A day in Wembley

My mum wanted to buy some new saris and gold jewellery this week, so I accompanied her to Wembley in northwest London. The highlight of my day was a delicious lunch at the bustling Indian vegetarian restaurant Sakonis.

Tweet, tweet

We had a lovely weekend, the highlight of which was going out for a Turkish lunch with six of us. In lieu of a proper weekend post (aside from the wonderful lunch, we did little else but play and relax at home), here are some recent Tweets:

• Cauliflower cheese for dinner tonight. Comfort food of the highest order.
• Happy wedding anniversary, Mum and Dad! I love you both xxx
• Homemade potato salad with spring onions, chives, parsley and mayo for lunch today.
• When M is home, Little P can never get enough of him. She's his little shadow which he loves, but he then gets worn out from no down time.
• I can never get bored of baklava. Yum.
• Downpour and soaking aside, it was a lovely day with a Turkish lunch for six.
• I was a good host and lent my umbrella to a guest and then got stuck in a torrential downpour. I was soaked, of course.
• I have to collect Little Planet from daycare soon and it's not only pouring with rain but I hear thunder too. And no car. Help!
• M and I have both taken today, Friday, off work so we're heading into town for a day of fun :-)
• This morning Lil P woke up so I called out "Hello" & opened her door. She shouted at me "No, go away Mummy, it's Daddy's turn to say Hello!"
• Little P is experiencing her first celebrity crush: Carrie & David Grant from CBeebies' Pop Shop. She gets excited & shy by turns. So sweet! (Photo above)
  
• The sheer size of A Suitable Boy is proving a little intimidating. I'm still (slowly) reading it but also dipping into A Married Woman by Manju Kapur (re-reading it actually) and Anita Desai's Fasting, Feasting.
• Saw Toy Story 3. Exhilarating, funny, emotional. Brilliant!
• Uh oh, storyline for one of my major characters has changed completely. Time for a major reworking. All good tho as the story is stronger.
• Fancied simple dal and rice for lunch today. So that's what I'm cooking.
• Am beginning to get so lost in my writing that I forget that I have to pick up Little Planet. I need to set the alarm for 5.15pm each day.
• Just started to read Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy. Brilliant! I can't believe I've never read it before - a veritable literary soap opera.
• Little Planet woke up this morning wanting Feta cheese with her Cheerios.
• Squirrels eating my Gerberas - buds and all. Googled a solution & laid down red chilli flakes all around the plant. Seems to be working.
• I love the rain now that I've got green fingers.

Friday on my mind

After working very long hours this week, M deserved a day off today. And, of course, I couldn't resist joining him for a day out. I dropped Little Planet off at daycare while M went out on a run. Then we headed into Covent Garden, where we popped into the new Apple store in the Piazza to ogle, and I changed the size of UGG slippers Little Planet had bought me (with the help of her daddy) for my birthday the other week:

Then we breakfasted at Canela, where we found ourselves discussing toddler eating habits with parents of another two year old at a neighbouring table (if both our two year olds are given a sandwich, they will remove the bread, eat the ham then the cheese then lick off the butter then finally resign themselves to eating the bread, if they can be bothered; if you give them bread on its own though, then they will eat it, maybe):


We went to the Royal Academy Of Arts on Piccadilly to view the Sargent And The Sea exhibition. The place was heaving with old age pensioners so we scooted and dodged our way around. Many of the paintings were incredibly expressive and brooding, especially my two favourites Fisherwomen Returning, 1877 and Fishing Boats, 1878. And we couldn't ignore the infamous 2010 Summer Exhibition, where I was blown away by a monumental painting by Anselm Kiefer (photo below) and, most especially, David Hockney's stupendously life-affirming panoramic photos of 25 trees on a road in Bridlington, Yorkshire, taken in the Spring, Summer and Winter. It closes next week, so do hurry and see it if you can:


Afterwards, we were hungry for lunch, but we wanted first to pop into HMV to buy both Madagascar animated movies for Little Planet. Though her attention span is still short, she is beginning to engage with longer movies now and last week happily watched, on and off and in between playing sessions, the animated movie Happy Feet - she can even narrate bits of the plot: "Happy Feet was dancing and then a shark came and tried to eat him, then he fell down"! She can watch one of the Madagascar films this weekend, in between entertaining yet more house guests.

