Tag Archives: singing

A good night in

Posted on May 3, 2012 | 5 comments

It’s been a good night in

Husband is away, so I’ve had some great nights in at home. I have been surrounded by: 

  • Hand, foot, cuticle and nail potions
  • All the remote controls and phones in the house (some now with very supple heels and strong nails…)
  • Endless singing and talent TV shows
  • A selection of remaining Easter chocolate and party bag sweets
  • All the cushions.

I’m not really alone as the kids are asleep upstairs.

I love going to tuck the kids in before I go to bed. I re-arrange their duvets over disordered limbs and dense breathing. They smell clean.

They’re still and complete and quietly humming with life. Like small people-shaped batteries, furiously recharging themselves on dreams of zombies, rainbow flowers, vanilla fudge and high-speed trains.

Or maybe that’s what I’ll be dreaming of, after a little too much chocolate and cuticle conditioner. 

Good night. 

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I heard a bus shelter singing

Posted on April 21, 2012 | 5 comments

Last night I heard a bus shelter singing. I was sitting alone, watching the lights of a  basketball court flicker on and off, waiting for the promised number 46. There was a gentle “Ah – oooo. Ah.” Like Ladysmith Black Mambazo (circa 1986) under a large bucket. It was a calming, meditative repetition of those 3 notes.

This bus stop whale song was magical, until I realised it was coming from the shelter’s brightly lit advertising sign. Each time it scrolled to a new ad for highly engineered underwear or lifestyle drinks, a distant South African choir sang sadly: “Ah – oooo. Ah.”

Colour starvation

In these drippy flannel grey spring days, I love colour. My eyes are hungry for bright shiny colourful things. Like these…

Resin chopsticks

Resin chopsticks against a sad grey sky.

I’ve never used these as chopsticks. Far too chunky and clunky, and slightly bent from the move to the UK. But beautiful to look at. [Dinosaur Designs resin.]

bright fabric

Happy patterns and colours

Well, look what happens when I shop for clothes on a dull flat day… [Very creased Josh Goot and some faux-Missoni.]

wizard of oz felt rainbow

Wizard of Oz felt rainbow

Look how utterly terrifying that faceless flying monkey thing is.

magic carpet

The magic carpet

This is a magic carpet and a prayer mat. That’s the kind of school we go to here.

And here’s one I wrote earlier…

Pretty things offscreen. The more of my time that is sucked up by websites, email, television and mobile phones, the more I appreciate solid physical beauty.  Here are some pictures of pretty things I have seen offscreen…

Wandering in the www garden.  I tend to lose all concept of time as soon as I open up a web browser. I start with a task (e.g. look up a train timetable), then somehow find myself 1 hour later looking at pictures of husband and wife cutlery.

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Posted in London, Pictures, Transport

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