So, life happened. And a life digest that was supposed to happen monthly has already skipped a month. And because I must be some sort of idiot, I lost the post I’d prepared here so I’ve had to write it all again.
Why have I been so remiss? I’ve been busy. Preparing for my first solo with my choir in Vivaldi’s Gloria occupied my time for a while, and then there was social media stuff to organise for a local charity with which I’m involved. I’ve also been struggling a bit in the local and London LibDem deep ends. I’ve prepared for two new babies and been on holiday and I’ve been househunting a bit in Norfolk, as yet to no avail. Still, it gives me somehing to write about, at least.
Dip powder manicure
I’m now enjoying my third SNS dip powder manicure, whichI have done in that very Vietnamese Nail place in Beckenham High Street. My first, under gel-ruined broken nails, allowed them to regrow in peace. The second, French, manicure which took a little more time and a few more dips, was elegant for the concert and a couple of posh dinners after it. It was going for almost four weeks before I had the time to make my next mani appointment and in that time there were no chips or breakages. My natural nails had grown so much underneath the mani that there was a ramp half way down where the manicure started, easily replaced by the holiday colour you see on the right, 12 days post mani. I’m delighted with them, even though they are now a tad too long to be practical because I forgot to ask for them to be shortened. So many typos. I’m going to have a break after the next soak-off and it remains to be seen what effect the removal has on my nails underneath. I’ll report back.
At long last, after 9 months of gestation, I finally took delivery of my baby car at the end of April. This electric Fiat 500 (RED) is the first car I’ve ever owned, insured and held in my own name and I’m very proud of her and, no, I don’t name my cars because that would be silly. A fully electric car, especially a small one like this does take some organisation when you’re planning a long trip but the range on this is about 150 miles so I have become very familiar with some of the charging stations in Essex, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. Will I dare take her up to Edinburgh? We’ll see.
I mentioned that I’d been doing some stuff with the LibDems. Here is a picture of me knocking up at the recent local elections in Sevenoaks, because we didn’t have elections in London. Knocking on people’s doors normally fills me with horror – I could not do a Sales job – but the local party there were very supportive and there was only one overtly hostile voter behind the doors I handled. I could only be in Sevenoaks for a couple of hours in the end, but the LibDems gained 11 more seats on Sevenoaks council than their initial 3 and were delighted with that, the result of some hard work on the ground. I was also asked to do phonebanking for Hina Bokhari for her London List campaign, which sets the order of precedence for the proportional representation part of next year’s Greater London Authority elections. It filled this phone-phobe with horror but I steeled myself by thinking about the importance to the Obama Presidential campaign of getting the vote out, and it’s good initial experience towards next year’s bitter fight to Get The Tories Out. Hina came first on the list.
Apart from that I’ve been writing website articles for the local LibDems using AI, which would be a time-saving tool, were it not for its propensity to make stuff up out of nowhere. My advice is to keep a careful eye on the content. Good editing is key. I’m now sitting on LibDem Committees which, initially incomprehensible to me through their political jargon, have now started to become less opaque. I’ve delivered leaflets and manned a street stall and helped organise events, memorably having to cancel the private room at Zizzi’s twice because of electoral law. It’s exciting but fun and friendly. I’m currently mulling whether to pass through the candidate approval process. We’ll see.
In the last week we’ve been on holiday to Elounda in Crete, my first time in Greece but, I hope, not my last. I was struck with the unfathonable blueness of sea and sky; the fantastic food; the hummocks of scrubby plants and wild thyme and oregano that colonise the local maquis. The culture is welcoming and friendly, and hospitality is a priority even though we we did end up paying over £200 for a fish between three people. It was a big fish. Seeing the Minoan Golden Bull Rhyton and all the votive offerings from Knossos from thousands of years ago was information overload, really, but quite thrilling. Search “Crete” on this blog for more about this travel story. I could easily have spent a few more days there just relaxing but had to hurry home to collect our newest family member, finally named Fergus. I must admit that I am poleaxed by this first week of puppy. It’s 15 years since I last did this and everything is different and I’m 15 years older. Still, he’s very cute and now has his own “Puppy” section on this blog.