For lunch, we went to the restaurant at Mitsukoshi - one of my favourite places to eat a Japanese lunch. M ate pork cutlet with miso, salad and pickles. I had a delicious bowl of rice topped with salmon sashimi and spring onions, plus cold buckwheat noodles in broth and pickles. For dessert, M had a fresh fruit salad and I had a homemade fruit cocktail with citrus jelly alongside a creme caramel made with brown sugar. I was obviously very greedy but am experiencing no guilt whatsoever:


I went into the JP Books store to buy Ku:nel. I love this chic Japanese lifestyle magazine, mainly for its food photography but also for its lifestyle shots:



We stocked up on provisions from the bustling, ever popular Japan Centre next door...

... before heading home so M could do a conference call with a client at 4pm. We'll collect Little Planet together soon (though its pouring with rain!!) and then, after her bedtime at 7pm, M will make tempura of sweet potatoes and king prawns. Can't wait.

Slow cooked

M has been working late all this week, eating at the office and not coming home until after 10pm each night. So I am left cooking for one. This week, I decided to make up a large batch of slow-cooked tomato and olive sauce for pasta - one of the advantages of working from home as I can leave pots simmering on the hob for hours while I work upstairs.

Slow-cooked tomato and olive sauce for pasta
Serves 4

In a heavy-based saucepan*, gently fry a large handful of chopped pancetta in olive oil until nearly crisp. Stir in four minced cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of red chilli flakes, a tablespoon of mixed dried herbs and two large handfuls of chopped and pitted black or green olives. Make sure the heat is low and stir for a few minutes until the garlic releases its aroma. Add two 400g tins of plum tomatoes, a tablespoon of tomato puree, a cup of roasted cherry tomatoes** and a teaspoon of salt. Stir well, bring mixture to the boil, then turn the heat right down, put a lid on ajar and simmer for two or three hours, checking and stirring the mixture periodically.

* I used a Le Creuset cast iron casserole.
** After we'd make roast chicken at the weekend, we put a tray of cherry tomatoes on the vine topped with herbs fresh from the garden into the still hot oven and left it overnight so the tomatoes slow-roasted as the oven cooled down.

Yesterday, I fancied dal for lunch. The recipe couldn't be simpler and it simmered away for an hour as I worked.

Simple dal
Serves 6

In a saucepan, gently fry in olive oil a chopped small onion and two cloves of minced garlic. When the onion and garlic mixture has softened, add a teaspoon each of ground coriander, ground cumin, ground turmeric, salt and half a teaspoon of red chilli flakes. Stir on a low heat for a minute then add four generous handfuls of red lentils. Fry together for a few minutes then add 1.5 litres of water. Bring to the boil then cover ajar and simmer on a very low heat for 45 mins to 1 hour.

Housebound

We wanted to wind completely down this weekend, after two weeks of much activity and many house guests. So the three of us stayed at home and chilled out (well, as much as any parent of an energetic and talkative toddler can "chill out"!).

Mr Planet baked cakes:

He also made watermelon and feta cheese salad with basil leaves for lunch:

Which Little Planet ate whilst soaking her weary (!) feet in a bowl of soapy water (her choice):

Little Planet played with her toys and enjoyed painting:

Whilst I planted some new flowers and plants in our garden:



I hope you all had good weekends too!

Happy birthday to me

It's been a busy few weeks since my last post. Little Planet has had two weeks off daycare so M and I took the week off to spend time with her last week, and this week her two Grandmas have the privilege of her sweet and energetic company.

Time with her has meant: numerous visits to the park - a variety of local parks plus Coram's Fields and Regent's Park; a visit to the zoo; many lunches out including Carluccio's at Russell Square and Monkey Nuts closer to home in Crouch End; a couple of baby and toddler singing classes; a haircut; a housewarming party; our house full of guests - family and friends from Romania, Germany as well as from the outer reaches (i.e. outside of London) of the UK - each one of them playmates for Little Planet.

It was also my birthday this week - on Tuesday. M and I took the day off work (which for me means a day not writing) while the Grandmas looked after Little Planet. We began the day with breakfast at the Serpentine Pavilion.

A wander through the wondrous Wolfgang Tillmans photographic show.

A stroll through Hyde Park and down to the V&A for a wander round the magnificent new medieval and renaissance galleries.



To Soho for delicious, flavourful tempura and udon noodles at the charming Koya on Frith Street.

Followed by coffee and pastel de nata at Fernandez & Wells on Beak Street.

Then home in the late afternoon to celebrate with Little Planet and family. Cutsey cake courtesy of Little Planet ;-) via her didi-ma.

The next day, yesterday, M returned to work and I went to the British Library to write (I'm a member). We met up in Marylebone for dinner that night at Dinings for sublime and exquisite sushi and Japanese tapas.

