Friday

Arrive home from work to find that Footloose is showing on TV.  Drink wine, eat pasta, awaken dormant crush on Kevin Bacon (it’s the dancing) and bop around the living room to this.

Saturday

Wake up at 10.30am to the sound of…nothing!  Crochet while listening to Harry Potter as read by Stephen Fry (my first audio book – so far, I like).  Eat porridge, drink coffee.  Spend upwards of an hour getting ready.  Wear red lipstick.  Go charity shopping.  Find tan satchel, rose-printed plates and a grow-your-own lavender bush(!).  Celebrate spectacular finds with Caffe Nero caramel latte and two hours of writing.  Go to boyfriend’s flat.  Eat steak, chips and peas and sticky toffee pudding.  Watch this.  Doze off in front of the TV.

Sunday

Wake up early(ish).  Drink coffee and read blogs.  Dress for the outdoors.  Climb 1500 feet of hill and eat sandwiches at the top in the wind and the rain.  Skip down the hill.  Get very muddy.  Arrive home, crank up the heating, change into pyjamas.  Drink two pots of tea, eat lots of sweet things and potter around on the internet.  Cook (then eat three plates of) risotto with bacon and butternut squash.  Tidy flat, do laundry, find a place for yesterday’s acquisitions.  Sink into bed at 10.00pm tired but rested.

What constitutes a perfect weekend in your world?

Image above from here.

This week has been all about trying to stay warm in the face of increasingly chilly weather (bitter out there, innit?).  The cold snap and the bizarrely fierce winds have forced me off of my bike and back on to the bus so I’ve also been able to finish a couple of books.  I skipped my way through One Day by David Nicholls at the start of the week (I found this really rather corny if I’m honest, despite enjoying the film in the Summer), and I also finished The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton.  I won’t pretend that I understood the whole thing, but it was fun at the time…

The week has also seen me crocheting like a crazy person.  My boyfriend has taken to rolling his eyes and reaching for the nearest phone/computer/book whenever I mention the ‘C’ word, but I don’t care - I FREAKING LOVE CROCHETING!  I haven’t been this excited about a new hobby since I discovered bread making.  If anyone has ever tried, and failed (like me, several times) to knit, let me tell you now: try crochet instead!  It’s easy, it’s satisfying and you can produce just as much in the way of pretty woolly things with one hook as you could with two pins.  And it took me a total of two hours to learn, thanks due both to YouTube and my Mum.  My first project is a patchwork quilt, and so far I’ve finished around 25 of my planned 64 ‘patches’.  The best thing about creating individual squares is that I can carry my project around with me wherever I go: on the bus, in the coffee shop, on the train…yes, I’m that person.  I’m even taking a few balls of wool on holiday with me tomorrow.  Let’s face it, if the weather carries on down this track there will be no time to lose in getting another cosy wool blanket on my bed!

I also found time to fit in a film this week.  My Week With Marilyn was surprising affecting – has anyone else seen it?  It made me realise that excess amounts of fame have been burning holes in societies and individual levels of self-confidence (the levels of self-confidence of the stars themselves included) alike since way before the X Factor came along.  The most touching thing about the film for me was the way Michelle Williams brought out Monroe’s striking naivety.  I’ll admit to knowing precious little about the woman herself, but the film to me portrayed someone who had an almost non-existent grasp on the position she held and the power she was unconsciously wielding as a result.  Williams was fantastic.  And on a much more vacuous note, she looked pretty damned gorgeous in all those pencil skirts and skinny belts.

So now we find ourselves in December.  And I feel fully justified in talking about Christmas as a result.  Whether you hit the high street with the masses or if, like me, you give only one or two gifts and make as much as you can yourself, the season of giving is well and truly upon us.  So if, by chance, you missed my list of DIY gifts, find it here.  Let me know if you try anything and, more importantly, what the result is!

Tomorrow morning my boyfriend and I are off on our travels again.  This time, our destinations are Krakow, Prague and Berlin, all in one week, all on the cheap.  I’m hoping for glittering Winter sun, lots of cake and coffee (or kaffee und kuchen as my half-German other half reliably informs me) and maybe even some authentic festive markets.  Is my fledgling Polish up to the test?  Definitely, shamefully, not.  Let the frantic gesturing, raised eyebrows and manic smiling begin…

What have you been up to this week?

Image above from here.

How were everyone’s weekends?  I spent mine doing pleasingly little – watching films, reading books, drinking coffee and the like.  Here are my highlights from the past week…

• Films!  I saw I Don’t Know How She Does It on Monday (which I later decided should be renamed as “I Don’t Know WHY She Does It”, as in, I don’t know why Sarah Jessica Parker seems so determined to play these arrogant, annoying, self-absorbed characters all the time); Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on Wednesday and I finally watched Million Dollar Baby on Saturday, a film so good I cried and then thought about it for hours afterwards.
• I had a day off work on Monday.  I poked around a couple of charity shops, went swimming, watched the aforementioned annoying Sarah Jessica Parker film and checked a stack of new books out of the library.
• A sunny Saturday morning, involving bacon rolls, coffee and a wander around town…
• …and a quiet Sunday evening involving slow-cooked chilli, 30 Rock and a bubble bath.
• I made dahl on Friday night for a friend in celebration of her upcoming travels in India.  I’d never tried making dahl before (I’m not the best at curry in general – most of my efforts turn out sickly sweet and far too watery), but this one came good on the night and will definitely be gracing my dinner table again soon.  Special thanks to my friend Chloë for giving me her recipe!
• My boyfriend and I went for a noisy, blustery walk along the Forth Road Bridge on Saturday evening, just as the sun was slinking away.  The Forth bridges are one of my favourite things about Edinburgh.  I love the contrast between them, and the way they sit side by side like old friends, gracefully allowing us to scuttle backwards and forwards.  I absolutely love crossing the Forth by train whenever I’ve been visiting friends and family up North – it lets me know I’m home, in its own quiet way.

