Morocco Photos

You want photos? Stories to come.

Prague

Going to Prague for 3 days for Jo's birthday. Yay!

(I know I promised updates - what can I say. Busy at work, snail-slow internet at home, I'll get back to it, trust me!)

Happiness Is...

There are times when living here is as unordinary as a passing breeze - that is, it's fairly undistinguishable. Other times, like last night, you catch yourself in the moment and it's happiness. 9.30pm, Thursday night, and you're at a tiny bar with an old school friend, who you weren't friends with at school but have become friends with on the other side of the world, and on comes a poppet of a singer and her cute accompaniment belting out a contrast of show tunes - Frank Sinatra meets Nirvana, Shaggy does Shirley Bassey - it's hilarious and the singing is great and we dance and drink Laos beer. In a tiny underground bar in the middle of London. And get a rickshaw to the last Tube home.

Today the sun's come out. It might not be summer - it's far from summer - but these occassional moments make life in London sparkle.

Itching The Travel Bug

Gorgeous riads booked: check
Wondering if Ryanair will again pretend our cabin size baggage isn't really cabin size and must check them in at the bargain rate of £32: check
Biography of Churchill borrowed from library: check
Looking forward to five days in a country I've always, always wanted to visit: check

Off to Morocco with Andrew, back on Monday. Promise to update blog - promise!

London

Londoners are basking in a wonderfully warm start to the week with temperatures soaring to 26 degrees in part of the city.
Companies are coming to terms with a wave of sudden sickies as staff choose to sneakily cash in on the summer sun. But chances are they’ll be back behind their desk by Tuesday, when clouds again appear across the country and stay for the rest of the week.
The Met Office said...“Cold and drizzle will start to come across from the west late in the day and will cover the country for much of the week.
“My advice would be to get the sun today while you can.”

Me bloody too.

Paris

We took the Eurostar to Paris (FYI the only way to go) and under the first warm rays in weeks I showed her my Marais and instantly she loved it, and it made me so happy. We ate steak tartare and fois gras with Cotes du Rhone at my old favourite, Les Philosophes, and she let me smoke. We walk around Ile Saint-Louis, no, you stroll around Ile Saint-Louis, with the familiar taste of Berthillon ice-cream. The Picasso museum which is not as good as the first time I went (they are undergoing renovations). I love speaking French again. It makes me want to stop at the Sorbonne and spend a month studying. Or maybe Rome, because when I look at the playlist for Pavarotti on our last day, I want to speak that language. Something inside me feels an affinity with Italy and I can’t waste that…

We had dinner at Le Souffle, the restaurant I thought had to be a novelty but with so many good reviews decided to give it a go, and to go all the way and try the menu tout souffle. It was so much fun! Three courses of voluminous souffles, first cheese, then with morilles, then dark chocolate with white chocolate sauce. You’ve never seen anything so pretty. The wine was delicious and the service cheeky. It’s a quaint, popular restaurant and a must to try. The only downside is after so many souffles, and so many eggs, you don’t want to go near any of the delicious quiches in boulangeres around town, even though they would make perfect picnic food for our last day, when I take mum to the Jardin du Luxembourg, and Paris is hot and the sky is blue, and the flowers are bright and we roll up our trousers and sit on the chairs with our heads back and it’s so, so good. Summer in Paris. Instead, we have a typical lunch at a café on the Rue du Rennes, near where I stayed five years ago, which feels so long ago, and yet also heart-thumpingly fresh. We waste time looking for a dress I don’t need around Galleries Lafayette, and it’s so hot we can only go back to Ile Saint-Louis, for another two scoops of Berthillon ice-cream (cherry, milk chocolate with hazelnuts), overlooking the river, with couples sunbaking and neither of us want to go home.

