New Book

Do you ever start reading a book for no particular reason at all? You're really only mildly interested in the time period and the historical figures portrayed in the book, you're not looking to get super involved in a long story, yet something still draws you to this book. I seem to be having this experience a lot lately.


The Paris Wife is probably one of the best books I've read in a while. Not because it has shown me something about myself or inspired me to be something more. It was good because it completely sucked me in-to the point where I found myself feeling anxious about the characters in my everyday life. The Paris Wife talks about Ernest Hemmingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson, how they met in Chicago, and their life together in Paris (having tea with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas and drinks with Ezra Pound). The characters really evolve as the story unfolds, and you get a glimpse (though mostly fictionalized) into the mind of the man and woman themselves.


As a result, I've picked up a few more of Hemmingway's books. I think if I had ready access to his papers and letters, I could start an obsession that would only be rivaled by my love and devotion to John Steinbeck and my morbid fascination with all things Henry VIII.


And don't worry all you non-Gertie Stein fans. There are no spontaneous "a woman a cow a love story" passages here. She's more of a minor character. 

Finally Spring

Spring is finally here, and in addition to not having to wear a heavy coat the flowers are out. My sister picked a bunch of blooms from the tree in front of her house, and I got to have a bowlful of flowers all week.  


Few things are lovelier than a bowlful of flowers.

Banana-cakes

Last week at work, we had a series of events to raise money for the World Cancer Fund; our annual theme was "Go Bananas," and everything had a banana theme. Our office in the UK always does a "banana run" (defined here as a mini-marathon in which a prominent member of the company competes dressed in a banana costume), but my office rarely organizes any events. 

This year, however, was different.

There was a bake sale, but instead of bringing yet another banana bread I decided to be cheeky and bring a faux-banana treat. I simply baked vanilla cupcakes, topped them with vanilla icing (half of which I had dropped on the floor because I am a clumsy baker-don't worry! I didn't use the floor-icing!), and then made bunches of bananas from tiny banana shaped candies. The results? You can see for yourself:

The funny thing is that I don't really remember many banana-y items...perhaps that is for the best. (Banana flavouring can be tricky.)

Anyway, I was glad to see that through our bake sale and the other office activities, we raised almost $1,000 (over our goal of $500).