Autumn

Being very busy the last couple of weeks I haven’t really noticed that summer has turned into autumn. The temperature might has gone down a bit, but it’s till OK, and it does get darker earlier, but autumn. Not yet. No way. But looking out through my kitchen window this morning it was autumn all right. Rainy, grey and lots of yellow leaves.

Guess I just have to given in and bring out the autumnal clothing. Not that I want to…

Studio 60

On the Sunset Strip is finally on here in Sweden. A couple of friends had talked about the show and in when in Dublin I watched an episode (the last one I think) and now when it’s on here I’m very impressed. That’s what I call good television with great actors. Also having worked at with a live studio show for than six years I’m very amazed how well they have caught everything that goes on behind the scenes before, under and after a show.

In the first episode I almost felt a bit of "going in live in 60 secs" adrenalin myself. That feeling was just so real. But I don’t think I miss it though. Somehow it feels like a lifetime ago. Great fun and a wonderful experience, but no I’m very happy right here and now.

Back in London

I'm back in London again for more meetings. Just spent the evening with Michael catching up on things whilst drinking a lovely Australian white called The Hermit Crab. Yes, the name might be a bit funny, but never less the wine was excellent. We had a bit of food too of course not to not become too tipsy. Not sure it worked for me though... So off to bed it is.

Korean BBQ

As always in London one can more or less find food from all over the world. On Wednesday the supplier we met with took us to Koba, a Korean restaurant on Rathbone Street. Never had Korean food before I was all in for trying something new, and so I did. For example –baby squid. Very chewy I might add.

For main coursed we order two different sets of BBQ and for a while I think we just ate and ate. Trying different sort of meat, poultry and seafood. Dipping in hot sauce, soy sauce, sweet sauce and vinegar. With and without rice, and with and without lettuce. Our chopsticks skills varied (me probably being the worst one having to use a spoon from time to time), but eating with chopsticks takes time. One hour turned into two before we where back at the office. But that almost always comes with brilliant company and food.

What I realised afterwards was that even though we ate a lot I never felt stuffed. Just happy and content as one should after eating an excellent meal.

I succumbed

I said I wasn’t going to join Facebook, but after getting three invitations in two days I succumbed. Naturally I’ve spent all afternoon finding friends and playing with my page, whilst time has just flown. Oh well, I didn’t have anything special planed anyhow, but it is easy to see how it can become addicted. Just like blogging.

You know when…

You’ve been through security at Heathrow too many times. The security guy is flirting and chatting you up.

Pretty cute and a bit amusing I have to admit. Needless to say I walked away as a smiling and happy passenger. Can’t be easy doing what they are doing day after day, so a quick chat and smile from both sides helps a lot.

Long day in London

A very long day in London is soon coming to an end. I got up four in morning to catch a flight and now it's almost midnight. Or really close to one in the morning thinking about the time difference.

Anyhow it's been a very productive day meeting with a supplier. It's always nice when meetings end the way you want. To finish off this great day we went to see Monty Python’s Spamalot at Palace Theatre, which was totally hilarious.

Saying of the day

With risotto cookbook I got yesterday in mind this saying couldn’t be any better.

Rice is born in water and must die in wine.

~ Italian proverb ~

Heartfelt gift

A colleague of mine, who I admire and think very highly off, has been in NYC the last week. We work very close and besides discussing work and current projects and we also talk about books, travels, food, wine and all other things we enjoy in life. He’s overall a great person and colleague. Someone to hold on tight to when things get rocky, which they have tendency be at our company quite often.

Today when we met he gave me a present from NYC. A risotto cookbook he had found at Barnes & Nobel and immediately thought of me. For a brief moment I did actually not know what to say. It was just such a heartfelt gift and made me very happy. You fix things, was his only comment.

I’m still very happy and feel blessed to have a colleague like him.

600 posts down the line

And 19 months later and I’m still doing it. Blogging away. Post number 600 was also, of course, about two of my favourite things in life – food and London. The good things in life.

Eating out is expensive

At least in London, which got named most expensive dining capital in the world, by restaurant rating company Zagat earlier this week.

Dinner for one with a single drink in the U.K. capital costs 39.09 pounds ($79.44), compared with 35.10 pounds in Tokyo, which has slipped behind Paris, at 35.37 pounds. Meals in New York and Los Angeles cost 19.30 pounds and 15.63 pounds, respectively.

I couldn’t agree more, but than everything in central London is expensive. Food, drinks, hotels, tickets, housing etc and it all come from the last couple of years booming economy. London is not the second most costly city to live in after Moscow.

