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
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