New Year Forecast

I'm sorry Waitrose but I think this stuff is a sin

Oo-er unless you have this to deal with

Christmas holidays with relatives can be very prickly. Fish and visitors smell after three days according to Benjamin Franklin, but still this is harsh. 

I have had my horoscope read by my dear Blogger friend Sue at Dollytub Cottage and sadly it all rings true. I am now stocking up madly at Waitrose!

New Drama on BBC One - Italian Dectective

Aurelia Zen book dramatised on BBC One

I am thrilled to discover that the BBC has filmed the Aurelia Zen mysteries. I love these books set in Italy, mostly around Rome. If you have never come across them before and like murder/detective mysteries, do look out for them. The intriguing stories involve politics, which in Italy includes the higher elements of the police force, beautiful people, the best coffee and a handsome enigmatic hero.

First showing this Sunday 2 January 2011, though no doubt shortly to be repeated and then hopefully available on DVD so that I can send them to my Aussie daughter who bought me my first Aurelia Zen novel 10 years ago. 

Photo credit: BBC.co.uk.

All over for another year but lovely while it lasted!

Man at work with computer cookbook

Mmmn tasty looking turkey

Yeah! Bolly is the best ( thank you darling daughters)

Table laid, tree shining - Christmas dinner is served

My vintage Trifari pendant

(all the presents from under the tree all opened by this time!)

Close up of my new bling ring

My favourite address

With our two daughters now settled in Australia we had to make do with a Skype video call on Christmas Day. Late for them, early for us. Last Christmas we were there with them all at the beach house. This year we were guests of Number One Son at his London flat. He proudly cooked the turkey followed by apple crumble, a family favourite dessert as he hates Christmas pudding. I loved the way he followed the recipes on his laptop. He is a web builder and computers are his life. As well as the beautiful Pru from California to whom he flew at crack of dawn on Boxing day.

We know our place.

And this link suggested by Penny Dreadful Vintage made us cry. We are already fans of Australian comedian Tim Minchin but this got us by the throat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCNvZqpa-7Q

Hope you all had a lovely holiday too. x

No Room at the Inn? - Buy the Big Issue

The Spirit of Christmas - our jolly Big Issue seller

Please buy one this week if at no other time.

Merry Christmas and A Happy and Prosperous New Year to All My Readers!

Knickers, Buckles and Soup

Soup veg prep (knickers later you perves)

Gammon cooking in cider ( foreground) lamb stock for soup (background)

Cooked and carved ham with mustard and chutney accompaniments at the ready

Reducing the cider sauce

Tinned petit pois and carrots a la francais!

Plus mash - yummy!

et Voila - knickers!

Today I bought a lovely pair of 1940s rayon, lace and embroidered French knickers ( or 'tap pants' as modern vintage shoppers like to call them). 

And look at that array of vintage buckles. All made in Britain as things were in those far off days when we had a manufacturing industry. 

Pretty Snow v Baaaaad Snow

December snowfall on rooftops near the Cathedral Close

Pretty and romantic and Christmassy, appropriate seasonal weather for some (for me).

Baaaaad snow at the airport 

Number One son's girlfriend had her flight home to sunny California cancelled yesterday after eight hours of waiting at Heathrow. Thankfully now re-booked for Tuesday. ( Thanks to Make mine Mid-century for the photo inspiration!)

Christmas Treats and a Legal Hideaway

Afternoon tea at The Montague on The Gardens, Bloomsbury

Check out the photo gallery of this delightful gem of a hotel here 

I was directed to this hotel by Tom of the website Tired of London Tired of Life - a website about things to do in London. Tom is a young enthusiast who just loves London. He posts almost daily about quirky and different places to visit. He also very generously offers to help with itineraries if you a planning a London visit. Although I lived in London for almost 40 years, I was at a loss when looking for suitable venues for afternoon tea in Bloomsbury as opposed to the usual grand London hotels in the West End. I needed somewhere within reasonable driving/taxi distance of both Gray's Inn and Sadler's Wells. Tom emailed several suggestions but came up trumps with The Montague.  Mr EM and I plan to revisit in the summer to enjoy a meal on the outside terrace overlooking the gardens.

