RAINY OSLO

There is a rule in this country:  Never arrange any outdoor activities on a bank holiday weekend.  It will always be doomed for bank holidays are cursed with bad weather:  FACT!  So what did we do.  We arrange a BBQ on bank holiday weekend!    I think with all the good weather recently we got a little cocky and thought we could beat the curse.  Besides we were dying for our first Oslo house BBQ of the year, after seeing the West wingers last weekend bathing in the glory of the sun on their roof terrace, while I had to work all weekend in Bollywood hell!  Sorry I should explain.  Oslo house is divided into two buildings the west wing and the east wing.  There is a little bit of rivalry between the two, not on my part of course, but we do have a better roof terrace garden than them!  Alex my house mate likes the rivalry, because usual when she has had a few she likes to taunt the westies, across the roof top with things like "Your bonfire is shit!"  and "Your parties are crap", you know the usual friendly neighbour stuff?  Anyway back to our BBQ.  We decided the occasion was for Oli's belated birthday as he had been filming in Norway and even with the rain and the cold, we did the very British thing of getting on with it and moved the BBQ inside.  People still made the effort, we late shed loads of food, drank too much (again!) and then ended up at a party in White Post Lane watching a brass band play cool tunes till 4.00am or something like that.  Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery.  On second thoughts maybe it wasn't so bad considering the amount I had drunk.  Anyway I live in hope there will be lots more BBQ's this summer, preferably outside and with sun.

BOLLYWOOD

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm in love with India.  I've been travelling around it twice now, and it is probably my favourite out of all the countries I have been to.  That said though, you do have a funny relationship with India when you are there, as it pushes you to the edge, so when its good its the most amazing experience ever, and when its bad it drives you crazy, thus ending with a love hate thing with the place.  Its pretty much the same working on a Bollywood movie, as I have found out!  The day after I got back from Barbados I got a phone call from an old friend Tessa who is a production manager and was working on a Bollywood movie that was filming in London.  She needed extra costume people to help out as half the team from India had not got Visa's.  Cool, I thought.  Bollywood=cool costumes, singing and dancing and great locations.  All that was true, but it turns out you also get a lot more than you bargained for:  CHAOS!  I have been working in costume for film and TV nearly ten years now and have never experienced anything like this.  You see the Indian's seem to have this system that makes things 100 times harder than they should be!
The caste system seems very much there within the work system as only certain people can do certain things and you can't talk to someone direct:  You have to get someone else, who talks to someone else, who talks to someone else and then maybe they will then talk to the person you wanted to talk too, but by then there is probably only one world left of the original message you wished to relay!  The Indian's also work on fear, with shouting being more common than talking and a daily bonking usually to my department, seeming to be the usual.    It didn't help that my department all seemed to have the combined age of 7 between them, had never none a film before, were lazy, more interested in plucking their eyebrows and had only got on the film because they had family connections.   Me and my friend Deb's who had also been drafted in, took to hiding behind the clothes on the truck and laughing at the whole mad situation otherwise we would of cried: A LOT!
The film itself had two of Bollywood's biggest actors in it.  The main guy who  is the highest paid man in Bollywood and their answer to Brad Pitt, was rather disappointing to look at after all the fuss.  We called him Lego head due to the amount of Brylcream on his hair!
In the end I couldn't take it anymore and walked off, in dramatic style after having a huge argument with the supposed, in charge costume girl.  What follows are some of the sentences I used in that argument:

• You don't know your arse from your elbow!
• Your stupid!
• Your Lazy!
• I wouldn't employ you as a trainee!
• Go fuck yourself (To be fair though she said it to me first!)

So all in all very dignified, like the lady I am.  It wasn't all bad though.  I met some great people on that job, who I really liked. They also do this funny thing of putting on really loud music on when someone is acting, to get the mood, which was interesting but also piss funny.  So conclusion;  India I still love you, I just can't work with you!

