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Eating meringue with chocolate sauce
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Marni’s 1st birthday
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Oliver and Nova
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At Ruby’s beachhouse
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Ruby’s birthday
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June 30, 2005Went for coffee with Wendy — one of the school moms — this morning. I haven’t done much of that, but there’s not much opportunity when you are working fulltime, as I was. Also, nearly all the kids in the morning nursery class have older siblings in the school. In fact, Nova and Evelyn are the only two oldest children, and Nova is the only one without brothers or sisters. Lots of the mums have known each other for years, and it’s quite a closeknit little group. Wendy was telling me how she actually went to Spain with two other kids in the class and their families. It’s kind of a shame that they don’t mix it up more — according to Jemima, the afternoon nursery has a number of only children… Nova and I had lamb and hummous pitta sandwiches for lunch, then spent the afternoon reading stories until it was time to go to ballet. Headed down to Doron and Antonia’s afterwards, for Doron’s birthday tea. We didn’t stay all that long — it was a cake and presents kind of thing. Dave came round for dinner, bearing gifts for Nova. He’s a very good godfather to her… I made another tapas kind of meal — it seems to be our thing at the moment: baba ganoush, sweet potato with preserved lemon; lemony roast courgettes; roast asparagus; red peppers with feta and almonds; Egyptian tomato salad. I found some of that bison grass vodka sorbet in the back of the freezer, and we had that for dessert. |
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June 29, 2005With space being so tight at the new office, we all have to work from home part of the time. I’ve agreed to home work on Wednesdays. I don’t have the connections to the servers arranged yet, but had brought home a pile of stuff I wanted to work on. It went pretty well actually. It easier to get the more strategic, planning type stuff done when you have space to work and freedom from interruptions…Adam was working from home this morning as well, but we didn’t get in each other’s way. It will be great when we get remote Internet access though, so that we aren’t competing for desk space. We ate lunch together then he headed off to the Body Shop and I took a break to go to the shops. I bought a shoulder of lamb and followed a recipe of Nigella’s where you slow roast it, then shred it and toss it with chopped mint and pomegranate seeds. Delicious… Played a game with Nova in the bath where I’d fix myself a “nice frothy cappuccino” (ie, teacup of bath water with a generous dollop of bubbles) and she’d flatten it by pouring water on it before I got a chance to drink it. We must have done it twenty times, and she was laughing so hard she gave herself a side stitch. |
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June 28, 2005Feeling a bit more settled in the new office today. Happily, I’m now closer to my favourite lunch place — the Japanese canteen — and popped out for an order of sushi and a seaweed salad. Tuesday is the only day the Tina and I overlap in the office, and is all about meetings — the four I had today is about par for the course.Went to the cinema with Pasc this evening and saw “We Don’t Live Here Any More”. It was very well acted but rang hollow somehow. I think the main problem was with the screen adaptation. The dialogue was a bit stilted and you didn’t get a chance to know or care about the characters before you were thrown into their arguments and hysterics. It was filmed in Vancouver though, which is always fun for me… |
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June 27, 2005Today was my first day in the new office. Spent most of the morning unpacking my crates into the inadequate amount of space I have to store things, figuring out how the phone system works, changing my email signatures etc. Went for a bit of a wander at lunch. We’re closer to the action now — Covent Garden is only a brisk ten minutes walk away.Nova is completely fixated with Mary Poppins at the moment. She likes to start watching from when the kids write the advertisment, and refuses to watch the end when Mary leaves. She’s memorised all the songs, and is forever quoting lines from the script, like “We are not a codfish” and “Mary Poppins is tricky!” The other day when Adam suggested they walk to the deli to buy some groceries, she crossed her arms and said, “I have no intention of making a spectacle of myself!” |
