Adventures in London: Issue 132

There was a time when our crew saw each other once a week (at least). We were an inseparable crew. I am not saying that we are not anymore, we have just evolved as a group. We are all settling down in our own ways; some are newly married, some are planning their wedding, others are taking classes, and some are dating and adjusting to new roles in the workplace. We all have our special something and it feels different. It is a new feeling to have... a new routine. I am not a person for change and definitely not a person to move beyond my world of structure, I am embracing this next evolution. It is a new process, a new structure and I am smiling at what lies ahead. Where was I? Oh yeah! Powers and I went out to dinner on Wednesday. Sadly we had to booked weeks in advance, but such is life in our new planned world. We went to my favourite brunch place in the neighborhood - the Grafton House. They do a lovely weekend menu, but was not impressed by their dinner menu. Maybe if I had the burger I would say otherwise, but at least the company was nice. It was lovely catching up with Powers - been way too long since we had a one-on-one.

At work a friend and I started a new initative at work - - Whisky Galore. What is the objective? Well for us it is to learn more about whisky with the goal of trying all the distilleries. For the group, it is about sharing our love for scotch with others. It is like wine tasting, but different!! HAHA!

The theme of our first galore event was an induction for everyone into scotch; a tasting tour of Scotland. On the menu for the night...

• Islay: Laphroaig 10 yr - a peaty smokey scotch with a long finish
• Cambeltown: Springbank 10 yr - complex scotch with an citrus changing flavour and smell
• Highland: Dalmore Gran Reserva - short finish tasting of marmalade
• Speyside: Oban 14 yr - light peaty with a short finish.
• Island: Talisker Distillers edition, Jerez Amoroso sherry finish - balance scotch of smokiness with a sweet finish
• Lowland: Auchentoshan Three Wood - sweet heavenly scotch

My favourite ironically was the Auchentoshan. Normally I am a highland girl, but the sweetest of the Three Wood was simply lovely! We did not make a big night. Just a "quick" scotch tasting so we could all make our dinners that we poorly planned at 7:30.

The weekend was rather low key. I finished reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. Has anyone read this? It is an extremely interesting book. I don't know how to describe it. It is brilliantly written I will say that. The book is about these two guys at dinner. It is a conversation between the two gentlemen where you can only hear what one side is saying. They start with a brief chat which turns into dinner. It is when the sunsets that the story unfolds and gets really interesting. I had to re-read the ending a couple of times. If you come across this book I highly recommend it. At work we have been passing it forward - - it is just one of those books. I have been struggling to find the next read. Any suggestions?

It has been a lovely week. There were some hiccups and 'late' nights, but all is well that ends well. I did not add any more miles to the log nor any dishes to the menu, but every week cannot kick dupa.

Hope you all are well. Miss you dearly. Please do continue to share what is new in your neck of the woods.

xx

T

Adventures in London: Issue 131

I kicked off this week by adding two more dishes to my cooking resolution. What were they? The first dish was an egg noodle stir fry with snow peas, baby corn, spinach and water chesnuts in a miso & oyster sauce. The second dish was a chili ginger marmalade cod on a bed of crispy seaweed (I did not make the crispy seaweed, but I did make the bases for the other two dishes). Next time around I will use swordfish rather than cod as the cod broke apart into pieces and the flavours competed a bit. Fasting on Mondays has been difficult - - why did I choose Mondays?!?! So after a Monday at the office it is nice to come home to a peaceful challenge. In fact I rather look forward to my dinners on Mondays and what I will prepare as I settle in to watch Glee. It is the little things that count.

During the week I logged in a few more miles. I was a bit out of sorts during this training session, but I am glad I managed to get something in. I wish I knew my plans for the evening were going to be cancelled (the polite was of saying I was blown out) as I would have stayed longer at the gym. I am struggling to get motivated for a training routine. It is not like me not to just jump into running especially when there is an end goal. I suppose the heartache of 2010 is still going - - I don't want to trigger anything again. Really want 2011 to be an A&E free year.

Over the weekend, AJ & I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare country. I have not fully taken advantage of travelling around England. I have done day trips hear and there, but not a proper weekend. Probably not the best weekend to go on as it was ice-cold, but it was a lovely weekend in the English countryside. We took Friday off so we could take advantage of a full day of site seeing on Saturday. Before arriving at our final destination, we made a stop in Hook Norton for lunch at the nearby brewery and high tea in Stratford-Upon-Avon. On our drive to the cottage (note: I highly recommend renting a cottage rather than getting a hotel/ B&B room) we were treated with one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen. Nearly got hit by a car trying to take this photo, but I think it was well worth it.

