Borough Market on a bright Saturday morning

I should have brought my camera. But then again, my shopping basket -- really a dark blue backpack with "UBS Financial Services Group" printed on it (how do you differentiate the real shoppers from the posers with their straw and wicker baskets?... like so.) -- was more important, no?

Then there were oh so summery fruits and veg, crispy asian pears, huge bananas, scallions, and my favourite rocket from my favourite stall. Check. Which of course took me past the chorizo, and to my surprise(!) I found some in my bag together with those cute little black pudding sausages. Check. Then there was pork belly and prawns to mince and wrap into little wonton ingots. Weren't the prawns expensive - Saudi Arabian, Madagascan, king prawns, tiger prawns, whatever don't make a difference when you are going to mince mince all of them up (should have got those huge bags of frozen prawns for 5 pounds in Chinatown, dang). Check. There was also comte for my favourite boy, just because he had asked nicely over the phone. So it was his fault entirely that I walked casually past the preserves stall, as casual as can be with those rows and rows of jars one simply had to stop to taste. Spicy gooseberry jam with fresh coriander, hm, that would go well with the wontons, wouldn't it? Check. Beef shank and brisket for Saturday's beef rendang. Check. Oh and there was that naughty and marvellously marbled ribeye I slipped in with the rest of the meat, we mustn't forget.

Well, other than the ribeye, you must admit, this trip was rather tame. Relatively. Strolling out of the market, my now heavy backpack on my shoulders, the sun shining on my face, past the winking flowers in the flower stall, pretty in my cherry print summer dress, I felt positively... healthy.

Fellowship Group outing

Sunset "cruise" on the river taxi from Embankment to Greenwich.

I was wearing my floating blue dress with white polka dots - the perfect dress in a breeze.

Turner wannabe

Recipe: Raspberry&Rum jam / Fruitpicking!

Raspberries

Dirty fingers after picking blackberries

No strawberries, because it started raining. =(

My first attempt at the English institute of jam making

Cook raspberries in their own juice

This is what they look like after 20 minutes

Add equal amount of sugar in

Cook for a further 20 minutes

My genius touch

Just a small political rant

Why do so many Americans think that they are the saviours of the world and that this licences them to do as they please? Anodyne of the tourists from China and Singaporean uncles and aunties who think that their country is the best place in the world and everything else can never match up. Oh, but don't be fooled. Europeans are proud too. They just do it more cleverly, basking in humility and idealism. One could never boast of being the ones holding together world unity by a shoestring and the only ones fighting for real inclusiveness. No no, it would simply not be proper.

Pride is first irritating. Then sad. Because so much more could be done for the world's worst off if we respected each others virtues and acknowledged our own faults more. No wonder, of all the things God hates, He hates pride most.

Breakfast

My brekkie

I had a very fruity breakfast today - mango/passionfruit muffin with a banana caramel coffee frap.

No, I do not have shares in Starbucks. =)

Sale!

I'm selling my notebook and switching to Mac!

If anyone is interested in a Toshiba Tecra 9100 with upgraded 256MB RAM, email me!

Details
£440, open to email offers (list price £2199). V gd condition + clean. Purchased 2003. Original documentation, disks, cables & accessories intact. Notes: i) runs Win XP Pro, ii) upgraded RAM 256MB, iii) requires external USB sound card (no audio device). Includes free goodwill Toshiba Deluxe carrier case + Cisco wireless LAN card. Excellent deal with bundle.

As you know, the Tecra range is absolutely top-of-the-line. The Creative Audigy Soundblaster works great on it, but unfortunately am not selling! tee hee. See review here.

“If God sees that my spiritual life will be furthered by giving me the things for which I ask, then He will give them, but that is not the end of prayer. The end of prayer is that I come to know God himself.”

~ Oswald Chambers

The 3 things I believe in fundamentally

1) Jesus Christ
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

2) Love and church unity
"Love your neighbor as yourself."

3) Social justice
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Wetfoot Quiz Night!

Indian curry and saffron rice. Lots of it. About 200 portions of the dang thing. Me waitress.
Quiz with an impossible football round. Me team Delhi Belly - I love my friends!
Cake auction. Me cake model. Someone paid 118 pounds for Renee's amazing meringue construction!
Break. Me fruit touter.
Clear up. Me dishwasher.
Bed. Me very tired. Need to get up for church the next day.
Me happy. Raising money for a good cause.

Shakespeare in Regents Park

Open Air Theatre, Inner Circle, Regent's Park

There were fairy lights dancing in the trees and shrubs. The smell of bbq in the air and a light summer breeze. The sun winked through the leaves, and everywhere there was magic and laughter. I got lost in Regents Park and we were hungry. The three of us foodies shared hamburgers and wine and conversation, a new winning combination. Plus, I managed to flog the other two tickets to an old couple... who paid me the entire sum in coins! Check out my biceps!

Shakespeare. Taming of the Shrew. It was a refreshingly modern performance. But, as the night turned dark and the breeze blew more ominously, we only wished Katarina would be tamed quickly so that we could go to Chinatown for some of those cute little dumplings and hot tea. I smell a Singaporean food feste coming up soon!

First pics from the Emerald Isle (complete)

Some quiet time on my own in Dublin after conference, St Stephen's Green

I've been so very lazy updating. Days since I was suddenly transported from the lush plains of Ireland to train-delayed London have been filled with one bye-bye to American boy, one lamb xacutti with Lulu, one beautiful church wedding with a stomping Ceilidh to boot (I was asked to dance three dances!), fundraising plans for India and lots of post-trip catching up. I was glad for the chance to take my short floaty yellow dress and black taffeta skirt for an outing on Saturday. Last night, I had dinner with a group of older ladies from church - it was nice just sitting amidst their chatter about the weather, church going-ons, stories about 'darling, you know that pastor in Shannon who was at the wedding last week, his wife is something Moore' etc. I was just sitting there, and suddenly, it struck me how admirable their steadfastness and positivism was - in their case, it derived from an enduring Englishness and an unshakeable faith in God. And, when they start thinking of nice boys in church to introduce to you, you know you've been adopted...

