A country walk in Oxfordshire

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

With Steven in San Francisco for the 15-year WIRED reunion, Chris and I decided it would be nice to head out of London for a lovely day in the country. After turning the house upside down I found our copy of “Country Walks Near London” (since I didn't want to fork out £13 for another one).

Yesterday we took a train from Paddington to Henley-on-Thames, switching at Twyford. Setting out on the abridged 8.8 mile route (as opposed to the full-on 13.7 mile, ten and a half hour one) we walked over the hill and through the woods... and over the hill and through the woods... and over the hill... well, you get the idea. I think in this part of the world they call the hills escarpments, but that’s probably just because they like using words with more letters.

Among the notable fauna we observed were some old horses wearing blankets, several kites (a kind of bird), and a few teenage girls hopping around the train platform wearing nothing but sleeping bags and knickers (the British kind). There were also a couple of planes doing aerobatics above the fields all afternoon (not exactly fauna, I know).

We had lunch at the Rainbow Pub in Lower Assenden and tea at the Henley Tea Rooms, which is run by Spaniards and staffed by Vietnamese.

It’s my party...

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Snapped this one outside the gym yesterday (my actual birthday)... 

Last night Steven & I went to dinner at Texture (everything was very textural). We thought of opening a whole series of restaurants: Flavor, Color, Temperature - the list could go on and on. The meal started out with some crispy skins (cod, potato, parmesan - I’m not sure whether parmesan has skin) and two dipping sauces: wasabi somethingorother and “Bali” yoghurt. It took a few minutes to figure out that “Bali” is antipodean for “barley,” thus explaining the lumpy chewy bits. Then there was some bacon popcorn - yum! Next came a tiny glass pot with parsnip and granny smith apple stuff. Steven had Scottish scallops and I had Cornish crab as a starter (ooh - more restaurant ideas: Name, Alliteration, Spelling). Our main courses were roast suckling pig with squid and other fishy things for Steven and Icelandic lamb with fregola and beetroot for me. Then came tiny glass pots again, this time filled with blood orange textures (fruit, jelly and granita). For dessert I had warm chocolate goop with olive oil, cardamom ice cream and a sculptural fennel sugar spike, and Steven had coconut textures (um, ice cream, something else, another thing, more stuff, and a mini metal toothpaste tube filled with coconut sauce for squirting everywhere).

Today I’m baking bread as prescribed by some old codger, going to the gym, waiting for a delivery of cupcakes from Cookie Girl, then heading over to The Fat Badger to eat one and stare at the rest, since everybody was busy this weekend, the weather’s crap, and the Hammersmith & City line is closed for track replacement.

Art ‘n stuff

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

We kicked off Saturday at Alfies, helping Neil pick out an occasional chair (very unusual round Scandinavian number with almost nautical details) for his living room. While he was getting the thing into his boot, Steven & I lunched on the best fish & chips we’ve eaten so far. After giving Neil our brutal assessment in situ (two thumbs up), we purchased a copy of Laura Owens’ gorgeous catalog (from a show we saw at the Camden Arts Centre a while ago) for half price at Sadie Coles HQ. On our way home, we took a little detour to look at some very pretty Rachel Howard paintings at Haunch of Venison. Once home, we popped downstairs to pick out our pan-parental Christmas gift, settling on an ink on paper piece (“Untitled 2”) by Tanya Ghosh (who happens to be William’s wife and a fabulous fashion illustrator).