Today we found ourselves in the midst of a media-thick protest. There are now 16 police vehicles outside my office alone. Everyone has been asked to come into work in jeans (or otherwise casual), as anarchist protestors are allegedly targetting City workers in the lead up to tomorrow's G20 summit.

Black Salsify

It's a vegetable, but it sounds like a verb from the auto de fe.

Susie made a beautiful salad involving this unique vegetable last night (pictured). The flavour is something like parsnip meets artichoke. Very nice. Next on the list of exotic vegetables sitting in our fridge is Jerusalem artichokes (nothing like any artichoke you've ever seen before).

Coming soon: "Mind the Gap - Walk on the left - Stand on the right (and other useful British transport tips)

The end of the holiday

So I left off mid-way through my tale of our US campaign. What followed would, in descriptive terms, read more like the index of a history book than a story - a blur of place names and proper nouns. In the space of the next six days we met up with some twenty four relatives, travelling through seven states, by car, train, plane.

We travelled to Maryland on day 4 (Shrove Tuesday) to be introduced to the Eight Petrys of Randallstown. As Jennie put it, the theme for this two-day period was 'washing machine'. Prior to our arrival, the Petry washing machine had groaned its last and the laundry was quickly piling up, so we spent day 5 (the start of Lent - no meat this year!) comparing prices and finding a bargain. However, perhaps even better than spending all day sourcing a washing machine was relaxing with Jennie into our favourite Mozart and Pleyel duets. I've never enjoyed playing with anyone else so much. I made a recording on my MacBook, but the sound is not so good. When Susie and I made it back to Connecticut, we found some old home videos from 1993/4 featuring Jennie and I playing the same pieces, but better. Alack.

On day 5 Jennie introduced Susie to ziti (two thumbs up). On day 6, I introduced Susie to grits (two thumbs down).

Day 6 and we arrived in Columbus, ate lunch at Chipotle (two thumbs up), and met Mandy, Ben, Julie, Ella and Sophie. Our defining experiences while in Columbus (days 6 - 9) were:

• Susie spending much longer on the X Box than me (playing Rock Band)
  
• meeting Grandpa Donnelly
• pizza every day (two thumbs up)
• ice cream tastings
  
• introductions to the Kesslers and Parkers (Mater and Aunt KK, Uncle John, Brad, Laura, Aunt Peggy)
• showing Susie around the farm
• late night chess
• dinner out at Rigsby's in the Short North

On day 9 we flew back to Connecticut, and Anne Marie drove down from Vermont to spend the evening with us, just as a snow storm descended on Connecticut. It was this evening that Anne Marie said, profoundly, "He will pursue you until he breaks you." Sadly, neither of us can recall to whom the words apply.

The next morning Anne Marie left and the snow continued. Mom drove us to JFK (memorably, we stopped for food at a random carribean cafe in Jamaica in NYC). We flew back to London.

In other news, we are making progress on the wedding plans. We've reserved rooms for people at the Days Hotel in Shoreditch for 27 and 28 May. And we've agreed that we'll have an organist. I'd quite like to have the Widor Tocatta for our exit music.

Any suggestions for any other non-hymn music which we could have during the service would be much appreciated.

Live from Connecticut

It's day 3 on our whirlwind tour of the North East, and so far we've managed to discuss money, religion and politics.

We flew into JFK on Saturday evening. As it was Susie's birthday (and I was therefore feeling generous), I queued with Susie in the you-aren't-an-American-so-let's-just-see-how-long-we-can-make-you-stand-there-before-you-try-to-contact-your-bloody-consulate queue. We arrived at 4:30, we cleared immigration at about 6:00 or 6:30.

Uncle Craig had graciously come to the airport to meet us. For anyone who doesn't know, Uncle Craig is an engineer on the Long Island Rail Road. So on the train journey into the City, he took us up to the control room and sat us down with the engineer, where we sat until the New York skyline filled the whole horizon. It was breathtaking.

