Maikki's and Jarkko's big day

Time for a trip to Finland again; this time for a happy occasion - the wedding of my cousin Maikki and Jarkko was taking place in Joensuu. I was a bit nervous about my stopover in Amsterdam, due to my experiences two weekends ago (when I spent a night over there due to missing my connecting flight). Having said that, Amsterdam is not the worst place in the world to spend a night ;-) My worries were for naught, though, as both flights even landed ahead of schedule.

We were planning to drive up to Joensuu Friday afternoon, so I had a few hours to kill in Helsinki. I decided to go on a bit of a walk to re-discover one of my favourite cities. My walk took me through the beautiful Art Nouveau streets of Eira, down to Kaivopuisto (memories of wild Wappu celebrations flooded me). I walked past the legendary Kaivohuone restaurant, past the observatory in Ullanlinnanmäki, and down to the southern tip of Helsinki, from where I was treated to some great views over the surrounding islands, including Suomenlinna. The weather was great, for once, just the way I remember the Finnish summers (my last few visits to Finland have made me consider the possibility that perhaps the Finnish summers aren’t as sunny as my childhood memories would have me believe…). From “kaivare” I walked back to the hustle and bustle of Kauppatori (the main market place). After a quick walk around Wanha Kauppahalli, I walked up Esplanaadi to catch the metro to Ruoholahti, where I had a lunch scheduled with Jani.

I met up with Jani at the Ruoholahti shopping centre, from where we headed to a lunch restaurant by a canal. A nice enough place, where we could enjoy a bit of sunshine while catching up on the latest (which didn’t take long, since I spent most of my last visit with Jani – due to the “unplanned night in Amsterdam”). After the meal, I took the metro back to Kamppi, where I did a bit of last-minute shopping for the wedding (shirt & tie – always useful for occasions like that…) with my parents.

We then left Helsinki, driving north up to Tervakoski, located near Hyvinkää, where we were picking up Tutta. Finding the place turned out to be a bit of a challenge, since we couldn’t find the address neither in our Tom-Tom nor in my dad’s Nokia 5800 phone (which we bravely attempted to use for navigation). Eventually, we managed to find the place by installing Google Maps on the 5800 (surely it can’t be better than Nokia Maps??)… Anyway, having collected Tutta, we drove eastwards, towards Joensuu. Utilising the amazing internet browsing capability of my dad’s 5800, we managed to locate a great restaurant in Mikkeli to have dinner – the place even had its own micro-brewery. A great meal (and great beer) later, we were ready to continue our long journey (it was already past 9 o’clock...). We eventually arrived in Joensuu, where we dropped of Tutta at her hotel. Then, more navigation trouble… We were supposed to spend the night at Eeva’s and Henkka’s place in Niittylahti. Niittylahti is quite a small commune population-wise, but rather spread out area-wise … And of course our Tom-Tom had no streets for Niittylahti. We did eventually find the correct street on the 5800; sighed with relief, and followed our trusty Nokia. Only, the street numbering in the Maps were obviously wrong; we arrived at the wrong end of the road. A couple of phone calls & U-turns later, we eventually found Eeva’s and Henkka’s place – arriving at about 1 o’clock in the morning…

A good night’s sleep later (I initially had some slight issues getting sleep – I’m not used to the Finnish mosquitoes and midnight sun anymore, obviously…), we woke up to another glorious Finnish summer day. After a relaxed breakfast, and a few moments to admire Eeva’s and Henkka’s great house (modern, yet with a rustic touch. Cozy. Great sauna. Huge garden), we headed out to the local lake for a swim. Another mandatory Finnish summer activity ticked off the list. Felt great – in the south of France we’re blessed with the Med and our swimming pool, but I often miss the sense of peace you get swimming in Finnish lakes, in the middle of the great outdoors, with hardly a soul in sight…

Then it was time to get changed for the big occasion; Maikki’s and Jarkko’s big day. The ceremony was taking place in a very pretty little wooden church in Uta, Joensuu. It’s apparently the oldest church in Finland built using vertically mounted logs (now that’s a fact that might actually be too obscure for a pub quiz, even…). In spite of the priest struggling with his lines a bit (Maikki later told us the guy is a bit senile), the ceremony went well. From the church, we moved on to a nice old wooden manor located by a lake (of course, this being Finland…), where the celebrations were taking place. I would say that all the ingredients for a great Finnish wedding celebration were there: a great venue, beautiful summer weather, good food, drinks, Finnish music from the 80’s (some songs even I recognised, for a change …), wedding games and dancing (I made a fool of myself, of course, dancing with my niece Julia; she seemed rather embarrassed).

