September 2005

September 30, 2005

Blew off my morning run… it was raining and I wasn’t sure what horrors the spinning class might hold. The first challenge was wheeling the bike out of it’s parking space. They are heavy little suckers and difficult to maneuvre. It was a bit complicated getting the seat and handlebars adjusted properly as well. We eventually got going. I took it quite easy, and felt okay, although your bum gets sore after 45 minutes in the saddle. Jemima climbed off her bike about half way through and sat the rest of the class out. I thought maybe the seat had got to her, but it turned out she felt light headed and didn’t want to keel over.

The class was very friendly. A number of people came over to ask how she was doing afterward, and offer encouraging words about how tough they found it when they started out.

Headed back to ours for lunch. Adam had picked up the two girls, who were happily eating fried eggs on toast we we arrived to polish of the Moroccan leftovers.

They play together so nicely now. Today was a real lovefest. Overheard:

Ruby:”I love you!”
Nova: “I love you too!”

Nova: “We’re almost twins.”
Ruby: “Yes, we are!”

Ruby: “I wish I was you…”
Nova: “I wish I was you too!”

Had a bowl of soup for dinner in preparation for tomorrow’s weigh in. Adam headed off for a swim after dinner. Watched “Meet the Fockers” when he got back. Mindless entertainment, but somethings that exactly what’s called for.

September 29, 2005

I’d arranged to do a spinning class with Jemima tomorrow, and called this morning to remind her she had to sign up. “What does one wear?” she asked. “Oh, tracky bottoms, leggings, shorts — that kind of thing.” “I don’t own anything like that…” she said. Apparently, it runs in the family. Her brother Charlie was once told to wear something scruffy — “I’ll have to go out and buy something” he said. After taking Nova to school, I went for my weekly swim. I can feel that my arms are getting stronger, and that I’m moving more quickly for the same amount of effort, which is satisfying.

We have Gail and Bruce Fraser staying this week — they are friends of Carolyn and Jack’s from Vancouver and have stayed with us before. I cooked them a Moroccan dinner: baba ganoush, carrot dill salad and yogurt with flat bread, then steamed cod with Moroccan roast vegetables. Mint tea, grapes and halvah for dessert. Really nice meal, and not to damaging to the weight loss efforts.

September 28, 2005

Had an alarming mid-week weigh-in this morning… I’ll have to smarten up if I don’t want to let the side down on Saturday…We had an appointment at the solicitors in the village this afternoon to have our wills made. We’ve been meaning to do it since Nova was born… It was all pretty straightforward — we don’t own enough for inheritance to be an issue.

It was my turn for a night out. Met up with Pasc, Alicia and Deborah at the Wrestlers. We shared a bottle and a half of wine, and had a good catch up.

September 27, 2005

Adam was out at the pub with some Highgate dads this evening. Antonia dropped round for a visit, and to give me a belated birthday present. She’s thinking about getting back to work, as an education officer for a theatre company. I’ve never heard of this job, but apparently it is someone who provides liaison between the theatre company and schools. I think it would be a good move for her, as I think she finds full-time childcare a bit wearing. I know I would…

September 26, 2005

The first day of school has finally arrived… Nova looked adorable in her little school uniform. She was so excited, she practically dragged me out of the house, and marched straight into the classroom without looking back. I hung about the door, to see how she settled in. She headed over to the mirror and practiced different school faces, then took her place with Sharon the classroom assistant on the floor, with Evelyn by her side.

Went for a quick drink with colleagues after work, but I was keen to get back and see how Nova’s day was. She seemed pretty tired, but it sounds like everything went well, although the usual suspects from nursery were “naughty”. Apparently, this year they have a time-out chair, and it sounds like it is already getting pretty regular use.

September 25, 2005

Jenny and Paul arrived yesterday evening. Jenny is catering the food for Anne’s 90th birthday party, and thought our place would be the perfect base to work from. We’d discussed her menu ideas at length, and I’d committed to making the veggie platter.

