Goodbye to the fat ladies

One of Britain's best-loved artists, Beryl Cook, died peacefully at the age of 81 yesterday. I loved her lovely 'seaside postcard' paintings of portly ladies having the time of their lives. A great loss to the art world, indeed.

sky high

Some pics I took of the planes at the U.S. Air Force air show at Jones Beach today. The blur is the damned heat - I am burned to a crisp :-/

blue

My parents left town today. They'd been visiting for my newest arrivals Christening, and stayed a little over a week. I feel devastated. You really don't know how much you miss something until you hold it briefly and once again let go. Why did the weeks up to their arrival go so slowly yet the 8 days here flew at record speed? All the way to the airport my eyes continuously welled up. Yet it wasn't until my Mum was safely out of sight did the tears start streaming. I watched them walk from the car across 3 lanes of parked cars to the entrance and felt that familiar hot flush, then as her auburn hair vanished from sight - I dissolved. They were due to depart at 7.30pm and I just checked the flight tracker only to see they're delayed. So now my thoughts are with them, I wonder how they feel - given more time to mull their departure. The week was mixed with all kinds of emotions. My Father has Parkinson's Disease. Seeing his deterioration since Christmas was heartbreaking. My Mother painted my front door frame, cleaned everything in sight, planted out the garden, cooked at midnight for the Christening, and trailed with me to the hospital when I stood on a rusty nail. Not exactly the relaxing holiday one would usually take, but hey - it's our life. I could never express the love and admiration I have for my Mother. She is everything she should be to everyone in her life times a million. I wish them a safe and comfortable flight home.

more dangerous than Al Gore

When I read that ASIMO, a robot which was designed by Honda Motor Co., conducted the Detroit Symphony - my heart sank. To me this is not the way forward we should be looking for. Maybe it's the *cue Cartman voice* damn hippy in me, but robots as smart as this one scare the bejesus out of me.

must see

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum. At the Met Gala Anna Wintour looked awesome in a Storm inspired outfit by Karl Lagerfeld. Maybe I'm biased seen as I play the character on the 360s X-Men!

when hope is gone

I wanted to note an incident that happened to me at the weekend. I won't put a picture and I won't dwell on it. It just saddened me greatly. In the supermarket with my husband and children I was pushing the cart when a young woman, early 20s, walked by yabbering on her cell phone not paying attention to what she was doing and walked into my cart. She muttered "ass" and kept walking. Her son, around 6 yrs old, walking while playing his psp/ds whatever, again not looking where he was going - walked into my cart. He looked me in the eye - and said "I'm sorry" in this sweet little voice. I said "it's ok" and smiled. His Mother, and I use that term loosely, turned to him and said "don't apologize to her, she's got 4 eyes - she can see where she's going". I was wearing my glasses at the time. I was flabbergasted. This is what scares me. Here you have this young child being taught to bully others, to be rude, and to have no consideration for anyone. He's doing his best to be a good boy and this woman is ruining him. If this is an example of the adults of tomorrow, then God help us all.

a red night

It's funny how a color can change things so dramatically. My husband ended up in hospital tonight - as that sinking feeling kicks in and I wait for news I change my shirt to a red one. I hear he's been checked in - I paint my toenails red. I hear he's waiting for the CAT scan - I paint my lips red. Suddenly I feel less shaky. I suppose it's my way of coping. Because the children are in bed, I can't be there - so thank goodness for something as simple as color to make me feel stronger. I often live my life in shades of gray, so I rely on color to lift my moods and brighten my life. After the hectic past few months I decided to paint my kitchen a lavender blue, it's so much more tranquil to look at than the previous orangey color. Two years ago following a long, cold winter I painted my living-rooms yellow. I remember feeling ready for Summer like never before. I'm hoping the need for red fades as the night goes on.

UPDATE: With the help of a few IPAs and the return of my love, my red has changed to blue :)