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50m dash
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Tennis ball race
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Saya
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Lucia
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Campari
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Princess Anna
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Reading
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Fun runner
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Morris dancers…
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Alex & Lyra eye the winning cakes
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Cleo
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Hydrangeas
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Strawberries
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Red hot pokers
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Clissold Park
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Parkland Walk
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Cakes…
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Asparagadam
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June 30, 2014Didn’t have much energy this morning after my wild weekend…;) It just didn’t sit right with me for her to be on her own just days after major surgery, so I ignored what she said and headed over there anyway. She certainly seemed pleased to see me, though it was a shame I had to get her out of bed upstairs to answer the door. Stayed for about an hour and a half, until her home help Mariama arrived… In honour of Nigeria, we had beef suya for dinner — thin pieces of beef coated in ground peanuts and chili then grilled on skewers. It is traditionally served on a bed of fresh cabbage, tomato and onion. One nice upshot of this project is all the extra use we’re getting out of the barbeque…
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June 29, 2014Impressed myself by finding the energy to do my scheduled six mile run. My online trainer said “slow” — and I definitely took him at face value…;-)Costa Rica’s turn to feature on the dinner table. I made gallo pinto with sautéed plantains. It was delicious, though it would have been better to use day-old rice, as the freshly cooked stuff absorbed the bean liquid and turned the dish an unappetizing grayish-brown. Adam was back from his walking trip in time to enjoy it with us.
It was the last night of Antonia’s play — she’s performing in Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba” at the Kings’ Head pub on Upper Street. There was a small part for Marni as well, which was nice. They both did really well… |
June 28, 2014Up at 8am… Not feeling great, but my half-marathon training plan called for me to do a four mile run, and I didn’t want to screw up my first week, so I laced up my shoes and set off.What with Adam being away, I needed to get out and back before Nova’s drama class. Met her heading up the path in her new crop top and cut-offs. When she showed me her purchase, I thought they’d sewn the size 6 tag in upside down, but turns out it’s a child’s size 9. That’s one way to get a crop top…;-) Made the girls spaghetti al limone for dinner, which I served with today’s World Cup food offering of Colombian barras di limón. I was invited round to Pasc’s for dinner this evening for a walking widows’ get together. Brought a plate of lemon bars as my contribution.
Back home about midnight. I’d been invited to Peggy and Nathan’s party off Archway Road, and wanted to put in an appearance. As I hadn’t drunk much, I felt okay to drive. The party was in their storage space behind the Half a Dozen studio,with DJ, lights and dancing. It was probably winding down a bit by the time I arrived, but there was still a good atmosphere. I had a good bop, and a few shouted conversations with the people I knew, then headed home. Peggy and Nathan are moving to Bristol this summer, which is a shame. A lot of people we like seem to be leaving this year…:-( |
June 27, 2014Up at 6:30am as usual to make the packed lunches, get the bags organised etc. Nova has Bernard Hooton — the all-day annual music competition her school organises each year, where teams from each form compete against one another.Adam was busy getting ready for his walking weekend in the Lake District, and headed off by 9am. In an unlikely turn of events, the weather looks like being better up there than it is down here. Not sure how I feel about that…;-) Our friend John is having a 50th birthday party this evening — which I shall be attending on my own. As we hadn’t done anything about a present yet, I headed into the village after drop-off looking for inspiration. The shops were mostly still shut so I walked down the hill to Archway. Bought plantains for Sunday’s Costa Rican meal, and discovered a good little African food shop where I could have bought dried ndole leaves. They stock lots of African grains, beans, seasonings, vegetables, even goat meat… Ending up buying John a hat (old men wear hats, don’t they?) and a book about football to represent his perpetual youthfulness. I also found a very funny 3D James Dean card, so overall, I was reasonably pleased.
