No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better...

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Vortex

First week back at work.  Too churned up about it all to make much sense at the moment.  Don't have my camera with me so no pretty pictures of London town.  Back when I'm out of the vortex.

C.x


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Pump Street Bakery

Hello everybody,

When we lived in New York, one of our favourite weekend pastimes was to have brunch.  There are so many places for this in Manhattan, ranging from chi chi restaurants with massive queues outside to old school diners where everything is supersized and you don't need to eat for a week afterwards.

So, I was a bit worried when we decamped to the house by the sea that we'd have nowhere to get our weekly fix of excellent coffee and tasty treats while we flicked through the sunday papers.  I need not have fretted.  Because not very far from where we live is the lovely and amazing Pump Street Bakery.

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You know you're in trouble when even the lighting excites you
Their sourdough bread is just delicious, and they do a fab bacon rocket and lemon mayo bap.  Their savoury snacks really are good - fresh ingredients, locally sourced, with perfectly balanced flavours.

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But the real treats, the things that keep us going back there time after time, are the sweet treats.  Doughnuts filled with jams - rhubarb or raspberry - or creme anglaise, or brownies or meringues.  Eccles cakes don't normally have me salivating at the sight of them, but one bite of these and I was hooked.  Every time I go, I debate whether to have an Eccles cake or a Portuguese nata (I'm a sucker for custard...)

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There's a fire in winter and outside seating in the summer months.  And the simple decor perfectly complements the good simple food...

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But the best bit for me is Cedric.

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From Wednesdays to Sundays, Cedric can be found around and about, selling bread and treats to those who can't make it to the bakery.

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So, you see, I needn't have worried.  Brunch is taken care of wherever we are.

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And you needn't take my word for how good Pump Street is.  The bakery has a finalist in the BBC's Food and Farming Awards.  Hope it wins.

C.x

ps I have no affiliation with Pump Street Bakery.  I just like their stuff!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

After Noah

Hello everyone,

Thanks so much for your good wishes on my (old) new job.  I'm excited and nervous and still very bemused at this turn of events and am trying to make the most of my last few days before starting work on Monday.  Mr. P. is away at the moment so I am quietly getting ready and doing a bit of writing and trying to reassure myself that my brain won't have turned to mush during my time off.  And I have had a project to work on and now something to show you.

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I have been knitting.  You may remember earlier in the year I knit a sweet little cardigan from Debbie Bliss's Knitter's Year.  This was it.


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Well, when we discovered a few months back that a little girl had come into the family, I knew just the thing I wanted to make. The pink cardigan was made of cotton yarn, but that felt wrong for this time of year.  But then the shop I went to for inspiration had the exact cardigan knit in baby cashmerino, and I knew that would be perfect.

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I was on a deadline because I wanted Mr. P. to take it with him when he went away, so I've been knitting like a demon over the last few weeks.  I had given up all hope of finishing it, but then a stinking cold kept me inside last week, so I managed it with, oh, hours to spare!  (It wasn't helped by having cold induced knitting dyslexia which meant that I cast off the front and back the wrong way around so that the left front piece hung on one side of the back piece but the right side faced the other way - even now I can't explain it properly...).

And I have discovered in the process that I like to do things in twos.  I made a bag.  And then another.  A cushion cover.  And then another.  And I have plans for another wavery ripple scarf.  Oh, and another lampshade.  Okay, so it's hardly mass production.  But there's something satisfying about figuring something out and doing all the swearing and ripping etc. the first time around, and then tackling it the second time knowing roughly what you're doing.

As long as you don't have a cold.

So, here it is.  My Noah cardigan.  


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Can't wait to see baby J in it.

C.x

PS Thank you for all your lovely comments and helpful suggestions as to what to do with the granny square blanket.  I suspect that it will remain as it is, at least until after the other second time around projects I have planned.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Hi ho, hi ho...

Hello everyone,

Today, I was going to tell you about the Aldeburgh food festival, or to trumpet the recent success of the Pump Street Bakery, (more another day) but instead I want to share some news with you.

I started my professional life as a corporate lawyer.  I was pretty good at it, but for one reason or another I wasn't very happy in my twenties, and part of my quest to be happy involved leaving my corporate job in search of new experiences elsewhere.  So, for the last ten years, I worked for the UN.  Richly rewarding, at times frustrating, but I have never regretted my decision to leave and I wouldn't have traded the last ten years for anything.

But now I have returned to the UK and have been wondering what to do next.  I wanted and needed to take a career break when we came back to England, but now I need to work again.  I had a coffee with a friend of a friend at my old law firm to talk about clients of his that might be interested in my experience.  And at the end of our discussion, he offered me a job himself.  In my old firm.

Never, ever, did I expect to go back.  And never did I think I would be excited at the prospect.   But I am. It will be in a new role, and will be a challenge, and it's temporary.  But that's just fine.

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.” 


Life.  Never will it cease to surprise me.  

Wish me luck.

C.x
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