MICE

I hate them. They really annoy me. We have quite a few of them in our house, it's very annoying. In fact, they seem to follow me wherever I live. Although I'm sure it's nothing to do with how i maintain my housekeeping, because I am seriously quite anal about that !!!

Here is my flatmate claire listening intently to the floor to see if she can work out the mice's path !!!!

No matter how many traps we set, they manage to evade us ! But we will find them in the end....

The other thing that really rather annoys me is pregnant women who smoke. I almost abused one the other day - in fact the next time I see one, I'll be having a word.

CHRISTMAS DAY

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL.

If you're in London - hope you're not too cold, and if you're Down Under - hope you're not too hot....

Christmas Day was lovely....lots of food and lots of laughter...think I'll just let the pictures tell the story....

Great minds DO think alike....Claire & I bought each other exactly the same gift !! Freaky. It is a very cool stable table type device, handy for all those TV dinners...

Daniela leads the way in the "after Christmas lunch" walk...

The aim of the walk was to wish as many people as possible a Merry Christmas - Rosie won with 10 people but Claire tried a different approach by using semaphores...I got some great presents (thanks to all) and Libby gave me this very cute angel so it went straight on the tree....

Some more mates came round that night and then we all crashed in front of a blazing fire....

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started off with my mate Claire and I going for a walk around to my mate Elizabeths for a couple of homemade mince pies. We also got to meet Elizabeth's mother, which was lovely because one of the weird things about London is that you never meet your friends parents.....
We shopped some more afterwards, got home around 6pm and the offical BeverHouse Christmas preparations began with the arrival of Rosie (left) and Daniela (far right). We have a bit of a house tradition that some type of hat/ears MUST be worn at most times. I can't remember how that tradition started I think it was Naomi and her cat ears combined with Claire and her dress up box....

All the presents were wrapped and patiently waiting under our lovely tree....

Two presents in particular looked a little similiar (the red one was from Claire to me and the bluey/white one was from me to Claire) and suspicions were high that we could have bought each other the very same present....but only time would tell...

We had a lovely evening just chilling out and watching Bridget Jones Diary on TV....

Pre- Christmas Lunch at Huma's

#As it's the Christmas season, I've been rather busy and not been very good at keeping this up to date so I shall I start now but work backwards....

Over a week ago I had a very lovely lunch at my mate Huma's house in Chelsea. It was lovely - we ate alot, drank champagne and played games and then went out on the town....

Sinead asks the million dollar question....

Lou tries to answer it...

Abi wasn't very good at concentrating that day so here she is trying to show off her superb skateboarding/balancing skills.....

Jimeoin

I went to see Jimeoin tonight - he's still got it !! I remember first seeing him on The Big Gig back in 1988, I loved him then and I still love him now. He's so so so funny, just about really average everyday things.....

I used to love his "did you ever notice that seagulls don't have any eyebrows" routine but that has now been replaced by his "ice" jokes (basically that down under when you have a party you get huge big bags of ice, crack em open with a hammer and spread them round your esky - whilst in the UK you offer up a pitiful tray of ice like "i made this all by myself").

Good Call. Nice Touch.

I GOT MY RESIDENCY !!!!!!!!!

God I can't tell you how relived I was when I got that phone call. It was like a huge very big enormous weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I could breath again. No more expensive transferring of work permits, no more worrying I wouldn't get jobs because of it and then having to fill in hundreds of application forms if I did, no more taking jobs I didn't really want just because they were long term contracts! Basically it means that I can stay here for as long as I want, without all the hassles....and that, is a very nice feeling......after 71/2 years, I can relax and really start thinking about what I'm doing with my life and where I want to be and what I want to do....

I celebrated the news with quite a few bottles of champagne shared with my good mates Sal, Minke and Tanya (she's a little camera shy).

SCARA

Finally caught up with Sarah for a drink last week. I was completely freaking out about the awaiting news of my residency and she has been my unofficial immigration guide (she gets paid in pints rather than £$) so I needed to be calmed down and reassured !!! She did a wonderful job and even brought along one of her collegues to help with the process !

She wouldn't exactly pose for a photo so I captured these "on the move" shots as we entered Victoria Tube Station..i love the reflections in the photo above - i think it's a policeman chatting to a street cleaner, but all you can see is their weird reflective tops !!!!

Bever House Decorations

We had a very busy Wednesday evening when Claire organised a "festive working bee". Rosie came round and we were all given our instruments to "create" - scissors, glue, scotch tape, very pretty paper and a glass of champagne...

These are our special Christmas lanterns - I made the red one in the middle and the green one on the right with the dodgy handle....

Rosie was particulary please with this very special Christmas cracker creation...

Not my most creative outcome, but I felt an angel was important in any Christmas setting...

And finally, Claire's special snowman....who likes to keep in touch, with himself...

The Cure For Hiccups

It's something we've all experienced, something we've all wanted to know the definitive cure for and now, I am pleased to tell you that we have come up with a cure ! It wasn't easy - it took a good old fashioned extra long hiccuping session for us to come up with the cure but basically what is required is simply closing all of the head's orifices. As this picture demonstrates, you may need help from a friend to do this...but trust me, it's worth it !!

