Lisa Luyten - Photographer...

Yep that's right, I am proclaiming myself officially a photographer.  A part time professional photographer.  Is that too premature? Well possibly but you know what if you try and don't succeed you at least tried.  I now have a facebook fan page too and I am definitely going to do more work.  Above are photos from my most recent shoot, and I am very chuffed by them.  Yeah me!

The next step is to advertise for a model, make up artist and stylist for a shoot.  Baby steps still though, just need to keep taking photos, that is the only way to improve.

Wish me luck and cross your fingers....

Ps at least you know I have been busy in my gross misconduct of severly failing to keep this poor blog update, I promise to be better.

BBQ Days

Some of our close friends decided that a quiet low key BBQ was in order for Easter Monday. So we divided up the duties and on the day headed to our local park (about 2 minutes from our house) to fire up the BBQ and enjoy drink and catch up chats, you guessed it, in the sunshine. Delightful.

Mark cooking the snags

Friends - Matt Emma and Scott

The Boys at the BBQ

The Food - Yum

Amazing BB

And what she made me, check out the link.  I love my Lavender bags! Thanks BB

http://www.makemeonebernieb.com/2010/04/for-the-smell-of-it/

Photo of the Day No.30 - Happy Engagement

Congratulations to our friends Alex and Dan on their engagement!!

(The end of the friendship....the beginning of something so much better)

Happy Australia Day....from London for the last time!

Today is one of the most favoured days of the year, especially if you're actually in Australia. We get the day off there, but not here. However to make it more special as we have to work by doing Australian things.

Getting it ready...note the fairy dust (key ingredient)

Last night I made ANZAC cookies (last year I at about 11pm endeavoured to make Lamingtons, a great feat I tell you) which are nice and easy to make, well sort of. In my case difficult purely because I thought I got a few of the measurements wrong especially as I have an Australian recipe with metric measurements, imperial kitchen jugs (no spoons or scoops) and the scales are my luggage scales!!!

And the photos tell the tale!

Me doing cooking....yes really..I can follow a recipe!!!

Ready to go in the oven...

Today at work a few of the team made the epic, but required, annual trek to the Covent Garden Australia Shop for supplies. We had pizza shapes, BBQ shapes, Cheese & Bacon shapes, cheese Twisties, Violet crumble, Picnics, Tim Tams, and some Cherry Ripes, so quite a feast really.

The very busy Walkabout and the queue round the block

Tonight we headed to the Walkabout, a much packed Walkabout, the queue was rediculous, but at least we went for a little whiel. The entertainment that was the drunken Aussies (and generally Kiwi's too) who had been in there since lunchtime, dressed as yobbos, and you have to be one to dress as one and they were!!

My team at work; Brien, Amy, Matt, Jessie who is new (she has a cool French accent as she is from Maruitus) and me.

If we'd been a little later we'd have seen them try to belt out Aussie tunes on the Karaoke stage, it was extremely funny last year. Oh and I have a little Australian Flag on my arm for good measure, as you can see;
Me with my tattoo...

Next year, I get the day off, so BBQ, lammies, snacks, and drinks at my place.... yippee!

Wanted gorgeous gals to drool over SEXY Male Swans

That was me, Jade and Shauna, and drool we did, the principal dancer was a hottie, especially in shiny black leather when he is the stranger in Act 3. There are no words to describe, just subtle groans and lip licking all round...mmm mmm.

We sat 3 rows from the front and were delighted in the fact that we could hear every step, see every wobble, every muscle ripple, every rivulet of sweat, oh and the smell. Yes, but it wasn't bad, it was all baby powder to make them white for swans.

Photo from the Internet....Swans...

Aside from the hot muscly guys in the Swan scenes, the show it self was extremely modern and actually terrifically funny in some places, particularly the dancer who was the girlfriend. We got the giggles, she was so funny. I won't give anymore away, you'll just have to go and see for yourself.

