Peaches and Blue Third Anniversary

It was on Valentine's Day 2010 that we formally adopted Peaches and Blues from Cats Protection. How appropriate as we love them to bits.


First ever sight of Blue and Peaches

We went down to the Cats Protection National Cat Centre to look at a cute kitten and came away with two mature persians.


Blue relaxing in the Garden

They soon settled in and adopted a classic feline lifestyle with plenty of snoozing and general lying about.


Peaches relaxing in the laundry basket

We bought them warm, cozy baskets which they, of course, ignored and preferred to sleep anywhere else: on the back of the sofa, the piano stool, on our bed, on the stairs...


Peaches being a Health and Safety hazard on the stairs

Blue provides me with regular amusement just by being herself and by being extra cute.


Blue being cute in the bath

Both cats regularly sleep on the breakfast room chairs hence this, one of my favourite photos:


Peaches wondering where supper is

Mary's excellent photo and current wallpaper:


Jungle cat

A selection of the best photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/sets/72157632589954950/detail/

Cleaning the Wandle February 2013

Three months since the last community clean up but I had excuses: cataract op, South African visitor, visiting MIL in Scotland. At least I have broken my duck early for 2013 so let's see how many I can make this year.

A bit chilly but I had taken the precaution of wearing my walking long johns and extra thick socks. This month it was a revisit to the Kimber Road stretch - previous visits here include January 2012 and August 2009 plus, quite possibly, others I have missed.


Kimber Road bridge with post office trolley

Despite previous clean ups there was still plenty of junk to be hauled out of the river. As before in this stretch there was a reasonable haul of shopping trolleys.


Hauling a shopping trolley out of the river.

The river was flowing fast and deep in places and it was getting chillier and chillier. I not not unhappy when they called an early finish at 3:30. There were plenty of volunteers helping load the rubbish onto the lorry so I left them to it and went home for a soak in the bath to warm up.

A full set of photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/sets/72157632731796799/detail/

More about The Wandle Trust.

Sotto Le Stelle 04 - Sand blasting

The latest batch of photos from Pietro show all manner of progress. The stonework is being sandblasted inside and out and is coming up very sparkly white and new looking.


Sandblasted ceiling star

The plaster removal had revealed a blocked up alcove. Given as how storage space is at a premium it was a no-brainer to have that opened up again.


New alcove uncovered

A key long-term maintenance task was to have the roof repointed to prevent any further water ingress. There was some evidence in the stained ceiling plaster. This should sort that out.


Roof terrace repointed

I wasn't expecting to have the roof stonework sand blasted. The interior yes, the facades maybe but this wasn't on my list. It does all look very wonderful but after a few years I am sure the weather will tone it down a bit.


Roof access sand blasted

Less exciting but still as essential is getting the plumbing up to standard while the floors are up and the place is still a building site.


Plumbed upgraded

So much to see since our last visit when we bought the place. It was bare of furniture and still very much as seen. Next trip it will look very different. That is when we finalise the big decisions about where to put bathroom, kitchen and bedroom.

Cirque du Soleil - Kooza

Royal Albert Hall, London. Saturday 19-January-13

Our friend Ros was not able to use her tickets so we bought them off her and had an early birthday outing for Mary. Most of the reviews out there summed up our experience pretty much - spectacular acts, especially the Wheel of Death, great live band, too much clowns.

What was more interesting for me was which acts we found hard to watch. The trio of bendy Asian women appeared to have spines made of rubber and watching them made me feel distinctly queasy. Conversely Mary couldn't bear to watch anything with the risk of a fall - the high-wire act, the trapeze artiste and the Wheel of Death.

I thought the teeterboard act was impressive, especially doing multiple back-flips on a mono stilt, but the wheel of death was universally singled out, quite rightly, as the massively impressive act of the show. To quote The Telegraph review "You watch with your heart in your mouth because there isn’t a safety wire in sight and the act sets the whole house on a roar of delicious excitement and dread. At moments like this it is easy to forgive Cirque du Soleil its cheesier excesses."

The "Much Sought After" Tonsleys

We live on the edge of a half-kilometer square of two- and three-story, Victorian, terraced houses known as "The Tonsleys" (Tonsley Street, Tonsley Road, Tonsley Place, Tonsley Hill and other streets) - bounded by Fairfield Street, East Hill, Trinity Road and Swandon Way (inside that green square). Or as they are often described by estate agents as "the much sought after Tonsleys".

To quote an old article in The Independant: "Because of the village atmosphere and convenient transport, the Tonsleys attract young professional couples who, living in small properties, have to begin thinking of moving when they start planning to have children. Some move to a larger house within the Tonsleys, but when the next child arrives they have to move again, out of the Tonsleys altogether.

