Like this postwoke up this morning to a knock on the door from the postman and this beautiful parcel:
i am so lucky to have such a thoughtful sister.
exciting, informative, snarky, and very likely fabricated tales of life as an american expat in london
you can’t stop wishing if you don’t let go
i was going through a bunch of photos from our trip last year. i can’t believe it’s been more than a year now since we’ve been back. in a way it feels like yesterday. in a way it feels like ages ago.
i wanted so desperately to hang on to that relaxed, open-armed, open-hearted girl – the one with the wide eyes and insatiable thirst for adventure. in spite of all my best intentions, she’s been lost, ground down, washed out.
the less i have to hold on to, the more it feels like the whole thing was a dream – and the photos are the only thing i have left.
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a trail of ruby red and diamond white hits her like a sunrise
bonfire night is one of my favourite u.k. holidays. our flat is on the 4th floor, and throughout the weekend I’ve been watching the long stretch of horizon from Canary Wharf to Wimbledon bloom with electric neon flowers across the sky, gazing mesmerised with childlike delight every time another show begins.
giant gaudy chrysanthemums, tall spiky larkspurs, small clusters of baby’s breath, big fluffy peonies, bold bursting stargazer lillies. i have no garden, but i have these beautiful blossoms on display every year.
john mayer – neon
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solidarity
this morning i participated in the london demonstrations in support of burma.
there is nothing so moving to me as being part of a show of numbers, taking to the streets in force, demanding attention from the government on behalf of a cause you feel in your bones to be right. to be passionate and vocal and strident, and to be surrounded by others who feel the same.
it’s a beautiful thing.
a few photos (though it is difficult to march and snap pics at the same time!)
more photos here
the go! team – we just won’t be defeated
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the summer sets, the lights go out
the change in season has such a profound effect on me. it’s this time every year i long for misty mornings, long cool walks in the woods, crispy leaves edged with frost.
jewel-red cranberry bogs, squat pumpkins, clouds of warm breath hanging in brisk air, hills of mingled gold and green, hot cups of cider, glassy ponds in sunlight, doors hung with clusters of indian corn, apple picking excursions, burnished horsechestnuts littering the pavement, aisles of halloween candy, children bundled up for the morning schoolbus.
every year, it blindsides me. the ache for a new england fall is as sharp as the surprise of the season’s first cold snap.
the longer i’m away, the more i miss it.
kings of convenience – gold in the air of summer
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the changing of the guard
i love my combat boots. i’m currently breaking in a new pair because my old pair are so worn, the shoe nails are coming up through the inside of the heel, making them just a *little* uncomfortable. not bad, considering i’ve had them for four years.
i wear my combat boots everywhere. i wear them to management meetings, to concerts, to the grocery store, and would have happily worn them with my wedding dress if we weren’t married on a beach. i have learned that combat boots and sand don’t mix.
i have worn a pair of combats nearly 365 days a year, for the past 10 years. there’s just something about them that makes me feel comfortable and confident. no matter what else i may be wearing, no matter where i may be, they’re my “fuck the establishment” declaration. they are my signature accessory, and they make me happy.
but breaking them in sure is a bitch.
kirsty maccoll – in these shoes
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lost
my sister’s harley cat has been missing since monday evening. there are coyotes in the neighbourhood. please think a good thought for his safe return home. we all love him and miss him and are very worried.
graceless, we’ll lose the battle
i got my first professional hair colour yesterday. i’ve dyed my hair every shade of the rainbow since i was 19, and never before paid someone to do it for me. unfortunately the greys are coming in fast and furious (thanks dad!) and the box stuff just isn’t covering them any more. my one real vanity – i hate looking older than i feel.
i don’t know why i was so nervous, going into the salon. i used to be a lot more adventurous with my hair, changing it on a whim without a care, even after some spectacular disasters (i once had to walk around for a whole day with unintentionally green hair). i’ve had it cropped and platinum, black and bobbed, red and blue striped. for the past few years, though, i’ve stuck pretty solidly to long and red, with a brief bob dalliance in between.
perhaps it’s a side effect of growing older, this newfound hesitance. all through my twenties, my motto was, “it’s only hair, it grows back”. these days it seems i’m less willing to risk having to live with a mistake. i’ve never been timid with my hair before.
which is why, when i got my hair done yesterday, i had this sudden impulse to say “fuck it”. yep, it’s even brighter in person. i love it.
