Revolving doors

crazy sky over Hammersmith last week

Lovely Boy and I are contemplating the installation of a revolving front door. Or perhaps a listing on tripadvisor. At the very least a guest book. Our little house feels tired - scruffy round the edges and lightly bathed in dust - so god knows what we ourselves look like after what can only be described as a very busy month of house guests. We had LB's sister, her husband, their baby and all the accessories that come with an 11 month old for 10 days, then a friend from New Zealand for a night, then a 24 hour flying visit from Mum and Max. And this morning we bade goodbye to my little sister's boyfriends little sister whose been with us these last two nights between post-school Europe adventures and still-post-school Canadian ones. It's been wonderful to have had so many visitors from home this year but we do live in a one bedroom flat. Waiting to Exhale is not just a bad Whitney Houston movie.

two very tired house guests

Throw into the mix a wedding to finish planning, a dress to start starving for, a meltdown at work, two days in Bristol for a conference, another wedding and a nasty eye infection (a parting gift to LB from his little nephew) and well, we've had finer moments.

Seeing Mum and Max last weekend was just the shot in the arm I needed. Familiarity and cuddles and family gossip and wedding talk ad nauseum. They're back next weekend and then I'm off for a week to play. I'm almost jumping out of my skin with anticipation. I'm all about the countdowns at the moment. Seven days until M&M are back, 10 days until my first dress fitting, 10 days to lose 2kg, 10 days until we go to Paris, 13 days until we go to San Sebastian and 11 weeks and six days until we fly home to Sydney. Some naysayers would warn against wishing time away. I'm not doing that. I like to think I'm  compartmentalising my time to offset misery about the impending Great Cold and to manage and minimise the use of my latest work buzz word: "overwhelmed..." Yes, with the ellipses...

Yarn bombing on the corner of Nelson St, Bristol. 

Last week I have may have actually been sent home early and told to take a day off such was my inability to keep my shit together. It wasn't the finest moment of my career but this week has been much improved. I went to Bristol on Tuesday for a conference hosted by Culture24 about evaluating online success. Interestingly, and reassuringly, the overarching theme was that when it comes to the culture sector being online, we're all going to fail - it's just about failing often, failing quietly and failing forward. It was incredibly worthwhile, not least because it's completely taken the pressure of succeeding. Whatever the hell that means anyway.

Before I headed back to London I went to check out Nelson St and the See No Evil project. In August this year Bristol City Council invited graffiti artists from around the world to come to Bristol and transform a pretty drab laneway with large scale murals as a way to draw tourists to the city otherwise known as the birthplace of Banksy. It was pretty cool actually. I did attempt to visit the Arnolfini but of course it was closed for installation so the closest I got was the cafe. It could have been worse I suppose.

Nelson St, Bristol

This weekend LB and I are working on overdue wedding homework - a questionnaire from our celebrant with no less than 15 questions about why we fell in love, what our plans are for the future, what we think marriage is etc etc. It's a pretty brilliant exercise to undertake actually but as is I imagine the point, it's not something you can do in a rush. I've been working on mine on and off for a few months now. LB started properly this week. Funnily enough nagging doesn't seem conducive to writing lists of what he loves about me but we have to have it done by the end of the weekend and LB's off to Baltimore next week anyway so he has no choice. I did tell him (albeit no doubt in an irritating, sing songy, know-it-all tone of voice) that it would take him longer than he thought so I'm not brave enough to go in there and ask how he's going. True love is knowing when to stay away sometimes.

It will be strange not to have him around next week, and I'm extremely jealous of the day trip he's planning to Washington D.C. but I'm going to make the most of the week with craft projects, pedicures, appalling television and the kind of meal plan that would horrify him for its lack of carbohydrates, fat, sugar, salt and anything else that generally gets filed under 'delicious'. Thinking of the dress, thinking of the dress.