Love Fridays

A different type of love this Friday girls - the love of beautifully manicured nails! I have long suffered the affliction of being a pianist, and so whenever my fingernails get longer than a certain point, they have to be cut. I can't handle long fingernails! And especially once they have any sort of polish on them, they feel heavy. Toes on the other hand (or foot, haha) I rarely leave bare. Right now they have a fabulous Kit Purple on them from a few years ago. I know - the polish likely needs to be chucked by now, but it brightens up my little toes for winter!

I'll be 31 on Monday so I'm going to treat myself to a manicure this weekend (and maybe a pedi too). I haven't had one since my sister's wedding in 2006. And to celebrate not just my birthday, but the start of spring, I'm going to go for a bit of colour rather than the French Mani I had last time (was trying to be classy for my sister..!)

The divine Garance Doré has moved to New York, and she loves pretty nails even more than I do.... Check out her latest discoveries about that wonderful city..

Life in New York Manicure ! Pedicure ! Facial !

Pic: Garance Doré

Have a wonderful weekend ladies! xx

Bookworm

Many of my nights since my Boy has been away have been pleasantly spent reading. I go through phases of reading two or three books in a row, then not reading any for about 12 months. It's terrible! I was a little bookworm when I was a kid. I used to get sponsored for the MS Read-a-thon every year!

Anyway - Entertainment Weekly put out this list a couple of years ago. Yes, I'm way behind on my reading.. And I'm sure this list is as good as any to work from - I'm no book snob. I've read two of the Twilight books (that's my limit) and the occasional Marion Keyes so I have something to discuss with my gorgeously Philistine baby sister. I do love to get engrossed in another world - hence my love of films - so I'm usually more drawn to novels rather than non-fiction. Currently I'm reading a lovely Kiwi novel - "Mr. Pip"  by Lloyd Jones - it's in the process of being turned into a film. I'm loving it - it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize a few years ago. I recommend it!

So from this list following which I haven't properly perused as yet - what have I read...? I'm a little scared to find out how small the number is..!

The New Classics

The 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)


Ok - the results.. I've read numbers 2, 19, 20, 34, 36, 72, 88 and 96. Shameful. I seriously need to sort this out! Once I've finished Mr Pip, I have Ian McEwan's "Atonement"  waiting patiently on my bedside table.

How many have you read?

Drama Drama Drama

Some people thrive on drama. And it's not always a good thing..

I have been aware of the working style of a certain person, let's call them Godzilla, for quite some time. And I've learnt to work with it and survive. Don't ask me how..

We had someone new start working with us a few months ago, let's call them BooBoo, and only this week did BooBoo come to me to comment on the sense of heightened drama that seems to follow Godzilla around. It was like BooBoo had only just noticed it.

It is just me? BooBoo asked.

Oh no.... I said. This is not a new thing. I experienced this all of last year, with many tears shed in the safety of the ladies toilet..!

Most people here are aware of it, but Godzilla does have a way of casting a spell of drama over people. With Godzilla, everything is made out to be so much more stressful and important than it really is. The way I survive it? My mantra is 'it's only a movie'. We are not saving lives, but the way Godzilla carries on, you'd think we were in a warzone..!

What I love is that BooBoo is going to be an awesome ally. BooBoo is calm and intelligent and so awesome to work with. And I love that I have someone else who is determined not to take any of Godzilla's crap. We will not get sucked into the vortex of drama. No we will not!

I feel that I'll be chasing the drama by moving to NYC, but I love good drama! Bad drama makes me want to crawl under my doona and never come out... My Boy has been having trouble getting used to the reactionary personalities of many Americans. Apparently they also love the drama. They fly off the handle at the smallest things, then move on to something else. Just a whole lotta Godzilla's roaming around NYC. Apparently here in NZ, we mull things over for a while, and let things simmer, and we only explode when things are really worth exploding about. I haven't noticed that myself, having lived in NZ coming up two years, but I'd say when faced with an angry New Yorker with steam coming out of their nostrils, I may cower in fear...