Since working in Victoria I now walk to Clapham Junction and in the 7 ½ minutes it takes me to cross The Tonsleys I counted two Aston Martins, four Porsche and un-numbered Audis, BMWs and Chelsea Tractors. Who knows what is parked in the other streets and we haven't seen the Ferrari for a while.

Two Aston Martins and a Porsche

I get a monthly update from OurProperty.co.uk - here are sales from the last three months in Tonsley Place / Road / Hill:

2 Tonsley Place £670,000

7 Tonsley Road £620,000

80 Tonsley Hill £875,000

41 Tonsley Place £1,150,000

32 Tonsley Road £975,000

For more up to date prices see the OurProperty.co.uk search.

Clearly not for the young graduate trainee. It was not always such an affluent area according to the cabbie I had the other week. Brought up in Southfields and went to school nearby. He claimed - "no word of a lie" - that 80% of the kids from the Tonsleys were on free school meals. How times change.

Now if we could just move our house one street along!

[Yeah, I know, then we wouldn't have been able to afford it in the first place]

Sotto Le Stelle 03 - Walls Stripped Bare

The builder is in, the plaster is off, rubble is away and the wonderful vaulting is revealed.

Pietro has been taking photos and sending us regular updates on the cleaning.


Cleaning the plaster off the walls and ceiling

Where the arches of the vaults meet each other at right angles you get a lovely "Christmas star".


Christmas Star

The stonework will be sand-blasted and repointed. The plan is to plaster the vertical surfaces and leave the arches stonework exposed. Which walls get re-plastered depends on how we plan the re-build. The jury is still out on that.



We will also need to put in some additional steps to improve access to the stairs up to the roof.


Stairs from street and up to terrace

Saverio spotted that the doorway into the kitchen had traces of an arch. Here he has taken away the narrowing walls to reveal a wonderful, elegant arch.


Archway into the Kitchen

The external walls also need cleaning, repointing and painting. So up goes 14 metre scaffolding.


Scaffolding on valley side

We go out in mid-February to see the progress for ourselves (and pay the first part payment). Seeing the apartment "in the flesh" may help firm up our remodelling decisions. Can't wait.

Loads of photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/collections/72157632449775651/

Thames Path 05 - Thames Barrier to Erith

To help walk off the New Year's Eve indulgences we planned the next stage of our Thames Path walk. The idea had been to walk the eight miles from Staines to Windsor and Eton Riverside but flooding caused by recent rains had other ideas. Instead we went for the recently opened extension from the Thames Barrier downstream to the River Darent.

Lynn, John, Ros, Bob Mark (me), Mary

The route took us past Thamesmead (mostly social housing developments built in the late 1960s) and Crossness Pumping Station (a sewage pumping station designed by engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette at the eastern end of the Southern Outfall Sewer). The latter is a Grade I listed building and looks like a must see for fans of steam engines and Victorian engineers. Write up of the route: http://www.thames-path.org.uk/thames_charlton_crayford.html

It was a glorious sunny day as we set off and stayed that way. The one downside of this stretch was the absence of anything other than housing and industrial estates; no shops and no pubs for our normal lunch stop. As a result we kept walking and, after nearly three hours uninterrupted walking, decided to call it a day and peeled off at Erith for the train home.

Distance this leg 13.2 km
Previous legs 105.4 km
Total so far 118.6 km

New Year’s Eve 2012 / 2013

Mary has been travelling so much she wanted a quiet festive season at home. We had cancelled our planned trip to Ghana and settled for a dinner party for 10 instead. We provided the main course whilst other provided canapés, desserts and cheeses.

We started off with a blind wine tasting for a bit of fun – four sparkling wines – just to see what people made of them without preconceptions from seeing the labels. Personal preferences varied and everyone reckoned that one or other of the South African wines was French.

A - Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill 1996 (M&M cellar, current price £150!!!)
B - Waitrose Blanc de Noir NV (Waitrose, £20.99) - Mary meant to buy their award winning vintage one @ £24.99 but it was sold out
C - Simsonsig Cuvée Royale 2005 (sawinesonline.co.uk, £14.50)
D - Graham Beck Brut Blanc de Blancs 2008 (sawinesonline.co.uk, £13.99)

Chateau Meyney 1989, Chateau Canon de Brem 1998

A couple of fine clarets to go with the steak. The meal lasted from 7pm to midnight followed by more chat till 2 in the morning, past my normal bedtime.

Five people stayed over so I am grateful that the local launderette does a service wash for all the bedding otherwise the house would still be festooned with sheets and duvet covers.

