Some thoughts on Natural Family Planning

I wrote most of this a week ago, saved it in order to add more, but can't seem to get around to it. So it's either post now or never. Just some of my thoughts on natural family planning:

I'm 36 weeks pregnant--it's crazy! I just had my first meeting tonight (I was meeting with a lovely woman who teaches NFP on a regular basis until pregnancy put things on hold. Having her support and advice has been crucial in learning how to listen to my body, and I am quite grateful that she is willing to spend the time teaching people) about stuff post-baby, namely getting back into the swing of the regular natural family planning routine once the baby is born and the breast-feeding hormones are making everything a bit complex.

So far our success with NFP has been 100%, meaning pregnancy when we wanted it and no pregnancy before that. It wasn't until it worked both ways that I could be certain it was the method and not just a problem with fertility.

NFP is a subject I mostly enjoy discussing with fellow Catholic friends, as they tend to have a similar outlook about it. It's not just about not using birth control and ending up with ten children because God keeps letting you get pregnant, and it's also not about using pseudo or antiquated methods (like the rhythm method) based on generalizations about fertility. In my experience it's about being in tune with what your body is telling you. I wouldn't say it's always easy, because it involves patience, organisation, and being open to change (your body can change its fertility pattern without you planning for it to change..and that bit of uncertainty that comes with each month means you can't just establish a pattern and then follow it forever). But I find it incredibly empowering to be in tune with my body and to feel a little more in control of the situation than just putting faith in manufactured contraceptives. I love knowing that I'm making decisions that are working with what my body is telling me, rather than trying to work against it.

People put so much faith in contraceptives that they tend to think anything natural is automatically going to fail. Sure, it can fail, especially depending on the accuracy of the method used and the accuracy of the person using the method... but condoms break and people conceive while using hormone-changing types of contraception. It's like they taught us in Junior High -- if you want to 100% avoid getting pregnant, don't have sex.

Having a large family doesn't mean that NFP doesn't work, just as having a small family doesn't mean that the people are using contraceptives. As one of my friends pointed out, people just assume that the only reason Catholics have more than two kids is because they don't use birth control, rather than assuming that some people might actually want more than two kids! As a Catholic I take the promise I made to be open to life very seriously. It doesn't mean turning myself into a baby factory, but it does mean recognizing that all life is a precious gift and that the ability to create that life is not something to be taken for granted, squandered, or messed around with.

Having support is crucial, and I wouldn't like to give the impression that because it's natural it's the easiest thing in the world. Personally, I haven't found it to be a great difficulty thus far, but I am also very organised and for the first 28 years of my life have been blessed with a cycle that has little variation. So I'm not exactly working against the odds. But it's precisely for people with irregular cycles that it gives it's greater gift, because it's often turned to by couples who are struggling to conceive so that they can figure out when, and for how long, ovulation is occurring. Being able to meet with someone on a fairly regular (every three months or so, I think) basis as I was getting the hang of things helped answer a lot of my questions and helped keep me on track so that I didn't start making assumptions about my body instead of looking at the evidence. It also meant that when we made the decision to start trying for a child we had someone ready to support us if we faced any difficulties. Teaching myself the method on my own would have been really stressful and it would have been difficult to tell if I were applying the 'rules' correctly. It's nice to have someone to weigh in with their opinion.

I don't know how it's going to work going forward, when my body throws me a new loop of regaining it's cycle after pregnancy and during breastfeeding. We may end up with a surprise, or things may just continue as planned. But I'm kind of excited to get to know my body through a new phase of life. Learning about fertility and cycles and things like that just make me marvel at the wonder of the human body, this creation made in the image of God... we really are fearfully and wonderfully made!

