TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

8:05 PM
Posted by jodi rose

the ingredient of the day is.. quark.
I first met this amazing substance in berlin, wandering the streets on a magical night with Rafael the Polish architecture student - spaaaace, he would talk about huskily for hours, it's all about spaaaaace - then we wandered into a sumptuous indian restaurant tucked away in some random castle. vivid paintings of indian life on the walls, a superb range of tea and some kind of quark pastry - it was untranslatable. like some many good things. now know it's like a mix between ricotta and sour cream but that still doesn't quite get it. tonights dish is a sweet orange ricotta cream for the dutch butter pound cake mix I found in sole's cupboard - she said go ahead, bake it, I never make cakes - a rocket and spinach salad with chickpea, spicy olives, almond and the quark/mustard/orange dressing, and reheated pizza from last night. I know, really letting the team down there - but it was gourmet. max's special!
all this in aid of going through all the flight bookings in my email and credit card records online to ascertain the exact nature of art-relates expenditure for the last.... gulp... two years. ahhh tax time. yes and again I vow to take financial responsibility and not live from day to day. poetic, zen, but not very stable. julaine sat me down at lunch today and wrote out all the categories I have to fill in for my budget - it's homework over the next month, then she's going to make me adjust stuff. eeeek. only two people in the world can get me to do things I really don't want to, and she's one of them. you don't mess with a taurean.
almost time to leave my lush ocean hideaway. the last two days have been unusual, the sea is strangely calm and tonight when I watched the full moon rise, could barely hear anything from the waves. but there was a fabulous alligator scultped in the sand, and no-one on the beach or in the water - very rare. incredible colours, turquiose aqua dark green - one day I'm going to live by the ocean. and bake and garden and read and sew. yeah, probably when I'm nintey. if the bridges are still standing, and singing.
ohmigod the cake is golden perfection... a heart attack in a pan.
oh well, best get back to those envelopes of receipts. wish me luck.