 My mother's Christmas treat at Sadler's Wells  as described in my earlier blog post

 The morning after - a mini mince pie and a mug of tea in our self catering flat in...

 Gray's Inn, London. Looking out from our sixth floor 'penthouse' flat

As a member of Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court I am privileged to be able to book accommodation there for short visits to London, as we did on Sunday after the ballet. My mother was thrilled as she had not visited since my call night many years ago. Centre picture, the building with the tower is Gray's Inn Hall. This is in South Square and beyond is Gray's Inn square. Charles Dickens worked as a clerk here and used his experiences there to mention Gray's Inn, though rather unfavourably, in several of his novels including The PickWick Papers. If you are interested you can read more in the link given above.

 Our favourite tea rooms by Kew Gardens

 Newens - but known to all as The Maids of Honour shop

Richmond Maids of Honour - curd, almondy tarts 

We discovered Newens  when we lived in west London many years ago. The Maids of honour tarts then cost about 50p each. ( Now £1.75)  But oh so worth every penny. Sublime. I can also recommend their meat pies. These are huge and sold entirely or by the slice. I served them at many a dinner party!

Their cakes are also delicious and when I was let down by a supplier, their baker kindly made a three tier wedding cake for my daughter at only a week's notice.  

Happy Mother!

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella Sadler's Wells Theatre London

Karl is that you Angel? Or are you just my fairy godmother?

Christmas Presents, Christmas Past, Ballet and Bolly!

Wrapping Christmas presents - crate of liqueurs just what I need

Ha ha! No snow round ours now - nor in Los Angeles

Little woolly gift for Number One son's Californian girlfriend who is unused to freezing English weather. Our first present wrapped as she is going home for Christmas, though back in the New Year.

Christmas Past

We are taking my 90 year old mother to the ballet on Sunday. Cinderella at Sadler's Wells. A production by New Adventures, the ballet company of choreographer Matthew Bourne who is world famous for his all male Swan Lake. This Cinderella is a revival of another of his successes, set loosely in wartime London during the Blitz in 1940. So very appropriate for my dear mother who met and married her RAF pilot in 1943. Do play the clip and you will see why.

The Lady magazine 7 December 2010

The lady on the bicycle is Lily Bollinger of the eponymous Champagne House. In another life I was press officer for Bollinger Champagne for five years. Before I left for the law. ( Of which more next week.) I loved every minute of working for them and was privileged to meet many well-known wine experts as well as celebrities who earned their fame by actually working to achieve something in their chosen career. Dare I say that wine expert and author Oz Clarke taught me to how to 'taste' Champagne. ( The Washerwoman you are free to slap me, but it was my job!) My children had birthday bottles and their wedding toasts made with Bolly. It gave them, and let's face it me, a standard of the quality that Champagne should reach. Nowadays I can't afford to buy it in quantity, but I still aspire to its glory. Perhaps a bit dry for some tastes but beautifully blended by experts following a long and noble tradition of winemaking. And still an independent family firm in the tiny village of Ay, one of the top rated Champagne villages. 

If you are interested in knowing more about a quite remarkable family - do try to find a copy of this book. The House of Bollinger survived the French revolution and the second world war. The widowed Lily Bollinger stood up to the Nazi invasion of France and earned their respect. My personal records of my time working in their London office are deep in storage but do take a look at the Bollinger website. This link takes you directly to the eau de nil painted panels (swoon) of the dining room where I was privileged to enjoy many lunches with the family and various famous wine connoisseurs.

This most famous quote - obey it daily over the Christmas/New Year holiday!

PS - I totally forgot to add that Mme Bollinger was so well-known for riding her bicycle among the vineyards, that Hermès presented her with a specially made leather saddle for her bicycle.  The firm of Hermès, lately more famous for expensive but beautifully constructed handbags, was originally a saddlers, making harnesses and bridles for horses. This can be seen reflected in the more classic designs of their beautiful silk scarves and the quality of the leather-work in their handbags and accessories. The Hermès saddle, seemingly unused, was on display in a reception room at Bollinger in my day. I assume it is still there.

Am I boring you or is life and liberty important?