She’d planned to pick up a few things at Costco on the way down, but for some complicated reason, it didn’t happen. After breakfast, in a manoeuvre worthy of Tom Sawyer she headed off to buy a poached salmon and quiche, and I was “promoted” from crudités to making the coronation chicken, rice salad, cocktail sausages, and new potatoes as well…

She got back in time to help arrange food on platters, and rope the guys into shifting it next door. I arrived to find Anne in a towering rage with Jenny on some flimsy pretext. It takes some doing to be angry with someone who’s driven 300 miles and given up their weekend to put on a party for twenty of your friends and family. She thawed out after a few drinks and seemed to enjoy herself. Everyone raved about the food, which was nice.

We had to get back at 4pm to interview a nanny I’d spoken to yesterday, but she didn’t show up. She left a mobile number, which she wasn’t answering. I retrieved her home number from call alert and called her on that. It turns out she’d totally forgotten, which isn’t the most auspicious start… Makes you wonder if she’d “forget” to pick up Nova from school. We rearranged for next weekend, but I’m a lot less enthusiastic about her. It’s definitely a nanny’s market though, and as we aren’t offering many hours (or perks) we may struggle to find someone.

September 24, 2005

This morning’s weigh in I was two pounds down, which was a difficult week for weight loss. Everyone else made the cut too, although Pete is sailing a bit close to the wind, at a modest quarter pound loss. In three weeks, we’ve lost nearly 30 pounds between us. Picked up Nova from Ruby’s about 11am. She barely noticed me at first, she was so engrossed in making a special sticker picture.

In the afternoon, Adam head off to get ears candled. I was worried it was something similar to what he had done in Delhi, where he let an itinerant ear cleaner scrape out his ears with a foot long spoon, but it sounds a more gentle procedure, involving gusts of air and rolled up paper apparently.

Busy cooking, cleaning, getting the flat ready… Paul and Jenny are staying this evening, then the Fraser’s from Canada are arriving tomorrow afternoon. Cooked a nice dinner: pan roasted chicken, roast potatoes (sold to Nova as “chunky chips”), chard from the garden, apple crumble with apples from our trees.

Adam fell asleep immediately after dinner, which is unlike him. It was as if someone had flipped his on/off switch. One minute, he was engrossed in football results, the next his head was lolling against his chest. I was watching a documentary on George Gershwin, when Adam started making this gagging sound. I thought perhaps he was throwing up, but he claimed to be completely fine, and got a bit cross at the way I was interrogating him. (He told me later the candling guy said he might pass a large ball of mucus (from his sinuses??) and I think maybe that it happened while he was asleep…

September 23, 2005

The scales finally registered a bit of a loss, which is a relief. I was dreading Saturday’s weigh-in…

Evelyn and her mother Christine came round for lunch. I made a low-cal version of my favourite rice salad, leaving out all the salad oil. After we finished eating, they headed off with Nova for an afternoon playdate.

My blisters are still a bit iffy, so I decided to run at the gym instead of on the Heath in case I had to bail out. Set the treadmill for a five km run. I was a about a km in when the fire alarm when off. We were all evacuated into the pouring rain, which wasn’t great. But nothing compared to the poor sods evicted from the swimming pool, standing about shivering in their swimsuits and bare feet.

Nova had a sleepover at Ruby’s this evening. We had a light supper of oysters and champagne. One info nugget that stuck with me from the oyster and champagne lecture the other weekend was that there are only 10 calories in an oyster. So we had nine each… and a bottle of their happy hour champagne.

Went on to see Kevin Spacey perform Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Old Vic. It was a fantastic production. It was set in modern times, and they used of video screens at times, replaying some of the speeches as new bulletins, which was very effective. I’ve found it annoying in the past that directors never seem to set Shakespeare’s work in the era it was written. It always has to be 60’s Haight-Ashbury, or Nazi Germany or something. But the scene where Richard was murdered in his jail cell — balaclava-wearing terrorists burst in, threw a blanket over the security camera and brutally dispatched him — would never have had the same impact with men in velvet pantaloons skewering him with a sword.

September 22, 2005

My blisters are still nasty — one of them was actually stuck to the bedsheets this morning. They were okay in the swimming pool, when I swam my mile. It felt a bit faster this week, not quite so plodding.