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June 26, 2005Pasc was sufficiently recovered from her wedgie injury to go for a run this morning. I was feeling a bit ropey after the indulgences of the night before, but thought it might do me good. We went quite quickly for us…Jules and Mary were ready to head off by the time I got back. We said our goodbyes, then Adam took Nova swimming. I had a thorough pre-birthday clearout of her bedroom, which was very satisfying. I was so inspired I carried on in our room. I put all my shoes in a heap, and Nova had a happy time sorting them into pairs. She was particularly taken with the gold mules that I wore for our wedding. I got out my wedding dress to show her as well, then we looked at the photo of Adam and I by the wedding cake. “What did I wear?” she asked. “You weren’t born yet, sweetie?” I said. “But where was I?” “You were a little egg in my tummy,” I said. She peered closely at my stomach in the photo and said, “I think I can see me…” Nova has started copying Evelyn’s habit of pointing at me and yelling “Fire!” when I say something she doesn’t like. Since telling her off, she’s taken to saying “Choir!” or “Pyre!” or “Tire!” instead. When I asked her why she does it, she said, “Because when you say something bad I get fire in my tummy and it needs to come out…” |
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June 25, 2005I was meant to go running with Pasc this mornng, but she’s hurt her ankle falling off her platform sandals, so cried off until tomorrow. Adam and Jules rounded up all the kids and headed off to Euphorium to buy pastries for breakfast. That Mary certainly has Jules well trained…The weather was looking iffy, so we decided to take the kids to Natural History museum. When I told Daisy that we wouldn’t be able to attend the neighbourhood watch party on the green she got quite sniffy. I would have loved to visit the Earth Sciences gallery, but the girls were all for seeing the dinosaur exhibition. They have some Jurassic Park style models that are very realistic. The star of the show is the life-size T-Rex that growls and blinks and turns its head. “Phew, that was close!” Nova said as we left it behind. I was feeling guilty about blowing off the neighbourhood watch party, so we left Jules and Mary in the cafeteria and headed back for the last hour. The car played up all the way home, idling roughly and threatening to stall, which is a bit concerning… The party was still in full swing when we got back, and many of our neighbours seemed a few sheets to the wind. I chatted to a few people I’ve never spoken to, including a man call Barry Garfield (formerly Garfinkel) who I’ve been saying hi to for the last five years without knowing his name. We got the kids fed and in bed, then got dressed for our evening out. Carolina came by to babysit, and we set off in a cab for Le Caprice. It’s supposed to be quite a good spot for celeb spotting (one of Mary’s key requirements when choosing restaurants in London) but I didn’t notice anyone. The decor was nothing to get excited about, but the food was very good. I had the crispy duck salad followed by scallops, Jules had asparagus and an incredibly good ribeye steak, Mary and Adam had the fried zucchini flowers followed by lobster and bream. Jules and Mary aren’t the sort of people who do things in half measures, and in addition to our round of desserts we ordered the chocolates and the brownies with our coffees, not to mention dessert wine for Adam and Jules. Well, it was our joint anniversary… |
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June 24, 2005Today was one long playdate from breakfast to bedtime… Adam had arranged for Mira to come round for an afternoon playdate, starting at lunch. She wasn’t that impressed with what we had on offer. Adam put out cold chicken, ham, carrots, tomatoes, olives, hummus and baguette, but apparently she’s used to eating a cooked lunch. Her ham was too cold, and after I microwaving, it was too hot. She wanted apple juice, but ours just wasn’t the right shade, and the crusty bread was too crusty… The playdate continued in the same vein. When we suggested drawing, only painting would do. We got out the playdough, but she went off in a huff when she didn’t get sole use of the vinyl jungle backdrop, announcing to a baffled Nova “You’re not my friend.” “Why, Mira, why?” Nova cried after her as she stomped down the stairs. We ended on a high note with a good half hour of hide and seek. I was pleased that the girls were laughing and high spirited when Mira’s aunt came to pick her up at 4pm. I know I’m not the most child-friendly person, but four hours is just too long for a play date… Mary and kids arrived not long afterward, and Jules came straight from work. I was still feeling quite sick, but managed to cook us a very nice tapas dinner: albondigas, roas asparagus (can’t seem to get enough of them these days!), frittata, albondigas, cannellini beans with chorizo and a couple of bottles of wine. Chocolate chestnut slice with raspberries for dessert. |
