Last day to smoke

To all my smoking friends and loved ones, I hope you have a lovely day of unfettered drags. Here's a great pic of Simmo enjoying a clove in the Malmaison bar earlier in the month (Mom, I think you're going to like this one!). Days of the giants, indeed.

The Pride must go on

Even though we are in severe weather warnings all weekend and have had a bomb threat, Pride London will go on as planned. I hope it's the best one ever!

A woman of many talents

My cool and gorgeous friend Zil has it all going on. There is nothing she can't do, and do to such a high standard you are immediately humbled. I only know of her talents in the fields of wit, hospitality, information provision, DJ work, football support, culture loving, and, well, so many more I don't have time to write (must go make dinner). Truth is, she has so much going on, all of us in this house are huge fans. And now added to her list of accomplishments is her blog. Read it. You'll see what I mean.

Law abiding? Yea, right...

To follow up on my smokey post, check out this article on a recent survey about UK lawlessness.

Last days of smokes

The UK smoking ban kicks in on 1 July. A huge leap for civilisation or the great nanny state flexing her muscles? Either way it seems as if the primary venue for enjoying a fag will be one's residence, but I never underestimate the power of the British will to completely ignore the law.

Summer dressing

It's summertime in many places (not here, I'm afraid, since we've been sloshing through 40 days and nights of chilly rain) and C&C California clothing is a wardrobe essential. Their diaphanous 3/4 sleeve t-shirts have been the hottest part of my summer outfits for three summers, shirts lovely enough to wear for work and pleasure. Their website is fab because you can search by colour, keeping my search focused on the basic black.

I love The Onion

I am a committed reader of The Onion, as many know. I saw this article on Monday and have laughed about it all week. I think the photo makes it almost perfect.

A new era in politics

Au revior Tony Blair and good morning to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. I'm not a Labour supporter so this change at the top didn't make me feel any better about government, but at least Gordon Brown seems to have a tiny bit of humility. He's taken the least-glamourous job in the country under Tony Blair, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and at least survived. No one likes the person who makes the decisions about money and that's most likely why few feel that wow factor about Gordon Brown but at least he understands how the world works.

As hard as Tony Blair tried to make his final day in office one of dignity, his wife had the last word and left everyone saying "good riddance". Nick Robinson's blog entry from yesterday titled, "Final flourish" gives great coverage on her departure from No. 10. I did have sympathy for Cherie Blair in 1997 when she answered the door in her pajamas and with a felony hair crime (for my co-patriots, imagine Laura Bush answering the front door of the White House in her nightie and slippers), but she's done nothing since to gain respect.

On being a parent

Bailey starts at St Paul's School this fall and tonight is the first parents' meeting for the new students. I'm in a bit of a surreal haze on this one; how did Bailey become a little girl who is old enough to go to school and how did I become responsible enough to be a parent?

Simon and I shall be there tonight and thus starts a new phase of our lives.

Good news

BBC reports The Verve are getting back together. This is good news. I saw them in the summer of 1995 at the London Astoria, before they were huge, and they were amazing.

Attention lit lovers

For literary friends who have some extra £££s about, why not buy the Bronte home?

True stormy weather

I am relieved to report although we've had lots of rain, we've had no severe weather and no flooding. It looks like Yorkshire had quite a bad night.

Technical improvement?

After Judy noted a problem posting comments, I had a play with the admin settings. If anyone was having issues posting comments as well, please have a go and see if it works. Thanks!

Happy birthday, Thomas and Percy

Our cat brothers, Thomas and Percy, turned one over the weekend. Here they are with Bailey.

Local book lovers are a little bit sad

Paton Books in St Albans has been a favourite since we discovered it when we moved out of London. It's closing down at the end of the month and today Bailey and I went and made the most of the 50% off prices. It will be sad for us when this store is finished (friends will recall some of the great gifts they've received from there) but I have happy memories of fine books I've had from there, like my precious Baedeker's Handbook for Paris from 1898.

