In the Garden

Morning




Afternoon


We spent a lot of time in the garden on Saturday. I gave the lawn a little mow, Ibolya hung out the laundry (she loves doing that), had 5 minutes with the paper while Ruby was asleep, did a spot of weeding, the cats sun-bathed and we all had a mixed-grill BBQ dinner and ate outside.
Track of the day was from Mike Vitti's, Jazz FM, Funky Sensation show (which Ruby I listen to every Saturday night at bath time)and the track was a glorious jazz/funk workout by 'Pleasure' called 'Joyous'.

New Political World

I still have a 'when Jamie Sommers died in Six Million Dollar Man' feeling about Gordon leaving Downing Street but I'm feeling a bit better since Nick and Dave's press conference yesterday. They both seem very genuine and the so called 'seismic shift in politics' and bi-partisan approach is excitingly new and positive (much, much better than the alternative of a weak, minority, Conservative government).
So I'm prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt and really hope that we can look back in 5 years time and see that the new-politics delivered on it's promise; to eradicate the budget deficit and build sustainable prosperity for this country, based on socially conscious and environmentally sound principals. I genuinely wish our new government all the very best of British and loads of very good luck.

Joanna Newsom

Having obsessively followed, minute by minute, all the political developments since the election, I couldn't believe that in the time I was sitting in the Royal Festival Hall, listening to the sublime sounds of Joanna Newsom, we lost a noble Prime Minister, gained a new PM and a new history making, multi-coloured, government had taken control of the country, all the action taking place, just a few minutes from where I was sitting.
Joanna though was simply astounding. Accompanied by percussion, guitar, strings and a trombone, she performed her delicately beautiful music with great wit and enjoyment. I'm totally smitten and enthralled by her. Roy Harper supported and he wasn't bad too.
These pictures were borrowed from Flickr.

Rest of the Weekend

We had a lovely Friday night, catching up with Pete, Karen and Stephen over dinner and sharing some of our baby experience.
After the Saatchi Gallery, on Saturday morning, Becky, Andy, Ibolya, Ruby and I; tried to take cover from the rain in every coffee place at the eastern end of King's Road but all were full (with very posh people) but no one was in the marvelous cafe at the Royal Court, which does superb coffee and the toilets are nice too. I cooked my legendary fish pie on Saturday night.
On Sunday morning, we took Ruby to the park and Kate and Dan invited us all over for Sunday lunch. We toasted the arrival, of the newly named, Eliza Dixie and Ruby and Maisie did lots of sharing and playing nicely together.

The Empire Strikes Back

Andy and Becky came to stay with us for the weekend and on Saturday morning we took them to the Saatchi Gallery to see The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, exhibition. It was a fantastic show, nothing really that good individually but just a very fine mix of work, that's very international and visually exciting. The gallery and buildings are also such a brilliant place to see art; great light, space and floors. Ruby loved it too - getting really excited about running around the place and they are cool about taking photos too. Something I strongly disapprove of in principal but is great for my blog.
It was also fantastic to see Richard Wilson's stunning installation 20:50 again. Transferred from Boundary Road, via County Hall, it was like seeing a well-loved old friend again.

Elephants

There are elephants all over London right now. I passed these chaps in Hyde Park yesterday.

Voting

Ibolya, Ruby and I have just been down the road to fulfil our democratic duty and place our votes. I love voting; still makes me feel very grown up and I find it incredibly exciting to take part in an event in which tens of millions of people come together to decide who should run our country.
Ibolya always gets a bit emotional after she's cast her vote, bless her. I think it's a combination of genuinely feeling the weight of contributing to decide the fate of the country and people's lives but also that the freedom to vote was denied her countrymen for so many generations. It always makes her cross that so many people have the freedom to vote but choose not to.
I'm just bracing myself for the long period of mourning-like blues, I'll feel when I hear the inevitable result tomorrow morning. It was very bad when Boris beat Ken, this is going to be a whole lot worse.

Jack's Cafe

Ibolya and I took added an extra holiday day to our Bank Holiday weekend and treated ourselves to an extravagant breakfast at Jack's Cafe in Queen's Park. They have these flash toilets, with strips of light running through them, like the 'architectonic impingements' that were popular when we were at art school.

May Day Bank Holiday

Despite the inclement, typical bank holiday, weather, it was a fantastic long weekend. Ibolya was away in Bath on Saturday, celebrating our friend Claire's birthday, which gave Ruby and I a really lovely day together, just the two of us. We went shoe shopping at Westfield in the morning and had lots of play at the playground in the afternoon. At 9.00 we heard our friend and neighbour Kate's waters had broken and bang on the due date, her little girl arrived around 11.00.
On Sunday we cracked on with house chores, including digging a very big hole to plant a big pot with my monkey puzzle tree in it. Ibolya made an incredible carrot cake which we took over to Kate and Dan's to meet the new (still nameless) baby.
On Monday we had friends and babies over for a BBQ, our first of the year.