Halloween

I made my first ever Halloween pumpkin head, I'm rather proud of him.

Westfield, part 2

I did get to have a quick look inside Westfiled and it's a very impressive thing. The drab exterior (and too familiar location) doesn't prepare you for what's inside, which is like a vast 21st century cathedral to consumerism.
I was reminded a lot of those white, glossy science fiction films like Logan's Run, Shape of Things to Come, The Island and Buck Rogers in the 2oth Century.
There's everything you could ever need to buy, restaurants to serve any whim you could ever have and just 10 minutes away on my bicycle.

Westfield

Popped down the road to take a look at Westfield, which opened yesterday, and specifically to take a close look at these beautiful Victorian railway sheds, which until now, I've only been able to admire from afar.
The developers wanted to demolish them but as they're grade 2 listed, they weren't allowed to. They now stand, proudly yet incongruously, as a bold symbol of our grand industrial heritage, next to an elaborate symbol of our own era, the shopping mall.

The Agbos

We had the great pleasure of having the Agbo family over for dinner last night. The Agbo family are Kwarmi, Marlene, Agnel and Jean-Charles. Ibolya is Jean-Charles's Godmother. Last night they were also joined by 3 of their cousins. I can't remember their names now but the youngest was called Simon.

These super intelligent boys, aged from 4 to 10, were very enjoyable company.

Snow!

This is only the 3rd day of winter and it's already snowing in Harlesden. Ibolya and I love snow, really hope it keeps settling throughout the night and we wake up in a winter wonderland tomorrow morning.

TH 2058

At Tate Modern today and saw the new Unilever Turbine Hall Installation, TH.2058 by Dominique Gonzales-Foerster. I love the, entwined, oversized Calder and Bourgeois sculptures. But the overall effect of the work is sadly underwealming.

Apple Crumble

A wonderful Saturday evening and dinner with Stephen, Claudia, Chloe and Ben at ours.
By popular demand, I made my Fish Pie (again) followed by Ibolya's luscious Apple Crumble.

Cats

I thought to myself the other day how little our cats feature on the blog, considering how important they are in our lives and how happy they make us. So I'm going to start including them a lot more from now.

Putty

Tutsi

Josie

Sun and Spleandour

Friday boys night out, with my very dear chums, Mark, Rupert and Lloyd. Always a great pleasure to see them and always an enormous amount of laughing.

Penguin

I felt very happy and honoured last night to receive these gifts from Stephen, bought for me on his trip to New York. Not only did he buy me a shirt from one of my favourite shops and brands, he also got a little Penguin t-shirt for Little One too! I love it, thank you Stevie.

Little Wormwood

It's the last week of summer and winter starts on Sunday morning. I had to go by our old park this morning and she looked absolutely lovely. Bathed in the early morning sun, a light mist rising from ground and the first frost, I've seen, of the year.

33 Weeks and 3 Days

Ibolya and I were back at St Mary's again, this morning, for our latest antenatal check up.
The midwife gave Ibolya's tummy a very thorough prodding and squeeze and could feel that Little One has moved right round and is now positioned, head down, deep in Ibolya's pelvis and the right place for birth. We've both got a very strong feeling now that this Little One is getting impatient and won't wait another 6 weeks until we share our lives together.

As you can see, Ibolya's tummy is an absolutely beautifully round shape. I'm sure I could feel Little One moving around and giving me kicks as I slept last night.

According to Dr Stoppard, baby is now fully formed, has a full head of hair, can focus, dilate irises and just needs to add weight before being ready to be born. He's now about 32cm long and weighs 2.5 kg.

When we were walking through Hyde Park on Sunday, Ibolya thought she felt her first Braxton Hicks, a small contraction, which the body stimulates to practise for labour.

Tomorrow, at long last, we finally attend our first antenatal class at St Mary's.

Sunday 19th October

Ibolya and I were joined for dinner by Rupert, Helen, Rachel and Oliver last night. I cooked very slow roasted lamb with mash and greens with some great wine, Beatrice and Denis had very kindly brought us, togther with a superb selection of french cheese.

Ru and Helen stayed over and after a large, cooked breakfast, they dropped Ibolya and I off at Notting Hill and had a thoroughly wonderful , autumnal, walk through Hyde Park, imagining having our, newly arrived, Little One with us and showing him or her the park, for the first time. We also wished Georgi was with us and missed her. Our destination was the Serpentine Gallery to see Gerhardt Richter's 4900 Colours and the last day of Frank Gehry's Pavilion.

We came across this unusual bird in the park.

After adoring the Richters and marvelling at Gehry's pavilion, we carried on walking to High Street Kensington.

We bought pies in the Whole Foods store and snapped this pile of pumpkins, I can't wait to make a Halloween pumpkin next Saturday.

We then, for the very first time and armed with Sara's, invaluable, shopping list, went shopping for Little One. This took us to Gap, M&S and Boots and we stocked up on all the essentials for baby's first few days and Ibolya's time in hospital. I found the whole thing tremendously exciting, making Little One's immanent arrival, ever closer and more real; as well as making us feel rather more organised.

Serpentine Gallery

I've been desperate to see see Gerhard Richter; 4900 Colours at the Serpentine and it's an absolutely stunning and beautiful show, I completely loved it. It's just such an intense, powerful and refreshing work, I even feel the need to make a homage of my own and paint some impersonations. In fact, I was reminded of a series of paintings I did at college, based on systems and chance, using the 12 colour circle on a square grid.

Thankfully, Ibolya was just as keen to buy the beautiful catalogue as I was.