Old Time Cinema

The Prince & I decided that we needed to spend some time out of the house during our holiday break & as we had some "new home" stuff to take care of, we walked in to the village along the shopping street. Several shops & banks later we decided it was time for lunch & the star feature of the trip, namely off to the movies to see The Hobbit.

We planned to go to The Dome Cinema, which is on the seafront here in Worthing. To say we were blown away by the place is an understatement! This is a truly old fashioned cinema that has retained all the things that make it glorious. Comfy old timey seats with so much leg room!! Glorious bas relief details on the ceilings & walls. Side & rear balconies (admittedly not often in use because of the bad behaviour of some patrons) but still in situ!!!

The best of all? Wooden floors!!! Pass me the Jaffa's!!!! I tried with a peanut M&M but it was not as good as a good old Aussie Jaffa LOL

 Apparently the theatre opened in 1911 as a roller skating rink! Who says everything was invented in the 60's?? LOL

Oh and the best thing about this cinema? Tickets to The Hobbit - 5 pounds each!! The Prince & I have vowed to become regular cinema goers as this kind of business needs supporters.

Loving what I do where I am doing it.

Lush x

PS: the movie?? Excellent, visually stunning & very true to the book. I realised I read this book & the Rings trilogy when I was 12!! That's a long time ago, no wonder I can barely remember the story LOL

 

Christmas 2012

Even though I am missing my friends & especially my son, I have had an exceptionally enjoyable Christmas. Even without much furniture, the new house is feeling very much like home. We are loving being so close to the water & I walk along the seafront most days, The Prince joins me when possible & Princess Daisy comes, generally under protest as she would rather be wrapped around a radiator.

OK Mama, da lites are ready, wheres da twee??

Here it is Diego, check out the presents. Oh & look at the pretty toys for us!! Mama says days decrashuns but I fink days toys.

We had an absolutely wonderful relaxing day. Started with a sleep in to 8:30am followed by a terrific breakfast of potato rosti with smoked salmon, sour cream & fresh redcurrants.

The Prince had a go at making the holy grail of gluten free baking - puff pastry! The results were not too bad, crispy, some flakes & pretty tasty. Came out kind of like a Stollen but not as bready.

YUM!!

We had a lovely walk along the sand with Princess Daisy complaining ALL. THE. WAY. LOL

Then we feasted on a yummy duck breast with five spices, roast veg & purple kale. Pudding & custard for afters. The Prince absolutely excelled in the kitchen & the fresh home made cranberry sauce was sublime!! I have requested duck & cranberry as often as possible!!

Not a great looking picture but trust me it was DELISH!!!

Loads of presents were exchanged. I received loads of lovely things, a pair of beautiful plush cashmere socks, (my weapon of choice against the cold) a warm flap hat, a great book on forgotten crafts, a history book, some ramekins & a lovely wooden box.

I gave The Prince a set of Lord of the Rings books, a coffee mug, and a beginners telescope. We are hoping that because it gets so dark down here we may be able to see some stars & planets and maybe an astral event or two, weather permitting.

  The Prince will be on leave until after the New Year & we have plans to catch a movie, catch up with friends & do some work on house stuff. Our furniture arrives in February & my coffee van will be here in about a week so it's all busy around here.

Doing loads of what I love

Lush x

Welcome to Worthing!

Well the UK move is done & we are in the new house. The day was not without it's challenges but they were not too major so it was not too bad but we were so glad to put our heads down.
Just a small word of advice, don't move house on both sides of the planet at the same time. Let's just say it's a leetle bit stressful!! We are still getting over it I think.
We have barely any furniture here but that will definitely be taken care of when our things land from Australia. 
We have a whole shipping container o.O
OMG, no idea how that happened but we will deal with that when it comes. May need to do some serious culling but need to work out what is in the container first. Amazing how you forget what you own after 2 years of not seeing it.
We did need to get some furniture so I went hunting the car boots, charity shops & Brighton racecourse auction.

This 1930's cane table set me back a massive 25p!!

Bit of a rough drop leaf table for a fiver

Really ugly upholstery

But check out that timberwork!!! This is an Erkol chair, great score for 50 quid.

Freaky!

The kids just love having proper window ledges from which to view the world.

 I can't tell you how much I love this town! I have been getting in the habit of going for a walk along the seafront into what I like to call "The Village". LOL

And there is no way I can forget my friends. This is the street behind ours. Heya Spotty!!

Loving what I do, especially where I am doing it.

Lush x

The names Misogynist, James Misogynist.

Well The Prince & I had a high pressure planning meeting this morning. Whoever had the idea to move house on both sides of the planet at once has freaking rocks in their head! No pressure here then. Not much.

Trying to focus on the positive & looking forward to reuniting the stash.

*SPOILER ALERT* Discussions of the plot of Skyfall

We thought we should do something nice to reward ourselves & keep ourselves grounded so we went off to see the latest Bond film. We were really looking forward to it as we have seen all the clips & interviews in the last few weeks.

