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Menopausal in Canada

March 21, 2016 27 Comments Filed Under: Travel, Uncategorized

I’m sitting at the desk of my hotel room in Montreal, Canada. I’ve called the front desk and ask them how to use the heating, how to turn it down.

‘What temperature would you like it?’ purrs the receptionist.
‘Er… 17ºC.’
’17ºC? Are you sure because that’s pretty chilly.’

It’s minus zero outside. There’s snow on the ground. I can see why they are surprised. I’m walking around without a coat on half the time.
I’m going to write about the excellent food and the exhilarating travel and all that stuff don’t you worry. But what I really want to write about is my menopause.
Nobody ever talks about the menopause. Except me. I talk about it literally all the time. I just spent a week in New York telling EVERYONE I’m menopausal, to my daughter’s eye-rolling embarrassment.
Now I’m travelling through Canada… on the face of it to report on maple syrup… but really to talk about being menopausal. Last week I went to a famous Montreal bagel place and I talked to a guy who works there.
I’m fanning myself…

‘I’m menopausal,’ I explain to him.
He nods. ‘Hot flash, huh?’ (That’s what North Americans call hot flushes.)
‘My wife has that.’
‘How old is she?’
’65.’
‘Sixty five?’ I groan. ‘I keep hearing that it goes on for years.’
‘Yeah, she’s had it ten years.’

I’m so tired. I didn’t sleep last night because I’m so hot and I’m on the 14th floor and you can’t open a window. In Halifax I had to ask to change room because of the heat. ‘All the heating is centrally regulated,’ said that receptionist. They moved me to the cold wing. It was damp and grey. It suited me perfectly.
On the train from Halifax to Quebec City I’d sit on the top deck, the coolest place on the train.
I spoke to other passengers about how overheated the houses and hotels are in winter over here. My lips are chapped and my nose is full of crusty sores. On the inside.

One man said, ‘I grew up in a house where it was 16ºC all winter. If we were cold my parents would tell me to put a sweater on.’
‘That’s what my parents would say too,’ joined in another guy. We were all middle aged.

My parents were of the put-on-a-jumper school of ecology. I loathed it. Somehow my daughter has also turned into that person. A recent visitor said, ‘you’ve got the coldest house I’ve ever been to’.

Let me describe a hot flush. It starts from the collarbones, up the neck, to the face. You feel slightly desperate, claustrophobic, like you want to rip your clothes off. A film of sweat forms upon your face. Sometimes it is accompanied by nausea. It lasts maybe five minutes. With me it happens hourly. It’s exhausting.
I’m not on HRT. I’m trying to white knuckle it through because I’ve been told that when you stop taking HRT, the menopause starts up again. Last year the doctor gave me anti-depressants, saying it would help control the hot flushes. And it did, for about three months. Plus it cheered me up. My daughter said she’d never seen me so positive. But the flushes started again and with a vengeance. I’m wearing super strength deodorant because all that sweating…. it makes you smelly. But it comes to something when doctors put you on psychiatric medicine (which is effectively what anti-depressants are) in order to deal with the physical effects of ageing.

I’ve recently discovered the existence of brown fat. Brown fat is good fat that makes you thin. It’s located around the collarbones. Isn’t that odd that this is where hot flushes start? Is there a connection? I read an article about the benefits of brown fat as opposed to white fat, how active brown fat helps us lose weight. It’s derived from muscle. People are fatter now than before and some of this may be down to overheated houses. So to lose weight, turn down the heating and shiver it off.

Sleep is another thing that is disturbed during the menopause. I never sleep a night through nowadays. You wake several times every night and always between 3 and 4am.
I never minded light either but now need total darkness (and in fact that is good for your fertility). I’ve become photophobic. Is this another menopausal thing?
There are so many aspects of the female experience that come as a shock when it happens to you. Miscarriages for instance. You think you just lose a baby and that’s it. Nobody mentions that it’s a three month bleedathon. It’s horrendous, even physically, not mentioning the grief.

