Dearest Family and Friends
August Highlights
Pregnancy Update
It is remarkable how public a persona one becomes when up the duff. People I pass in the street beam at me – disconcerting as I know we haven’t met, until I remember the vast appendage which precedes my every move. Drunken tramps, of which there are more than a few hereabouts, shout, ‘Boy!’ at me at every turn. I’ve had only one shout, ‘Girl!’ – I’m somewhat sceptical of their soothsaying but time will tell – very shortly. Taxi drivers become sentimental and full of advice. A disembodied voice yelled ‘Gaad you’re the sexiest pregnant lady I’ve seen’ out of a car window last week. Strangers in shops strike up conversation. Which was fun in the Italian deli when it was the entire contingent of a large SF fire engine. 
I’m realising the extent to which I will be defined in terms of my offspring for the next few years, and will have to adjust to that.I’m told that the baby is head down, the heartbeat is strong, and all looks and feels normal. It is hard not to get stressed out about everything that needs to be done in time for the birth and much ticking-off-the-list activity has been deployed – it does feel as if we are getting there bit by bit.
To the New Born Parenting Skills class –
care and maintenance, cleaning, resale value – where we were treated to gruesome colour handouts of every shade of anal emission, we practised diaper-changing, discussed the merits of disposables, cloth, biodegradables, chemical-free, diaper-free. It was a helpful session overall – learning about swaddling and loud shushing; being San Francisco, we spent more time on how pets will adjust to the arrival of Baby than on common early illnesses. Big Chill
Weekend of the Year
Our annual expedition to the Big Chill Festival in the beautiful deer park of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire was extra special this year. The weather had threatened but I was supremely confident that we would have sunshine and no mud as we are charmed – and so (mostly) it was. Colman and I travelled down separately. Crispin and I were the advance party and secured the site, getting there just in time to earmark a big area in our usual field – 
thanks Crispin. Luckily many of our posse managed to get there on the Thursday so it was easier holding the space than usual. Special thanks to Charlie and Nicola for the ENORMOUS gazebo and bringing a hearth – sterling effort!
Crispin, Moody and I wandered around the Festival checking out the pre-event buzz including the disco mirrored yacht created by old friends of mine from which Pete Lawrence spun his first set of the Big Chill. Everybody was very hyped up on the first night and the camping field more crowded than normal, cheers and fireworks all night. 
Although perfectly comfy in my borrowed tent and sleeping bag (thanks Louise & Peter) on the borrowed air mattress (a godsend, thanks Cat), the noise meant I didn’t sleep until 4am which was NOT in the game plan. Although sadly it didn’t deter the tent robbers who came out to play again… We had one victim in our gang.
On Friday outfits emerged, the vibe was very Big Chill, flags and pennants flew everywhere – ours was a big yellow sun (thanks Gayani & Rob). More friends arrived during the day; our site was getting full. Martin and I treated ourselves to the first of several Grand Bouffes (perfect festival fare of potatoes cooked in white wine topped with a Toulouse sausage) and then I indulged in an hour’s shiatsu massage in the Body and Soul space – bliss. Afterwards I could barely string a sentence together, but somehow managed to stagger back up that hill to the campsite and hang out. 
Our tribe now comprised 30 tents and included 12 kids. Colman had now arrived with Kay and Mellie Mel. And we set off for the evening’s entertainment. First up punk/funk with The Blockheads featuring Chas Jankel on vocals, whose fabulous attitude and old anarchist pro act got the crowd rocking along. The encore was aptly Reasons to be Cheerful Pt3. Followed by Kruder and Dorfmeister who played an excellent and inventive set although I forced myself to leave at 11.30 and climbed the hill slowly with Heather to collapse into bed leaving various people gossiping by the camp fire as flaming lanterns arced across the night sky.
Thankfully I managed 5 hours sleep so caught up on the previous night; others stayed up partying all night which meant our camp was operating 24 hours as the kids got up from 6.30 onwards. Merriment at the campsite included playing the peg game, teasing Matthew for having lost his voice, and face painting.
That afternoon Colman and I went down the hill in the afternoon to the Dressing Up Box where we watched
Calum, Megan and Elsie perform on the catwalk in increasingly flamboyant outfits and hats. Not to be outdone Charlie and Colman donned vintage dresses and entered the grown up competition – sadly neither won despite their best hip wiggles. We then watched – Colman, Candida, Sloan, Gayani and Zoe partook – of the unfeasibly energetic barn dancing which was great fun. Top
Surprise Baby Shower
Surprise Baby Shower
It didn’t strike me as suspicious that Zoe and Colman were in no hurry to get back to the campsite to change for the evning. But as they stopped to buy hats, get dinner, more drinks, it was becoming irksome. And then we chanced upon Matthew and his gang so went to see Seasick Steve with them - an excellent decision. An old Bluesman and former hobo who has only recently achieved recognition and renown (best breakthrough artist 2006), he had the Open Air stage crowd in the palm of his hand – just him, his guitar and a couple of weird home-made instruments constructed from a single string, piece of carpet and old screwdriver. At 7 we assailed the hill again, Gayani, Zoe and Colman pushing me up the gradient. 