Rather than dining out on Friday, we opted to take full advantage of the cottage and cooked in. I added two more dishes to the resolution. For a starter I made french onion soup with Gruyere cheese. I have attempted french onion soup, but it was more like salty onion soup. This dish marked the first time on this resolution I used a recipe. I realise the trick to french onion soup... caramelising the onions and white wine. Simples! It has been nearly 4 months since giving up eating beef. I did not realise when I made that commitment how much I would actually miss it. All I wanted Friday night was good ole fashion meat loaf. Instead I had to settle for lamb meatloaf. Not quite the same without beef, but it got me thinking of a recipe that I will try next time. Stay tuned for meaty loaf concoctions ;-) After a long drive (which I did none of) and a day of eating it was nice to relax by the fire with more food and Jack Bauer. No Jack was not there physically, but season 8 is finally on DVD. I started watching the final season, but after 6 episodes I got bored...I feel bad so I am keen to watch the finale season of 24 from start to finish.

This was not a weekend to be outdoors roaming the streets or in un-heated Shakespeare houses. That said, it made Stratford-Upon-Avon memorable. We bought the 4 site tour pass allowing us entry to Shakespeare's b, Nash's house, Hall's croft and Anne Hathaway's cottage. The houses were interesting, but as no photography was allowed, I am sure you can guess how long these sites kept my attention. (if you were wonder that is Shakespeare birthplace above). This house was by far the most interesting of the houses we saw on Saturday.

I am rather taken back by the architecture here in S-U-A. It is touristy granted, but there is something genuine about the town. Granted it is my first town outside of London so I don't have a reference point, but it did not feel like Disney land. We met a couple during high tea that lived in Stratford-Upon-Avon. It made me wonder what it would be like to call a quaint countryside town home. I wonder what would happen if Niskayuna all of a sudden became a tourist destination. Hey you never know. If Obama can make a visit, it could just become the Electric-City that they called it.

Saturday evening we took a cab into town for the most bizarre meal. Before going to Marlowe's we went to the oldest pub in S-U-A, the Garrick Inn. Set in a Tudor style building, I was keen to pop in for an adult beverage and I am glad that I did. I cannot get over the pubs in this country. Each one are very much the same and different in their own standard. This was a rather strange mix and clearly the place to go before dinner. Marlowe's was a bit of a let down. Set back off the main street and on the first floor of yup a Tudor style building the restaurant did everything to be a high-class restaurant, but with a small town flare. The food was lovely, but the whole atmosphere in the restaurant was just odd. There is no describing it...

On Sunday we left our cottage (SHEEEEEP), and made our way to Anne Hathaway's (SHEEEEEEP) cottage, but not before making various stops to take photos of English SHEEP! I don't know why I found the sheep so fascinating, but I did. After my annoying request to stop the car, we finally made it to Anne Hathaway's cottage. We did not make it a long visit as it was utterly cold and I was utterly hungry. I think the cottage would have been much more beautiful in the spring/summer time as much of the bliss of the place is the gardens. In the cold grey skies the joys of the cottages are lost. So although the opportunity to photography things is ideal, feeding my tummy comes first.

It was a lovely week of cooking, running, photography and exploring England a bit more. What made the week was the fact that I got to play with my new lens - - yes plural! Xavier has some new toys; in particular a 50mm 1.8D AF lens and macro lens with a +1, +2, +4 and +10 zoom. They are absolutely brilliant and I had a lovely weekend with them. May have annoyed my travelling partner with them, but such is life when travelling with me ;-)

Hope you are all well

xx

T

Adventures in London: Issue 130

Season 2 of glee has started in the UK - FINALLY!! Despite having watched the first 3 episodes of the season when I was in the US in Oct I could not wait to see it 'live' on TV; so much better than watching it on a laptop screen over internet connection. I was not too entirely impressed by the few episodes that I watched, but nonetheless I was pumped. It doesn't take much to get me excited for a cheesy tini bopper TV show - I know! I am really hoping that this season picks up. I am getting a bit fed up with Rachel and Finn. I hope this season is not entirely about them, but that they branch out and develop the other characters a bit - - not that Rachel and Finn are developed at all, but you get what I mean. Would like the focus to be on someone else for a change.