Question du jour

Does anyone know when Dominick Dunne's new book will be out?

Healthy living

We make a few sincere attempts at healthy living here at Chez Storms-Hewitt. One of them is regular visits to Kaylana Therapies. I met Brunhild Maslen when I was pregnant with Bailey, and Brunhild helped me through the heaviest months with her amazing massages. Bailey even got a message whilst she was in my belly; a story Brunhild and I both love to share. Now, Brunhild has regular appointments with me and Simon, and her gorgeous daughter Anna babysits for Bailey on the occasional Saturday night.

Today's sermon

This morning I went to 8:00AM service at our church. Rev Ysmena Pentalow's sermon based on 1 Kings 19 1-15, and she discussed the presence of doubt in Christianity. The bottom line was, you have to have doubt to have faith. I have always found it's easy to use doubt to step away from faith.

Rev Ysmena's sermons are great. She always has (at least) one thing to get you hooked and keep you thinking, and through this I find practical ways to apply these to my daily life.

Al Gore makes me...

...proud to be an American. Is there a chance he'll be President? The Guardian thinks so.

Summer fair time

Today was the summer fair at St Paul's Primary School, where I'm a governor. I worked the biscuit decorating table (imagine rich tea buscuits smothered in Nutella, icing and sprinkles) and got to chat with students, parents, teachers and lots of local supporters of the school. I'm relieved (and quite surprised) to report the rain held for the duration of the fair and everyone was able to be outside. We even had a fire engine there and all the kiddies got to go inside.

A few more British Library pics

Here are two interior shots from yesterday's visit to the British Library.

Friday at the British Library

Bailey and I spent yesterday morning at the British Library. We registered for my reader's card (finally!) and visited the current exhibit Sacred. This exhibit seems like it should be required of every citizen right now, offering an insight in the similar traits between the world's three major faiths. It was beautiful as well and this would easily engage the most resistant visitor. Bailey loved getting to see three wedding dresses, one from each faith. Good stuff.

Here we are outside the BL. We had a great time.

Super Helen!

Helen Maskell, my friend and former WHC library colleague, is abseiling down the side of John Lewis in Watford this Sunday for the benefit of Peace Hospice. Good luck and safe travels, Helen!

My favourite website today

I am in love with del.icio.us. My entire web life is now marked and tagged!

London in the dark

Check out this article on a dark London, to raise awareness of environmental issues facing the city.

Yesterday's learning

Yesterday I went to a training day on Jorum and Intute. I had never used Jorum so getting to play around with it was really useful and I saw submitted work that gave me some inspiration for our own research and study skills sessions. I use Intute all the time and tell students to use it instead of Google, when they are working on assignments. Google is great for personal research, as we all know, but Intute cuts away the fat and gives students a hit list of authoratative web resources. This eliminates that first level of judgment required when vetting web-based resources, saves time, and gives the students an almost-instant example of the difference between authoratative sites and inappropriate ones.

I also love Intute's Internet Detective tutorial. It's fun and informative.

Summer eats

Summer is in full swing and here is a gorgeous recipe for the British crowd-pleaser Coronation Chicken. This comes courtesy of lovely Debbie Morris...

1 large cooked chicken (cut up)
Medium size onion
Dessertspoon of curry powder
2 teaspoons of tomato puree
Half a pint of chicken stock
Half a pint of salad cream
Half a pint of mayonnaise
4 tablespoons of apricot jam
3 tablespoons of whipped cream – I don’t whip it but I guess you can??

Fry the onion in oil until soft and add curry powder, stock, tomato puree and apricot jam. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Leave until cold then add mayonnaise, salad cream & cream.

Pour over cold cooked chicken

What I'm reading right now

I'm reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I've never read a book like it. Not a word is wasted, and her writing is so compelling, a page gives the satisfaction of a chapter. I'm savouring this one, and it's like eating a gorgeous meal of several courses with the knowledge you'll never get full. I love it.

