The London Games 2012...

Toot, toot beep, beep its 98 days and counting until London proudly hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012!  In all honesty I have not really taken on everything around its preparation or organisation until recently, but now the excitement is beginning to catch on big time. After reading the London Evening Standard’s ‘100 things you need to know about the 2012 Olympics’ I am slightly more in tune with what’s going on, and am keen to support and spectate my tush off...pfffft to the chance of blagging tickets this late in the game I know, but I will certainly be a jubilant lil lady celebrating our wins and wonderful athletes. Below are the facts that grabbed my beady blinkers in the article, bet you didn’t know either!!

The Olympic rings logo was designed by French historian Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Each ring represents a continent. Every national flag in the world includes one of the five colours.

There are 10.8 million ticket holders to the Olympics and Paralympics.

At the 1900 Paris Olympics the winners received paintings instead of gold medals because the French believed they were more valuable.

Women first competed in the Olympics at the 1900 Paris games, in croquet, tennis, sailing, golf and equestrian events.

(What!!!??? We got far more muscle than that, as has been proven!)

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei have never sent a female athlete to an Olympics.

(Too outrageous to comment...but this is not sporting or any kind of etiquette)

The first published use of the word Olympian in the English language was in 1590, in William Shakespeare’s Henry VI.

(I LOVE this fact!! #EnglishLiteratureIsMyLife)

London also hosted the Olympics in 1908 and 1948.

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has written a specially commissioned London 2012 poem, Eton Manor, which she read out in March at the sports club that inspired the poem.

This year’s Games will be the single largest movement of people after the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Olympic stadium holds 80,000 people.

The three-hour opening ceremony on July 27 is expected to attract even more than the one billion viewers who watched the opening at Beijing 2008.

200,000 people will work at the Olympics.

Fran Halsall, 21, is the only British female swimmer to have qualified for five events at the Games — the 50m and 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and two relays. No one has ever won gold in all five events.

Nearly 15,000 athletes will take part in the Games.

The Olympic kit, designed by Stella McCartney and worn by basketballer Drew Sullivan, features 590 items suited to 46 sporting activities. Prices from £212 for trainers to £5 for a wristband.

Ticket sales have raised £527 million so far.

The only branded products on site will be Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Cadbury.

More than one million pieces of sports equipment will be used at the games and donated to charity afterwards, including 541 lifejackets and 356 pairs of boxing gloves.

There are 26 featured sports for the Olympic Games and 20 for the Paralympic. See below for each:

Hidden Treasures

Now I have mentioned this savvy eye of mine, and Easter weekend’s finds are perfect examples of me finding gold...in the sticks! I ventured home to Dorset to our little thatch in sleepy Compton Abbas (one of my all time favourite places) for a dose of home cooking and home comforts, so shopping wasn’t strictly on the agenda. But, as an avid huntswoman I am always on the prowl for charity, vintage and antique shop bargains so when Mum planned in a Vintage Fair at Larmer Tree Gardens I squealed with excitement and donned my haggling hat.

Little stalls run by little old ladies and very gentle men, grey haired, tea fuelled and on the button with selling and schmoozing. I won't be fooled by even the sweetest of this crowd though, despite them chocolate lacing their stalls! Oh so Hansel and Gretel.  I like the rusty and rustic items that have journeyed and have a story, but I won’t be fed a ‘story’ that you can’t shimmy back to life with a spruce and shammy! 

As we perused each stall dotted amongst the stunning grounds I set to work sifting through tat, crap and the mass of china cats (serious crap). Much to my delight there were a few things that caught my eye. 

Namely the following, oh I am an easy please: a brass candle holder (heavy and very handsome), some teeny old postal scales, a Queen Elizabeth mug (Mum and I are collecting for these along with any old memorabilia for this summer’s Jubilee paaarty), a old wooden measuring rule (yes I will use it!), now this one is a tad out there: a hand held grater contraption (probs won’t use this one, but he looks brilliant on my shelf of ‘wow’ slash WTF items), a wooden ‘TEA’ crate and perhaps my favourite: a tin paraffin lantern. 

In addition to these seven wonders, my Easter pressie from Ma and Pa was AMAZING!! I spotted one of these months ago but could not warrant the hefty eighty quid price label. So I ecstatically unwrapped this fabulous Schweppes soda pump that Mum clocked for a bargain on one of her hunts. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!! Take a look at my snaps lovingly if you please...

The old postal letter press drawer you spy in the top photo is a recent win from my beloved Ebay. Always, always give Ebay a glance if you’re after buying/ selling something cool/ quirky. If you’re lucky you'll find a total steal, although at times items go for crazy money. Play the game, be the sniper. 

My drawer was an ok price, £30 including postage. Actually, a bloody good price. And in the light of day it's more beautiful than ever, full of character and in perfect situ on my window sill. Worth every penny and ideal for homing all my newspaper/ magazine/ material cut outs. So should have been in interiors, maybe next month. Look out Suzy Smith! 

On par with this, Ebay has also brought me my awesome Olympia Splendid typewriter and after trawling for weeks- my very own mannequin! 

Yes I am rapidly running out of space in my little bed sit, yes I am slightly out of control but each find is making my hub an Aladdin's cave of wonders slash junk in the making.

Blue Valentine

Ok so I’m very late jumping on this band wagon. And yes it’s the only film of his I've seen this year (or ever) but OMG I heart Ryan Gosling. Seriously: hook, line, sinker. This dude can act. After seeing Blue Valentine at the weekend I am rapidly on the case sorting my next fix (Ides of March, Half Nelson or Drive...all of the above). The film is a harrowing sequence of flashbacks between adolescent infatuation and the struggles of an unhinged marriage. Intimacy conflicts with awkward marital routines where our leads lose touch with themselves and each other.

Dean (Ryan Gosling) a genuine, easy going guy, VERY easy on the eyes lacks any real career ambition (he starts out working for a removal company and later as a part time painter/ decorator) but takes on his chance encounter with Cindy (Michelle Williams) with everything he’s got.

What he’s got is a whole lot of character, undeniably likable for his creative, quirky quips, ukulele, shades and eagle jumper. A simple guy but one who has layers, devoting himself to Cindy from the beginning. Williams plays a complete contrast, as through time Cindy removes herself physically and emotionally, and the couple prolong an unequalled affection.

Whilst there are no shockers, disturbing moments flitter through the script (the age at which Cindy loses her virginity, the number of sexual partners she's had, implications of a violent upbringing). Clearly Dean is unlike any guy she has met and worlds apart from her condescending, meatloaf smashing, arsehole father. He is a support, a stronghold and shhhmokin’ hot. I’d so let him take me to the Future Room. 

Dean's outlook is infectious. Damn it he's just a nice guy, and achingly so! His role as house husband and playmate to their daughter accentuates Cindy’s frustration with being the disciplinarian. Williams plays this to a T and carries her part emotively. Her carriage and mannerisms are totally credible.

The cinematography, soundtrack and stunning performances are numbingly astounding. Rousing in every sense, the film also brings up challenging questions: Can you change the course of a failing relationship? Can you go on loving knowing that your not loved in return, the way that you yourself love?

Director Derek Cianfrance really captures the fragments of two people and the effect of choices made and opportunities missed. It’s poignant, vast, void, dark, undeceiving and unashamed. I LOVE IT. This track ‘You and Me’ by Penny and The Quarters finds the two but also fails them. So beautiful, it gives me goose bumps.