New York...New York....

....so good they named it twice. I used to live there and haven't been back for......way too long. It was cold....

and wet......

 and snowed.......

 and emotional. At one point, halfway across Central Park, in a blizzard I would have cried except my eyes were too busy being stabbed by the icey snow. As I slid over into a drift, snow blind and searching for the out, I thought I might just disappear, only to be found in the thaw, just by the exit. Like Scott, so close....but not close enough...Then my friend's flight was diverted to Boston and so the great nostalgia fest we had planned was scuppered. And the High line....the only thing I wanted to go on....was closed due to...snow and ice.

 So I went to the diner.....

 and the sun came out....

and the High Line opened and it was ....a perfect day!!

Top tip: it is better to travel with your thermals then never to travel at all.....

Young at Heart is away......

....guess where?

Top tip: One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things......Henry Miller

Full of eastern promise.......

This week I made Spiced Lamb and Apricot Stew....

and it was so utterly delicious I ate it all and forgot to take a picture. So I've taken a picture of the picture in the cook book, Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour. Honestly, it is so simple and so divine, spiced with cinnamon, turmeric and cumin, it cooks itself. And as winter seems to be going nowhere, I shall be eating it a lot more.

Top tip: cut the apricots in half!

The play's the thing.....

I took my mum to see The Hard Problem, the new Top Stoppard play, last week at the delightfully revamped Dorfman Theatre at the National. It's about...... consciousness, I think. What is it?
What's the difference between the mind and the brain? And the answer is..... I don't know. And I'm not sure Tom does but no matter, it was a lot of fun trying to find out. Tom Stoppard's stuff is often very funny and as a friend once said to me after we'd been to see Rock 'n' Roll, you feel more intelligent by osmosis just watching his plays. And although much of the science went over our heads, mum thought it was a great birthday present so job done. 

The other big news is my very own, home grown rhubarb is already ripe and ready here in the rhubarb triangle of north London. Having been given the delicious cook book, Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour, for Christmas I was inspired to create this pudding..... rhubarb with rosewater yogurt and pistachios.

Top tip: try something hard and expand your mind....while you can still remember to do so!!

Die Slowly

He who becomes the slave of habit,
who follows the same routes every day,
who never changes pace,
who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,
who does not speak and does not experience,

dies slowly.

He or she who shuns passion,
who prefers black on white,
dotting ones i’s rather than a bundle of emotions,

the kind that make your eyes glimmer,
that turn a yawn into a smile,
that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings,
dies slowly.

He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,
who is unhappy at work,
who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,
to thus follow a dream,
those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives,
die slowly.

He who does not travel, who does not read,
who does not listen to music,
who does not find grace in himself,
she who does not find grace in herself,
dies slowly.

He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,
who does not allow himself to be helped,
who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain that never stops,
dies slowly.

He or she who abandons a project before starting it, who fails to ask questions on subjects he doesn’t know, he or she who doesn’t reply when they are asked something they do know,
dies slowly.

Let’s try and avoid death in small doses,
reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort far greater than the simple fact of breathing.

Only a burning patience will lead to the attainment of a splendid happiness

By Martha Medeiros

Having happened upon this poem it has become my mantra for getting 
through February ..... and why I've booked a flight!!

Top tip: read more poetry.....