Aimless Chatter

It is a lovely Sunday evening here - the rain that fell most of the day seems to have departed for a bit, and the wind has dropped down to a relatively gentle breeze. I have rerranged my room so that the desk is at the window (where I always prefer it to be) and I am sitting here, surfing the net and listening to a family have a social outside the flat.

For once there is even a little bit of English being spoken, but mostly they are speaking Bangladeshi.

This part of London is very multicultural - the predominant ethnic groups in our apartment complex are Bangladeshi and Somali, but in the area as a whole it is Irish, Bangladeshi, Italian, Turkish and Spanish. An interesting mix. A lot of volatile personalities about and this results in some spectacular entertainment at times. Nothing violent, just a lot of people being a whole lot more passionate than is the norm for us Anglo Saxon lot...

Just 3 months ago I would not have imagined myself here - I was living in a house share in a leafy suburb of London and things could, for the most part, not have been more English. A sudden breakdown of relationships in the house share resulted in me upping sticks and moving into the spare room here where my sister lives just a few days before I was due to fly out to South Africa. I am still settling in but am getting to know people - the neighbours are interesting and mostly very nice. You learn quickly who you can trust and who to be wary of. Mostly though, people here are quitessential Londoners that hold to the 'live and let live' mentality that suits me so well.

Cooking has all but stopped in this flat - we just don't have the means/motivation to do so, the result being I now live a largely raw food diet - salads and fruit, with the odd bit of cooked veg at work or when out and about. I need to balance things a bit with the diet but the advantages of living like this are already evident - more energy, a shrinking waistline and improved skin.

So on the whole things are looking up. I am hoping, given that this new internet connection seems quite stable, to be able to resume my 'normal' life online, including posting here and uploading some pics.

For those of you who have faithfully stopped by here to see if anything was happening, thank you, I hope going forward not to disappoint. The direction of the blog will change however, as I am not cooking much or eating out much, writing about food seems a bit pointless, so I shall write about what is going on around me instead - given that this is London, that should provide me with a wealth of interesting material.

Buona Pasqua!

A very happy and blessed Easter to you all. Whether you are an observant Christian or not, Easter is a magical time, especially if you have kids. I hope you are all enjoying this Easter weekend and making the most of the time off work (if you are off work) to spend quality time with friends and family.

It has been rather wetter and colder in London than I would have liked over this Easter weekend, though rumour has it the sun might well shine tomorrow. I have spent much of my time cooped up in my room as I have not actually felt much like socialising this weekend. The upshot is that my room is now clean, the bookshelf organised, and all the links on my blog updated. Plus I am 100% caught up on sleep.

I have been spending a fair bit of time on Facebook as well - making contact with people I have not spoken too in way too long a time.

Tomorrow is the last day of this long weekend - if the sun is shining it will be a great opportunity to go for a walk - the local parks are full of the signs of spring so it is a great time to be out and about.

Also, dessert for tomorrow is one of my favourite cakes - the Colomba. This cake is a traditional Italian dessert served over Easter, and, as its name implies, is shaped like a dove.


I must admit that I am lazy and buy my Colomba, however if you are feeling adventurous, try making it yourself. A fellow blogger has provided their recipe at Broxholm Road - pop over and take a look.

To you and yours, a very peaceful and happy Easter!

Earthquake in Abruzzo

It has taken me a while to post about this tragic event, which took place in the early hours of Monday morning, 6th April 2009. The region affected was the northern part of Abruzzo, with the city of L'Aquila and surround villages taking the worst hit. The death toll now stands at 289, with approximately 15,000 people left homeless by the earthquake. I suspect that figure will go up, as people return to the city who had left for their Easter break, to find their homes flattened, or deemed unsafe by the authorities.

Rather than rehash all that has been said about the earthquake, I want to direct your attention to a blog that was set up by a survivor of the quake - first hand accounts are always better:

A Survivor's Diary

For more information on the earthquake, its impact, and how you can help, I will direct you to two fellow bloggers who have provided more detailed information than I can:

Bleeding Espresso and

Ms. Adventures in Italy

I have been through L'Aquila a few times over the past couple of years. When travelling in Abruzzo, we almost always do a day trip to Rome, and this always takes us past L'Aquila, and you can't help but pop off the Autostrada for a quick browse through this vibrant city.

Unlike so many other places in Abruzzo, L'Aquila is a 'young' city, largely because of the university there. It is tragic to think of what it must look like now, and how helpless the people living there, and in the surrounding villages, must feel.

We have driven the smaller roads south from L'Aquila, through Sulmona and on to Pescocostanzo, stopping in villages on the way. No doubt some of those villages are little more than piles of rubble now.

I am sure that the city will rebuild, but have my doubts about the villages - the majority of which are occupied mostly by pensioners, and they do not have the means, nor I suspect the willpower, to start from scratch again. It is for them that I worry about the most in all of this - too many of them have no family to worry about them, or their children are too far flung, or just too disinterested, to be there to help them.

A sad post this then, but I feel an important one too - the eyes of the world must stay focused on Abruzzo, to ensure that the politicians deliver on their promises of aid, and to that end I will be blogging on this again in the future. I hope to head out to Abruzzo in September, and will then be able to provide some first hand feedback on what progress has been made in rehoming, and redevelopment in the area.

The Omnivores Hundred

Okay, so I am a bit late doing this list, but I saw it over on The Very Good Taste blog, and had to do it!

Text taken from the Very Good Taste blog (as per instructions if I understood them correctly!).


The Omnivore’s Hundred

Here’s a chance for a little interactivity for all the bloggers out there. Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

My Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (not the sourdough bowl though, mores the pity)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Another Light Has Been Extinguished

I know I have not been blogging for absolute ages now, but today I just had to post something, had to pay tribute to a true Heroine of South Africa and the struggle against Apartheid.

Miriam Makeba died in the early hours of this morning after collapsing following a concert in Caserta, Italy. The news of her death, at the relatively young age of 76, came as a nasty shock this afternoon.

There are not many musicians that I feel are worth holding up as role models, examples of the more noble aspects of humankind, but Miriam Makeba was definitely a role model, and an all round good person, who endured many hardships and sacrificed much for what she believed was right. She was exiled from South Africa in 1960 and only returned home after Nelson Mandela was freed, in the early 1990's.

Her music was such that she won fans and accolades across the globe, and was the first (and quite possibly remains the only) truly pan-African artist. She was also the first black woman to win a Grammy Award.

For people like me, she was the female Nelson Mandela. She represented so much, and we are so much poorer without her. Hopefully in death she will remain the same beacon of hope that she was in life, and people will continue to strive to live up to the vision of a free, fair and safe South Africa that she believed in so strongly.



RIP Mama Afrika!

More to see here - from News 24 (South African online news provider)