Life in Dulwich

The house was toasty warm (in parts) this morning. We've rigged up all the fan heaters on timer things so that we don't wake up to burst pipes and frozen toes.

Can't get a plumber or an electrician till next Wednesday. Aargh. Fortunately, I am depending on the kindness of friends and the gym to keep clean.

Yesterday, at my favourite Vietnamese place, a chap walked in and asked for Tom Yum. The proprietress (who is generally pretty abrupt) must have been in a good mood because she merely sent one of her sons to escort said chap to a nearby place where he could have said Tom Yum. I would have quite liked it though if she'd taken a Basil Fawlty stance and humiliated him in front of everybody but then I'm clearly just mean.

I had the biggest bowl of beef and beef ball pho. It was soooo good. It was to make up for the teeniest, tiniest, nastiest bowl of beef pho that I had in a restaurant in Aberdeen last week. I had trustingly believed the review in Olive magazine, that it was a Vietnamese restaurant worth visiting. But it was basically a typical north-of-the-Watford-Gap Chinese restaurant, masquerading as a Vietnamese restaurant. BB said I should have known better.

Olive magazine has sunk in my estimation.

Labels: food, magazines, restaurants

Hello all! Am back from the unceasing frenzy of a small, snow-covered village (well, suburb masquerading as village) nr Aberdeen. Arrived back home just before 10pm to find the boiler has given up the ghost. Hurray! So, it's dark and cold in our little flat. Fortunately, the pipes haven't frozen up despite the Arctic temperatures.

We bunged on the puny fan heater (looking on the bright side - at least we have one), put on all our clothes over the ones we already had on including our coats and slunk under the duvet eating rapidly cooling Chinese takeaway. Have left BB to sort out a plumber and an electrician while I sit at work wrapped in all my clothes because someone has stolen our fan heater.

But, at least, no one broke into the flat or abused the car. So, that's quite good for a change.

BA outdid themselves on the catering front on our way up to Aberdeen. We got a bag of crisps and a drink. That's it. I made a joke about that being all that we were getting - but it actually was all that we were getting. Was dumbstruck after that, partly from hunger.

Not many people at work today so I shall be improving my Sudoku skills tenfold.

Labels: travel

Went to my first milonga last night. It's quite weird this whole underground tango culture in seedy community halls. But really good to watch all these people who look like they would step on your toes and bump into you at a moment's notice, all gliding around the floor doing fancy footwork and completely unchoreographed and hardly any collisions at all.

We were just happy we made it round the dance floor once without bumping into too many people, all in time to the music. Hurrah! Twas pretty daunting as everybody seemed to be way more experienced than us, but fun, once we got going. Our tango instructor was very proud of us. It's all pretty much still a mystery to me though.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. I might even go again.

Labels: dance

We have been living in the semi-dark for the last 3 days now. Woke up on Friday morning and one of the fuses had completely exploded (not just the wire) and all the main lights don't work. Fortunately, all the important stuff like fridge, telly, computer, boiler are still working.

Anyways, tried to find a replacement fuse but apparently our fusebox is so old they don't make them like that anymore. So, we have to change the whole box and that will apparently cost around £500 (according to one quote) and all the electricians in a gazillion mile radius are too busy before Christmas. To make matters worse, our lone lamp in the bedroom's lightbulb blew last night and we don't have any replacements. Sigh...

Hurrah! I got half my money. Now, as long as the cheque doesn't bounce, I'm not going to have a red Christmas.

Christmas is definitely in the air at work. Have spent most of today making labels for the boss' cards, singing and dancing bits from The Producers and eating a mixture of wasabi peas, rhubarb and custard sweets, satsumas, preserved papaya and anything else within arm's reach that won't give me a tummy ache.

Voiceover tomorrow. Hope I don't give myself a gippy stomach.

Labels: food, work

My agent has resurfaced mysteriously and is full of hot air about how they thought they'd paid me ages ago and how they haven't answered their phone for 3 weeks because they are in the middle of moving and how the cheque will be in the post by end of the week. I'm not holding my breath. I am encouraged by the fact that I've managed to call them two times in a row though.

Have just got a voicereel edited together and it sounds alright. Now all I need is someone decent to flog my wares, so to speak.

Am very happy because I have managed to track down that dress I wanted. Hurrah! The shop that was holding it for me rang up to see if they could sell it to someone else. Are they mad? After hounding the manufacturer in Denmark, the UK distributor and every single shop that might sell the dress in the UK - they want to give away my dress? Sheesh. Not that I'm obssessive or anything.

Labels: acting, shopping

My worst fears have been realised regarding my voiceover agent. They have absconded with £500 of my money without a trace. Equity doesn't know what has happened with them but just that they know they were in trouble. Thanks for letting your members know!

So now have to try and obtain a copy of the contract from the company that I did the work for, so I can work out how much more they owe me. Sigh....

Labels: acting

If I won the lottery I think I would go to the theatre a lot more. There are quite a lot of things I want to see and some that I think I ought to see. Also, I would get the dress that I have a bit of an obssession for at the moment. It's not expensive - just elusive.

The thing is - when you can't get something for whatever reason, then you train yourself not to want it. But is that necessarily a good thing? Because then you train yourself to stop having dreams and hopes and wishes instead of going through hellfire to get what you want and tell yourself that that's a good thing.

I suppose it depends on whether you want to be firmly rooted in this world or become a Zen Buddhist.

I got two letters from the lawyers dealing with the car accident case that I'm involved in. One said, "We have not received your signed court statement and if you do not respond we will have to consider the case closed and drop procedures". The other said, "Thank you. We have received your signed court statement and will proceed with the case." I don't know which to believe.

I have very little faith in the lawyers though. Good thing I'm not paying for them.

I saw Jonathan Ross outside the office getting into his car! He waved and everything!

I have a horrible suspicion that the agent through which I did a voiceover earlier this year has gone out of business. I am therefore out of pocket and extremely p**d off. Hopefully they hadn't got the money from the company that I did the work for yet. Why is life so complicated?

Labels: acting, celebrity