I have lovely new neighbours and they had a party on Saturday night.  My philosophy is, rather than staying home and getting annoyed at the comings and goings, GO to the party, get really drunk, fall over and ladder your tights. Talk nonsense to everyone.  Stagger home across the landing when you can drink no more.

I turned up with beer and Marion’s cheese patties which were cute, but next time I’d use a cheesier cheese than Emmenthal.  I shall ask the lovely lady at Cheeses for advice.  I mostly had my bottom stuck to the kitchen sink all evening chatting to lots of my neighbours’ lovely chums.  One of the women I was talking to asked if I’d swap a beer for a G&T – of course I would!  And I seem to remember the host making me a couple of vodka based drinks too.  I was pretty smashed and didn’t leave until around 2.30 am.  As I usually go to bed around 10 this was pretty phenomenal.

I was absolutely thrilled when the “Ugly Sweater Wearer of the Year” award winner was announced.  Me!  It was the theme of the party so I popped home and grabbed this one. This jumper was made by my own fair hands some time in the eighties.

Isn’t this trophy amazing?  It has pride of place on my radiogram, I just LOVE it.  It’s already causing a stir on Facebook with a couple of my friends scrapping over it. There is no way anyone is getting their hands on it though.  It really is a work of art.

My neighbours’ new flat is full of beautiful things – many of them made by Chloe who is a textile artist.  Here’s a link to her lovely website: Chloe Owens and to her new book: All Sewn Up.

I am envious of many of their pieces of furniture and vintage nick nacks.  I really must start selling some of my junk on ebay so I can buy a nice sideboard.  Or a coat with a leopard print collar like Marion’s maybe…

Had a fantastic time last night at the Wind-Up.  It’s Walthamstow Arts Trail week and Mo had made an incredible outfit from 78rpm record covers – cardboard ones making the body of the dress and train and folded paper one making frilly decorations and a fabulous hat.  Genius.  Tony Tunes brought along some Charlestons for me to select from and Caroline from Frillseekers was there with three rails of vintage gorgeousness.  I even saw my sister Myrna.  What a joyful night.

I wanted to blog Alice’s report on last month’s cookalong.  Marion’s recipe for the pastry base did indeed need a bit of modifying with extra flour.  Alice’s verdict?  “The cheese cake part was wonderful. It was a lightly sweet, creamy smooth cheesecake. Just a very hint of lemon, maybe a bit too subtle but good just the same. The crust, however, was awful. The addition of a lot of extra flour may be why. I think the next time I make this (and I will) I will use a graham cracker crust instead.”  Indeed!  There is a photo of the Wisconsin version of Marion’s Cheesecake here.

Well Marion’s cheesecake was the biggest hit yet with my work colleagues.  Marie pronounced it to be “Possibly the BEST CAKE IN THE WORLD!” and Edward G said, “great, really great, REALLY great” between mouthfulls.  It was still warm from the oven as I had made it before work – oh yummy.  Soooooo looking forward to feedback on this one when the next cookalong newsletter goes out on 1st August (don’t forget to sign up by putting your email address under the word “Newsletter” on the sidebar to the right hand side of the website and clicking the subscribe button).

Not only is everyone being very nice about my cooking today, they are being nice about my frock too.  As I slowly but surely unpack the many boxes and bags from my lockup I am discovering lots of dresses I had totally forgotten about.  Today I am sporting the “Fritzi of California” number I bought at a flea market after my visit to the Hollywood Forever cemetary in L.A.  I was thinking about consigning it to the “for ebay” pile, but as no less than FOUR people have complimented me on it, it has got a reprieve.

It is taking me a long time to get used to the idea that I can live exactly as I please now I have my own place.  Tonight I am experimenting with doing exactly what I want…  I’ve been DJing with my Sisters all day at a crazy corporate event in Hertfordshire – there were many magic moments.  It was the kind of gig that reminds us why we do what we do – because there are people who “get” the idea of 4 women in authentic vintage garb playing  78rpm records on original 1920s gramophones.  I admit, the fact that this event was so massive that they had umpteen burly boys to carry our gear and transport us around on golf carts did help!

So I got home around 5.30pm and wondered what to do?  I decided to go into the communal garden and start my summer reading.   The challenge that is “Gone With the Wind”.  It has begun…  I really enjoyed the sounds from all the flats around me (there are two 1930s blocks opposite each other with a retro garden in between) – a gurgling baby, obviously enjoying his or her dinner, a 30 something woman on the phone to a friend laughing about the mad night they had had last night, and someone playing classical music with a lovely violin part.  I am sure this is exactly what the architects who built these wondrous flats in the 30s were hoping for…  I’ll be bankrupt soon but who cares?

So tomorrow I must make Marion’s Cheesecake for the next recipe of the month is coming up fast and I’ve chosen this.  It is weird how a recipe can bring back a flood of memories.  The last time I made Marion’s dish was when I was cat sitting for Sid – probably about 3 years ago – and the Black Panther came over for lunch.  Afterwards we were supposed to watch the Capra classic, “The Women” together but he basically slept all the way through it on the sofa.

Knowing now what I didn’t know then, he’d obviously got all tired out the night before with another one of the 8 ladies he had on the go at the same time as me.  What a man!

Grace and I awoke with the humdinger of all hangovers on Sunday morning after our singles night in the champagne bar of the Great Eastern Hotel. Grace had more success than I did – there was one incident of her encouraging a young man to take his T-shirt off I hear – as usual I only fancied the DJ. What is it about them I wonder…

Anyhow, we attempted to eat Marion’s Rarebit in the garden wearing very dark sunglasses and sipping gingerly from cups of tea. Grace’s verdict on the dish didn’t really help with the digestion. She proclaimed that “it looks like VOM but tastes delicious”. After I’d managed to calm my hysterical laughter and try and be sensible I dropped the pepper grinder right in my rarebit. This produced more hysterics which caused Grace to drop the top off the milk bottle into hers.

We went back to bed for an hour to recover.

“Somebody told me I should put a pebble in my mouth to cure my stuttering.

Well, I tried it, and during a scene I swallowed the pebble. That was the end of that.”

I love Marion. I hereby resolve to get hold of some of her films on DVD. I miss her.

The Cheesecake was good except I think I should have put the cottage cheese through a seive. The lumps all sunk down to the bottom of the pie which made it look a little weird but it tasted fine. I’m going to have another go at it sometime.

The Panther had the tiniest slither – I think he is suspicious of things he doesn’t cook himself. At least HE likes women. He has to. He is surrounded by them.