We have been back for a month. It had been real busy what with V going to school and getting on without live-in help. I would be lying if I said it was easy, the apartment's big and the kid and dogs take up a lot of time and attention especially their feeding and grooming. Finally, with some organisation and discipline, and plenty of farming out of jobs to robots and professionals, I am down to about 2-3 hours of daily domestic drudge which means I can now hope to reclaim some of my normal routine of web-loafing, crafts, French and exercise but blogging will still continue to be erratic for a few more weeks.
The weather turned very cold last night. I pulled out a heavy shawl from the cupboard, put on socks, filled up the water bottle and plugged in the heaters. Other people's buildings have central heating, ours has not kicked in yet and probably won't until husband and the other tenants start complaining to the building manager.
I feel like cooking cold-weather foods these days, such as the pork stew in the above image. It was from a dinner we attended at husband's colleague's home a few months ago. His Japanese mother in law cooked a beautiful meal of grilled aubergines with miso paste, steamed prawns with seaweed salad, pickled cucumbers and that delicious stew of pork, root vegetables and hard boiled eggs in a soy broth. What will we find in the market tomorrow? Can't wait!