The menopause makes you age fast. I feel I’ve aged ten years in the last year. My hair is dry. I wake up looking like I’ve had an electric shock, two rough matted red brillo pads either side of my head. You know old lady hair? I used to look at old ladies and think their hair looked so shit because they’d been perming it. (Old ladies in my time always had a white bubble perm.) I can now inform you, from my own experience, it’s because of the menopause. It’s as if you lose the elasticity in your hair and skin. I’ve always had greasy hair. I’ve never used moisturiser. What is happening?

I’ve just arrived at my hotel in Toronto. At the front desk I ask, ‘can you turn the heating down in my room?’ I haven’t even got in there yet. It’s at 18ºC and that feels nicely fresh now.

Why do we live past the menopause? Anthropologists have developed the grandma theory; that older women are needed to help raise children. Societies whose families stay with their matrilineal grandmothers have better outcomes when it comes to the health of their children.
Is it my imagination that nobody talks about the menopause? Or have I just tuned out when they were?

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Comments

  1. Anonymous

    March 21, 2016 at 11:17 pm

    Really interesting. Hotel rooms can be infuriatingly hot sometimes, so I can imagine the problem.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 22, 2016 at 9:15 pm

      and the lack of ventilation…especially when they are in a tower block.

      Reply
  2. Caroline

    March 21, 2016 at 11:31 pm

    Do you have any issues with Itchy scalp OR Worse A sore Scalp ? like you have had your hair up all day in a ponytail and then released it ? 🙁

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 21, 2016 at 11:44 pm

      Itchy scalp yes.

      Reply
    • Amanda

      March 22, 2016 at 2:24 pm

      Try sleeping with a sheet underneath your duvet; then when you get hot, you can take off the duvet but still have something covering you, so you don't fall asleep and then wake up freezing

      Reply
    • janice15

      March 22, 2016 at 4:47 pm

      I get that at times soreness

      Reply
    • janice15

      March 22, 2016 at 5:46 pm

      Lol, I'm sorry I had to laugh through the whole thing. I'am 58 now and finally I no longer have a period, I thought it never go away. And I swear I been in menopause for years sopince maybe 35. My mom would laugh a say her and her girlfriend had theres until like me and Id want to cry I was like God plz no. But I be darned I sure did. I was o. Fire forever lol.. And believe it or not I swear I still go through the issue of having a period. And hot flashes. I take liquid vitamin B complex. It is good for our female things. One thing my mom did tell me stay away from the dr. And there solutions. She took something called change of life. Some kind of herbs. Good luck… Happy spring, with love Janice

      Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 22, 2016 at 9:08 pm

      Amanda yes good idea. Although I spend all night throwing off bed clothes then pulling them up again. Not great for sleep either.

      Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 22, 2016 at 9:11 pm

      Janice. That's the thing, it all takes so long.
      I took something herbal but it made it even worse, I felt so nauseous.
      Rumour has it Japanese women don't get the change because they eat so much soy which is oestrogen. Is this actually true or just a myth?
      Do I have any Japanese readers?
      I eat a lot of tofu.

      Reply
  3. Sarah

    March 22, 2016 at 3:44 am

    I'm reading this because I woke up overheated in the middle of the night in Barcelona. Only because I'm in a small room and I've been drinking and my body heat has made it too hot. The heating isn't on. But I feel like it's helped with the empathy reading your post!

    Thank you for writing about this (and about miscarriages), I wish it was all less of a taboo subject.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 22, 2016 at 9:02 pm

      You are probably ovulating. When I was trying to get pregnant, I charted for two years which was very interesting. Those sweaty nights, when your temperature rises, is bang on ovulation, best time to get pregnant. Check your mucus also.
      Thanks Sarah. It's kind of close to the bone to write about this. Because I'm admitting that I'm of a certain age, and we all know that as well as sexism, worse than sexism actually, is ageism. Men get it too but not as bad as women.

      Reply
  4. Amy Rowan-Buckley

    March 22, 2016 at 7:10 am

    Hot flushes, terrible full body itching, hair thinning, insomnia, forgetfulness, dry skin, dry hair (but I still have oily roots – jeez!!), reduced libido, anxiety attacks, rapid weight gain, aching joints, vaginal atrophy, osteoporosis… ain't menopause just fab!! And don't you hate those women in their 40s who say "oh I can't wait for my menopause, I'm so fed up with periods"?! You have my sympathy. Seriously, get HRT. It's like a miracle. Failing that, sage tincture for the hot flushes.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 22, 2016 at 9:05 pm

      The forgetfulness is scary: do I have early alzheimers I keep wondering. Especially after seeing that movie Still Alice.
      I hate those bloody women that say oh I just swam through it… or Davina McCall saying 'I feel reborn as a woman'.
      Thinking of HRT….