The Goose is Getting Fat

Our 4.5 kilo goose generated a whole litre of fat. Goose fat is recommended for roasting potatoes so we wanted to keep it but not as one great lump. We hit upon the cunning wheeze of freezing it in cup-cake cases then bagging up ready to dispense in handy sized portions throughout the year.

We used the first block on New Year's Eve to create some very tasty roasties :-)

Christmas 2012

This year it was our turn to host my parents for Christmas lunch. We take turns with my brother and sister; Mary aims to do the same for her mum with her sister and brother; last year we hosted Mary's Mum in the Lake District. Although it doesn’t always quite work out that way that is the plan,

This year we decided to go for goose and the excuse to open some fine wine from the cellar.

Chateau LaLagune 1993

Decanting over a candle is so 19th century, I use a torch instead. I also use a laboratory grade filter to strain the dregs and sediment and squeeze out an extra small glass for use in the gravy or drinking later. I used to use a coffee filter but that gave some paper taste taint - a lab paper works a treat.

Mum and Dad arrived mid morning by taxi for a late lunch and a relaxing afternoon and evening. They stayed over so were with us for Boxing Day breakfast and lunch. We were trying to feed Dad up as he had lost some weight with recent illness and needed fattening up - he certainly seemed to have regained his appetite.

A full fridge is a happy fridge

Then we relayed them over to my brother’s in St Margaret’s for supper with Sarah’s family and a couple of nephews.

More good food and good company although there was a surfeit of desserts – Sarah having gone into overdrive in the sweet department.

Madness at the the O2

O2 Arena, London. Saturday 22-December-12.

From one extreme venue to another: from the hyper-intimate Green Note cafe to the stadium rock of the O2 Arena.

These Madness tickets were bought a while ago before Mary knew she had another bunion screw loose and would need it removed. She had the screw removed the evening before so public transport was not a good idea. She did not want to risk the jostling throngs stepping on her toe nor could she walk far. We did consider taxi both ways but that was getting expensive.

Instead I drove and we used the valet parking which I can highly recommend. You get to drive right up to the arena VIP entrance so minimal walking for Mary. They park your car close by and you walk in the VIP entrance - no jostling crowds here. A short stroll brings you right to the main internal gate. Money well spent in the circumstances.

Going inside, our seats were in the middle of a row so we lurked at the end of the row opposite to postpone taking our seats till the last minute. When the occupants of those seats arrived we relocated to a wheelchair platform which had a reasonable view. Given the peril to Mary's foot I spoke to customer services about staying where we were. Initially they said no, space reserved, but just before the concert started they came and swapped our tickets for a "limited mobility" allocation. Well done O2 customer service!

It Must Be Love

The concert was the expected collection of greatest hits which got the crowds dancing in the aisles. See reviews in The Standard (4 stars) and The Independent.

Reversing our route through the VIP exit we made good time as we get a head start on the normal parking getting home in under an hour. And so to bed.

Marcus Bonfanti at Green Note cafe

Camden, London. Thursday 20-December-12.

We went to see Marcus Bonfanti perform a brilliant acoustic set at the Green Note cafe-bar.

Sometimes venues are described as intimate; the Green Note is beyond intimate, it is about the size of our living room and dining room combined. I would guess it couldn't hold more than 40 people. It is like having friends round to hear Marcus play in your own front room.

The cafe does a very tasty vegetarian tapas which we had while waiting for Marcus to perform. We were joined by our friend Nigel and he had encouraged two of his friends to come along and join us so we had a good chat.

This is the fourth time we've seen Marcus and have all his albums so this time *we* were the faithful in the crowd who knew all the words. It was great to hear songs we know played acoustic style. He did two excellent sets not ten foot from where we were sitting. It was a real privilege to see someone that good, that close up in such congenial surroundings. I even got to have a quick chat to him. A fantastic evening :-)

More tour dates...

Reigate Potlatch 2012

Reigate, Surrey, UK. Sunday 16-December-12.

As every year for decades past the McLellan / Hutchinson tribe gather for the annual pre-Christmas potlatch (exchange of presents). This year at Jane and Pete's in Reigate. Keeping it simple - cream tea including a discussion about the relative merits of jam or cream first.

We took a 5 L can of our 2012 olive oil and refilled everyone's bottles from last year that we asked them to save and recycle. The oil was a lovely dark green colour with floaters as it is unfiltered. Believe it or not the bottles cost more than the oil.



Presents duly exchanged and tea consumed we returned home for a quiet, relaxing evening in.

Full set of photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/sets/72157632284374176/detail/

Christmas Daffodil at Roux at Parliament Square

Parliament Square, London. Saturday 15-Dec-12.

Once again the Daffodil Dining Club Christmas meal is nominated as the M&M Enterprises works christmas party. That is where the directors (that's us) treat the staff (that's us) to a function costing up to £150 per head under the HMRC rules concerning Annual parties or similar functions, page 9.

