Margaritas, Monday

Every now and then, when there's a special something to celebrate, you should take an evening walk down the Southbank.

Through the fairy lit trees, and alongside the sleeping Thames; smothered in hats, coats and scarves,  we stroll amongst the commuters and theatre goers.

Then we stop at a stack of Mexican themed shipping containers, because it's margarita Monday don't you know.

Sitting in our iron box, we look out across the river, and toast five years in this great city of London.

Caffeinated analysis, Friday.

This is how Friday started. A picture perfect flat white at my favourite coffee haunt in London along with a bunch of index cards signalling the start of my thematic analysis.

It's getting serious now. The first draft deadline is fifteen days and 10,000 words away.

Another flat white please barista..

Christmas, already.

 

You know it's Christmas when the Quality Streets are on the table. And so begin the arguments about which are the rubbish flavours. And the endless boxes and jars with only the mint ones left.

Slaying a dinosaur

We get some weird and wonderful things in our vege boxes. I'm not completely sold on this guy who my housemate and I have nicknamed 'the dinosaur'.

Our conversation last week went a bit like this:

"What are you doing with your dinosaur this week?"

"I'm making dinosaur cheese. What about you?"

"I'm thinking I'll soup my dinosaur so I don't have to actually chew his scales".

Franconia family dinner, Sunday.

Recently we've gotten into the habit of having Sunday night Franconia family dinners. Each lady takes a turn to cook up something fabulous and we sit around and de-brief the weekend, and prepare for the week ahead. Giggles and wine are mandatory.

Okonomiyaki, tonight.

This food has so many memories for me.

Night after night in Japan, we'd frequent our local, with it's cheese and corn combo. It was one of the first restaurants I went to in Suzu. I took my family there when they visited, had my farewell party there; and went back both times I found myself in Suzu again.

Now every time I'm back in New Zealand, we cook up a batch of Okonomiyaki on the barbecue.

Fortunately even in times when you don't have cheese and corn 100 metres down the road, it's only a matter of a few stops on the Northern Line away.

Wellcome, today.

Every Friday I spend the day in a quiet corner of the Wellcome library.

I get to be silent. Alone with just my notes, drafts, interviews, and a few thousand medical books for company.

It's lovely.

Autumn, tonight.

The trees on our road are ablaze at the moment.

Croissants, canned.

Who knew that you could get croissants in a can. Who thinks of this stuff? Pastry in a can.

You open up the can, and a roll of pastry comes out, all pre-cut into little triangles which you just roll and bake in the oven.

The fact that they tasted completely pants is an aside to me. They came IN A CAN!

Country, today

One of the Franconia ladies has moved to the countryside. We visited her perfect little house on the weekend and got our yearly dose of tweed.

Canada, today.

My housemate came home from Canada and brought us back possibly the most magnificent cookie of all time. I totally love these bad boys.

Childhood, today

Putting fun back into drinks. 

I'd truly forgotten just how great a coke float is. Adding the coke in incremental amounts to ensure the ice cream didn't erupt all over the table kept me occupied for a good twenty minutes.

Cooked, today.

So this is what happens when the veggie box gets cooked.

Prohibition, London style.

Saturday night saw us head to a hall somewhere near Kings Cross, where we drank gin cocktails out of tea cups and attempted the Charleston.

Nature, today.

As a way of welcoming winter, I've started ordering a weekly fruit and vegetable box (with some eggs thrown in for good measure). Once a week a box of organic joy arrives on the doorstep.

 Here's today's surprise all the way from nature.