january tally - goodbye to stuff

Just filled another box and updated what I have managed to dispose of in the month of January. This is not the full story - the bin bin (as distinct from the recycling bin and the green bin) is absolutely chock-a-block too. Normally this has one or two sad little bags in the bottom because we recycle, compost or burn (in the fireplaces)so much.Today - full. I think this will continue, I'm on a roll.

Have also re-done the pantry, finding an embarrassing number of multiples ( packets of cumin, tins of milo, desiccated coconut) because it was such a shambles I kept buying things I already had.

Onward! February tomorrow.

raspberry syllabub trifle

When overseas recently, I was surprised by how little I wanted to buy and came back with only a couple of new things. In Hong Kong, apparently a shopper's mecca, I bought only a cloth patch for the picnic rug. True. This was despite the encouragement of the touts outside the ritzy shops in Nathan Road ( an awful place, we went there briefly once) to buy a cheap watch/suit/bag whatever.... we ignored them and walked on.
I figure the ritzy bags and the copies are all made in factories next door to each other in mainland China so where's the exclusivity?

But being a complete sucker for a quirky cookbook I did buy the following two, in Stratford and Bath:



Haven't made anything out of Tea with the Bennets yet, but I do like the sound of Mr Whickham's Indelicate Pudding and Meryton Market Squares.

The other book my daughter spotted in the gift shop at Holy Trinity Church. She was amused by the loaves and fishes on the cover, and liked the Vicar's message inside.
There are some great sounding recipes in it, and last night we had some people coming for dinner, so I decided to make the Raspberry Syllabub Trifle. The ingredients include a madeira cake from a shop, raspberries and cream and dessert wine - how delicious and easy is that? It's also one you make the day before and stick in the fridge and ignore til you want it. I fiddled a bit with the method and ended up with a beautiful dessert that everyone loved.

(Here is a gratuitous photo of hydrangeas N brought for me last night. She lives on Mount Dandenong, so gets cooler conditions and hydrangeas can survive for her, unlike the rest of us in dustbowl Melbourne. They are my favourite flower and I'm sad I can't grow them anymore).










Raspberry syllabub trifle

3/4s of a shop bought Madeira cake
400g frozen or fresh raspberries
icing sugar
300ml thickened cream
150ml sweet white wine

Cut the cake into cubes and arrange on base of trifle dish. Sprinkle raspberries over cake. Sprinkle 2 level tablespoons of icing sugar over fruit and cake. Whip cream until it stands in peaks, fold in wine and two extra tablespoons of icing sugar. Pour/spread over fruit and cake. Cover with cling film and leave at room temperature for four hours, then overnight in the fridge until you need it the next day. Put some extra fresh berries over the top if you like (I didn't).

Served 6, and four people had seconds.

question for gardeners

Why is the sedum "Autumn joy" starting to flower in January?

jean and jeffrey

Briefly, book comments.

The Virgin Suicides - liked it, frustrated by the lack of explanation for the other sister's deaths. Also, the lack of explanation about the identity of the nameless narrator. But I know others adore this book,so problem is I feel with me, rather than it.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I LOVE this book. Read it first when I was about 18,then when I was about 30. This time - well, I am like Miss Brodie, in my Prime. It is the most elegantly written, funny, perceptive, gorgeous slim novel of only about 130 pages. I kept wanting to underline my favourite lines, but there were too many.
I do wonder, however, what Dean Creswell of 4H ( who owned it before me,it was an op shop purchase) made of it. He practised writing differently styled versions of his signature on a few pages, so I'm not thinking he was enamoured of it.

school daze

Next Monday, the sweet little three year old on the left starts Year 10.
The darling baby on the right begins Year 7!

Before then, I have many, many, books to label for both kids, and a whole new set of uniform to label for him.



