Life in Dulwich

Watched Tribe last night. The mad Bruce Parry was in Sarawak with the Penan people. The Malaysian government came off very badly. How disappointing... they always try to make out that it's the Indonesians who are driving the tribal people out by chopping down the jungle, but it's sad to see that it's the Malaysians too. What ever happened to them stopping all the logging and palm oil plantations and saving big swathes of primary forest for future generations?

Back from the Lake District. BB was ill all weekend, so not much fell-walking was had. We had a jolly pub lunch in Caldbeck where BB's mum and family lived for a bit and met some of his Grandma's old friends and saw their old house. It was very picturesque and wholesome. They leave their front doors wide open and crime consists of their rare begonias being filched by unscrupulous plant thieves.

I notice The Dark is Rising has been made into a film. I can't wait. I hope it's a good adaptation, although it seems strange that a sizeable proportion of the cast seem to be Canadian.

Ah well, didn't get the commercial job. So we're off to the Lake District this weekend. Hurrah! I hope the car starts. We haven't driven for a while.

I've just received a bucketload of wooden coathangers which I bought from Ebay. I have gradually become weary of wire hangers and the way they tangle up against each other, get misshapen and are altogether flimsy and unsatisfactory in the hand. We are limited to hanging 36 items because I thought it would be greedy to get more.

That's weird. I just posted the last entry and in the page that came up the instruction was in German - "Blog anzeigen (in einem neuen fenster)". Bizarre!

Why is it that, almost without fail, whenever I have a holiday booked (which is rare), an acting job comes along (also rare)? Only away for two days next week and have just been pencilled for a commercial. Sigh... Now, whichever way it turns out I can either be chipper because I either get to do an ad and earn lots of dosh or go on holiday or I can be pissed off because I don't get to do an ad or don't get to go on holiday.

I've taken a sudden liking to the shoes of Terra Plana. Mainly the shoes from last season. Unfortunately, this season's shoes are now in the shops and not half so nice. Their collection is very small - I wonder how they survive with probably less than a dozen styles in Ladies' and the same in Men's?

I've been brushing up on the German recently as it had fallen by the wayside, due to the Mandarin learning. Have been using Deutsche Welle, which is a really great website. They've got the news read slowly daily for those of us who are slow on the pick-up and just slow generally.

Then, the FREE courses cover a whole host of things about Germany like history, politics, religion, nature, industry etc. It's SOOO interesting. I like it! The beginner's lessons centre around a journalism student who has a mystery elf companion who is invisible - bizarre but strangely compelling.

Had a good audition today for the role of a Canadian Inuit. I spent a scant few hours trawling the net looking for videos of Inuits talking. It turns out that if you try a bit of American, with a few "aboots" thrown in and then mix it with a bit of Filipino, that's kind of the accent you're looking for.

Anyway, the casting director was happy enough.

I have another casting tomorrow for a children's programme. The breakdown is quite vague. I just need to turn up kinda smart casual and be good with children. Don't know if it's a drama or a presenting job or anything. Nothing like being totally unprepared. At least I know where I'm supposed to be going.

Went to the newly reopened Le Chandelier for tea last week. BB remarked that there only seemed to be women and fathers there. It is quite girly. But they do a nice French tarte, lots of loose leaf teas and kedgeree. I am partial to a nice bit of kedgeree.