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June 23, 2005Dropped Nova off at school, then went for a swim with Adam. Like many pools, this one is divided into three lanes — slow, medium and fast. There was one person in each lane when we got there, and if the woman in the fast lane was swimming any slower she would have been travelling backwards. She wasn’t doing anything you’d recognise as a swimming stroke: a kind of double armed backstroke thing, alternating a kind of sideways scrabbling movement. I assumed she’d shift over once we started swimming, but not a bit of it. Even more annoying, she’d push off right in front of me forcing me to swim around her instead of allowing me to pass at the end. And as I was lapping her every three laps, this happened about fifteen times… Very annoying…Adam went out for a drink with the boys in the evening. I was feeling pretty ropy — I’m wondering if I ate something dodgy and the leaving do I went to after work yesterday. I couldn’t face the thought of any dinner, although I did have a pineapple popsicle. I spent the evening writing party invites, so I could stick them in people’s pigeon holes at school tomorrow. |
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June 22, 2005Today is my last day in my office. I’m going to miss my desk with the great view over south London. The office we’re moving to is on the third floor instead of the seventh, and completely hemmed in by other buildings. And the part I’m sitting in is particularly gloomy, so I’m not looking forward to that. A few years back, we had an Australian on staff, and even though he had a nice window desk, apparently he suffered from SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and the agency provided him with a big sunlamp kind of thing. Maybe I should make a case for something similar…;-) |
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June 21, 2005Happy anniversary to us — eight years, so I guess that’s the seven year itch successfully negotiated…;-) Actually, I’m pretty sure that comes from the days when people barely knew (or “knew”) each other before marriage. This September Adam and I will have had some sort of relationship for 19 years. I took the day off, as time off in lieu for the Friday I came in to do the interviews. We chatted with Etta’s mom, Sarah about having a shared birthday party for the girls, and agreed it was a good idea. Another girl has already bagged Nova’s birthday weekend, and it didn’t feel right to book a conflicting party when I already knew it was Etta’s birthday the following weekend. Apparently, these things can get really fraught between parents… We’re going to invite the whole class, and spent an hour booking a local community centre with a nice outdoor play environment that the rambunctious boys can run around in. I though we might have a bouncy castle reserved just in case it buckets with rain as well… Adam and I had planned to go for a swim, but the traffic was so awful on Muswell Hill Road that we took it as a sign, and abandoned the idea. Parked up and caught the tube to South Kensington instead. After a impromptu tour round Brompton Oratory (really beautiful) and a pleasant half hour shopping for kitchen supplies at Divertimenti, we walked dow to the Bibendum Oyster Bar. It’s somewhere I’ve been wanting to come since I moved to London, but we so seldom find ourselves in this part of London in the daytime that it just hasn’t happened. The restaurant is in the old Michelin building, and actually in the hall where they used to repair the cars. It’s cool and white tiled and echoey, with marvellous original mosaics of turn of the century cars on the walls. We had a dozen oysters, potted shrimp and a caesar salad, along with a bottle of rose. Did a bit of shopping afterward. Adam bought himself a new outfit: an electric blue silky teeshirt and a pair of striped pin cords. Nova has been asking for a princess hat for her birthday (one of those pointy numbers with a flounce of lace at the tip). It occurred to me that I could probably make one for about £2, but I just don’t have the time at the moment. I’ve been looking around without success, and wondered if Harrods might have something. Adam headed home because Pete, Liana and family were arriving, while I navigated my way to the toy floor. It took me a while, but I located exactly what she wanted, and in shell pink as well. It came with a Renaissance style princess dress, which I’m sure she’ll love as well. Pete and Liana had alread arrived by the time I got home. We got Nova and Martha fed and in bed, then ordered a takeaway from the Parsee to celebrate our shared anniversary. They’d brought the bottle of Cloudy Bay chardonnay we’d given them a couple of months ago when Eleanor was born. We got through that and a couple more besides… |
