There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Fairy invited me to a Clean Your Own pop-up restaurant at the OXO Tower in London's South Bank on Saturday. Michelin starred chef Michael Caines was cooking lunch.

Fabulous!

There was a catch though, I had to wash up afterwards. Turns out it was a small price to pay.

Here is the menu:

I chose the lamb. It was amazing.

As was the shepherd's pie,

and the veg.

For dessert I had the apple plate. The apple mousse, in particular, was out of this world.

Here I am with Michael Caines:

Here he is with Luschka from Diary of a First Child:

It was lovely spending the day with Luschka and her adorable daughter, along with Domestic Goddesque, Mellow Mummy and Jamie from The Life and Times of a Househusband and their lovely families.

Here is Jamie demonstrating his househusbandly skills in the Clean Your Own challenge. He took 16 seconds to wash up.

I managed to wash up in 15 seconds and won a year's supply of Fairy Platinum washing up liquid and dishwasher tablets. Go me! Actually, go Fairy. The sink was full of washing up liquid. All I had to do was agitate each item and it was clean.

Huge thanks to Fairy for inviting me, it was a super day.

Before heading home I met up with The Moiderer for coffee. I've known her online for ages so it was great to finally meet. She'd had a tricky day, but I hope I was a reasonable distraction. I think we could have talked for hours without either of us pausing for breath!



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There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

My Top 5 Books of 2011

These are my top 5 6 books of 2011, in no particular order.

The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
This book is so beautifully written that I feel illiterate by comparison. I felt bereft when it ended.

Cold Light - Jenn Ashworth
A wonderfully chilling story. A bleak, but stunningly written, slice of awkward teenage life. I still feel unsettled by it.

How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran
I haven't finished this yet, but it easily makes it into my Top 5. Guffaw out loud funny, but also wise and makes you go RAWR in agreement.

If Morning Ever Comes - Anne Tyler
I love it when I discover a book by the mighty Anne Tyler that I haven't read before. She is my favourite author. I also read The Clock Winder and Noah's Compass this year, both fantastic. Her characters are so full and engaging you get drawn into their lives, even though they are all quirky and all live in Baltimore.

The Starting School Survival Guide - Sarah Ebner
This is an invaluable guide, especially if you are pretty clueless about schools these days. When I were a lad you went to the local primary. How times have changed.

The Hand That First Held Mine - Maggie O'Farrell (Not pictured)
As I was writing this post I remembered this amazing book. It wasn't in my 'have read' pile, I must have given it to someone. This book made me gasp out loud, twice. Fabulous.

What are your top books of 2011?

Any recommendations for me?

I can't let my 'to read' pile dwindle to single figures, I get jittery.


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My Top 5 Books of 2011

Knitting

On Friday, after I dropped the boys at Nursery, I went to Hobbycraft for a mooch around. I fancied a crafty hobby. I don't want to spend every evening at the laptop and I can never find anything I want to watch on the box. Lately I've been going to bed very early to read, but that's quite anti-social.

I thought I'd have a go at knitting - as you do - and bought some knitting needles and a cheap ball of wool.

It's a long time since I knat knitted anything. I was trying to remember the last time and I think it's when I was seven or eight years old.

It took me a while to remember how to cast on, but once I figured it out I was away. After thirty-odd years I was knitting again. It was like riding a woolly bike. I'll see how far I get with my scarf. If I lose interest it may turn into a teddy blanket. I never really had the patience to learn how to follow a pattern and I suspect I  haven't changed.

The main thing I remember knitting when I was a child was string dishcloths. You read correctly. String dishcloths. It was for my knitting badge in the Brownies.

I remember feeling entirely under-whelmed by the Brownies. I was expecting to be a Pixie or a Sprite and go on camping trips. The reality was that I was a Gnome. A GNOME - the shame! The closest I got to the great outdoors was cleaning Mrs Simpson's front step for the housework badge.

Two exciting things happened when I was in the Brownies. Firstly, a dog came into the church hall one day and weed on the floor. Secondly, a few weeks later, I weed on the floor. We were doing prayers at the end and I didn't think I was allowed to go to the loo at that point. Let's face it though, a precedent had been set.

I stuck it out until my Brownie uniform, once a dress that fell below the knees, was so short it was almost indecent.


This is my post for The Gallery.
The theme this week was to take a photograph on 11.11.11.

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Knitting

Why are you wearing a poppy, Mummy?

My children are three and four. I don't want them to know about war yet. They will find out soon enough. They will learn one day about genocide, the Holocaust, horrific atrocities, the awfulness of war and man's inhumanity to man. Alongside this they will also learn about bravery, self-sacrifice and heroism. Most of all I want them to learn about the people.

The soldier in the trenches, the war poet, the land-girl, the code-breaker, the pilot, the submariner, the Home-Guard, the Resistance, the medic, the prisoner of war, the girl who wrote a diary, the man with the medals (my Grandad), the boy bounced out of his bed when the Luftwaffe bombed the railway line near his house (my Dad), the Captain in the South Atlantic, the Squaddie in Afghanistan, the peace-keeper, the politician and their mothers.

So when I was asked the question 'Why are you buying a poppy, Mummy?', I thought for a moment, brushed away a tear and answered, 'To remember some people'.

Lest we forget.

Why are you wearing a poppy, Mummy?

Reasons to Love Living in Milton Keynes #4

There are more than twenty parks in Milton Keynes. One of them is at Furzton Lake.

We took the boys there recently. They enjoyed feeding the ducks and the geese:

We loved the Triple Star Head sculpture by Paul Neagu:

When we were looking for a house in Milton Keynes, we wondered what it would be like to live at Furzton. Homes with a lake view come at a hefty premium. As we walked round the lake though, we thought that the residents must get fed up with people walking, running and cycling past their back gardens.

We were proud of the boys as they walked most of the 2.2km around the lake. We only had to carry them on the final stretch. We rewarded ourselves with a treat from the ice-cream van. Lovely.

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Reasons to Love Living in Milton Keynes #4