Pouring Wine with the Mayor

I'm hoping to have a less forgetful weekend than last. Firstly, I forgot to pick up my bike from work, having not been able to ride home during the week thanks to a meeting. Then I forgot to ring Mum on her birthday. Thankfully I hadn't completely forgotten and the present arrived on time! Andrew lent me his bike to ride in on Monday morning so I still got to ride to work, cutting a fine figure with the Ice Age II backpack replacing the one that was at work with my bike. Not that my usual circa 1980s Mambo backpack is any more elegant.....

We watched District 9 on Saturday night and it was quite a harrowing experience. I had made myself a lovely pot of Earl Grey, served in my Queen of Hearts teacup on my Chatsworth tray. I had half a cup before I started feeling ill and wasn't able to drink any more. It was a good film, just not terribly enjoyable, I really don't like it when people throw up. I finished reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog and it, in contrast, was a joyous experience. It's a celebration of tea, cake, books, film, the mind and the joy of life. I was moved to tears and highly recommend it!

Isn't she great? I bought this photo to use in the promotions for our event on Tuesday night, Revisiting Retro Recipes. There is a travelling display in the library at the moment on the history of cookbooks in Australia. We thought of a few different events we could put on to complement it, but decided to go with a talk on the dinner party menus of the 50s, 60s and 70s with a demonstration of a recipe and tasting. My friend Sara is a head teacher in hospitality at TAFE so, with both our organisations loving a partnership, we are doing it together. I'm talking about the 50s and 60s and Sara, the 70s and the demo. We both have dresses like the one above so we are going to dress up - what fun! We're on the lookout for blue eye-shadow and frosted pink lippy. I am hoping to video it so we can put it on YouTube.

I'm thinking of asking the Mayor to come and pour the wine for us on Tuesday night as I did my Responsible Service of Alcohol training yesterday and he was there too! I came in , not late but not early either (I stopped for coffee) and chose a seat up the front. Most of the people there were very young and I was rather sorry I couldn't people watch from my seat. The training was at TAFE so I had lunch with Sara which made the day very pleasant. Now I can pour wine at library events.

During the afternoon break, just before we sat the open book exam (!), I was reading On Love: a Novel by Alain de Botton. I love the way he writes and whenever he quotes Proust, I feel the need to write it down. The chapter was on beauty and apparently, Proust once said that classically beautiful women should be left to men without imagination. How wonderful! The narrator went on to say that although his beloved would not grace the pages of Vogue, in love he had animated her face with her soul. Sigh......

Andrew went to Katoomba yesterday afternoon for Men's Convention with Andrej and some other blokes. Alice needed to go to a women's event and so Andrew and Sophie were put to bed at our house. Bethany gave them her room and she got to do her favourite thing - sleep in Jossie's bunk. Jossie made the experience all the more exciting by leaving her a present. The note says 'Keep him Bethany, Love Jossie.

In between telling people to be quiet, get back into bed and go to sleep, I watched Garden State which I borrowed from Tim ages ago. It was really good - did you think it was lost Tim?