Princess Margaret, younger sister to the Queen, died on Saturday after a long illness. She was known in euqal parts for her glamorous beauty and her rather vicious wit. She could be cold, gracious, haughty, rebellious, and distant but could never quite find happiness balancing love and her sense of duty. Constitutionally she had no place or duties and seemed to have battled that in her life. She was 71.



Saturday was the Pop Idol climax. For weeks, we've heard very little but the Pop Idol television competition -- where people audition to be viciously cut down by rather nasty judges. The winner won a record contract and the last two in the running were the topic of most conversations. Will is 23, posh, a bit of a queen. Gareth is 17, an angelic-faced boy who worked to overcome a very serious stutter. They both sang quite well, but may be destined to suffer the same fate as the insufferably insipid Pop Stars winners, Hear'say. Well that's really more than this whole thing deserved, though it's worth noting that more people voted in this competition than in the last general election.

Jubilee Day. Today is the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's ascension to the throne. In 1000 years of British monarchs only five reigned for more than 50 years. So I think queens everywhere should celebrate. The mood of the country is mixed -- some refusing outright to celebrate, others mindful of the considerable amount of public service she's done over the 50 years, still others happy for any reason to get to the pub. I believe that the monarchy is a powerful part of the British culture and the future (Wills) certainly looks golden.

Fast and faster. Spent a day last week working on a very fast re-redesign of this site as I wanted simplicity. Don't despair -- it's not finished yet and I'll be working on it for weeks, no doubt. Then this weekend I continued the trend of financial mismanagement and bought the new Powerbook G4 that Ive been drooling over for some time. It's a beautiful machine. I want to show it off to everyone which is guaranteed to create spite and jealousy everywhere. So much for not being materialistic!



In very happy news, it appears we will be moving our office to Covent Garden. Goodbye the leafy suburb of Queens Park and hello, London!

I wake up in the morning to the sounds of Radio 4 and the endless debate about American treatment of the Taliban prisoners. They risk losing a lot of respect in the world, apparently and it isn't helped by the fact the Radio 4 manages to find the most stupidly inarticulate Americans to interview. In other news, I spent the weekend buying new clothes (for business) and dancing in a club until 5am with a very cute Scottish boy. Not sure what's going to happen next -- although I do need to soak my feet -- but it was a brilliant night out (and morning in.)

Bad luck. President Bush almost chokes on a pretzel just days after telling us there would only be new taxes "over my dead body." Am I laughing over the irony? Had a fairly quiet weekend -- cooking, cleaning, watching several hours of the fantastic oceanographic documentary, the Blue Planet. Not exciting, but I'm just now feeling rested form the holidays. Must plan a trip soon, I'm thinking Vienna would be lovely in the Winter.

Happy New Year. After an all too brief trip to the US for Christmas with my mom, and a fast roadtrip to Santa Barbara to see Kelly, and a single night in San Francisco to see friends, and a lovely wait in the upper class Virgin lounge at the airport, I'm back in England. Flew back with Robert to meet Kate and Anne who had spent the week in my flat. We've been shopping and sightseeing -- the new British Galleries at the Victoria and Albert are as delightful as promised. New Year's was spent at home eating sublime snacks from Selfridges and drinking too much champagne. Hope you had a blessed and happy new year.

Cornwall. It took us 1.5 hours to travel the six miles down Cromwell Road to the A4. I was pretty much out of a roadtrip frame of mind by that time. But there was adventure ahead. Kirsten and I stopped in a Moto in Reading and I got behind the wheel for the first time in England. It's terrifying. I felt 15 again, sitting next to my father panicked about where to look or turn. The biggest problem with driving wasn't staying in the left lane or turning left into roads but trying to remember that there is a whole half of a car on your left side. It's impossible to know the distance between your car and other things on the left hand side. I almost removed a couple of mirrors! But Kirsten was patient and kind. Add to that problem the fac tthat I was driving a stick shift with the gear on the left, that the English drive 90+ mph down the motorway, that is was rainy and foggy and nighttime, and that they have roundabouts, and you get an idea of the terror I felt.



Trethurffe Manor was lovely. An enormous rambling country manor in the rambling Cornish countryside. It pissed rain, but we got out to the Eden Project (bio-domes where they replicate various world climates and vegetations -- steaming jungle and dry mediterranean fields.) We visited the seaside, including Mount St. Michael, a 13th century monastery on an islet and St. Ives, quite near the Western-most point of the British Isles. We ate -- haggis, pheasant, an enormous Martha Stewart recipe Thanksgiving dinner (I made whilst drinking champagne -- surprisingly, very good) and drank three cases of wine. We played silly parlor games and watched as our Md stuffed ten raw brussel sprouts into his mouth. (I thought I was going to pee my pants with laughter.) I'll post the pictures soon.