      Reply
    • Amy Rowan-Buckley

      March 29, 2016 at 12:30 pm

      Re Davina – did she say that?! Reborn as an itchy, arthritic goat maybe!! Bet she was lying.
      Honestly, without HRT I reckon I'd be a wreck. Definitely worth looking into.

      Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 29, 2016 at 1:06 pm

      LOL

      Reply
  5. Nic M

    March 22, 2016 at 8:56 am

    I'm trying to duke it out too.

    My skin feels too tight as if I've been through a hot wash every night. It's tight and scaly and itchy. I feel kinship with our pet Ackie lizard when he walks around with a skirt of dead skin hanging from his waist.

    My feet have grown hooves. When I sandpaper them every night, I shrink 2mm.

    My hair has gone from a thick, shining lion's mane to dry hair that sticks out in a triangular shape. I could weep, it was GOOD hair.

    My eyes are dry and I had to give up contacts after developing bilateral corneal ulceration and nearly losing my sight. My eye consultant said my corneas resemble the surface of the moon, they're so scarred, and he has worked hard to get them smooth again. Oh, and my mebium glands packed up so I have to massage my eyelids with a hot pack every night. Having Sjogrens syndrome develop last year hasn't helped.

    I go from 0-100 temper-wise in the blink of a (dried up) eye. My language is terrible. I have become super creative in the use and creation of profane adverbs never heard before. I have become slightly calmer these last few months, I am hoping this means that things are settling down but with the menopause, YOU NEVER KNOW.

    I was 42 when mine began to rumble. They start earlier in our family. My daughter has to try and build an adult life which *might* include children in the knowledge that she probably won't have the time other women do.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 22, 2016 at 9:06 pm

      Yes I have the hooves.
      I never had good hair but now it's beyond a joke.
      Yes get your daughter to have babies. Men don't really matter, just get the babies.

      Reply
  6. Kitchen Diva

    March 22, 2016 at 10:16 pm

    Thanks as always for a post which is both funny and true in equal measure…I can however tell you, as I approach my 60th birthday, that it does end, and mercifully, once it does, the horrid details are hard to remember (along with many other bits of information!). Like you, I spent the first year or so determined to tough it out, but in the end, my wonderful empathetic female doctor convinced me that a low dose HRT was worth a try. In her words 'don't tell me if this choice had been available to our grandmothers that they wouldn't have taken advantage of it!' It was, for me, the best decision I could have made…but we are all of course, different.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 23, 2016 at 1:44 am

      Just spoke to another friend who said 'don't do HRT, it leads to breast cancer'.
      It's all so confusing.
      My main weapon against the menopause at present is my cardigan. I also carried a fan in my handbag but it wore out.
      I must visit Australia! x

      Reply
  7. bjj

    March 25, 2016 at 6:03 pm

    Brilliant post. I have been on tamoxifen or letrozole tablets since 2005 to prevent breast cancer reoccuring – this puts you instantly into the menopause. It is truly horrible and should not be such a taboo subject. I wake up in the night literally drenched in sweat and then a few minutes later freezing cold. My husband recently had a bug which caused him to have hot flushes for 2 whole nights – no sympathy from me – told him he could complain when he had put up with them for 10 years.

    I now only wear layers that can easily be removed and put back on again without giving the appearance that I am about to do a striptease. I don't know about anyone else but my layers have to come off almost instantly – it is so unbearable.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 29, 2016 at 10:38 am

      Yes I sometimes get unreasonably cold too.
      Layers is the answer.
      Poor you, must have been a terrible shock.
      x

      Reply
  8. Elinor Hill aka Beachhutcook

    March 27, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    I feel I'm at the moment when I know menopause is coming but I'm not quite a fully paid up member yet. I've noticed that I no longer can tolerate stuff I used to, not sure if that's age/experience or menopause but I am more irritated these days! As for hot flushes, my darling friend who had this very early used to carry a fan which I thought was wonderfully coy and alluring. Elinor x

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 29, 2016 at 10:36 am

      I carried a fan last year…used it so much it broke. Must buy another.

