Sunday Summary | She's out of reach and out of sight ...

Dear FOQ

Hope we're all well!

Me, I've been caramelising (cremating) onions. Later I'll do some ironing, maybe watch a film, with that fabled gin cocktail (thanks for the suggestions, Jill!) in one hand. Probably.

Life doesn't get any more riveting than this.

... Or does it?


This fortnight, I have mostly been ...

Reading

(and finally, finally finishing)

I've since picked up this beauty:

which I started reading a couple of years ago then stopped, for whatever reason, and am back into again. 

Flappers are my historical spirit birds.

Watching

... before I'd even finished the book!

{Well, that's a slightly extreme reaction there, Kev.}

But y'know what? The film, although pared down from the book in many ways, made a heck of a lot more sense than the book. There was too much inconsequential backstory in the book and I lost track of the characters (or, did not give a flying fig about a lot of them).

That said, Kevin Spacey is perhaps too much of a conventional 'dish' to be Quoyle, who in the book is a lumbering giant, self-conscious about his chin. (Although Spacey's eternally endearing anyway.) Also, harlot Cate Blanchett. I tell thee, she's a bit magical.

Saving Lives at Sea

on iPlayer (catch-up). 

Because I have a real thing for coast and sea rescue documentaries.

Surprising

... my beautiful best friend with a birthday party, which was over six months in the planning!

Mission ... accomplished!

Last Saturday afternoon, I secret-squirrelled my way over to Natalie's parents' house 

{... by kayak. Yes, I went by kayak. | No, not really, this was just en route.}

{Lela, poised to shout 'Surpriiiiiiise'}

and hid out, along with several others, primed and ready to surprise the gorgeous girl herself in honour of a significant birthday o' hers.

{The gazebos played host to a wonderful gallery of the gorgeous girl}

In attendance were family, friends, family friends, and at least three of us 'Hens' (albeit one via video message) – testament to the fabulous totem of fabulosity more typically known as our Natalie.

'Fraid I didn't actually take that many photos except of the birthday girl herself and a few blurry ones of her gorgeous kids hitting the daylights out of the piñata, but I think that's a good thing. There were actual people to chat to, excellent food and drink, and atmosphere to soak up!

{Birthday girl. And no, that's not her drink. Wine? Pah!}

{The lass and her lovely mum}

{Party people in the house gazebo! | With thanks to Lin and Den for the photo!}

{Spice Girls reunite for one triumphant hug-up | With thanks to Lin and Den for the photo}

{Magnificent birthday cake!}

{Magnificent birthday girl}

{Obligatory late-night selfie}

Massive well-done and thank you to Natalie's parents for a) managing to keep the party secret since January and b) letting me stay over. I managed not to break anything in the process of washing up the next morning, so that's a result in itself. 

(Big, big hello and virtual hug to lovely Lin, formerly secret and now out-and-proud Friend of Quirk/reader of this blog!)

And, very very early early Happy Birthday to Natalie, my Bestest. Let's do this again but with less panache, obvs, when the actual time comes. Loads of love, your Friday Night Facebook Friend.

The following day was no slackfest (OK, it sort of was ... I had to have a nap ...) – as Ma QB and I, with friends in tow, headed over to glorious Hever Castle where we were ... 

Watching 

Tonbridge Rock Choir perform ... without Ma QB which just felt a little wrong somehow (not that it wasn't lovely to have you in the audience still rocking out, Ma, of course).

The set was great, with a lot more ensemble pieces than before (We Built This City was particularly fab), and the weather behaved itself just in time.

Brightening Brighton

... with the beautiful Foyles Goyls, just yesterday!

Nickname shoutouts to:

Choc-chip
Quesadilla
Pebble and
Flamingo

with love and selfies from Beano.

I'll leave you to work out who is who.

Most of these photos ended up on the Book of Face yesterday but here are the spruced up edits, for I now have a gorgeous new version of Photoshop Elements on the new computer and it's all clever and stuff.

I headed on down to Brighton early-ish as I wanted to get a little QB shopping done before the girls arrived. It's become a ritual now to head straight to this emporium of ephemera (mostly letter-press letters):

{QB's first port of call}

Yesterday's spoils: a turn-of-the century punctuation mark.

