Cold Comfort Flat

by

This weekend Jim and I watched ‘CONTROL’ and ‘THIS IS ENGLAND’ in front of a log fire.
Two extremely eloquent British films.
I fell into bed with monochrome mic stands and technicoloured skin- heads running through my head.
When I awoke it was minus 4.
The lawn was covered in thick white frost, the birds were fighting for bird seed and the back window of my car had to be de-iced.
The old man went out to play golf with his acting mate, whether he has his fingers left I will know shortly.
(he has, he says it wasn’t his fingers he was worried about being brass monkey weather and all.)
I bumped into my old nutritionist in the lift at Waitrose.
We talked about bloating, carbs, and linseeds.
The result of that conversation was a basket of seeds, oils and guilt.
I arrived 15 minutes late to the studio, even though the sun was out and its half term for half the population.


Steve, my producer, is on holiday, so NATALIE did me.
We learned each others rules fairly quickly.
We started with research that revealed we were all killing ourselves with our ‘meltdown’ life style, moved onto 19 year old Max Gegarty’s travel-blog on the ‘Guardian’ website, where he has become the victim of bullying, accusing him of nepotism and middle-class one-upmanship, the discussion traversed the class war and pyschotherapeutic mirroring, and then it was one giant leap from blogging to teachers wages and Delia Smith’s cheap cookbook.
I agreed with Yasmin Alibhai Browns column in the ‘Independent’, we’ve all spent years trying to educate people into being more responsible in their food choices when along comes St.Del. to turn the clock back 5 years.
The Smiths and the Browns should talk more.
I arrived back at the flat to be greeted by two young women and two fluffy white dogs.
BB and Di have spent all week-end bonding, playing with Doodles the bichon and Whisper a Maltese ( thats a Malteser without the ‘R’ ) picking apart their relationships and using up every mug in the cupboard!
It took me right back to1965 when I flat-shared in Hampstead with 2 actresses and a Playboy Bunny, or was it Delia’s cheap meals?
Anyway it now feels like minus 8, so I’m putting on some woolley socks, my thick pyjamas and I’m heating up my lavender pillow for my neck.
Two more weeks before Bee’s 21st, a big party for all the important folk in her life and then Jim gets to pack his bag and move in with me for two months, whilst Hanna gets to pack hers and move in with Jackson.
Musical families…
Ah! the actors life.
Stay warm and cu2morrer.

3 thoughts on “Cold Comfort Flat”

  1. I used to love Delia, but her comments in the past week are making me fall out of love with her. Local produce in season tastes so much better than air-freighted tastless things, and you appreciate them so much more when they do come along. Also, people should eat less meat, but better quality meat – saying that battery farmed chickens are needed to feed the poor is rubbish. Until the last few decades chicken was a treat, why can’t it be again?
    I won’t be buying her new book to sit alongside her excellent ‘How to Cook’ books, the world has moved on, but she hasn’t!

  2. Hi Jeni!
    Just listening to your show and am horrified at the stories of what goes on behind the scenes in restaurants. Aggghhhhhh. And your horrible carp meal in Amsterdam.
    I want to tell you about my holiday last week. Nothing to do with food and restaurants, but I think you’ll find it interesting as a dog owner. We have often had holidays around the mediterranean and had noticed, especially in Italy and Greece, lots of stray dogs. One time in Ischia, my partner got so attached to a dog, he cried when it was time to go home. Anyway, in recent times, we have spent more and more time in Majorca. We wondered why they do not have this problem with stray dogs.
    We stumbled across a web site called http://www.firstaidanimales.mollorca.com (FAAM), where we were horrified to learn that, in order to keep the tourists happy, between 3000 and 6000 dogs, many of them very young, are put down in Majorca alone! Many animals are mistreated and used as guard dogs on extremely short chains. We decided to do our bit as dog lovers and “adopted” a few dogs as Godparents. This gave an unwanted Betty who had lost an eye for example a roof over her head and food and medical attention. Last week we were there and went to look at the work these people (all volunteers) do to save these dogs and place them in homes around Europe.
    In a few short years, FAAM has acheived great things, replacing the old (pathetic) dog shelter in Felanitx and organising flight companions to get wonderful, healthy young dogs out of there and into homes. We were so amazed at their work and dedication, we decided to really adopt 2 small dogs (Pablo and Rosi). They will be joining us here in Hamburg in a couple of weeks when all they are finished with their injections and their Dog passports are ready. They are both small dogs and are about 1 year old. Rosi was thrown from a moving car (the police saw it and brought her to the shelter – shame they didn’t get the culprits) and Pablo was found abandoned in the harbour in Palma. We are really thrilled to help and will continue to do what we can to improve the situation in Spain for dogs and all animals.
    Sorry to take up so much space on your blog, Jeni. I’m just a bit passionate about this, and I think you and maybe some of the other blogger would like to know what I saw.
    If you want more information, go to the website.
    Okay, nuff said…loved the show today….keep it up Mrs!
    How’s jackson, bye thre way?
    love from Hamburg,
    Glenn

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