Easter Sunday....

....No Easter eggs. No church, (though we really did consider it!). Instead, a considerable lie in, a jumble sale, more coffee, a new pub and yet more food.

We first cycled over to Wills Moody jumble sale in Euston.




Kelly snagged a velvet jacket for a fiver.

Next, I'd been keen to check out a new coffee shop on Wiltons Way, called, um, Wilton's.


(the one on the right)


Inside. Outside. Smile.

I wasn't disappointed - the place was small, but perfectly formed, whilst they even played radio from the local 'London Fields station'.



The chocolate & Guinness cake was brilliant too. (Obviously).





Happy coffee campers.

Another place Kelly and I have wanted to go to for a while is Biddle Brothers. Formerly a builders merchants on Lower Clapton Road, now transformed in to a pub.



Fortunately the proprietor has rightly kept the original signage, which looks great, and the art deco style window grating, (which casts an incredible evening sun shadow).



Kelly then patiently re-introduced me to chess, (after a deliberately self enforced 20 year break), which she naturally won.




The Guinness soothed the pain. Naturally.

Then, (still not finished!), after a brief hiatus, (and much talking up by Kelly), we went for dinner at Turkish restaurant Anatolia on Mare Street. It was a veritable feast.


Lambs liver


Mackerel fillet


Veggie special


Satisfied as ever.

Then home.

Easter Saturday....

....The long holiday weekend was already falling in to a familiar pattern - food, drink and friends. Saturday morning was no exception, Kelly, Liam, Nick and I meeting up with Joss, Cli and Bond at Pavilion cafe. It was great as ever.


Liam, Nick, Bond, Joss, Cli, Kelly


Eggs Florentine


Vegetarian breakfast, (with home made baked beans).

Later in the day, Kelly and I went to Hurwundeki, which has expanded and relocated from its original clothing shop, to become a deli, coffee and antiques shop.


Kelly taking advantage off the vintage toys in the forecourt


vintage tatt and all for sale


Beautiful arched roof beneath Cambridge Heath train station.

It's a great hide out to relax, drink, eat and read - but maybe even to kit out your house too.


Lost in High Fidelity

Good Friday....

....Kelly and I had set our sites on fish this Friday, so we headed to Borough Market and decided upon sea bass from Applebee's.


(not our fish)

Weighed up.

Back at home, (with the real grisly work of cleaning and gutting done in the mongers), all that was left to do was to score and stuff the fish with dill, parsley, garlic, chilli and lemons.



With Nick invited to eat with us too, we bulked out the menu a bit. Starting with the starter(!)


Home roasted pine nuts, bread & oil, homous & carrot.


Stuffed & roasted fish, roast sweet potato, roast new potato.


The full set up, with additional prawns & scallops fried in butter, garlic & chilli and asparagus and broccoli.



Tucking in


Remnants.

Blue suede shoes....

....Well, not shoes precisely, but boots. Very happy.

Matt's stag....

....What goes on the stag, stays on the.....blog?!
In advance of his and Tess' New York wedding in May, Matt's stag party unravelled itself in London at the weekend. It incorporated restaurants, races, roller disco, a nightclub - oh and a different outfit for each!


Pre dinner Greek waiters at your service (Fri)


Matt the jockey following Kempton Races


A man-kini @ Roller Disco, Vauxhall


Hello Sailor @ Guilty Pleasure, Koko.

The full slide show



Oh, and of course something arty from me:


A beautiful rainbow over Kempton Race Course

500 Days of Summer....

....An indie flick. I think. In which the kid from Third Rock From The Sun and a girl, who threatened to steal my heart in a way only Amelie Poulain knew how, spa in 'not a love story'. Apparently.



But of course it is a love story - one with a very good soundtrack too. And one in which, (perhaps typically), I am on the side of the guy from Third Rock. He is called Joseph Gordon-Levitt in real life and Tom in this film. The reason I am taking a side so early on is that Tom falls in love with new employee Summer, (Zooey Deschanel), largely based on her recognition of a Smith's track.


Tom's happiness in full dance scene glory

From that moment, it was meant to be. But not to Summer, who despite offering all the signs of contentment and happiness, refused to be drawn in to commitment. And particularly not one where they were referred to as boyfriend and girlfriend. Which saddened me, because, like Tom, I thought their relationship was good. Great even. One that would last. Yes, I thought Tom had met the one too.