The chop thwack man was there again, and we got talking. It turns out he does ultra triathalons — his last one was in Hawaii, and included a twenty-four hour swim. Hard to see the attraction of that particular hobby…

Ballet today. They combined the two classes into one, and there were thirteen little girls today, which seems too many. We have the new instructor as well, who is nowhere near as good as the other one. She doesn’t look like a ballerina for one thing, being considerably overweight, although at least she wore ballet type clothes today, instead of the baggy tracksuit she was in last week.

Tonight at bathtime, Nova announced, “I’m going to be a mermaid, because they are the most beautiful creatures in the whole sea. Daddy, you can be a playful dolphin. Mummy, you can be an octopus.” An octopus… When she plays with her castle now, she’s upgraded herself to queen, daddy is the king, and I’m lucky if I get to be a princess. Half the time, I’m a step-sister, or wicked witch…

September 21, 2005

Went out for a team lunch today. Three of the nine of us have birthdays in the same week, which seemed as good a reason as any. There’s a Turkish restaurant round the corner that does a two-course set lunch: hummus or tabouleh, followed by one of their kebabs. Nice food, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I think people are starting to gel. They weren’t all talking to former colleagues at any rate.

Wore my boots today, as my new black shoes have given me blisters. I ended up leaving late to pick up Nova, and had to power walk from the tube station, jump straight in the car and speed down to Theresa’s. In all the excitement, one of the bandaids got rucked up, and ended up rubbing a swathe of skin off my right heel. It’s bloody painful, and irritating because it was completely unnecessary.

I wasn’t particularly hungry after my big lunch, wine and afternoon birthday cake. Had a cup of minestrone in front of the telly for dinner.

September 20, 2005

Dave came round for dinner this evening, bearing birthday presents (the new Laura Viers CD and a Carl Hiassen novel) and a chocolate bar for Nova.

Adam made a big pot of minestrone for dinner, which we ate with a quarter of my sourdough. Baked peaches with amaretto for dessert. Sat around talking and listening to music. Dave is huge music nut, and always brings a few new CDs with him whenever he visits. This time he introduced us to Devendra Banhart, a young longhair from California, who sounds like a cross between Loudon Wainright and a sheep. Surprisingly good actually, and with those catchy tunes you know will be stuck in your head for the next week…

September 19, 2005

Went on a plain English writing course this afternoon. Didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know, but it was a good refresher. The examples we worked on were drawn from our actual publications, and it was interesting to hear some of the medical editors attempt to defend the convoluted, passive, jargon laden sentences they’d written as “what the audience wants”, or capturing some subtlety that is lost in the edited version. As an organisation, we have a lot of improvement to make in this area…

September 18, 2005

Forty one…
Nova came in at 4am. I thought she was bearing gifts, but it was actually a pair of wet knickers, which she dropped in the laundry basket, and plunged cheerfully into bed with us. A couple of hours of restiveness before we all managed to fall asleep again…

David called at 7:30am to wish me a happy birthday. I left the pair of them sleeping, and headed upstairs to open my birthday mail: cards from Jemima and Nick and Jane, and an interesting book from Margo and Aaron. Jemima got me a ticket to see Salman Rushdie read from his new book as well.

There were more presents forthcoming when the rest of the family got up: a bed pillow and blowdryer from Freddy and Beulah, a purse size bottle of Estée Lauder Beautiful from Nova with the most wonderful card of Adam and I on our wedding day, a cool Motorola mobile phone from Adam, a novel (Middlesex) from Pasc.

Adam and Nova made Margo muffins, coffee and fresh orange juice for breakfast. We had vague plans to do something, but I was just too sleep deprived, and we spent the day hanging out at home.

Had some of the bread for lunch, with bits and pieces from the fridge. Adam and Nova baked a coconut cake in the afternoon, with coconut Malibu icing. Had phone calls from Wade and Greg and Wendy.

