November 2008
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Rosanne
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Sisters...
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Croc hound
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On my bike
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Concentrating
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Cuddle with mum
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Happy again
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November 30, 2008A bit hungover this morning, and regretting some of the stuff I'd said. I think I was getting into grandiose. Oh well, let's hope the rest of our guests are in the same boat... Fennel soup for lunch, then Adam and Nova headed off for the school treasure hunt. It was a cold,wet afternoon -- what Adam calls emigrating weather -- and the outing seems to have given Nova laryngitis. Made toad in the hole for dinner. I've always been intrigued by
the name, and have been meaning to try it. Unfortunately, I think
I'll have to add toad onto the list of things I can't eat. Like
fish and chips it is too rich for my increasingly intolerant digestive
system. Had to spend a couple of hours on the sofa recuperating
afterwards... |
November 29, 2008Adam had an appointment first thing, so we arranged that I'd drop the girls with Beulah then go to the supermarket. Lyra sussed something was up, and it took me a half hour to extricate myself. After the groceries, I popped into the fabric warehouse next door to pick up supplies for Nova's Christmas concert costume. She came home from school this week with sixteen (I do not exaggerate) of elaborate instructions on how to make authentic medieval clothing. The head teacher has written the medieval passion play the kids are putting on, and I think she may have lost the plot a bit. I find the instructions a bit daunting and I'm reasonably proficient with a sewing machine. Spent the afternoon on dinner party preparations. The girls went
round to Pasc's for a few hours, which was a help. People arrived
about eight, and stayed until past one. The food turned out really
well, especially the pork, which was delicious. Barbados cream is
a recent discovery -- mix equal quantities of Greek yogurt and cream
and beat together well. Sprinkle the top with a thick layer of brown
sugar and leave it to sit for several hours in the fridge. The way
it melds together is really something special... |
November 28, 2008Spent the day Christmas shopping. Adam's adida's work hasn't kicked off yet, so he offered to spend the day with Lyra while I was in town. Set off after breakfast, and headed to Covent Garden first. There are some quirky little toy shops in the market where I picked up things for the kids, and went to Stanfords travel shop for books as well. Swung through Chinatown, stopping briefly for a bowl of dandan noodles, then made my way up Regents Street. As well as Christmas presents, I was also looking for a winter coat for myself. Must have tried on twenty or thirty before I found one I liked at Marks and Spencer: long, black, corduroy, single breasted, interesting buttons... Home about 4:30 after a satisfying day's shopping. We can make
up the canada parcels now... Once the kids were down, we spent an hour planning the menu for
tomorrow's dinner party for eight. I was leaning toward moussaka
with lemon potatoes, but Adam is of the view that they don't go
together... Settled on pork braised in cider with rosti potatoes
instead, followed by plums poached in red wine with barbados cream. |
November 27, 2008Nova went to the junior school disco this evening. She skipped art class to have time to do herself up. Nova's always had a great sense of personal style, and tonight's outfit was one of her finest efforts: a psychadelic singlet over a royal blue long-sleeved teeshirt, denim mini-skirt, lilac furry gilet, metallic silver tights, purple sequinned shoes. She had me do her hair in a high ponytail, applied a coat of lipgloss and pronounced herself ready. I walked her up there, she dashed indoors and that was that until it was time to pick her up a couple of hours later. Shades of things to come... Adam and I went for dinner at a new neighbourhood Italian restaurant
that has opened in Archway. Very crowded for a weeknight in Archway,
and very good value as well. The food was good -- not great -- though
their tiramisu could have held its head up (if tiramisus had heads...)
anywhere. |
November 26, 2008Went from meeting to meeting to meeting today... My job share is on holiday this week, and it's difficult to do much more than respond to all the emails and cover the meetings when there's only one of us. Walked into Covent Garden after work for a spot of Christmas shopping.
Hannukah is quite late this year -- I think we're celebrating on
the 21 December -- and isn't the same spur to action it often is.