And the campsite was transformed – pink and blue balloons everywhere, baby streamers, pink champagne flowed, nibbles passed round – my surprise baby shower organised by Alex & Sonia! Naturally I cried – even more so when I realised how much effort everybody had gone to. Presents materialised, games were played: I bathed a baby doll, put a nappy on, and dressed it while blindfolded to a chorus of children crying like babies. 
Names chosen by everybody were drawn out of a hat – Matthew very disappointed we rejected Rum and Black as a contender – we chose Murray River and Josephine as the best ones. But the piece de resistance was Kay’s artistic triumph of the painted sun belly – with some help from Jessica – an amazing sight to behold! It was so moving to be with such close friends and celebrate the imminent arrival of Baby at my favourite Festival.
That night I was determined to have a big night. A group of us (Tom, Charlie, Ben, Zoe, James, Rhona, Heather, Adam, Gayani & Rob) went from Mr Scruff (fun) to Fat Tuesdays to Finlandia to Tom Middleton (interesting, not dancey enough) to Crazy P (infectious soulful dance group) - the perfect way to finish off the night. I was dead chuffed to have lasted until 2! Colman, Zoe, James and Rhona went on until 4 trudging around the festival in search of more fun hooking up with Kay & Mellie Mel among others – disgusted to see that the dance tent past 2 featured a string quartet! 
Sunday was gloriously hot and sunny – as Sundays at the Big Chill always are. Adam, Alf and Jenna managed to get to bed at 11am which drew plaudits. Striking camp and clearing up was very sad. Over half of us had to go; Nikki and Aidan almost distraught at having to leave early for the first time! We had our ritualistic rendezvous with Norman Jay at 1
– Vicki-Ann accompanied me down the hill for the last time – for one final Grand Bouffe before hand. Considering the soaring temperatures and the crowd we did well to get nearly all our posse along to see Norman Jay. 
Poppy and Rose did brilliantly in the heat; Calum had the time of his life on various shoulders; I danced solidly for 2 hours flashing my still painted belly to all and sundry; Matthew still couldn’t speak; Megan cavorted like a dervish; 
it was a fitting end to our wonderful joyful weekend. When the time came to say farewell, I wasn’t the only one crying – Sonia, Zoe, Nikki, Cat included – all taking refuge behind sunglasses and stiff upper British lips. Two cartwheels later (sealed the festival, had to be done) we were on our way, racing against the clock to get to London in time for my parents’ 45th wedding anniversary party. 
Colman snoozed, I drove and we made it by 7.30, hopped into the shower – just in time to show Lizzie and Mum my colourful midriff – and changed into something more appropriately sedate. Polite genteel conversation ensued for the next 3 hours – yummy food – thanks Mum. And we said our goodbyes to Louise, Peter, Lizzie and Thomas before they headed to Pakistan for 2 years. And we flew back to San Francisco the next morning.Top
Outing of the Month
Squeeze in the South Bay. I’d arranged a Surprise for Colman which entailed driving with Gerardo and Sophia down to Mountain View (thanks guys) where we collected him and drove to the Mountain Winery - as the name suggests a winery perched on a mountain slope overlooking Silicon Valley. We met up with Meredith, Adam & Jen for Squeeze, playing together for the first time since 1999, who didn’t disappoint by playing their whole back catalogue, but did let us down by not having fisticuffs on stage – Glenn and Chris having made up seemingly and being best of buddies again – although they did quip that stabbing each other was once a more likely prospect than reuniting at one point.Baby Celebration
Baby Celebration
Determined to have a party to mark the occasion, we arranged a celebration to be held in our beautiful shared garden, tended with enormous pride and flair by our downstairs neighbour, Kim. For the first time since we moved to No.57 the whole building – there are flats on the ground and middle floors below us – were being social together – which was great. 
Convivial and alcoholic (we had a Bloody Mary bar on the go) it was a perfect hot sunny Sunday afternoon. Kim and her flatmate Tom had prepped the garden; 
Patrick, Catherine and daughter Caroline also helped out and came up with some really fun and unexpected games - thank you for arranging! These included making names from the letters NADINECOLMAN, which produced a surprising number of contenders. 
Jason got the longest anagram – CINNAMON; Adam the most amusing – NO IDEA. After guessing nursery rhyme lyrics, we then had a baby food blind tasting. 
It is no wonder that mothers report difficulty in feeding their children. This stuff was absolutely vile – and it was all highly organic and nutritious according to the labels – yeurgh! The winners with the best combined score after three events were Gerardo and Sophia, who won a bottle of the wine that had come top in the last of The Mission Vintner’s monthly wine tastings, a Zinfandel.
