Only one night of theater this week? Yes, but I tried to make it count by going to two, count 'em, two shows last night. One was supposed to be a spooky Halloween thing that ultimately just wasn't (Slung Low, "Visions: They Only Come Out at Night"). The other was a modern choreographer (Michael Clark) going wild with David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Velvet Underground and even a little Wire. This was obviously a can't miss thing for me though it did make me think of Bongwater's "David Bowie Needs New Ideas" song. My review is up, and you'll notice I managed to throw in a visit to an art gallery, too. Seriously, it was like drinking three Nutrashakes in a row after starving myself for days.

Anyway, today I haven't so much as walked out the door, though I did let the cat play in the backyard. I thought I was going to do some gardening, but when I opened my boxes I discovered the reason the big one was so light was that it was mostly empty (bad!), and the rest of the bulbs are sitting in some delivery company's warehouse, waiting for a second delivery that was supposed to be the next business day after Thursday, though for some reason it appears Friday and Saturday do not rate. Maybe on Monday they'll show up and then somehow I'll find the time to plant these things ... gah, Saturday and Sunday next week are both gone, maybe the 14th?

Yesterday took a strange shape. First, obviously, I wasn't online much. After breakfast, we spent a short time cleaning the house, then headed to the Royal Academy to meet up with souldier_blue and some friends for a visit to the Waterhouse exhibit. I really enjoyed the exhibit; it had some paintings brought back to England from their homes in Australia ("Circe Invidiosa: Circe Poisoning the Sea" and "Ulysses and the Sirens" (actually harpies) stand out), and a bunch of things from private collections that obviously I wouldn't have had a chance to see otherwise. Afterwards, the lot of us (six total) went to the Brioche Doree for lunch.

After that was a slack afternoon at home involving napping, tea, and finally a round of burgers (the rain laid off long enough for J to fire up the grill). We were going to just play games, but wechsler begged off due to a raging headache and unhappy gut ... so we headed over to Chez Blondes for the Transformation party. A few drinks later, I was trying on some of the dresses booklectic and valkyriekaren had brought to the party, shadowdaddy was doing his best Freddie Mercury impression, and I found myself taking all sorts of shots of the cool shoes people were wearing. It was rather a different ending to the night than I was expecting but fun nonetheless and obviously great to see so many of my friends together in one place.

And today, well, not much planned until late today, when J and I are heading to Morden to watch True Blood. Should be great! But in the meantime ... more tea. And maybe I should write up Ghosts as I did enjoy it.

Well, here it is a Saturday and I'm sitting around the house by myself. Now, I've got an invite to go to Streatham - which I may likely take up - but I also have an utterly filthy house and hair looking so bedraggled I really must get it dyed up. So despite the numerous things I might be doing today (it's open day at Kensal Green and that looks great, too), I have a feeling I'm going to 1) do my hair 2) do the dishes 3) fall asleep. We'll see. I'm going clubbing tonight so I want to not work super hard during the day today, though, really,w hen you look around the house at the mess it's clear I do need to really make an effort.

Also, J got a tank for the grill he inherited last weekend, and has filled it with gas, and we're now set to spend the rest of the summer grilling in the backyard. I've anticipated this by buying nice steaks. YUM.

And for those of you who are wanting to do the cheap theater thing, the National is selling tickets for Time and the Conways for £10 (details here). J and I are going Tuesday if you'd like to go with us.

Okay, off to touch up the dye now!

I now have dirt between my toes (even though I wore shoes!). All of the known dahlias have been planted (only about 10, I think). A lot more garden space has been opened thanks to shadowdaddy and wechsler's good efforts. I need to get the glads in but I think this is a fine time to call it done for the day.

Thanks to wechsler for making us lunch. I have no idea what to do about dinner right now but I did enjoy the peppered duck breasts. And the caponata I made last night (recipe here, more info on cooking eggplant here) was even better today. God knows I made enough to serve eight, or possibly 12 given that it's served 8 so far and we're not done with it yet.

With luck, shadowdaddy will make cookies as promised. Me, I think I need a shower.

While we were in Barcelona, we made an effort to stop by Tetere tea shop, which wasn't too far from where our friends live. There's a lot more going on in the tea world in Barcelona than I expected - a huge chain of stores called The Tea Shop, and a few boutiques like Tetere and its neighbor "Tea Genius" or something of that sort (immediately forgettable due to the serious lack of varietal teas).

Tetere set us up very nicely with three teas: "Pi Luo Chun" (something about green snails, 2008, so much nicer smelling than last year's picking!), Dian Hong Golden (2008, "superior," I think), and Jun Shan Yinzhen (something mountain silver needle), described as a yellow tea. The proprietress gave us extensive brewing recommendations for each tea, including that the Jun Shan should be made in a glass cup in order to better appreciate the opening of the leaves. It's what we're having right now and it's just delicious. Really, where are ms_vermilion and splendid_geryon when you need them?

Today consisted of not much after making a potato/sausage/bacon/onion scramble thing - I went back to bed again and napped and was mostly incoherent until around 3. At four we walked up to Hammersmith via the Thames Path, but the wind was blowing enough that we were having lots of dirt and leaves and stuff kicked in our eyes - not too pleasant.

We took the bus back, cleaned up, and went to booklectic's for the Eurovision party. It was pretty silly overall - I mean, a band with pirates? I didn't really feel like waiting forever for them to finish each of the 35 countries announcing who'd won, so we headed back home in time to catch the 11PM train. Now, I think, it's time to call it a night. Based on the current weather forecast, I'm thinking that cleaning the house and watching a movie are going to be about all that's in store for tomorrow.