5 Sleeps To Go...Success Is

It's only 5 sleeps to go until my 39-ness comes to an end and I embark on the journey into my forties. Not that I particularly believe that one birthday (or day for that matter) should mean more than any other but somehow turning 40 has become a milestone with some significance...

There is no party planned...rather the celebrations are developing more out of quiet joy and thankfulness as opposed to any huge 'whooping it up' and while the big day is yet to arrive (and the presents are still to be opened!), I find myself feeling so very grateful...

...for my wonderful man and our extraordinarily special relationship...

...for being blessed to know and love his kids and be accepted by them...

...for my family who miss me hugely and support my life across the other side of the world anyway...

...for my friends who lean and are leaned on...you know who you are...

...for discovering life's simple pleasures - in nature, laughter, tears and home...

and

...for having the courage to find 'myself' and to believe I can make a difference, everyday.


There is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson called Success Is - Mum always had this stuck on the back of the toilet door and I am still struck by its poignancy.
So I'd like to pass this on to you for all your moments of quiet contemplation...

10 Sleeps To Go...A Date With A Doodlebug

Last Sunday it was off to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth with 3 generations of Scarlett men - J, his dad, and his son...

...'aaaah' I can hear you thinking, 'what a bloke-y day...all those big boy-toys...and Kym is going?' and admittedly when we walked in to the main hall (not very big and filled with suspended planes and tanks and guns), I thought to myself, 'hmmm...interesting, but how am I going to oooh and aaah over this for 6 hours!?'

But how wrong I was...the Imperial War Museum is a veritable treasure trove of exhibits and displays all hidden away behind the main hall...we were indeed there 6 hours...and we didn't see anywhere near everything. We had to be satisfied with the Trenches interactive display and the Trenches experience (like walking through the trenches - smells and everything!!), a wander around the main hall (where I saw my first doodlebug - V1 bomb - see pic to the right), the World War I section and then the Holocaust exhibit - by our calculations this left World War II, the Children's War and the Secret War for another day.

While all of it was interesting, the most powerful for me was the Holocaust Exhibition. To start, this actually took you through from the German's loss in World War I and the subsequent Depression in 1929 and then to the 'hope' created by the National Socialist (Nazi) party, their election to power and the creation of Hitler as Dictator. There was also lots of footage talking about why the Jews were so hated (blamed for the German's losing WWI apparently - broad shoulders eh!) and interviews with survivors interspersed with photos, 'artefacts' (for want of a better word to describe hundreds of shoes lining the scale model display of Auschwitz and the striped 'pyjamas' and SS uniforms worn in the camps) and lots of boards creating the narrative around this horrific event in world history.

It was fascinating and sobering all at the same time and the thing that struck me most was, at the time and in those economic circumstances, how 'easy' it would have been to believe in the propaganda, to see a little 'hope' in it for a better life. Not that I'm excusing any of it (just completely horrible - no words really to describe it) but I wonder - are we are all so very far away from this brutality? Can you imagine what the choice - of having your family killed or being part of the 'solution' - must have been like and what raw animal instinct people must have held onto just to survive and protect those they loved - on both sides?

Anyway, on a slightly more upbeat note, the museum also has a piece of the Berlin Wall outside (see pic) and I was explaining to J's son (who is 13) what it was and what an important event the taking down of the Berlin Wall was in our lifetimes.

But then I stopped and looked at him and thought 'hmm actually not in his lifetime' - at 13, the wall actually came down 7 years before he was born! The same year I turned 20...

Just where did the time go?

15 Sleeps To Go...Science At Its Best

One of the perks of temping for me is reading the Metro newspaper every morning over a quiet, pre-work soya cappuccino. It's one of those free papers you get here in London if you are out and about early enough on a weekday and can manage to snaffle one before they all disappear (usually by about 7.30-7.45am). You really only need it for about 15 minutes and its combination of...well...interesting stuff provides a trashy and mindless read to get the brain just out of the trauma state induced by getting up so goddamn early and standing armpit to armpit with total strangers on the tube.

Anyway, I was quite startled to learn about the intricacies of camel courting this morning in the following snippet:


Hmmm...let me see...lip-curling dispalys of affection, a 'certain 'coolness' in the morning...starting to sound ominously like some of the dates I've had.

However, imagine how excited a fella would be to have an 'internal fridge'...be just another place to store the beers really...

Australian experts my a**e!!

18 Sleeps To Go...Zucchini Zucchini

I don't normally blog on back to back days as I want to give all of you a little time to digest my latest pearls of wisdom (or is that pearls before swine? Silk purse out of a sow's ear? Might fly? Any other pig metaphors?) But I just had to tell you...

I picked my first zucchini (aka courgette) yesterday.

There was only one ready but rather than waiting for the others, I did not want to risk a repeat of the earlier Strawberry Pilfering incident, so I snipped, and brought my valiant little veg inside...

