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!

ONE SUNNY DAY IN HAMMERSMITH

God!  I have done so much recently, but have done little blogging about it! A rule of blogging is to do stuff to write about, but to make enough time to blog about it. So the equations are:

Do stuff + don't make time to write about it= bad blogger

Do stuff+ make time to write about it= good blogger.

Sorry if none of this makes sense or is a bit trippy, but I have, had a hard week a work and I've had a few glasses of wine to relax!  Actually thats another thing learnt:

Writing blog+ A few glasses of wine= mumbo jumbo!

Anyway lets get to the point!  Which was things I have done recently? Errrrrr? Oh yes, I went to the Hammersmith vintage clothing fair the other week which I have been meaning to do for ages. Its the oldest, best and probably most expensive vintage clothing fair in London.  Its happens about once a month at Hammersmith town hall.  If I had had a load of money, I could of brought nearly everything.  Unfortunately I don't so came away empty handed.  Deb's though came away with the most amazing 1920's dress for her 30th birthday.

The next Hammersmith Vintage clothing fair is on april 18th, at Hammersmith Town Hall
£10 from 8am-10am
£5 from 10am-5pm
You get a free ticket for the next event when you pay for the first time.

We then went down to the river, because we got a little excited because the day was sunny, and so we had our first meal of the year sat outside, drank cider and did what we do best: acting like idiots!  The best way to spent Sunday in my opinion.

THE EVER CHANGING MR PURFITT

Being a mad person (so I am told by many!), I seem to attract other mad people, as most of my friends, housemates, and pets are completely insane too.  I quite like it though, and think us types should really stick together.  This insanity also includes work too, as there are many people in this industry that are insane that I work with, but its more fun that way.  Maybe thats why I do my job?  Anyway, none are more fun and wacky than my Costume supervisor and good friend; Fraser.  He always makes me laugh even on the worst days, which makes him the best person to work with.  On our current job his latest thing seems to taking a new wig from the Make-up department each day and taking a photo of himself, which seems to bring him great amusement!  So here are the results and my little tribute to Mr Purfitt.  I hope it brings a smile to your face, like it did me.

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SPRING

 I have been a very bad blogger recently.  I've been working like a dog, so I haven't really done anything, which equals little to write about.  On top of that, my health has been quite bad lately.  For nearly 2 months now it has been one illness after another, but the last 2 weeks have been terrible.  Colds, coughs, migraines, sore throats, upset stomaches and to finish it off, I have spent most of the last three days over the toilet vomiting.  I feel like my body is falling apart.  I looked at myself in the mirror this morning and I didn't even recognise the person staring back at me.  My skin, which is usually pale at this time of year underneath the blush I wear, is more a grey tinge.  My eyes look tired, with bags hanging underneath them and my hair looks greasy and lifeless.  I haven't eaten properly in over 3 days.  I basically feel minging. It would have been all so horrible, if today the sun hadn't shone.  On the way home from the doctors (Again!), the sun gleamed down and after a morning nap I decided to grab my sketch pad and sit on the roof terrace, and make the most of the blue skies.  It felt so good to feel the rays on my face again.  It has been such a long, cold,  horrible winter that I've almost forgotten what the sun looked like, but  I know I'm going to see it more often from now on, as Spring is finally here and I couldn't be happier.  I think the colour has come back to my cheeks already.