Sunday Summary | with waffle as standard

Hello to you!

Vague and moderately insincere apologies for the lateness of this post.

I have just tipped up home after an epic Toby Carvery (cue food coma, second of the weekend) with my lovelies (Charlie, here's that aforementioned promised nod because, well, yep, you deserve one) preceded by a subsidiary division gathering of Song Club.

I now plan to put on PJs and settle myself down for CSI:NY and The Ironing.

Because that's how flippin' street I am.

---

This week, I have mostly been ...

Reading

Still. Quietly. Don't hurry me: I'm an introvert, don'tcha know? We're all about the quiet, and the slow-but-steady thought processes.

{Gah. Cluckin' freeloaders ...}

Incidentally, FOQ, I've decided to alleviate some of the pointless pressure I've put on myself, and reduced this year's reading target from 50 books to a more reasonable/achievable and less stress-inducing 40.

It's just how this year has gone.

Dear QB, give yourself a break: you walked 100k in a day, this year. You can't do it all.

Love, Self

{I feel loads better already}

Watching

My Netflix had a blip on Thursday and Friday evenings, meaning no Gilmore girls to watch with dinner such is the custom at QB Heights these days:

so I ended up watching a couple of episodes of Gareth Malone: The Naked Choir on iPlayer instead -- in which our host searches for the UK's best a cappella choir. Did someone call for some serious talent? I think these boys (The Sons of Pitches!) have it:

but this group -- the similarly whimsically-named Choral Stimulation -- are close, close contenders. If this rendition of Nothing Compares 2 U doesn't make you a little moist of eyeball then I have to ask, are you even human?

And also on a musical tip, I have also mostly been

Blown away by this ...

... beautiful cover of Beyoncé's Halo, by Norwegian singer Ane Brun (feat Linnea Olsson), discovered on Spotify:

It might also make you cry.

Let it out, friends, let. it. out.

Decluttering

All right so maybe I'm a little married to Netflix and all its super-sexy unlocked territories (Jess, here's that link!) and Gilmore girls, and Ghost Whisperer, and CSI:NY ... but I tell yer, I have been able to pare back my DVD collection as a result of finding films and series online, and make room for, wait for it ...

... MORE BOOKS.

And vinyl. Yes to vinyl. And yes to my bestest ringing me from a jumble sale on a Saturday morning (when I'm still in PJs in bed) to ask which of a burgeoning selection of bargain records I'd like to add to my collection. ALL THE CHEESE PLEASE, Natalie. ALL OF THE CHEESE.

Coincidentally, a recent Guardian Weekend edition cottoned onto the Chuck-tober trend (because I am that cool I set trends: even Ma QB is getting in on the act!) with this rather pointed, and of course bang-on, feature: Modern Tribes: The Declutterer

{Image: Ben Lamb for The Guardian | via here}

This week's Chuck-tober tally: 

Oct 12: DVD
Oct 13: Forgot! It was a Voicerox night ...
Oct 14: DVDs x 2 (to overcompensate)
Oct 15: beer glasses x 2 (in removing these, I discovered a whole stash of far-more-crucial wine glasses on the top shelf that I'd forgotten were there)
Oct 16: DVD set (OK, getting predictable now ...)
Oct 17: DVD set (I'm also breaking my own 'from a different room every day' rule ...) | oh but I did manage to offload the first full bag of Chuck-tober haul on the lovely people at the Red Cross Shop which was the purpose of the project anyway, rather than keeping it all kicking around the flat until the flat imploded ...
Oct 18: Ironing board (replaced with a far more flexible ironing mat. I AM SO COOL.)

Trend-spotting

... at the Brand Licensing Europe expo at Olympia, Kensington.

This was a work mission that I was a little reluctant to visit on account of my perceiving it as a large exhibition hall full of loud people, some of whom would doubtless be in scary character costumes (and after having been in Times Square at dusk, I can't help but run, clutching my purse, from such individuals now).

Of course, as I'm slowly coming to learn at the moment, my perceptions and reality are sometimes as mismatched as winter berries and Prosecco (bad example, they're a fabulous marriage, as witnessed by these flippin' awesome and sparkly and zingy crisps):

{We'll be eating stars. | via here}

OK, new analogy: my perceptions and reality are as mismatched as ... Nicole Scherzinger and Harry Styles. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions on that.

BLE (at 9am on the last day of the expo, admittedly) was great. Actually great. And I'll tell you for why: there was relatively nothing new there.

Which might sound like a negative but I'm all for tapping into the nostalgia market, to use pretentious business-speak, and apparently so were about 80% of the exhibitors. So many of the emerging or even the sustaining brands were recognisable from our yesteryears, from the Clangers to Teletubbies.

BLE is nothing like LBF, incidentally (sadly BLE didn't have an added Norgstar for Great Company bonus): the stands were mostly open, not closed-off and over-protective.

And some of the promotional goods were so darn cute. Witness:

{TINY scooter | for StudioPets}

{TINY VW van pedal-car | for Volkswagen}

{My TINY Little Vomiting-Rainbows Pony | ... not so much. What did you eat?!}

And, ladies and gents, it's time for an announcement.

I am moving to France to be an animator (pardon: animatrice), just so I can work on THIS! THIS FILM! THIS! THIS IS A THING! WHAT?! YES! IT'S A THING THAT'S HAPPENING!

{PLAYMOBIL: THE FILM?! WHAT?!}

(All right, I'm not actually going anywhere, but clearly someone's seen my Christmas offerings and thinks they can do better ... We'll see.)

Winning my first eBay auction

{Ooh, it was getting tense for a while there!}

I won't tell you what I bought but, at £1.94 in new money plus postage? BARGAIN. Probably. And one has to start simple with eBay, right?

Going out on a Friday night

Yes, you read that right,

I WENT OUT ON A FRIDAY NIGHT for the first time in aaaaages!

Jos and I

{for this is she!}

in need of some excitement in our pre-weekends, decided to hit up the hot spots of Rahgate (or, rather, go out for a very mildly sophisticated dinner at Carluccio's), to put the world to rights, talking Pinterest, chocolate, waffles, sequin arm-warmers and other things slightly less sparkly and/or edible; and basically eat some superior Pollo Milanese (J) and rib-eye steak (QB):

followed by equally superior salted caramel and amaretto ice cream (J) and chocolate pud laced with Kahlua (Drunkylushface):

And it was an excellent evening.

(Even if it resulted in one of the longest run-on sentences I've ever left un-separated.)

Afterwards, we decided it was only fair to gatecrash Voicerox Pete's Friday evening on the promise of getting to rock out to some Simply Red on Lucky Voice. That didn't happen but there was more wine (guess who ...) and there were Haribo Tangfastics (all of us).

Friday nights are the new ... er, Friday nights. Hashtag that.

Pinterest Pin of the Week

{Check out Posh Graffiti | discovered at BLE}

Weekly Web Finds

I have some.

But in all honesty, this week, I just cannot be narfed to curate them all.

Except for this, which I'm very excited about:

• Ladybird Books for adults | on The Guardian

{via here}

Oh and this trailer for a documentary we're watching at work this week. I think it may restore my creative mojo:

Made You Look documentary trailer from Look and Yes on Vimeo.

And ... here is a gif of Peanuts to compensate for the comparative lack of links that you probably don't have time to click through anyway:

You're so welcome.

That's all for now. But, don't forget, when in doubt, just shake your groove thang.

And as broadcaster Nicholas Parsons so wisely says:

You shouldn’t feel guilty about pleasures. You should enjoy them.

qb xx