The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

There is a festival on at the Opera House this weekend called the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. I suspect it sounds more daring than it really is. We are being exceptionally un-daring and going to listen to Alexander McCall Smith talk about the idea that 'society is broken'. Although his books are quite charming, I worry sometimes that concepts of a 'return to old-fashioned values' can be rather reactionary. We shall see.

While we are being exposed to potentially dangerous ideas, Kid 2 is off to see the stage show of Mary Poppins with her grandma. I find that quite amusing.

After the shows, we shall have oysters and champagne - although possibly not outdoors as it is RAINING AGAIN (yes, I am shouting, I'm very unimpressed) before heading home.

Saturday Night Fever

On Saturday night we had people over. The plan was to have dinner and then play games. Yes, very nerdy, I know, but rather a fun way to spend an evening.

It didn't quite turn out like that. One couple optimistically brought their almost two-year-old and their 9-week old baby. Miss Almost Two wasn't at all bad, she just declined to sleep, so Kid 2 spent most of the evening wrangling her.

Then one of our guests pulled out at 4pm. (Is it just me or is that not awfully rude? Barring a death in the family ...) So we asked another couple, who ALSO have a 9-week old baby. Bravely, they accepted. Baby was ever so good.

Nevertheless, by 10pm, we conceded defeat. At least we got to eat (gougeres, beef bourguignon - yes, I'm lazy - bread, salad, apple tart) and chat and have a few glasses of wine between people disappearing for feeds and the toddler trying to kill the animals.

Saturday Night Fever

Last week was a ghastly sort of a week on several fronts, so I was very happy when the weekend arrived. As usual, I spent most of Saturday afternoon in the kitchen. I roasted a free-range duck from the farmers' markets up the road, with a fabulous tomato, olive and mushroom sauce (a recipe from the excellent Bistro Food by Patricia Wells). Emboldened by my success with a nut tart a while back, I also made a chocolate and hazelnut tart. (I also made a cheesecake, but that was for visiting friends on Sunday so it doesn't really count.)

We invited a friend over, and spent the evening sitting in the library/dining room, enjoying our newly discovered functioning coal fire (the old part of the house is Victorian), eating, drinking wine and chatting about books. Books are an unavoidable topic in this room, as you can see from the pic. What was most bizarre about the evening is that this friend of ours, G, loves to talk about books - but only ever sees the movies of ... He Doesn't Read. I can never quite get my head around this; and every time he comes over, Spouse tries to lend him at least one book. We do love our books.

Anyway, G works in social media, and was telling us that he thinks books as they exist now will soon be a thing of the past and only eccentric collectors (he included us) will buy them. They will be expensive and very much a niche thing ... Hmmm.

Paper Moon

On weekends, I'm normally cooking and cleaning and sometimes working. Last weekend I did something a little different. On Sunday I left the laundry unsorted and went to a paper workshop with a friend. It was presented by Japanese paper artist (and architect) Yoshinobu Miyamoto. Although the workshop part was actually a little frustrating (big group, little autonomy), his work and ideas were fantastic.



What we made was a smaller version of this:



I came home, neglected to cook dinner, and made this with my business cards (yeah, much better than giving them to clients):

Sometimes my house is a little like a sheltered workshop ... I now have this idea of making a sphere in graduating colours using paint chips.

It's true, I can get a little odd when it's deadline time.