We'll always have Paris

I've not been the best person for keeping up with emails in the last few months, but over the last couple of weeks, I've been even worse than usual. You see, it's been Fairtrade Fortnight, here in London (and the UK) and work's been hectic. However, luckily for me, work isn't all stress and grind. We had a couple of producer partners coming over to show people how to taste coffee, and tell everybody about their lives and the way that Cafédirect and Fairtrade makes a difference to their lives.

On the catwalk after the show

Perhaps even more exciting than that, the Fortnight ended on a high note, and I got to go to Paris to serve coffee at Stella McCartney's fashion show.

There were heaps of fashion and music people, and I even got to ask Pink (above with Stella) if she wanted a coffee.

The whole event was amazing. i was serving coffees backstage and started at 6 (after three of the guys I was working with had been setting up since 4) making espressos backstage. There was this massive dressing room that was filled with models, dressers, photographers, hair and make-up people, assistants, interns and us in the middle of it, serving drinks.

A few of us were serving coffees out the front to the press, once they arrived for the show and got to serve coffees to Salma Hayek and Beth Ditto. Apparently Kanye West and Paul McCartney were also there, but backstage I mostly talked to models and photographers and generally had fun.

We also managed to have Sunday afternoon in Paris. Simone, Yasmin and I walked around the left bank, went into the Notre Dame and saw the Louvre.

Because it was a work trip, I also had a completely different experience from my usual travels - we got to eat in lovely restaurants and stayed in a nice hotel.

I can honestly say that (even without Paris trips) that I have never enjoyed a job so much and really felt like I'm doing something meaningful and challenging.

The Pitmen Painters

I had the amazing oportunity to go and see The Pitmen Painters at the National Theatre a few weeks ago. It was great.

Basically, the play is about a group of Miners from Yorkshire in the 1930s who begin an art appreciation class and begin to paint. As a group, they develop their skills and paint scenes from their life down the pits and in their town.

Barbara and I agreed that Mum would really love it.

Our house, in the middle of our street.

Stepping outside my door at the start of last week, I saw Brixton Hill where I live, covered in snow. It was a bit of shock actually. I'd started my Monday, as usual, forcing myself out of a warm bed and into the cold of the house. Really, my house isn't too bad - friends have come over and commented on how warm it is compared to theirs - but for me it's always a rude shock.

I jumped in the shower, had some breakfast and walked outside. I had known it was snowing the night before, but I hadn't expected the snow to stick around. I struggled (after first going home and changing my shoes for something that wouldn't bother me when it sunk into the snow drifts) down to the tube station and got on the tube.

My flatmate Mark had asked before I left if I was going to work, and of course I said yes. It was Monday. Apparently the buses weren't running, but the tube was fine, so I didn't see a problem. There were some delays, and it took me a little bit longer to get up to Old Street than usual, but it was basically an average commute.

The view outside my door

When I got to work though, there was hardly anybody there. Apparently they'd tried to call me to tell me that I didn't need to come in (and I was underground without a signal) but I didn't get the message until after I was sitting at my desk.

On the plus side, I got to go home early, and spent the afternoon playing around in the snow. It didn't stop falling the whole afternoon, and the banks of snow were squeaky and fluffy and absolutely amazing.

Plus, because the snow was so powdery, it didn't make you went when you had it thrown at you (and threw it at others).

My house (the roof peeping up over Sheila's)

But by the next day, it was all sludgy and terrible and work as usual. Not that I mind really, since I quite like my job and have been having lots of fun after hours.

Robyn and I at the Windmill

That week, all my flatmates and a friend called Robyn went to see Mark play at a local live music venue called The Windmill. Mark played an excellent set, and was followed by a scruffy but fun Rockabilly Band (whose name I forget).

After the show, we ended up back at mine, and hung out in my room.

Robyn on my bed

In case you're interested, here's a film of Mark playing at a gig in Camden.

New Year, Old Blog

Ms Helen B, 2009

Just over a year ago, I started this blog as a way of motivating myself to write more and keep my family and friends in Australia up to date with my life. A year and a bit later, so much has changed. Don't get me wrong, the purpose of the blog remains the same (and I'm going to make an effort to post a bit more often on it) but my life in that year has gone through some serious transitions.

Tbe fireplace in my room
(note the suitcase on the floor - the unpacking and organising continues...)

I'm sitting in my bed in my house in Brixton, London, and I've just come back from the cinema where I saw Milk. As I walked home the streets were covered with a thick layer of snow, and I too, quickly got a layer of white snow flakes on me. I've had a pretty quiet day, as I went out until late on Friday and Saturday nights. I read the newspapers in bed, sorted through some of my papers and posessions and generally hung around my house.

The plants on my window sill

If you'd asked me a year ago, what I thought I would be doing now, I probably would have said that I would be living in Amsterdam and studying a Masters. At the time it happened, I didn't see my break up with Kat to be all that positive. Actually, I would have struggled to think of any positive things about it. Change in life is never easy, but I think it's harder when you feel that you didn't necessarily make the decision to change - that those changes were made without you having all that much say in it.

In retrospect, I see that our break-up (nine months ago!) was probably one of the most positive things that could have happened to my life last year. It really made me reassess the decisions I had made and push me to consider what my priorities were. I think it's important in a relationship to work in a partnership, and work with your partner's needs and desires. But along the way, I lost sight of what I wanted and needed.

I met Jess just over a year ago, and if my life had gone along the path that I'd thought about back at the start of 2008, we probably wouldn't have become such good friends. When I decided to come to London and stayed with Jess, it was a rather rushed and spur-of-the-moment one. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, or how long I would stay.

