domestic 12 December 2011
Ah, the auld domestication has led to a terrible silence altogether, hasn’t it. I was overcome with the putting up of the clothes rail – which is still standing having listed and fallen only once (I put a bit of ballast, ie a suitcase, upon the base and as long as that stays put so will the rail..is the theory…) – and the encounter with the double-yolked eggs near;y finished me off (till I discovered you can buy boxes of them in the UK, which is cheating and not to be encouraged, and therefore I felt somewhat in danger of settling down so I took a trip to New York, as you do when these events threaten to take over. This time I was there, briefly, to see my friend Cillian Murphy in MISTERMAN (totally brilliant) at St Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. I stayed off ‘the island’ in said borough of Brooklyn in the Smith Street area and am now totally take with it. And, wouldn’t you know it, domestication (by way of creativity) followed me (stalked me, actually, truth be told) – I found 2 great knitting shops and purchased various inspirations and am now returned and hard at work on handmade items for friends and relatives for the festives. And I am as happy as the proverbial pig in sewage. Well, that and HRT have made sense of the year – hurrah!
More on the HRT anon…
excitement 29 November 2011
I live a sheltered life, it seems to me, and therefore a whole range of simple things delight me – witness the double-yolked eggs incident reported here recently. So, as you can imagine, I nearly passed out with excitement tonight as I reserved a digibox and a clothes rail on-line, to be collected tomorrow. It should also be noted that I’m not quite sure what a digibox is or what it does, just that a pal told me that I’d get much better reception on my London tv (and perhaps even more than 2 fuzzily delivered channels) if I purchased such a thing. I THINK I have done that now…tho who knows as I went by price alone – I seemed to think she said ‘it’s only 17.99’ so that’s the one I asked for…hey, it’s all part of the tumbling adventure that is this old gal dragging herself into the 21st century (mind you I am only 38 these days, so perhaps I shouldn’t be too hard on myself). Only one sleep till I go collect my booty – I may not be able to sleep with the thrill of it all!
mincemeat 26 November 2011
I got all domestic and tried my hand at making mincemeat. I think it turned out very well and now I’m the proud owner of several jars and one big bowl of the stuff. It was remarkably easy and even as I write I assume the concoction is fermenting nicely and the sugar and alcohol are having a lovely time and getting ever more flavourful as the days go by. And therein lies one of the other pleasures of the festive cookery – the hooch that goes into the various mixes. I’m thinking that for most cooks the delight of a tot of the hard tack as they go about their endeavours is part of the lure of festive preparations. I had the half can of cider left over from the recipe as well as a delicious glass of brandy and felt great…now to plan some more, and similar, activities (hic!)
rinky 22 November 2011
The little Rinky Tinky cat, aka Brenda, has become, suddenly and fairly utterly, a lap cat! She has spent the last 2 evenings gracing my knees without any cheesy, needy encouragement from me: just up she popped and stayed. What a clever and fabulous creature she is.
Miss Alice is not behind the door with cleverness either. She has always been a one for making you chase her to give her rubs and is now using that to her advantage. Indeed, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she was training us all along to get us to this point. Now, she comes in if we are watching television to dispense some affection and tempt us to follow her as we try to pet her…which journey always leads to her food bowl. She loves her grub and has put on half a kilo in the last fortnight! Sadly, I seem to be gaining weight too, in sympathy with her(?) though Himself is not (DOH! how do men do it, eh?)
yolks 21 November 2011
Until yesterday, I had only ever seen one double-yoked egg in my 49 years on earth. That auspicious event was at a time when I was performing in a play that mentioned such a thing and everyone involved took it to be a good omen and, if I remember correctly, it was. So, imagine my great and delighted surprise, as I cooked Sunday breakfast at McLynn Mansions, to discover that both of Himself’s eggs were double-yoked. I got very giddy indeed about that. Then, as I cooked my own, lo and behold, both were double-yoked too. At this stage I had to be removed from the ceiling with thrilldom. Today, the final 2 eggs of the 6-pack turned out to be…DOUBLE-YOKED ALSO! I’m not a superstitious woman but surely SURELY that has to mean some good thing?? And even if it doesn’t, the eggs were lovely. They were from Drogheda in the North East of Ireland, for those of you wondering and purchased in the Centra near Phibsboro Post Office on the northside of Dublin’s town…I may have to go and get more in case the phenomenon can be repeated because they really cheered me on my Sunday and Monday way and were worth the purchase price alone for that.