What can I say, other than that it was just great? Hats off to the bridesmaids (Maarit & Kipa), the best man, and all the other organisers; for a very well organised and memorable evening. And of course the biggest thanks goes to the lovely newly-weds - Maikki and Jarkko ;-) After our time was up at the venue, the hardy ones were whisked by taxis into Joensuu town centre, where we continued partying at the Kimmel hotel nightclub. Nostalgia trip again – more music from my days of youth, black jack, Finnish beer… Ah, I got this “those were the days” feeling again. And of course, when we got out of the nightclub, we were greeted by daylight even thought it was 4 o’clock in the morning (that’s the famous midnight sun for ya). After a couple of beers and chatting away at Eeva’s and Henkka’s, it was time to collapse in bed, after a great day…

On Sunday it was time to head back to Helsinki. After a relaxing sauna bath (great hangover cure), we set off early afternoon (members of my family are not known for making early starts...). The journey back was uneventful, apart from some rather heavy rainfall in Lappeenranta, where we stopped for lunch at a very nice Greek restaurant. In the evening, I met up with Jocke, Jonas (back in Helsinki all the way from Norway) and Frank for some beers at Vltava near the train station. Good to meet up with the lads again… We finished off with a final drink in good ol’ Bakers with Jonas, after Jocke & Frank had left us.

Monday “morning” (I got up at about 10) started with some manual labour at my parents flat, as my parents wanted a fridge and a freezer, as well as a rather large sofa moved out of their flat. I did have time to sneak out for a lunch with Aki & Jani in Ruoholahti (same place as Friday). In the afternoon, reinforcements (my brothers Janne & Tomi) arrived, and we finished the operation by taking the redundant household appliances to a recycling centre, which was conveniently located near the airport, which was my next stop as it was time to catch my flight back to sunny Nice. And that brought and end to a great weekend in Finland; a weekend which restored my faith in the Finnish summer (having said that, the rain started coming down just as I arrived at the airport). And no problems with the transfer at Amsterdam this time either ;-).

More photos here.

Provencal birthday weekend

Mathilde’s birthday was coming up, so I decided to take her on a surprise trip to Provence for the weekend. I chose a cosy farmhouse hotel, located in the idyllic countryside near Arles. To make the most of our weekend, I left the office 4 o’clock on the dot, picked up Mathilde, and headed straight down the A8 for Arles. Traffic wasn’t too bad, so we arrived well in time for dinner – always important ;-)

Before dinner, we had a nice walk around the country lanes surrounding the hotel, to work up our appetite. Since the outdoors restaurant in the hotel garden looked very inviting, we decided to dine there - it turned out to be the right decision. Good food, nice wine, the gentle warmth of a summer evening, and the best possible company in the world. What else could one ask for?

After a very good night’s sleep, and a nice breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to explore Provence. Our first stop of the day was Fontvieille. After a quick walk around the typically pretty Provencal town, we made our way out of town to check out the main local attraction – a windmill. And not just any old windmill – this one was made famous as the setting of “Letters from my windmill” by Alphonse Daudet; one of the most famous authors from Provence (I’m sure you’ve heard of him, dear reader - even if I obviously had not). Well, the windmill wasn’t all that impressing, really (I mean, how impressive can a windmill get?), but we did like the pretty landscapes around it. Unfortunately hiking was not allowed due to danger of forest fire, as a nice lady explained to us (it was a "code black" day).

