VIVA ITALIA
On Friday, Miss S and I went to the Viva Italia! exhibition. Ate lots of goodies and freebies. Alfa Romeo had a display area with two vintage models and three new ones.
There were two vintage Spiders with a new one, all three red. Beautiful cars. I was enjoying the aggressive front grilles. Ooooh and the new Spider was fitted out by Pininfarina!
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After parting with Miss S, I kept walking up Kensington High Street, up Kensington Church Street, all the way to Notting Hill Gate. I was looking for the new Whole Foods Market that supposedly opened on the high street, until after I returned home I found out that's not until summer.
I was surprised that Whole Foods has reached the UK. It started in Austin, Texas in the early 80s! No surprise that the world's largest organic/natural food retailer comes from Austin (if it had to be from TX), otherwise it would have been California.
Apparently they have a few outposts in London already called Wild n Fresh. I saw one in Camden today.
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FULL SPEED AHEAD
On Saturday, I went to see my favourite anonymous commenter, the former Delightful, to repeat what we did last year in his first new sporty car, only this time it was a Porsche 911 in electric blue. He is the boy with all the toys, I tell you.
But because it was so fast, the drive this year seemed shorter. We went over 100mph so many times I lost count, and the Porsche is so solid and grippy that you don't feel it and don't notice it unless you're staring a the speedometer. He might not like to hear it, but he drives just like I used to. Boy do I miss taking corners diagonally to the inside, and doing The Sweep on cars littering up the fast lane.
Guess the top speed we reached, busy British motorways allowing? 134mph. But don't tell anyone.
Since moving to St John's Wood, where one goes by every half hour, I have learned to recognise the big hollow grumble of a Porsche driving by. This car, when you hit that optimal speed just right, sounds like how the sweet spot on a tennis racquet feels....know what I mean? There's a sort of a long ping...which I first noticed with my Dad's car, only better.
We were back in the abbey town of St Albans, this time at a trendy restaurant where we shared a starter of corn cakes with fresh salsa and guacamole - well made, considering. F-D was very good and predicted that I would go for it, bless his cotton socks, so he ordered it.
For mains he had spaghetti with crab and chili, and I had the best cod ever. Moist, succulent, tender, and falling apart on a bed of bok choi, in a miso sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Then we went for another rather fast drive with the music cranked up. F-D thought Muse's Hysteria was a good fast drive track, so we played that a few times and I sang my heart out, though it didn't work so well going over bumps with sports suspension.
We ended up at the cinema in Finchley where we didn't like the lineup, so F-D suggested the O2 Centre near me, where we plumped for Ghost Rider and then when it was over I got the blame for choosing a bad film. He's such a cheery bugger. Finally we stopped at Sainsbury's and did a bit of shopping - well, I mentioned everything else so there is no point leaving that out.
Ghost Rider ... hm, the fiery bits were ok, but there were also scary bits. I jumped about 4 times and screamed twice. The Texas talk made me laugh a whole lot. "...you're purdy and all..." There were quite a few laugh out loud bits.
I just knew it was Texas as soon as I saw the open country with the short trees and the meadows of bluebells. If you've lived there, you never get it out of your system. No sirreee.
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Tomorrow, I am going to a seafood restaurant for my 2nd cousin's 6th birthday. We go there every year for birthdays, so it will be predictable. Adults, kids, food, toys. And an aunt who will ask me too many questions that I don't want to answer.
I had better end this on a better note:
Yes, the Porsche has hips!
