Saturday Feb 27

As we learn of more snow on the east coast in the U.S. and of Hawaii’s potential tsunami, we’re faced with…warm, then cold, then warm. Go figure?

It’s been a good, speedy week, enjoying my writing work, Ava’s proud to be counting to 100 and her reading is progressing beautifully. Claire’s getting ready for a concert and had fun w/ her friend Lily, who is a regular at our house of late.

I did get all systems in place for a spin class on Thursday, only to have my phone ring as I was walking up the steps of the place. The owner was on the other end to say they’d had a break-in over night so no spin.

BUMMER. I very rarely do the indoor cycling here as the studio w/ a good deal, decent occasional class time and my schedule are a bit of a challenge to match up.
Anyway, in lieu of sweating, my friend Beth and I had coffee. Can never complain about that.

Break-ins do seem a regularity here. I keep expecting to walk in one day and either find a hooligan in my house or find a mess left by one. Let’s hope for neither.

As my Bronte class nears an end we did have a lively discussion Wednesday, regarding the most unlively of Bronte books we’re read so far – Agnes Grey. Go Agnes.

After her I read The Shack. Thought-provoking but not the greatest writing, I would venture to say. Have since moved onto Blood Red Snow White. Russian fairytale of sorts. TBD on the book review per moi.

Friday I re-entered the world of art. I’d taken a bit of a hiatus since our Italy trip, wherein we saw so much Renaissance art I was a bit done in.

This time I joined the St. Johns Woods Women’s group for a 2-hour “walk” of the National Gallery, which features mostly western European art from the 1200’s up to 1900. Fabulous place that goes on forever, so you really have to focus your time/energy to avoid art overload.

Our guide was fabulous; she pulled us to various pieces throughout the timeframe represented, focusing on a few in-depth. Great tour; I’d like to follow her around the gallery regularly.

From there I zipped off to join friends at Le Boudin Blanc, a fabulous, bustling little French restaurant in Mayfair. Amazing food. AMAZING. One of the best meals I’ve had here since arrival. And great company, too.

Joe and I ended the day with dinner at a Thai restaurant up the road from us. Cheap and cheerful, it was tasty. Service sucked and the food took forever to reach our table. I think a small family runs the place, which, typically, is larger than it appears from outside. You enter a small storefront expecting to find 6 tables and the place goes on forever.

So this place that goes on forever had two waitresses and it looked like the dad was cooking and handling checks.

Ordinarily this wouldn’t phase us but we’d purchased tickets to an 8:40 film across the street. So when food, which had been ordered at 7:15, eventually showed up at 8:35 we did consult the clock.

Though I must say I wasn’t too worked up; the first movie I went to here didn’t start until half hour of previews, ads, warnings about pirating and cell phones had taken place.

The restaurant’s ambience cracked me up, too – space heaters here and there. While appreciated by the chill-baine affected types like me, they do have an impact on ambience…

And since yesterday started off smelling like spring but crashed and burned by the time we scooted off to ballet, bring on the space heater!

The bean curd and aurbergine chili-spiced Thai dish delivered a nice dose of warm spice. After throwing some cash at the cook/cashier we flew across the street for our 8:40 movie; at this point it was 9.

Never mind that. Candy/popcorn ensued. So at 9:05 we walked in…and ads were still in full force.

Eventually Invictus started. Good film, about 20 minutes too long. Or is it that my butt isn’t used to sitting still for more than an hour? That’s what happens when you don’t work in corporate America for 8 years. Your tush gets out of sitting practice.
About the film. Morgan Freeman: great. Matt Damon: not the right fit. Don’t you need to be bigger and have a broken nose or shattered cheekbone and a consistent accent to be captain of South Africa’s rugby team?

Today found me running around Regent’s Park with Debra, listening to the zoo animals squawk for breakfast. Somehow our 8:30 a.m. run got edged up to 7:30. Pretty soon Saturday will feel like every other morning of the week.

Except that breakfast at our house is good on Saturdays (M-F it’s oatmeal, toast or cheerios with bacon, which is really ham masquerading as such here in the UK). This morning: pancakes. Oh and of course Sunday is spoilage day -- chocolate brioches.

Continuing on with the food story, tonight was a lamb chop/potato meal. Sadly, in the land of lamb, I could only find New Zealand product at the grocery store. Since I had my head wrapped around lamb chops and Marks & Spencer only had the NZ version, I went for that. Paired w/ red wine from same country, it worked.

Politically, clearly, NZ has something going right w/ lamb exportation… Don’t worry, the US manages to get items like Kraft mac n cheese slipped in. Plenty of Americans living here are happy to pay the $5 extortion fee for the 50 cent product.

In other news, we’re off to Cinderella on Ice tomorrow. Claire’s skeptical, Ava’s excited and I can’t wait – it will be at Royal Albert Hall, which is spectacular and the acoustics are beyond amazing. So even if the show stinks, whatever sound is produced will be out of this world.