The last Canada posting date is looming though... |
November 25, 2008Lyra was up at 2am, and then again at 6:30 having done a "poo poo"... She's much more particular about her physical comfort than Nova was, and always asks to have her nappy changed, nose wiped, or hands washed. She can't bear having holes in the toes of her pyjamas or socks either... Margo's Christmas parcel arrived this afternoon, a timely reminder
for me to get off my ass and do some Christmas shopping...;-) |
November 24, 2008Slept with ear plugs last night, which helped muffle Adam's coughing. It still woke me up, but I seemed able to settle again more easily. Although maybe that was down to the exhaustion from the previous night... I had t ime for a mini yoga session before got on with my morning duties, and then headed into the office. Had a long meeting with my new line manager. We took her through everything my team is responsible for from the strategic level to the day-to-day maintenance of the website. She doesn't seem to appreciate the magnitude of the site, or the volume of content that we're managing, so I hope this will help. Adam is in Germany, which always means "girls' sleepover"
with Nova. Instead of rousting her out of her bunk when I went to
bed, I simply settled her in our room. Came to bed at eleven to
discover she'd dragged all the blankets off our bed and was sleeping
half on the floor, half on Adam's bedside table... |
November 23, 2008Rotten night's sleep, which came to an abrupt end when Lyra woke up. Sitting in the freezing living room watching Jungle Book at 4:30am... When the sun came up a few hours later I discovered it had snowed in the night. Lyra was tired and stroppy all morning, and we had a major incident getting her into the pushchair so Adam could take the girls to Sunday school. It took both of us to wrestle her into her coat, and force her into the buggy. She was completely hysterical, screaming and thrashing about. I yelled at her to "SHUT UP!" which quieted her for a few seconds -- just the shock of it I think. Honestly, it scared poor Nova more than it did Lyra... Had the Franklyns round for tea before we sat down to dinner. Pot roasted brisket and veg. I think a good recipe in there, but I didn't execute it properly this time. Too much cooking water I think... It met with Nova's approval at any rate. Meat generally does... Headed to the gym for a quick swim and a sauna, and a little personal
time. I love Lyra to bits, but she can be exhausting. Picked up
my copy of Toddler Taming before bed. I bought it when Nova was
two, but never cracked the spine. I have a feeling it will be pretty
well thumbed by the time Lyra hits school age... |
November 22, 2008Went for a good run this morning, adding an extra little loop to my Highgate Woods circuit. At fat club (I mean "neighbourly club") my weight was down a half a pound. Slow but steady progress at the moment, with the emphasis on the slow... Down to the farmers market (kid-free this time), where I picked up an array of root veg, two sea bream and a rolled brisket that I currently have no idea how to cook... Waitrose was a family outing, and quite good fun. Nova is a marvellous help in the supermarket, dashing about gathering what we need. She's a bit prone to be seduced by special offers, to wit a £6 "luxury" fruit cake. Started this evening's dinner with a round of Scarlett O'Hara's, which is a great cocktail for anyone who finds themselves with a surfeit of Southern Comfort. Dinner was fillets of sea bream on a bed of chickpeas with an unseasonal tomato salad, and no-bake chocolate slice for dessert (froze the rest as Christmas baking). Watched True Grit afterwards. I've done a complete turnaround when
it comes to John Wayne, who I previously held in very low regard,
an opinion was based mainly on his right-wing politics. |
