October 31, 2008

Started our Halloween preparations after Lyra's afternoon nap, when I took the girls out to fill our cauldron with leaves. Lyra took her responsibilities very seriously holding up each leaf for my inspection. "Leaf!" she'd pronounce before adding it carefully to the cauldron. We'd have been there all afternoon if it wasn't for the great armfuls Nova was scooping up indiscriminately.

Dressed up in our costumes -- Nova - cat; Lyra - fairy; Adam - vampire; me - cat mask -- and did some dancing to scary music, then carved the jack-o-lantern. Sat down to our Halloween tea about 5pm.

I'd cooked up a spooky feast of mummy dogs (hotdogs wrapped in pastry "bandages"), witches' fingers (chicken strips in crushed potato chips), pumpkin soup, cobweb chocolate cakes, fly pies (mince tarts with big glacé cherry eyeballs) and -- my favourite -- bloody oranges (orange halves filled with red jelly), then quartered when set.

After dinner Nova and I headed off to meet Gilda and her kids in Pond Square. Each year the Highgate Society puts out a trick-or-treat map showing the houses that are happy to receive trick-or-treaters. We always put our name on it, but seldom get more than a dozen kids.

I could tell this year was going to be different. There were loads of little vampires and witches on the street. It's the first time it's felt like my childhood Halloween -- running into kids you know, gangs gathering on doorstoops, plenty of houses to visit. Lots of people got into decorating their entrances, and there was a great atmosphere. The kids were so happy. It is exciting being out in the dark, dressed up, getting candy... I used to love it.

Dropped Nova back at ours, with an emergency extra candy stash for Adam (who'd been reduced to handing out granola bars though I catered for fifty). Gilda and I had tickets to see "A Tale of Two Cities -- The Musical" at the Gatehouse Theatre. I was a bit apprehensive when she suggested it. We'd seen some Shakespeare there with Greg and Wendy once that was truly awful. It's a very small space, and sitting eight feet from a middle aged man in tights murdering Richard II was excruciating. Not knowing where to look and trying not to laugh from sheer embarrassment...

There was a worrying moment of déja vu when a middle-aged man in knickerbockers and knee-high boots with ridiculous little ringlets over his ears strode into the room, planted himself directly in front of me and started crooning, "I was the woorrrrrst of times, it was the bessssst of times," but things rapidly improved from there. It was a cracking good performance, and the woman who played Madame Lafarge was so chilling that I was unable to smile at her when they did their curtain call...

October 30, 2008

Mercifully, she added "tired" to that list about 10:30am, and I settled her for a morning nap. I had her lunch ready for when she woke -- and she threw a strop at the sight of it. I think it was partially my fault for telling her she was having a ham cake. She blanked out the word "ham", and was outraged to see a mashed potato patty in her bowl instead of the cake I'd promised. "CAKE!" she kept screeching in her croaky voice, "CAKE!! CAKE!!!" It would have been funny if she wasn't so upset...

She did demolish most of a large mango, so at least something in her tummy with all the medicine she's been taking to control her fever. We hung out in the afternoon, and she seemed a bit better as time went on. Spent a lot of time looking at photos.

We hit another low when I was preparing her dinner -- pot noodle and peas. "NOODLES!" she shrieked, "NOODLES!!!" "In a minute, sweetie," I said, "Mummy is getting them ready," awkwardly scooping noodles into a bowl one-handed while holding a screaming toddler. "AARRRGGH!" she roared -- and bit me on the shoulder. "Ouch!!" I yelled, slamming her to the ground in a barely controlled drop. "Bad baby! You don't bite people! That's very, very bad!!" forgetting to distinguish between the action and child as they pompously advise in the child rearing manuals. She had a bit of a howl, which I ignored for several minutes before offering her a cuddle. Even though I was wearing a jumper and tee-shirt, it really hurt. There's a big swelling, and she even managed to break the skin a bit, the little savage...

October 29, 2008

Had a full-on day of meetings, starting at 9:30. It was difficult to put poor Lyra down to get ready and out of the house. Finally threw on some clothes and rushed off, without doing my make-up or packing a lunch. It occurred to me on the tube that I loathe most of the clothes I was wearing, particularly my black shoes and the coat, and that's no way to go through life. I really must make some time to shop for work clothes soon...

