It is a well-known fact that perfect service in a restaurant is achieved by not noticing that the waiting staff exist (more or less). Your glass should be filled when it becomes empty, your table should be clear when you have finished, you should have all the condiments you need etc. You should not hear trays and glasses clattering to the floor, you should not be barged into and you should not have tomato sauce splashed over you by a careless member of staff.

I started to think about this when reflecting upon a couple that I know from church.  They both help out in a number of areas and have done for years.  They are very quiet and unassuming and 100% reliable.  They are lovely people and in the best possible way, you hardly notice them.  I think that this is what God means when He says stuff like when you give, “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”.  Much like the restaurant though, you would REALLY notice if they were not there.

The same rules apply in any area of the service industry.  Sometimes you do need a person who you can notice, but what a difference it makes when they are cheerful, friendly and helpful.  I have recently tried to make a real point of thanking and honouring people who exhibit this level of service, rather than moaning when service is bad.  I am making a point of writing to people’s managers if they are particularly helpful, in the hope that they might be noticed.  I thank people in shops if they help me and sometimes email people or write to them personally to thank them for something.

Maybe we can start a revolution?  Hehe.

I have been reading some poetry recently by Guillaume Apollinaire…  The reason for this is that I have become rather fascinated by bohemian Paris in the rise of modernism. I have also been reading Chanel’s biography (she was a contemporary of Apollinaire, along with Picasso, Matisse and other figureheads of art/fashion history) and also a book called Bohemian Paris.  It is fascinating stuff.  Apollinaire led the migration of Bohemian Paris from Monmatre to Montparnasse and helped form the principals of cubism.  He coined the word “Surrealist”  and is very much associated with investigations of the avant garde.

I find this whole era fascinating.  Little did these characters know how much they would shape art and culture in the future.

I recommend this album:

Sia is a (slightly alternative) very engaging Australian singer.  You may recognise her as one of the singers for Zero 7 (she sings Destiny amongst others).  I really love this album, particularly You Have Been Loved, The Girl You Lost To Cocaine and Buttons.

This song is not on the album but is another good one:

I love the way that the area in which I live takes a while to get going in the morning.  This morning I ventured out in the fresh air and sunshine around 9am to pop to the shop for cereal and there was not a soul in sight!  The shops in the Suffolks don’t open until around 10:30 (although most only open for about four days a week!) and the main road was clear.  The odd cat was ambling about and I could hear the occasional baby cry, but that was pretty much it.

Today Monty is four years old.  What a lot happens in four years.  I love him to bits and am glad that after his adventuring several times this year, we still have him!

This is Monty when we first got him. So cute!

Monty looking rather pleased on his 4th birthday!!

When I started designing for Vinegar Hill, I visted VH&Co in Stratford and fell in love with this mac.  It cost more than I could ever spend on a coat, but it was beautiful and sooooo pink!  However, after making the website, we began some further work and Vinegar Hill went to tremendous effort to get me this coat in my size as part payment.  I was so chuffed.

It works very well with wellibobs (Joules) especially on a day like today where the skies keep opening at random!

I am very blessed by the wonderful people that I have in my life.  I have been thanking God a lot recently for those whom He has placed around me, who are really very dear to me.  I am always humbled and surprised to think that there are people out there who like to be around me and who want to be my friends.  What a privilege.

However, (I am sure I am not alone in this) there are certain people who treat you a bit like a stepping stone. They walk over you when you are in a useful place at a useful time. They walk in and out of your life when they please, usually to get through a difficult patch.  If the river of life should dislodge you from your place and leave you in difficulty, they are nowhere to be seen, because you have ceased to serve your purpose in their life.

I get very upset when this happens.

I forgot to take a “before” picture, but it was a dark wood table before.

I used a wash of Farrow & Ball French Grey to achieve this aged effect.  If you would like to purchase this piece or commission your own piece, apply within!

Sometimes it is amusing when you look back across your week of phone photos and find what intrigued you in the past fourteen days…

I visited my friend Amy with her four gorgeous children. This is baby Alysha who had just eaten her dinner!

This is Ollie

En route to a meeting near Crawley we diverted to Westcott and passed my old house! This is where I lived between the ages of 2 and 4.

A trip to the pub with the boys

I managed to sleep on a PJ button!

Somebody left a flower on our car on Saturday night.  It would be a wonderfully romantic gesture if it wasn’t one of the ones that you are handed as you leave the Indus curry house on Bath Road.

Last Sunday I took Indi for a girly day out at Greenbelt, where you find curious things, such as people dressed as giant chocolate bars?!

We both bought some crazy festival shades. Love it!

My friend “English” came to visit! English has never (in his entire life) spent more than one year in any single country, so I only get to see him about once a year.  We were friends at school (for a few months a year!)  He is a fantastic photographer and a world-class wakeboarder.  For this reason he has very big muscles, so every time we meet up, we pose for the same photograph (it is a long story!)

English also visited the office and photographed the door stop using the force!

I went for a coffee at Pepper Crescent with George and Annabelle (this is Annabelle enjoying her babycino!)

This month’s Facebook profile pic was not so serious…!  I also had my ears pierced randomly on bank holiday Monday! You can just about see…

Mark bought me a cupcake which was almost too beautiful to eat because I had been working very hard!

This is a man in a skirt…?

I started a painting and ended up going to bed at around midnight!

I love my walk to work so much! It is very easy to thank God for beautiful things when you do this walk…

I then walk through the beautiful Montpellier shops

There is a little stall that sells fruit and juice at St Andrew’s Church

Approaching Pink Sky…  Can you see the flash of pink in the basement?

Last night I sat in Montpellier Gardens whilst JT was out sailing, catching the last of the evening sun. Very pretty evening!