Weeking Cooking: Eat Well for Less

Recently we have been watching a British TV series called Eat Well for Less. The hosts are TV foodie celebrity Greg Wallace, who hosts the British version of Masterchef, and Chris Balvin who is a greengrocer by trade. The idea is that the hosts watch a family do their grocery shopping and then work out how they can help the family to spend less, eat better, and bust a few food myths along the way. They also talk to dieticians about all sorts of things for example how much sugar is in so called healthy foods, and do taste tests to compare big brands against shops own brands

That might not sound like the most thrilling premise but it is very entertaining. There are plenty of families who are slaves to brands and convenience foods, some families who just don't want to cook, and others that just have some really bad food habits

They look at different ways to save money, most of which are just common sense. It is amusing to watch a family realise that if they cook their own rice rather than microwaving rice sachets it a) isn't difficult and b) is very, very inexpensive.  There was an episode we watched recently where the family would save £7 in each meal just by cooking their own rice.

Another way they encourage families to save money by showing them that there are times when you don't have to always buy the big brands. They do this by putting all the food in the house into plain packaging and then swapping brands for shops own products. Most of the families insist that there is no way that they would not be able to tell when one of their favourites have been swapped, and that they wouldn't like any substitute. It is inevitable that the more that they insist on these things that the more likely that they won't be able to tell or that once they find out they are happy to swap for cheaper choices. Sometimes they won't swap, but a lot of times they will. The other thing that happens is that they don't swap the product and then the family says they don't like their normal favourite brand when they can't tell if it is that one or not.

Along the way the hosts help the families to learn new recipes, most of which are likely to be healthier and more inexpensive than their normal choices.

What watching this show has done has to get me thinking about whether or not there are shopping and eating habits that we have that we could change. Do we buy big name brands unnecessarily? Do we use too much in the way of prepackaged convenience food? I asked my husband these questions. He was initially a bit offended I think because he does all the food shopping in our house but once we got past that it was an interesting conversation. He tells me that we aren't brand slaves, not on everything anyway. Maybe he's not, but I was a bit shocked when he bought home the wrong brand of toothpaste a couple of weeks ago.

A month or so ago I would have been absolutely convinced that you couldn't swap my Coke Zero for another cola, but we have cut back a lot of that since the new year. I had some Coke Zero the other day and I didn't really enjoy it as much as I expected. Perhaps I wouldn't be able to tell the differences? And what about other things. For example, I tend towards brands for things like frozen vegetables, for jam, for margarine on the odd occasion we buy it, definitely for yoghurt. Would we be able to differentiate between the expensive brands of cereals that we buy? We have tried a couple of different brands but should be braver and try a few more brands instead of always just buying the same ones, especially those brands that my son gets through boxes of on a regular basis.

They do some quite interesting recipes. We are thinking about trying recipes like Moroccan Vegetable Stew, cheesy pastry sticks (to replace bread sticks) or Canned Salmon with Couscous and Boiled Eggs.

One of the recipes is for a one pan Roast Chicken that looks really doable and delicious.

Roast Chicken Dinner

300g potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks, about 3–4cm
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into small batons, about 5 x 2cm
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 boneless chicken breasts (skin on)
½ reduced-salt chicken stock cube
80g broccoli, cut into florets
80g cauliflower, cut into florets
20g chicken gravy granules
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6.

2 Put the potatoes and parsnips into a large roasting tray, drizzle with 1 teaspoon of the vegetable oil and season with salt and black pepper.

3 Take a piece of foil about 40cm square and place the chicken breasts, skin-side up, into the centre of it, then pull the foil up around the chicken to create a mini tray.

4 Crumble the stock cube over the chicken, pressing it into the flesh, then pour 200ml of cold water into the bottom of the foil, taking care not to pour it over the chicken and wash off all the stock cube. Scrunch the foil up over the chicken to create a sealed parcel and place on the roasting tray (pushing the veg aside a little to make room for the parcel).

