For the time being there is nothing wrong with being single. And that doesn’t mean I will be alone! I get to party with my friends, date whoever I want and basically see whoever I want whenever I want. In the past some of my partners didn’t get on with my friends. He didn’t stop me from seeing them but I felt obliged to see them less. This, I now realise, is very wrong. At the moment I am using single life to focus on my many beautiful friendships. When you are a bachelorette (or bachelor!) you really find out who your true friends are. I also find that my single friends and I unite in being single. We have great jobs, good health and go on lots of adventures- which brings me to my next point…

I now have lots of time to go on lots of brilliant escapades. Just last week I went to Cornwall and rented a caravan with my friends. It didn’t even cost that much and the surroundings were absolutely gorgeous. I come from Spain so I haven’t really seen a lot of the UK. Being single has given me the chance to explore this country. You guys are really lucky…there are valleys, rivers, canals, glitzy cities, traditional countryside, luscious greenery and even mountains. Britain’s history is also very impressive. I have visited the roman walls and ampitheatre in Chester, the Norman castle in Rochester and the impressive Stonehenge- to name but a few!

Lastly, I have a lot of time to focus on my career in the arts. It can be a competitive workplace so I do have to dedicate a great portion of my time to work. But because I enjoy it so much and I have that time, I find I am progressing at lightening speed.

So…considering my circumstances I think being single suits me down to a tee!

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A terrible, terrible date.

Regular readers will know that I’ve been single for a year or two now so I’ve been on quite a few dates since 2010. Some have been great… and some not so great. I don’t claim to be a dating guru but I just had a few thoughts on the whole good date versus bad date issue that I wanted to share.

1. Good Dates usually involve a lot of talking. Bad Dates usually involve awkward silences.

“So… do you like… you know, books and stuff?”

2. Conversely, some Bad Dates involve a lot of talking. Upon one subject. By only one half of the date.

“My passion isn’t just the Post Office though, it’s more specifically the animal parcel delivery system employed during the Second World War. Now, not many people know this, but…”

3. Good Dates involve talking about a range of subjects and maybe (just maybe) some comfortable silences.

4. Good Dates really don’t need to be expensive. Walks in the park, drinks in the local pub, a matinee at the cinema… they’re all good.

5. Going to a crowded, busy tourist attraction at peak time is generally a Bad Date. When you can’t see your date behind an American family for most of time, that’s not great.

6. Dating someone you know is usually easier. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a chance on a blind date or a friend of a friend.

7. If blind dates make you nervous, try to arrange them for an afternoon. Afternoon dates always feel more casual.

8. It goes without saying, but go dutch! It removes any awkwardness about the bill.

9. Dress how you feel most comfortable. And finally and most importantly: 10. Always let someone know where you’re going!

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Let me give you an example of how my perspective differs and focuses primarily on art before anything else. What is the first thing you think of when you see a high rise window cleaning service provider? You probably think of skyscrapers, detergents, soaps, ladders and may also think of fear of heights. I, on the other hand, think of the wonderful view that he or she would have from the top of the building.

Standing on a ledge that extends further beyond the structure of the skyscraper will definitely change the perspective. If you are standing on a narrow ledge used by the high rise window cleaning service provider to clean the windows, you probably would be aware of the wind around you and the fact that you are so vulnerable out in the open, right? To watch the sun rise from that spot would be so thrilling.
Well, I do not know whether my tendency to imagine too much is the root cause of this different perspective of mine. My friends tell me that I have too much art in my head and that I ought to look out for an artist who will share my perspective and simply sweep me off my feet.

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As I’m sure you’re aware, I work in the arts. Now, working in the arts isn’t all creativity and fun and imagining things, oh no. Sometimes it just so happens to be real genuine work. The kind of work that I was hoping to get away from forever when I…went into the arts in the beginning…

One of the things I hate the most about my job – and there aren’t loads of things, just a few – is the courses they send us on for the ‘business'side of the work. One such course I recently went on was Moving and handling instructor training . If that sounds like a confusing name for you to get your head around, imagine being the one who has to actually do the course and pretend they know what they are doing!

Still, there are a few really good things about courses which just about make them worthwhile. Such as follows:

Here I am moaning about it when actually working in the arts is a very rewarding profession

1. The kind of people who usually work in the arts and go on courses are like me. Hence we do have a laugh, which is a fine thing!