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June 20, 2005I feel like I’m behind in every aspect of my life at the moment. The house is piling up around my ears, the garden is overrun with weeds, I have overdue correspondence and banking, the website is perpetually two weeks behind, and at work I’m constantly reacting to what Tina has forged ahead and done instead of getting a chance to initiate anything myself… It’s very frustrating… Tina had left me a long handover/to-do list, which — true to form at the moment — I didn’t manage to do any of. I did take one of my former direct reports out for lunch, and managed to pack up half my desk and filing for next week’s office move… |
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June 19, 2005At 4:40am this morning Nova came marching into our bedroom clutching the Father’s Day card she’d made yesterday and the bag of chocolate Brazil nuts I’d bought for her to give to Adam. “Happy Father’s Day, mom!” she yelled, prodding me in the shoulder. It took a bit of effort to wake Adam up and get him sitting upright to receive his gift. Once the presentation was over, I thought that the best gift I could give him would be to get up with Nova so he could have a passable night’s sleep. I made a batch of Margo’s muffins for breakfast and pottered about with various other things until 8am, when we woke him for breakfast. I finished off the picnic prep while Adam took Nova swimming and even had time for a half hour nap before Ben, Michaela and the girls arrived at noon. We drove down to the Parliament Hill side of the Heath, and chose a shady spot next to the bandstand to spread out our picnic. There was asparagus frittata; feta cheese and sundried tomato sandwiches, crisps, breadsticks and dips, and a blueberry poppyseed cake for dessert. After a relaxing couple of hours, we headed over to the pandemonium of the paddling pool so the girls could have a dip. The paddling pool is more like an enormous puddle — there’s no way anyone could swim in it. Plus it was wall to wall shrieking kids and parents. Even so, it was welcome in the scorching heat. Headed back to ours about 4:30, and made the girls a quick pasta supper before they headed back to Surrey. Another evening that we weren’t far behind Nova at bedtime… |
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June 18, 2005Nova’s favourite expression is “Oh, bother!” She generally comes out with it when something hasn’t gone her way. For example, when I reminded her this morning that it was a trouser day, not a dress day.Then this morning, when I told her it was time to turn off the television so we could go grocery shopping, she looked up at me with a scowl on her face and said, “Dash it all!” I don’t know where she gets this stuff… It’s not in any of the books I read her. Went for our weekly runs with the Franklyns, made a surgical strike on Waitrose, then headed up to the village fete. It’s not much to get excited about, but everybody goes anyway. There was a merry go round and those spinning tea cup things for the kids, an a number of stalls selling plants, jewellery, local honey etc. Ate dinner in the garden as it was so hot: grilled tuna, grilled polenta and grilled asparagus. Nova wolfed down her portion of tuna but was pretty unenthusiastic about the rest of it. We had some lovely English strawberries for dessert, so dinner ended on a positive note. Spent the evening cooking for tomorrow’s Father’s Day picnic with Ben and Michaela, as it was too hot to turn the oven on in the day. |
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June 17, 2005This morning at breakfast, Nova jumped off her chair, saying “my poop is trying to make me have an accident!” and hustled off downstairs to the loo.I spent the morning trying to restore order in the tangled jungle that was once my vegetable garden:
The amount of weeding I manage to do barely scratches the surface… |