This week was the first full week of the year. I am settling into my new role at work; learning a whole lot everyday. I am like a sponge for all things digital!! Don't quite know what they all mean nor what they all do, but I am trying to make sense of it all. Fingers crossed I manage to do so ;-) It is rather interesting when you start reading about the applications and widgets out there. I cannot quite understand why they all exist, but they do. Can some explain to me the point of Four-Square? Why does your 'social network' need to know where you are? Do I really need to know if someone has unlocked a barrister badge? Is that really sharing and communicating? By being apart of a social network does that make one more or less social? Good thing that question is not part of my job description...I just need to know how to measure it - PHEW!

It is a mystery on how it is that there are bar in London that despite being there at 5:40pm they are packed! On Thursday I had the desire to go to Gordon's for some wine and cheese. Sadly there were no tables when I showed up. What time do you need to show up to get a seat there? And don't people work? Since we could not find a place to stand, we went to my new favourite Champagne Charlies. I truly heart this place. Brian, the manager there, knows me and what my drink of choice there is. He even commented on my new hair do. What more could you ask for from a bar - - good beer, great cheese, and a friendly staff that remembers you.

It was a pretty chilled weekend. I spent it catching up on my personal projects. One of which is to put together a photography portfolio. I have been talking about it for a few years now and finally decided to start one. First step was creating the short list. I narrowed 10K+ photos from the last year and created 7 sub-categories: Flowers, Food, Landscape, People, Places and Things. I still have a bunch of sorting to do as each still contain over 100 photos, but I am getting there. What I am planning on doing with it? Who knows. I have not thought that far ahead. Any suggestions?

I don't know if I mentioned or if I should, but I signed up for the Berlin Marathon. I am scared to say the least, but my only goal is to start and finish this race. Today I went for my first training session. The fact that 2 Aug was the last time I ran was rather clear. It is nothing to write home about, but I managed to make it through 45 minutes constant clocking in 7.24km. It is going to be a patient road until 42km, but I will get there. Fingers crossed ;-) The best part of the run was taking a nice warm bath and reading a bit before cooking dinner. For dish #2 of my '53 dishes' resolution I made chicken & pasta in a port wine cream sauce with corn and asparagus. I put a wee bit too much black pepper as I was concentrating more on the conversation with Mom than cooking, but overall it was tasty.

xx

T

Adventures in London: Issue 129

The new year can certainly commenced. I am oddly looking forward to the year ahead. Normally not a fan of odd numbers, but I am going to embrace the year ahead. Maybe it is because 2011 is a prime year I don't seem to mind. Either that or I am becoming a bit more relaxed about my 'particularities' - - imagine that?!

One of my NY resolutions was to cook 53 new dishes. My first dish was chili chicken and chickpea soup. It was not the most extravagant dish, but for a 'what do I have in fridge/ cupboards that I can cook' game I was rather pleased with the outcome. The soup had a bit of a kick to it, but that did not stop me from a second serving. Wonder what else I will come up with this year.

On my brother's 36th birthday I returned to work. I have a good outlook for this year. The passion and zeal that I had for my work seems to have returned. More importantly the belief and faith for those that I work for and with has been restored. You take it for granted when you have it, but not dreading walking into the office and not being filled with a sense of uncertain fear is such a relief. I am sure there will be days when I will be stressed until my eyeballs, but my wish is that I never feel afraid to go into work cause I don't know what 'kind of day it will be'. It is a new year, new role, new computer, new desk, but some traditions have not gone away. There are certain routines like Thursday Sweet Chili Chicken salad at Tossed carries on in 2011. It is comforting to work along side other creatures of habit :-)

I have been given a second chance on a number of 'relationships' and situations this year. Rarely are we blessed with a chance let alone two of them. I am going to do everything in my abilities NOT to mess up these second chances have been given. Wish me luck that with the time apart we have learned, we have grow and we will adapt with one another moving forward.

On Friday, I went up to Noble Pub near Finsbury Park area. I have lived in London for 2 1/2 years and have not been able to find a pub where they remember me. On my second visit to the Noble I was greeted with smiles and recognition from the last time I was there in December. I had forgotten how nice it is to have that feeling again. I miss The Wharf and other NYC bars and pubs where they made you feel like you were visiting a friend's place than going out for the night. It is a hike to get to, but Noble is just the perfect wine/beer establishment with a mouth-watering menu. This time around I tried their Hoegaarden Chili Coriander Mussels as my main - - DELICIOUS!!! Sounds like it wouldn't work, but the flavours definitely did.