.

Now what will I do with him? A summer veg risotto or pasta perhaps?

LOL! I've just realised that I have naturally assumed that it is a 'him'...stop smirking - you are merely proving that none of us are ever too old to smirk at a naughty thought...

Anyone up for a banana?

(Sorry..couldn't resist! 18 sleeps to go and still a child...)

19 Sleeps To Go...Under The Stars With The Gipsy Kings

I picked up a bit of last minute temping this week so my perfectly planned week of gym-going, blogging and washing all the bedding went out the window (it's going to be one helluva shock to go back to working full-time again). But one thing that did not go 'out the window' (at 21 sleeps to go but I was too tired to wax lyrical yesterday) was seeing the Gipsy Kings live at Kew Gardens!

I've not ever been majorly into these guys, having only really heard their big hit, Bamboleo, back when they were A LOT younger. But I love Spanish/Latin music and J's quite a Gipsy Kings fan so I got us some tix about 4 months ago...and after work on Friday we met in Richmond, me laden down with some divine picnic nibbles from Waitrose and J with our two folding deck chairs and strolled over to Kew Gardens...and had such a great night!

The support act, Motimba, started at 7.30 and warmed up the crowds for about an hour with a cruise-y Cuban mix of tunes, great background for us to enjoy our nibbles and a lovely bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc. Then after a short 'wee break' (for us, not them!), the Gipsy Kings strummed their way into everyone's hearts (and a fair few hips that were wiggling about!) with their passionate Latin melodies. Their passion for the music is just so inspiring and it took me right back to travelling in Spain in 2002 - where I bought a CD from a local Granada-ian band who entertained us at dinner one night and thought that the flamenco in Seville was one of the breath-takingly sexiest things I had ever seen.

There was nothing for it but for us to open a lovely bottle of South African Shiraz to accompany all this passion and fire...and speaking of fire, at 10.15 this was all topped off by some spectacular fireworks...

So I spent my '21 sleeps to go' under the stars with great music, and fireworks, with my lovely man - now THAT's what I call a date night!

26 Sleeps To Go...BBQs & Spectator Sports

It turned into a sunshine-y weekend in London and on Saturday afternoon, I joined about 17 others (including J) at a belated house-warming/engagement/watching-the-rugby/salute-to-summer bbq on the roof terrace at A&A's. Fab weather, fab food & fab friends - a fab all-rounder...

(We so wanted to hold on to the bbq-ness of Saturday that we actually had our own bbq-for-2 at about 10pm last night. Yes, sad but true.)

And how about that tennis eh? You know, well-done to Roger Federer and all that but I must admit to a bit of emotional 'tear-welling' for Andy Roddick - so brave and humble in accepting his runner-up trophy (although how a big silver tray - difficult to display/a significant dust-collector - can be of any use to a bloke, I will never know...who ever thought of that as a fitting reward for 14 days of hard core tennis? I guess he could put his cheque on it....) I did really want him to win (my 'fighting for the under-dog' tendancies emerging) but at 14 games all in the 5th set I have to admit that I just wanted it to be over - spectator sports are simply exhausting!

And there's news from the patch: This weekend I picked a small handful of dwarf french beans. Half a dozen tiny green tomatoes have also appeared and we are expecting courgettes (zucchinis for those in the know) any week now - let me tell you I cannot wait to bbq them as kebabs with peppers and halloumi (a wicked Were recipe garnered from Saturday's food-fest).

26 sleeps to go...and it's all happening...

29 Sleeps To Go...A Cool Grey Day

Today is a cool grey day...

...and it rained last night. It's not cold at all but the temperature is nowhere near the scorching levels of the last few days - a lovely respite from feeling constantly like a sweaty puddle of lethargy in un-airconditioned, not-built-for-any-heat UK.

There have already been a couple of little updates on the countdown to the big 4-0 too:

- My first present has arrived - courtesy of Mum and the ever-efficient Amazon Wishlist dispatched to my family last weekend as a bit of a fab-gift-for-Kym thought starter. However, J says I am not allowed to have it yet...boo hoo!

- J has organised my present (a landmark event in itself!) I...yes me...am going to Disneyland Paris for my birthday. YAY! WOOHOO!

What better way to celebrate 40 (or forty - which way looks better/more fun/less threatening? I am not sure - perhaps we could do a poll?) than to rush about behaving like a huge child with Mickey & co. You all should be VERY envious...

And I might just go on about it for...mmm...I dunno...maybe the next 29 days or so...

I love it when it's all about me...

The Countdown Begins...

For those of you who live under a rock or have been avoiding me for sometime, today is the today that I remind you that in exactly ONE MONTH, I will be turning 40.

That's 31 shopping days...

(although if you live across the other side of the world - aka Australia - this probably means only 21 shopping days as it takes about 10 days for post to get here)

That's also 31 sleeps...

The countdown begins...