Nic Dempsey’s blog

It has been commented on many times but I have a lot of stuff...a huge bed, chest of drawers, my lovely air chairs that we got from my godmother and so much kitchen stuff it's not real and we won't talk about the camping stuff.

So I was determined that I would only have an unfurnished flat and I have one, but over the last 4 and half years, I've got rid of/given stuff away so there are things that I really need and don't have.  Over this weekend I have bought: an iron, an ironing board, an airer, a kitchen bin, a house phone, a radio, a bathmat, a laundry basket, a toilet brush, some baskety things, a lampshade, a mop, a bucket, a broom, a dustpan and brush, a soap dispenser and various household cleaning items (being clean requires a lot of stuff and the person who had my flat before me, wasn't clean!)  It's a big list and there is more stuff to buy, a wardrobe, some shelves and some lamps being the most pressing....and mum agrees...and as she leads the 'you have too much stuff' cheer squad. 

But I am excited and looking forward to being in the flat and finding out what else there is in storage that I've forgotten about, roll on 4th July..

my new kitchen...

New flat - Kitchen...

...my mother is back from holiday.

One of the things that she likes to do is the codeword puzzle in the Evening Standard (yep it's right wing - she likes to know what the enemy is up to!!)  Anyway the puzzle, it's similar to a crossword, but all the letters have a number and you have to work out what they are and you find the codeword.  There's a prize but Ma never calls for the prize, she just likes doing the puzzle...

However, the puzzles have been getting harder, Ma thinks that more people have been entering the contest so they are making the puzzle harder.  After a week of not doing the puzzle, it's extra hard tonight, and she's struggling a bit and getting more frustrated, until she suddenly utters the immortal words "I don't even want a f***ing camcorder..."

I love my mother.....

I moved out of Ian's at the end of April and it's felt like a huge learning curve, like this time will lead to lots of other things.  Inspired by something else, I've been thinking about what I've learned from this very short time:

- I'm more like my Dad than I'd like to admit.
  My mum and brother are so like my grandfather....organised, good at maths, slightly anal about train and bus times. I am not, much more 'caught up in the moment' like Noel.  And also like him, a bit more ginger...

- I'm really looking forward to being an aunty..
Sorry Ben and Lu, but it's way past three months and pretty much everyone knows.  Roll on Dec and from then on, you may address me as Aunty Nic...

- I really love my mother. 
But more than that, she absolutely one of the best people I know (slightly obsessed by recycling but still amazing) also that she is a lot like my Grandad...

- Support comes in many forms
Stop looking for people to be there all the time, remember to appreciate the other stuff

- Even though he never phones me, can be a git and needs to have everything his own way, I love my brother and think he will be an amazing father

- I do want to travel more
Cote D'Ivoire was an amazing holiday but I was spoiled being at the Residence and with a set of such brilliant people to show me around and if I haven't already said it thank you - John, Matt, Lazare and most especially Jo

- I would like to spend more time with Jo
who I have known for nearly 20 years and admire for being so damn clever and talented but also this year I remembered why she is important to me, she just opens up my world - always has... (sorry Jo that was a bit soppy)

- bizap and how to make it...

- I love my job
despite how annoying it can be....I'm enjoying myself

- Camping can be fun
It just needs a bigger tent (and a tent mirror)

 - After 6 years, I'm ready to live in on my own again.
Wasn't sure that I could but am really looking forward to it

- I'm always gonna miss Stef, but that's ok

Not very profound but enough for the minute......

I don't drive, don't as in, can't, therefore buses and trains are my friends.  On Friday morning I got a bus to the station, it was quite a crowded bus, there were several people standing. I was one of them.  Something, I believe a small child dropping her scooter in front of the bus, caused the driver to slam on the brakes.  People fell over, one of them was me, one of them was my mum.  Ma was bleeding, I was bruised.  But other than that no harm.

On Saturday afternoon, I'm on another bus, carrying a cake for the Grace cafe, and a dog runs in front of the bus. Brakes are applied. I fall, the cake falls, someone else falls on top of me.  It was not pretty.  I gave up and went home to bed.

What are the odds?

What's next? Erm, more moving...

I have found a flat, in Ealing with a lovely kitchen.  I get the keys on Saturday, due to my already booking in a haircut and not having booked moving people....I'm not actually moving until the 4th July, but it's gonna happen.

Once that's done, I have nothing except cake making for the Berry Kenny anniversary bash, they've been married 25 years, Tina doesn't bake....

Tina and Charles on the computer...

and then I have to go flathunting...

I'm back, still trying to sort my head out, am glad I went, glad to be home but could have happily been out there a while longer...

Some (but not all) photos

The Verneys: Love, War and Madness in Seventeenth-century England

I have been reading and loving this book.  Until Friday, when the combination of mad woman with and out of control wheelie suitcase, getting off the train at Paddington and my sore knee, resulted in me sprawled accross the floor and my book under the train.

Apart from being physically painful, it was upsetting because I lost the book.

Jack Verney is in the Levant trying to make his fortune, Mun Verney's mad wife seems slightly more sane, but they still don't have an heir, Ralph's various sisters are off doing things that respectable 17th century women shouldn't do and what became of the Ralph's black sheep brother Tom?

I need to know and I'm on a book buying ban...

That woman in Paddington Station, was a menance not just to my knee but to my peace of mind!!

Living at my mother's house has been a revelation.  There's a magic laundry basket - you put dirty clothes in and they come back to you washed and ironed*. 

There is also a lunch making fairy, strict recycling rules** and a front door that needs a new lock***

But there is also a long, three train, commute.  So just after the 7am news, I leave the house, I walk to the station and catch the 7.27^ to Waterloo.

At about 7.45, I get to Waterloo and get Tube to Paddington.  At Paddington I get the 8.15 train to Reading.  I'm at my desk at roughly 8.45am.

Going home is the same journey in reverse.

It's such fun....

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*It should be pointed out that when I was a teenager there was a washing fairy at home but no ironing fairy, you did it yourself or paid Mum...£1 per item ironed - no really..

**Thank you Kingston Council for your rather bizarre rubbish collecting rules

***I know you read this Ma and you need to sort it out!!

^Ma, in common with her father and her son, can always be relied on to memorise a train timetable. I, like my father, cannot.