Saturday was spent relaxing in every definition of the word. I should have gone for a run as I have yet to go for one in 2011, but all I wanted to do was relax. I am having a harder than normal time getting over the jetlag this time, so I allowed myself to just relax. As a side note, I should mention I signed up for the Berlin Marathon. My friend texted me saying she was running it so I thought I would give it ago. My 'brother' at work signed up as well, so once I map out a training schedule I am certain family running Sundays will return to the agenda. That will be good fun!! I have no hopes for Berlin except to start and finish. That is it. Really! After the last few marathon and race hiccups that is all I can ask for. All I need to do is start training. That seems to be the most difficult part as I am scared to start running again. I just need to shake off everything that happened in 2010 and get on with it! New beginnings!

Last year we saw four of our friends in 'our American crew' get married. We were delighted with 2 Hen Do (aka Bachlorette parties) taking us to Barcelona and Munich. After all that excited the question remained...what would we do in 2011?

Thankfully that panic has been resolved. We all returned to London to the delightful news that Si & Bren got engaged. If you know these two you know just how happy we all were at this news! We all got together at Si & Bren's place on Saturday for an engagement/ NY party. It was a sincere pleasure to have the full crew together to celebrate this momentous occasion. We spent the evening drinking old fashions, champagne, wine and eating the many starters that Si cooked up. The highlights were blue cheese jalapeno poppers --hmmmmm!!

To round out a lovely weekend I went for roast on Sunday. When I first moved here I was not sold on the concept of roast instead of brunch. We all know how much I love my NYC brunch, but when in Rome. I think the mistake that I made was thinking that you can order roast at any pub. The key just like anything else is going to the proper pub; if you do then roast is rather enjoyable, especially the Yorkshire pudding.

I am determined to go to the Garrison on Bermondsey Street. I have tried to go there twice since November, each time arriving around 4pm when the kitchen closed for lunch and each time reverting to the Wolf Pack for roast. Don't understand the trend to close the kitchen between 4 and 6, but it is a way of life here. Just need to accept it and plan ahead next time :-)

It has been a nice return back to life, work, and kick off to 2011. The fact that it was a 3 day work-week is just icing on the cake :-)

I hope you all have had a lovely start to the year! Wishing you all the best!!

xx

T

Adventures in London: Issue 128

Monday morning we woke up to NYC being transformed into a complete winter wonderland. It was a rather beautiful site. Not quite a white Christmas, but close enough. It is eery seeing the streets of NYC empty and by empty not even 14" of snow could stop tourists and shoppers from hitting the pavement. If I had my winterboots I am certain I would have joined them, but being ill-prepared for that much snow I stayed indoors. Kadin however was well prepared and could not wait to play in the clean snow. Together with Mom & Dad he grabbed his pale and shovel and went outdoors before the clean white snow turned into muddy yucka snow. In NYC that window is not very big, so time was of essence.

As much as NYC is prepared for snow, even 12" can bring any city to its knees. Buses and trains were suspended and the subway was on severe delays. Sadly this meant that my NYC itinerary was going to be changing. Not really one for change there was nothing that I could do except roll with the punches as they say. Rather than staying in snow capped NYC, we headed to LI to spend the day with Jamila's family. Not really the day I had in mind, but turned out to be a day of playing with kid's 'holiday' presents, meeting the new additions to the klan, and learning to play catch-phrase. I don't really like those games, but it is a brilliant game. If you have not played, I highly suggest it. One word of advice when visiting Jamila's Moms, don't go there when you are fasting. Mrs Ahmed is the hostess with the mostess and filled the house with treats and bites. It was a true test of my dedication to my Monday fast.

Tuesday I did something that I had been looking forward to for months now! It took me 3 years to grow my hair and for the third time I donated my hair to Locks of Love. It is a worthy cause and I figure since I do not perm, dye or put product in my hair I might as well do something productive and with it. It definitely feels strange to go from extra-long hair immediately to a short hair-do. As soon as the scissors start cutting through the ponytail you question whether you really want to go through with it. Not that you can turn around, but that thought does flash through your mind. I walk into these donations with the desire to go ubber short, but chicken out every time. As much as I would love to be daring I just cannot. Maybe next time, I end up going an inch short each time I do this...so maybe fourth time is the charm.