DC & New York: VIII

All too soon our last day in America arrived. Fortunately we’d booked a late night flight, which meant that we could still do some sightseeing that day. We spent the morning packing up our things and then went to Veselka for breakfast as our farewell to New York treat. Any place where I can get french toast (made with challah bread) with a side of kielbassa for breakfast is alright by me! As an anniversary present David bought me the Veselka cookbook. And in typical David form he decided to make a witty comment about how it was really a gift for himself, since I’d be the one doing the cooking. This led to the man behind the counter laughing, exclaiming “DUDE, I can’t BELIEVE you said that” and then informing every passing waiter of my husband’s wit. I refrained from hitting David with the book ;)

After breakfast we went back to Midtown East to do our last bit of sightseeing/shopping. This led to a very long time spent in Argosy Books, where David finally hit his motherload and ended up with a bag full of books (we snuck it onto the plane as ‘reading material for the flight’). Then it was off to Dylan’s Candy Bar, where we managed to cross most of our souvenir-gift-list off in one stop, including a gourmet dog treat for my dad's dog. It’s a multi-story shop with each floor devoted to candy. In fact the floors themselves are clear and full of candy.

We walked by Bloomingdales every day.

From there we ambled over to FAO Schwartz, but after Dinosaur Hill and Dylan’s Candy Bar it failed to impress us so we bought a giant cupcake to share and then wandered around Central Park, enjoying the scenery and the chance to rest our legs. I wish that we’d been able to spend more time there, but it’s a giant park and time was flying at an alarming rate.

We were back at the flat by 5pm to pick up our luggage, say our farewells, and head off to JFK. I like being ridiculously early for flights, because I hate the stress that comes with rushing, but we made really good time which meant that we were able to enjoy Tim Horton’s coffee at a little cafe by the airport shuttle train. It wasn’t as good as in Canada, of course, but we can’t get it at all in England so it was a most worthwhile stop. Then it was a short ride to the airport and the regular hassle of checking in and waiting and more checking and more waiting...

Neat building on our way back to the flat

I let David have the aisle seat and my generosity was rewarded as the seat next to me remained vacant for the flight. Sitting for 7hrs on an airplane is less fun than usual while pregnant, so I was glad of the extra legroom. The best surprise of all for our return journey was how easy it was to get through Immigration at Heathrow. Because I have a visa which allows me to work, I normally have some level of questioning at the Immigration desk, and in my experience the border guards at Heathrow are the most terrifying when it comes to random questions on policy which you a) should know the answer to or b) know the new answer to while the person questioning you only knows the old answer. But this time they took one look at my visa, asked me where my husband was (next booth over, ma’am), and then waved me through. I suspect they’ve been given sensitivity training for the Olympics. Either that or 10 days in America is less suspicious than 21 days in Canada.

After an absurdly long bus ride we ended up back at home. It was so nice to be back in our flat. But we had less than 24 hours to settle in before the first of David's family arrived for their visits.

Eating Through the Pantry – II

Another week, another challenge issued to myself. This week’s shop has involved quite a bit of tweaking. For the first time ever we are having our groceries delivered, as I can no longer carry everything myself on the bus, and it takes a good portion of the day to go into town and get them (we usually get distracted by books and coffees). Since we don’t have a car and will soon have a newborn, it seemed like this would be the best way to go and I’m glad to start trialing it before the baby comes.

The online ordering bit has gone well. What I really like is that I can adjust my order until late the night before, which means that anything I no longer need can be removed. It also means I have a really good idea of what the bill is going to be before I pay, and with a very expensive shop this week I have managed to cut about £10 off the Sainsburys bill with last minute adjustments and substitutions. Besides, being at home for an hour (of my choosing) is much easier than the 1.5-2 hours it takes if we go into town, and means I can get other stuff done and stay relaxed.

Anyway, this week’s challenge ingredients: a packet of taco seasoning and about a cup of puntalette (it’s a pasta that’s like orzo):

Monday: BBQ ribs, orzo pilaf with rosemary & lemon, and corn on the cob:

I purchased the meat at Tesco's as part of a 2 for 5 deal, and it came ready to cook. The corn was delivered with our groceries on Saturday, and everything used in the orzo recipe came from the pantry. So the only things that I needed to purchase for this meal were the things I have to purchase every week, namely fresh meat and veg. 

