An Autumn Party

Although Alan and I moved into our flat over two months ago, we had not had a flatwarming party yet. So, it was high time. Alan sat down with the cookbook and devised a gourmet menu, and he also went on two big shopping expeditions to get all the ingredients, including a trip to the Covered Market to procure some pheasants. My job was to come up with a vegetarian alternative, to help with the preparations and to make sure the flat was looking presentable (quite an undertaking as it resembled a bombsite).

While I was cleaning the flat, I came across a ladybird in one of my plants.


Aww, I thought, and I took that picture. Then I realised that, in fact, the flat was infested with ladybirds. There were loads of them all over the windows. I'm not sure where they have all come from; it must be the warmish weather.

Anyway, we spent the whole day in the kitchen. It was like Christmas. There were bowls full of goodness everywhere. I thought this collection of yellow-ish foodstuffs was like one of those posh ads for different shades of paint:


The menu was:

- tomato, cucumber and melon salad
- pheasant with cider and apple sauce or goat's cheese and red onion tartlet, with roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots
- cheese platter with cheeses from the Great British Cheese Festival
- chocolate coated pears with dessert wine
- Drambuie coffee with cake and/or chocolate

It was a bit stressful, but our guests were very impressed by the food and we had a very good time. And they brought some very useful gifts: some wine glasses and a casserole dish from Le Creuset, which was put to immediate use!


And so our flat is well and truly warmed!

A slow weekend

I feel like I'm coming down with something; I'm achy and generally sluggish. This weekend has been quite low-key, especially in comparison with last weekend.

Last Sunday Alan, a group of friends and I went to the Great British Cheese Festival. Alan and I cycled the 12 kilometres to the farm where the festival was held. Luckily it was a lovely day and we had such a good time drinking cider and spiced hot apple juice, cheese tossing, buying herbs, sampling liquers and, of course, filling our stomachs with lots and lots of cheese. Alan and I bought so much cheese between us, we couldn't fit it all into the fridge! It was a wonderful autumn day. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so no cheesy pictures, I'm afraid!

The week went by very quickly. I've started a twice-weekly exercise regime with three male friends, and we're all feeling a little better about ourselves. Two more weeks to half-term, and I'm still enjoying myself at school.

I've also gone back to quilting with a vengeance. My first ever quilted cushion cover is now almost finished. This is what it looked like yesterday:


I worked very hard on it yesterday, and it's now almost done. I'm quite proud of it; I made it without experience, sewing machine, design, tools, or even thinking ahead in the slightest. You can see it's not perfect:


But it's still not at all bad for a complete beginner! I've already got my next project lined up - I'm so excited about this quilting business at the moment! I bought some new fabrics yesterday:


My next quilt is going to be a black-and-white affair in a diamond pattern. Hopefully that will be more agreeable to Alan (who thinks the cushion is a wee bit girly). I also picked up this lovely and helpful book (it has patterns and cut-outs) in the sale:


The quilt on the cover really appeals to me, as I love autumn and trees and leaves. I just need to find the right sort of fabric. The book is full of lovely ideas:


I suppose if I want to get serious about quilting I'd better start putting some effort into organising myself and not do it in this off-the-cuff manner...

I'll put up some pictures of the quilted cushion cover as soon as it's done - I want to show it off!

Meanwhile, a random picture of our kitchen:


I like that poster of the Greek votive offerings I bought in Greece this summer, and the view is lovely too. As long as I can see trees, I'm happy.

The previous inhabitants of our flat were apparently not the cleanest, and when we moved in the shelves of our kitchen cupboard were all sticky. Alan didn't mind too much, but I thought it was pretty disgusting. So I went out and got some shelf-paper, with very cheerful results:


It makes me happy every time I open up the cupboard!

Exciting new things

Alan and I went to London on Saturday, to do some serious shopping. Alan had made an itinerary, so that we wouldn't be wasting any time thinking about what to do next. Our first stop was Portobello Market, in Notting Hill, an antiques market in a lovely neighbourhood with dinky brightly painted houses. We spent quite a while here in the Saturday crush, until the stalls of silver cutlery started looking a bit repetitive. Alan picked up a silver coffeepot which turned out to be not silver. There were some cool stalls, like the one selling vintage fabrics, but most things were too expensive for us.