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June 16, 2005In the interest of repaying all the play date debts I’d accrued when I was working full time, I’d arranged to have Evelyn round for a play date after school. The girls seemed very pleased with the idea, and had lots of fun walking home together. The first order of business was to get into proper princess gear. Fortunately, there was no trouble over dresses, but Evelyn was very bullish about getting the best tiara, wand and shoes. Nova kept saying, “OK, Evelyn…” as Evelyn wrenched her favourite belongings from her hands.There was fifteen minutes or so of fun while they performed a ballet, but then an almighty row erupted over Nova’s recorder. Nova started to play it, Evelyn tried to snatch it, and within seconds they were red faced and shrieking. I confiscated the bloody thing and shepherded them towards the telly. Lunch improved matters a bit, although Evelyn has this unpleasant habit of pointing at Nova and screaming, “FIRE!!!” whenever Nova does something she doesn’t like. Each time it happened Nova was reduced to a bawling wreck. I was literally counting the minutes in the last hour before I took them to ballet. We dropped in at Ruby’s on the way home, and the girls had a very mellow time playing and eating dinner together, which was a welcome antidote to the playdate from hell. Freddy and Beulah came round to babysit, and we headed down to the Parsee for dinner with Lynn and Alan, ex-colleagues of Adams. There was a school drink this evening as well, but by the time we finished dinner, it was time to get back so Adam’s parents could head home. |
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June 15, 2005Nova came through to my room last night at 3am. Even with great expanse of bed to share, she managed to work herself around until she was lying horizonally across the pillows and I was teetering precariously on the edge. I think perhaps she gets too hot under our big duvet, or perhaps she likes the feeling of sleeping against the wall, like she does in her bed. Eventually, I turned myself around 90 degrees and slept the rest of the night with my feet hanging over the end. If you can’t beat ’em, etc etc |
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June 14, 2005Adam headed off to Germany this afternoon. He’s got a meeting about some website work he’s doing for adidas tomorrow morning, then will return tomorrow evening.Nova and I had dinner together — omelette and toast — then watched Fairytale Dora on the couch until it was time for her to go to bed. She’s often pretty tired after her school/Teresa days, and I’m happy to let her unwind with a bit of telly before bed. That’s all I want after a busy day… |
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June 13, 2005Happy birthday, Dad! |
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June 12, 2005Got to bed far too late to be woken up at 5am… I was too tired to tell whether I had a hangover or not…It was Jemima’s birthday today, so after Adam and Nova got back from the swimming pool, we headed off to join her at the Flask. They have a barbeque in the courtyard on Sundays, and we ordered veggie burgers and chips and a jug of Pimms. Rob is off filming in Los Angeles, but another couple of friends were there, as well as her brother Charlie. Spent the rest of the afternoon back at their place. Charlie had made a fabulous chocolate birthday cake, which I had with several cups of coffee. By the time we left, my nerves were jangling from all the caffeine. Made Nova dinner, but couldn’t be bothered to eat ourselves, and our bedtime wasn’t far behind hers… |
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June 11, 2005We had arranged for Jane and Gerry to come round for dinner this evening before going off on holiday, but of course I hadn’t given it a thought since we’ve been back. I’d had this nagging feeling that there was something happening today, but it only came to me after I got back from my run with Pasc.On an impulse we decided to extend a last-minute invitation to Nick and Jane as well. Jane couldn’t make it (she was off in darkest Wales filming a documentary about road rage) but Nick was free… I didn’t have a clear idea about what to cook, and in the end it was a bit of a mishmash: baba ganoush and pitta chips; roast asparagus; steamed cod with Moroccan vegetables; and bison grass vodka sorbet for dessert. Everyone got on really well, and it was a very nice evening… |
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June 10, 2005We held the internal interviews for the e-media team today. At one stage, we were looking at making three people redundant, but for a variety of reasons, this was reduced to only one. We were recruiting for two different posts, and although the web manager interviews were no longer competitive (ie, there were an equal number of candidates and posts) because the role has changed, we interviewed anyway, to take people through the new job description before they decided whether they wanted to job.But first we had to interview for the web officer posts, where the unsuccessful candidate would face redundancy. Internal interviews are difficult at the best of times, and in the interest of objectivity and transparency, we’d included two externals on the interview panel. I think this was a really sound idea — Tina and I let them lead on the questioning, and always waited for their assessment before adding our own comments. While all the candidates did good interviews, the decision about who not to appoint was a unanimous one. By the time we’d made the notification phone calls at 5:30 I was completely drained, and dinner was a bottle of wine and a pizza in front of the telly. |