Verdict: Delicious! It was also really quick to make and there was no prep required which was particularly good news tonight as I had an ultrasound at the hospital and didn't get home until 6pm. I modified the orzo recipe slightly, by cutting out the salt (since I used salted butter) and by using dried rosemary instead of purchasing fresh. I also used a cup of orzo and increased the water by 1/4 cup. When it was fresh off the stove it was a little like risotto, although by the time I had everything served all the excess liquid had been soaked up. The butter is really important, as it gives a good creamy flavor to the dish. That said, I refuse to have margarine or any other processed oil butter substitutes in the house so having to use butter wasn't a big deal. The flavor wasn't overpowering so it made a great side to the ribs, and it's an nice alternative to potatoes or rice. 

Thursday: tacos with salsa, sour cream, and guac; oven roasted Bird's Eye garden peas:

Tacos end up being a bit of an expense since we don't eat enough Mexican food to keep all the necessary ingredients on hand,  but they are also a quick and easy mid-week supper. Due to some changes to the grocery list, I allowed a bit of a splurge in the form of spicy Old Elpaso salsa instead of making my own. However I did make my own guacamole, as I only recently found a recipe for guac that tastes as good as the one you mix from the packet (it is so hard to get good guacamole out here). The oven roasted peas were an improvisation, since the pepper I had meant to use had turned moldy between the humidity & rain this week. I did learn that in oven-roasting the peas, from frozen, they taste as close to garden-fresh as possible. When I boil them they tend to lose their sweetness, but this method seemed to trap the moisture in and they were delicious! I am not usually brand-loyal, but the Bird's Eye ones we get here really are delicious.

As for the grocery bill, we unfortunately went over budget this week despite my best efforts to the contrary. Partially to blame is because I chose to make tacos with the taco seasoning, which required buying all the extras for fixings. Mostly to blame, however, is that we ran out of a bunch of staples (plain flour, olive oil, dish soap etc) and I also have a fair bit of baking planned this week (2 types of pizza doughs, Nanaimo bars, biscuits...) and that always means having to buy larger quantities of eggs and flour. We also have planned to eat at home every night this week, and we had our phone bill on this week’s shop, so that always makes it a bit much. Still, we try to keep our grocery bill to no more than £10/day for food for two people, excluding last minute snack purchases and we ended up below target for food.

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This guacamole recipe is the only one that I've ever found to work, aside from ones where you use a packet of mix and add it to the avacados. Ones using fresh ingredients never seem to get the same depth of flavor, and the tomatoes always end up too runny and the onion is always too sharp and the garlic is overpowering. But this recipe tends to balance nicely, and it even worked on my less-than-ripe avacado (I used my food chopper to blend everything together, so it was more of a diced & seasoned avacado topping than a mashed guacamole). I always have the seasonings in my pantry, aside from salsa, but normally if we're having something that wants guacamole we're also having salsa so it's doesn't require a bunch of extra purchasing.

Storecupboard Guacamole

 

• Avocados (number according to the size of the crowd)
• About 1/8 tsp seasoning salt per avocado
• About 2 tbsp salsa per avocado
• About ¾ tsp garlic powder per avocado
• About ½ tsp onion powder
• About ½ tsp lemon or lime juice per avocado
• Hot sauce to taste

 Mash avacado(s) and mix in other ingredients.

DC & New York: VII

Our last full day in New York began with a trip out to Liberty Island, which meant we had to stick to a sort of schedule as I had been clever enough to book tickets in advance and thus jump the queue. Getting onto the boat was horrible—a combination of US fears of terrorism in the extreme perhaps coupled with a desire to make the immigrant experience feel authentic... My shirt set off the metal detectors (it clearly had metal on it) and the next thing I knew a very rude security guard had confiscated my glasses while another one started barking orders at me. This in itself wouldn’t have been a problem, but I am at best functionally ‘blind’ without my glasses, and it means that if they’re off I can’t hear well in a noisy area as none of the noise distinguishes itself as words directed at me. So I ended up shouting at the security personnel and I must’ve been a little louder and more panicked sounding than they were because they restored my vision. It wasn’t the most promising start to the day, as being left vulnerable like that is never pleasant.

Fortunately things perked up as soon as we got on the boat. A nice harbour cruise with a little bit of sun was just the thing to put me in good spirits, and we managed to get seats which was particularly lucky. The ride to Liberty Island was lovely, and then we had a nice walk around the statue and some fun gazing back at the Manhattan skyline. Once we’d seen all that we could see, we decided to skip on the Ellis Island part of the boat journey as it was beginning to rain and instead headed back to the city for further exploration.