Adam made a terrific dinner: grilled lamb chops with roast potatoes and peas, along with a lovely bottle of wine that Freddy gave us yesterday. The coconut cake was gorgeous, although we’ll have to find a home for the leftovers — too dangerous to have those hanging around all week…

“Daddy and mummy at their wedding” by Nova

September 17, 2005

The girls woke us up about 6:30am. According to them, they’d been up in the middle of the night playing Polly Pocket and Barbie, but when we surveyed Nova’s bedroom later, the mess to time quotient that every parent is familiar with, convinced us that they couldn’t have been playing for more than half an hour…;-)

We were lying in bed, when Nova pointed out our wedding photo to Ruby:

Nova: My mummy and daddy had three wedding cakes!
Ruby: How lucky! When I get married to my friend Austin, I’ll wear a beautiful wedding dress.
Nova: When I get married to my daddy, I’ll wear a beautiful wedding dress, too!
Ruby: You can’t marry your daddy, silly! He’s already married to Andrea.
Nova: You’re joking!!!… Don’t talk to me any more!… (marches off)

We all managed to lose weight again this week… Had a pretty good run with Pasc, managing a whole loop of Highgate Woods and an extra mini loop without stopping. Received the most beautiful bouquet of flowers from Wade this morning: gerbera, anemones, carnations, chrysanthemums, and a few others that I don’t know the names of. Nova was most impressed…

Went shopping in Muswell Hill after lunch. Bought a string of flower lights for Nova’s bedroom (she’s refusing to sleep without the light on these days), a few school uniform bits and pieces we still needed, and a replacement Florrie Fimble for the one that’s gone missing. Nova’s explanation for Florrie’s disappearance is pretty amusing: she thinks she’s fallen into a hole in Fimble Valley. (The truth is I took her to Oxfam because I thought Nova had grown out of Fimbles). The new “improved” Florrie talks and sings in an annoying mechanical whine. I foresee an accident with water in her future…

Nova’s very excited about the impending birthday. She figured out that today is the last day I’ll be forty, which actually gave me a bit of a shiver, as mum always used to say that. She also told me that my bum was just the right size for a forty-year old, and it was going to get bigger tonight so that it can be the right size for a forty-one-year-old tomorrow… bless…

Went for dinner at Moro with Jane and Gerry, and Ben and Michaela. Got some lovely presents: the new Julian Barnes novel, and a folding bookstand for displaying coffee table books. Jane and Gerry happen to know the guy who owns Moro, and at the end of the evening he brought he over an enormous loaf of sourdough bread, still hot from the oven. It was only a few inches thick, but as big as a spare tire. I’ll have to cut it up in quarters and freeze most of it. To bed about 1am…

September 16, 2005

In my morning yoga session with Nova, she scampered off to find some things for us to eat when we were doing to lion pose. I’d planned to go for a run afterwards, but we had carpet cleaners coming at 10, and I was getting so frustrated with Adam’s lack of progress on getting Nova fed and the house prepped for the arrival that we ended up having a fight. I was too pissed off to run afterwards…

Nova went over to Ruby’s to play, and Adam and I rushed around taking everything but the actual furniture off the floor. The guys arrived promptly and got straight to work washing the upholstery and carpets. Eastern Europeans — since the EU expanded, there are an awful lot of Poles, Czechs and Latvians working in the building, cleaning and building trades. Washing machines, window cleaners, upholstery cleaners, carpet cleaners… You’d think we were some sort of neat freaks…

Went shoe shopping in the afternoon, in the treasure trove that is Selfridges department store. I bought two pairs of sensibly heeled shoes — one brown, one black; a Lee Miller biography for my birthday present; a replacement Iitala glass for the one Adam broke; birthday presents for Ben and Michaela; and a couple of jumpers from Jigsaw.

Missed a call on my mobile phone, which turned out to be from dad. He was calling to wish me happy birthday early, as he’ll be trapshooting in Vancouver on my actual birthday. Got home in time to help Adam put the girls to bed. (Ruby is sleeping over tonight). Made Greg and Wendy’s Mexican wraps for dinner, and splashed out on a glass of wine, even though it’s weigh-in day tomorrow. Any eating plan where you can’t have a glass of wine now and again would be completely unsustainable…

September 15, 2005

Spent the day at home with Nova. Adam was off first thing to a meeting in Bath. The washing machine arrived on time, and they had no trouble installing it. I did four loads of laundry in less than half the time it would have taken with the old machine. And the clothes weren’t wrung into absolute knots, which should help cut down on the ironing.