From Fontvieille, we carried on to Les Baux-de-Provence; surely one of the most famous villages in Provence. This ancient village (the citadel which overlooks the village was built in the 10th century) is dramatically located on top of a spur of the Alpilles hills, with splendid views towards the Camargue. It attracts about 2 million visitors per year, and it does show – meaning the place could be characterised as touristy (although it didn't feel as touristy as for example Carcassone, which we visited a few weeks ago). It’s certainly a pretty place, with its pedestrian, cobble-stone streets and pretty town houses. Having explored the village for a while, we visited the ruined citadel, which looms above the village. There wasn’t much left of the castle, so a fair bit of imagination was required - which is actually just the kind of place I like to visit. In its time it must’ve been an impressive structure, build directly into the cliff. And not easy to conquer, I’ll wager… And the views across the surrounding countryside were most impressive.

From Baux we pressed onwards to another Provence landmark town; St-Remy-de-Provence. St-Remy had quite a few famous inhabitants over the centuries. Van Gogh painted quite a few of his works here (this is also where he recuperated after “the ear incident”). We also walked past Hotel de Sade (yes, that would be the home of the famous marquis…) and also the birthplace of that notorious astrologer-physician; Nostradamus. Not too bad for a town of 10,000 people. The town itself was pleasant enough; with all the ingredients of a typical Provcencal town: small squares, narrow lanes, churches and fountains.

After a brief detour in Tarascon (we briefly stopped to admire the castle for which the town is famous; the Good King Rene held court during the 15th century), we arrived at the main destination of the day, Arles. Arles (which apparently is the largest township in France, area-wise) is of course mostly famous for its treasures from the Roman era – its arena and the theatre. Since it was getting a bit late, we decided to start by visiting the arena. It was certainly impressive – and the fact that it still stands today is obviously a testament to Roman engineering ability. In spite of the fact that nothing sets this particular Roman arena apart from the others we've seen over the last couple of years, it's still well worth a visit (the fact that it's right in the centre of town is also kind of nice).

We then headed down to the ancient theatre, located just a stone’s throw away. There were very few people there, so we took the oppportunity to have a bit of a rest (the southern heat was really starting to get to us - thankfully, the fresh and strong mistral wind provided some much needed refreshment and relief), whilst admiring the impressive Roman craftmanship. We then had a walk about the old town, trying to find a suitable restaurant. The walk was pleasant - touristy though it may be, Arles is big enough to have a real-life feel to it. After an aperitif at the lively main square in town, we ended up in a small restaurant a bit outside the town centre, where we had very enjoyable birthday dinner in Mathilde’s honour. A perfect ending for a perfect day.

After another leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we jumped in the car and continued our exploration. Our first stop of the day was Beaucaire – which is actually located on the other side of the Rhone river from Tarascon, where we stopped the day before. Beaucaire also has an impressive castle – which we spent about an hour trying to find. Once we found it, turns out the damn place is closed (and from where we were coming, we couldn’t really even see the castle properly. Oh well… We did find the local dragon statue though; impressive beast (but no match for me, as you can see in the photo ;-).

Our next stop was the Pont du Gard – another famous monument to Provence’s Roman past. And what an impressive monument it is – and what an incredible feat of engineering. The Pont du Gard is a combined aqueduct and bridge, spanning the river Gard, built between 40 and 70 AD. The structure was built to carry 20 millions litres of water DAILY. Wow, that’s impressive. Would’ve been a nice site for a picnic, too; sitting by the river, with the ancient structure looming over us. Oh well, next time, I suppose ;-). Having spent a good hour gaping at and photographing the thing from all possible angles (from underneath, behind, in front of, above etc.) we decided it was time to carry on…

So we then drove down to Nimes, another town with a Roman past. In fact, it was important enough during Roman times to earn the nick-name “the French Rome”. We started our visit by checking out La Maison Carree – which is (according to my guide book) the most well-preserved temple of the Roman world. Hmm, these days it houses a 3-D movie theatre (we saw a 20-minute film which traced the history of Nimes through the eyes of warriors from various eras). From there we hiked up through some very nice gardens (where we briefly visited the ruined Roman temple of Diana) to Tour Magne; an old tower from the Roman era, overlooking Nimes. At the top, we were greeted to some impressive views over the town.

