Greyland is greenland

ENGLISHMEN HAVING FUN IN A TELEPHONE BOX WHILST ESCAPING THE INCLEMENT WEATHER
















Well just got back from a fairly hectic trip to the UK which was full of mixed blessings. Ups and downs. Typical British annoyances and triumphs.

Why do Brits talk about the weather constantly? Because it is a stereotypical island climate influenced by the Gulf Stream and yes occasionally one does get weeks when it seems to be constantly overcast and raining. Last week was like that though the first weekend when we arrived we had a beautiful Sunday lunch in Tracy's garden with my brother's, wives and assorted children all hosted by the Brabins at their fabulous house in Godalming. At the risk of upsetting my other siblings I have to say that my little sister's house is a lovely example of perfect Englishness with a beautiful garden, patio and cosy conservatory.

The only obvious benefit of all the damp weather is that Britain [and Ireland[ are very verdant, lush places. If you long for abundant greenery these are the places for you just don't forget to take a blanket or some plastic sheeting if you are intending to sit down.

What were the annoyances? Well London traffic for one. It is now off the chart, the only place I can think of in the world that is worse is Tokyo. Also the cameras that imposingly bear down from all angles produce an overwatched feeling that is thoroughly unpleasant. Big Brother is a reality in nanny state Britain and no one seems to mind.



I couldn't wait to get home to New York.

The Roxbury Rocks!

This is the view from the upper deck of The Roxbury hotel where me and Shuddup went for a romantic Valentine's evening in the Catskills. The motel is running by a stylish couple who have successfully mixed chic and kitch in a stunning way in their renovation of a old style motel that is now any but. Check out the 'Clouds' room that we stayed in; it's impossible to show all the detailing but suffice to say that our drapes were black leather, the lampshades were of alien origin and.... it all worked! In the winter months the room was a bargain $99 but be warned this place is blowing up so book early.

I Heart Chocolate, T shirts and LIC

i heart Queens

This is my new friend, Ciara, she runs iheartqueens.com where you will see her fab line of LIC and Queens influenced T Shirts alongside links to her couture line of hand blocked vintage style Ts . She also volunteers at Art-O-Mat where you will find a great little gallery packed with a wide and varied amount of artworks and Ciara's T. Wait! Why is she holding up a chocolate bar? Well she also produces her own line of Belgian chocolate, LIChocolate. It's delicious. When Ciara isn't doing all this artsy fartsy stuff she is solving the problems of world hunger and global warming. Ok, I made that last bit up but she might be the best one for the job.

The Secret's out

I should have blogged about this a long time back but I guess not having subscribers makes blogging a little pointless.

This is England

I had to go to England for my friends wedding. I thought it was going to be an ideal way of also catching up with my family there and also to close down my house which I had put on the market around Easter this year. The sale had been dragging on whilst small proceedural points were made by the purchasers solicitor. [More of this later, it deserves its own posting].

So the trip started off pretty bad. The plane was delayed on the runway at takeoff for 3 hours. Naturally they turned off the a/c and didn't serve any water until at least an hour into the delay. All in all it was fairly distressing but we did eventually take off. I watched a great film on the plane called 'This is England' which is set in the grim early 80s. It recounts the struggles between a gang of skinheads who start out peaceful but after the return from prison of a former gang member the lighter mood soon darkens.

Then we arrived. It was raining and grey. At first we were relieved since NYC had been suffering 100 degree/100% humidity. Then we discovered that our advance train tickets to Leeds were invalid because we had missed our pre booked train because of the delays. They charged us 220 pounds for the privilege of taking their crappy train. Bastards.

WAIL TO THE JAIL

Blubber Paris Hilton wails and cries all through her hearing. This woman is the epitome of a spoiled brat who is so stupid that having been sprung from jail by a sheriff who is in awe of celebrities tries not to attend an all important hearing with a judge who is rightly pissed off by insisting that she should be able to 'phone in' her testimony.

What an ignorant, stupid stupid girl.



At least try to placate the judge by showing up on time [she didn't] and have the common sense to realise that using private highly paid psychiatrists on your payroll who are prepared to lie to thwart the will of a straight as a die judge is only compounding your farcial attempts to evade justice.

Your stupidity is what got you into trouble in the first place. In fact, your risible TV show trades on your stupid vapid personality.

Stupid is as stupid does. Read a fucking book for chrissakes!

Go to jail, do not pass go.