Approaching Lady Liberty

View of Manhattan from Liberty Island

At the foot of the Statue

More of the skyline

A boat similar to the one we were on.

One last look.

We spent most of the afternoon wandering around Chinatown and Little Italy. David wanted to see the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, so we took that in, as well as heading down Wall Street and window shopping at Tiffany’s. The Tiffany’s experience was great, because we were both wearing our old gortex jackets due to the rain and the staff clearly suspected that we were just touristing in their shop but couldn’t tell 100%. To be fair, we were pseudo-serious buyers, only I didn’t find anything I loved enough to purchase within the limits of what I could afford. I was inevitably captured by some beautiful diamond studded animal pendants, but at over $1000 each I couldn’t justify it, and nothing else that I could afford seemed worth it after that. Alas! 

New York Stock Exchange

Statue on Wall Street

At the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art. This is an illicit photo, as you're not allowed to take pictures inside. But look, it's Batman! Also, I am certainly not a comic book reader and my appalling ignorance meant that I was banned from speaking...

For lunch that day we went to Lombardi’s, hailed as American’s first pizzeria. It was about as fine-dining as pizza goes, and with David’s love of the stuff I had to let him call the shots for ordering. So we split a delicious caesar salad to start, and then ordered a large pie, and washed it all down with Italian sodas. It was expensive and cash only, thus using up most of our remaining Yankee gold, but totally worth it. We were sitting next to a baseball signed by Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, and the photographs of all sorts of old Hollywood stars decked the walls. Because it took up most of our remaining cash and because it was so good, it ended up being our last NYC pizza experience. We didn’t want to lose sight of the magnificence of a good pie with the the good but questionable cheaper slicers available on every corner. In fact it pretty much ensured that we swore off delivery pizza when we got to the UK and now mostly only have it if we make it ourselves. See, it was just that good. 

Photo evidence, should his love of pizza ever be called into question.

It was a happy meal.

A vanilla Italian soda. So good! There was a cherry on top but it got eaten...

In the evening, several hours of window shopping and espresso later, we met up with our kind hostess for dinner. We had a really enjoyable meal, particularly as she’s one of the most interesting people that I’ve ever spoken with. Not only could she tell us fun stories about David’s mum, but she also has a really interesting career with the UN and so the conversation was never dull. Her generosity towards us was evident all through our trip, and I admit that I felt quite touched that someone who didn’t even know me would be so kind.

DC & New York: VI

Day two in New York began much like day one – I convinced David to make me breakfast while I looked over our itinerary for the day. Breakfast this day included some of our delicious leftover peppered cheese. It was great.

After our relaxing start to the morning, we took off for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As we’d already ‘done’ European art in DC, and can see it any time we wish, we decided to focus our time on their American art exhibits. I felt a bit like over-privileged euro-trash being able to pass up on the opportunity to see the Met’s ancient/medieval art collection, but it seemed pretty stupid to come all the way to America and not see the best of what they had. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any photos inside the galleries, but I found the scores of period rooms to be the highlight of my visit there. It’s so much more interesting to see beautiful pieces of furniture and plate in context. The Tiffany collection was also fantastic.

One of the few things we could take pictures of -- a beautiful display by Tiffany

We devoted our afternoon to more sightseeing/shopping. We headed back to the East Village (we actually spent most of our time out this way, which was totally unplanned) to look in a few more book/comic stores (like Forbidden Planet). We also went to a quaint little toyshop called Dinosaur Hill, which was part of my quest to buy the baby its first toy while we were on vacation. On our way back to the subway, David spied a Ukrainian diner so we decided to pop in for our afternoon tea. After a mere five minutes in Veselka, we discovered it was going to be the place that ensured the East Village was where we’d spend the most time. I think I could have eaten there every day if possible. Not wanting to overdo it, however, we decided to stick to coffee/hot chocolate and split a dessert. We tried kutya, a sort of sticky Ukranian pudding made with wheatberries, nuts, and various other delicious things. 

