A holiday-ette
15 February 2005 @ 15:45 in Life
What a nice few days. The young lady has a week off
for half term, so I took a couple of days away from
work, and we have spent almost every waking minute
since Saturday morning together. This does, I admit,
sound simultaneously obsessively creepy and
ridiculously needy, but we've seen so little of each
other since before Christmas that it has been bliss.
Saturday passed in a bit of a haze; we decided to give ourselves that day properly off, and not even plan anything fun. We just lazed around in our collective pants watching Quantum Leap and 'Allo 'Allo.
Sunday was considerably busier. I wrote the final thousand words of a review for the mag, and we made the flat look all shiny and clean. We do complain bitterly about this flat with depressing regularity, but when it's tidy and the spring sun is flooding into the front room, it's a cheerful wee place.
Yesterday, then, was Valentine's day. We had a protracted discussion about whether or not this was a cynical Hallmark Holiday or a venerated tradition; in truth, we just didn't know, but we decided that it wasn't in any way important. Having worked out that we had barely a handful of sous between us, we didn't do anything extravagant. Instead, we planned a day in the house, cooking time-consuming and comforting food; all the ingredients were bought beforehand. Turns out it was one of the most pleasurable days together that we've ever enjoyed. Breakfast was American-style pancakes with organic maple syrup and crispy streaky bacon; these pancakes proved to be far easier to mix and cook than those we eat on Shrove Tuesday, and were a triumph. We then went out for a very blustery walk, though due to our apparently ingrained inability to remember which of the many marble arches around Hyde Park is Marble Arch, we spend this time getting very slightly lost around Piccadilly. Back to the house, then, to spend a pleasant 45 minutes mixing and shaping 53 meatballs (no, this figure wasn't in the recipe). These were duly cooked in a tomato sauce and served with fresh pasta (not made by us, unfortunately, as we have no roller) to sounds of near orgiastic pleasure. God, they were good. Oh, and we had bruschetta to start, with lovely fresh garlic and flakes of Maldon salt. Mmmm. We had intended to have a big feast o' fruit to finish, but were too stuffed. Instead, we had two each of some ridiculously expensive chocolates from Godiva. Worth every damn penny.
Now, I must sign off, as after a day of helping Jenny sort out her classroom and eating leftover meatballs we have tickets to see His Dark Materials at the National. These were bought with tokens Jenny's folks gave us for Christmas. There are pictures of the production here. Toodle-pip.
Saturday passed in a bit of a haze; we decided to give ourselves that day properly off, and not even plan anything fun. We just lazed around in our collective pants watching Quantum Leap and 'Allo 'Allo.
Sunday was considerably busier. I wrote the final thousand words of a review for the mag, and we made the flat look all shiny and clean. We do complain bitterly about this flat with depressing regularity, but when it's tidy and the spring sun is flooding into the front room, it's a cheerful wee place.
Yesterday, then, was Valentine's day. We had a protracted discussion about whether or not this was a cynical Hallmark Holiday or a venerated tradition; in truth, we just didn't know, but we decided that it wasn't in any way important. Having worked out that we had barely a handful of sous between us, we didn't do anything extravagant. Instead, we planned a day in the house, cooking time-consuming and comforting food; all the ingredients were bought beforehand. Turns out it was one of the most pleasurable days together that we've ever enjoyed. Breakfast was American-style pancakes with organic maple syrup and crispy streaky bacon; these pancakes proved to be far easier to mix and cook than those we eat on Shrove Tuesday, and were a triumph. We then went out for a very blustery walk, though due to our apparently ingrained inability to remember which of the many marble arches around Hyde Park is Marble Arch, we spend this time getting very slightly lost around Piccadilly. Back to the house, then, to spend a pleasant 45 minutes mixing and shaping 53 meatballs (no, this figure wasn't in the recipe). These were duly cooked in a tomato sauce and served with fresh pasta (not made by us, unfortunately, as we have no roller) to sounds of near orgiastic pleasure. God, they were good. Oh, and we had bruschetta to start, with lovely fresh garlic and flakes of Maldon salt. Mmmm. We had intended to have a big feast o' fruit to finish, but were too stuffed. Instead, we had two each of some ridiculously expensive chocolates from Godiva. Worth every damn penny.
Now, I must sign off, as after a day of helping Jenny sort out her classroom and eating leftover meatballs we have tickets to see His Dark Materials at the National. These were bought with tokens Jenny's folks gave us for Christmas. There are pictures of the production here. Toodle-pip.