Fresh from the hair salon and with my newly styled do, I headed to lunch with B Mak. Being able to catch up with B Mak was a true delight as we have not had a face-to-face date since Nov 08 when he came to London for a visit. Completely reading my mind (as that is what good husbands do), we met at Mandoo in K-town for some Bimimbap. When I made the decision to give up beef, I did not realise just how many dishes I enjoyed eating included it. If it were easy it would not be a sacrifice though. Thankfully Mandoo agreed to make a chicken version just for me which was yummy in my tummy. Someone once told me that the definition of true friendship is one in which you can pick up with people right were you left off. This is true of B-Mak and I. We don't get to talk much given the time difference between CO and London, but with our blogs we are able to keep up to speed with each other. See blogs are good for something. B, it was a sincere pleasure to see you. Best wishes and good luck in your new role :-)

This trip I have been delighted to catch up with some dear friends. It may have been a shortened trip, but for those that are close to your heart no distance is too far to travel. I was gutted that I was not going to be able to travel upstate to Nisky as it meant that I would not have a chance to see Mike, Jackie since she got married and little baby Sydney since she was born. Just because I could not travel upstate did not mean that kept friends from travelling downstate. After track practice, Mike drove to the city for a mini-visit. After meeting Kadin, we headed to Dock's for a delicious seafood meal of mussels, New England clam chowder and crab legged with melted butter.

Words cannot describe how lovely it was to catch up face-to-face with Mike. We share an interesting 'relationship' and he will always remain a dear friend of mine. They say that you cannot be friends with an Ex, but we have always been an exceptions to conventional rules. Ask how we met and it rather humourous. We met at a high school dance. When I was in grad-school I volunteered as the assistant coach of the girls cross country team. One of my duties was to chaperone the courtyard dance. Scary thing was I first thought Mike was a student and vice versa. Thankfully we cleared the air, he was a teach and I was a coach. The rest as they say is our history. I have always believed that you people come and go from your lives for a reason. I am happy that I met Mike and to have such a dear friend in my life.

Thursday I met up with K&J for lunch at a Spanish tapas restaurant called La Fonda del Sol. We shared a lovely meal of various tapas and conversation. Life is not always about catching up, some times it is about living. That is just what we did. We lived in the moment and discussed cheeses, visits to London, port vs ruby and our holidays. Recently I have noticed the little random facts that I have clue why I know them except that I just do. Around K&J, this character flaw is not pointed out, but blended into the way our conversations go. Between the three of us we know A LOT of random facts. It is rather comical if you try to follow our conversations as the topics range rather dramatically. Living in NYC you rarely have a chance to play tourist. After our meal, Granny joined us and we all decided to play tourist by going to visit the Rockefeller tree. It is a mad house that place regardless of time of day you go there. Honestly where do all the people come from?

Not ready to call it an afternoon we went to Cambell Apartment for some cocktails from another era. Contrary to its name, the bar was once the 3500 sq-ft office space to American financier John Cambell in the mid-1920s. Finding this bar is like discovering the door to a secret society. Dim lighting, leather sofas and a classic cocktail list this bar was right up my alley. There was only one drink that could be order to embody the spirit of the bar; an old fashion. We continued our chats and story-swapping over old fashions, cheese boards and charcuterie platters. It was an afternoon/ evening that I honestly did not want to conclude. If there was ever a time that you wanted to take the pin out of your watch this was certainly one of them.

To celebrate the closing of 2010 and to ring in 2011, the Ahmed-Gupta-Sevak families had a bit of a wedding reunion at the Harrison House (not the Glen Cove Mansion). It was slightly odd being back where the three families united over eight years ago (my brother's wedding for those who could not figure out what I was referring to). We arrived in the early afternoon which allowed us all some downtime. How exactly did I spend the last hours of 2010. Well I learned how to play racket ball, went for a 2,010 second run logging in 3.77 miles, and enjoyed some time with the family. The last time I rang in the new year with my full family it was in India in 2005. We rarely have opportunities to celebrate NYE together so when asked I thought it would be a good way to commence the year.

I am pleased that 2010 has come to a close. It has been a rough and testing year, but one from which I have learned a great deal from. What was the highs of 2010? Not many, but they would have to be the new role that I got at work, my Asia trip, and turning 30 as I believe it is going to be a wicked decade. The highlights of the lows well they occurred in April & July. If you were around you know what I am talking about. Apologies if you do not. I don't like harping on the not-so-good moments. They are not meant to be forgotten. Rather they are to be forgiven, accepted and learnt for. I am looking forward to 2011 and the prime year that it is going to be (see what I did there).

It has been a lovely stay in NYC visiting with family and catching up with dear friends. It is always difficult leaving (especially parting ways with Kadin), but it is good to be back home in London.

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

Edith Lovejoy Pierce

I hope you all had a lovely start to the New Year. Best wishes and prosperity for the year ahead.

xx

T