Nova had a playdate with Etta, and once she was happily established I headed off for a swim. Did my usual mile, then had a quick sauna. The window cleaner was scheduled for today, but the weather was so awful that he had to reschedule.

Today is the first day of Nova’s ballet class. She was very excited, and asked me every five minutes whether it was time to go yet. It’s really fun watching her class, and the teacher this term seems very good.

We made chicken noodle mango tango for dinner today: basically a soba noodle salad with mango, poached chicken and sesame seeds, but the name seems to help sell Nova on the dish.

September 14, 2005

I had one of those off-kilter days, when everything seems out of sync somehow. By way of illustration, I was about five minutes into my run when I realised I’d set off without a house key. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, but today Adam was planning to take Nova to Theresa’s house then carry out straight to the gym. By the time I got back there wasn’t really time for me to fit in a run before I was supposed to start work.

Things weren’t going so swimmingly for Adam either… The new washing machine arrives tomorrow. We’d shelled out for them to install the new machine and take away the old one. We were instructed to detach the old washing machine from the water source in readiness for their arrival.

Which proved to be completely impossible. The taps hadn’t been turned in about fifteen years, and had completely fused together. We hauled on them with the adjustable spanner and managed to shift them a little bit, but no further. Perhaps that’s turned them off? we wondered. To test this theory, we decided to remove the hose from the back of the washing machine, and promptly sprayed the laundry room with a powerful jet of water. Reattaching it to the back of the machine left me completely soaked from chest to knees. We gave up at this point, and arranged for an emergency plumber to come by this afternoon (10 minutes work, new taps, £85)… Adam had missed his spinning class by this point, which meant I could have completed my run…:-b

Work was made up of a series of annoyances, large and small. As a little light relief from these frustrations, I’d occasionally leap from my seat, and charge at the squirrel who regularly pillages our bird feeder. Usually she runs along the edge of the balcony, and scrambles down the wall, but this afternoon, she actually leapt off the edge of the balcony, landing on the camellia bush two stories below. It must have been quite an adrenaline rush for her. She sat on the Stillman’s railing, huffing and chattering loudly at me.

Tonight at bed, Nova said, “When I was on the airplane, I was queen of the air!” “And the birds,” I added. “Yeah, I’m queen of a pigeon!” she said.

September 13, 2005

I’ve always loved September. In fact, one of the only things I don’t much like about it, is that it brings the end of the sandal wearing season.

For one thing, I’ve always hated socks. In my opinion, socks are just mittens for the feet, and should be worn as selectively. I’m always the first into sandals in the spring, and the last person out of them in the autumn. I figure that as long as half of you is warm, the other half can getting away with a little less — say, sandals and a jacket…

The last couple of mornings have been pretty nippy, and I couldn’t help but notice that I was the only sandal wearer on the tube yesterday. My situation isn’t helped by the fact that I don’t actually own any comfortable closed toe work shoes. So this morning, I set off crossly in a pair of low heeled pumps. The steep climb up to the main road was awkward, but the long descent to the tube station, and numerous stairs and platforms I had to negotiate was worse. My toes were bruised and my arches already sore by the time I got to the office… I’m definitely going shoe shopping on Friday.

September 12, 2005

Adam had a domestic violence event at the House of Parliament this evening, so he arranged for Beulah to come round to babysit, so I could keep to my exercise schedule: daily – yoga; Mon pm – gym; Wed am – 5km run; Thurs am – swim; Fri am – long run; Sat am – Pasc run (3-5km). I find it’s easier when I have a set schedule. Once I put the workouts in my daytimer, it seems relatively straightforward to stick to them. I’ve managed for a few weeks now, and am starting to feel some benefit.

September 11, 2005

Nova navigated her way down to our bedroom in the morning, and arrived very pleased with herself. Set off after breakfast (a very light breakfast, given that we had our first weigh in with Pete and Pasc before lunch).

Nova was carsick twice on the journey, vomiting quietly into her air sickness bags. She is so good about it, and tries so hard to keep from making a mess. Of course, with the washing machine, I’ll have to wash all the vomity laundry by hand. Joy…

Trooped off for our weigh in with Pete and Pasc. Everyone lost weight this week, which is no more than you’d expect for the first week. We’ve refined the rules a bit: £10 for gaining weight, £5 for staying the same, but if even one person doesn’t lose, everyone else must pay a half penalty. I thought that would encourage a team, rather than competitive spirit, and the thought of forcing everyone else to pay a forfeit because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut is a pretty strong motivator for me.

