Balance

Today I woke up in the gloom of an overcast and wet London morning.  I am experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms from being back from holiday and I really dislike it! Not only do I have to adjust to life without a swimming pool and breakfast on the terrace every day but the weather here is just rubbish. It's cloudy most days and we consider ourselves fortunate if we get at least one day of sunshine a week. It's miserable.. I miss the light and warmth and the goodness that comes with living in a part of the world where waking up in the morning is pure joy. 

Whenever I come back from holiday I often find the period of acclimatisation can be really tricky. There is a lot to learn from being on holiday about simplifying one's life. It's not just that one is away from the usual daily chores but one can choose to do nice things every day and make a point of creating an enjoyable atmosphere. Back home I rapidly get caught up in a seemingly chaotic environment and I forget to take time to enjoy the little pleasures in life. For example, I love to take time over breakfast and not gulp down a cup of coffee in my haste to get to wherever it is I have to be first thing in the day. On holiday I really like to take my time and linger over breakfast enjoying the flavour of the food and chatting to my companions at the table. These are important aspects of life that seem to get forgotten in normal daily life. I've been talking to my mother, for example, about how to hang on to those delicious moments from holiday and I have encouraged her to spoil herself a little and buy those little delicacies which are so enjoyable and in that way she can still feel that life is enhanced by the little ritual of eating good food.

Going to the market to buy food in Provence is another pleasure and has provided a marked contrast with being back home in London. Usually I enjoy going to Portobello Road to buy my fruit and vegetables but on my return the market has been quite a tense place and Cheryl, who I usually buy from, was really quite rude and snappy with me. I suppose it must have something to do with the riots of two weeks ago which has created this atmosphere. I also noticed in the supermarket that very few of the cashiers want to have eye contact and there is a general air of apprehension and nervousness. I'm not really surprised after what happened and I know a number of people who were directly affected by the rioting.  Fortunately I was away during the riots but was able to find out from my neighbours and by reading the press what was happening not just in the whole of England but also in my own neighbourhood. It was very unnerving for those having to witness it and another reason for me not wanting to come home. 

Being close to nature is another good thing about being on holiday. Every day there is something beautiful to look at and that sense of wonder at the extraordinary beauty in nature, whether it is looking out to sea or enjoying the scent of a flower - all that is important to me. My watercolours give me the opportunity to really look at nature and I choose to paint things that I want to somehow retain in my mind for as long as possible. 

So if you are about to go on holiday forget the Blackberry, Facebook, the office etc.. and have a lovely time! 

Watercolours

I've just come back to London after spending a few days in the South of France. It was a lovely break as I was able to combine a stay with friends in Provence with a quick trip to Corsica to see some friends there.  I can totally understand why artists love to be in the South of France. The light is so clear and bright and the colours are just breath taking. It's like being transported to another world where everything is warmer and brighter and you start to feel relaxed from the moment you arrive. Well, I suppose anywhere is better than England in the summer when it's raining and overcast.


I managed to squeeze my sketch book and watercolours into my tiny suitcase and got past the tyrannical staff at RyanAir without having to pay a penalty for being one or two kilos over. I wasn't quite so lucky on my return journey but I took great pleasure in denying them their fine of £40 by stuffing all my excess baggage into the pockets of my lovely capacious linen trousers. It's a shame that travelling is often so aggravating nowadays as the journey really ought to be part of the pleasure of going on holiday.


Anyway France was wonderful. I am a total Francophile and I adore all the little details of my time there. Whether it's shopping at the market and choosing from the delicious array of fruit and vegetables or trying the wonderful cheeses and charcuterie with a glass of delicious rose wine. It's all beautiful to me. I'm very lucky to have some great french friends who are enormously generous and invite me to hang out with them at their homes. It's great fun to feel part of a large french family for a short while and join in the planning of meals and little excursions. Of course I know we are all on holiday so life is simple but it is perfect and I love it.

Listening

It's Sunday and traditionally this is a day for reflection. Although I'm not planning to go to church today I occasionally enjoy listening to a sermon when it's given by a particularly enlightened and sometimes witty priest. I think I've written before about how I find it important to take time out to think about life and where I'm going. I suppose because I don't have children to worry about I have more time to do this but it's always been essential to me. I'm pretty sure that if I don't pause and reflect on what's happening internally and externally I end up lost in confusion and wondering where the hell I'm going with all my stuff. 