5 Roast in the oven for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven, add the broccoli and cauliflower florets to the tray (on top of the other veg), drizzle with the remaining oil and toss all the veg together. Carefully open up the top of the foil parcel to allow the chicken to colour.

6 Return to the oven and roast for another 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender.

7 Remove from the oven, put the gravy granules into a heatproof jug, then carefully pour in the hot juices from the chicken parcel and whisk well until smooth and dissolved.

8 Transfer the roasted chicken breasts to serving plates and serve with the roasted veg alongside and the gravy poured over.



Whilst a lot of the recipes are on the basic side, what watching this series has done is get us to ask ourselves questions about how we shop and eat. And that can't be a bad thing really?

When's the last time you asked yourself questions about how you shop and eat?

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Library Loot: March 11

Just the one book from the library this week. I got it because I love the title. I am guessing that there isn't going to be a lot about custard in it, but I have already read a couple of chapters and I am enjoying it so far!

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

This Week ....

I read....

My big news this week is that I finally, finally finished listening Where the Crawdads Sing. It has taken a very long time to get through. It's not that it wasn't an enjoyable book, I just haven't had the same amount of listening time that I have previously had. I am trying to get back in the habit of walking from the train station to work, which should help give me more audiobook time but I'm not really sure what I am going to start next.

I also started reading Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran. This  is a choice of the Cook the Books online bookclub which I am intending to read along with this year. I have read a few chapters so far and I am enjoying it. It's very readable. I did have a look at the author's website and was sad to see that she died at a very young age.

I also started reading Conspiracy of Lies by Kathryn Gauci, an Australian author that I have been aware of for a long time but have never read before.

You may know that there is an upcoming Netflix series adaptation of the Bridgerton historical romance series which I am looking forward to. In anticipation, I am listening to a new podcast series called What Would Danbury Do. At this stage they are talking about each of the original books in the series which is a lot of fun, although not necessarily safe for work!


I watched....

Nothing new again

Life...

We've had a quieter week this week. No weekend away, no culture, concerts or anything else! Which doesn't mean that it hasn't been exciting.

We took delivery of a new couch and recliner chairs and a new dining table. I am particularly excited about the new dining table because I have never, ever had a new new dining table. I have been using a hand me down table which I got from my mum 20 years ago, and she got it from a family friend about 20 years before that. There's a fair chance that this dining table is  older than I am. The chairs were orange vinyl and had seen better days!

The chairs include electric recliners including inbuilt USB chargers.Very fandangled. We did resist the temptation to buy the couches with fluoro lighting underneath and in built cupholders. No racing car couches here yet.

In less exciting news, I had a wisdom tooth out on Friday which is the perfect way to start a three day weekend! Okay, not really, but it hasn't been as bad as I expected!! Hopefully it will help resolve the issues that I had  a few weeks ago. Luckily I am still 3/4 wise.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Titles!
Library Loot
ARA Historical Novel award announcement

Review of With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
Six Degrees of Separation

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Six Degrees of Separation - Wolfe Island to Girl with a Pearl Earring

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. 

The book that we are starting with this month is Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar, a book that I haven't yet read. I recently realised that  I actually have Salt Creek, this author's first book on my shelf. I was a bit surprised the other day to see that my husband had something against that book. No idea what, but it did appear as though it was being held at electric drill point. It must have paid the ransom though because it is now free to rest on the shelves no longer threatened!

I actually ended up doing two versions of this month's Six Degrees. The other one featured werewolves and dark fantasy but in the end I decided to go with an around the world feel.We start in Canada and end up in the Netherlands, but we do take the long way around.

So my first book is Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney which was a Costa prize winner for a first novel back in 2006. I read it years ago and like it without loving it. This was a book that made me feel cold just reading it. There  was lots of snow.

There was no snow in Christie Watson's Tiny Sunbirds Far Away because it was set in Nigeria. I did love this book, and it also won the Costa prize for a first novel in 2011.

