dissonance

I also need those shoes

Lately I've become enamored with anything related to makeup.  I guess I'm what you call a late bloomer.  Sure I dabbled with some eyeliner and lip gloss, but I never experienced the obsession and creative experimenting that a lot of teenagers go through before mastering what looks good on them. 

My mom used the same Maybelline black eyeliner for about 10 years, carefully sharpening it with a pen knife.  It was only about 4 years ago I bought her an actual eyeshadow set (A Dior quad. It was her birthday!) and blush (also Dior) and a few proper brushes (can't remember the brand, but worthy of the Dior).

I don't know what I was thinking.

You know what's weird? Trying to teach your mother how to put on makeup when you have no clue what you're doing.

Years later I've seen the palette and I can confirm that she's used it enough times to have actually "hit pan".  It was a very pretty quad (muted purples and beiges if I remember correctly) and I can't help but feel touched that she still uses it despite being the mother that always chastises "Why you waste money like that?" for every present I ever gave her.

Very slowly, almost stealthily, I have been getting consumed by a fascination for the face as canvas.  My childhood is just catching up with me.  I've finally reached adolescence!

And it's just amazing to see examples of when makeup transcends to art.

It takes enormous talent to be able to know that this:

Is the perfect look to complete this vision:

Yes, I know it's not the same model but you know what I mean.  But come on, bright green eyeshadow, red lips, strong liner, pale matte skin... what? But the result is perfection: Playful, fresh, young, sexy, very Galliano but also very Dior.  It takes a certain kind of genius to be able to deliver that.

These are from the Christian Dior Spring 2010 show, from Style.com and the brilliance behind the makeup is Pat McGrath.  See the whole fabulous collection here.

Partially just checking if this thing expired

I'm sitting here waiting for some salmon and potatoes to cool (salmon cakes for dinner? yes please!) and rather than looking for yet another variant of Bejeweled Blitztastic or whatever I decided to check up on the internet.  So I log into Bloglines because that is how I usually keep up with the internet and you know how many posts there are waiting for me?

7861

If I take 5 minutes a post, that turns out to be 27 DAYS OF READING!  It's Easter holiday weekend but that only lasts 4 days and I got some salmon waiting for me.

It seems logical to just add to the pile rather than chipping away at that. So what's been going on, things that take up too many characters to Twitter:

• All the bulbs in the house have shades. YES this is a big deal. After living in this house for a year I had to admit to myself that this is kind of a home and bare bulbs (especially the stupid energy efficient ones) are just too ugly to look at if you're somewhere you call home.
• We got a bbq! Like a proper one with a little cute side stove to warm your beans.  This WILL be the summer I perfect the grilled steak.  Assuming that all the snow during winter means England will have a proper summer. Come on global warming, make yourself useful for once.
• We're getting a shoe rack for the spare room. It will hold 50 pairs and I'm actually wondering if it is enough. Craig has about 6 pairs. You can do the math but this is totally normal right?  I mean for a grown up woman.

Ok the salmon is cold enough for me to squish my fingers into and I think that about sums up my life in however long it's been since that last post.

Drive by picture posting

First things first, Happy Valentine's Day! Craig got a new computer with a webcam.

Now, working backwards in time, last night we went out in London to the Loop bar where we were downstairs and it looked like this:

And this was the only way I could cope:

Now, let's go further back in time in the phone camera for more evidence of consuming ridiculous food:

Well played Jamie Oliver, well played.

Christmas in CA - a pictorial

I got some great Christmas presents, but this was grand. Craig's mum knows me so well:

Sheepie salt and pepper shakers!

Sheepie teapot!

Sheepie teapot cozy!

This is the last year we can get each other cards like this:

Craig played golf with my dad two days in a row. How cute are they? Answer: Very!

My parents got us suitcases for Christmas, which are very much appreciated. Given all our travelling my old ones were getting pretty beat up.  But the best part is. I GOT ME SOME LUGGAGE WITH RIMS:

Blingin'!

