OVER AND OUT!

So I'm not going to be doing any posting for about two weeks, because I'm out of here!  Yes!  Tomorrow I'm off to Edinburgh for a girly weekend, then I'm straight onto Barbados for take two of my cousin's wedding after the first attempt was called off due to a bloody volcano erupting in Iceland! (I don't know if anyone heard about that?)   Anyway, hopefully I will have lots of tales and pictures when I get back.  God! I'm so jet set!  Over and out!

OBSERVATIONS

• Its really hard to do a blog post when your housemate is working from home and is ringing Naomi Campbell, Sting and Lord and Lady some thing beside you.  No! My housemate is not famous but is a PA for one of those London socialites with friends in high places!
• Why is it when you do liquid eyeliner, you always get one eye great and the other one so bad, it looks deformed.
• Having three cats is like having children!  Can't leave them for one minute, without there being trouble! The list includes, digging up the garden, emptying the bin and shitting in the potted plants!
• I seem to be doing a really bad Keira Knightley pout in this photo.  Oh dear!

ITS A WRAP

I think I might of mentioned that most of my life this past 4 months have been taken up with working on a children's drama for Nickelodeon, called Summer in Transylvania.  I've never really done much on kids dramas before, but I must admit its been one of my favourite jobs and far more creative costume wise than those boring old cop dramas, I seem to keep working on.  The cast were all wonderful and the crew were great.  I had so much fun and I'm going to miss them all dearly now the job has finished.  Summer in Transylvania should be on Nickelodeon sometime in the Autumn if anyone wants to check it out.  Here are some of the highlights of the job for me.

PENNY BLOOD

Even though I follow other people's blog's, I feel at times, like I'm the only person blogging in the world and that these other people don't really exist and that their lives are just made up by some super computer, that puts posts out on the net to read and give us some amusement (No, I am not on drugs, before you start. I just have a wild imagination!)  So it always comes has a nice surprise when I meet a fellow blogger (Well for a start they are real and not a super computer!)  The other week I met Miss Penny Blood of Penny Blood's Black Book blog (Penny's not her real name but I'm not telling!)  Anyway Miss blood was round at our flat talking about doing some work for my housemate's rich bitch boss's birthday, as Penny works for the great The Last Tuesday Society.  The Last Tuesday Society for you who don't know, does parties and events with the most crazy objects for decoration, such as stuffed animals and two headed skeletons.  Check out their shop on Mare Street, in Bethnal green.  Its more like some mad museum than a shop.

Penny herself was a great and interesting person, with a cool blog to match.  In fact, I had a bit of blog envy myself after she showed me hers, but thats not hard, as my presentation is not up to much (Must work on that when I have the time!)  The blog is beautiful and is all about great places to shop, eat and drink in London, that are a little bit off the beaten track.  Even though I like to think I'm the font of all knowledge about things in London, especially the East end, I have found out about some exciting new gems from it.  She also said we could come to the next The Last Tuesady Society Ball (Nice one!) Check out her blog here.

LOVE INJECTIONS

I spend so long these days surfing the net (Maybe too long!)   Most the time I'm looking at a load of shit, but every now and again I find something of real interest.  The other day I came across a great website by an artist called Brusse.  His work is all about finding different ways of expressing love.  Original, funny, and down right dirty at times:  All the things I love in life.  Check out his shop here.

VIRGINIA

The other week when I was out in Notting Hill, and before I got too drunk to remember anything, I  walked past the most amazing shop.  Its windows were like an Aladdin's cave of vintage at its best, and I wanted to go inside to explore some more.  Unfortunately its doors were closed and I was left disappointed.  I have since learnt that the shop, by the name of Virginia, is a bit of a secret gem among the Elite of london, for the best in vintage clothing.  It's owner Virginia Bates is a former actress who hand picks  each item herself from 1920's flapper dresses to Edwardian shawls of the highest quality.  The shops collection of clothing and accessories ranges from the 1880s to the 1940s.  Even John Galliano comes to the shop for inspiration for his collections.  All that said this doesn't make this shop cheap or easy to get into, as even though it does have official opening hours, its not always open and is best to call in advance. Its doesn't look like I will be getting through those doors anytime soon.  Well a girl can dream.