Adam took Nova to Sadie’s birthday party, while I ran around sorting things out for the working week.

September 10, 2005

My internal alarm clock woke me up at 6:30am. Nova wasn’t far behind, and joined me for yoga in the drawing room. The sight of her keeling over every time she attempted the tree pose was pretty amusing, and didn’t do much for my mental concentration.

Spent the day at Ludlow Food Fair. I went off with Jenny, and the others followed behind. The main fair was in the castle grounds, but there were also various trails: an ale trail, sausage trail, and bread trail, where you’d go around to various local establishments trying their wares and voting on the winner.

It was bucketing down with rain, and the main vendors tent packed, people scrumming to sample dabs of jam on bits of breadstick. There was some lovely stuff, and we picked up various bits and pieces for that evening’s dinner. I took Nova for a bit, so Adam could visit the various real ale suppliers. We ended up gluing beans in a rain sodden tent in the bailey.

Jenny and I had tickets to a champagne and oyster event. We were served a glass of Pol Roger, and sat there sipping away through the presentations before being served a freshly shucked oyster on the half shell.

Jenny bought a bottle of champagne to have before dinner, along with the various sausages, cheeses, crackers, meat pies and scotch eggs we’d picked up.

September 9, 2005

Nova had a school familiarisation session this morning. She was ready about 7am, all dressed in her little blue and white check uniform, though it didn’t start until 10:30am… She is so keen to get back to school…

Did my yoga and went for a run on the Heath. I didn’t seem to have much energy, my legs felt very heavy, and I ended up cutting off the last 15 minutes of my route.

The school session was mostly about filling in forms: medical and contact details, as well as lots of questions about Nova’s interests, personality and abilities. It gave me the opportunity to tell them that she’s pretty much taught herself to read. I’ve been wondering what to do about that, given that the main learning objectives for this year are counting to one hundred and learning the phonetic alphabet…

After lunch, we set off for Jenny and Pauls in Shropshire. The journey took considerably longer than Jenny’s breezy two and a half hour estimate. We always find that: either our friends drive like psychos or they lie about how long it actually takes to make your way to their homes in the boonies.

We arrived about 5pm. Paul and Jenny have bought a lovely rambling house on the edge of Tenbury Wells, with six bedrooms and masses of garden. Had G&Ts on the verandah, while Nova, their son Daniel and a couple of his friends tucked into a big fish and chip supper.

The house is so big and rambling that when Jenny asked, we opted for a bed upstairs that was relatively close to where Nova would be sleeping. That is until I saw the gorgeous main guest suite, with its Louis Quinze rococco bedroom set and view over the garden. Although on the ground floor, about as far away from Nova as it was possible to get, I decided that she’d manage. There was some half serious discussion about putting up arrows, but we didn’t bother.

Jenny cooked an excellent dinner. She’s an amazing cook, and half Anglo-Indian and half Burmese. It was a chicken dish with cinnamon and star anise and lots of chillies, mixed with rice and stirfried veg. Sat up until midnight, drinking wine and talking.

We’d just settled into bed, when Adam said, “There’s some sort of tassel on the underside of this duvet.” “No, there isn’t,” I said, “but I wish you’d stop tickling my leg like that.” “I’m not!” he said. “You’ve just done it again!” I insisted. “That’s not me…” Adam said. We whipped back the cover to discover a bloody great spider in the bed, which I sent sailing over the edge and onto the floor. A little excitement between the sheets…;-)

September 8, 2005

Nova had a play date at Etta’s this morning. I took the opportunity to go for a swim. I usually put in a mile of front crawl, sometimes broken into 400s to alleviate the boredom a bit. I shared the fast lane with a guy who was just a bit faster than me — passing me once every 16 laps. He didn’t have great technique, but he was a swimming machine, chop thwack, chop thwack, up and down the pool. He was still going strong when I’d finished my mile, and after my twenty minute sauna, which is at least another half mile, and was still chop thwacking away when I headed for the showers.