My favourite presents were a pair of UGG slippers from Little Planet (thanks M!), an excellent Olympus E-PL1 compact camera from M which I can't wait to experiment with, and loads of potted plants and flowers from my mum.

A lovely birthday and a wonderful few days with Little Planet, who has been making us laugh with her toddler conversations and antics. At nearly 2.2 years old, she speaks in full sentences and it's amazing (and delightful) to hear. Here are some excerpts:

• We're all in the living room reading, playing and listening to Portuguese singer Mariza's soulful and often mournful fado on the iTouch. Little Planet looks up from her playing and states, "That lady is really sad. She wants her teddy."
  
  
• M is on the floor reading the paper whilst Little Planet is pretending to cut his hair. "I'm cutting your hair, Daddy. Do you want it curly wurly?"
  
  
• We're in Regent's Park and Little Planet is dozing off in her buggy. M and I are chatting away when suddenly a little voice pipes out with alacrity: "Don't talk! I'm trying to sleep!" Thereafter we're all whispers until she falls asleep.
  
  
• Little Planet is eating her dinner in the kitchen when a dog starts barking in a distant garden. She stops eating, gesticulates towards the garden and shouts, "Shush doggy! I'm having my dinner!"
  
  
• This is less about conversation and more about action. We're at a housewarming party where a little boy the same age as Little Planet starts pushing her and pulling her hair and grasping at her shoes. Rather than cry, she simply looks over at us with a quizzical look on her face that seems to say, "What the hell is this boy doing?!" Fortunately his mother pulled him away before we needed to.
  
  
• She's fallen down in the park and quite badly bloodied up both her knees. Her Grandma rushes towards her in alarm but she gets herself up and glowers at her: "I'm fine! I'm fine!" and she never cries.
  
  
• A phone conversation she has on her pretend mobile phone: "Oh, yes, it's Little Planet here." Pause. "Yes." Pause while nodding her head. "Yes." Another pause then "Okay bye now, I have to go pack the car." Then she gets her play keys out of the toy box, goes to the washing machine and fiddles the key in some bolt or the other, then calls back to me, "I'm packing the car now." Pause, then "Oh, I've forgotten my shopping list." She finds a piece of paper in her toy box and returns to her "car". "That's better now. See you soon, Mummy! I'll text you when I get there."
  
  
• She's woken up from a long sleep (12 hours of blissful 7pm to 7am sleep). As I open the door, she says, "Good morning. I've had a nice nap and I feel fresh."
  

Okay, back to work. Until next time...

Mid-week interlude

A break for lunch today - a delicious Byron burger, fries and freshly-squeezed lemonade in Islington.

Butterfly sun hat for Little Planet from Green Baby next door - the store we virtually lived at when Little Planet was a baby.

Organic baby creams also from Green Baby.

Back home to work. Having completed detailed outlines for the plot, sub plots, characters, setting and structure, I am now working on mapping out the novel's scenes.

Homemade tonkatsu and carrot and daikon pickles for dinner tonight when M returns home. And the planting of two more tomato plants.

Weekend eating and playing

Strolling along the Southbank / Getting lost in Ernesto Neto's magical playground for children and adults at the Hayward Gallery / Bangers and mash, beetroot salad, chicken pie, and crayons for lunch at Canteen / Vietnamese chicken, rice and pickles for dinner / Sussex cherries for dessert

Words that make my heart sing

hullabaloo / festooned / fabulosity / cacophony / inkling / mellifluous / serendipity / iridescent / potpourri / medley / cackle / curvaceous / embrace / dulcet / harmony / phosphorescent / tranquility / calliope / evocative / grandiose / bombastic / quirky / smudge / swoop / gleaming / shiny / crisp / flamboyant / azure / vermilion / cobalt / indigo / persnickety / smitten / fortuitous / diffuse / crinoline / quiver / shiver / flutter / expiration / inhalation / beguiling / evanescent / diaphanous / emollient / languid / unravel / melody / soliloquy / opalescence / cadence / sepulchral / tangential / breathe / kiss

Weekend notes

Friday:

• After a morning of writing, I met up with M for lunch in town - om soba with pork, squid and prawns, deep fried tofu, sea cucumber with seaweed salad and Calpis soda at Abeno on Museum Street, near the British Museum.
• He went back to work and I headed to the Renoir to see Kristin Scott Thomas in French-language film Partir: A middle class English wife abruptly leaves her family to pursue a passionate affair with a working-class Spanish father. A pot-boiler plot but remarkably well-acted.
• For dinner, I made linguine with asparagus, broad beans and peas in a Dijon mustard, olive oil and chives (from our garden) sauce. We ate in the garden.
  