Alina came round for a playdate after school. She and Lyra are always so sweet together. This time they put together a really impressive little Punch and Judy puppet show, which also included some shadow puppetry and an original song. They also organised refreshments — it was quite something for a pair of seven-year-olds. Today’s World Cup food was Croatian poppyseed scroll bread. I remember the Furlans serving this at Christmas visits and birthday parties. It’s not the most child friendly dish (and I’m pretty sure their version had alcohol in it as well) but my girls were happy enough to snarf it down…
John’s party was good fun, and I knew enough people to feel comfortable on my own. Though it was interesting what I felt comfortable wearing when going solo. I definitely dressed more modestly then I would have if Adam were there… I also miscalculated the food thing. I hadn’t eaten dinner with the girlsm, assuming there would be lots of food — when in fact there was lots of champagne. There were canapés drifting past all evening, but I would have had to tackle a waitress and scoffed a platterful to come close to eating enough for the amount I managed to drink. Stayed for some of the dancing before heading home at 1am… |
June 26, 2014Went for an early run this morning. In fact, I was so early that the gates to the Kenwood estate were still locked, and I ended up running up to Whitestone Pond and back again. Felt a little creaky at first, but limbered up as I went along. Not that different a time from my last one in the end…Quickly showered and headed up to the school for sports day. For once, the weather gods smiled upon us, and we had a warm, sunny day for it. Lyra did well in her races — she was very focussed and obviously trying her best — I was proud of her. Saw Basil for the first time since his sister’s accident. What a terrible tragedy that is, and made even more difficult for happening in another country. Went for a drink at the Flask with him, Veronika, Howard and Katie — plus little Saya and Toren. Toddlers in restaurants — I’d forgotten how stressful that is. Even in a pub beer garden you can never relax. Even though I only had a half of fruit beer, it zapped my enthusiasm for work somewhat. I did what I could, but heart wasn’t in it… Made bibimbap for dinner, in honour of South Korea, which was an easy one. We eat it all the time:
Adam was out all evening. I’d thought he was just going to a governor’s meeting, but he somehow managed to stay out until almost 11:30pm. I was kind of pissed because he was out yesterday evening as well, and is now away from tomorrow until Sunday night. As Beulah would say, these things are sent to try us… |
June 25, 2014I’m doing some work on the Noise section of the Heathrow website with Adam, which is proving to be an interesting project. So far, we’ve been focussed on creating a more effective structure with clearer page titles.Now that we’re pretty happy with the structure, I’m drafting a paper to ensure we have sign off on writing style, tone of voice, content development process etc. Drove Lyra and Alex to Mia’s birthday party after school. She lives in Crouch End, and I was dismayed when the drop-off journey took the best part of 45 minutes. That left me with about an hour at home before I had to set out again to pick them up and deliver them to the swimming pool. This presented a challenge to getting our Ecuadorian meal on the table during the window of time between Nova’s drama class and swim training but I managed it. Tonight’s menu: fish and prawn ceviche, cheese and onion empanadas, and an interesting drink called chicha de piña, made by simmering the skin and core of a pineapple with sugar and spices.
Adam was out at a meeting, followed by his backgammon evening at the pub, but was able to tag team with me and collect the girls from the pool. He arrived to discover that someone had thrown up in the pool and Lyra’s lesson was cancelled after only five minutes. When the girls didn’t see Adam or me waiting, they decided they should walk home, but fortunately were intercepted half way down the street by another mum in our class. Not sure how they managed to arrive at that dumb decision, but no harm done…:-( |
June 24, 2014Today marks the official start of my half-marathon training plan. Only four miles today, which was a soft beginning, but as I recall, things get nasty pretty fast…I picked up some flowers for Beulah, as we’d planned to visit her today, but according to Freddy she’s feeling pretty rough (and groggy as well), so we’ll give it a day. I bought some flowers for Basil and Veronika as well — his sister was killed in a car crash while on holiday in Turkey last weekend. I didn’t end up seeing them either, so now our house is full of flowers… Tonight’s meal was el chivito, the national dish of Uruguay, otherwise known as “heart attack on a plate”…:-) It a massive sandwich composed of steak, melted cheese, ham, bacon, fried egg, pickles, onions…
I made ours with half the quantity of meat called for, but they were still pretty overwhelming. It didn’t float my boat — in fact it’s the first dish I haven’t really liked — but went down a storm with some of our Facebook friends. I did like the insalada russe, or Russian potato salad, that I served along with it. I’ve had Russian salad in Denmark, Spain and Italy — probably the only place they don’t eat the stuff is Russia itself…;-) England managed a draw against Costa Rica this evening, but that game marks the end of their World Cup campaign. While they finished bottom of the group, which is worse than they generally perform, I thought they played more exciting football than they usually manage. Our new printer looks like something off the Death Star, but at least it works without spraying ink everywhere, prints double-sided, and from our phones, and has a much better scanner (that I hope to convert slides with), so all in all, a big iimprovement… |
June 23, 2014Heigh ho, heigh ho, to the supermarket I go (again)… Chilean food for dinner tonight — pastel de choclo (or beef and corn pie),which I served with an avocado-celery salad and pebre, the traditional Chilean salsa that goes with everything. I’ve make pebre occasionally and like it fine, but it’s not a patch on Mexican salsa in my book…
Beulah had her operation this afternoon. Freddy called in the evening to give us a report on how it went. It’s major surgery, and she has a long recovery ahead of her, but it was good to hear that the operation was a success. Finished watching Broadchurch this evening — gripping stuff… |
June 22, 2014I felt fine this morning, but Adam was a little worse for wear. He thinks his glass must have been topped up more than mine, which is possible. Also, I’ve been consciously trying to keep an eye on my portion sizes of food and drink. For example, when we had pancakes (in honour of the USA World Cup team) for breakfast, I limited myself to two. (This is Adam’s plate, honest!)