En route to the subway

curves!

We had tickets to see the opera L’elisir d’amore at the Met, and decided that since we were so full from lunch and our afternoon tea it would make the most sense to pick up food to make at the flat once the opera was finished. So we journeyed to midtown West and the kosher deli Zabars. En route David spotted a bookstore across the street, which led to me finding a Southern cookbook from a place called Lynchburg... yup. After I hauled David out of the store we went to experience the treats of Zabars, which for a kosher deli had a surprising amount of shellfish, pork products, and meat stuffed with dairy. We bought some sweet potato knishes to snack on at the opera, and then raced down to Lincoln Square so that we could get there in good time.

This was our second epic opera adventure for the year, which makes up for last year’s complete lack of opera. Our household is divided on which was better, a debate which combines both individual musical tastes and artistic sensibilities. I preferred our experience at the Royal Opera, David thus preferred the Met! I must agree with him that the set was beautiful—a wonderful dreamscape of pastels that made one happy to look at. And this opera was a comedy, so we were kept well-entertained. I was glad to have seen it, as it is a lesser known one. My main quibble with the Met is that the surtitles appear in the back of the chair in front, making them damned hard to read if you’re also trying to watch the stage. But the music, the performance, and the set were all spot on. Having now seen operas at two of the world’s big opera houses this year makes it a very good one for us, and we are both feeling quite spoiled.

After the opera, disaster! Due to engineering works (as they say in London), we couldn’t take the subway back to our neighbourhood. It seemed as if every train we found was going to bypass our station. A journey of 15 minutes soon spread into 60, and eventually we got as near as we could and just walked the rest of the way. I was really thankful that we had picked up a bunch of reheatable food at Zabar’s, since I was starving by the time we got in and wasn’t handling the whole not knowing how to get home thing that well. It felt so good to just relax with hot food, Seinfeld playing in the background, and start the great debate about which opera experience was better.

Eating through the Pantry - I

My cousin Tara is an idea person, which in this context means that I read her blog and get great ideas. Several months back, she decided to have a big clean-out of her pantry by using it as her main source of meal planning. I thought this was a great idea, since my experience of pantries seems to be that they get over-stuffed with half-filled bags of beans and packet mixes etc. Every time I move to a new city I find myself throwing out tonnes of perfectly edible dry goods, because the bags are all half-empty and there’s no one to give them to. It’s such a waste.

My problem is that I like to constantly try new recipes—otherwise I get bored. But this doesn’t tend to be particularly conducive to using up the remnants of other recipes I’ve tried, and it can also get a bit expensive. So I’ve issued myself a challenge of using up pantry leftovers for at least two meals a week, until the cupboard is looking a little clearer. As the point of this is to use up stuff, not buy more, it means finding recipes that work with what I have in there, instead of buying more of the feature ingredient to make up the amount required in the recipe. I know that this is all second nature to people like my mother, but I’ve been quite lucky in that I rarely need to worry about my grocery bill as we give ourselves quite an ample budget. As we both enjoy cooking, it means a lot of recipe trying, instead of storecupboard rooting. I think this definitely falls into the firstworldproblem/iliveinacity category of evils!

This week’s challenge ingredients: a packet of Southwestern marinade and around 250g of organic haricot beans:

Monday: southwestern marinated chicken wings, Tuscan white bean salad w/Italianvinaigrette, and garlic bread:

I only had to purchase the chicken and the vegetables/cheese for the salad (which formed part of this week’s vegetable & cheese budget—I love that we have a cheese budget!). Everything else was either made from scratch thanks to my cupboards, or was already chillin' out in the freezer.

Verdict: the chicken wings were delicious. I bought a small pack of salt & pepper ones and added the marinade on top, which meant there were really nice undertones to the flavor. The salad was pretty good although I thought the dressing was a bit heavy on the oil side and to be honest I'm not a huge fan of haricot beans (the beans I used were leftover from a bean dip I'd tried making. Usually I only like haricots in Boston baked beans...). But if you do like bean salads, it's a good one to try! Later: I had some of the bean salad, without spinach, for lunch later in the week and it was delicious! The bean mixture had soaked in the dressing for a few days and it was really tasty. I'm not going to keep the recipe in my personal folder, but it certainly improves with time and if you hate spinach then you could definitely omit it for more of a traditional bean salad.

