Painting with Tanya

I spent a very pleasant first day off in 34 days helping my mate Tanya paint her bathroom on Good Friday a few weeks ago...I tried to remember all those handy tips my Dad taught me so we started off by papering off the tiles with newspaper - I also spent rather alot of the time pointing out the "painters" section in the classifieds to Tanya but she didn't quite get the hint... twas quite a fun day though - we only got the first coat done though...

G continues her trek...

I'm glad to see she is making friends wherever she goes....

Family Forensics - In the News....

My first episode of Family Forensics went out last week and I had a few mates around for dinner to watch it....

It did really well in the ratings and I'm not sure whether to be proud, or to cringe, but here's what the papers say about Family Forensics...

"Jayne Middlemiss hosts a new series of this shockingly intrusive show.." (Daily Mail)

"...some of the most mortifying scenes in TV history" (The Sunday Times)
"This show is guaranteed to cause some family rows.." (TV Mag)
"If Kim and Aggie role-played as CSI agents the result would be something like this" (The Times)

Family Forensics is on Mondays at 9pm on Living TV

In Memory....of Snowflake

This one's for John The Hat...

Here is the proof that I too once loved guinea pigs....

This is a rather old photograph of my brother Duncan and I (yes yes I know, we have matching bowl cuts but i'm the one on the left in yellow) with our first white pet guinea pig, aptly named - Snowflake...

1982 - 1982

RIP SNOWFLAKE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAIR (oh and happy wedding anniversary!!)

1950's

1990's

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD !!!

You haven't changed a bit Blair Bear !!

Hope you have a wonderful day and I look forward to having a belated celebration with you when I get back to Australia...

And congratulations also to my parents are celebrating their 38th Wedding Anniversary** today....

** note to any mates out there deciding on a wedding date - a sure fire way to make sure your partner never forgots your anniversary is to get married on their birthday !

Lilly the High Powered TV Exec

Naomi & Richard are continuing their travels around Europe armed with my task of photographing little duckie "G". They met up with our mutural friend Melissa in Cannes where she is for the Mip TV. Here is her gorgeous little daughter Lilly with her mother's pass on !! Like mother like daughter....

Lilly & G...

Somewhere in France...

Goodbye My Friend..

The time has come for my very good friend Daniela to return back to Brisvegas. For those of you who don't know Daniela, we first met nearly 20 years ago when we first started high school together. She came over to the UK 4 years ago and it's been lovely having her close by.

She has kindly lent me her granny shopping trolley to encourage me to go shopping for groceries more ! She had a little trouble saying goodbye to it...

The last 3 months especially have been amazing - lots of laughs, a couple of cooking lessons and quite a few winks...

BREAKING NEWS.....

Sue books flight back to Oz....

And Isla Jane smiles....

Mini Isla

Isla is doing really well....she had to go under this ultra violet light to help her jaundice but it seems to have worked wonders....

And now she's even allowed to wear little miniature clothes !!

On Location...

I'm working on a new series at the moment - it's called Family Forensics and it will be hitting a small screen near you soon....Monday 17th April at 9pm on Living to be precise...and weekly after that...this is it:

"6 X 60 for LivingTV. Celebrity Love Island winner Jayne Middlemiss fronts Family Forensics, in which a team of experts, consisting of a private investigator, a relationship counsellor and a forensic scientist, explore the homes of ordinary people with some extraordinary results."

We have this huge truck fully equipped with state of the art forensic technology that needs to be parked out the back of who ever's house we are filming at...we had great difficulty getting the van up the side of the house at the last location... What's a couple of house tiles between friends?

This is Esther, the forensic expert inside the van....

And someone else you might recognise...

The other two experts enjoy a well earned break - watching the rugby !!It's been a great series to work on, really hard work but the people are great and it's nice to see a bit more of the UK...

The Blind Leading the Blinds

My mate Claire and I took our other mate Abi out for lunch for her birthday the other weekend...Claire had just purchased a set of blinds so we soon incorporated them into our fun filled silly day out... We decided to meet halfway across Tower Bridge, which would have been a good plan except that I was a little late so Claire & Abi were slightly frozen by the time I arrived !!!