The next stop was the tourist highlight of Nimes – the amphitheatre. The arena of Nimes is actually smaller than the one in Arles, yet I prefer this one. First of all, they audio guide tour is pretty interesting – providing a good mixture of anecdotes and facts. Although Mathilde had already educated me a bit about some of the vocab – for example amphitheatre actually means “two theatres” (a roman theatre is shaped as a half-circle), and arena means “sand”. The other reason is that the Nimes arena is actually still being used for bull-fighting. So it somehow gives the place a more real feel to it – it’s not just another tourist attraction, so to speak. OK, so I guess one could argue that bullfighting is not very moral (especially since Nimes is the only place in France where they actually kill the bulls after the "spectacle", like in Spain) – I won’t even go there… Anyway, it was a most interesting place to visit.

And then it was time for us to head back home, so off we went. We did have time to stop in Juan-les-Pins – we figured it would be a good place to check out Le Fete de la Musique (Juan-les-Pins hosts one of the most important jazz festivals in the south of France, and is also supposed to be a pretty happening place during the summer months). Alas, what a disappointment – we only found one band playing in the streets. So we ended up just having a pizza and then going home. Juan-les-Pins itself was nice in the sense that it's a bit different from the other coastal towns on the Cote d'Azur (it has a real beach resort feel to it).

All in all, we had a fantastic weekend. Great food, great wine, great weather (warm, but cooled down by that famous Mistral wind), beautiful landscapes, pretty towns – and the best girlfriend in the world ;-)

A rather surreal weekend...

This weekend, I was travelling to Finland, for a sad reason. My grandmother from my dad’s side had passed away, and I was supposed to attend here funeral. Well, she was over 90, and had lived through much (including a world war), so I think one could say her time had come…

I had booked my flight last-minute for obvious reasons, and had a changeover in Amsterdam, with only about 45 minutes between the flights. So I was a bit nervous about missing my connection (which was the last flight of the day). My fears were compounded when I saw that our flight landed in Amsterdam nearly 30 minutes late. The moment we landed, I sprinted towards the connecting gate – but alas, I was too late. As I arrived, I helplessly watched the Helsinki-bound flight taxi away from the gate. What’s worse, I soon found out that the first flight (of any airline) the next day would only arrive in Helsinki about two o’clock in the afternoon (which is when the funeral was supposed to take place – but in Varkaus). So clearly, I was going to miss the funeral.

After about two hours of messing about at the airport at various desks, I managed to get a hotel sorted out near the airport. Unfortunately, by now it was a bit too late for going into Amsterdam town centre. So I contented myself with having my free dinner (courtesy of KLM-Air France), and a couple of beers in the hotel bar, thinking about my grandmum, and the absurdity of my situation…

The next day, the flight to Finland went without drama, and I was met at the airport by Jani, who didn’t have anything planned, so invited me to hang out at his place for the day. After a quick stop at the local supermarket, where we acquired the necessary ingredients for a “lads’ afternoon” (beer & pizza), he took me down to his nice hows in the ‘burbs of Helsinki. We spent the afternoon chatting, catching up, having a couple of beers, and watching Jani’s military training videos (he spent one year in the XXX). We finished off the day by having dinner & catching a movie – “Drag me to Hell” by Sam Raimi. Great horror flick, in true traditional S. Raimi “Evil dead” style; made us both jump and laugh. And the ending is just so appropriate ;-). Jan then dropped me off to Tikkurila train station, from where I took the train back to Helsinki, observing the youth of today in Saturday evening action (is it my imagination or are they less drunk than young people were in my day and age – or is it just the presence of the security guards on the trains?). I stumbled back to my parents flat at Freda, quite tired after a long and weird day. My parents arrived quickly, and we chatted for a while about grandma, family affairs and the like…

On Sunday, Janne & Katja joined us for breakfast (which we had at 10:30, in true Turtiainen fashion), after which I headed out for a walk around town. It was nice to randomly wander around the streets of Helsinki; crossing Bulevardi & Sinebrychoffin puisto, I eventually ended up at the harbout by Hietaranta. From there, I headed back to my parent’s place, after a quick browse at the street market next to Hietalahden Kauppahalli. In spite of the fact that the Finnish summer” ain’t quite the same as on the Cote d’Azur (brr…), I rediscovered my love for Helsinki during this short walk. I finished my Helsinki visit with a coffee and cake at Café Ekberg on Bulveardi. Nice, if a wee bit pricey.

