Toast. It's great. And co-responsible for my descent/ascent into a somewhat ascetic diet. When I say ascetic, I mean very straightforward. My favourite meal has become a carrot and a cucumber chopped into brawny juliennes and served with hummus straight from the pot bought from the shop. It is now a personal pandemic victory to never have made my own hummus.
But! Yesterday, I smashed my asceticism in the face. After doing The Bits of Work, I left and walked to my local, which serves a decent if thin £7 lunch. I stumbled at the first hurdle, since I rushed through the setup of the NHS Covid app and then made it unhappy enough that it refused to operate on any level. Luckily the young woman who saved me from Please Wait To Be Seated was very pleasant, and had a paper backup. I enjoyed a thin but tasty pork and chorizo stew with a thin slice of toast with a stripe of olive oil on it. I was also reading How To Do Nothing, and the author has also written about the irony of the title and how her friends joked at her as she was writing it.
Then, to Bermondsey. I have created a small, repeatable task, which is to go to Monmouth Coffee in the Borough Market when I need more beans. I love it. I just go there and order three thingies of 250g whole beans and flirt (I think) a little bit with that one particular server. I'm not sure if she remembers me yet. This time I also asked for a single truffle. I've quite taken to sweets now that I'm drinking way less booze.
Then I went to the White Cube in Bermondsey to see some Art. It was strange and the art didn't strike me. The gallery was strange, I mean. In addition to art that didn't strike me, I couldn't use the facilities or browse the bookshop, which, let's face it, are often the activities that assuage not being struck by the art. I listened in line as the lady greeter said exactly the same thing to the two groups before me about going counter-clockwise (she was American), and using the hand sanitiser, and we won't be providing anything for you to hold or read as you go but there's a QR code if you need it. (Finally! Thinks the QR code. People actually need me.)
After that, I went to Cafe Murano, bang in the middle of the afternoon. They politely said there was no food on and I said I'd like wine please, which they could do, and I happily got properly stuck into How To Do Nothing and stayed sitting in the window long enough that five o'clock rolled around so I ordered magnificent Lamb and Pea Arancini and the steadfast Chicken Milanese. Wonderful. When the nice young waiter came to check in on my Chicken Milanese, I said "it is a pleasure."
I have been enjoying being out in the city, very much, though am slightly worried about my tension at the sight of IDIOTS NOT WEARING MASKS ON BUSES. I mean, REALLY?
Today is my sixth London birthday. I arrived here to live on 1st of October 2014. I'm pleased I came. Largely.