For my next book I am sticking with an African theme and choosing the first book in The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith which is set in Botswana. As an aside, I still love these early style covers in this series.

Another first book in a series featuring a lady detective is Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood which is set in Melbourne in the 1920s. This features the divine Miss Phryne Fisher and the same applies to these styles of covers!

I chose to look for a link to the colour blue for my next connection which led me to The Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland. In this book we follow a painting of a girl through it's various owners. I've read a number of this authors books over the years and find them fascinating.

My final connection is another book about a girl in a painting is The Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. As I was preparing this post I was contemplating how hard it would be for the publisher to repackage this book with a completely different cover.

Next month's starting book is Stasiland by Anna Funder and I really have no idea how I am going to get that chain started. Lucky I have a while to think about it!

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Since my return to blogging, I have also been trying to get back into the habit of reading and commenting on other blogs in addition to having my own content here. Let's face it, they both take time and effort.

Not all that long ago, I read a review for this book over at All the Books I Can Read and I knew that I had to read it! And a bonus was I knew that my library system has it because we both use the same library system.

With the Fire on High is a young adult novel that deals with some really big issues. Emoni Santiago is a young girl just starting her final year of high school, with all that means. She needs to make choices about what colleges, if any,  to apply for, what her future looks like. For Emoni, that all focuses around two people....her two year old daughter Emma and her Abuela (grandmother) who raised her because her mother died at birth and her father lives in Puerto Rico, visiting once a year, meaning they have a complicated relations. Abuela has stood by her and supported her with Emma. Emoni is therefore concerned with how she can support both herself and Emma and relieve some of the burden from her grandmother, which may well mean foregoing her dreams.

Emma's father is somewhat present in their lives, but at times his presence is a challenge, especially when he thinks that he can have a say in how Emoni lives her life.

Emoni's passion in life is cooking and she has a natural talent for it, and has done from a very young age, something that I wish I had more of.

If  you ask her to tell it, 'Buela starts with the same story.
I was a little older than Babygirl is now and always following 'Buela into the kitchen. I would sit at the kitchen table eating bootleg Cheerios or rice or something I could pick up with my fingers and shove into my mouth while she played El Gran Combo or Celia Cruz or La Lupe loud on her old-school radio, shimmying her hips while stirring a pot. She can't remember what made that day different - if my pops, Julio, had been late in arriving on one of his yearly visits from San Juan, or if it'd been a time she'd gotten reprimanded at work for taking too long on someone's measurements - but this particular day she didn't turn the radio on and she wasn't her usual self at the stove. At one point, she must have  forgotten I was there because she threw the kitchen rag down on the floor an left. She just walked straight out of the kitchen, crossed the living room, opened the front door, and was gone.
We can't agree on what it was that she'd started cooking. She says it was a stew and nothing that would burn quick, but although my own memory is childhood-fuzzy, I remember it being a pot of moro - the rice and beans definitely something that would soak up water. 'Buela says she just stepped out onto the stoop to clear her head, and when she came back  ten minutes later I had pulled the step stool to the stove, had a bunch of spices on the counter, and had my small arm halfway into the pot, stirring.

And then a couple of paragraphs later.

In fact, when 'Buela tasted it (whatever "it" was) she says it was the best thing she'd ever eaten. How it made her whole day better, sweeter. Says a memory of Puerto Rico she  hadn't thought about in years reached out like an island hammock and cradled her close. When she tells the story, it's always a different simile, but sweet like that. All I know is she cried into her plate that night.. And so at the age of four, I learned someone could cry from a happy memory.

Her food evokes emotions and memories in those who are lucky enough to eat it, and for me, as a reader it evoked a big desire to eat the dishes depicted.

Emoni struggles a bit at school, and so she has pretty much talked herself into thinking that college isn't an option for her. She knows that in this last year at school she has to work hard, do her hours in her part time job at Burger Joint, and do her best to look after "Babygirl". She doesn't really have capacity to pick up another class and she really doesn't want to be distracted by the new boy in school.

