Foodie heaven

I nipped out into the crisp sunshine this morning to Yasir Halim for croissants, feta boreks and lamb kibbes for our brunch and then we hopped on the 341 to the stalls of Exmouth Market. We filled our bags with sweet raisin bread, creamy gorgonzola, smelly brie that later stank up the bus on the way home, manchega, and strong Vietnamese coffee beans from the Ca Phe Vn stall. We paused in the cold sunshine for a stand-up lunch of hot chorizo, roasted red pepper and rocket baps from the Brindisa stall, then went to their shop further down the road and bought quince jelly, dried grapes still with their pips and stalks, chorizo and Spanish white Albarino Laxas wine.

We entered small independent bookshop Metropolitan hoping to browse an eclectic range of fiction and hoping to stumble across some unusual titles. We were disappointed to see the usual suspects lining their shelves. We withstood the awful country music blaring from the speakers long enough to grab (and buy!) a copy of Geling Yan's The Uninvited, about an unemployed factory worker who discovers that by posing as a journalist he can eat the finest cuisine but in so doing can also discover some deadly secrets about Beijing's corrupted underworld.

We caught the 341 to Newington Green Fish Shop for four meaty sea bass (all for just a tenner), and then caught the bus back to Green Lanes where we bought a whole chicken and free range eggs from Baldwins and vine tomatoes, clementines, lemons, fennel and parsley from a Turkish grocery. We dumped our bags off at home then strolled out again, this time across Finsbury Park where we basked under the chilly sunshine and russet red and golden yellow Autumnal leaves, thinking how lovely the park now looks and feels with its busy children's play areas, its basketball and football areas, its tennis courts and trendy wooden cafe. Then we took a detour through Stroud Green admiring the houses and liking the diverse area enough to pause in front of the estate agents' windows.

Onto our favourite Happening Bakery by the tube station where we stocked up on freshly baked sesame and plain bagels, as well as a couple of apple strudel slices for dessert later. And then home, where we snacked on raisin bread and brie, and drank Earl Grey loose leaf tea with cornflowers from Soho's Algerian Coffee Shop and watched horror movie The Pulse, about Japanese teenagers in Tokyo investigating a series of suicides linked to a webcam that promises visitors the chance to interact with the souls of the dead.

For dinner we're eating sea bass steamed in the oven with fennel, parsley and lemons, accompanied by sauted potatoes and tomato salad; with our apple strudels for dessert. I can't wait.

How I love the weekends. And it's still only Saturday!