Crayfish times....

Happy August!

It's been a while (again) but as I'm sure you don't want to hear about what I've watched on tv or where I've been working, I've been quiet on the old blogging front.

Since the last ramblings, I (along with a few thousand more people) managed to get my sticky mitts on a free ticket to see Elvis Costello & Ray Davies in Hyde Park last month.  Originally to be headlined by Elton John (who later cancelled), it was a fairly civilised affair, with nice toilets etc.  As much as I enjoyed seeing most of Elvis Costello's set and Ray Davies doing the classics, the evening was rather ruined by the rucksack contingent (one of my most hated things as my close friends will know) and drunk over 50s acting more ridiculous than any teenagers that were there.  WOO YEAH...GO DORIS......WASN'T THIS RAY BLOKE IN SOME BAND OR OTHER BACK IN THE DAY?  Aargghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Enough said.  I do like a freebie though as you know, and there were probably worse things I could be doing than sitting in a sunny park in London on a Friday night.

The end of July meant finally I could return to my beloved Stockholm....this time my beloved VERY SUNNY Stockholm.....so different than my last trip in April when there was still snow on the ground and I nearly got trench foot from the constant rain and water in my shoes!

No apartment for us this time but instead a budget hotel called The Alexandra in Soder.  If anyone is particularly interested in my feelings about the hotel, feel free to read my Trip Advisor review here http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g189852-d233099-r169969076-Alexandra_Hotel-Stockholm.html.  A perfect location - 10 mins to my favourite haunts - hence saving money on travel during the week.  A past review had apparently said the hotel customers were "dangerous".  I'd use the word "special" but that's another story.  Breakfast was always an interesting experience to say the least.  Think League of Gentlemen (but in German) and you'd know what I mean.

So, lovely Stockholm.....What did we do?  What did we see?  How many crayfish salads did we eat?  All exciting stuff I'm sure.

Day 1:  Cafe' String, Carmen, Mosebacke Terrassen (with the BEST view over Soder), finishing up in my new favourite place - Garlic & Shots Downstairs Bar.

Day 2:  Vintage Shops, Louie Louie, Debaser Utservering, Garlic & Shots Downstairs Bar!!!

Day 3:  Loppen nr. Kungstradgarden (excuse spelling) where Diane bought someone's Gran's beautiful vintage jewellery, dodging the sudden thunderstorm, an evening at the mod club "Club Hide & Go Seek" where we caught up with old friends and made new ones, had a dance, and enjoyed the view by the water.  Diane waved at sailors on a boat leaving the dock....I knew they were real ones and not gay Diane!!!!  Finishing up at Garlic & Shots Downstairs Bar (yep I should be on commission) where the dj played Crazy Horses to a room full of teenage metallers!

Day 4:  Coffee at the Abba owned Hotel Rival, Mariatorget, and a tourist boat trip which was huge amounts of fun. By the end of the hour long trip, the swedish announcer lady had obviously run out of things to tell everyone about and started repeating herself....practically finishing up with "and on the right is where my Mum lives - she has a cat you know".  I'd never fancied doing the tourist thing before but guys, you have to try the Hop On, Hop Off Boat trip for 100kr at Slussen!  Finishing up with coffee & a veggie meal at Hermans Restaurant....which, once again is a lovely location and a nice end to the day....when we didn't end up in the Garlic & Shots Downstairs Bar.

Day 5:  We got sick....after meeting Helena for lunch.....yes sick!

Day 6:  We came home.  We did make a friend on the plane in the way of the air steward but nothing much to report on day 6.  We also made a friend in the way of the air steward on the way out too.  Air stewards like us.

With that, I'd now better find some suitable photos to post on here.  I love you Stockholm...thanks for a nice trip.....Ses Snart!

Sunshine, more sunshine...and snails

I take back everything I said....Summer is well and truly here.  The windows are open, the thick black tights are on hold for the moment, and Factor 3700 sun cream has been purchased.  Am definitely going to make the most of this Summer - they get shorter by the year.

Dear Catastrophe Waitress (the July session) took place on Friday.  Not a post-menopausal troll in sight this time thank goodness.  Instead, lots of lovely friends (old & new), superb tunes, and drinks of the coloured variety.  We're never really sure who turns up for the night or who turns up just because it's a late-night bar, but if people enjoy the music, we're happy.  I personally am even happier if there is dancing!

