Chelsea, Shakespeare, Sculpture and Culture...

As it was the final week of The Brighton Festival, I was packing loads in...including an actor friend in my front room, as I was being his 'theatrical landlady' whilst he performed in Shakespeare's Globe's, wonderful touring production of 'Comedy of Errors'. I have experienced many very peculiar and uncomfortable theatrical 'digs' and landladies in my time, so enjoyed looking after a worn out actor in his production week, where working hours are often 10am till 10pm!

Other incidents this week included:

An audition for an Ikea commercial, for a store opening in Dublin...

and then my child was sick, and for the first time ever, I had to cancel the meeting, as I couldn't get cover 'till midday.

That afternoon I had a ticket for Chelsea, which my mother had arranged months ago...and then she was sick!!!

So...I met a friend there, we had an extended free lunch at the Loch Fynne restraunt, looking out onto numerous horticulteral delights...and then realised, amidst our gastronomic delights that we'd got hardly any time left to look around the show! So, we saw James May's plastecine garden, which we thought was awful... but then we indulged ourselves in the Pavillion, surrounded by masses of flowers, and agreed that this was indeed what we had both expected of Chelsea!

I loved the amazing dahlias...

and we both discovered auriculas, and fell in love with their weirdness...

And I also loved this sculpture by Hamish Mackie ; two otters swimming after a salmon...it was really, really beautiful, especially to an otter-lover, like me...

Another venture was going up to the Anish Kapoor C-Curve sculpture on top of the Downs, early one evening, and it was absolutely fantastic; a fabulous blending of modern art and beautiful, traditional countryside...one magically enhancing the other...

reading mirror writing...

It made me feel so happy inside, and I love it when art manages to change my emotions.

When I saw the Rachel Whitread exhibition at the Tate Modern a few years ago, it also made me feel incredibly light and blissful, and I remember feeling like I was on an MGM set, where they'd been filming a heaven scene...

At the end of the week, I'd also managed to squeeze in a Private View, a BrightonFrocks fashion show (with a great goodie-bag under my chair), an after-show party at the Dome (courtesy of my lodger!), seeing a performance of 'Comedy of Errors' (also courtesy of my lodger), a Sunday breakfast, a Sunday Roast, and a raucous end of Festival party at a very accomodating Open House...

I had a brilliant week ...courtesy of fantastic friends, family and weather.

And so finally...a brief dose of industrial oddness:

A beautiful pylon...

and a mysterious tumble-dryer/burning happening in a neighbouring street...no-one was about, all doors were closed, and so this lonely appliance quietly burnt to death...

Looking at the floor...

I've had a pretty odd week...one of those ones where I only want to look at the floor, and not too wide, as everything just seems a bit too much. Didn't want to move really...but luckily I have some brilliant friends who are like a shot of prozac when they turn up with cakes, or bring a box of Viennese biscuits 'round.
One of my friends confided in me about something from her childhood, which we were both shocked to find out (as it is quite peculiar) that I had too: A fairy which came to the car window to wish us well on our holiday journeys!!!
She liked to dress hers in appropriate clothes for the weather on their way to Wales, whereas mine came from the cooling towers on the M6, just past Birmingham and just chatted to me on my open window (I always opened it just a chink, even if it was raining...) on our way to The Lake District!
But, apart from this, nothing extroidinary this week, and as I didn't feel up to doing very much, I indulged myself in the detail of everyday textures...

A Fairy Tower...(R.I.P)

When things feel black; sometimes they are...

I wanted to treat myself to crispy bacon rinds...and left them in too long.

There was this black mess left...inside and out. A mid-week highlight: Brighton has aquired some wall art...of a K6 telephone kiosk exploding in black and white!
So lonely and out of place...

Who were you?
This is me...with a heart and a hole!

It always amuses me to see my name and initials on man-hole covers throughout the country:

It used to make me feel secretly important as a child, especially when 'warrior' was written too...actually it still does!

The possibility behind doors is sometimes too exciting and too frightening at the same time...

...so I sometimes let myself loose on the rocks

Yesterday, I had a look on jaboopee's blog, where she has some witty photos featuring some toy figures. I love seeing figures out of context, and at Christmas I painted the Dalek below, as I was wondering how they'd get on severe weather conditions: I didn't think they'd cope too well, and so then when it snowed in January...we tried them out!

They don't like to give up easily!

Dalek in Icy Conditions.

Finally, a completely wonderful thing I experienced last Sunday at The Parlure Spiegltent in Brighton, as part of the Festival, was the Orkestra del Sol

They were so brilliant, witty and happy, that I couldn't stop dancing and wanted them to keep playing for hours...

Lost in London...

I had an audition in London on Friday, and far from being excited, I was a bit irritated that it was basically going to eat up a whole day which I'd planned to do other things...the audition was for an advert for 'The Times' where you'd only see my back and I had to improvise and be 'really funny'!!! So, I wasn't excited at all, as I said before and rather cynically set off for town, knowing that I just would not be able to be funny or even amusing enough for 'The Times' Saturday supplement...

Needless to say, I was right, and I wasn't...funny enough...

BUT, I allowed myself enough time to amble there and back, and get a bit lost walking between

Oxford Circus and Green Park, discovering some wonderfully atmospheric telephone kiosks, post boxes, greenery, architechture and other lovely bits and pieces....

Berkeley Square Boxes...

...and one peeping into Golden Square.

Morning milk...

and wet post...

I absolutely loved this...no explanation, no notices...just there!

The Modern Portal....

The Victorian Portal...

A very eerie bit of amateur grafitti...

red post box, black telephone box, black cab and red London bus...

which is the odd one out?

so different underground...

And above ground, I discovered these amazing mosaic and tile works of art, beautifully showing the way home in incredible detail...

Boris should really commission more functional, helpful, beautiful and artistic guides...

The hunger gap was all I was concerned with, but after tucking into a tub of M&S mini chocolate orange rolls, I started to think I may want a copy of this book...

Doesn't she look GREAT!!!!

Well, I just may take some wine gums to Body Attack this week!

I changed route on Saturday, and spent the day with my parents, and this time got lost in their wonderful garden...

My mother is very proud of this clematis which covers the latticed back of her garden seat

abbandoned Lloyd Looms..

A bit of Greek mythology mixed into the English countryside...

I think I'd quite like to live here...

and be a happy dog.