Small-Blog

Manifesto

2010-09-21T23:16:00.005+01:00

30.12.2009, 2:40-ish am, in Dahab, Egypt, I wrote the following entry into my diary:

“I will love and take care of myself more
I will be a better daughter
I will be a better sister
I will be a better friend
I will cherish each day as a gift
I will be thankful for my life
I will learn more from the strengths of others
I will find ways to let my strengths help others
I will look to learn something new each day
I will be less afraid
I will listen to my heart more
I will let my guard down more”

Looking back, it must have been a sudden moment of clarity at a time of pain and confusion. On 30.12.2009, I have no doubt I was a mess. I was feeling the pain and humiliation of a failed marriage. I was feeling the heartache of love lost. I was feeling the fear of being alone. I was feeling confused and without direction. I had spent the year of 2009 running away from my fears. And in the early morning of 30.12.2009, a day away from New Year’s Eve 2010, in a sudden moment of clarity, I put to paper the manifesto above, what I believed I needed to do to get past the pain and sorrow, and move towards a place of peace, of contentment.

Fast-forward to 21.09.2010, and I find things are easier said than done. In fact I have not looked back on those words until today. I spent the better half of the year getting over the heartache, getting over the panic-inducing fear of being alone, coming to terms with the divorce, stopping the tears, and accepting where I am today, which is:

I am 34
I am divorced
I am living alone for the very first time in my life
I cherish dearly the friendship, and the memories I have with Ed
I am thankful for my loving, patient and understanding parents
I am grateful for the love and support of my friends
Aside from the odd “hiccup”, my life to date has been an amazing one
I am child of this earth, born in the Philippines, but a product of the places I’ve lived (Papua New Guinea, Philippines, USA, UK), and the people I’ve known
I have been able to travel and see the world
I am blessed with good health, and can engage in all my crazy outdoor pursuits
I am educated and free to make choices in my career
I have made mistakes in my life. I hope I have learnt from them to become stronger
I seek nothing more than to find and live my destiny, whatever that is
I aspire to live my life by those 30.12.2009 words, my manifesto.

Excerpts from a night out in Brighton, UK

2008-09-19T17:49:00.004+01:00

The Setting: A “tapas” (if you consider Eggs Benedict a tapa) restaurant in Brighton. It is Small’s roll-off party Part 1.

Regular Cast:
Croker – The “Geek”
Small – The “American”
Craney – The “Northerner”
PMO – a.k.a “Chloe”
Hewett – The “Trouble-maker” and also the scribe for this excerpt

Special Guest Appearance:
Candy – Friend of the American
Tim – From Manchester. Definitely NOT a Man U fan.

EXCERPTS

Quote of the night:
Croker leans over to engage in some intelligent political conversation with Small and her also ‘American’ friend Candy
“So what do you guys actually think, do you like Bush?”

Snap of the night:
Croker’s intense facial expressions as he air guitars his heart out in Oceana – Small, this must be retrieved from Candy’s camera, all other photographic evidence from that night can be destroyed :-)

Dumb arse of the night:
Craney deep in conversation with Candy, trying desperately to appear intelligent and witty is describing the expense policy:
“So we get 30 pounds a head per person, so 10 people gives us 300, 8 people would give us…….erm………erm…. (lower lip pout)…ah…” Queue trademark blush and hysterical laughter.

Later whilst trying to salvage some dignity Craney changes tactics and moves in with the “So what do you do” line to Candy.

Candy ”I am Cytologist”¹

The confident smile falters from Craney’s face and a sweat starts to bead on his brow as realisation dawns he is way out of his depth.

Candy sensing his discomfort throws a life line. “I basically look through microscopes at cells”, Everyone nods knowingly clearly deducing the field of work. Craney seeing this starts to panic as his mind draws blank on the significance.

After an uncomfortable wait, with a pre-emptive pout, Craney throws caution to the wind and squeaks out in finest scouser "Is that medical?"

Gross out of the night:
Small makes comment to everyone as they sit round the table at dinner, finishing their respective tapas, of her preferred method of consuming substances two people swap…”Spread on toast”.

Stupid Ideas of the night:
- Hewett suggesting Oceana
- Hewett suggesting shots of tequila
- Hewett allowing Small and Candy to use him as a human shield on the packed dance floor between them and the hordes of lusty men seeking their wears and thus becoming a target for their collective displeasure.
- Hewett suggesting night cap bottle of red wine somewhere north of 3:30am

Medical Marvel of the night:
Craney ordering 13 shots of sambuca, arguing his fundamentally flawed mathematics with PMO for why we required 13 (there were 7 of us), drinking three and then looking like his head is going to explode and running like a girl from the bar, not to be seen again that night.

Spectacle of the night:
Tim’s awesome flowery shirt

Next Day Mysteries:
Croker leaving to catch the train at 8:30 to Durrington, being picked up in a daze by Hewett 1 hour and 15 minutes later outside the Ardington in Worthing²

Footnotes:
¹ Duly corrected from “Scientologist”. Candy does not subscribe to the religion that is Scientology.
² Worthing is a 25 minute train ride from Brighton. Durrington is a further 2 stops from Worthing.

Weekends

2008-06-29T08:47:00.008+01:00

It's been a relatively quiet June, with weekends spent in and around town, catching up on sleep, catching up on gym etc. Below are some pics from our various weekend activities in June:

England vs. Barbarians, Twickenham Stadium
First trip to Twickenham stadium and first live rugby match. England managed to scrape by to win. Phew.

Pennyhill Spa, Surrey
First foray into the previously unexplored world of the English Spa. How did it take us this long to discover this novel concept? Pennyhill had a myriad pools, saunas, steam rooms. Plus I managed to squeeze a mighty fine aromatherapy massage into the hectic day of spa-ing (so many pools to discover, so many naps to take!)
Pics (L-R): Ed in spa robe and slippers, grounds and outdoor pools, scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, gardens

Mucking about London
This weekend we had an afternoon appointment in town and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon mucking about – first jug of Pimms for the year (hooray! – Summer’s here) in St Christopher’s Place, followed by first Japanese dinner since our Japanese vacation, capped off with a movie in Leicester square.

Out of Steam

2008-06-08T18:06:00.008+01:00

It’s an absolutely glorious day in London today. Maybe one of the best of the year so far. I’m still in my pajamas. I can’t get my butt off the couch. I am officially pooped, shattered, tired and in need of a generous dose of inactivity.

And what’s an active month it’s been.

This week
Just back from Basingstoke this morning after dinner and late night drinking/hookah smoking last night with Vineet and Rhadikha. Absolutely gracious hosts! Thanks very much. The food and company were amazing.

Spent the workweek trying to stay awake past 6 p.m. and not wake up at 4 a.m. Inconvenient sleeping patterns and 2 weeks of work catch-up had me feeling exhausted by Friday.

May Week 3-4
Spent two amazing weeks traipsing around Japan (Tokyo-Kinoski-Kyoto-Himji-Osaka-Fukuoka-Tokyo). Taking in the sights. Eating everything in sight. Drinking an awful lot.

Ed and I have finally finished sorting through the 1678 pictures we took on our trip. They can be accessed via the Travel Page on Smallzone.

Brain is too fried to give a decent play-by-play and I am ashamedly resorting to highlighting my “Mosts”:

Most unique experience – 3 days of onsen bathing (naked!) in Kinosaki. This includes 3 whole days with nothing but a robe on in between baths and eating the most amazing and endless meals served by our gracious chambermaid.
Most surprising insight into locals – They are party animals!. Every city had one or more nightlife districts packed with eating and drinking establishments catering to hordes of locals out any (and seemingly every) night of week until sun rise.
Most envious of –
1. Super toilets (seat warmers, odour free, wash and bidet modes, with adjustable water pressure and oscillation settings, etc)
2. Amazing train service, especially bullet trains. Made traipsing around the country an easy task
Most can’t get enough of food item – Fukuoka ramen with its distinctive white, rich pork-based broth, ramen noodles and sesame seeds. Were almost certain we couldn’t get it back in London so we ate a bowl or 2 at every opportunity
Most heart-attack inducing food item – by far Kobe beef, absolutely rippled with “burst in your mouth as you chew” fat although the fatty tuna isn’t far behind.
Most surreal experiences –
1. Getting jiggy with it in Roppongi with sumo wrestlers
2. Stumbling onto a tiny 2nd floor Piss Alley (Golden Gai, Tokyo) bar with flaming belly dancers
Most self-insight inducing experiences -
1. Sushi at 6 in the morning is a struggle. Love sushi. Just not at 6 am
2. Bathing in the nude with random strangers is not as bad as it sounds, and can even be a relaxing and liberating experience
Most admiration inducing experience – each perfect Starbucks cup of coffee caringly and meticulously made. The Japanese are perfectionists, or at a minimum very serious in delivering only the best service and experience possible. Whether it be the perfect Starbucks cappuccino, or the room service breakfast with orange glasses in specially made coolers, and a toaster and bread (rather than cold toast), or the specialised tools for every possible thing, or the cleanliness of all public places. Aside from being perfectionists, the Japanese are also very respectful, friendly and industrious people, eager to please. This made travelling around Japan an absolute pleasure.
Most wtf?!% moment – Seeing light out of window after an all-nighter capped by copious amounts of whiskey, cigar smoking and iberico ham at a cigar bar. Could have kept on drinking, smoking, eating if the bar did not close at 5 (NB. This was Day 1 (or should I say 2?) of the trip. Certainly set the tone for the trip!).
Most stealthy consumable - Sake. Went down much to easily
Only regret – amount of dieting I now need to do

Some pics from the trip (L-R): Beautiful gardens at Ginkaku-ji (Kyoto), Geisha sightings (Kyoto), Pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera (Kyoto), Decked in robes (Kinosaki), , Shinjuku lights (Tokyo), Himeji Castle (Himeji), Sumo-sandwich (Tokyo)

May Week 2
Spent the weekend in Paris with work folks. There was much drinking to be had. Nothing much else to report on this except to callout to my good friends Ian and Steve H who insist on being mentioned on my blog. To Ian – hope we stay firm friends. Else I’ll just have to add a link on my blog to your very special website. To Steve H (2nd) – hope we stay firm friends, as I’d like to avoid having my own very special website put together by your very capable self. Pics on Facebook.

May Bank Holiday Weekend

2008-05-07T18:17:00.004+01:00

This past weekend was long bank holiday weekend. It was the perfect time for some R&R after a long weekend in Miami last week, a weekend in Paris coming up, and 2 whole weeks in Japan the weeks following. The cherry on top of the cake is that 2 of the 3 days were sunny and absolutely glorious.

Saturday – Boozing and Snoozing
On Saturday we spent the day boozing and snoozing in the sun. The picture below says it all.

Sunday – Chill, Gym, Pub
Sunday was the overcast day of the weekend. We spent it quietly at home in the morning, then hit the gym in the afternoon. We then drowned our sorrows for the gym sauna being out of order at the pub where we downed a couple of pints of pretty strong beer before meandering back to the apartment for some patio BBQ and more booze.

Monday – Spurt of energy
All the booze we had on Saturday and Sunday must have had an energizing effect for we were on the go go go on Monday. We brushed the cobwebs off the bicycles and went for a leisurely ride around South West London. Our route was as follows:

• Navigate through stroller filled Wandsworth park
• Cycle along Wandle River (little pocket of nature sandwiched between ugly industrial sites)
• Pitt stop and refuel at Wimbledon town centre
• Find way to Wimbledon common and climb killer hill to get there
• Meander through trees and trails of refreshingly overgrown/non-manicured Wimbledon Common
• Resist urge to “quench” thirst in outdoor seating of several pubs along the way
• Make way back home

Some pics from the bike ride:

Wandle Riverside
Nature juxtaposed against industry
Wimbledon cottage
Wimbledon Common
Changing topography - cycling on main road

After a brief stop at home to get directions, we picked up our Streetcar VW, loaded it up with golf clubs and gym gear and headed to the driving range where we hit a couple hundred balls. It had been 2 years since we’d done anything golf related and we were surprisingly not as horribly bad as we thought we would be. Definitely something we’ll be wanting to do more frequently, and maybe sometime in the next month or so even venture onto a course.

From the driving range we dropped the Streetcar car off, then headed to our beloved gym which we love at the moment but is in grave danger of falling out of favour if the sauna continues to remain out of order :-(.

Exhausted and with weary bodies, we headed back home stopping off at our local pizzeria for big helpings of pasta and an antioxidant-rich sleep-inducing bottle of red wine.

Last stop was home. Sleep. Zzzzzzzzzz. Good bank holiday weekend over and out.

Bahama Mamas!

2008-05-06T11:29:00.012+01:00

Last weekend I got to spend 4 days in glorious sunshine with 4 of my closest friends as we embarked on our much anticipated Bahama-Mama (plus Miami) vacation! It was great to see the girls. I met them all as a freshman in high-school, and since then we’ve each come a long way, had our fare share of ups and downs, and remain to this day fast friends.

Thursday – Convergence
On day 1 we all fly into Miami from our respective home cities. Me from London, Candy from San Diego, Joffin from New Jersey, and Lubs and PJ from Maryland. We spent the afternoon catching up over tropical mixed drinks, and soaking up the South Beach atmosphere.

In the evening we have a wonderful dinner at Wish Restaurant, then checked the Sobe party scene out till the early hours of the morning.

Some pics from the day - 1) Dinner at Wish, 2) Sobe club

Friday – Nurse hangovers, Intro to Fascination
Friday morning we head down to the Big Pink diner for some hangover therapy (big plate of steak and eggs for me!!) before heading to the beach for a good dose of rays. The grown up girls stripped down to their grown up bikinis :-). How far we’ve come!

