Dena is staying with us right now for a few days, since she got back from her European adventure on Monday. She’s done at LSE now, and is leaving to go home to Toronto next week, but it’s good to have someone with my accent around! Last night we had girl’s night in (Mark was out) and rented like three movies and made ourselves a good dinner. We watched Jersey Girl, which I had really wanted to see. I have to say, in the whole Kevin Smith oeuvre, it’s pretty mediocre. Not as bad as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, not as good as Mallrats. It’s definitely a North American sense of humour, though – he don’t do well here and Mark wouldn’t understand any of it. We still have Secretary and something else… hmm I don’t remember now… to watch before Thursday night return time.

The three of us are meeting Mark’s dad near Holborn station for dinner tonight. Leaving in like 15 minutes to go from work.

Mark and I are going to another taping of Bremner Bird and Fortune. It’s almost like This Hour Has 22 Minutes – except not in a news bulletin format. But just as funny, and funny little sketches and stuff. We went last year; Rory Bremner is really brilliant, he does most of the hosting and crowd organising. Films at Wembley not far from home.

On Saturday, it’s off to visit another caterer, this time in Harrow. Sounds a lot more reasonable in price than the last one. And on Sunday it’s a whole National Wedding Show at Earl’s Court to steal expensive ideas and turn them into cheap ones!

Loads coming up actually: we’re going to see Cloaca at the Old Vic directed by Kevin Spacey and starring Neil Pearson (Bridget Jones’ Diary and Fever Pitch) and Adrian Lukis (Pride and Prejudice), we’re going to a live taping of the Vicar of Dibley at Shepperton studios (with Dawn French), there’s a Blame Canada show coming up with Stirling and the Heavy Blinkers, tickets we’ve had for months gathering dust will finally be used to see Rufus Wainwright end of next month, and we haven’t even planned out any holiday yet.

Better go or I’ll be late for dinner.

How can I move back to Canada if I get 9 weeks holiday in this job?! 9 weeks! I’m planning out my year and it’s like there is too much to go around!



We move back eventually, and I’ll be lucky if I get 3 weeks. That is going to SUCK. Europe rocks.

It’s a good day. After like almost a year of sleeping in a king size bed with only a double size duvet, we finally got our act together and actually purchased a super cheap king size duvet last night at the supermarket. Maybe I’ll sleep better now? Less complaining in the middle of the night of being cold? It’s that weird time of year, though, where the heating has just come on in the house (the radiators are on briefly in the morning and at night) so in actual fact I’m a bit warm for a whole duvet + pj’s, but it’d be really cold without the heating.

Anyway, I just won the battle of putting the damn duvet cover on, so I am tired enough to get to bed anyway…

Was just vegging in front of the tv watching a Channel 4 show called Too Posh to Wash. Yes it’s about the granddaughter of a lord who refuses to wash, and likes to keep her boogers in her pocket. No she’s not 4, she’s about 25. So they are doing all these bacterialogical (is that a word? probably not…) samples on her and it’s pretty scary!

Today I ate a fresh fig for the first time. Although the taste was familiar so maybe I’ve had them before and I just don’t know it. I have loads of recipes for them, and they are in season, so I think I may go nuts on them now. Figs and goat’s cheese, oven roasted figs for a thousand and one nights, poached figs, figs wrapped in prosciutto…

Oh and the search for a wedding caterer continues as our guy quoted something just a LITTLE over budget! We’ll sort something out. We’ve found another local one, in Harrow, who seems much more reasonable, although it’s pretty standard traditional fare and not necessarily what I’d prefer to eat myself.

Weird thing on the way home. Was sitting on a Met Line tube waiting for it to pull out of Baker Street, and this fight broke out at the top of the platform. Only it was the skinny end of the platform, meaning it was only like 8 foot wide, and there are electrified tracks on either side, and these guys are throwing each other around! Soon enough there are like 20 station staff in their little Underground blue uniforms running after them before they kill themselves, and then the cops eventually showed up. The little things that make the day so much more exciting…

Oh and a new cheap ikea duvet cover + pillows 

Okay so for like the past 3 hours or something all I have done is

(a) try to figure out why my video files from the digital camera only had sound and no picture

(b) learn about codecs and download the right ones to be able to see my video

and

(c) try to figure out how to share the darn video files!

I even learned how to embed a Windows Media Player on a website or a blog – in fact, I could put one in here if I wanted to. But my files don’t want to play – I think it’s cause they are now on Tripod which gets all funny when you link to their stuff.

Anyway – this should work. If you have Windows Media Player or Real Player on your computer, you can see our silly little videos that I took today while at Fifteen. It was the first time I’ve used the video setting on Mark’s digital camera, and so when I passed it to him to take some of me, he didn’t know what he was doing!

First clip is here.