Virginia

98 Portland Road

Holland Park

W11 4LQ

Tel: 020 7727 9908

ONE LONG BIRTHDAY

I have had two very heavy weekends recently, which have included me nearly getting arrested for harassing a traffic Warden (I only wanted a picture of me wearing his hat!), and riding a bike up and down Portabello in a drunken state, thus falling off it,  and picking up some nasty cuts and bruises.  These events were all caused by us celebrating one of my best friends, Debbies 30th birthday, which became a two weekend event (She likes to do nothing by half!)
The first weekend event was started by having lunch at the Hawkesmoor  Restaurant.  I had heard that it did some of the best steaks in London, but not being a steak kinda girl, I have never been that bothered about going.  I'm glad I did go, though.  Jesus that place can do meat!  It seems that they serve a whole cow up on a plate!  I didn't opt for the steak, but for the burger, which when it turned up seemed bigger than me!  It was good though, maybe even, the best burger I have ever had.  One observation though:  we seemed to be the only females in there, as the place was teeming with groups of men, savouring and rejoicing in the MEAT!

Address: 157 Commercial Street, London E1 6BJ
Tel: 020 7247 7392 (reservation is a must)
Nearest Tube station: Liverpool Street

Us ladies then, next headed down to our old favourite; The Powder Room on Columbia Road, for a bit of much needed pampering.  I last went there for my birthday, 1940s party and had victory rolls.  This time I decided to go for a bit of a Veronica lake look with the Aphrodite hairstyle as I was wearing the good old vivien's of Holloway dress.

Claire gets the Powder Room treatment

The Powder Room

136 Columbia Road

E2 7RG

Tel: 0207 729 1365

Onto the night itself, which was held at the Boudicca Bar in Clerkenwell.  Its wasn't the best venue as the room was a funny shape and the DJ was crap, but it was a full house outing and a great chance to catch up with friends.  We all then went back to Deb's to carry on drinking to the early hours of the morning and danced away to David Bowie and Michael Jackson.

Me and Alex

The fur faces that are my housemates and little Bex's

Sophia and Deb's

Jannick, Evans and me

Sophie and Angus

The birthday Girl

Nic, Me, Bec's and Duncan

Oli, Claire and Alex

Weekend two was a girls only event! This equals trouble.

First up we booked into the Cow Shed in Holland Park to get our nails done and have a glass of champagne. Its was great fun, though we did get told off for being too noisy (Oophs!) and the woman that did my nails had really low rise jeans on and her arse kept hanging out which wasn't very pretty (Don't worry I cut her arse out of my photos. Didn't want anyone else having to go through that!)

The cowshed

119 Portland Road

Holland Park 

W11 4LN

TEL: 0207 078 1944

Dinner was just round the corner from Portebello at a lovely gastro pub Called Bumpkin.  It had some fit waiters as well, but we weren't sure if they were straight, something we kept discussing more through the meal, as the wine flowed.  One thing we were sure of though, was that the food was great and I had the most amazing Chicken and mushroom pie ever!

Bumpkin

209 Westbourne Park Road

Notting Hill

W11 1EA

Tel: 0207 243 9818

Warning after this things become very messy.  In fact things become very blurred as well.  Some bright spark decided we should go for a pub crawl down Portebello Road.  The next lot of pictures you will see is a record of a slow but sure decline in humans consuming alcohol.  Luckily my camera ran of battery, before the real madness of:  Getting strangers to write in our book of "Things to do when your 30!"; Downing free shots from the barman that Liz was chatting up; Liz getting his number!,Deb's kissing a market trader old enough to be her grandad, me and the traffic warden thing, me and the bike accident thing, Deb's kissing some guy called Sam, Deb's and Brown harassing some bin men?, Downing more shots, Deb's kissing some Guy called Fin, Liz kissing some guy called Joel, Deb's telling her boss she was never going to sleep with him!, me having to undress deb's and put her to bed, me waking up the next day very sore and spending the day trying to patch together the night before events!  Oh! Dear! Girls behaving badly.  Love it!