On Wednesday we participated in our first Seder marking the beginning of Passover. Nat had cooked a full seder dinner for all of us while we relived and retold the story of Exodus from an abridged Haggadah. For those that are unaware, Passover celebrates the journey of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. We all took turns reading the story...I read the "4 questions" which apparently the youngest member of the team is traditionally supposed to read. While we read we ate plenty of maztoh, horseradish, wine, gefilte fish, liverwurst, brisket, chicken, potatoes, and stuffing (not to worry the stuffing did not include any leaven bread).
Passover dinner made me realize how lucky we are to have our group here. We get some slack from people (in and out of Mindshare) about the fact that we do everything (well almost everything) together. The truth is we are all just making the most of the time that we have here. We are all aware that we have left our family and friends to pursue a life over here. That doesn't diminish the fact that on holidays, birthday and special occasions when your family cannot be there, we all make sure that we are there for each other.
On Friday, we all went to Pat's house for a taste of his traditional family Good Friday feast! For 40+ years his family has been gathering on Good Friday for beer, wine and TONS of food. If Pat's dinner was the cliff notes version I cannot even dream what the dinner back in Brooklyn was like. Pat indulged us with fresh tomato and mozzarella salad, homemade ricotta calzone, eggplant parm, pizza, pasta with calamari sauce, and....I know I am forgetting something. We had such a great night of laughing, playing games (do remind me -- will have to show you this game the next time I am around. It is good fun), catching up, dancing and eating cookies until the early hours of the morning.
On Sunday, I ran over to the London Peace Pagoda in Battersea park. It is nothing compared to Grafton, but there is a sense of peace that you get there. I did not get to relish in the serenity of the view, but did take a few minutes to take some photos, pay my respect and say a little prayer.
I did not intend on running over there. My initial plan was just to run around the neighborhood, but my feet just took me there. I guess that is what I get for thinking about my mom while running...It was my way of being with my family on Easter.
It helped to Skype later so I could catch up with the full family while I made sheera (I am becoming such a homely girl - haha). As good as it was to see the full family, it hurt that they were behind the laptop screen. To say that I cannot wait the 2 months until they are here in London is an understatement. It has been 8 years since my big brother came for an overnight visit...and now I get not only him, but his whole family for 2 full weeks.
After a nice catch up with the family, it was off to another massive gathering of food to celebrate Easter. Si prepared a heavenly feast for us all: salmon smoked on a cedar plank, lamb that had been marinated for two days, potatoes, haring dip, beet salad, "saag", cucumber and dill salad....you know I am going to stop. There are good 6 more dishes, but the thought of them is making me REALLY hungry (even after the 2 black n blue burger that I "grilled" for dinner).
It has been a lovely week of eating, running and spending time with friends (new & old). A special congrats to my dear Terriers on capturing the NCAA men's hockey championship!! Was not how I expected to follow along, but I did follow your journey online!
I am happy now that it is baseball season I will be able to watch some of the games on TV or at the local pub (granted there may be no sound, but there wasn't any when I watched in NYC)!! The online games are not bad either, but the timing is going to be brutal :-)
I hope you all had a lovely Easter break with your families!!
Miss you dearly
xx
T
2 comments:
Your Easter sounds terrific, and those photos look like they could go in a magazine!
Regarding your question: I think is better to forgive. And great pics!
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