Lunch with the Agbos

We were round at Kwami and Marlene Agbo for lunch on Sunday, at their home in Hackney.
It's always a great pleasure to see them and their incredible sons Jean-Charles and Agnel, as talented, sensitive and intelligent young men as one could ever know, we are very proud to know them. Agnel was recently given a place at a top public school in St John's Wood.

Elthorne Avenue

A very happy, big family get-together, on Saturday afternoon, at my sister Jane's, surrounded by my beautiful nephews, nieces, sisters and brothers-in-law.

October Gush

The view from my office window at 15.15 today.

As you know, I'm a huge fan of October and although we've still got a week or so left of it, today makes me realise just how much I'm particularly loving this October.

Today is such a good October day, not only is it Friday (with another great music doco on BBC4 tonight, out for dinner and the prospect of a fun packed weekend ahead with family and friends) but Ruby ate all her breakfast, it's the last day I'll cycle home in some light (before clocks go back on Sunday), the weather is glorious, the park is an embarrassment of oranges, golds and reds, there's a great article in today's Guardian about Orson Welles by my favourite film writer David Thomson, and my ipod spun some phenomenal, randomly shuffled tracks, on my cycle in, including: Supertramp's 'Logical Song', Beck's 'Go It Alone', Lemon Jelly 'Closer', PM Dawn 'Sonchynne', Astrud Gilberto 'It Might As Well be Spring', Bob Dylan 'Obliviously 5 Believers', Prince 'Little Red Corvette', Philip Glass 'The Vow' and Santana 'Jongo'.

And that's only how good today has been so far, let alone how good the rest of this week has been. Business is good, work's enjoyable, we finished watching 4 brilliant new (and top of form) episodes of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', loved the climax of 'Master Chef' listened to some excellent new albums, thanks to Rupert; Leisure Society 'The Sleeper', Mike Snow 'Mike Snow' and A Camp 'Colonia', enjoyed the big Hockney tree paintings at Tate Britain and had a couple of good runs too.

I wish a very happy weekend to whoever is reading this and hope you enjoy the rest of this happy month, as I will.

Incidentally, I broke the HTML coding on the Frieze post which is disrupting the layout of the blog, hoping to repair when I get a minute.

Weekend

It was a near pitch-perfect weekend for Ibolya, Ruby and I, with lots of Ruby time, good food with friends, some art, fine weather and even some good telly. After tidying the house on Friday night, preparing Saturday night's meal, we ate dinner in front of Synth Britanina, a fantatsic documentary on BBC4, about the rise of electronic music in the 70's and 80's.
Saturday morning, we went for breakfast at Le Pain on Marylebone High Street, with Kate, Dan and Maisie. Popped in to the Fromagerie and bought cheese before heading off to Regent's Park to see the Frieze Art Fair.
Saturday night, we were joined for dinner by Rupert, Helen, Ollie and Rachel, who's 6 months pregnant. We ate pot roasted pheasant with chorizo and butter beans, followed by Ibolya's chocolate cake and cheese.
I made us pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning, Ruby's first, and the rest of the day we spent playing with Ruby, had a wonderful family nap in the afternoon and, after Ruby went to bed at 7, we had an evening in front of the TV watching 'X Factor' followed by 'Come Dine With Me' and ended a brilliant weekend, watching a brilliant new episode of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' in bed. Even the cats had a good weekend; Josie brought in a nice fat mouse for her, Putty and Tutsi to play with.

Frieze Art Fair

Ibolya, Ruby and I took our annual trawl through the mediocrity of contemporary art at the Frieze Art fair on Saturday. It was heavy going this year, with very little to tickle our eyes. But the great thing was being there with Ruby for the first time. Last year she was still cooking away in Ibolya's tummy, so having her with us, showing her things and seeing things interest her and catch her eye, made it a wonderful experience. Shame there wasn't much good stuff there to show her and shame I didn't set my camera correctly and everything's come out a bit grey.

How It Is

Miroslaw Balka's commission 'How It Is' in The Unilever Series for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern is very impressive and I liked it a lot. Immense, ominous and menacing, there's something of the heart of darkness about it and it gave me the chills; invoking contemplations of death, dereliction and the Holocaust.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

I love Wes Anderson movies and love Roald Dahl's 'Fantastic Mr Fox' and finding it very difficult to wait until I can go and see this phenomenal looking film.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8275591.stm

Weekend, trip to Hampton and Maida Vale

Dan, Kate and Maisie came round on Friday night. Maisie and Ruby had a fun bath and bedtime together. After the babies went to bed I made us malard with roasted potatoes and veg and greens, followed by Kate's scruptious fruit pie and custard.
Up early on Saturday morning to take the train (my first, exciting, trip on one of the new Overground trains) to Richmond and meet Sarah for our twice yearly pillgramage to Hampton and the 3rd Hampton Boy Scouts jumble sale. Inbetween the morning and afternoon sessions, Sarah cooked us sausages on her bbq. We seldom come away empty handed and this time we bagged a snazzy 1950's armchair, a big pile of books (including James Mason's autobiography and some vintage children's books for Ruby) a broken trim phone.
After we got back from Hampton, we popped over to Jerry's in Maida Vale, to celebrate his birthday with afternoon tea at his fantastic new flat.
Becky and Andy cooked dinner for us on Saturday evening; Andy's creamy mushroom on garlicky bread was delicious. Denis and Thomas arrived early evening to stay for the night. And Sunday, we spent food shopping, cleaning, cooking and catching up on chores.