I knew from the start that the trip back would be a bit of a pain, due to a four hour changeover in Amsterdam. Since my flight was on time this time, I figured I should at least see a bit of Amsterdam, since I had the time. So I chucked my bag in a locker, and jumped on the first train into ‘Dam. I Spent the two hours I had walking around the streets, taking in the atmosphere, just checking out the place, basically. I think Amsterdam must be one of the best cities in the world for just hanging out. I really love the place, so it was nice to be back (last time I came was for Euro 2000 – when it was quite a bit more hectitc than this time around). After enjoying a pint of Heineken by a canal, it was time to catch the train back to the airport. Nice little detour.

I’m taking the same outbound flight to Finland in two weeks’ time, let’s hope I get lucky with the changeover that time….

The man from Karunki is back

It’s already been a few months since our dear friend from Karunki, Sami, left us for the cold and dark north… And things have not been the same since, truth to be said. So we were all happy to hear that he would grace us with his presence for a few days…

We decided to kick things off, with a lunch in his honour. All the usual (Finnish) suspects were there; that is Pete, Hannu, me, Sami and even Mikko (who strangely enough refused my last lunch invitation – perhaps because we were having pea soup?). We picked a nice beach restaurant near the Villeneuve Loubet Marina. Myself, Hannu and Pete started with a beer, whilst waiting for our “men of leisure”. The sight of Sami gave us all a bit of a start – I wonder if he’d actually shaven since we last saw him? He looked like a cross between the abominable snow man, and, er, Sami (OK, so I’m exaggerating slightly…). The meal was nice enough; in spite of the one-hour wait (hmm, there were like 6 clients in addition to us and they forgot about our order – not very impressive, that…). Fortunately they compensated their forgetfulness with a bottle of rose ;-)

Since I had to travel to Finland for the weekend, we decided to meet up in Nice as well, for dinner and some drinks with Sami, Mikko and Marianne. We decided upon an old favourite for dinner; La Meranda. It’s a cosy little place (when I mean little, I really mean little – the place is either very intimate, or cramped, depending on how you want to look at it), with great Provencal cuisine. The food was enjoyable as always, as was the company. A bit like the good ol’ days… After the meal, we headed down to Place Rosetti for deserts. Which translated to ice cream for the ladies (Fenocchio, the best gelateria in Nice, is located on the square…), and 1 litre pints of beer for the boys (except for Sami who had a small one – with his drinking pace we would be there all night and most of Friday…). And then it was time for us to catch our last train again…

So next time in Karunki in August, right Sami?

Agent A, Frank and Matilda visiting

After a well-deserved week of rest at the office, the weekend beckons once more. Agent A (who wishes to remain anonymous), whom we’d seen just last weekend, was coming over on Friday. We kicked off the proceedings with a drink in the Villeneuve-Loubet Marina – where we were also joined by Hyam. We then headed down to one of the many pizzerias in the marina – the one we picked specialised in giant pizzas. Just to be sure I wouldn’t go hungry, I had a pizza Valostana (named after Val d’Aosta, a region of the Italian Alps). Basically, it was a giant tartiflette on top of a pizza base – so not what one would call “a light meal”, then. Pretty much just what I like, then ;-)

After the “not-so-light” meal (which we followed up with a grappa and a coffee), we headed back to our flats, where we were joined by Yousef and his girlfriend (whom we finally had the honour to meet). Agent A also got to taste Mathilde’s grandma’s home-made Calvados as well as Marcelle’s Charantaise eau de vie. Going by the grimaces on Agent A’s face, the drinks had their desired effect ;-).

