Saturday: When These Open Doors Were Open-Ended*--Day 52

*Lyrics from one of my favorite Fall Out Boy songs. Yes, I still love them after almost five years of listening to their music...

I heard from another IES resident about a farmers' market near the Saatchi Gallery that they have on Saturday mornings, so after my roommate left for her tour of Parliament (my turn is next Saturday!), I wandered down there to see what it was all about. There were many vendors selling freshly prepared food for those looking for a meal as well as vendors of cheese, meat, olives, breads and baked goods, and fresh vegetables. I was very tempted to buy some bread and olives, but I'm trying to save as much money as I can, and I figured I didn't really need them. Plus, I was planning on visiting the Waterstone's bookstore after I visited the market, so I didn't want to spend money in both places.

My curiosity satisfied, I headed back along the King's Road to Waterstone's. If you will remember, I bought two cookbooks at Kew Gardens for five pounds (together). I really regretted not getting two other titles, so I was on a mission to find them this morning. It took me the better part of ten minutes, but I finally found the Hamlyn 200 series I was looking for. I found a book of 200 Budget Meals and another book of 200 Easy Dinners, so I now have quite the nice little collection of cookbooks for myself, each of which ultimately cost me just $6. They will remind me of London when I get home as well as help me through my early years of cooking for myself. Like I said before, I aspire to match my mother's talent, and I think that these books will help put me well on my way to my goal.

Easy peas-y, lemon squeeze-y, good when those college meals make you queasy.

I couldn't resist. This cookbook was made for me. The recipes in this book and in the other book make me so hungry.

The late morning and afternoon were mainly set aside for homework: working on my paper for Art History and organizing my notes for my term paper on gardens. The latter should be really interesting. All of my notes are falling into pretty manageable categories, so I will be able to put together a pretty well-organized paper. I will share the finished project with you if you would like, mostly because I have been talking about the paper all term! I cannot guarantee that it will be my best piece of writing yet, but why would I set the bar so low? Why not make it a stellar paper? I am eager to start composing the body of the paper and seeing how it turns out. For now, I am content to let the ideas I came up with today sink in a little before I charge in and write the paper for real.

Tomorrow is the big football match between Fulham FC and Everton FC at Craven Cottage, so Fulham is the home team. They have Clint Dempsey, who played on the US soccer team in the World Cup last summer. I know who I'm rooting for! It's going to be very cool and interesting because I don't really know what to expect, but I do really like sports, so I'm sure it will be fun. Almost everyone that I know here is going, so we'll have our own little student section. That's all for now. Have a great rest of your day.