AwkwardInk

So Tavi's gone. And I didn't really get to say goodbye. I guess I can be glad that I didn't get to see her when she was sick and all, and I did go home in March and see her when she was well. But I can't believe that there are no more tricks I can teach her, no more cuddles and no more rubbing her big fat belly.

I guess having pets makes it easier to deal with death. But it is still difficult. I imagine that my parents will want to get another dog sometime in the future. And the thought of making friends with a new little puppy is exciting. I can't wait to see how Momo deals with having a new playful puppy around. He's always wanted another dog to play with a bit more, and now he might just get his wish. But since Pissy isn't even at home at the moment, I imagine that no new family members will be welcomed into the Demkiw household until she returns.

My parents called her to tell her the bad news when she was on the Eiffal Tower. I thought that she'd been in an accident or something when she called me hysterical. There is a fair amount of guilt that this has happened without either of us being at home. But who knew that Tav's liver would give way. She was only 9 after all.

In other more happier events, I went to Alex's wedding last Saturday. It was an Punjabi Indian affair, and it was quite different and quite fun. The venue was amazing.It was out in Syon Park in a humungeous glass house with a beautiful glass dome. I havn't been to a wedding in quite a while, so it was nice to get dressed up and be involved in such a nice event. The speeches were lovely and it was obvious that both families were very happy.

Tavi was put down on Sunday night due to renal failure.
Too sad to speak of.

I am loving the new place. Feels like a real home. We have almost found a fourth flatmate as well, and it is all starting to feel worth it.
If only the summer's sun wuld come back!

So I moved into my new place last night. Thanks to Helen and Mark for their muscle power. And a huge thank you to Shawn and Val, who took the brunt of the moving headache. You guys are all mighty mighty legends!
The new place is excellent. As we pulled the plastic off all of our new furniture and even off the oven, I couldn't help but think, that this is probably one of the nicest places I ever lived in. Could almost be the nicest.
There were a few dramas revolving around water pressure, but they are all sorted out now, thanks to Shawn's genius. We honestly weren't too thourough in checking all of the things we should have before we signed on the dotted line, so when we discovered the poor water pressure all of us were feeling a little down.
I had the most depressing shower last night under a dribble of luke warm water. And I imagined the bad mood that I would be in for the next 8 - 12 months if we couldn't think of a soloution. But luckily all is well with the world, and he apartment is back to being near perfect! I think I'm going to be quite happy here....I just need to sort out the public transport caper!

So I'm about five weeks into my new job, and I have to say that I'm loving it. Maybe it is greatly helped by the fact that summer is fast approaching, and I am now able to sit outside in a random park eating my lunch and catching some rays (with the million other people trying to find a spare bit of grass). I spent the first couple of weeks settling in and learaning my way around Soho and surrounding areas. I can now say that I am slowly starting to put where things are geographically in my head.
Which is nice considering that I've been living in London for over a year now.

I am enjoying working with other designers too, and I've met a food soul mate in Alessia. We seem to spend most of our spare time talking about food. And in particular cake. I am going to have to be very careful I don't balloon out into super fat chelle. Which is going to be something of a challenge.

Some new faces have arrived in London as well, which is lovely. Mark and Mikki arrived on separate occassions, and much fun has been had hanging out in London Town.
I also caught up with Ben Fletcher last sunday who happened to be in town for work purposes. Things with him seem to be going great, and the first class flight return to London couldn't hurt either. We had a big chat about Channel Ten, and it is a bit strange to think of how long ago I used to work there now.

I've also been planning holidays like a crazy woman, which has been greatly helped by the flexability of working occasional weekends, allowing me to take long weekends whilst not eating into my precious annual leave too much. I am planning to meet up with Pissy in Amsterdam and then a couple of weeks later in Turkey. And then onto see Maddonna in Rome in August! Which should be amazing (and blissfully hot).

It is Alex's wedding next weekend. I am all ready with my dress and my vintage shoes. I am planning to take my thongs for when my feet go into spasms of pain, from being to subjected to wearing nice looking shoes for a change. I was shocked to learn that Alex thinks of me as a Tomboy. Basically because I wear Sneakers and jeans all the time. But honestly, the weather here isn't very encouraging to those wanting to wear sandels or the like. And I do so much walking here that to wear 'nice' shoes everyday would surely render me a cripple. But I was told that I wasn't allowed use to weather as an excuse. And for the sake of not wanting to solidify the image of whinging australians in Alex's mind, I will maintain my silence about the issue. We'll see if he recoginises me in a dress next week though. Although I'm sure he will have more important things on his mind.