Second clip is here.

Cross my fingers that it works.

Anyway, lunch was good and not excessively expensive (for London). Mark had olives (very colourful yummy looking ones) and a porkchop with roasted celeriac and artichokes and something else green I didn’t recognise. I had Tuscan bean and bread soup, a spatchcocked poussin with more beans and spinach, and a brownie with blueberries and some kind of blueberry or currant cream. And a Bellini – as it was supposed to be a celebration of my end of OSAP payments plus getting the manager’s job. Yay me.

Afterwards, we did a bit of sightseeing. Came home in the rain (see the pixie, she’s in her wellies now). And it’s late and I am still very full so that’s good.

And here is the outside of Fifteen in – hmm, which part of London? Old Street, Shoreditch, Hoxton or something.

Well, it’s a very sunny yet chilly morning in London so I suppose taking the dog out for a walk makes sense for my weather pixie. Hmm – I feel like I should name her something. I’ll have to think on that one.

Yesterday afternoon was a bit of a disaster. I had a South Westminster Community Network meeting at the Cabinet War Rooms – which are right in the heart of the parliament and government buildings, where Churchill had his hub during the WWII. It’s a museum and their learning staff sit on the Network with people like us. We’ve also run courses there, an interesting reminiscence + computer project for older learners last year.

Anyway, what was happening in that area yesterday? Oh yeah thousands of crazy pro-hunting people had descended from the countryside. Roads were blocked off – my bus took this detour so I had to hop out and walk the rest of the way. Took me like almost an hour to get there when it should have taken about 20 minutes. So I am late for the meeting – fine, not the end of the world. But then getting home was another nightmare when it should have been perfectly easy as the tube line I need to take to get home has a station right at the Houses of Parliament. But now it was closed. Argh. Yes, fine, you have a right to protest, you crazy animal killers. Doesn’t mean I have to like the disruption though!

We went to IKEA last night, so annoying, no new catalogues available. Mark hates it there but we got a couple of small things, nothing exiciting. I’ll probably end up getting a lot of wedding table decor stuff there, so I was checking that out.

Better go, loads to do.

An interesting way to get updated weather data for London.

And today I forgot my umbrella and got soaked. Lovely.



I think we’ve now had our Indian summer (wow how politically incorrect) and it’s all down hill from here. Mark was supposed to be applying some waterproofing paint to the outside of part of the house that keeps getting damp, but so much for prolonged dry weather. Oh well.



Some NHL stars are in town tonight playing against the crap London team (consisting of not-good enough for North American pro hockey Canucks and Swedes basically), including a guy it sounds like I went to high school with – Ian MacNeil. I was going to suggest going but it’s like the other side of the city, seems a pain to get to, plus Mark was going to paint!



Last night we met with a caterer who was so awesome to us – even though we are going to be a little event in the scheme of things, he spent like an hour with us, and then we got to eat a three course meal + drinks at his bistro for free. I think we are sold on him! Negotiating to be done later . He’s part of the same group that did the marquee assessment last week – so I think even if we don’t use them for anything else (not cheap but local to us), we’ll use the catering.



Work is crazy, as is every September. So many things need sorting out, I haven’t really had time to think about the new role. I have some budget management training with the finance department next week as I am now going to be responsible for 3 pots of funding, and I have to start going to management meetings that I wasn’t a part of before. But other than that not many changes so far…



Ooh it’s Colin Firth’s birthday today. Scary, I know.



We’re going to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant (Fifteen) next weekend for lunch (not to see him, he doesn’t work weekends) and I am very interested to see how good that food will be. I think he’s a good tv personality but the one cookbook I have of his, I don’t really find it very accessible for a home cook. I have made one recipe from it that was good, but I am not so sure about the rest. In fact, I didn’t end up booking the formal restaurant since the menu looks like a lot of stuff I don’t eat like lamb, although it’s seasonal so at other times of year I may like it better. Instead I’ve gone for the trattoria which just looks like simple Italian food. Not sure which set of chefs will be cooking, new recruits or old ones. But not Jamie cooking for us himself. Hmm, another potential caterer though? Not likely!



The best cookbook I have is Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer. I LOVE HER! I can’t wait for her new one. I have never used a cookbook as much as that one, it really rocks.



Ooh am addicted to a song called Spitting Games by Snow Patrol, it’s just coming on the radio. I need to own that album! Thank god for radio entertainment at work. I can’t always have it on though as Ann who sits right behind me can’t think when it’s on. But she’s only part time thank god. Right now I am listening a lot to Keane, Franz Ferdinand, Badly Drawn Boy, the latest Chili Peppers, can’t think of anything else…



Weirdly I have not opened up a book to read in the past few weeks. I’ve got to do something about that before my brain melts!



Hmm why do I have so much to say today? Very odd.