New Year, New Blog

Dear Readers

I have been unable to write my blog of late as the sheer amount of alcohol and christmas food I have consumed have made my fingers too fat to type. I hope you have all had a wonderful christmas. I am off to Holland in the morning and, due to the liberal attitude of the Dutch government towards certain errrmmm.... inebriating substances, I doubt I will be in any state to write until my return.

In that case I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year and leave you with the promise of writing much more in 2010.

With love

GP xx

Home Sweet Home

One of the best things about families are that they make the most amazing houseguests, and when they come to stay they make you enjoy your own home all the more. Yesterday Ollie, Will, Claire and I all went Christmas shopping in Oxford Street which was extremely productive albeit very scary and then headed back to the flat for Harissa Chicken (Quorn) and an evening drinking more mulled cider and watching Spaced.

Have three more days in London then am off to Southampton for Christmas with the family. Getting pretty excited now.



Sorry - this is a picture from New Year's Eve last year. Am not as snap-happy as I once was xx

Christmas is Coming...and I Only Just Got It....

So have had lots of thinking time over the past few days and am feeling much better. I have also had the benefit of lots of speaking time courtesy of my most wonderful friends and have had some good advice with which I can move forward.

Thursday I was taken to Vanilla Black for my work Christmas celebration and had the most wonderful lunch: baked beetroot terrine with horseradish cream and pickled fennel; followed by celeriac and sage dauphinoise, bergamot braised leeks and spinach puree; followed by sugar and spice tart with roasted satsumas and finally huge amounts of coffee with beautiful chocolate cups filled with white chocolate and Baileys. It was absolutely spectacular and such a rare experience to be able to choose ANYTHING on the menu (I rarely frequent veggie restaurants due to all of my non-veggie friends). I drank lots of wine and stumbled home to fall asleep in front of the TV.

Yesterday Will and Claire arrived from Southampton, which was exciting. I cooked us all some risotto and then we headed to the Amersham Arms to watch the band play. The gig was ace but the drinks were ridiculously expensive. Every time I spilled a drop it was like pound coins falling out of my glass. How a place in New Cross can charge £5 to get in and then £3.30 for a CAN of Red Stripe is beyond me. One good review in Time Out and they think they're the Koko. Oh dear.

Today we had a lie-in and then walked down to Forest Hill to check out the Horniman Museum. We wandered around the music gallery, the African worlds exhibition and looked at the Darwin 500 Wildlife Photography exhibition, the review of which will be the first entry in my new travel blog which is being started soon (just as soon as I figure out the last few minute details!) So exciting.

However, far from travelling, right now I am curled up in my flat in my enormous Goldsmiths hoodie about to construct a cheeseboard to have with the lovely homemade mulled cider that Will and Claire bought us. Loverly xx

Rest

I have to get this out before normal service resumes.

At the moment I'm pretty tired and confused. It's been a heavy couple of weeks. I just need space and sleep. I will figure it all out in time but at the moment I just need to take some time to listen to my own voice and the voices of those around me. I'm not down or sad, it's just that something has shifted within me and I need to readjust. Rest assured, though, I am fine. For one thing I am way to bloody-minded to let it get me down. I apologise if this makes little sense. I'm going to write it off as some kind of self-therapy.

There.

Useless

Rest assured, I have not abandoned my blog. I have the worst case of Saigon Syndrome ever bought on by a week of fun, American and Canadian visitors and some excessive drinking. Aim to have a full account of this week in words by mid-week. Until then, my apologies.

LY xx

Weekend with the American

So I am totally procrastinating right now. I should in fact be writing my presentation which I have to give tomorrow morning on the subject of western psychiatry in colonial Africa. However, I am just not feeling it. I am pretty knackered to be honest, and I can't figure out whether this is tiredness through cooking, eating and drinking all day or sympathy jet-lag for Brock who passed out at around 9pm.

So this weekend was the long-awaited arrival of everybody's favourite travel buddy Brock and knowing that he had jet-lag, we thought instead of dragging him into London on a major sightseeing tour, we would have a weekend at my flat so that we could all hang out, catch-up and do nothing too energetic. Plus, it has not stopped RAINING the whole time he has been here. Sam and I went to Heathrow to meet him yesterday and took him on what must have seemed like the most complicated and ridiculous journey back to East Dulwich. There we hooked up with Ollie and Jen and trekked down to the Plough (which is where I seem to take all out-of-towners) for some London Pride, Addlestones Cider and large portions of pub-grub. Then we walked back in the rain to my flat for more drinks, some League of Gentlemen (what else?) and card games.

Today, Sam and Jen came back over to the flat and we drove up to Sainsburys for supplies before embarking on the most immense Sunday lunch I've had since I used to visit my Grandma in Devon as a child. We had olives, chips, sundried tomatoes and a cheeseboard of four different kinds of cheeses including Gruyere, Stilton, White Stilton with Apricots and Brie and crackers (Brock was amazed at how much cheaper it is to buy cheese here than in the States and went a little crazy at the cheese counter). This was followed by an enormous dinner of roast chicken (stuffed squash for the veggies), stuffing, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, broccoli and huge amounts of gravy. If this wasn't enough to put us in a total food coma, we then had treacle tart and cream with lots of coffee before crashing out on huge floor cushions to watch Miller's Crossing and complain about how full we were.

So now Brock has crashed out, Ollie is in the living room watching Top Gear and i am curled up in bed with my laptop and Africa course reader, supposedly doing some work but actually doing this. Ooops xx

Little Break

OK so I've been pretty useless at blogging this week. After spending the majority of last week pissed, I decided to take some time out. I haven't completely abstained from alcohol - have had a pint of cider and a couple of glasses of wine - but I have been taking it easy and enjoying simpler pleasures. Tuesday I went and had an ace and very cheap Thai dinner in New Cross with Sam whilst everybody else went and drank copius amounts of free wine courtesy of the history department. Wednesday I went to my lecture without a hangover and then had brunch and geeky discussions with Sam and Mike before travelling to Southampton to have dinner with Ollie's family. Today I walked little Baxter the dog all over Southampton common and am currently curled up on a couch with sleeping dog at my feet next to Ollie choosing recipes from the new Jamie Oliver American cookbook. Tonight I am going to see my Mum and Dad.

Of course, this is short-lived as there are already at least three drunken nights out planned for next week. The invasion of Americans and Canadians is nigh and I can't wait. Expect erratic hungover blogging.

The lovely Adrienne is coming to London from Toronto:


The lovely Brock is coming to London from Alabama:


And the lovely Keith is coming to London from New York:


Exciting times xx