Time out

On Friday I was lucky enough to get a couple of hours off from being a Mum so I could meet up with my friend Nick. He was back in the UK from Austria for a few days and it's been about 10 months since I've seen him.

Fortunately Phoebe was feeling a bit better and my parents agreed to look after her while me and Nick went on a charity shop trawl in Leicester. It's actually longer since i've been in town than since Nick has so I was quite surprised to find a few shops have disappeared (Habitat, Black Cat bookshop etc). Still, we still managed to find some bargains between us and I was very chuffed to get a copy of The 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom by Alexander McCall Smith for just 50p! Also picked up Dave Gorman's 'Googlewhack' and what looks like a fab read - Inspector Singh Investigates: The Singapore School of Villainy by Shamini Flint. It's the third book in a series so I've asked my parents for the first book for my birthday and will keep my eyes peeled for the second in the charity shops. Got a Next top for £3 but it's a bit 'snug' at the mo :(

I popped into the charity shop just up the road from me on Wednesday and got a really great book called Scrap Saver's Gift Stitchery. It's got the cutest patterns to make little toys from fabric scraps. As an added bonus, the previous owner (Jean Watson, according to the name written on the inside front cover) had left some patterns that she'd cut inside the book too - cheers Jean!

While stuck under a sleeping child on Saturday morning I watched 'The Delicious Miss Dahl'. Disguised as a cookery programme, it seemed to be a way for Model Sophie Dahl to show off her best 'thoughtful' looks to camera while posing in what I seriously hope was a 'prop' cottage. If it's actually her home then I'm absolutely seething with envy as it was like my dream house. Lots of dreamy Cath Kidston prints, bunting in the garden and a cosy little den complete with candles, pretty lace curtains and snuggly blankets. In order to describe the feeling of Melancholy, she quoted part of a letter written by Sydney Smith to Lady Georgiana in 1820. I'm putting the whole letter here as I think it's incredibly insightful...

Letter from Sydney Smith to Lady Georgiana Morpeth, 16 February 1820

Dear Georgiana,

Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have—so I feel for you. Here are my prescriptions;

1st Live as well as you dare.
2nd Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold.
3rd Amusing books.
4th Short views of human life—not further than dinner or tea.
5th Be as busy as you can.
6th See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you.
7th And of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8th Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely—they are always worse for dignified concealment.
9th Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you.
10th Compare your lot with that of other people.
11th Don’t expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best.
12th Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy sentimental people, and every thing likely to excite feeling or emotion not ending in active benevolence.
13th Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree.
14th Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15th Make the room where you commonly sit, gay and pleasant.
16th Struggle by little and little against idleness.
17th Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18th Keep good blazing fires.
19th Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
20th Believe me, dear Georgiana, your devoted servant, Sydney Smith

In fact, I was just googling Miss Dahl to get the wording right for my next paragraph and found this snippet on zimbio.com...

"...the house, the kitchen where she cooks, is not hers. What? It's not? But I swore I saw Jamie Cullum's underpants tossed over that Cath Kidston upholstered chair! I always assume it's a set because where I'm from, across the pond, everything is contrived for effect. Okay, we all wanted it to be hers, how lovely would that be? And that's why it looked that way, because it's a set. It's a photographer's house that is rented out for shows and shoots. So those charming little recipe boxes with the handwritten titles aren't hers, nor are those perfectly propped counters, tops of cupboards (come on, dead giveway, who does that) and side tables. That romantic and dreamy garden out back? In our dreams indeed."





Phew! Looks like I don't have to put her on my hate list just yet then! She went on to talk about her personal cure for melancholy..."The most chocolatey chocolate chocolate thing there ever was". My interest was piqued! A chocolately chocolate chocolate thing? Wow, there must be, like, ten different kinds of chocolate in it! Alas, no. This "Ultimate Chocolate Sauce" as she went on to name it was basically a melted Terry's Chocolate Orange with some double cream stirred in, poured over shop bought vanilla ice-cream. I can't remember when I was ever more disappointed quite honestly. That's one, ONE, type of chocolate, and not even a fancy one at that, poured over ice cream that isn't even chocolate ice cream. I've a good mind to contact 'Points of View'.....