The Sneaky Magpie

Especially rainy Mondays get me down. Can the weather improve please? I had to take a bus to work for the first time in a very long time and it took me over an hour to get to our office, half an hour Clapham – Oxford Street, half and hour on Oxford Street itself, and the bus didn’t even stop halfway so I couldn’t jump off and walk. Very frustrating. Anyway, Monday is almost over and the rain stopped.

My weekend was pretty chilled, went out for some tasty Japanese food on Friday night to Toro in Soho followed by few drinks at the Market Bar. Toro is an authentic Japanese eatery in Brewer Street serving some of my favorite dishes.

On Saturday I wandered (yet again!) to Northcote Road to meet my friend. We had lunch and then we did some shopping. There are few market stalls with some wonderful looking cupcakes, bread, fruit and veg. I bought some flat peaches aka doughnut peaches tempted by an article in The Guardian. Weirdly, some people have a problem with peach fuzz…..mmmm. They were delicious.

In the meantime hubby started to fix our old cupboard. Sides had to be glued, it needed gentle shaving and is waiting for linseed oil to give it a nice color. I am very happy to be rid of the dark brown color it had before.

On Sunday we went to the Battersea car boot sale, I was actively looking for Sylvac fruit and veg pots, saw an apple sauce pot however it was included in a lot with some stuff I either have or don’t like so had to pass. I managed to snap Lord Jim for 50p and that was it.

I ran out of food and had to improvise open sandwiches: Gail’s bread, Parmezan, courgette and olive oil.

Much of the weekend evenings was spent on watching Mad Men series 2, first disc. I know, I am obsessed with this show but I love it so much. All the characters, the interiors, the storyline, the styling. Absolutely spotless. Can’t wait for the next disc to arrive from Love Film.

I do get it sometimes and don’t really like it. To avid it I try to do something fun at the end of Sunday, it usually works.

Yesterday we went to the farmers market and got a great deal on basil, a massive bag for 2 quid since it was the end of the day. It needed to be processed very fast to avid wilting and after a brief deliberation I decided to make a copious amount of pesto. Since then I’ve been adding it to everything.

First meal was chickpeas with pesto dressing, tomatoes and French sourdough.

Followed by pasta pesto with buffalo mozzarella for dinner. Next is couscous with pesto dressing and veg for lunch. And I still have half of it left in the fridge.

In the late afternoon we decided to hop on the bikes and go to Tate Britain. We felt pretty confident we could do two exhibitions in 1.5h.

First was Classified, a selection of works by contemporary British artists. For the first time I saw The Great Bear – Simon Patterson’s spin on the London Tube Map. The same room had Mark Dion’s wonderful cabinet of items and objects, all found near the Tate on the Thames Bankside. Another room had some paintings by Gillian Carnegie, it’s so refreshing to see paintings. There are also some works by Damien Hirst including the Pharmacy. The last room has got a selection of tribal sculptures with heavy references to McDonald’s by The Chapman Brothers. The exhibition reminded me of a show from a couple of years ago when Tate did a retrospective of the Turner Prize winners. Overall, a selection of very good works, well worth a visit.

We spent way too much time at Classified and had 10 minutes to see the Richard Long show, it wasn’t enough. I had a look at some of the pictures and installations but was chased out of the gallery so will have to go back soon.

One of the best things I ever got was the Tate membership, we can go to all the exhibitions for free and skip the queues!

Back at home we indulged in Seinfeld marathon, must be my favorite comedy show.

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 have been roasting in the office, it’s one of those places that get very hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. Ice water and a fan are not enough. I am just melting away. All of a sudden am busy as well, after few sleepy weeks of not much happening I am doing an exciting charity project and it’s busy busy busy.

Last Friday I went to a gallery opening in Kennington Road. The gallery was in the curator’s house, a massive beautiful mansion with even more amazing garden. A friend’s friend was showing his video installation in which aforementioned friend took part. It was a very interesting piece of work. Afterwards we wandered off to a pub which resulted in minor yet annoying hangover on Saturday.

Baked some chocolate chip cookies, tried to make bread from the starter I was making for the past week but this turned into a major disaster since it has all gone mouldy and had to get rid of it. Saturday was pretty productive nevertheless, got some reading done, much of Mad Men was watched, got some paperwork sorted as well as new ebay stuff. All my ebay items from the previous week were sold, even made a profit on the MJ wellies!

Ended up the day watching a documentary about Lee Miller on BBC, it was bit strange trying to condense her life into one hour, I read her biography by Carolyne Burke some time ago which really told her story well so I consider the TV program a waste of time.

On Sunday we went to Whitstable which was blissful. More about it soon.

Finally finished Celebrity by Marina Hyde, the brutal truth about celebrities. On to the next tube book – think Accidental by Ali Smith, this is one of the birthday gifts from my very good friends.

My birthday is not over yet it seems, my dear friend Ewa got me the first series of Mad Men. I find it visually impeccable, the story line is intriguing and the slow pace adds to it. I only saw few episodes from the second series and got hooked. The attention to detail is amazing be it with the interior or with clothing, down to ashtrays and underwear. The leading ladies are beautiful and men are handsome. Crazy world of advertising in the 60s. Being in advertising myself I find it fascinating. Kind of glad the good weather is gone, feel less guilty about staying at home and gorging on the show.

Joan, had to upload her as big as possible, the woman is stunning

July’s Vogue is so dull, it seems to be exactly the same as last time they did the Ageless Issue. Yawn….Elle vs Vogue 1:0.

Totally forgot that Mary Queen of Charity Shops started last week, had to catch up on Iplayer (thank you BBC for this wonderful tool), watch it here if you haven’t seen it. Mary looks amazing as usual with her structured jackets and statement jewelery. Next episode on Tuesday at 21.00, cannot wait. She is getting very important message across too – don’t drop off your rubbish to charity shops, they won’t be able to sell it and will end up spending lots of money to dispose of it. Can’t believe people actually give away dirty pants.

This week’s film is Anotnioni’s Blow Up. It’s a really good story but they haven’t executed is properly or didn’t manage to develop it cause it could have been very exciting, Hitchcock-esque almost. I found it bit strange, even boring at times. I shall read Julio Cortazar’s short story the film is based on to find out what went wrong. Vanessa Redgrave is great though and so amazingly beautiful.

Sunday was spent round Shoreditch, I popped to the newly revamped Whitechapel Gallery, they have some very interesting stuff there. They also opened a swish restaurant next door – Whitechapel Gallery Dining Room,  looks good however it got a luke warm review from AA Gill. Will go on my ‘places to eat at some point in not too near future’ list.