Shepherd's Pie/ Summer Socials

Summer is finally here, and it's sweltering.

In the Village, there's much excitement as it's Wimbledon Season!

Someone dressed as a huge tennis ball prowls the High Street, meeting and greeting.

photo credit:  Wimbledon Village Stables
***

Week 2 in the Village, I find myself extremely busy making new friends-

(So nice to meet you, Poppy and Chloe!  Thank you, for fizzies in your garden!)

And hosting visitors from afar.

Hello, North Londoners!  Lovely as always!  Do come again!

Welcome, V!  Please make yourself right at home!  A no-gluten diet?  No problem.  Stay the week?  Absolutely fine.  Need a ride back to school?  Surely.

Hello, College Roomie whom I last saw when I was, 22!  Walk everywhere in London?  Yah, I know, not the sort of lifestyle you do in SoCal!   God willing, see you again in, twenty years' time!

Everyone we make time for is special to us.  And then there's that gem of a friend, the one you trust fully on stage, and because you work well together, you want to go an inch further, whip out your shepherd's pie.

Leslie-  Tammy, we've been eating too much, since we've been here.  Please don't fuss.  I will be very happy with a salad!

Salad? (In Addition) Sure.  I'll pick that up from my wonderful Village store.

Bayley and Sage, 60 High Street

I like reading up, when researching a project.  When putting the flat together, I chanced upon something the architect Yohsio Taniguchi said.

He said-

Architecture is basically a container of something.  I hope they will enjoy not so much the teacup, but the tea.

I think of what he said, quite often these days.  My friends know I like entertaining.  Because I feel so blessed with so much, and especially to finally, finally, have a home again, I can't think of a better way of enjoying my home, than sharing it with those who matter.  I do hope they enjoy, my food.  I do hope they enjoy, the tea.

Tam's Shepherd's Pie:

-  minced beef

-  chopped onions, celery, carrots, tomatoes

-  teriyaki sauce

-  red wine

- pepper

-  thyme/any herb you find

-  beef/chicken stock

- potatoes

-  milk

-  shredded/grated cheese 

*  Cook up the beef with diced up vegetables and herb, add stock, add wine, add pepper, add teriyaki sauce.

*  Boil the potatoes, mash it up with milk

*  Put the beef mixture into a pie dish, put the mash over this, add the grated cheese at the very end.

*  Heat up the oven, put the dish in, and bake.  The pie is good to go when you see the cheese melt into the potatoes, and the beef mixture bubbling. 

Post-Production

Maybe it's age.  And with age, experience.  At the beginning of my dance career, post-production was always a period of sadness and pure exhaustion.  You've poured your heart on stage, slogged through the weeks in rehearsal.  Then, an abrupt end.  Towards the last days however, I only felt the familiar exhaustion and a new calmness.  The sadness had left me.

Our first night in the Village, K said- You must be so exhausted and happy!

Not really,  I just feel calm.

Happy, of course, but more calm.

I've been homeless for the last 8 months and living with so much uncertainty and loss.  Now that I am finally home, I feel so sheltered, and calm.

I have the most incredible neighbour.

Many who see me back on him have commented on my being"very brave".

Truth is, I don't think I'm doing anything extraordinary.  I was very lucky to have met him, and found this sort of love.  If you love, you let go, and if you love, you get back on.

Sometimes love can be that  simple.  

After our morning ride, I untacked him, and then hung out with him for almost another hour.

I draped myself on him, and learnt, that when a horse is relaxed, as happy, and as calm, he just about purrs like a cat!

***

In ballet class the next morning, my teacher asked- Where's the double pirouette you just did on the other side?

I thought you weren't watching, was my cheeky retort.  But then on the long tube ride back, I thought- she's right.  Where's the double pirouette?  

The flat is completed, I've moved in, but surely, more can be done!

***

The best way to get to know the Village, is to walk around and give the locals a chance to become familiar with us.

The Mint Source, 23 Church Street

  I find cushions, a doormat, napkins, and a waste basket for the bathroom.  I introduce myself to Maggie, the owner.  We discuss the crossword puzzle she's working on.  She helps me carry everything back to my flat.

