Happy and Healthy

One of the best thing in the world is to have a gang.....dogs love travelling in packs and I think people love being in a gang. It's the greatest feeling of belonging and connection to be able to find a group of like minded and similar spirited people that you can hang out with share this journey with, it makes it all more fun. People like to be in tribes. Like Clare goes to the gym everyday and she was talking about how it feels good to walk in and have her special key fob to get in and when she's lined up with the other cars leaving the gym there is a little nod of recognition from the others in the tribe who have just spent an hour or so doing something healthy and positive in their lives.
Going to the gym and exercising is one thing that is a sign of a healthy life but I have been watching people and I think I have figured out what a healthy life and a healthy person looks like because they do certain things that give them away. Here is the list of things that people do to make their life healthy....They commune with nature regularly, they pray and meditate, they take care of themselves (like eating well and showering and dressing nicely), they take classes, they exercise, they express creativity, they schedule time to see friends and socially interact, they have commitments and they show up for them, they do a job that they enjoy and value, they leave their houses everyday, they ask for help and support when they need it, they call people and answer the phone, they are honest with themselves and others, they have a higher power, they play games or sports, they tell themselves nice things about themselves....which I suppose could be called affirmations, they don't cultivate relationships with people who are unhealthy....
I am sure there are a lot more things but these are the ones that I have noticed and I think contribute to people being happy and content, I may be wrong, I'm a dog after all, but I think these are all good signs.
So far the week's been good. We went to the premiere of Up In The Air with the gorgeous Mr George himself and it was a wonderful film. In case you hadn't guessed it, Mr Clooney just happens to be the coolest, funniest, nicest.....oh you know the rest. We all enjoyed the evening and took over the entire row in the Westwood movie theatre which is my favourite cinema in LA. There was a great party afterwards at The Beverly Hilton and then it was home to bed because we were all so tired. It was a really fun and perfect night and I recommend the movie to everyone. Slept like a dog.......

Happy Thanksgiving......

If I had to sum up the philosophy of this blog and of my life it is contained in this beautiful text that I got from our friend Buckley yesterday " Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it." Isn't that so true.
So this week was full of good things. Last night we discovered a fabulous, delicious Indian Restaurant in LA. We've been here for 3 years and it's taken all that time to find the perfect indian. We had a feast. It is called Chakra and is on Doheney. Apparently Michael Jackson had dinner there a couple of weeks before he died and apparently he often ordered take-away food from there. It was so good and our waiter was so knowledgeable and helpful. It made the evening even more enjoyable. Clare often tells this story about one of the wonderful pieces of advice her father gave her before he died. He was in the restaurant and wine business and he always told Clare to watch how people treat the people that are waiting on them, because you see the real them then. If you're on a date and just getting to know someone, they may well try extra hard to be charming and gracious to you to impress you but if they're rude or short or condes cending to your waiter then you should pay attention to that. I think that's good advice.
Something else I have learnt recently... I was listening to somebody talking about how they were scared about a certain situation in their life and so nervous about doing this particular thing and then Paul repeated this genius thing that he heard somewhere, that fear is 10 miles high and 10 miles wide but only one inch high, so you always just have to walk through it. You will see that it usually wasn't nearly as scary as you thought it was going to be. Paul went away last weekend to do this amazing four day course in Seattle, I'm not sure exactly what it was called or what they teach there but boy did he come back a different person. I think the essence of what they teach is that everything is just a thought, that you're not really scared or insecure, you just think you are, which makes perfect sense to me. So I am just going to think I'm happy, fulfilled and blessed, and you know what, I actually am.
So we spent Thanksgiving at The Peninsula Hotel and it was a perfect day.....perfect end to a perfect week.....HAPPY THANKSGIVING....

All you can eat.....

Golly this week has been so busy. Clare and Paul had lot of work meetings and all of it was positive and uplifting. Today was Alex's birthday, but he was working all day and evening so we all went to dinner at Il Sole last night to celebrate and then gave our presents to him before watching a marathon of 30 Rock, our favourite show of the moment. It was fun and we all just celebrated finding and having each other in our lives. It really is something to be grateful for.
Today Paul filmed Bonnie Hunt Show over in Culver City. One of the things Clare hates about going to studios is that there is food everywhere. They fill the dressing room with snacks, fruit, cookies, cakes, candies......and when you combine that with boredom and a lot of sitting around waiting, and nerves for whether or not the filming will go well, you are in for temptation hell. Clare did pick a bit and then gave up for the day and just ate whatever she wanted. The most fun thing about doing Bonnie Hunt is that it's on the same lot as Scrubs and Cougar Town. Both of which are created by our dear friend Bill Lawrence. His wife Christa Miller is one of Clare's oldest friends, Clare was bridesmaid at their wedding, and we adore them both. "There are people you meet who enrich your life, there are people you meet who steal parts of your life. And there are people you meet who, in one way or another, save you." For Clare, Christa is one of those special people.
Bill is an amazingly talented writer and Christa is a brilliant actress. Although embarassingly we had to admit we hadn't see Cougar Town, but that's probably because Clare has been quite the cougar herself so didn't really care to watch one on TV!
Anyway it was just the best thing in the world to see them both and catch up and make plans for the future. They are good people and it is always always great to hang out with them.
So Bonnie Hunt was hilarious and we got to also catch up with Nigel Lythgoe from So You Think You Can Dance. Clare has known him for years as well as he was the producer of Gladiators in England when her sister Kate was the Gladiator Zodiac. He has done so well and it was great to see him too. It is so strange how in life people seem to pop up time and time again. It's like they're just meant to be in your life and the universe keeps putting them there, even when you move and change and grow, there they are. It is strangely comforting and makes me feel like there is something bigger than me in charge, which is a great relief to me.
Here is the link to the Bonnie Hunt show piece http://www.vmsdigital.com/download/newsdigital/ingestedfile
/wmv480/TNY124408_01.wmv

