Home again and Afternoon Tea

Jennifer very kindly drove me to Milton Keynes on Sunday morning, from where I could catch a direct train to Glasgow. I had a reserved seat again and soon made myself comfy with a cup of coffee and a pain au raisin from Prêt. The train was quite busy at first but I pressed on with my Northern Renaissance essay and by Penrith lots of people had got off the train so it was lovely and quiet. 
James, Ally and Davie have been hill-walking this weekend around Glencoe and stayed for one overnight in the Nevis Range Base Camp hotel. James had piled up lots of food in the cats’ bowls before he left yesterday morning. When I arrived home in the afternoon Tom and Flora came running down the stairs and took me straight to their bowls. There was loads of dry food left but no fresh chunks, which I remedied immediately. James and Ally arrived home by teatime and we had a curry together and I heard about their hill-walking adventures.
On Monday morning the sky was a gorgeous blue colour but it was very cold and there was frost on the ground as I walked down to the station. I met Heather at Mackintosh at the Willow where we had a delicious afternoon tea; sandwiches, scones and tiny cakes. You could choose whatever tea you wanted and I chose Duchess Grey which was very drinkable, I drank two teapots full! Heather chose different fruit teas which she said were excellent. A good old chat ensued before we headed on our separate ways home. We made lamb tagine for James and Ally, and butternut squash tagine for me, and we watched University Challenge which was great fun. James doesn’t like University Challenge so my only chance to watch it is with Ally. I was delighted that one of the answers to a question about art was Vasari! I have learned about him in my Northern Renaissance art course! Ally won of course, although we were both a bit out of practice.  

Injera and candlelight in Oxford

Russell impressed me in the morning with his tiny frying pan which is exactly the right size for one fried egg to be fried in a perfect circle. After breakfast Jennifer and I, and her lovely friend Debbie went for a stroll into the centre of Princes Risborough where we went to a craft fair at St Mary’s Church Hall, and then had coffee and brownies. We were joined by anther of Jenn’s friend, also called Debbie, and had a really nice chat. Back at the house Jennifer organised a tile painting session for us, what fun! She then baked the tiles in the oven to set the ink. 

Our next destination was Oxford, but unfortunately there had been an incident on the line near Ruislip and all of the trains were cancelled. We met two young Oxford students called Ellen and Yelena who were also stuck, and after being unable to hire an Uber (because demand was outweighing supply because of the cancelled trains) Russ very kindly brought the car to the station so that Jenn could drop him back at home and then she drove us and the students to Oxford Park and Ride. From there we caught the bus into the centre of Oxford, the girls were very grateful and even invited us for drinks at Brasenose College bar! 

Jenn and I had dinner at Lula’s which is an Ethiopian Restaurant, and we shared a vegetarian injera dish; injera are fermented pancakes with the most amazing texture and taste. Then we had a coffee in Oxford’s Covered Market and listened to a great wee band. As we were walking to the Holywell Music Room for our next event I caught the side of my foot on a kerb and fell down full length rather painfully but luckily with only a couple of bumps and grazes. When Jennifer helped me up I felt really dizzy for a few minutes and my ears were ringing. Jennifer took me into a café and bought me a hot chocolate; I soon felt better and we went to see Candlelight ABBA versus Queen. What a fantastic concert in a stunning venue. We were in the front row and a string quartet played a series of tunes by both groups which were all excellent. At the end we had to decide whether Abba or Queen were better. Abba received rousing cheers from the audience but the applause for Queen easily and in my opinion justifiably surpassed them, so the final song played was by Queen. Does that mean that Queen wrote better songs or that the string quartet simply played the Queen songs better? This gave Jennifer and I plenty to discuss on the journey home. It was a fantastic day. 

National Gallery and Aylesbury Theatre

It was rainy today but I cared not a jot because I had already planned a morning at the National Gallery before meeting Jennifer for lunch. I set off after carefully posting Ally and Cat’s keys through their door after locking up, wrapped in a sock so as not to damage the floor. I had such a lovely time at the National Gallery and had a wee pain au chocolat in the Supporters House mid morning I met Jennifer in the Sainsbury’s Wing and we went down to the Supporters House where we had pumpkin tortelloni which was yummy. I mistakenly asked for tortellini and the waitress politely pointed out my mistake, so I looked it up later and the main differences are size and filling: tortellini are smaller and traditionally filled with meat, while tortelloni are larger and typically filled with cheese and vegetables. Always something new to learn! Jennifer and I then took the underground to Marylebone and caught a train to Princes Risborough. It was dark when we arrived and Russell kindly picked us up from the station, and we had a tasty tea of homemade soup, bread and cheese before going to see the German comedian Henning Behn at the beautiful Aylesbury Theatre. He was very funny; his main theme was what to do about global warming and he made some sharp observations and was not afraid to be quite 
outrageous!   