But having spent a bit of time in London over the last years I’ve now learned as soon as you leave the city centre one can find very good and cheap food. The last example being Culture Grub down in Waterloo where we had five different dishes and three beers and only paid £30. So a bit of a walk always helps if one wants to save money.

Chocolate – Not an addiction

Countless are the time when I’ve said I’m addicted to chocolate. Just earlier this week I actually throw away one and a half bar since I couldn’t keep it in the house. It really doesn’t matter how full I am or what mood I might be in if someone offers me chocolate I’ll eat until everything is gone, i.e. an addiction.

Well, earlier this week Peter Rogers, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, concluded that cravings and not being able to restain chocolate is not an an addiction.

"Food behavior can look like addictive behavior in extreme situations but chocolate does not fit these criteria," Rogers told a meeting sponsored by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Instead, a social attitude that chocolate is "naughty but nice" may actually drive people to see chocolate as a forbidden pleasure and desire it even more, Rogers said.

"In other words, chocolate is a highly desirable food, but which according to social norms should be eaten with restraint," he said. "However, attempting to resist the desire to eat chocolate only causes thoughts about chocolate to become more prominent, consequently heightening the desire."

It is a statement from a psychologist, but I actually think he’s on to something. Whenever I talk to people about my chocolate addiction we all laugh a bit guilty, because we all eat too much chocolate from time from time. At that very moment it’s lovely, but in the long run it’s not good for you. Indeed a forbidden pleasure.

History of dance

Thanks to my Texas friend Steph who pointed out this link earlier in the week. Always lovely to start the day with a smile!

Brains of liberals and conservatives

A study released on Sunday suggested that the brain neurons of liberals and conservatives fire differently when confronted with tough choices. Simply said the political divides may be hard-wired.

Intrigued by these correlations, New York University political scientist David Amodio and colleagues decided to find out if the brains of liberals and conservatives reacted differently to the same stimuli.

A group of 43 right-handed subjects were asked to perform a series of computer tests designed to evaluate their unrehearsed response to cues urging them to break a well-established routine.

"People often drive home from work on the same route, day after day, such that it becomes habitual and doesn't involve much thinking," Amodio explained by way of comparison in an e-mail.

"But occasionally there is road work, or perhaps an animal crosses the road, and you need to break out of your habitual response in order to deal with this new information."

Using electroencephalographs, which measure neuronal impulses, the researchers examined activity in a part of the brain -- the anterior cingulate cortex -- that is strongly linked with the self-regulatory process of conflict monitoring.

The match-up was unmistakable: respondents who had described themselves as liberals showed "significantly greater conflict-related neural activity" when the hypothetical situation called for an unscheduled break in routine.

So does this mean that one can say that ones political opponents simply got their wires crossed?

Amazing orchids

I’m just amazed how my two orchids can be flowering like this. I don’t do anything special with them besides soaking them in water for a couple of hours every Sunday. Must be my west, southwestern window. I’ve been told orchids don’t like direct sunlight, but that is what they are getting and somehow they must like it. And happy orchids make Cathy a happy girl. So all I have to do is just to enjoy the flowers as long as they last. They are beautiful.

One morning in July

Back in London I picked up a book called One Morning in July: The Man Who Was First on the Scene Tells His Story by Aaron Debnam. I’ve been rather hesitant about buying any books about the 7/7 bombings or 9/11. Not that I don’t believe that their stories need to be told, on the contraire. But somehow I don’t feel like having media profiting on what really happened those dates. It just doesn’t feel right.

The major reason why I still bought the book thought is probably because London is “my” city and I remember being worried sick that Thursday before finding out that all my friends in London was OK. Things like this could not happen in my favourite city in the world.

I started to read the book on Thursday night being in a rather faulty mood, but very quickly I felt compelled to just read on and on. Aaron Debnam tells us straight up what it was to be first on the scene on Russell Square and how it totally changed his life forever.

It’s not a very thick book and the book is written in a quite simple style, which bothered me at first. But as an eyewitness account it is a style most of us would use. Simple and straight the way one experience things.

Last night I read the remaining chapters and I have to say now that I’m glad that I did buy the book. Never mind the profiting media, this is a good read anda very true story.

Pathetic

I just threw away one and a half bar of dark baking chocolate so I wouldn’t eat it. First I tried hiding in the back of the cupboard. Then I put in a cabinet in my living room where I rarely look, but that didn’t work either, so now it’s gone. Gone in the trash and thrown away.

