THE ARRIVAL OF LORD ROGERS

Me and Deb's headed to Heathrow the other day to pick up our good friend James, or as we like to call him  "Lord Rogers!"  We all went to uni and we lived in London together but he went to live in New Zealand about five years ago, but is back for the holidays.  He is a lovely guy, he just has a tendency of being on another planet that isn't realistic and can be a bit of a snob, but in the most funny way.  Hence the name Lord Rogers.  I last saw him 2 years ago when I was sat in a hospital bed attached to a drip, feeling like hell, very ill, in a hospital in Hackney.  The scene was as follows:
James waltzes into the ward leaving Debs trailing in his wake.  He plonks himself down at the end of my bed and looks around in horror and starts on one.
"Well I heard it was a hell hole and it is!  Though its not as hellish as I thought, but only just."
I stare back at him blankly, out of it.
He looks around again and spots the crazy obese woman in the bed opposite, who is screaming and has pulled out most of her hair! (She also told us the doctors were trying to kill us all every time they came to do check ups!)
"Oh God Carls!  Your in an insane ward.  Is it safe?  Are you Safe here?"  He said
I stare back blankly, out of it!
"Is She safe here do you think?  He asks Deb's.
She looks bemused.  I am still staring back blankly!  He continues:
"How's the food here?  I bet its crap, isn't it?  when I was in New zealand in hospital, they gave me fresh fruit everyday and the food was amazing, but they did give me my own private room which was so lovely."
I finally snap!
"James why don't you just piss off and stop making this hell worse than it already is!"  I stare back blankly, out of it.
"I'll forgive you carls!"  He retorts "You are clearly on too many drugs and you don't know what you are saying anymore.  Besides I'm hungry.  Come on Deb's, lets go!"
So he waltzes of out of the ward with Deb's trailing behind in his wake.

He was arriving back in the country with his boyfriend Jono, So me and Deb's thought we would give him the arrival he deserved, by giving him his own sign.  Warning do not hold up a sign at an airport saying "Lord Rogers and Man Servant" with out expecting to get some funny looks, which we got lots of.  Who cares? James and Jono, thought it was a deserving and funny welcome sign and it was good to see my old friend again.  Jono is lovely too, and hot.  Its a good job he's gay as me and Debs would have been fighting over him.

SNOW SHOPPING

So I have started working on my new job.  I think this one is going to be fun.  Its called the Freaky Farleys and is a kids drama for Nickelodeon.  Its not the most high profile job I have done, but costume wise its really exciting and creative, with Werewolves, vampires and Zombies all done with a Japanese street style twist.  We are just prepping this week, which means a lot of shopping, mainly around Camden and vintage shops: Heaven!  Well apart from the constant snow and ice cold winds that have been around all week.  It makes shopping a dangerous experience!

THAT IS WHY THE LADY IS A TRAMP!

This is a picture of me leaving the my mates house after sleeping the night on her sofa because of another wild night on the tiles.  Yes!  I am wearing PJ's, as I was to hung over to change into the previous nights clothing which I am carrying in a plastic bag.  I'm also wearing heels as they were the only shoes I had, and a hat that I stole from one of the Cuban brothers after straggling him in my playsuit and grinding him on his lap!!! Anyway i got some looks as I came back into my building but I think I was still to drunk to care.  Besides PJ's are so this season thanks to D&G's collection, so this was like my homage to it?

 Well thats one way of looking at it or you could just say "That is why the lady is a tramp!"

CHARLENE MULLEN

So I've been working on The Bill recently.  Its not very interesting costume wise.  All those police uniforms get very boring, but it pays the bills in these hard times.  We were filming in Dulwich for 2 weeks doing some siege scene. It was like groundhog day, as the scenes we shot all seemed to be more or less the same.  I could of quite easily of tore my hair out with boredom, but there was one redeeming factor on this shoot.  We were filming in the house of a lady called Charlene Mullen, who makes the most amazing cushions, throws and art work, which she sells at such establishments as Liberty's and has clients such as Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan.

 I was a huge fan of her work especially her cat cushions which were called Ralph's extended family, in honour of her cream Persian Cat, called Ralph!

 Ralph became quite a favourite among the crew and demanded more attention than the actors and believe me that is  a hard thing to do! He even tried to get on camera by jumping on one of the actors, lap during a take (For me, it was the most interesting scene during the whole shoot!)  Anyway  Charlene made a killing over the 2 weeks with most of the crew and actors buying her work.  Unfortunately I couldn't afford one, as there not cheap and I'm totally broke at the moment.  Well I can still dream.  Check out her website by clicking here.

