Fermented cabbage; garden squares; local produce

A new Oriental supermarket has opened up on Friar Street that sells kimchi, so I have managed to obtain some following my unsuccessful attempt back in April. I forget the new shop’s name but there’s probably little point in remembering it as doubtless it won’t be long before it’s closed down and the owners do a runner overnight. Have also purchased a large packet for my parents, at Mum’s request, so it is currently festering in my fridge in readiness for when I see them next. Disconcertingly, though, the last time I returned to the shop, their kimchi supplies were apparently sold out and the man at the checkout claimed that there had been a big run on it, exclaiming “So popular!” and raising his arms in a 'what can you do' gesture. I hadn’t imagined that Reading would have a large army of kimchi fans, but was briefly cheered at the thought that the townspeople might be unexpectedly sophisticated. In reality, of course, the keen kimchi-munchers are likely to be overseas university students, rather than fat tattooed people from Whitley.

Spent a pleasant Friday in London with Ray on the 16th, in the main to have a look at two garden squares owned by the Cadogan Estates where Home Counties Turf Care have recently been employed to do some hard landscaping. We started the day with hot chocolate at the Marketplace Restaurant in Chelsea Farmers Market, the latter a faintly ludicrous name for the nice but hardly rustic collection of expensive shops and restaurants. I duly admired the new paths and edging in Cadogan Gardens and Hans Place and we popped in for a nose around St Columba’s Presbyterian Church of Scotland on Pont Street. We had intended to visit the Saatchi Gallery but discovered on arrival that it was closed for a private function, so we had a leisurely lunch instead at the Gallery Mess, the restaurant next door to the gallery that’s housed in the old Duke of York’s officers’ mess. The restaurant’s otherwise attractive interior is decorated with a number of neon installations, including a dodgy one of a woman on all fours with the word ‘Forgiveness’ (see this Independent review).

Had a lovely if expensive dinner with Ruth at Myalacarte on the 23^rd - I was aware that the restaurant makes a point of serving local produce where this is obtainable, but this did lead to some amusing descriptions on the menu, including one dish that came with ‘Basingstoke watercress’. I’m not sure that just calling it ‘watercress’ mightn’t have made it sound more appetising. We chuckled also at the 'mixed Goring Heath leaves'. Ordered the ‘pink carved Yattendon woodpigeon breast’ for my starter followed by fillet steak and treacle start and cream (which we accompanied with a dessert wine) before heading home for the blood pressure cuff. All delicious and beautifully presented so with hindsight my assessment of the restaurant last year might have been a tad harsh.

In an attempt to keep up with the young people, I have made the effort to master using predictive text, which is largely useful once you get the hang of it, but the phone does seem occasionally to possess an atypical vocabulary. I sent a recent text message to Ray part of which was supposed to read ‘… otherwise I will forward to your mum’s’. Using predictive text meant that what the phone wrote was ‘… otherwise I will forward to your nun’s’. Surely ‘mum’ has to be a more commonly used word than ‘nun’? Bizarre.

Brief pseudo gas leak excitement last Monday, when our team returned to the office after a work 'picnic' (held in meeting room due to rainy weather) and were alerted by a hissing noise coming from a pipe just above the entrance door and a gassy smell. Cue evacuation of building and standing around in the car park for an hour, while the university’s security services investigated. The upshot, ludicrously, was that the smell had not been gas but just stale air being forced through a pipe, and was part of a testing exercise being carried out on some of the pipework as part of the current building works. The testers hadn’t been sure where the end of the pipe was and had been going to judge that according to which group of staff panicked and fled their building. Doesn’t seem quite the best way of doing things.

On the way back from a meeting in London last Tuesday I visited The Building Centre on Store Street - never been there before but some quite interesting displays including the ‘Transforming the Boroughs’ project. Outside in the street, there appeared to be a 'We Love Store Street' celebration going on, apparently part of the London Festival of Architecture. Sweet.

Our chilli plant is producing quite a few quite large chillis. Difficult to know how much larger they’ll get but I’m assuming they are supposed to turn red at some point. The plant is just labelled Chilli Pepper (Hot), which doesn’t give much away. Harley did take a little bite out of one fruit before I could stop him, but didn’t appear to suffer any ill effects.