Weekly Musings

2018 - Week Eight

'The way light and darkness mix under my skin has become a storm. You don't see the lightning, but you hear the echoes.'

(Anna Peters)

 This week I have been in SUCH a weird place. I have been in a constant swinging state from super emotional with random outbreaks of tears, to feeling proper resentful of everything and wanting to throw stuff around. I have been overly nostalgic and wistful, and obsessed with going over tiny details. Nothing has changed; I've had no bad news, not adapted my diet or exercise regime, not watched any weird documentaries, been sleeping plenty and no, it's not my period (eye rolls). Anyone feel free to diagnose me, for now I've taken to dealing with it by toting rose quartz around everywhere in my handbag and frantically writing poetry, check out newbies on my Insta account here.

It has probably been a blessing therefore, that I've been living-in at Aum's this week as his parents are at a conference in Idaho. Little chance of socialising and mixing with as few people as possible at least prevented me from sabotaging any personal relationships, and gave me time to reflect and calm the hell down. Thankfully for me, Aum is in his own world 90% of the time so barely even noticed my mood flux!

I met up with my sister for lunch in Altrincham on Wednesday as she has had the week off work, and we checked out Tim Horton's, the Canadian coffee and doughnut joint that has just opened five sites in England. I had the French vanilla coffee, a vegetable chipotle wrap, and shared a ten box of 'Timbits' (mini doughnut balls to you and I). It is a welcome inclusion to Altrincham's already impressive gastronomic selection - quick, cheap and yummy!

On Friday Aum and I went out for tea to Sushi Kimchi, which during the day is The Oxford Road Cafe, in Altrincham. It is somewhere we have both wanted to try for a while, being big sushi fans. We each got kimchi jun for starter, an oriental pancake made with kimchi which is a pickled cabbage; I had the prawn version whilst Aum opted for chicken. For main we shared two platters of sushi, tempura prawn uramaki and spicy tuna norimaki. It was all delicious, and I especially appreciated a glass of prosecco as a treat for basically single parenting all week, I may get paid to do it, but it doesn't make it easier!

Last night after a day spent chaperoning a study group with Aum and his two friends for a project titled, 'How can religion be controversial?' (yikes) I took him out for food at Chiquito and to the cinema to see Black Panther. I got three little tapas style dishes to eat, a mini roasted veg and beetroot enchilada, grilled breaded halloumi, and a tomato and mushroom sort of stew that had a definite kick to it! We watched the film in the new 4dx screen at Parrs Wood, which has moving seats, flashing lights and blows air, smells and even water to give a fully immersive experience. The film was top notch anyway, but the 4dx gave it that added extra and we came out raving about how amazing it was. Bonus being that I got to invite Chris along so I could have some adult company and, you know, actually get to see my boyfriend for the first time all week, which was pretty great.

Today has been relatively chilled; amidst supervising maths revision and being a taxi to sports sessions, I managed to sneak in a quick brew with my parents, and a wander into Hale in the winter sunshine for a chai latte and some Pinterest-ing in Costa whilst Aum was at cricket. I'm starting to feel a little more back to normal as the week draws to a close, so for now, shoutout to all the other kooks who don't understand their own heads, and hope you enjoy my track of the week from Frenship at the top of the page. We got this!

Weekly Musings

2018 - Week Seven
'Fall for someone with an air of mystery and wildness in their bones, but with the kindest eyes and a thousand beautiful stories woven into their soul.'
(Nikita Gill)

 It's always difficult to kiss goodbye to the end of a week off work, but I have had such an amazing time I almost don't mind (almost). I had a super lazy Monday and started watching Gossip Girl; how I managed to let it slip past me when everyone else was bingeing on it back in 2007 I will never know. It's trashy and far fetched but deliciously entertaining, the perfect fodder for background viewing whilst pottering around the house. Tuesday was pancake day, so I thought I'd be a bit experimental and devised a recipe all of my own - a spinach, mushroom and squash baked pancake stack which turned out really well (and we still had room for sweet ones for dessert!).

On Wednesday morning after swapping Valentine's day cards and presents with Chris I headed to a yoga session at InHale studio. I have been fitting in an hour or so every day this week so far and really enjoy how invigorated it makes me feel. The class was a bit more difficult than I am used to but I thrived off the challenge, and knowing I had avocado bruschetta waiting for me for brunch at The Garden afterwards definitely made it worth the extra effort. I grabbed a quick coffee at Abi's 'round the corner and then headed home to get ready for my date that evening and pack for a late night roadtrip to Wales for a few days.

