Days 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, and 130. Fifty Days To Go.

Days 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, and 130. Fifty Days to Go. Day 124. Tuesday. I got up just to do laundry. Yep. That is so exciting I know. Oh and I made cookies from some dough I had. I had one class that afternoon, and it was a demonstration class on different tuiles that can be used on our entremets dishes later on in the term. Chocolate cigars (rolled chocolate) and sugar syrup like things covered with seeds. Its crazy to think about how I will be making a dessert start to finish with fancy decorations at the end of the term. Never imagined doing that and trying not to think about it for as long as possible. Anyhow.....after class some of my old group went out for dinner at Wahaca (the phonetically challenged fusion Mexican restaurant). It turned into an unofficial birthday meal. I brought the chocolate chip cookies I had baked this morning for our dessert, and jokingly sang "happy birthday to me" as I passed around the cookies, which then turned the group into singing happy birthday. A few minutes later, the waitress came around with a plate of churros, with a candle in them and said, "Again, happy birthday...." and then the group sang again. It was rather funny to be sung to twice. It made my night, and I actually blew out a candle so I officially can move on from the birthday. After dinner, 6/9 dinner guests went to a pub for more talking, and drink watching. Seriously, an outsider would wonder how we all got together, we are all different cultures, backgrounds, and different dressing habits, but together we have fun. Day 125. Wednesday. No school. Talked to Angela (loved it! sorry I took up so much of your day) via FaceTime. Ran errands. Bought a binder at the office supply store, and tabs, and a whole punch. These things do not run cheap here. A 2 inch binder was $8. And that was on the cheap side. Stopped by the ATM, and the cell phone store to top up on my phone. Really exciting stuff. I headed to North End Road for some groceries as well. Seriously love the food stalls, one pound for sixteen carrots, one pound 6 bell peppers, one pound ten onions, three pints of cherry tomatoes for one pound... you get the idea. Good deals. Even better was at Iceland (an all freezer grocery store) that had Quorn veggie burgers (6) for one pound!! Yay! I made shepherds pie that afternoon. Meals for the week. Day 126. Thursday. No school. Decided to go on a walk down my favorite path along the Thames. I walked a route longer than I usually do, but it was nice to get out of the house, get some air, think, and exercise all at once. Came home and made marinara, and onion & pepper sandwiches with the veggie patties, and used my frozen ciabatta bread to complete the ensemble, sandwiches back into the freezer for meals for the weeks. Talked to Mel, made a sketch for my sugar sculpture, watched too much TV, and got stuff done. Day 127. Friday. Back to School. Back to early morning class. Back to being too tired too early. We had Chef Arizona with us. The king of sugar work at my school (he's competing next week as a matter of fact). We've had another chef with us all week (I cant remember my nickname for him right now.) So to have the master of all things sugar work with us was a bit alarming. However, he showed amazing patience with all of us, taught us how to work with sugar more than the other chef, and was kind during our misery. My classmates and I thought that this was our last time at a sugar sculpture, but we were informed on the contrary. We still have to do another sculpture and rose tomorrow. Great. Not. My sculpture turned out like something a kid would do if they were allowed to play with 330 degree farenheit sugar. I did not post it anywhere to show that catastrophe to the world. I was the last to get feedback, and all Chef Arizona said about it was 'Don't do an open eye [with a hole], just do a dollop of sugar instead. And change the bubble background to a darker color.' I wasn't happy with my sugar work nor his feedback because it wasn't that honest. I waited for everyone to leave before I said 'Chef, I know this could be improved by 200% but I don't know how, please give me some tips and help on how to make this better. Telling me to fix the eye and background are not going to help his thing be better.' I think [hope] he appreciates my honesty. He gave me some good advice, and with that I dumped my sugar piece into the garbage, and headed off to a quick lunch break before our next class, this time making blown sugar apples. I had seen previous classes last term coming out with full fruit baskets (bananas, apples, grapes) but we just made apples. Chef said that we weren't being graded on our fruit, so it was 'just for fun' and gave us some more time to practive our rose for tomorrow. I like blown sugar and pulled sugar more than poured sugar sculptures any day. I like to have a bit of control over my work, rather than pouring it and hoping for the best. After class I went with Delhi for dessert and a good long talk. Sure it was a Friday night, but we had class the next day. I was home by seven and in bed by nine. Day 128. Saturday. Last Day of Sugar. Hallelujah. Our first class was to make a pulled sugar rose for a skills test. I swear the first one I made in sugar class turned out a lot better than the last one. Oh well. Sugar goes on. After a quick break, we were back in the kitchen to make our poured sugar sculpture. Its always a gamble with poured sugar. Never know if its going to be too thin/too thick/burned/did not make enough or too much. I just hoped it would all turn out. And it turned out better than the day before, and I was glad it was over. Into the bin it went again, with all the other sculptures. They are so fragile, most wouldn't make it out the door. Had lunner with Delhi and Jordan at a Thai place before heading home. I took a nap and then woke up when I was supposed to be at India2's party. Whoops. I headed out for the hour tube ride, and discovered that I was the fourth to arrive, and I got there and 1 1/2 hours after start time. Of course people stared pilling in 3 hours after start time, I stayed for a bit, but did not want to miss the last tube ride home. Day 129. Sunday. The usual. The Sunday School story said that Jesus' birth story is 'the most boring story to tell in January because its been over talked so much in December.' Yep. He actually said that. He also likened Mary & Joseph not realizing that the left Jesus after a days journey to Kevin from Home Alone. Yep, nice intro to the New Testament. Took a little walk through the V&A museum on the way home, I had never been to the other side of the garden area, so I decided to go see what was over there, turns out it was a beautiful cafe with amazing looking food. Came home, and made french toast out of my brioche bread. Talked to Lisa. Talked to the parents. I worked on my portfolio, doing the write ups for the Sugar Work and Boulangerie sections. That felt like good progress. Day 130. Monday. No class. The previous day I had made plans with Kami (church friend) to go to an exhibit on the 'Wildlife Photographer of the Year' at the Natural History Museum. We went. It was amazing. Seriously. A.maz.ing. How do people capture these things? There was even two kids categories...5-11 year olds taking pictures I could never imagine. One ten year old asked his family to drop him off along the road (near their fishing sight) so that he could watch and see if any birds come out of the reeds (i know they have a name, not bamboo, but reeds) and take pictures of them. Turns out, the rare bird came out and he captured the moment. Kami (and I) were also impressed with the camera equipment list of the kids....fancy expensive and things I dream of owning. Another kid saw a bug in his grandma's garden, told her to not loose sight of the bug as he went and got his camera, two flashes, and a piece of paper (to put behind the bug on the twig) to capture the little creature. The adult pictures were so good. I don't know if I would have the patience to wait 75 days in a marsh to capture a flock of birds at the right moment, but someone did. Seriously great. We met another church friend for lunch, hit up some thrift stores before heading back home. Where I did ironing. Oh yeh. Ate a cookie. Even better. and tried to tidy my room. I walked to a book store to get some research from actual books (not the internet) on chocolate. Not much success there, but I did find one of my cookbooks I have back home (Smitten Kitchen -- I heart you) which inspired my dinner: crispy potato hash browns with fried eggs on top. I added cheese just for kicks. Totally not healthy, totally don't care, totally worth it. And now I sit and write when I need to be writing a research paper on Chocolate. If I want eight hours of sleep I better be off...... I have one last four day weekend ahead. Any recommendations for short trips can be sent to michelletarwater at gmail dot com. ttfn friends.