Well we left the theatre very disappointed. There were some magnificent scenes especially the motorbikes across the tiled roofs and sweeping views of the Shanghai skyline.

However the story lines left a very bad taste. Now don't get me wrong, Bond movies have always been bastions of machismo & that is part of the charm but why do they feel the need to do this at the expense of women? I know they have never really treated women as anything other than scenery but they had been moving away from that to some extent in the recent movies. This movie seems to hurtle right back to the old days with the likes of Ursula Andress & Solitaire.

The underlying storylines in this movie are interesting to say the least. The new young Q is dismissive of the experienced Bond, Bond is sceptical of the abilities of the young Q. 

Loads of dialogue about the old being outdated, past it, time marching on & new ways of doing things. This was in reference to Bond, M and the movie genre in general.

There is a big push to get rid of M, she is seen as having lost it & become incompetent. Things beyond her control are seen as her fault & she should fall on her sword & "retire". Similar things are said of Bond.

It seems to be a narrative directed at the franchise in general, kind of a justification of why they continue after 50 years.

The portrayal of women in the film harks back to the old days. There is the high class call girl, being used by the bad guy, terrified to stand up to him & get away. (did I mention Solitaire??) Her death is like a sport for the bad guy with the bonus of torturing Bond (of course he has slept with her). This supports the conservative view that "bad girls get what they deserve" in the end.

Bond & a bad guy are fighting on the roof of a moving train (as you do), his female colleague does not really have a clean shot but is instructed by M to "take the bloody shot". Of course she hits Bond & we next see her assigned to a desk job. The implications here are that a female spy would hesitate & because she hits Bond she has made a mistake that deserves demotion. Later we see her as the new Moneypenny, the new M's secretary, where she claims that some people (ie: her as a woman) are not suitable for field work. 

Whatever the feck ever happened to girls can do anything??

As a bonus, the bad guy is gay and has an Oedipus complex with M. At one stage he propositions Bond. Bond knocks him back but makes an allusion to the fact that he has walked on the "wild side".

Bond kills him in the end.

And then there was the anonymous person sitting in our vicinity who kept dropping toxic farts all through the movie.

Not the best of times.

Here is a picture of Princess Daisy & Diego Pavlova proving that they can share space next to the Mama. Well for a little while at least.

Loving what I do. Not so keen on the farter.

Lush x

Northern Exposure

Had a lovely day traveling up North on the train yesterday. Well 2 trains in fact (not counting the subway) but both lovely & comfortable. Glad I jumped on the earlier train from St Pancras cause otherwise I would have missed the connecting train. The only one for the day. Thanks for that information National Rail website.

Anyhoo, it was very interesting to visit Nottingham, the home town of my son's Grandfather.

Lovely old Victorian railway station

Great view of the stacks next to the railway station at East Midlands Parkway - reminded me of The Simpsons

The day was foggy & grey almost all the way there but then the sky broke through in the most amazing blue. I was amazed by how low the sun was in the sky, you really are way north when that happens. So cool.

Gorgeous old building in the main square.

I think this was the Town Hall, could not find a sign as I was rushing to the train

 I really love the light here in the UK, it is so significantly different to what it is in Australia. This shot was taken from the bridge near Nottingham Railway station. Just gorgeous! I love the canals here too, I would have taken more photos from the train but we were traveling too fast for them to be anything but a blur.

I have to say that I had a great trip, everyone I spoke to, shop folks, train folks & random strangers who were giving me directions, were all just so lovely. I am sure they have yucky people in the North but I did not meet any yesterday and I must admit that everyone I have ever met from the North have been just delightful. Thanks North.

This is a gratuitous shameless plug for my Christmas present. People are always saying I am difficult to buy for but hey this is nice. It''s purple & blingy. See not so hard?? Waving at The Prince. LOL

Loving what I do

Lush x

Everything & nothing!

Everything & nothing around here. Everything is in full tilt mode for the move to Worthing, the purchase of things for the business & getting the rest of our stuff over from Australia. Looking forward to being one block from this.

Nothing to show on the sewing front, still working on my stripey flannel quilt from fabrics I have had for ever. Photos will come in due course when the light cooperates.

Here is my study buddy trying very hard to get my attention

Here he is watching his favourite TV program. He is a massive David Attenborough fan. I think he recognises the voice LOL

Random fact from my recent food hygiene & safety studies. What causes the most food poisoning per year? RICE!! Yes, rice. Once cooked, make sure it is completely cooled to room temperature before storing in fridge and make sure it is reheated to steaming hot before serving. Apparently there is a bacteria on the outside of the grains that grows exponentially at warm. That's rice off the menu then.

Our street tree in front of the house, nearly naked

Golden carpet starting to go brown.

Off to go and start the boiler again. Looking forward to not having to do that 4 or 5 times a day!!

Loving what I do (even if it IS very stressful at times!!)

Lush x