After a good night’s sleep, we spent Saturday doing all sorts of useful stuff that we occasionally neglect… (and some less useful stuff, like lounging by the swimming pool). Anyway, the day just flew by, and before we knew it, the next set of visitors; Frank and Matilda; arrived. Frank is a fellow Finn who worked in Southwood at the same time as me, who has now moved back to Helsinki, where he’s living with his lovely girlfriend Matilda. Matilda’s sister is studying in Barcelona at the moment, so they decided to do a detour to Nice during whilst visiting her.

After welcoming our visitors, and kindly giving them about 5 minutes to freshen up (after all, they had just spent about 6 hours on the road), we rushed down to the train station to catch the train to Nice, where we had planned to meet up with some other friends for drinks & dinner. We started off at the Thor pub, where we were first joined by Mikko and Marianne (whom we hadn’t seen for a good few weeks, what with their globe trotting to Rome, Istanbul…). Later on we were also joined by Gary and his girlfriend, as well as Agent A (who had spent the day in Cannes). Thor was entertaining as always – it’s a bit of an unusual bar since they only serve beer in pints; highly unusual in France where people tend to drink half-pints (now that’s a bit of useless information if there ever was one…).

From there we continued the theme of the weekend of “restaurants serving massive portions” by going to an Italian restaurant at Cours Saleya (the name of which escapes me), where everything they serve is massive (they have massive plates of antipasti, absolutely humongous bowls of pasta, not to mention an absolutely gargantuan bowl of chocolate mousse – which I actually managed to finish last summer). This time I “just” had a humongous plate of macaronis. I must grudgingly admit it was better than the good ol’ “makaroonilaatikko” which was my introduction (as for all proper Finns my age) to Italian cuisine back in Espoo, when I was a wee lad. After sharing a chocolat fondant with Mathilde, it was time to catch the last train back to Cagnes…

After another good night’s sleep, and a lazy breakfast, I headed down to the beach with Frank and Matilda. We had a great time jumping about in the sea like little kids the waves were absolutely huge) and just enjoying basking in the sun. After a nice BBQ lunch in front of the telly (since the Formula 1 race was on – ended disastrously for the two Finns, as most races so far this season), I took our guests for a bit of a tour of the surrounding area. We started off by a visit to Tourrettes-sur-Loup, one of the nearby pretty perched villages. After a cappuccino at the main square, we had a peaceful walk around the village’s pictereque cobble-stone streets, and of course stopped for a home-made ice cream (the local speciality being Violet ice cream).

Our next stop was Saint-Paul-de-Vence, which is probably the most famous village on the Cote d’Azur (certainly the most touristy one). Well, can’t deny it, it’s a very beautiful place – and I suppose the fact that most of the shops in the village contain over-priced art rather than tacky souvenirs is sort of a good thing… Anyway, after a quick walk around, it was time to head back home – dinner time! For dinner, we decided to head down to the seaside and try out Le Neptune – which is the only restaurant in Cagnes-sur-Mer which is actually on the beach. So the location couldn’t be much better, and the place itself is pretty cozy as well. Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything good to say about the service – I suppose I could put it kindly and call it “indifferent”. Thankfully, the food was pretty good. We headed back home for the coffees, and a bit of Ida’s home-made Calvados, of course ;-)

All in all, another busy, but great, weekend on the Cote d’Azur then ;-)

British cultural weekend: beer, Pimms 'n curry

Well it’s been a while since me and Mathilde have been to the UK – so when we got the invitation to Emmanuelle’s 40th birthday celebration, we confirmed without hesitation, and got our Easyjet tickets booked. We figured we should take the occasion to spend some time in London, so decided to book a hotel there for a couple of nights. Amazingly enough, one of the cheaper options we found was a 4 stars hotel located next to St. James Park – the Jolly St. Ermins hotel.

