Pics of the lineup at approximately 10:30 am
Me BEFORE the sunburn
Paul, right after telling me he wants another tattoo in return for standing in line
Miss "201" or "Donkey" as she was known. Really nice lady, I'm so glad she got in to see him.
|
I've met Gordon Ramsay and he was bloody lovely.
Paul left the house before 7am to get a spot in line in order to get a wristband so that I might meet Mr. Ramsay. When he got there a list was passed down the line so that people know where they were... Paul was number 200, the last one that was to be given a wristband!
When we finally reached the front of the line at approximately 11:30 there were about 8 people in front of us and we were told that all wristbands had been given out!!! That caused a wee bit of a kerfuffle since everyone in line knew that Paul was the 200th person in line (and that the gal behind him was 201 and teased relentlessly throughout the day because of it). The marketing manager said that there were not 200 wristbands and that she didn't know where that number came from. We confronted her with the fact that a group of strangers don't just come up with the same number, that staff had given us this info. After a bit of arguing she admitted that there were 200. How could this be if Paul was number 200 and had no wristband?
I have to vent here and say that the marketing manager, was extremely rude, and ignorant towards the patrons at the event. She is very fortunate that the people she pissed off were civil, level headed individuals because others would not have reacted so well. I won't go into details, I'll just say I'm pretty sure you don't boldface lie to your customers... you definitely don't call them liars. People were pretty unhappy with her and Indigo/Chapters/Coles has lost a few customers.
Anyway... now we had a choice to make. We could stay and be the first people with the possibility of maybe getting a siggy after those with wristbands were done, or calling it quits. When you're the first in line it's a tough choice... we stayed.
After another 5 hours of waiting in the sun, my boobs were totally sunburned but the end was near as we were ushered inside! I was going to meet Chef Ramsay himself!
I made my way up the stairs and I became dumb with awe. All the things that I could have asked or said immediately flew out of my head and I was living that part in "A Christmas Story" when Ralphy visits Santa and totally forgets what he wants! Gordon shook my hand, and did the kiss-o-the-cheek thing (which was a strange experience because Mr. Ramsay has the most lovely warm soft skin). I just stood stock still and said nothing until he said something, which I think was "And how are you?" to which I relied "I'm well thank you. And you?" and all I could think was 'Christ? How the hell did I manage to reply properly?' and by the time that thought went through my head he said "So, which one of you is the cook?" and I said "We share. Though Paul claims he's the better cook... but he's wrong, I am." And Mr. Ramsay waved and said "Hi Paul." and I admitted that perhaps Paul was a better cook but I was definitely a better baker. And that was it.
  
To Paul & Nicky GR
It's friggin' illegible but I don't care one bit. Should Paul and I ever split I'll just say it says something rude and no one will be the wiser.
I've gotten responces like "I can't believe you let that horrible man kiss you on the cheek!" but here's the thing, Gordon Ramsay really is someone special. People were in tears, shaking, cheering, laughing. He's just so charming, exciting and lovely you can't help but find him likeable. His handshake and peck on the cheek were rather friendly too, not weird and uncomfortable. I'd be willing to bet that every person who met him today really felt like they had a personal experience with him. It's also pretty sweet that when someone like myself goes up and totally loses all sense, he still tries to give you something to remember. I'm not insane, I know 20 seconds means squat, but truly, I would do it all over again, booby burns and all :)
|
Paul and I left the kiddo with nanna and went to see the new Jackie Chan, Jet Li movie last night. It was okay. Sort of a nice way to ease 10 year old boys into the genre of kung-fu film. I will give it this, the opening sequence, the names and titles, was well done. However... it's difficult to watch a movie when the couple behind you won't stop yammering. Christ almighty. They didn't stop through the entire thing! When they did stop the gal kicked my seat. I actually turned around to say something at one point and the pair of them weren't even looking at the screen! They were facing each other having a conversation! I was gob smacked.
Not sure if I mentioned this before, but Paul and I have joined a Dinner Club. In my little mind the whole thing is like fight club but with food... but that's just the way my brain works. We had our first meeting a couple of weeks ago and all was delish! There was a tappas theme and everyone truly outdid themselves... especially the hosts Liz and Ron who made so much yummy goodness they didn't even bring out all the dishes! Here's our foodie blog.
Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! Gordon Ramsay is coming to a bookstore near me for a signing session! I can't begin to tell you how much I need to be there to hear that man swear in person! I'm totally going and will hide a large blunt object in my purse just in case I need to whack anyone over the head should they get a wristband instead of me. Damned wristbands! He's a rockstar people!
I don't think I've ever mentioned my love of swearing on this site. I really do love it. I know that some people say that swearing shows a lack of verbal skills/knowledge/abilities but I think that's poppycock! Swearing opens up a whole new level of rich and vibrant language that can be utilized for emphasis and effect.
I don't use the 'biggies' in front of D. I thought that I was doing really well and that I had cleaned up my cussing considerably. I thought that, until one day Dante was on the toilet and he shouted "Ma! Maaaa! Come here and wipe my bloody arse." We've actually told him that he can use whatever words he likes at home, just to keep it clean at school for his teachers sake. Those few times he has sworn have been quite impressive with their timing and effect.