There were only 3 of us pregnant ladies as Kristan went into labour on the day itself; Tracy brought baby Isis, just under 4 weeks old: the first DLG of the next generation. Special prize of the day goes to the DLG, who true to form, were the first to arrive, were on splendid form all day, and left when it got too dark to see. Thank you all for the generous gifts.Top
Visitors
Visitors of the MonthThere’s absolutely no truth in the rumour that there were nothing but three in the bed romps and Apple computer maintenance when Luke and Anna came to stay – up from LA for the weekend on their way to wine tasting in Sonoma. Far from it!
Friday, we ate a cheap and delicious Thai meal at Suriya on Valencia, joined by Rob. Saturday night we feasted at home. Lovely to see them on such good form.It was wonderful to see Wilma and Howie over from Sydney – on cracking form without the kids for the first time in 7 years. We had one night out at dinner; on the Friday night, they treated us to a Beastie Boys concert.
Despite the band being older than the total age of the front row of the audience, they were fantastic: energetic, talented, looked cool in suits and ties, and above all, had excellent lighting set. A simple idea – taking the ovoid shapes common to Alexander Calder sculptural mobiles, mounting them at in a row of 4 and 5 above the band, as LED visual and video displays – it was amazing and matched the retro 60s meets 70s funk with loungey electronic beats type music they now produce. Being pregnant we scored a table - superb. THANK YOU Wilma and Howie – we had a fantastic night.
Poker Game of the MonthLaurel and John, Armani and Geoff, Colman and I attended a Partners Pregnancy Yoga Workshop together. To compensate the boys for partaking in such hippydippy girly activity, we all came back to ours and played poker for hours – Texas Hold’Em rules. The boys got completely hammered, Laurel proved to be a natural without knowing the rules, it was hilarious playing with Monopoly money and dried beans. I won on the last all in round with 3 6s and scooped the pot!
Celestial Moments of the MonthSleep has not been the best over the last month – turning over in bed is a 10 minute operation involving bolsters and pillows - but we used this to our advantage on the occasion of the Lunar Eclipse on the night of the 27th August, which we had a bullseye view of from our bedroom window.
The skies have been cloudless, the weather has been hot and all have proclaimed this to be a very untypical San Francisco summer. But we aren’t complaining. Every morning the sun has streamed through our blinds heralding another cloudless day; on the rare days when it starts more typically grey, by mid-morning the sun invariably has broken through. So this mackerel sky dawn last week was less expected and really entrancing.Restaurant of the Month
We revisited Woodward’s Garden with Dan and Dayna, marking the end of our first year in San Francisco – once Baby is here such outings will be fewer no doubt. Colman took me here in my first week; I treated him this time. Colman and Dayna had yellow tomato gazpacho – beautifully concocted – while we all shared the figs stuffed with gorgonzola wrapped in prosciutto. The lamb shank with bean ragout was declared the best main; we shared a plum and nectarine crisp for dessert. 
Bird of the Month by Mission BoyThe American Goldfinch Carduelis tristis that rammed the window in Inverness – on my last weekend away of solitude. The poor mite spent ten minutes drunkenly slouching against the wall underneath the window ledge, a lazy eye telling us he was not long for this world. Until – flash – up and away and back to play with his mates.
Mural of the Month
Wine Tasting of the Month by Mission Boy
I preach the virtues of Riesling.
To the unconverted Riesling sounds like its going to be thin, probably sugar, not unlike the Black Towers and Blue Nuns that fatally wounded the credibility of German wine among UK consumers.
Well guess what: Riesling is wonderful. They are made the world over so when our gang put together six blind bottles four countries were represented. We had two examples each from the ancestral homes: Alsace (France) and the Mosel (Germany), an organic wine from Washington and an Australian, by Yalumba.
No other grape is the foundation for such a wide variety of styles.
As you’d expect a wide range of sweetnesses were included. German wines do inhabit the medium sweet spectrum, but don’t let that put you off. The whole point is that good examples offset the sweetness with a juicy, fresh finish, in the way that orange juice does.
As usual, The Mission Vinters tasted blind, scored and competed for the most outlandish notes (buttered popcorn? Really?).
Interesting outcomes were aplenty:
1. The organic wine (Badger Mountain, Columbia Valley), was favourite. This gives the lie to the vast majority of producers who say that sulphites (added since time immemorial) are necessary to stabilise a wine. Also this was a $10 wine.
2. The driest wines were actually the least favourite. Although most people agreed that they could enjoy all, or nearly all the wines on the night. The two German medium-sweet wines came 2nd or 3rd.
3. The driest wine was Australian, and this came fifth in preference. The lesson: when Riesling is fully dry, that ‘juiciness’ can turn into sharpness. Use this kind of wine with salty food, like shellfish. Acidity is the antidote to salt (think of the vinegar on your salty chips).Stencil of the Month
Bumper Sticker of the Month
Don’t Believe All That You Think
Love and hugs Nadine and Colman xxx
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