Angel Jem's City Cottage

It's the second week of term and the countdown to half term has started already. Well, it is only a 5 week term, so that's a blink of the eye. Meals for this week are; Monday; Pork fajitas. I cooked the pork on Sunday and left it in the fridge to be ready for a quick and easy meal after 2 hours of tutoring and before bookclub which today is discussing The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins. Tuesday; Stir fried beef. We have some spring onions and some sugar snap peas to throw in with noodles and have a tasty chinese! Wednesday; Meatballs and mash. We love Aldi meatballs, or Frikadellen as they're called. They cook quickly and go with loads of options. Like mash, or chips, or pasta. Today is mash and peas and gravy. Lots of gravy. Thursday; Spaghetti Bolognese made in a jiffy with mince and a jar of pasta sauce. Somedays I am a lazy cook. Friday; The children are having fried chicken and chips, while we will have a fast paella from the Hairy Dieters later on. Sat...

Mind you, the holiday ended with a good day, because we got to visit a shrine, a bookshop and a library. The Princess was a bit blasted by it, but my bookophilic son and husband soaked it all up. In order, then; North Gower Street; It's where they film the new Sherlock. Look! That's Speedy's Cafe! 221b Baker Street For Son number 1; he rounded off his perfect holiday with Sherlock Holmes as well. We visited the Sherlock Holmes Museum . You buy tickets, you queue, you go in to a small 4 story building where there are rooms decorated in the style of Holmes and Watson.  Pipes, slippers, gunshots in the wall, it's all here, with a load of dodgy figures that look like C&A had a closing down sale next door and they picked up the mannequins. Moriarty looking shifty, the Hound looking distinctly flea bitten and in the middle of it all a very happy looking teenager complete with deerstalker and smile. He enjoyed the shop afterwards, spending his...

The Princess has to have a shopping day in London. Must have, for her sanity after a load of museums. The last two times we went, we had to travel to Highbury in North London to visit the charming and beautiful Sylvanian Families shop. Alas, my daughter's days as a toy-playing child are behind her so this year was a rather more prosaic planned excursion to Lush, Claire's and Superdrug. When we shop, we shop in style! Alas, my money had deserted me in droves the day before, so my cash was spent on a rather tasty cake and cocoa on the Portobello Road, a Duck Banquet on Gerard Street and mid afternoon drinks as we met the gang in Covent Garden. I'll let the pictures do the talking again.

Wednesday was a brief break from London city centre itself. We headed off to the Warner Bros Studio Tour The making of Harry Potter;  it was the most expensive day out we had, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime-probably experience, so it was money well spent. And the whole day is a really magical experience if you're a Potter fan. From Privet Drive, to Hogwarts Castle, from the creature shop to the souvenir shop the day is a brilliant and enjoyable time for a fan. We spent ages wandering around gasping and calling each other over, we queued for the broomstick ride, we sat on the Express as the Dementors flew past and we spent ages just staring at the details on the scale model of Hogwarts. We wanted to watch the films one after another after the end; too bad we were at a holiday house and had left them at home. Bad Dobby. Bad Dobby. We shall have a marathon session this summer one day. Anyway, it is a place best experienced in pictures and music, not words, so I shall let my little...

It's as far East as I have ever been in London, and takes a while to get there, but it is a good place to visit. It's old, for one thing, been attacked by Dark Elves and lived to tell the tale for another and, on a warm sunny day in April has enough large park teeming with history to keep anybody happy. Greenwich . It is a really beautiful place, a  maritime town on the banks of the Thames, and full of beautiful buildings. With a history stretching from Tudor times when Henry VIII was born there and left Anne Boleyn there (until taking her to the Tower and a short break) through Napoleonic Naval battle school to the present day. it is an iconic sight.  At the top of Greenwich Hill you get a real vista out over the east side of London. And the Naval College (which is a university now) has a fantastic (and free to enter) painted Hall. We stood craning our necks and looking at all the different mythological Gods and Goddesses. We've paid to enter places that didn...

What am I reading this week? Still Warleggan , since I'm on a no spend week I'm trying to hold out on it so I don't need to get the next book until May, really. I read a different book on holiday last week, Dust and Shadow by Lindsay Faye and John Watson. It is a Sherlock Holmes meets the Ripper novel. Very appropriate considering our adventures last week! What have I watched this week? The Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes . Eldest son has acquired it as a souvenir of London and we will be working our way through it from beginning to end. That's 42 episodes of Sherlockian enjoyment! And I also have The Hobbit; Battle of the Five Armies to watch , probably this weekend with a themed tea to accompany it! (bacon and mushrooms, classic hobbit food!) I wonder what other food goes with which films? Ice cream with Grease? Pizza with Goodfellas? I must think about it! Where have I been this week? Since Monday, only school. But last week, ah, now last week...