Pancakes, bacon and maple syrup (Go USA!) It was the school fun run this afternoon. Headed up early, as I’m helping organise it this year. I was also the starter for all the races. What a thankless job — I can see why that one went to the newbie… Helped on the bar stall afterwards, a much more congenial place to be. Necked a couple of well-deserved pints of Pimms as well…;-) Made Algerian food this afternoon — meatballs and chickpeas in a garlicky red sauce, which was excellent. Definitely the best World Cup food so far…
Meatballs and chickpeas in a garlicky red sauce with couscous (Go Algeria!) |
June 21, 2014Happy anniversary, baby! Seventeen years — and it certainly feels like it…;-) Today’s World Cup dish comes from Ghana. Oto is a traditional Ghanaian dish. It is typically served for breakfast on special occasions, like birthdays and weddings. I definitely liked it better than the rest of the family… Afterwards, we headed off to visit Beulah, who’s going into hospital on Monday for an operation.
Oto with hard-boiled eggs (Go Ghana!) Lyra had a Frozen-themed birthday party in the afternoon, and returned home filled up with pizza and cake. I cooked some tuna sweetcorn pasta for Nova’s dinner — a family staple before the fish hater entered our lives. Before going out for our anniversary meal, we changed into our wedding clothes and Nova took some photos of us. The little beggar is quite the phone photo whiz, expertly directing us and adjusting the poses. I suppose it’s no surprise, the way her generation are constantly snapping selfies (and everything else) to post on Instagram.
Adam and I had dinner at Les Associés — a funny little French place in Crouch End. Eating there always makes me happy. The man who runs it (in what is essentially his livingroom) cooks a daily menu de jour (plus a few standing dishes). Given the size and nature of the place, it’s a no brainer to order from that. I went for the asparagus, followed by sea bream in garlic butter; Adam had the rabbit terrine and rack of lamb — everything was delicious and excellent value. We settled on a bottle of grenache, which was also delicious, the owner classily bringing us some cheese to finish our wine. Dessert was lemon tart and creme brulee. There was some difference of opinion there. I loved the way he’d browned the sugar to the point of bitterness, while Adam thought it was too much. And in spite of such incompatibilities, we struggle on…;-) |
June 20, 2014Second day of the conference… Up at 5:45am to get myself organised and out. There’s a lot to do on Friday mornings, and although Adam and I spoke before I left, I still ended up sending him further instructions by text:
In the tunnel leading to my platform I met a fox loping in the opposite direction… Unbelievably, another smelly person sat next to me at Croydon! Actually, it may have been the same smelly person as yesterday (regular commuters do tend to frequent the same trains and cars). I’d assumed it was the man smelling up the place with his old curry sweat, but it was the woman. The danger of making assumptions… The first presentation today was based on Daniel Kahneman’s work on types of thinking, and how that can be applied to creating website content. Interesting stuff… Had a longer talk with the guy from my agency. It sounds like the asshole who led the coup that did for my team is getting the boot. I’m surprised it took so long for his complete incompetence to be revealed, but better late than never… After lunch with an American technical writer who works remotely from Asturias, and two final sessions, I caught the train back to London. Threw together a batch of pizza dough and a quick tiramisu:
England needed Italy to beat Costa Rica to stay in the competition, but they just weren’t up to the task… Switched over and started watching Broadchurch this evening. Gripping stuff — I could definitely see it leading the Celt Noir invasion into Scandinavia…;-) |
June 19, 2014I’m attending a content strategy for the next two days. It’s “conveniently” being held in a hotel out past Gatwick. I didn’t think through the travel time when I blithely turned down the free hotel room included in the price.Left the house about 6:15am, picked up my tickets and caught the 7:30 train. At least it was against the flow of traffic, and not at all crowded until Croydon, whne a man with terrible body odour sat next to me. Mercifully, he got off a couple of stations later, but was replaced by a young woman who snuffed endlessly while applying make-up (one of my pet peeves). She was followed by another sniffer… Misanthrope, moi?…;-) About fifteen minutes into the event, and I remembered how much I hate conferences. All that excruciating small talk while peering discreetly at each other’s name tags to see if it’s worth speaking to them. Eventually we took our seats for the opening address, and I discovered I’d managed to sit next to a web guy from my former agency… Gah… The conference was billed as being about content strategy, but seems to have drawn an audience of technical writers. Turns out DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is the new thing — who knew? Lunch was good, though I could have done without the company: a shamelessly self-promoting Israeli course designer, a stereotypically arrogant French localiser, and a relatively nice course director from Imperial College. Fortunately, some of the sessions were very good, particularly the ones on micro-content strategy and adapting Agile to content projects, both of which are very relevant to my current work. It was past seven when I got home and I went straight into dinner prep. Greek food tonight. I’d marinated the lamb overnight, so I skewered that up and got it on the barbeque. Adam had already made the salad, I threw together some tzatziki and sat down to watch the England v Uruguay match.