As a surprise Chris took me for tea at HOME in town, followed by a viewing of the live stream of Twelfth Night from The Globe in Stratford-upon-Avon. We shared a flatbread platter for starter (with tapenade, beetroot and cumin, and aubergine and yoghurt dips), and then I had a North African 'Buddha bowl', with chickpeas, courgette, spinach, kale, seeds and Cajun fried halloumi on top. The food is top notch at HOME, they have so many options (tonnes of veggie and vegan stuff too), a cracking drinks menu and the atmosphere is super chilled. The play was fab; I am hugely biased as an avid Shakespeare fan, but I felt very lucky that Chris sat through it with me, as he admitted afterwards that he didn't have a clue what was going on! We drove straight to Chris' family house in Llangynog, Wales once it had finished, with a quick pitstop to collect the doggies from the flat, and arrived just after midnight.

On Thursday morning after a lie in and some breakfast we set off on an amble up the side of a mountain. We totally misjudged the wind though so had to turn back after about half an hour - a cliff edge, a bouncy cocker spaniel (Ferryn) and a very lightweight ball of fluff (Lola) seemed like a recipe for disaster. We grabbed a coffee in the local pub and then snuggled up back at the house watching House of Cards instead. That afternoon Chris' mum and her friend Maggie arrived and we got on the wine after eating a lovely homemade lentil lasagne, and his stepdad got to the house later on to join in. It was nice to get to know them all a bit better - definitely one of the most relaxed and enjoyable 'meet the parents' I've done!

On Friday (feeling a little worse for wear!) we drove to nearby Oswestry to a vegan restaurant called The Fat Rabbit for lunch. The choices were so good that Chris and I got two to share: mushroom and white wine gnocchi, and tamarind gyoza with edamame and rice noodles. We also got a raw Snickers bar with ice cream for dessert, oh my gosh it was all incredible! We had a little mooch around the market and shops, before heading home as Chris was DJing that evening. Beautiful little Welsh jaunt!

Yesterday I was up bright and early to head into Manchester for another yoga class, this time with a few friends to celebrate my mate Emily's birthday. It was a reggae version at Hyper Island in the Northern Quarter, and it was HARD! We did core work, inversions, loads of hamstring stretching poses, and ended the class with headstand practise, which I gave my all, but it will be a long time until I have perfected it. A few more joined us for brunch in Trof, I had a couple of soya lattes (needed the caffeine boost!) and the vegan brekkie but with added halloumi. I saw a few friends that I haven't caught up with for ages so didn't get home until mid afternoon, and then I went to Chris' boat for an amazing Swedish massage as I am one of the case studies for his current college course.

Today was spent cleaning the house and cooking in preparation for my parents and Jasmine coming for tea. As Chris makes an awesome paneer curry, we did all Indian themed food - we had poppadoms and I made onion bhajis to start, (that actually came out pretty well for a first try) followed by the curry with chapattis that Chris homemade, and my mum made a raspberry and cherry pavlova for dessert. A gorgeous evening with some of my favourite people. Proper stuffed now!

FYI - track of the week at the top is one of my old faves, and upon googling it to stick the original on here I found this absolute gem of a live version filmed just last September. The epic drum solo (seriously listen to the recorded version) has been replaced with piano and it is so delicate it completely melts my heart. 

Weekly Musings

2018 - Week Six

'Love in such a way that it haunts the hate in others.'

(Christopher Poindexter)

This week was mostly spent waiting around until Friday when I finished work for ten days, woop! I got a poem up on Monday, view it here, and enjoyed a chilled afternoon as I didn't need to collect Aum from school. I started watching Luther (over ten years late to the game) and managed to finish the whole series in a few days; though in my defence it is only sixteen 50 minute episodes so not the worst case of couch potato-ing.

On Wednesday I met Timna in Kro on Oxford Road for some lunch; she too has just bought a house about ten minutes from mine, so we both had a proper chinwag about our plans and Pinterest boards. I had avocado and eggs, which were delicious, and gotta love a student gaff - I paid just over 8 quid for that and a large latte, and discovered free two hour parking around the corner so will definitely be back! That evening I heard the new release from Editors, one of my favourite bands who have been truly missed, check it out as my track for this week below. 

  

On Friday Jasmine and I took Mum to The Clink as a belated Christmas present. It is a restaurant at Styal women's prison based in an old church entirely staffed by the inmates. All food is cooked and tables waited on by the prisoners as part of a scheme to help provide valuable job skills and qualifications to reduce the percentages of reoffending upon release by offering them the chance of a career. We had the four course gourmet set menu which was £39.95, and it was honestly some of the best food I have ever had! 

I started with the seared venison carpaccio with picked red cabbage and toasted pumpkin seeds, followed by an intermediate dish of beetroot and maple cured salmon sashimi, pickled horseradish and fried capers, and my main was prosciutto wrapped tenderloin of pork served with black pudding mash, rainbow chard, apple gel and sage jus. So many incredible flavours and the dishes were really beautifully presented, the starters even had edible flowers on! 

