Sara's portrait

Sara's portrait

I have finally finished the portrait of my old friend Sara Sugarman. She has a truely wonderful face and I painted her 23 years ago when we were both virtual teenagers, partygoers and hangers out at the Chelsea Arts club. I got the painting into the National Portrait competion. Imagine my great fortune when I discovered she was living here in Los Angeles... Its great to have someone here with whom has a history. She is a very talented writer /director / play write and my son Gabriel wants to marry her.we decided to repeat history .
We like to compare notes on American culture. We both bore witness yesterday to an extraordinary thing- which was several republican Malibu inhabitants banging the drum in favour of global warming to to say how America was right not to sign the Kyoto agreement. Matthew , a fellow welshman and I kept mentioning our washing lines but were drowned out by one man saying that some people were lucky enought to be able to live in places that were "too cold for habitation" due to the gift of glabal warming . not to mention we could now take advantage of the huge oil reserves in antartica..well i never .. it takes all sorts

The Green issue

Having written about trivial issues for the last little while , house frau complaints and whinges about uncouth children I am now gearing up my committment to all things "green".While we remain one of the last people to have a Hybrid vehicle in our street , we are the first and only in the street to use a washing line.I am AMAZED that in this climate where washing dries within the hour Americans still put their washing in the drier!!! can you imagine how much energy is lost and while the californians make a big noise about driving Hybrids- putting washing on the line is clearly sniffed at and just a step too far in airing ones dirty laundry. One of the biggest differences between Europeans and the US is that we love a washing line , even drisley old England with its 15 hours of sunshine a year people still optimistically hang out their washing . Whats more spin driers not only wreck the enviroment but they also wreck and shrink your clothes. To be fair Californians are clearly getting a grip of some things .. There is an enormous march organised in Beverly Hills against bottled water - how we are not only getting ripped off but the land fills that are overflowing with with excess plastic. So I expect to see the well heeled taking to the streets in protest.
So this week I have bought biodegradable washing liquid and various green accessories. The great excitement of the week is that Philip has discovered radio 4 online , so I have listened to Womens hour, the news , Jonathon Ross and Chris Evans... it makes the UK feel very far away ,and rather odd. I did not find Jonathon ross funny as I once did-am I becoming soft?!!!!

My screen debut

After the longest school holidays known to man-Gabriels lasted 10 weeks-its back into a gruelling routine of three differnt children at 3 different schools all of whom have o be there at 8am-so i have been in stratergy mode , trying to organise school runs and making a nuisance of myself to parents at Graces new school. I thought i had hit the jack pot with the car pool as one of Graces schoolmates lives litterally round the corner. I made an eager phone call and counted my many chickens before they were hatched. The Father phoned me back in raptures about saving the planet and what a good idea it was as their kid was an only child.. etc etc.. My prayers had been answered all was sorted but then at 8am the next morning the Mother called only to say that it would not work..for some reason I have taken this news very badly and I know these people who I have never met are perfectly within their rights to "Pass" on the car pool but I am certain that I am missplacing my new girl anxiety onto other areas-is that analytical enough for you?? I am trying to resist bitter and cynical retribution but I am afraid it is I who is back in the playground and not my 12 year old child.
On a lighter note , Philip and i were priviliged to be asked to an early screening of our freind Bernard Roses new film in which I have a cameo appearance and Philip has a small talking part. It was clever and dark and and ripped along- Danny Houston the lead was very compelling. It was screeened in the location where it was shot , in the beautiful Beverly hills hacienda.Lets hope it reaches the big screen!!

Cancun

We managed to sandwich our holidays inbetween hurricanes Dean and Felix in central mexico.Yet again we chose the very parent friendly Club Med which to our great suprise was very 5 star in Cancun.6 million had been spent on renovations . While my sportaholism let loose ( I was playing tennis, water skiing and doing water aerobics all within a 3 hour period) Philip prefered the spa. The water skiing consisted of being towed along in a crocodile infested lagoon -I JOKE NOT!!- I spotted at least 3 -which luckily for me put alot of people off and therefore no queues- Apparently the crocs are so afraid of the speed boats no one has been eaten for 20 years.The only downer was being pulled in by customs at 2 am in the morning on the way back due to my strange visa , they took me into a room full of uniformed people which made Gabriel very concerned "Are you in Jail , Mum" he asked