Took Nova to Toys R Us to buy birthday presents for Daniel and Sadie, and to pick up a little something for her as well. She chose the Polly Pocket wedding set, a little bride, groom, plastic cake, bouquet, and glasses of champagne. She’s very interested in weddings at the moment, and I got our wedding album out and went through the photos with her. I’ve thought about watching the wedding video that Greg took at various times, but I don’t think I’m quite ready for the sight of mum reading the Owl and the Pussycat yet…

Made pork and prawn wontons for dinner which turned out really well, and a bread and butter pudding with the leftover gugelhopf and some apples that was absolutely delicious.

September 7, 2005

Went for a run first thing, before starting work (from home). Just as well, as I spent nearly the whole day in teleconferences. I should have gone in I suppose, but I find the hot desking off putting.I went to pick up Nova from Theresa’s a little bit early. She hasn’t been enjoying going to Teresa’s for the full day. There were just arriving back from the library when I got there, and Nova was actually quite cross with me, as she ended up missing her tea. “Don’t pick me up before tea ever again!” she said.

It’s Anne’s 90th birthday today, and we dropped over for a quick drink. Nova was in a funny sort of mood, and acting out a bit. She gave me a hard slap out of the blue, and sulked and flung herself around on the furniture, and ignored Anne when she spoke to her. I exploded at her when we got home, and it turned into a bit of a scene. “Let’s be friends again, mum!” she cried, “and next time, I will tell Anne how old she is!” It was all very exhausting, and I was in bed asleep by about 8:15…

September 6, 2005

Tina should have been back at work this morning, but apparently they are still recovering from jet lag. They got back to the UK five days ago, but she’s told me before that it affects them really badly. She called to explain why she wouldn’t be in, and said that she got only six hours sleep last night. I didn’t bother mentioning that was all I had as well…

Set out at lunch to find this great looking deli I discovered walking to King’s Cross the other day. En route I came across a line snaking out the door of a sandwich shop. That was a good enough recommendation for me. I joined the queue, and got talking to the guy in front of me, who told me that today was Salt Beef Tuesday. So of course I had a salt beef sandwich instead of the salad I was planning. Another less than red letter day on the low fat eating front…

September 5, 2005

This morning Nova said to me, “Mom, Mariella is beautiful, but Luciano is just cool, isn’t he?” We were doing our yoga practice. I’ve been trying to reestablish a regular morning practice routine, and Nova is generally on hand to “help”. Actually, it’s kind of fun doing it together, and it’s amazing how effortlessly flexible she is.

Took my colleague Mike out to Pu’s Thai Brasserie for lunch. We ordered for the vegetarian meal for two, which was delicious, but far too much food. Not the greatest start to my weight loss plan, but at least I didn’t need to bother with dinner, and my evening visit to the gym should help matters…

September 4, 2005

We had to set off about 7:00 to catch our flight, and managed to get away only fifteen minutes late or so. We were making pretty good time, when just outside of Cerveteri we heard a “pssshhht” sound. I looked out the window to discover a completely flat tire.

Adam pulled over, and we got busy changing the tire. It went smooth as butter aside from wasting ten minutes trying to put the tire on backwards… The spare was a flimsy little thing, a glorified bicycle tire, with warnings stamped all over it about not exceed 50 miles an hour on it.

A further fiasco at the filling station (one of those ones where you pay first, then can’t get the bloody pump to give you either gas or money) we double parked the car in the rental car parking lot, and dashed into the airport with minutes to spare.

The beauty of priority boarding, especially on these free-for-all, el cheapo flights, meant we got excellent seats at the front of the plane. The flight was uneventful, which is exactly how flights should be…

Drove round the M25 to Ben and Michaela’s place in Surrey for Ben’s 40th birthday party. It was pretty much a Friends of the Earth reunion. There were mountains of food and drink, and we spent a lazy afternoon in their garden, filling up on Quorn sausages and carrot cake. Home about 6pm.