Christmas in CA - a debriefing

Quick rundown of my holidays in CA:

- Last year the thing I didn't know a clue about that was all the rage was frozen yogurt (a la Pink Berry). This year was some Korean dude named Rain.  Did you see this Stephen Colbert? Hella funny.

- Did you know they no longer make just fax machines? I wanted to get one for my parents so they can fax me their junk mail so I can explain to them it's junk mail but they don't make fax machines anymore!  So now they have a 4 in 1 printer/scanner/copier/fax machine which is about 3 too many machines in 1 for them.

- 4 of my friends got engaged over the Christmas holidays!  Congrats to Dave&Jude and Alana&Jeremy!  I think they're all going to be married before me.

- I was surrounded by babies on Christmas day.  3 of my cousins were pregnant last year and they all had their babies within a month of each other so now they're all crawling around.  So there was them and also the old babies who are older but still babies.  Let me tell you, being surrounded by babies is a really damn good way of slowing down that biological clock.

- I lived in San Francisco for 15 years.  You ask any SF native and there is a 9 in 10 chance they have never been to Alcatraz.  I just visited Alcatraz for the first time a week ago upon the urging of Craig who has now gone twice.  It's a decent outing and the audio tour is well made. I would recommend it.

- Lake Tahoe is surprisingly full of Mexican food and Koreans.  The Koreans bring kimchee cup o'noodles with them. I was so jealous but my quesadilla was pretty tasty so it was all good.

The round ball football

Am I allowed to talk about football even though I'm not a boy? Too bad, you are going to have to suffer through this.

I have really enjoyed getting to know football. I really think the organization of the league systems have been well crafted.  The rules are pretty simple (yes, I understand the offside rule)(usually) and the atmosphere at a live match really can't be beat.

I also like the democracy of it. Ok, I'm probably very naive so I'll change that to the perceived democracy of it.  I've seen enough upsets (I am an Arsenal fan after all) to know that anything can happen at every game.  Yeah, sometimes one team arrives on a nicer bus, but once they're on the field, well, I'd like to think that field is level.

That is why I am so flippin' annoyed with the privileged attitude of the Manchester United squad, with their manager Ferguson the worst of them all.  

It's really incredible the kind of whining and moaning about referees that come out of their mouths.  I really can't think of the last time they didn't blame refs for a game they lost. You know, would it kill you to admit that you could have just played better?  And Ferguson says that the doubt in referees is spreading through his team... I wonder where they learned that???

"Elite referee pool" for the "big games"? Hmm Neville, let me guess on how you would decide what a "big game" is. 

According to you, I reckon Hull vs Wigan can do with a 2nd class referee?  That's basically what he's implying.

What a freaking insult to the rest of the Premier League and their fans. Yeah, the same top league that ManU shares with 20 other teams. 

They need to get off their high horse and condescend themselves to playing the same game as the rest of of the teams.

Questionable entertainment, questionable value.

In case it wasn't obvious, work has been cray-cray.  Exciting crazy, and I'm loving my job, but still, crazy.  It's not even like I don't have time at home to blog.  Trust me, there is a lot of watching Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond going on around here.  But it's just that when I get home I don't even want to get on the computer anymore.

Let me repeat that for emphasis.

I don't even want to get on the computer anymore.

What have I become??

Tonight I am making up for this drought of blog posts with two items of questionable entertainment value.

Firstly, Halloween costume pictures!

Craig:

 

It's a combination of actual bandages and a sheet that was soaked in tea water and cut into strips.  It took over an hour wrapping and pinning it all.

And mine:

From eBay.  And Craig had to drive me to Gatwick to pick it up.  But lest you think I am a lazy cheat, check out my make up which I am pretty darned proud of:

Next up, here is a little game I would like to call:

Who Can Spot the 18th Century Spy in the Crowd?

 

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I'll give you a hint:

 

I am both amused and impressed.