London, Sydney, New York, Toronto... Tower Hamlets

Well, well, well. Only a month or so since I dropped by to witter about cooking and cocktails and hangovers and it's like a different life.

First of all, I'm going to be on the BBC World Service tonight! And possibly on Friday too! Details are here.

I've moved house, to a beautiful two-bedroom flat in Mile End with floor to ceiling bay window, unfeasibly large bathroom and lovely kitchen. I'm finally cooking on a gas cooker which makes me and my wok very happy, though we don't have a freezer so batch cooking is no longer an option. The trees in this area are beautiful - there's a grand old sycamore, a crabapple loaded with red fruit, holly bushes and lots of others I can't name. All very lovely and we're enjoying the chance to set up home together after years of renting furnished places. We're going to buy a sofa. It's all so very married.

What's also very married is changing my name. I resisted taking my husband's name for various reasons and have so far kept my maiden name, but have gradually become very keen on double-barrelling. I did some research and looks like I'm going to have to complete my name change by deed poll rather than via my marriage certificate which is pretty cool. Just as well, as I haven't a clue where the marriage certificate is and we famously put it in the bin on our wedding night. I'm tempted to add a few middle names in the process as it will cost the same amount and I'm unlikely to have another chance to do this... but all I've come up with are things like Burpy McBunface and Fat March, Hollow Legs, Huffy T, Aloysius Hero and such. Let the form filling begin!

I've made myself sick on cherries, gin and wine at a dinner party in Earl's Court, which was a rather grim way to end a fantastic night out, catching up with friends, friends of friends and new people who have since become friends. Thankfully, I survived the looooooong taxi journey home and was quite ladylike about the whole business in my own home. It's been a gin-heavy summer so far with lots of gin-sponsored events and excessive gin drinking in my own time; I haven't touched a drop of mother's ruin since.

I've had my parents sister visit me in Mile End and in typical hysterical fashion, had a very fun day. True East End pie, mash, jellied eels with mugs of tea on Roman Road then a bizarre attempt to drag an immensely heavy travel cot and antique Breville sandwich toaster home through the rain which almost saw the end of my dad and sister. Back at the flat, we had Chinese tea and uninspiring cakes from a chain bakery; mum demonstrated some Bollywood dancing she had seen in Trafalgar Square, turning out her barefeet like a ballerina imitating a limping crab while dad dismantled a wheelie suitcase of mine and used plastic bags, string and elastic bands to lash the travel cot to it.

Once the rain stopped, we crossed the road to wait for a bus that completely failed to arrive until mum remembered the polystyrene cup full of jellied eels she had left in my fridge. The second I got back on to the street with the eels, the bus arrived and I ended up running the length of the bendy bus while my mum dashed around on the other side, panicking and shouting "Throw it! Throw it!" while my dad and sister hauled the damned travel cot on board. Parents, eels, travel cot, parents and siblings got home safely. I went back to the flat with my nerves slightly frayed.

I've seen some interesting things at the Camden Fringe, and a beautiful, dreamy installation at Shoreditch Church.

I'm currently listening to old cassette tapes that have resurfaced because of the move. I made myself hoarse singing along to Judy Garland, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra this morning and this afternoon, it's been 1997 all over my living room as I've played old favourites like Suede, Heather Nova, Drugstore, Beck, Luscious Jackson.

And that's all for now. How are you?

Dinner Is Served

I've joined Facebook.

I've drank cocktails here and danced in some godawful nightclub along King's Road until 3.30am, then stood around hungover and unwell, for once not enjoying a tall glass of free Hendricks and tonic the following day here. I was bucked up by the friendly crowd and silly antics of the tweedy competitors and then had a far more comforting Sunday, food shopping and having coffee with friends and family, then having a hysterical mental breakdown in a cab, in a traffic jam, only a few metres away from the theatre where we should have been picking up tickets and a cool pre-concert drink five minutes ago. The psychological snap, 'with a sound like a breadstick being broken at a drowsy picnic' was lovingly soothed by Philip Glass and the Smith Quartet and the warm hand of my husband holding mine in the dark.

And I've been cooking.

We had a special guest joining us for dinner last Monday and as cherries are in season, and I've not had much experience in cooking duck, I thought it was time to combine the two in a grown-up, proper menu. So... three duck breasts, a bag of wild samphire, a pound of luscious fresh cherries, a pile of sweet potatoes, three bulbs of fennel, a head of romaine lettuce, Turkish rose water, baklava and fresh fat strawberries were all combined over a laborious but loving 48 hours to create this:

Aperitifs: Organic elderflower cordial with sparkling spring water; wild Norfolk samphire and spicy poppadums
Main course: Seared duck breast with fresh cherry sauce, crisped sweet potato domes, braised fennel and romaine lettuce
Dessert: baklava, rose water strawberries, scented creme fraiche with organic Bath honey, Portuguese coffee
Wine list: sparkling spring water, La Bicyclette French shiraz, 2005

Over the last weekend, I've been doing some more cooking, for the relaxation but also for the experimentation and challenge to myself. Late on Saturday night, I was making vegetable bean burgers so I could comfort my various hangovers with a burger and chips without resorting to any horrendous fast food outlet.

And most of Sunday was spent making the following:
28 samosas using wheat tortilla wraps - the idea is to stick them in my freezer then bake them when I want them. No frying and the tortilla wraps make very pleasantly crisp shells around a moist and tasty lamb, potato and onion filling
3 batches of lentil and spinach curry - plenty of iron, all the B vitamins and vitamin C with little salt or fat, lots of fresh flavours
2 batches of beef rendang - with more fresh ginger than normal so I expect it to be sharper and more interesting than how it normally turns out
steamed nori and minced pork rolls with water chestnuts, steamed brown rice, steamed sliced greens with ginger and a fillet of unidentified fish my mother gave me for my freezer a few weeks ago

Howzat?