Breakfast at Haberdashery on Saturday warded off any cocktail effects from the night before.  On to the Carnaby Sound day in.......umm....Carnaby Street.  Bar Italia first for a pear & ginger smoothie concoction, a wander round the shops which were supposed to have free things but strangely didn't, a vodka & tonic at The White Horse, a quick glimpse of The Last of the Troubadours, and a late lunch in Itsu.  What happened Carnaby Sound organisers?  Where were the bands that were supposed to play on the roof of Libertys?  Where were the free things?  If I could review you on Tripadvisor, it'd be a bad one!

Finally, to end this lovely weekend - Soho Festival.  I love Soho Festival.  Unfortunately, this time, there wasn't an impromptu performance by Mr Ant but instead we enjoyed a cheeky Kir Royale, some Pimms, some of the lovely Eve Ferret's performance (complete with mange tout), Dudley Sutton, Beryl Marsden doing some 60s classics (with John Spencer in attendance), various tug of war competitions & lots of people watching.  I love Soho and it's characters.  Today we saw a woman who had knitted "children" in her wheelchair,  some extremely camp pensioners in sparkly pink outfits, Mark Powell in bad shorts, and various people we thought we knew off the telly but probably didn't!  (Oh and Diane, the band whose name I forgot was The Correspondents).  The only disappointment from today was not winning the raffle (it was a fix!) and somehow missing the snail racing (every hour on the hour you know!).  Apart from that, bravo darlings!  (As it would be a tad rude to steal Diane's photos of today, I'm instead posting a photo of Beryl Marsden looking gorgeous).

With that, I will love you & leave you.  I hope your weekend was as marvellous as mine.  Next stop....Stockholm baby.

Who are you?

Afternoon Frock Fans!

It's a breezy old day in N8 - sunshine & showers, showers & sunshine, on repeat.  I'm happily full after a veggie roast at The Railway Tavern.....so large I couldn't finish it all....and believe me, that's saying something!

I was lucky enough to be given a free ticket to see The Who's Quadrophenia concert at the O2 last Saturday. 

I'd seen The Who twice before (once on the never-forgotten holiday we won to Los Angeles for the Tommy concert, then to see them at the Hollywood Bowl) and at a tiny little venue in Shepherd's Bush (that for the life of me I can't remember the name of) where I went to a fanclub event and they turned up and played two foot away from us.  Amazing!  We headed up the unfortunately named "Entertainment Avenue" first, to Las Iguanas for a meal & cocktails.  "Entertainment Avenue" is basically a huge street of places you wouldn't really want to go to....or at least I probably wouldn't.  I had never been to the O2 before and had no idea it was so close to a certain stop on the Jubilee Line that I'd been to on more than a few occasions.  As easy as it might be to get to, I'm not sure I would choose to go back again in a hurry.  The security at the venue seemed to be a bit slack....our two bag searches would have missed anything of any security risk whatsoever! 

So.....on to the gig.......having free tickets and not knowing the layout of the venue, I had no idea what it would be like.  We walked up and up and up (etc.) into the gods of the stadium....so high up that we practically got nosebleeds.  I havn't had a problem with heights really for a long time....until that night.  Terror struck and within 5 mins, I nearly had to leave due to vertigo and sheer panic that someone might fall over the edge to their death, with not a single barrier to stop their fall!  I sat rigid in my seat for the whole show, terrified to leave for a drink or to go the toilet...incase I never made it back again!  The Who were without a doubt fantastic, certainly aren't the embarrassment that some bands of their age/ilk are these days, and went down a storm.  I was surprised that they didn't do the obvious Who classics in their set or their encore, and was surprised that they included "You better you bet" which I think was only liked by one person ever....me!  Loved the tributes to sadly departed band members, which I'm sure resulted in many a teary eye in the stadium.  Unfortunately the height issue did rather spoil the whole night for me, along with the drunken fat old bald specimens that are everywhere these days!

As I'm actually nearly having a panic attack even writing about the O2, I'll move on.....

Rain did rather dampen spirits at the Sounds so Good session yesterday afternoon.  We trekked to the back end of beyond, to The Stags Head in Haggerston (land of hipsters and men who don't wear socks with their shoes).  Loved the pub - it's proper old school with lovely bar staff and a nice beer garden - but the rain came and went so often, we stayed put indoors most of the time.  As we arrived, so did lots of scooters but they went as quickly as they came.  I'd have liked to have a dance in my lovely new dress from Retrobates Vintage...but I didn't want to have a dance on my own.  A shame.  I'd go again but perhaps when the weather forecast is a bit better!

