dandelion blow
this morning i awoke free. the sluggish whirlpool of confusing emotions and thoughts that has enveloped me for the last few months had fallen away. i was calm and well-slept, peacefully planning my next career move. yes, not nitpicking at any element of my social life. i seem to have gnawed it to the bone, chewed it to rubber. overnight, my brain had discarded love-and-loneliness-lornity. oh, it will return, to be sure! soon enough.. but it was very refreshing to make a list of party invitees on the basis of who would be a useful ally on the corporate ladder.
then i packed my day picnic knapsack and trotted off to catch number 74 to see anne. stokey was lovely; they make the best mushrooms there. the slightly higher price of the standard full english breakfast at our greasy spoon cafe on stoke newington church street is well worth it, for the yummy-mushroom quality alone. fulham is awesome, my sunday greasy spoon here is charming - but they haven't figured out how to cook mushrooms without deep frying them yet. sad. oh! on friday i had the best bacon of my life. at the regency cafe, which is close to work.. a bunch of us went along to sample the quintessential working class english experience, and it was a perfect day, with blue skies and fluffy clouds and wintry sunlight.
on a different note, anne seems to bring me luck. or her grandmother's bracelet does, which i wore this morning, while hanging out with her. a random dip into woolworths on stokey high street found me the very tupperware i've been researching for 2 weeks, microwaveable and all. i also found a new kind of knife sharpener. i would trust the usual friction rod thing usually, but this thing has a mini grinding wheel and is worth a try i think. then she took me to her place and gave me 3 cool art prints for our as yet minimally decorated flat. one is a van gogh! - wheatfield with cypresses i think.. will have to check.
today i seem to have taken several of my favourite walks. after breakfast, we did abney park cemetery. i haven't been in there for a while, and it was a shortish stroll through the very pleasantly chaotic necropolis. we then meandered through the quiet residential lanes between church street and newington green to reach our favourite french pattisserie / boulangerie on the green where she was meeting her next date. i took a bus down to bank.. and then walked. through the City streets, fresh from the Lord Mayor's Parade - banners were still up on archways and gilded chairs sat on makeshift balconies over threadneedle street. i popped into the square by guildhall to see how it looks on sunday. then to old Paternoster to wave a quick hi to St Paul's. Which, by the way looks very naked seen from the east, by Bow Church, because 1 Cheapside is now a flattened construction site. i urban toursited about a bit, taking various photos on my phone from various angles. but soon i was back to being on the other side of the tourist-londoner divide, as i chuckled derisively at the droves posing before St Paul's cathedral. Down fleet street to Blackfriar's bridge to catch the westerly view from the high ground before the Embankment starts. It did not disappoint. the light was just right and the clouds scudded just so. i chatted with the silvery lapping river ripples for a bit before making my way further west, with a vague idea of getting to victoria via whitehall somehow. at the point where northumberland ave meets the embankment, i suddenly remembered that i'd planned to buy the Hallam Foe soundtrack. so to piccadilly to do so. i actually Browsed in 2 different music stores today.. a first. i never buy music, and i never buy first hand things (except clothes and bedsheet type things). but Hallam Foe deserved it. after the purchase, i still had 3 hours or so to kill before my dinner plans kicked in. victoria seemed nearest through Green Park, although i wasn't sure if it's open after dark in winter. it is, albeit a bit spooky. now my fingers are as tired as my feet, so suffice it to say, i walked from bank to victoria, and then sat down at my office desk in my almost empty office (there's actually one crazy woman here working on sunday evening!) to type a blog post while listening to my precious purchase. and it is indeed precious.. mmmmm.
there's still lamb korma pulao and diwali type halwa to look forward to after this. Sarma and Maow are cooking..... 'Somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must've done something Good...'
then i packed my day picnic knapsack and trotted off to catch number 74 to see anne. stokey was lovely; they make the best mushrooms there. the slightly higher price of the standard full english breakfast at our greasy spoon cafe on stoke newington church street is well worth it, for the yummy-mushroom quality alone. fulham is awesome, my sunday greasy spoon here is charming - but they haven't figured out how to cook mushrooms without deep frying them yet. sad. oh! on friday i had the best bacon of my life. at the regency cafe, which is close to work.. a bunch of us went along to sample the quintessential working class english experience, and it was a perfect day, with blue skies and fluffy clouds and wintry sunlight.
on a different note, anne seems to bring me luck. or her grandmother's bracelet does, which i wore this morning, while hanging out with her. a random dip into woolworths on stokey high street found me the very tupperware i've been researching for 2 weeks, microwaveable and all. i also found a new kind of knife sharpener. i would trust the usual friction rod thing usually, but this thing has a mini grinding wheel and is worth a try i think. then she took me to her place and gave me 3 cool art prints for our as yet minimally decorated flat. one is a van gogh! - wheatfield with cypresses i think.. will have to check.
today i seem to have taken several of my favourite walks. after breakfast, we did abney park cemetery. i haven't been in there for a while, and it was a shortish stroll through the very pleasantly chaotic necropolis. we then meandered through the quiet residential lanes between church street and newington green to reach our favourite french pattisserie / boulangerie on the green where she was meeting her next date. i took a bus down to bank.. and then walked. through the City streets, fresh from the Lord Mayor's Parade - banners were still up on archways and gilded chairs sat on makeshift balconies over threadneedle street. i popped into the square by guildhall to see how it looks on sunday. then to old Paternoster to wave a quick hi to St Paul's. Which, by the way looks very naked seen from the east, by Bow Church, because 1 Cheapside is now a flattened construction site. i urban toursited about a bit, taking various photos on my phone from various angles. but soon i was back to being on the other side of the tourist-londoner divide, as i chuckled derisively at the droves posing before St Paul's cathedral. Down fleet street to Blackfriar's bridge to catch the westerly view from the high ground before the Embankment starts. It did not disappoint. the light was just right and the clouds scudded just so. i chatted with the silvery lapping river ripples for a bit before making my way further west, with a vague idea of getting to victoria via whitehall somehow. at the point where northumberland ave meets the embankment, i suddenly remembered that i'd planned to buy the Hallam Foe soundtrack. so to piccadilly to do so. i actually Browsed in 2 different music stores today.. a first. i never buy music, and i never buy first hand things (except clothes and bedsheet type things). but Hallam Foe deserved it. after the purchase, i still had 3 hours or so to kill before my dinner plans kicked in. victoria seemed nearest through Green Park, although i wasn't sure if it's open after dark in winter. it is, albeit a bit spooky. now my fingers are as tired as my feet, so suffice it to say, i walked from bank to victoria, and then sat down at my office desk in my almost empty office (there's actually one crazy woman here working on sunday evening!) to type a blog post while listening to my precious purchase. and it is indeed precious.. mmmmm.
there's still lamb korma pulao and diwali type halwa to look forward to after this. Sarma and Maow are cooking..... 'Somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must've done something Good...'
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