the bathroom chronicles

For the first time all week, I'm properly clean.

We have been without a shower since Monday, but today we have a white shiny new bath. For those of you who have seen our bathroom, this is quite an achievement (the room is not much bigger than a cupboard).

Tomorrow we get tiles, Friday grout, and Saturday we get to paint and A gets to drill holes in the new ceiling and hope hope hope that his wiring is in the right place! On Monday, it didn't all sound so easy, when the plumber arrived with drawings that were 20cm out.

If you're into Sudoku (people are mad about it here in the UK), my friend Alastair has built a nifty website. He's very clever.

spring food

I've eaten quite well this week...perhaps inspired by the delicacies on my Copenhagen brunch plate. And the almost summery weather, bringing raspberries and asparagus and other things of the season.

This morning, not quite as bright and early as I planned, but bright and early enough, we went to the Farmers' Market. It's on every week now, instead of twice a month - meaning that you can wake up and decide to go, instead of waking up and trying to figure out whether it will be on before going (I have miscalculated in the past and trekked downtown thinking about yummy things, only to discover an empty carpark where laden stalls should be). This week's delights included perfectly ripe, home-grown strawberries (sweeter than any I've eaten in a long time); still-warm pretzels - shiny, salty, chewy and tasty; home-made ginger marmalade; wild venison pies; blackface lamb and baby beets for a spring sunday roast; organic veges and dry-cured bacon. Our fridge is looking good!

We had perfectly ripe figs earlier in the week - with peppery rocket and topped with Dunsyre Blue from Mr Mellis. And a melon, pink grapefruit and lychee fruit salad another day. Sounds odd, but tasted and looked fabulous.

abject terror on the Demon

Copenhagen highlights

Tempted by the prospect of pastries and design from the home of such delights, we snapped up some cheap flights and booked a B and B (without the second B, as is apparently the norm in Denmark) for a weekend in Copenhagen.

Much shopping, munching and mooching made for a nice couple of days. The sun even shone a wee bit, as Andrew demostrates here in Nyhavn. That was just before he terrorised motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike when he took to the streets on a bright red free bike (the bikes are ubiquitous and indestructible, luckily).



Friday night we screamed our little lungs out on a small but fast and scary rollercoaster (the Demon) in Tivoli, an unDisneyfied funpark straight out of a fairytale. Elvis Costello played there too, another fab Copenhagen freebie, in what became a very dramatic electric storm. Forked lightening, rolling thunder, torrential rain. Great atmosphere, but very wet feet. Which explained the popularity of welly boots - since it's a pair of red Hunters I've set my heart on, I thought I should wait till I got home to Scotland.



More mooching on Saturday, with some tourism activities thrown in for good measure...Rosenborg Slot and the national art gallery - where we saw a man with very long legs.

This gallery was also where I devoured a fantastic brunch plate, comprising:

• greek yoghurt and spiced blackcurrant compote
• shrimp salad and egg (Andrew helped me with that one)
• Lomo and hummus
• smoked salmon and creamed artichoke hearts
• a big hunk of pecorino with black olive tapenade
• fresh fruit (melon, grapefruit)
• croissant with home-made rhubarb and strawberry jam
• home-made breads & butter

I could get into this brunch plate concept, definitely.


Late night modern jazz with an anti-Chirac flavour at the Copenhagen Jazz House. The bass player is actually wearing ninja shoes.


5.30 this morning on the way to the airport. Sleepy...