Traitors Gate, The Tower Of London

The punishment of prison is the imprisoning. That is the punishment. Removing from society in order to protect the law abiding. The other aspects are to do with mainly Victorian views of rehabilitation. Without going further into that, I wonder why Julian Assange on remand in Wandsworth, not convicted of any crime in England or anywhere else, and yet reported in The Guardian as not having access to a computer even without an Internet connection or to writing materials.

Our original prisons in the UK were generally for debtors ( see Charles Dickens) or treason of which the US accuses Assange. Visitors, luxuries and certainly writing paper were supplied freely by their friends and relatives. Many famous people were held in the Tower of London accused of treason up to and including the second world war. Some, like Sir Walter Raleigh lived there for years with their wives and families. Admittedly Sir Walter Raleigh was eventually beheaded by the jealous successor to Queen Elizabeth I.

Some people also believe Assange is doomed. Literally. Let's hope it's not true nor the same of the Internet. Sometimes George Orwell's gloomy predictions about a sinister Big Brother conspiracy ruling the world seem almost believable. 

More power to those students in London today though protesting about a different subject but from the same principle of free speech and protest.

I could hardly believe the report about the car carrying Prince Charles and the She Devil to the Royal Variety Performance at The London Palladium being caught up in the student protests. So 'Royal' cars don't receive traffic news? Bring out the Guillotine - ffing rich fools out on the town while commoners can't afford a decent education. Shame on them.

Old bits of sea-faring rope that could be used in a hanging if required by the revolutionary forces

Three glasses of wine and I'm ready to - er - 

I'm WikiLeaks

If you care about free speech - not necessarily about the WikiLeaks content, but the huge US led pressure on associated companies like Google and PayPal, for instance, to cut any Internet connection to WikiLeaks. Try Googling "Wikileaks". 


Thankfully many other websites are mirrowing WikiLeaks to keep it up on the Internet.
 See WikiLeaks Mirrors 


I have just watched a BBC interview with a former US attorney General who claimed Julian Assange had committed a criminal offence in the US. Committed? Not alleged? What happened to justice in action criminal trials where the suspect is innocent until found guilty by a group of his peers? Assange is not a US citizen, nor does he reside there. But due to the European Arrest Warrant largely created to deal with suspected terrorists, he can be sent back to Sweden to face charges, real or trumped up, that bear no relation to his WikiLeaks activity. Once there he could be subject to the heavily weighted one-sided EU extradition arrangements with the US on "suspect terrorist" grounds and sent there to be held at the mercy of their increasingly dystopian political stance.


So you thought that the Guantamano Bay was just an aberration for those terrible terrorists? No - that was just the thin edge of the wedge for world powers to exploit their "might is right policy". If you value the freedom of your children and their children, you need to join the backlash against this appalling abuse of free speech and freedom of information - not by Assange, but by the US and its associated organisations. In 1970 they shot their own student protesters against the Vietnam War. Now they remind me of George Orwell's 1984 doublespeak:

"Referring to the Internet - "information has never been so free. Even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making 

governments more accountable."
 - Hillary Clinton, January 21st 2010

"U.S. to Host World Press Freedom Day in 2011"

Does anyone in the US care about civil rights or speak out for freedom anymore? Joan Baez  where are you now? 

You will find more information here: The Guardian

(Vicarious) Fame at last! And white stuff of course...

Catching up on reading old mags

Nonsense article on dressing like a 

Scrummy Mummy with pics of celeb mums.

Wait a mo, who's that in that pink dress in the front ?

No not me sillies! Pearl Lowe wearing the patched 1940s dress I sold her at The Vintage Bazaar in Frome   at the end of October.

Advice on how to get the look 

Well I guess Malene Birger will have to do for those who don't shop VINTAGE!

And, guess what, we had some bad weather round ours last night 

(obligatory snow-scene)

That's our car - I think...

We're lucky because we live a city centre with shops and supermarkets just a couple of streets away. But we are really just a large country town on the edge of Salisbury Plain and the villages around must feel quite isolated. It's too dangerous to drive anywhere much and we are just hoping there will be a thaw by Saturday so that we can get over to our storage facility in a nearby village to load the car with my Frock Me! stock for Sunday. It's the last Frock Me! vintage fair of 2010 but if the roads are bad we'll have to forget it. Apparently even the motorways are affected. Oo-er!