New Year - New Wig

Here's my new 2013 wig in a brown fringed bob. I rather prefer myself in black and white snaps. Oh well. Had a fab day with Lucy, Philly and Django yesterday, eating drinking (mainly tea) and trying on winges and wigs. Lucy looked wonderful in a pale pink winge, while Philly looked best in the dark pink/purple one. Django looked like a moody teenager in both wigs but a bit suspect in a winge. I looked foul in anything, and with rapid thinning of the hair due to old age and lack of HRT I purchased the above bobbed wig in the sale today for £14.99. It has large gaps between the fringes of hair mounted, so does not make your head hot and itchy like most wigs. The make is Kali. Unfortunately they only seem to do dark wigs, but the fit is very good for me. I quite fancy a blonde or fantasy one though. We shall see. There may be a trip to Brixton later in the year.

Thor's Day

Well, Christmas was excellent: Dorothy arrived with presents and also from Julian, and after a cuppa we set off by local minicab into town. Arrived a bit early so we sipped Sipsmith G & Ts and relaxed for a bit. The Christmas tree was very good - a huge mass of white twigs covered in large gingerbread figures from Konditor & Cooke. The private dining room looked out over the streets - and the tourist buses with open tops going past. These were filled with people sitting in clear plastic cagoules, looking rather like giant condoms in the rain. Dear me. The atmosphere at Indigo was excellent with just a few smallish tables, but also one very large family celebrating, so we had a few well behaved children and babies, and their parents were very attentive. The food was delicious: supberb starters followed by turkey for me and for Dorothy, steak. We drank champagne followed by red wine. The puddings were a chocolate pudding about the size of a tennis ball, which collapsed as chocolate sauce was poured over it, and mine was tangerine parfait with walnut ice cream. Fab. We relaxed and chatted over coffee for ages. I then made the rather brave decision to walk back over Waterloo Bridge despite the rain which took just over 40 minutes. I was glad because the buildings were all brightly lit in the dark and the lights reflected in the river. The Festival Hall and National Theatre, floodlit in blue and green, were particularly welcoming as we crossed Waterloo Bridge. I did get rather tired but recouped my energy after a welcome cup of tea on our arrival home. We opened presents, then drank a bit more, ate cake before subsiding for a bit but somehow kept chatting until after midnight, when Dorothy set off home. I really don't know why I haven't eaten out on Christmas Day before as it takes away the stress around Christmas and feels like a really special treat. I had always assumed it was a bit sad to go out for Christmas lunch, but I have now completely changed my mind, and seeing the large family who were there, from grandparents to babies, about 15 people, made me realise what fun it could be, even with an extended family or a bunch of friends.

Christmas Eve

Managed to purchase a few bits and pieces and thankfully fell back into the house. Could not watch my ipad because the telly connection thing keeps failing. Nibby tells me this is because my internet is not good enough. It should be considering how much O2 are charging me. Oh well. Madeleine turned up bearing gifts aplenty and also some wonderful Heston mince pies, which we heated up and had with brandy butter and a cuppa. Excellent. I shall now read the Peter Cook scripts book which is quite funny. Booked a car to take us into town tomorrow (hope it turns up) so we do not have to arrive drenched. I shall leave our return journey to providence. Madeleine was most impressed with my winter wonderland thingy. I shall now spend a quiet evening and do a couple of cards for neighbours in the street which I shall deliver tomorrow morning. Here's a snap of the lights over the road, and also the tree at Brasserie Toulouse Lautrec the other night.

Christmas Torpor Sets In

Met Julian at Borough market where we enjoyed salt beef sandwiches and mulled wine, while wandering around. Julian purchased lots of packets of chocolate misshapes, but we had to fight people off to get near the stall. Dear me. Then back for tea. Today I managed to order some flowers to send to the nursing home and these will arrive tomorrow. My days have been passing in a dreamlike way, where I buy things I don't really need, cook things until I can't get any more in the freezer, and try and clean the paintwork. Sugar soap, suggested by my cleaner, has not worked, so I have sent off for a tin of old fashioned Chemico, an abrasive pink paste which was once used to clean baths. This might just work. We shall see. Madeleine and Romy are both ill: Romy with Norovirus and Madeleine with upset stomach and sore throat. This always happens to people just before Christmas. I am still agonising about transport on Christmas day and may ring a cab company today. We shall see. I was hoping to walk, but if it is pouring with rain I shall not want to arrive for lunch drenched to the skin. I have carrier bags full of presents, most of which will have to be distributed in the New Year since no one seems to be able to pick them up. Even the upstairs neighbours have disappeared, leaving a present in the hall for me, which is kind of them. Kooky is taking on worse habits. The odd nip on the leg to remind me of feeding time has now become a fullblown attack. Good thing I can now shut him out of the bedroom. The TV people actually rang. They say they will ring on Monday and let me know when someone can come around and hopefully fix the damn thing. Obviously this will be after Christmas, but I seem to have got the knack of watching things on the ipad. Have been reading about the pensioners in the Geffrye almshouses. Seems they lived in what seems to be bedsits, but with whole families in one room,loos at the back of the buildings, having to fetch water, curtained beds in the room plus a table, a couple of chairs, a food shelf and maybe a wardrobe. Later, the rooms were mainly given over to retired governesses for whom no provision had been made by their former employers. Madeleine may pop in tomorrow if she is well enough. Today I intend to go to Marks to collect my Sunday paper. Mamuska is closed until the New Year, as is Brasserie Toulouse Lautrec. A sudden welcome cash gift has arrived from Pierre in Canada, so I shall after all be able to spend New Year's Eve at Toulouse Lautrec. I tried to contact Christophe and Victorine as there might have been room for all of us, but they were out and have obviously made other arrangements. Pity I did not know until so late. Such is life. As I will be on my own, I may have the chance to do a bit of drawing before alcohol takes over.