      Reply
  9. Elizabeth

    March 28, 2016 at 11:38 pm

    My worst experience was having a hot flash while seat-belted into a car, driving down a highway, wearing a heavy winter coat. There was no way to escape! All of this rings true – the claustrophobic, panicky feeling, the sweat soaked pajamas in the middle of the night that make you break out in shivering. I took wild yam capsules (the herb) which didn't take hot flashes away completely but made them less intense. You have to take it on a regular basis, not just when you are having the flashes. Also, I found alcohol makes it worse. Thanks for posting about something many of us women can personally relate to.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      March 29, 2016 at 10:36 am

      I've had that. Hot flushes when driving…awful. I make sure I don't wear coats in the car anymore.

      Reply
  10. Jana

    May 16, 2016 at 12:13 pm

    Thank you! I am 42 now and I have been wondering about how it all starts, but there is nil information around. My menstrual cycle has turned goofy over the past two years – comes much more often, and heavily, but is mostly over after two days. Is that part of it, too? Is this the beginning? How does menstruation fade out? When will I finally stop bleeding? When may I stop taking contraception? etc. pp. Are there any books you'd recommend?

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      May 17, 2016 at 2:09 am

      Hi Jana,
      42 would be quite young to start the menopause. What age did your mum and grandmother start? You could be perimenopausal.
      Prior to the menopause, periods become incredibly heavy. I had one five week period where it was literally falling out of me, I couldn't leave the house. Then it starts to become very irregular (easier to tell if you've always been regular like me) and the odd massive bleeder. Eventually it stops. Sometimes you can actually feel your ovaries trying to gear up into action, ovulation can be a bit more painful.
      As for contraception I wouldn't give it up. Officially you are through the menopause when you've gone a year without periods, you can get this checked at the doctor. However there are plenty of stories of women who think they are no longer fertile suddenly getting pregnant. Books; Leslie Kenton and Gail Sheehy and Dr Christiane Northrup have written about the menopause.

      Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Got the sewing machine out last night and hemmed t Got the sewing machine out last night and hemmed the top of these toile de jouey curtains in my summer house shed. The days are lengthening a little which brightens up my mood. Self care= trying to get up and washed. Trying to leave the house once a day. Keeping my hands busy. Finding small ways to be creative. #coronaloner #sewingmachine #curtains #shedsofinstagram #sheshed #springiscoming #supperclub #stayingsane #selfcare #lockdown3
Pasta aglio olio. I’m turning into a vampire. I Pasta aglio olio. I’m turning into a vampire. I get up later and later every day. I’m living in a twilight world- dim skies, getting nothing done. Next week it’s my birthday and every year I’m at my lowest ebb just before my birthday. Lockdown on your own is tough. My motivation, my mojo has disappeared. #lockdown3 #coronaloner #pastadinner #nofilter #january2021 #januarychallenge #selfemployedwomen #single #aquarius #0degrees
On the heath on Sunday. Must. Walk. More. #coronal On the heath on Sunday. Must. Walk. More. #coronaloner
Tonight’s lockdown dinner with my bubble. Proper Tonight’s lockdown dinner with my bubble. Proper pesto alla genovese with trofie, small boiled salad potatoes, steamed green beans (good tip: steam the beans in a colander plopped on top of the potatoes or pasta), good quality pesto sauce ( mine from local microbakery @seansloaf ), good olive oil (@pomoragoodfood), torn fresh basil, a few pine nuts. This turns this student dish into a balanced meal of carbs, veg and a little protein.  It’s cold outside, I’ve lit the fire. Covid rages in Kilburn high road in north west london. The rate is 1 in 30 london wide but I feel it’s higher in this poor inner london area. We have a high BAME population who are particularly vulnerable. It’s a little bit anarchic on my high street: cars perched on kerbs waiting for hijabi women, braving pound shops and Aldi . We are all covered up now. In winter masks keep your face warm, but you have a choice between safety and being able to see. I’ve not managed to prevent the inevitable steaming up of my glasses when wearing a mask. Nothing works.  #january #londonwinter #pestopasta #pestoallagenovese #vegetarian #pasta #trofie #supperclub #covid_19 #lockdownlife #lockdown3 #bubblegang
Galette des Rois, made yesterday in 12th night. Mi Galette des Rois, made yesterday in 12th night. Minus Crown and king as I cannot find either. This one is made with Tonka bean. Plus homemade puff pastry (well worth the effort). According to ike delorenzo at The Atlantic:  The tonka bean, a flat, wrinkled legume from South America with an outsize flavor that the US government has declared illegal. Nonetheless, it proliferates on elite American menus. The tiniest shavings erupt in a Broceliande of transporting, mystical aromas.
The taste of the tonka bean is linked strongly to its scent. "Scents," I should say, as the tonka bean has many at once. I register the aromas of vanilla, cherry, almond, and something spicy—a bit like cinnamon. When served cold—say, in tonka bean ice cream—the taste is like a vanilla caramel with dark honey. When warm, perhaps shaved over scallops, it moves toward spiced vanilla. Additionally, the aroma of the tonka bean shavings (it's almost always shaved) is so affecting that it seems like an actual taste in the way that opium, which has no taste in the traditional sense, "tastes" like its rich, flowery smoke.  Here is the recipe: 

