A return visit for dim sum at Shikumen was in store. We did a fair amount of walking and it was hot! Shikumen is having a four for £10 lunch. We’ll go back and try four different ones before the promotion ends.
A beautifully crafted vegetable dumplingThe four for £10 dim sum lunch. Missing are the chicken gyoza
I wanted to check out the new bar that overlooks the city so we took the lift up to the fourteenth floor but were foiled. It goes as far as floor 13 and then you see a notice: You have to come up from the ground floor and be escorted. Are they keeping the riffraff out? I’m coming back at night when it’s open, to have a silly cocktail and take photos before the light fades.
A bit more walking in the heat followed. I wished I had on my summer clothes, which are packed away from last year.
At the south side of Bethnal Green Road time stands stillSpotted off the Bethnal Green Road
Today, forty-five years ago (Yes! I mean Noooooo!) I was married. It was a very blustery, cool Toronto day.
Me in my carefully chosen wedding outfit, 1973
There were two friends on my side, and two on John’s, at the city hall ceremony. I don’t want to say too much about it – the wedding or the dinner afterwards, or the party we threw for our friends, or the aftermath – but I do think about it every year and go over the day and the years that followed.
Back to the present.
We were waiting for Spring and then suddenly it arrived
I’m listless. I want to do something, go somewhere, although I’m unsure what or where. Spring is happening but oh so slowly. My legs hurt. I’m tired. That’s my mood. Right. There.
We did have a nice time out on Friday. We walked along Upper Street and discovered a plaque for Kate Greenaway. To my surprise I remembered that name from my mum’s books of children’s fashion and from other childhood books. She had an instantly recognisable style and it was nice to think she would have walked those same streets.
Upper Street, St Mary’s Church
We walked along Chapel Market as it wound down and at the pub on the corner of Penton Street I discovered a board that was quite funny.
So I investigated. The pub is called The Joker and is a nod to Islington’s most famous resident, Joseph Grimaldi. Grimaldi was a clown – the founder of the modern day clown, in fact. He was certainly the most popular entertainer of his time (1778-1837). The pub has many photos and memorabilia of clowns and also a huge (ten-foot wide) clock (THE clock from Oasis’ ‘Be Here Now’ tour). We didn’t go in but it’s now on my list.
A quick and interesting ride on the 205 bus and we ended up in Brick Lane to have a lunch at Meraz, and to buy some ghee.
The new Muretz art on Hanbury Street
My friend Alistair’s wife Julie is Canadian. She grew up in Montreal. I find her fascinating. She’s like a bright and flitting creature with good stories and a strong sense of herself. She arrived in London and wanted to spend an afternoon with me at Victoria Park. I didn’t realise I’d be going back there for soon but the last time I went it was dull and grey and cold. On Saturday it was warm and vibrant. We visited “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and the mural on The Morpeth Pub, then went to have a picnic.
Sitting near the duck pond, I think about my grandfather fishing in that water, putting mealworms and maggots on his hook, and me feeding the ducks with bits of bread. I wouldn’t say it feels like yesterday but I do close my eyes and imagine us there.
Everybody was enjoying the duck pond and the Pavilion Cafe
I want to go visit Julie in her Sussex home. Stay tuned.
And I ate the French cheese – not too impressed, I think I left it a week too long. The other cheeses continue to mature, although after piercing the guessed-at blue one I haven’t noticed any new mould growth so we shall see.
The French cheese. It never ran and I couldn’t eat that rind, having seen it formAlmost ready to eat
The cheeses I made are coming along. I had a terrible time trying to work out which cheese was the blue one since they both have blue mould. I don’t want to think that they are both blue now but I did in the end pierce the bluest looking one (at the bottom)Â and will hope for the best. The French cheese meanwhile is ready I suppose and I need to leave it at room temperature, perhaps on Thursday. It looks a bit crispy to me but who knows! It may end up to have a soft oozy heart!
The white and the blue cheese at three weeksFrench cheese
I may have made a good new friend, Shahanaz from my Bump Buddies course. I’m quite fascinated by how different she is. It’s the first time I’ve had an intimate conversation with a Muslim woman, at least one who wears a scarf and conforms somewhat to her culture. And yet she speaks very openly, swears more than I’d expect, and has very quirky and non conformist ideas. She wanted to try ‘real coffee’ so our first venture – one of many, I hope – was to Pacific Culture Club. We each ordered a brownie and she insisted we also share an almond croisant. The brownies were the fudgiest I’ve had in London but the croissant was nowhere near as good as the ones I’ve had in Toronto.
Best browniesPacific Social Club
I was explaining to Shahanaz that I had bad hair days almost all the time and that I sometimes just wanted to cover my hair like she does. She admitted that it was good she could cover her hair and not worry what it looked like but then smiled and said ‘but I have bad scarf days!’ I laughed! Apparently, sometimes she can’t tie her scarf properly and just can’t get it right. She told me that on special occasions Muslim women ‘bling up’ their scarves and she had trouble doing that herself. Also a story of how one friend got a tan that was in the distinct shape the scarf framed her face with and how they had all laughed. She’s a strong and funny woman.