In the afternoon we head over to Miami port and board our home for the next 3 days – the Carnival Fascination. Fascinatingly cheesy is what it was, with flashy panels, disco lighting, and Pepto-Bismol pink upholstery – fascinating indeed. Oh, and there’s a sorry and severe shortage of eye candy :-(. But I’m in good company and the weathers great. Before long we trundling down south, boat lurching and stomachs turning but we manage to do the boat justice with visits to the karaoke bar (Go Joffin!), the “Passage to India” (bar with a 4-Filipino-dude band), the casino (Go Lubs! – a serious rouletter) and of course “Diamonds are Forever”, the supremely classy (not!) dance club for some entertaining exhibitions of grinding on the dance floor.

Some pics from the day - 1)Miami Beach, 2) Carnival Fascination, 3) Quality decor

Saturday – Bahama Mamas
We get up early Saturday morning and find we’ve docked in Nassau. Woohoo! Time off the boat. We’d signed up for a beach island excursion, so we’re up and out by 9, and on a ferry over to an island near Nassau for some beach bumming. We get a good dose of sunshine (more bikinis!), and do some snorkelling with the resident sting rays.

In the afternoon we eat our way through Nassau. After a short stroll around the downtown, we stop at a restaurant to try some conch fritters washed down with cold Kalik beer (local beer). We then hop onto the local 10 bus to a fort for some quick tourist pics before heading across to street to the “Fish Fry” i.e. a street of fish shacks. We duck into Antonios and proceed to consume a fish snack, fried conch snack, and a conch salad, washed down with more Kalik. Note, the Bahamian meaning for snack is by no means the common understanding of the word. A Bahamian snack is a plate fully loaded with a small helping of salad, a big helping of fried fish or conch, and an even bigger helping of chips (fries). We were no match for the Bahamian appetite!

In the evening we get all decked out for a night out at the Atlantis, and dance the night away at the dance club, before heading back to the boat, confirming the latest time we can get back, spend our remaining time at a club nearby, and stumble back onto the boat when the club closed/kicked us out, or at 5 a.m. (whichever came first).

Some pics from the day - 1) Disembarking, 2) Snorkelling with sting rays, 3) Clubbing in Atlantis

Sunday – Cabin Fever
With hangovers and achy feet we awake to another sunny day. The boat’s back out at sea but is craaaaaawling. We’d wondered about what Sunday held in store and were somewhat disbelieving of the itinerary i.e. day on boat. Itinerary was correct. The boat continues to craaaaaaawl. And we’re stuck on it! Cabin fever ensues. Somehow we manage to kill the time. Barely. We end the day with watching the a-la-Vegas show (scantily glad woman with bad wigs dancing), a pretty entertaining midnight comedy show, a short stint at the Piano bar, and one final try at “Diamonds are Forever”- still barely palatable.

Monday – One more dose of Miami Beach, Goodbyes
We awake to find ourselves docked back in Miami port. With all our flights leaving later in the afternoon, we decide to book a hotel in Miami for the day, and head back out to the beach for one final dose of rays, and then some window shopping along Lincoln Road. After quick showers and packing, we begin the sad process of saying goodbye :-(. It was great seeing the girls. We’ve tossing around the idea of all heading to the Philippines sometime next year for a mini-reunion with the rest of the gang. Can’t wait.

N.B. For more pictures from the trip, visit the photo album accessed via the Smallzone Travel Photo page for 2008

Sunday Dinner Series, 12-April

2008-04-19T12:17:00.004+01:00

I love seafood, and will quite often opt for seafood pasta when at an Italian restaurant. So for this week I decided to try make a Linguine Con Frutti Di Mare at home, and was duly rewarded. All the components are easy to make, and come together at the end for some lip-smacking goodness. Yummy. When choosing a wine for the meal, memories of a spicy crab pasta at a small restaurant in Alghero, Sardinia served as inspiration.

Marina Sauce
2 cans peeled or crushed Italian plum tomatoes
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp crushed chilli flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt
Olive oil (about ¼ cup)

Heat olive oil, then add garlic and cook till slightly browned. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to lively boil, add salt, them simmer for about 30 minutes.

Seafood – any kind you prefer. I opted for:
Scallops
Prawns (I left heads on for flavour and just sliced down the middle for ease in cooking)
Clams
Olive oil
2 cloves, crushed garlic

In large skillet, heat olive oil and cook garlic until lightly browned. Remove garlic. Cook scallops in olive oil about 3 minutes a side until nicely browned but still plump/juicy. Remove to plate. Season with salt. Cook prawns about 2 minutes a side until done. Remove to plate. Season with salt. Add marinara sauce and clams and cook until clams open, removing to plate as they open.

Linguine pasta – cook in boiling salted water for 11 minutes.

To finish, add pasta to skillet. Add generous dousing of olive oil and toss. Add in seafood. Plate and finish off with generous sprinkling of chopped fresh parsley.

Wine
For wine, I opted for a Sardinian red - Rocca Rubia 2004 Carignanon Del Sulcis Riserva - tasty with a slight kick to stand up to the richness of the garlicky spicy tomato marinara and seafood.

Some pics fro the meal:

New Addiction

2008-04-14T13:55:00.000+01:00

One rainy bank holiday weekend about 3 weeks ago Ed and I joined a gym, and have been properly addicted since. I’m only able to go on the weekends (given I’m out of town all week), and have been going Friday evenings when I get home, plus Saturday and Sunday. Ed luckily can also go during the week. An acquaintance of Ed’s commented the other day that we’re still in the honeymoon stage of our gym relationship. I beg to differ and offer 4 key words in my defence – pool, jacuzzi, steam room and sauna.

When it comes right down to it, the 30 minutes of cardio, 15 minutes weight training (optional), 15minutes of ab exercises, and 10 minutes of stretching is just the buttering up for the pleasures to follow. After a workout, there’s no better way to cool down, and transition into relaxation, than a bunch of laps in the pool. There’s nothing like the sound of your rhythmical breathing and the quietness under water to clear the brain and prime the body for a relaxing soak in the Jacuzzi. The bubbles and warmth of the Jacuzzi loosen the now weary muscles. From the Jacuzzi we usually head to the steam room for further high speed muscle relaxation, and some sense of quietness in the deep dense steam. The climax however is to lay quietly in the sauna, chirping bird/forest sounds streaming quietly over speakers, lulling yourself into a half-dose. Ed’s latest “craze” is to jump under a freezing cold shower after the sauna. Something about being energizing. I’m not yet sold but do concede it certainly wakes you up from a sauna-induced sleepiness.

It’s not unusual for us to spend 3 hours a session at out friendly local gym. We are properly addicted.

Olso

2008-03-12T20:21:00.004Z

Last weekend we spent a long much needed weekend in the lovely city of Oslo. The weeks leading up to it were extremely busy, and it was a trip we bought the tickets for ages ago, and were reminded of 2 days beforehand by an outlook calendar reminder.

We therefore took the trip with no plans in mind other than some vague thought of skiing.

Day 1 – Was a typical Ryanair flight morning i.e. up at 3:15 for the slog to Stansted to catch a 6:30 am flight. We arrived in Olso safely, however just as London Stansted is by no means anywhere near London, Oslo Torp is nowhere near Oslo. Ed had had the foresight to book a rental car and so the 115 km drive was relatively painless, until we reached Oslo. Mental note, avoid driving in city centre Oslo at all costs. It is a brain teaser if anything. We spent the rest of the day mucking about the city e.g. walking down the Karl Johans gate, the main thoroughfare and heart of the city. Oslo’s a great walking city – compact but filled to the brim with museums, restaurants, bars, theatres etc. We ended the day with a dinner at Gamle Radhuset (Old City Hall). Ed got to sample Norweigan lamb – really tender and tasty stuff. Some of the best we’ve ever had. I had the reindeer (as one does in Norway). Excellent as well, though I did look longingly over at Ed’s lamb more than once and he did offer a bite or 2 or 3 of it.

Some pics from Day 1: (L-R) Karls Johans Gate, Parliment, Reindeer

Day 2 – We headed down to Aker Brygge (the waterfront) in the morning to check out the fishing boats, Oslo’s distinctive city hall (where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded from), the Nobel Peace Centre, and the waterfront. Our plan was to catch a ferry across the fjord to the Viking Ship museum. The ferries were operating in winter hours i.e. not at all. So we trudged backed to the hotel and hopped into the car for the short drive over. The museum showcased 3 ships that had been discovered 60 years or so years earlier in the area around Oslo. Viking chieftains were often buried with their ships, and all of their worldly belongings, plus a hefty supply of food (cows, chickens etc). So on display where ships (2 of which in excellent condition) and the recovered artefacts. It boggles the mind to think how the Vikings managed to get as far as they did (Africa, East Asia and even North America) on these small boats. From the Viking Ship museum we went around the corner to the Norway Folks Museum (nothing to write home, or on the blog about). We headed back to the city, and spent the afternoon on the Eduard Munch museum to see “The Scream” and his other great works.

We ended the day with dinner at Engerbret Café, a quite historical restaurant in that is was a usual haunt for Ibsen and Co. We started with the Norweigan king crab (gorgeous, as they say here in the UK) – sectioned and sautéed in butter and garlic. For mains I had the lamb, and Ed a steak. It must be noted at this point in time that everything in Oslo costs and arm and a leg. Beers cost the equivalent of 5 – 7 pounds . Wine is twice the price you would pay in the UK. And for meals, you either eat at McDs (or something similar), or be prepared to fork out £150 for dinner for 2 (with wine) for a non-fancy restaurant meal. With that said though, the quality of the food we had was all excellent.

Some pics from Day 2: (L-R) Viking ship, Checking out fishing boats

Day 3 – We decided to drive about for the day. First we headed up to Holmenkollen Ski Jump. Norweigans seem to be a very athletic bunch. And Oslo in particular seems to offer a plenitude of opportunities to get active. It has skiing slopes with 20 minutes of the city, cross country skiing tracks all over, mountains and fjords for hiking etc in the summer. It was not uncommon to see someone casually walking along in the city centre with skis over their shoulder, in the same way they would be walking with groceries. We’re quite jealous really.

At Holmenkollen it was a proper family day out. Families were out in full force (baby trolleys and all), all skiing. Kids that could barely walk were better at skiing that most. Mind boggling stuff.

From Holmenkollen we drove a bit further out (40 km), and up a mountain for excellent views of Tyorfjordan. At the top we stumbled upon the Oslo paragliding club out for a day, or jumping off of mountains with small wind breaking equipment, as one does.

One the short drive back to Oslo we contemplated on Norway’s ranking on the Happiness Index. It’s no wonder they consistently rank 1 or 2. Taxes are high and things costly, yes. But the Norweigans are an extremely friendly, laid back and healthy bunch. Likely a function of the health and safety high levels of social services tends to bring, and the natural wonders (lakes, mountains, forests) at every corner. Olso, Norways capital and largest city, is the prime example of how good city-life should be.

Some pics from Day 3: (L-R) Holmkollen Skijump,Out and about

Back to Life

2008-02-19T09:51:00.002Z

(Aileen)

The last 2 weeks have been absolutely glorious. Skies have been crystal clear blue. The yellow of daffodils is bursting out all over. Bulbs are beginning to peek through the ground.

Last week in particular was quite warm. We spent both Saturday and Sunday walking around the hood catching as many rays of sunshine as possible. Monday’s papers flashed pictures of people in shorts on beaches.

This past weekend was frosty cold, but we dragged our rusty bicycles from their 2-year slumber and brought them back to life with a trip to the bike shop on Saturday for a proper servicing, then a whirl around the hood on Sunday.

Here are some pics from Sunday. These were taken at Battersea Park:

Sunday Dinner Series, 17-February

2008-02-19T09:47:00.003Z

(Aileen)
Sunday’s dinner was a deferred Valentine’s dinner. I was stuck down in Worthing on Valentine’s day, so the goodies we picked up last weekend had to patiently wait for a week. For Valentine’s we opted for a very romantic pair of chunky sirloin steaks cooked simply in butter, traditional fixins, and a beautiful St Julien.

Menu
Dove prime sirloin steaks
Sauteed wild mushrooms
Creamed spinach
Baked potatoes

Wine
2001 Chateau Branaire, St Julien

Sauteed wild mushrooms
- Saute shallots and crushed garlic in butter until golden
- Add mushrooms, and sauté until done. Season with salt and pepper (and thyme and/or parsley if you have them on hand)

Creamed spinach
- Steam spinach then chop finely
- Saute shallots in butter until golden, add small teaspoon of flour and cook for a minute or two (like a roux)
- Add splash of cream and cook briefly
- Add chopped spinach and cook till heated through

Steaks
- (Use a good stainless steel pan) Heat pan till hot (almost, but not quite smoking), then add splash of olive oil, and 2 tbsp butter
- Add steaks and cook on high heat, for about 2-3 minutes (depending on size of steak and desired done-ness), then turn, and cook other side until desired doneness.

Foul mood February morning

2008-02-05T07:55:00.000Z

(Aileen)
I recall writing some time in December about the expectation and coming of the most depressing month of the year – February. It has arrived. Today is the day when statistically most people call out "sick". Today is an absolute foul mood February Monday morning. Humbug.

It’s cold, grey and dreary out. I’m feeling completely out of control and unprepared for the coming week. I’ve been weighted down all weekend with the horrible sinking feeling of finding a gazillion emails in my work inbox and not being able to catch up or keep up. I did not manage to go through the mound of mail this weekend so who know’s what’s lurking in there. I need to remember to pay bills and such this week but work has been absolutely crazy and I’m dreading missing a bill accidentally and being hit with a finance charge (hate those!). And I had to spend 20 minutes at 5:30 this morning looking for my blasted black skirt that was dropped of at the drycleaners some weeks back and has not been seen since. No success this time either.

Grumble. I need a vacation, or at least the expectation of one.