South Kensington must be one of the most familiar sights to a London school child. I think any school within a bus ride or tube journey of London must take their children to either the Natural History Museum or the Science Museum at some point in their school life. It MUST be compulsory. Added to that the fact that every trip of overseas school children finds it compulsory as well, and it leads to one over crowded area of South West London. Actually, we have tried to visit during local school holidays and that is infinitely worse, with queues round the block and children every where. The school trips are bearable with, especially since I think some children will behave better for the teacher than their parents ("Darling, don't climb up there; no, sweetie, the guard doesn't want his beard pulling; Tris, wouldn't you rather come to see this fossil than climb the dinosaur?) and they are contained, since one of the biggest fears as a teacher is to go on a trip and ret...

Eldest Son has quite an eclectic taste, but when he gets a passion he gets.a.passion. And Sherlock Holmes (in book , film or TV guise) is one of his passions. I think it started one wet welsh holiday, when the best reading on offer was one of those huge Complete Short Stories. He devoured them and we have never looked back. I would go so far as to say he is most definitely a fanboy. So when we saw that the Museum of London had an exhibition on about Sherlock (The Man who Never Lived and will Never Die) we began to plan. Sunday was the last day, and the only time it matched our holiday plans this year. We booked, we went, we really enjoyed. The Museum of London is a little off the beaten track, lying a five minute walk to the north of St Paul's and near to the Barbican Centre. It's a good museum, dealing with the history of the capital from prehistoric time until the present so I knew we would have plenty to occupy a day there. We walked from Holborn tube station to th...

Joining in with At Home With Mrs M, and I might even post a link there if I can grab the time later. It's a school week again. Boo hoo. Holidays are over for a few more weeks. So back on to the easy cook, quick meals after working all day or before going out at night. Monday; Spaghetti Bolognese. I'm tutoring until 6 and out for 7 for WI quiz night, so no time for anything fancy. Quick mince and a jar of sauce will have to do! Tuesday; Gammon and parsley sauce. I forgot to put parsley on the shopping list. Whoops. I'll pick some up after school choir, and get the meal on the table in the half hour available for us to eat as a family. Wednesday; Enchiladas. We eat a lot of fajitas, they're quick, easy and popular. I'm on a healthy eating campaign and this recipe comes from the Hairy Dieter's Eating For Life. Essentially it's fajitas assembled, smothered in salsa and a little cheese and baked. What's not to like? Thursday; Easy Chicken Bake. I ha...

We went away last week to stay in Harrow; that's why I was off the radar. I know it sounds silly, but I don't like to advertise big absences on the web, especially not now Mr AJ's business uses the home address as a base. It's just a precaution, not a reflection on how trustworthy I think my blogfriends are! But anyway, we went and had a fantastic time so, with your permission, (or not, I really don't mind and I'm doing it anyway) I have written up the day by day account and I am going to post it here as daily as possible when I get back to work. So, Day One; We travelled down on the Friday night and stopped off at Bicester Travelodge. We find breaking the journey down helps so much from the point of view that you get an extra night away, the adventure of a night as a family of 5 crammed into a room for 4 , and the early start next morning which gives you virtually an extra day of holiday. Usually when we go to Harrow we use it for shopping, settling in...

But I'm only popping by to point you towards this Link;  Because I love my city home!

What am I reading this week? Jeremy Poldark; yes, I'm still mining that great seam of Cornish Copper from the 1950's. Book 3 and Book 4 queued up ready to go for it in about 5% when I finish... And a couple of self help books, The Women's Comfort Book by Jennifer Louden and The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. I'm seeking a book like the incomparable Simple Abundance, one I can use to prime my artist within and get me creating my own stuff. I keep reading blogs and getting inspiration, but if all I ever do is crochet a blanket because that's what I keep looking at and seeing online then I am ignoring the spark of creativity awaiting within that I need to fan into my full fire. Watch this space. And expect me to be happier. What have I watched this week? It's a school holiday. We watch rubbish from morning til night. We've just caught up with Forever starring Ioan Gruffud which we all watch and enjoy, and w...