PEGGY SUE

Oh! The wonders of the I Phone. It makes me wonder how I ever coped without it for all these years, with it lovely little Apps. Anyway thats enough endorsement of the multi-billion pound company that is Apple. One App that I do love is shazam though as it has introduced me to so many new bands and artist with just a press of a button. It was wandering around the west end the other week I heard a beautiful song that I hadn't got a clue who it was by. So I press my button and Shazam: It was by Peggy Sue and is called Watchman. I'm totally in love with it. So here it is. I hope you love it as much as me.

BARBADOS

So we made it eventually, after all the madness with that bloody volcano.  It was amazing and great to have so many members of my family together for the first time in years.  The wedding was a beautiful thing and I ended up being a bridesmaid, after the original girl couldn't make the new dates and I fitted in the dress.  I hate being a bridesmaid usually but I couldn't say no under the circumstances.  It was a shame though as I, had brought the most amazing 1950's strapless dress from a vintage shop in Camden passage in Islington for the wedding.  So I decided to wear it just round the swimming pool instead and I have other weddings this year I can wear it too.  I got a great tan, swam every day, got an addiction to Macaroni pie and drank far to much Rum.  Loved it!

EDINBURGH

So what do two girls do when their flights to far off exotic locations, get cancelled by some bloody volcano exploding in Iceland?  Sit around and feel sorry for themselves?  No!  They go on a girly road trip.  Its funny when you can't leave your own country and realise how much we take for granted and how little I have seen of this great isle.  Me and my friend charlie decided go all the way up to Bonny Scotland for the weekend, to Edinburgh, as both of us had never been.  I agreed to do this and to Charlie driving before I had learnt that she had written off two cars last year, and on that nine hour journey up there, my hair has become grey which you would be able to see if I didn't have so much bleach on it, (Thank god for bleach!)

As we were feeling a bit down about are cancelled flights, we decided this was going to be an extravagant weekend, so we only when and checked ourselves into the Missoni Hotel.  Actually they had discount rates due to the volcano ( I knew that volcano must be good for something!) 

After a shower, wandering around in our Missoni bath robes, and drinking from our Missoni cups, we headed out to the poshest restaurant in the city, The Witchery.  The witchery, that has seen every Celebrity from Jack Nicholson to Catherine Zeta Jones and Yes!  Even Danni Minogue ( I know!)  Its probably the most beautiful restaurant I have ever seen as it is set in an old 16th century merchants house.  Beauty comes at a price though as it was bloody expensive and I'm sure it was haunted, which meant Charlie wouldn't go the toilet and I tried to go as quick as possible ( Which is not very easy when you are wearing a leotard!)  Still the food was amazing and I had the best bottle of wine of my life  (Believe me, I've had a lot).  We also were the last ones to finish dining, so we had the place to ourselves, and I got some great pictures.

The witchery

Castle Hill

The Royal Mile

Edinburgh

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The next day we headed out for a real tourist day which included Edinburgh Castle for my history fix, because I'm such a history geek.  We then had a whiskey as its actually illegal not to drink it while in Scotland.  We then went on a ghost walk which seems like the in thing to do in Edinburgh.  This consisted of a woman dress like a Goth (Hate Goth's!), who whipped some beds arses, screamed a lot, and then took us all down into a dark cellar.  I think it was a ghost tour?

Saturday night we hit the town, downed to many drinks and ended up in a bar called Tiger Lilies.   There we met a group of guys from London, (Can't get away from them!).  After a few more drinks I ended up snogging one of them who was a stock broker and really hot (Though not hot enough for me to remember his name!)  Unfortunately as I have learnt in this life, when things seem to good to be true, they usually are, as I found out when one of his mates started having a go at him, because it turns out he had a girlfriend. Bastard!  Well there are plenty more fish in the sea.  Besides we finished the night in style with a rickshaw ride back to the hotel from some guy called Jim who had buns of steel and it was a very pleasant slight watching him work.  A great finish to a great weekend.