2. You get free food at these kind of events and also get to go away from home for a while and visit somewhere you have never been (even if it is Slough…).

3. The bed and breakfast or hotel is paid for. There’s a lot to be said for things being paid for, I can tell you!

4. It means, well, not being at work and doing tons of paper work. In anybody’s eyes that has to be a pretty fantastic thing, me thinks.

You can also learn a lot by going on a course. I will now demonstrate what you can learn. Pay attention, people!

1. You can learn how much patience you have got. But really that’s a given…

2. You can learn how to use almost anything as a tool for laughter. For example, at this most recent course we were laughing at the Instructor’s tie – with fishes on – by the end of it. This comes in handy when you feel like crying in day-to-day life.

3. Most importantly of all, you can learn just how fortunate you are to be working in the arts. Here I am moaning about it when actually working in the arts is a very rewarding profession. Thanks to what I say, the lives of people are enriched by art – now that can only be a good thing. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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It seems like I have a million things to do before the big day, but top on my list is searching for somebody to do a miracle tidy up of the flat; typing domestic cleaning Surrey into google sometimes does the trick, and I am hoping for the Santa Claus of flat cleaners. The miracle of the internet is also helping with menu planning because I want to bring sunny Spain to London, so I am going for traditional tapas and summer drinks. I will do a huge punch bowl filled with sangria as well as small glasses of rioja.

Norah Jones is my absolute favourite singer, and I asked one of my friends to make a 2 hour mix based on my favourite songs. It is absolutely amazing because it takes her songs and duets and then weaves this brilliant musical web around it. After the first hour it descends into this blend of Ravi Shankar and John Prine. That should be the point when the sangria starts to set in! If you haven’t done it before this is my absolute favourite method of making the beautiful beverage:

1. slice oranges, lemons, and limes cover them lightly with sugar and ten soak them in brandy with for at least two hours, it is much better overnight.
2. Add in a couple of shots of Cointreau if you fancy and then a bottle or two of Spanish table wine.
3. If you have a chance let this sit for awhile, then you should adjust it with either club soda or lemon aid depending on your taste.
4. Ladle out a portion of the sangria and freeze it in trays or decorative molds to make ice cubes, this way the sangria can stay chilled without watering down the mixture

Invitations are out, party clothes cleaned and pressed, the food has got to be cooked, but the drinks are chilling, I have a feeling this will be the best birthday in a long time.

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What I love about having a short name – and it doesn’t get much better in the world-of-short than two characters like TU – is the fact that people can only call me Tu and variations of it (and most people aren’t that inventive. Woo is common, as is another word which I shall not mention here because it is something brown and nasty which is not fun at all to step in when you are barefoot). With a name like Rosemary people can say Rosy when they are hacked off, but with me there’s no way to shorten my name, so they struggle to bring their annoyance upon me by name. Brilliant! I first noticed this a few years back when I got my first laptop and was buying Virus protection …and the protection ended up being a virus which cost a whole lot to put right…

I could just jot my name down on the teacher’s register and be off quick as a flash

Another great thing about a short name is just writing it down. It only takes a split-second, which I like – the faster the better as far as I am concerned. I can write my name in about one tenth of the time it takes other people to write their name. This came in handy when the bell went at school. I could just jot my name down on the teacher’s register and be off quick as a flash. Looking back at that time I feel sorry for poor Christopher-Michael…his parents had drilled it into him that he had to write his name down in full every single time he wrote it. This meant he lost hours of time over the course of his years at Primary School…poor him. I doubt somehow that much has really changed there.

Another absolutely brilliant, riveting thing about having an unusually short name – and an unusual name, for that matter – is that there is never anyone like me around. This means that I cannot mistake my name when it is called in a public place. People like Sarah and John always suffer like that. Not me. Not Tu. I never hear someone calling Tu and think they are actually calling me.

Then there is the fact that when I was at school, it took so much less ink to write my name – almost forgot that fact! That’s pretty good, I think. It means I’m not wasting ink and paper, and surely that’s got to be good for the environment, hasn’t it?

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I had lost my passport and not only this but I had almost gotten run over by a crazy German cyclist. Who knows, it was probably my fault for being in the bicycle lane, but still, it was like he really want to kill me dead!