 

For dessert we chose three of the four options and shared them all - caramel custard tart with coffee and mascarpone ice cream and pecan crunch, ginger cheesecake with a warm orange and winter berry compote and a ginger and orange tuile, and a good ol' fashioned cheeseboard which came with a selection of three cheeses, crackers, grapes, chutney and crudites. We even got homemade chocolate truffles with tea and coffee at the end; our feedback was to sell boxes of them in the shop they were so yummy! All the staff were exceptional, their attention to detail and friendliness added to an already amazing dining experience. I am looking forward to going back with Chris at some point as he seemed pretty envious when I told him we were treating Mum for Xmas.

Yesterday I forked out a small fortune to get all four of my tyres replaced and went for a look around the HUGE Next that has opened (probably a while ago, I don't go there very often!) and Outfit in Handforth. I got a sexy little maroon double breasted silk blazer for twenty quid in the Topshop sale which made the trip worthwhile. In the evening Chris and I went into Manchester to meet up with all the girls and respective partners at Crazy Pedro's in the Northern Quarter. We had a half and half Summer B (wild mushrooms, spinach, garlic ricotta and truffle oil) and Nacho Libre (chili sauce, American cheese, jalapenos, tortilla chips, guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo) pizza, and then went to Bluu bar afterwards for a couple of drinks. It was the first time Chris had met most of the group; we had a top night and it was great to get everyone together for banter and bloody tasty scran.

Today Chris was teaching his fortnightly Make a Ditty lesson at Boho Utopia in Withington, so I met him once he had finished for their signature vegan goods. I had the fishless finger butty (it was my first time trying a fish substitute and I was impressed) with cheesy chips, whilst Chris had the mac and cheese hotdog. We have continued the junk food theme with nuggets, sausage rolls and chips for tea as well, whilst binging on House of Cards - we are hooked now!

Weekly Musings

2018 - Week Five

'Oh the things we would do and the chances we would take, if we could only realise that there is no such thing as tomorrow.'
(David Jones)

The start of this week was rather quiet, made up for by a bustling weekend! I did get to spend Wednesday morning with Chris as he had the day off which was a pleasant surprise; I made us pancakes with raspberries and brown sugar for breakfast, and then ventured to Altrincham Market for some lunch with Abi to celebrate her birthday. I had a tasty cheese and spinach quiche from Great North Pie Co, and a chai latte from Market House Coffee. It is such a cosy, friendly atmosphere there and the food is top notch; I love that it is right on my doorstep. I also got a poem up on Instagram that evening, read it here.

I babysat on Thursday, and on Friday after work I went to visit Chris on the boat for the night. We watched Whiplash, another off our film list, which we really enjoyed. I left early on Saturday morning as I had some cooking to do for a surprise afternoon tea party the girls and I were holding for Abi's birthday. I made tomato, pesto and goats cheese tartlets from Fearne Cotton's Cook Happy Cook Healthy recipe book, and aubergine, feta and olive filo rolls from a Marie Claire cook book I have. We all hid in Abi's kitchen until her little sister Anna ushered her home at 2.30pm, where we were armed with party poppers, balloons and lots of yummy treats. She had no idea, and it was so nice having all of us together, especially now Hana is back from Australia, all my goodies were wolfed down!

I had to leave at 5pm as I was going into Manchester for a meal with Mum and Jasmine at Zizzi in the new Corn Exchange. It was part of Mum's Christmas present along with tickets to see The Script at Manchester Arena afterwards. We shared two starters, the Fonduta Formaggi (gorgonzola, gruyere and pecorino fondue with dough balls) and the wild boar polpette (meatballs with mozzerella and chilli threads) which were both amazing, and then Mum and I went halves on the king prawn linguine and the pasta della casa which had chicken, pancetta, spinach and cheese oven baked in a mushroom sauce. We had trusty Tesco vouchers to pay for it, so it was cheap a chips as well as being bloody yummy!

The concert afterwards was brilliant. Ella Eyre supported, although we only saw a couple of her songs once we'd stocked up on wine at the bar and found our seats, which were some of the best in the house. The Script played all their classics old and new, and had everyone singing along and dancing in their seats (I have included my favourite by them as my track of the week above). At one point the band came out properly into the crowd, keyboards and all to perform a couple of tunes which was cool.

Today has been very civilised, I had a lie in for the first time in ages, and then Mum and I went to The Village Hotel in Cheadle to an antiques fair for a wander around. I was hoping for some inspiration for furniture pieces for the new house, but it was mainly ornaments and jewellery, albeit beautiful. I bought a gorgeous bracelet, but I could have spent a fortune on all the vintage rings! Chris and I have just had veggie fajitas for tea and watched the first episode of House of Cards (late to the game I know) I definitely think it will be a grower, so ep two awaits!