wendy house

do your windows:

• provide too much sunlight?  
• let random passers-by and snoopy stalkers look into your home?

The situation is curable with the help of an interior designer and scientifically proven Window Treatments.   8/10 cat owners said their cats prefered Window Treatments to drapery.     Window Treatments cure more windows than drapes, curtains, blinds  or nets alone.   Get some windows treatment now,   you know it makes sense.

A list is an extremely powerful medical tool for  counter-acting the symptoms of scattyism before they lead to the rare and dangerous unscrewed-on-head problem where the sufferer is accused of:

 ‘forgetting your head  if it wasn’t screwed on‘

This post perverts the  law requiring bloggers to list 2, 5,  10, 43, 56  or 100  things that define some example of goodness or badness to a ‘things to pack for my fortnight in England and Cornwall’ list.    Cumulatively, the listed  things  should conform to my packing goal of   “I can carry it up a staircase without injuring my back“.     This is an officially  boring post, you should stop reading NOW.  

It needs charging:

1. Laptop;   Power-cable; GPS extension;  
2. Car-to-US-power converter; UK to US socket power converter
3. Cell-phone;   socket and car  charger;
4. MP3 player;   headphones; rechargeable batteries;   battery-charger
5. Camera;   docking-station;   charge-cable; USB PC connection cable

Legal:

1. UK passport
2. USA Employers Authorisation Card  
3. H1B + documentation detailing approval.
4. 3 ‘Advanced Parole’ documents
5. US Driving Licence;   UK Driving Licence

Stylin’ :

1. 4  5 hats:   purple baseball cap;  blue Parkhurst cloche; pink velvet cap;   black wool cap; Blue denim cap
2. 4 prescription glasses:   Mui Mui; Ray Ban; Oakley;  ProDesignDenmark;
3. 1 adorably textured purple scarf
4. make-up:   1 black mascara; 1 black kohl pencil; 1 gold cream eyelid shader;  
5. sparklies:    2 sets of earings;   2 neclaces; 4 hair-clips

Entertainment:

1. CD’s (Mountian Goats;  Nick Cave; Jonny Cash; Sandy Shaw; Morrissey…   etc),  
2. 3 Novels (Ian McEwan; Frank McCourt; Chaucer)  
3. cash & credit card
4. sketchpad and pencils

Unseen:

1. underwear:   Bra’s; knickers; socks;  
2. Grooming: toothpaste/brush, deoderant, shampoo, moisturizer; nail-file; comb; lady-pants
3. Ooops:   antisceptic cream; plasters; ibuprofen; swiss army knife

Clothes:

1. 3 pairs of hipsters:   DKNY skinny jeans; Diesel skinny jeans;   Black suede bell-bottoms
2. 5 Jackets:   Waterproof ;  2 Velvet;   2 Woolly zip-front jumpers
3. Multiple  fine knit  woollen tops
4. 3  pairs of footwear:   comfortable all terrain black shoes;  purple pickers; girlyness-conforming healed cutesy-shoes
5. 3 pairs   1 pair of black fingerless gloves (2 black, 1 blue leatherette)

Oddments:

1. a photograph of my parents with fellow passangers on a coach tour of Washington DC
2. a copy of my last Will and Testament
3. 2  handbags:   1 for daily laptop carrying;   1 for when things wont fit in my pockets
4. amazing 1970′s dress for Mumzie to donate to a fashion Museum
5. Flat Eric

(updated 3/5/06 to reflect an important decision to replace 2 pairs of gloves with a 5th hat)

I spent Thursday night  in Neumo’s with friends and  the Mountain Goats.      Outstanding Lyrics.    Poignient stories, and the band were good too.  Here’s my attempt to capture  the atmosphere…..I think it escaped….leaving some trace evidence…

ramping-up ready for HOLIDAY!  

Preparation #1:   practice holiday-specific eyewear activities

Use annual medical allowance to purchase holiday-specific eyewear.   Purchase ski-style wrap-around glasses designed to be sunglasses  with no sun-tint and lots of metalic-blue mirror effect.   Wear said utterly pretentious  Ray Ban’s everyday during  warm-up week despite clouds, rain, snow, general poor visibility, and ceaseless teasing from work colleagues.  

This is my Holiday and I will get into the mood by wearing THE holiday optical accessories….    

twenty-first post in a  Thursday series of snoops into experiences of taking tiffin with  (black) tea  in the NW USA.

Thursday Tiffin #21: secret garden  (conkers)

recommended venue for an atmospheric, private,  conversation with special friends or family over a good cup of tea and to stock up some sizable conkers.

1890′s Historically registered building.   For the US West coast that is REALLY OLD!   There are several huge old conker trees in the garden.   The ground is littered with conkers.    I rarely see conker trees in the puget sound region.   A habit left over from childhood, I placed a few big, heavy,  symmetrical conkers in my pocket, just incase…    

Inside,    high quality retro décor, not kitsch or overdone.   White table-clothes and napkins.   Antique furniture that is not ‘distressed’.   The establishment blends beautifully American and English tea taking ceremonies with excellent food in a tasteful, timeless ambiance.   Let me say ‘excellent food’ once again.   Prices are neither cheap  nor  exorbitant.   I had a large bowl of Coconut Chicken Lemon grass soup with a scone and a small pot of Darjeeling that came to about $10 including tax.

English

• clientele included men as well as women
• a jug of milk was offered before it was requested
• sugar-cubes in a bowl with tongs
• matching china crockery and pseudo-silver flatware
• soup served with an actual soup spoon

American

• The en-suite shop that sells quaint things, pink things and sparkly jewellery things
• A glass of iced water, regularly topped-up
• The scones (more like English rock cakes)
• wide choice of sugar substitutes in sachets on the table
• over 70 types of tea on a laminated plastic menu
• staff attentive and clearly amenable to customer requests not currently on the menu.   I overhead a customer asking for, and receiving,   iced tea.   In January.  

Those tiny imperfections that even an excellent establishment can have…they are trivial….

• small   (3 cups) stoneware (not china) pot with external tea leaf strainer, no extra pot of hot water provided.   I was offered a top-up for the existing pot with stewed leaves.   Yuck.
• multiple paintings of roses (all shades of red-pink) and FAKE flowers on tables
• 30 mins or more drive from Downtown Seattle into small-towns-ville.  
• it’s popular,   you should book in advance