November 21, 2008Another very cold day... Much too cold for the playground, so Lyra and I ended up at the Jackson's Lane playgroup. There were about ten kids this time, ranging in age from one and a half to four years old. Lyra seemed to have a good time, and once again proved able to hold her ground. She successfully repelled an enormous three year old called Romeo who was interested in her play tape measure, and managed to snaffle the lion's share of the fruit plate as well. She's certainly not backward about coming forward as they say in this country... Adam is sick. He's been in decline for a few days now, and today produced an unsightly blob of canary yellow mucus, which was quite alarming. I thought perhaps it had been coloured by his decongestion medication, but apparently it's a sign of sinus infection. He took the girls for their weekly swim anyway, muttering darkly that he was sure to catch pneumonia going to the swimming baths in his condition. (Just to set his mind at ease, I did a little surfing and discovered that it's a complete that getting wet makes people catch cold. In fact, if anything, going swimming with a cold is good for you, as it can help clear the sinuses and lower body temperature if you have a fever.)S Made ribollita for dinner, which turned out to be a bit too challenging for the girls with all that cabbage. I thought they might like the soggy bread bits... I was disappointed they didn't like the dessert either, which was puff pastry folded strudel-style around the remains of a jar of mincemeat and some pieces of softened apple. The little ingrates... In bed at 9:30 -- we're that wiped out after the week we've had... |
November 20, 2008Took Lyra up to school without the pushchair this morning. A necessity really -- it might have been necessary to snap her spine to get her into it. She has very strong views on things like pushchairs and footwear and whether her coat should be zipped. I avoid those battles I can -- she's a formidable opponent -- but occasionally do have to pin her to the carpet and force clothing onto her. After we dropped Nova off, we headed down to Mitsuko's for a baby
coffee morning. There were six babies there in total, so it was
a pretty lively affair. Lyra certainly takes no nonsense from other
babies. When little Dimitrios tried to snatch a shaker from her,
Lyra planted her feet and held on tight. The tug of war ended with
Dimi falling on his bottom, toyless. Nova would have just handed
the shaker over and turned her attention to something else. I respect
both approaches actually... |
November 19, 2008It was Nova's class assembly this morning. On Monday evening she unexpectedly announced that she would be playing the piano in the assembly, as well as taking the lead role in a class production on Daniel in the lion's den. The production must have fallen by the wayside -- instead we were treated to a "rap" on Daniel, which involved a dreary introduction by the teacher followed by the class chanting out a few rambling pages of verse. Nova did perform two pieces, along with a number of other little pianists and violinists. She did a excellent job, and even though she transposed the left hand of "Sing Bird, Sing" to another key it still managed to sound quite jaunty. Did my first meeting from home before travelling in to the office.
Unfortunately, the cavity wall insulation man turned up half way
through, and power drilled through the business planning session... |
November 18, 2008Went for a run first thing this morning. I'm glad I didn't check the weather first, as it was absolutely dire. Sheets of freezing gray sleet that sliced straight through your clothing... Worked from home, which unfortunately meant hours in conference calls today. Still, it beats sitting in the meetings themselves. At least you can discreetly do other work in the tedious bits...;-) Went for a swim with Adam late afternoon -- what a great way to wind up the working day. At dinner I served a cornmeal-apple crisp for dessert, from a recipe I'd found on the internet. I'm always on the lookout for recipes that use up " problem ingredients" that are cluttering the cupboard. Currently, these are:
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November 17, 2008Woke up early enough to put in a good yoga session before work. It takes about an hour and a half to do my full yoga routine. The first half hour is spent on breathing exercises, warm-up stretches and sun salutations, followed by forty-five minutes of asanas, and fifteen minutes cool-down and meditation. In my younger days, I'd get annoyed if I didn't have time for more than the warm-up, and would sometimes go straight to the asanas. With maturity, I've completely revised my thinking on that, though I do get a smug, non-yogic glow of satisfaction from standing on my head...;-) Adam cooked a lovely cavolo nero dish to accompany our steaks.
