Celeb Best Blog: September 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Some Days Are Diamonds....

and today is one of those! In actual fact the whole week has been a gem because

.......this gorgeous girl released her new book

.......this chick is in the pink 'cos just when she thought she'd scaled the dizzy heights of record sales in Aug., Sept. sales blitzed even those. Amazing what can be achieved working part-time 3 days a week! I'm still shaking my head. My lovely clients are the best.

.......the pink chick's brand new 'baby is on her way from Melbourne, arriving today! Son # 3 captured the moment on his cell phone yesterday. Accompanying the pic was 'Hey Mum, you'll love it! It's totally awesome!' That's good Darling because I've bought it sight unseen & undriven on your recommendation!

So I 'no whinge' today, life's great!

Image 1: World Wide Diamonds Image 2: Paris Expat

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Celebrity Hair with Healthy Body and Beautiful

0 comments Posted by manok at 9:13 PM

Have a sexy body shape is the target of all the women, so they must be extra tough to keep his appearance to look good, sexy and charming opposite.

Best News Photos of Mischa Barton

0 comments Posted by manok at 9:06 PM

Best news photos of Mischa Barton

Utopia Kristin Star News Photo

0 comments Posted by manok at 8:53 PM

Utopia Kristin star news photo, celeb with blond hair and brown glasses big make more beautiful Kristin

The Happiest of Days

0 comments Posted by manok at 1:09 PM

'You see Wendy,' he said, 'when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.'

As my friends here at The Hedge know, I really, really love books. I have 2 very special books I treasure from my childhood, big beautiful story books with the loveliest colour plates complementing the text. The first one I found tucked in my Santa Stocking as a 7 year old in 1962. It was J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Wendy. Barrie requested that Mabel Lucie Attwell illustrate this particular 1921 edition. Miss Attwell was a well known British illustrator of children's books & her cute, nostalgic drawings were often based on her young daughter Peggy. I remember being smitten with the book & enjoying it immensely.

Then 2 weeks later on my birthday, I received the companion book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Inscribed on the title page in my Mum's very distinctive hand-writing is 'To dear Millie on her 8th Birthday with lots & lots of love from Mummy & Daddy xx'. Published in 1906 this was Barrie's first book in the Peter Pan series & famous British artist Arthur Rackham was the illustrator. On opening this book I knew immediately here was something else entirely. Rackham's haunting & dreamlike artistic style was very, very different to Attwell's work. I immersed myself totally in each picture, if fact little Millie glided into each of them & became part of the composition. The joy his work gave me was overwhelming.

I wanted to share some of the work of both artists from the books. I'd love to hear your thoughts on their individual illustrative styles & your favourite image.

Illustrations by Mabel Lucie Attwell

Peter kept watch

They are the children who fall out of their perambulators

They don't want us to land

A Mermaid caught Wendy

The Never Bird

The House under the Ground

The Strange procession set off

When he had freed Wendy

When Wendy grew up

Ilustrations by Arthur Rackham

The Serpentine is a lovely lake, and there is a drowned forest at the bottom of it. If you peer over the edge you can see the trees all growing upside down, and they say that at night there are also drowned stars in it

Old Mr. Salford was a crab-apple of an old gentleman who wandered all day in the Gardens

Away he flew, right over the houses to the Gardens

A band of workmen, who were sawing down a toadstool, rushed away, leaving their tools behind them

There now arose a mighty storm, and he was tossed this way and that

When they think you are not looking they skip along pretty lively

These tricky fairies sometimes slyly change the board on a Ball night

The fairies sit round on mushrooms, and at first they are well behaved

Peter Pan is the fairies' orchestra

The little people weave their summer curtains from skeleton leaves

Fairies never say, 'We feel happy': what they say is, 'We feel dancey'

Image 1: Wiki (of Michael Llewelyn-Davies) All other images: J.M. Barrie

Monday, September 28, 2009

Lost in Translation

0 comments Posted by manok at 1:49 PM

While researching lighting for the Bathroom From Hell yesterday I stumbled across this online article from an Asian Distributor. As I'm still sharing a bathroom with my Beloved, I particularly enjoyed their scientific conclusion that a powerful exhaust fan in a shared bathroom lowers the divorce rate. While the article addresses the somewhat 'delicate' issues of communal ablutions, I think they either just hit the Google translate button & copied & pasted literally or employed Dodgey Brothers Translation Services. Either way, it made for such hilarious reading I just had to share it.

