Thoughts from the Bus Stop

'The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize...'
I'm feeling very hot, and quite giddy. I've done it. I've just bought My First Ollie & Nic bag in their sale (below left, except with pink flamingos, not blue):




I also got a new toilet bag (above, right) because my old one is knackered and I couldn't afford anything bigger in the same pattern and I really wanted something from that range because the pattern is almost identical to the curtains I had in my bedroom when I was six (except they were purple).

I can't remember the last time I found somewhere where I really like almost everything they make - I can be a picky gal (loved ones, please note: THEY DO GIFT VOUCHERS). And it's all so well made - the bags are all fully-lined and have a matching purse inside on a detachable fastener, and the fabric ones are coated so they're wipe-clean. A bit out of my league when full price, but still great value - you can pay the same elsewhere for complete tat. This (below) is the next bag I've got my eye on - originally £45, now £32. So still out of my price range, but maybe I'll pop back in a week and see if they reduce it any further. Mmmm, squishy mint green velvet...



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'I love the smell of your skin
In the morning...'
From BBC's Day in pictures: A model with body painting by Pang Guohua, a master of traditional Chinese painting, promotes his new book during Hong Kong Annual Book Fair. I don't think I'd ever have a tattoo, but I've often thought that if I ever got married I'd like to have something like this done (not on my face though!) for my wedding day - either flowers similiar to this, or an abstract design of Art Nouveau-esque swirls - in white paint, so it would only show up on my pale, pale skin when the light hit it.



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Laines du Pingouin
Via the lovely ilike.org.uk (via Sarah Martin's page on the Belle & Sebastian website), a beautifully simple, witty and effective piece of illustration from 1950 by Raymond Savignac, which caught my eye:






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'We should take a bus to somewhere else, to something new,
Thank God we're alive and bite off more than we can chew...'


(c) Gordon Dinnage, T/A Dinnages Transport/Picture Publishing

After my physio appointment this morning, I was waiting for the 5A to get me from Hangleton back into town. And when it came, it was a 1953 red and cream Southdown double decker, complete with conductor writing out tickets! Apparently HAP985 gets a day out every year on its birthday. So I and the pensioners of Hove rode into town in vintage style, waving at bemused pedestrians and feeling very fancy.
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'It's been going on for months. She works in the prison cafeteria... apparently, she had him at jello.'
Another classic quote from Will & Grace's Karen...



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'Because we're only old once, let's make a difference...'
My thoughts on the A Crafty Way of Thinking exhibition at Hove Museum, where older people from the local community have made craft objects in response to pieces of contemporary craft from the Museum's permanent collection.





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'Have you been reading Song of Songs again?' she asked.
'I had to do my daily Bible reading, didn't I?'
'You have a problem.'
Fantastic. I nodded along with and laughed out loud at Shea Gregory's wonderful article in the latest Christianity Today Singles newsletter - 'Confessions of a Sex-Starved Single'.
Is it just me or is it a bit hot in here?...
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'Some sweet day, I'll make her mine, Pretty Flamingo...'
Oh! I've never bought anything from Ollie & Nic before - nearly everything they make is right up my street, but I've been very restrained... but I put my pay cheque in the bank at lunchtime, only to spot that the O&N has a big SALE on - including an entire range of bags covered in tiny pink flamingos. Still I resisted, but there's only so much a girl can take! I'm heading for a fall...



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Adam Kempa's "Ridiculous Mosaic Makin'..."
This is amazing - testament to what brotherly love, a fascination with Chuck Close, the obsessive collector gene and bags of patience will achieve - Adam Kempa's portrait of his late brother Chris, made entirely from bottle caps. The link above takes you to a great page he's put together, describing the whole process from initial idea to finished product, all lovingly researched and carried out. Well done, Adam - it's wonderful. Chris would be thrilled, I'm sure.



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'It's the grooviest thing...'
How tickled I was this morning to see just how excited GMTV's Lorraine Kelly was about reviewing the new single/video from The Cure. Bless her heart, she was quite giddy - obviously has a soft spot for Robert Smith. A man from my hometown of Crawley, no less. And he still lives there...


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'Our house, in the middle of our street...'
In which I feel homesick at Michael Landy’s installation, Semi-detached at Tate Britain.


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