He first blanched it in boiling water then sauteed it with garlic
and fennel seeds. It was my top pick at the farmers market this
week, and would have cost three times as much if I'd bought it at
Waitrose... |
November 16, 2008Spent the morning preparing Thanksgiving lunch: nut roast (quite labour intensive, but came out nicely); slow-cooked red cabbage and apple, roast potatoes, green beans. We have a tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving with Ben and Michaela (who's half American) and their girls, and take turns hosting. Another tradition is how late they always are when it's their turn to come to us. This year the North Circular was to blame. A section of it was closed, which resulted in a massive detour, and them arriving two hours later than scheduled. They'd somehow managed to burn out their clutch, and needed to arrange a roadside repair visit before we could sit down to eat. They weren't sure how they were going to get home, though in the
end decided to gamble on the clutch making it. So all in all, they
spent five hours travelling 60 miles (round trip) for a three hour
visit. Nightmare... |
November 15, 2008Went for a run round Highgate Woods before my weigh in with Pasc. I seem to be getting back on track, and was down a few pounds from last week. Checked out the local farmer's market this morning. Lyra had some sort of bee in her bonnet, and shrieked like a car alarm as we wheeled her around the stalls. Adam eventually took her off to the playground while Nova and I did the shopping. We need quite a few vegetables for tomorrow's Thanksgiving lunch. Next week I'd like to come without a shopping list and just buy what tempts me, then build a menu plan round that. Dinner tonight was a rustic lentil pasta, which was absolutely
delicious. One of those dishes that makes you think, "Where
have you been all my life?" |
November 14, 2008Happy birthday Wade -- 39 today, you'll be joining us in the 40s next year! I called Wade at work to wish him happy birthday and check that his present arrived okay. As always, there were constant interruptions so he could deal with customers and ring in sales. Sounds like he's raking in the money, but he assures me it was uncharacteristically busy...;-) For movie night we watched Local Hero (my choice). I love that
movied. Adam to sleep straight away -- his usual MO -- but I think
Nova enjoyed it. She was able to paraphrase it back to me reasonably
well at any rate... |
November 13, 2008Coffee with Trish this morning. She's started teaching English classes at Holloway prison in the last few months, which she finds very challenging but also inspiring. Up until a few weeks ago, only prisoners on remand could watch television all day, while those who'd been sentenced were limited to set hours. It was proving a difficult distinction to manage and they've changed the rules so that everyone can watch TV all day. This has had a huge impact on class attendance. Where she had ten or twelve students a class, she now has one or two (or none) turning up. I know this would likely be unworkable, but it's occurred to me
before that rather than sentencing people to a number of months
or years, you could sentence them to complete academic or vocational
training. "Young man, I'm sentencing you the time in jail needed
to complete your high school equivalency test AND qualify as a plumber's
assistant." Of course, you wouldn't take this approach with
a Geoffrey Dahmer, but it might make sense for a large number of
people who end up in prison... |
November 12, 2008Went to a womens' networking event this evening, with a couple of colleagues from work. The title of the seminar was "Success secrets of successful women". After a half hour or so sipping wine and scoffing canapés, we trouped into a big meeting room for a half hour presentation before breaking into groups to discuss topics like "Balancing home and work" and "improving your personal impact". The company putting on the event had commissioned some research that surveyed a number of women in senior positions, and selling the report was high on their agenda. They weren't keen to give away much, and the "success secrets" the did share were quite obvious:
All the same, it was an interesting evening, and made me realise
how rarely I find myself in groups that are entirely women. One
thing that struck me was the uninspiring list of women that those
surveyed held up as role models. Angela Merkel, Margaret Thatcher
and various other men in skirts. Made me realise how few inspiring
female role models there are -- Anita Roddick, Hillary Clinton,
Susan Sarandon, Arundhati Roy? No one that I'd really say, "Yes!
That's who I'd like to model myself after..." |
November 11, 2008Remembrance Day... It always strikes me as odd that it's not a statutary holiday in the UK. It seems that they of all countries should accord it that much importance. In the last few years, they've instituted a two minute silence at 11am in all public places. We observed it at work this year, at the end of which there was some incongruous cheering from the other end of the office... Ewa had made a big batch of spaghetti bolognese for the girls' dinner. There was enough left over that I was able to have a serving before dashing off to Nova's parent-teacher appointment. Her teacher, Mrs Glendinning wouldn't win any inspirational teacher awards, but she does seem very sweet and kind, if a bit vague. She's very taken with Nova, and particularly positive about her maths ability. Contrary to last year's report, she finds Nova confident, chatty and well-spoken, which is good to hear. Nova was keen to hear how it had gone when I returned. I said that