On that positive note, last week Ed booked our return tickets to Japan in May. Woohoo. He’d managed to accumulate enough air miles to book to return tickets using miles so we’re only paying taxes (not an insignificant amount but half of what we’d be paying otherwise). My laptop bag is now weighed down with a Japan travel book and my plan is to do research in the evening during the week. I’m already daydreaming of slurping down a steaming bowl of ramen noodles at some Tokyo ramen stand.

Also, my high school girlfriends and I are planning a trip to Miami/Bahamas sometime in April. I’m so proud of us for planning such a grown up endeavour. We’ve all had such varied and different journey’s since graduation – different careers, migration, different cities, marriage, heartbreak. Through it all we’ve managed to stay in touch and relevant in one another’s lives, and I am so looking forward to a long weekend of catching up and comparing of battle scars while reverting back to high school silliness.

Lastly Ed and I have also planned a long weekend in Oslo at the end of February – one last dose of snow for the year. We’re toying with the idea of taking skiing lessons again. We’ve started watching skiing events on TV so I can safely say we’ve managed to catch a bit of the bug, and I strongly suspect 2 to 3 days more of lessons will have us rightly hooked.

OK. I feel better now. And the sun’s also beginning to make an appearance.

Sunday Dinner Series, 27-January

2008-01-27T20:52:00.000Z

(Aileen)
Enough cannot be said about a good lamb chop. Gamey, tasty, soft, delicious. In the
Small household, we particularly enjoy chump chops from Dove’s. We flash fry the chops in a hot pan with olive oil and butter, until seared and the fat trim is slightly rendered. Doused with a healthy dose of cracked sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper, it’s lip smacking simple fair goodness.

Menu
Dove lamb chump chops
Chilli sautéed English wild broccoli
Baked potatoes

Wine
2004 Rimage Syrah, Victoria, Australia

Cheese
Waterloo – buttah’
French Langres AOC

Dessert
Rachel’s Divine Rice Pudding

Vegetables
- Lightly coat baking potatoes on olive oil, season with freshly cracked sea salt, bake in 180C oven 40 minutes until done
- Trim and blanch broccoli in boiling salted water, 2 minutes
- To finish (while chops are cooking), heat butter, olive oil and chilli flakes, add broccoli and cook until warm

Lamb chops
- Season generously with freshly cracked sea salt and pepper
- Cook in pan with high heat and butter and olive oil until brown and seared, turn (Approx 2 min)
- Turn, and cook a further 2-3 minutes for medium rare

New Year Pics

2008-01-19T10:29:00.001Z

(Aileen)
For New Year’s Eve we opted for a 1 night stay at the Marriot County Hall (right by the London eye) for some front rows views of the London New Year’s fireworks. We packed our picnic bag full to the brim with bottles of champagne and delectable munchies, and hung out/chilled until just before the fireworks, at which point we trekked to the hotel’s terrace, found a spot, eagerly awaited Big Ben's tick to midnight, and enjoyed the show.

Here’s a sample of the sights. For more sights and sounds, check out the Smallzone for links to pics and videos.

Move-in Day

2008-01-19T10:03:00.000Z

(Aileen)
Mr Tenant moves into our Arch St, Philadelphia flat today. Woohoo! Tick in the box thank you very much, and 1 less mortgage to pay!

Thank goodness we decided to go with a leasing agent to find our tenant. We briefly contemplated looking for a tenant ourselves, but we’ve struggled even with the mundane task of signing and faxing over a lease (think Ed and Aileen in different out of town locations working 14 hour days). Yesterday I rushed home and arrived around 8:30 PM, then phaffed around for an hour with installing our wireless printer driver, and finally went lo-tech and used a USB cable, then printed, signed and faxed the lease back over, thankful for the time difference. In a couple of hours Mr Tenant will be picking up the keys and lease from our agent, and will be a-movin'-on-in.

Sunday Dinner Series, 13-January

2008-01-13T20:53:00.000Z

(Aileen)
Sunday evenings mean dinner at home. This week was my turn to cook. I served up a couple of French Barbary duck breasts, thick, rich, gamey and steak-like, the richness cut with a sweet port reduction. Crispy green beans, mushrooms and a tasty Gigondas (Cote du Rhone) round off the meal.

Menu
Barbary Magret de Canard with Port Sauce
Sauteed French green beans, mixed mushrooms and shallots
Roasted baby potatoes

Wine
Chateau de Saint Cosme 2005, Gigondas

To Prepare:
Port reduction
Saute handful on chopped shallots in 2 tbsp butter. Add splash of cognac and reduce 1-2 minutes. Add ½ cup each port and beef stock. Add sprig rosemary. Season with salt and pepper. Cook and reduce to about ¼ liquid. Strain and set aside.

Duck breast
Score and season skin side with salt and pepper. Cook skin side down in butter and olive oil until skin is browned and crisp. Turn. Place pan in 180C oven and cook 5 minutes for medium rare. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes.

Vegetables
- Blanch green beans. Saute mushrooms in shallots and butter.
- Season baby potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in 180C oven 20 minutes.

Finishing
- Saute ½ c chopped shallots in 2 tbsp butter. Add blanched beans and sautéed musrooms and heat until warm. Season with salt and pepper.
- As breast is resting, deglaze plan with splash of beef stock. Add port reduction. Season with salt and pepper. Let reduce. Finish with 2 Tbsp butter.

We ate too quickly too so no pictures sorry. Was delicious though and the Gigondas was really good.

Innsbruck Christmas

2008-01-01T16:16:00.000Z

(Aileen)
We’ve just returned from an amazing X-mas break in Innsbruck. It was the perfect work-detox mix of gorging on sausages, pretzels and gluhwein, and strenuous skiing.

23 December - A shaky start, a (ful)filling finish
It’s an early start with a 5:30 am trek to Clapham Junction to catch a train to Gatwick. We get to Gatwick just after 6 and it’s an absolute madhouse. Aren’t people supposed to be relaxing at home with friends and family? Not the crazy travel-crazy British. It should no longer come as a surprise, but does every time.

The £20 additional fee we paid for speedy boarding pays for itself as we slink past the lines 20 people deep to the 1 man-long speedy boarding queue. Phew.

It’s just as hectic past the security lines. And of course our flight is delayed. The bus doesn’t come on time. We miss our take off slot. The bacon butties are all gone by the time the food cart rolls by (they were all gone by the first row) – which is just as well as we saved tummy room for the goodies to come.

It’s almost 12:30 by the time we get to Innsbruck. We’re exhausted. The cash machine doesn’t like our debit card. We hop into a taxi without Euro. The taxi doesn’t take credit card. The tax driver gets all grumpy. I hop out at a cash machine to get enough cash to quiet him. We finally get to our hotel and check in. It’s been a long morning.

After checking in, we head out to check the Innsbruck Christkindl Markt. It’s smaller in comparison to Salzburg’s, but has the requisite gluhwein and wiener stands. By 7:00 PM we’ve consumed:
• At least 4 rounds of gluhwein
• A sausage in a roll
• A pretzel
• A potato pancake with sour cream sauce
• A sausage with roll on the side
• A trio of Austrian gnocchi - with bacon, spinach, and fried
• A deep fried donut-like disk with powdered sugar
• A round of Austrian beer

In addition we dropped by the speck store and picked up a chunk of speck, a happy chunk of cured bacon and a small bottle of Austrian mustard. Delicious stuff.

We stumble home, bellies full and gluhwein working its wonders. We set the alarm for 6 am and fall into a peaceful slumber.

Some pics from the day (L-R): Smalls by the Goldner Daschl, Gluhwein and Pretzel, Christkindl Markt

24 December – A taste of the Tyrolean Alps and Snow Ploughing
We’re dressed and out of the hotel room by 7am, to catch a 7:20 bus to Stubai Glacier. Our plan is to stop by the Ski School in Neustift to arrange for cross-country lessons and rent gear. We have absolutely no idea where to get off, so we check the bus schedule for each stop and take a guess. It’s a pretty good guess. We manage to arrange lessons, rent our gear, and catch another bus up to Mutterberg to catch the gondola up to make our 10:30 lesson.

On the bus up we get a good dose of the Alps. But it’s no match for the breathless views of the gondola ride up. Amazing.

We find Roman (our cross country instructor) and 3 Frankfurt ladies (our fellow students) at the start of the cross country track. The views are incredible. The snow’s pristine. The clouds break every so often to reveal crystal blue skies. We start the uphill trek. It’s quite the workout, but a lot of fun. As you swish along you hear nothing but the smooth swish of your skis, and your breath (or mumbling as you struggle to move along).

About 3 quarters of the way through the track we find we’ve managed to ascend to a bit of a hill, and receive an introduction into the art of snow ploughing a.k.a. stopping on a snow slope on skis. Everyone manages to take a fall at least once. The snow’s wonderful.

Two hours later we head back. We make our way to the bar/tent with Euro disco music blasting and steal a cheeky beer. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, but quite eager to get back out on the snow, and maybe even…ta da da daaaaaa….try skiing.

We run into (or rather purposefully meander to) a chicken rotisserie and stop for lunch a.k.a the most amazing crispy skin roast chicken at 2300 m above sea level, in -15C temps, with incredible views of the Tyrolean Alps. The cups of gluhwein help to keep us warm.

Afterwards we take the plunge and sign up for a 1 day skiing lesson, and spend the rest of the afternoon pulling together all the rental gear – boots, skis, poles, trousers – quite the gear intensive sport.

We head back to Innsbruck on a late afternoon bus and get back with just enough time for a speedy shower and change before heading down to Christmas Eve dinner in the hotel. The food’s quite disappointing (and not cheap!!) – a mound of mashed avocado with way too much salty cured fish to start, a mediocre duck breast with sad sides as a main, and a not very good marzipan cream choux pastry desert to finish. We’re too tired to quibble, and a bottle of red followed by a bottle of Sekt (Austrian sparking wine) are sufficient to appease. It’s been a long, strenuous day and we welcome sleep.

Some pics from the day (L-R): View of the Alps from the bus, Gondola ride, Ed climbing a hill, Roast chicken

25 December – Snow ploughing frenzy
It’s an early rise on Christmas Day as well. We plan on taking the same 7:20 bus and wake up a little earlier to enjoy some stolen and Christmas tunes in our hotel room before heading out.

We get to the glacier with enough time to tuck in a pretzel washed down with some coffee. The canteen is brimming with skischule instructors. Energetic teenager looking kids in their Skischule jackets. We’re nervous. What have we signed up for?

It’s a beautiful day for skiing. Crisp air, blue skies, fluffy white snow. We head to the big Mickey Mouse where all the kiddies are congregating. We’re absolute beginners after all. Ed shyly asks where beginner lessons are. The instructor smilingly asks “For your children”? We sheepishly say no, and she points us to an area up a small hill where adult groups are congregating. It’s a struggle up the hill in clunky snow boots. I’m breathing heavily by the time we get up.

Himml, our instructor (barely twenty) finds us, herds us back down the hill  (descending in aforementioned clunky boots is difficult too!), and over to a corner by another group of students, who obviously started the day before. They look comfortable skiing down a short slope and stopping. We can barely stand on the skis.

Our first slide down a mild slope has us feeling sufficiently wobbly kneed. Four hours, hundreds (what felt like) of snow ploughs and burning thighs and legs later we’re exhausted, but snow ploughing quite comfortably. It was tiring stuff but we had a blast. Loved it. Our only regret is not having enough time to take more lessons.

We hobble onto the last bus back to Innsbruck and take a nap on the way in. We’re exhausted. And inconveniently have dinner reservations at a restaurant about a mile from our hotel. As we walk back into town we’re wishing the Christmas Market is open so that we grab a quick bite and then collapse into bed. No such luck. The market is closed. We toy the idea of skipping dinner. But make a valiant effort to get dressed, catch a taxi (we could barely stand much less walk) and make it to dinner. We had an excellent meal which more than made up for Christmas Eve dinner. Ed starts with a belly warming frittatensuppe (noodle strips in rich beef bouillon), I have the goose essence soup. It comes served in a cappuccino cup with a poached quail egg floating in the rich broth. On the side is another cup of creamy truffle froth. Delicious.

For mains we go traditional. Ed has a mighty fine specimen of a wiener schnitzel. I have boiled prime beef, which is served with a wonderful piece of bone marrow and some roasted potatoes. We have a nice bottle of Austrian Riesling to go with the meal.

To cap off we have the warm apfelstrudel with whipped cream. It’s delicious - flaky light crust, apples with the perfect balance of tartness, sweetness, and spice.

As we leave the restaurant, a free taxi drives by which we hail for the 3 minute ride back to the hotel. Perfect end to a great day.

Some pics from the day (L-R): Ed with skis, By the ice climbing pillar, Taking a break

26 December – One last go
We have mid-afternoon flight back and the airport is only 10 minutes from town centre so we spend the next day having one last go at the Christmas Market. Several cups of gluhwein, sausage, beer. We also take a stroll through town to catch some sights we missed while being up in the mountains the past 2 days.

The flight back is pleasantly uneventful. Leaves on time. Arrives back in London early.

We had a great time in Innsbruck. We arrived tired/drained/distracted from work, with no specific plans other than to relax, and managed to spend 2 glorious days up in the glorious Alps skiing, and also savour the goodies on offer at the Christmas Market. I’m looking forward to the next opportunity we can get to savour snow, and maybe learn to make turns on skiis!

Some pics from the day (L-R): Gluhwein, sausage

For all our pics of the trip, please visit our Ausrtia pics accessed via the Smallzone.

Rest

2007-12-13T02:53:00.000Z

I finaly got some rest. By way of a cross-atlantic plane ride.

It's been a crazy month at work. Working till 11 most nights. Up again at 4 or 5 to do some more work. Then back to work at 7:30. And repeat.