Speaking of D... he's had his second swim lesson. His face was in the water the entire time. He does it in the bath too... sees how long he can keep his head under. I'm thinking that he may be a little old for the class after all... he seems a tad bored, what with his head under the water the entire time. Ah, well, being with the little ones makes him a bit more comfortable so we'll keep him where he is.
One last thing before sleep (big day of cooking tomorrow) I don't like dance/rap/hip hop whatchacallit... but Riskay is mighty nifty. She has a song called "Smell Yo Dick", and it is all sorts of awesome, totally addictive. Check out her myspace page and bow before the Drama Queen!
Tonight I saw some photographs from an art exhibition from the artist Guillermo Vargas. Basically the artist took a starving street dog, tied it to a wall in an art gallery and placed a bowl of food on the other side of the room where the animal could not reach it. Do a quick search and you'll find plenty of gristly images and a zillion on-line petitions. On facebook, a group attempting to stop the artist has 19,732 members.
... look up 'starving children' on facebook and the groups range from about 20 to 472 people. Hmmm.
I'm pretty certain the artist was making a point about what a bunch of shits we are. Did any gallery visitor cut the dogs rope? Push the food closer so it could eat? There are more than 20,000 stray dogs in Cuban cities. Worldwide that number is 480 million dogs according to the World Society for the Protection of Animals. Suddenly, everyone gives a crap about one dog? Or maybe he was illustrating how food is just out of reach for so much of the worlds population and again no one seems to want to push the bowl closer. Funny how people clamor to stop the artist rather than stop the problem.
"Every three point five seconds someone in the world dies of hunger, and two thirds of the 25,000 daily deaths are children." If as many people who spent time signing a petition to stop an artist who has already made his point, went to thehungersite.com and spent a few moments clicking sponsor links they would be making a much bigger difference. By the way, online petitions are pretty much useless and the 400,000 'signatures' on one Vargas petition would have raised about 24 metric tons of food through thehungersite.com.
I'm just saying.
Now that that is out of the way...
 D had his first swim lesson! It went well. He's about 3-4 inches taller than the rest of the kids but that's okay. He'll be more comfortable with little ones I think. He was mighty worried when we first got there and decided that he might not want to swim after all... but he did go and has asked every day since when his next lesson is.
  
ALSO, just to prove that D does spend most of his time dressing up and playing make-believe rather than playing with toys, here he is in a typical ensemble. That's snowpants, his knight in shining armour shirt, his ninja hat and swimming mask... why not?!
Am I ever glad that this work week is over. Both jobs were all work and no play this week and I have earned every penny of my paycheques. I am beat. Now it's time to do work around the house... if only I got paid for that.
At least there are a number of things to look forward to this weekend including dinner club! Though the first rule of dinner club is that you don't talk about dinner club. I'm terribly excited. It should be loads of fun. Also this weekend... D is starting swimming lessons! I hope he'll be a little fish like his dad and not a rock sinking to the bottom like me :)
 On the way home yesterday I noticed a fella wearing a sandwich board, standing on a step stool and waving his fist while shouting about how angry God is at everyone. It made me glad to be pagan. I see the gods and goddesses that I feel a connection with as being caring, loving and positive. When I think of those deities that I follow, I feel loved and safe, I trust in them with all that I am... I suppose I just don't understand the fire and the fury hubbub.
Lastly, I was going to keep my current painting a secret but I can't keep anything to myself when I'm excited. Here it is... a portrait of my grandmother. It's not perfect but it's slowly getting there. It looks so much nicer in person that on this flat screen. I'm fairly pleased with myself lately, in that I have been letting the brushstrokes show and concentrating on the impression that my paintings are giving rather than high realism. While being able to render something perfectly is an amazing task, it's rather lovely to see how a picture is made up of marks upon a canvas.
*sigh* I really just want to stay home and paint.
Dr. Who is finished. It took a total of about 10 hours to do the painting and I'm fairly pleased with it (though I do wish I could render better hair). Click here to see the the paintings progress...
I've already started on my next painting but it's sort of a secret project. I was a bit worried about it last night and was prepared to trash the entire thing but I think I've managed to salvage it. I really hope it works out ;)
It's been a rough two weeks work-wise. I'm frustrated as all heck. It's very difficult feeling inspired creatively and producing loads of work for personal enjoyment, but facing a design block at work. Having two jobs is starting to take it's toll and I'm really wishing I could just stay home and make stuff at the mo'.
While spending my time painting up a storm I've been watching Blackadder. I adore Rowan Atkinson, he makes me laugh heartily... that's a very nice thing for someone to do :) I'd just like to point out that Blackadder II is the bestest one of all and that Rowan is rather handsome with the face fuzz.
Oh! I did make a banana cream pie the other week which was delish and I will be sure to post the recipe soon.
GO TO THE ARCHIVES FOR MORE ENTIRES>>
|
04.18.08 - Shut the hell up already.