Love

Lovely Janey-Mae gave me this perfect earring and kept the other for herself. Now we're bound by love. Check her fab new website:
here

Late November = Nearly Christmas

On Monday I saw the - prematurely erected but lovely - (Disney-funded) lights on Regents Street. I began to feel a little Christmassy... then today I got home and switched on my lamp and it suddenly felt all cosy and festive in my room. I suppose Advent Calendars begin in a week or so. Is it a little early to be thinking these thoughts? I say - make the festive season last as long as poss - it's all mince pies, mulled wine and alfresco disasters on those wonderfully romantic temporary ice-rinks that pop up all over London each year. I heart winters in London.

Odd Diets

A gross character, Roger, from my (brilliant) book - more to follow when I finish - lives on a diet of crisps. And no water.

When discussing this with a classmate yesterday, he told me that when he was at uni he ran out of money and lived on Ovaltine dust. I was assuming he meant that for one day he only drank Ovaltine - but no, he lived off Ovaltine for THREE WEEKS! He continued to suffer malnourishment until he nearly fainted on his way to work at the bookies one day and a kind lady gave him a chocolate bar. I'm not sure what happened next as we had to go and watch a documentary about corruption within the police force. My stomach rumbled throughout the documentary at the thought of living on Ovaltine for three weeks. Gosh. That must have long-term implications.

Tip of the day: Never waste so much of your student loan on booze that you are forced to live off Ovaltine whilst you await your next installment.

Wish List

In the blog below entitled 'Secret Cinema' I shared my dreams for a popcorn machine. Every day this week I've driven past a shop on Hackney Road (290-298) and drooled over the popcorn machine in their window. I will add this to my wish list and try to 'secret' it into my life. But if anyone would like to just give it to me for Christmas - that would be absolutely fine too.

The Domestic Feminist

I've suddenly become all domesticated. It began when I decided to bake a chocolate and pear cake for Lauren's birthday (happy birthday Lauren) - the remains of which are photographed below. It recieved some good reviews...



Anyone who knows me well will vouch that I'm not exactly a dab-hand in the kitchen. Whilst I’ve always enjoyed baking the odd carrot or coffee cake – my skills somehow have never really progressed much further than a little sweet baking. I love preparing salads (and they’re often well received) but it’s not really cooking, is it?

Then something clicked and I think I may just be turning into a domestic goddess.




A gourmet roast for 20 may require a little more practise but I'm well on my way to becoming quite the kitchen connoisseur - bashing out gourmet soups left right and centre. See below for today’s rich tomato soup with pesto and Crème fraîche. The sundried toms add a little extra ‘je ne sais quoi’ and it’s full of antioxidants. So, whilst you may be laughing inwardly that I’m boasting about whipping up a tomato soup – It’s me who’ll be laughing when I’m running up Mount Everest aged 99 and in great health. It’ll be down to my healthy tomato soup and my continued culinary experiments...



And the ‘feminist’ aspect is to assure you that I won’t be giving up the day job and aspiring to be domestic housewife. I’ll simply be joining all those multi-tasking careering, cooking, cleaning etc women already out there.

A Room of One's Own

Virginia Woolf in her essay 'A Room of One's Own' - discussing women and fiction - surmises that:

'A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction'

I would like my room to be at the end of the garden. I'm imagining that I might be writing my first novel in the country-side - perhaps I'll have a cottage on top of a pretty cliff with a quaint English Country Garden and roses galore. And at the end of the garden there will be a room looking out to sea. It will be painted white and there will be a big solid oak desk stretching the width of the room which will be high enough to cross my legs under.

I'll probably drink homemade lemonade in the summer and hot toddies in the winter. And I'll take my lovely antique rocking chair out onto the lawn and cradle my mug in my hands with a patchwork quilt draped over my lap. I expect I'll make some rather hearty vats of beany soup.

Ideally, I'd like to have a piano in the garden (a grand piano) but unfortunately they don't seem to bode well with the blustery winds that I am imagining might sweep through my garden in Autumn. I found a piano in someone's front garden once - a sorry state, it was cold and damp. I took it to Brighton with me. But unfortunately it never recovered from being left outside.

I'm full of romantic daydreams today...

But I'm digressing from Woolf's essay which I have just re-read and had forgotten how great she was. Read it. Girl Power.

(jackie6869 uploaded the above image. Thanks Jackie - your cottage looks lovely.)

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

I love buses.



(http://www.hydeparktowers.co.uk/see-london.html)