Springing into summer

I've lived in London for seven years now and in that time it's felt like I've had one looooong season.  A season of more or less average weather complete with cool air, grey skies and spitting rain.  Of course there has been the occassional dappling of sunshine (around the Olympics in 2012 as I can last recall) and a spot of snow (about three inches that closed Heathrow for about two weeks over Christmas and New Years 2012-13).

People ask me what I miss most about living in the US. Besides the obvious "friends and family" the next things mentioned are dunkin donuts iced coffee, real lobster, and four beautifully unique seasons.  New England so smacks down England when it comes to managing the art of spring, summer, fall and winter.

By some stroke of good luck (or global warming?) we've had a relatively nice (which translates locally into a "really nice") spring into summer.

To celebrate I finally bit the bullet, and after 7 years of living in London, bought some al fresco dining furniture. And even with my black thumb, bought some outdoor plants to decorate my little patio.  I imagine the furniture will long outlive the plants due to my uncanny ability to kill anything green and/or floral.

Yes, I am the woman who even managed to kill a "non killable" cactus.

I'm good with puppies and babies though.  Really, truly.

Needing to celebrate my new purchases I invited the girls around for Sunday brunch.  As luck would have it, the actual day they came over proved to be the more typical, "as expected", weather.  But not raining on our parade, in gingham and stripes we set up my outdoor furniture in the middle of my living room, opened the french doors, donned cardigans and pretended to be outside.

On the menu, homemade cornbread french toast with avocado and bacon, apple and elderflower mimosas, and english strawberries and cream with basil and lime shortbread.

Giving the allusion of al fresco

Home made cornbread with crispy bacon and avocado

Strawberries and cream with basil and lime shortbread

So much to say - PART 2

As mentioned in my previous post, April was a buzz of activity.  Luckily for me it included two weeks in Asia. Part an overdue visit with JonaThanh in Singapore and part 10 days with K travelling through Laos and Northern Thailand.

The former was a long weekend that was based solely around stuffing our (my?) faces with an assortment of local delicacies (hot pot! chilli crab!) and enjoying the tropical heat with cocktails and wine.  I'm noticing a trend in my family, all good meals commence with a glass of wine or drink, and if ever you get a delay waiting for a table or just find yourself with some spare time...at any point during the day?  Well, I'll have two of those over there, kind sir! Please make sure it's frothy / chilled / adorned with an umbrella or other such accoutrement. A kind thank you very much.

My Singapore mornings started out at Tiong Bahru Food Market with 1-2 freshly squeezed juices followed not long after with an assortment of dumplings, fried noodles and the best chopstick licking char siu I've had since my last trip to Hong Kong.  All for a piddly price, it's easy to overlook the market's sticky tabletops and elvis singing busker for the quality and value for money.

One of my three nights there we went for Singaporean Chilli Crab.  Most recipes I've since researched indicate that contrary to the name, the dish isn't actually that hot.  All I have to say to that is "you have got to be BLEEPING kidding me."  Midway through digging in I recall saying to JonaThanh that I was pretty sure I could no longer feel my mouth.  Ten minutes after that and my cheeks were numb too.  Fun but messy to eat, it was definitely a sloppy evening.  Why they don't give out napkins is beyond me. And the lemon water to dip my fingers for cleanliness?  I needed a long shower to get it all off of me and my nails. That said, I'll happily go back for more next visit!  When in "Rome" as they say...

HOT - Chilli Crab - HOT

Mad looking but that may be due to spice induced face numbness.
That's my excuse at least.

One of many Singapore cocktails.  So wish this was an actual "Singapore Sling."

Mango margarita.
This is what happens (on repeat) when the restaurant tells you to wait about 2.5 hours before you can eat.  

The latter half of the trip was over Songkran (New Years) spent with K in Luang Prabang and Chiang Mai.  Anyone who's been to Luang Prabang or parts of Thailand over the New Year holiday will know it's a water dousing spectacle for the ages.  Not possible to leave our hotel from 10 am until 6 pm without getting absolutely drenched to the bone via water pistols, buckets of river water and hose pipes to name but a few, we didn't quite have the "relaxing" holiday we'd been hoping for.  And as I've learned, when this kind of water pummelling occurs, it is near impossible not to get a little of it in your mouth. If you combine this with the other "traditional" Laos New Year celebration of getting completely drunk on Beer Laos, one might "suffer" the consequences of local germs in a foreign belly.

Let me be clear, not partaking in these celebrations is not an option.  Unless you dive under your duvet in your (hopefully) air conditioned hotel, these activities can't be avoided.  Clearly we weren't on holiday to stay indoors.

The drinking tradition is to open up a can of Beer Laos, pour a small glass worth from it and hand it to an individual. That person drinks his/her lot.  The same little glass gets refilled, handed to the next person...and on and on...beer after beer.  For some added "excitement" sometimes there's mystery ice that appears.  Between the random family barbecue we were taken to, and the tuk tuk that we were stuck on, our initial polite "no thank yous"  were finally cajoled into "Ok - let's hope the alcohol in the beer will kill the germs our bellies aren't used to" and "let's not think about the ice, just drink the warm beer really quickly before any of it melts."

So we drank, on repeat - lots of Beer Laos and other holiday spirits and truth be told had great fun in the process.  Until a few days later when our bellies started to act up.  K, in her infinite Americanised wisdom went straight for the antibiotics.  Because it wasn't "that bad" or stopping me from doing things, I thought I'd let it work it's way through naturally.  Well, needless to say, THREE WEEKS later when I was finally back to "normal" I'd conceded to K, her way was the right way!

That said, I've lived through it and ahhhhh, what's a travel story without some belly problems I say?!

Trying to kill the germs with some Blue Curacao - sôk di pi mai!