Tell me, retro Beyoncé, which punctuation mark do you think I purchased yesterday?

Well done, dear!

I also fit in a little bit of time to peruse the shop windows along Kensington Gardens ...

{Bert, purveyor of All the Flamingos}

{Anchors a-way hey, yes please! Who doesn't
love a nautical marquee light}

I then headed up to our agreed meeting place, by the clock tower, having been lured en route into sampling some velly, velly nice organic pork pie, and a cheese and onion pasty, which were being sold as part of a craft fair on the church lawn. After treating myself to a pasty for later, I got me a coffee and hung out in the seating area by the clock tower to wait for my girls ... but had to move hurriedly away once a rather nasty fight broke out between two young 'ladies' (I think they may have bunked finishing school, however) who were very possibly fuelled by some illicit substance or other. Egads.

People be trippin'.

Ahem.

I digress.

My girls appeared, siren-like, through the rain, shortly after one, and we, a merry band, wandered down t'road and over to the Pier, where we soon found ourselves trying to win giant Minions (and failing) ...

Eloise found her new calling — as an assassin.

 Evie managed to score herself a little friend (and possibly three wise-cracking orphans) ...

Swept away by the zeitgeist in Brighton, work wives Katerina and Eloise may have been married by Elvis ...

and we tested out a new selfie stick.
My new selfie stick.
Which I bought only for the purposes of this trip, let me clarify.

We ate lunch in the (ridiiiiiculously hot) Palm Court restaurant (where Miss Clarey and I ate last year). 

Much fish was devoured because it'd be wrong not to.

Many photos were taken for that self(ie) same reason.

Some of them, I even knew about at the time ... ahem!

{Lovely lovelies!}

{So pink! So pretty!}

{Don't leave your phone unattended round this lot!!! | Click on the photo to view in full splendour}

Not quite ready to brave the rides after the huge lunch, we wandered back towards town and wandered the Lanes, which were mad-busy (it being a warm Saturday in 'summer' an' all), and ended up in the grounds of the Pavilion (almost holding up a wedding as we did so, as the bridal car could not pass through the gates until Eloise had taken a photo of us all):

Slightly fatigued by our wanderings and a hint of impromptu shop-browsing, we settled for a short while in coffee joint Jolliffes (where the hospitality was ... er, ever so slightly proffered through gritted teeth since the cafe was due to shut, but the coffee itself was pretty good and revived us long enough for More. Flippin' Selfies):

{Random shot of a beautiful bookshop window display}

After coffee, we parted ways – Katerina, Eloise and Evie headed back towards London, and Clare and I headed back to the Pier. We had RIDES to brave, goshdarnit.

{Oh but first, had to take a shot of the Pavilion looking all regal ...}

{... and the Pier looking wonderfully busy still}

{... not to mention the West Pier which always warrants a photo}

The queue for the Booster (this ride, not for the faint-hearted or -stomached)

{via here}

which we were so up for riding, was too long (and no, we didn't chicken out, we just didn't fancy spending our remaining time in a line), so Clare and I hopped on board the Turbo roller-coaster

{via here}

before deciding we absolutely needed a turn on the (far better value for money time-wise) Waltzers. 

{original video footage found here}

Two turns, actually, since we were deprived of decent spins on the first turn.

Pretty sure we dislodged a few vital organs but hey. It was worth it.

We decided to finish off with something genteel.

Something like ...

... the log flume.

Soggy bottoms all round.

But such a good day and so lovely to catch up with the girls.

And the gossip.


Pinterest Pins of the Fortnight

One verbal ♦ one visual

{Yep}

Fortnightly Web Finds

Serious

• Could we have a moment for this magnificent Superhumans ident from Channel 4, ahead of the Paralympics?

And while we're at it ...

• The BBC's Olympic advert is pretty cool too. Love the gymnast sloth.

