Category Things I love
Gravestones and Jeeves in Stoke Newington
The middle weekend of February. The second of three weekends that I set aside to do my U.S. taxes. Ugh. But that doesn’t mean I can’t still do something interesting! I spent all morning figuring out the accounts for my house in Seattle, which I’m renting through Airbnb (surprise: it’s making money), and then hopped […]
Taking care of unfinished business at Mud Australia
Remember that lovely ceramics shop below our flat in Sydney that was closed the entire time we were there? Well, as I faced a weekend of work and taxes, I resolved that I would carve out at least enough time to make a visit to the shop’s London sibling. I had the shop to myself, […]
Dramatic reading…
Note to my teenage self circa 1996 when I was on the competitive poetry- and prose-reading circuit for high schoolers in rural Oregon: Have all the fun you want doing this because, yes, it turns out this is a life skill you will use in your job as a lawyer in the European offices of […]
Taxes and hot chocolate
Last year I resolved to do at least one interesting thing every weekend I spend in London. Well, during the season of tax preparation and writing endless performance reviews, the bar for what counts as “interesting” is apparently quite low. This weekend drinking fancy French hot chocolate out of Danish porcelain while sorting through expenses […]
Guests!
Dinner was loud and delicious at Yauatcha Soho, followed by an uber-glamorous after party at Disrepute, a subterranean speakeasy that was notorious for scandal and international intrigue during the Cold War. Today I turned Nicole and Bruce loose to explore Notting Hill and Little Venice without me (in the pouring rain) while I sat (cozily […]
Lunar eclipse!
Tonight we had some friends over for dessert. Justin made a delicious little treat of macerated berries with cream . . . . . . which we served with shortbread cookies and French got chocolate . . . . . . we had a cosy little turnout — ten people in all — and a […]
Seattle!
Part of the deal I struck with my company when I moved to London was that I could come back to Seattle whenever I needed to. And part of the deal with Justin was that I would make sure I “needed to” as often as I could. So, since I left Justin to do the […]
Those ancient Anglo-Saxons made some lovely books…
After spending most of December away from London — galavanting to such exotic locales as Sydney, New York, and… Luxembourg — I figured I ought to start the New Year off with a good grounding in my Anglo-Saxon roots. The British Library obligingly put on an extraordinary exhibition of Anglo-Saxon literature. In this case “literature” […]
Exploring the Royal Botanic Garden
After that glorious day at the beach, we decided we needed a day off to let out little sunburns subside, and to let our crevices remember what it felt like not to have sand everywhere. We set out for the Royal Botanic Garden, which Ananda had not yet seen, and which I was eager to […]
A day at Manly Beach
Beach day today! Because let’s be honest, that’s the whole point of being here: sun, surf, and hot lifeguards reminding you of all the ways you might die. We skipped beachy scene at Bondi and instead headed out to Manly Beach (so named because the British colonisers were so impressed by the manliness of the […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 