I’m sat here watching MasterChef after hosting a dinner party last night. Without doubt Pollen Street Social in London is my favourite restaurant ever; I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been there – I adore Jason Atherton’s cooking and have been to all of his London restaurants. I have met him a few times – he popped over when it was my birthday and we’ve discussed his wallpaper at the Social Eating House but I always go back to Pollen Street. Last year they released a cook book of their recipes – many of which I’ve eaten; so I took the opportunity last night to cook four of their dishes for three great friends of mine.
It took well over 24 hours of preparation to make it; everything from straining crème fraiche over night through a muslin cloth in a sieve, six hours of creating a mushroom stock for mushroom tea and 10 hours of slow roasting a lamb shoulder. From an Insights profiling perspective I am an outright ‘yellow’ and that was apparent by my partial planning – i.e I’ve got all the ingredients and I know how long it will take to cook but I didn’t really look at how I actually had to cook it… so despite buying vacuum bags I actually have nothing to seal them with in my home made water bath (what??) so I improvised and just put some water in the roasting tin to keep the lamb hydrated. On hydration… I had to dehydrate leeks and shallots but I don’t have a dehydrator so I had to sort of roast them and it worked. For the mushroom tea I had to create a ‘foam’ and with that needed an ‘ISO mixer with three gas canisters’. Ahem. I didn’t foam I just added it at the bottom of the tea and it worked fine! Life is about adapting right?!
It was a super night and I felt very ‘grown up’ (I am 43 so why I don’t feel that normally is another matter!) hosting a dinner party with amazing friends and with the lovely additions of paired wine (thanks to my wine school tutor), the perfect playlist and the amazing dessert (I can’t make dessert!) from Carmen and super cheese to end the night.
It was actually in my goals for 2019 to spend quality time with people I want to be with and last night was a true delivery of that.
Last week
It’s been a very busy week. I have three days with my FS client – one of which was spent at Beaulieu Motor Museum (the previous week I was with them at Rhinefield House Hotel) at an offsite. This week’s offsite was very productive in a company that really needs some structure. I’ve been brought in to help with one programme but actually they’re going to get more out of me by letting me help them with the more over riding issues they’re facing.
On Thursday, I met with a potential client in the wine industry and what was fascinating about that was the discussion that went from immediate requirements to actually coming up with an idea which could fundamentally make a difference across the industry. I always seem to refer to her as my ex boss in this blog but she is a friend too and I look back and think our force of energy with the client that night must have either been inspiring or terrifying!
Later that evening I went to a wine tasting with a couple of friends in the building I used to work in – it was quite nice to be back. The wines were awesome and I went straight in on the ones I wanted to as opposed to doing them all – it’s lovely to have some knowledge so you can do these things well. We decided an hour or so in just to go and have dinner instead at one of my favourite tapas restaurants Camino in The City.
On Friday I met with my pal who I mentioned in my last blog – the one who has made a huge decision that will allow her to be mortgage free and open her options. Great to see her and just be in ‘town’ event if it was a little rainy!
All of this is about adapting to the moment; little things sometimes, bigger things at others but being a very planful person, I have learned over the last 12 months to be more flexible.
In addition… I had a fabulous training run with Rex this week when I ran with him off lead. He happily trotted by my side much to the admiration of other dog owners – little did they know he only did that because he probably thought I’d run away!
And finally…
I couldn’t let this week go by without mentioning the death of Keith Flint. He has been – along with The Prodigy – a major influence in my life. They got me into dance music back in the early ‘90s and without that I wouldn’t have my club journal to write and hopefully turn into a book. I’ve seen them so many times but the one that stands out for me most is when they performed at Brixton Academy. He came on stage and his force of energy was incredible – so much so I just stood there and stared completely star struck before my boyfriend at the time literally poked me and reminded me to dance! I’m devastated that he took his own life. He was running a park run the day before and it goes to show that you just don’t know sometimes when people aren’t themselves. I had a friend years ago who took his own life – I chatted with a couple of friends of mine this week and in hindsight we knew he said goodbye to us at an all night rave in the mid 90s; we didn’t see the signs that night but we recognised it afterwards. As I said to them… the next time we say ‘hey, how are you’ we should probe a little more than the usual answer of ‘yeah I’m fine’ and ask people what they’re doing, how they’re feeling, what’s going on in their lives and take real interest. I hope in whatever is the next life that Keith and my friend Glen meet and rave the rest of their time away in sweet harmony.
Uncorking The Finer Things 