The Winter Wonderland that is London

It's well and truly winter here in London - looking at the weather report for tomorrow - a high of 1 and a low of -1. And freezing fog - what is this, Gotham City?

It's definitely not my favourite time of year weather-wise, and it's my first really cold winter in quite some time. The last full winter I had was in Perth, which isn't really a winter like it is over here. Before that it was Sydney, again, still not as cold as it is here, so that means my last proper winter was mid 2006 when I was working in Thredbo in New South Wales on the mountain. So it's been a while. And I haven't been looking forward to it. There are however, a few good things about winter, so in order to buck the spirits up, let's make a list! Because lists make everyone happy.

Awesome things about winter:

Boots - gumboots are super cool and there are some great patterned ones out there at the moment. They can get pretty pricey though, so I haven't found myself a pair I like that fits with my budget yet. I do however have a nice pair of black leather boots which are keeping me pretty warm and dry. I don't even want to talk about uggs. Ugh!
Pubs - not that I need an excuse, but what's better than a cosy pub, preferably with a fire and a roast dinner. Maybe even a hot apple cider....which brings me to....
Winter Pimms and other hot alcoholic beverages - hot mulled cider is so nice on a cold night, especially as I am not such a fan of mulled wine. Winter Pimms has so far eluded me....but I will find it and I will DRINK it! I enjoyed some lovely 'Christmas Punch' at the Manchester Christmas Markets a couple of weekends ago. I'm still not totally sure what was in it and the name is suitably vague. It was pretty damn good though.
A new winter coat - I was totally prepared to have to shell out £60 + for a new winter coat, but on a Camden market mission one Saturday, I went to Traid and found myself a nice 80% wool, long, black winter coat for....wait for it.....£25! Score.
Soup - I love soup at any time of the year, but it's that much nicer in winter. And so easy to make too. So far I've made two batches from scratch - broccoli and cauliflower and good old fashioned vegetable. I also do the ready made stuff too. Pea and mint is highly underrated.
Slippers and pyjamas - I practically live in these in winter. Especially when I am working from home. Thank goodness my colleagues can't see me - it would ruin the high professional esteem in which then hold me.Really. My slippers are actually sort of woollen socks I was given as a gift, but they have plastic dots on the bottom so I don't slip....in my slippers.

Snow - ok so it's cold, And wet. And it makes getting to work on the tube a nightmare. But it's pretty. And fun to play in. Check out the little beauty my flatmate and I made during the particularly snowy week that was last week.
Gloves - I just bought myself some pretty cool gloves. Purple. Fingerless....BUT they have a little flap for your fingers. Are they mittens? Or are they fingerless gloves? By gosh, they're both!
Ice skating - London has a few ice skating rinks around the place and I will definitely be heading for one in the next month or so. And there are many exciting locations to choose from such as the London Eye, the Natural History Museum, Somerset House and....Westfield.
Planning trips away to warmer shores - in approximately 57 hours (just a rough guesstimate), I am off to Morocco for 10 days. Warmer weather and tripping around again....bliss.

And just one more for good luck....Christmas! I always think I am one of those people who doesn't make a big deal about Christmas. But I actually get insanely excited about it. This year, I'm having a few friends over to my place for a pot luck lunch, complete with turkey, secret Santa and a Christmas tree. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch check it out......

Being laid up

Last Friday I had the very painful experience of having my two lower wisdom teeth removed. Although the actual procedure wasn't painful - I was sedated so happily, have no memory of the actual extraction - I have been cooped up at home for the last four days. I have barely left the house in this time, mainly due to my freakish, somewhat chipmunk like appearance, with quite swollen cheeks, and although I have some lovely painkillers, I've had to find some interesting ways to keep myself entertained.

So here are my top ten saviours of the last few days and would highly recommend them to anyone stuck at home for a few days, for whatever reason.

Smash - considering I fancy myself as somewhat of a decent cook, I don't usually resort to instant things, but instant mashed potato is my new best friend, especially given that chewing is difficult and I can't open my mouth enough to fit more than a teaspoon in there at the moment. My favourite combos are wholegrain mustard with butter and cheese with sweet chilli sauce.
Audiobooks on iTunes - I recently downloaded a book I've been waiting to be released into paperback - a bestselling thriller, so not exactly life altering reading, but good all the same.
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Remember this awesome game from the 90s? I figured out how to download the original MS DOS version and have been playing it quite a bit. It's fun AND I'm learning. I was just promoted from Rookie to Sleuth thank you very much!