When her teacher tells her that there is a new culinary arts elective, Emoni really wants to do it but given it includes an overseas trip to Spain it is another thing that might be just out of reach. Emoni really has a great support team around her, from her advisory teacher to her friends and grandmother, and they encourage her to join up. In the class though, she clashes with the teacher, because he needs her to learn that instinct is great but to work in food she also needs to be able to show technique, follow instructions, and food presentation. And then, how on earth is she going to be able to make the overseas trip happen?

From the first page I was drawn in by the writing and by the story and addresses issues such as young love, young parenthood, coming of age, friendship and more. I enjoyed all the food references, as well as the story. Emoni was a young woman who was prepared to work hard to achieve her goals, no matter how challenging the consequences both past and present. I admired her a lot.

I really enjoyed this book!

The author has a new book coming out in May that I really like the sound of too!

Rating 4.5/5

I am connecting this post up to Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

The ARA Historical Novel Prize

Over the last couple of weeks there has been an announcement of a new prize in the Australian genre writing landscape, and it's a pretty generous one!

Here are some of the details from the Historical Novel Society Australasia website.

The ARA Historical Novel Prize is open to authors who are citizens or residents of Australia or New Zealand. Books published between 1 January 2019 and 30 June 2020 are eligible for entry. Entries may be submitted by authors, publishers or agents. Self-published books are also eligible. Now Australian and New Zealand historical novelists have a chance to be rewarded for excellence in writing, depth of research, and reader appeal.

With the prize being a cool $30000 it's an attractive proposition. I was also glad to see that there are no genre restrictions. As long as the subject of the book is historical then it doesn't matter if it is a kid's book, historical romance, timeslip! Doesn't matter

I am going to be very interested to see what books make the grade for the first award! The inaugural prize will be announced in November.

Library Loot: March 4 to 10

Once upon a time I used to quite regularly be reaching the limit of books that you were allowed to borrow, which given that it is 60 items is pretty impressive. I was often juggling return dates to work  out which book is due next, which ones could be extended and which ones could not. I am trying hard to keep my borrowing at a reasonable limit. This week I picked up another three books. I have one to return, which I will need to do over the weekend.

The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare - I have previously read the first two books in this series on my Kindle but I still can't bring myself to pay more than $10 for an ebook so I requested this one from the library.

Talk of the Town by Rachael Johns - I can't quite believe that I haven't read this book. Even when I was't reading at all, I was still reading Rachael Johns' books but somehow I missed this one. The follow up book is being released in April so time to read this one!

Eat Well for Less - We've been watching various episodes of this show and I have a Weekend Cooking post pretty much written up, but I still wanted to have a look at the associated recipe book. In the end I had to get this via interlibrary loan.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

Top Ten Tuesday: Title!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is "Books with single word titles".

The books I have chosen are a mix of recent reads and long time favourites. 

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - I listened to this earlier this year, and enjoyed  it.

Circe by Madeline Miller - This was an audiobook that I listened to last year. Really enjoyed it.

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - I think I have listened to this book on audio maybe 3 or 4 times. It is narrated by Richard Armitage and the only way to describe it is as aural bliss!

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon - Of all the Outlander books, Voyager is my favourite. It is also easily the shortest title of all of the books. Whilst I don't have a specific review for Voyager, I do have a post talking about my reading of the whole series which was fun to reread tonight!

Overseas by Beatriz Williams - Every time Beatriz Williams puts out a new book, whether it be a solo book or as part of her collaboration with Karen White and Lauren Willig, I think I really, really need to read more of her books.  This is still the only one I have ever read, under this name that is. She also writes under the name of Juliana Gray and I have read a few of those.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi - I read this while on holiday in South Africa a couple of years ago.

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley - Susanna Kearsley is one of my favourite authors. I just get lost in her worlds.

Legacy by Susan Kay - I read this Tudor book when I was all Tudored out and I loved it!