Of course, being me, I will be constantly goofing off and avoiding the things I have to do by doing this:



Let's drink to a good year of books and many cups of tea!

so far, just scratching the surface

I have filled 10 bags and 5 boxes and they are waiting in the carport for "the man with the van" to pick them up and take them away tomorrow. With everything I pack up I feel lighter and happier. There are outgrown clothes and shoes from the kids, books they won't read again, scratchy old old towels, kitchen stuff - bowls,vases,jugs,serving dishes. When you are an op-shopper you just seem to always be seeing a little something that you have to have, but this is too often, really. I've also culled my own clothes and bags and scarves. The first couple of days back at work were quite chilly and without even noticing I wore the two shirts (washed) that I had been wearing in rotation for the last four weeks. I think this was telling me something - too many stupid clothes.
January isn't even at an end and I feel I'm doing well with the purge.

a new home for mr whicher

I'm delighted to say that one of my holiday reads, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, is going to be sent to Adelaide to Ms. Craftastrophies! I hope you enjoy it. It was purchased at Paddington Station and was read all through Bath and finished in Stratford, probably during a snowstorm. So just shoot me an email to the account listed on the right with an address I can post it to, and that will be one more item out of my house. Thanks!

what I'm reading now

I'm really enjoying this strange and fascinating novel.

a few last holiday random musings, and pictures

I miss this shop very much, round the corner from the appartment,it was in Rue Dauphine



gigantic floating restaurant, hong kong



sunset, stonehenge



playschool windows - round, square, arched. Chancery Court Hotel, High Holborn road, from my window


I still have one more holiday blog post to write, apart from this one, but I'll leave it til a time in the future when my mind is a blank and I'm looking for a blog subject. It's about a television program/reality show we watched avidly. But we've been home a week and I need to move my blog posts on, even though my mind is still engaged with our holiday.

We're back at work, kids are back at school in a week, the vegie garden has been sorted and re-planted, the bags are un-packed, the mammoth washing has been done.
My mother has had her knee surgery (a great success, thus far). I've started on my year of, literally, getting my house in order. A tally of how much I'm throwing out (to charity) is now on the top right of the blog, to keep me honest, and on it.

Still, a couple more observations and questions to the universe:

1. Do English people actually shop at Harrods, or is it a weird theme park for rich tourists? The basement that sells the branded shoppers/biscuits/tea/mugs was heaving with people, the rest of the store had gimlet eyed staff guarding the 700 pound handbags and 1500 pound dresses but not alot of shopping going on.

2. Why do people take rubbish photos of old masters and not even look at the actual painting, when they can buy a beautiful postcard of it for not very much?

3. Any hairdresser specializing in blonde hair dye or blonde foils would go broke in Paris. All that beautiful dark hair, greying(yay!) hair, gorgeously cut hair, women over 40 actually go grey rather than Judy Moran blonde.

4. Only a few tourists in Paris were blathering on mobile phones or walking around texting. Thank the Lord. Parisians actually seem to, you know, enjoy what they're doing NOW without restlessly making the next arrangement. Or having to be in contact with the world EVERY MINUTE THEY ARE AWAKE.

5. We did not meet a rude Parisian. Formal, but extremely polite. Rude tourists, (no nationality in particular), there were plenty.

6. Starbucks in England. Everywhere. Dozens of them. All full of people drinking gigantic mugs of that which they make. (have never drunk it). Thoughts? (this chain basically failed in Australia, where the Italian coffee culture is king).

7. I ate, and ate, and ate, walked for between one and three hours every day, got toned and lost weight. Forget dieting, walking is the key to everything!

NOT dreaming of a white Christmas

(These photos were taken in Stratford, the car shot driving from Bath to Stratford).

When we spoke about our Christmas trip before we went away, so many people said to me
"Oh, so you'll be hoping for a white Christmas then?"
Actually, I wasn't, just a cold one - which of course I got in spades - because 3 of us detest hot weather and in Melbourne, summer can deliver the most disgusting heat you can imagine. Running away for a month to a colder climate and escaping was exciting and different, a bit scary, ultimately wonderful.

We were bemused when we arrived in Hong Kong on December 19 to hear, ad nauseum, Frosty the Snowman, Let it Snow, White Christmas,and Winter Wonderland being played, background muzak in the airport, every shop, hotel, everywhere. People were dressed in furry parkas and puffy jackets as if they were living in Alaska. (It was about 14 degrees centigrade).