So I was panicking. I could not get my flight, I had nowhere to stay, and I thought I would have to sleep on the streets.

And my kind of panicking is BIGTIME, you should know. I was throwing my arms around, stamping on the floor, and running around in circles clutching my Himalayan Crystal Salt (which is always my lucky charm).

This was when I turned around and saw people staring at me. So I shouted at them in Spanish and they all went away. All but two.

These ones would not go away and it made me mad!

At first I just stood with my head against the wall of an apartment complex. All I could hear was Germans whispering and it annoyed me. I felt something touch my shoulder and spun round and it was the guy who had been standing there with, I guessed, his girlfriend. Either this or he and his sister were very close.

And so 5 minutes later I was walking with them. Two strangers. Down a street. Who knew what would happen?

But as it turned out it was fine. Heiko and Aimee let me stay with them for 3 days, and now I email every so often, and am grateful they come along.

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Finally its that time of the year when I can put my bulky jackets and pullovers and in and take out my favorite skirts and dresses! Also, the summer sale is on and I can’t wait to splurge on the latest designs!
I love summers. Its something about the sunny days and make me want to smile and jump around in joy! There are more people on the streets, the days are longer and the weather is just right! I love dressing up in casual fabrics and loose fitting clothes that allow my skin to breathe! It is so much fun to slip into open toed sandals and FitFlops instead of boots and closed shoes! Bright colors such as yellow, blue, pink, aqua and white are a favorite with me!
This sale season I think I’m going to buy some long flowing skirts, and of course, sun dresses! I also plan to take a vacation to the Canary Islands so I’m going to get some nice, colorful sarongs to match my bikinis, and hope to get a nice tan! Beaches are the best place to be in summers, and I love taking long walks in the evening with the cool sea breeze in my hair.
When it comes to accessorizing, I try not to go overboard. Too much chunky jewelry gets to me so I stick to either simple silver chains with big pendants or stone necklaces. They go very well with my summer dresses. I think I’ll try the Bohemian look this season with cool harems and racerback tees in casual fabrics. These are perfect for a day out with friends or at the beach.
All this talk is making me even more eager to go and shop, so I’m going to sign off! See ya all later!

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I don’t always make the best decisions. I know it is environmentally wrong to take short haul flights, so I decided to head to Spain over land. A sensible person at this point would have booked the euro star, but as I said I am not exactly sensible. While my friend was looking for storage units on the internet, an ad popped up for cheap tickets to France on the coach. I knew that once I was actually in mainland Europe, I would be able to find some cheap local trains which were not accessible for purchase from the UK. My thinking was that it would be a great idea just to get as close to the Spanish border as possible and then get cheap trains or buses to my destination in Bilbao. It seemed logical to a point, in that I got a return coach to the south of France for fourteen pounds! The bad news is that I was dropped off in the middle of the night in a place I have never been and my French is less than fantastic. Additionally, I had not taken into consideration little things like the mountains. Trains don’t just randomly criss cross the south of France because of the various mountain ranges and in order to cross the border, on the correct side, I had to head almost back towards the middle to be able to get a train south. It was an incredible adventure and well worth it in the end.

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Ever since I was a young girl playing around with my father’s chess pieces, I have wondered whether or not wind power is cheap to produce. I am older now and recent I was in an argument with a friend of mine abut alternative sources of energy and he suggested to me that wind power is cost effective. So I did some searching online and here is what I learnt.

Wind power is a good power source and a nature friendly alternative to conventional power sources.

Unlike the past years the cost of wind power has been lowered to an affordable level. But still that affordable level is not applicable for all. If you are planning to use wind power in your home then the cost effectiveness becomes a big question as the technology today is still not prepared for the power generation for a single house with windmills if you are not a Bill Gates.

The estimated cost of producing 1 kWh of electricity is $0.025 which is a great improvement from the $1 per kWh in the 70s. But still this cost is alright if you are producing wind power on a huge scale.

It also depends on the physical location of your place. In some good windy place a $5000 turbine should be enough to power your house up and on the other hand a $20000 turbine will not be able to fulfill your demand on an area of lower wind speed.

If you really want to go for wind power, consider keeping alternative sources. The initial investment will also be higher. But if you can do it, it will pay you back in long term.

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