Today however I got to leave work around noon, headed over to Heathrow, hopped on a plane to Philly and took a 7 hour nap. And it's only 10 PM here which means I get another dose (unless jetlag interferes and messes me all up). I'm such a sleepyhead though I doubt I'll have issues going back to sleep. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow is the big day a.k.a the closing. I have a 9 AM walkthrough to confirm all the appliances are installed, and our punchlist items are met e.g. paint is retouched, unfinished work is finished. The official closing is at 11 AM so sometime around noon tomorrow we'll be the proud owners of a Philly apartment.

Then tomorrow evening I hop on my return flight back to the UK, and rock up again at work on Friday morning. Looking forward to an uneventful weekend.

Christmas musing in Woking

2007-11-17T10:45:00.000Z

(Aileen)
It’s 10:06 on a Saturday morning. Christmas music is blaring over the speakers here at the Starbucks in Wolesly Mall, Woking (London suburb). It’s a work day for the Smalls. Or at least a work day for Ed so figured I’d tag along, and hang out/work in the mall.

It’s been a crazy busy week for the both of us, and it will be so for the coming weeks. Before we know it it’ll be X-mas. But between now and then, there a numerous X-mas parties to attend, a 2-day training seminar for me, a business trip to Liverpool for Ed, a mortgage to finalize, another flight across the pond to Philly for me, a flat to buy, and finally, a trip to Innsbruck, Austria for a dose of gluwein and X-mas markets (and hopefully snow! We do miss snow).

Christmas season is in full swing here in London. Oxford St Christmas lights are on, ice skating rinks are all open, Nutcracker’s on at the National Ballet, Christmas carol shows are on at Royal Albert Hall, Christmas music is wafting through the air in public places, and to top it all off, it’s been sufficiently nippy the past week, with temperatures falling to 4C.

I have to say despite having growing up in the tropics, I do love winters. I love the warm coats, fluffy hats, coming in from the cold, the occasional whiffs of pine, and wood burning (fireplaces). We both miss NYC winters, the quiet and stillness that comes with snowfall, the crackling sound with each step from the mix of ice, snow and salt on the ground, knee-deep snow in Central Park and of course the big tree at Rockefeller. But we've also come to love the flavor of the season this side of the Atlantic. I'm still on the fence about mince pies (Ed seems to like them), but we do love Christmas markets - gluwein (to warm your hands and belly), the smell and taste of outdoor grilled sausages and roasting chestnuts, stalls of Christmas trinkets, the sight of horse drawn carts.

I’ll be singing a different tune in February no doubt (the most depressing month of the year) when I’ve had enough of the darkness and wet coldness. But till then I’ll relish this warm fuzzy feeling.

Seasons

2007-11-10T14:21:00.000Z

(Aileen)
Time flies by. Seasons change. Fall is in full swing here in England.

Some pics from today - Ed ankle deep in leaves outside our building, park across the street

!Viva Oaxaca!

2007-11-04T11:07:00.000Z

(Aileen)
London is a funny place food-wise. There’s tremendous variety of food. But all too often, restaurants “cater” their food to English tastes. Case in point – we have a Mexican restaurant around the corner from our flat. Chips (potato) and penne feature prominently on their menu (English love their chips and penne pasta).

A Mexican restaurant opened in Covent Garden several months ago. We’d read the good reviews, and were toying with the idea of checking it out. But the dread of taking the trouble to visit only to be disappointed kept us away.

It wasn’t until Ed, on a flight to Chicago, happened to sit by a woman who raved about the place, did we seriously consider checking it out.

We had dinner at Wahaca last night, and were duly rewarded. It was excellent. We started of with some tortillas with salsa roja (spicy!) and salsa verde washed down with Corona.

For mains we ordered from the street food section of their menu – skirt steak tacos, smoky bean quesadilla, braised pork tacos, and aubergine and goats cheese tacquitos. Plus side orders of frijoles and coriander rice. All yummy tasty treats, washed down with some more Corona.

For desert we shared a portion of churros, capped of with complimentary (in honor of Feast of the Dead) shots of Gran Centenario tequila with sangrita.

Another bonus was the price. For all the food we got, and 4 Coronas, the bill came to £35 - about the same cost as getting Chinese takeaway!

With bellies full and slight buzzes, we headed of to watch a movie (Control). We’ll definitely be back again.

Some pics from our dinner (L-R): Whetting the appetite with spicy salsa and corona, beef tacos, black bean quesadilla, Ed and the spread, tequila

Another kind of shopping

2007-10-30T15:50:00.000Z

Our offer on the Philly condo (investment property) has just been accepted! We're quite excited. We've been doing spreadsheets all weekend long and are still somewhat afraid that we could be making a big mistake. So key is to get past that instinctual debilitating sense of fear - and come to terms with the fact that taking this type or risk could result in good returns. Also need to cough up our hard earned cash.

In some ways it also represents a step towards planting some roots in Philly/US. Ed has taken the long way round by way of Philly -> Miami -> New York -> London -> Philly. I got to spend more "quality time" with Philly this weekend and am pleased to report it's a great city - wholly underrated. It's a beautiful mix of old and new, has neighborhood pockets of distinct character (Olde City, Rittenhouse, Society Hill, South Philly), tons of history, a lively arts, food and drink scene, and teams for all major league sports. The centre city in particular is a very walkable city. And of course can't say enough about proper Philly cheese steak sandwiches - YUMMMM!!!

Click here to view website for Arch Street Exchange (where flat is)

Airport Shopping

2007-10-30T09:08:00.001Z

(Aileen)
I finally took the plunge, and committed. Bought a chocolate Mulberry Bayswater at Heathrow on my way to Chicago last week. Duty free’s great. Saved a cool £86 on taxes.

Whirlwind

2007-10-30T08:41:00.000Z

(Aileen)
It’s been a whirlwind week, chockful of activities. I suspect I’ve been running on adrenalin for the past 3-4 days or so. The week has gone something like this:

Day 1 (Sun) – Leave for Heathrow at 13:00. Airport shopping, 2 movies, 2 small meals, work and a nap later, land at O’Hare (I believe this is where I commenced my state of partial-daze-hood) . Pull into St Charles (training centre outside of Chicago) at 21:00. Check-in. Work. To bed by midnight.

Day 2 (Mon) – Wake at 5:00 unintentionally (damn jetlag). Work. Research on mortgage approval process, class, networking event, drinking and cavorting at social centre till the lights come on. To bed by 1:00.

Day 3 (Tues) – 7:00 conference call with the hubby. Class, apply for mortgage pre-approval, networking event (yes another one), drinking and cavorting (yes, again) at social centre till the lights come on. To bed by 1:30.

Day 4 (Wed) – Repeat Day 3 except replace networking event with leadership activity, and add post social centre pool session. To bed by 2:00.

Day 5 (Thur) – 7:00 conference call with the hubby. Class, outlet shopping, drinking and cavorting at social centre, transition drinking and cavorting to the infamous “Ranch” (St Charles dive bar institution), dose of early morning pool. To bed by 4:00.

Day 6 (Fri) – I survived! Up at 6:00 to pack. Class, checkout, shuttle to O’Hare, 2.5 hour delayed flight (damn!), fly around in circles in fog above Philadelphia, taxi to hotel. At hotel by 22:00 (hello hubby!!). Late night room service. To bed by midnight.

Day 7 (Sat) – 6:00 wake up call. 7:00 diner breakfast. First viewing appointment at 8:30 (view 8 apartments). Second viewing at 1:30 (view 5). Return to hotel. Body resists to heading back out to dinner. Losing the will to stay awake. Running low on adrenalin reserves. Sleep.

Day 8 (Sun) – 7:30 wake up call. Fiddle around with spreadsheets to determine flat on which to place offer. Request for 2nd viewing. 2nd viewing for 2 apartments. Place formal offer (sign a whole bunch of docs and write out a check). Watch Eagles game at sports bar. Snack on Philly cheesesteak. Kill time in Macy’s. Kill time drinking too many mojitos than sensible at 17:00 in Alma de Cuba. Dinner at Alma. Stumble back to hotel to pick up luggage. Taxi to airport. Nap in BA Executive lounge. Hop onto 23:00 flight back to Heathrow.

Class was a whole lot of fun. We’re negotiating an offer on a Philadelphia centre city condo apartment.

Still need sleep. Will attempt to “recover” this week.

Some pics from the week (L-R): My team, viewing a Philly old cityloft, fine specimen of a Philly Cheesesteak

Capers

2007-09-29T17:15:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a caper as:

Noun
- a flower bud of a southern European shrub, pickled for use in cooking
- an illicit or ridiculous activity or escapade

Today we had both – a nice tasty serving of the pickled shrub kind, and a £265 boo-boo.

Ed’s off for Chicago tomorrow so we decided to do a Saturday-on-Sunday i.e. booze, food and not much else (vs. Saturday booze, food and some activity or other).

After a lazy Starbucks cappuccino, Ed haircut, and stops at Blockbuster (to stock up on movies for tonight) and the dry cleaners, we set off for an excursion to Harrods, the venerable London shopping institution, with a renowned food hall.

First stop was the luxury accessories section for some hand-bag window shopping. At the moment I’m leaning towards a nice staid allrounder Mulberry Bayswater, but am deferring judgment until I see the duty free prices at Heathrow.

From there we headed to the Oyster bar for a mid-day treat – half a dozen Fin De Claire and half a dozen French Belons, accompanied by a bottle of white Burgundy. The oysters whet but did not satiate the appetite so we capped off with a shared plate of Scottish smoked salmon served with salad and a delicious mound of capers (love capers!).

Caper of the shrub variety

With satisfied bellies and a wine buzz, we left the oyster bar and headed to the butchers to pick up 2 nice looking dry-aged sirloins a.k.a strip steaks. At the fruit and veg hall we picked up the trimmings - a variety of mushrooms (chanterelle, cepes, girollo, and some french blue mushrooms), white asparagus, oakleaf lettuce, and 2 roasting potatoes.

Next stop was the wine cellar i.e. where the ridiculous escapade took place. I accidentally bought a £265 bottle of wine. That’s right folks - $500 worth of grape juice. The operative word here is “accidentally”. For whatever reason I thought I was buying a £45 bottle. I paid no attention at the till when Ed was paying, and it wasn’t until we were outside that Ed asked if I meant to buy a £265 bottle of wine. I almost had a heart attack. We had a minor debate on which was the less of the evils – the shame of returning the bottle vs. walking home with a ridiculously expensive 1990 Chateau Troplong Mondot St Emillion. I gamely walked back to the wine cellar (as Ed lingered around the the Krispy Crème donut stand) and confessed my boo-boo to the cashier (and then manager who had to approve the refund). Thankfully they refunded the bottle. As a concession (and probably to alleviate the sense of shame) I bought a perfectly respectable 1998 Chateaux Margeaux (in addition to a half bottle of champagne).

The mistake

We passed by Laduree on the way out to pick some macaroons (2 pistachio, 2 caramel, 2 coffee and 1 rose) – crisp on the outside, soft chewy and sweet on the inside.

We’re now planted on the couch enjoying a half-bottle of Veuve Clicquot, perusing through iTunes videos, building up at an appetite for our Harrods goodies.

For £5 and achy ankles

2007-09-23T08:26:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
Yesterday we watched a show at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. I’d always imagined the theatre to be somewhere out near Greenwich somewhere, but lo and behold, it’s just tucked behind some trees right next to the Tate Modern. So from Waterloo it was a leisurely stroll along the Southbank, in surprisingly good weather, to get to the theatre.

Pics from Stroll along Southbank

We bought our tickets a week ago, and the only one’s available were yard a.k.a standing room, or where the poor people used to stand. But for £5 per ticket, and some achy ankles, it was definitely a worthy experience. On show was The Merchant of Venice. The theatre was surprisingly intimate, and the actors very frequently made their way through the yard crowd to get to the stage throughout the play - we were standing by the pier (it was venice after all).

Afterwards we took a leisurely stroll to St Pauls to catch a bus to Chinatown for a dose of wonton soup, roast duck, Chinese greens, and egg fried rice.

Post-show stroll (L-R): Ed and St Pauls, Cathedral entrance

Mental Health Friday

2007-09-23T07:55:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
We had plans to be in Oslo this weekend. However about 3 weeks ago we updated (and were horrified by) our finances and decided to defer Norway to next year. With the day already logged in our work vacation trackers, we decided to make a day of it anyway and muck about in and around London.

The day started quite early. A 6 am start for me to get some last minute work done (yes, sad indeed). By 8 Ed was up and had a pot of coffee going. We spent most of the morning planted on the couch. Around 10:30 we peeled ourselves off the sofa to get dressed and were out the door by 11:30, on our way to lunch at Chez Bruce.

Chez Bruce is a relatively small and inconspicuous restaurant along the 2 block highstreet of Wandsworth Common (about a mile to a mile and a half from our flat). This year it was rated Top for Food in Zagats, ending Gordon Ramsey’s 7 (?) year reign, and beating all the other flashy name restaurants in London. It’s prix fixe menu also happens to be half the price of aforementioned flashy London restaurants so we were duly intrigued.

The food was indeed excellent. We kicked of with 2 glasses of champagne. Ed started of with an absolutely exquisite fois gras and chicken liver parfait served with a generous chunk of brioche toast. I started with a scrumptious chanterelle soup with tarragon croutons and truffle cream. For mains, Ed had the haddock, which was served with scallops, gnocchi, and prosciutto. I had the duck assiette served with some roasted foie gras and flageolet beans. I was somewhat weary of the beans and the rather soupy presentation, but the beans and tasty sauce were absolutely delicious accompaniments to the medium rare duck breast, what looked like a duck heart, and the heavenly piece of fois gras. Yummy. To accompany our meal we semi-splurged on a 1999 Nuit-St-Georges Burgundy. Quite the treat.

Food pics (L-R): Foie Gras parfait, Chanterelle soup, Haddock, Duck

The cheese and dessert that followed were a bit of a let down. The cheese was a little on the unadventurous side – nothing to write home about. For dessert Ed had the trifle, and I had the prune tart served with clotted cream. But with the alcohol still flowing (Ed has a Macallan 10 year, and I some 10 year tawny port) we were still happy as clams.