Uncle Craig took us back to meet up with Aunt Gail at their place in Up Town (if that's how you write it? Anne? Rebecca?), and we had margaritas and snacks and chatted until dinner time. We went to a beautiful El Salvadorian place just up the street from their flat. It was my third visit, and the food and drink were exceptional. We stayed up late talking and listening to music. Uncle Craig played music and we did tequila shots (not a good idea, as it happens).

The next morning, groggy from the shots (and a 4 am wake up call from my bank), we ate fresh bagels and lax from a local deli and then drove up to Connecticut. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Uncle Craig's driving was not scary. Except when someone challenged him by suggesting it was not scary, and he deliberately scared us.

We went to Mom's, where Mom, Papasan and Grandmom were waiting with lunch (a beautiful beef stew/soup for the meat-eaters). We spent the whole afternoon, the whole evening and the whole night talking about family history, looking at photos (whenever we finished a box, another one would be brought down from upstairs), and generally testing Susie's limits to see at what point she would crack. Susie's extraordinary stamina shamed me (at Christmas, without the excuse of a 4 am wake-up call or even jetlag, I had fallen asleep in a chair in Susie's parents' sitting room within an hour of arriving to meet Susie's uncle and grandmother).

So today is day 3 and Susie was up at 4. We're seeing Wethersfield today, and just spending some time with Mom and Papasan. Tomorrow we're taking the train to Baltimore to see Jennie and co!

On a completely different note, can anyone identify what my breakfast on 14 February was (pictured below)?

First glimpse of life in Hackney Wick

So, living in Hackney began last week. I will reveal more about the area in good time, once you've all come to see it first hand. For today I'm just posting because we've had SNOW! The first picture is the garden, viewed from the first floor.

London is so ill-equipped for snow that when I woke up this morning I was astonished to find that a mere 4 inches had resulted in ALL bus services across the entire city (population 8 million) being withdrawn. All of them. And about half of the tube lines were down. Most trains weren't running. And as the snow was up to about 5 inches by the time I was ready to go to work, I wasn't realistically about to do a 5 1/2 mile commute on foot wearing shallow shoes. I did give it a go, however, and made it about 100 yards before I was walking with packed snow in the bottom of my shoes.

It's been snowing all day, and these are the views from the window as I work from home.

Christmas week

Friday, 19 December: snowstorm and rehearsal dinner


I landed in Boston less than an hour before the snowstorm hit. Connecting flights were cancelled, and the drive from Boston to Connecticut was a scary snow-blind slalom using tail lights and rumble strips to point the car in the right direction.

As the snow fell, the wedding rehearsal was cancelled. The rehearsal dinner was re-located to a bunker in the hotel where the majority of the out-of-town guests were staying. In spite of all that, Mom was looking gorgeous - as you can see from this photo:


When we finally got to Tolland, we couldn't make it up Route 31 to the house. Ahead of us, wriggling frictionlessly against gravity like salmon swimming into a waterfall, were tens of cars blocking our path, sliding perilously close to us, each other, and the cars sliding in the opposite stream down the hill. Clint executed a heroic, Hollywood-worthy 2-point turn, and we made our way to the hotel for the rehearsal dinner. The groom was trapped on the West coast somewhere.

Saturday, 20 December: wedding

The groom arrived around midnight; the church filled up; Ben played Christmas carols on the piano; the happy couple were married. And the party moved to the Mill on the River, where the food could not have been more perfect. While Ben jockeyed the discs, I grabbed a dance with the flower girl.


Sunday - Monday, 21 - 22 December: family, friends and flights

So Megan and Michael left for Las Vegas, and the rest of us chilled out. I said goodbye to the new in-laws at church on Sunday morning. The snow started again, and Sunday school and the evening service were cancelled.

Over the next 254 hours I worked my way through my boxes in the attic, and set aside photographs and correspondence from my pre-England days to bring back with me (once I get hold of a scanner, I'll see about up-loading the most embarrassing of these).