Dragged myself through two meetings, and chaired the third one ruthlessly to make a slot to pop out and buy a sandwich. Two more biggies in the afternoon, then an hour or so doing the absolute essential email and tasks. Finally got away about 6:30.

Cooked an Indian meal for Adam and me -- chicken xacuti, a simple potato curry and pilau rice. I don't always like to cook after a big workday, but tonight it felt therapeutic, and like I was nurturing myself (or at least my stomach...;-) )

October 28, 2008

Since returning to work, it seems like half my pay cheque is going on pension payments. As well as my regular contribution, they keep dinging me for "arrears". Spent a couple of hours looking into it this evening. I'm pretty sure they are deducting a couple of percent more than they should be, and am not entirely sure they have calculated the arrears payments properly either. I've got a call logged with the hotline to get to the bottom of it. Between pension and childcare there's scarcely anything left...

October 27, 2008

One last nanny interview this evening -- a lovely Romanian girl. I really liked her, and if I was appointing only on personal fit she's the one I'd go for. She would ideally like full-time work, so I'm not confident about how long she'll be happy in the position or likely to stay. Tough decision though...

October 26, 2008

Lyra Fern is crazy for Maisy. She physically dragged me over to the telly so I could put on her Maisie video. "That's the third time she's watched it this morning," Adam informed me. "On, on Maisie!" Lyra pleaded. I think that probably counts as her first sentence. Once again, that big-nosed mouse rules our house...;-)

Tonight's nanny interviewee looked like a female Jeff Goldblum impersonator. Six feet tall, dressed in clashing shades of red and pink. She was a very nice woman, another Slovak, whose main calling is teaching drama. While she's waiting for her Slovak documents to be translated so she can teach in the UK, she's looking for nanny work to improve her English. Being an educated woman, her written English is substantially better than her conversational. Also at 47, I think she'd find it a bit tiring chasing after Lyra all day. I know I do...

Another lesson from last time: choose people who want to be nannies, not unemployed artists, physios, dancers etc.

Another family dinner -- gammon cooked in cider, with carrots, leeks and parsley sauce. slightly less stressful than the last one. Although I think Lyra is getting ill -- she scarcely ate a bite, and her face is looking blotchy. There's the start of a cough as well...

October 25, 2008

Had three nanny interviews today -- one pretty good, one we'd be happy to appoint, and another who's planning a two month summer holiday. I don't want to interview as many people as last time -- it's not actually helpful to see more than six or so. It's tricky though because there isn't an application closing date like there is when I recruit at work. So you're not choosing from the entire pool when you make your initial choices.

We were both keen on the second girl we saw. One lesson I learned last time was to choose the person who best fits the job description. I interviewed san amazing woman last time -- a PhD in child psychology, mother, excellent English, driving licence, gourmet cook, stunningly beautiful, personable, lived locally... She was streets above anyone else, but she wouldn't have been right for us, and might have been slightly intimidating to have round the house. That said Agata will be a hard act to follow...

Nova and I made the French Laundry parmesan crisps, and I whipped up a batch of goat cheese mousse. Had our canapés while the pasta water boiled. Nova wasn't keen on the mousse but Lyra scoffed one.

Had yet another fraught family dinners. Sometimes I wonder why we put ourselves through it. There's this rose-tinted haze around the concept of the whole family sitting around the table, sharing food, laughing and chatting about their day, but that's so far from our reality. At least with a one-year-old in the mix. They are such uncongenial dinner companions...

October 24, 2008

The responses came in more slowly than last time, possibly because we advertised on a Friday instead of Monday. By evening had a reasonable pool of people to draw from. I made initial calls to set up some interviews for the weekend.

Nova had her ballet exam this afternoon. She was surprisingly enthusiastic about what I would have found to be an ordeal at her age. It felt like I spent half the day getting ready for the damn thing -- cleaning her slippers, moving the elastics to the right place, washing and drying her uniform, finding a hairnet.

We were instructed to get there half an hour early so that her ballet bun could be done properly (they don't trust the parents with such a serious responsibility). Of course they were running behind, and there was a lot of hanging about.

Eventually Nova was called. She entered in a group of four -- her friends Evelyn and Phoebe and one other girl I didn't know. They'd papered the windows of the studio for privacy, but a number of parents had ripped little spy holes to observe through, and one mum was even surreptiously filming.