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(public service announcement: i’m off to the states for two weeks starting tomorrow, so blogging may be light. if i don’t check in between now and then, have a wonderful bank holiday, and see y’all on the other side.)
she’s got moxie
it was just a weekend full of visitors as my friend stacey came through town on sunday. we spent the day hanging out in central london, including a wander through covent garden. i mostly try to avoid any potential tourist areas during the summer, but i’m so glad we threw caution to the wind and went anyway, because it lead to two amazing discoveries.
first, i finally found the cybercandy store. i’ve known of its existence for a while, but never remembered to look up the address when i was planning to be in the area, or managed to find it just by chance. stacey, however, showed me the way, and oh. my. god. if there is such a thing as a candy-induced orgasm, then that’s exactly what i had. they had favourites i hadn’t seen since childhood, candies i wasn’t even sure they made any more. clark bars, chuckles, good-n-plenty, jolly rancher sticks, nik-l-nips, sky bars, pop rocks, and even the incredibly elusive, thoroughly new england moxie. they also had some of my favourites from other countries – like the delicious cherry ripes, violet crumbles, and snifters from australia/new zealand, or the choco-bananas, alterna-kit-kats and pocky that j and i became addicted to during our travels through asia. it was pure, unadulterated, sugar-coated, sticky bliss. i barely made it out of the store with my credit card intact.
the second fabulous discovery of the day was a new mexican restaurant called wahaca. i’d read a review in one of the papers, and knew it was in the covent garden area, but it took ringing stacey’s husband and having him research it online to find the place. and it was soooo worth it.
good mexican food is a rarity on this little island, with the disappointments and “wtf?”s far outweighing the pleasant “mexican” dining experiences to be had. the best one can usually hope for is a reasonable facsimile of something tex-mex-ish and a margarita that at least has lime in it, (i was once served, in all seriousness, a double shot of tequila on ice as a margarita), so we weren’t expecting much. we ordered mexican tapas-like “street food”, tortillas with guac, and margaritas for our late lunch. and what a pleasant surprise! the food was flavourful and fresh and even pretty authentic. the sauces were balanced with just the right amount of heat, the guacamole had no cream in it, just chunky avo, tomato, onion and a hint of cilantro. and the margarita… all i can say is i had resigned myself to throwing £5 down the drain when i ordered it, but it was easily the best margarita i’ve had in the u.k. – and better than many i’ve had in the states. liquid gold it was, and we savoured every last drop. to top it off, it was all very reasonably priced (can you say free tortilla chip refills?) the only niggle was the service, which could’ve been much better (er, like bringing the appetizers and drinks *before* the food, not 10 minutes after). and even with that, it was a veritable gem of a find.
a few photos of the day w/ stacey.
i need you when you listen to me
some days i just miss my friends back in the u.s. so terribly.
alex and mike came through london this weekend, so last night j and i went to hang out with them at their hotel. we feasted on indian food, then, after the kids were in bed, sucked down several bottles of wine and just talked. and talked and talked. we talked about travelling and politics and second-vs.-third wave feminism and city culture and school systems and chavez and punishment-vs.-rehabilitation.
and it’s not so much that we had great conversation – it’s that they’re the kind of friends where great conversation is effortless. where there’s that intangible connection that comes from being on the same wavelength. where deep affection springs from shared perspective and understanding. get-togethers with them are like a really great date, where you find yourself wanting to be around them more often.
they’re intelligent, adventurous, socially conscious, politically liberal, hilariously funny, and endearingly self-deprecating. they also happen to have two of the most precocious and genuinely engaging kids i know. alex and i took them to the natural history museum today and they were just so cool.
i love ‘em to bits and wish they weren’t a continent away.
