There’s literally only hours left of 2010 and as I type I’m sipping a mango bellini, sitting amongst the family in a pretty blue dress. I'm freshly showered after the most enlivening of swims at Bilgola Beach and am looking forward to dinner later and perhaps some dancing on the lawn come midnight with my LB, under the stars with a beautiful north easterly unsticking the heat from the air. 2011 here we come.
It’s so good to be home. We were lucky to get here actually. There were snowflakes the size of 50p coins falling as we arrived at Heathrow and our connecting flight from Frankfurt was over four hours late getting to Singapore thanks to a blizzard, which meant an extended bout of duty free shopping and some dodgy laksa, but home we eventually got. Thirty-two hours door to door and family en masse notwithstanding we were greeted with reams of international press about the huge snow dumps that brought Heathrow, Gatwick, the underground and London in its entirety to a complete halt. Very lucky to leave when we did and I’m so pleased to be home I’ve almost forgotten about the the cramped reality of a nightmare that is economy class long-haul travel and the ugly baby who wailed the entire 12.5 hours it took to get from London to Singapore. And who had the pleasure of the seat directly in front of us.
I haven’t done much since getting home. Christmas was about too much food and all the family in attendance. LB had lunch with his family – we couldn’t find a happy medium between new babies (LB’s little nephew) and dying matriarchs (my grandmamma) so we divided and conquered. I had bellini’s and bacon on toast with the LB clan in the morning before heading to Av but it was a lovely morning. Among my many gifts - I was very spoilt - was a poem. I won’t embarrass him by publishing it on the internet but I was equal parts touched, moved, amused and impressed. Clever boy my LB.
There’s been some talk and some planning of all things wedding. We met with our celebrant, Sarah, a couple of days after we got back and she was fabulous and got us both very excited so that was really special and we’ve had some discussions about food and fairy lights so all in all we're pretty excited about January 2012.
One of the things I did back in London when mum was visiting was trawl a few dress shops. With Soph we went to Vera Wang in Selfridges and enjoyed a couple of hours pretending like we had nine grand to drop on a tonne of tulle. We don’t and we didn’t but I enjoyed flirting with the idea of princess dresses for that brief, intoxicating moment.
When LB caught wind of the excursion he was quick to the google stalking of all things Vera and came back with the helpful proclamation that “I don’t like that invisible material.” After a brief but illuminating conversation we discovered that by 'invisible material' he meant tulle but after another brief but illuminating conversation we agreed that he would love whatever I turned up in...
Before mum left though we visited a shop in Notting Hill (which for the time being shall remained unnamed so as to prevent a certain stalking by a certain LB) and in fact found The Dress. That’s all I wish to say about it for the time being but it’s the most exquisite thing and I can’t wait to wear it.
I’m excited about 2011. I’m not sure what it’s going to throw up yet but LBB and I have decided to treat it like it’s our last in London and so are planning as much travel as possible – New York is on the list, Greece is scheduled for May for Cleo’s wedding, Istanbul for the biennale in October, Croatia with Tor and Andy in late summer, Cornwall at some stage and another visit to Berlin circa June maybe too. It should be a special year. A job for job's sake and - hopefully - the publication of the National Portrait Gallery book I have been working on for nearly 12 months. But one thing at a time. As it is we’ve still got another not quite two weeks left here in Sydney and with any luck the stunning weather will continue.
For now though… some highlights of 2010:
Playing house with LBB...
The arrival of Lovely Friends from home.....
The Dress..............
The Snow.........
And as ever at this time of year, coming home.
I’m not interested in re-visiting the lows but I’m optimistic about the year ahead. Long may the sun shine.
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