Afterwards, Miss Julie commented on how smiley Nova was in her exam, and said she should win the "girl who was enjoying herself the most" award.

Fay came round for a sleepover. We set them up in the flat, and got them in bed about 9pm, with Mary Poppins on the video. They were still awake and watching when I headed to bed at 11pm... and complaining they were hungry. Made them a big bowl of popcorn and left them to it. I think it's the first time that Nova has officially stayed up later than her parents...

October 23, 2008

I also followed up a couple of the best candidates from last time, but unsurprisingly they are all happily employed. I think we're going to have to advertise. I'm dreading it a bit... it felt like having a full time job last time I did it, and that was when I wasn't working...

October 22, 2008

Did a little scan of cold sore remedies on the web. The most popular ones seem to be taking lysine supplements, applying a thin coat of nail polish over the site at first tingle (clear presumably), and daubing the sore with nail polish remover (not sure about that one...)

October 21, 2008

We had a very nice dinner, opting for the autumn tasting menu, but had the sense not to do the wine pairing this time. We went with a glass of wine with the first two plates, and a glass of red for the next two.

It was an excellent meal, but perhaps I'm slightly spoiled by my Fat Duck experience, because didn't seem as quite as delicious as the last couple of times we've eaten there. I hope not, otherwise once we've eaten at El Bulli (ha!) it'll be time to hang up my knife and fork...;-)

October 20, 2008

Her temperament is so different to Nova's. Lyra is a girl who wears her heart on her sleeve, elated one minute, sobbing the next, very determined, and stubborn as an ox. She's far less biddable than I remember Nova being. And her attention span is noticeably shorter -- she often won't finish a book or more than one verse of a song.

First day back in the office. I can't seem to get a clear run at my job at the moment, and always seem to be playing catch up...

Nova at dinner tonight, in response to some comment Adam made: "You think that makes you sound famous, but you're just a scruffy old working man who always wears gray. Your hair is gray, your face is gray, your socks are often gray, and I bet your pants are gray!"

Had a drink with Pasc and Trish this evening. Turns out Pasc's job is safe -- in fact she's made out like a bandit, and if her current boss takes redundancy in a fit of pique she's going to end up with her job. It got me thinking about change, and how while I don't seek it out, I tend to do alright when it's imposed on me. It's as if I prefer a nice, calm life, but when the waves come I say, "okay, I'm surfing now -- let's stay on the board and steer this thing, and so far, I've tended to end up somewhere good...

October 19, 2008

Poor little Lyra's not a hundred percent. She bursts into tears at the slightest thing. I suspect in may be teething or perhaps a headache, though maybe she's just letting off steam now that I'm back?

Started work on Nova's story box this evening. She's known about this homework project all term, but I just knew it we'd end up doing it at the last minute. We can't blame her -- Adam and I are both just the same...

I left her completely to her own devices, only helping when she needed to cut out the door with a sharp knife. She's decided to make a model of an ancient Egyptian village home, and is laying out five rooms: a work room, living room, store room, bedroom and cooking courtyard. She's using pieces of spaghetti for straw, and Lyra had a great time of it breaking lengths spaghetti into little pieces. I've never seen her so absorbed in a task. She stuck at it for a good half hour...

October 18, 2008

My plane landed early, I sailed straight through passport control, and my bags were among the first onto the carousel. It took a few minutes to find my taxi guy, but aside from that little hiccup, the whole thing was smooth as silk and I was home by 9:30.

The girls met me at the door. Lyra had a funny look on her face, and kept saying "mummy, mummy, mummy" in this quizzical way, as if she couldn't quite believe that I was really there. Nova had dressed up in her party frock, and looked so bright faced and pretty it brought tears to my eyes. (Great to see Adam as well of course, but we're old hands at the separation thing...)

While I was away Adam had wall of bookshelves we'd ordered installed in the living room. There's still a lot of arranging to do, but they look amazing. I couldn't stop gazing at them. There's the wonder of having all our books -- from the living room, bedroom, kitchen and garage -- in one space. I don't think I've ever had all my books in one place since I lived in Prince George...