Stardust by Neil Gaiman - Having just been to hear Neil Gaiman speak, it would have been wrong not to include this book.

Bitten by Kelly Armstrong - This is the first book in the Otherworld series. I loved this series featuring all sorts of paranormal creatures. To be fair there are at least four other books in this series alone that are single word titles so plenty to choose from!

This week....

I'm reading....

I mentioned last week that I had just started The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. It was really, really good! I read most of it on Saturday afternoon and it was super easy to get lost in the pages. I'll be posting a review later this week (don't be shocked!!)

The book that I started after that was Saint-Germain-des-Pres: Paris's Rebel Quarter by John Baxter.  An embarrassingly long time ago I started reading The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris but I never finished it. I had read other books by the author so knew I enjoyed his voice, but never have managed to pick it up again. Maybe this will be my time!

I'm watching...

Nothing new really. We are still working our way through the series I have talked about in previous posts.

In life...

On Tuesday night we went to hear Neil Gaiman speak which was a bit of fun! The interviewer was a true fan and that definitely came across in the questions. Topics discussed ranged from death to his punk period, to his TV writing for Good Omens and Doctor Who, amongst other things!

During the course of the night, he did a couple of readings, including reading his upcoming children's story. I think he is pretty much the only author I know of who could get away with reading their upcoming childrens book at a reading which was organised by a writers festival!

The space where the talk was held is amazing. I have never been into this theatre before because it is generally not open to the public. It was designed by US born architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin who are more famous for designing Canberra, our nations capital. It is a beautiful art deco style theatre and I am so glad that I have had a chance to visit there now!



Yesterday we did the culture thing and went to see a couple of the exhibitions that are on at the National Gallery of Victory. The first one was called Kaws: Companionship in the Age of Loneliness which I really enjoyed.

The second was a joint exhibition of works by Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I quite liked the art by Keith Haring, but really don't get the other one. I came out realising that whilst I took quite a few photos, none of them were by Basquiat.

I guess I just don't necessarily get modern art. I do keep on going to these exhibitions to try and learn about art and culture, but I don't always get it. At least I liked some of it. My husband wasn't a fan of any of it!

Last week I mentioned that we were on a short getaway. Have to say it was fabulous! The area is known for it's mineral springs so we spent a couple of hours at the mineral baths, bathing in the mineral water pools, the salt pool, the sauna (but not for very long), various spas and then followed that up with scones, jam and cream. By the time we got back to our hotel room we were buggered, but eventually we got enough energy to go for a walk around the local lake. I didn't take many photos but here they are

It was a fabulous couple of days!

It's a lovely area and we have talked  about coming back but there are also so many other areas within a short distance of Melbourne that we would like to visit too.

Obviously, we have our big trip planned but we also recently booked a weekend stay at Uluru (Ayers Rock) later in the year which I am super excited about as neither of us have been there before. Something to look forward to

I am thinking that maybe I need to split my This Week posts into two because I am finding that I have a lot to say which makes the posts a bit long.


Posts from the last week

Weekend Cooking: February Bakes
Bookish quotes: The Lending Room in the Little Bookshop on the Seine

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Weeking Cooking: February Bakes

I decided recently that I would share my baking on a monthly basis rather than doing all individual posts, or the gigantic wrap up post that I did last time. The plan is that on the last Saturday of each month I will share something about what I have made in the last month. This morning I did have the thought though that I should have done something about it being a leap year. Oh well, next time!

First though, I thought I would share the last couple of Bake It Boxes that I made. The monster cake was really the October kit but I only got to make it in January. Inside it is a marbled vanilla cake and it was delicious.

I ended up taking this next cake, the Giant Donut, to work for one of my team member's birthdays. Inside it is a brown sugar cake and the frosting has cream cheese in it. Yummo!

I still have two boxes here to make at some point which I will do eventually. I am, however, a bit devo because it appears that there might not be any more new ones to do. There wasn't one announced in January or February and now I am waiting to see if there is going to be a new one for March or not. If there are not going to be any more I have to find new ways to challenge myself. Watch this space.