I wanted to show Alan what Whole Foods was like, so we made a stop there. I bought a bar of cinnamon white chocolate and a bag of Dutch paprika crisps, my favourites, yay! I don't understand why salt and vinegar is such a popular flavour here, it's paprika all the way for me! We were flagging a bit by this point, so we decided to have some delicious pizza slices in their rather spiffy café.

Alan was looking for a new coat at a low price, so we went to vintage men's clothing shop Old Hat on Fulham High Street. Despite its being recommended by the Chap magazine, there wasn't anything there to catch his fancy, unfortunately.

Although it was now a bit late in the day for food markets, we went to the wonderful Borough Market, a haven for organic foodies, where we picked up ingredients for a risotto on Sunday. I love the Borough Market, the variety is huge, it just makes me wish that we had something like that closer to home (and also that we had more money).

After a much-needed tea stop, we continued onto more generic shopping on Regent and Oxford Street. We got some VERY expensive hot chocolate at Fortnum and Mason's, and, after a rather unsuccessful day of clothes shopping, I unexpectedly found a lovely woollen jacket at Benetton, a company I've ignored for many years now, perhaps undeservedly!



We were utterly exhausted at the end of the day. But I was not entirely satisfied, because I was in need of new shoes. The very next day, then, I acquired two pairs of black jodhpurs:



Yes, they are pretty similar, but the ones on the left have Goretex in them, and are lined with fleece, which I thought would come in pretty handy once the icy rain starts coming down and I still have to look presentable for work! The other pair were just really too comfortable to leave behind.

Finally, after a year and a half of barrenness, my never-neglected orchid has decided it's time to cheer up our flat. This is exciting:




And there is another bud about to open up!

A busy weekend

Considering that teaching is supposed to be one of the most stressful jobs, I don't think things are going too badly for me. I am enjoying it, I like my pupils, the school and my colleagues, I haven't lost my voice yet, and I don't even have to do all that much preparation. I even managed to have a completely work-free weekend!

On Saturday, I went to London with some friends to see the National Theatre of Scotland's excellent production of the Bacchae, at the Lyric Hammersmith. It was funny and very very upsetting towards the end, well worth the effort! After that, I decided that, since I had come all the way into London, I would explore the new Whole Foods on Kensington High Street, the first to open in the UK. I almost wished I hadn't. I felt like Stendhal on his first visit to Florence: too much, too much! They had an entire wall of chocolate products! The cakes! The vegetables! The different varieties of milk, eggs, tomatoes, an aisle full of olive oil, hundreds of cheeses, a huge variety of fresh food, a restaurant.... It happened to be close to dinner-time, and I just felt weak at the knees. I didn't even buy anything; it was too overwhelming. I left for the long journey home, thoroughly depressed at the thought of the average British supermarket.

On Sunday morning I went to the local organic food market, a nice cycling ride away. It's only a small market, but I enjoy going there, because the atmosphere is so much friendlier than in that above-mentioned average supermarket. A friend of mine suggested going punting, which we did, using the last day of summer-like weather of this year, it seems. At night, we decided to splash out and have dinner at a fantastic Lebanese restaurant.

I also put the finishing touches to the chest of drawers, which is now gracing our bedroom.




Say it with me: Din-ky.....
I'm now wanting to get back to work on my quilt, but I'm also trying to read Atonement, so that I can go and see the film before it leaves the cinemas! I suppose I'd better get back to it, then....

New sofa and shopping spree

My life is just full of new things. There's the new job, of course, which I'm enjoying very much and which is really turning out just as I would have wished it to be, even if the first week stress gave me a nasty headache on Friday. It's a challenge and I'm sure there will be times that I won't be loving it, but so far it all seems very manageable and I'm looking forward to a very good time at this school.