Mrs Glendinning had said all nice things about her, and that it
made me proud to be her mummy. "Yeah," Nova said, "imagine
how Cameron's mum Lynne must feel when it's her turn to go to parents'
evening?!" (According to Nova, Cameron is definitely the naughtiest
boy in class, and from what I see of him in the playground, assembly
etc, I can well believe it...) |
November 10, 2008Our new nanny Ewa started today. Aside from being Polish, she's quite different to Agata, but I'm confident we've made a good choice. Agata was serious and soft spoken, while Ewa seems much cheerier. I opened the door this evening to gales of laughter from upstairs -- she and Nova were joking around about something. I think Agata may have her beaten on the cooking front (she was a very good cook) but Ewa's bound to be better than Simonia. Adam is in Germany for the next two days, for the first of his
adidas' meetings. I feel a bit bad leaving Ewa to sink or swim without
one of us here, but it can't be helped... |
November 9, 2008Adam made a croissant run first thing, and that was breakfast, along with the rest of the apple muffins. Whether I ate too many pastries, or drank too much coffee, or both, I felt dreadful most of the afternoon, and spent as much of it as possible lying on the couch. Skipping dinner seemed to help... |
November 8, 2008Went for a little run around Highgate Woods first thing. I'm easing back in after that problem with my ankle, and took a walk break every five minutes. Needed one actually... I think I'm the least fit I've ever been. I've always taken it for granted that I could run 3 miles or swim a mile whenever it struck my fancy, but I think those days have passed... Bad weigh in this morning -- both of us will be paying the forfeit. Pasc was all for leaning again, but I think that defeats the purpose... Our friend Trevor from Vancouver is in London for a few days, and
we had him round for dinner. He's started up a company that's bidding
to administer one of the new generic top-level domains, and had
been in Egypt for the ICANN conference. I made that insanely good
chicken in sherry and vinegar with some green beans and potatoes
from the garden. Retired about 11pm, leaving the guys talking environmentalism
over the brandy. |
November 7, 2008Dug up our potato crop today. Lyra was happy as clam out in the veggie patch, digging away with her little trowel, or adding potatoes to the basket. When I tried garden with Nova at that age, I couldn't keep her interested for more than a minute. She'd be off down the stairs, or picking her way across the rockery... Bonfire night at the school. I fed the girls before swimming so we could set off as soon as they got back, with Lyra bundled up in multiple layers and stuffed into the "packpack". The weather forecast promised rain, but it turned out to be a mild,
clear night. Arrived in time to see the bonfire lit and the guy
go up in flames. Stood about drinking mulled wine and chatting with
other parents and let Nova run around with her friends. The fireworks
were impressive as always. Lyra seemed to enjoy them, christening
them "noisies". Good name for fireworks... |
November 6, 2008Went round for a coffee with Jemima this morning. Didn't get much socialising in -- most of our energy went on keeping the two babies from braining each other. They nearly came to blows over handbags. Rosa took a great interest in the little pink bag Lyra had brought, and when Jemima found Rosa a different little bag to distract her Lyra was frantic to get her hands on it. Left under a bit of a cloud... Harvested our apples this afternoon. A job that was a bit overdue -- much of the harvesting involved sorting through windfalls and rescuing the ones that weren't too bruised or chewed on. Lyra was a big help, putting apples into the bucket, and later washing them in the sink. She is a helpful little thing. She always puts her own pyjamas in the laundry basket when I get her dressed, and she surprised me by putting her grape stalk in the compost bin the other day. Attempted Agata's tomato soup for dinner tonight. "How is
it?" I asked Nova. "It's very good," she said before
adding, "but Agata's is superb!" |
November 5, 2008Commuter chaos on my journey home this evening. After sitting in the tunnel outside Camden for fifteen minutes, the conductor announced that the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line was suspended indefinitely because of a "person taken ill on a train at Archway". It's a rare week there isn't some problem. Often it's a suicide, or "person under a train". Apparently, 50 people a year kill themselves this way, but I suppose there must be incidents where the person survives. "Leaves on the line" is a regular excuse, as are "flooding", "signal failure", and "defective train"... Anyway our packed, rush-hour train was disgorged into Camden Station to make our way above ground. We weren't the first train evacuated, and the bus stops had crowds of a fifty or more people milling about. I struck off up Kentish Town Road, following the Northern Line route. There were so many people walking, you could hear their clomping feet above the noise of the traffic. With the Guy Fawkes fireworks going off all around us, it felt like something out of the Blitz... Took a long time to get through on the mobile phone, but eventually got ahold of Adam. He was enroute to the Arsenal match with his friend Sarah. Her husband Will was driving them, and once he'd dropped them off Will picked me up at Tufnell Park and drove me home. Lyra was long asleep by the time I arrived, but Nova was sitting