Exploring Temple Bar with my backpack

The conference in Dublin was just what I needed. To be inspired by academics who are not content to stay in their ivory towers, but who are practitioners in their own right getting their hands dirty in issues of global justice, basic income, disability, workfare, environmentalism, security, reconciliation etc. I was very much challenged to rethink some aspects of my own work and to refine the questions I was asking, especially by one professor in particular who was on my panel (and also pretty hot!). On the social side, I found academics pleasant enough to get on with after a few drinks. But it's an existence of solitude when you're alone and not famous. There was a very nice boy, however, who first caught me with his pudgy smile and soon became my best conference friend - everyone needs one, you know, the person you look for when everyone else has cliqued, to eat lunch/dinner/coffee (you can't eat coffee, I know) etc., to pretend to talk serious talk when all you want to do is laugh crazily and tell Irish jokes. In my case, he also turned out to be the one who introduced me to absolutely everybody fun at the conference (being one of the conference organisers' best friend), and the one who walked in the rain with me looking for a cash machine so that I could take a taxi back to the university, which is out of Dublin city centre somewhere tres ulu. Ah, Irish chivalry... but then again, he's Scottish living in England. hm.

With friends outside the Dublin Film Institute the next day,

waiting to watch the deeply moving and beautiful film, Wah Wah

Spent the rest of Saturday after the conference wandering the streets of Dublin, then it was Sunday morning and time to rendezvous with Anna on the banks of the Liffey! I spotted her first. Waving and weaving frantically through the traffic (human and vehicular) that is O'Connell bridge, we hugged and gave a whoop of joy. Dublin, here we come! Bags dumped in hostel, picked up Mina, and we were off to lunch in Temple Bar. A tour of the fascinating Book of Kells at Trinity College, shopping and chocolates, and a chance film at the Dublin Institute of Film later, we found ourselves in the warm Italian bosom of Baccaro, a candlelit cellar restaurant we had spied in Anna's guide book. We were very silent at first, something not quite right after the film. Had it touched us? Brought out our inner fears? Make us laugh sadly? A thorough dissection was called for. Then, much much later, plied with one glass of Venezia, another glass of red with my tagliatelle, and yet another glass of vin Santo, I was quite happy to walk back down the pulsating streets of Temple Bar to the quiet of my bed, my heart light to be reminded of the indomitableness of the human spirit, and gladdened by the absolute necessity of girlfriends.

Stopping in Cashel on the drive from Dublin to Cork

Faint fresco of a Viking ship on the ruins of Cashel Castle

Next morning was an early start. Collected our rental car and off we were. Bye bye Dublin! Five hours of high roads and byroads it took us to get to the remotest of remotest Cork (although we did admittedly stop in Cashel to have lunch and tea and explore the castle ruins). Part of the directions included "turn into the forestry patch", so you get the idea... But Ireland is (quote Anna) "beeeauuuutiful!". So lush, and green, and well, wet. There was a hot stew awaiting us, and a homemade sign to welcome us - I felt very special indeed. After dinner, Anna taught all of us the absolutely evil game called the Black Mariah. And then to bath in the cute turquoise tub (no shower!) with Abi's rubber duckies and sharkies, and to bed.

In beautiful Tullagh at last

Abi checking our supper

Picnic lunch on the card table the next day

Ireland is incredibly green, in all senses of the word. The Elias-Corello team recycle absolutely everything, and have a compost bin with rotting stuff in it in their garden - you have to pay for any disposable rubbish that you don't recycle, you see. Dublin was afterall the first city in Europe to ban smoking in all public spaces - with the result that everybody smokes outside, hence making the streets quite unbearable at times. But my grouses aside, I think it's wonderful that my groceries are put in paper bags, that people recycle so much, that the water from the tap comes from an underground spring, that the vegetables I eat come from the garden outside, that I need to clean the old-fashioned way because there's no shower, that an argo heats the house, that life is just so healthy here! But also that there're two electric guitars and one bass sitting in the living room, that the house is equipped to the ends of the earth with every sound engineering possible, that the kichen has a microwave and a kicking coffee machine, and that we have cars in plural. haha. Life is good.

Horseriding with the girls - picture by Paul Corello

picture by Paul Corello

Over the next few days, we covered the country roads between Tullagh, Glengarriff, Bantry (which I kept calling Balti) and Dunmanway lazily, or crazily if Paul's driving was anything to go by. There was their church fellowship in Bantry, poking around the shops in Bantry while the others visited Bantry House (I found my bedside lamp at last!), glancing through the craft shops in Glengariff, the expedition up a very very long and uphill road (in heels!) to see a very very small stone circle, and of course, horse-riding in Dunmanway thanks to Anna's persistence - boy, were our bums hurting the next day! My horse, Boyz, was the laziest horse ever! The nights were filled with warmth and fellowship and home-cooked food, including pizzas, roast lamb, and Paul's ever addictive chocolate bars. Mm... nothing better on a cold summer's night.

So, to sum up the trip, we didn't get to snog the Blarney stone (that gives the gift of the gab, as legend goes), but we did go horse-riding and eat a lot, and I learned how to suck the nectar off honeysuckle blossoms! And most importantly, we spent precious time together - I love my girlfriends!

My impression of the beautiful Irish countryside:

pretty foxgloves, delicious honeysuckle, and a lot of heather