Listening is an incredibly important part of life. It's almost a skill that one needs to learn. When I was a child it felt good to be with an adult who listened to me and I felt understood me. It seems to me to be the essence of what makes up a good relationship. It matters in friendship as well of course. If I'm with a close friend the conversation is a delicate balance between listening to what he or she has to say and me talking about my things. I often catch myself impatiently talking before my friend has even finished what they need to say and I find it quite annoying in myself. 


How do we train ourselves to listen? Sit and be quiet. It's really quite simple but actually rather hard for most people to do. We're so used to being active and thinking of all the things that need to be done. But  you can do it. I think the technical term for it is meditation but I prefer to think of it as just a bit of quiet time. If you can do that then you are in a good position to be attentive to what's important around you and it makes it a lot easier to listen. If you're busy, busy, busy all the time you become a pain in the neck and sometime even a bit mad. I find it hard to be with really pushy people who only seem to listen to what's going on inside them and can't hear what anyone else has to say. I don't know what's causing it. Maybe they're totally self-absorbed and can't hear what anyone else is saying or perhaps it's because they're totally insensitive and couldn't give a damn. Who knows?


All I know is that I like to be around people who do take time to listen to each other. I'm trying to get better at it myself although I know that sometimes it's not always easy. When you're in emotional pain however I know it's one of the essential things that help you get better. My mum used to say that therapy was the great talking cure and I'm sure that's true but it's good to learn how to listen as well and not just be in the position where you are the one getting it all off your chest. I suppose it's a question of balance.


Anyway that's all I have to say for today. I can't write this without acknowledging that my blog is of course my way of getting my ideas out there. Hopefully I don't come across as too egocentric and I like to think of it as like sending postcards to friends around the world. The feedback is good too!

Melting macarons

I have been doing a fairly intensive amount of baking recently with varying degrees of success. It is a bit scary how easily things can go wrong with patisserie and it takes quite a lot of courage to carry on in the knowledge that at any second it's probably all going to go a bit out of control. I seem to veer from one near catastrophe to the next in the kitchen. This evening at my birthday party the delicate little macarons I worked so hard to make were sitting prettily on their glass plate - the next thing I knew they had turned into some sort of molten creation that we needed spoons to dig into. It still tasted scrummy it's just that it looked a bit weird and rather less elegant. Well as the French say Tant pis..

The other calamity was the pastry creme for my strawberry tart which turned into scrambled egg as I was adding the egg mixture to the simmering milk. I managed to salvage it by hastily transferring it all back into the KitchenAid mixer. Thank God for that piece of machinery. It's worth every penny of the investment as it sorts out most of my messes. In the end I was very happy with the result even if the tart went the same way as the macarons and turned into an aesthetic slop. Notice that I only place images of these delicacies on this page before they started to slide of the plate... the rest I leave to your imagination.

I don't really mind these mishaps as I quite enjoy the voyage of discovery and I learn something from each new disaster. I'm beginning to gain a whole new respect for the art of patisserie. It's a steep learning curve but one that I'm happy to pursue because it seems to give a lot of pleasure to everyone and that's a good thing in life.

Books for Cooks

 

Yesterday was an extraordinary day for me. I received an overwhelming amount of lovely comments about my stall at Books for Cooks. They were only biscuits but anyone would think I'd created a work of art from all the warmth and support I received from everyone. After three weeks of constant baking and experimenting with ideas for my biscuits I finally got everything wrapped up and tied with pretty little ribbons. It was a lot of hard work but worth it in the end as I met some very interesting people and contacts were made which is what it was all about.  So huge thanks to Eric and Clara at Books for Cooks for all their support and giving me the opportunity to launch Tea with Alex on Saturday.

Saturday on Portobello Road has a bit of a party atmosphere and it was fun to observe the mix of people passing by. Some stopped and chatted to me, others just wanted to take a photo of the biscuits or find out about what I was up to. Eric encouraged me to engage with the public and not just sit at my stall nonchalantly expecting people to buy a biscuit. You can't be shy. It's essential to chat people up and make a sale. I learned a lot! Some of my friends pitched up too which was great as it meant that I was able to relax and enjoy having a few familiar faces around. My adorable little friend Heloise was keen to pose with the biscuits and we had a lovely chat about how to create a cookie and what I use for my inspiration. I think she could be a budding biscuiteer..