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June 9, 2005Although Thursday isn’t one of my usual working days, I’d arranged a two hour conference call with my manager and job share to develop the interview questions we’ll be using tomorrow. There will be such a shortage of desks when we move to the new building at the end of the month, that all of the team will have to do work from home regularly. I expect we’ll be making greater use of conference calling in the near future. It’s kind of strange at first, but okay once you get used to it.After picking up Nova from school, we went down to have lunch with Antonia and Marni. Antonia was hoping that we could distract Marni so that she could get the lawn mowed, but Marni is a very clingy baby, and in the end the easiest thing was for me to mow their lawn. Got back home in time for ballet. Wendy came along and took some pictures of the class. Took Greg and Wendy for a farewell fish and chips dinner at the Two Brothers afterward. The last couple of times I’ve had fish and chips, I’ve found it almost impossible to digest, so this time I went for fish coated in matzo meal rather than battered, and that seemed to help. Driving back from the restaurant, I noticed a fox sitting on the meridian, in the middle of six lanes of traffic. He looked sick and a little dazed, so when we got home I called the NSPCA. After waiting a good twenty minutes on hold, and providing my address details (to swell their direct marketing lists no doubt), I was told that if the animal was in the road it wasn’t their problem, and that I should call the police. I tried to explain that it wasn’t in the road, or blocking traffic or anything, but the woman didn’t want to know. I considered whether to call the police as it didn’t seem the sort of thing to be bothering them with (plus after spending half an hour on the phone already, it was likely the fox had limped off somewhere to die) but decided to see it through. The police officer was very polite, thanked me for calling, and said they would send someone from the council to investigate. So that’s my good deed for the day… Watched The Corporation with Greg and Wendy, then spent an hour reading job applications in bed. |
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June 8, 2005Greg and Wendy arrived back from France this evening. We weren’t quite sure when they’d get in or whether they would have eaten, so I decided to prepare a light supper that could be eaten at any time.It was one of those occasions where everything comes together really nicely. We started with gazpacho, followed by oven roasted asparagus with goat’s cheese, then tuna and cannellini beans all accompanied by that delicious Basa. We ended with a grapes and Applewood cheddar, and a really nice bordeaux Greg and Wendy had brought back with them. I made a note of how I cooked the asparagus, so that I’ll remember to do it again. Basically, I tossed very fine asparagus with olive oil and Maldon salt, and roasted it in a medium oven for a good half hour until the tips were crispy and the stalks silky and luscious. |
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June 7, 2005Nova is getting more and more adamant about choosing her own clothes in the morning. We used to rotate between dresses, skirts and trousers, but now it’s dresses, dresses, and more dresses, preferably in pink. When I suggested she wear her purple corduroy trousers this morning, she looked at me, arms crossed, and said, “But how can I be a true princess in purple corridor trousers?” How indeed?… |
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June 6, 2005Nova came through and woke us up at 5am. I think (hope!) this is a temporary situation caused by the early morning light and raucous dawn chorus, and that she’ll get back to sleeping to 7am in a few months time.It’s only the last few months that she’s started climbing in with us. Before that, she’d lie in her bed, singing away to herself, until one of us went in to her. Adam’s tried to institute a rule that she doesn’t wake us up before the clock says 7am, but all that’s come of it is her tapping me on the shoulder every three minutes, saying, “What does 5-1-8 mean, mommy?” followed by “What does 5-2-1 mean?” etc… I wasn’t too disorganised for the first work day after a holiday, although I was dismayed to find a one-to-one with my line manager scheduled for 9am in my filofax. I rushed to make it, then she ended up being half an hour late anyway. There were over 300 unread emails in my inbox, not to mention the 30 odd I left unresolved. It’s hard to remember what the workplace was like before email. It seems that we all managed fine without it, and I’m not sure that it makes me any more efficient at my job… |
