last day

after a quick pack and a quick coffee i met rhea for brunch and then it was on to the market to shop for a feast. (rhea matched the rainbow chard beautifully).

the produce we came home with quickly turned into a still life.

a snack, a cider and a nap and we started cooking.

jackie and rhea.

megan, ky and sean.

that blonde, be-hatted blur is ranya and her friend lord gavin.

megan, so fantastic.

and this, this is miller's. i spent a good amount of time here (almost every night i think).

we (ky, megan, rhea and i) stayed til the bitter end. then it was home to organize the remainder of my stuff, into a cab and onto jfk (where i promptly sobered up). and that's it.

christmas!!

glorious redgate beach, where everyone had the same thought as us.

maman et papa.

it's like the biggest joke. places like this aren't meant to exist in reality.

pretty accurate, huh. prawns cooked with tomato, olive and pernod (entree).

and then a selection of salads from ottolenghi cookbook (mum and dad had turkey too). i might just add that it was only the three of us, we were eating leftovers forever.

pud! cooked by my aunt before she went off to cambodia (?) and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

remember, remember

it was guy fawkes night on thursday (though it's called bonfire night now...) but we celebrated it last night in victoria park with the rest of the borough.

three sophies, a fox, an ant and a brooke

summer dinner party to celebrate two of the sophies (nelson's birthday, fletcher's departure).

london and new york.

brooke.

and our delightful hostess/chef (squid ink pasta with cuttlefish - amazing).

so long soph #2

LUAU! (rained out...)

up on soph's roof. i got caught in the monsoon on my way over so i was soaked and chilly.

lone coconut.

new home

hanging on the stoop on sunday evening. some of them i live with, some live next door and some are just there for the festivity. (nice portico huh?)

birthday

dribs and drabs of my day...

waiting for mum outside liberty...

... i just had my haircut.

chillin in london fields. this was much later. in the meantime mum and i had been to the ship, had lunch at princi, visited soph up in marylebone and wandered around up there. by the time i got back home i was exhausted but the day was beautiful i couldn't resist eating some strawberries in the fields (beatles reference unintended).

after a brief drink at off broadway, mum, ellie, soph and i had a marvelous dinner at bistroteque. then we put mum in a cab and went back to off broadway. but it was wednesday and really quiet so it didn't last long.

a replacement shamie followed us home and hung out on my stoop with me for a while. i even have scratches on my wrist from where he attacked. awesome.

easter sunday

a marvelous spread.

ellie : mildly surprised at london history and the huge egg in front of her.

easter

planning for easter brunch (i think ellie's been at it since boxing day). found a miracle cake (gluten-free and vegan and tasty-looking) in the guardian on saturday, care of hugh fearnley-whittingstall. i'll also make a fruit taboulleh with quinoa from my rose bakery book. starting to feel like i should be in yallingup but hopefully this will be equally good!

snow day(s)

monday, out my window (i didn't end up going swimming, i found out today that the pool was closed anyway).

that's a lot of snow.

my new white patent leather converse, yet to be worn, though i thought kind of fitting (and the only semi-practical snow bound shoes i have.)

this was about 9am and hoxton square was already full of snow-fighters.

less pretty on hackney road on my way to work. (called in early because one girl didn't turn up. it was mental. nobody went to work so everybody came into the cafe. we were not prepared, nor were we impressed by everyone having such marvelous old-timey fun in london fields. many hot chocolates to be had.)

this is soph's house. i went and stayed the night because nights like this really should be shared.

and in the morning, on my way to work again.

a very rugged-up sophie. we had a mini-frolic in the park. the snow was so deep and fluffy it was great!

frozen canal.

the ducks, like the rest of london, were at a loss as to what to do.

these are quite amusing, the one with tea-bags for eyes especially. 

beat this

i partied with captain cook's descendent on australia day, what did you do? i also forgot to take my camera so words will have to suffice. i met a girl called brooke through bones and she's one of those people i should have known in perth but through the forces of the universe never did. weird. anyway she and her many house mates (most of them aussies) threw an australia day barbeque with potato salad, minties, fantales, pizza shapes and all. much fun and many midnight oil, crowded house, hoodoo gurus songs were played. and it turns out that brooke's boyfriend, anthony (very english) is descended from captain cook himself. so really, we were celebrating anthony.

a very long day indeed

it's still christmas on broadway market (though everything is half-price).

ellie, kat and i wandered down to wapping and found a contained pile of porcelain.

not entirely sure what it was, but ellie salvaged a dove and a geisha from the rubble. the strangest thing is that it was battery-operated.

the town of ramsgate. a pub, not a town. it was still christmas here too. i had winter pimms (pimms, apple juice and hot water) and bangers and mash. it was sweet, though i never need to eat again, nor do i want pub food very often at all.

wapping is full of opportunities to smuggle outlaws out of the city via boat (a la great expectations).

this church was rebuilt after the fire by wren, survived the blitz and various other things that i can't recall. pretty impressive though. now there's a back pain clinic and a pretty garden.

we ended up back on brick lane at story deli.

new friends.

that turned out to be a fun game.

sophie, victorious.