 

Wednesday: southwestern marinated pork-loin chops, potatoes, and corn on the cob:

Verdict: As far as speed goes, which is what I really care about on nights when I have to make supper after work, this was great. I could marinate the meat the night before, and the marinade was already mixed from earlier in the week. Then it was just a simple matter of ensuring I made everything according to their cooking times--so potatoes first, then meat, and then the corn. It all tasted good, and what isn't pictured is the homemade seasoning salt that I used on the corn and potatoes. As for taste, since the chops were unplanned (I'd wanted steak but it was too expensive) I ended up getting them at the grocery store, rather than from our Butcher and you really can taste the difference. This is why we are happy to pay a few pence more to get happy meats when it matters. The corn also wasn't as sweet as it should be, but it's often hit and miss with produce. Anyway, it was a filling and quick mid-week supper, and that made it a win in my books.

What isn't pictured are the leftovers--I made extra potatoes, and David accidentally ate half of the bean mixture for lunch one day, so I took what was left of the beans & potatoes and turned that into a side dish to have with chicken kievs for lunch one day. It also freed up the remaining spinach from the bean salad to have for a vegetable later in the week.

As for the grocery bill verdict, we didn’t come in under-budget this week but we were bang on target. Considering I managed to sneak £10 worth of baby things onto the bill, plus extras that weren’t budgeted for (like unplanned dessert buying and my last minute splurge on chicken breasts from the butcher), I think we did really well.

DC & New York: V

The first thing I noticed in New York was the noise. All the negative reviews about our DC hotel on Trip Adviser had complained that it was so noisy, being near a railway and a highway. But we’d gone from the outskirts of DC to mid-town Manhattan, and the noise was definitely more noticeable. Fortunately we are used to living in cities, and the night-long sounds of traffic and garbage collectors were not much worse than the constant bin-collecting rumble of the Cambridge garbage men who tend to favour 7am as their time for making excessive amounts of noise on their tri-weekly collections. So, I slept like a baby and didn’t wake up until the sun was streaming into the bright apartment.

We got up later than we had been, but still at a fairly decent time for vacationers. David kindly obliged to make breakfast for me while I did some stretches to try to loosen up my pulled muscles. Then I got to feast on fried eggs and American bacon. My North American friends perhaps have no idea just how significant this is. English bacon, whether regular (ie back bacon) or streaky (ie ‘american’) tastes nothing like the bacon we get back home. This isn’t to say that it’s bad, but it’s cured differently, cut differently, and uses more salt. To be able to breakfast on thin and crispy, melt-in-your-mouth pieces of bacon (David is an expert bacon fryer), with some toasted rye bread and an egg fried just the way I like it was perfection. It was also great to have real cooked food again, after four days of hotel “everything white flour” breakfasts.

Eventually we packed up and went out. The plan for the day was to do some sightseeing, followed by meeting up with a friend of ours from the University of Toronto. I learned quickly that my time navigating the DC metro put me in an excellent position to figure out how to buy tickets for the New York subway. But the NYC Subway is a completely different beast to any mass transit system I have ever been on. I naively assumed that it would be no worse than trying to get around London via the tube, which really isn’t that bad once you identify the colour of your line. However, in New York I had to contend with colours, numbers, and letters. So it took us about an hour longer than it should have to get to Coney Island.

Near the end of our journey.

Apparently the amusement park is right behind me, but the glare from the sun was too much to get it in the photo.

The wind was working itself into a temper, so our trip to the island was a little disorienting. Our first stop was Nathan’s Famous, because it seemed like a shame to come all the way to New York without trying a hotdog, and where better to get one of those odious things from than the place that first made them. It was too windy to eat outside, so we huddled in the overcrowded food joint, eating our hotdogs and finding them palatable. I really hate hotdogs, and Nathan’s certainly didn’t win me back to the dark side (then again, if Costco’s kosher dog can’t win me back then nothing can) but they weren’t bad. If you like that sort of thing. Although I think the Orange Julius bacon & cheese dog which my parents used to buy me on Sundays is a superior dog.