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June 5, 2005Well, I didn’t achieve goal of not gaining weight on my week away… I was up three pounds…:-(Pasc and I did our 5km Race for Life this morning. We set off in two cars, arriving about half an hour before the start time. Did a desultory group aerobics warm up (it’s not easy to participate fully in something like that with Pete and Adam making wisecracks the whole time, and Nova clinging to your leg…) We were towards the back of the thousands of women lining up, and it was probably five minutes before we even started moving. Pasc was keen to run the whole thing, though we’d always taken one or two walk breaks on our training runs, and she managed it, even running on the spot when there was a bottleneck at a muddy patch. I think she was surprised at how far she’s come with the running. Went for a big fry-up at Papadels afterward, to ensure that any calories inadvertently lost were immediately replaced. Headed on to Waitrose afterwards to stock up for the week, and swung by Argos to replace the bathroom scales, as ours are suffering metal fatigue. These fiesty new numbers promptly added two pounds to my weight, and once I moved them into the bedroom, stuck another one on for good measure. We’ll show them who’s boss…:-) Gave Nova her first bath in a week then watched the finale of Desperate Housewives once she was in bed. |
June 4, 2005
It was overcast this morning, and I didn’t fancy my final swim. I’ve done pretty well though, and been in the pool almost every day…We said goodbye to Greg and Wendy and set off after breakfast, stopping for lunch in a town called Tremolat. There were three places to eat, and in the end we chose the pub/cafe. I had a salad with goat’s cheese, Adam had an omelet and Nova had a ham sandwich. The quality of food was very good given that we were eating in a nondescript bar in a provincial town: my salad had a variety of leaves and nicely toasted walnuts; Adam’s omelet was nice and fluffy; and Nova’s sandwich was a toothsomely chewy baguette. I shudder to to think of the equivalent food (and service) you’d get at any equivalent pub in England. There seems to be a baseline that French food just doesn’t fall below.
Drove past Bergerac and on to Clos D’Yvigne, the winery where the bottle of wine we had on Adam’s birthday is from. It is owned by an English woman, and I’d just finished reading her autobiography about how she came to own a vineyard. We thought we’d do a bit of tasting and maybe buy a few bottles of her other wines, but apparently we just missed her. We knew this because there was a middleaged New Zealander hanging around in her front yard, taking pictures of everything that didn’t move, like some kind of wine groupie…
We’d seen a chateau down the road advertising tastings, so we headed over there. David Baxter, proprietor and dapper little Scotsman, was happy to open a few bottles for us. Apparently his wife is the driving force behind the business, and when we mentioned we’d stopped at Clos d’Yvigne, he said, “Oh, don’t mention Patricia to my wife. According to her, her red wines are very ordinary.” Sounded a lot like sour grapes…
The flight better was relatively smooth, although for some reason you can’t wear an iPod during take off or landing… Stopped for a Happy Meal for Nova on the way home, as she was starting to doze off. Did the unpacking, went through the mail, and sat down to a dinner of pizza and beer. Good to be home…
June 3, 2005
Today is our last full day in France. Adam drove into Cenac for croissants, while I had a swim. Nova stood by the side of the pool, helpfully counting my laps. Wendy was feeling a bit poorly (too much rich food and wine) so we went off on our own. We moseyed around the local backroads, stopping for a drink in Souillac, visiting the Vin du Domme winery where we picked up a couple of bottles of their prize-winning Périgord Noir.
Returned home for croque monsieurs, using up the last of the gruyere and ham. We’d planned to go out for dinner for our last evening, but Greg and Wendy didn’t feel up to it, and opted for bread and cheese in front of the tennis instead. I fed and settled Nova, and once she was down, Adam and I headed off to l’Abbaye, a nearby restaurant that had been recommended to us.