Roses of the Stone sort...and more

Hello June.  Hello some sort of a Summer!  Not quite warm enough to get overly excited that the attrocious weather has completely left us but nevertheless....

The June events page on Facebook has looked promising and we're now on the countdown to Stockholm Part Deux too.

Last weekend saw an evening out in the rarely visited Islington, for cocktails & tunes. Firstly to the Rattlesnake where I had something that I seem to remember was nice but what it was, I'm not sure, and then to some awful chain place where I had some apple crumble cocktail concoction. Next to the Mucky Pup (no, I'll never find it again guaranteed but it's apparently opposite a school where they filmed the "Another brick in the wall" video) where we listened to friends djaying alsorts of delights from "Vengeance" by New Model Army to"Oh Bondage! Up Yours" by X-Ray Spex.  A nice little pub but strangely quiet for a Saturday night - certainly not due to the music but probably the fact we had a sudden burst of sunshine and people stayed outside while they could.

Sunday saw a quick visit to Soho, to visit one of my best friends who deserted me for the seaside - darn you Lee Thomas!  A cheeky rose' in my lovely French House, followed by a swift mooch round Dean Street Market where we discovered that meringues are popular and taking over from cupcakes!  You'll find out these interesting facts from reading my blogs, I can tell you!

Next up....AMAZING Espresso & Tiramisu Martinis at the Fifty Five Bar in Camden, and then on to the private view of "Set in Stone" - an exhibition of Stone Roses photos by Ian Tilton, at the Proud Gallery.  Nice pics, nice beer, nice venue.  You won't get any in-depth reviews on here kids.

Talking of the said Stone Roses, the world and its' Mother seemed to be at their gigs in Finsbury Park this Friday/Saturday.  Not one for big gigs, toilet queues and very possibly drunk middle-aged men with their shirts off, I stayed at home and listened to the gigs from the comfort of my own living room.  Very strange to hear all the words to lots of the songs being carried on the wind, and to the crowd singing along....but quite nice all the same.  I couldn't, however, say the same when Coldplay played last Summer!

and to today.....lunch in the UpMarket in Brick Lane, followed by the 10th Anniversary Art Car Boot Sale which was absolutely rammed with a capital R!  Peter Blake & Tracey Emin had sold out, probably long before we got there, and Billy Childish was nowhere to be seen, but it was a nice day nevertheless, with nice people, and Pam Hogg with her spectacular hair.  Celebrity points for spotting Richard E Grant & Kevin Rowland (dapper as ever).  I always wonder what the hell we would have talked on about on our tea date.  I will never know or be able to report back to you dear readers. (That's tea with Kevin Rowland by the way, not tea with Richard E Grant).

Ciao for now kids xx

Ants & Art....Car(d) Trouble Oh Yeah!

Happy Saturday folks......and Glad Melodiefestivalen Dag! (for my Swedish friends).

I've decided that if I can get through this month without contracting Rickets, Trench Foot or boring old flu, I'll have done well.  I'd like to say I've been sitting out in the sun, eating ice-cream, and watching the world go by in sunglasses but I fear it hasn't happened. Enough now rain!

Last weekend saw my yearly visit from my NY friend.  We drank cocktails at Kiss the Sky, looked round charity/vintage shops, and had lunch in the scrummy Monkeynuts.  Pretty standard really - unfortunately all ruined by the fact I had my debit card skimmed from the ATM.....to the grand total of £633.  If you're reading this card skimmers, I got your description and the details of your car, and 'YOU'RE GOING DOWN'.  Just saying.  Hope you enjoyed your £58 worth of KFC and my cash, you thieving so and sos (who have no food standards I might add).  I would like to swear lots but my Gran reads this!

Despite card trouble, a fun Saturday night was had in Camden.  We tried Joes Bar (www.joescamden.co.uk) and loved it.  Great R 'n B/Ska (and they even played 51st State by New Model Army) and even greater cocktails which are cheap as chips if you get them before 8 (or was it 9?).  I even faced my fear of midgets (nearly) when the infamous punk midget (normally seen lying in a gutter somewhere in Camden) sat next to us.  To the Roundhouse over the road afterwards, for Adam Ant's 35th anniversary concert.  Tickets sold out months ago and I'd been calling every day for a week to see if any spares came up....they finally did on Thursday afternoon - talk about cutting it fine hubby!  Although we had boring, old people, seated tickets, we managed to sneak into the standing area and got a pretty good view.  Visiting swedish friend who is at least 7ft tall (Joakim & Frida to confirm) had a better view!  Enjoyed the set very much and the two encores.  Top form Mr Ant!