Paris was much colder, but it only rained overnight, which was perfect. No snow on Christmas Day.

The day after we arrived in London it rained solidly for two days, which was a bit annoying, but didn't stop us getting out and about. After that we headed into the countryside, and by Tuesday when we left Bath by car for Stratford,the "Big Freeze" was getting underway.
There were huge disruptions: schools closed, transport anywhere was problematic, the Salt mines ( who knew they still existed?) were working overtime to produce stuff to throw on the roads so the cars could get about.

The news media went into an absolute frenzy.
One fellow, live from a village in Lincolnshire breathlessly said "so for all those English children who've never seen snow except on a Christmas card or in a fairytale picturebook, this is what it's like..."
( I mean, what the....? For Australians, yes, but for English children never to have seen snow?)

I was enlightened and quite fascinated that snow in the 21st century in England, rather than being charming, was very treacherous and made normal life nearly impossible. Roads, other than the very big ones, are impassable, because they aren't gritted. People are stuck in their houses, frequently without food or basic services. Hospitals had to cancel elective surgery because so many presented with broken limbs. Retail ground to a halt - people couldn't shop. People couldn't get to work. It was astonishing.

My observation is that in Victorian England or earlier, when the car wasn't a feature of daily life, people probably lived nearer their workplaces, extended families lived around the corner in the next street or the same village, so a white Christmas or snowy winter wasn't such a notable event.It wouldn't have had such a huge impact.
People could still get about, see others, buy food, work, shop. Now we are so oil dependent, snow becomes a dangerous dramatic problem rather than embraced for its seasonal charm.

So I think it's time people stop yearning for a white christmas. The reality in the 21st century, is that most of the population would not be able to cope with it at all.

my best meal was...

in Bath, at a funny little restaurant called The Walrus and The Carpenter.
Locally made sausages, mash and onion gravy.
I haven't eaten sausages in years, for health reasons, but had the doctor's blessing to blow the diet, so blow it I did.
That meal was...incredible. I was nearly moaning.
Next time you carelessly scoff a sausage at a Bunning's sausage stall, remember me, who cannot.
(not a marvellous photo. We found this restaurant simply because we could see it out of the hotel window).

what I read on my Christmas holiday

(took these notes as I read the books, so just copying my diary. Too tired after the first day back at work to create a coherent post!)

1. Why shoot a butler? - Georgette Heyer
Great style and characters, if a bit dated. By today's standards, politically incorrect and enormously class conscious. Cloak and dagger, ripping yarn type mystery.
Kept me guessing to the end - was expecting a 39 steps spy scenario, turned out very different. Would like to try more Heyer, romances too.

2.Pompeii - Robert Harris
Fabulously well researched, compelling, but a hint of 1970s disaster movies about it - we all know what happened in Pompeii, right? Felt it needed Maureen McGovern singing "We may never love like this again" in a bath house at some point. And the water engineer could be played by Eric Bana and the beautiful Corelia by Scarlet whats-her-name. But a good book nevertheless! Very exciting story, told well, brought the events to life.

3. Hypothermia - Arnaldur Indridason
The second Reykjavik murder mystery I've read - love them. Yet another spooky, ghosty story - sceances and so on. The Icelandic setting is so remote from Australian experience - fascinating stuff. Characters are gloomy, angry, depressed. Only Erlendur's girlfriend is cheerful. Got to love the character names - Erlendur, Baldvin, Sindri Snaer,Eva Lind, Tryggvi. They are tortured by past events, miserable marriages, dreadful childhood happenings.Compelling.

4.The suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale
True crime recounting the murder of a child in 1859, all the family and their servants were suspects. Compelling, sad, gruesome, explores the history of detective work in England and the beginning of detective fiction. This was a case that obsessed the nation at the time. Scholarly, huge research has been done here. Portrait of crime, punishment, police, gaol system. Fascinating.




5. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (bought this at Oxfam in Bath - how fitting!)
Half way through this, and enjoying it so much, while Bath is a clear and present memory. When Catherine walks in the Crescent, or visits the Pump Rooms or the Octagon Room I'm walking along with her in my mind. How funny this book is, what characters: ghastly Isabella and hideous John Thorpe. Last read this for 3rd year uni so long overdue for a re-read.