Dessert pics (L-R): Trifle, Prune tart with clotted cream

Around 3pm (3 hours later) we finally ended lunch and wandered to the movie theatre where we had tickets for the 4 pm Bourne Ultimatum. The movie was really good apparently, though I would not know since I napped through most of it. Afterwards we checked out the Clapham High Street Friday scene, and had sufficient amounts of beer and mojito, capped off with an indulgent box of KFC fried chicken. Aah. Days such as these are always nice. So nice to have both Saturday and Sunday to recover.

Mortadella

2007-09-15T12:34:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
I believe I can trace it’s origins back to a Panini consumed at the small wine bar by our gate at Genoa airport (on our way back from Tuscany). "It" being our recent obsession with Mortadella. To kill time, we planted ourselves at the wine bar and enjoyed several rounds of prosecco. This gave us a bit of the munchies, so we randomly ordered a mortadella panini. We’ve been on a mortadella kick since.

Our mortadella source here in London is the Italian deli across the street from the butchers. We’ll usually pick up 4-6 slices on our Saturday morning Northcote route (except for the time when the deli owner went on vacation for 3 weeks in August - a sad 3 weeks). We’ll head home, put the groceries away, and then prepare for the treat.

Ed’s the official mortadella sandwich maker. He takes a 6 inch piece of baguette, slices a wedge along the side, slathers on mayo, carefully positions the mortadella, and voila, the scrumptious treat’s ready to be eaten. It’s our post-tennis/shopping treat.

New contraption

2007-09-15T12:20:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
I got a new contraption yesterday (pictured below).

This strange looking contraption is in fact an asthma inhaler.

No, I do not have asthma. But I have been suffering from a recurring cough since New Year.

I contracted the cough around New Year. Ed contracted and suffered from a terrible cold in December, and then very graciously shared it with me. Several months spent in the confined, airconditioned natural-light-depraved bays of the Accenture Mumbai office didn’t help matters. After several fruitless visits to my NHS GP (absolutely useless), and 1 or 2 (what I feel unecessary and not particularly healthy) treatments of antibiotics, this past August I finally demanded to see a specialist.

I met with Dr Collins of Chelsea's Lister Hospital yesterday. After discussing my case history, putting me through a breath test, and listening here and there, he deduced that I did not have asthma, but perhaps highly sensitive cough nerves, probably rattled by the India experience and still a little on the sensitive side.

So whenever I feel my cough rearing it’s ugly head, all I need to do is take a dose of my inhaler to calm down those fiddly cough nerves. My hope is they’ll eventually take the hint and settle down back to some level of normalcy.

Lists

2007-09-06T09:11:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
I was cleaning up my email this morning and found the following list I had sent myself last Friday while in Cornwall. It is a list of what we had consumed (food and drink) by 14:30 on Friday:

• Between 6 and 10 cups of coffee (3 – 5 each)
• ½ Mortadella sandwich each
• Pack of rice crisps (shared)
• Pack of dried mango (shared)
• Pack of Japanese rice crackers (shared)
• Half bacon sandwich each
• Between 8 and 10 cups of tea (4 – 5 each)
• Cream tea - 1 raisin and 1 plain scone, served with strawberry jam and clotted cream (shared)
• Chicken mushroom pie with mash and peas (Ed)
• Fish and chips (Aileen)
• Beer (1 each)

It is no wonder I gained weight on the trip (was quite horrified when I got on the scale on Monday morning).

I was wondering recently though – Is this what life holds in store? A lifetime of watching what you eat? What happened to the good old days of wild abandonment and reckless eating? Age has crept up and slammed on the metabolism breaks.

At least we’ve recognized this limitation, and are now somewhat careful of what we eat. Weekday meals usually consist of:
• Breakfast – Nothing (as the outright rule breaker in the household when it comes to food, I may sometimes sneak in a croissant or yoghurt)
• Lunch - Veg wrap of some sort (Aileen will dutifully skip if she was naughty with a croissant earlier that day)
• Dinner – matchbox size piece of fish served with generous helping of steamed veg OR salad; a small plate of cheese (shared); and a small bowl of cereal (for Ed and sometimes Aileen)

On weekends, we let go quite a bit (as a reward for the disciplined weekdays). And on holidays? Fogetaboutit! We go nuts! (as you’ve no doubt gleaned by now from the scores of food pictures we take when on vaca)

Is it normal to be dreaming all day about what one will be eating in the evening (even if you know it’ll be just a tiny piece of fish and some veg). Is it normal to be dreaming and scheming all week about what one will be eating on the weekend? In the Small household, you can be sure that discussions on the coming weekend’s meal commence on Monday morning. By Monday we had already decided to consume the following this coming weekend:
• Friday: Steak dinner at either La Pampa or Le Bouchon
• Saturday: Dimsum or roast duck, veg and rice in Chinatown
• Sunday breakfast: Bacon roll (Dove bacon on a soft bap lovingly prepared by Ed)
• Sunday dinner : Some kind of meat served with veg (Depends on what Dove butcher has on offer on Saturday)

Are you hungry yet? I am.

Mission Update

2007-09-06T09:10:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
6-Sept, 05:30
Mission not accomplished. The operation was carried out last night. No wasp appeared. The operation was carried out again this morning, and yet not wasp appeared.

We have perhaps underestimated the intelligence and cunning of these creatures. Either that or our missons were flawed. We have further theorized the following and will adjust the mission plan accordingly:

1. The perpertrators may actually be attracted to the odour of Bodyshop Clementine soap. Last night we did not infuse the air with this odour. Rather we only turned on the shower with hot water. Incorrect assumption: They were attracted only to the warmth of the shower steam
2. The perpetrators may be slow risers. In the incidences on the 4th and 5th of Sept, they appeared only after Ed’s shower. As Ed is working from home today and therefore did not feel the need to take a shower at 5:30 am, there may not have been sufficient shower/Clementine odour time to awake them.

The mission continues…..

Operation Wasp

2007-09-05T16:59:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)

The Smalls have a mission tonight. The mission is to ascertain the secret hide out of wasps that have been tormenting the Small household in the wee hours of the morning these past 2 days.

Mission Background
4 Sept, 05:30
Yesterday I was walking from the 2nd bedroom from where I fetched my comb and lip balm when I heard loud thumping, grunting, four letter word cursing sounds emanating from the bathroom. As it was 5:30 in the morning, and I knew that Ed was in the bathroom, I was mystified and a little worried.

5 minutes later (the bathroom is now silent) I knock on the door and request entry. Ed provides a debrief. Earlier that morning he noticed a dead wasp on the shower floor. Strange, he thought. Upon exiting the shower, he noticed a further 2 wasps enter the bathroom through the window. Then the battle ensued. He emerged victorious, but further action would be required to 1) Fortify the Small household from further attacks and 2) Locate and destroy said perpetrators.

Ed purchased some bug spray in the evening. We were thus prepared for the next onslaught.

5 Sept, 05:30
Again, I took a shower with no untoward incidence. Again, as Ed was exiting the shower, a wasp swooped into the bathroom through the window. This time I was present to witness the event. A battle ensued. Again, Ed was victorious. I believe the wasp drowned when generously doused with the bug spray.

The Mission (should we choose to accept)
Seek and identify hideout of perpetrators. If successful, this will provide key information for the bug people who Ed has solicited to “take care” of i.e. eradicate said perpetrators.

Mission details are as follows:
1. Lay a trap/bait for the perpetrators a.k.a Aileen to position herself in the bathroom and open the windows
2. At the same time, Ed to position himself in the 2nd bedroom window to ascertain hiding location from where they launch their attack
3. Aileen to close window once a wasp takes the bait. Permission to exterminate using all available means has been granted.

Denmark

2007-09-05T13:37:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)

We took a long weekend trip to Denmark 3 weeks back (2 days in Arhus and 2 days in Copenhagen). Upon returning work got in the way and prevented me from doing justice to the trip via blog. The trip does however deserve a quick callout so below is a list of highlights of the trip (accompanied with some pictures):

1. Chilling outside under heaters and wrapped in blankets in Aarhus many café’s.
2. Taking a trip back in time with a visit to the restored Arhus Old Town (Den Gamle By)
3. Strolling through Copenhagen
4. A night out at the Copenhagen Tivoli
5. Climbing up the tower of and the amazing views from Our Saviour’s Church in Christianshaven
6. Meals at Peder Oxe and Ida Davidson
7. Watching the world go by while sipping beers along Nyhaven
8. Taking a Copenhagen canal tour
9. Eating Danish Danish in Denmark
10. The lovely people of Denmark

Below is a small sample of pics we took on our trip. (L-R) Mean Mojito's at an Arhus cafe, Arhus Old Town, Cornucopia of Danish, Nyhaven, Dinner at Peder Oxe

To view our complete set of pics from Denmark, please visit the Smallzone Travel Page.

Taking a breather in Cornwall

2007-09-05T11:14:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)

Friday
The alarm clock sounds off at 2:45. Exhausted and bleary eyed we begrudgingly get out of bed, turn the coffee percolator on, get dressed, pack remaining items and collect items we’re taking with into one pile, and what a big pile it is! That’s the great thing about travelling by car, you can bring along anything you think you might use (with emphasis on “might”). No justification and rationalizing required thank you very much. When travelling by air, everything needs to fit into the little carry on bag (avoid checking in luggage at all costs!).

By 3:15 we’re out the door for the 15 minute walk over to the parking lot by the M&S to pick up our Streetcar car. Streetcar is quite a nifty service with which we are heartily impressed. So much so that I will dedicate a whole blog entry to espouse it’s virtues. With a flash of the membership card, entry of PIN, extracting of keys, adjustment of seats and mirrors we’re off. Back to the flat we drive to load up.

By 3:45 we are officially on the road – navigating our way through the quiet early morning streets of London. With some minor street navigation issues (a.k.a Aileen not paying attention to street signs), we navigate our way onto the M4. As long at we make it to Bristol by 7 we should be fine.

An hour and 45 minutes later we pass through Bristol. Woohoo! We’re on a roll. iPod music is a-blaring, grumbling tummies were appeased with mortadella sandwiches made and eaten somewhere between Reading and Bath, the caffeine is kicking in. We trundle down the M5 then take the long winding A30.

By 8ish we arrive in Penzance and decide to kill some time. We attempt to park the car and realize we don’t have any change for the parking meter. To get change we purchase what turns out to be the nastiest bacon sandwich ever - 2 flavourless rashers cooked under a grill, encased in 2 sad limp pieces of white (no doubt loaded with cancer/obesity inducing hydrogenated substances), prepared by a young lady who looks absolutely miserable to be doing what she’s doing. Yet we eat it (how does one pass up bacon exactly?) and manage to get a tidy supply of change for parking.

Penzance is pretty enough but nothing spectacular. Our opinions would no doubt have been better disposed if the sun were out but alas it was a typical English Summer 2007 day – cold, grey and dreary. Of some interest were the old lido (tide fed pool – which unfortunately did not make up for the lack of beach), strolling through the old streets such as Chapel street (with it’s 300 year old pubs), the views of Mount St Michael (small sibling to Normandy’s Mont St Michel), and peering through shop windows at the Cornish pasties.

Mount Saint Michael, Cornish Pasties

With no specific planned itinerary, we decide to drive around the area before checking into our B&B. From Penzance we head to Sennen Cove – a lovely beached cove with a cute little harbour. We stroll up the hill by the harbour for some amazing views of Land’s End and the cove. From Sennen it was a short drive to Porthcurno to check out the beach. We have an early dinner at a pub in Porthcurno before heading to our B&B to check in.

Ed admiring views of Land’s End, Porthcurno Beach

The Ardensawah B&B is working farm B&B, run by Janet and her husband (the farmer). In the middle of their several hectares of vegetable crop farmland lies the B&B (also their home). In some of the farm sheds by the B&B are a flock of chickens, ducks and geese, and some pigs. Janet sells the free-range eggs from a little basket hanging on a fence out front, by a small change jar. To purchase a half a dozen eggs, you simply drop 65c in the change jar and take your eggs. The pigs are sold to the local butcher. The farm is “guarded” by 3 farm dogs (I say “guarded” loosely as they’re sweetie pies). It’s a lovely B&B. Janet was a very gracious host, and our room had marvellous views of Cornwall countryside and the ocean.

Ardensawah dogs and pigs

When we arrive, Janet’s left a note on the door. She’s stepped out for a short bit, but the door’s open and we’re welcome to enter and head to our room. It’s about 4 pm and we’re starting to feel the pain of having woken up at 2:30 am. We decide to take a “nap” (always a risky proposition). We have tickets for the 8 pm show at the outdoor Minack Theatre nearby, but it’s quite cold and dreary out, and the Big Brother Finale’s on so we’re torn about going and defer decision making until after our nap. The alarm clock goes off at 17:00. I open one eye. I’m feeling comfortable in the bed. Outside still looks cold and dreary. I mumble something to the effect of “We’re tired. It’s cold. We’ll get sick.”. We continue to nap. Around 7 we finally wake up, have a picnic on the bed, and settle in to watch the Big Brother finale. Sorry Minack Theatre.

Saturday
The alarm goes off at 7. Breakfast at the B&B is served from 8-9 (Janet has a farm to run in addition to feeding us!). We request for the full English breakfast which turns out to be quite the plateful – eggs, bacon, sausage, white pudding, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns, toast and tea. Perfect if you’ve got a busy day of strenuous farming ahead of you but we’ve only got lazing on the beach planned. Breakfast is served on one long dining table so we get to meet some of the other guests – a couple from Denmark (we visited Denmark just 2 weeks prior, one of the places we visited was the town in which they live) and a family from Wiltshire. We have a leisurely breakfast, chatting with our fellow guests. This is highly unusual for the Smalls as we’re usually quite sleepily antisocial first thing in the morning.