On a very rainy Tuesday, we trekked down to Chelsea Futurespace (www.chelseafuturespace.org) for the Peter Blake Four Decades Private View.  The gallery is a bit hard to find but what a fascinating place!  It's actually a residential building with the entrance hallway opening out into the gallery itself.  Would love to see what the flats are like inside so if anyone who lives there is reading this, please invite us round for tea!  The exhibition itself was nice, Sir Peter turned up, we drank wine, ate snacks and played "now who IS that bloke who looks like Noddy Holder?".

And finally on this wet, grey week in North London, Dear Catastrophe Waitress #7 took place last night.  Something was missing for me last night, unsure what.  Hoping the hideous folk that came this time, don't next time.  Surely they have somewhere more suitable to go?

With that, I'm off to prepare for Eurovision and do some ebaying.  NB:  Only one of these things is true. 

Soho Days, Soho Nights....

Slighty distracted from writing todays ramblings by "Snog, Marry, Avoid" and a pink-haired camp child from Brighton called Danny Go Go.  Concentrate woman!

Hello May.  Hello sunshine.  Oh how I've missed you.

Dear Catastrophe Waitress' April night went well.  Lots of good tunes and lots of folk dancing which pleases me greatly.  Celeb visitor of the night was Sean from 5ive.  Pretty sure no-one recognised him apart from me and the drunk boy who called him Scott.  Drunk boy, return to 5ive school immediately!  Who will come next time I wonder?  Suggestions on a postcard.

A new experience for me on Tuesday - going to the cinema on my own.  A year after I donned a ridiculous wig and made a prat of myself in Soho on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the King of Soho finally came out (although now for some bizarre reason called The Look of Love).  Luckily for me, I didn't see myself nor the bad wig in the film.  Unsure what I thought of it really - the film not the wig.  Interesting to know more about Paul Raymond, his entourage and what became of them all, but I found it very bitty (not a surprise really after the continuity issues on the day of filming) with way too many naked women and scenes of cocaine snorting.  Once you've seen one set of boobs, you've seen them all surely?  Glad I went regardless and glad I did my extra work that day - I won't forget it.

Thursday saw another Carnaby Street "grab all the freebies and run" evening.  Oh how we love them. I've blogged about these evenings before but the amount of free alcohol never ceases to amaze me.  5 mins after arriving, we were handed a fair sized mini bottle of champagne which couldn't have been cheap, followed by Kopparbergs, followed by more champagne, followed by god knows what else.  Looking forward to more of them in the summer.  Always fun.  Off to Camden after, to see The Prime Movers at The Blues Kitchen.  A good night and good to see some old friends.

Finally for this week, today was a superb, sunny, Soho Sunday and you know how much I like those.  An amazing lunch at Scandinavian Kitchen (www.scandikitchen.co.uk) - scrummy salads, scrummy cake and good coffee.  Definitely recommended folks.  Lovely people & lovely fresh food.  What's not to like?  A very civilised couple of glasses of rose' at The French House after.  I love people watching in this place & imagining what everyone does or did, and wondering how many people in there knew Paul Raymond (see previous paragraph).  Bar Italia after for people watching, coffee & martini.  No sign of their regulars Paul Weller, Bradley Wiggins etc. but we did see Louis Theroux so he'll do for today.

Enjoy the sunshine lovely readers x

Stockholm Tales.....

Oh this was such a long time coming.  I've just returned from a great week in Stockholm.  A lot has changed over there since I packed up my little flat in Bagarmossen and headed home to Brighton - marriages have happened, babies have been born, people have moved on and lovely Jonnah is no longer around.....but as soon as I made that trek through T-Centralen, it felt like I'd never been away.

I've stayed in a lot of apartments over the years in Stockholm, normally in Soder, but this time, we opted for a huge apartment further out in Farsta.  The only thing I knew about Farsta was that they had a shopping mall and it was one stop closer than my child-minding job in the woods at Farsta Strand.  To my swedish friends, Farsta was too far out but to us London folk who are used to travelling for an hour at a time, 17 mins to Soder was just fine.  Anyone heading to Stockholm (or anywhere come to that), I'd recommend www.airbnb.com for an apartment.  Ours was amazing - 2 bedrooms, a balcony, a bathtub (not always the case in Sweden) and a fridge/freezer full of food we could use if we wanted.  Thank you Irina for use of your beautiful home.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great in Stockholm in April so we didn't do a lot of going out at night.  Instead this was a relaxing holiday which we both needed.  So as not to ramble too much and bore the living daylights out of you, here's just an abbreviated version of what we did while we were there:

Day 1: Unpacking, eating, watching rubbish tv.

