Life in Dulwich

What a busy week. Monday had our second choir practice which was fun. It's clear that many people have been in choirs before - everyone watches the MD and listens and can sing harmonies and everything. We'll be doing carol singing around Dulwich at Christmas which I'll love. When I was working at McKinsey last December I joined their carol singing thing and enjoyed it so much. Singing is definitely good for the soul.

Tuesday I had my last PT session at the gym and it was a corker. Quite sad because my trainer is a really good person and it's been fun but I'm sure I'll see her around and about. Wednesday went to see How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. It was okay - they'd obviously geared it into being a bit of a rom com. Simon Pegg is extremely likeable though and the young up-and-coming starlet in it is sickeningly gorgeous and young.

Yesterday I made use of my new found status as solo climber and went up the wall at the gym... literally. I only climbed for 45 mins but actually fell off the wall, my arms were so tired. It's such fun using the self-belaying device - you can just jump off willy nilly - it's like flying! There's a difficult bit which is my nemesis - it overhangs, so you have to kind of climb upside down and get over the sticky out bit on the wall. I was gratified that the bloke who was climbing at the same time couldn't do it either.

Glad to be home today - have something every night next week too. Phew...

Watched Flamenco Flamen-ka last night, courtesy of my agent and good friend, R. As dance shows go, it was not bad, and the experience was greatly enhanced by the hunky, yet snake-hipped men, stamping their feet and brandishing daggers with wild abandon. Sadly, the one that caught my fancy was probably the least accomplished dancer, which dampened my enthusiasm for looking at him slightly. His shoulders seemed permanently around his ears and his hands were like little planks of wood, but he did have a passing resemblance to Hugh Jackman.

Like other Latin dance based theatre extravaganzas I've seen, they tried to incorporate some kind of dodgy storyline and then proceeded to sing in Spanish something not all together related and quite incomprehensible to about 80 percent of the audience. But the dancing was very good and the tango bits were sublime. I must take up tango again.

Today my best friend's baby sister gets married. When I first met her she was about ten. How time flies.

Why people find it necessary to stand on the bottom deck of the bus, thereby precluding anyone else from getting past them to sit on the top deck of the bus where there is often a plethora of seats, is beyond me. Even worse, it stops some people from even getting on the bus at all because the driver won't open the doors.

And yet people do.

Had a post birthday party on Saturday which was meant to be a picnic but the Indian summer I predicted didn't materialise. Cooked a big pot of noodles, lots of turmeric roast chicken, masquerading as Malaysian fried chicken and chilli clams. Big sis brought Indian sweets and samosas from Ambala and everyone else brought a lot of crisps, dip and chocolate. I no longer have to stock up for Christmas.

My friends, Eric and Ernie, made me one of the nicest presents I've ever had - a compilation of all the number one singles on my birthday from the year I was born. I am quite pleasantly chuffed to find that 'Those Were the Days' was number one on the day I was born. Now that's a mix tape and a half.

We had our first rehearsal for the new funky Dulwich Choir on Monday. And good fun it was too. Somehow I've found myself amongst the sopranos for the first time in my life. Although I could give the tenors a good run for their money too. The music de jour is Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, which I've heard but couldn't have named to save my life, and something musical-ish which I suspect was written by the MD. It was such fun - I haven't been in a choir for such a long time.

I also got signed off to climb on my own at the gym today. And I chested a high E Flat in my singing lesson. "Mini wave in celebration of me!", as Chandler would say.

And most importantly...

I've got broadband again, all wireless and everything. It was like I was blind and now I can see. Sigh.

This is a good week.

Watched Tropic Thunder last night. It was really funny. I'm not a big Ben Stiller fan, although Dodgeball is pretty good. But this was really laugh out loud, non-stop guffaw funny - with a whole range of humour from toilet to wait-a-minute-I-have-to-think-about-that-for-a-second-oh-that's-quite-clever funny.

And much as I hate to say it, Tom Cruise was very good. Really funny. I didn't even recognise him till halfway through. There was no falling back on his I'm such a cocky, loud annoying git with crazed eyes acting mode.

I hope he doesn't build on it by doing some duff comedy like that de Niro/Crystal hitman/shrink film, the name of which escapes me.

No, got it - Analyse This.

Just had my 40th birthday. It's sort of weird because I really don't feel forty - at most thirty but, really, more like 27 or 28.

Spent my birthday eve at the Inside Soap awards held at Gilgamesh in Camden on the last minute invitation of my university pal, L. It was most gratifying to find I could fit into the black cocktail dress BB bought me when we first started dating. I couldn't get into it at the time but now, hey presto, I've miraculously either worked out how to squeeze it on or I've lost a heck of a lot of weight. A combination of the two I think because I don't think I'm thinner now than I was then.

Anyway, I digress.

Suffice to say, as I'm really not much of a soap watcher, I knew nobody at all. Not one person. Shame Babs Windsor wasn't there because I would have recognised her - or at least some of the longer term Eastenders stalwarts. Didn't even know any of the Hollyoaks bods. Apparently Duncan from Blue was there but I think I would probably only recognise Anthony Costa - mainly from his appearance on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

So, we entertained ourselves by making disparaging remarks about the drag act that followed the awards and lay in wait for the extremely good trays of food emerging from the kitchen.

There were bucketloads of soft shell crab, fresh Vietnamese rolls, duck spring rolls, prawn fritter things, mushroom and chicken dumplings and gyoza. I actually got stuffed on canapés and had to turn them away at the end - that's no mean feat. Then onto the chocolate fountain, which is actually a much more exciting idea than the reality - way too sweet and sickly. Ended up skewering all the fruit and eating it au naturel. As if that wasn't enough, little mango sorbet cones and lychee granitas followed to freshen the palate. This was washed down all the while with raspberry champagne cocktails, mojitos and other such concoctions. And it was all free! That's why D-list celebrities turn up to the opening of an envelope - who wouldn't for all that free food and drink?

Then, there was a goody bag at the end. It was a pretty good bag too. Beauty products, booze, snacks, Haribo, silver jewellery and Hollyoaks perfume. The world of soap summed up in a bag.

On birthday proper, had a karaoke party for a few select friends and family, chosen on the basis that they aren't diva singers and not likely to stand around secretly despising the ineptitude of all those trying to sing around them. Chose a slightly peculiar venue - the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, which has a slightly down-at-heel, grungy feel about it.

We had a blast! Well, I did. Once we got going, it was hard to stop and having booked 3 hours, I thought we would flag, but no, we squeezed every last minute out of it. We sang everything. Carpenters, Dolly Parton, Monty Python, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, musicals, Christina Aguilera, 1980s stuff and the obligatory I Will Survive at the end. My throat hurts but it was worth it. I think it would be good to invest in a karaoke machine. And a soundproof room...