It’s pathetic how bad my addiction to chocolate is. Why couldn’t it be something healthy like carrots instead?

Not so smart criminals

Without trying to be too judgmental I sometimes wonder if criminals become criminals just because they aren’t that very smart.

In northwest England an 18-year-old burglar scrawled his name in graffiti before leaving the scene.

"Peter Addison was here!" wrote the 18-year-old in black marker pen on a wall after the drunken burglary with an accomplice in August in which they smashed crockery and let off fire extinguishers.

Just in case that was not enough for detectives, he added his gang's name daubed on the wall: "The Adlington Massiv!" He also added "R Gay" to a poster saying "Garden Birds of Britain."

Smart move!

In Colombia a man armed with a gun tried to rob a karate school.

"The man entered the academy with a firearm, but could not intimidate the dozens of students, who fortunately reacted and disarmed him," said Colonel Julio Cesar Santoyo, police commander in the province of Santander.

Maybe not the smartest thing to do.

Cheap champers

Starting next week the British high street chain Woolworths will start selling champagne for mere £5 a bottle. More than half the price of the cheapest champagne sold today, so one has to wonder if it really possible. Either Woolworths will make no money or the fizz will be undrinkable.

One might also wonder if it really is champagne, but it is. The strict French wine making laws only allows fermented wines produced in the Champagne area can be called champagne. And with a blend of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier, produced and aged for a minimum 18 months in Champagne it sure is the real stuff.

According to wine critic Jonathan Ray at The Daily Telegraph it actually tastes pretty good.

It's an appealing gold colour with faint hints of pink, and the enticingly frothy mousse is followed by a sturdy stream of fine bubbles.

On the palate it is crisp, rounded and fruity with good acidity and a long, toasty finish. It isn't dry enough for me, but I've had a hell of a lot worse at many times the price.

Personally, for me champagne is something you splurge on at special occasions and then I don’t mind paying a bit. But with lowering the price it means that I could have it everyday (not that I would), which then removes the festive, fun and luxurious feeling when drinking it.

Quote of the day

It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

~ Leonardo da Vinci ~

Happy to not be in London

For once I’m actually glad for not being in London. Just earlier today the union leaders for London's underground suspended a strike that started on Monday night and more or less paralysed the network.

The strike began as a result of the collapses of the privately own Metronet that maintains most of the network. The company went into administration in July after running out of funds and therefore could not assure jobs and pensions for over 2300 workers.

Analysts say the estimated cost of the strike London’s businesses has been some 50 million pounds (100 million dollars) a day. Yikes! The rail network really is the hub of all business in London.

The Rhode to France

Despite the brotherly love all Swedes have for Norwegians I had to laugh reading about three Norwegians who ended up in Rodez in France instead of the Greek Island Rhodes.

A spelling mistake on the Internet made the family group travel from Oslo via London before ending up in the Rodez, the capital of the mountain area Aveyron in southern France.

According to officials in Rodez 10 tourists make the same mistake each year, so I’m pretty sure they were well taken care of.

Borough Market

Saturday’s trip to Borough Market was probably one of the highlights from London this time. Michael who took me there, don’t know me that well, but he knew that I would love this place. Just walking through the doors of this epicurean temple had me grinning like a child in a candy store. Stalls after stalls with food, fruit, vegetables and flowers from all over the world. Many places also let you taste what they have to offer so walking around in the market is not only a feast for the eyes but also for the taste buds.

Of course the market is also home to some nice wine shops and bars. Bedales probably being the best one offering both food and wine to very good prices. Being Saturday afternoon and all, Michael and I decided to go a bit grand by ordering a glass of sparkling wine. Michael went for the more traditional style from Italy whilst I chose a glass of pink bubbles from Switzerland. Sitting there looking at people and talking about food and wine we both realised that there are a lot worse things to do on a Saturday afternoon. Cleaning. Laundry. Ironing. Sometime one just has to enjoy life a little.

Back home to autumn

Arriving home last night was getting home to autumn. Black huge clouds, strong winds and temperatures in the low double digits. Brr! What terrified me most was seeing how some trees had started changing colour and dry leaves was blowing in the street. It’s only early September! Sigh! Please give me some more weeks of warm weather and sunshine. Autumn is long enough without starting already.

Makes me sad, very sad.

Piccadilly in the morning

One of my favourite times of the day. Not that many people and everything have been washed and cleaned from last night's partying. With some coffee one can just sit and watch the city come to life.