Source: www.cookdandbombd.co.uk

My flatmates - giving me sympathetic looks, buying me stuff I need while they're out, lending me magazines, feeding me homemade pumpkin soup and letting me have sole ownership of the TV remote - legends!
Skins - a UK television series that I can watch for free online. It's good, if a little disturbing at times - the things these high school students get up to seem a little scandalous, even for someone my age! I'm a bit slow on the uptake though - I just finished series one, which premiered back in 2007!
Ben and Jerry's - enough said. Chocolate Fudge Brownie I love you.

Source: www.mysupermarket.co.uk

DVDs - thanks to my LoveFilm subscription and borrowing from friends, I had quite a stash. I got to watch Boy, as one of my friend's parents sent it to him from home. Such an amazing film and really made me miss New Zealand, and remember fondly growing up in the 80s, in Petone. You egg.
Trivial Pursuit - Family Edition, so you can win quicker if you opt for the kids questions. This is a new discovery in the flat and I am sure will be a good source of entertainment for many cold evenings to come.
Online shopping - I probably got a bit carried away with this one. I bought myself a high vis backpack cover for cycling and some winter boots....as well as four dresses, two tops and a pair of pants.Oops.
Friends - who, although they laughed at me in my drugged and swollen state, also took me home from the hospital, took care of me, checked up on me, brought me flowers and watched DVDs, ate porridge and played Trivial Pursuit with me - thanks you guys!

So suffice to say, without all these things, I would've gone mad - and although my weekend was relaxing and cheap, I am thoroughly bored and hoping the swelling will have gone down enough to return to work tomorrow.

The London Commute

Work has been really busy for me lately - hence my lack of posting over the last month.....ok, couple of months. One good thing about working long hours however, is avoiding the rush on the tube. I've always been a fan of the tube - it's quick, it's easy, it's convenient....when it runs a 'good service' that is. However, I live on the busiest tube line in London, the Northern line, and because of the point at which I get on, the tube is usually pretty crowded - and that's on a good day. On a bad day, someone will push their own mother onto the tracks to get onto the train - even though the next one is only a minute behind. I tend to just keep my head down, my elbows out and grit my teeth for the duration of the journey. Sometimes the trip can make for some interesting entertainment though - some recent events include the driver who came over the loudspeaker to inform us that "someone's got their bits in the door - everybody, mind your bits!" or the drunk who wished everyone many happy returns at 8am on my packed carriage. My favourites are when people get into space fights ("that was my foot!", "move down please!", "there's no more room!") and then spend the rest of the journey having to stare each down with about 2cms between them while everyone else waits for one to swing a punch or call the other a bitch. Hey, you've got amuse yourself somehow!

I have begun to hate the daily commute with a vengeance and usually I find the best way to deal with it is just to zone out and bury myself in my book. However, quite unexpectedly, I have recently started cycling to work.

Cycling is something I've really missed since leaving Vancouver but I wasn't planning on being a cycle commuter in London as, let's face it, it's pretty scary - if you think tube commuters can be rude, try London drivers. A few people I know had been involved in accidents so that made me a bit reluctant. I hadn't got around to getting a bike but my friend was returning home to New Zealand a couple of months ago and offered me hers, with almost everything I needed included, for a tidy sum of £30. So once I'd taken that off her hands, I started to look into how I would go about doing the commute. In London, there has been a recent push toward cycle commuting, with the mayor, Boris Johnson, introducing the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme, where for an access fee and usage charges, depending on rental duration, you can hire (and return) bikes at various docking stations around the city. As I had my own bike, I didn't need to participate in this, but was pleased to discover, that as part of this new cycling initiative, a new cycle 'super highway' (bright blue painted cycle lanes on major routes into the city) had been launched that ran the majority of the route I needed to take to work. So off I went, on a Monday about three weeks ago, and joined the cycle to work trend - not that I would call it trendy, I've discovered there is no way to look cool in a hi vis cycling vest and helmet! I was initially surprised at the number of people cycling, and found it actually made it easier for me, as I could just join the pack at busy intersections where I was unsure what to do. It only took me a couple of days before I felt comfortable - I guess all the cycling I did in Vancouver made me a pretty confident cyclist - and now I cruise to work in about 25 minutes, with my iPod in ("Danger Mouse!" my friend exclaimed when I told him this) and can even negotiate around the three part Elephant and Castle roundabout in rush hour - go me! So not only does it save me time in the morning, it's good exercise, environmentally friendly and a really enjoyable start to my morning, it also saves me about 60% on my usual tube fares. So now I'm in the process of kitting myself out with a few winter essentials - a high vis, waterproof backpack cover and some good cycling gloves - and converting people to the cycling revolution. Although I must admit, I don't think I'm going to be one of the hardcore few who keep cycling through the winter - I plan on doing it as much as I can until the proper harsh weather sets in and then.....back to the hell that is the tube until Spring I think! Ah well, enjoy it while it lasts I say.