Cute Kids

It's been a hard week but yesterday was brightened by the arrival of baby Honesty in my edit suite. Her dad, Hugh, was my cameraman on the US shoot. Honesty and Hugh sat down to watch (the directors cut) of my film. It was hilarious, she was completely cool, calm and collected and then suddenly in the middle of one of my rather scary reconstructions she just screamed and started crying !!! I really hope she hasn't been scarred by the experience....

We then went for lunch at a local Noodle Bar in Soho. All of the staff we immediately taken in by her and even asked to take her photo !!



Speaking of cute young babies....this is my mate Beccy's little girl - Emmalee. How gorgeous is she !! It's her 2nd birthday tomorrow so here's a big happy birthday to you !!!

Television Sux

I had my first viewing with the Exec last Friday. It didn't go so well. In fact, I'd go as far to say that in my 3 years of Directing Documentaries - it was the worst one ever !!! It's been a difficult series to work on - lots of different messages coming from the Series Producer and then he left and a new one came onboard. Now some other bloke has come in to help shape the programme into something that the Exec wants. A very difficult situation to be in. I'm just trying to swallow my pride, learn what I can and take something positive with me out of this whole situation.

I applied for my residency on Monday. It was very very scary. If I get it, it doesn't mean that I will stay here forever, it just means that I will save a hell of a lot of money on work permits !! Also that I can work whereever I want so maybe a move away from Television could be good for me....either way - i should find out soon so fingers, toes, hands, feet and everything crossed....

Claire brought home a christmas tree last night - it's very exciting - we are going to go and buy more decorations and get into the festive spirit...We're having lunch at ours this year, it should be fun. Sad to be away from family but they'll never be far from our thoughts....

I'll post some pictures up when I have them....

Little Cuz

Went to see my Cuz's new little baby today - his name is Toby - he's 10 days old and already has a nickname - Tobes !! Good to see that the Australian side of him is coming through already. It was really lovely to see Daph & Bill, it's been way too long.

And of course -great to see my Cuz, and Cuz in law and little Cuz - Maddy - she's sooooo adorable. I was helping her (ok ok so she might have been helping me a little) with this puzzle and it was actually quite hard.

I managed to successfully place a corner piece in (like the easiest bit of any puzzle!!) and she very smugly said "Well done Susie" !!!

She then preceeded to stand on her head and continue to do the puzzle !!!

Christmas - Daniela Style....

Had a really lovely Christmas lunch at Daniela & Tim's yesterday. I'll let the pictures do the talking but it was a very entertaining afternoon and amazing food, as usual.

Tim was quiz master but Alison was the winner - and what an amazing prize !!! A very special mug commemorating Charles & Camilla's Wedding !! And not only did she win the quiz but she is Janet Kelly's neice (for those of you who know Janet this will be relevant) - it's such a small Brisvegan world.

Carrie just making sure that I wasn't cheating...

Daniela trying to catch a jellybean....

Lisa looking very Christmassy....

Happy Birthday Naomi

It was my friend Naomi's 25th Birthday last week so we celebrated in sytle with a bit of a mini party round ours. Lots of Naomi's friends came, we drank lots of champagne and her lovely boyfriend Richard made her a very special cake. It was of a Penguin !! Naomi likes Penguins but it's also a bit of a joke because Naomi is Australian and Richard is English and they once fought over which biscuit is best - Tim Tams or Penguins (the UK version of the Tim Tam!!) - anyway Richard blindfolded Naomi to do a taste test and then (rather meanly) just gave her 2 Penguins !!!!









Just relaxing by our fire....

The Festive Season is upon us....

I'm editing the show in Soho at the moment which means that I am smack bang in the middle of town and right near Oxford St. The place is full of tourists at the moment, they seem to be everywhere. Everyone seems to be rushing about manically buying their Christmas presents. I got very organised the other day and just bought them all in one go. My flatmate Naomi is going back to Australia for Christmas so hopefully she can take them back for me.

There have been lots of fun events on lately so I've been out quite a bit, but trying not to drink too much, just a couple of tequilas here and there ! Oh & quite a bit of champagne, but if it's free - what am I supposed to do?! Turn it down?!!!! I don't think so ! I really love meeting new people so I'm really enjoying being single at the moment.

I've been quite good with my exercise regime - trying to swim a few times a week and also playing netball on Thursdays. Last week was hilarious - we play outdoors so it was about 5 degrees and raining!! The raindrops made it quite difficult to shoot well. It was the lowest scoring game I've ever played but we won 6-4 !!! Not sure how we could only get so few goals in a 40 minute match!? Last night was a little better - it's taken me a few weeks to get my eye in but we lost 24 - 14 so at least there was some more action....

I've got my first viewing with the Executive Producer this afternoon. Everyone that has seen the show so far seems happy with it so fingers, toes and everything crossed....

xx