I love a good party

Posted By hiromi on September 24, 2011 in Food | 1 Comment

It’s now been over a year since I started teaching Japanese cooking in my flat.  During the course of that year, I have been fortunate to have had the support of many friends who took my classes as well as a wonderful array of people who have simply come to learn Japanese cooking.

I decided to throw a drinks party for my cooking class students and people who had expressed interest in my classes.  It was a good way to launch my autumn classes as well as introduce my students to each other.  So I sent out my invites using a spiffy e mail marketing programme and waited to see what would happen.  It is hard to plan for numbers when many people don’t RSVP (pet peeve).   In the end,  I figured between 25-30 people would show up.  I planned my nibbles carefully since I wanted to showcase the kind of things they would learn in class but also make it reasonable for me to make quantities for 30 I did a couple of different kinds of sushi, fried tofu balls, salmon and of course, my Kinomi nuts.   I also had goody bags with Kinomi nuts and a class schedule to take home.   My florist, A florum on Caledonian Road did a spectacular job with the flowers and the flat was ready.

Gorgeous flowers, but I failed to take a photo of the table set with food.

I stepped into my dress just as the first guests arrived and then it was a non stop whirlwind 3 hours of socialising, nibbling, answering the door and generally keeping things going.  Not that anyone required any help,  people did a great job of meeting each other and getting to know one another.  There were so many fascinating conversations going on, it was hard to decide which one to join in.  The food was going too, a good sign for me as a cooking teacher.

All too soon it was over.  I had a great time and it appears my guests did as well.  I do love a good party, so I’ll have to plan another one soon.

PS Thank you to my friend S for the photo.  Without her I wouldn’t have any evidence that it happened.

My son goes off to university

Posted By hiromi on September 11, 2011 in Thoughts on life | 5 Comments

I woke up this morning feeling a little unsettled.  Something was not quite as it should be.  Then I remembered.  We dropped my son off at university yesterday.  He has officially left the nest.

Yesterday was a lovely day, he was happy and excited although moving a bit slowly from the excesses of his last night in London.  We were happy and excited for him and caught up in sharing a bit of his new adventure.  It is a long train trip to Edinburgh from London, his sister came home to take him up so the entire family was together.  We spent most of it sleeping.

The promised rain seemed to just miss us as we took his bags from the train station to his new home for the next year.  It brought back memories of my first day, the set up wasn’t that different although there were far more students around to help the “freshers”.  One such person, a very nice young woman offered to show us to his room.  We were making our way there when he ran into someone he knew from school.  They weren’t friends, but it is always great to see a familiar face especially so soon upon arrival.  We got him unpacked and went off in search of food.  After lunch, on the way back to his room, he ran into someone else he knew, an older student who was volunteering.   A new place does not seem nearly as daunting when you’ve seen a couple of familiar faces and we left him to participate in freshers week.

As I went to bed last night, I realised that this is it, he will never really live in his room again.  Sure he’ll come home for holidays and breaks but he has officially started the rest of his life.  The part of our relationship where I worry about where he is when he goes out at night is also over.  I am so proud of him and know he’ll do a great job out in the real world.  But I can miss my little boy and shed a tear too, right?  Just for today.