By 11:00 we’ve packed our picnic bag, blankies and towels and head out for our walk to Porthcurno beach. It was quite strange randomly wondering along the public footpath through other people’s paddocks and fields. We cross through several. At one point we lose sight of the footpath and get momentarily lost. We can see the tower of St Levan church (our point of reference) but can’t seem to find the final section of the footpath to get there. The path turns out to continue through someone’s back yard. Their back door is open and we can hear them at the breakfast table, so we try to slink by as quietly as possible. From St Levan church we head up the narrow road, and I mean narrow. Some of the streets in this area of Cornwall are barely the width of a small car. Drivers need to practice a high degree of courtesy. We’re finding country life a little strange. Open doors, friendly farmer families , courteous drivers. All quite stress-free, and this genial mood along with the fresh air (just the occasional whiff of cow poop) begin to impact the Smalls. It’s really quite relaxing.

View of Ardensawah B&B from across paddock, Cornwall roads

We get onto the South West coast path heading to Porthcurno. The views are amazing. Rocky cliffs. Vast blue ocean. Colourful flora. Little coves with white sandy beaches. We pass by the beach at Porthgawarra (accessible only by footpath), and are tempted to stop and settle in but decide to continue on to Porthcurno. Just before reaching Porthcurno beach we run into the Minack Theatre. The theatre is quite the peculiar venue. It was built mostly through the purpose and determination of one woman (Rowena Cade) over a period of many years. It is essentially carved into the cliff. Views from the theatre are absolutely spectacular. Dare I say I had a small twinge of regret for choosing Big Brother over Minack? There’s always next year I suppose.

Pothgawarra Beach and Minack Theatre

From Minack we head down the tiny steep path to Porthcurno beach (beware those who are afraid of heights!). We lay out our blanket, open a bottle of wine, and commence the chilling – making and eating of ham sandwich, drinking of wine, taking of long nap. Hmmm. The one downside it’s that it’s a little chilly and overcast, but we enjoy the soft sand, gentle breeze, and the clean seaside smell nevertheless. After our nap we sit around for a bit before slowly packing up to begin the trudge back to the B&B. When we arrive at the B&B we’re greeted by the Ardensawah dogs and geese. We stop to chat a little with Janet who’s just come from feeding the pigs. We’re starting to feel at home. And conversely starting to regret we leave the next day, and sorry we didn’t plan on staying longer.

Ed on narrow trail down to Portchurno,On Porthcurno Beach

For dinner we take a taxi to Sennen Cove. We dine at the Old Success Inn (founded 1691), and enjoy the tunes of a sawgrass band (in Cornwall!) before hopping back into a taxi back to the B&B. It’s been a good day.

Sunday
Again an early morning start. If anything earlier this morning, as this morning we need to pack and check out. We’re torn. Should we leave directly after breakfast and maybe stop by some towns along the way? Or take one more walk along the SW Coast path near the hotel? Outside looks the same cold and dreary. We haven’t been hungry since the breakfast the day before, so we opt for a lighter breakfast. Just toast for Ed, Just eggs, bacon and toast for me thank you (oink). We pack the car up. We settle our bill. We make a last minute decision to take the walk. Janet highly recommends it, and it’s only an hour circular walk. We have some time before we need to head out, and have no specific towns/sights to see anyway.

The walk begins down a lane towards the coast. We walk by a paddock with black and white spotted cows. I’m reminded of the Gary Larsen cartoons. For it’s as if we walked in when they were in the middle of intense intellectual conversation. They all look our way, and I swear they looked almost annoyed at being interrupted.

Cornwall Cows and Farmland

We continue along the path and enjoy the views of the countryside. As we near the coast, the hedges fall back and we’re suddenly out in the open, facing a vast field of colourful wild flowers, against the backdrop of the rugged coastline and clear blue ocean. It’s a stunning sight. As an additional treat, the sun begins to make an appearance. We continue along the path, stopping frequently to take in the views and take deep breaths of the clean crisp air, enjoying our solitude in this amazing place. We walk past one cove, over a ridge into another cove. As we trudge along, seemingly out of nowhere, a small secluded sandy white beach comes into view. It feels like a special chance discovery, almost like a surprise gift. A treat. The cherry on top of the cake. We savour the view, content that our short trip met and exceeded all our expectations, but a little sorry we can’t continue along the path. We’ll have to come back down at some point in the future for at least a week, and leave our footprints on several more paths along the southwest coast.

Wildflowers, Secluded beach

To view our complete set of pics from Cornwall, please visit the Smallzone Travel Page.

Back from nowhere

2007-08-04T18:54:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)

It’s been almost 3 whole weeks since my last blog. In my defence, I claim the following:

1. The last 2 weeks of July were plagued with day after day of incessant, flood-inducing torrents of rain. It rained. Then it rained some more. Then it rained even more. Middle England flooded, thousands of homes were affected, hundreds of thousands lost power, water and other basic utilities. News channels and newspapers covered nothing more than the latest on the rain and floods. July, as were June and May before it, was declared the wettest July on recorded history. With the constant grey skies and gloom-and-doom weather forecasts, it was hard to get excited about anything really.

2. Work has turned into the energy-zapping, brain-deadening, all consuming kind of work. A sorry excuse I know. But day after day in gloomy Worthing, with constant pressure from work, nights spent in a small uncomfortable hotel room, left me uninspired and unchatty.

So there you go - my excuses.

The sun finally reappeared this week, and today is absolutely gorgeous. Cloud-free skies. Temperatures hovering in the low 80s (farenheight of course). We stocked up this morning on picnic and BBQ supplies and have headed to the park across the street for a good heavy dose of Vit D.

We haven’t been in complete hiding though the last 3 weeks. We watched a Keane concert one weekend at the O2 millennium dome. We’d never been to the millennium dome before, and we were pleasantly surprised at what a great concert venue it made. It only took the British government 7 years to figure out what to do with the place after the Year 2000 celebrations. After years of languishing in true white-elephant-why-did-we-build-it-again style, this year they turned it into a concert venue, surrounded by a bunch of restaurants, bars, clubs. Keane were in good form (I think they were filming for a DVD), and we had tickets in the standing area and got to stand quite close to the stage.

Some pics from the O2 (L-R): Keane, O2 beach, the Smalls

Ed’s also been on quite the shopping spree. Our insurance claim for the theft in May finally came through. So Ed’s been quite preoccupied with putting together our new entertainment hub. Instead of buying a new DVD player and another home PC/Mac, we bought a Mac mini and hooked it up to our new TV. It’s quite impressive really. We’ve already spent many an hour perusing through iTunes for music videos which we can very easily download and then immediately watch on our boy-toy TV. Oh, and he’s also got a brand new set of tools – screwdrivers, power drill and the like. Lucky lad.

I haven’t gone handbag shopping yet. I’m still in the careful and lengthy selection process a.k.a perusing through Net-a-porter.com and eluxury.com for ideas. Still haven’t decided what to get, so am taking my time relishing the selection process and just happy in the thought that when I do finally decide what to get, I just need to go and get it – no saving required, a guilt-free pleasure. Yum.

Some recent pics (L-R): Today's cloud-free skies, recent meal of pork adobo, pork chop dinner

Welcome to Northcote Road

2007-07-16T21:25:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
Northcote Rd lies about ¼ mile due west of our flat, is about ½ mile long, and is a street we frequent almost ritualitisically every time we happen to be in town. I’ve mentioned it in some of my previous blogs, and thought it deserved a proper introduction.

Northcote Rd is the type of street that defines a neighbourhood. When we bought our flat, one of the factors we considered was it’s proximity to the said road. The road is quite modest, around 10 blocks long. But along the street, about 6 of 10 blocks are lined with small food stalls selling a variety of goods and a series of small food shops that are true treasures of the neighbourhood. On a typical Saturday morning, you might find us at one of the following stops:

Stop 1 – Veggie stand.
Manned by 2 lovely ladies and occasionally, one of their grumbling (but still sweet) sons (?). Offers a wide variety of vegetables. Ed loves the French salad greens. I love the wild mushrooms (available only during mushroom season) they keep tucked away in one of the back shelves. When I ask to buy some, they never fail to look at me incredulously with raised eyebrow and say “Are you sure? They’re £30 a kilo”. To which I reply “Yes, that’s fine”. The handful I get never exceeds £4 or £5 (for mushrooms are feather light!). And the exchange is surely to be repeated the following week when I get another handful of wild mushrooms.

Stop 2 – Dove butcher.
Established in 1879, Dove butcher has for generations been, and hopefully will continue to be a mainstay of Northcote Rd. They are purveyors of fine organic British meat – Scotch beef, Welsh lamb, and English pork. All marvellously tasty stuff. If you live in the neighbourhood and frequent Dove's enough, you may be bestowed the honour of being addressed as “Guvner” by one of the butchers (a title Ed aspires to I might add).

Stop 3 – Bread stand. The stand offers a cornucopia of breads, pastries and other baked goodies. We usually pick up a French baguette to eat with the cheese we pick up at Hamish Johnston, which quite conveniently sits right opposite the bread stand.

Stop 4 – Hamish Johnston cheese shop. Since moving to Europe we’ve developed the taste for cheese, especially the stinky, foot smelling soft variety. Much of this new found obsession with cheese can be directly attributed to Hamish Johnston, which always has on offer a myriad of cheese options – cows cheese, goats cheese, buffalo cheese, French, Italian, Swiss, English, Irish, some with such far fetched names as “Stinking Bishop” or “Head of the Hundreds”. On a typical Saturday we’ll usually get a good sized chunk of Brie de Meaux (our staple cheese), plus some other soft variety, and a hard variety. Also on offer are great olives, plus other gourmet staples such as olive oil.

Stop 5 – Fishmonger. Right next to Hamish Johnston, on a cross street sits our fishmonger. This corner is their new home, having had to vacate their original shop dwelling several blocks north about 5 months ago. In the age of uber-supermarkets, fishmongers (along with butchers) are a dying breed, so we feel extremely fortunate to have our fishmonger still.

Stop 6 – Philglas & Swiggot. Our last stop on a Northcote shopping trip is always Philglas & Swiggot, an independent wine merchant. It’s the kind of wine shop I love – with a very personal selection of wines, small selections of each wine variety, but a wide selection of varieties. Each wine region is well represented. Many of the wines on the shelves will have tasting notes, which makes it enjoyable to peruse the shelves (I can spend hours in here) and fun to try new wines.

The picture is not all rosy though. As with many streets with any semblance of character in the UK, Northcote Road is under constant threat of becoming a cookie cutter street overridden with chain establishments. As property prices continue to rise in the neighbourhood (in large part probably due to the demand to be near Northcote Rd), merchants on the street increasingly face being priced out of the market and unable to survive the rents. Recent closures are the fishmonger (who now operates out of a portable stand) and Kelly’s Organic Food Store. Since we moved in, we’ve also heard about Hamish Johnston being under threat of closure due to high rents. It’s a terrible vicious cycle. Demand to be near the road and its establishment leads to increased property prices. In turn, increased property prices lead to closures of the very type of establishment people paid to be near. If things continue to progress in this way, in many respects, its farewell we should be bidding from Northcote Rd rather than welcome.

Pic: Fat Face (an unspiring chain clothing store which sits where our fishmonger used to be) - be sure to hiss as you walk by!

Quick callout

2007-07-09T19:14:00.000+01:00

A quick callout to all those who have sent comments and emails about our blog. We truly appreciate your thanks and thoughts. We hope to keep it interesting for you all! Keep the feedback coming! Cheers!

Up for air

2007-07-08T21:45:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
After several weeks of grey skies and pouring rain, the sun finally came up for air, and it’s timing could not have been any better for it was quite the event filled weekend in and around London. We were quite spoilt for choice. On this weekend alone there were the Wimbledon finals, Stage 1 of the Tour De France (first ever time in the UK), British Grand Prix, the Live Earth concert, plus I’m sure a whole bunch of other events.

On Saturday, we opted to take our newly acquired picnic basket on it’s inaugural event out, plus a dose of Shakespeare in Regent’s Open Air Theatre. We started Saturday morning bright and early with an hour of tennis. From the tennis courts we walked over to Northcote Rd to pick up supplies for the weekend. From there it was back to the flat to pop the wine in the freezer for a quick chill, pack all the picnic goodies, check that tube was up and running, a quick shower, and then we were off.

It was our first visit to Regent’s Park and we were pleasantly surprised. It was quite beautiful in that manicured-English-garden kind of way, with a rose garden, and other little manicured sections throughout. We found a nice little open space of green near the theatre to plunck down and tuck in some cheese, salami, olives and wine.

Fifteen minutes before the show we lazily strolled over to the open air theatre. It was a perfect day for an outdoor show. Not too hot, not too cold. Blue skies and sunshine, but with enough fluffly clouds to offer intermittent respite from the UV rays.

One thing we really appreciate about the UK (and Europe in general) is it’s liberal approach to the consumption of alcohol outdoors. In NYC one can get arrested for consuming alcohol outdoors, which is extremely unfair for a well-behaved majority of people who would appreciate nothing more that to have a sip of refreshing wine in the sunshine. We had 1 bottle of French rose with our picnic. During the show we had our second bottle, a tasty Riesling.

So picture this – an open air theatre surrounded by lush gardens, a bottle of Riesling, a great performance of A Midsummer Night’s dream, sunshine - Aaaahh. Dreamy indeed.

Note: It is worth stating at this point that we were extremely pleased with our picnic bag’s performance. Food stayed fresh, wine stayed cool, all equipment conveniently tucked away in their specialised compartments. Thank you John Lewis.

After the show we headed home for a balcony BBQ (shrimp, squid and pork sausages from our fave butcher Dove), the first jug of Pimms for the year (for me) and some apple cider for Ed. We wiled time away on the balcony eating, drinking and listening to the iPod until the sun went down.

