The Year of Celebration

Awwww love. Wedding number 432 for this summer. Well, clearly not. But it seems that my summer has been spent dressing up to celebrate close friends tying the knot. I was happily able to witness Elyse and Andrew jumping the broom yesterday. Not so happily was that fact that I was sooo ill I could barely stand. But I soldiered on, and it was a lovely day with an incredible celebration. They did a same-day edit of all the wedding festivities and showed it at about 11pm. I nearly caught the bouquet (not normally my thing, but I decided to be a good sport about it), but then had it ripped from my hands by a clearly keener girl. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. Today in 1908, US President Lyndon. B. Johnson was born. The following quote comes from him: "We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for one hundred years or more. It is time now to write it in the books of law." But his other quotes are much funnier. The man had

I landed in Toronto yesterday to celebrate the wedding of two of my close friends Elyse and Andrew. The wedding is in a couple of hours and I feel ROTTEN. Is it the result of too much partying? I wish. Last night I had dinner with one of my favourite married couples Miranda and Chris and another friend Sabrina. We went to Ki, a modern Japanese restaurant on Bay Street. The food was phenomenal. And Miranda and Chris generously paid for everyone's dinner, which was absolutely lovely of them. Chris left to join the boys on a pre-wedding night out. Us girls (pictured) went onto party in town, and that's when the trouble began. I just felt like my food wasn't digesting. By the time I got home I felt truly awful and basically spent the entire night being sick. Not cool. Seeing as we all had sharing plates, and no one else is ill, I have to admit it's probably just a stomach flu I've picked up. But whatever it is, I'm fighting to celebrate today (fighting to stay on m

It is with a heavy heart that I write about the death of Nick Ashford of the couple and power-house music duo Ashford & Simpson. I have been fortunate in my own life to see them perform twice, both at Progressive Labour Party events in Bermuda, where they took on the slogan "Solid as a Rock" for their election campaign (and won). This twosome wrote so many of the world's most famous songs, I'm nearly having a meltdown trying to figure out what to share. So I just had to choose the classic Ain't No Mountain High Enough (which is also the backing music for Amy Winehouse's Tears Dry on Their Own). Thank you, Nick Ashford, for giving us so much music to celebrate. Rest Well. Personally, I was in a "Kind of Blue" kind of mood today, so I spent the evening listening to Miles Davis' album of the name and started clearing out my belongings ahead of the move back to LA. My mother wants to move after we've all left so she's commanded

After last night's early night I had a lot of energy this morning. Spent a couple of hours writing my children's book, then headed to St. George's to see my sister's godmother Gina before she headed back to the UK. I arrived at Grape Bay and surfed (badly) for a few hours with my friends Nick, Ben, Kaitlyn, Jason and my sister Nadia. Nick recently had his jaw broken by some youths who jumped him for defending a girl in a bar. I marvel at Nick's positivity. He's one of the sunniest people I know and hasn't let this get him down. He inspires me to be more optimistic. Nick hasn't let it make him less sociable, and actually went to the concert I missed on Friday night, because I was moping at home. As I was driving home from the beach all I could think was that I was in a blues/jazz kind of mood and immediately wanted to start playing some when I got home. Happily for me, today is the birthdate of Count Basie, so I had a reason to listen to him for an hou

No post yesterday because I was thoroughly miserable. Any particular reason? Well, no. Which makes being bipolar so frustrating sometimes, because I was on a high all week following my birthday (and not having the usual birthday crises). So I finished work at 3pm, got into bed, and didn't leave until 6am the next morning. I got a little work done on my children's book though (from the comfort of my bed) so at least I achieved something. All of my friends went to a concert at Snorkel Park. Mischka, a Bermudian reggae artist who was recently signed to Matthew McConaughey's new record label, was the headliner. But I couldn't even bring myself to shower, let alone get gussied up to go to a concert. And I had no amount of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) either so wasn't really concerned. Although, I woke up feeling fine today and now regret not going out! Ah, you can't win 'em all (even if that's what this year of celebration is about). So I just decided to go dou

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I'm in a Book Club called B3 (Bermy Book Babes). Clearly, an all-female book club, it's a great chance to open my mind to books I wouldn't usually read and have a good old natter once every couple of months. One book we read a few months ago was The Help, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I went to see the film tonight with Aziza and my younger sister Claudia and it was very faithful to the book. My only issue was that, and I know this sounds controversial, but many in Book Club agreed with me, that the Black women couldn't stand up for themselves, and they needed a White woman to essentially come to their rescue and make them see the light. The book was written by a White woman, so I can see how it would be told from her perspective. But it was an extraordinary book, and an excellent story.  Here are some quotes from the film: "Fried chicken just tend to make you feel better about life."  "If

Today is my friend Lee Hirsch's birthday, and in celebration of him I'm posting the trailer to his incredible documentary, "The Bully Project: A Year in the Life of America's Bullying Crisis". It's a truly phenomenal piece of work, and if you're at festivals, or when it gets properly released rush to see it. You can check out the facebook page here . <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PBymTVjBYHg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So my family thinks I make such a big deal about my birthday that they've decided to name it LianaFest. I have fully embraced this name and am totally content with pushing it to the limit. Last year I rented a boat, threw a Garden of Eden themed party on it, and everyone came off the boat a little worse for wear, but keen to continue partying. I had a fantastic time. This year had a lower turn-out. Surprising as it was on land, and I was a little disappointed. But I still had a lot of friends there, and felt pretty loved, so it was definitely good enough. Frankly, I needn't celebrate anything more on my birthday, and I'm recovering today so that's all I'll leave you with.

And a hair appointment. After all this partying I need beautifying. Thatisall.

Non-Mariners' Day is considered one of the best days in the Bermuda calendar. Hundreds of boats go to Mangrove Bay in Somerset and "raft-up" together, creating pockets of parties all along the water that you can swim between. There's also the Non-Mariners' Race, which involves people building floating crafts out of various pieces of debris and attempting to "race" them. They mostly involve funny jokes, and there's a pipe band. People gather at the shore to watch the hilarity. I stayed away and just hung out on the boats partying. I was supposed to go for a farewell dinner for Jen at the lighthouse, but that was impossible as I fell asleep at 7 and have only just woken up!