Lolita and musings

After the shortest long weekend ever I'm back in the same place as I was last week when I told you I had resolved to get my reading butt into gear and I am happy to report that I have! I'm on my way to finishing Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita which has been an incredibly challenging read. Not because of how he writes, I love his whimsical sarcastic way of writing, but because of the subject matter. The narrator often begs the reader to try and understand the things he's writing from his point of view or at least to be sympathetic to his unhealthy obsession with little girls ("nymphets") and Lolita in particular. I do think I'm more sympathetic than Graham has been (who tells me the narrator should be locked up in an asylum for perverts) but it's still been difficult understand or to get on board with Humbert's (that is, the narrators) illicit actions regarding his "step-daughter."

   

Aside from reading we had a friend come and stay over at our place this past weekend. We only have one bed so we had to buy a blow-up mattress and slept on it on our lounge floor which was like a mini camping trip (a camping trip where graham would slam/roll his body into the tv cabinet every 2 hours or so throughout the night). We spent saturday lounging around, getting tea, going back to bed, having hour-long heated debates in bed while the sunlight streamed in through the curtains- the perfect way to spend a day in my opinion. We decided to take a chance on having lunch at a mexican place well known for their food poisoning and we came out alive with full tummies (the food was surprisingly good!).

   

[Only 6 more weeks to Paris and Amsterdam. One of my lovely friends is in Paris at the moment and all her pictures and tweets are causing the anticipation of traveling to be SO much more than is rationally acceptable. Grahams mom bought me a beautiful brown leather passport cover to take with- 6 weeks seems like a century away!]

 

For the past few days (and days to come) I've been cooking my little heart out-obviously not to the level that it's done on master chef but still- I made my (when I say my I mean Jamie Olivers) amazing chorizo pasta on saturday night which has become to go-to dish for when we want something yummy and spicy that requires very little effort. I baked for women's day on Thursday (regular vanilla biscuits with royal icing but for some reason they turn out to be flipping fantastic) and I shall put the recipe on the blog soon. Last night I made spicy fish stew which may replace the chorizo pasta as the easiest tastiest dish I know. And tonight it's roast chicken and oven veggies- so chilled. I must admit that I'm pretty impressed with myself, a year ago I could make toasted sandwiches but now I think nothing of making roast chicken. Its pretty awesome what you can teach yourself to do when you have to. When you have a starving husband at home who looks at you with puppy eyes when he asks what dinner is. 

 

I know you're dying to read a bit of Lolita now to see what dodgy things the characters get up to so i'll save you the trouble of hunting the book down; 

[this quote is taken from the time that the narrator first sees Lolita] 

"It was the same child-the same frail, honey-hued shoulders, the same silky supple bare back, the same chestnut head of hair. A polka-dotted black kerchief tied around her chest hid from my a gaping eyes, but not from the gaze of my young memory, the juvenile breasts I had fondled one immortal day. And, as if I were the fairytale nurse of some little princess...I recognized the tiny dark-brown mole on her side. With awe and delight... I saw again her lovely in-drawn abdomen where my southbound mouth had briefly paused; those puerile hips on which I had kissed the crenulated imprint left by the band of her shorts- that last mad day behind the "Roches and Roses." The twenty-five years I had lived since then, tapered to a palpitating point, and vanished."

A bit of excitement and a lot of blandness

5 years ago I went to Paris with my mother and one of my sisters. I think I had seriously low expectations of what it would be like because it turned out to be way more magical than I could ever have dreamed. I have wished and wished to be able to go back (not over exaggerating at all) and my wish has finally come true thanks to my fairy godmother- or my mother and father whichever you prefer. 

In just less than 2 months time my mother and (now) two of my sisters and I will be jetting off to Paris and Amsterdam *contains excitement*

 

I am now on the hunt for things to do in Paris. Most of the large museums and art galleries we checked off our lists last time we were there although to be honest I wouldn't mind doing them all again (if you have any ideas of exciting things we can partake in in Paris please do tell).

 

In other news: we love love watching modern family (okay, so maybe I do more than Graham does) and there is this one scene in the first few episodes where Cam, a pretty hefty character tries to convince the audience that he's only put on a "few pounds" due to adopting a baby. In the next scene we see Cam being caught on camera in the pantry stuffing his face with food. How does this relate to my life? Well, I got fat. Okay maybe not fat but certainly 10kgs heavier. We first realized when I zipped up my skin in desperately trying to fit into one of my dresses (that I fitted into perfectly 8 months ago). So I have been packed off to gym for weekly sessions with a trainer and a super delicious (heavy sarcasm) new eating plan. Things like regular cheese and pasta and potatoes and fruit loops (only just recently re-discovered) are considered "cheats" and apparently I'm only allowed to cheat once a week.

