QUOTE OF THE WEEK

An extract from an email from my Aussie mate Deborah whose 3 year daughter Jessica (see other blog entries) was born over here. We were talking about "Australianess"...

“I am also proud to say that jessica is well on her way. She says ‘what do you reckon to this’?, she calls people mate and she’s been to the beach to stay in a caravan (it was Wales but nearly same thing!).”

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY

First of all - Happy Australia Day to youse* all...

I had a very different Australia Day this year. Usually I find a couple of drinks with some good Aussie mates is a sufficient way of celebrating but this year, I wanted to be different, so I played netball. Now, playing netball itself is a rather Australian thing to do one might say, the only difference when playing netball in London is that, despite the fact that it’s the middle of winter – there are NO indoor courts so you have to play outdoors ! Just to prove it – here is a pic of the temperature on a billboard next to the court…



yes 3 DEGREES and this was at 7pm !! Here I am in my big winter coat walking to the game…it must have been at least -3 with the wind factor...
It was so cold that I had to put on my nice woollen jumper for the second half. The shooting seems to have come back though – it was great fun – some of them didn’t even touch the sides !! And one of them the umpire didn’t believe went in ! Luckily the Center from the other team stood up for me and it got counted !

Went to pick up our new house guest Emma from the airport last night – it was very amusing as I had never met her before and only had a small photo to go from. There weren’t too many young Australian girls coming through but I was worried I would miss her so I made this very embarrassing sign….
We made our way back to mine to dump her stuff and I promptly whisked her off to the nearest club to introduce her to the London way of life….she did very well to last till 3am but, as expected, is feeling a little worse for wear today !! As am I…

* yes Mum, I know that isn't a proper word and it probably better to be used in the spoken, rather the written context - but I thought it sounded funny !!

NEW HOUSE ADDITIONS….

My old flatmate Rosie has kindly donated to the house one very special sea monkey shape bubble blowerererer….it took us a while to work out how it worked but once we did - there were lots of lovely bubbles everywhere....shame there isn't sound on here - it makes a very special noise as the bubbles are created... as you can see, I was very excited !!!
We also have a very annoying phone and the buttons don’t work so after experiencing extreme phone rage, I decided a new phone had to be bought….I searched and searched and had no idea that landlines were so expensive !! Most of them were like £50-£70. !!! Finally I stumbled into a dodgy hardware shop on the high street and found this little beauty..
If you look closely and can read the name of the Japanese company that made the phone, you’ll see why it amused me so…

Having a whale of a time....not

I'm not sure if you heard the news down under about the whale that recently got lost in the Thames? Check out this (joke) news article on it. I know this will sound extremely unkind and very un-pc, but you have to admit, it's funny !!

ps - @ Mum - Dennis Watts is an Eastenders character who died on the show recently.

Days Like This...

It's day like this that I love being in London - I had a lunch time meeting with my contact from Eastenders about a job I'm applying for there so I went out to see her at the studios where it is filmed. Best bit was seeing a tombstone with "Dennis Watts" on it!! I so desperately wanted to take photos, but my mate wouldn't let me !!! I then saw all the Holby City nurses on their lunch break and Barbara Windsor (aka Peggy Mitchell) getting her lunch in the canteen !!! For the Australians....she looks like this - not sure if they ever got those dodgy Carry On Films down under??
The chat went well, now I just have to do the application. I then went for another interview after that and then went to a Channel 4 party this evening with my ex JJJ mate Jane Gazzo. It was nice to be back in the old Channel 4 restaurant and meeting and greeting some of the C4 talent - Richard & Judy, Rory Bremner, Jon Snow.....my favourite was Carol Vorderman (of Countdown fame) who I met as I was coming out of the loo...I told her she looked very gorgeous in her dress !!! "Thanks but it will take me 10 minutes to get out of it to do a wee" was her response....

Hello there, quite a productive day today as I have been offered not 1, not 2 but 3 jobs....it's quite nice to be wanted. Now, if only I could decide which ones I wanted it would be a lot easier ! None of them are highly appealing, but the money is good and they fit in with my social life so I guess that is important. Must decide by tomorrow....



Had a pretty low key weekend. Went out for dinner with some old Zig Zag mates on Friday night, spent saturday strolling around Clapham Common (where I took the pic above on my camera phone), went to a mates Birthday Saturday night and then just chilled on Sunday at Danielas then had my old housemate Rosie over for dinner and we watched a very entertaining foreign film.

I'm working from home today and have had to watch hours and hours of Russian police footage - let's just say that I thought I had seen it all, but I haven't !! And on that note...farewell...

A lovely winters day…

I had such a nice day out yesterday down near Brighton with my old Channel 4 mates – Deborah, Bronwyn & Karen. We met about 7 years ago when we all worked (and played) hard - we were the PA’s who really ran the channel….Now they are all mothers and here are their gorgeous children…. (i just borrowed Jessica for the photo!) Here is Deborah & baby Leo...
Karen & baby Shay...
And Bronwyn & baby Leon...
Bronwyn's parents were over from New Zealand to meet their first grandson...here's David with Leon... Here's Annette with Deborah's Leo...
Jessica was being her usual adorable self and took it upon herself to entertain all the others babies... Leon was loving it !!!! We played a very energetic game of hide and seek....
And then went for what Deborah termed “a leisurely stroll” – hmmmm, maybe if you didn’t have to push prams and carry 3 year olds up hills ! Here's Bronwyn's Marek pushing...