Lunch was really lovely - I think Abi enjoyed the presents we gave her...
Claire & The Blind looking wisfully out over the Thames.... (I had to put my scarf on The Blind as I was worried she might get a chill)
The Blind has her first driving lesson...

Claire & The Blind share a joke as they decend into the tube....
Claire & The Blind enjoying some "quiet time" reading a book on the tube home...

I think the blinds enjoyed their one day of freedom, they are now installed in a flat in North London and sadly will never see the outside world agian....sniff

CONGRATULATIONS JO & ELS

My good mates Jo & Els got married last weekend and I had the fun task of doing the wedding video ! Unfortunately my digitial camera was stolen so I haven't got any of my own photos to share, so these are courtesy of Claire....

Claire & I both filmed during the day... above is the only photo of Jo & Els (in the background with me in the purple in the middle !!)

I did get a quick opportunity to sit down to eat....each table was named after beaches around the world ( I was on Byron Bay !!)

But then it was back to filming...this is slightly an unusual way to film I realise, but it was the only position I could be in where I could still use my arms !!! I was so knackered by this point...

They are now off on their honeymoon in Vegas & Hawai and I wish them both the very best for their future lives together...

My Room In Close Up

Thought I might share some of the special photos and pictures in my room....

The 3 photos on top of my book shelf....from left to right we have Dunk & Tash's wedding photo; Libby & Ian's wedding photo and then a lovely picture of Mum & Dad looking up at Big Ben when they were in London a few years ago...

The photo on the second shelf is one I took a couple of years ago in Brisbane. Mum was making me clear out all my stuff and out of my rather large collection of fluffy toys, I managed to convince her to allow me to keep three of my favourite teddies !! (yes, I realise I am now 30). Mum only let me keep them on the condition that she could wash them. I thought this would involve a delicate handwash but to my horror Mum simply threw them in the washing machine and then hung them pegged them on the clothes line by their ears !!! Poor little things...

The teddies (from left to right) are Doggie (very original name for a dog, I know) given to me by Popper & Kitty when I was about 6 I think; Bluey (once again, ingenious) given to me by Mum & Dad when I was about 8 and Red Ted (yes yes) which I have had since I was born. I'm not sure if Aunty Margaret Lane gave him to me perhaps? If not, there are certainly pictures of us together with Red Ted when I was a little baby.

This is a piece of art my friend Naomi bought me for my 30th. It's by an artist called Banksy who I absolutely love....in fact Claire bought me the Banksy book for Christmas....

The photo on the left (in very lovely frames given to me by my mate Sal for my 30th) is of me when I was about 4 years old at Pacific Fair down the Gold Coast in Brisvegas. I'm doing a thumbs up and wearing my favourite purple cords....cool....i think my dad took it...

The B&W photo on the right was taken by my late Uncle & Godfather Murray. He was in the Navy and the photo is taken from the deck of a ship as it's about to set sail. It's like something out of the Love Boat with all the streamers and stuff ! It's a bit hard to tell from this distance but the photo features a very young mum, dad, Aunty Margaret, Uncle Brian and my late grandmother.

LIKE AUNT, LIKE NIECE

This is the funniest picture I have EVER seen...for those of you that know me well, you will get the joke...

Spring Has Sprung, I Love Spring

I'm not quite sure why it took me 30 years but I have only just decided that Spring is my favourite season - not too cold, not too hot, a bit of rain here and then but overall - just right. It's been a pleasant 10 degrees average over the last couple of days and those snowy afternoons seem a lifetime ago.

I'm generally quite happy about everything at the moment. Work is going well, my friends and family are well, life is good. The fact that I've had 1 day off in the last 16 and I'm not going to get another day off in 17 days is almost not a problem ! I'm overexcited about the birth of baby Isla and cannot wait to meet her in May when I go back to Australia for a holiday. I still need to book my flight but rest assured you will all be informed of my impending arrival so the usual array of lunches/dinners/cups of tea can be arranged.


Lovely.

xx