Our flight departed sunny nice on Friday morning, and landed in London Gatwick on schedule (there’s a first time for everything…) – from where we took the train down to Victoria, which is conveniently just a 5-minute walk from our hotel. We were pleasantly surprised to find the sun shining upon arrival (and even more amazingly - it was to keep shining all weekend!). After dropping off our bags at the hotel (which I think qualifies as the best English hotel I’ve stayed in), we set off to enjoy sunny London. After a tasty ‘n healthy lunch at Pret-a-Manger (an English eating establishment I actually miss, believe it or not!), we set off to walk around the local area, taking in Buckingham palace, as well as Green park and St James Park (where we didn’t see any squirrels, much to Mathilde’s disappointment). After a relaxed couple of hours strolling around, we headed to Costa café for a coffee (and cake, of course!); where we were joined by Philippe and Aniko, who had just arrived. From there we headed down to the local pub for our first (but certainly not last) pints of the weekend.

For the evening, we headed down to Clapham Junction to the Falcon pub for my colleague Stu’s leaving do. After 10 years at the company, he had decided to move on. A lot of colleagues turned up (including a few I hadn’t seen for a while), including of course Sinhung (you can usually count on him when there’s drinking to be done – although he’s getting a bit rusty at old age), who was on top form as always… All in all, a typical “colleagues pub night out”, with pints, pub food (I had a burger), office gossip, and all the rest of it. I had great fun – not sure how entertained Mathilde was listening to a bunch of engineers talking shop though ;-) We were quite nackered, not having slept much the night before, so headed back to the hotel before the end of the proceedings – anyway we knew we had to save some energy for the following two days as well, so we figured it was best not to do an all-nighter…

We got up early on Saturday, and had a very relaxed picnic breakfast in St James’ Park (and even saw some squirrels this time!). Our brekkie was interrupted by the annual changing of the (Buckingham Palace) guard – which I rushed down to see (and photograph, naturally!). All very pompous, of course, and those guards do look a bit silly in those red suits and tall black headgear. But I suppose that’s the way it should be – this being London and all that (I guess that’s one of the things I love about London, it’s at the same time a very modern, cosmopolitan and open-minded city, but at the same time clings to its traditions and peculiarities in a rather charming way). Having taken in this spectacle, we made our way towards the centre (which wasn’t that easy, considering a lot of roads were shut to the public due to the ceremonies), taking in Whitehall and Trafalgar square on the way. From there we walked past Piccadilly Circus, up Regents Street and onto Carnaby Street. We finished off our tour by visiting Liberty, one of the most famous department stores in London (which I’d not actually been to). As department stores go, it’s a pretty cool place to wander about – I think I prefer it to the more famous Selfridges and Harrods’s.

We then rushed down to Leicester square, where we were meeting up with the old gang (Chie, Jeff, Philippe, Aniko and Sinhung) for a dim sum. A couple of new gang members also came along – a Hungarian friend of Aniko’s (who actually used to work at the same factory in Pecs where I worked the summer of 1997 – now is the world small or what?) as well as David and Samy (who have both recently joined my team). The dim sum is another “UK tradition” (within double quotes since it’s of course more of a Chinese tradition) I really miss – and the dim sum we had was as tasty and filling as in the good old days…

Having filled our stomachs to their brims, it was time to tick the next “English thing to do” off the list – Pimms by the Thames. We ended up drinking the Pimms in South Bank - a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Nick joined us as well at this point – straight from the airport (having flown back from Spain) with rucksack ‘n all, as well as KoChung. After a couple of hours spent chatting away, and downing the over-priced Pimms (of course, this is London, after all!), it was time to say bye-bye to some of our friends, and head back to the hotel for a quick shower before the evening’s activities (Nick, Sinhung and KoChung kindly waited for us in the local pub).

We started off the evening in All Bar One in Leicester Square, where we met up with Adrian and some friends of his (including Pirish, an English friend of his who actually lives in Nice) – we also finally had the honour of meeting his girlfriend Yda. After a couple of beers over there we made our way to yet another old haunt of ours, the Delhi Brasserie. Of course one must have at least one curry during any visit to the UK – it’s nearly as mandatory as a visit to the pub. Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed with the curry this time – or maybe it was just the bill… By the time we finished the meal, it was nearly midnight, so past pub closing time. So time to head back to the hotel, then, for a snooze….

