To & Fro

5 Journeys I Have Made This Weekend

1. This lovely warm bank holiday weekend before half term, I went to visit my parents in Somerset. Funnily enough, I don't think I was the only person travelling out of London on Friday. Which is probably why they cancelled my train. After standing bewildered in a packed Paddington station for half an hour, I decided the only thing for it was to sneak into First Class. Hallelujah. I successfully became a class traitor and travelled the whole way without paying any extra. Woohoo!

2. After a lovely evening in Bath on Saturday with Lizzie & Aron and various cousins, watching George's new play (which was fab), I drove back to the folks at about 1am through the lanes which I know so well, listening to Tom Waits. The roads were full of animals! I saw foxes, rabbits and a Badger cantering through the streets of Holcombe.

3. Yesterday we travelled to the Carpenter's Arms pub Stanton Wick for lunch, in my Dad's 1965 Humber. It's a gorgeous car, black with cream interior. We listened to 60s love songs on the way and sang along as we drove through the villages in the sunshine. Lovely.

4. Today we walked to Kilmersdon (the home of Jack & Jill), to visit their 'village day'. It was a 6 mile walk in the cool sun, and would have been nicer if we didn't take a wrong turning and end up on the Main Road. Still, it was one of two long walks this weekend that were not only v healthy, but also a good chance to catch up with my ma.

5. Just got home, after a lovely weekend, and a nice cab driver back from Victoria. My flat is safe and sound, and I'm off to bed! My very last journey of the weekend....

Let's Recap

5 Things That Have Been Happening Lately

I have started to write blog entries several times over the last week, but things keep getting in the way! These are some of them:

1. I went to court on Thursday to testify against my mugger. It all went pretty smoothly, but I was fairly sure he'd get off, as I couldn't identify him and the other witness didn't actually see it happen. But, as I found out today - he was found guilty! Do you think I could get him to do community service doing my gardening for six months? I am glad it's over.

2. Friday night was my girly movie night. 8 girls drinking wine, eating pizza and lying wrapped up in duvets on my living room floor. It didn't go quite the way I remebered it from those sleepovers when I was 12 however! We didn't make it past three films, and I don't think anyone made it quite to the end of film three. They were The Incredibles, Dodgeball (why did we watch that?) and I Heart Huckabees.

3. Got up at around 5pm on Saturday, to go out dancing at Eve Club in the West End for my friend's birthday. Danced, drank and laughed at the 15 year olds pretending they were dead hard. How the hell did they get in? Also, had my first pedal cab experience (in London, anyway).

4. Yesterday I spent money I don't have on King's Road, was insulted by a Kinckerbox sales assistant, and went to see John Legend at Shepherd's Bush Empire with Leigh. Fun, if not my favourite thing ever.

5. Right now the tv is on. On channel 5 is The Girl Without a Face, where a family struggle to cope with their badly deformed 2 year old daughter, putting her through painful operations to help her breathe, hear & see more easily. On ITV is Celebrity Love Island, where 12 shiny, vapid and pointless human beings who've achieved such wonderful things with their life as sleeping with people slightly more famous than themselves, get treated to a luxury holiday on a paradise island. Mental.

A Request

The Birkenstock online store is: www.birkenstock.co.uk.

The Otter & The Spaniel

5 Things About My Weekend In Cornwall

1. Yesterday I got back from a long weekend in Cornwall with Alex. We stayed at the Whiteford Temple, which is a little Landmark Trust place stuck out in the middle of nowhere, just the other side of Dartmoor. It was built as the summer house of a bigger estate; the rest of the estate was demonlished about 90 years ago, and the Temple is all that's left on top of a hill overlooking the Tamar valley. We made the most of the three huge floor to ceiling windows by waking up at 5am on Sunday morning to watch the sunrise. And then go back to sleep for another five hours....

2. On Saturday we went to The Eden Project, which was v touristy of us, but I'm glad we did it as it's really interesting, and very cool. I like what they're trying to do there; to make people realise the effect they have on the world, and get a real sense of the environmental cycle. It's not done in a preachy or self-righteous way, it's just very informative and interesting.

