Happy Summer Sundays....

I just watched Germany beat England 4-1 in the World Cup...happily! Whilst England did not cover themselves at all in glory, to my un-soccer-fied eye, I thought the Germans played well, great accuracy in passing and really tight plays up and down the pitch...and my money is on Germany to win in the World Cup sweep at work so even though they trounced Australia in the first match (and my heart bled a little at this), at least my hard-earned £5 is still at work.  You never know, someone might topple the mighty Brazil or Argentina...maybe???

It's just over 30C here today and between yesterday and today, I have indulged in a frenzy of washing all of the bedding, towels and blankets I could get my hands on (oh the luxury of having them all dry outside in a day!), windows (this glorious sunshine shows up the dirt magnificently, thus the urgency to deal with this today after a week of procrastination) and am now ensconced in my blogging chair at the window enjoying some Kylie tunes (inspired by seeing her interviewed on Jonathan Ross on Friday night - the woman is a class act!), checking sporadically on my latest Facebook obsession - CafeWorld...and studiously avoiding eye-contact with the gi-normous bag of summer-time ironing sitting on my bed in the other room - when I finally iron this stuff, it will be like having a whole new wardrobe...which has just produced a tiny surge of motivation so I'm off.

Happy Summer Sunday everyone!

ps...Alfie is enjoying the sun and says hi...

pps...did you realise that that last para was all one sentence?  You are allowed to breathe at the ... and the - !

ppps...yes this is more avoidance of the ironing bag...I'm really off now!

Australia's New Head Girl...

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post so apologies to those of you who went blue whilst waiting with baited breath for my witterings.  It's been an exhausting time with lots of the usual great highs and ensuing lows only a bit more extreme and I needed a little time out to be gentle with myself before crusading out into life again. 

But I'm still here with things to say and wonder about....and the first thing that springs to mind is my complete surprise on waking up Thursday morning to learn that not only does Australia have a new Prime Minister (and a female one at that) in Julia Gillard but that I had no idea who she was or that a change of leadership was in the wind!  And upon posting this black hole in my knowledge on my Facebook status, I got 7 comments in return - opinions are divided with 5 slating Gillard as ruthless, calculating and cold and 2 being excited by her success and looking forward to the impact she will make. 

Admittedly I am without any fervent view as yet but am finding the strength of other people's opinions on the matter completely fascinating from my less-engaged position on the other side of the world...so here's some to read for yourself.

The Australian
The Sydney Morning Herald - smh.com
The Herald Sun
The Guardian
The Huffington Post
Antony Loewenstein

Although whatever your opinion, you've got to admit it's a historic moment...Australia's ultimate glass ceiling has been broken!

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous...

A significant part of squiring said Mother and partner around town is weaving an interesting (and largely unplanned) trail of meals and snacks.  Last Sunday we were off to tackle tourist things again and after another excellent trip on the London Eye (my 4th), we were somewhat stymied in our plans to visit Westminster Abbey and St Pauls Cathedral (apparently they do services, being Sunday and all, and out of respect, rubber-neckers are not welcome...) and decided to console ourselves by lunching at the cafe in the Methodist Central Hall Westminster, just opposite Westminster Abbey (http://www.c-h-w.com/cafe/index.shtml).  So down to the 'crypt' we went...to be surprised and thoroughly delighted by nice comfy seats and delicious great value food (my pollock in courgette and mushroom was fantastic and the roast of the day looked excellent too)...with drinks it was all about £7-8 each...what a bargain!

Later in the afternoon, having made our way to that other great London tourist mecca, Harrods, we stopped for a coffee in the Ca'puccino cafe down in the gift shop.  It's got these really awesome white Alice in Wonderland chairs and an extremely indulgent list of coffees...anyway, we decided to lash out on a Custard Cream coffee (him), a Pannacotta coffee (said Mother) and something that I couldn't pronounce that had layered liquid dark chocolate, coffee and soya (to replace the milk).  They came in glasses not much bigger than something that you'd swig a large shot of tequila from (which, in deliciously rich hindsight, was about all we could manage anyway) and were so-o-o pretty to look at...the bill, on the other hand, came to about £16.

And like naughty children, we loved every sublime minute...

Date Night: Breathless Anticipation...a correction...

Dear reader

An erstwhile follower of my blog has pointed out to me today that the 31st May was not the end of Autumn for me here in the UK but the end of Spring!  Generously she has done this via email rather than leaving a comment on my blog so for all of you who thought I'd lost the plot but were too polite even to mention this gaffe...what sort of friends are you?? (Ha ha...)

I have obviously been left somewhat dazed and confused by my Aussie visitors...who will be back on the weekend!

Yours sincerely

The Numpty Blogger