Went for lunch at Fine Burger Company, so we could pick up a few extra shelves to slot into the frames. Feeling a bit burgered out, I had a green salad shared an order of fries with Lyra.

After a short afternoon nap (I couldn't have made it through to bedtime -- the ground kept rushing up to meet me), we threw a frozen pizza into the oven for dinner. Adam and I spent the evening arranging and rearranging our books: literature grouped by country, biography, popular science, history, travel, how-to, philosophy... I especially love the cookbook and food section -- four low shelves directly behind the dining room table. I'll put up a picture once I get a chance to download the camera...

October 17, 2008

Most of what I'm packing back in genealogical stuff -- Fern's notes and various other bits and pieces I'll try to make sense of. I've already built a substantial family tree using Reunion software. Nowadays there are likely website templates you can use to share genealogical information online. I'll have to look into it...

Check-in was effortless, and my bags weighed only 80lbs, so I could have packed 20lb more crap home with me...

Flew home via Toronto for a change. To my surprise, they didn't serve any food on the plane, not even those strange little sesame-corn crackers. I knew that they'd started selling the alcoholic drinks, but it seemed a little extreme not to feed passengers on a four-hour flight.

I was starving by the time I got to Toronto mid-afternoon. Bought myself a Tim Horton's bagel and devoured it in the departure lounge. Just as well, as my meal was inedible. They'd done something to the rice that rendered it hard as rock (perhaps they forgot to cook it?) Rock hard rice with a small blob of curry, accompanied by rice salad (rock hard, cold and floating in water), and one of those fossilised bread rolls I didn't even bother to unwrap... a pretty poor effort on the meal front...

October 16, 2008

Lyra was surprisingly chatty as well. We went through all the body parts and sang a couple of verses of "Row Row". She was definitely trying to tell me something, and kept repeating a word I couldn't understand. I asked Nova, but she didn't know what Lyra was on about either...

Gerry and his crew returned to clear out the rest of the outbuildings. They hauled off the old hide-a-bed and a couple of swivel armchairs as well. The livingroom looks so much better (and bigger) without all that broken down furniture. (Both David and I have vowed to have massive clearouts when we get back home...)

He's going through the massive pile of cassette tapes. There are ones of grandpa and grandma reminiscing, "letters" we sent from Prince George with family news, and collections of old phone messages. Dave's planning to trawl through them and compile the good bits on CDs for everyone. A massive job...

Had our final dinner together at the White Spot, bookending my visit nicely. As it was Thursday, we ordered margaritas again. Opted for a burger this time, which was much nicer than my quesadilla. As Adam always says, the trick is to play to the restaurant's strength, whatever that might be...

October 15, 2008

While Ed was busy rescuing Brenda's crap, it's possible the crew may have tossed out his box of cylinder records. Once he told us they were in the garage, I looked in every box before it was chucked, but didn't find them. So valuable, what are they doing in the garage with bolts of rotting carpet slung over them...

They ended up hauling away two truckloads worth -- and that's just the garage... Grandma's studio is a complete ruin. Raccoons have chewed through the ceiling, there's a huge hole in floor, possibly live wires dangle across the room. David gingerly picked his way through the rubble to check out the piles of canvasses against the far wall. Turned out they were mostly blank, though the ones that had been painted on were all mouldy...

In the afternoon we took a break and drove up Knox Mountain to where we scattered mum's ashes. It felt a bit like visiting with her, though of course that's pure sentimentality. I could have "visited" with the maroon plastic bag in the living room that holds the rest of her ashes far more easily... But I prefer to think of her on Knox Mountain, which is one of the reasons to scatter ashes I guess...

(I was talking with a colleague at work about Dad's decision not to scatter all of mum's remains in one place. "My dad has done the same thing!" she said. At first her dad scattered handfuls of her mum in a variety of places that were "special" to them. After that, he took to scattering handfuls in more mundane places like the supermarket parking lot where she did her weekly shop. Lately he's taken to scattering her in places she "would have liked" had she ever been there. "It's like that scene in 'The Great Escape'," she said (where the prisoners scattering dirt from the tunnel they're digging around the exercise yard).

Went to Earls for Wing Wednesday. Five minutes after placing our order (wings and beer all round) the waitress returned with the jaw-dropping news that they'd run out of wings. Apparently this had never happened before in the two years she'd worked there...