Liar Liar Pants on Fire.....

We've had a weird week. We found out that somebody we know has been lying to us and it really sucked. Dogs don't lie. We wag our tails when we like something and we growl when we don't. We don't cheat, lie, manipulate, use or withhold information. Not like some people. It seems strange to me. I think it's so strange that some people can lie and lie, even when they get totally caught out, they carry on lying. Somehow I think there's something much more commendable about admitting the truth and taking responsibility. I think that's important if you have any intention of changing and trying to do better in the future. But, some people can't help themselves. I'm not sure they'd even recognise the truth if it bit them on the butt.......
It reminds me of the story Paul sometimes tells about the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion needs to get across the river and sees a frog sitting on a lily pad and he asks the frog to carry him across on his back. The frog says no, he says he's worried that the scorpion will sting him. The scorpion pleads some more and tells the frog that he won't, he promises that he won't. Finally the frog agrees and carried the scorpion across the river and to the bank on the other side. When the scorpion climbs off on to dry land it turns and stings the frog. As the frog dies he asks the scorpion why he did it. The scorpion says "I'm a scoprion, that's what I do, I can't help myself." So carry on lying, it doesn't matter, we know the truth, everybody knows the truth.
I think all you can do when it happens to you is to find forgiveness and some sort of sympathy for them. How awful to have to live a lie day in and day out to others, and probably to yourself too. Pretending to be something that you're not all the time. How can you ever love yourself, or even like yourself. The only way to happiness is to be true to yourself and the people you love and who love you. The truth will set you free. If you can tell it.
So that's all I'm going to say about that matter. I won't spend another second of my life thinking about it. On to happier things. Paul is still in London but right before he left he had the wonderful healer Satish to the house and he did his amazing magic as usual. Satish ever helped Bentley when he was sick. He is an amazing magical loving being and we all adore him. So many exciting things are happening right now and we couldn't be more thrilled. What an amazingly magical time this is........

Ageing gracefully.....

So this weekend was Paul's birthday and it was so much fun. Birthdays are bittersweet as you get older...they are fun, and a celebration, but they're also a reminder that we are another year older, but the sweet part is that I believe we are also another year wiser. Lately we have had a few situations that have reminded us that youth and the folly of youth is something we are grateful to have left behind. Bentley is so funny, he makes mistakes and gets into all sorts of trouble based entirely on his age and exuberance. He hasn't yet learned those lessons we learn, often the hard way and with a great deal of pain.
Young people don't have that experience yet and so they make decisions and choices based on arrogance and the assumption that what they have, there will be more of, better of, different of...and sometimes that was your best chance for happiness and success and you walked away from it, you threw it away. Clare treasures those people in her life now that are kind, selfless, loving, giving and wonderful mainly because she has realised that they are few and far between and she has her own regrets for treating some people badly before she learned to appreciate how precious they were.
She did her own fair share of walking away from the best shot at a great life thinking she could do better by herself and then finding out that she couldn't. Those people are your "solids", they're the people you cherish and still smile about when you think of them and to discard them is just crazy. With age you learn what's important and what's valuable, and people that invest in you, love you, want to help and nurture you are the greatest gift life can ever give you so you should treat them with kindness, appreciate them, be grateful for them everyday and do what you can to hang on to them and not to hurt them with thoughtlessness and the pursuit of excitement elsewhere. Having lived quite a lot of life now, excitement really is not all it's cracked up to be, it's so momentary and fades so quickly, better to hang on to real life and real love than the promise of it packaged in a glitzy wrapper that two days later is just trash. But no-one can teach you any of this until you are ready to learn it and sometimes then it's too late.
So I guess you live and you learn, you learn through living longer, and most of all you learn the true value of things. You learn that some things that look wonderful actually turn out to be worthless and you learn that some things you should treasure with all your heart and soul until the day you die, like Paul. Definitely Paul.
So the birthday BBQ was fabulous......Max and Dougray and Clare and Sean and Martyn and Lord Freddie and Sophie and on and on with our favourite people. We had dinners at Dan Tanna's and BLT and they all included candles and cake. Oh and Thursday night we went to the premiere of A Single Man, the new Tom Ford movie, starring Colin Firth and our own Nicholas Hoult, who has never looked more handsome, it was a fabulous night and the images stayed with me for the rest of the week, images of love lost and sad hearts and hopes dashed, it was so beautiful, I hope you get to see it. Slept like a peaceful, happy, calm and relieved dog......