Saturday:

• My mother-in-law was staying with us this weekend, so she and my sister-in-law looked after Little Planet while M and I headed into town to visit some galleries.
• We walked along the Regent's Canal to the Victoria Miro gallery to view In The Company Of Alice - a captivating show of paintings by a variety of artists such as Chris Ofili, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Karen Kilimnik (painting above) and Elizabeth Peyton who were all inspired by the painter Alice Neel who was born in 1900 and painted in dire circumstances and often in obscurity. Her fascinating story is written in the FT.
• We popped next door to the Parasol Unit to see the animations of Tabaimo whose focus is satirising contemporary Japanese life. I found the work a little too contrived (and, dare I say it, too much like an end of year graduate show) for my liking.
• We walked to Hoxton Square where we had a mediocre "freshly-squeezed" (it tasted store-bought) orange juice from Ruby Cafe, before going into the White Cube to see the heady Kupferstichkabinett exhibition of drawings from artists such as Joseph Beuys, Luc Tuymans, Rachel Whiteread, Harland Miller, Gavin Turk, Tracy Emin, Lucian Freud and my very favourite Anselm Kiefer and Tacita Dean.

• We'd had enough art by now (is this possible?) and were feeling hungry, so be bused it over to Soho where we lunched at So Sushi: salmon and avocado chirashi-sushi, deep-fried tofu, seared scallops with daikon and yuzu mayonnaise, spicy tuna roll, California roll, iced green tea and Calpis (photo above). Yes, we were hungry and the food was so fresh and delicious that we gobbled it all up (most un-Japanese like).
• Before heading home, we stocked up on groceries at the John Lewis Food Hall.
• Dinner was whole sea bream cooked on the BBQ and accompanied by freshly-made aioli, sauteed potatoes and oven-baked cherry tomatoes on the vine, which we ate outside (photo below).

Sunday:

• I woke up ill: sore throat, congested chest and a hacking cough. Still, I was a good wife and gave M a lie in as he was recovering from a cold (the one he'd now passed onto me). I took Little Planet downstairs with me when she woke and we ate our breakfast on the sofa in the living room watching recorded episodes of the CBeebies show Everything's Rosie, which is whimsical and delightful. My daughter sat beside me and every so often made comments to me on what she was seeing. After two years, I still can't believe I have a little daughter - my little companion in life :-)
• When M woke up around 9.30am, I took to bed as I was coughing quite a bit by this stage. Meanwhile, my mother-in-law took Little Planet to the park and M did some gardening. A couple hours of sleeping and I felt better and the two of us headed to the park where we had lunch in the cafe with Little Planet and her Grandma. Little Planet shared a plate of fish fingers, chips, peas and ketchup with Grandma, M ate omelette with salad and I had a jacket potato with cheese and baked beans.
• M and his mum went to the butchers and grocers but I took Little Planet home for her nap as she was very tired from all the playing (it's a hard life, eh?).
• In the afternoon, Little Planet's other Grandma - her dida (my mum) - came to visit and we all whiled away the hours in the sunny garden.
• After Little Planet's bedtime, we dined on a BBQ of lamb chops, chorizo and seared red peppers, in between scooting back inside to catch bits of the (boring) World Cup final. My mum had bought a delicious blueberry and white chocolate cheesecake from Waitrose for our dessert, but M also put slabs of fresh pineapple on the BBQ which was heavenly.
• And then I had an early night.

This morning I'm still feeling quite rough so I've been napping, doing five loads of laundry (one-hour cycles; the air is so warm, everything is drying quickly - saves me doing laundry for the rest of the week when I will be writing), watching some rubbish TV and, of course, blogging this.

M is at work and will be working late, Little Planet is at daycare, my mother-in-law has returned to her home. I am going to take it easy today (and hanging out laundry is quite meditative actually) and hope that I can get back to normal tomorrow.

My new 9 to 5

Hello, I'm still here but I'm writing, and when I'm not writing, I am tired of writing. So it's been a little while since my last post.

Nearly two weeks in and I'm in a good routine now. It's a routine that revolves entirely around writing. Having written two other books, plus two research theses and numerous conference papers, I know that the only way to get any writing done is to simply sit down and get on with it.