England played well again — I really like this new, aggressive, risk-taking style, but with Suarez in the line-up, Uruguay proved too much for them and they lost 2-1. While there’s still a theoretical chance England can advance through to the next round, it depends on a chain of unlikely results that are largely out of their hands… |
June 18, 2014Went for a six mile run on the Heath after dropping Lyra at gymnastics. Even at 8am it was already hotting up, but I soldiered through. At least they’ve turned the water fountains on again, after disconnecting them all winter. I suppose they may have been concerned about the pipes freezing, but in fact we had the mildest winter in many years.Lyra went back to Alex’s house after school, so I swung over to the swimming pool at 7pm to pick her up. Apparently, the swimming instructor wants to speak to us about her performance next week. According to Lyra, if she does one more “bad thing” he’s going to kick her out of swimming lessons. Nine (I do not exaggerate!) work crews later, the gas leak drama is finally over. One benefit of dividing the work across so many crews was that they didn’t realise what a parlous state the paving was in before they dug it up. Assuming it was their damage, they have made the forecourt much more level, replaced a couple of cracked paving stones, cemented everything in place, and even added a neat little step at the side of the house. It’s a vast improvement! Tonight’s dinner was n’dolé aux crevettes from Cameroon. N’dolé is a type of bitter leaf eaten in Africa, I substituted our sorrel topped up with kale — really tasty. Made a pavlova as well to represent Australia:
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June 17, 2014Lyra lost a tooth yesterday evening (nothing to do with the chicken fessenjoon!), and was adamant that she didn’t want anyone in the family to swap the tooth for money. She specifically name checked Adam and Nova, in case I got any big ideas. She’s clinging to the hope that the reason the tooth fairy didn’t come in the past was because I got in there first, before the fairy had a chance…Although I knew how disappointed she was going to be, I respected her wish and didn’t touch the tooth or her sweet little note. When I woke her this morning, she immediately checked her bedside table, then turned away crestfallen. “So now I know for sure,” she said in a quiet voice. After a long hug, I took the tooth away and returned with double the usual money, which cheered her up some… Her class is going on a teddy bear picnic today, to which she is bringing Fair Bear. It was quite the process determining which bear to take. In the interest of fairness, Lyra set up a little hustings and gave three teddies the chance to state their case, after which Adam and I cast a vote. Although I’d fully intended to vote for either Big Bear (her first teddy) on the grounds of loyalty, or Beary (on the grounds of nationality), Fair Bear swung me round with his convincing argument.
Lyra’s teddy bear hustings, with refreshments and voting cards for the judges Conversation overheard between Lyra and Alex: “Lyra, what food don’t you like?” “I like everything except some kinds of “Even cauliflower???” “Yes!” She does too, bless her heart… Belgian food for dinner. And the rest of our stickers arrived from Panini today — the book is finally complete!
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June 16, 2014Did a speed workout this morning — 8x three minutes fast, with a two minute recovery in between. I didn’t feel like it, but just kept doing on more interval and got there in the end.Did a whole week’s grocery shopping for the World Cup cooking project. We’re having Iranian food tonight, so I hit the Persian grocery store in Finchley as well as Waitrose. They have great produce at excellent prices, and I picked up a two pound box of beautiful cherries for only six quid.
