Why I've Never Embraced Free Spiritism.

Perhaps this might come as a shock to you, Dear Reader, but I'm Not a Free Spirit.

I'm far too Nail-Bitingly Nervous. Not that I bite my nails. I keep them v. short & file them, if possible every day. I am not a fan of Acrylic Nails. Neither are any of my close friends.

In fact, I don't belong anywhere in a Venn Diagram that represents Acrylic Nails.

Phew!

I'm glad we've got that One Sorted.

Now to get on with The Rest of My Life.

I am still on holidays. Hence, the Irregular Postings. I am out of my routine, away from the Comfort & Security of the Classroom, My Whiteboard & the Staffroom.

I sit in my studio making necklaces. Hopefully I will sell them at an Artisan's Market soon.

I take my little red Honda out of the Carpark & make short trips across the city. I don't wish that instead I was sitting in a water taxi or a gondola in Venice.

The Living Wall.

Here I am on Sunday nite at my weekly 'Mad Men' dinner which was a special occasion as it was a regular attendee's birthday. More on that later.

In the photo, I am re-sticking things back on the kitchen wall that had fallen off because my guests were standing too close to them. I was quite irritated by this, but managed to mask my feelings beautifully.

I've been dying to show you this wall for some time. I call it The Living Wall because in between the pictures on it I put anything that takes my fancy from Everyday Life- E.G. an envelope addressed to me; stamps from an envelope; used theatre tickets; 3D glasses; birthday cards. Occasionally I'm tempted to stick a Nasty Bill on The Living Wall. So far I've resisted.

I do like mixing Real & Fake Together.

A bit like my personality, really.

You'd never guess, but most of the enormous foliage in my kitchen next to the stove is Entirely Fake. The leaves trailing up the window are fake. So are the wonderful frangipanis. But not the massive cammelia leaves which are on the lower level.

On the v. lowest level is a v. scraggy maidenhair fern that I love dearly. It is Entirely Real. Every morning I will it to keep sprouting fronds or whatever they are. Its kind of obeying me.

The plant next to it absolutely refuses to die. I've been expecting it to for almost a year, but it keeps on growing new leaves.

A bit like Me, really.

The Evils of the Hankerchief Hem.

I wore this ensemble on monday for lunch with The Other Sue & her daughter at 'Fratelli Fresh', a local combined restaurant & Italian Providore. All the staff appear to be Italian Packpackers. Everything in the place seems to come from Italy, unless its a vegetable which I imagine would come from Australia, although I read a sign in there announcing the arrival of asparagus from Peru.

Anyway, the place gives me the craps because it pretends to be Italian when its not. Honestly, you'd swear you were in the middle of Rome instead of the middle of Potts Point.

Don't I sound like An Old Crab? I must get over it & move on.

Oh, yes, I must get back to The Evil Hanky Hem.

I have always had (or is it 'held'?) Great Ambivalence about them. They give off a Slight Circus Harlequinny feel, don't you think? Or maybe its an Eighties thing. I can't put my finger on it.

But on monday, I put these Serious Reservations on the back burner & went gaily tripping out of the house thinking that I looked like The Grande Dame of Street Urchins: Edgy but Age Appropriate, with a hint of Toy Chanel.

I felt sure that if Karl L. saw me mincing down the street, he would nod with approval.

I was wrong.

Back to Birthday 'Mad Men'. Here's Carlotta, the birthday girl with Velvet, the wonderful Horse vet who does not recommend that I keep a Dwarf Companion Horse in the apartment because she claims they can't be Potty Trained. Or whatever you call it.

Carlotta is looking rather suspiciously at the Twin Chickens that I especially roasted for her as a Birthday Treat. Note the Fake Chickens on the left of the picture that are leftover Easter Decorations.

It is getting Dangerously Close to my Official Holiday Bedtime. But before I trot off to the Land of Noddy & Big Ears, I must finish where I began: The Free Spirit.

Perhaps the reason why I've never embraced Free Spiritism is because I saw a biopic of the legendary dancer & Free Spirit, Isadora Duncan, played by Vanessa Redgrave, when I was an impressionable teenager.

According to the film, Isadora spent her life spontaneously breaking out into bouts of Free Form Dancing which involved loads of long flowing scarves & perhaps Nakedness.

Anyway, a scarf finally killed Isadora.

She was driving in a little open sports car along a narrow road, probably on the French Riviera or somewhere where Free Spirits hang out. One of her long scarves was wound tightly round her neck. The rest of it was billowing out of the car. It was windy. She thrust her head back & laughed as Free Spirits often do. But not for long. The scarf became entangled in the spokes of the wheel of the car. She was strangled to death.