Vanilla Lily

Walking towards moules frites & dry white wine at the Continental Hotel, Whitstable

* moules-frites and crisp dry white wine at the Hotel Continental with the sun setting over the sea and good company

* whitstable. In fact, British sea-side towns in general

* one perfect meal in a little wine shop near the Jardin de Luxembourg, Paris

* staying self-catering in cities and playing our what-if-we-lived-here game

* walking through shoreditch and realising how much I would want to live here if I was playing that game

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.

My happy list this week is very simple:

Family.

It was Marmar’s funeral on Tuesday and hearing my uncle – who did most of the talking in the secular service – speaking about the amazing woman he called Mum, listening to some of her sharp, insightful funny poems and jigging in our seats to some of her favourite tunes made me laugh and cry and swell with love and thankfulness that I was jammy enough to land her – and the fun, loving, free-spirited family she created – in the Great Grandma Lottery.

Result!

(God but I miss her.)

xxx

* 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.