Just time to grab a bite of late lunch before I needed to be in the playground selling Fun Run teeshirts. I think pretty much everyone who’s planning to has registered already, and I only shifted two. For dinner I prepared chicken fessenjoon with rice, dried lime tea and cherries. It was all delicious — I particularly liked the sourness of the sauce, which was made with pomegranate syrup, dried plums and ground walnuts.
Watched the Iran- Nigeria game afterwards. Iran are such underdogs in this tournament, I couldn’t help rooting for them. Nigeria should have been all over them, but apparently they are underperforming, and it ended in a draw. According to the commentators, the Iran team has faced a serious lack of funding in their build up to the tournament, and apparently they’ve been told not to swap shirts after the match as there aren’t any spares… |
June 15, 2014Not feeling too wonderful this morning — surprise, surprise — but as it was Father’s Day I dragged myself out of bed and did my duty. We had bircher meusli with fresh fruit for breakfast, in honour of Switzerland’s debut match:
Every year, Adam enters the ballot for both Wimbledon and Queens tennis tickets. We had good luck with Wimbledon for two years running; this year we landed tickets for finals day at Queens. We dropped Lyra at Alex’s around lunch time en route to the tube. Nova stayed at home to study, her final exams start tomorrow. Queens Club is in Baron’s Court, which is a relatively easy journey, and we arrived in time for the second set of mens doubles, in which Jamie Murray and his partner John Peers were defeated.
The mens’ singles match was between Feliciano Lopez and Grigor Dimitrov. Although I’m not familiar with either player, it was a thrilling match, with shots that made the whole crowd gasp aloud. Ate the picnic we’d picked up at the local Londis, for £8 total — the cost of one pint of Pimms (or the cheapest sandwich) on site.
The young challenger Dimitrov took it in the end. Stuck around afterwards to watch the Rally for Bally, a fundraiser for the newly late Elena Baltacha, which took the form of a doubles match between Andy Murray, Martina Hingis and Jamie Murray vs Ross Hutchinson, Victoria Azarenka and Heather Watson. Lots of goofing around and general hijinks. Azarenka turned out to be a real card — regularly grabbing the microphone to make announcements, ousting the umpire and even relieving a policemen of his hat… Home about 8pm. Dan had just dropped Lyra round, so I got her into bed then made us an omelette for our dinner. Tired — it’s been a big weekend… |
June 14, 2014Made blueberry muffins for breakfast. Adam headed off to a governors surgery afterwards that lasted all morning. There’s a lot of excitement about changes the new head is bringing in, seething staff discontent, and parents worked into a lather. Can’t say I envied him…Made Welsh rarebit for lunch, in honour of England’s pending game against Italy. Paired it with a watercress salad I found a recipe for on Epicurious, which was pretty tasty.
Highgate had its annual Fair in the Square this afternoon. The event has grown by leaps and bounds, but we still seem to know about 10% of the people there. The weather was good for a change, and we spent most of the afternoon up there, even managing a cheeky pint at the Flask when the crowds got too much. Particularly enjoyed the Morris dancing… Popped back home to toss together a chickpea green bean salad, then headed over to Lynne and Duncan’s for a World Cup barbeque. Had a lovely glass of rosé, and then another, and another… Not feeling all that hungry, I opted for a plate of salads and didn’t bother to have any meat. This may have been a tactical error… I was feeling pretty drunk by the time we headed a few doors down to watch the game at Vince and Danny’s house. Adam ran the girls home at half time, then walked back down. It was an exciting match — I barely recognised England — but they still ended up losing by one goal. Staggered home about 1am… |
June 13, 2014Happy birthday, Dad! After so long, I didn’t know what to expect, but their amends were relatively minor. There were a few questions to resolve, so I arranged a phone meeting. The main client wasn’t available, which was no bad thing. Spoke to the subject matter expert, ironed everything out in twenty minutes, and resubmitted the copy later this afternoon. Had our final Fun Run meeting, after which I walked the course to measure it with my Runkeeper app. We’ve laid it out slightly differently this year, so wanted to check whether we could still call it a kilometre. Our gas was turned back on this afternoon — yay! Though I actually didn’t didn’t use it at all for tonight’s dinner of fish tacos, in honour of Mexico’s World Cup debut. As it is a stinking hot day, we did all the cooking on the barbeque. Watched the Spain v Netherlands game afterwards — Spain got an unexpected spanking… |
June 12, 2014Happy birthday Isobel! Eight years old today — wow! It can be tricky to find a suitable time to call — think we’ll wait until the weekend.I’ve come up with a fun World Cup food project — over the next month I’m going to cook a dish from each of the 32 countries appearing in the tournament. Spent a couple of hours mapping out a globe-spanning menu plan that syncs with the days teams are playing — at least during the round robin stage of the tournament. I needed to pick up some groceries from Waitrose so I could get started, and hit the Japanese grocers as well. Returned home to discover we had a gas leak. A guy had shown up earlier this afternoon to install a smart gas meter and somehow managed to rupture our gas line. The National Grid was called out to deal with it. Eventually six workmen showed up and dug a ruddy great hole in our forecourt. well two of them did — the other four seemed to be there to watch and crack jokes.