M continues to drop Little Planet off at daycare each morning. After waving them both goodbye at 8.30am, I go upstairs to the study with a tall glass of water, sit down at my desk, fire up my laptop and write... well I'm outlining at the moment - working on the plot and the characters, but writing all the same. I like the discipline and structure of outlining first - it suits my personality and I've found it's the best way for me to write.

Three mornings a week I power walk round the park for an hour or so before settling down to write. On these mornings I'll be sitting at my desk at 10am.

My breaks revolve around doing laundry, cleaning, reading magazines, eating lunch, getting a head start on dinner, pottering in the garden, pacing the house (I do this a lot whilst thinking) and doing a bit of shopping - but not every day (well, except eating lunch and pottering around the garden and pacing). I then finish writing around 5-5.30pm when I go and pick up Little Planet. And that's my writing over with for the day, though I keep notebooks in every room to jot down ideas.

Evenings are for Little Planet (in this good weather we water the plants together and kick a ball around as she tells me about her day: "We went to the park" "I chalked on the ground" "I played with Play Doh. It was green and yellow" "D was on the potty watching Third And Bird" "Baby M bit my arm and Auntie J put ice on it" "It's milk time now?"). Then, after her bedtime, my evenings are for M. Evenings are also for reading and sitting in the garden - we recently bought a teak table and chairs plus a bench and it's lovely sitting outside by candlelight and looking at our geraniums, fuchsias, jasmine and herbs. I'm struggling to read contemporary novels whilst writing - this happened to me the last time too - so I think I will go back to reading the classics.

Weekends are often all about family because I now crave the socialising I miss during the week: last weekend was spent in the company of my sister-in-law and her friend, plus my mum and her friend and her son. M had the good fortune of attending the Ladies Finals at Wimbledon - though he insists he was working as he was with clients. This weekend will be spent with both my mum and my mother-in-law, though M and I will scoot off into town together to check out some galleries and go for a quiet meal whilst both Grandmas look after Little Planet for the day.

Do I miss work? At the moment, no. Because this is my work now - my new "9 to 5".

Slothful

The weather in London has been so glorious that it felt like the greatest holiday in the world was taking place in my garden this weekend. In this heat, I do not feel like venturing too far from home; I certainly do not want to be sealed inside a car or Tube carriage or bus. So this weekend was spent slothfully: lounging in deckchairs on a sunny lawn; Little Planet crayoning and chalking on her easel, which we'd placed outside for her; splashing around in her paddling pool; reading the papers; lunching on salads of Feta cheese, watermelon and basil leaves; strolling to the park to play in the sandpit and water fountains; buying and planting new flowers; enjoying the company of my mum; and after Little Planet's bedtime, luxuriating in candlelit BBQs with Mr Planet. Heaven.

I did, actually, venture out briefly in the car on Sunday. My mum and I went to a garden centre in Whetstone, near her house, to buy flowers and terracotta pots. We also had a nice lunch out together - Chef's salad of leaves, boiled egg, avocado, red onion, prosciutto, black olives, tomato and goats cheese. But the journey back home was incredibly stressful because, at 2.30pm, it coincided with the soon-to-begin England v. Germany football match, and there was a mad rush on the roads as cars honked and drivers hollered, impatient and frenzied to return home in time to watch the match at 3pm. It was a relief to get back home and the serenity of our back garden (Mr Planet watched the match upstairs in our bedroom whilst ironing his shirts).

And so my new working week begins. Not a working week that ties me to a poorly air-conditioned office in central London with a view of high rise buildings, but a working week that allows me to type away from a delightful study overlooking a beautiful garden, with a wonderful breeze coursing through every open window in the house and the background noise of... not police sirens or cars but bird song and the occasional gentle chatter of our elderly neighbours. I live and work in London still, but you wouldn't know it really.

Potty mouth

My 2 year old daughter has a dirty sense of humour. Cases in point:

Exhibit one
She burps loudly, then holds her hand in front of her mouth, gives a little giggle and states in an exaggerated voice, "Pardon me!"

Exhibit two
I'm changing her nappy upstairs in her room. Her father returns home. He shouts up, "Hello Little Planet!" She shouts back down, "Hello Daddy!" He says, "What are you doing?" She replies, "I done a poo poo!"

Exhibit three
This time her daddy is changing her nappy. She lets rip a loud fart and giggles wildly. Then she puts up her finger and says, "Here comes another one!" and surely a few moments later she lets rip another fart.

We neither burp nor fart in front of her (not even in front of each other really - need to keep the romance alive!) so these habits are hers alone :-)