• An Introvert Wonders: Are my expectations for love unobtainable? | At last! An Introvert, Dear article that delves deeper than most! | also via here

Oh, hang on, this one's not bad either:

• Just because I don't look excited doesn't mean I'm not into this | on Introvert, Dear

• The curse of 2016 claims another two legends:

Vivean Gray aka Mrs Mangel (OK, less of a curse since she was an admirable 92 years old)

Not gonna lie, Mrs Mangel's final scene juuuust made me tear up. Oh, nostalgia, for when Neighbours was good watchable.

Ken Barrie, the original voice of Postman Pat

Silly(ish)

• Love these creepy abandoned Victorian houses ... as reconstructed in LEGO! | on The Nerdist | via Alice D

{via here}

And finally ... I'm throwing another guess-the-lyrics quiz into the mix. Guess the song referenced in the title of this post, and win chocolate!

Until next time, stay groovesome.

qb xx

Sunday Summary | If they were me, if they were me, and I was you, and I was you ...

Dear FOQ

Settle in, my friends, this is a big one, expanding in direct proportion to my age, it would seem. Egads.

This fortnight, I have mostly been ...

Reading

Watching

... Gilmore girls

{Lorelai, proving that the Struggle is Real}

... and the first series of OITNB once again.

(Incidentally, towards the end of the first season, Maritza mentions she has a baby daughter. Does she ever get mentioned again? ...)

Rewatching:

• Flashdance

{Arc welder by day, exotic dancer by night ... though actually
it would have been more useful had Alex been a plumber ...}

Don't let the excellent dance routines detract you from some now very uncomfortable racism and sexism.

• Drop Dead Gorgeous

which has its deliciously dark moments but feels a little ... overacted now.

That said, it has a brilliant cast (Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, Amy Adams, the late but always great Brittany Murphy).

And Kirstie Alley is at her best. (Remember Kirstie Alley?)

• To Wong Foo ...

I'd forgotten the immortal genius of Swayze, Snipes and Leguizamo in drag.

Especially Leguizamo.

And this wonderful moment from once-my-idol-always-my-idol Stockard Channing, taking one for the girls:

Sigh. I do miss Miss Vida.

Partying

... with my new workmates at our summer shindig, which was held here.

I was too darn busy Ceilidh-dancing to take many photos but here, for you, a choice few:

{Quirky road name spotted on the walk
to the venue ...}

{The splendid Canterbury Christ Church university building on the Salomons site}

{The 'groynds' ...}

{Actual people in a photo! My new work girls, Emma, Emily, Megan}

Verdict on the whole event?

Celebrating

My birthday.
My old-gettin'.
My dotage.
Myself.

{QB minus 38 years | #freakbaby}

My Week of Me began on Monday with a coffee with friend R in honour of his birthday, at West Central, a local café I don't often frequent because, well, I'm a slave to the Costa machine. However, being independent, West Central has a whole 'nother vibe to it.

Not that I won't continue to exploit my Costa Card till the very last creamy cooler is prised from my extremely cold, dead hands:

Keep it cool this Summer. The Double Chocolate Cookie Mocha Cooler 🍫🍪☕️ #SeriouslySummer pic.twitter.com/yB19OnVMu5

— Costa Coffee (@CostaCoffee) July 13, 2016

(and it did take me two hours to down one of those bad boys four days later) but ... different can be nice.

Very nice it was too. I knocked back an espresso over a magazine while I waited for R to arrive:

{The Simple Things, fyr}

then tried a Frosty (or frosted? Can't remember) Lemonade with cream on top, which was remarkably reminiscent of the ice cream on lemonade floats we used to have as children.

Except ever so slightly more ... hipster.

The rest of the day was insignificant, consisting of:

• Dentistry, and the implicit scolding

{My dentist is only slightly less manic. Truth. But he's good so I'll allow
the mentalism.}

• Binge-watching (see above)
• Dusting

• Living the dream. Same old, same old.

On Tuesday, Ma, Pa and QB headed on down to Dungeness for a day trip. I'm pretty sure I've photographed Dungeness more than I've photographed my own family in recent years but the scenery never gets tired.