They weren’t able to restore the gas this evening, which was kindof annoying, as it meant cooking dinner on our two-burner electric hotplate. I was cooking quite an intricate Brazilian dish, which was a faff, but I got there in the end. We had: panqueqas de carne (basically crepes wrapped around a ground meat filling, smothered in tomato sauce and covered in cheese then baked in the oven. I served it with a cabbage-pepper salad, and brigadieros (delicious little balls of chocolatey goodness) for dessert. I made myself a caiparinha as well, which was so tasty I had a second one…;-) Adam was out at a work event, so I left a plate for him in the oven… |
June 11, 2014I’ve agreed to be a class rep next year, along with Millie and Ellie. Neither Adam or I have done it for Lyra’s class yet, and there aren’t many families left who haven’t already had a go. Went for coffee after drop-off to have a little talk about how we’re going to divvy things up. They are both champing at the bit to get going, having never done it before, and happy to take the lion’s share of the tasks as well, which is fine by me…;-)Alex came round after school. There is a rainbow loom craze in lower half of the school — making rings, and bracelets with tiny elastic bands. Lyra’s class is trying to break the world record for the longest rope of elastic bands. Lyra was custodian of monster band this evening, and brought it home in her backpack. They unfurled it to show me how long it was — from the kitchen, their rope stretches down two flights of stairs and out the front door to the far side of the car. Pretty impressive… Fish fingers, chips, and peas for dinner, with ice cream for dessert. I reheated some chickpea pasta soup for Nova then headed off to the swimming pool. Christine took Nova to swimming this evening, and fortunately Adam got home in time to do pick up. Otherwise, Wednesdays can feel like we’re running a Mallinson shuttle service… |
June 10, 2014Recieved an additional six envelopes of sticker trades in the post today — enough for us to be able to order the rest directly from Panini now (which you can do if you need less than 50). Very satisfying…Dinner was Japanese curry and rice. I bought a medium hot curry sauce for first time, and was pleased that it didn’t phase the kids a bit… |
June 9, 2014Did a reading session in Lyra’s class this morning — always interesting. It happens that I’d read with this particular girl before, and it was lovely to observe the progress she’s made in the past few months.Had an hour’s work setting up a new WordPress site for a former client — mainly the IT end of things, just getting a shell in place so they could have a go at doing it for themselves. Of course it might turn into more work when they discover that it isn’t as easy as it looks… We received four envelopes of Panini stickers in the post today. What I like about this sticker trading is that all the built-in incentives encourage honest behaviour. For one thing, you are only trading stickers that you already have, and therefore have no use for. For another, there is no cash market for them (at least not at this stage). And with all the trading taking place in the open forum of Facebook, if you don’t hold up your end of the trade it is very easy tell everyone about it, limiting your ability to make further trades… Lyra went round to Rosa’s after school for an impromptu playdate. Collected her in time for dinner, as Jemima hadn’t factored on having an extra mouth to feed. Pork skewers with a roasted cauliflower salad — delish! |
June 8, 2014No kids certainly makes for a relaxing start to the morning…;-) There were goslings trailing after their parents, a nest of baby coots atop one of the tire floats, and a big old terrapin sunning himself on a far float. Nova was home by the time I got back, but Lyra stayed with Doron to attend a festival in their local park. Home about 4pm, from what was the “best sleepover ever!” We had Carolyn’s friend Neil up for dinner this evening. I was planning to serve roast chicken, potatoes, beans etc., but the weather was so warm it called for a switch of gears. I doused the chicken in citrus juices before roasting, and made a rice pilaf to serve with it instead. Nice enough meal, but nothing special… Neil has spent the last month walking the pilgrims way in northern Spain, travelling from the Basque country to Santiago de Compostela, and it was interesting to hear about that. I’m intrigued by the idea of doing it, but finding a sufficient chunk of time seems pretty unlikely. Something to file away for when the kids have left home perhaps… |
June 7, 2014Made a batch of muffins then went for a run while they baked. It was already hot, and humid as well. I so much prefer running in the winter, even with the rain…I told them to go ahead and eat as Adam had a meeting up at the school. The playground is a hornets’ nest of rumours and discontent aboutthe number of teachers leaving at the end of the year, so the governors have called an extraordinary meeting to try to calm things down. Adam had quite a frantic afternoon of online Panini sticker trading. He’s joined a Facebook group of like-minded “enthusiasts” who post things like this for each other and made seven trades with complete strangers:
The girls are parcelled out for the evening — Nova attending a sleepover in Gospel Oak, and Lyra sleeping over at her cousins so as not to feel hard done by. This left us free to go for dinner at Kiran and Birgit’s, walking down so we could stay as late and drink as much as we wanted. Excellent food as ever, particularly the potted crab… |
June 6, 2014Saya round for a playdate after school. Made banh mi sandwiches for dinner, which isn’t the sort of thing I’d ordinarily serve up on a playdate, but I figured she’d likely to be a good eater. Her dad is a high-end chef and she’s of mixed Japanese/Nigerian heritage, so bound to have been exposed to a wider range of foods than many of Lyra’s classmates. She happily tucked right in, adding coriander leaves and carrot/cabbage pickle to her sandwich without hesitation.Afterwards, the girls put on a little show for us. They arranged seats, produced a poster, tickets, and even a refreshments menu, which included a fruit plate, ice cream and a range of drinks. The show itself involved singing, acting, piano, violin and rhythm gymnastics — very impressive! Being Japanese, Asuka often brings a little gift when she comes to collect Saya. Today’s offering was two packs of World Cup stickers and an England bracelet, which were much appreciated. I’m going to wear this until England crash out of the World Cup…
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June 5, 2014Did a speed session in Highgate Woods after drop-off. Not feeling particularly speedy, and struggled to go much faster than ten-minute miles. Just not feeling it at the moment…Needed to turn the flat around this morning, as a friend of Carolyn’s has popped up wanting to stay. She’d asked us about Neil staying months ago, which we were fine with, but then told us he wasn’t coming after all. I kept his visit on the calendar just in case, because I had a stinking suspicion this might happen… Neil was meant to arrive in the early afternoon, but wasn’t here when I set out to do the chess drop-off. It was my turn to escort four little chess enthusiasts down to Jackson’s Lane. He still hadn’t turned up when Adam and I eventually set off for our wine tasting event at the Globe Theatre on the Southbank. It felt a little weird leaving the girls home alone with instructions to open the door to a strange man, but it all worked out.
Tonight’s tasting was for Peter Lehmann wines, an Australian vineyard in the Barossa Valley that produces a wide range of wine. I thought every bottle was delicious, especially the metal-dry reisling, and cabernet-shiraz. The food was excellent as well. The wine maker was a sixty-something Australian rascal, who became increasingly flirtatious as the evening went on — quite amusing… Cabbed home with Kiran and Birgit… |
June 4, 2014Wednesdays are meant to be our early start morning, but today everyone slept in. (Everyone except Adam, who was upstairs on an international conference call.) Scrambled around getting lunch made and Lyra’s various bags packed — gymnastics, swimming, homework so she could leave by ten to eight. Adam had a governor’s meeting at 8am, so he dropped Lyra off on the way, while I drove Nova to her school so she wouldn’t be late.We’re making good progress on our Panini World Cup sticker book. We received three envelopes of stickers from people Adam is trading with online this afternoon, and what with the additional packs he bought today and the five stickers he drummed up from swapping with kids in Lyra’s class, he’s passed the 80% mark. It’s his ambition to have it filled in by the time the World Cup starts on 12 June, which isn’t looking likely. Although if you need less than fifty, you can order them directly from the company. Just 120 to go then…;-) Veggie chilli for dinner, followed by three trips to the swimming pool dropping and collecting girls. After which we sunk a bottle of wine in front of the telly before calling it a night… |
June 3, 2014Went for a rain-soaked run after drop-off. A bit slow and ploddy, but always better than no run at all… Posted a letter to my Japanese pen pal this morning. It’s been on my to-do list for a couple of weeks, and I was glad to finally get something in the post. When we were in Kamakura, I was approached by an elderly Japanese man who ceremoniously handed me a piece of paper with both hands and urged me to read it. It turned out to be a handwritten letter (curiously glued to a supermarket flyer), which read:
And on the back, he’d pasted:
After reading the letter, I promised that I would indeed write him a letter, which I did the day after we got back to UK. Within a few weeks, a reply came winging back. It opened with these words:
So I now have a 71-year-old Japanese rice farmer for a pen pal…;-) Spent a few hours working on a case study and article for our company newsletter. I wrote the case study, while Adam wrote the article then we swapped and edited each other’s copy, which worked out pretty well. Dinner was steak salad — a great way to share two steaks between four people. I grilled and sliced them, then tossed the meat with new potatoes, green beans, halved cherry tomatoes and red onion, with a horseradish dressing served on the side. Yum. I also made a rosemary loaf cake, but we waited until Nova was back from swim training to tuck into that. I was dubious about how the rosemary flavour would work in a cake, but it was delicious. I’ve recently discovered that we get the Japanese NHK World Television Channel, which broadcasts Japanese programmes in English 24 hours a day. I’m taping a few things to see what suits me. Watched a bizarre programme this evening called “Lunch ON!”, about what different Japanese workers eat for lunch: ship builders, ATM manufacturers, recent graduates (all of whom start work on April 1 across the country apparently), and cosmetic company employees. This was followed by a piece of street journalism, where they were asking elderly men what they ate for their first ever work lunch. Strangely enough, most of them seemed to remember. Even more strangely, Lunch ON! is actually a series — week after week, they cover the lunch habits of the Japanese work force… |
June 2, 2014Back to school…:-( Nova had a special sports day at Allianz Park, a fancy new sports facility in Hendon, and home to the Saracens rugby team. I thought it sounded fun, but she was pretty underwhelmed by whole thing. She’s not the least competitive, at least when it comes to sports. It sounds like she did alright, coming second in both her 100m and 800m heats, but not posting fast enough times for either final. What with her regular swim training, she’ll be in better condition than a lot of those girls, and she’s slimmer than plenty too, from what I see at events like parent teacher night. Nova’s been growing steadily as well, and is now perfect chin resting height. We’ll do an official measuring on her birthday, but she appears to have grown a good inch since Christmas. Went grocery shopping with Pasc at Tesco. I used to make a point of not shopping at Tesco, but don’t feel so strongly about it now they market share in is decline It’s definitely the place to buy toiletries at a reasonable price, and they recently sent me a sheet of coupons for food items we regularly buy (no doubt they work that out from our ClubCard). Tesco’s is also a good source of air miles, which we’re trying to collect at the moment, thinking we’ll maybe take a little birthday trip somewhere nice in September. Chinese chicken and jasmine rice for dinner, with strawberries and cream for dessert — both firm family faves. It’s gratifying to see how well both girls use their chopsticks now, post-Japan. In tonight’s installment of our Narnia book, Aravis overheard Prince Rabadash concocting an elaborate scheme to invade a neighbouring country, kidnap Queen Susan and ultimately overrun Narnia. “What can Aravis do to stop this?” I asked Lyra when we finished the chapter. She set out a neat military strategy that would definitely save the day and is no doubt exactly what will happen in the ensuing chapters. No flies on that girl… |
June 1, 2014Rabbits! I remembered to say it for once — I know it’s silly, but I always feel better when I do… Adam headed off to play football first thing. I left the girls at home and set out to walk the 4.5 miles to Stoke Newington, to help Ben prepare for this afternoon’s Asparagusfest.I took the Parkland Walk to Finsbury Park, which knocked off the first couple of miles. I was relying on my Google Map navigation feature to see me the rest of the way, but it let me down a couple of times from this point. I got completely turned around in Finsbury Park, wasting about twenty minutes. It also sent me on a pointless loop that would have had cut through a dodgy Stoke Newington estate I remember from when we lived round there. Even so, it was a pretty direct way to get to Ben’s house, not to mention good exercise. Ben also had a guy called Ed helping with the prep. I washed and tailed 10kg of very sandy asparagus, peeled a mound of asparagus stalks for stock, grated and chopped on demand, and washed sinkloads of dishes.
By the time guests started at 1pm, things were pretty much in hand. I moved out to the garden, and spent the rest of the afternoon drinking wine, soaking up sunshine and hoovering the fine food. Adam turned up about 3pm, having dropped both girls at Shira’s house. They ended up eating dinner there, which was just as well, as we are really scraping the barrel on the food front now. I made it to June without spending any more money on groceries, which was my objective. Will hit the supermarket tomorrow… |