There were a number of messages from Pasc, who was keen to get started on our weight loss programme. She persuaded me to go straight over for a weigh in. A bit humilating, but at least I should show a good loss next weekend. Although we are going to Tenbury to see Jenny and Paul and attend the Ludlow Food Festival…

The washing machine exploded this evening. I’d just put in a second load, and the barrel was starting to fill, when there was a loud bang. The glass door filled with blue light and smoke. I leapt back out of the puddle of water I was standing barefoot in, and managed to stretch across to unplug it. I think we’ll be needing a new washing machine…

September 3, 2005

Mariella and Luciano had business in Rome, and set off about 7am. We hung about the house, venturing out only to pick up lunch provisions at the local supermarket.There was a woman in the deli area slicing up porchetta. She offered Nova a sample and made an instant convert. That girl and her pork products…

I felt a bit guilty that we weren’t off seeing something, but I think a day’s relaxation is exactly what was needed. The most excitement all day was the family puzzle races we had with Nova’s Disney Princess puzzles. We’d each sit down with a pile of puzzle pieces and see who could put theirs together first. I’d win, then help Nova ensure that she came second…

Went for a walk round the streets of Oriolo in the early evening, before returning for another great Mariella dinner: bruschetta with black truffles, pasta with ragu, roast peppers in oil and vinegar, salad, and some biscuits I’d bought earlier in the day called brutti ma buoni, which translates as ugly but delicious.

September 2, 2005

Went to the supermarket with Mariella this morning. I was browsing the aisles, picking up a few things to take home on Sunday, when a woman shuffled up to me, and hissed, “Parla inglese?” “Si…” I replied. “Thank Christ for that!” she replied in a broad Brooklyn accent, and proceeded to bend my ear for the next ten minutes with a torrent of English mixed with Italian.

She was definitely a strange one. One of those women who pluck their eyebrows out then paint them on again. She was wearing a patterned housedress, bedroom slippers, and had her thin hair dyed a strange shade of red and permed most unfortunately. She’s been living in Italy for twenty years, her husband is from Calabria, she’d love to return to the States, because “the people here are animals! Animals!!“

Spent the day at the beach, south of Civitavecchia. It was a gorgeous day, and the water was perfect for swimming, although beach shoes were needed to pick your way out over the rocks. Read and swam, ate and dozed the afternoon away.

Walked to Montevirgine for the fair in the evening. There was an enormous tent filled with tables. You placed your order from the limited menu, paid up front, and walked to the open air kitchen area at the back. We had porcini pasta, fried fish, the local grilled sausage and bacon, and a bottle of the village red, all of which was excellent. We were surrounded by extended families enjoying the festivities, grandmothers and babies, teenagers dressed for night clubbing, everyone talking, eating and knocking back the wine.

September 1, 2005

Since our last visit, Mariella and Luciano have converted their loft into a self-contained apartment. When Nova woke me at 7am (6am London time) I was able to prepare her breakfast without venturing downstairs. Adam made our coffee, and after showers we dressed and headed off for a day’s outing. Our destination was Orvieto in Umbria, which we reached after various false starts, wrong turnings and unscheduled stops.

Parking up next to the magnificent duomo, we set off for some lunch. We settled on a restaurant promising authentic Etruscan food. Nova had the regional sausage, I had a fava bean and fennel crostini followed by porcini pasta, and Adam had carpaccio and porcini, followed by pappardelle with hare sauce. Nova and Adam both had dessert, while I opted for watermelon.

The waiter returned to ask if we wanted coffee. “Yes, two coffees please,” I said. “And for the bambina? Coffee? Whisky?” We both laughed. “A little coffee? A little whisky?” Nova loved the whole exchange and had us repeat it to her again and again.

Spent the afternoon exploring the cathedral and visited St Patricks Well, a three hundred step twisting descent to the bottom, where we were rewarded with a greasy pool of water festooned with candy wrappers, leaves and feathers. The view back up the shaft to the surface was pretty impressive though…

Got back to Mariella and Luciano’s at 7pm. Mariella made pesto pasta for dinner (homemade pasta and sauce of course), followed by this amazing beef dish: thinly cut slices of meat cooked with olive oil and sage and served at room temperature.

Turned on the news before bed and were confronted with unbelievable images from New Orleans. When we left England a couple of days ago, they were talking about how it wasn’t going to be as bad as feared, and that the hurricane would only sideswipe the city. Got that one wrong…