Rose petal sarnie anyone?

There are few things more exciting than collecting brown paper packages from the Post Office. Yesterday I opened one to discover The Vintage Tea Party Book! Thank you Taryn and Steve for this amazing Christmas gift. I am so in looooooove with this book. These pics don't begin to do it justice. Every page is positively dripping with rose petal cakes, Union Jack flags and chiffon lemon squares. There are chapters on sourcing props, playing parlour games, making a hat and picking the perfect vintage dress - aka: heaven! Nadia, I know you're coming for tea today but don't get too excited. I just have Spar chocolate rolls for you but give me time friend, give me time. x

Louis

Owing to being ill and not having any internet, I've been grabbing any spare time to just chill in a bid to rest up. Bit hard when there are final club nights and weddings to attend! Anyway, a mate of mine lent me a ton of doccos to watch and among the batch were some of Louis Theroux’s. Oh my goodness. How amazing is Louis?! I’ve heard so much about him and now I get the hype! For those of you that don’t know, Louis is a British journalist that makes doccos about sub-cultures like swingers and thai brides and crazy religious types. He interviews all sorts of oddballs and the stories are just fascinating. Plus he looks a bit like a British Jim Halpert – dreamy! He cracks me up because he’ll be talking to some white supremist or something and he’ll say ‘Don’t you think that’s just a little bit weird?’ Haha! So British. He’s dead intelligent though and brilliant at extracting these shocking, honest nuggets out of people!

Oh, and this is what I ended up reading at Tracy's wedding – it’s from When Harry Met Sally. I also said a bit about our friendship through mascara tears – what a wreck.

I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

PS: Promise to upload some pics during the holidays. Only three and half more days to go!

Saturday November 30th

       "What did I ever see in Pandora Braithwaite? She is an opinionated, arrogant ball-breaker. An all-round nasty piece of work. Compared to Bianca, she is nothing, nothing. And as for Leonora De Witt, I can hardly remember her face.
      I never want to leave this room. I want to live the whole of my life within these four walls (with occasional trips to the bathroom, which we have to share with a fire-eater called Norman).
      The walls are painted lavender blue and Bianca has stuck stars and moons on the ceiling which glow in the dark. There is a poster of Sydney Harbour Bridge on the wall between the windows. There is a double bed with an Indian bedspread covered in cushions; a chest of drawers that Bianca has painted white; an old armchair covered in a large tablecloth. A wonky table, half painted in gold, and two pine chairs. Instead of a bedhead, we have got a blown-up photograph on the wall of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Bianca’s hero.
      Every morning when I wake up, I can’t believe that the slim girl with the long legs who is lying next to me is mine! I always get out of bed first and put the kettle on the Baby Belling cooker. I then put two slices of toast under the grill and serve my love with her breakfast in bed. I won’t allow her to get out of bed until the gas fire has warmed the room. She catches cold easily.
      I want to please her more than I want to please myself.
      This morning, ‘Stand By Me’, sung by Ben E. King, was playing on Capital Radio.
      I said, ‘I love this song. My father used to play it?
      Bianca said, ‘So do I.’
      We danced to it, me in my boxer shorts and Bianca in her pink knickers with the flowers on.
      ‘Stand By Me’ is now our song."

_________________________________________________________

I have to do a reading at a wedding on Saturday and I came close to reading this scene from Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years. It's my absolute favourite scene from a novel and the ultimate picture of love in my books! Adrian in his boxers and Bianca in her knickers. Thought I might get a few squiff looks if I rattled this off so am going with something a touch more traditional. Been down with a dreaded cold so taking a blogging break till I'm feeling a bit better. Hope you're all well. x

"You can always come 'round and listen to it at my spot"

I just love this scene when Sydney surprises Alison with the soundtrack of her favourite movie and they dance around his poky little flat. Reminds me of my fave scene in one of the Adrian Mole books. Just loved this movie – How to lose friends and alienate people.

Screencaps by me

Fave Male Movie Characters

Ha. Everyone is so pensive except for smiley Heath.

Some of your faves here too?

Andrew in Garden State / Patrick in 10 Things I Hate About You / Troy in Reality Bites / Richie in The Royal Tenenbaums / Joel in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind / Gilbert in What's Eating Gilbert Grape / Noah The Notebook

Pearl Jam Twenty

Just got back from the premier of Pearl Jam Twenty. Wow. Wow. Wow. I haven't seen alot of big bands in my life but even though it was a docco, I feel the same as I did after seeing The Breeders. Just - mind blown. For those of you that haven't heard about it (I hadn't till a few days ago), it's a two-hour docco/film about the band's career, written and directed by Cameron Crowe. Afterwards, everyone was talking about how their teenage memories just came flooding back. Cue my personal indulgent flashback! I vividly remember buying my first Pearl Jam cassette. My folks and I were strolling through this random market that used to take place beside the bay (harbour? I shamefully no nothing of Durban's erm, watermarks) at the end of Point Road. Anyway, I was thirteen and just loving life! Not. Up until then, I'd only heard a handful of Pearl Jam singles but I knew they were one of the cool bands to know. Not cool as in, impress the popular kids at school, but rather, cool as in, impress the couple of kids that were into alternative culture. This market was seriously random but there was this guy flogging cassettes at a table. I spotted Pearl Jam's Vitalogy and asked my mom to please buy it for me. I think it was eleven bucks. Honestly, I felt like I'd stumbled upon a piece of secret gold. On the way home, we stopped at a garden nursery. I stayed in the car to listen to the cassette and it was just...disturbing and dissonant and great. That cassette sleeve with the anatomy diagrams freaked me out! While Pearl Jam never became my all-time fave, Vitalogy was one of many albums that got me through the first few years of highschool. But enough rambling, I just wanted to tell you that if you are a Pearl Jam fan, you should definitely watch this docco. I had no idea what down-to-earth sweethearts these guys are. I'm too knackered to go into the detail but every scene was one awesome surprise after the next. Alot of these band doccos tend to sensationalise the drug-fuelled dramas of the time but this one was quite the opposite. It's just really moving and interesting with a couple of lols thrown in to break the tension! There's also HEAPS of incredible backstage footage including snippets of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Nirvana. Gonna be erm, jamming to them (sorry) all week now!

