Mumford & Sons

The highlight of this week was seeing Mumford & Sons at The Enmore. Last year their single Little Lion Man was voted no. 1 in Triple J's Hottest 100 (a well known indie radio station here in Australia) and the theatre was packed with lots of very excited fans. The band did not disappoint - there are 4 of them in their early 20s and they are real musicians wandering around the stage picking up various instruments and playing them amazingly well. What I found particularly endearing is that despite their fame they come across as being genuinely humble. I've attached a very short clip which I hope gives you some idea of the atmosphere. I was very lucky because I was actually attending a work conference in the City during the week so I was able to go from the conference to the theatre and then back to the hotel again - I felt like a real grown-up!

We found out during the week that Ali, Jess and Dan have booked their flights to Sydney for Christmas which is very exciting. I have already started planning menus, activities, sleeping arrangements etc. It will be fantastic to have a big family christmas with Robert and Claire too!

On Friday I caught up with my friend Zoe and her 2 children Sam and Bronte. The children played beautifully whilst Zoe and I sat and gossiped in the sunshine - we have only recently discovered that we both lived in Singapore round about the same time and that her mother is very good friend with The Peacocks whose daughter Andrea was one of my best friends - such a small world! It was only once we realised we hadn't seen the kids for about 15 minutes that we went searching for them and found them all swimming in the sea, in their clothes, in a temperature of no more than 18 degrees!!

We had a quiet weekend with lots of cooking on my part - I'm slowly working my way through the favourite recipes from Books 1, 2 & 3 of "Books for Cooks" which is my favourite shop in Portobello and possibly the world - a shop dedicated purely to cook books with a test kitchen in the back - heaven! Two weeks ago I discovered a Carrot, Ginger and Honey soup which one could only describe as superlative and this week I'm trying the Beef Tagine with prunes which is filling the kitchen with the most amazing aromas as I type. Continuing the food theme we went to John and Leanne's for dinner on Saturday night and John made "Drunken Chicken" which was one of the favourite Masterchef dishes from the recent series and I now know why - it was sensational and will be faithfully copied into Tess' cook book which is a book I am making for her of all my favourite recipes (and hers!) which I will present to her when she leaves home.