First thing in the morning, a birthday phone call from someone close woke me. The best start.
Coming to slowly, breakfast setting waiting, I made myself French toast. I soaked dry chiabatta bread in milk, then coated it in egg and finally browned it in a little butter. I topped it with the honeyed walnuts, the Cape gooseberries (apparently also known as physalis or ground cherries) and (indispensably) maple syrup (luckily, the visiting Canadians of the past 6 months had supplied me with virtually infinite quantities). I served red currants and yogurt with strawberry sauce on the side. And I brewed Cream of Avalon tea, also from Canada, an orange, vanilla and bergamot flavoured black tea that my dear friend Shuli introduced me to a couple of years ago and which I brought back with me on my last trip.
It was a lovely and nostalgic breakfast and, once it was done, I felt no compunction about going back to bed for a couple of hours to start Ian McEwan’s last novel, On Chesil Beach. I allowed myself this in English, lifting (for the day) my six month long ban on English language reading. On Chesil Beach, conveniently, is little more than 160 pages and an easy day’s indulgence.
(To be continued in the next post.)
2 comments:
did you like chesil beach? i'm reading atonement right now and i'm finding it stressful - poor robbie turner's fate is keeping me up at night and worried! loved your birthday blogs - especially the photos - so rich and colourful.
Thanks, Amreen. Atonement and Saturday are my two favourite McEwan novels. On Chesil Beach, I liked very much, but it's very different in scope. If I were to compare them, I would say that On Chesil Beach is more of a sketch whereas the other two are full portraits.
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