Getting my ocean fix - a weekend in Norfolk

The evolution of reading

I grew up in a house filled with books and my parents are avid readers, so I've had a love of reading for as long as I can remember. Some of my favourite books when I was a kid included Where the Wild Things Are, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Patchwork Cat, Cops and Robbers, Fungus the Bogeyman.....I could go on.

Although I love it, reading is something that I go through stages of doing a lot of and not so much of, depending on what I'm doing. While travelling I read a lot - I took five or six books with me and continually swapped them at hostels and with other travellers. It sure made for a heavy bag, but the idea of being without a book on some of those long bus rides was not inviting. I've managed to continue this habit here in London, mainly because I spend 30 minutes on the tube each way to work. I'll usually see at least one person on my carriage with one of those Kindle things. I must admit, I view them with disdain - it's probably not particularly environmentally friendly of me, but I think one of the greatest pleasures of reading is the actual book. The feel and smell of them. So many of my childhood books were wrecked with love - probably because I took most of them to bed with me. The idea of using an electronic tool to read a book just doesn't appeal to me. Although I must admit I seldom buy newspapers or magazines anymore since it's almost all available online. And on a Sunday morning when I want to read the papers, can I really face getting up, getting dressed and walking the ten minutes to the corner store to get the Sunday Times and come back and get into bed with it? As with most people, I am not a pretty sight on a Sunday morning - see, I'm not just thinking of myself here. It would be nice though - there's something about letting the sun stream through the curtains as you sit there with a cup of tea and the paper dismantled and spread out around you. But when I can lean out of bed and pick up my laptop and have it instantly at my finger tips, why bother? And no smudgy fingers.

One thing about London that is conducive toward a society of keen readers is that the books are relatively cheap here. Many of the high street bookstores offer '3 for 2' deals and with Amazon having both new and used books online, you can always find a good deal there. I am still a big fan of books being lent, exchanged and handed on.....and this makes me slightly more environmentally friendly (take THAT Oprah!) - it's always great to share a good read with someone else. I was pretty happy yesterday to find a local store with £1 second hand books and bought My Year of Meat, by Ruth L. Ozeki, which my cousin recommended to me recently. The best books I've read recently would have to be Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (a great selection by my Dad who has always had an incredible knack for being able to pick books for me that I've never heard of but end up loving), The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb and Sydney Bridge Upside Down (Dad again), a wonderfully written book by a New Zealand author David Ballantyne, first published in 1968, it has been out of print for 30 years until recently but very artfully written. All of these books are currently in the hands of friends. One of the books I carted around South America with me was The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield - I finished the book right at the beginning of my trip but the edition of the book was somewhat unique and it was such a great story, I carried it on the rest of my trip so I could send it to my sister when I got back. In this modern age, I'll happily use the internet for my news, weather, jobs, flatmates and movie times, but as far as reading goes - give me a good book any day.

My summinter holiday

Right now it's summertime in London, which is awesome. It doesn't get dark till 10pm, there is an abundence of enticing beer gardens, the Clapham Common is covered with half naked people, Pimms and bbq become my staple diet and everyone is just generally so much happier. Usually at this time of year, people go away for one, or several, holidays. My summer holiday was a visit back to New Zealand. Where it's winter. So I like to think of it as my summinter holiday.