Monday afternoon Papasan once again drove me to Boston (thanks!) and I met up for a beer at the airport with my old rowing coach and friend, Adam, and we reminisced about the good old days. Then I boarded a horribly uncomfortable flight back to the UK. If it weren't for my numbing addiction to Patrick O'Brian (which kept me plastered to my novel throughout), I don't think I could have managed to muster a trillionth of the equanimity with which I viewed American Airlines that day.

Tuesday, 23 December: work

Work was crazy. I came straight from the airport, and was told I had a long call with a client to go through a warranty schedule. I fell asleep as I was preparing for the call. Five other matters kicked off.

Wednesday, 24 December: work and Oxford

London was eerily quiet. The office was nearly empty. I left at 1 for an extended, boozy lunch with old college friends - one last steak before descending into the vegetarian orgy of Christmas with the Itens and Susie's family. After lunch I walked back to the flat and finished wrapping presents, hopped on a bus to Oxford, and marched to Wolfson. We decided to go to the midnight communion service at Christchurch Cathedral. Walking back at 1 a.m., the streets were full of other families coming home from church.

Thursday, 25 December: Christmas!

We opened presents in the morning. Special thanks to Jennie and Uncle Craig for the cds! And thanks to Mom, again, for the cushions and duvet and pillow covers! And of course thanks to the Itens for the goats. (Jaime: I think I understand why the goat on the left is wearing a hat in the photo - it's so I know who Mr Goat is, right?).

We went to Rani's for our Christmas dinner. Rani, Jaime's employer (and a brilliant brilliant chef), cooked up a feast. I would have been full even if she hadn't then plied me with 3 puddings. As it is, I left feeling like I'd been hit by two Thanksgivings in a row.


That evening we digested, reading books and watching a bit of Short Circuit. We Skyped/phoned Brad; Mom, Ben K, Julie and Annie; and Anne Marie, Mandy and Dad. Apologies to Jennie and Megan for not speaking to either of you!

Friday, 26 December: Boxing Day

I went back to London and met up with Susie for our own personal Christmas (Susie knitted me the most beautiful scarf!) before heading over to the Rosses to be spoiled with food, drink and gifts. After something like 6 years of asking, I finally got some Simpsons dvds.... Yay! The feast included Susie's delicious chestnut and mushroom pie, turkey and bacon (for me and Susie's dad), roasted potatoes, and I attempted to recreate Rani's salad from the day before (I'm a big believer in recreating dishes as soon as possible after first experiencing them, to keep the memory fresh). The mains were followed by pan d'oro and stollen.

And that's it for this long catch-up post.

Christmas list

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this up on the internet, but here's my Christmas list. I might add links later on down the road (no time right now), but thought it would be worth having the list up to start with:

• Jigsaw puzzles (Susie's now addicted)
• Gravy boat
• Warm but not ugly gloves (cashmere charcoal grey)
• Another NICE pot (medium size, stainless steel - Pro Clad, All Clad, or equivalent))
• Napkin rings
• Slippers (warm)
• Radio (small)
• Bathroom matt
• Simpsons dvds - but not the first 2 seasons, and no season after 2000, please (unless you know something I don't) (NOTE - I think Susie's mum is very likely to be getting me one or more seasons, so pick something random like season 7)
• Silver (c £400 a place setting)
• Rolling pin
• Street bicycle
• Two bike locks (one high-quality D-lock and one quality chain type lock) - quality really matters with bike locks (which is why I don't have a bike)
• The Indian Jones films (on DVD)
• Good recording on Tchaikovsky's violin concerto
• Good recording on Tchaikovsky's piano concerto
• Schumann & Dvorak chamber music (CD)
• Violin and viola duets (sheet music - not Mozart, Pleyel or Handel) - be original
• Viola sheet music - not J C Bach, J S Bach or Stamitz (try a bit of Hoffmeister, and other composers from the Baroque and Classical periods)
• Big memory stick/flash drive
• Towels (not white)
• New Britney cd
• Decembrists cds