3. We walked quite a lot. We went for a late afternoon walk along the cliffs at Polperro for about two hours on Saturday, and on Sunday took the brave decision to walk five miles for our dinner! We went to the Springer Spaniel in Treburley. It took about 70 minutes to walk there in the dusk, but the fun bit was walking back after dinner! We were both quite pissed by this point, and thought it was a great idea to walk along the lanes without using the torch. It was worth it though, just to see the stars. You're lucky in London if you see five stars in the sky at night and at my parents in Somerset you see hundreds more, but I've never seen as many as this. The whole sky was sprinkled with them, and the more you looked the more you saw. Miraculously we made it back without getting lost.

4. It was gorgeous sunshine all weekend, with fluffy white clouds and cool wind. We spent Sunday wandering around Cotehele house and gardens. The house was good, but the gardens were better, and we wandered down to Cotehele Quay in the sunshine and had a cream tea. We took everything slowly this weekend, which is just what I was after, and had a lovely relaxing time, with no particular stress about anything, except when I navigated badly around Exeter. An easy mistake to make.

5. Bless Alex's car. He has a 1967 Morris Minor 1000. It's everso cute, but is not the speediest or the most comfortable thing in the world. It took us more than seven hours to get back yesterday, although that did include a short stop at a pottery on Dartmoor and lunch in Ottery St. Mary. Ottery St. Mary is a very odd little place, and you can't help thinking that it has suffered from having the bypass built around it, as it has the look of a place which used to have far more tourists, but hardly anyone ever goes there any more. We were disappointed to discover that the 'Ottery Nursery' was in fact a flower market, and not a home for baby otters.

Panic Over

5 Good Things

1. Much relieved to discover half dead bug actually looked a lot more like a June bug than a cockroach, which sounds plausible as I had my patio doors open most of Sunday afternoon. Not entirely placated yet, but am nearly back to being able to sit in my flat without constantly scanning the corners for evidence of life other than my own.

2. Last night I slept well in a clean fresh deliciously cotton bed. Always suprised what a difference it makes.

3. Today I have made people smile by giving them free tickets to see Black Eyed Peas on Friday. Of course, this is all down to my friend Garret who sent them to me; I am just a middleman. Am only slightly concerned that according to the Black Eyed Peas website, they appear to be touring in California this week, with no stops scheduled for Brixton at any point. Hmm...

4. I can't go to said gig (also a good thing) as on Friday morning I am off to Cornwall for a long weekend with Alex, who has now officially moved to Cambridge. I'm very much looking forward to it, although have made no plans at all about what to do, although may have to try the Eden Project. Four day weekend - woohoo!

5. I have ordered a pair of Birkenstocks online. According to many people I know this will be the greatest footwear decision I ever make.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

5 Things About Trying To Sleep Last Night

1. I've been traumatised recently by the number of things intruding into my flat. There was the burlgar, obviously, although that was a few months ago now. There are the mice (one of whom payed a visit on Sunday night), the spiders, and a strange large bug I found dying on my living room floor yesterday morning which looked suspiciously like a cockroach. There are also the noises: cars, music, shouting and animal sounds and the lights. Last night it all got a bit much and I was curled up in the middle of my bed convinced they were all coming to get me at once.

2. On Sunday morning I was woken at 7am by my nail clippers leaping off my chest of drawers onto the floor. I have no idea why. Is my flat to be haunted now on top of everything else? Last night I kept turning the light on to peer at them and see if they had moved. Perhaps I'll just keep them on the floor (like everything else) from now on.

3. When it is 2am and you are by yourself it becomes much easier to get worked into a bit of a stressed-out state and be unable to calm down.

4. I was also very thirsty and kept having to get up for water.

5. The few times I did sleep, I dreamt about things like going on holiday by myself to the Isle of Wight. All in all, it wasn't a very restful night.