Tonka bean galette des rois

Serves 8
Ingredients
* 140 g caster sugar
* 125 g salted butter, softened
* 100 g ground almonds
* 2 eggs, medium
* 1 tonka bean, grated
* 2 packs ready made butter puff pastry on a roll
* 1 yolk for brushing the pastry
Instructions
* Preheat your oven to 200c.

* Blend the butter with the sugar then add the almonds. Make sure it’s well mixed. Add in the 2 eggs one at a time, then add the tonka bean.

* If using a block: divide the puff pastry into two and roll out to 5mm thick. 
* Make two circles about 15 cm’s each in diameter. Lay one circle on a silicone mat/parchment paper on a baking tray and fill with the almond cream leaving a 3 cm border around the edge. 
* Paint the border with the egg yolk. Then lay the other circle on top, sealing the edges with a fork. 
* You could then carve designs into the top. Make a little slit in the middle to let steam escape then brush the top with the egg yolk
Mapo tofu is probably my favourite Sichuan dish. T Mapo tofu is probably my favourite Sichuan dish. This is a vegan version. ***

Ingredients:
- 400 g box of soft tofu not silken
- 5 soaked dried shiitake mushrooms, diced, keep water
- 1 red bell pepper, finely sliced
- 400 g fresh shiitake mushroom, sliced thinly
- 400 ml vegetable stock
- 1 thumb fresh ginger, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 tbsps groundnut or vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp fermented bean paste
- 1 or 2 small red chillies, minced or a spoonful of Chinese chilli paste
- 1 tsp heaped sichuan peppercorns, finely ground
- 2 tbsps soy or tamari sauce
- 2 tbsp cornflour in 3 tbsps water, mixed into a slurry
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced
- large pinch fresh coriander leaves

Prepare the tofu by cutting it into one inch cubes and soaking it in hot but not boiling salted water. Drain after 15 minutes.
Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms, covering them in boiling water. Leave until soft, then dice the mushrooms. Retain the mushroom soaking water and add to the vegetable stock water.
Prepare the other ingredients so they are ready to stir-fry: red bell pepper, fresh mushrooms, ginger, garlic.