I've been hearing so much lately about Indian weddings, and I am really looking forward to this one. And since we have a room booked close by, it should be a very relaxed fun night. I hope the weather is hot and balmy.

Today is also moving day. I've packed up my little room in Hammersmith and I'm moving to Clapham South. I am looking forward to discovering a new area, but I am a little scared about the whole commitment of a year. Although I guess I know that for that year my rent won't go up. I will miss Bishop's Park the most I think. I know I will be near the Common now, but I realised that it doesn't have the natural beauty of Bishop's Park. But hopefully I'll find something suitable in the area. So tonight I get to sleep in a new bed in a new place. Very cool.

As I pulled my room apart over the last couple of nights, I realised how barren a room is without all the personal touches that I'd put up. It was strange to sleep there last night with none of my postcards and pictures to look at. But its time to move on. Time to quench my unsatisfied lust for change once again.
Let's hope I can settle down now. Thats my wish for today.

Pissy arrived with Ben in tow two weeks ago. Bleary eyed from having worked the previous 7 days, I made it to the airport by 7.30am to meet and greet the tourists. High on excitement we travelled home and ate a quick breakfast before heading off on a whirlwind tourist tour of London. We covered much ground between hamemrsmith and Knightsbridge quickly, but we faded fast after lunch and ended up at home napping.
The next day continued on in with a quick trip to Buckingham palace with the rest of the million tourists visiting London. We were dissapointed by the fact that the changing of the guard which we arrived in time for, was called off.



We soldiered on through the dissapointment and the cold weather, which soon turned into rain. We walked over waterloo bridge to the South Bank and ate lunch near Bourough Market, even though the markets were closed. This is where the first bit of cake was consumed.
Despite my best efforts to eat a light lunch before our planned dinner to the River Cafe that night, I found it hard to walk past Konditor & Cook without eating something.
That night we convened to eat at the River Cafe. I've noticed the restaurant during my residency in hammersmith, and I've wanted to go ever since I had a bit of a flick through the River cafe cookbook. Any cook book that has a whole chapter on Mozarella deserves a visit.
I didn't want to over do it though, so I ordered some baked Monkfish, which was quite nice, but probably not worth the £27 that I paid for it. I followed this with the restaurants specialty dessert of Chococlate Nemesis with Creme Fraiche. This was very good. A flourless chocolate mousse cake.
I headed to work the next day exhausted, and glad to be free of being a tourist. I started talking about the cake from the day before almost as soon as Alessia arrived, and it wasn't long before Alessia and I were searching the internet for special cake in Soho.
Alessia began raving about this blue place in Soho called Yauatcha, and we could barely wait until lunch time to walk down and have a look. The cakes were as amazing as she had described. Each a little peice of art. The girl serving us, also knew every description of every cake and chocolate in a pretty impressive way, and when we found ourselves selecting some cakes I was impressed by the care taken in the beautiful packaging. At £4 a cake, I guess we were only getting what we paid for, but it was a nice experience. And nice to be in such close proximity to them.
The taste of them was even more impressive than what I had imagined.




We continued to talk about cake for the rest of the week and after our Soho cake research, I had discovered that Konditor & Cook had a Soho outlet as well. I had to run down to Soho to get theatre tickets to Blood Brothers for that night and I stopped in to pick up cakes for everyone at work.Pissy was sick at the theatre and Mikki was desparately jet lagged. But i enjoyed the show nontheless.
The next day we headed to Portobello Markets and wandered through the stalls. We made our way to the food section, and I realised that all of the cake that i had been eating through out the week had turned me into a cake monster. I was unstoppable however. I gobbled down a slice of apple and walnut cake, and was unable to wait log enough to put my change in my wallet and my wallet in my bag. Before I knew it I had finished the cake in a few mouthfuls. We ate a makeshift lunch of yummy deli food in the sun, but I was helpless to resist the chocolate brownies. Aghhh, the chocolate icing and walnuts....Mmmmmmm.
That night we went to Soho for dinner (Japanese at Ten Ten Tei) and afterwards I took Ben and Pissy to Yauatcha to marvel at their beauty. We restrained ourselves from eating more cake however and moved on to Annexo near Turnmills to listen to Alex DJ. We stayed till 2.30pm and headed home via night buses. A worthy tourist experience in itself. Luckily there were no dog fights this time.
The next day was a rest and recovery day, made even better by the surprise purchase of some more cakes from Yauatcha by Ben. Who had been experiencing some regret, after declining to taste the cake the night before. The cakes were delicious again, but I think we can all agree that all in all, this was slightly more cake than one person needs in one week.
So this week has been all about healthy eating. Not a cake in sight!