My email to Fortnum and Mason

I love living in London and one of my annual delights is to go around the West End looking at the seasonal lights and decorations.
As usual Fortnum and Mason trumped everyone else with your stunning window displays. So on Thursday 8th December I decided the icing on the cake of a lovely afternoon had to be afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason.
Afternoon tea was 18 pounds but this is once a year and Fortnum and Mason.
The menu also states there is a discretionary service charge. I have followed, over the years, discussions on Radio 4 about such discretionary charges and just how discretionary they are. I was interested to see how Fortnum and Mason dealt with this. I told my waiter I did not want to pay the charge. He looked puzzled and took my 20 pound note. After some time no change appeared and I asked what was happening. I got given a second copy of my bill and still no change. When it finally came it was a collection of small coins (was that really necessary) and was scattered over my table some falling to the floor. The waiter did apologise but his general surly demeanor giving me my change said a lot more than his apology.
Ironically my change was 2.25. What did I do with this change? I put it in a Shelter collection bucket.
And the icing on the cake? The undercooked  iced cup cake.

Brighton

We had a great weekend. Hannah went to see Aaron in Brighton on Friday. Ruthie went down on Saturday and Clive and I came down on Sunday. Aaron pointed out that no one from their families come to visit his flatmates. We all looked at him blankly-of course we had to come and see him. It is times like this I really do feel like the Jewish mother.
I also had 2 opportunities to do the wise old aged one thing.
Ruthie went to Brighton with a friend whose birthday it was and was wondering what to buy with a very limited budget. I showed her how to make her first cake explaining that baking is essentially chemistry and measuring really is a good idea. The girl is a natural born cake decorating genius and it looked fab. She now knows the  power of cake making to impress.
Sunday the husband took a hung over Ruthie and a very amused Hannah walking whilst Aaron and I looked at possibilities for his Masters and strategies to get there. I persuaded him to buy a diary. I really believe to do's in the diary stop them floating around in my head and as a consequence make life a lot less stressful. Aaron now agrees. I am the Yoda of NW4.
So what cake? Of course the wondrous One Egg Chocolate Sponge  from the Edmonds Cookbook-a NZ staple. This is my slack version of making it,
Melt 50gm of butter and a tablespoon of golden strup.
Stir in a cup of sugar and 1 egg.
Add a splash of vanilla essence.
Add
1 tsp baking powder
1 and 3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
Mix in a cup of milk in which 1 tsp of baking soda has been dissolved.
bake half an hour at 190
I have made this since I was 9 and it has never failed.

Just do it.

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to Covent Garden. A friend was ill and his wife offered me his ticket.
I originally was not keen.
-it was knitting group night
-it was dark
-I did not know the Opera
-I had a very mild man type cold.
But then I thought just say yes, just do it even if I do not own a pair of Nikes.
This was a good decision. I had a wonderful night and really enjoyed it. We were up in the Gods with all the scruffy people who pack food and drink and can talk knowledgeably about what is happening on stage. This contrasts with the people downstairs who have lovely nibbles and lovely drinkies at intermission and wear lovely clothes and talk about lovely things. Lovely.
I guess this is it. Good things take effort.
A good read takes more effort than The Sun.
Good food takes more effort than a takeaway
A good relationship with another takes time and effort.
A good life takes effort.
So my daughter and I  have decided to just say yes.
-

Finished

The circus figures are finished. This was not an easy project but one which I learnt from.
Essentially the knitting of toys is easy the sewing up,the embroidery and all the embellishments that take the time.
Essentially it is an extreme version of the normal challenges of sewing up our projects. Why do we knitters lose our patience with a sewing needle in our hands?

When I have finished my circus

I will blog again when I am ready to photograph the 7 circus figures I have knitted-hopefully tomorrow.

My Mother has passed

My mother died last night in New Zealand.
Both my brother and I wish we could truly mourn and that we could celebrate her life. Sadly we cannot.
I find the genre of childhood misery confessions books tasteless in the extreme and I have no intention of writing anything like that. All I want to say is that not everyone who is capable of giving birth is capable of mothering and this most certainly applies to our mother.
There are good things that came from such a childhood.
Both my brother and I had no second thoughts at all about leaving home. Had we been raised by a loving and caring mother there is a chance we could still be living in Hamilton.Sorry Hamilton but not a nice thought. We both used education as a means of escape. Both my children value education as well and this gives me such happiness.
Secondly I am grateful to all the people throughout my life who have shown me kindness, generosity and by example how to be a good person. I do not know what would have happened to me had I not known such people especially during my teens and young adulthood.
Finally my main coping mechanism as a child was, at the risk of sounding crude, to grab happiness by the balls. To relish every moment of happiness life offered. Trust me this is a pretty good if simplistic way to live.
For Halachic and personal reasons there will be no Shiva or anything resembling one but if anyone wants to join me for tea served in my nicest cups from the silver teapot please do.

Dublin

I had forgotten what a magical place Dublin is. It is small enough to be able to explore by walking and has maintained a sense of history that Starbucks and McDonalds have not completely destroyed.
But what is really special is the use of language. I spent most of the day wandering around and got into long conversations with total strangers-people in shops, in the National Library and on the street. Total strangers, all day.
It makes you realise why Ireland has produced far more writers of note than is to be expected from such a small population. People talk for the sheer joy of it. Conversation flows lyrically and rhythmically from topic to topic.
Come to Dublin walk and talk.