value 20 November 2011
In times of recession we’re all on the look-out for a bargain. My sister in law Rebecca (she of the wonderful paintings) told me of a pair of tights she bought in Stockport market very very cheaply. She did expect SOMETHING to be ‘not quite right’ about them at the price but what she did not expect was the added value of them having 3 legs…i guess that’s a whole lotta bang for your buck right there – 50% extra FREE!
treatment 15 November 2011
Joyce (in particular) – do not despair – here be a report on activities…
I had the great delight of going away on a spa break just now with an old friend from schooldays, Geraldine. And I guess I am allowed say old because we are 100 between the 2 of us now…EEEK! We took ourselves off to the wilds of the west of Ireland to Delphi Mountain Resort in Leenaun. It’s a lovely place in the most spectacular scenery and really does have 4 seasons every day, usually every hour at this time of year. There are a lot of adventurous activities that can be partook of, though we thought it best and safest for all that we stay indoors and have treatments and a variety of tasty foods and drinks (ahem).
The health suite has a lot of thermal doodahs for total relaxation as well as specifics like massages and facials. Indeed the facials are all organic and smell, and feel, fab. The rhubarb and strawberry face mask reminded me that I was (SURELY?) getting some of my 5-a-day by way of absorbing fruit through my skin, not to mention the chocolate mask that was a similar action but, well, with chocolate…I also had the best massage EVER from Barbara who told me I was in the top 10 worst neck, shoulders and back she’d ever encountered – totally bunged up with lactic acid etc right to the buttock! I was impressed because, yes, it’s a bad thing but, hey, it’s still a Top 10 finish for Yours Truly. Between the delicious pampering, and a right laugh, for 3 days I was reluctant to go home and was rather hoping the staff might just adopt me and insist that I be kept as the hotel pet.
Oh, and there’s normally no mobile phone coverage because it’s all tucked into some mountains so it was guilt-free ignoring of the ‘real’ world – one very windy day some signal seemed to blow in the front door and our phones beeped to tell us we had messages but then flew out the door again without giving us the wherewithal to check what they were. We dealt with this ‘frustration’ through the medium of wine…
ebony 27 October 2011
Sad news for JAM AND JERUSALEM fans. Sal’s good looking, talented and lovely dog, Ebony (played by Miss Sue Johnston’s own dog, Ebony) has left us. She was a wonder and never missed her mark when filming nor griped about conditions (even though she usually had to shared a car to work, and a dressing room, with Sue). She was also one of the gentlest creatures and most professional bitches I ever met or worked with. She died in Sue’s arms last Friday and all are bereft. Another star gone from our mortal world up into the firmament.
westminster 26 October 2011
I have played the Abbey! Last Friday the Bush Theatre extravaganza 66 BOOKS took 12 hours worth as a ‘vigil’ to Westminster Abbey (7pm Friday to 7am Saturday) and it was a magical and bizarre event to be part of. We still performed in a sequence mirroring the 24 hour version that we do on weekends at the new Bush Theatre on the Uxbridge Road. This meant my call time was 4.15…AM! I arrived at the Abbey to see it all lit up and knowing that I would be performing in there soon. After Big Ben chimed 5am I took to the stage and did my bit. It is of course an incredible and beautiful church and it was added magic to be able to walk around it and its environs in the dead of night. When the show ended at 7am, the main doors were opened and we all strolled out into a London dawn. I walked up home into Soho, with rooks cawing me to my little flat and the city getting ready for another weekend. Amazing.
3sum 17 October 2011
For all of you who have access to Comedy Central UK on your tv do check out THREESOME which starts tonight at 9.30 – I think you can catch a double bill, actually, so you’ll see my motherfromhell (Lorraine) in ep 2…enjoy!