Now, because this year is all about getting rid of the Too Much in my life, I want to give someone the Mr Whicher book. Leave a comment on today's post if you would like it. If more than one person comments I'll draw a name out of a... biscuit tin (don't own a hat). Australian commenters only for this because of the postage cost, sorry OS readers. You have until next Monday - the 25th - to comment.

my highlights - top ten

In no particular order ( and utterly subjective):

1. The paintings. Oh, the paintings. Stuff I studied in art history, there in front of me. The kids became blase about my tears ( which were discreet). The Napoleonic pictures, the Revolutionary art, the Renoirs, which I had always thought a bit chocolate-boxey, until I saw them for real. Seurat, Courbet. Far too many to name.
The best thing was the behaviour of the kids. They've grown up looking at art and going to shows with us, even so, 3+ hours at a time in galleries is a stretch for some adults, so for their appreciation and patience with us I can never thank them enough.

2. Arc de Triomphe. Far, far away more impressive than the Eiffel Tower. And the history attached to it - amazing. I studied the French Revolution at both school and University. To walk around Paris and see the buildings and sites of so much French history was completely awe inspiring.

3. Notre Dame on Christmas Day. With Gregorian chants, crepes afterwards and the Luxembourg Gardens as the sun was going down. Unforgettable.

4. The perfection of Bath and its buildings.So elegant.

5. Stratford under snow. How beautiful the town looked under its blanket, the Birthplace was empty except for us, only a handful of others at Holy Trinity Church.

6. Westminster Abbey - what a place. Tremendously expensive to visit, worth every penny. All those dead kings and queens, the scene of all coronations since 1066. An extraordinary place.

7. French food - macarons, baguette sandwiches, more cheese than I've eaten in 4 years ( had permission from the doctor!), the chocolates, the pain au chocolat...
Every meal in France, and we cooked lots just with things from the Carrefours supermarket, was divine.

8. The four of us going out for dinner, many times. Every time we had a ball, lots of laughs, the kids behaved with great aplomb, beautiful manners and style. I just loved it.

9. How much we enjoyed Hong Kong. It was on the itinerary both ends almost as an after thought to break up the horror marathon flight, but what a treat it turned out to be. Interesting, fast, whacky, very slick, fun, stylish in our bit of Kowloon - great town to visit.

10. Three of the places we stayed at had kitchens. My husband, who rarely cooks at home cooked EVERY meal when we stayed in at night. And generally cleaned up afterwards, giving me a real holiday in every way.

lagging

I was awake at 3.00 a.m after passing out at 8 last night, so will just go with the jet lag, it will pass sooner or later. Got up at 4.30 to read and finish writing up my "travel diary". The kids and I each did one - lots of fun, we bought postcards everywhere to put in. I'm going to be blogging about the trip for at least a week, not a "what I did on my Christmas holidays" day-by-day, but some catergories like My Highlights, What I Read, Strange TV Shows I Saw, My Best Meal, you get the idea. Thankfully there are two weeks before the kids return to school, although we are both back to work tomorrow, so we can ease back into normal life. Daughter has a shift at Hunky Dunkers today! Later on, the boys are going to the movies and daughter will be re-united with her boyfriend so I'll have time to do another post - My Highlights,I think. If I'm not asleep.

there and back again

The plane from Hong Kong got in at about 9.40 p.m. last night, and we were unlocking our front door by 10.40 p.m.

Kids slept-walk into their beds, I mixed up some powdered milk because I needed a cup of tea immediately. Went out into the dark and walked around the back garden, it was so silent and green after all the bustle of being away. All looking ok, self seeded pumpkins everywhere. All the neighbours are still away so the quiet was absolute. Husband sat up with me for half an hour then stumbled off to bed, but I was completely wired, so drank tea, checked emails, pottered. About one a.m. I got into bed, the door on to the roof ( flyscreen but no balcony) wide open so we could feel the breeze as we slept. Lay awake for another hour in my comfortable bed, re-living everything. This morning at six, wide awake, could hear the magpies, wattlebirds, currawongs and blackbirds greeting the day in the parkland beyond our back fence. Such an Australian sound, so beautiful. While drinking tea I illegally watered the front garden ( living, as we do, in a desert,we have permanent water restrictions) and idly planned a garden tidy up this week, will even plant some late tomatoes and basil.

