At the Top of the Heath

[commonpeople1]

I visited Kenwood House twice this weekend. The first time was Saturday, when Kevin and I met up with Sissy Jen and Tim for a picnic. We brought ham and brie; they brought baps and trifle. We sat underneath a tree on the hill that overlooks the pond and spent a good hour laughing at other people's children and dogs. When the sun became too much, we headed for Camden and watched Sunshine [trailer]. It was a very tense, but enjoyable, sci-fi movie.

Today, I left home early to meet sarcaustick and thirstypixel at Kenwood House, for breakfast. The city was bright, warm and empty (as it has been all weekend.) I broke some kind of record climbing Hampstead Heath because I was late. We spent a good few hours chatting and strolling the grounds of the house. Too soon, they had to leave and drive up to York (they must still be in their car, hopefully not dealing with too much traffic.)

When I got home, I discovered my boyfriend had cleaned and vacuumed everything.

Comments

[violentlyhappy.livejournal.com]

I wish Basil would clean and vacuum everything for once. :\

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Maybe one day he'll surprise you.

[yearning.livejournal.com]

sounds like a good weekend! we went to Greenwich on Friday (like this: Tube to Bank, walking along the Thames till Canary Wharf, DLR to Greenwich, back with bus and Tube...that was a long day!). the park is beautiful and there are some quiet places. on Saturday we did a detour on the way to do our weekly shopping in the more or less local Lidl via a cemetery and saw a fox and some green parakeets, we think. that was quite something.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Your weekend sounds good too. We saw a tiny hare at Kenwood House, when we were leaving. I think it was the first time I ever saw a "wild" hare up close.

[sublimevisions.livejournal.com]

awww, let's hear it for domesticated partners!

that's too cute. like saccharin cute :)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Our wild years (if they ever existed) are over. Now it's time to champion the disappearance of dust!

[showwyourteeth.livejournal.com]

hooray for the boyfriend!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Hip Hip Hooray!

[margotmetroland.livejournal.com]

Does Kevin do house visits? He'd make a fortune if you hired him out!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'll ask him. Can I presume you'll want to be one of his first clients?

[margotmetroland.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately not, I have a drpete who is similarly well-trained. But we could set them up in business and live off their earnings. What do you think?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I think that's a brilliant idea. Perhaps they could also go into the furniture moving business, now that they are a pair.

[margotmetroland.livejournal.com]

Hmm, not sure pete would be so good at furniture removal, he's much better at housework and cleaning.

I was thinking of an exclusive service to rich, lonely, untidy clients who need the presence of an attractive, capable chap in their lives to cheer them up and help them stop living like slobs. Then moral_vacuum and I can go round and do the Trinny & Susannah wardrobe makeover and life will be great. You can be the Culture Expert and get them to see the right plays and exhibitions, and Hester can teach them to bake.

Essentially we are talking life coaching here! Money for old rope.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Too bad they need to be rich. If the criteria was only lonely and untidy, I'm sure we could find plenty of clients on our LJ friends list!

[tarotbydiana.livejournal.com]

I have an aversion to vacuuming. It's too noisy and unsatisfying. My housekeeping strengths lie in dusting and cleaning fragile objects and carefully laundering ornamental fabric.
Similarly, I'm a good cook but I prefer not to be in the room if the blender is running. Unexpected and devotional use of the vacuum or blender is a turn-on.

Are "baps" a type of roll?

Oh, I want to see "Sunshine". Some day I will look up the lj coding for italics. Maybe I'll even get wild and learn how to underline.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

When I wanted to learn italics and so forth, someone pointed me towards Dave's Site. It's very comprehensive and easy-to-use HTML, perfect for LJ. Simple scroll down to Basic Tutorial MiniChapters and click on the link to what you wish to learn.

I also don't like vacuuming; I'd prefer if our home had tiles or wooden floors, so we could quickly sweep and mop when we felt like it.

[tarotbydiana.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for the link. It's so much easier than trying to find the coding in the lj FAQ.

The downstairs here is hardwood and the upstairs is carpeted. If it weren't a rental, I would opt for the carpet being ripped out. I'm not a fan of carpet either. I don't like the cleaning and I don't like being locked into a color palette.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm originally from Brasil, and because our country is very warm almost every home has stones, tiles or wood on the floor. My boyfriend says that it wouldn't keep our flat as warm here in England, but I would be willing to walk around in slippers in exchange for not having to take care of the carpet. It's a laziness thing. ;-)

[blindscouse.livejournal.com]

Completely unrelated, but I've started using this journal again now as my main one, in case you want to re-add me :)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

No problem. Will you be deleting the other one?

[blindscouse.livejournal.com]

Nay. I shall keep it for "creative scribblings". Ha ha how pretentious! :)

[psyfi.livejournal.com]

How come nobody didn't organize a trip to Kenwood House when I was in England? They (the International students admin) liked to take us to visit places with beautiful castles and such, but I don't think the took us to Kenwood House. hmmph...having breakfast there sounds fun.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised they didn't take you there. Did you visit Hampstead Heath? It's right at the top of the Heath, near Hampstead tube station.