I have posted before about the Queen Baking Club and this month I completed both challenges. The first one was for Best Ever Choc Chip Cookies, which were delicious and then three ingredient scones with jam and cream. Both recipes were winners!

Stay tuned for more baking next month.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Bookish quotes: The Lending Room in the Little Bookshop on the Seine

Back in the blogging days I used to randomly do a feature called Bookish Quotes whenever I came across a quote that capture my attention about writing, books or bookshops in a book. I thought I would start doing them again now as well.

This quote comes from The Little Bookshop on the Seine by Rebecca Raisin which I recently read. There were so many quotes about books and food in this book it was hard to limit the choice to just one. So, this is a longish one, but hopefully you will enjoy reading the passage as much as I did.

If I thought that I could find this place in Paris I would totally try to find it! I do intend to at least take a peak in Shakespeare and Sons whilst we are there soon.

Oceane smiled. "And next, we have the lending library." She led me through an archway, where someone had scrawled in thick, black permanent marker 'This way to paradise'.
The lending library was ripe with the thick stench of old tomes and the lemony scent of new novels. Their fragrances mingled together in the space, almost like a perfume, a heady combination of past and present.
Sophie's bookshop was so alive it hummed, dust motes danced, and I had to fight the urge to flop on a chair, and snatch up the nearest book.
An antique grandfather clock stood to one side of the room, its chimes long since stopped, the golden hands paused on the witching hour. "Who runs the lending library?" I asked.
Oceane leant against the wall. "Bertie, Francois, and Philippe. They organize their shifts between them, and keep track of the loans. You don't need to do anything for it. Sophie's pretty lax about the whole process. There's index cards, and stamps, it's very old school. The lending library is hallowed - it's been available for locals since the doors opened here back in the twenties. During the Great Depression, no one could afford much of anything, especially books, so strangers found their way here, and knew they could take whatever they wished. They became members, friends and weren't faceless or nameless any more."
"This history practically seeps through the walls." I was in awe of the shop, it had presence, almost like it was a character unto itself. "Do you ever wonder who sat here a century ago, and rummaged through these boxes of books?"
Her eyes grew bright. "Of course. I imagine people back then stopped past with rumbling bellies, their lives grim because of the depression, until they found their way here, and they could forget their troubles, escaping into the pages of a good book, a warm drink in hand. What could be better than that? Sophie's grandfather opened the store. When he first started, he only used the front parlor, but as time went by his reputation spread, he grew more successful and expanded into other rooms, eventually buying the apartments above. He never changed his principles....everyone was welcome here whether they had money or not. It was popular among American writers back then, a meeting place for literary itinerants."
"I get goosebumps, thinking about the stories they could've told. Do you think when they finally settled, back on home soil, they remembered their time here fondly?"
"Oui," she said, crossing her arms against the chill in the room. "A lot of them were young. Travelling after the war or just because they were free, who knows? And when it was time to move,or go back to reality, they always had this place in their heart. Sophie has a thick folder of correspondence, letters sent over decades, people thanking them for their hospitality, some dedicating the books they wrote here to Sophie's grandfather. Others saying they searched their whole lives for  the simple happiness Paris provided, but never found it again. Over a bottle of two of vin rouge, I read each and every one of them. I've told her she should publish them...an epic love story of people and place."
"That would be an amazing book..." Taking in the room, I thought of the people who once inhabited this space; I pictured the scene in black and white, like an old photograph. "The room has a sense of timelessness to it." As if time truly stopped, just like the grandfather clock. And those people long since gone from this world had found the place just as it was now, a sanctuary for word lovers.
"The store has a rich and famous history. It's why people come here and don't want to leave." Oceane spoke in reverent tones, gazing wistfully around. The rooms were weathered, the furniture battered, the store's once former glory dimmed, faded like late afternoon sunlight through a dusty window, which made it one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen.
"Why would you want to leave?" I said. It was like a grand old dame, this shop. Once haughty, now a reflection of it's past, and all that happened here..
She laughed and surveyed me. "Your face is flushed like you've fallen in love too."
I promptly closed my mouth,and scraped back my hair. "How could you not? It's like nothing I've ever seen before...almost like their ghosts are still here, those readers. Maybe that's why the sign says 'this way to paradise'?
Her gaze softened once more. "Like heaven? Well why not?" Soft laughter burbled out of her. "If I died and had to choose a place to spend eternity, it would be here."

