The Boy and The Coconut Tree

Can I start this post with my favourite satirical photo of the month. I am sure none of my friends are Trump lovers, shudder at the thought so here it is: This photo needs no explanation unless you are a really stupid cretin.  I could use the title of this post to play the Sinitta song (which was a cover) and I think I will do that as I am in a relatively silly and happy mood as I type this despite my stressful morning. I am travelling to Shropshire this morning and this involves taking the DLR then the Tube, then another train and another and my lovely weekend bag decided to fail on me as I was getting off the tube.  The zip and the strap failed on me. Fun. I've managed to fix the zip though I am being very generous to myself as it is fixed but cannot be moved, as for the strap, meh, it's in the bin.  I've ordered a lovely new bag, sky blue, ready for my big Australia trip in less than 5 months time (3 cities, lots of friends plus Abu Dhabi in 14 days). I am lo...

There are now less than 12 hours left of 2017 as I type this,  11 hours and 43 minutes in fact and I have still not decided what I am doing or where I am going tonight to spend the last few minutes of 2017 and the first hour or so of 2018, I can never decide.  I really want to stay home and as I always do what I want, unless other human beings stop me, it will be  cozy evening on the sofa planning my 2018 trip to Australia, paid for by the lovely people at Barclays who overcharged me for PPI not long after I graduated from university. They paid me enough to pay for a good flight and decent places to stay so roll on Melbourne, Sydney and perhaps Perth. 2018 will also be the year I go back to my old employer but in a different job (I did this in 2015 as well but that didn't work out so well). I am trying to review 2017 in a simply terms as I can and to sprinkle the review with some of my favourite songs of 2017 and some photos. Travel I visited Florence, Montre...

All I want for Christmas isn't 'you' or 'them' or 'it' unless peace and quiet is considered an 'it'. Christmas seems to have been with us for weeks, certainly since Halloween.  I heard Christmas carols being played in a cafe in Paris in mid November and I thought even the French would not be impressed with this nonsense, this Americanization of Christmas.  I don't want to shop and eat and drink all of December. I want to spend a few days with my family and friends around the actual days of Christmas.  Even the Christmas work party filled me with dread and thankfully, due to a lack of places I could offer my place to a new member of staff and avoid being nice when people say things they deserve to be slapped for, all made worse thanks to a few nasty cocktails. Don't get me wrong, I am no Grinch and the girls in the office are lovely, without them my office would be a lot harder to face each day and I will be sad to not work with them anymore....

As the train speeds back down south to London and my anxiety of being at home, not wanting to be there, and not wanting to leave fades I am laughing at the photograph my mam shared with me today, taken in September 1981 as I headed to the senior/comprehensive school for the first time. I was probably no bigger than 4ft tall, 7 stone and still had some of my baby teeth, freckles and a love of Lego, my nana (grandma to all you non northerners) and little else. My mam has kept this image in her purse for 36 years hence the creases and folds. We are not sure who or how my hair was cut but my fringe is epic and the smile is definitely one of my more cautious smiles. Now I grin and smile full beam, this is a photo of a little boy half excited and scared at the same time.  Going to the comprehensive was a big deal, we had uniforms, we would be doing classes in subjects I'd not yet studied (but would soon love) and I didn't realize I would be in a school in which most of the teachers...

I spend a lot of time in coffee shops and thus drink a lot of coffee. I am onto my 4th large coffee of the weekend. Sitting in coffee shops in central London gives me the opportunity to observe the world, hear peoples' comments and conversations and watch odd behaviour. I've noticed a lot of people only come into Starbucks to use the toilets and if they have to ask for a code, they don't, they scurry out, looking guilty and confused.  The Starbucks I'm in now is popular with the street drunks of Charing Cross, the toilet doesn't need a code (I wish it did). The Chinese woman sitting right next to me (but opposite) is tapping her straw far too hard on the table, she clearly wants attention. I can feel the tapping through my table, yes she is doing it that hard. The Starbucks has a display with samples of new sandwiches, one guy wearing a gold crucifix and camper than John Inman on speed has just ate a whole one despite them being cut into small samples s...

It is mid September already, the temperature today is 14c, how did that happen. I was enjoying temperatures of 35c on the Costa Brava less than 3 weeks ago and now I am under a blanket on my sofa and flirting with my thermostat who clearly hasn't been touched for a while and is need of some attention but I refuse to give EON the benefit of my cold, a blanket and a hot cup of coffee are better than huge electric bills. The drop in temperatures in England have certainly increased my need to shop. I went to Habitat last week for one thing and ended up buying lots of things for my flat. I explained to my student last Sunday that I was nesting, though there will be no eggs in Spring. I guess what I am really doing is hibernating.  This is a photo of where I was 3 weeks ago today. Warm and sunny on the Costa Brava. Calella De Parafrugell Yesterday we had another terrorist attack on the Underground  and what amazes me is the first person to check on me was my Italian fr...