More tea, The Age has been delivered, so will catch up with the news. Kids still sleeping, we are enjoying the peace.
Lovely to be home.

hong kong sushi

Just returned from dinner in this wacky/busy/24 hour city. Love Hong Kong. Great energy and buzz, staying in Tsim Sha Tsui next to Granville circuit and road - so funky, the Sartorialist could set up and do a million shots of these gorgeous girls and boys. One more plane ride tomorrow and we are home. Full of energy, ideas, and happiness. See you soon!

my birthday: got drunk on art and a squirrel ran up my leg

True! Yesterday was my birthday, not a milestone one, but only a few years left with a 4 in front of them now. So we went to the National Gallery and I reeled like a drunk from painting to painting not believing what I was seeing - Sunflowers, Turners, more Renoir, Gainsborough, Leonardo etc etc until I could feel art filling every pore. Then lunch and took the tube to see Buckingham Palace, one of the dullest places ever, but the kids wanted to see it. On the way through Green Park squirrels running about, how sweet I thought until one RAN UP MY LEG. Shrieked and it jumped off. Husband is still in hysterics over this. Now have a squirrel phobia and I am burning my copy of Squirrel Nutkin. Hong Kong tonight, there for a couple of days!

chillin' on a sunday in london

Just popped into this youth hostel internet cafe with daughter to let readers know we are not stuck in a snow cave in Stratford! Driving out of Stratford ( road we wanted to take was closed) was a bit hairy, especially as we had to take the hire car to High Wycombe, which had one of the highest snow falls in the country.
Back in London, staying in Knightsbridge area near Gloucester Road tube station. Keep expecting to see Nigella coming down the steps of one of these incredible houses (saw one in a real estate ad for TWENTY THREE MILLION POUNDS).Have had a great day - Harrods to look at the Food Hall, so amazing and also checked out some of the glamour goods, lunch at Richoux opposite, dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum - fabulous. After this daughter and I are whizzing back to the V and A museum with her sketchbook so she can draw, I'll check out some other rooms, boys will watch some soccer or bad tv and chill out and rest!

safe in snowy stratford

Just a quickie to let family know we are safe after a bit of a white knuckle drive (me) in the snow from Bath today. Just started up again as we were having a walk around the town (lovely) - what a lot of shops!
We are staying put now til Friday lunchtime, hopefully driving conditions will have cleared by then. But it is all beautiful under its light blanket of snow, and less cold than you would think - or maybe we are used to it now? Definitely prefer this beauty to drought torn Melbourne in summer.

postcard from bath

The most wonderful 24 hours or so in Bath! Yesterday the Roman baths and the beautiful Abbey. This morning a walk to Royal crescent and the circus - very sunny, blue sky - this afternoon a bus tour to Lacock village, national trust astonishing time capsule used for every bbc costume drama including Meryton in P and P. And Harry Potter films. Saw squirrels gambolling this morning, Stonehenge just now as the sun was setting. Gobsmacking. Found an op shop (oxfam) 50 metres away from here in Gay Street - hot footing it there tomorrow! This internet costing a £ per 20 minutes, not free as it was in the Citadine appartments in Paris and London so speed typing!

nearly new year

It's four p.m (and dark) and absolutely FREEZING here in jolly old London town! A big cold snap is underway apparently. Tower of London today: how incredible it is to stand next to the site where Anne Boleyn and so many others were executed, and the part of the prison where Lady Jane Grey watched her husband beheaded and the cell where the young princes disappeared. British museum yesterday, one of my most favourite places, thank God for travelling with older children who are happy to spend 3-4 hours in all these places without a whinge or grizzle! Back to the appartment - time for a hot chocolate and a Jammy Dodger, Miss Stomper! Happy New Year to all. xx