A Bug's Life

seeing as he is in forn parts and not around to be wittered at. Includes the exciting tale of "What I did at the weekend"!

Okay, my New Year's Resolution of getting to bed at a sensible time (i.e. 10pm rather than the 11pm I had slipped to) is Not Working At All.

Have had a nice weekend including lots of socialising. I'm going to have to get used to the fact that now I live near enough to people to have a fairly spontaneous social life I'm not going to have the long, dull evenings to spend doing laundry, taxes etc!

Mum and Grandma came to visit me and the New House on Saturday (and brought me some Superflous Capitals to use in my typing) - I was particularly pleased to see Grandma, as she finds travel rather tiring these days so it was an especial honour that she made the trip up from Surrey. The house was duly admired, lots of oohing and aahing and appropriate exclamations of wonder over our curtains (chosen and fitted by us for the first ever after years of putting up with cheap-rented-house curtains).

We went out for a pub lunch (peking duck pancakes and a huge side salad) then into Cambridge to visit Primavera, an art shop and gallery which has lots of beautiful glass and ceramics. Grandma is a fan of Alan Caiger-Smith, and was keen to see some pottery he was displaying there - she was not disappointed. The prices were very scary, typically £600-£1000 for a 10" high vase. My mother was very taken with the lustrousness of the glaze and the way it made the vase appear almost alive and glowing - I tried to appreciate it but I just couldn't see that it made it £1000-worth of special.

This was my third visit to the shop, and I now felt ready to commit to a few things that had caught my eye on previous occasions. Nothing too insanely-priced, and the sale (15% off everything) did help. "What did she get?" wonders major_clanger (probably), "nothing too mad, I hope". I hope you can rest easy with this selection:

i) A glass wall-hanging by Eryka Issacs, just four pieces hung vertically and it does look good on some of our walls where the light catches it. There are various bits of metal etc embedded in the glass to make it look interesting. I may like some DIY consultancy about what sort of hook to get and how to attach it to our thin plasterboard walls. I managed not to get the £750 7x5 hanging (after all, where would we put it? :-)) And it got bought for us as a house-warming present! Grandma bought a single one to wear as a necklace - she'll be the funkiest person in Haslemere, as it is very chunky!

ii) One of those glass bottles you thought were rather unsettling - by the appropriately unsettlingly-named James Carcass. The link shows some of his other work, including some dribbling glass heads, quite disturbing, but I have bought a small glass bottle, half-moon shaped with a wide base, the outside ground glass and the inside stained blue, with a stopper in the shape of a human head. Nice painted ceramic, not glass. I find it quirky and odd, the shape, texture and colours are pleasing and harmoniously balanced to me but the presence of the head makes me stop and question what is going on. (Sorry about the weak Art Interpretation folks, but I'm trying to have Feelings (eg disturbed) about things rather than just Thoughts (eg What an odd bottle).(And it was in the sale, and I can hide it in a drawer when you are at home... and it got bought for me as a late Christmas present)

iii) And then on Sunday I went back again - it was the last day of the sale but the shop was completely empty! I had a good time to look at various pieces of the glass you and I liked (by Lara Aldridge, containing pigments and gold leaf and solder, interesting when transmitting and reflecting light) and chose a square dish which I hope will be okay.

Then home for tea (from wedding china) and chat and chocolate biscuits.

Shortly after they left, I got a phone call from groliffe(who doesn't intend to be as mysterious as he appears, he just doesn't post anything) to see if he and Caro Winolj could come round - and they did, and there was more chat and chocolate biscuits and two bottles of wine - nice, this spontaneous socialising lark! I must break my habit of sitting at home alone, and call people up myself. I just sort of forget that it's possible.

Sunday morning was a morning for housework, laundry, washing up, and boiling up some wild rice to freeze so I can easily add some to future rice dishes. I have to get my tax return sorted out soon and finish collating TWP, so I sorted out the herbs and spices cupboard, ditching anything which was so old it smelt like dust or that we used once in the last five years (eg whole coriander, cinammon sticks), and cleaning the remaining jars etc.

Next, a walk into town that ended up taking 2 1/2 hours (if I'm going to be the Amazing Walk Everywhere Woman, I should walk places at least occasionally). Bed head is ready to collect (but not by me, it's far too big! and on such a windy day, the package would blow me right along the road!), by Feb 1 if poss. Did a fair bit of walking around to get my bearings and join up bits of Cambridge in my head so I can go places more efficiently in future, finishing up at the afore-mentioned Primavera for decorative glass shopping.

Phew! Was pooped! Showered and changed into new expensive (£28 from Dorothy Perkins) frock for going to groliffe and Caro's for dinner. I feared the frock was indecently short, but wore leggings underneath and it seemed to be okay. It's a bit Austin Powers-y, and quite a lot Bridgetty. I don't know if I'd dare wear it to Colorado next weekend if the temperatures are as low as you say (or is it nice and warm inside the buildings?) Dinner was amazing, being suitable for the vegetarian Caro and the non-dairy Bridget and being delicious as well! The starter was soup, which looked like a creamy chowder but was actually thickened with rice and egg - had a bit of a lemony Thai twist to the taste as well. Main course was noodles and roasted vegetables and marinated tofu, very tasty. And pudding was it must have been a half pint of chocolate mousse! Dark chocolate, eggs, sugar, and Grand Marnier. Cor! Yum! No cream (on mine)! Yum! (spends a minute thinking about what to write next, before deciding on) Yum! (again) Also met Judy and Derek Winolj Afaik - Judy making a biiiig fuss of the cats (who were posing nicely and presenting tummies for stroking).

And after one glass of white, one of red, one of a Sauternes, and a brandy, here I am back at home. Got to go to work tomorrow morning. Wah. live_gerbils say "Hello. Squeak. Give us food." Hope to speak to you soon!