Dinner with Cat in Marylebone

I had a great day in London today. After a wander around the busy and vibrant Borough Market, I met Rhona for lunch at Fish! which is a gorgeous bright restaurant on the edge of the market. We had a good catch up. I then took an underground train to Euston and went for an excellent walk in Regents Park. Compared with the busy streets of London it felt almost hushed, even though there were some people walking around. There were quite a few squirrels dashing about in the undergrowth and birds singing in the trees. The leaves have nearly all fallen but it was still warm enough to sit outside for a coffee at the pleasant Regents Park Café, where I eavesdropped on a beauty queen (in full regalia) being filmed by a friend talking about her life plans. Fascinating. It was getting dark when I left the park and the path was closed ahead of me so I had to go a roundabout way to get to the road; I felt a bit spooked in the twilight even though there were still other people in the park. I had a stroll along the delightful Marylebone High Street and went into Daunt Bookshop for a browse before meeting Cat for dinner at Bellazul, a great wee tapas restaurant. Ally was on his way to Scotland for a work meeting tomorrow. Cat and I had a really nice chat and had a cup of tea later back at the flat. 

Dinner with Ally in the City

This morning I took the direct train from Glasgow Central to London Euston. The journey went very smoothly although we were 15 minutes late. To my delight I got a table for four all to myself all the way to Warrington, when a quiet man arrived; he was no trouble. I do enjoy a train journey when it goes well. I spent my time writing up my Northern Renaissance notes and working on my essay, it was very enjoyable. 
When I arrived at Ally and Cat’s flat I had a coffee with Cat before she set off for a meeting in Cambridge, and I took the DLR to Bank to meet Ally at our old favourite, the Ivy Asia. When I was at Limehouse Station on the way, a drunk man tried to get my attention but I gave such a terrible scream when he grabbed my shoulder that he looked really scared - I hadn’t realised he was speaking to me until he touched me! That’s the second time that a drunk man has approached me in the last couple of weeks; the other time was in Paris. Ally and I had a really lovely meal and chat, and afterwards Ally took me into his new office above Bank Station which has amazing views from its 4th floor windows. It even has a terrace outside the window with wee tables and chairs. From the terrace we could see an amazing stained glass window, I think it’s about the Peasants’ Revolt, in the Mansion House building, which is the official residence of London’s Lord Mayor. 

Christmas Cake

It has been a good day. I am nearly finished the second draft of my Northern Renaissance essay, although the word count has alarmingly shot up to nearly 5000 (it should be around 2000 words) so will require some vigorous trimming. James and I went over to the picture framers in Carntyne after lunch and put in a painting of Mum’s and two Tingatinga paintings that we brought back from Tanzania. On the way home we shopped for ingredients for this year’s Christmas cake and then James carefully weighed them all out and made the cake. Meanwhile I made a recipe that I noticed in my Ottolenghi Simple cookbook; cornbread with cheddar, feta and jalapeño. It was made with flour, polenta, spring onion and of course corn, and it had a lot of spice in it such as cumin and nigella seeds. It turned out very well and we had it for dinner with eggs (me) and bacon (James.) It was very companionable cooking and baking together in the kitchen, and the Christmas cake smelled gorgeous during its four hours in the oven. It’s Grandma’s recipe that we use so it’s a nice reminder of her. I came across a lovely photo the other day of her and I having lunch in the sunshine outside House for an Art Lover in the summer of 2018. 

Aye Write 2025

This afternoon James and I went to two events at Aye Write, the Glasgow book festival. Both were in the Strathclyde Suite The first author was the likeable and chaotic comedian Helen Lederer. I read her autobiography “Not that I’m Bitter” in preparation for her talk and she is very open about her life, both good and bad times. Her talk with Bryan Burnett was hilarious; she flitted from subject to subject and it was hard to keep up! We went downstairs to the café and Bryan Burnett and his producer Barbara and her husband were behind us in the queue; we introduced ourselves as long time fans of his radio show “Get It On.” They were very pleasant. 
The second event was Julie Wilson Nimmo and Greg Hemphill talking about their book about wild swimming, following on from their television series, which we have watched. Bryan Burnett again conducted the interview and they were great fun, telling lots of anecdotes about their lives and how outdoors swimming has helped them during times of change in their lives. 
After an acceptable dinner across the road in Ask Italian, James set off to the Hydro to meet Gordon; they are going to see Australian Pink Floyd again. I headed home where I binge-watched all three episodes of the Victoria Beckham documentary on Netflix; it was a good opportunity because James has no interest in watching it!