That one time at band camp

Crumbs, you know I'm reaching for content when I dig into the box of old photo discs! Here are some pics from my band days - note the inability to pull a moody muso face! Cheesy grins all the way. Why I choose a stripy top is beyond me. Not the most flattering! I'm really popping in to tell you that I cooked my first Kitchen Pen Pal recipe tonight - and the outcome was edible! Have a zillion pics to edit and a camera to deflour. Ha. That sounds so wrong. Currently buried under a pile of freelance but will get the Pen Pal post up later this week. Stay tuned for coriander madness!

Pictured above is Ian, Stef, Moi and Craig. Cheers Nick for these old chestnuts!

Some press bits and pieces

Cant believe I'm scribbling this but I'm in the September issues of Marie Claire and Cosmo - eep! The grungy teenage me would have had such a laugh at the older me in the "Style Council" section! Oh, if only you guys knew what a scruff I really am. I did the one inty yonks ago and both just happened to be published this month. Thanks to everyone who tweeted and texted me about the articles - so sweet, you lot are - and a special thanks to Bronwyn who bought the mags and carted 'em back to London - haha! The other day Bridget said, 'Remember in high school when you started every sentence with, "I read in a magazine that..." My mom and I were magazine junkies. And now I'm in some - crikey. Thanks to every one of you who pop in everyday - I truly appreciate it. x

Edit: I also did a little inty here a while back. Thanks Sara for the chinwag!

"IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!!"

 Oh my goodness you guys, have you seen "Despicable Me?" It is the most adorable movie ever!!! Craig and I were literally 'rewinding' bits throughout the whole film. This (edited) scene above at the funfair killlllllls me. "It's so flufffy!!!" I suppose you need to watch the whole thing to appreciate the hilarity. Anyway, if you haven't seen it and are looking for something cheery and loltastic, I say take this puppy out the DVD store. Well, have yourselves marvelous weekends and we'll chat soon! x

01

So it seems the latest blogging trend is posting music mixes. Well, I don't mind if I do climb aboard the band wagon! Ha. Band. Wagon. Sorry. Brandon half-joked (!?) that more blokes would read my blog if I wrote about guitars and music. I'm not really phased if guys read my blog or not, but it does bum me out that music is something I've become less pre-occupied with. I feel a long-winded post about the South African music scene bubbling out of me so let me bottle that one for another day! I started 'making a mix' (aka linking to Youtube vids!) but man, it was eclectic - blues, metal, rock, was a bit of a crazy sandwich so I reckon I better theme 'em. This one has got a bit of a '90 rock vibe going on - my fave era!  Oh yeah, the title is from a weird encounter I had the other day. (I do love the Pumpkins though.) How great is that pic!? Found it on Google but with no proper source I'm afraid.

01 Alice in Chains - Would? 02 Soundgarden - Fell on black days 03 Alice Donut - Everyone is on sale 04 Pearl Jam - Even Flow 05 Veruca Salt - Seether 06 Stone Temple Pilots  - Crackerman 07 Frank Black - Hang on to your ego 08 Babes in Toyland - He's my Thing 09 Spacehog - In the meantime 10 Everclear - Santa Monica 11 Elastica - Waking Up 12 Corrosion of Conformity - Clean my wounds 13 Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Show me your soul 14 Rage against the machine - Know your enemy 15 Lush - Ladykillers 16 Beastie Boys - Sabotage 17 L7 - Slide 18 Sonic Youth - Kool Thing 19 Throwing Muses - Bright Yellow Gun 20 Tracy Bonham - Mother Mother

{I try hard not be one of those people that always goes on about how great music was in the '90s but dang, it rocked hard. I do enjoy the Best Coast's and She and Him's of this era but this old stuff will always be my fave. Mind you, the new Alice in Chains, Velvet Revolver, Them Crooked Vultures...there have been some rad hard rock outfits of late. But that's another 'mix' I suppose!}

Lula

The new Lula has arrived in South Africa and it is surpremely dreamy as always!

"He had an effect on me in the dark"

Vanessa is all kinds of lovely! How cute is this video?

Warning - The book induces frenetic tea-fuelled home revamps

If - like me - you have an insatiable thirst for bric-a-brac-and-knick-and-knacks, you should probably not by this book because it will escalate your obsession to a whole new level. You will no doubt end up googling pink chairs and Union Jack bunting at one in the morning. Why not crank up the crazy and google 'cat to cuddle with in all manner of cuteness.' I know I did. And it lead to some weird things. But what I am trying to say is, Spaces is amazing. I know it has done the rounds on blogville but that is because it is everything us bloggers adore, bound into one awesome book. Saffers, you can order a copy from Nadia. Overseas humans - you can probably find one in your local bookstore.