Some pics from the day (L-R): Roses in Regent's Park, Ed with picnic munchies, me, Trusty picnic "basket", Fairies, Ed with jug of Pimms

For complete pics of our day in Regent's park, visit the album by clicking on "England - Regent's Park" on the 2007 Smallzone travel page.

On Sunday we woke up with small alcohol-induced headaches, and much too late for our planned catch-Tour-de-France-at-London-Tower Bridge activity. With the assistance of some Tylenol, a strong cup of coffee and 3 slices each of white toast, I rallied the energy to head out, hope on 2 trains to Tunbridge Wells, a Kent town, and one that happened to be on the Tour de France route. I arrived to find a huge crowd gathered, and 10 minutes to spare before the cyclists came zipping by in a 45-second blur. Ed had wisely stayed in the hood and had a lazy day at Starbucks. We later met up at Le Bouchon (our friendly neighbourhood French brassiere) for a couple pints of beer to watch Federer and Nadal duke it out, before heading back home to enjoy a steak dinner prepared by Ed, accompanied by a Rosso di Montalcino we had picked up in Tuscany. A scrumptious end to the weekend.

Tour de France zipping by Tunbridge Wells:

Miscellaneous affairs

2007-07-05T18:12:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)

Where of where did the summer go? It's been raining much too often for July. I heard on the radio on the way in to work that June registered as the wettest June ever. Ho hum. Italy seems like eons ago.

On the good news front, we finally got some movement on our insurance claims (almost 2 mo after the unfortunate event):
1. The contractor imbeciles scheduled carpentry work for Monday. So I worked from home on Monday. So of course they did not come on Monday. Ho hum.
2. They rescheduled for Wednesday. So Ed works from home on Wed. So they arrive around 11 and bring the wrong size doors. Ho hum. Ed's impression is that they were truly imbecilic (and aren’t cheap), and that any good carpenter would probably make a fortune here in the UK (in case anyone’s looking out for career alternatives)
3. Joy of joys - they come back next Tuesday to complete the work. Ed will get to spend more quality time with them. Ho hum.
4. Content insurance provided an update and our claim has been approved. We’re now having to choose between getting replacement items or cash. After some consideration we’re leaning towards cash. Shopping!

After a nice but short escape from reality a.k.a Italy, Ed and I are back to the daily grind. I’ve been down in Worthing all this week (except Monday – see above) working 12 hour days, staying at a hotel with a pepto-bismal pink coloured blanket (would take a pic except I left my camera at home), and eating way too much room service. Ed’s back in Woking grumbling about the suburban Starbucks employees not having a clue how to make a proper cappuccino. We spend a good portion of the day comparing how sleepy and/or hungry we are. We need to plan our next vacation. Something, anything to keep us sane.

Savoy Grill with the Eigners

2007-07-02T13:12:00.001+01:00

Marc and Jaime were in town over the weekend, so we went out to dinner at Savoy Grill. It was great seeing them. There was much drinking, eating and catching up to be done, as the pics below illustrate (Ed and I spent Sunday recovering on the couch):

(L-R): The Smalls, Messing around with cheese guy; The Eigners, Starter 1, Starter 2, Main 1, Main 2, Main 3, Cheese 1, Cheese 2, Dessert
Not shown: Copious amounts of alcohol

To view complete pics, visit our "Around London" album by clicking on "England- Around London" on the 2007 Travel Zone page on Smallzone.

Bellisimo! (Part 1 - Tuscany)

2007-06-29T13:10:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
NB. I am including a small sample of pics in the post below. Please visit our website "The Smallzone" to view the complete set of Tuscany/Cinque Terre pics, as well as pics from other trips we've taken in the past.

We’re back from 5 days of glorious Italian food, wine and sunshine.

Day 1 - Ryanair morning, Black rooster* afternoon
Taxi pick up at 3:15 a.m. (and the bastard came 5 minutes early!) Grumble. 10 minute taxi ride to Victoria Coach station to catch a 1 hour 15min bus to London Stansted Airport (a big fat lie as it can in no way be called London!). Arrive at Stansted before 5 a.m, and once again it amazes me how many other crazy people out there are willing to take a 6 a.m. flight…the airport is packed with way-too-cheery-for-5-am-people. Grumble. We are leisurely getting a Starbucks coffee when our flight status suddenly changes from “Please Wait” (no, not “Go to Gate”) to “Final Call”!!! It’s then a mad dash to the gate which feels like a mile away, a full grande coffee goes smashing to the ground, not-so-young people (us included) with suitcases are running up and down stairs, down long halls. We get to the gate and boarding has not yet started. Ryanair bastards. One of these days someone will have a heart attack or seriously injure themselves. Good morning to you too. We get on the plane and promptly fall asleep. When we awake we are in sunny Italy (Pisa to be exact) and the morning seems like a distant nightmare.

After a minor rental car blip (long lines, and for some reason we are quoted 450 euros instead of the 130 we got quoted when making the reservation), we are on our way – seeing what a Fiat Panda is made of as we pummel down the Fl-PI-LI highway on our way to the Chianti region. First stop is Castello Vicchiomaggio, a winery with a restaurant which unfortunately cannot serve us as they are busy entertaining a big bus load of tourists. Down to their wine shop we go for our first taste of Chianti Classico in Chianti, this is probably not the best idea on empty stomachs.

Back into the car in search of lunch. Two to three km later we run into Greve, one of the famous Chianti towns. We duck into one of the restaurants in their main square and proceed to enjoy one of the best meals on the trip. Bellisimo. Nothing better than a plate of perfect pasta (parpardelle with wild boar ragout for me, pasta with tomato and pecorino cheese for Ed), and some fabulous house Chianti. Yummy. Unfortunately we cannot linger though as we have our first winery appointment at 14:30.

A short 10 minute drive from Greve, we arrive at Fattoria Casaloste in Panzano, a small 17 ha. organic vineyard run by Giovanni and Emilia. Emilia shows us around. They are originally from Naples, but Giovanni’s life dream was to own a vineyard so they moved to Tuscany around 15 years ago, found a dilapidated farmhouse with a vineyard, spent 4 years fixing it up and working on their first vintage. Fast forward to today, and they now make some of the finest Chianti’s in the region, and continue to make their wines with strong personal commitment and care. It’s a family-run business with Giovanni in charge of making the wine, and Emilia doing everything else i.e. marketing, finances, winery visits in addition to taking care of the family.

Our next stop is Felsina, in Castelnuovo Berardenga. Felsina is on a completely different scale to Casaloste. The winery boasts over 300 ha of vineyards, and a stunning cellar to match. Felsina is famous for it’s commitment to producing 100% Sangiovese Chianti’s. Aside from the wine tasting, we also get a chance to sample their special olive oil line, where the same care and attention, as well as focus in single varietals goes into making the oils, and the varieties all have distinctly different flavours.

We then head to Casalore Il Libbiano, our Bed and Breakfast on the outskirts of San Gimignano. We are warmly greeted by Andrea (the proprietor), and manage to take a quick dip in the pool and admire the B&B gardens before scrumptious dinner, then a good night’s rest. It’s been a long, but fruitful day.

Some pics from Day 1 (L-R): Parparedelle pasta, Fattoria Casaloste Winery, Felsina

Haul for the day: 6 bottles red wine

*A note on the black rooster, which is the symbol of the Chianti Classico region: Legend has it that the feuding towns of Florence and Siena agreed to settle their border disputes by each setting off from their respective towns, a representative on horseback. The border would be set wherever the 2 representatives eventually met. The night before, Siennese threw a big celebration, and all ate and drank including the town’s rooster (a white rooster). The Florentines on the other hand, went to bed early, and did not feed their town rooster (a black rooster). Early the next morning, the black rooster was no longer able to take the hunger pangs and begins his crowing early. Florence’s rider therefore sets off earlier, and thus the Florence region (incl. Chianti Classico) is bigger.

Day 2 – Tuscan towns, Brunello di Montalcino

Breakfast at 8:30 and then we’re off to visit 2 Tuscan towns. The first stop in San Gimignano, with it’s distinctive skyline of towers. We climb the tallest and enjoy some great views of Tuscan countryside. Tuscany is incredibly beautiful, filled with rolling hills lined with rows of olives trees, grape vines, and of course the distinctive cypress trees. Many of the Tuscan towns are perched on hilltops.

Our next stop is Siena, one of the major Tuscan towns and forever rival to Florence (they have a long rich history of fighting) to stroll through her medieval alleyways, see the famous Piazza del Campo and her beautiful Duomo. We stop at a restaurant in one of the alleyways for a plate each of Pici, a pasta specialty of the region. Pici is essentially short, fat, spaghetti – absolutely delicious in a simple tomato sauce and a generous dousing of grated Tuscan pecorino cheese. Accompanied of course with a pichet of Chianti vino rosso. Yummmm.

Refueled and ready to go, we head south to Montalcino, home of Brunello di Montalcino, for our only winery visit of the day. Altesino is a well respected producer of Brunello di Montalcino. On arrival we are greeted by 2 big German Shephards (one of which saunters over and takes the time to “mark” our car), and 2 young American ladies manning the office on a lazy Sunday and in charge of giving the wine tours. Brunello di Montalcino has DOCG designation, just as Chianti Classico does. Both DOCGs require a predominance of the same grape i.e. the Sangiovese, however Brunello’s are famous around the world for being meatier, richer wines - the kind you hide away and forget about for a couple of years, as they become better with age. We splurge on a 2001 Riserva which we’ll hide away in the cupboard.

Next and final stop for the day is the hilltop town of Montalcino. At the pinnacle is a fort which has great views, and also happens to have an Enoteca where we share a 3 wine tasting – 1 Rosso di Montalcino (lighter, younger red wine), 1 Brunello di Montalcino, and 1 Supertuscan. We splurge on a 2001 Supertuscan, another for hiding away in the cupboard.

Some pics from Day 2 (L-R): San Gimignano, Sunflowers, Montalcino Wild Boar

Haul for the day: 3 bottles red wine, 3 packs of pasta

Day 3 – Florence, Ristorante “La Tenda Rossa”

We spend Day 3 taking in the sights of Florence. Florence is like a big open air museum, with works of art all over the place. The Medici family (rulers of Florence for many many years) were great patrons of the arts and supported Renaissance artists such as Boticelli, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.

No visit to Florence is complete without a visit to the city’s Duomo, and boy what a Duomo it is. It’s massive. We climbed the 483 steps to the top of Brunelleschi’s famous dome for some close up views of the dome’s frescos, and some amazing views of Florence and surrounding country side.

Once back down, a short stroll south takes you to Piazza della Signoria, essentially an outdoor sculpture gallery. Cooly looking over the hordes of tourists is Michelangelo’s David (or at least a replica, the original now sits in the Accademia), Cellini’s bronze statue of Perseus, Giambologna’s almost moving Rape of the Sabine Women, and Ammannati’s Neptune fountain. The Uffizzi (one of Florence’s main museums and a treasure trove of Renaissance art) was unfortunately closed for the day, so we instead took a short stroll to Ponte Vecchio, Florence’s oldest bridge, with a jimble jamble of jewelry shops lining the bridge’s walls.

Once we’d had our fill of Florence sights, we drove down to San Casciano in Val de Pesa to check into Villa I Barronci, another B&B to be closer to Ristorante “La Tenda Rossa”, one of the most famous restaurants in Italy, where we had a reservation for dinner. With the expectation of getting hammered, we had previously arranged for the B&B to drive us to the restaurant and the restaurant to drive us back to the B&B. This arrangement worked out quite well, since as expected, we had more than the recommended daily allowance of alcohol with our meal. We opted for the tasting menu. So we each had :
• A glass of prosseco to accompany our amuse bouche.
• A glass of San Gimignano white accompanied starter 1 (3 preparations of a strange crustacean creature), and starter 2 (fresh spaghetti and seafood in a pesto sauce).
• Another glass of white (not sure what but a “meatier” white) accompanied main course 1 (chicken ravioli with crisp bacon).
• A hearty supertuscan red (and in the case of Ed, 2 glasses) accompanied main course 2 (pigeon).
• Pre-dessert was a scoop of sage sorbet (initially strange but actually very good). A glass of Vin Santo (Italian dessert wine) accompanied the main desert.

All very good food and wine, but when compared to the glorious food and wine orgy at Cordeillan Bages in Bordeaux last year, we were sad to say, a little disappointed, but it was nevertheless a great way to end our 3 days in Tuscany.

Some pics from Day 3 (L-R): Duomo, View of Campagnile from Dome, David

Haul for the day: 1 wild boar salami

Bellisimo! (Part 2 - Cinque Terre)

2007-06-29T13:04:00.000+01:00

Day 4 – Pisa, Winding roads to Cinque Terre

After breakfast the next day, we head over to Pisa to see it’s famous leaning tower. It is indeed leaning. It’s quite the site to see in person.

From there we head north up to the province of Liguria. After much winding around the mountains on tiny local roads, we eventually arrive at Monterroso Al Mare, one of the 5 Cinque Terre towns and our base for the region. The Cinque Terre is a Unesco World Heritage designated region composed of 5 towns essentially built up on little spaces between the mountain sides and the Mediterranean ocean. All along the mountain sides in between the towns are terraces with rows of vineyards, and olive and lemon groves (think rice terraces).

After a plate of pasta each for lunch (spaghetti of course!), we spend the rest of the day enjoying the sunshine by the beach and chilling on a mountainside bar with bottle of Cinque Terre white.

Then we head back to our B&B, stopping by the wine shop to pick up supplies i.e. a bottle of red, some prosciutto and tomatoes to enjoy on our B&B terrace.