The weather had turned drizzly, and so all the tables had been packed into a cozy little room. We’ve had some very good meals this week, but this dinner topped them all. To start they brought a tureen of soup to the table, so we could help ourselves. It looked like a nondescript vegetable broth, but had the richest, most savoury flavour. To follow I had the duck paté, which was lovely, but Adam’s fois gras was the most amazing thing I’ve ever tasted. It was magical… light, delicious, melting in your mouth… Both were served with a glass of Monbazillac, the local sweet wine. The main course seemed mundane after that — monkfish for me, aiguillettes for Adam. For the cheese course, they brought the cheeseboard to our table, and left it for fifteen minutes or so, though we were too sated to do much damage. I had the coupe Armagnac for dessert, and I don’t remember Adam’s dessert…
Leaving the restaurant, we managed to get lost for a good twenty minutes in the tangle of unlit backroads around the village, before finding our way back to the highway. All the way home, the headlights kept catching snails (and once a large frog) crossing the road, like some sort of mad French cliché.
June 2, 2005
After my usual morning swim, we sat around drinking coffee and planning what to do with the day. We decided to go for lunch in Domme, and Greg and Wendy set off early enough to bag one of the tables with a great clifftop view of the Dordogne valley. Adam recklessly ordered the gizzard salad, I was less adventurous, and went for the croque berger (goats cheese and smoked duck) and salad, Greg had a crepe and Wendy had an omelette. We all agreed on the pitcher of rosé. They seem to make a lot of rosé in this region, and we are taking full advantage of it…;-)
There was a lovely rococco merry-go-round set up in the square, and Nova had several goes. She looked so pretty riding on those beautifully painted horses in her long flowery dress, that I could have sat there all afternoon watching her go round…
Instead, we bundled her back into the car and drove to Castelnaud, the local castle. The climb from the parking lot in the fierce afternoon heat was a slog, but once inside, it was mercifully cool. We climbed the twisting stone staircase, stopping at the exhibits on each landing, until we came out on the ramparts. It was about this point that Nova announced she needed to do a wee wee. Adam tried to interest her in the medieval drop toilet in a discreet alcove, but she wasn’t keen. We made a swift descent and found the toilets located in the courtyard before any accidents occurred (although I generally travel with a pair of her little knickers in my handbag just to be on the safe side…)
Made a green salad with grilled goats’ cheese toasts for dinner, and spent the evening drinking wine and reading Death in the Dordogne, a mystery novel I picked up yesterday in Sarlat.
June 1, 2005
Remembered to say “rabbits” this morning, although yet again I found myself wondering if it counts if you say it at 3:00am (when Nova came stumbling through from her adjoining room to crawl into bed with us) or if you need to wait until the sun is actually up… Started my day with a head clearing swim. I doubt I’ll meet my goal of not gaining any weight on this holiday, but an icy cold swim certainly works a treat on a hangover…;-)
After breakfast, Adam, Nova and I headed off to Domme, a nearby local beauty spot. We admired the view from the clifftops, and visited the local museum, before heading on to Grolejac. When Adam was young, he had a French exchange friend. Every summer for seven years he’d spend two weeks in the Dordogne, after which Manu would enjoy two weeks in Finchley. Sounds like an uneven trade to me, although I expect if you come from small town France a couple of weeks of London in the summer might hold some appeal…
We found the house he used to stay at, although it was still shut up for the season. The village itself seems to have fallen on hard times, with the cafe and local shop up for sale. Stopped for lunch at the Relais du Touron on the road to Sarlat. They had set menus at a range of prices, and we chose one toward the bottom end. The food was very good, and it was very relaxing sitting out on the terrace. The proprietress brought Nova a pack of crayons and little colouring book, and she scribbled away happily while I worked my way through terrine; salmon with cepes; green salad with grilled goats cheese, walnuts and honey; and a walnut creme brulee.
We drove into Sarlat, and parked up near the centre. While wandering through the twisting medieval streets, an egg fell from a great height and splattered on the ground at my feet. Looking up, I saw a pigeon peering curiously from a window sill high above…
Greg and Wendy cooked this evening: a delicious gruyere omelette and green salad. Adam and I had the fish soup as well, but Greg and Wendy declined to have any as they are nervous of eating fish.