 

In the past 8 months-being married to Graham- I have developed more of a love for food than I had before. I pour over my recipe books for hours trying to decide what to make for dinner, something that will challenge me and develop my cooking skills. And (I think) that Graham has had fun tasting all my exotic creations. But now with this new eating scheme things have become more difficult (and I can't help but feel more bland). We are limited to meat, chicken or fish with veggies for dinner. Last night worked out pretty well, I haven't cooked fish before and I added in some cous-cous for Grahams carbohydrate need. If any of you dear readers have ideas or recipes that fit our -hem- restrictions please email me or Facebook me or comment in the section below.

 

I'm busy making lists for Europe in my head. My parents bought our flights yesterday. I found a little paper version of the Eiffel tower and a beautiful passport cover and am just trying to justify buying them. Be prepared to hear lots more about Paris and Amsterdam on the blog in the weeks to come.

x

Winter mornings in the Cape

Why hello there. It's been a while, (gets completely sidetracked by Facebook) since I last wrote I've had days of studying, early morning exams, a slight jamie olive addiction, become a star trek fan, minor breakdowns fixed by hot-chocolate with mini marshmallows, relief, a second kitchen tea, mornings of tv watching, re-discovering my books, 6 hours of baking, an aversion to chocolate (due to baking), winter sales, disappointments, goodbyes, hellos, cold cape weather and peppermint tea.

I love cold winters, going to sleep with the rain beating down on the roof, snuggled under layers of blankets. Which is pretty fortunate seeing as I'm in Cape Town for 2 weeks. 

Also helpful is bringing with a pile of books that I've been meaning to read forever. I just finished C.S Lewis's 'That Hideous Strength' which was by far my favorite of the three books in his trilogy. I think his use of Arthurian legend is really what got me hooked, and Merlin -oh it was so exciting. After that I read another C.S Lewis, his re-telling of the greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, 'Till we have Faces' and because I absolutely love greek myths I was always going to love the book. It speaks such truth about human nature and love- it's terrifyingly accurate in fact- and it made me want to read more on the greek legends (a good thing as i'm majoring in classics). It seemed to have the same affect of Graham because he is now hooked on a novel re-telling the Trojan war. Today I started an autobiography of F.Scott Fitzgerald which is slightly shocking, usually I detest biographies and auto-biographies but I do love me some Fitzgerald. And in amongst this I'm trying desperately to finish a book by D.A Carson that iv'e been sitting on for a few weeks now- so much reading and so much time to do it in makes Lynsay a happy lady.

   

I'm just trying to give my brain a rest after my exams (which went mostly very well thanks for asking) and I only had one incredibly disappointing mark, English. It's pretty disheartening when the subject I'm majoring in, the subject that is the whole reason why I'm even doing another degree turns out to be the subject I suck at the most. Perhaps I'm being too critical of my natural abilities. Everyone I've spoken to (or rather whined about this to) has been encouraging, told me that I needed time to adjust (apparently not applicable for the other subjects though) that english is just a generally hard subject to conquer, that it will be better next semester. I hope so otherwise goodness knows what kind of depressing its-the-end-of-my-life posts ill put on here (you should be rooting for me if only not to have to read those types of blog posts).

   

I have however been excelling in some other areas of life - the incredibly tiny culinary area of my life. My parents gave my Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals cookbook and I have triumphantly been able to make two of those meals in under an hour. They were also really tasty. But the climax of my cooking career (so far) came last week when I baked 120 triple chocolate biscuits for a Church function- by the end of my 6 hour baking stint I never wanted to see chocolate again ever- and after they had been served I had a fair amount of people coming up and congratulating me (maybe I forced a few people into giving me their good opinion) on my baking. Even the caterer told graham that the biscuits were excellent. Some little old grannies said they would support me if I opened a bakery. I didn't have the heart to tell anyone that it's actually the recipe that makes the biscuits- anyone can bake (although apparently no one thought I could bake before this cookie incident).

 

I'm off to enjoy some bracing Cape Winter sunshine, some reading time and a delicious sandwich from Knead. Love always x

A long-ish friday morning (sunshine) post

Today the toilet and I are not friends (Graham says it's mostly my fault though) every cleaning day up until now our relationship has been very simple. I squirt pink cleaning stuff in the toilet, scrub the bowl and then it in turn is clean and shiny and smells nice (which is all I ask of it, really). But today when I delicately plunged my toilet brush into the porcelain abyss I got more than I had anticipated when I took the brush out again. It took a few minutes of standing there gagging for me to even figure out what to do. Graham's only in put into the situation was to tell me not to clean the toilet straight after he'd been on it. Lesson learnt. 

It's been marvelous having the past few days off to study; I can have tea in the morning with Graham, read, take my time showering, eat food whenever I feel like it, nap when the work gets too strenuous, have time to make the house sparkling, eat food- Like a mini vacation.

