Happy First Birthday to little Freddie!

A big gorgeous smile from the birthday boy!

The Bell/Evans family at Freddie's first birthday party.

I was lucky enough to be drawn to attend Member's Day at the new Arsenal stadium, less than a mile from the old one. It is a stunning architectural design. 60,000 capacity (only 20,000 were allowed in today), even the seat in the back row of the upper tier has a great view (I checked!). The food prices are a bit off - 4 quid for a manky burger - but I guess you're not there to eat, you're there to watch football! I watched the team train, waved at the team Mascot (Gunnersaurus) and admired the view from 4 storeys up across London. Can't wait to see a game there!!

Inside the new stadium - every seat has a fantastic view!

Stu and I have found a new walking route near home that takes about 45 minutes and wends through cricket fields and Hampstead cemetery, which is very very old and full of incredibly beautiful stone angels and crosses draped with rampant ivy. I like that this space for the dead is filled with the living. There are people jogging, walking dogs, pushing children in strollers - in no way does it feel sombre or heavy. The living make it part of their life and their community.

This pic is from in between two of the cricket pitches, and looks across to the arches of the new Wembley stadium being built not too far from us.

Our visiting kitty (still nameless - think I'll name her 'Cat' in homage to Breakfast at Tiffanys!) found the most comfotable place she could find - right on top of my clean clothes!! She pops in every few days, eats some biscuits (I know we shouldn't but her owners lock her out so she has a second food and water source here!!), hangs around no more than 30 minutes then scoots off again after a scratch and a cuddle!

We were fortunate enough to get tickets to a small Paul Kelly gig at The Spitz on Commerical Street last night. He sang with Dan Luscombe, and was nothing short of brilliant - I felt privileged to be there. Two men, three guitars, thoughtful lyrics with a twist of humour, pain, emotion, rawness, lightness, and a voice that hit the right note every time. Beautiful, captivating, brilliant. He sang a few crowd pleasers, as well as a few from his most recent album (Foggy Highway), and even a couple of new ones. I wasn't sure what Stu would think (Mr Dance Music!) but he was well impressed. I think one of my favourites was 'Down to my Soul', although his rendition of 'Every F*cking City' included the line 'it's going to be hotter than London in summer'!!

Random 'Life in London' moment - on our way to the Paul Kelly gig last night, standing at Finchley Road tube station waiting for a Metropolitan line train to take us to Liverpool Street! It was about 34 degrees when this pic was taken, don't know how much of my tan you can see in this but trust me, I'm now quite a few shades up from the winter lilly white!

We're in the middle of a heatwave (the second this summer - woohoo!) and yesterday it was a mammoth 36 degrees. Of course, this being England, the trains get screwed as soon it gets too hot or too cold so travel inconveniences aside we have been taking full advantage of the glorious evenings (30 degrees at 8pm!) with long walks, and, prior to the scaffolding going up all over our balcony and taking it out of action for 3 weeks (great timing, thanks), we've been bbqing! Chicken marinated in yoghurt and herbs, tuna, burned sausages, capsicum strips -yum! There's something wonderful about sitting outside, the warm evening air caressing bare limbs, bbq smoke wafting around you and a chilled glass of rose cooling one hand while the other props a good book open. Aaaah the simple things in life.

Hello to my gorgeous new little blonde haired darling nephew Ethan John Wood, one day old today. Congratulations Brad and Roz!!

My beautiful Mum with Ethan.

Congratulations and warmest welcome to Brad and Roz' new son, little Ethan John Wood, born July 17th (2 1/2 weeks early), and in quite a hurry to make his way into the world! Went to hospital at 6am and welcomed the little one around 9am! Photos to follow...

Happy birthday to Stu for Saturday! We had a lovely day, lunch at the Savoy Grill which was above and beyond already high expectations - foie gras and caramelised onion tarte tartin beginning a truly exceptional meal. The day finished with a performace by Michael Gambon of a theatrical piece called Eh Joe - incredible - he doesn't speak a word, just reacts to a voiceover - unbelievably gripping, and hypnotic. All in all a lovely wonderful day!

From a BBC reporter at one of the London bombing locations, one year on today:

"Hatred is blind, anger is foolhardy, vengeance is bitter, compassion heals, forgiveness sets us free."

In memory of the 52 lives taken.

Well it's Stu's last day before starting at Telstra next Monday! He's got leaving drinks after work, then we're going to a tiny club called Public Life to see DJ Luke Fair :) Life goes on, as it always does.

Fecking little McBastard (that's a squirrel, for the uninitiated). The battle continues. Over three consecutive mornings he has been trashing my pots and digging them up. So, I bought some galvanised mesh and have been cutting it up and laying it over my pots. The current death toll stands at 3 bird feeders, one parsley plant, 3 chilli seedlings and two tomato plants. We'll see how his little teeth like mesh! Someone suggested a decoy manouver, like nuts in the garden below on a daily basis. I'm seriously considering it! Off to plot my next grand move....

Crikey! Look at the size of this fella! Brad with his dhu fish caught somewhere off the coast of WA. My mouth is watering just thinking about what that would have tasted like...

Wow, this was the first weekend since last summer when I had absolutely nothing planned, nowhere to be, no study and two entire days to do with what I wanted. Total Bliss. There was the guilty pleasure of sitting in the baking sun reading a trashy Tom Clancy (my 3 favourite words to make up a news headlines so far this year: 'Five Day Heatwave' - it was 32 today); the almost two hours pottering about with my plants on my balcony - I somehow have 11 tomato plants and 4 chillis - they sprung up from last year's crop! - so repotted some of them, pruned and tidied and fed and watered all of them; the webcam and phone calls home; the BBQ on Sunday night for which I made no less than 6 salads!; the pork belly marinating in the fridge for dinner tomorrow night; the banana pudding I am sitting scoffing with the remnants of the cherry clafoutis (like a pie); watching England in the World Cup (and feeling again what I felt when the Socceroos were inexcusably and IMHO unfairly removed from the next stages - we could have had Ukraine, come on Germany!); having a little beauty session with mud masks and delicously scented face and body scrubs; and generally trying to remember what it is like to not have a million things to do before yesterday! There's always something, but this weekend I made it all wait til next weekend. I feel as relaxed as Stumpy the cat in this photo (not her real name but she has no tail, only a stump, hence our 'witty' moniker for her!). Finally!