It's always a good time for an art break

Thinking of the National Portrait Gallery always makes me think of Bailey and the video portrait of David Beckham. By the artist Sam Taylor-Wood, Bailey watched this video for ages, completely fascinated. It is a strange experience; we usually only get to see those we're intimate with asleep but seeing this famous person sleeping provided the feeling of an intimate encounter. Watching it made me feel like a voyeur but not in a dirty way (is that possible?). But back to Bailey, she loved it and was gutted when the exhibition ended in June 2006, and the portrait was no longer on display. Even now she asks the guards at the NPG if David Beckham is around. It made such an impact on her she recognises his photo anywhere we may see it (and looking at the papers this week, she had lots of chances to use this identification skill).

Portrait time

Summer is here and that means it's BP Portrait Award time at the National Portrait Gallery. Check out the shortlist.

The amazing walkers

Here's a group pic of the team of walkers (we didn't take before or after shots on the night...

didn't want to damage cameras).

From left to right, Catherine Grace-Walsh, Anne Harris (the Learning Centres manager, our boss), Sue Atkinson, me and Debbie Morris. This pic also went on the staff intranet page today.

As you can see, we are very proud!

An unfortunate result of nationalised healthcare?

Read The Guardian's article on hygiene in NHS hospitals.

We did it!

Thanks to everyone who was thinking of all the walkers last night. We did it! It was a great night and Peace Hospice did an efficient and excellent job keeping all us walkers supported along the way. The 13-mile walk through Watford was even and not to hilly, and lots of people were outside their houses to cheer us on. We even had the Watford firefighters out cheering us outside the fire station, and handing out water (Jamie, you would have loved that!).

The weather was rainy at the start but cleared within 15 minutes or so. Although it remained damp through the walk, we got to see the sky start to break about 3:00AM today; a beautiful sight.

I did the walk in 3 1/2 hours. I'm completely fine with that time and have to sore legs today to show I pushed myself.

The final leg of the walk took right by Peace Hospice. I hope the residents found some joy in knowing over 1000 women were walking by through the night.

The total raised from the members of our Learning Centre team was over £1400; think of what can be done for the hospice with that type of cash.

Power to the people?

It's countdown time for Tony Blair and the best thing to come from his reign is the 10 Downing Street website. The e-petitions page is a great idea, and although I'm certain it makes no difference whatsoever, it feels quite satisfying to sign some of these petitions. I signed the petition on road taxing and received a response from the PM explaining his position.

Paying respects

For all the hard-working funeral directors in my family, here's an insight into the UK funeral industry. One of the coolest things I've seen in my years as an ex-pat is a funeral procession lead by a horse and carriage. It's quite moving to see the procession moving through the traffic; it makes you stop whatever you're doing, even if just for a moment.

Getting ready for tonight's charity walk

I'm as ready as I'll ever be for tonight's Starlight Walk. Let's hope the weather cooperates.

Busting the hype

What a fun story on the "classics" of rock...

Cleaning out the skeletons

On every Sunday's To-Do list is reading the Sunday Secrets at Postsecret . Truth is, I've submitted quite a few of my own secrets over the last few months, but only one has been published on the website.

Today on Radio 4

Lots of my everyday conversations start with, "Today on Radio 4..." or "In this week's New Yorker...". This week was no exception and one programme I found fascinating featured the history of the Lancashire cotton industry. Compelling story and fantastic accents.

I learn something new every day...

Today's staff meeting included a discussion on federated access management and Shibboleth. I'm glad I have some fine Internet resources on hand so I could figure out what was being proposed.

Bring on the 1980s!

I am very much looking forward to the results of this request by BBC News Magazine.

Man Booker International Prize

The £60,000 Man Booker International prize goes to the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. The Guardian gives all the details...

Food for thought

Read this about ethical living and practicing what you preach.

