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! 

Another Book Club and first Art Class

Last night I hosted book club - but not the same one as Tuesday. This time it was my East Kilbride Book Club, and we had a convivial evening, starting with an interesting discussion about the book (There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak) and then a catch up on what’s going on in our lives. Some news was heart-warming and some was worrying. They are such a nice group of girls. 
I went to my first Art Class at the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice today and I absolutely loved it: the teacher is such a kind and helpful person and the other students are very friendly. I have decided in a botanical painting and the teacher encouraged me to start with the background. 
Later James and I went in an errand to Carntyne and as we drove back through Shettleston I noticed a street with an unusual name; Vesalius Street. A quick google search informed me that the street is named after Andreas Vesalius, a 16th-century physician and anatomist. The reason for naming the street after him is apparently a mystery. The specific reason for the Victorian street's name is a mystery, Vesalius was an eminent and influential scientist but he was born in Brussels and never visited Scotland. 

Book club, essay and fireworks

It’s fireworks night tonight but we have stayed in; I have been working on my Northern Renaissance essay all day and spent a bit of the evening on it too. I am making progress. The essay is not compulsory but I think it’s a good way to really think about what I have learned. The cats are not very happy about the fireworks, not terrified but definitely a bit spooked and staring at the windows when there is a particularly loud explosion outside. They both spent the evening in my study dozing on the couch while I played music to muffle the sound of the fireworks. 
Last night I had the newly revived Cambuslang book club at my house, it fell into abeyance a couple of years ago when Katie moved to Liverpool because she was the main organiser, but Ruth and I have decided to restart it. We talked about Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed and it was a really great discussion and a lovely evening. I was delighted that Chanel came along; she fitted right in and got in well with everyone. 

Home from Paris

Our Novotel hotel at Terminal 1 in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport, couldn’t be handier for the airport; it’s actually part of the airport buildings and a very short walk to the shuttle train to Terminal 2. However it still took us a whole hour to queue through security and passport control and then our flight was delayed by an hour! Never mind, we were quick off the flight at Glasgow and were soon home and reunited with Tom and Floof, who were pleased to see us and took us straight to their food bowls. This was completely unnecessary because Angela had fed them in the morning, but I think it makes them feel secure if we do our duty and feed them when we have been away. Much unpacking and laundry was done. In the evening we decided to watch a film. We used what I now think of as the “Josh method” first successfully used by us last week, which is to choose the first film on Netflix which catches our eye instead of spending ages searching. This time we quickly chose “The Woman in Cabin 10” which was a run of the mill and yet fairly enjoyable thriller, with a stellar cast led by Kiera Knightley and Guy Pearce. It was set on a super yacht, a bit like my favourite tv programme Below Decks, but with less sex and more murder! 

Canal Saint Martin

We decided to revisit St Germain this morning so took a metro directly from Arc-de-Triomphe to Saint-Paul and then walked to Ile Saint-Louis. It started to rain just as we were passing a wee café, La Lutétia, so we popped inside and enjoyed coffee and tartines while watching people walking past under their umbrellas. By the time we were ready to continue our walk the rain had stopped and the sky was blue again. We went along past Notre Dame to Shakespeare and Company, fortuitously joining the fast growing queue about ten minutes before it opened at midday, which meant that we got straight in. The doorman put the chain across just behind us so we felt very lucky. It was nice to be back and we looked at the art books as well as going upstairs to the second hand section. We continued nostalgically along the Rue de Buci and  across the Pont Neuf where we jumped in a metro train to La Villette. We went for a gorgeous autumnal walk from the Bassin de la Villette along the Canal Saint-Martin. It was quite pretty in an urban way, with locks and high pedestrian bridges at intervals along it. Lots of people were out for a Sunday walk along the canal. We stopped for a quick coffee at a busy wee café, then continued along until the canal literally disappeared into a tunnel beneath Paris and could be seen no more. It apparently goes underground until it emerges at Bastille shortly before it joins the Seine. We walked the short distance to Place de République and took the metro to somewhere about half way along the Champs-Elysées. Then we strolled along in the evening sunlight towards our hotel, stopping for a really delicious dinner at Café L’Etoile 1903 just round the corner from the Arc de Triomphe. It was decorated in fin de siècle gilt adorned style and the waiters were very friendly, like most (perhaps all, I can’t be absolutely sure) of the Parisian waiters whom I have encountered over the years. Their fearsome reputation seems to me unwarranted. After collecting our cases we travelled by RER train to Charles de Gaulle Airport. And as a wee end of holiday bonus we were given an upgraded room at the Novotel! Our room is on the top floor, smart and spacious, and after all our walking around Paris today it was great to put our feet up and relax. 

Bois de Boulogne

This morning it was raining so we headed for a museum that we haven’t been to before, which is quite near our hotel, the Musée Marmottan Monet. We visited a temporary exhibition of paintings of people sleeping by a variety of artists, which was mildly interesting, and then went downstairs to the permanent collection to pay our respects to Claude Monet. Some of his work is magnificent, some of it not so much. I really liked La Barque, a little boat on water that looked full of pondweed, with a leafy branch over it. And I liked Impression, Sunrise, which Monet painted from his window in Le Havre with its blood red sun rising through a blue haze, a couple of little boats in the foreground. It’s apparently where the term Impressionism got its name. 
We then emerged into gratifyingly dry and sunny weather and walked the short distance to the Bois de Boulogne. 
It was lunchtime so we made our way to the nearest restaurant, the Chalet des Îles. In 1852, the Bois de Boulogne was ceded by Napoleon III to the city of Paris and major work on its redevelopment began the following year under the direction of Baron Haussmann. As part of these plans, a lake was created with two islands connected by a bridge. Meanwhile Empress Eugénie decided that she really liked a chalet that she saw in Bern, in Switzerland. So the Emperor had the whole chalet dismantled and transported by train and rebuilt on the large island on the lake! It is now a restaurant, and to get to it we took a wee ferry across the water. The restaurant was smart with a wood burning stove, and was busy with families. One family was celebrating a birthday and we noticed that some of them were singing Joyeux Anniversaire and others were singing Happy Birthday! We had a delicious lunch, although James’ duck was so rare that he remarked that our niece Jenny, who is a vet, could still have revived it! Or as he put it, “got it back on the wing!” which I thought was very funny. Then we took the tiny ferry back and going for a lengthy walk around the Bois de Boulogne past the Longchamps Racecourse and along woodland paths, which looked absolutely beautiful in the autumn sunshine. Birds were singing in the woods, there were lots of herons at one end of the lake, as well as swans and ducks on its banks. From time to time we could see the Eiffel Tower peeking over the tops of the trees. James expertly navigated us out of the north of the park and back to the 17ième arrondissement for dinner in the Café Armance.