Some pics from Day 4 (L-R): Pisa, Monterosso, Chilling

Day 5 – On the Cinque Terre trail

Day 5 begins with a cup of cappuccino and a fresh, warm donut at the pastry shop around the corner from our B&B. On this day we decided to do a section of the Cinque Terre trail, a walking trail which links all 5 towns and takes approx 5 hours from end to end. We aim to do only the first section, Monterosso to Vernazza, a 1:30 hour trail, and also coincidentally the most difficult section, as I overheard in a coffee shop in Vernazza after the ordeal. The trail was quite narrow with lots of climbs up/down mountain ridges. A lot of the way you were barely an inch or 2 from falling into someone’s vineyard or lemon grove, or into the ocean. The views were amazing though. On the often steep climbs up from Monterosso, you could turn around and have an amazing view of Monterosso nestled up against a mountain, facing the big blue Mediterranean, frothy waves crashing against the cliff sides.

About halfway through the trail, we came across an old man selling his lemons from a crate. We couldn’t resist getting a couple of lemons (one of which we’ve brought back to London with us along with a bag full of lemons picked up at a market), we plan to make a mean lemonade this weekend).

After a while of trails winding uphill (when you’re breathing heavily and feel you can proceed no more), the trail suddenly begins to descend, and you begin to catch glimpses of Vernazza hiding behind a mountain ridge. She’s finally revealed to you as you come around that mountain ridge, and she’s quite the sight – much smaller in scale and more compact than Monterroso.

We spend some time watching 2 crazy Italian men jumping into the crashing waves along the pier. Then we go in search of lunch. We plonk down at a restaurant in a little town square, and watch the little town in action as we devour our well-earned octopus salad and plates of spaghetti (seafood for me, tomato for Ed). It felt like being in someone’s back yard. A group of men were sitting on some stairs nearby greeting people as they walked by, flirting with ladies walking their dog, imparting their stoop sitting knowledge and experience to the young.

A 4-minute train ride through the mountain side had as back in Monterroso (yes, a cruel joke after the 1.5 hour hike) for an afternoon on the beach. When the clouds rolled in, we headed into town for a slice of foccacie pizza (delicious!), a scoop of gelato, a bottle of red wine accompanied by a plate of Italian salami’s.

Despite being full from the afternoon munchies, we could not pass up a last chance for a plate of spaghetti in Italy for dinner. For some reason spaghetti is just so much better in Italy. I capped the trip off with a plate of seafood spaghetti, while Ed had the seafood spaghetti, and also somehow convinced me that in addition, we had to have another plate of spaghetti al pomodore (it being the last night and all). Hmmm…missing it already.

Some pics from Day 6 (L-R): Cinque Terre trail, View of Vernazza

Haul for the day: 1 bottle Cinque Terre white and 1 lemon

Day 6 – The journey home

We wake up early on Day 6 and carefully pack our wine in our suitcases. We had packed light for the journey here (we had come with 2 moderately empty suitcases and a bunch of bubble wrap!). We leave with 10 bottles on wine in addition to our luggage. Mission accomplished I’d say.

We head out for a cappuccino and warm donut at the pastry shop around the corner, and are surprised to find a street market set up on the road fronting the beach. We take a stroll through the market, and pick up a chunk of pecorino (we’ll try making us some of that pici pasta – we had picked some up in Siena), and a bag of lemons (they have amazing lemons) for a jug of lemonade. Ed also wants to learn how to make Caipirinha’s (with fresh lemons) as he had 3 or 4 of them before dinner the evening before.

We then reluctantly loaded up our trusty Fiat Panda (it served us well!), and headed back up the winding country roads on the way to Genova, from where we catch a 13:30 flight back to Stansted. London is cold and cloudy. We’re wishing we were back in sunny Italy!

Haul for the day: Chunk of pecorino, bag of lemons

Week 1

2007-06-22T19:15:00.000+01:00

Week 1 on my new project was not so bad due to:
1. It being a 3-day week (I started on Wed)
2. Nice weather which made Worthing quite appealing (for now)
3. Ed and I off next week to Tuscany for hols!! (so can't take anything too seriously with the anticipation of Tuscany hovering over)

Below are some pics of Worthing:

On the train to Worthing (meandering through the South Downs)

Shale beach in Worthing

My hotel this week

Ciao!!

Taking the plunge

2007-06-20T11:37:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
Today is my first day on a new project. It’s a 2-month stint assessing a client’s release management capabilities (delivery-related), and it’s out of town. What in the world am I doing?

To top it all off, there were a string of unfortunate and ironic events yesterday. I got staffed through to the end of August, and then my August faculty position got confirmed (so had to cancel that). This morning I got an email asking if I’d like to do a July faculty slot. Not!!! (since I’m now on a project!). What a bummer.

So here I am on a morning train down to the English southern coast. I feel a glass-is-half-full assessment is in order:
1. I only have to be out of town 3/5 days of the week
2. It’s “commutable” if I can put up with a 2 hour train ride in the morning, and 1.5 hour train ride home
3. The client office is in a seaside town, and it’s summer so could enjoy the dose of sunshine
4. The role’s only 2 months in duration

There. Maintain slow even breathing…inhale…exhale…inhale…

What could Mary do for you?

2007-06-19T19:23:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
On Saturday, we watched Mary Poppins (the West End show). It was quite the entertaining, well-produced, well-performed all-around good quality show. We highly recommend it.

Afterwards while sipping Pimms and lemonade and enjoying the brief period of sunshine, we sat and contemplated on the question “What would Mary do you for?".

In case you have never heard of Mary Poppins, or have (as I did before watching the show) only a vague recollection of Julie Andrews prancing around in the movie version, let me just provide a short synopsis. The Banks are a family in trouble. Mr Banks is the cold detached disciplinarian father of two unruly spoilt children who have scared off a series of nannies in quick succession, and also an all-business non-affectionate husband. His kids put together a “list of qualifications” of their dream nanny e.g. feeds us lot’s of sweets, which he tosses in the fireplace, and he and Mrs Banks begin their desperate search for a nanny. In a gust of wind, Mary suddenly appears (with coincidentally a copy of the kids’ list of nanny qualifications). Through a series of “lessons” a.k.a quite nifty song and dance routines, she manages to 1) convince the children of the futility in their grumpy attention-seeking ways and also begin to appreciate that there’s a whole world to explore and that things are not always as they seem; 2) convince Mrs Banks that she’s a capable strong woman; and finally 3) help Mr Banks realize that the most important thing to him is his family.

All basic life lessons really, but one could use a reminder once in a while. So a Pimms and full glass of wine later, I believe my answer to the question posed was “A swift kick up the arse”. Cast off thy woeful ways!

Some pics of the day:
Outside the theatre

Soul searching with Pimms and Lemonade

Chinatown munchies

First day back

2007-06-12T14:05:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
I just could justify it no longer (at least in my mind) – the bumming at home. And the more I stayed at home “doing random chores”, the more I seemed to fall into this brain deadening, energy zapped state. It was getting quite desperate really.

So today I got up at 5:30 along with Ed and did the morning grind. Got dressed in uncomfortable office-wear, did some Metro (free trashy London daily) reading while on train to work, coffee on the way in to keep my pulse beating. It’s my first day back in the office since rolling of my last project 2 weeks ago.

Spent the morning doing some half-hearted looking for roles (got one nibble but do I really want to be travelling to Glasgow for a month?), some other mindless tasks e.g. Workstation Safety training, plus stuff I can no longer put off i.e. someone’s performance feedback.

It’s now 13:20, I’ve just had a Pret avocado wrap (honourable mention as Ed loves these things) and am fighting the supreme urge to call it a day and head back home and buy some planters for a wee bit of gardening tonight (Ed’s suggestion).

One of the main problems of course is that’s I’m suffering from a complete and utter lack of motivation for work. Could have something to do with this year’s India stint which left me feeling burned out and not very eager to jump into another technology delivery type role. Could have something to do with nagging feeling that I don’t really have any specific skills or areas of speciality - I’ve just been doing a little bit of everything, and I have no idea what I’d like to be doing (other than anything-but-technology-delivery).

14:02. Hmm. I’ll give it another hour so. 15:00 doesn’t seem too disgraceful a time pack up and head home, no?

Thieves

2007-06-05T11:47:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
Not sure what to think about those thieving bastards who very disrespectully broke into our home, and took our stuff.

I found the following quote which I suppose could help lessen my ill-feelings towards them and reduce the urge to, if given the opportunity, clobber them over the head with a heavy object.

"Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it."
Gilbert K. Chesterton

Spring Cleaning

2007-06-05T11:00:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
I feel like I’m in a rut. Or at least on the downward swing of a roller coaster. After 4 months of intensive toiling in India for work, then 2 weeks of traipsing around Vietnam for play, I am now back in London, unstaffed and not really sure what to do with my time, feeling a little bit unconnected to reality, and a little unsure about what our “life” in London really is.

We moved to London a little over 2 years ago. Since then we haven’t actually been in London much. For a little over a year I worked up in Edinburgh. Once that was over I moved straight into a role that had me out near Manchester, and then in India for a significant chunk of time. Whenever we can we’ve also tried to travel as much as possible around Europe checking cities off our list of places to visit.

So here I am, not completely “rooted” in London, unsure about what the future holds. Should I invest the time/energy towards getting connected e.g. join a gym, join a club, work harder at meeting new people, only to be uprooted again if my next assignment flings me to another far off place?

I think for starters, some spring cleaning is in order. I can:
• Reconnect with old friends - With all the flitting about, I’ve been absolutely atrocious at staying connected with friends and family. And this is probably one of my main reasons for starting this blog.
• Tie up a whole host of odds and ends – things I really need to do but haven’t really gotten around to e.g. US taxes, visit the doctor to have a nagging cough looked into, visit the dentist etc. Also, our flat was burgled while we were in Vietnam and that’s presented a whole new variety of odd and ends e.g. insurance claims, security system installation, door replacement. Fun stuff.
• Start lists –lists of things I need to do, list of places I’d still like to visit, lists of short and long term goals, lists, lists, and more lists
• Give our flat a nice thorough cleaning incl. getting rid of accumulated clutter

Looks like a pretty chunky list. Now if only I can get my ass off the sofa.

Pic for Profile

2007-06-05T09:43:00.000+01:00

Please ignore - still trying to figure out the best way to set up the blog "extras"

We survived...

2007-06-04T06:17:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
...yesterday the 13 mile hike from Guildford to Dorking on the North Downs way. I'm sure there were more than a few moments when Ed would have liked nothing better than to poke me with a stick for having planned such an activity on a lazy warm Sunday. But there was enough beautiful secenery to make it worth while, and we did have to burn off some of the food we ate on Saturday.

The day could be divided into 4 mini challenges:
1. Find coffee. Failed miserably. Starbucks on Northcote Rd opened at 8 and our train was at 8:02. Starbucks in Guidlford opened at 10:30 (those crazy country folks!). We finally settled on what looked like the one open restaurant in Guildford which had some not very nice coffee. So Ed went the whole day without a proper coffee and beware of the Ed who has not had coffee!

2. Survive till the ham sandwich. The first "half" (I use half loosely since there were no indications along the trail of how far you'd gone or how much more you had to go) of the trail was more challenging physically with a vartiety of hills to climb and changing topography. 3-hours into the hike we found a felled log that conveniently served as a bench and tucked into the ham sandwiches I'd made that morning.

3. Survive till Denbies wine estate. The second "half" of the hike was more flat topography wise but there were a few times where we were under the canopy of the trees for what seemed like ages wondering when we would see the light of day again. The thought of sipping some sparkling wine kept us going. We finally came out into the light (woohoo!) on a hill coincidentally named Denbies Hill and new we were close. After about a mile or 2 more of navigating through poor signs (increasingly desperate for the hike to be over), we finally found the vineyard wine shop. 3 small samples each and 2 bottles tucked into the backpack later we started our journey home.

4. Dinner and train home. With feet in pain and the added weight of 2 wine bottles, we trduegd along the last mile of the hike to Dorking in search of Sunday roast. The first and only pub we found stopped serving food at 3 (it was about 18:30 by this time) so we quickly changed plans to a beer for the road before catching a train home. On the slow torturous walk (aching legs/feet) from the train station to the flat, we settled on a nice big plate of steaming spaghetti at an Italian restaurant along the way.

Below are some pics of the hike (for complete pics of our walk, please visit our website)

Helios

2007-06-02T23:04:00.000+01:00

(Aileen)
The sun gods blessed London today. It was a glorious day. Summer's here! Sun's up at 5 am these days and lingers around until around 20:30.

To kick off our first sunny London Saturday this year (NB. There may have been others but since we've been in India for most of the year we wouldn't know), we hit the tennis courts first thing in the morning, despite the Friday night hangover. Torture, but a necessary evil for the events to follow.

From tennis, we took a leisurely stroll over to Northcote Rd to pick up supplies:
-Short rack of pork ribs and 2 chicken legs from Dove (friendly neighbourhood butcher which we absolutely love!)
- 4 medium prawns at the fish monger stall (made sure to hiss at the Fat Face clothing store that now sits where the fish monger used to be)
- French salad greens and 2 medium roasting potatoes from the veg stand across the street
- Wedge of brie, half-cylinder of goats cheese, and small chunk of lincolnshire poacher at Hamish Johnston (friendly neighbourhood cheese store - a true gem of nortcote Rd)
- Rustic baguette at the bread stand

Back home to quickly pop the £25 Bandol rose (which we bought on a whim one rainy day last week to honor a day such as today) in the fridge, pack up the blankies, books, iPods etc before heading across the street to the park. Picked a nice spot and planted oursleves there, with cheese, baguette and wine until about 18:00.

Then it was back home for our first patio BBQ of the year - to negate the gains of our post-India/Vietnam diet , drink more wine, and chill until the sun went down.

Good stuff.

For, tomorrow I've somehow convinced Ed that a 7 hour walk through the North Downs Way (a national trail south of London) was a desirable thing. The "carrot" I dangled was that Denbies (an English Vineyard that produces excellent sparking wine) is along the path.