In the soap shop of whimsy

The café in the soap shop

The rain was lashing the streets with violence (thank you for nothing, wind!). If you opened the umbrella, it was blown away and turned around. If you didn’t, you got all wet. It was all futile: whatever you did, you lost the battle.

It was putting me in a foul mood, so I thought maybe I should take my mind off the nasty weather by going to the shops.

I crossed this shop’s threshold —for there is no actual physical door in it, only an invisible wall of hot air separating the in from the out— and tried to gather all my layers in preparation of what was to come next: toiletry shopping.

My deliberate efforts to minimise the negative impact I leave on Earth had led me to conclude it would be a good idea to switch to soap rather than use shower gel, and what could be better than getting soap at a place where not only can you buy it by the weight, but is also made in an ethical manner?

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From Rinkoff’s Bakery to Floris Bakery in Soho

Detail of "Floris" sign on the Great Windmill Street side

The pictures in this fabulous article on Spitalfields life “at Rinkoff’s Bakery” caught my eye, as the owner was shown shaping a beautifully plaited bread.

One of my fascinations, as might or not have become evident by now, is the art of intricately shaped breads. Another fascination I like to indulge in is peeling off the layers of time.

This post combines the two!

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My favourites from the Bancroft Wines 2022 portfolio tasting

Bancroft Wines 2022 portfolio tasting event main hall at RIBA

I was invited to attend this event last June (many thanks to Kat!).

It was quite a huge event with LOTS of producers showcasing a veritable variety of wines, and I quickly realised I could not even remotely try as many as I wanted, so I took a quick executive decision to just focus on the producers from the areas that have been intriguing me the most lately: Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, and neighbouring and “up and coming” trend-wise areas from France such as Alsace and Loire Valley.

Unfortunately left untasted were wines from Friulia in the north of Italy, Abruzzo, many from New Zealand and Australia (I was really looking forward to trying out more of their Pinot Noir and Rieslings), etc, etc.

Here are the ones I tasted and liked the best:

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