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little green miracles
“and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.”
pablo neruda – from “ode to tomatoes”
lost in the new forest
lovely weekend camping in the new forest with chris, tonia, (and jude!), kerryn and tracey. after a really crap week, i was looking forward to this mini-getaway.
it didn’t get off to the most auspicious start, however, when we didn’t end up leaving on friday evening as planned. making the most of a bad situation, however, we went to the cinema to see “transformers” which (aside from grossly oversexualising the teenage female lead and being an unapologetically pro-military propaganda piece) was a delightfully engaging and enjoyable piece of fluff.
early saturday morning we headed down and met up with chris and ton, who’d arrived the night before, just in time for a big brunch barbeque and the marginally appropriate cocktail hour of eleven. we stuffed ourselves silly, took a short rest, and decided to head into the forest for a brisk constitutional.
and, in spite of the fact that the new forest is fully pathed, signposted, and the size of a large postage stamp, we got lost. probably the only people in the history of the new forest to ever achieve such an ignominious accomplishment. we wandered for three and a half hours – at first content merely to meander, after an hour or two mildly wondering when we would emerge someplace recognisable, and finally trudging along on the brink of hysteria until we stumbled across some hikers with a map.
finally, blissfully, we popped out in the village of brockenhurst where we immediately sought refuge in a pub. rehydrated and refreshed, we headed off again, and eventually dragged ourselves back to the campsite at dusk, a full 7 hours later, only to discover the wild donkeys had attempted to break into our tents in our absence. as the sun dropped, so did the temperature, until we were shivering with the chill, but we bundled up and sat by the fire, drinking beers and craning our necks to watch the early part of the meteor showers.
we were awakened this morning to the pre-dawn cry of “moo cows!” by the early-rising jude, and breakfasted on tea, rusks and muffins. as we were rousing ourselves, however, the sky darken and began to rain, necessitating an early pack-up and departure. instead, we headed for the nearby coast, where we strolled on the beach, walked out to hurst castle, and lounged in the sunlight, catching the ferry back to our cars, where we piled in and headed home.
a weekend full of unexpectedly delightful surprises. more photos here.
amazon doesn’t suck
so i bought my fancy camera from amazon.co.uk on thursday. it arrived on saturday. on sunday i discovered something was wrong with it. on monday i sent them an email. tuesday morning i had a replacement in my hands.
not too shabby.
more playing around… (yes, i realise these are interesting to no one but me… but j won’t let me near him with the camera again 
)
the longest day
Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colors
which it passes to a row of ancient trees.
You look, and soon these two worlds both leave you
one part climbs toward heaven, one sinks to earth.
leaving you, not really belonging to either,
not so hopelessly dark as that house that is silent,
not so unswervingly given to the eternal as that thing
that turns to a star each night and climbs–
leaving you (it is impossible to untangle the threads)
your own life, timid and standing high and growing,
so that, sometimes blocked in, sometimes reaching out,
one moment your life is a stone in you, and the next, a star.
“Sunset” – Rainer Maria Rilke
zeke as junior birdman
zeke chirps at birds outside the window. it’s hilarious, and we wake up every morning to zeke chirping on our windowsill at the birds in the treetops.
this afternoon, 2 pigeons landed on the balcony, and he was talking to them for a good ten minutes, so i tried to video it. our camera’s video function isn’t great, and he’s not very loud, but if you listen closely (especially at the end) you can hear him. my theory is he thinks he’s going to lure the birds close enough to eat them.
asobi seksu – lions and tigers
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on beauty
i’ve been fascinated by these images for several weeks now – i keep returning to them over and over again, drawn to their power. they are stunning. arresting. inspiring. in particular, the world water day essay, the chernobyl essay, the steve mccurry essay, and the guantanamo essay.
sometimes you just need to share some beauty.
you can also check them out via slate’s featured photos.
broken social scene – looks just like the sun
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