Weirdly the relationship seemed to remind me of a hybrid of those that I have experienced myself. Or at least that is what I kidded myself to think. It certainly is a relationship that idealises everyones fantastical first. Besotted, fun, funny, nervous, mistakes, first experiences, music. So on and so on. I liked it.



So I hated it when Summer decided, inexplicably that it was over. Naturally Tom was distraught. Probably still is. That's why I'm on his side. Not that of the nasty, but beautifully, kookily adorable Summer. Pah. But then of course, in a typically 'none love story' kind of way, it all works out in the end. For both of them. She finds Mr. Right, (all too quickly in my opinion) and he finds, (or so we are led to believe), Mrs Right. And how beautifully ironic that she is called Autumn.



It's a Sunday night kind of film. A listen to the soundtrack on Spotify kind of affair. It's has indie at it's heart but probably isn't at all. It uses deft little illustration techniques and a jumping time scale to add a bit more intrigue. Yeah, it's an enjoyable, funny, heart tugging affair. But god, if I was Tom, I'd still be pissed off.

Mark Warren Jacques (again)....

....I posted a blog about this artist back in December.


MWJ

I subsequently decided to commission him to paint a personal piece for me. To be honest, I didn't really know how to do this, so I emailed him direct asking to buy a work, but instead he recommended it made more (financial) sense, to commission him.


The resultant painting. (but keep on reading!)

So, I set about an email detailing what work of his I liked, (all of it), and what I liked in art, design, fashion, TV - anything that when written down could be said to represent me as a person. Mark responded, passionately embracing all I had described, as it was pretty much all that inspired him anyway. I knew I was on to a winner. I gave a deposit and left him to it, until a couple of weeks back he got in touch again. Did I want to see the finished work before it was shipped over? Nope, just send it on. I trust you.



(details)

And then the following week, a huge box was sitting by my work desk one and I unwrapped it instantly. I wasn't disappointed. Mark had made me a piece that uses paint, collage, pencil and importantly remains in many ways consistent with all of his work that had convinced me to commission him in the first place. The painting is MWJ's first to use a diamond, and as he gleefully wrote in an email to me, has proved the catalyst for a full set of diamond paintings for his next solo exhibition.



So, we are both happy. I have my first original piece of art from an artist who I think is great and I hope goes on to further success.



(and he even signed it and wrote a message in a uniquely MWJ way!)

Food, parcels, papers & puns....

....Kelly cooked for Gemma, Nicklas and I on Friday. A salmon and cous cous parcel. First class.





The following morning I tried my had at eggs benedict. FInally mastering the art of poaching an egg in water, but cruelly omitting the necessary hollondaise sauce. Eggcellent all the same.



And today it was even warm enough to take advantage of the balcony for the first time this year.



Perfect for Sunday reading.

A Serious Man....

....Having watched this and let it settle in my psyche for the best part of a day, I am still no clearer as to what it is that I have actually just seen.



Ostensibly, I liked the film. The slow, brooding pace, the attention to detail, the incredible clarity and cinematography, the relatively unknown cast - creating a greater need to engage with them, the wickedly funny moments set against the cruelly dark.....all added up to enjoyment.



But from the offset, there is also an uncomfortable presence that left me thinking - just what is this all about and what could have led the Cohen brothers to have made it? This is largely owing to the first ten minutes, where the film opens with a mysterious sequence in a 19th-century Polish shtetl. From there the action cuts to the middle of a brewing mid-life crisis for Larry Gopnik, (played by Michael Stuhlbarg). A physics professor whose wife is unhappy and soon to leave him, whose brother is dysfunctional and lives under his roof and whose children bicker, as one prepares for his imminent barmitzvah.



As the reality of his life unfolds, it in fact seems so unreal to Gopnick himself, that he digs deeper in to his faith and believes only the highest and eldest Rabbi can help solve his problems. But ultimately, we begin to learn that this help remains elusive and are left to ponder, (as indeed is Gopnick), as to his enduring fate - the film closing on him receiving a call regarding some x-ray results that he's avoided for so long.



I would like to watch this film again. Perhaps even a third time to help me get to grips with it's complex underbelly. It's left me both satisfied and desperately seeking answers. It is strange and wonderful, but mysterious and elusive. You need to see this for yourselves, if only to witness the Cohen brothers at their beguiling and baffling best.