Opted for dynamite shrimp rolls and a pizza to share instead. Our food arrived accompanied by a sole (complementary) order of wings. "They found one order and I grabbed them for you," the waitress said. "How do you find an order of wings?" dad wondered, reasonably enough...

October 14, 2008

Went for lunch at Le Triskell, a Breton restaurant that serves nothing but buckwheat crepes -- excellent food. It cuts into our house clearance time, but you need the odd break. Sometimes I just grind to a halt... It's a difficult, and emotionally draining job. You can't just sweep it all into the garbage (however tempting it feels at times). We've gone through each box, and find something worth keeping in practically every one...

Going through mum's correspondence feels like a big responsibility. You're doing it on behalf of others, and what I might think is worth keeping (or not) might not match what Wade or Greg would do. But then I think, this stuff has been sitting here for five years now. The others have had far more opportunity to sort this out (and it needs to be done sooner or later). I'm doing the best I can, and that's all I can expect of myself.

The house sale went through at the end of the day. Ed's realtor called to tell him that the final conditions had been removed from his first offer. He had a second offer for a bit more money, and I think he liked the guy better as well, but there you go... It's a better situation than the UK, where gazumping and changing the agreed price are standard practice.

Both David and I were feeling melancholy about it, but it's what dad wants to do. And it's not the right place for him to be living -- it's too much work to look after, too run down and expensive to heat, there's no family nearby for company and help when he needs it...

Dad's not sure what his next move will be, but he's going to stay with Wade for a while, which is great. I'm not sure that will suit him in the medium term. I think it would be good for him to buy another property, rather than rent, to keep him from spending all his money in case he has to pay for supported living or other care in the future.

Dave made hamburger mince for dinner. Watched Magnum Force on telly (hard to believe I went to the cinema to see that when I was Nova's age!) followed by the Obama-McCain debate. I thought Obama swept the floor with him, though I'm hardly impartial...

October 13, 2008

Tackled the photographs today, which were in a complete state. Mom had made albums up to about 2002, but there are hundreds of loose photos and unlabelled packets. Cleared away as much as I could and packed the rest neatly into boxes.

David has made good progress on the shed, but as we get to the bottoms of the piles we're finding a lot of stuff that has been damaged by damp. A whole box of plays ruined, also a box of art books. (We had a bonfire at dusk to burn them, "That's enough of your nonsense, Synge!" said David, flinging 'The Playboy of the Western World' onto the pyre. "And yours, Chekhov!" as 'Uncle Vanya' followed. Felt a bit surreal to be standing out there in the dark, burning books in the drizzle... I wish we'd thought to keep a video diary of this week...)

Ed cooked spaghetti for dinner, which we ate "at the fashionable hour of 9:40" as he described it. Great eating all these old family favourites -- I think it's mince and potatoes tomorrow...

October 12, 2008

Went for a run with David before breakfast. I played it safe with my ankle, doing six five minute repeats of four minutes running, one minute walking -- our winning formula on marathon day four years ago...

Another day, another mountain of crap to shift... Making inroads in the two small bedrooms and the tin shed. I wish I'd taken pictures before we started. We can see that progress is being made, but anyone visiting the house would still think it was stuffed to the rafters with junk.

Took a couple of trips to dump stuff at the recycling centre. I know it's not the most effective use of time, but it's a welcome break. Took the evening off to have Thanksgiving dinner as well. Ed cooked a delicious turkey breast roast, gravy, stuffing, yam, mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce... and pumpkin pie for dessert.

While he was cooking, I cleared the mountain of shit off the dining table, gave the carpet a good hoovering (Ed's friend Brenda has taken to scattering coffee beans around the place, and leaving little dishes of them in every room. She's also managed to destroy the livingroom curtains and sofa covers by washing and shrinking them in a misguided burst of domestic energy...) Set the table with decent places and silver, and sat down to a nice table for once. The kitchen table with those decrepit, mismatched chairs is a depressing place to eat...

October 11, 2008

Made further inroads into the shed, took two vanloads of recycling to the depot... and I haven't made a dent... I was hoping we could get all the complete crap cleared out so that Ed could assess and pack from what is left.