'Couple Bathrooms

It is very common today for a wedding couple or significant others to own separate bathrooms. Equivalent married people need their privacy. For those unlucky enough to have to share their antique brass bathroom accessories not tell a spouse, a bathroom exhaust fan is absolutely capital.

As we all know, when sex perform their trouble character the toilet odor is intolerable. A diverse toilet area with a shared bathroom has helped these couples out immensely; however, a bathroom exhaust fan is still needed to satisfy everyone's needs. Exceedingly gentlemen who proceeds their bathrooms with their spouses are relegated to the powder hope to cause their biz. Powder rooms, because of their trifling area, generally keep the strongest bathroom exhaust fans. Manufacturers are so confident shoud new designs they are right away putting a guarantee of 10 seconds on many exhaust fans!

In that a woman spends twice as much time string a bathroom being a individual, bodily is of utmost importance that the gentleman perk his very personal career in a bathroom or at maiden a separate lavatory, preferably onliest subaqueous instanter from the master bathroom.

Turn your showering area into a merriment meadow. The idea of separate bathrooms for couples has saved an enormous amount of money whereas these couples on marriage counseling or tantrum charge. Statistics show that the divorce rate is higher in marriages setting there is one master bathroom with no bathroom exhaust fan. Sensible is funny how particular little piece of hardware, congeneric as a bathroom exhaust fan, could make such a distinction in a marriage.'

Image & with apologies to: James Michael Howard

Sunday, September 27, 2009

A Wrong Turn

0 comments Posted by manok at 2:28 PM

I honestly think Spring has taken a wrong turn on its way to South Australia, as this weekend we didn't wander away from the fire for more than a couple of minutes before scurrying back. It has been bitterly cold & wet here in the Hills & on Saturday afternoon we experienced a huge hailstorm. MOTH had been given a leave pass to sit in front of the fire & watch the Footy Grand Final on the telly. He needed to break the glass on the emergency Scotch bottle cupboard at about 3p.m., due entirely he said, to the inclement weather. A quick walk around the garden at half-time revealed not much is happening except in the culinary Herb Dept. So hurry up Spring, we need you desperately!

A quick dash outside to capture all the hail on the garden path down to MOTH's wood pile on the old Tennis Court.

The Mint this year is the best. We've enjoyed many yummy Little Lamb Choppie Casseroles (as the boys call it!) full of fresh Mint during the cold Winter months.

The Rosemary has also been prolific. Always wonderful with the boys favourite Rosemary & Garlic Roasted Smashed Potatoes.

Flat-Leaf Italian Parsley in mega amounts. Great in the Veal Ragu MOTH loves so much.

The Kaffir Lime tree is still doing well despite the freezing conditions. I always pop a couple of crushed leaves in with the Jasmine rice as I steam it. It adds a wonderful dimension to the rice when served with a Thai curry.

Coriander is my second favourite herb (after Basil), & I adore using it fresh from the pots.

I struck a cutting of Vietnamese Mint from a friend's garden last week. I'm not holding too much hope that it will strike after being pelted with all these hailstones on Saturday.

All is well with MOTH's famous Christmas Lillies. These are just a few of his many pots. I spent one icy cold Winter's Sunday in July transplanting all the 'Pup's' as MOTH calls them, from the Parent's pots into their own. You can see some of the new babies in the foreground.

Image 1: Chesneys