   

This past weekend my parents and a sister flew up to visit us. We took them to Durban's hotspots (just the beach). We had a spectacular breakfast at freedom cafe (to be honest I don't think I've ever had a bad meal there) walked along the promenade, ate ice cream, and then went to Barbacoa for dinner-more amazing food! At the end of the weekend Graham and I couldn't have imagined needing to eat for a while. But luckily on monday that feeling had passed so I made delicious Bacon Carbonara pasta and Bruschetta (I'm trying to figure out a way to make the sauce thicker- double cream just doesn't seem to be working...) and on tuesday night I made incredible sweet potato and chorizo soup which went well with the cold weather.

   

On the subject of cold weather I would just like to draw something interesting about Durban people to your attention. It is rarely ever cold here in winter. And by cold I mean cape town cold, the type of cold that forces you to wear 2 pairs of socks and a beanie and thermal underwear and two jumpers to bed whilst also having your heated blanket on. But for some reason Durban people, who do not experience this cold, think that after a day when the sun hasn't come out by 12pm and there is some drizzle in the air that an ice age is imminent. And this thinking is then worked out by rushing to their nearest supermarket and buying up all the soup and ready made lasagna and bread and anything that could be heated in a microwave. Tuesday was like this. Frenzied mothers with trolleys smashing me and other innocent bystanders (who are just there to buy a packet of mini marshmallows) out of the way in order to get to the last packet of tomato soup and then to hurry out of there before they are snowed into the shopping mall for the winter. It's pretty amusing to see.

   

[Sticks her head around the laptop and sees that the sun has come out and it's a good time to hang up the washing. Hangs up the washing].

   

Graham and I have spent lots of time this week (and other weeks) discussing what we think makes up a family. It may seem a silly question, something that you disregard the first time either of us brings it up but its an interesting and complex question. Are there certain elements that make up a family? Do you, for instance have to be blood related to be a family? No, obviously (I'm just trying to get you to think) and neither is it defined by having a mother or a father or a spouse or children. Sometimes people are pressurized into feeling like they must have one, or all of those things, in order to have a family, or to be a family. 

We usually take our rubbish out late on wednesday nights, after we get home from biblestudy, and to do this we have to walk off of our property and then come back in through the garage. And this week, as we were walking back and I watched Graham playing with our little dog as we made our way up the path I became so aware that this was my family, no better or worse than any other family but perfect for me. And I was happy.

 

off to ea... study, with some food.

The voices in my head

Wednesday evening and I am panic making last-minute spaghetti carbonara for bible-study in half an hour but in-between frying the bacon and waiting for the pasta to cook I have a small window of time to write to you. 

And I do feel that I have to tell you even though I am incredibly rubbish at writing on here at the moment there are times in my day that I write to you in my head, telling you how beautiful the campus grounds are in in the autumn light or how I have recently become very attached to having flowers in the house or how watching Jane Eyre makes me feel. So even though I don't write, I am actually always writing to you in my mind.

   

Cape town in early Autumn is perfection, it's just chilly enough to wear boots and scarves and justify drinking tea at every meal of the day and it's beautiful with the grey cloud hanging over the mountain and the leaves in the avenues turning gold. But I've come to realize (with it almost being winter and all that) that nothing beats Durban in the late autumn and winter. nothing. Even though It may be cold in the early mornings and late evenings (which is fine because usually i'm snuggled under a blanket during such times) during most days the air is perfect and warm. And the best time of these magical winter days? Afternoon, when I walk back from lectures through the park and everything is golden and when I get home I'm greeted by an enormous patch of happy sunlight in our lounge where I then proceed to spend my time until it gets dark.

 

In other news: I never thought I would get tired of cooking for people or entertaining. Apparently I over estimated my love for food. And people. This weekend we had a glorious saturday; I made real oats for breakfast (more on this later) we cleaned, we went to the beach, I read, then we had people over for a burger and games evening. I love burgers and I love games and it was a smashing evening. Then on sunday we had Grahams cousins over for brunch which was lovely- and there wasn't even that much cooking involved but when we discussed having people over for dinner on monday night I really could think of nothing I wanted less in the entire universe. So we went out for dinner.

   

Saturday mornings are our breakfast mornings. We go big (because technically we don't have the option of going home). In the past month we've done fry ups, omelets, french toast, oats. And then we sit at our dining room table in dressing gowns and pajamas and listen to Mozart or the Lord of the Rings sound track and feel sophisticated. It's the most wonderful ritual and something that I look forward to every week.

 

And just like that my first semester is over. Half of my family arrives this weekend (Graham and I are planning on treating them to a Durban weekend, that is, to spend most of the time on the beach and some of the time at Gateway). And in a months time (hopefully a very short month) ill be writing to you to tell of our upcoming trip to cape town and how, from the time that my exams ended, my life has become a blur of morning television and daydreaming my july holidays away.

Until then xx