Any other sort of drama (especially of the Broadway variety) - bring it on!

Red Meat

I'll be eating steak tonight. I've been craving it. Craving in the absence of other things perhaps..

A bunch of us are going out to the Crazy Horse Steakhouse here in town. My mouth is watering at the thought.

I need to make the most of nights like this with the Boy in NYC.. He is vegetarian. Well... more like flexetarian.. He eats seafood, and meat on extra-special occasions. But a night out at the steak house I think would be out of the question.

My first meal when I arrived home from 2 years in the UK was, by special request to my parents, steak, baked potatoes with sour cream and chives, and green avocado salad. Divine!!! I think it would be my last meal, should I ever end up on Death Row.

What a thought. Your last meal....

Now, to decide on my sauce. Bearnaise, Cafe de Paris butter, freshly grated horseradish and creme fraiche, wild mushroom cream (umm... no.. not a mushroom fan) or rich red wine and bone marrow glaze....

Love Fridays

Almost forgot my Friday blog post! It was a busy day today and I've only just now had time for a break. Feeling a bit low tonight - it's been 6 weeks and it's not getting much easier, especially when it's a busy day and you realise at the end of the day it's too late to chat because it's already 4am on the other side of the world.

I came across this incredible blog recently - My Interrupted Fairytale - it is desperately sad and beautiful. Don't go visiting it until you have a chunk of quiet time to kill.. I won't spoil it for you by attempting to explain what it's all about, because the clarity with which this girl writes makes it easy enough to work out for yourself. She kindly links you to this post to give you the basics..

Anyway - I read this and my heart broke for her..

"again the english language fails to have a word to describe the depths of sadness, 

the way a heart can feel heavy, 

how a stomach can drop to your feet, 

or how missing someone can cripple you."

I know I can't come close to comparing my current situation with that described in My Interrupted Fairytale, and this quote is possibly a little melodramatic for me to use, but it helps me because when I read it, I realise that my situation is really not so bad. And I'm grateful for that.

I also know that I can't wait for this long-distance period to be over..

Pic: tumblr

Outer balance, Inner calm

It's been a while I know, sorry! I've been taking much more pleasure in reading other blogs lately.. One in particular that I remember being introduced to many months ago, but then promptly forgetting about for some reason (perhaps it was around laptop changeover time..) is Sarah Wilson's blog "this blog makes life better, sweeter." It is fantastic! Almost every post hits just the right note with me.

Some of her recommendations have been taking their rightful place in my life this week. One of these is..

Make your bed. Every day.

It's now Thursday and I've been doing this since Monday. It's working! It's something I absolutely have to do before I walk out of my room to go to work. I don't leave anything on the bed that doesn't belong there. And when I walk in the door at the end of the day and see this welcoming bed lying before me, I can report that it's actually a fantastic feeling! And it's not difficult at all - strangely satisfying, like doing a really big load of dishes, or getting sweaty with a really great hoover of the whole house, but so much easier!

Now the trick is you have to do it EVERY DAY. Not just most days.. Every day. Without fail. The suggestion originally came from Gretchen Rubin, a fabulous New Yorker who has written a book, and has this blog about the year she spent developing The Happiness Project. And I love this little nugget of wisdom that she drew on to come to the idea of making your bed every day - from Andy Warhol..

“Either once only, or every day. If you do something once it’s exciting, and if you do it every day it’s exciting. But if you do it… almost every day, it’s not good any more.”

Pic: countryliving.com

Love Fridays

Pic: Le Love

Wishing you all a lovely, lovely weekend. I can't believe it's mid-August already. 5 weeks down. It's not looking like the sun is going to show this weekend - it's kind of grey and rainy and windy here in NZ at the moment.

It doesn't take much to put a smile on my face most of the time. I take pleasure in many little things. Right now I'm appreciating every little email or text message or photograph that comes my way. Especially the ones I don't ask for. I'm even lucky enough to be shown the view out the taxi window on my Boy's way home from Manhattan... Just a little bit jealous...