Absinthe back from bohemia

Absinthe is coming back to Europe after a very long absenthe (ce) It might even become an established tipple, as nostalgia for another era forces it back into bars old enough to remember its aniseed taste. Rimbaud would have been proud.

Spot Carla

Catch a glimpse of Carla Bruni showing off in her hometown in Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen's new film...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYRWfS2s2v4

Things I would prefer to a monday morning

a big brunch  (including mozarella balls) at that exceptional italian deli on Lauderdale Road in Maida Vale
a game of tennis
Watching How I met your Mother
driving through London in the sun
a Thai green chicken curry
Paris

Monsieur on picnics

Monsieur tells the story of a very memorable picnic, in which he remembers a a lot of preparation for the occasion:

"Everyone else was doing a picnic, I was doing nothing"

Monsieur on other people playing tennis

As winter turns to spring and the lighter evenings see Monsieur and a friend playing a spot of tennis, the following conversation ensues,

Nice intermediate player: " Why aren't you running for the ball? That was a perfectly decent shot?"

 Monsieur: " You think I am going to run for a ball that trickles that slowly over the net?"

Birth of the boring brownie

Last night, I ran out of cocoa, sugar and all the essential ingredients to lead me to an early grave, so with whatever I had at home (yawn), I baked brownies which, for those afflicted by the killer brownie habit, would have been cast to the bottom of the ever-disappearing brownie pile. My total inexperience in brownie baking has left me an incy wincy bit proud of my tasteless creations- so much so that I've eaten all of them. And now I am back to square one, immense boredom. So, to the few of you interested in avoiding essential ingredients, here is the recipe to use at your own peril:

The Hale and Hearty Pancake mix (gluten free)

whatever cocoa powder you have left in the kitchen (try the spices section in your cupboards and if you ran out during SAD season, just look for brown powder)

sugar (again, any form will do- anything that doesn't ressemble salty, even jam)

oil and water (sorry, these have no replacements and if I found them, I would be rich enough to feed my brownies to the whole of Dubai)

Mix it all up, put in a baking tray and .... wait..... TEN WHOLE MINUTES and then...... EAT one, or two....



and then find a proper recipe...

Mine looked nothing like this...

if you are in an afternoon slump...

 watch and listen to this video by Lykke Li and Bon Iver

I want to be a flâneuse...

in Paris in the springtime.

If I have time this sunday I will...

make a film on my mobile phone at The BFI as part of the BIRDS EYE VIEW festival celebrating women and film.

Busaba and me

They call it a Thai eatery. I call it heaven, if anything closely ressembling that exists in London. I know everyone here also loves Busaba, otherwise it wouldn't take jumping the queue (using the age-old "I'm with another group inside pretext") but I am slightly obsessed by their curries, all colourful and warm, never quite filling enough for you to want to leave at closing time. I am also taken by the incense they burn, as they lovingly trying to lull you into a state of zen so that possibly your urban-fuelled adrenalin might just settle enough for your appetite to come back and raid the restaurant. My goal: to see if all the Busabas in London are identical i.e is the coat hanger in exactly the same place in all of them?

Monsieur on meditation

Upon exiting a calming and enlightening meditation class, Monsieur says the following in a particularly relaxed manner,

" By the way, I am never going back there..."

Me llamo Eduardo...

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have made it all the way over to London on their little magnetic carpets so here is one of their songs in Spanish. Get excited.

http://www.myspace.com/edwardsharpe/music/songs/Kisses-Over-Babylon-53189334

Miro Miro on the wall!!!!

Over 150 painting by this Catalan artist and over sixty years work goes on show at The Tate Modern from April 14th, which is the day I start my holidays so you may just spot me splitting hairs over the meanings of surrealism.

She Keeps Bees

A song called Stutter. A better day.

Daylesford Blues

I went to this place on Westbourne Grove on my week off and didn't dare touch anything, didn't order anything nor did I actually make any moves to buy anything.. I just walked through it, like the Little Matchstick girl imagining what life is really like in these wonderfully abundant and almost mockingly extravagant delis. The Food doctor was eating there (maybe he has a week off too which makes us Notting Hill soul brother and sister) and I was quite envious of the discipline he showed when refraining from multiple cakes.