{Ma and QB, feet in the sea. Well, a little rivulet, actually,
since the sea was ma-hiles away ...}

After a quick paddle we drove to the RHDR station by the old lighthouse, and had a very nice coffee at the newly refurbed station café:

While we were there, one of the tiny steam engines pulled in for a spell (before collecting more passengers) so being the spod that I am:

{via here}

I popped out to take a few photos of Hurricane:

{RHDR, still providing a more regular, and efficient, service than
... you know who} 

After coffee we had a little wander along the boardwalk (#along the boardwalk ... boardwalk ...#) over the shingle, between the power station, the old lighthouse and the 'new' lighthouse.

Did I mention that the scenery never gets tired? Witness, here and here (see also, the quirky brunette header banner ...):

After a very slight detour, or two, we then drove to Stone-in-Oxney, near Tenterden, for lunch in a recommended pub, The Ferry Inn. Once a smugglers' haunt on what was an island, the pub was first built in 1690 and now sits along a narrow waterway on which an eponymous ferry once ran.

And that's enough education for one day, I think.

Onto the Ever Crucial Description of What We Ate.

I had a cheeky shiraz because, birthday week, and also, lunch, and after quite a wait (during which we muttered under our breaths about the Very Loud Opinionated Obnoxious Heaving Giant of a Man on the table next to us – and his wife, who was sitting across the table, but seemed to be allowed no thoughts or dialogue of her own) Ma and I each took receipt of a very, very nice chargrilled chicken fillet in peanut butter and sweet chilli sauce, with salad and additional frites (because we still love you, Europe)

and Pa had pork medallions ...

... in mushroom sauce. (Oh well, eh?)

All velly, velly delectable. We pushed the boat ferry out and went for dessert as well: raspberry cheesecake for Pa, white chocolate panna cotta with berries for Ma, and profiteroles for me, professional chubster.

By the time dessert came out, our Noisy Neighbour (and his party, who may have had opinions of their own about current affairs but we'll probably never know) had left, and we could enjoy the sweet stuff in delicious silence.

On Wednesday, I pootled over to Horley for a very enjoyable breakfast with Ms Jess W, and a proper catch-up after too many months of mutual isolation (this is what seems to happen in a Voicerox-less era: we've all dispersed just a little too widely. Sad times).

'Twas lovely to see young Jess and put the world to rights (the world should be in good order in my hands by now, or so you'd think ...!), over coffee (tea for Jessie J) pancakes, and a little mini fry-uppy breakfast for this one:

Let's not leave it so long next time.

Thursday, I spent in my own excellent company because, well, introvert. I even had the first lie-in for ages which was shhhhhweet (even though I'd already been "rudely awakened by the dustmen").

Waffles and coffee were required (cwoffles™), followed by much lounging, slobbing, louching and other expressions of near-nothingness. ("I thought about leaving the 'ouse" then decided against it for the time being.)

With a Spotify and vinyl soundtrack, natch.

{#tbt | oh to be ten again | qb on instagram}

And, on Friday, I aged.

Not overnight, of course.

Just ... gradually. Ergo, celebration.

The birthday itself was quite low-key, which was fairly deliberate, but with some definite highlights including opening wonderful cards from nearest and dearest who know me much too well, the obligatory indulgent Coffee in Bed with a Book:

WhatsApping Norgstar while I opened the magnificent gifts she'd sent me, and having her sing Happy Birthday and send me little voice messages to keep me company:

{Yes, that's flamingo wrapping paper! Love it!}

{Oh hello, cactus marquee light!}

{A morning mocktail! | 7UP and grenadine}

I also received this brilliant book from Ms Charliekins, which we'd been chatting about the week before, and which is just giving me Too Many Ideas for the Next Walking Challenge (Cousin Jo, beware ...):

The rest of the day was spent reading in the park, eating lunch in Costa, filing my archived magazine articles (never let it be said I don't live entirely on the edge), receiving lovely messages on FB, watching To Wong Foo ... before 6pm finally rocked around and the proper birthday indulgences could begin:

Sis rocked up at 7.45 and Natalie not long after, so off we pootled to Reigate, for birthday dindins at Bill's, along with Jos, Fern and AJ!

