Snow in Oxfordshire

So this week the snow came to Oxfordshire (here is my beautiful residance in the snow, awwww). And my goodness it really did snow! I ventured out on Wednesday morning and it was up to my knees, my knees! So subsequently I didn't go into work on Wednesday (oh no) and we enjoyed an official snow day instead. I made the mos of it with a bit of a lie in, did a tiny bit of work from home & then Fi gave me a ring & asked if I wanted to go and play with her and Alex in the snow. Did I? Did I ever! So I donned wellies, a very unattractive but practical hat and headed on over to hers. Here is her & Alex in the snow.
The plan was always to build a snowman but Alex has never seen snow on this scale before so we weren't sure what he was going to make of it. In the end however it turned out that we needn't have worried. Alex was fine in the snow but was less keen on the 'building snowman plan'. So it ended up with one of us holding his hand (in case of slippages) and the other packing snow like crazy. After a bit of hard work we got ended up with the below deviant snowman (its a bottle of snoman's revenge that he is holding, completely Fi's idea).
After our messing about outside it was back indoors to get warm and inbibe a thimble full if sloe gin (to warm to the places that heating alone cannot reach). It would seem however the snowman reaked the ultimate revenge as it appears to have stolen one of Fi's Hohners!

Happy Birthday to Dave

Here he is my long suffering housemate Dave turning 26 (thus making him the same age as me and preventing him from using the phrase 'old' in conjuction with me for 7 months, hurrah!)and blowing his candles out. I had made him a cake and was putting my finishing touches to the icing when he returned from his parents last night. He seemed genuinely confused when I told him he wasn't allowed in the kitchen but thankfully the mess created by making buttercream icing and spelling out Happy Birthday in hundreds and thousands (yes it did take quite some time) was soon cleared away. The next morning we awoke about the same time (I think he realised he wasn't going to get his present till evening if he didn't get up (he usually gets up about 9 while I'm out with the lark at 6am)). We had birthday cake for breakfast (he swears this is the first cake that has ever been made for him (I shall be calling his mother)) and seemed genuinely delighted with his zebra t-shirt a (a la Brett from flight ofthe conchords) and handmade card from me, and his many flavoured jellybeans from witchcat. Then it was off to work (I have never understood people who work through their birthdays, I always have the day off, but there you go). Then it was home for some more cake (double chocolate) happy birthday Dave!

New Years day and Keats house

new year & keats house 044
Originally uploaded by victoriaros56

So after all of the excitement of the night before (not to mention the quite large quantities of alcohol) I had something cultural and restful planned for New Years Day. I was staying the night with my friends Zoe & Steve who live in Ealing. We all got up about 11 had a nice big fry up and then set off to Hampstead Heath (Steve decided he would rather kill zombies on his computer than come with us so it was just the girls. Our destination was the picture perfect Keats house (above). I stumbled across the website for this by accident while I was reading a costume blog, (it was mentioned because the costumes from the film Bright Star are currently being exhibited here). Anyway being quite a big Keats fan I made a mental note to see it at some point and then noticed that it was open New Year's day which was the perfect excuse. Zoe and I got a bit lost round the backstreets of Hampstead Health (this wasn't that bad however as it was only a minor detour and we ended up running (almost literally) into Noel Gallagher). House located we did the tour. There seems to be very little of the original house as Keats would have seen it left. When it was sold it was bought by an actress who ripped out the divides (it was originally two residences) and attached a ballroom, plus Keats didn't own any furniture so they can only guess how the house would have been furnished. My favourite room without a doubt was to be Keats study (they know it was his as there is a painting of him writing inside it). Upstairs we stumbled across the costumes from Bright Star (if you haven't seen it I would def recommend) as well as this dealth mask of the man himself (interesting but macabre was the joint verdict on this one). Once we had looked round the house and perused the gift shop (who must be congratulated on their scope, the John Keats colouring book anyone?) we ventured out into the gardens. Here's Zoe outside Keats study window and another one of her wistfully gazing out the window. As usual 'culture' gave us a heck of a thirst and the urgent need for cake. We managed to squeeze in a few of the heaths fine second had bookshops (suprisingly there aren't that many now left in Oxford, possibly a good thing) and then found a cafe and procured what was needed. A lovely excursion and proof that certain bits of London are lovely, you just need to know where to look.

Hootanany!!!

Happy new year everyone! The above photo shows exactly what we were up to this NYE. Back to the castle favourites Bellowhead were given the chance to play at the Royal Festival Hall for New Year (as they are their band in residence no less) so they threw a massive nautically themed party and we all went. As usual fancy dress was entirely optional (I'm always suprised though by the number of people who don't dress up, mind you all we need is an excuse) so the girls donned corsets and the boys became sailors for the night. Bellowhead appeared throughout the night first to play nautically themed songs, then for a covers set (the highlights have to be Pete Flood doing ring of fire & Rachel MacShane doing blame it on the boogie, awesomeness) and then to play the classics (see photo of Auntie Sandy and I dancing the night away, photo by longtime folky mate JJ). Also appearing were the Eliza Carthy Abba Ceilidh band who were povding the tunes and moves for a truely 70's ceilidh, meanwhile the Belles of London City entertained the gentlemen upstairs (as did a scantily clad Camille O'Sullivan who joined JB for a rendition of fairytale of New York) and Jim Moray found time to DJ silently upstairs before joing bellowhead for all you pretty girls. The tunes flowed as did the ale and or gin and tonic. The fireworks at the end of the night and the fact that some of my avourite people were present all helped make this a very memorable night. 2010 if it;s as good as the beginning until the end we are in for a hell of a year!