Diwali (Dīvali, Dīpāwali, or Deepavali) is a festival of lights observed on the 15th day of the month of Kartika in the Hindu calendar.
For the second year, we’ve celebrated Diwali at We Are Friday, with fantastic decorations, lighting the candles and sharing yummy food together. A new tradition that I love.
The title of this blog, The Warmest Room, comes from the name of a Billy Bragg song. Which isn’t particularly great for getting it up the listings on Google, but it was an obvious name on account of how much of an influence Billy’s music and songwriting has been on me. So when I saw that he had released an anthology of selected song lyrics in book form, I knew I had to have one. Regardless of the fact I could probably recite at least 50% of the songs in it myself.
It was all about the GOAT. In so many ways.
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Now that my Nan is in residential care, we had to begin clearing out our home in order to return it the the council. It’s odd to think that I will probably never go there again, unless anything more needs doing to help with the move, especially as it is a place I spent much of my childhood. A house as familiar to me as my own home for many years. And an area that became more familiar as I got older, with my first job at the BBC being based in White City as well.
White City was farmland until the beginning of the 20th Century. In 1908 the stadium was built and it was used as the site of the Franco-British Exhibition (and subsequently other exhibitions) and then for the 1908 Summer Olympics – the last time before 2012 that London hosted the games. When I was young the olympic stadium was a greyhound racing track and also used for athletics. It even hosted one match in the 1966 world cup. In 1985 the stadium was demolished and is now the site of a BBC building – not the one I worked in, which was just the other side of the Westway.
The housing estate was built in the late 1930’s and finished in the early ’50’s and both my parents grew up there. The streets were all named after the countries that had featured in the great exhibitions and my Mum was born on the White City, overlooking the football ground of Queens Park Rangers. I’m not much of an active football supporter these days, but given that my Nan lives/lived about 500 yards from Loftus Road (the home of QPR) the superhoops have always been in the blood, and during the 70’s when I was a child I would regularly go to matches with my Dad. More often than not with a colouring book and pens, a treat of a Bovril and a pie at half time, then back to Nan and Grandad’s for dinner and Doctor Who. There was a match on while we were there working in the house, and with the noise and the floodlights it took me back instantly, evoking lots of memories.
It’s rained all day, so as there didn’t really seem any reason to go out, we’ve holed up and had a mini-Sunday. I put the fairy lights on as it got dark – they always look cosy, and realised I still have a bowl of Christmas baubles out. No point in putting them away now. It’s been a lovely day off.
I’ve been lucky to go out for lunch in Brighton twice this week, and to two of my favourite restaurants.
Lots of new restaurants and eateries are opening up in Brighton, with some really fab looking places. When I first moved to Brighton about 6 years ago there was a lot less choice. There were a few good restaurants and loads of touristy rubbish, but the foodie revolution appears to have finally made it’s way down from London and we’re starting to get spoilt for choice. Brighton even has it’s own food festival.
So last week, for Madge’s Birthday we decided on a family lunch at The Bistro at the Hotel du Vin. There are much newer and funkier places popping up, but the Hotel du Vin can always be relied on for classic French bistro favourites and the bar does (arguably) the best grown-up cocktails in town.
I ordered the chicken liver parfait, followed by the Gloucester Old Spot pork belly with mousseline potatoes. Both were lovely and very filling. The boys ordered burgers and Madge enjoyed the French onion soup and the cassoulet. All washed down with some lovely bubbly prosecco. I was too full for desert, but the cheese and the enormous profiterole enjoyed by the boys looked great.
All the food was lovely, everyone enjoyed what they had ordered and the service was good too. Always a good, solid choice for a nice lunch or family occasion.
Yesterday we went to English’s, Brighton’s oldest (and best) seafood restaurant. Tucked away in The Laines, there has been an English’s there for 150 years, so it’s quite a Brighton institution.
The small restaurant downstairs was full when we arrived, so we happily opted to eat at the small bar. The upstairs restaurant doesn’t have the same cosy feel, and we don’t mind sitting at a bar watching what’s going on. The menu looked amazing – it was a hard choice, as there were plenty of things I could have ordered. Madge doesn’t like oysters, and they always feel like something to share to me, so we agreed on the mixed starter platter, which had lobster croquettes, sole goujons, wrapped prawns, potted shrimps – and the star of the show, home smoked salmon with dill and goat cheese panacotta. Absolutely scrumptious.
I followed up with salmon en croute, and himself had a whole dressed crab. They serve prosecco on tap, so we made sure our carafe was filled regularly! I have to make a special mention for the staff, who were absolutely superb. Fully attentive, interesting and they seem to know all the regulars’ names and details. Properly special.
It’s been ages since I’ve been to English’s – it’s easy to forget about the more established restaurants with all the new kids on the block, but I definitely won’t be leaving it so long until the next time.
We were having such a good time that I forgot to take any pictures, so the images of the Hotel du Vin are taken from their website and the image of English’s is of the home page of their site.
Bonfire night. And my first weekday off from work in a while. We went into Brighton and had a cocktail at Bohemia and lunch at English’s. Then we came home and watched some tv, before going out for cocktails and a Thai dinner locally. Wonderful day. This is us sitting outside The Dorset, hiding from the rain.
My last day at work for this week – not sure I’ve ever been so excited to have 2 days off. Not because I have anything planned, but because I could do with a rest. Once I’d finished work I made my way to a nice evening out for a meal and chats with my friend Katie. She asked me to meet her at her shop in Reigate and she treated me to 2 lovely new lingerie sets as a late Birthday present. What a wonderful treat.
Today I attended a Barnardo’s conference at the Royal College of Nursing in London. It was interesting, and nice to be going into the west end, rather than EC1 in the morning for a change. After the conference we went for a few drinks, as with Thrusday and Friday off work, Tuesday was our Thursday. We got the train home from Farringdon and were indoors by 9.45pm – pretty good going.
