Chiswick House

This weekend started for us on Thursday night, when Stephen and Christoph popped
round for tea. Friday night; our neighbours Samira and Minky, had a bonfire night party and we returned their hospitality, on Saturday morning, by cooking them a very large breakfast.
Kate and Dan lent us one of their cars for the weekend so we sped over to South London to meet, 1 week 1 day old, Oliver Brunton. You'd never have known that just a few days earlier, this adorable little poppet, had to be resuscitated in hospital and was in intensive care. He's made an amazing recovery and the Brunton family are now all home, happy and doing ever so well.
We rounded Saturday off, in front of the telly, with an immensely satisfying (Acton Balti House) chicken tikka masala.
Sunday; Ibolya and Lookie went to Chiswick car boot sale and bought me a batmobile, a Citroen DS traveller and James Bond's Lotus 7. Ruby and I joined them later at Chiswick House, which is absolutely stunning and has a phenomenal, van der Rohe-like, cafe.
We then spent a wonderful afternoon at my sister Jane's, celebrating her birthday, eating Matthew's fantastic Sunday roast and playing with sparklers in the garden.

Hunter's Party

On Sunday afternoon we all went to Hunter's for a party to celebrate his 2nd birthday and Halloween.

Halloween

So this was Sunday, Halloween! I made two pumpkin heads, one for Ruby and Lookie and Ruby got to dress up as a witch and go to her first Halloween party at Seth and Kate's, for Hunter's birthday.
Ruby went swimming with her Mummy on Sunday morning, while Lookie and I got to spend some quality father and son time togther. I also made a very big mousaka, took loads of photos of the children and in honour of Halloween, we watched the scariest movie we could think of (after the children had gone to bed, of course), 'The Exorsist', but found it nothing like as scary as it used to be.

Saturday

I took far, far too many pictures this weekend and not enough time now to sift through, edit and upload. So here's just a few to be getting on with from Saturday.
I was really happy to pick up this vintage, ceramic, Snoopy money box, for Ruby, at our local car boot sale. We had a glorious rainbow over Harlesden on Saturday morning. Lookie and I in the park. Handfuls of children. Jess (who's due in January) and Adam came round for lunch. I made pumpkin soup and made another attempt at perfecting my slow, fennel, roasted pork belly, with all the trimmings.
On Saturday night, after Strictly and X-Factor - we watched Tom Ford's brilliant adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's 'A Single Man'. We both thought it was a beautiful film and Colin Firth was amazing in the starring role.
More to follow soon from Halloween and a party at Hunter's house.

Kubrick

This is such an incredible picture, probably one of best behind the scenes movie pictures, I've ever seen, especially if you love Kubrick as much as I do.
Here's Stanley, on the set of 'The Shining', with his daughter Vivian, taking a picture of Jack Nicholson but taking a picture of himself. Genius. Wish I'd watched 'The Shining' last night now, instead of the 'Exorcist', just doesn't maintain its scariness like 'the Shining'.

Bramley's

On Sunday afternoon, Ruby and I got on my bike and headed over to Latimer Road for a couple of hours climbing and sliding at Bramley's.

Gauguin

Blimey - after a week of bad technical problems, when I couldn't save and upload pictures, I'm hugely relieved to be back up and running and can catch up starting with this trip, last Friday evening, to Tate Modern to see the Gauguin exhibition and Ai Weiwei's sunflower seed installation in the turbine hall. It was a wonderful evening, the Gauguin show's ok (would have been a lot better if hung chronologically rather than thematically) and the Weiwei is beautiful and extraordinary, even if you can't now climb into it. But more than anything, the evening was significant as the first to include, in our number, master Milo Roseman. Such an adorable little poppet, if ever there was one.