Come Dine With Me

Photo rights: JCT

Sheffield based author, photographer & publisher Jude Calvert-Toulmin wins Come Dine With Me.

Link to Jude's blogspot including an interview about her CDWM experience. www.judecalverttoulmin.blogspot.com

Jude is a friend who I initially met about ten years ago via the wonders of the web; another social networking nut, she and I bonded over a love of Big Brother, a spookily similar life path, and more recently a love of food.

Having been fortunate enough to be a guest at one of her rather brilliant parties, I can confirm that this multi talented woman is a great hostess and a damned fine cook. She and her husband Brian have an innate talent for bringing people together and surrounding them with food, smiles and music in the most convivial fashion.

Our passion for Big Brother may have faded, but our friendships grows stronger, as does her lust for life.

Congratulations Jude, your win was justly deserved. Proud of you and your tits looked great on TV !

Janine making banana cake in the pretty apron that I sent her

Janine, NSW, Australia 2011 February

Time Flies

I have been a very naughty blogger; I let life run away with me and neglected to attend to The Secret Speakeasy. So here I am, to dust off the cobwebs and rearrange the furniture.

A lot has been happening in Nightingale World. I have decided to go back to work; John's recovery from an aquired brain injury is progressing well and I need to get back in touch with the outside world. So, in less than two weeks time I will become the new PA to the Directors of One Creative Environments, an architectural design practice. Having spent the last five years working within the design & build sector, I know this job will fit me like a glove.

I have also had my own cow named after me. Ali lives in New South Wales, Australia on the "ranch" owned by one of my BF's, Janine Snow (Princess Nini of Snowland - she rules Wales you know !)

I adore Highland Cattle, and Ali is a beauty. I only hope she doesn't end up like Colin, another of Janine's bovine entourage. He is now packaged up in her kitchen, marked as Scottish fillet and lean mince :-(

Ode to ForeverMod (a poem written to Janine when she was emigrating)

To lose a best friend is careless, but I’m not known for being tidy
But let’s go back to when we met – I’m sure it was a Friday
A jaunt to the Black Country; a room shared with a stranger
I should have know that instant, my sanity was endangered

Announcing boldy to the staff “We’re lesbians you know …
This is my Mummy Alison and I am Janine Snow”
Although I didn’t know it, I had gained my own pet Mod
It took a while to realise that she was a frightful sod

But hey, I gained a daughter ( a mere few years younger )
For Cider, Slimfast and Cheese String, she had insatiable hunger
Arriving weekly at my home with bottles of champagne
Generous of spirit, but headfu*ked in the brain

We travelled Britain’s motorways in search of soulful times
The Highway code forgotten, committing driving crimes
A text sent here, nails painted there, deftly actioned and applied
Crashes, scrapes and writes offs – she took all in her stride

I’ve witnessed her ascent to heights so dizzy and alarming
Crowned Princess of Snowland and yet down to earth and charming
A spoilt brat, a naughty child, a nightmare adolescent
Nini somehow pulls it off – the best anti-depressant

I’ll miss the Minx, the Monkey, the Modernist Mademoiselle
I’m sorry that I cannot be there to wish her fond farewell
Goodbye my dearest cowbag, our wicked pretend daughter
I promise we’ll visit you in Oz - come hell or high water

You’ve been a total diamond; best friend in times of woe
Maybe we should make a stand, refuse to let you go
You fly away to the Promised Land of sun and glistening sea
Just take the time to think of us, Darling Persephone