Freesias and First Love

The bittersweet green smell of freesias reminds me of when we were young and starry eyed, and although we had no money and hardly a stick of furniture between us, I'd still sometimes get a bunch of freesias, or lilies or red tulips.

Wedding 15!

Happy 15th Wedding anniversary to Mr G and me! Oops we forgot till now - 5 minutes to midnight of tomorrow. What happens to old married couples?? Life, I guess. Still we ate dinner together, at least! Mr G's greek lamb casserole with tomatoes, cumin and fresh coriander. Blinis with sour cream and roe, sprinkled with chives from my garden. Hummus and pita and cracked chilli olives, a nice salad. Very companionable.

Take it easy

Mr G came home with new mugs for both of us. Mugs have favoured status in the english household as the ceremonial vessels for the traditional cuppa.

Cuppa means comfort, cuppa means love ya, cuppa means sorry, cuppa means friendship. I'm sure all those things and more. And Mr G being the proper englishman he is, wields the cuppa in all its full meaningful glory.

Mr G chose for me a serene and feminine mug called Momiji Peaches. When you finish drinking your nice cuppa tea, there's a little message revealed through the milk and sugar (just one, please).

It says, "take it easy! life is peaches."

How sweet is that? Maybe I can actually be a sweet and feminine wifey...hmm...no, actually it won't work. Too bad. Don't get me wrong, Mr G did not choose wrongly because he does know my exact taste for beautiful Japanese design, and this is just right. Little did he know, that in the underbed drawer full of presents for little girls, there are already two momiji dolls which I couldn't resist buying for my two. You can see the kind of thing I mean at this shop. What kind of momiji would you like? Or which momiji would you get me? *wink*

Going to Glencot

Glencot House Hotel

We went to a party for the launch of a new hotel. Everyone had to dress with "decadence". I usually wear a cheongsam to such things, but mr G was disappointed not to have a red velvet smoking jacket and a cravat. He almost refused to go. But once we reached the elegant Victorian villa with flaming torches on the terrace, and he had had his first sip of wine and nibble of chocolate eclair, he settled down to the ambience of candlelight and stuffed peacocks, ornate mirrors and overstuffed armchairs. There was a roaring fire or two and the crowning glory of his night was the abundance of Daim chocs everywhere, jars and dishes overflowed with his favourite treat. You can see the top of the jar above. The gin cocktails ran out in an hour (400 guests, free booze!) but the Daim remained and a goodly few came home with us.


Having a laff with my girlfriends!

Very small voice by my ear goes," Mummy, daddy says to come and have fish fingers and scrambled eggs."

I sit up in bed. "Are you sure that's what's for breakfast?"

Big grins, "Oh, oh. oh, I think so."

"Better go check, honey"

Little voice fading down the stairs," Daddy..."

Reappearance - "Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, mummy."

I am spoilt, aren't I? It came with fresh squeezed orange juice, capers and spring onions and crisp soldiers of toast.

Hurray for the gourmet!

The Hummus and the Haggis

Mr G and i had separate dinners last night. There has been a shortage of hummus in the UK for the last week due to the company which supplies all major retailers of hummus having a problem with salmonella!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,2015332,00.html

Mr G being a hummus lover, had been deprived of his hummus and experienced withdrawal symptoms. He discovered the hummus supply restored yesterday and arrived home bearing a pot of organic manna from M&S and pitta bread to go with it. I, in the meanwhile had unknowingly got out the Haggis for dinner - you know, chopped lambs lungs, beef hearts and liver - this one not stuffed in a sheeps stomach. We do appreciate Haggis in this house too, we had this one in the freezer since Burns night and it needed to be eaten with mashed potato, turnips, nice green cabbage and generous gratings of black pepper. So I had mostly Haggis, and he had mostly Hummus.

As we sat there sharing the hummus and the haggis, I experienced a moment of peace and contentment that Mr G and I, who are opposite in many ways, were at One in our differences.