I never thought I'd be any good at patisserie as I'm a fairly instinctive cook like most people. A little bit here, a little bit there. something else thrown in for good measure.. that sort of thing. But I have surprised myself with these biscuits. They are the most incredibly fiddly things to do and require a huge amount of patience and determination to get right. But the reason I've not given up with them is because I really love the end result and I have practised, practised and practised until I am happy with them. Also I have had lots of encouragement from all kinds of people and it's been quite an absorbing journey to see where I can get with them. My friend Sophie set me the challenge to come up with a bespoke biscuit for her jewellery business and it was a great moment when I actually received the cookie cutter which I designed in the shape of her logo.

Eric at Books for Cooks invited me to put on a display at his shop which then turned into an opportunity to sell the biscuits outside the shop. I have always been fascinated by packaging and it was totally my thing when I was at art college studying graphic design so in many ways I have managed to combine all the things I love. I mustn't forget my Mum who helped me with the purchase of my KitchenAid mixer, without which the making of all my cakes and biscuits would be a formidable task. As it is I love the process of putting all the ingredients together, making a bit of a mess and then seeing what happens. Michal showed me how to keep lots of recipes up in the air at any one time. And my friend Jemima at Great Western Studios in Notting Hill recently held a very interesting event with the theme of food, drink and design. Julian Metcalfe, who set up Pret a Manger and Itsu was a speaker, as well as Afroditi Krassa who is Julian's brand director for Itsu and branding and design who has worked on beautiful wine labels designs for the winemaker Telmo Rodriguez. They all advised me not to attempt to go commercial and retain the integrity of my designs so that's what I'm doing. I want to keep everything personal and design to please myself and the client. I won't be going global just yet...

Überlingen

I have been so busy baking that I've hardly had time to write this blog. However, I can't leave it another day without describing briefly my wonderful trip to Überlingen in Southern Germany. I was invited to visit by my friend Sonja who recently moved there from London. We go back a long, long way and have known each other since art college days. We have both often discussed the idea of leaving London and moving somewhere more peaceful where the frantic pace of life doesn't leave one feeling quite so frazzled. She's done it and I'm impressed. The quality of life she's experiencing in this part of Germany is having a marked improvement on her well being. She exudes happiness. It must have something to do with being so close to the most beautiful lake I have ever seen. Lake Constance is a vast expanse of beautiful tranquil water surrounded by Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Its beauty has inspired poetry and the father of psychoanalysis Carl Jung was born in Kesswil, a small Swiss village on the lake. It is a place of introspection but in a pleasant and calming way. It lifts any kind of depression.

Although I was visiting Sonja I was actually house sitting for another friend Steffi, who has the most gorgeous walled garden. My job was to make sure the garden plants were watered daily. Not too onerous a task and in fact a real pleasure. The roses were a total joy and I loved them.

One of the best bits of my stay in Überlingen was going to the Bodensee Therme. It's described as enjoyment for all the senses and it's pretty good! Basically everyone strips off for the regular sessions in the sauna of which there are at least three, a Turkish steam bath, a wellness area with four cascade pools where you get massaged by powerful torrents of clear mineral water. It's fantastic! Each sauna session offers a different experience and my first involved sitting with my friends Sonja and Catherine and about a dozen others while we were fanned with a wet towel by the sauna master to increase the heat. Half way through we all left to smother ourselves with honey and some kind of exfoliatior all of which makes your skin silky soft. The heat was intense but immediately afterward we all strolled towards the lake and immersed ourselves in the freezing cold water. Other treatments included doing the same thing with white chocolate, salt and being thrashed by the sauna master with birch leaves! Not all at the same time I should add. These are all meant to encourage relaxation and spread a delicious sense of well being. I must admit that I like the Germans' attitude towards health and fitness. There's no sense of obligation towards maintaining healthy living. They genuinely love being fit and healthy. I nearly called this post "Alex gets naked" but thought better of it...

Tea with Alex

I will be selling my yummy bespoke cookies outside Books for Cooks for one day only. Each design is individually iced on to rich, super-chocolatey or vanilla, traditionally baked biscuits. I'm going to create some of the iconic landmarks of Portobello Market - the Travel Bookshop, the Blue Door, street signs... and not forgetting my very first commission celebrating the beautiful and extraordinary jewelry of Sophie Harley.