This little duck wasn't impressed with the lack of bread...It was incredibly beautiful place - amazing to think it's so close to London....

Christmas is Over – OVAH – Over

The time finally came to throw out the Christmas Tree on the weekend. It was the first time I’d had a real tree and as much as I loved having it around - the rule says 12 days of Christmas, not 16, so I felt it was necessary to throw it out so that the bad luck would cease.

Instead of carrying it down the stairs and scattering twigs throughout the house – I decided it would be easier just to chuck it out the window. A good plan, in principal – except that it got a little stuck !

It wasn’t a good weekend overall for my ingenius plans – I also thought that it would make a lot of sense to help my mate Daniela move house with the help of my skateboard (pictured below). In Australia – you’d get a mate who had a ute and the job would be over and done with – in England – you throw your life’s possessions into bin liners and drag them down the street !

My skateboard idea didn’t quite work – I soon discovered that out when I attempted to skate to the bus stop. I texted Daniela a very confident message as I was leaving “On my way – am bringing skateboard”. I texted her again 5 minutes later – “fell off skateboard, ouch. Now carrying skateboard”. It least it caused her some amusement !

Here is a nice photo of Daniela & I relaxing (after the move - she's the one with the green uggies !!!)…

OUR HOUSE - PART 2

And here continues our house tour - part 2 - the inside..... this is our hallway...(that's Claire's room off to the left and the kitchen is at the very end of the hall - the front door is behind me)This is Claire's Room... she has a lovely fireplace doesn't she? not sure if she's ever set a fire in it though....

This is our Kitchen....lovely wooden floors.... it's one of the biggest I've ever had and it has a lovely view over a garden - but it's not ours, so we can look, but not touch !

The Lounge Room.... I just love the windows !!

And upstairs we have my room in the attic. It's quite nice but the only (major) issue is that I don't have any heaters installed up there so it can get rather chilly !! My mate Rosie bought me an electric blanet for Christmas so that is nice and that white thing on the floor is a fan heater (don't worry Mum - I don't leave it on overnight, nor do I cover it !!!).And through here is our "sort of" spare room with my futon in it and at the end is another shower and toliet....lovely...

And that, is our house....

OUR HOUSE - PART 1

Today I shall do the introductory "outside" shots and tomorrow I shall venture inside....

Change of Pace

I've just finished up my latest film. Won't bore you with details, but I'm glad it's over. Just need to find myself a new job now, so that should be fun. I started sending off loads of CV's to people I've worked with in the past and we'll just have to sit back and wait for the commissions to come on in....something will come up, it always does. I wouldn't mind doing something a bit different this time round. Maybe even venture into drama or some other type of TV, it's not easy to do though, so we shall have to wait and see !!

Am just about to go and have a meeting with a mate of mine about a short film she is making so I might help them out with that....

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Sorry for my slackness in writing of late - lots has been going on. I celebrated New Years with a few close friends at a local pub near my home. There was a tube strike threatened so we thought it best to stay close by. For the first time in many years, I have yet to make any New Years Resolutions, I think maybe I will ponder them for a few days and get back to you on that one. It seems a bit boring to just do the usual "drink less" "eat healthier" "exercise more" ones - I'm going to be inventive this year !

The only resolution I remember making at the end of 2004 was to go to America, which I did end up doing (3 times!!) although all of my visits were work related so it's not quite what I had in mind. I'd love to go this year and just travel for a while all in different states - New York, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas are top of the list. I want to spend time in places and not just keep dropping in, doing an interview then running for a plane !!

Most surreal moment of 2005 goes to.....Serial Killer Ivan Milat's brother George teaching me how to fire Ivan Milat's first gun!! Here's the proof....

2005 was a good year, overall more good than bad times. I made 4 half hour films on the future of medical technology, 3 hour films on the psychology of serial killers and 1 hour on the survivors of serial killers. I spent alot of time away from London, travelling for work mostly - I went all over America from Utah to Washington State to Milwaukee to Florida to New Mexico and everywhere inbetween. I spent an interesting 6 weeks in Plymouth (!) and travelled to Paris and Spain and the Lake District to visit Lib.

I was also very lucky to spend some time back in Australia - unfortunately it was literally a flying visit so I only got to see my friends for a day but it was an amazing day at that. We were celebrating my 3oth Birthday. It was so lovely to see everyone, even if it was for such a short abount of time ! Here's some pics:

Hope you are all well and wishing you the very best that 2006 has to offer...

xx

Tash's Tummy

Blatantly stealing from my brothers blog but wanted to share with those of you (that don't also see Dunk's blog) a very cool image....it's Tash's lovely tummy.....ahhhh finally she gets fat !!! :-)
She's now officially halfway through her pregnancy....

You can check out Dunk's blog here if you so wish- http://mcgregordunktash.blogspot.com/

The Tolson-Poultons

Went down to Hayward's Heath (sorta near Brighton) last week to have lunch with my lovely Friends - The Tolson-Poultons !!!

Deb & Rich surveying their new backyard....

The infamous boat building Craig Chad was also in attendance and here he is supervising young Jessica as she cooks us all a very special meal....

Leo was loving his plastic carrot...