Using a wok or deep frying pan, add the oil and heat to frying temperature. Add the bell peppers,fry for a couple of minutes, then add fermented bean paste, chilli paste or chillies, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sichuan pepper.
Add the mushroom/vegetable broth and simmer on high for a couple of minutes.
Carefully add the cubes of tofu, taking care not to break them too much.
Add the cornflour slurry, stirring for a couple of minutes.
Serve with rice or noodles, garnishing with spring onions or chives and or coriander leaves.  #veganuary #mapotofu #sichuanfood #tofu  #shitakemushrooms #supperclub #londonchef #msmarmitelover #ham&highcolumn #eatplants #lockdown3 #selfisolation #coronaloner #cooking #recipe #cookingfromscratch
Macaroni cheese with odds and sods from the Christ Macaroni cheese with odds and sods from the Christmas leftover cheese board. I’ve used @paxtonscheese truffled brillat-savarin and a mystery hard cheese that’s lost its label. Plus cream and topped it with samphire fried in butter. Haven’t bothered with making a roux- this is the lockdown lazy version.  #lockdownlazy #lockdown3 #supperclub #macandcheese #macaronicheese #truffledcheese #leftovers #leftovercheeseboard #londonlockdown #breakfast #coronaloner
Another thing the Japanese are brilliant at is san Another thing the Japanese are brilliant at is sandwiches. They use the softest, whitest, fluffiest bread. Their mayonnaise kewpie is gorgeous I don’t know why. Perhaps someone here can explain? Here I’ve used sourdough as it’s what I have; kosho which is a Yuzu citrus and green chilli condiment and the aforesaid kewpie Mayo to make an egg 🥚 sandwich.  I’m not a big egg fan but I suddenly had the urge. Also I’ve noticed when I eat eggs it satiates my hunger for hours. All that protein.  #sandwich #sandwiches #japanesesandwich #kewpiemayo #kosho #eggsandwich #sourdough #supperclub #cookingforone #solo #londonlife #lockdownlondon #recipe #snack #sundaysnack #sando
Agedashi tofu for New Year’s Day. With a vegan d Agedashi tofu for New Year’s Day. With a vegan dashi stock, it’s perfect for veganuary. How to make dashi: put a piece of kombu seaweed in water. Soak for half an hour then simmer for half an hour (don’t let it boil). Then mix 2 cups of dashi with 2 tbsps of mirin and 2 of soy sauce.  For the tofu: press soft tofu with weights for half an hour, then cut into cubes. Dust all over with cornflour.  Then deep fry the tofu cubes in 180C veg oil until they float. Set aside to drain, then place say 3 cubes in small bowl. Pour the sauce around and top with spring onion and daikon and togarashi 7 spice.  #easypeasyvegan #veganuary #agedashitofu #tofu #japaneseveganrecipe #newyearsday #freshstart #supperclub #londonsupperclub #msmarmitelover #visforvegan #recipe
Writing about tofu which I think has an unfair rep Writing about tofu which I think has an unfair reputation in this country. It’s so flexible and is a brilliant flavour sponge. Here I’m preparing my soft tofu for a Japanese dish: agedashi tofu. I first pressed it in a clean tea towel with a weight on top to firm it up a bit but not too much. Then I dusted it with cornflour and I will deep fry it in oil. Then I will serve it in a broth of dashi/mirin and tamari sauce, sprinkled with finely chopped spring onions and togarashi pepper from Japan. I would usually add some finely mandolined daikon radish but couldn’t find any. It’s a subtle dish of texture: soft yet crispy. After Christmas I’m desperate for light zingy fresh flavoured food. #supperclub #tofu #vegan #vegetarian #agedashitofu #newyearsday #cookingagain #lunch #asian #japanesefood
Happy new year from my bubble to yours! Keep holdi Happy new year from my bubble to yours! Keep holding on...
#happynewyear #happynewyear2021 #supperclub #hootenanny
Some of my Christmas food 🥘 lots of veg includi Some of my Christmas food 🥘 lots of veg including mashed swede with cheese and butter. I put pomegranate seeds with my sprouts, and cooked my carrots in marmalade ( worked v well), the mushroom wreath fell apart as I was transferring it to a tray 😤, roast potatoes and parsnips, then a cheese spread with fruit nuts, quince cheese (homemade), Chocs @lindtuk 😍 @guylian_uk @disaronno_official @baileysofficial @taylorsportwine and Brazil nuts. Plus a pavlova wreath ready to be topped with whipped cream and persimmons. 
#christmasdinner #vegetarianchristmas #vegetarianchristmasdinner #supperclub #londonchristmas #liqueurs #christmasspread #grazing #cheeseboard #port #pavlova
