daredevils all have broken pieces of body giving them twinges.

I prefer to go under water rather than over it. Much safer all around.

So, I sit and contemplate the snow as I am in a tin can (the tram to the city) and nearly lose an eye from a ski pointed in the wrong direction and we are nowhere near a mountain. Trust me.

Perhaps the guy could ski along the side of the tram.

I Am Not a Pearl Girl

I overheard this on the tram and so wanted to ask her..but what are you then?
I love hearing other people's comments and could write a book on them.
Hear of some of my favourites with some idea of the visual:

1. Woman tottering on high heels down 42nd street on the phone ...0h, fabulous, oh fabulous...oh, fabulous..................oh fabulous! What was this - I needed to know!
2.Two men in a city, 'I told him this is not a democracy, you do not insult a police officer'.
3. Angry woman on a phone, 'I need to dump my anger'.
4. Up and coming young professional couple....(Man) darhhling, what do you think about this tie? (Woman) not a problem as you have to wear it. (Man) But you have to be seen with me. Will they get married, will they have children and will they actually be seen together with that tie??

Will add some more as I think about them....

I Borg

For those Star Trek Next Generation lovers, you will understand. For those who have not been lucky enough to watch, then it means I have been assimilated to my computer!

I have a new Toshiba Laptop Satellite medium size accessory! It lights up, has an excellent battery and is quick. More than you can say for most people!

Dinner parties

A well known Australian chef, Gay Bilson, stated that you must invite odd numbers of people to dinners as it ensures a benign irritant. Nearly killed myself laughing at this. So if you are invited as the odd number, do some self analysis.

Love dinner parties, scrub the house top to bottom, make new dishes that want me to commit hari-kari with my chopsticks, tap in to self-doubt about mix of people and then an hour before...realise that if they cancelled I would be grateful and slip in to comfy clothes, watch tv and blancmange out.

Then after a couple of drinks and guests arrive, I am fine, or at least the champagne has kicked in. Allergic to red wine and most white, so sorry darling, can only drink champagne, pity about me!

Have some great memories including, a friend falling asleep in their lasagne, a gay friend's new boyfriend miffed after arguing why he shouldn't wear a dress to meet new people, a couple sitting emotional miles across the room throwing barbed comments and divorcing 6 weeks later, stoned gatecrashers, a forgotten dinner and after having eaten chicken dashing to a 3 course meal with..chicken, exchange of gifts including fur covered handcuffs to the wrong person and turning up to the wrong house (the next street corner was the right one) in full evening dress and heels after too many champagnes to be greeted by a shorts and singlet, sober, stranger!

I have read too many books

Went shopping for a book. So what, you say but this is like shopping for the ideal house for me.

Other people read books, I devour them. I have read whole libraries, ok, small ones and all the English fiction books. I read anything except pot boiler romances and westerns. Ok, I read Shane but that is a social comment on American life at that time and has a story and believable characters.

I often take out the same books that I read years ago. I love a good murder but even those are becoming formulaic..what a great word. I go to shops and get bored with the following:

1. She was forty something, recently divorced, decided to rent that cottage to lick her wounds and then a stranger on the beach makes her cross and guess what? They end up falling in love and find themselves.

2. She/he is an Asian person struggling with the generations of their culture in the middle of London or Manchester....and guess what, they fall in love and find themselves.

3. She is a 30 something, bored, broken up with the boyfriend and decides to apply for that job in the paper....and guess what, they fall in love and find themselves.

4. She/he is a tired detective, socially inept, divorced, burnt out and either a child is missing and there is abuse involved or a woman has gone missing and it ends up being the member of the choir she goes to, or there is a serial killer that turns out to be a local, or...you get the jist.

So, the search is still on.... Put this photo on because I loved taking it and it sort of sums up my thinking at the moment.

Philosophy for the Day

It is difficult to quantify creativity and the term qualify depends so much on perception, culture and personal experience. What is art and what is craft? Creativity in maths is in origami, the original secret language and art of maths, still revered in Japan and in architecture but lost to our daily reasoning and calculation, therefore, we lose its beauty as a language and not as a qualification.

The arts are/is a contentious issue as more and more it is asked of what value does it offer when standing next to economic factors and science. The art of science is not discussed as much either as we quickly fall back in to empirical ways of measurement and not the beauty of science. We could discuss this all day and the potential loss of thought and discovery of new perceptions in danger of calculations and the need to measure and quantify in order to dilute any mystery.

Instead, I go to a sale, which has a science and possibly an art attached in discovery!

I have to have that coat

The intense desire to have a thing, a product, a sugar fix. I bought a black wool coat for the fake fur hood and then a jumper (not black but teal) and a necklace and....then I stopped there!

Dangerous recipe, boredom, a bit of money and a discounted price.

Loved this guy, who is the mannequin and who is wearing the skirt? I showed him the photo and he loved it.

Food for Thought

I live from one meal to another. I adore food and ask for the dessert menu before the mains.

I was going to be a patisserie chef but chose music instead. The wisdom of youth. Should have stuck with the butter and cream. Instead, I take photos, fewer calories.

Check out Dooing Without Delia, a great read on someone who takes the food journey and back.

Snapshots of Life

They say one door closes and other one opens. I would like a window at this point!

I take pieces of windows on life. I don't do panoramics or people. I take that piece of life that is at the corner of your eye. I hope to exhibit my windows of the world this year.

Fatter but happy!

Just had mulled wine at 11am in France. Two chic French women walked in looking fabulous in their 60s, all black and silver and funky hair and a slash of red lipstick. Non, non, they cried whilst my husband and I said, oui, oui. They may be skinnier but we were happier!

What is beauty?

My husband thinks I am his benchmark! Been called many things but not a benchmark for beauty. Shopping for clothes is an interesting psychological experience or perhaps experiment. On a Thursday you are beautiful and look fantastic and on a Friday you have put on 3 kgs and think you are a Michelin man. What happens?
I also succumbed to a grey jumper as I live in Europe and it is the continent of black, grey and black.

I took this picture of this man who is beautiful, look at his hand and aura of grace.

I'm in the no-person's land

There are grants, deals and scholarships for the under 35s and then the over 60s but no 'oasis' for the 40s. This is the desert of our age. No chance for a career change or to tap in to that creative spurt lying back dormant in the brain since the age of 5.
I am a glitter girl and take serious photos of pieces of life, I need an oasis to take the stage for the next decade.

From snow, to sun, to jungle, to sand, to snow

Moving from snow to sun, to jungle, to sand and back to snow is both disorientating and an out of body experience in a one time blitz. All in one holiday lifetime.

This is my first post to a blog focusing on social comments, stream of conscious life thoughts and a homage to Singapore shoes.

I was in Singapore and in shoe heaven and pronounced to a crowd of shoppers that I was in the land of my size!
Views of red lanterns, an Indian family airkissing and moving in to 2010 with airkisses, darhlings and champagne with a DJ next door shouting get on the 'dance flooooooooooor, peeoople!' with an accompanying rising inflexion.