At the dry cleaners also along Church Street, I meet, Julia, a young woman multi-tasking as a mother, accountancy student, wife, and employee.  I tell her what Popo once said to me:

Don't give up.  Now is the time to work, so we must work.

I buy a flower pot at Two Sisters, 3 Church Road.

Everyone knows I'm terrible with plants.  But hey, new flat, new hood, new challenge- where is that double pirouette- my teacher's voice, in my head.

Dear Plant in New Pot, Please live through the summer.  Please.

The stores we frequent while living in W2 and SW7, thankfully have branches here in the village of SW19 as well.  Bruno loves, Pet Pavilion.

Pet Pavilion, 47 High Street

He knows to make a bee-line for the girls behind the counter, where they'll coo over him and feed him treats.

I stop at Matches, 36 High Street, and befriend Lucy and Sarah. 

I'm also introduced to Amelia, the in-house seamstress who works in the space above the Diane Von Furstenberg store.  The girls tell me Matches owns this and Max Mara along the same row as well.

Beside Matches, is the Matches sample store.  Everything is discounted further.  

The Balenciaga two sizes too big, is coming home with me.  Summie has graduation coming up; it would be nice to wear, celebratory print.

***

(Footnote)

The Double Pirouette:

The double pirouette resides in one's head.  You just have to make a committed decision to turn, not once, but twice.  Use minimal force, hold the body without fuss, press down into the earth to get on your toes as you whip your head around- One! Two!  Inhale, exhale, land with softness and pliancy.

Act 1, Act 2, Act 3

Hallway:  Act 1

(I kid you not.)

Baby, I think we should honestly consider this flat, if you don't mind living in the countryside..

Everything has been sorted out- we could just move in, but Baby, I cannot live with all that white.  It kills me.  Please may I do something to it...

Act 2

Builder:  Do you want to look at sample paint colours?

No, I've done enough homes to trust myself.  Lets go with Farrow and Ball, Blue Black.

Builder:  So you are going to bruise the flat?

Absolutely.

Act 3

Jon:  Gosh, Baby- the Devaki goes here?!  That's why you asked me to bring it?

Builder:  To be honest, we've never wallpapered a closet before… 

Wow, I had no idea it was going to look like that!

Living Area:  Act 1

As with dance, there is just so much bad choreography going on.

Act 2

Jon:  Baby, is the brick wall really necessary?  What is it going to look like?  You bought me a chair?  Where is there space?!

Baby, I also reupholstered the daybed.  Please can you give me 250 pounds?

Jon:  Ok.  But is it really necessary to reupholster…Ok, Baby, whatever makes you happy...

Act 3

His new chair.

The Unnecessary Great Wall

Builder:  Tammy, I didn't get what you were trying to do, but now that it is done- wow.  I like it!

Reupholstered daybed (stage left).

Kitchen/Dining:  Act 1

Builder:  No, Tammy.  If you want me to rip the kitchen out, I am going to decline the job!

Act 2

Mom:  What did you do to the kitchen?

Act 3

 Nothing.  I didn't do anything to the kitchen.  Jon says to just live with it, and my builder refuses to touch it… I only painted the windows.

Ah, but.  What would I like to do to the kitchen?

 Get rid of all hanging cabinets, float a shelf, create a mural as a backsplash, replace the counter top with pale grey marble, and change the cabinet doors to doors made of untreated, re-cycled wood.  Oh, while we are doing a fabulous kitchen, please may I also add some Miele appliances.  Oh, while my imagination is soaring, please can we re-wire to add hanging lights… Oh, something(s) from George Nelson would be wonderful.

Mom:  Poor Jon! No wonder he had to rush back to Singapore to work!

Jon, last moments at the 10th home.

But I must say you are really good at this though…

photo credit:  The Straits Times, the 13th home

Thanks, I've had a lot of practice.

photo credit:  The Business Times, The 11th Home

And I do so love, choreography.

The End.