We saw Tim Minchen last night at the 100 Club in London. He was hilarious! The 100 Club is a shitty shitty venue. Bad sound, bad positioning of the stage so only about 10 peopple can hear and see properly. They started half an hour earlier than advertised, no coat check, watered down drinks…I could go on, but I’ll just sound old.

But Tim was awesome! And he stood beside me before he went on stage and said he was worried everyone would know his songs already. And I said I was worried I’d already know all his songs and could he make stuff up on stage, please? Ho ho. It’s not every day I have a little chit chat with a superstar before they go on stage. The audience loved him to pieces even though we had all heard at least some of the songs before. He’s a fun guy and seeing him live is a hoot.

He opened with this song. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-JIjEsLkDA

Here’s a picture I took with my crappy iPhone. I dont know why they even bother having a camera it’s so shitful.

Our aim this year was to have the laziest Christmas EVER! Not sure we topped the time years ago when Brett, Tania and I played computer games all day and ate macaroni.

I did cook a goose for lunch. And we bought a treadmill and I did my first work out in 2 months. So not the laziest, but still pretty indulgent and relaxed.

I have to rant this. It really shits me when professional adult artists have bio statements like:

‘has been making art/drawing since s/he was a child’. Like that proves how gifted s/he is.

My question is…who the frack hasn’t?  Don’t all kids do craft and finger painting and stuff?

*huff huff* I just had to say that out loud.

Hooray! Recession is here and I can now go into to full on cheap scape mode without actually feeling cheap.

I love to scrimp. Its in my blood. Its fun! It uses all that intelligence, imagination and creativity that normally just gets wasted making money.

I read this article about a woman who survived on £1 a day for a year (after she payed her rent and presumably energy bills council tax, tampons, drugs, stylist….)  So I thought WOW! Bugger that for a joke.

But tonight I found myself in Tescos, shopping for the evening meal and I started to feel…the challenge. Could I do it?

Nope! Not in central London. But I did buy mushrooms off the REDUCED cart without feeling dirty. They were 38p instead of 78p. At this rate I can see the mountains of cash piling up before my very eyes.

But all sarcasm aside. I have a large vegetable bake in the oven which will provide dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow for me and my sqeaze. Buttenut pumpkin, Spanish onion, artichoke, garlic, cheap mushrooms, eggs, cheese, bread crumbs on top. Mmmm. Anyway, all up with a bottle of cheap Spanish wine? £9.

So four meals and plonky donk for 9 squid. Alright!

And the recession even nudged me to dry fry the seeds I scooped out of the pumkin (squish them out of the pulp so you have mostly just seeds the pulp that sticks to them will coat them. I put in a few drops of oil toward the end) and we are having them now as an awesome pre dinner snack. Served with a very expensive imported beer that Brett bought yesterday. Hey that doesn’t count!

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts. Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the absence of pride. - Sutta Nipata

Its nice to look back on last years resolutions and feel I achieved most of them.

I did work harder, my health is better (my back is really good) and I bought a harp and have been playing it everyday. Didn’t do much visual art and didn’t create any fictitious on line identities. Or did I? Heheh.

So this years resolutions:

Do more illustration and writing.

Dispel stress.Peaceful and contented should be my default state. Fretting should be replaced with planing and musing.

We loath Xmas and love France. So this year we avoided the whole Xmas mess and took the Eurostar to Paris on Christmas eve.

We’re huge fans of the Hotel Costes CD’s (funky funky lounge music) so we booked ourselves into the new Hotel Costes K because the older one is tres tres expensive! But the new one is wonderfully luxurious and ultra modern for about a third of the price. We did go to the original Hotel Costes for dinner and a cocktail and it was super gorgeous and not snooty at all.

I think the best thing for me was getting up very late on Christmas morning, wandering down to the Eiffel Tower for a delicious ham and cheese crepe fresh from one of the stalls for Xmas lunch and munching it as we strolled along the Seine.

Pretty much nothing is open on Christmas eve in Paris - that is the big important meal for them. Many things are closed on Xmas day as well, but Paris is much more lively on the 25th than central London; most of the cafes were open on the Champs Elysee and I even noticed the tour buses were running. Or you can always live on Crepes from the stalls around the Eiffel Tower.

You know one of the best nights out in London is to just be out in London. You don’t have to be stuck in some dark smelly hole with expensive drinks to meet people and have a good time.

The other night our friends Umporn and Ngaire were leaving London for Barcelona. And what did they want to do for their last night in ol’ Blighty? Just walk along the Thames. So we took some bottles of bubbly and some plastic cups and just wandered along the river on a Saturday night. Met all kinds of weird and wonderful souls and had a very blurry blast.

Todd’s a dad! Such a proud dad. Look at his face. And that makes me an auntie! Cos Todd and I are kinda brother and sister.

As his aunty I had the very great honour of ‘naming’ Baby Cooper - so I named him Mini Cooper. OK not really. Fact is Dina and Todd haven’t quite decided what to call him yet, but in Gujarati culture you have a naming ceremony on the baby’s sixth day. I didn’t get a nice shot of Dina, but here’s a nice one of her lovely mum.

And here’s Uncle Kaushik demonstrating his never fail burping technique. It involves pressing on the chest, straightening out the wind pipe and furiously rubbing the back. Apparently it works a treat. Bet you never thought you’d learn how to burp a baby on my blog!

We had a great party last night. These two lovelys were amongst the last to stay standing!

Even Brett had a hangover. His lawyers will be calling Satan on Monday.