Picked up David from the airport at 4:30. While Ed cooked clam chowder for dinner, David and I tackled the two little bedrooms. I filled bag after bag with old receipts, ten year old bills, magazines, flyers, and miscellaneous junk. Cleared out a dresser of clothes that had been ravaged by mice. Kept at it until after midnight, when I started losing the will to live...

October 10, 2008

Had a short chat with Adam before he took the girls swimming. It sounds like everything is under control there, and apparently the baby hasn't even noticed I'm gone...

Spent the day clearing out the red shed, which is stuffed to the rafters with junk. It's slow going, as you need to sort through each box as things are all jumbled together -- tourist leaflets, family photos, receipts, diaries, magazines, pocket watches, an ancient handgun... Everything is crawling with spiders, and the bottom boxes are falling apart from damp. Sorted things into four piles -- keep, recycle, chuck, and goodwill. Didn't make much of a dent... (I hope it picks up once Dave arrives tomorrow...

Went for dinner at the Thai restaurant in Orchard Plaza. It's been around for years (I remember mum telling me about it) but I'd never eaten there. Pretty good food...

October 9, 2008

My taxi got me to Heathrow with time to spare. I sat reading until my gate was announced, then proceeded in a leisurely fashion to my boarding call. Read the paper, watched the films, chewed my meal, sipped my wine rather than knocking it back in three quick gulps. Very unusual... It's been years since I've travelled anywhere without the kids. In fact, this is the first time I'll be away from either of them for longer than one night...

The trans-Atlantic flight was quite turbulent. The Portuguese-Canadian grandmother next to me would cross herself, close her eyes and mouth prayers each time the bouncing started up. I preferred the dash-8 connection to Kelowna, even though it's like travelling inside an angry hornet. It was about three degrees inside the plane -- you could see your breath -- which made me wonder how well pressurised it actually was. Although we never seemed to get all that high above the mountain peaks, so perhaps it's not an issue?

Dad was waiting in the arrivals lounge. We headed back to the house to drop off bags and have a beer, then went to the White Spot for dinner: a round of margaritas, chicken quesadilla with salad for me; turkey dinner for him, a half litre of pinot noir. I was pretty tired by the time we got home again -- the ground kept doing that rushing up to meet me thing -- and went to bed soon after. Feels like I never left Kelowna...

October 8, 2008

We've ordered some bookshelves for the livingroom that will arrive on Saturday. Adam has arranged for our carpenter friend Brian to help him put them up, but there's a lot of crap that needs shifting around in readiness. We emptied out the crappy IKEA wall unit that we'll be getting rid of, and shifted all the shit from it into storage bags and boxes. Adam also humped all the boxes of books from the garage to the top floor landing.

Had a good session on the keyboard with Nova this evening. I wanted to ensure that she's familiar enough with this week's song to be able to practice on her own. Adam can't read music, and never had a music lesson in his life. It seems a strange omission for a nice, middle-class Jewish boy whose parents invested so much money on his education and had such ambitions for him.

Nova and I read fifteen chapters of Dial-a-Ghost, finishing the whole book before bed. We usually read just one or two, but it was so exciting that I didn't want to leave either of us cliffhanging while I was in Canada.

It was after nine by the time Nova was in bed and Adam back from football, and we ordered a pizza for dinner. Finally won a piano stool on e-Bay. I've been bidding on a particular style, with a tufted black leather seat and storage box in the lid. My maximum bid of £27 kept getting pipped in the final couple of hours, but I managed to get this one for just £11...

October 7, 2008

Started off upstairs, shifting to the bedroom at lunch time when Lyra got back from her music class. She's so funny... she's still refusing to say "daddy". It goes like this:

Andrea: "What's my name?"
Lyra: "Mummy!"
Andrea: "And who's that?" (pointing to Nova)
Lyra: "Sis-sis!!"
Andrea: "And who's that?" (pointing to Adam)
Lyra: "Mummy!!!"

I think she enjoying winding Adam up... It reminds me of something Nova used to do. When she was three or four, she'd say to me, "Mummy, I want to tell you a secret!" She'd put her lips to my ear, and... nothing... "You'll have to whisper louder, Nova." "Okay," she'd say, put her lips to my ear, and... nothing... "Did you hear that, mummy?" she'd ask. She must have done it a hundred times, and I never figured out if it was a practical joke, or if she didn't realise that you have to use air to whisper or what...

