Red

I haven't posted in so long. My new job demands so much more of my time, gone are the long lunches when I could sit and write, find new recipes or search for pretty dresses on ASOS.  My normally tidy house and well stocked fridge have both suffered and I have even been guilty of buying the odd ready meal, albeit from Marks and Spencers, to save me cooking. The secretary is so busy she needs her own secretary! 

I did manage to find the time to escape to Edinburgh for my friend's hen do. It was a fabulous weekend filled with cocktails, gossiping and dancing! We hired a huge apartment which turned out to be a great idea, it meant we could all get ready together and drink wine with the X Factor on in the background before going out to try out Edinburgh's finest bars, then in the morning we sat in our pj's and ate mountains of toast. 

A previous guest, another hen perhaps, had left May's edition of Red Magazine. Red is not a magazine I normally choose but it kept me entertained for the whole train journey home, quite a feat.

I really enjoyed so many of their features, in particular an interview with Jodi Picoult. I am a huge fan of Jodi's work, in particular My Sister's Keeper (I stress, the book and not the film) and Change of Heart. In the interview she listed the books that were important to her, including Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes which was written over 20 years a go. In Jodi's words 'it's about a profoundly retarded man who becomes a human guinea pig for a procedure to reverse his condition'. This will be my next read, no doubt it will be a weepy. 

Another article that caught my eye was 'Making friends with food', a column written by food writer Joanna Weinberg. She writes so beautifully about the friendships she has formed over platefuls of delicious food. As someone who loves to cook, feed her friends and have people over for tea I read it nodding in agreement. Joanna tells us she isn't a host who executes four course triumphs but instead serves her guests simple stews with hunks of buttered bread and chocolate bars for pudding. She dreams of busy kitchens full of people stuffing their faces with their elbows on the table surrounded by empty bottles of wine. I dream of just that, once I have a kitchen big enough for the table! 

Next time I am travelling on the train I know exactly what to buy for the journey.