Been in North Carolina for the last three weeks, with my father who has recently been diagnosed with cancer. We're hopeful, and now we know our enemy so we can fight it together as a family.
My week, pictorially
Raindog
Box F52
Don't they just fly by, the weeks? Photographically speaking, this was a rather dull week really. Largely because I had my head down, working so much. But I shall do my best to make it visually stimulating.
It started to really cool down this week. And it rained, how it rained. And then it rained. Billie doesn't much like the rain (though she does love hoses and pools - weird, huh?). I'll have you know I did not buy her this raincoat, it's courtesy of Him Indoors. This is the sensible one - the other one (which I have buried in the back of some closet) has pink polka dots on it. I mean... really.
Oyster
I spent a lot of time sweating over paperwork, trying to get all of our stock managment rationalised. Boring but necessary work, which involved going to our lock-up one day to take pictures of boxes. Thrilling.
Nirvana hot sauce
Somehow, I managed to go out one evening. A rare occurrence these days, I assure you. I heated up my Oyster card and took the bus all the way into Stoke Newington (less than a mile, dear readers) to go to dinner with my mate Julie, who I haven't seen in yonks. We went to the Three Crowns pub and had a delicious meal and some lovely wine. I was so busy catching up that I forgot to take any pictures of the food! It was great to see Julie and our waitress was a total sweetheart.
My friend Eric from Philly makes his own small batch hot sauce, Nirvana, which he packages in these nifty little bottles. Aren't they cool? And the sauce.... oh my, the sauce. It's so good. I haven't tried this batch yet, I'm saving it for something worthy. I've told him he has to get that shizzle up on Etsy, sharpish!
Tuesday was my father's 70th birthday. I hate being so far away on special occasions like that, but I called him and we talked until I could tell I was boring him (or he needed to get a cold beer) and it was great. This is photo of the two of us when I was about one. I love this photo and some of the other family ones that I have coerced from my mom and grandmom. HAPPY BIRTHDAY POP! (I told him he needs to read my blog more, so this is a test).
Have a great week, everyone.
Me and my pop.
My week in pictures
Wool
As previously described, I bought a bunch of embroidery stuff online. Appleton Bros. Ltd. London is my new thread fetish. These are crewel wools which I picked up in a great sale, and which I can't wait to use.
Empty playground
See that? It's an empty playground. The kids have gone back to school. Which is good news for daytime dog walkers, but I reckon the kids aren't amused.
Victorian funeral horse and cart
On Friday, the funeral for Mark Duggan was held in the church across the street from the studio. Mark was the man who was shot by police in Tottenham, which (some say) is what kicked off the riots in London and across the UK last month.
TV van
The funeral was a bit of a media circus (4 vans with masts parked all day) but I think they were a bit disappointed that is was uneventful, in that it was a typical funeral - maybe times 100 in terms of attendance. No looting or rioting, which is decidedly unnewsworthy behaviour.
Cider.
We actually forced ourselves to leave the office and go for a walk up to Alexandria Palace for lunch at The Gate. The walk was okay (Billie was a devil), the lunch was disappointing (a bit slapdash and unfriendly) and we were really glad we did it.
Knackered dog.
Billie enjoys a nap while we eat our lunch.
Family Planning
We've decided that every weekend we'll spend at least 4 hours together working on Operation Relocation, which is our move back to the States. The whole family gets together and talks about any issues and decides what we need to do next. Being a tech-savvy family we have a special app to help us. By using this app we have determined that our number one priority is winning the lottery. This will speed up our move tremendously.
Delicious not-a-hoagie.
After our hard work planning, I made us a delicious ham sandwich. It was like a hoagie, but not as good. When we move back to the States we will eat delicious hoagies every day. It's in the app, so I know it's true.