We took our chips down to the beach, wandering by the ‘abandoned’ amusement park on the way and watching the wind whip up little tornadoes of dust and garbage. David kept calling for the Warriors, but none of them came. Then we just sat and enjoyed the sand, wind, and water for a bit. We don’t live that far from the coast in England, but it’s far enough away that we never get there. So it was really nice to be back at the ocean.

 

 

We strolled along the beach, looking at shells and dodging the sand storms, until the wind got too much and we had to retreat to the boardwalk. There is a large Russian community in Brighton Beach, along the boardwalk, so we went down there to see if we could score any delicious treats. David noticed that there seemed to be a lot of Russian pensioners sitting out on doorstops, watching the world go by, so we marked it down as a possible activity to keep my parents occupied in their golden years. Then we came to the crowded streets of the Brighton markets, which were a jumble of everything—groceries, Russian food, cash for gold, nail salons... We ducked into a Russian toy shop and looked at strange Russian speaking toys (I was tempted to buy one for the baby but David was a bit worried about the soviet-era materials) and then went into an Eastern European deli, where we scored some gingery honey cookies (from Israel, not Russia, alas!) for the long trip back to Manhattan.

Our afternoon was spent wandering around Greenwich Village and the East Village. Some stops were planned, and others were impromptu. The one place I was set on going to was Murray’s Cheese, where we wandered around the aisles and indulged our foodie senses. It wouldn’t have done to be overly greedy, and pregnancy has somewhat limited my gastronomic delights, so we restrained ourselves to a sizable chunk of peppered sheep’s milk cheese (so good!) and pretzel buns.

By this time it was getting quite late in the day, so if my memory serves correctly (and it may not as we kept having to make last minute changes) we began our walk to The Strand. The Strand is this amazing used and antiquarian bookstore which takes up at least four stories and is a good place to drop David off at for an afternoon. Being seasoned book collectors, we went straight to the top floor to scope out their antiquarian and rare books. By this time my body was ready for a rest and so I spent an hour or so sitting in a cozy leather chair while David slowly made his way around the shelves. David has an uncanny knack for book collecting, and as long as he knows which authors I’m interested in he always manages to find something special for me if there is something special to be found. This time it was a signed copy of one of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s novel The Firebrand (she may be more familiar to some as the author of the Mists of Avalon). This was a huge find, as the author is no longer living and her more main-stream popularity never really took off until Mists of Avalon, meaning that affordable signed copies are few and far between. Once David had finished browsing the top floor we had just enough time to run through the fiction/sci-fi/fantasy sections downstairs. For the first time in my life I found myself actually facing an abundance of books by the authors I’m collecting. Difficult decisions were made, but in the end I emerged victorious with some more Zimmer Bradley and also a novel by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (I can almost never find her books in the stores). The trip to The Strand is of note for one other reason—David’s fairly certain that this is the first time that I’ve purchased more books than he has!

When we left the bookstore it was time to meet up with our Will, a good friend and fellow PIMS committee member from our U of T days. Will took us out to Astoria, where he lives, and we got to meet his roommate and hung out at his place chatting for an hour or so. It was just like old times, except there was no wine involved! I love friendships where you can meet up after three years and it’s like nothing’s changed. Then he took us to this Indian place where we had a delicious, and very spicy, curry meal. I ordered the vindaloo, which various waiters kept trying to convince me out of having. But I stuck with it. And damn, was it ever hot. I ended up just fishing the meat out of the sauce. Still, I’m glad I stuck with it—yes, about as hot as I could handle, but so worth the pain because it had a good depth of flavour behind the heat and it’s just so rare to get good spicy food in England. For starters we all had a curried butternut squash soup, and I also indulged with a mango lassi. Love curry!

All too soon, it was time to say goodnight. After many assurances that we wouldn’t likely get mugged on the subway, Will dropped us off and I navigated us back to Manhattan where we spent the last hour of the day watching Seinfeld episodes on the TV and making comments about watching shows set in New York while in New York. Not geeky at all.