This week....

This week's This Week post comes from the deck of a lovely hotel room in Hepburn Springs which is a couple of hours outside Melbourne. I can hear all sorts of birds and insects as I sit here and write this which is lovely. I can hear birds at home, but these ones are different!  It's also a very pleasant way to start a Monday morning. Much nicer than being at work.

Yesterday afternoon, not long after we arrived there was a visitor on the lawn just outside the room.

I'm reading....

I am giving my Paris/France based reads a temporary break this week, and have started a couple of books. The first was With the Fire on High which I picked up from the library last week. I am only a couple of chapters in but I already love the writing style. Unfortunately I forgot to bring it with me so won't be making any progress on it for a couple more days.

I did, however, bring my Kindle with me so I started reading Hearts On Hold by Charish Reid. This is a steamy interracial romance featuring a college professor (her) and a sexy librarian (him). It's a lot of fun, and perfect for reading on a relaxing weekend away!

I'm watching....

Last year when To All The Boys I Loved Before we were absolutely charmed by the movie, despite the fact that we are both well and truly outside the target demographic. The hotel we are staying at has Netflix so we watched the follow up movie To All the Boys 2: PS I Still Love You. It wasn't quite as charming as the first one, but I still enjoyed it.

We have a number of series that we are still working our way through. We are about half way through The Stranger on Netflix and have one episode to go in the first season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. We are also watching each new episode of Picard as it comes out. I can live with the weekly release of episodes, but this is one series I wouldn't mind binge watching.

In life...

It's been a busy week. As I have mentioned we are away this weekend, so we are getting in some good chill time and some good food. There is a small town not far from here that we like to visit to eat vanilla slices so we stopped there on the way up, wandered up and down the main street, visited a country market (lots of local food, but also a fair bit of trash and treasure style junk) and then went all out and cheese and baguette for dinner before relaxing in the spa with champagne or more precisely Blanc de blanc sparkling wine. Living the dream!

Whilst eating our vanilla slice (yum) we started putting a plan together as to what we will be doing with the front garden this year. We need another parking space for a car, and the garden that is there now is a bit overgrown, so we are thinking about how to modernise it and create a car space at the same time. This is in addition to renovating two bathrooms this year as well.

We went to see Queen and Adam Lambert on Thursday night! What a show, what an experience, what a voice! I saw them about 5 years ago and they were just as fabulous this time with the added bonus that our seats looked straight at the stage, whereas last time I more heard them rather than saw them as I was sitting next to the stage, almost to the point where I felt like I was practically behind the stage.

I love that Adam Lambert doesn't try to be Freddie Mercury. Yes, he is fronting Queen, but he does it his own way, and it works. He plays up to the crowd and the cameras and the setl ist is full of the songs that we all know and love.

Must confess that we struggled getting up on Friday night. Going out on a school night was absolutely worth it, but we were tired the next day!

In other news, a few weeks ago I mentioned that the husband was reconfiguring our walk in robe, and it is pretty much done now. Below are before and afters. He's so clever. The after includes slide out shoe shelves, which were made because before there was always shoes everywhere in a very small space, but I am not sure if it also means that we (or more precisely me) have to limit the number of shoes that we/I buy. It's not like I am Imelda Marcos, but I do have a few pairs that I have bought and never actually wear!

Posts from the last week

Library Loot 

Weekend Cooking: Beef Stroganoff

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date