I see your Ramps and raise you some Monk's Beard

Had delicious Monk's Beard for dinner last night, a delicious vegetable apparently from Tuscany. Its only avaliable 5 weeks of the year. Steam it, put on olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt ... make yummy noises. Best thing about it is that it doesn't taste like anything else. Therefore can't give a taste comparison, even the texture is unique. Really good, sort of an intense vegtal taste and then a mellow, soft after taste. I'd eat it all year round if I could. I was looking for a picture of it on t'internet and apparently in England Monk's Beard (barbarata de fratea) is known as 'Johnny go to bed at noon'. Can't think why that didn't catch on.

Who am I?

Very nice weekend, canceled my plans at the lastminute to go out on Friday night in favour of a impecunios night in front of the TV round at Brick Lane. Woke up to GLORIOUS sunshine on Saturday, cycled home, showered changed, cycled to the station, hour to dad's house. Did yoga in the garden, hung out with my sister, took a bath, ate some food, watched TV, went to bed. On Sunday we took my sister swimming (she's four) then I spent the afternoon washing, oiling and fixing my bike before getting the train back to London, cycling to Brick Lane and eating delicious Caribbean curry.

Very pleasant all in all and achieved the goals of not spending very much money and doing some excercise. diet wasn't so great in that I'd failed to tell my dad I was eating veggie so had chicken twice, not too terrible I suppose.

I DID SOMETHING!

I went to the Japan Centre at lunch today with Adrina and did some shopping (http://www.japancentre.com/). I was so excited to go as I just LOVE LOVE LOVE an asian supermarket. This one didn't disappoint, although smaller than I was expecting (in my mind it was a five floor Harrods-style warehouse of Japanese treats. It was infact two shops , two floors each, not bad) it was crammed with bank account stripping goodies. Managed to restrain myself to some instant noodles, soy sauce (£1.99 for a litre of Japanese soy, so Japanese there isn't a hint of English on the label!), rice crackers and some instant miso. Very restrained considering I could've got knives made by a family whose current members and ancestors make swords (they were about £170 each), bamboo gardening implements (all I need is a garden) and enough cookware to fit out 100 Japanese restaurants. The two greatest finds were the Sake section and the sushi. Never seen so much sake before in my entire life, like a really good wine shop but all bottles of sake ... for sure going to go to the Sunday afternoon tastings they do. The sushi was made on site, was of a very high standard and is the cheapest I've ever seen. The sushi place down the street from my office charges £1 for two cucmber maki, here 6 were £1.60. They sell a foot long platter of sushi of many different varieties for £3.80. I had eel don buri for £4, amazing. Can't wait to go back.

The good life

Life continues quietly and calmly. I'm floating serenly on a pond of water lilies, in a skiff made of reeds, dangling my fingers in the water. Who needs excitement when you have contentment? Last night watched Enchanted with Amy, in my bed, drinking Mint tea. Was really enjoyable, Amy Adams was hilarious and whats-his-face-from-that-doctor-show was all debonnaire and handsome. James Marsden was surprisingly funny too (do I really need to mention that I love him? Probably not), only more Susan Sarandon could've improved the film.

Derren Brown came out yesterday. For those not in the know he's a 'psychological illusionist', basically he's a magician with an epic memory who doesn't claim to have magical powers and likes to show how his tricks work. If you haven't seen any of his shows then GO! Download! Find SOMETHING, he's really extraordinarily good at what he does. Most people find him creepy, so I obviously think he's insanely attractive and now I know he's on my team. Best get out my stalking kit.

UPDATE: Just read on his Wikipedia entry that he in fact came out in september of last year! Love that we're finally getting to the point where someone can come out and its not a national news sensation.

Weekend? What weekend?

Not too bad a weekend all things considered. Went to Hot Stuff on Friday night and ate lots of delicious curry, didn't go out as I was already quite drunk and was expecting mum to arrive first thing Saturday. Woke up to Miriam packing her sons bags for university (I mean folding his clothes and everything, bearing in mind she was doing this while he was still asleep ... I pity his poor wife) and mum came about midday. Went for a wander around the (charity) shops of Clapham Junction and bought a new suit and a couple of new shirts. Had a nice quiet evening in.

Sunday I made Gordon Ramsey's scrambled eggs for breakfast (YUM) and then we went to Up market and I had my first Caribbean curry for a while. Evil ladies had not heated up the vegetarian option AND they put the price up. I thought that was finally the worldwide increases in food prices entering into my life but since they put the price of a can of coke up by 10p I think it may be more arbitrary than that. Wandered round the market some and then dropped mum off at the tube. Went home, did domestic things and some yoga and then cycled back to Brick Lane!

Hurrah! Finally got my bike on. Didn't look like it was going to happen first thing in the morning, so sunny Sunday afternoon seemed the perfect time to break the cycling seal. Especially since my boss wanted me to come in early today, so it made sense for me to stay over Brick Lane last night. Was really nice, I do love my bike. Quite looking forward to cycling home this evening. Must get some WD40, chain's a bit dodgy. We watched the Orphanage last night, GREAT movie. Really well made, very atmospheric and scary as hell! At one point I let out a genuine scream of terror and I mean scream. Also watched Paprika, a Japanimation film ... even though I've taken acid a few times and huge amounts of mushrooms it was the single craziest experience of my entire life. I recommend it highly.

I thought yesterday was bad

Trip to Guernsey cancelled. Mother coming for the weekend instead. I'm like a non-stop 24-hour-a-day party animal

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

My life is very boring at the moment, which is nice. So far failed miserably on the cycling front but yoga is at least progressing. 12 minutes is my longest session so far but my back already feels better. Going for a haircut today in preparation for business trip to Guernsey tomorrow and also need to start putting together a care package to send Rowley in Afghanistan, apparently reading about horrific sports injuries and boobs in Nuts magazine gets old quickly.