The Matthew Bourne, Swan Lake at Sadler's Wells of course!
Jade and I with birthday cocktails for Jade
Me, with Jade and Shauna
My Russian doll, Olga...I named her just then... who contains 5 other ladies, Aleksandra, Helga, Irina, Mischa and Nadja from Jade's Russian Xmas and New Year

Photo of the Day No.16 - RED!

Afternoon tea at the Lanesborough; champagne - check, tea - check, crust free sandwiches - check, min tea cakes and scones - check, .... co-ordinated red nail polish - check!!!!

Photo of the Day No.15 - 6 weeks on...

And Amelie is more adorable every day! We are going to be roomies soon so there will be more photos of this little munchkin soon too.

Photo of the Day No.14 - From Russia with Love

A gift from my friend Jade who went to Russia for Christmas and New Years. We had them out before we went to Sadler's Wells to watch the Matthew Bourne "Swan Lake" as a treat evening for her birthday, and watching the hot dancers was so "present" enough!!

Photo of the Day No.13 - Angel

It snowed amazingly today, what a nice suprise, but rather than another snow shot, this little angel Darcey gets my vote as my photo of the day. Ain't she precious?

Szu-Yuens.. Wedding Birthday Bash ..Tule overload!

Szu-Yuen didn't want to do just an ordinary birthday, she was pretty keen for an excuse to watch her wedding video a few more times.

So no your not seeing a crazy wedding without the grooms your seeing a bunch of girlys with a damn good excuse to dress up in wedding and bridesmaids dress's. AND eat cake and listen to LOTS of ABBA. We certainly did watch the wedding too - which was lovely, but also Muriel's Wedding too.

It was a hilarious afternoon.

Cakes, home and handmade by Szu's herself
The Birthday Girl!!
Crazy brides and belles...
The full monty!
Mari with cakes

Katy and Natasha, 2/5ths of the the Ladies who Lunch

Photo of the Day No.10 - Muriel's Wedding

Am not sure much can be said for this, as you can see two brides, two brides maids...hmmm and what they are wearing, wedding from hell maybe? Nope "Muriel's Wedding" themed birthday party......enough said!

Photo of the Day No.8 - Girls Night

There is nothing to say here....we had a great girly night at Jewel Bar Covent Garden then after Cinderella hour, Shilo and I ended up at Buddha bar, which I must say aside from impressively massive Buddha statue was actually terribly boring!!

Photo of the Day No.6 - Our New Friends

Last night it started snowing, then snowed more, and more, and this evening when we got home from work after leaving work in a blizzard of snow cornflakes Mark and I headed up to Hampstead Heath and Parliament hill to enjoy the snow.

The lights of London reflected off the white sky and white snow made a potentially miserable winters evening blindingly light. Amazing. Oh, and the crunching sound of snow under your feet is better than listening to coco pops for breakfast. I WILL MISS SNOW!!!

When we got back we "made" a few little friends out front of the flat. Marks was slightly disrespectful of my penguin looking snow man and decided to make his own, more normal (apparently) looking snow man. Perfectly, a kind neighbour had left out their Xmas tree for our new friends to enjoy too.

Ps later in the evening our snow friends got a new friend, seems we're not the only ones building snowmen!!

A bit of Puccini

I love anything that is exotic and beautiful, Opera for me is no exception, though to be honest I did find Wagners "The Ring Cycle" a little tough to watch.

However, this time the opera was Puccini's, "La Boheme" and it was nothing but something of immaculate beauty, something for all the senses.

The singing was champagne for the ears, the story so romantic and hopeful. The set was divine visual splendour, perfectly prepared you could easily mistake that you were sitting in the spectacular Royal Opera House and felt you had been transported to a very wintery, but ever so glamorous 18th century bohemian Paris. The taste was of champagne in the interval and the smell, was that of snow outside when the show ended.

Simply stunning, and yes I did cry at the end.

