The Sneaky Magpie

This year’s pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery is designed by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA. We cycled there this evening to have a look and strangely it’s very unimpressive however it works perfectly with its surroundings. It looks like a cloud suspended low over the lawn, the height varies, the structure is made of stainless steel and reflects everything around it, becoming a perfect part of the environment. What does it a real justice is a bird’s eye view picture, you can find it on the gallery’s website.

Pigeon caught in flight

The same architect are also responsible for The New Museum in NYC, The Gifu Kinagata Apartments in Gifu, Japan and the wonderful Zollverein School of Design in Essen, Germany to name a few. All buildings are very airy, light and work perfectly with their surroundings. I’m sure there are many great things to come from those two talented people.

The weekend has been tainted with some work related stress. All got solved in the end but my Sunday evening was pretty much ruined.

I did manage to get some stuff done though.

I reorganised my closet discovering a lot of summer dresses and skirts that are more than good to wear, ironed it all and now I feel like I have a brand new wardrobe that only needs a good pair of sandals.

Major part of ebay clothing has been photographed, waiting to be uploaded.

Finished watching series 1 of Mad Men and cannot wait to get my sticky fingers on series 2, I have seen few episodes on BBC but didn’t get into it properly. It’s not the same without the first part.

Watched Camera Buff – an excellent movie by Krzysztof Kieslowski, one of his first ones. It’s a story of a plant worker who buys a camera to film his new born daughter and ends up shooting documentaries for the plant subsequently becoming pretty successful. Unfortunately his success is not beneficial for everyone.

Kept reading Crimson Petal and already looking forward to The Apple however I am not allowing myself to buy it before I read the pile of books waiting by my bedside.

Discovered a new high street near my home – Northcote Road. Can’t believe it was there all this time! Planning to explore it properly on Saturday. It’s a little bit of a yummy mummy area and the shops are not very exciting but it’s a useful one. With places like Space NK, Neal’s Yard and Gail’s it’s a very handy place indeed.

Screamed for joy when I discovered sorrel at my farmers market, this place is improving! It was used in a tart and a salad. I love the lemony taste of sorrel. It reminded me of summer days in fields and meadows as a child, sorrel was a rare find and we would pick it up and eat it right there.

I am looking for a good leather satchel bag, big enough for all my bits but not too large so it sits nicely on my back while cycling. At the moment I saw great ones at All Saints and Comptoir des Cotonniers (can’t find a picture).

Sadly, I didn’t get to any exhibitions so I MUST do it this week!

I’ve been living in Clapham for nearly three years now and am still discovering the area. There are always surprises hidden here and there. Wandsworth in general is rather pleasent, tidy and nice. This can mean boring but it depends what you make of it. For me it is slightly too boring, too nice and lacking what I like most about London -  bit of filth, bit of realism, bit of grittiness. It’s all too middle class here which makes the area less interactive, people are not very spontanious. It’s all too organised.

Having said that whenever I come across new things I get excited so here is my lowdown on Clapham and around.

Clapham High Street is generally full of bad bars and pound shops, not very large it managed to squeeze a big Superdrug and even bigger Boots, few charity shops and few useless gift shops. Do not go out there in the evening, it gets filled up with zombie-like drunk teenagers. There are few fantastic places though:

Patisserie Macaron – I wrote about it here. A true French patisserie with artisan breads, pastries, chocolates, cakes and superb ice cream and sorbets. Perfect for an afternoon with a paper and a nice pot of tea.

Gastro – French restaurant in Venn Street, great for dinner or lunch, good wine and moules with frites. Tables outside, on a sunny day you get all the sun.

Esca – great Italian deli and cafe, large table at the back where you can sample their salads, meats, and special 50p per item breakfast. They also have amazing selection of cakes and desserts in the front window, irresistable. Tables outside.

Pizzeria San Marco – good Italian restaurant on the high street, I tried their pizza with house wine and it was delicious, saw some of the other dishes – all looked very good.

Breads Etcetera – another good cafe/bakery in the high street. Tables are hard to get, there is always a queue outside but once you get one, it comes with a toaster and you help yourself to all kind of breads and spreads, all included in your breakfast and limitless. Breakfast itself is fantastic.

M Moen and Sons – an excellent deli on the Pavement, in the summer they grill chorizo outside and serve it on freshly baked bread with rocket.

Abbeville Road – I call it a little village as it could be anywhere in England, it has got a small town feel to it. It’s a pretty small high street, I can’t rave about the restaurants and cafes however it has got a great deli, McFarlane’s, excellent choice of cheese, pates, cold cuts and breads as well as chocolates and cakes. Another good thing about Abbeville Road is the farmers market nearby in a school yard, I must say it went down hill for a while but it’s picking up again, they have some new organic veggie stalls and buffalo dairy stall. Fingers crossed it keeps improving!