THE BROADWAY

London has so many markets to choose from, which is great as I'm a bit of a market junkie these days.  Got to get my fix, you know!  I've been living in London, seven years now (God! Time fly's when your having fun!) and I think I have been to every market in london: Portobello, Camden, Spitalfields, Greenwich, Brick Lane, Columbia Road, the list could go on forever.  Though I feel I have now found myself a favourite:  Broadway Market.  You can find me there most Saturdays milling around, doing not a lot apart from eating, looking, and bumping into people.  It's only small and still not very well know unless you live in the area.  I think that's what makes it so special.  It has become a social meeting ground for most people, with its bars and cafe's.  I like to call it the promenade, as its full of complete posers:  The young way out there trendies who loiter outside the Cat and Mutton;

 The dog owners beaming as everyone looks adoringly or strokes their all so cute dogs that they like to parade up and down with in a show off manner;

and then there are the cyclist who all like to chain up their bikes at the end while checking out if anyone has one better than theirs.  OK! It might seem that I am selling this place short.  All I have said is true but I still love it!  Maybe it's because:

1. I like people watching
2. The food is great (Especially the Samosa Chatt store:  I'm addicted)!
3. Probably because I fall into most of the descriptions of the people I mentioned above.  Well apart from the dog one as I don't have a dog, but if I could take the cats, I probably would.  In fact we have a cat lead for Hank now as we are trying to make him do some exercise as he is getting fat!  Problem is, he hates it.  It also looks a bit like a piece of gay bondage equipment!

This weekend it was one big social gathering at the Broadway, as we were all meeting up to have a final coffee with our friend Sal before she goes back to live in OZ.  She has been here a couple of years now and is a great character, but has now done her bit in London and misses home to much.  Good bye Miss Sally, you will be sadly missed.  On the plus side that means there is another person I can go and stay with if I go back down under.

                                                                 Deb's and Alex

                                            Jesus!  We look like a miserable bunch.

                                                                             Sally

OBSERVATIONS

• It has been tried many times, but finally I have completed a week with out a single drop of alcohol touching my mouth, in what has been a very long time!  Maybe the party girl is calming down?

• I thought you weren't meant to get spots anymore, when you get older?  My skin has been shocking recently.  Maybe staying off the booze will help it!

• Everyone seems to be leaving the country at the moment!  Now Thenasis my Neighbour is going back home to Greece after being here for 10 years.  I know I have complained about his music taste for the past 3 years, but I do believe I will miss his big bear like voice booming out Greek songs and bad 80's music at 8.00am on a sunday morning.  It has grown quite comforting in a very strange way over the years.  It won't be quite the same with silence.

THE MALDIVES

I was very surprised recently when my sister asked me if I would go with her on a trip recently.  Before I go any further, I should explain.  My sister is a long haul trolley dolly for monarch and gets week stops overs in exotic locatons around the world for free and I get to stay with her for free as well! Anyway back to the story.  I was surprised because the last trip she took me on, which was Goa India, I told her after the week was over I wasn't getting on the plane home, and was going to go off travelling on my own round India for a bit.  She almost had a heart attack!  Actually so did my mother, as they thought I would not come home alive, but hey, I'm still here!  The destination this time was to the Maldives, so it suddenly became quite apparent why she had invited me.  The Maldives is a group of islands in the middle of the Indian ocean, miles from any mainland. This equals:  Little chance of escape, for me to go off roaming again!  To be double sure as well, my sister insisted on me taking a suitcase instead of the usual rucksack.  I had to borrow one off my house mates as I actually don't own a suitcase.

After an 10 hour flight which, was worse than it should of been due to my big hangover after another wild house party in the Wick at Eric's Vinyl Pimp,  we arrived in paradise (Literally as this was the name of the island).  I always use to think when I was younger that the pictures in the magazines were not real.  The sky could not be that blue; the sea that clear and the sand that white, but believe me they are.  To be fair though I only had Blackpool as a reference point as a child!
The only thing with these islands is I do like to wander, which is a bit hard to do when you can walk round the place in under half around!  I stuck to snorkelling instead, which gave my sister another heart attack due to the strong currents and the fact I was swimming with sharks (They weren't that big though).

  There was a down side to this trip.  The music!  Me and my sister our very different, chalk and cheese in fact especially when it comes to music.  Having to listen to Cheryl Cole and Alexandra etc on repeat on the i Pod speakers nearly sent me over the edge.  I also didn't get a good response when I tried to put on the Velvet Underground and the Pixies, as it seems all the other air hostesses have the same taste in music as my sister!  So I listened to my music on my headphones, read and wrote a lot. I had some great writing material over there especially meeting my sisters fellow hostess who had OCD, told me she use to stalk her boyfriend to the point she brought a flat opposite his; is now going out with him, but won't let him meet any of her friends because she says he's so ugly!  Mad!  Definitely a good character for a book.

Back now in sunny England (Not!) and straight back into work (It sucks!), but am feeling relaxed and all the better for a week in the sun.  Also have a nice tan, but not leathery like the nan from Benidorm.  She is going back to India next month, maybe I can convince her to take me?

          OBSERVATIONS

• The magician at the hotel in the Maldives is not allowed to use doves anymore in his performance, as the week before we arrived he pulled it out of the hat and it flew straight into one of the ceiling fans.  There blood and feathers everywhere and a lot of opened mouthed kids sat in shock

• Why do I always get the old man sat next to me on the tube that smells of stale piss!

• Japanese honey moon couples don't actually talk to each other, they just go round with a camera on a tripod and take thousands of pictures of each other.  Remind me never to go to a Japanese holiday slide show, it must be like pulling teeth.  If you do go to one, take a big bottle of vodka: You'll need it!

DOG DAYS

Check out this short film which was made for the BBC Electric Proms this year.  Its an interpretation of Florence and the Machine's Dog Days.  It also stars my good friend Jordan, as John.  It's just such a beautiful piece I hope you like it as much as I do.