The Perrier Jouet Bar, nice! And we reserved our interval champers

The view from our seats

See, me with my Champagne

And Miss Amy with her Champagne

Xmas Shenanigans and a bar called the Walkabout

Our Team at Xmas party, dinner at Smolensky's on the Strand
Me later at the Walkabout
Amy, Brien, Rachael and I at the Walkabout in silly mode

Legally Blonde... The Musical

Last night I had tickets to the theatre to see the just released "Legally Blonde" the musical, I had been itching to see this since April when it first was announced because one of my favourite British comedy actresses - Sheridan Smith - was taking the lead starring as Elle Woods herself. At the time I bought two tickets unsure of whom I would go with, but last minute saw me inviting my lovely friend Alex along for the ride (Mark was pleased he got to play XBox instead). We had a quick tipple at a very cheap and cosy old pub on the Strand before getting ourselves lost in musical land.

Me and Alex

I was slightly nervous, what to expect, could they pull it off would it be funny!? Well I was not disappointed, it was everything it should be, screaming girly audience, bright colours, pink and more pink, chirpy, dazzling, glitzy, refreshing and cheesy all rolled up into one. Sheridan was such a bubbly character and sported a dazzling smile throughout. It was cute too, as how could you have the show without Elle's little puppy Bruiser or Paulettes chubby British bulldog, oh they were adorable!

I could not stop grinning and Alex agreed it really was a fun show and of course at the end Elle saves the day and wins the man, sigh, I will have to watch that on DVD again soon. That was not all, wait there is more.

A true fan waits patiently at the stage door after the show and awaits the stars of the show to exit to sign the much coveted programme; ur, yep me. Alex was ever patient (and found it odd being on the fan side herself...she works for TV) and was in charge of the camera, while we waited for the stars to exit the theatre.

Sheridan Smith

Turns out, lucky for me, I was guaranteed autographs as it was a night specifically set aside for it; so out came the Professor (Peter Davidson), then one of Elle's friends (Ibinabo Jack), Emmett - Elle's new man (Alex Gaumond), Paulette (Jill Halfpenny), the old boyfriend Warner (Duncan James, who was in boy band Blue) and then finally the star herself Elle - Sheridan Smith. Sigh.

Me and Sheridan...she has stage makeup on still

Well I got a little star struck but she was adorable and didn't mind the attention from so many adoring fans at all, she chatted briefly to me, signed my programme and Alex papped me with her. I was very well pleased and was most excited, in fact I was buzzing I didn't get to bed till after 1am. Ahhh...to fun times!

Bingo, and its all the threes...

Yes on Monday I celebrated my 33rd birthday, the birthday that I had mislead myself to believe I was having last year (yes I do have trouble with counting and numbers, its why I am an accountant - god bless spreadsheets). It finally came around.

Sunday I was lucky enough to have friends who don't mind crossing London in monsoonal tourential downpours wearing wellington boots - yes they did wear them - to enjoy a cosy pint and sunday roast. Bless them all it was a lovely cosy afternoon.

Me at my birthday lunch at our local - the Dartmouth Arms

On Monday Mark and I went ice skating at the Natural History Museum, as its my favourite rink of all the ones in London. Luckily for us a Monday night is relatively quiet, though you always get the odd crazy skater, ie the person who cannot skate and attempts to throw themselves from end to end and usually in front of anybody who might fall. I got a bit of backwards skating in, so I have remembered my lessons and they were not wasted at all.

Me skating around the Natural History Museum

After that we went for a wander in the ice cold conditions to the Winterwonderland. On passing a chatty Christmas moose, we admired gorgeous mini wooden chalet houses in the German markets, watched crazy people on the rides braving the cold, Mark devoured a German sausage and me a roast pork roll. We could not finish without a warming drink, so on failing to find the Winter Pimms stand hot chocolate with Baileys was in order. We had pannekoeken for dessert to finish of the evening - yum yum!

Winterwonder and the talking Moose....of course!

Winterwonderland, my attempt at another award winning photo; what do you think?

Us at Winterwonderland