Speaking of coffee, I was very pleased to see that the E8 coffee van is doing OK despite Black Sheep Coffee opening just opposite his pitch.
CoffeE8 van, Hackney Central
I popped into Mare Street Market for a coffee. It was less busy than on the weekend. A good coffee but the price of cake to go with it was over the top so I stuck with just a drink and taking some photos. The menu from the Open Kitchen looks really nice, though. Intrigued by the burrata and the sundaes.
On the weekend I went to see my aunt Kay. The journey was horrific. I left the house at 9:15am in the rain and wasn’t sure I could make it to Stratford for the 10am train I had spotted going to Westcliff. I made it just fine but the platform wasn’t one I was familiar with and the board didn’t know a train to that stop. There was a platform announcement about Southend and it went so fast, I didn’t hear it properly but I did know I had to get on the train to Shenfield and change there.
When I was safely on the train I looked online, as the announcement suggested, and saw nothing about this change so I called – twice. And got nowhere. The first person was completely clueless about the names of the stations and what to do and kept insisting on giving me train info for trains that had left Stratford two hours earlier – as if I could travel in the past. I decided that the best bet was to ask at the station. I was sent over to a rail replacement bus and off we went. And went and went It was a very long journey to Southend Victoria. I started to feel quite travel sick and almost despaired of ever arriving. But we did, almost three and a half hours after I’d left my house. Only then to be told that the taxi would be a 25 minute wait.
My aunt and I went to a Chinese buffet for lunch. It wasn’t bad. We chatted and later talked quite a bit about our mutual family. My aunt is also my cousin – my first cousin once removed, or my mother’s cousin. That confuses people and sometimes make them gasp since it sounds illicit. It’s not. Simply put, Kay (my mum’s cousin) married my dad’s older brother, Eddie. It was at that wedding that my mum and dad met properly and began a courtship.
I absolutely hate going up in the lift to her place but once up there it’s a great view over the Thames estuary, where it flows into the North Sea. It fascinates me that this sea narrows down to the great River Thames and when I’m standing on the banks in London, it’s part of that body of water that I’m seeing. I suppose I’ve never thought of the rivers and seas flowing into each other, like great veins of water around the earth.
View over the Thames estuary
My newest doll is a bit shy despite her bright colours.
Down another street I found a Phlegm piece that I hadn’t seen before. This one was interesting and it’s too bad that the day was dull and the detail isn’t apparent. Each little house in the painting is done on ducting that sits like little boxes on the wall. It’s a very clever use of the architecture. I tried to imagine Phlegm, who I had actually seen painting in Toronto, figuring this out and feeling pleased with himself. It really works!
Phlegm’s clever architectural-friendly piece and a close up
I checked out a few other pieces today but that’s it for now. There will be more days, I hope.
Poignant piece from Ben SlowLove Love Love on Hanbury Street
On Wednesday I went with Lisa to do her Passover (Pesach) shopping. We drove into North London through the back streets that she drives with great confidence. I know I will never know London like that! That morning I’d decided to wear regular shoes and set aside the boots. And I wore a sweater and a jacket. I felt free until I went out. The rain began to pour down and the wind blew and I wasn’t dressed anywhere near to appropriately. In fact, I was freezing and my day had hardly begun.
Close to where we were going we got stopped by some cops and had to park at least a five-minute cold and wet walk from where we needed to go. There had been an accident – a car had ploughed into a shop window and the whole frame was taken out. Lisa heard later that two pedestrians had been hit. I did feel like a ghoul taking a photo but anyway, I did!
Mayhem in Golders Green
In the end, we got falafels from a little place Lisa likes. I did enjoy the experience. Hot falafels were poured into bowls at the end of a long salad bar with all the usual (and unusual) falafal fixings and you helped yourself. We ate them on the go. Delicious!
But we turned back from that area. It was pointless shopping when we would have had to carry the groceries so far. We drove instead to an area Lisa had taken me before. It has the unlikely name of Temple Fortune. (This conjures up a small town in Thailand and not North London!) We shopped in one little grocery store where we bought mostly matzo. Then stopped by the bagel bakery where I got 8 little cookies and some cheesecake. They turned out to not taste very special for the price.
A cold, wet adventure! Oh, and I fell on the wet sidewalk. A lesson in not swapping boots for shoes too early in the year.
Last week I had two aborted attempts to go to Mare Street Market. The first because Instagram had led me to believe it was opening on Monday – I was greeted by a notice saying ‘Open on Wednesday.’ Then Krish and I walked over on Thursday in the rain but didn’t really stay since he couldn’t deal with the crowd and the noise. So I took a few photos and will go back between now and Tuesday, when they will still have the 50% soft launch prices. I can’t resist a bargain. Maybe I’ll even go twice!
Some views inside Mare Street Market
The Mare Street Market is occupying a building that used to be the housing benefit office. It was a depressing, shabby building at best. The renovations to turn it into what’s described as ‘a curated space in Hackney for eating, drinking, and shopping.’ If you click on the link above there are some photos that do this space justice but I took just a few of my own.
At 50% off, I do think I might go twice. The menus all sound fantastic and will probably seem too expensive once the soft launch ends, I assume Wednesday.