Rodent mortality rate

If you hear of a swift decline in the rodent population of Hunton Bridge, it's because of our cats, brothers Thomas and Percy (a.k.a. the Boys). Although they have been raised in a loving and relatively mild mannered home (they don't even watch TV) and have been well fed since they came to us as kittens last summer, they have gone on a shocking killing spree. It started with baby birds but now they've moved on to mice and voles. Who knows what's next.

I love David Hockney

I love everything about David Hockney; his art, his perspective, his love of smoking. I remember seeing his collage photographs for the first time as a teenager, at the John & Mabel Ringling Museum of Art ("Photographs By David Hockney" ran 27 June - 9 August 1987). Dare I try to make my own??

Cautionary tale du jour

I tried to get tickets to Live Earth for Simon as a Father's Day gift. I used London Ticket Shop and quickly realised they are scammers. I thankfully didn't lose any ££ but thought I'd share the word with you all. Don't use them.

Monday madness

I'm in the middle of hayfever hell at the minute, and have the itchy red eyes and shiffy nose to prove it. Nothing is helping (including this). I look rough...

I got called out of a meeting this morning to hear Bailey was feverish. I headed straight home to get her. Once she was settled, my mind went back to the meeting, one about the best style of induction for new students. We are trying to go for "less is more", focusing on what students want and need to know for the first few weeks of classes but some staff members are really comfortable with a more scripted approach, covering lots of information in the session. After attending this inspiring presentation, I'm convinved a well-prepared introduction is far more effective than a full-blown induction...

Last Saturday we went to a coffee morning at Peace Hospice. Their coffee mornings are the best around and we end up having a really fab time. I'm getting ready to show our continued support for the hospice by participating in their Starlight Walk on 16 June. Many thanks to those who have sponsored my fundraising...

On the South Bank

This morning Bailey and I headed to London to see the Antony Gormley show at the Hayward Gallery. The mix of gorgeous weather and the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall made for a party atmosphere on the South Bank. Although Bailey and I both enjoyed Gormley's Blind Light installation, Bailey LOVED the fantastic fountain entitled Appearing Rooms by Danish artist Jeppe Hein. We also got to hang out inside an old Routemaster bus that was parked between the South Bank and Waterloo. I felt like such an old lady telling Bailey that I rode on those buses when I first came to England 12 years ago.

My favourite people of the week

OK, everyone. It's Saturday and time to reflect on the good, bad and ugly of the week. Let's keep it positive and stick with my favourite people of the week...

1. My best friend A. She was attacked by pit bulls this week and although it was an awful experience, managed to keep her humour (and the bloody shreaded dress) intact. She's awesome in every way and I beg her to please get the memoir started.

2. My lovely friend MD. She's going through a rough time but continues to be one of the best mommas I've ever seen.

3. My former colleague but inspirational friend Mary. She sent me an amazing photo of her swimming in the Great Barrier Reef. This pic caused cheers to erupt from all of us who saw it.

4. David Beckham. Regardless of his personal life choices, his return to the England national football team this week has given all citizens a reason to be very proud.

Getting ready for a great London summer

Check out the schedule for the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival. It's going to be fab summer.

Today

Last night we slept well, after yesterday's toddler swim class...

I am in love with Soap and Glory Cosmetics. I got hooked on their Sexy Mother Pucker, as some of you already know, and now I'm enjoying Clean On Me, with the fab tag line "Cleanliness is essential when Godliness is improbable."

Great way to start the day

This morning Bailey belted out her version of David Wainwright's Feet by Half Man Half Biuscuit. Before Bailey, I had no idea hanging out with kiddies would be so entertaining.

Why I love the French

Here's a quote from the new French President, Nicolas Sarkozy,

"We get 48 days off, not including national holidays," he said. "So much vacation time makes it hectic to work."

Getting started

Today I've already worn several hats; momma, librarian, friend, spouse, woman, driver... At the moment I'm in Letchworth Garden City attending a training day on blogs, wikis and podcasts for learning resources. Librarian hat is on and firmly in place (matches my sensible shoes).