So, another month gone. Had planned to be quite active this month, but the weather got toooo hot, and my health suffered as a result. I started off well, with a trip out to the National Theatre for the Threepenny Opera (excellent) followed by early dinner at Wahaca on the south bank, where they put us in the overhang part of the shipping container (scary). While we were eating, there was the most amazing downpour of rain. I have never seen anything like it before. Luckily it eased off for long enough for us to get to the pier for a boat back to Greenwich
The next outing was a couple of days later to the Greenwich Music Time festival, and 2Cellos, who were amazing.
I had booked to see Titus Andronicus at the Rose Playhouse (the archaeological site in Southwark), but it was too hot to even think of going out on that day, so we gave it a miss. I did venture out on my own a couple of times (one day to the bank, one day to the Chemists), and managed to bruise my arm quite badly on the bus ( it still hasn't completely faded). We were planning to watch Il Travatore on the Woolwich big screen, but I saw a notification on Twitter that it was broken, so we ended up watching indoors, via the computer, with a Wimpy takeaway that Bex kindly picked up on her way home from work.
So- adventures in food this month?
The aforementioned Wimpy and Wahaca; a planned sausage-inna-bun barbecue that fell flat; a good paella with big prawns, and a dish of Ottelenghi's baked cardamom rice, which was a little too al-dente, but otherwise ok. Oh, and I dug out the egg slicer that hasn't been used for a hundred years or so and used it two days running.
Household stuff: a new toilet seat (been meaning to do that for a loooong time); new shower curtain and bathroom cabinet (relocated the old cabinet into my room where it holds shoes, as it was always intended to); new dining chairs that the cats can't ruin, and a lovely new radio as a treat for me.
The reading challenge:
Well on my way to finishing early. The newest Harry Potter was released on 31st, and I downloaded and read it the same day. It was ok. Other books this month were mainly crime (1 Icelandic noir; 2 soviet Russian detective novels set pre-war; one magical-realism London rivers story; and Dostoyevky's Crime and Punishment.) There was also a sci-fi and a historical novel; and Ulysses. Ulysses is hard work. I'm still only half way through it. I think it might have given me the headache I have now had for a whole week.
Finally, in national news, we have a new Prime Minister.
I am setting myself two challenges for next month: get out of the house more, and finish Ulysses. We shall see how it goes…
