Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Hi Everyone - what a treat I had on Saturday. Chloe and I went to London to see Priscilla. It was fabulous. I saw the film many years ago and loved it. Well, the stage production is better. The costumes are marvellous and the speed and skill of the costume changes is amazing. Now I want Darcy and Joe to come to England so I can go to see it again. Actually, anyone will do so if you are coming to England this summer, let me know and I will get us tickets for the show.

Time for an Update

Here is my garden







The good feelings generated by a weekend at Earnley lasted well into the next week. Then I had Ian Hacking to stay for a day and a half and it all fell apart again. He didn’t do anything dreadful. Quite the contrary, I think he was trying to be nice. It could well be that I am the one who is difficult. Whatever! Anyway, I found myself weeping and feeling miserable until I spoke to KD on Wednesday. She is so wonderful. I’m trying to change my default mode from dejected and despondent to jolly and positive. I’ve been the former just about all of my life so there is work to do. I wish it were as simple as changing the default mode on a computer; especially when it flashes a warning which states that ‘pressing this button will delete everything that has gone before’. Wouldn’t it be great if I could delete the past three years? I think it is called senile dementia. If I do get it, I will praise the day when someone says, “Malcolm Pike”, and I say, “Whose that then?” See what I’m doing? I’m slipping into my easy default. STOP, I say. Look out the window at your beautiful garden and put a smile on your face. I’m going to The Playhouse tonight to see The Crucible. A friend of mine is in it. Actually, it’s Judith who is a combination friend/gardener. My garden wouldn’t look nearly as good if it weren’t for her.

Weekend at Earnley

I had a marvellous weekend at Earnley Concourse. This is a place on the south Coast about an hour from Brighton which runs courses in everything from bird watching to spinning. You sign up for the course and they give you a nice ensuite bedroom and three meals per day plus snacks. There is also a well stocked bar. I did a course on short story writing and Alison did nothing. She had that day finished her term and it was the heavy one with lots of teaching so she was worn out. She brought her knitting and her ipod and spent many happy hours in the reading room and the atrium. Sian stayed at home with Harry (what an excellent mate). We were blessed with wonderful weather which prompted us to take a few nice walks. I’m planning to go back in July for a weekend of watercolour painting. Here are two pictures; one of the house and one of Alison reclining on a bench in the garden.

Fallen Behind

This past one has been an unexpectedly busy week. It began a week ago Friday with my trip to Rushton for the detox weekend. I had a stressful time getting there; the directions were terrible. The weekend itself consisted of two bowls of thick broth and two glasses of thick juice and a few treatments (lymphatic drainage, liver pack, scalp massage). Most of the participants had colonic irrigation. Fortunately it was optional so I declined.I didn't mind the shortage of food and I never felt hungry. The worst thing about the weekend was the boredom. There was nothing to do. Given what I paid for it, I wouldn't ever go again.

So I got back quickly on Sunday by following my own route. Monday was the portrait photography class. I liked it and am pleased that there are three more sessions. Then on Tuesday I went up to London to see a voice coach. I've never liked my speaking voice and now that I can do just as I please, I thought I would indulge myself. She was a wonderful woman who spent two hours with me, listening to me talk, read aloud and then showing me how to form the common sounds of vowels and finally working on my breathing. As far as speaking voice projection is concerned, my breathing is all backward. She has sent me a CD with the lesson on it and now I will practice. How weird am I?

I wake up on Wed morning all ready to take photos and practice backward breathing and the phone rings and it is Alison reporting a sick baby. She wants to know if I can come to Brighton to watch over him on Thur while she teaches. Of course, I drop everything and rush to Brighton. Foxy is indeed not himself. He tried his best to be rambunctious but it's not working so he moans a lot of the time and sleeps a lot more. He is better enough on Friday to spend a couple of hours at the creche while Alison teaches so I go home to prepare for my dinner party that evening. I'm doing fine until about 6:30 when I am assaulted by feelings of weakness and nausea. Fortunately, I had most of it prepared so I crept over to Diana's and threw myself on her mercy. I didn't want to cancel the dinner party because the food was ready. She took over and I went to bed. Everyone came as planned and seemed to have a great time. I struggled out of bed at ten and came down to say goodnight. I am so fortunate to live in a neighbourhood where this could happen. They even washed up. Today I am taking it easy.

Success

I went to WW on Wednesday and I had lost 4.5 lbs. Yippee!! I know it is common to lose a lot in the first week but who cares what the reason is. I then proceeded to Diana's house where I drank wine and ate my first really satisfying meal in a week. I think this was okay because I'm off to Kettering this afternoon for my Detox weekend - no coffee, no tea, no alcohol, no food!!! If I make it back on Sunday, I will provide an update.

Self Improvement continues...

