WTF?

Something is going very wrong online... 

The Guardian are doing a poll for the best TV show of the noughties.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/poll/2009/jul/28/best-tv-show-noughties

It has enough excellent options on there that you would have to hum and haw about what to click...    and yet, Top Gear is winning by a landslide.

People... please make it stop!

(And as for QI being number two...   no offense to Uncle Steve, cos it's likeable enough and all that, but really, just no!)  
 

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice

I have been a bad girl recently...  anyone would think it was already my birthday, because I've been shamelessly jumping the gun ever since I saw kissmeforlonger  the week before last and opened one of her presents early (delicious choc-coated espresso beans).  I am saving the others until Tuesday.
   
Since then I have had a wonderful dinner with friends and opened lots more presents well before their time! 
    
I loaded a few pics from Saturday's din dins onto Flickr... (http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanflockhart/sets/72157621806531215/).   They are a bit 'soft focus' due to not using the flash, but vastly preferable to the ones where the flash was on and we all have red eye and an air of "best left unphotographed".  These ones do a much nicer job of conveying the lovely, warm and candle-lit atmosphere of The Bleeding Heart Bistro.  (Poor Phil is missing because he v. kindly offered to take most of the pics.)
    
Moving onto pressies, I thought I would do a quick show and tell of the lovely things I have received from even lovelier people.  What can I say, other than I am so thankful to have friends with such good taste :-)
    
 

( Pressie pics )

 
 
In other news, yesterday I went for lunch (more like a feast) at the house of my hugely talented artist friend, Madeline.  Her house is so aspirationally beautiful it practically makes me drool...  it's a living monument to Madeline's personality, full of unexpected rooms, winding corners, original artwork and interesting things like tables that turn into pianos and a mini printing press and shelves full of pigments in jars.  Spending time in her studio, and in the company of our art teacher David, has made me wonder (tentatively) whether I should get my easel back out from its cobwebby corner and try again.  (Scary!)

While I was otherwise engaged, G took some pics of Madeline's lovely garden...  
 
 

( Couple of pretty garden pics )

 
And as if all of those nice things were not enough, G and I are going to dinner this evening at The Petersham hotel in Richmond, who have promised us a table with river views...  Hedonism thy name is Sue.  I can't wait, as I've been meanng to have dinner there for years.  (I fear I may be at risk of being all birthdayed out by the time it is actually my birthday... so tomorrow might just be a duvet day!)
 
In the meantime I keep accidentally looking at hateful work emails and getting hot under the collar.  Ewwww, I SO need to stop doing that!
 
Gosh, what a rambly, self-indulgent post that turned out to be.  If anyone is still reading... please do tell me your news!
:-)