As it is, I now have a job I really enjoy and am passionate about, and a really nice set of flatmates and friends. Even though London is the other side of the world from my home, I feel really happy and supported here.

Robin, Jess and Maya (my flatmate) on the tube on the way to a party.

Of course, London has it's imperfections - it's cold, it's busy, it's polluted and it's expensive. But it's also fun, vibrant, exciting and my home - for now.

Christmas Orphan

Christmas is always slightly strange when you're not at home with your family. In total, I've spent four Christmases away from my family, and each one was different.

I think, without doubt, the most memorable was the one that Katherine and I spent in Toledo, Spain. Unbeknownst to us, everything (and I mean everything) shuts down on Christmas eve at about 6pm. We weren't too worried, at first. We had something to eat and went back to our room with a bottle of wine and stayed up listening to music.

Susan carving the turkey

The next morning, however, we woke up to find the town (a small, walled medievil town in central Spain) was empty. We walked around the icy streets (hungry, lost, feeling strangely Christmassy despite it being the two of us alone and starving and having none of the usual seasonal accroutements) and then went back to our room to pass some time. There wasn't even a corner shop or a restaurant open.

I think that at about 3 o'clock McDonalds opened. Having seen their opening hours posted on the door, we were two of the thirty or so people waiting outside the doors in the cold at ten to three. I still have the pictures of me and Kath on Christmas day with all the other unprepared travellers, eating McDonalds and feeling rather hysterical.

Barbara's amazing cooking

Other than that, I've had a hot Christmas in Argentina, and last year I was in Germany. The interesting thing is that, both those countries exchange gifts on Christmas eve.

Susan laying the table

This year, I got to spend Christmas with the amazing Barbara, Susan and Hannah and Susan's family. Barbara is the most organised cook I've ever seen. Personally, I consider myself organised if I have most of the ingredients needed. Barbara started preparing the Christmas dinner two days earlier and had a timetable for the day, including when to put various parts of the feast in the oven or on the stove.

We ended up with the most amazing food. Until that lunch, I'd never understood how people can like Brussel Sprouts (they're my Mum's favourite vegetable), but after eating them last Thursday, I'm a complete convert.

Hannah with Millie's Christmas lunch.

I got to have a long conversation with my sister and chat to my Dad on the phone. Even though I was away from my family, I felt really loved had a great time.

I'll be honest, if I had my choice, I would have rather have been in Townsville - despite the heat. But that would mean missing out on everything else I have here. And after all, it's only one day really.

Ceildh

If you've been staring at the title for a while, I'll let you in on a secret - it's pronounced kay-lee.

Jenny (now Jen) Watt (pictured below), a friend of mine from all the way back in primary school invited me to her family's Ceildh in Sevenoaks (in Kent, just East of London) just before Christmas. I'd been telling people that I was going to a "Sell-i-dah or something, I think it's a party" for a while, until Whitney, who I work with, told me the proper pronunciation.

She'd had a Ceildh for her wedding, and according to her descriptions, it sounded just like a Bush Dance.

Basically, a band (with a violin, accordion, maybe a drum) and a caller are on the stage, and they teach everyone the dance steps to folk dances. Then they start playing music and everyone dances in partners and groups and repeats a set of steps to folk music. Mostly, the dances are some sort of variation of bowing, do-se-do-ing, swinging your partner around, stripping the willow (to get a bit technical) and skipping around in a circle holding hands.

Luckily, I'd been trained at the Pimlico academy of Bush Dancing (aka Pimlico State High School, where bush dancing was an essential part of the PE curriculum), so I could keep up.

I also got to meet some long-lost Townsville friends, including my Mum's friend Leslie and her husband Paul Richards, Jen's sister Cate (above) and their parents Ron and Sian and Leslie and Paul's son, Owen (below).

It was a really lovely night, although, I have to admit, it did make me feel a teensy bit homesick.

I hung out at the library today

I went to the British Library today with the best of intentions. I wanted to go to the exhibition The Struggle for Democracy and actually planned on hanging out and learning (rather than spending most of the day attempting the Everyman Crossword and reading the Observer). The only thing was, a few weeks ago, I noticed my super best band Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip was playing some gigs at UK libraries as they are reading ambassadors. However, the London gig was sold out a few weeks ago, so I dried my eyes and set my sights on their free appearance at a record store on Wednesday. But... (see photo below)


Somebody (well two people really) returned their tickets, so Lucie and I managed to snag some last minute tickets and see the gig.

It was soooo fantastic. Polar Bear was a support act who was this amazing spoken word artist and there was also this strange girl doing a blasé pop electro act (tres lame). When le sac vs pip got up, it was amazing.

Now, you have to imagine a spoken-word-hip-hop duo (who I saw at a packed gig at the Astoria) in an auditorium at the British Library is slightly strange. Everyone was sitting in plush seats and the music is very dance-y (is that even a word?).

I ended up getting up and grooving anyway (the only person, but what can I say, I was right at the stage and basically, it was like being at my own concert). It was just lovely. The gig was great, everyone was friendly, and I didn't even have to bother with people stepping on my toes and blocking my view by being tall. It was a great, sober, Sunday afternoon at the library that just happened to feature one of my favourite bands of the moment. You may recognize them from my break up song anthology.

After, we headed off to a great Japanese place in Covent Gardens that has the best tofu (meat eater Lucie has fantasies about it) going and then went to Retro Bar, which is my new going out place, now that the Glass Bar has closed (potentially forever, and for quite a while according to the owner).

I've been very slack with blogging recently, but hopefully will put some of my "draft" posts that I never finished off and put up.

I guess the good side of my lack of blogging is that I've been having a great time in London, and am now working in a lovely place, so just have less time to be online for fun.

x H