This week’s small pleasures #342

Greetings from New Zealand! Yes we are back…still a bit jet lagged having arrived back on Sunday afternoon (and it is now Monday evening). We had a wonderful time away as regular readers will have seen, and will keep the memories for years to come. Anyway, here are some of the week’s small pleasures while we were still away.

Malmö

It seems an age ago now, but last Saturday we were in Malmö, having driven down from Kalmar in the morning. We stayed just one night here to make it easy to catch the flight to London the next morning. Below you can see the view from the hotel window (look carefully and you can just seen the famous Turning Torso building. It was raining a bit, but we still took a walk around the city, and enjoyed some pasta for dinner (yes, carbonara for me, and perfectly cooked it was too).

London

On Sunday we flew to London, and after a very long journey from Heathrow, we enjoyed the evening chatting to friends we hadn’t seen in years. The next morning was a little overcast to begin with, so we headed over to the Imperial War Museum. We walked around the permanent First World War and Second World War Galleries, which though quite interesting, seemed to miss out. things such as mentioning the role of the Polish, Czech and other airmen involved in the Battle of Britain. Below you can see Karl standing outside. After lunch we walked and walked until I developed a blister, but such is holiday walking life!

The next day we headed over to Whitechapel to meet friends for lunch. While walking around, I spotted these doors, one all over grown and mysterious looking and one featuring a stone face looking down at passers by.

We also spotted this building, which turned out to be the old Whitechapel Bell Foundry, founded in 1570. The foundry was where the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and Big Ben were created. I believe it closed in 2017. I found this long article from 2021 in The Guardian which tells you a lot more about the building then and now.

Family and Friends

For those of you who live in a different part of the world you grew up in and spent most of your life in, you will appreciate the joy of meeting up with family and friends when you go back. In London we had the good fortune to celebrate Karl’s birthday with one of my oldest and dearest friends (who we also stayed with for a few nights); have an unexpected long lunch with friends we met in New Zealand we hadn’t seen for 7 years; meet my great-nephew Oban for lunch (we hadn’t seen him since he was a little boy – hard to believe he has just completed his second year at McGill in Montreal); attend a lunch time organ recital at St Margaret Lothbury in the City by Karl’s cousin David who was over from Sweden giving a series of concerts, including one at Westminster Abbey; and the most exciting, meeting my second cousin Sue and her husband Jerry who I have been corresponding with for a number of years about family history. To say that these were all small pleasures is an understatement!

And of course food

The lunch with friends I mentioned above was eaten at Tayyabs, a long established restaurant specialising in Punjabi cuisine. I had a very delicious lamb and chickpea dish (second from the left below). We ate excellent Turkish food for Karl’s birthday, and to celebrate my second cousin’s birthday. we went to a local Lebanese restaurant Mezzet, where the fig hummus was really quite amazing (as were all the dishes).

Simple things

• Having a great holiday (see posts here, here, here, here, here and here)
• Meeting Pumpkin, now known as ‘our London cat’
• Enjoying summer sun in winter
• Having trouble free flights – and our luggage arriving at each place
• Finding a lovely, soft sweater with 40% reduced sale price in Malmö
• Enjoying our favourite pizzas at Pizza Express!!

What were your small pleasures this week? Here are some other blog posts from a few fellow bloggers looking at the good things in life. 

• Deb at Deb’s World enjoys a quintessential English garden
• Jo over at And Anyways looks at art in Melbourne.
• Natalie the Explorer shares some blooms in June.
• Ju-Lyn reunites with her sister in Touring My Backyard
• Tootlepedal’s Blog offers us a floral delight (and a brass band)
• Canberra’s Green Spaces takes us to the city in winter.
• Laurie over at Notes From the Hinterland visits gardens in New Hampshire and meets a fellow blogger.
• Nigella Eats Everything makes a summer salad.
• Trent always makes us a good coffee.
• And how wonderful to see Carol Ann return with her delights of the week.
• …and all the other lovely bloggers out there. Sorry if I have missed anyone…..

Also entered in this week’s coffee share hosted by Natalie.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com