The Apartment is mine

I have the keys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am now the proud owner of my first home.

Yipppeee!!!!!!!!!!!!

The cleaners and locksmiths are coming today, and the painters tomorrow, and I need to buy a new cooker and sofa bed but the place is mine.

Yesterday was a mixture of sadness and joy as in the afternoon Judith and I went to the funeral of our neighbour Tessa. I would be odd in the extreme if I said I like funerals, but there was something calming in seeing so many people turn out to pay their respects.

After the funeral sis and I picked up the keys and swung by the flat. Whilst there I managed to arrange the utilities, so am now wired and plumed up. This has to be a good thing. Once all the work has been done, and my possessions are safely unpacked I will post a few photos.

Carnival Time

So I went to the Notting Hill Carnival yesterday with S, my sister, J and P. I really enjoyed myself.

This was the third time I had been to the carnival, and by far this was the one I enjoyed the most.

I managed to get some great photos, in particular of the the Brazilian street dancing as shown above.

For keen readers of the blog, you will notice that this is the first photo posted. I am still getting the hang of blogging, so more will follow as appropriate.

Viva la Carnival!!

Giles and Vinita's wedding

It is one of those things of hitting ones late twenties that more and more friends get engaged or married. Only one couple I am friends with has had a child, but it can't be long before others start sprouting.

So last Saturday - 20 August - saw S and I go to the wedding reception of Giles and Vinita in Twickenham. Giles and I became friends on the masters programme we did together.

I didn't know until recently that in India white is the colour of mourning, so at the wedding Vinita was in a white dress but for the reception changed into red.

The reception was lovely - lots of food, and a few other people I knew.

The strange thing about weddings is that people either get very drunk or a tad frisky. We saw a couple of people being taken home earlier in a rather worse for wear state, and there were a couple of couples who were clearly rather frisky.

The Rolling Stones

So I went to see the Rolling Stones at Twickenham with my father on Sunday, and all I can say is wowwwwwwwwwww.

They rocked the stadium, and to see 50,000 plus people on their feet singing along was quite something. I have always been interested in the psychology of crowd control and behaviour and having been to my first rock concert I can see how charismatic leaders can whip a crowd up to do anything.

But back to the concert. It was a great experience, and just nice to spend some time with Dad and take him out to do something mindless for a few hours where he didn't need to worry so much about Mum's failing ill health.

The Stones closed with Satisfaction to which we all sang along.

And for my close on this post in answer to my esteemed reader who is asking for posts, in the words of the greatest Rock 'n' Roll band, 'You Can't Always get What You Want!'

Holding Post

Some of you may have noticed that it has beeen a week or more since I lasted posted on my blog.

Rest easy, this is simply due to being busy. Although I had the last week off work, I was out and about buying things for my apartment, and cousins were in town from Praha.

Things with S continue to go very well, and I am spending a lot of time with her :)

Apart from the personal, the wider world is still a little scary but life continues - just at a higher level of vigilence.

More shortly.