In between, we eat buttery pastries with coffee for breakfast, and go to the Musee d’Orsay for something like four hours. Our legs and feet hurt in more ways we can describe, yet we see the bright Van Goghs and Monets and the pretty Degas ballerina sculpture and I remember how much I love Gauguin. We see it all and walk through Saint Germain des Pres and queue up at Laduree because I think macarons are Paris-in-a-dessert and we eat pistachio eclairs in the shade of the church, watching pigeons try and mate. We even walk home, because I have promised that on this trip there shall be falafel, from L’as du falafel, and the previous night they are closed, so they must be open tonight, but they are not, and we can’t work out why. In the Marais, on a Sunday night, tired and hungry, and wanting fish. I suggest Bofinger, never having been but it suits our requirements. We end up having a surprisingly good and cheap meal of oysters and fish with choucroutte (I didn’t think it could work, it did) and crème brulee.

We slept to the sound of light traffic on Rue du Rivoli, to sponge up all the senses of Paris.

The Most Wonderful Visit

It was so good to have mum over. We did and saw so much, and as friends.

We went to the Tate Modern and were disappointed with the collections (except the Russian propaganda room and the Seydou Keita room). Our first weekend had to include a trip to Borough Markets, and squeezing through the crowds we snacked on plump oysters and eclairs and proper fish and chips, which they were - golden and crunchy with hand-cut chips dunked in real mushy peas. (Sitting on the floor, which we'll never forget). The surprise was long gone but I'd been looking forward to taking mum to Covent Garden for Romeo and Juliet since I managed the nab the last decent tickets weeks before. It was so beautiful and we were hugely impressed. The prima ballerina was spectacular. I feel like I was dragged to ballet and opera as a young 'un and thought I wouldn't enjoy it, that is was more for mum; the opposite, I was swept away with the performance and music. We had such a good time that we went back the next day for a free lunchtime recital with a brilliant young soprana, and then in the evening for Tosca. I had tears streaming down my face. On her last day, we went to the Royal Banqueting Hall in Whitehall (on Horse Guard St *wink*) for a performance of Pavarotti's most famous arias which was a lot of fun. And today, I'm sitting here listening to Pavarotti and Callas and Puccini with CDs from the library. Thank you mum for showing me how beautiful this music is x

We saw the Sex and the City movie. Went to the National Gallery and ogled the Seurats and Ingres'. The V&A. We'd planned a long weekend in Paris and I was able to work two days together, so had five days in a row off and wondered where to go. To Islington to check on getting a Russian visa which wasn't to be but instead had a truly delicious lunch at Ottolenghi. Florence was an option. But we decided to go to Latvia.

Back!

From a visit to London Zoo

There is so much to catch up on that I feel put off in starting. The reason for my blogging absence is the visit of mum, who came to stay for a month and left on Tuesday. We only finally got internet last week as well, so I look forward to getting back into the swing of blogging and flickring and catching up on your blogs.

Mum and I had a truly wonderful time. We did and saw so much. Went to Paris and even Latvia, which turned out to be the most incredible experience.

I have to run off to a black tie awards night for work so enjoy some photos in the meantime.

Paris
Latvia

Ok

I only started my new job this week, after big company politics yada yada postposted the kick-off date. Knowing the power of google (even more so, now) please understand the slight ambiguity, but my new job is Senior Producer for the food site of a Big TV Network. So my job is about the web and food, which makes it my Ideal Job. My particular position is commercially slanted so I will be focusing on the commercial direction of the site, as well as some editorial, and will have my own project on one of the big cooking shows coming out later this year, which is very exciting. For the moment, I am job sharing so my position is part-time for two months, but there is a lot of work so I hope this will increase and become full time permanent.

The people are really nice and pro-active, I will be learning what I've wanted to in this area, and will be a great challenge.

Taking The Edge Off

I came home to an empty house, with intentions of watching The Big Game (Man U v Chelsea) at a pub, although secretly knowing I wouldn't. I took the edge off the day with a longneck of Peroni, and made my favourite homecooked dish in the world, mushroom pasta. It isn't a fast supper, but you'll be rewarded with slowly sauteeing the onion and garlic, and then again with the chopped field mushrooms, maybe half an hour all up. A good dollop of thick, yellow Guernsey cream, thyme, generous seasoning. Zest a little lemon - this is essential - it transforms the awkward, grey sauce into something special, and grate Parmiggiano before the first forkful.

I make enough for lunch tomorrow, again, secretly knowing it won't last that long, and eat it up with Ronaldo's goal, then Lampard's.

Update: Brilliant game!