up with Agata, who'd treated the girls to a farewell restaurant
meal, which was very sweet of her. We gave her our little present
and the card Nova had made and said our goodbyes. She's been a terrific
nanny -- we're going to miss her... |
November 4, 2008Agata called in sick this morning. Or more accurately, she took carer's leave as her little girl was sick. We hadn't made any agreement with her about carer's leave, but it seemed easiest just to treat it as a sick day... Adam had already left for a meeting, so I called the office and took carer's leave myself. I took a half day and managed to fit four hours work in around Lyra's schedule. At least she seems to be feeling a bit better... She kicked off when I tried to take a phone call in the late afternooon. I left Nova to distract her as best she could, and took my call in the stairwell. When I returned ten minutes later, Nova was all quivery and tearful. "What's the matter, sweetie?" I asked. "I'm feeling a little stressed," she replied "at being left with a screaming, crying, punching-on-the-nose, ignorant baby!" Worked until about 10pm, then ordered pizza for dinner. Stayed
up half the night watching newcasters whiffle on about nothing while
they waited for states to declare. It became clear pretty early
that Obama was on course for a landslide. All the signs were pointing
that way, but I just couldn't let myself believe it. I must admit
I supported Hillary for the nomination, but Obama really has something.
America can be proud of itself today... |
November 3, 2008Nova has taken to giving me quizzes on the Lemony Snicket books we are reading. There are always thirteen questions, just as there are always thirteen chapters in the books. A sample:
Surprisingly, I generally manage to get more than half of these
right... |
November 2, 2008I was just washing up after breakfast, when Lyra came marching into the kitchen saying "Car! Car!" like a baby crow. "Do you want to watch your "Wheels on the Bus" video?" I guessed. "No-no-no-no-no!" Lyra insisted, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the stairs. "Car!" (Translation: "I want to go on an outing in the car, you nincompoop!" The boss had made her wishes clear, and we decided on an impromptu family outing to the zoo. But first we needed to decide what to do for lunch. "It's becoming a bit of a tradition to go to Harry Morgan's after the zoo," Adam said. "Can we break that tradition?" Nova wanted to know... There's always something worth seeing at the zoo... Today's highlight's included:
Nova and Fay put on a little concert for us this afternoon. I heard them downstairs mucking about on the keyboard. After a prolonged bout of quiet, they popped up to formally announce their concert and distribute tickets, which cost one pound. Our money bought us three pieces from each girl (Fay's were slightly more on the "experimental" side) and a few choruses of Jingle Bells. They knew they were onto a good thing, and soon returned announcing a special Christmas concert. Paid them in chocolate raisins for that one...;-) This evening, Adam and I sat down and worked out just how much
work we have to put in to keep our household ticking over -- paid
work, cooking, housework, childcare, the lot. It came out to about
150 hours a week, and it turns out I'm doing about 25 more of them.
Yet another discussion about how we can build some personal time
for me into our busy lives. I live in hope...;-) |
November 1, 2008Weekly weigh in with Pasc... She'd had an indulgent week, and leaned so far forward to record a quarter pound loss I thought she'd fall on her nose. I only managed a quarter pound as well... Took the girls for an outing to the Hampstead Heath playground. We were hoping to combine it with a visit to the new farmer's market they've started at the bottom of West Hill, but unfortunately it was closed this week. It was a bitterly cold day, so we didn't stay out too long. Poor Lyra was desperate to get out of the house, but I don't want to give her pneumonia. Speaking of pneumonia, we cancelled our visit to see Jane and her parents who are visiting. Since arriving in the UK, Al has been in hospital with pneumonia and we didn't want to compromise his health. After dinner this evening, Lyra started stripping off her clothes.
I helped her with the snaps on her vest but was less reluctant to
remove her nappy. There was no dissuading her though, and she wrestled
with the velcro fasteners until she managed to open it. "Yay!"
she said triumphantly, followed immediately by "Bath!"
We weren't planning on giving her a bath, as she'd had one with
Nova this morning, but she wasn't going to have her routine messed
with... |