Grey sky, boring day, long wait to next tutorial class, half-drunk cappuccino. C’est ennui! Who says you can’t dream about sweets in the early afternoon…I’m thinking about Oriole.

Short post and so I’m outta here. Have a good day folks.

Yesterday was my last day with the kid sister C so we made sure to get up early for a good breakfast out. I’d raved about Lantana cafe on Charlotte Place in Fitzrovia quite a bit whilst C was here so it was absolutely necessary to get our sleepyheads over to the café. And get this, it is open for breakfast at 8am! My little C found the menu a little strange at first and a bit too much for an early chow but mind you, that girl is zombie dead and expressionless that early in the morning. She took a while to decide on sourdough toast, roast tomatoes, etc. and pretty much mumbled her order to our waitress Suzie. Somehow the residual sleepiness that she had yet to shake off drowned out her voice. Now we know mumbling gets you nowhere so C unfortunately ended up with only sourdough toast, butter and jam. But she liked it good enough (you can’t fault good bread). Her iced latte was a milky heaven and by the end of the meal, she left with a satisfied belly. It did take a while for it all to register of course. Our breakfast conversation wasn’t that brilliant or lively. In fact, some might consider it non-conversation. The excited chatter only kicked in post-caffeine for me and for C, when she pulled out her polaroid. But we’re sisters. Long spells of silence between us two are allowed. We’re that comfortable with each other I suppose.

On the other side of the table, after a lot of teasing and laughing, my own order arrived - brioche toast with poached pears, ricotta and blackberries. I died and went to heaven. I wasn’t even upset that they’d taken the french toast with pistachio mascarpone off the menu. This baby was composed of my favourite fruits and it felt like it was all meant to be. To revive myself and note, I did have a cappucino to start, I ordered a macchiato to get my heart pumping again. I heart this place. And I heart the coffees they serve. It was a fine way to get our last day started and a nice little café with a friendly setting for C and I managed to take more holiday polaroid shots.

She’s home now all safe and sound with the rest of the family. And I am missing her lots. The house is too quiet, too empty and suddenly just a little less cluttered than when she was here with all luggage. It’s a bittersweet emotion inside me knowing that my little C has grown up just a bit more. This must be what my elder sis A felt when I left home for England years ago. Nevertheless, it’s nice to know the bonds between us three sisters have strengthened and matured. I’ve always wanted a brother. And yea, sure if you’d throw that into the mix I’d happily accept it. But there’s something about sisters and the joys, secrets and annoyances between us that is really precious.

I can’t wait to be reunited with both my sisters when I do finally return home. Breakfast with the whole family, it’s a sweet affair to wake up to. And oh, to be reunited with my beloved oven once again…

My room’s being consumed by a tsunami of clutter. How has it happened again? The rate at which things accumulate (along with the dust bunnies) astounds me and I can never see or understand how that happens. What, do these things just appear whilst I sleep?! Who dreams ‘em up and then just chucks it in my room, on top of my bed, next to my make-up counter which serves as a study desk when the need arises. Where did all these computer/phone wires come from? Crap, was my wardrobe always that stuffed, threatening to spill out in waves and eat up the room completely? Or shall we just go back to square one and blame it on the room being the size of a miniature igloo (or worse). The collage I created through food photographs, magazine pages, a map of my uni campus, random shots from Gradball 09, a Vivienne Westwood postcard from a friend and some A/W 09 catwalk shots – beautiful and quite breathtakingly so since it’s the backdrop of my work desk – seeks to increase the confusion and ‘noise’ of the room. You can say my collection of things is a real eclectic mix – something I’ve always hoped to achieve in any room I live in and out of. Boudoir-ish, roccoco elements, bits of random vintage jewellery hanging about, interesting Indian fabrics draped from one corner to the other whilst candles melted into twisted monstrous shapes and sizes dot the room. I think this year I’ve quite achieved that with a purple/navy theme going on, quite different from my room last year in Birmingham which was full of Venetian masks and greens and blacks. Sometimes I just sit back, nod approvingly and give myself a pat on the back for managing to make my room almost homey and as eccentricly artsy as the area I live in. On bad days, I feel like burning it down.

On lazy days, I just hide under the covers and wish away all that clutter. Of course it never happens. And ranting about it doesn’t help either. The fact that I try to blitz my room almost twice a week makes me think I’m quite the independent and fairly neat 22-year old. The fact that the kitchen is so small and almost always cluttered with food and splashes of grease gives me a bit of headache. But blame it on London being too expensive to live in!

A change of perspective helps sort me out though. A bit of sunshine, which we had loads today (THREE CHEERS FOR THE FLIPPIN’ SUN!), also injects a bit of optimism into anything. If London’s that great, why the heck am I sitting in my room complaining about the clutter when I should be out there soaking up some good ol’ sun and exploring the fantastic eats in this gorgeous city?

And so I did. After a strong coffee. And some furious bbm-ing (if you don’t already know, Blackberry speak for our version of phone messaging) with Su-yin. A Lantana breakfast was so the right way to celebrate TGIF and wind down to our weekend. Su-yin totally deserved it after all her night shifts and although I haven’t done much to deserve it, I did score a 1st class for one of the essays I handed in after Christmas. So that’s probably something to be happy about. Anyway here’s what we ate. Delicious beyond delicious. And glad we didn’t even have to queue!

Corn fritters stacked with crispy bacon, avocado and roast tomato salsa, rocket and lime aioli

Bubble and squeak with fried egg, chorizo, rocket, tomato chutney and buttered sourdough

Happiness is breakfast.

Full up and very pleased with our meal and service, we strolled to Heal’s for a quick gander about the kitchenware and a gift for my dear sister. Couldn’t have had a better start to my Friday morning.

Lantana Cafe
13 Charlotte Place
London
W1T 1SN

http://www.lantanacafe.co.uk