I'm-a just going to leave these shots here ...:

{The antique shop next door | What does the fox say? ... Dare we ask? | Photo by Natalie}

{QB ... with a cute bee! | Photo by Natalie}

{My party peoples!}

{Because party panoramas are always a good idea, right?}

{Wouldn't be a meet-up with Nats without a selfie!}

{Sister act}

{...}

'Twas a lovely, lovely night; I felt thoroughly spoiled and all squishy. Thank you for coming, girls, and for the gorgeous cards, gifts and presence therein!

After a couple of Archers, a bit o' Prosecco, one or two Hedgerow Fizzes and a partridge in a pear tree, it's a miracle I managed to haul myself out of bed on Saturday morning to shimmy on over to Caterham to get my hair did ...

... but I did.

{Hair symmetry restored. No more annoying floppy fringe}

The afternoon was Party Time Part Deux: I trotted round to Voicerox Pete and Nicola's pad for their ceremonial Shed-Warming (aka excellent excuse for a party). There was Pimms. There was music. There were many bubbles (of the soap variety). And a magic trick. There was a gorgeous four-month-old baby girl to cuddle. There were more Voicerox Lovelies past and present (shout-out to Gayle, Jude and Alun). It was a jolly lovely afternoon.

And even though I took the wrong turn at a fork in the road and had to take a long route home via the golf course (!) rather than make a fairly short 30-minute direct walk ... it was fine. 'Twas a glorious, hot summer evening at last.

All good.

Well, it's now Sunday ergo Summary Day, but as I'm at Ma and Pa's for Lunch and Lounging without a Laptop, this post is scheduled; any photos taken today (ergo Sunday ... and did I just overuse 'ergo' for no apparent reason?) will be added to the SS at a later date.


Pinterest Pins of the Fortnight

One verbal ♦ one visual

Fortnightly Web Finds

There are many!

Most are videos.

Watch them. Skip them. W'evs. I won't ever know.

Except I will because I'll quiz you on them.

Or will I?

Serious(ish)

• The day Jennifer Aniston won the internet for women | via everywhere | on the Huffington Post
• On the heartbreaking difficulty of getting rid of books | on Literary Hub | via Jo W | And this, my friends, is why I couldn't get on with the KonMari method. Ain't nobody telling me to get rid of my babies. (That; and my socks, though whimsical, do not 'spark joy'.)
• Thrilling glass slide opens up in Los Angeles | Oh, I'd so try this! | on MyModernMet

{via here and here}

{via here and here}

• This Tumblr feed. Not sure how long ago it was last updated but who cares when it's curated so beautifully? | Found via decor8

{via here}

• Also, this Instagram feed. | Also found via decor8

{via here}

• This a cappella cover of You're the Voice (John Farnham, from The Eighties) is just stunning | on YouTube | via Charlie

Silly

• Brilliant fake London Underground signs | on Like to Discover | via Overheard at Waitrose on FB | Some of these could apply to London-bound Southern services by all accounts ...

You know you love my Southern Fail-related posts. You LOVE 'em. (I know, you'd rather I just belt up and suck it up, buttercup, and yet still they come, the rants ...):

• If Southern ran the Island of Sodor Railway | Ge-heeenius! | Thanks to Emma for this! | on The Poke

• Underwritten Female Character: The Movie | via SourceFed via Fernikins

• High School Musical gets the Bad Lip Reading treatment | Ha. A young Efron with Bieber hair. This is for you, Jos. | on YouTube

• Almost 20 years after ... (yeah, that doesn't make us feel old at all), the Hanson brothers perform MMMBop for ABC. Feel the love.  | on YouTube | Thanks to Glenda!

• This teeny video | on Instagram | via Clare L | {Interesting user name there :-/}

A video posted by @bitchslayings on Jul 12, 2016 at 8:27am PDT

• Also this, via Eloise (I think?)

A video posted by LOL Vines 😂 (@lol_vines) on Jun 17, 2016 at 10:04pm PDT

and finally ...

• Chattering porcupine eats pumpkin. Newsworthy? Oh, come on. Of course it is. | on edispost | via Suzanne on FB

That's yer lot for now. *readership heaves collective sigh of relief*

More in a fortnight! Please kindly contain yourselves until then.

qb xx