Saturday 2nd July, 2011

10.00 - 18.00

BOOKS FOR COOKS

4 Blenheim Crescent, London W11

Look forward to seeing you there!  

India

My interest in yoga began when I was in my twenties looking for an alternative to aerobics and sports. I had always been drawn to the mystery of the East and yearned to go to India and experience some of the strangeness of mysticism for myself. My chance to go came about once I had become a student and had the time carved out for me to travel during the summer holidays. I had been going to yoga classes regularly for about a year and I felt ready for a five week trip to Northern India. I planned to go for two weeks to Kashmir with my cousin and stay on a houseboat on one of the lakes in Srinagar. Based on the experiences of various friends who had "done" India I decided it would be a breeze to travel around India on my own and explore for the remaining three weeks alone... the only problem was that I hadn't factored in a shoot on sight curfew in Kashmir the day we arrived, due to the sudden death of President Zia of Pakistan who had just been assassinated.

Nothing prepares you for the chaos of India and had I known quite how mind blowing it would all be maybe I would have planned it differently. Anyway that first time in India taught me to learn to work with adversity if I still wanted to experience the highs and lows of being in such an extraordinary place. Although India could feel quite desolate to me at times there were also exquisite moments of stillness, beauty, richness and warmth. I think that's probably what drew me there. I wanted to feel the intensity of the place.

The snapshots above show the range of my experiences in India but I can't pretend I wasn't relieved when I stepped onto the safety of the British Airways plane on my way back to England. After three weeks on my own in such a strange land I felt I had had enough of the extremes and was ready for a little more normality again. Little did I know that that would be quite hard to achieve.. but that's another story. I don't know whether that first trip to India helped my yoga practise at the time but over the years I've been able to draw from my experiences there to shape my understanding of yoga.

The reason I'm writing about this now is that I've decided to teach yoga again. For the first time I feel that I'm ready to give much more of myself as a teacher and can enjoy the experience. When I first trained as a yoga teacher I felt as though I was winging it slightly and I never felt totally prepared. My knowledge and understanding of yoga seems to have deepened recently and I actually feel as if I can offer my students something quite worthwhile. Details are below for anyone interested in coming to my class

Lunchtime Yoga

Mondays from 1.00 to 2.00pm

St. Peter's Hall, 59a Portobello Rd, London W11 2DB

We are above Charlie's Cafe situated in a pretty courtyard on Portobello Rd in the heart of Notting Hill.
6 Classes £55 - Drop in £10. Beginners welcome

Scrumptious Tea

Michal, Tonja and I had an intensive baking session starting at 10am and ending at around 10pm. We made bread, a unique battenberg cake, macarons, opera cake, maids of honour tarts, apple tart, cookies... it was a total feast! My kitchen didn't know what had hit it as we had several things on the go simultaneously and took it in turn to use the KitchenAid mixer, which was having its own baptism by fire. I realize that I need to buy certain things like a professional rolling pin and a nice slab of marble on which to roll out pastry and keep everything cool. I'm learning so much from diving in and baking all kinds of things I would never have thought of a few months ago. Michal is very encouraging and he obviously loves baking as he joined us in his spare time outside of his busy job as a chef.

There was quite a serious blip half way through the day. Michal suddenly announced that the fan oven seemed to have gone rather quiet and, with most of the cakes ready and waiting for their space in the oven, it had indeed stopped... PANIC! WHAT TO DO? Keep calm and carry on of course and ask around my neighbours  to see if anyone could help. We had a giggle transporting trays of batter up and down the stairs and next door to my neighbours Joel and Julian who stepped into the breach and offered up their oven. Fortunately I discovered that the bottom oven still worked so we managed to utilize that and bake some of the remaining cakes there. Actually it was a perfect way to get to know my neighbours and the next day with so much cake on the table I arranged a tea party for everyone and we had a very jolly time. Tonja's macarons were a big hit and the opera cake was sublimely delicious and lasted for days... My bid for glory came in the form of the battenberg cake which was a huge version of the usual one and was very satisfying to make. Michal insisted that we make our own marzipan and I have to say it tasted wonderful.