Spam spam

I have a gmail account, which is great, and I'm particularly fond of the search feature. However, gmail has intelligent advertising that scans my messages and 'helpfully' provides me with links to external sites, more often than not, selling rubbish. Let me give you an example... I'm bridesmaid for a friend and my sister this summer, and we've been emailing about dressees/shoes etc, all girly stuff. So the links I'm given are all related to bridesmaid clothes/accessories and wedding sites. Spot on if you think about it.

Recently, things have taken a siniser turn. Almost every message I open is headed with a link to a recipe site... Now, I enjoy cooking, so there's nothing odd about that in itself, but ALL these recipes are for dishes made with Spam. Yes, Spam, that jelly-covered, pretending to be meat tinned lump of gunk that people ate during the war. Thing is, I'm kinda curious, so I've been checking out some of the recipes, and they're actually for pretty trendy food... 'Spam Mexican Tortilla Wrap', 'Warm Spam and Lemon Couscous salad'. But who in their right mind would ruin a perfectly good dish with a tin of Spam? I have no idea, but it's getting freaky... there are LOADS of these things. I'm trying to ignore them.

Fiends Reunited

In a fit of procrastination, I recently logged on to Friends Reunited... It's not something I do often, and I soon remembered why. A girl from my form at secondary school is married with three children and... get this, owns her own hammer factory employing 25 men!! Another, rather odd girl, is engaged and has started a business with her boyfriend selling sex toys on the internet. Right. And what am I supposed to have in common with these people? I guess we're all different, and I should be grateful for that, but I was kinda freaked... I'll stick to clicking 'next blog' when I'm bored.

Everything will be alright in the end...

... and if it's not alright, it's not the end.

My lovely friend Lizzy says this all the time, and she's SO right. When things go wrong and we get stressed, we often can't remember what happened a few months down the line. At the moment life is in a state of flux... I feel unsettled, like a fish swimming round and round a familiar bowl longing to get to the river, but not knowing where to jump to. I'm back home, yet home feels elusive, like I've outgrown it. Relationships change, people move on, and life progresses, the world keeps on turning whether I'm here or not. I read the Guardian Media 100 and felt more and more frustrated that I didn't know half of the names, I'm so behind with popular trivia! Yet in all of this I know that my perspective will change, life will seem easier and I'll feel at home again soon. I just hope that day comes soon.

The little things

I'm alone, sipping red wine on the couch on Saturday night. An inadequate breeze floats in occasionally from three sash windows and it's hot and sticky. I'm tired, so exhausted that I can't imagine being chirpy ever again. I guess six months away takes its toll and I've been pretty busy since I got back (as the pix show). Luckily I have the flat to myself, two luxurious floors of quiet space just for me... I've been enjoying having my own living room again, and sleeping in my own bed. It's amazing how the little things can bring great relief. Someone just rang the doorbell, but I'm not answering. I can't think who would be here to see me at this time of night. They can wait, outside my zone of conscious thought. Tomorrow is Sunday, a day of rest, and I'm looking forward to it already.

Ooo I do like a cuppa tea

The people I lived with in Singapore thought I was really English. Every time I made a cup of tea, they'd say 'Ooo the English do like drinking tea!' I'd agree, but the joke wore a bit thin after every time boiling the kettle (and let's face it, the kettle got more use than it had ever seen before!)

Back in London some friends organised a welcome home drinks party for me. Peering through my jetlag I managed to stay awake until about 10pm, when the effect of the mojitos started getting a little too much... until, just what I needed, a good cup of tea...

Wedding 2

Lizzy's Hen Weekend

David & Jenny's Wedding

Latest photos

There's no place like home...

Well everyone, I'm back! I got into Heathrow at 6.30am this morning, and to be honest it was all rather anti-cilmatic. Having looked forward to coming back for so long, I realised that I was far too tired to feel anything at all. Instead I complained to myself about the cost of a latte in this small country, and read my book while waiting for a friend. I've been travelling so much that the change-sensitive part of my brain must have switched itself off, numbed to anything expect the most bizarre experiences. Last week I was eating salmon heads in Hong Kong, yesterday chicken feet in Holland Village, today houmous and pitta on my sofa in London. It's all a bit too much. I'm glad to be back, honestly I am, but I need to wake up before I can appreciate what that means.