Going further to Clapham South, there is one place worth mentioning – Pizza on the Green. It looks pretty bad from the outside and always serves half price pizza – bad sign? I went there when I really craved pizza and Firezza raised their prices to £12.50 per regular sized one. It’s a really well run pizzeria, all Italian staff, food is delicious, wine is decent and service is very fast. All pizza and pasta dishes are always half price making the most expensive one probably around 6 quid, take away pizza is £7.40. A truely authentic Italian place, usually packed to its limits. Needless to say I am a regular.

Today’s discovery is Northcote Road, never been there, went there today to meet a friend, also a local, who discovered this little treasure this very afternoon. It’s just off Battersea Rise which in itself is full of places to eat. Northcote Road is very middle class, very baby orientated but it offers a great choice of restaurants, delis, shops and a Saturday street market. More about it next week as I’m planning to discover it properly. This rainy afternoon I spent in Italian restaurant, Osteria, enjoying prosecco and olives, my friend had a wonderful seafood salad – it was huge and really yummy looking. Stay tuned for more.

I am sure there are more places round here like Clapham Village and other secret high streets I am yet to discover.

After much deserved rest I am feeling energized and ready to go again. The temperatures are going down which is perfect for cycling and the office is acceptable too. Not that I don’t like hot summer, I absolutely love it but only when I’m outside, by a pool, in a park, having dinner al fresco or chilling out in general. You get the picture.

The weekend was spent on reading Crimson Petal and the White, I can’t put it down.

Got my hair cut, Magda is a hairdressing genius. Now I only need to dye it and I will be presentable again.

Baking is one of my favorite ways to relax, this time it had to be something simple. I went to the farmers market to pick up some wonderful peppery salad leaves, new potatoes and asparagus and decided to make a tart.

Here is how it went. Start by making pastry: 200g plain flower to be rubbed with a generous pinch of salt and 100g of butter till you get coarse crumbs, bring it all together with a 3-4 spoons of ice cold water till the dough is soft. This is bit tricky as the dough cannot be overworked or too short. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 1h in a fridge.

After chilling roll the dough out into a pastry tin, it should overflow a bit as it will shrink, chill for further 30 min.

Preparing filling

While the pastry is chilling preheat the over to 180 degrees and start to make the filling. The filling can be anything you like, mine was new potatoes (I boiled them earlier), asparagus, chives and dill. Bit of cheese can work a treat. The general rule for the filling is 2 egg yolks, 1 egg, 150ml single cream, salt and pepper. I always come up with the herb/veg combo as I go.

After blind bake and filled

After the pasty has been chilled bake it blind for 10 minutes, take it out of the over fill it up with the veg and cream/egg mixture and bake for further 30 minutes or till the pastry is golden brown and the filling cooked. Serve with salad leaves with mustard dressing or whatever takes your fancy.

Ready

Mine was slightly overcooked but still very tasty.

After being bored at work for few weeks I am in the thick of it. I am working on a very exciting project for WHO’s Unitaid. Sending a very very small crew with a camera to Cambodia, Nepal and Zambia. As usual there is no time to do anything in a normal way, am stressed but happy at the same time to be busy again.

I started to cycle to work every day on my small blue bike with a basket which leaves me exhausted. I also do Pilates every Thursday which I love but yesterday I thought I would fall asleep, I guess this is a combination of cycling, stress, heat (no air con at work just stagnant hot air) and running around getting visas and vaccinations sorted for my crew. As the week goes by I get more and more tired.

I was so happy when I got home this evening, am home alone tonight, I made a dinner and just lounged on a sofa watching movies, flipping through magazines and blogs. I am about to have a lavender bath and read a book that I got absolutely hooked on – Crimson Petal and the White. I don’t really read much modern literature but was being persuaded by one friend for a while and given the book as a birthday gift by other two friends so I didn’t have much choice. I am all about the lives of Sugar and William and co in Victorian London.

This weekend I am going to get a haircut, my hair is a mess, I go to 10500 in Notting Hill and only get cut by Magda, she is wonderful. I am also going to hang out with a friend who is visiting from Amsterdam. Really looking forward to just chilling out and not doing much. I might take advantage of my friend’s pool, she lives in a crazy mock-Tudor apartment block with an outdoor pool with salt water instead of chlorine. Sounds very tempting.

I am off to get relaxed in lavender fragrance.