Christmas has started! Home-cured smoked beetroot Christmas has started!  Home-cured smoked beetroot and aquavit salmon with homemade blinis, creme fraiche, dill, Prosecco.  The fire is lit 🔥, the tree is up, 🎄the presents 🎁 are wrapped, we have a #brexit deal- a Christmas miracle. Peace and harmony. #christmas #christmasinengland #homemade #christmaseve #blinis #smokedsalmon #prosecco🍾 #londonchristmas
Done some doorscaping, the latest trend in Christm Done some doorscaping, the latest trend in Christmas decorating. It might also cheer up passersby. #christmas #christmasdecor #doorscaping #doorsofinstagram #londonchristmas #doorwreath #doordecor #doorsoftheworld #doordecoration #exteriors #london #supperclub #covidchristmas
Look at my gorgeous Nordic pine Christmas tree 🎄 from @pinesandneedles with some family ornaments and beautiful foodie ornaments from @gisela_graham  it’s 7 foot high and no drop. My parents brought over the candle lights. I’ve also used paper ornaments (apples and pears cut from maps) from @dionne_leonard which I first commissioned for a supper club.  #christmas #christmastree #christmasdecor #foodiedecorations #glassbaubles #supperclub #christmasinlondon
More #fbmarketplacefinds I find meeting the seller More #fbmarketplacefinds I find meeting the sellers interesting. It’s often about moving on whether through death, a change of circumstances, moving country, loss of a job. Today I visited a gorgeously renovated Edwardian house where the owners, an antique dealer & a master decorator had died with 18 months of each other of cancer.  The sister was there emptying the house, an incredibly painful experience. The husband who died was an expert in putting up lincrusta wallpaper which I’ve pictured here. All that craftsmanship and knowledge lost now.  The piece I got on Sunday, the teal chinoiserie cabinet, was from a Spanish guy returning to Spain. He’d lost his job as a hotel manager, the hotel, a big one, has now closed. The marble coffee table and arepas grill was from a Spanish couple who’d had a restaurant here for 40 years. They are now returning to Spain. Other slides: green Edwardian fireplace tiles, William Morris wallpaper, 2 small scalloped coffee tables, a knife and fork cutlery hook set.  A fireplace for my bedroom if I can find someone to put it in. #lockdownstories #covidstories #movingon #decor #interiors #bargains #secondhandstyle #edwardianstyle #williammorris #tiles #wallpaper #scallopededge #teal #chinoiserie #whitemarble #vintage #kitchenalia #supperclubrefurb #london #lincrustawallpaper
Another #fbmarketplace find £30. I can’t afford Another #fbmarketplace find £30. I can’t afford proper chinoiserie so I make do with fakes. The gradual doing up of my flat proceeds apace. Need to start on main bedroom. Looking for a storage ottoman (velvet?) bench to turn into a horizontal filing cabinet.  Any ideas? Above is a map of london based on the A to Z map which a minicab office was tossing out. Remember when we all carried mini A to Z books in our handbags? Before google maps? #nocrushedvelvet #chinoiserie #supperclubrefurb #londonapartment #londonflat #norfweezy #decor #organising #storage #interiors
My new/old rise and fall light over the dining tab My new/old rise and fall light over the dining table. Found for £50 on #fbmarketplace  but originally from @thefrenchhouse.net_ one of my favourite shops. Every day, a little more progress. #supperclubrefurb #supperclub #londonflat #interiors #lighting #riseandfalllights #lightingisimportant #frenchstyle #vintagestyle #rusticstyle #turquoise #diningtabledecor
Two vegetarian meal kits, laksa and ramen, from @k Two vegetarian meal kits, laksa and ramen, from @kit.eats.uk. Took only a couple of minutes to cook(see stories) and very good. I’m trying a few meal kits of late to see how hospitality has adapted to the great reset. As a cook I’ve always thought why would I need these but now I get it: it’s like going to a restaurant- the pleasure of food prepared by someone else. Getting jolted off of your normal repertoire, so it’s teaching cooking too.  #mealkits #vegetarian #homecooked #hospitality #covid #takeawayfood #foodpackaging #laksa #ramen #supperclubchef
Still working on my glass cupboard. I’ve hung up Still working on my glass cupboard. I’ve hung up all my wine bottle openers and cork screws. My favourite is the zigzag bottom left. If you find them at a flea market in France, if you are lucky you may get it for around 35 euros.  #supperclub #londonflat #londoninteriors #corkscrews #frenchkitchenalia #zigzag #tirebouchon #oakcupboard #diy #diyprojects
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