October 6, 2008

Another website catastrophe at work... This time it's a problem with one of the databases. For the past year, people have been making online submissions to win an award we'll be presenting in December. Last Friday, it was discovered that the database has been rejecting some submissions without people noticing. The entry deadline is today, shortlisting is meant to start tomorrow, and the team who are managing the awards are in a state.

My team hasn't done anything wrong -- we don't update the database so there's no reason we would have known that entries were being lost -- but we have overall responsibility for the website, and manage the supplier who built it, so it's up to us to resolve the problem.

I felt like hiding under my desk... When it became apparent by lunch that there was no way to determine who submitted the missing entries so that they could be contacted, it fell to me to break the bad news. The woman was pretty upset, and raged at me for several minutes. I wasn't particularly upset by it (I had absolutely nothing to do with the project) but it is unsettling to be yelled at. I realised that I haven't been yelled at in years, aside from Adam of course, and that doesn't really count...

I'm bidding on piano stools on e-Bay at the moment. I want to get Nova sitting correctly at the keyboard, and also want somewhere to store her music where Lyra can't get at it. I've lost out on three so far that have gone above my maximum price, but I'll keep trying until I get one...

October 4, 2008

Evelyn came round for a sleepover with Nova. Rather than shift Lyra into our room, we decided to have the girls sleep in the flat. While they were eating dinner, I shifted toys and art supplies downstairs, arranged a shelf of Nova's books, set out bowls of Goldfish crackers, and hung a sign on the door saying "Nova and Evelyn's hideaway." They were thrilled with it, and came up half an hour later with thankyou cards they'd made me.

Cooked a lovely meal for Adam and me -- rosemary bruschetta, scallops with squid ink spaghetti, and the roquefort trifle, which was absolutely delicious. I was struck by how all the elements -- pear purée, roquefort mousse, walnut biscuit and pear relish -- balanced one another. While each was delicious on its own, together they were amazing.

October 3, 2008

Had my first cooking lesson with Pete. He wanted to make Thai yellow seafood curry, so I had him bring round the salmon and vegetables, while I provided the spices and sauces. It was interesting watching a relative novice tackle a recipe. It was obvious he hadn't done much chopping or peeling -- at times the ingredients seemed to be actively resisting him. I had to counter his nervousness of letting things boil, and impatience for results, but he turned out a very passable curry in the end.

I'm making my first foray into the French Laundry Cookbook this weekend. I'm tackling the roquefort trifle. It looks like one of the easiest recipes, and one that doesn't require specialist equipment I don't have.

Nova chose "Enchanted" for movie night, because "daddy hasn't even seen it yet!" He still hasn't, as he managed to sleep through most of it...

October 2, 2008

October 1, 2008

Adam came into town to meet me after work. We walked into Chinatown and picked up a few cooking ingredients -- big soy sauce, fish sauce, gochichan, wonton wrappers -- that you can't get (or would pay a fortune for) at Waitrose. Had an early dinner at the Baoxi Inn, a new dumpling house that I've read a good review of.

When we were in Shanghai in 1987, the food on offer was still pretty excrable. We'd managed to wangle our way into a Chinese (ie, non-tourist) hotel, which wasn't easy to do. Each morning, we'd go down to the cavernous "dining room" for breakfast, where a surly waitress would slam a bowl with a pair of dumplings in front of us. About the size and consistency of hockey pucks, half covered in tepid, greasy broth, these were "baoxi". Or sometimes "jaoxi", though it wasn't easy to tell what the difference was.

Nothing we ordered bore any resemblance to those Shanghai breakfast dumplings. We started with fluffy steamed pork buns, followed by some wonton-style dumplings, and bowls of dan dan noodles. A Szechuan speciality, they were spicy and delectable -- one of those dishes that you'd get a hankering for and make a special trip to Chinatown to satisfy. Service was quick and friendly, though when Adam asked what the noodles were seasoned with the waitress said something like, "Noodles! Hot! More noodles? Too hot? Noodles!" until he gave up rephrasing the question.

Nova had her first piano lesson with Anita today. I forgot to put her music book in the bookbag, so they had to improvise. Even so, we got back far more comments and encouragement than the previous guy gave her over the whole year.