Slightly Knackered and Geffrye Museum

I did not make it to the curry last night. I was quite surprised to see that my old college appeared to have doubled in size and the infrastructure was much improved. The work was young and lively as were the students - rather a change from the dourly worthy place of my days. Compared with the Bloomberg New Contemporaries at the ICA the other day, I was quite impressed with the general quality,variety and enthusiasm apparent in the work done by the students at the levels shown, both undergraduate and MA, which has restored my faith in art just a little. Seems that they have many new tutors too, which has probably helped quite a lot. Oh well. Walking around rather knackered me, despite Fabiola's kind attempts to ply me with food and drink, so I left and was home again at around 9pm. This morning I set off for the Geffrye Museum and wandered about enjoying their Christmas displays and shopping for a while. My most interesting purchase was a small white goose feather tree for a fiver. I shall pop this into the spare room. We had a very good lunch at Bacchus in Hoxton Street, and Evon popped in with one of her hounds. Fortunately not the large and rowdy beagle. She and I wandered along for a bit then caught a bus to Liverpool Street where we had a coffee and chatted. She had some excellent news on her planning application over the phone so she was a very happy bunny when we parted - looking forward to becoming a property tycoon and the prospect of spending several months a year in France. Invitations to stay in France were extended! We plan to meet up again around Christmas. Also had a call yesterday from a long lost friend, catching up on happenings over the last 20 years or so, which made for a long conversation with the prospect of several more of these. I hope we will meet again at some time soon. An email arrived from One Aldwych to inform me that I had won a mini-makeover for two including a mini-manicure and a mini-pedicure in their Facebook competition. I wonder if that means one hand and one foot each ? can't wait to find out.

Christmas Wrapping and Drawing

Wrapped a few presents and then discovered that Samsung have a customer service centre. Apparently they will take the TV away and mend it at their own expense if it has a fault caused by them. If it is something else they will quote me for a repair which I don't have to get done if I don't want to. The main trouble is that I don't know when they will come and then it takes seven to ten days to repair the thing so I shall be without it anyway until after Christmas. Forced myself out to the jam session last night which turned out to be excellent and it was Gabor's birthday so I had a small piece of cake and did a couple of sketches. Today I braved H & M in a vain search for the jumper which they failed to deliver, and of course there were none in my size. Curses. Tonight I am due at college to see Fab and the others.

I received a text from my son's aunt last night to invite us over on Christmas Day. Apart from the fact that we had already booked at Indigo, the lack of public transport on the day would rather preclude a journey to Tunbridge Wells. A kind thought though, and I said we would be happy to go next year which would give me time to organise some transport maybe.

Just don't wear heels

when staggering around London when you are 71. So foolish. Anyway met fellow Contemporary Art people at the ICA and had a chat about the Bloomberg Young Contemporaries exhibition there. Dear me. I am definitely very old. And glad I am doing my little sketches here and there, though I have been very remiss this week. I have also continued eating like several horses and put this down to the absence of a TV: it really does help to take my mind off eating. I have been looking for a replacement TV but they are all rather expensive and ugly compared with my now defunct one. I need another little flat screen 19" one which will play Freeview and work from a normal aerial. An added bonus with my last one is that it was white. I may look in John Lewis at Oxford Street tomorrow. I shall have to ascertain whether you can just plug them in or if they require some kind of complicated adjustment. My last one was never the same after last year's changes, even before it packed up. I definitely need a TV as a slimming aid. Also, now it is not working I can't be bothered to use the sitting room which is lying there unused, like the spare room. I seem to spend my time either in the kitchen (danger area) or lolling about reading on the bed (also a bit dangerous as it is quite near the kitchen). Dear me. It is the last jam session of the year tomorrow, and Gabor's birthday too. On Tuesday I shall go to my old alma mater and see a show there and have a look at Fabiola's stuff in the evening. On Wednesday I am going to see the Christmas rooms at the Geffrye Museum. Dorothy flew to Barcelona last night. I hope all went well with the sea ceremony for my ex, also early yesterday evening, poor old thing. At least it was a good send-off for him, with music etc. I am still trying to paint over the patch in the downstairs ceiling and have now applied a bit of white radiator paint from a spray can to see if this will help seal it over a bit. We shall see. Still thrilled with my new door.