Vanilla Lily

Not so much a list as a happy realisation really.

Work has been bonkers and will continue in that vain for a good few weeks to come but my brain has seized totally today so I have decided to give myself to the rest of the day off.

Wanting a treat, wanting to do something productive, wanting to avoid looking at the pooter screen for an hour or two – and in the absence of nice mindless drama on the tele – I did what I generally do in such circumstances and decided to bake a cake (vanilla-almond sponge with pears, thanks for asking).

I just opened the oven door to check progress and as the warm-sponge scented steam wrapped itself around me like a vaporous hug I suddenly realised that the smell reminds me – totally and wonderfully and forever – of my Marmar.

And that makes me very happy indeed.

* Spring flowers – Ginger bought me a lovely bunch of English daffs and tulips at a strangely quiet Columbia Road Market yesterday. He thought I was a bit mad for passing up the exotic blooms for a couple of puny looking bunches of buds but today they are open and upright and so so sunny.

* Banana cake – made by me a few days ago using smushed bananas and soaked, pureed dates instead of butter and eggs. Its moist and dense like bread pudding. Yummy! Best of all, I have 3 small cakes left as well as a generous portion of the large one.

* Chai tea – spicy, milky, soothing. Especially when a nice man makes it for me!

* Friends who are not only beautiful but funny, kind, and say just the right thing when you’re feeling down.

Truth is, this year could have got off to a better start – the fact that its Sunday and I’m in the workshop with two projects to work on is just one example why (one of the frothier ones, truth be known).

When things are feeling a bit bleak one has a choice between wallowing in the awfulness of it all – tempting and sometimes quite cathartic but not very constructive; or trying to focus on the positive things in life. I’ve been seeing more and more references to ‘Happy Lists’ recently, I’m not sure where the idea originated (should find out really…) but it seems to have suddenly suffused the zeitgeist. And I like it! In a suitably zeitgeisty way, I realised that writing short notes to my ailing grandmother this week, and making a concerted effort to keep things light and chatty, has forced me to notice the small smiles scattered through the day. Which can only be good right?

So, in that spirit, I thought I might try to post a weekly happy list here.

First up, the picture above by Toulouse-Lautrec. Isn’t it wonderful? So warm, so cosy, so intimate – it looks like love. I spotted the card (though unfortunately not the picture, that’s a mission for another time) as we were leaving the d’Orsay one day last March and fell in love with it.

Other things that are making me happy today:

• sunshine in January

• coffee from my favourite coffee shop made by a smiling man who took the time to make a beautiful pattern with the milk in the creamy top even though it was going in a take-away cup with a lid on (is that an antipodean thing? The guys at Flat White do it too and make similarly great coffee – more creamy richness, less airy froth in their lattes)

• the new Joshua Radin album. Love.

What’s making you happy today?

Just catching up on the latest from sweet Orangette and the little minx has been posting about The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies In The World, courtesy of David Leite in the NY Times.

They look sooooooooo good! I was getting quite into my diet but I’ve just remembered why I find them so very frustrating. I can feel a batch of these coming on when pounds have been shed later in the year though; they look just the thing to share with friends and battle those winter blues!

Someone, somewhere, very near by, is cooking bacon. Mmmmmmmmmmmh baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacon! It smells SO good my mouth is actually watering. Literally. I’m dribbling here.

It really isn’t fair. There should be laws – no cooking bacon when Mali is trying to loose the lard. Or toast, come to that; ’specially if spread with peanut butter or Marmite…

If the smell doesn’t clear soon I may have to grill and eat my own feet (needless to say, the apple on my desk is no more appealing than the desk itself as a potential nibble just now). Alternatively I suppose I could maybe close the window…

Enjoyed at the Tate Modern Cafe with lovely Chezzle on Friday night. Tremendous.

Yes, that is no fewer than five varieties of German sausage.
He knows him so well.

Ginger declared it ‘Possibly the best birthday present ever’. Duly noted; Christmas just got a whole lot cheaper!