Christmas already....

So it's 96 degrees here and they have the christmas cups and Peppermint and Pumpkin Lattes at Starbucks already. The lights are up on Rodeo Drive and any minute now Santa will be climbing down the chimney....except we don't have a chimney and it's only November 3rd. That can't be right??? Appparently CHristmas is here. So Happy Christmas. It's strange how the weather here confuses everything We're getting up really early to hike as Bentley didn't understand the concept of the clocks going back so he wakes us up at six and we sort of have to hike then as he lays on the floor crying until we go. Plus it really is too hot if we leave it to eight which is really nine. More confusion.
Apart from that the week is off to a good start. Yesterday was a hard day, simply because we got our hopes up about something and then the meeting was postponed and we were a little disappointed. But I tried to remind myself that God's delay isn't God's denial. He's just asking us to practice a bit of patience. But I'm a dog and I kind of want everything NOW. I don't really like waiting. I would much rather I have things in my time than God's time, but it's OK. And the best thing is that I have faith it will all happen in the right time. So in the meantime we are keeping busy. Clare is doing Spin Classes, Pilates one on one, yoga, and we hike everyday and she is amazed how quickly everything seems to have snapped back into shape. As you get older you get softer, on the outside and the inside, so you have to work a bit harder to keep everything from heading south! And the good news is we're having fun doing it. She loves her new gym and loves walking in there with her yoga mat and her membership key fob, she feels so good about herself and that's the best thing.
Every single thing you can do to make yourself feel good is worth it, and they sort of accumulate and suddenly you're walking around happy and healthy and whole and you stop looking for things outside to complete you. It really is an inside job. It's like the story at the beginning of The Power Of Now about a beggar who had been sitting by the side of a road for thirty years. One day he asked a stranger for some change and the stranger told him he had nothing to give him but asked him what was in the box he was sitting on. He replied that it was just an old box he'd been sitting on forever but he'd never actually looked inside. The stranger told him to look and when he did he found that it was filled with gold. Nobody can give you anything, except tell you to look inside, not a box, but inside yourself......it's amazing what you'll find......

Buckley is back.....

So this weekend our best girlfriend in the world Kate Buckley came to stay. All the way from London just to come visit and hang out and be our friend. That is amazing. Kate is the easiest person in the world to spend time with. She can talk to anybody and fit into any situation so she is just simply a joy. And I love her and she is just the best friend anybody in the world could have. So thank you Buckers.
She arrived on Thursday evening and we went straight over the hill to watch a taping of Alex's show 100 Questions. We were able to be on the set and stand on the floor and watch it being filmed which was awesome. It was fantastic watching Alex do what he does. We were all so proud. We brought Nick Hoult with us and then we all went to dinner at Koi which was such such fun. Friday evening was Nick's night. He's a client of Kate's and a really talented and amazing actor, as well as just about the nicest guy you could ever ever meet. So he came up to the house and we all set off for The Roosevelt Hotel for Variety Magazine's top ten actors to watch and Nick was one of them. Hurrah. When they announced his name we all cheered so loudly and then we went off to celebrate with Nick's US Agent, and my favourite American agent Billy Lazarus, at The Street.
The food was fantastic and it was such a fun dinner. They are the best company and we didn't stop laughing all night. Saturday was so hot and Kate and I had a lazy sunny morning before we all headed over to Ceconni's for lunch with Ryan and top photographer Steve Shaw, who we also love. We had the best lunch, mainly because the chef was in possession of the biggest white truffle we had ever seen so we had it shaved over everything we ate and nearly died of happiness. The first bite of our truffle pizza was like heaven in a taste.
After lunch we headed home and sat around the pool with Bentley
and Ben SIlverman joined us to have some Halloween fun. It was such a great afternoon. Kate and Alex and Nick and and and....the whole gang. We hung out and laughed and decided to all go to the halloween party at the sky bar. Nick and Alex weren't sure what to wear so Clare and Buckley decorated them much to everyone's amusement and as you can see Al ended up as the abominable snowman.... It was the best Halloween I can ever remember having and we all had such a good time.
And then it was Sunday and after a lazy day and brunch at The Chateau and a quick shop at Saks Fifth Ave it was back to the airport and goodbye to our lovely friend. Love and Friends, that's everything. LOVE AND FRIENDS......