Sunday Summary Summery (you see what I did there?)

Oh boy.

Anyway. Hello to you. How you doin'?

This week, I have mostly been feeling a leettle bit like this:

Y'know when you have one of those weeks at work that just drain you down to a withered, deflated husk of a human being?

That. So much going on at one time. Just... so much.

{It may interest a couple of folk -- Martin, Peter... -- to know that I made this gif. It's very, very easy.}

But by Friday, all was well.

So, I went...

Walking | from Shepherd's Bush to Battersea

Evie and I had a new walking companion this time -- Katerina -- and we made not-bad-time-at-all from Shepherd's Bush to Battersea Park, taking in the periphery of Holland Park, then Kensington Gardens, then Hyde Park, on the way to Battersea, over Chelsea Bridge, this time.

We even stopped for quality ice cream in La Gondola, a delightfully quaint cafe in the middle of Battersea Park. Needs 'musted' at that point. It was the hottest day of the week thus far.

Reading | Scissors, Sisters and Manic Panics by Ellie Phillips

SS&MP is the follow-up to Phillips' first novel for Egmont's YA imprint, Electric Monkey: Dads, Geeks and Blue-Haired Freaks, and focuses on teenage Sadie's endeavours to make hairdressing history, as well as making sense of her quirky, fragmented family and her relationships. My Goodreads review is here.

Listening | to Nik Kershaw // Wouldn't It Be Good

On a loop.

It's a worry.

This is largely a by-product of last weekend's John Hughes-fest but I'm not sure even watching back to back 80s films can excuse the unbridled passion issuing forth for this song:

(I'm also glossing over the suspicious heavy breathing at the start of the video.)

And that's really it.

...

Oh, except I stopped making excuses and did some more actual

Writing 

today. With a pen. And some paper.

And the detritus that spilled forth from my brain.

Not for long, mind, but long enough.

See, I realised, while in conversation with fellow word-wranglers Evie and Katerina on Friday that I was using all manner of excuses to procrastinate writing: swimming, working, editing, commuting, Tetris Blitz, sleeping, blogwatching...

...when actually I'd just been taken by The Fear of committing my own words to paper again, having been so mired in the words of other people for the last few weeks. I just need to stop providing myself with distractions and darn well write.

Ideally offline. Fewer distractions.

Weekly Weblinks

What causes the smell of books?

Welsh library campaigners chain themselves to shelves

Support grows for statutory school libraries

Foyles' new flagship store opened its doors this weekend

Michael Rosen to publish 'Education beyond the curriculum' guide -- the man is a hero. That's all.

'The Mr Men inhabit a godless universe' says Charlie Brooker

Winnie-the-Pooh is Britain's best-loved book

Why walking is good for you

An excellent tribute to an excellent tribute to 'Frozen' (as performed by my friend Clare's housemate!)


And finally...

Resident stunned by giant mushroom: read arrrrrll about it

Sunday Summary

Shhh, the sun's out. Rumour is there might be a summer. SHOCKER.

This week, I have mostly been...

Feeling a bit like this:

and this:

and very often, this, too:

And there have been times when only this has enabled me to relieve a little bit of tension:

{Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. All better. Thanks, Tetris Blitz.}

Although writing a Contemplation that contained plentiful advice to my 15- and 35-year-old selves certainly helped:

 

{Ha. Twenty years between these two photos and I'm still demonstrating a Charlie-from-Casualty-like inability to look straight at you...}

I'm in a strangely comfortable (yet still nostalgic) mood now. No, really. Hence, I've been...

Rewatching | a couple of highlights of John Hughes' excellent output

{Noted...}

{JUDD NELSON!}

{Oh, Ally Sheedy. You rock.}

{Aaaaah. The source of my signature moves for the last few years... Cheers, Molly!}

I'm just been ensconced, however, in a non-Hughes issue nostalgia/chick-flick: 13 Going on 30.

...There's definitely a theme here. :-)

Spending a day in Brighton

I'm not sure I've mentioned this before (!) but it's an ambition of mine to live in Brighton one day. It's on the bucket list, fo' sho'. I need to make a trip down there once a year at the very least to scope the place out, you understand, ensure it's still there and still fabulous.

So, seeing as the sun was out, and the trains were operational (yes, this is noteworthy -- plus Southern had given me a cheeky 15% discount on all travel!), my friend Julie and I made a pilgrimage down to Brighton yesterday.

{Collage created with the 'A Beautiful Mess' app}

I was on a mission to find the 'missing' five letter-press letters/printing blocks to spell out my name (y'know, lest I forget it, which is a possibility given the fragility of my brain at the moment). I envisaged having to plunder every basket in every quirky, second-hand shop in Brighton (and there are many) but it wasn't necessary.

Within minutes of turning off Queen's Road (the main stretch from the station to the sea), and on to Gloucester Road, Julie pointed out all the print trays in the window of a little shop deliciously named Mr Magpie. We had to go inside, natch. And it was HEAVEN. Tiny, letterpress letter collectors' heaven, granted, but I managed to pick up the last five missing letters in one fell swoop. The 'newest' letter I'd bought yesterday dated from the 1920s -- the newest! -- the other characters dated from the 1900s. I'm in possession of some glorious printing history, friends.

And it was only a little later that I realised that the very kind gent running the shop was the same one who had sold me my splendid print tray in the first place, when he was operating off a market stall on Upper Gardner Street.

Weird aside of the day: All but one character in my name can be transposed to read backwards. That pesky 'r' in my surname is the clincher.

The print tray currently looks like this:

{Still a work in progress in terms of choosing the perfect knickknacks for display, but Ma and Pa QB did a splendid job replacing the back board, and rejuvenating the tray with a coat of Annie Sloan!}

Julie and I then pottered up and down the side streets of Brighton, past the same market at Upper Gardner Street, then on to Kensington Gardens to splurge in mooch around the emporium of excellence otherwise known as Snooper's Paradise. I lost track of how long we spent in there, and we both came out empty-handed, but it was divine.

We ate lunch in the Dorset on Gardner Street (v. generous Ploughman's and freshly squeezed juice) before continuing our schlep towards the sea -- where of course we had to have the statutory paddle.

Brighton was prettydarn busy yesterday not least for all the hen parties (and I counted six, plus one glum-looking group trying and failing to look kooky for their friend's 50th) -- but we managed to make it up and down the Palace Pier. Afternoon tea was then called for: hello again, Scoop and Crumb, and thank you for the most enormous 'small' milkshake and lemon meringue pie evuh -- I did not need dinner last night, suffice to say.

{That's Julie's coffee cake, fyi, in case you thought I'd scoffed that too.}

...I clearly won't be participating in the 30-day ab challenge (!)

We meandered back to the station via Pen to Paper and Kerrie Berrie beads on Sydney Street -- both of us were absolutely pooped by our day's wanderings and I was in bed by 10. That's what sea air and navigating crowds will do for yer.

I also took along my compact film camera and got a few shots -- but of course I won't see the results until I send the film off to Truprint, so if there are any worth sharing I won't know for a while! How retro.

So, that was me week in whole. What's new with you?


Weekly Weblinks | (only a couple this week)

RIP Maya Angelou

Vote for your favourite BBC children's characters

Maleficent: You won't see her like on CBeebies (Anyone else seen Maleficent yet? It's supposed to be great -- even for growdy-ups!)


Right, then -- I'm off to stick on Sixteen Candles and do the filing I've put off for two weeks. 'Byeeeeee!