I went back mainly for my cousin's wedding, the one who was proposed to by sheep. Considering I have not been back at work long, and I'm still recovering financially from South America, two weeks was all the time that could be spared off, so I headed off on an almost 36 hour journey for the land of chocolate fish, jandals and Flight of the Conchords. Initially, I must admit, I wasn't really excited about the prospect of going home - it's such a long way to go for such a short time and the weather in London was amazing just before I left. Of course I was looking forward to seeing family and friends, but I was last home in February of last year, and in my mind, not that long ago.

I had a great time - I spent almost a week in Canterbury on the family farm, the wedding was near Rakaia, almost at the base of Mt Hutt, so I got to enjoy some of the spectacular scenery New Zealand is famous for and the wedding itself was lovely. I also spent five days in Wellington, my home city. A lot of my friends there now seem to be doing the settling down thing. One particular evening, of the five girls there, I realised I was the only single one - all of them were either buying/selling houses, living with long term partners, thinking about babies, renovating, divorcing....and I suddenly wondered when we all got so grown up. I still use the expression 'when I grow up'. Apparently, I'm already there. I also saw two of my friends who are pregnant, one of which I was bridesmaid for a few years ago, so that was pretty special. For some reason I get insanely excited being around pregnant woman. Weird I know, but I can't help it!

By the time I left New Zealand, I had made the most of my two week summinter holiday - there was plenty of booze and food involved and I relished the cheap sauvingnon blanc, incredible lamb and perfect flat whites. And I actually left feeling quite sad, which I was surprised about - and I don't think it was domestic bliss envy. London is home for me right now, but I've always felt that I have one foot back home and this was well and truly confirmed on this trip back. Maybe it won't be as long as I thought until I'm back for good....we'll see.

A damn fine chocolate mousse recipe

I love chocolate mousse. And I love this recipe because, a: if doesn't take long, b: you can make it somewhat healthy and c: it is goooo-oooood!

100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
300ml double cream (I used low fat single cream)
2 tbsp Amaretto or other liqueur (optional) (I used cassis)
1 large egg white
50g caster sugar
handful of amaretti biscuits, to garnish (yuck! I ommited these)
white or dark chocolate shavings, to garnish

Break the chocolate into small pieces and set aside. Maybe sample a little, just to make sure it hasn't gone bad. In a small saucepan, heat half of the cream until it begins to boil. Turn off the heat, add the chocolate pieces and stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Again, just to be safe, it's best to make sure it tastes ok.
Pour the mixture into a bowl set over a large bowl of iced water and add the rest of the cream and Amaretto, if using - I reckon next time I'd give Frangelico a go - it tastes awesome in hot chocolate. Using a handheld electric whisk, beat the mixture to soft peaks - now this took a lot longer than expected, probably because of the low fat cream, so this 4-minute-mousse recipe became more of a 20-minutes-and-I'm-not-seein'-no-peaks kinda mousse recipe. But when you do get those peaks, remove the bowl from the iced water.
Meanwhile, whisk the egg white with a handheld electric beater until stiff peak. I'm not really sure what is meant by 'meanwhile' - I don't know about anyone else but I can't be whipping soft peaks and stiff peaks at the same time! Add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and continue whisking to a soft meringue. Carefully fold the meringue through the chocolate mixture, then spoon or pipe into chilled serving glasses.
This recipe is meant to make 4 mousses, but I put them into smaller dishes, and I think I ended up with 7.
Place the amaretti into a bowl and lightly crush with the tip of a rolling pin. Sprinkle over the chocolate mousse and garnish with chocolate shavings, if you like - I just went for the chocolate shavings. I mean, who needs to go messing that up with almond?? Serve immediately or chill for up to two days.

These set pretty quick - they just need about half an hour in the fridge. They are super good and I reckon, if you make them a bit smaller like I did, not more thatn 150 calories each - if anyone cares. They sure don't taste like that though!

I wish I could take credit for this recipe.....well I'm gonna take credit for some of it, but it was originally written by Mr F-Word himself, Gordon Brown. But he said it was ok for me to use it when we had dinner last week*


*The dinner may or may not have taken place in my head