Summer 2014: My To Do List

In my experience, the longer the holiday stretches, the easier it is to fritter it away.  So, when faced with 5 1/2 weeks this summer, I thought I'd best draw up a list of things I would like to have achieved by the end of them.  Maybe I should have added 'publish list on blog' as it's taken me over a week to do so.  But here it is:

(NB  Having decided that I was going to devote the first few days to recovering from the end of term, I based my list on 5 weeks - 7x5=35)

1. Cycle to Bath along the railway path
2. Hold 5 dinner parties (ie have 5 friends/sets of friends round for a meal!)
3. Day trip to Oxford
4. Bake 5 pies from my new Pieminister Pie book
5. Visit Tyntesfield
6. Make tomato ketchup
7. Visit the M Shed
8. Go to Bristol Balloon Fiesta Night Glow
9. Make falafels
10. Walk: Snuff Mills
11. Read 5 books
12. Create a sourdough starter
13. Get up early to watch Bristol Balloon Fiesta Dawn Ascent
14. Shop for clothes for work
15. Bake 5 new breads
16. Swim in Street outdoor pool
17. Make icecream
18. Picnic at Bristol Zoo
19. Visit the Jeremy Deller exhibition
20. Walk: Blaise Castle
21. Crack Prashad's dhokla recipe
22. Visit St Werburgh's City Farm, eat meatballs @ Ikea and shop at Bristol Sweet Mart
23. Make rhubarb & ginger jam
24. Take advantage of podiatrist appointment to window shop in Cotham/Clifton
25. Preserve lemons
26. Swim and lunch at th Lido
27. Make a start on a recipe folder
28. Make pizza
29. Walk: Leigh Woods
30. Make lemonade
31. Picnic on Brandon Hill
32. Have a BBQ
33. Finish crocheting my daughter's quilt
34. Walk: Bristol Old City
35. Bristol Packet ferry boat trip to Beese's Tea Gardens

It's an eclectic mix of cooking, eating, walking, culture and fun.

I'm under no illusion that I'll get through it all and am therefore not going to beat myself up over it if I don't, but it should stop me waking up in the morning wondering what to do with the day!    

When in London yesterday ...

... We visited the pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Britain.  A wealth of bright colour, fine detail and laden with symbolism - too much to take in in one session, but we did our best.  I've often wished a ticket to major exhibitions such as this one allowed for a return visit.  My favourite artists were Millais and the lesser known Scottish artist  Dyce, but this is Laus Veneris by Burne-Jones.

... Followed by the Turner Prize exhibition, which I would not normally have chosen to visit, but for a few quid more, and in the interest of keeping an open mind ...  Well, it was interesting.  No really!  Paul Noble's 'painstakingly detailed and engrossing drawings of the fictional metropolis Nobson Newtown' were fascinating, although not what I would chose to hang on my wall.  We didn't have the 93 minutes it would have taken to sit through Luke Fowler's documentary on the work of Scottish psychiatrist R D Laing, but it sounded promising.  Spartacus Chetwynd's performance started as we were preparing to leave so we only caught a few minutes of individuals dressed as zebras(?) manipulating rag dolls.  It may have become clearer as it progressed!  Elizabeth Price's winning entry, The Woolworths Choir of 1979, was the most accessible and I wish I'd been able to see it through from beginning to end.  There was a very informative section on church furnishings and once I got used to it the Clap Click soundtrack was strangely soothing.

... We walked along the Embankment and watched the (almost) full moon rise from behind The Shard.

... We ate at Wahaca, at the request of my elder daughter.  It's a Mexican street food restaurant founded by Thomasina Miers, a former Masterchef winner, whose television series on Mexican cooking I enjoyed.  We opted for a selection of small dishes to share and experimented with new ingredients and flavours including pibil pork, Mexican corn mushrooms and plantain.  It's a colourful, noisy restaurant.  The service was friendly but not always accurate and portions were small for the price, but maybe that's just Covent Garden for you.  We certainly had room for puddings.  The two pictured above were churros and chocolate and vanilla icecream with toasted pumpkin seeds and cajeta.  We left with a pack of serrano chilli seeds and I'd certainly return.

... We took a leisurely stroll back to Victoria Coach Station via Trafalgar Square and St James' Park, stopping to view the latest occupant of the Fourth Plinth - Powerless Structures Fig 101 by Elmgreen and Dragset is of a child on a rocking horse, symbolising a future to hope for and celebrating the everday battles of growing up.  I like it.

These post Christmas day trips to London are becoming an enjoyable new tradition.