Day 2:  The sights of Sodermalm - Cake & chai latte at Louie Louie (http://louielouiesthlm.wordpress.com),  rummaging round the (cheaper than ours) vintage shops (http://www.lisalarssonsecondhand.com), lunch at my favourite Soder cafe' - Cafe' String (www.cafestring.com), coffee with Asa at Babylon, missing of happy hour at Vampire Lounge (www.vampirelounge.se) and sitting there with £10 cocktails just cos we could!,  Pear cider at Carmen, good tunes with Louise at Snottys, finishing up in the best bar in the world under Garlic & Shots (www.garlicandshots.com), where we looked at pretty rock & roll boys and listened to the likes of Siouxsie & the Banshees and surf music.

Day 3:  More eating, more coffee, more rubbish tv, more rummaging...then a night out with Louise & Sara in Mariatorget at Feca (great little italian) (www.feca.se), drinks at Marie Laveau (www.marielaveau.se), the beautiful Folk Opera bar (www.folkoperan.se) where we were lucky enough to see a performance by the Finnish Screaming Choir (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuVNo1R4VkE)...strange but totally amazing, finishing up at Soders Hjarta (www.sodershjarta.se) and a walk back to Slussen.

Day 4:  A bit of sightseeing round Soder - churches, crypts, Mosebacke Tor, the Katarinahissen bridge with it's gorgeous views over the water, probably more coffee & more food, great scenes in Soder on the day of Hammarby's first footie match of the season.  I've never seen anything like it - streets packed full of footie fans walking from Medis to the Hammarby Stadium, all cheering, setting off fireworks & firecrackers.  The streets were so full of smoke that it was hard to breathe but it was a pretty amazing sight.  I asked a boy if there would be football violence but he said "no, just beer".  Phew!!!!  We had our photo taken for god knows what as we we looked apparently "beautiful".  If anyone sees us in any publication looking "beautiful", please let us know!  Off to Thorildsplan after the football excitement, to catch up with old friends & stroke cats.  Thanks Helena, Liselott & Neil for a lovely afternoon of chatting, freshly baked scones, tea & Alfie/Morris love.

Day 5:  A day in the hood - the Farsta hood that is.  An unexpected lovely day of looking round the deceivingly big shopping mall 5 mins from our apartment, having yet another HUGE salad, eating cake of some description and looking at plastic things in Lagerhuset.  Stocking up on groceries at ICA that wouldn't make a proper meal but what the hell?  We like salty licquorice ice-cream, pastry-based products and other unknown stuff.  I've done pretty well with my swedish this trip but went into a panic when I read out the freezer label to Diane as "Birds".  For some stupid reason, I imagined freezers full of small wrens or blackbirds.....not chickens & turkeys.  Swedes:  It's Poultry, not Birds ok?  Oh how we laughed.  An evening of "great" swedish tv.....including a quiz show in swedish called "Vem Vet Mest?" (Who knows most...or something like that).  As it happened, we knew most....well 5 answers.  I read out the questions as best as I could, Diane answered.....the fun we had....ha!  We also saw wildlife outside the apartment.  For entertainment purposes, we thought it was a moose but in fact it was just a little roe deer foraging for food in the snow.

Day 6:  And I've realised my days are possibly back to front but hey, you get the gist!!!!  A rainy day in Gamla Stan where I got water in my shoes and we did the tourist thing for about 5 mins before needing coffee.  We found a brilliant little secret cafe' in a cellar, whose name I can't remember - Diane? - full of vintage furniture and little alcoves, and no-one there hardly.  Not a huge menu but a great little spot. More time in Soder, more time in Louie Louie, more time in String.  And we went to my favourite shop Sivletto (www.sivletto.com) - vintage clothes, a coffee bar, a vintage hairdressers, household items & records.  Hard to find but well worth it.

and with that, we had to come home.  Thank you Stockholm for the loveliest of weeks.  We'll return sooner than soon.  In the meantime, we'll miss your tiny pillows, your poor tv & your huge pasta salads.  Swedish friends, we'll obviously miss you too.

Back to England, back to rubbish customer service, back to things that don't work.....sigh.  I shouldn't complain, it's a beautiful day in my beautiful flat in beautiful Crouch End.

Ses snart Frock Fans! x