I think you'll agree that a meal at Roux at Parliament Square makes a damned fine annual party.

Mary

Friends Pete and Amanda

Menu

Amuse bouche


Citrus cured Organic salmon, Dill pickled cucumber


Goats cheese alternative for Amanda


Mosaic of game, spiced pear chutney and salad


Ravioli of Native Lobster, celeriac remoulade and hazelnuts


Fish alternative for Amanda


Roast turkey, fricassee of Brussel sprouts, redcurrants & almonds


Christmas pudding parfait, griottines, brandy and hazelnut crumb

Coffee and petits fours - vanishing mince pies!

Amanda had forgotten to forewarn them of her food intolerances but the chef whipped up some superb alternatives at a moment's notice - customer service, indeed.


Wine
Pinot Blanc 2009 Leon Beyer
"Fridge Chilled" Moulin A Vent 2009 Henry Fesse
Le Gavroche Viognier 'Cuvee Michel Michel' "Biodynamic" Michel Chapoutier
Croze Hermitage 2010 Domaine des Remizieres
Maury Grenache Noir 2009 Jean-Marc Lafage


And after all that we got a tour of the kitchen with Head Chef Toby Stuart



Another year celebrated in style!

Ali Campbell at IndigO2

IndigO2, London. Friday 07-December-12.

Mary was delayed in South Africa on business so my friend Bill stepped in at the last minute to avoid the ticket going to waste (or me having to stand around outside the O2 like a ticket tout).

Alistair Ian "Ali" Campbell is a British singer, solo artist and songwriter who was the lead singer and founding member of UB40. As part of UB40, Campbell sold over 70 million records world wide and toured the globe for 30 years. Wikipedia

It was a concert that delivered exactly what you would expect: reggae inna UB40 stylee. A professional bunch of musicians delivered what they do best: a good smattering of UB40 songs for the faithful and, what I was not expecting, a couple of cover versions. Odd to hear "Paint It Black" and "Purple Rain" in a reggae arrangement - not in a bad way and interesting take on such familiar tracks.



I have to agree with most of the other reviews: Brilliant concert, DJ beforehand was on too long, Ali could have been on longer (hour and a half from 9pm). His final encore was, not unexpectedly, "Red, Red Wine".

Another fine evening out.

Weekend in Scotland - December 2012

The weekend before last we went up to Scotland for the usual visit to Mary's mum to see how she is, run a few errands and "go for the messages" - Doric for go shopping. It was lovely insofar as winter weather can be lovely - sunny and dry but cold.

Sunday morning we set off early and I to scrape the ice off the windscreen as it was -4°C. I was going to use a credit card but then remembered seeing this scraper in the door pocket. You do *not* get these in Puglian hire cars (because you don't need them) which is another reason to spend more and more time in Italy.

Alanis Morissette at The O2

The O2 Arena, London. Wednesday 28-November-12.

Mary was delayed in Poland on business so my sister Jane stepped in at the last minute to avoid the ticket going to waste (or me having to stand around outside the O2 like a ticket tout).

The main act was not due until 9pm so we skipped the support acts and went for a meal at Las Iguanas and a good old natter. I had the Incredible Xinxim which did not live up to its name. The first time I had it, it was delicious – this time not quite so. They were very busy and I am not convinced the kitchen was up to the volume. I would go back but I’d pick something different next time.

Then we went into the VIP O2 Lounge. Only for O2 customers and you have to text UPGRADE 2 (or the number in your group, max 6) to 60202 on the day for the limited availability access. It gets you into a quiet bar and your own private lift to the venue.

It used to be that venues said “No recording” and “No photography” but all you could see in the standing area was a sea of glow-worms as people held up their smart phones to capture the moment. Perhaps it got too hard to police or maybe they decided that the quality is so poor that they had nothing to fear or realised that many are destined to generate positive word-of-mouth or some social media goodness. Certainly from our vantage point the images are indicative only.

As at any gig there are the faithful who know all the songs and all the words and were singing along to whatever she sings. I am not so familiar with her works and so, not being able to make out the words, had to listen to her voice as the sixth instrument in the band, that is until we got to the hits.

Catherine Gee of the Telegraph gave the concert Three Stars:

"[...] It was the two-song acoustic section towards the end which best showcased her remarkable vocal talent. Sat atop a tall chair, ankle resting on her knee, she belted out Hand in My Pocket and the enchanting a cappella track Your House, bringing the huge crowd to near silence.

Mellow she may be these days, but Morissette can still command the attention of thousands with nothing but the power of her voice."

The Telegraph - Live Music Reviews