You say stove top, we say Hob.

Lee is writing a blog about learning how to speak British English:
http://howtomovetolondonandhateit.blogspot.com/

I may have peer pressured her a little.

Gluten free English eating

I had three Gluten free meals in the past few days. Two were very traditional English meals that I was excited to be able to enjoy.

To start was high tea with Lee, Ellie, Liza, baby Alex, and Lee's cousin Davina at a little bakery called Bake-a-boo (okay, so the name is not as good as the food) in West Hampstead.

Here is the GF spread. Cucumber and egg salad sandwiches, raspberry and lemon cupcakes, scones (my favorite part), chocolate covered strawberries, and tea, of course.

One year old enjoying her tea:

One month old sleeping through tea:

Next up is my own English style breakfast sandwich that I ate for dinner. Buttered gluten free bread, a fried egg, and Heinz baked beans (I got the reduced sugar and salt variety which was better than the regular I think). Ps that is my mug that was won my first week here at a pub quiz (no thanks to me!).

Lastly, not English, but amazing and unexpected. I played tennis with Rebecka, Spence, and other friends yesterday afternoon and we went to a pizza place where I was unsure what I was going to order. Among the specials was the new gluten free option!! Only £2 extra and so good. Yes, that is an egg in the middle. Yum.

Art Update

Funny how I am in art school and hardly ever write about it. Life outside of school is way more interesting. Also, I hardly know what I'm doing at any given moment. But, alas, time for an art update.

I am making a bed to accompany my couch, which I am excited about. It is almost done, I just need to get on Natalie's sewing machine to make the pillows and the duvet. Oh and that is the blanket I knit on the side of the couch!

My progress review at the end of January went like this:

Me: I'm lost and I think my work is getting too nostalgic.

My tutors: Yes. Stop making all this repetitive/Dad/too-therapeutic work.

Me: I sort of hate you, but, you're right. Now what?

My tutor: Look at architecture.

Me: No.

Then came the couch. And then the bed. And then another tutorial with a new tutor.

It went like this: You are a painter and you should try painting again. Make 15 paintings on trauma in a month.

Me: Maybe you are right. Okay.

So now I am trying to paint again, which feels nice actually. Though, I forgot how expensive it is and how much I hate building stretchers. Anyway, that is the art update for now. If you see any traumatic photos online, send them to me. :)

"See you never" and a new piece.

I got a job! Finally, after applying to many over the past couple of months. I am going to be working part-time, which is all my visa allows, at Anthropologie. Of course as soon as I got the job I also got an interview at a school teaching art one day a week, but I think the flexibility of Anthro and the fact that even thinking about teaching a demo lesson on the Great Fire of London stresses me out makes it a good choice for now. I am oddly excited to be trying something new and totally different. I am not allowed to write about it on facebook or blog about it or anything like that so this is it for online sharing when it comes to work.

I am feeling like with a part time job and full time school I am going to be way busier than I have been but at the same time WAY more productive. So, my social life may suffer but maybe in a good, focused way. Here's hoping!

Also, I finally made something that I don't hate. It measures about 1 foot long or 29 cm. Here it is:

The Regency Cafe

We started a birthday ritual at college which is going out for lunch at the Regency Cafe to celebrate our birthdays. The Regency is sort of an institution in our neighborhood (Pimlico) and is frequented by local business people and workers from the area. It is always packed and the food is fast and reliable. You have to go up and order then find a seat and then wait for your order to be called. The guy who works at the counter calls you 'love' and has this deep, booming voice that he uses to call out the orders. Here he is:

The food is classic Enlgish greasy spoon- traditional fry-ups with loads of variations. The classic is a full English breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon or sausage, baked beans, toast, grilled tomato, maybe some black pudding, and of course tea. I had an omelet with chips and salad, last time I had beans with it as well. Carla, the birthday guest of honor and on the right in the photo below, had the scampi, which is some sort of fish fried in a ball. Mate, on the left, had the same. I can't remember what Kayde had, but there were a lot of chips involved in everyones meal. It's a classic place with good, cheap food, and a great atmosphere.

C is for Cookie

I mentioned that I made my first batch of my peanut butter chocolate chips cookies recently and now I am on a roll. I spent the night at Lee's last week and made some cookies for Liza and Glen, who just welcomed a baby boy into the world. I left the cookies at Lee's for her to deliver and am not sure that any actually made it over.

Exhibit A: Ellie (Lee's very adorable 10 month old) stuffing cookies in her mouth.

I came back from Denmark saying grazie.

I just got back from a wonderful 3 nights in Copenhagen, Denmark. I was visiting an old friend, Tamira, who studied abroad with Nettie and lived with us for the summer of 2005. I hadn't seen her since that summer: she was just learning Italian for her then six month old relationship. I remember her saying "I'm just not funny yet in Italian." She is now fluent and has since earned a second BA in London, worked in Milan, and is now getting an MA at a school in Sweden (only 40 minutes from Copenhagen by train). Her boyfriend, Adriano (same one!) and her now live together in Copenhagen and were very generous hosts. It always felt like I had been friends with Tamira for ages, and the same went for this weekend. It was great to see her and finally meet Adriano and see Copenhagen.

I got in Friday afternoon and we spent a few hours catching up (Tamira: "Whatever happened to that guy who had come in from somewhere in South American that August?"). We all went for dinner at a restaurant near their apartment called Bio Mio - all organic, etc. and they even had sugar and gluten free carrot cake that was extremely tasty.

Saturday we went on a day of sightseeing. We took the bikes and headed to the harbor, the shopping area, a contemporary art museum called Charlottenborg, had lunch in a cafe in Christiania (a self-proclaimed autonomous commune in an old military area), and lastly to the Royal Palace with views of the Opera House (we were FREEZING by then and had to ditch the bikes because of a minor accident. Which, may I add, had nothing to do with me. Adriano skid on some ice when standing up on the little green bike and fell flat on his face and the handlebars broke off! He is okay, the bike, not so much. Fingers crossed).

Before the incident: Cutest Bike Ever. Adriano schlepped it all the way from Italy for her.

At the old Harbor:

A guard at the Queen's Palace:

Tamira cooked dinner and we were joined by some of Adriano's colleagues (who are both Italian as well). Not much English was spoken but between Tamira translating and some words being similar to Spanish I did pretty well. We then went to a bar and met up with some more of Tamira's friends. Fun night out ensues.

We slept in on Sunday, I made some breakfast, and around 2pm we piled into the car to go to Louisiana, an art museum about 40 km north of Copenhagen. It is an amazing space and right on the Øresund, the body of water that separates Sweden from Denmark. You can see Sweden when you are driving up the coast to get there. The cafe was amazing too, good snacks and great atmosphere. Warm candle light and cool ocean vistas, what could be bad?

Giacometti's at Louisiana.