On Sunday, it was time for the big event – Emmanuelle’s birthday. After another relaxed breakfast in St James’ Park, we checked out of the hotel, and took the train down to Guildford, where the festivities were taking place. And she had certainly chosen a worthy venue for the occasion – Loseley Park (one of the most famous country houses in Surrey). As per our plan, we met up with Phil at the train station, and sped down to Loseley Park in a taxi.

The party was great – big thanks to Manu for organising such a brilliant event. The food, drink and entertainment was tip-top (especially the entertainment bit, for those that got to see me dancing…), of course. But the greatest thing was meeting up with a lot of people we’d not seen for ages… Great fun catching up with everybody again. Great also seeing Sandrine’s big belly (that would be due to the baby, not over-eating), meeting Rosie’s little boy and of course seeing my dear god-son Florian again (although he was a bit shy again…). The greatest bit of entertainment was provided by Big Australian Nick (I say Big since I feel absolutely tiny next to him – and that doesn’t happen very often) – who, being a kind spirit, tried to get a Frisbee down from a tree by throwing his huge shoe at it. And yes, you guessed it, the shoe ended up stuck in the tree next to the Frisbee. Thankfully, the French staff showed Gallic creativity and daring and managed to get the shoe down from the tree, using two tables stapled one upon the other, and a ladder on top.

After the party, we headed down to Guildford for dinner (as if though we hadn’t eaten enough already…) at Wagamama’s, and then off to the pub of course (the King’s Head). Bruce joined us there with his lovely girlfriend – which was great since I’ve not seen him for absolute ages.... A couple of pints later (the last ones for this visit) we retired back to Phil’s place for some well-deserved rest.

Monday was spent in the office for my part, whereas Mathilde had another day out in London. Where she also got our camera back from the hotel, where the more scatter-brained of us (guess whom?) had left it on Sunday… All in all – a great weekend then! And with the great weather we had – I almost found myself missing life in England at times ;-)

Learning how to cook...

Dear reader, if you’ve been reading my blog regularly, you’ve probably noted that I’ve been trying out my cooking skills quite a lot recently – stretched them to the limit, and beyond, even. Obviously my darling Mathilde has noted it – so she kindly got me a cooking lesson as a birthday lesson (perhaps partly motivated by a sense of self-preservation? :-) ).

Today was the grand day for my lesson. So off I set after work to Nice Nord, where the course was talking place. I was a bit nervous about the whole thing, since I pictured myself making a fool of myself in front of a bunch of semi-professional chefs. So I was somewhat relieved when I heard that there were only to be two students apart from me – and even more relieved when one of the others didn’t turn up! So it was just me, a Vietnamese lady, and our teacher, then.

We started off by preparing the dessert (that was the first thing I learnt on the day – one should apparently normally start with the dessert) – “Fraisier a ma facon”. Basically it’s composed of strawberries, some mint leaves, a biscuit – complemented by a creamy concoctation made up of mascarpone, eggs, and sugar. Very simple, right? Well, it was actually – especially considering our teacher did most of the actual work whilst we watched and learnt.

The main course we prepared was called “Pave de poisson en coque d’herbes, oignons nouveaux et puree” (bit of a mouthful, that…). We started off by preparing the onions, potatoes and other veg in our teacher’s high-tech oven, which can steam vegetables in a few short minutes. Most impressive. A good 20 minutes later, the deliciously creamy puree (or actually it was an "espuma de puree") was ready, as well as the saumon. That’s probably the most important learning of the course – how to prepare a fish in a frying pan. After meticulously presenting the dish on a plate (our teacher actually told us she reckons the presentation is the most important aspect of a meal – I beg to differ on this point as I think taste is rather important too…) we were ready for “la degustation”.

Mathilde joined us for the meal – which was nice, especially since my Vietnamese co-student left us quite quickly. So, what’s the verdict, then? I would say pretty much a sans-faute. The fish was perfectly cooked, the espuma de puree creamy and tasty and the vegetables that went with it just right (and the presentation was tip-top, of course!). And the deset was a true delight, yummie! (I even got to finish some left-overs!)

So all in all, a very pleasant evening then! And I learnt a thing or two – hopefully some of it sticks… ;-)