I have been slogging away at my self improvement regime. As stated, I joined Weight Watchers last week and I've been really good about counting the points and feeling hungry. I know they say you shouldn't feel hungry if you're doing it right but that's rubbish. The English version is a bit different from the American one that I did nine years ago. They don't consider fibre content and they seem to work in half points much of the time. Luckily, I still have my point calculator from before and I like that method better. I'm going to my second meeting tomorrow evening and I better have lost a pound (that's my weekly goal. Also I've been good about going to the gym but better still, I am walking each day. My longest walk so far has been 3.5 miles. By the time I get home I'm exhausted and I am still sporting a large gut but at least I have got started. On Friday I go for my detox weekend. I don't know if I will feel less poisonous but it should be helpful for WW as I think I only get juice and maybe the odd lettuce leaf.

"I'm Losing It"

I did the craziest thing last night. I joined my local Weight Watchers. I have been gaining weight slowly but steadily over the past 2 1/2 years and I have finally faced the fact that I must do something about it. Nine years ago I joined WW in California and it was very successful. Mind you, there is a big difference between 58 and 67. Also, I was still smoking back then which is a great diet aid. Too bad the side effect is an early death from some horrible lung related disease to say nothing of the social impropriety. Anyway, back to the poundage. I'm sitting here at the keyboard debating whether to tell my weight. 'No' has just won. I will report each week if I have lost any weight. I and I alone will know the starting point. All I can say is that it is much higher than when I started the process nine years ago. Another factor for me is keeping a straight face. I was sitting there watching Debbie give us all the good word and I kept flashing on Little Britain and the Fat Fighters. I kept expecting Debbie to finish her talk and to turn into the only Gay in the Village. To go along with this fat fighting binge, I have joined a gym. Stiffness and lack of strength has been going along hand in hand with my weight gain. I'm doing four classes a week, two in Old Folks Aerobics and two in Old Folks Pilaties. Each in its own way is very difficult and very essential. I also go on the machines at least twice a week and I've been taking long walks daily (well, long for me). Hopefully by the summer I will be looking and feeling a damn sight better.

Another climate change

A few of my crocuses and snow drops



We have had a beautiful week most of which I spent in Brighton with the Williams' girls and the Fox. He is fantastic. If they had prizes for the brightest, smiliest baby, he would have to win. You can see pictures of him and even a little video if you look on the 'Diva at Home' blog. I came home on Friday and had a sunny warm weekend. Judith came by on Saturday and was determined to cut a branch off one of my beech trees. It was blocking the light and would do so even more when the leaves come out. It turned out to be a huge job which took a good part of two days. It was just high enough to be awkward to reach so she ended up with a crick in her neck and very sore arms. On the plus side is this picture of the crocuses and snow drops which are out in large swathes. I think they were sitting there waiting for the snow to melt so that they could come to life with a little sun. The next couple of months will be wonderful in my garden. The bulbs and wild flowers are well worth waiting for.

A New Day - A New Climate

I wake up this morning and lie in bed listening to the news. Guess what - flood warning all over the south of England. It began to rain yesterday afternoon and now several communities are flooded. Thank god I never shovelled. I only have a small bit of pavement (sidewalk) in front of my house and it's level so I couldn't be bothered. I saw one neighbour (American) shovelling last week and when I praised her efforts she said that one passerby had told her that she was making things worse! I don't think it's true but I liked it as a general principle and I've definitely taken it on board. My back garden is still covered in snow and looking pretty. Better still, not in need of attention.

I have been to see five films in the past week. We had the Bafta's on Sunday evening and I wanted to be up-to-date. Also the Oscars will be on in about ten days. Unfortunately, with the time difference, they are on here live in the middle of the night. I used to go with my friends Robin and Stacy to watch them when I lived in LA. We would each chip in five dollars and choose which films we thought would win. We had about ten categories. Whoever got the most correct, got the money. Stacy usually won. Anyway, back to my film viewing. I shall rate them with stars, 1 through 5 with 5 being the best.

The Wrestler **** - Mickey Rourke was a 5 (he won best actor in the Bafta's)
Slumdog Millionaire ***
Benjamin Button ****
The Reader *****
Revolutionary Road ****** - I know I'm only supposed to go to 5 but I saw this film last night and it blew me away. It was awesome. I was reluctant to go because I thought that L.C. and K.W. would be reprising their efforts in Titanic which I didn't like.

Enough for now. It is neither raining nor snowing at the moment so I think I shall take a walk (power walk LOL).

A New Week

I was looking forward to having last week over because of the bad weather. Guess what. Snow is forecast for today along with rain and then it is supposed to freeze tonight. I'm desperate to get over to Ikea to invest in some more junk and I'm thwarted. I think the god of weather is in cahoots with my daughters who insist on this crazy idea that I should go up scale when I spend money. I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Because I'm stuck in the house today, I'm going to make a start on sorting out all my banking information. I seem to have several bank accounts that I have acquired over the last two years and my filing system seems to consist of opening drawers and shoving stuff in. I then put a label on the drawer which is useless since I also have a filing cabinet with similar papers and labels. I have books on the subject of how to sort yourself out. If the weather were better I could spend at least half of today going into town to buy more self help books on how to be organized. I just looked at my bookshelf and my copies of Getting Things Done (two copies) is next to On Death and Dying. I wonder if that was a Freudian slip?