On Friday, our much-anticipated sofabed arrived, and Alan spent the morning putting it together, so that I could take a nap on it when I got home. It's so nice to have a sofa at last; it makes the flat seem so much more comfortable and homely. That's me relaxing on it in the picture at the top of this post, wearing my new, very cheap trousers which I picked up in a little shopping spree on Saturday. Other purchases included the novel Atonement, which I want to read before seeing the new film (but as it's almost 400 pages long, it may take a while!), some smart black trousers and a few bargains. The fair trade shop, one of my favourite haunts, had a sale on. I picked up this skirt for a mere five pounds:


Very nice, isn't it? I was also very taken with this shirt, which I had my eye on back when it was full price:


It'll be good for work, and the material is lovely:



And it's all fair trade, yay! Two lovely items for only ten pounds. I was quite chuffed. On our way home, we swung by a cool second-hand clothing shop, where I encountered this crazy jacket, which Alan persuaded me to buy:


It's pretty cool, I think! It's got a funny beady pocket as well:


Now I need a long purple skirt to go with this, and ideally some of those high-collared Victorian blouses I've spotted in the new People Tree collection, another firm favourite of mine. At least I've got some spiffy clothes to keep me going for a little while.

I'm still working hard on the chest of drawers, which is now almost ready for assemblage. The quilt is gathering dust at the moment, because I need a lot of time for preparation! I will get back to it when life is a bit more organised. Slowly but surely, the flat is coming together.


I just want to point out that the wall-hanging wasn't my idea! I don't mind it, but I wish it was a little less brown (although Alan claims it's orange). Oh well, at least I am in charge of making a tablecloth for our cluttered little coffee table.

A proper schoolmistress now

Today was an important day; I taught my first lessons! I had to wait until the afternoon to do so, which was both good and bad, as it gave me more time to prepare, but also more time to become nervous! However, it all went well, even if I was a little flustered at times and not quite sure where the key to the paper cupboard was, and my pupils were very friendly, well-behaved, intelligent and hardworking. Maybe I'll change my mind at some point, but for now I feel relieved and I'm looking forward to getting into the swing of things!

The drawer fronts have now all been decorated:

I think they're so dinky. I'm going to paint yellow flowers onto the blue knobs as well. I can't wait to start using my customised chest of drawers! We can then reorganise the bedroom, which is looking a bit gloomy at the moment, especially after we purchased a black canvas wardrobe, dubbed 'the coffin'. I did my best to brighten it up with this Indian fabric I bought in a shop in Edinburgh:


It's better, but you can still see the coffin-ness underneath. Ah well, it is very handy.

I've been filling up a spare corner between the kitchen and the living room with this clever little photo-organising system I got from my friend Kathryn. I never really know what to do with postcards: save them or throw them out? Now they have a function:


We need more postcards, obviously, but I think it looks very nice so far. I've also been good (I feel) about organising our accessories:


We had no need for these handy fold-out shelves in our wardrobes, so I put them to good use elsewhere! Good for those things that need to be tidied away, but still visible enough so you don't forget you have them! (In fact, I just realised that that's where I left my blue bag!)


More pictures of our lovely home to follow!

A week of new things

This week has been the start of a new life for me. On Monday, I started work as a teacher for the first time. So far, everything has been going well, although admittedly I haven't had any interaction with any actual students yet! The school is lovely and everyone is extremely friendly and helpful, so I have a good feeling about all this. Let's hope it stays that way after tomorrow, when I teach my very first lessons!

Despite this excitement, I've been keeping busy with my creative projects. The IKEA coloured chest of drawers has now been painted several times, and I've started decorating it. This is what the drawers will look like (the yellow doesn't look that bright because the flash is off):


That's me in the process of decorating it, which has been slightly nerve-racking as I keep accidentally smudging the freshly painted blue decorations! It took me a while to do it, but I'm very pleased with the results so far. Hopefully Alan will be able to put the drawers together this weekend, when we'll also be rejoicing in the arrival of our new sofabed, which is coming on Friday! And maybe we'll go shopping for some teacher-clothes for me; I badly need some nice new clothes!

I also manfully got to work on my inaugural quilt, despite not really possessing the necessary equipment, such as a quilt ruler and fabric cutter, or basic math skills. After I had cut my second layer of fabric, I realised I had made a few major errors in measuring:


I had completely miscalculated the angles somehow, so it turned out a bit wonky and less wide than I intended! Oh well, it was not a total disaster, considering I'm doing everything by hand. I tried to avoid making the same mistake with the next layer, but then I mismeasured that so it's much too narrow! Oh dear; well, I suppose it's only a first effort!


Hmm... I'm not giving up though - I secretly feel I'm not doing too badly here! Well, Alan is retiring to read his new biography of Clarissa Dickson Wright. I'll end with a gratuitous picture of our olive plant (go olive plant, soak up those rays of early autumn sun!).