Aaaand that’s it!  What are y’all up to this week?  I get paid (squeak!) on Friday – my first real wage in well over a year.  While most of my cash is already bookmarked for paying back various loans and debts, I am going to celebrate surviving my first month back at the coal face by going out to dinner with my man and getting inappropriately sloshed, most likely on red wine – my perennial tipple of choice.  Have wonderful weeks everybody…

Image above from here.

Anyone else a massive fan of Clueless?  Anyone else spend chunks of their teenage years wishing they could get away with wearing tartan mini skirts, berets and knee high socks to school (perhaps a question for the laydeez, that one)?  I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched this film – and the number of hours my friends and I have spent quoting it at each other – but it never fails to bring a smile to my face.  How could it, when it’s full to bursting with stomach-achingly funny moments such as these?  Dirty Dancing?  Bah…

• Cher: OK so you’re probably going “Is this like a Noxema commercial or what?”.  But seriously?  I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl.
• Murray: Street slang is an increasingly valid form of expression.  Most of the feminine pronouns do have mocking but not necessarily mysogynistic undertones.
• Tai: Do you think she’s pretty?  Cher: No, she’s a full-on Monet.  Tai: What’s a Monet?  Cher: It’s like a painting, see?  From far away it’s OK but up close it’s a big old mess.
• Tai: Wow, you guys talk like grown-ups!
• Cher: I want to do something for humanity.  Josh: How about sterilisation?
• Cher: It’s like that book I read in the 9th grade that said “tis a far far better thing doing stuff for other people.”.
• Mel: Which reminds me, where’s your report card?  Cher: It’s not ready yet.  Mel: What do you mean it’s not ready yet?  Cher: Well some teachers are trying to low-ball me Daddy.  And I know how you say “Never accept a first offer” so I figure these grades are just a jumping off point to start negotiations.
• Mel: Anything happens to my daughter, I got a .45 and a shovel.  I doubt anybody would miss you.
• Christian: Do you like Billie Holiday?  Cher: I love him.
• Cher: So, until mankind is peaceful enough not to have violence on the news, there’s no point in taking it out of shows that need it for entertainment value!

What are your all-time most eminently quotable films?

What did you guys get up to this weekend?  I spent a lot of time reading this magnificent book in the warmth and snugness of my sofa nest while eating home made scones with jam.  Joy.  Here are the rest of my highlights from the past week…

• On Tuesday I went to a blind gig (a new term I’ve coined for seeing bands I’ve never heard of before.  Like blind dating but without the awkwardness).  The National are now firmly on my “listening to” radar as a result.
• Cinema (as always)!  On Wednesday I saw One Day which I really enjoyed (I know, I know) and on Friday I watched The Guard, which I recommend to anyone in need of a few laughs and some sharp wit.
• Spooky ghost touring on Wednesday night!
• On Thursday I watched trashy films on TV while mending/altering/customising some clothes.  Time spent with my button collection is rarely time wasted, I find.
• Taking myself off to Stockbridge for a wander, a panini and a rummage in the charity shops (and the rain) on Friday.
• My boyfriend and I had a little 80s party for two on Saturday night while we were getting ready to go out to an actual party.  My head has been full of classics like Rush Hour by Jane Wiedlin ever since.  Watch the video below and let me know if you have any answers to the following: 1) Why is it full of dolphins?  2) What’s up with her wetsuit?  3) Are they really trying to make it look like she’s playing guitar underwater?

• To fend off the post-party hangover, I ate a huge bacon, black pudding and fried egg roll on Sunday morning.  With obligatory lashings of brown sauce, of course.
• And on Sunday night I caught up with an old housemate over dinner.  The perfect end to a lovely weekend.

So this is my last week before I start my new job.  I’m nervous, and excited, and nervous some more (over surprisingly trivial things, like getting up early every day again, and what to make for packed lunches).  The Summer has been a bit of a mixed bag to be honest -- a couple of crap things have happened and I’ve wasted a bit of time stressing out over stuff that probably isn’t worth stressing out over.  Several projects I had envisaged have failed to materialise but then other things that I didn’t foresee have popped up in their place, which is nice.  All in all, I do feel refreshed and rested and ready to start something new, which I guess is a good way to feel.  This week I’m going to tick a few organisation-y things off of my list, see a few friends and probably treat myself to cake to celebrate changing seasons and new beginnings.  Oh, and I’m going to see The Arcade Fire play at no less a venue than Edinburgh Castle on Thursday.  Hurrah!

What’s on your agenda this week?

Image above from here.