Dragon for blood The day after the Ikea boxes-tripsy-acrobatics I came home from work (with my bandaged knee) to find this exotic dragon fruit in my room. Also known as pitahaya, huǒ lóng guǒ, 火龍果/火龙果 lIt it was a nice surprise - and I love pink and new foods especially exotic ones that look like they will be sweet to eat! Interesting fact...not only is the fruit lovely to look at, the pitahaya blooms only at night; with large white fragrant flowers, typical of cactus, that are often called Moonflower or Queen of the Night.

I haven't cut it open or peeled it yes as I don't know if it is ripe or what to do with it so will consult Mrs. Lau and ask her what to do with it. The note was lovely and surprises are always fun! Thanks BH.

Today I am home from work putting finishing touches on the cookbook proposal and am going to be printing and sending it out 1st week of December! Hmm...or should I wait until the new year as publishers may spill their holiday champagne and soil it with Christmas cake and mince pie crumbs?! It is that time of year.... only 24 days, 12 hours, 56 minutes, 53 seconds to go!

Afternoon tea with Rexi and DustyIt is 2am and I have two scraped and bloody knees because of afternoon tea at the Wolseley. Why? Well when you have half a pot of Darjeeling tea, some tiny finger sandwiches and scones at 5pm your body thinks it is dinner. But when you try to go to bed at midnight you can't sleep as you are full of about 6 cups of tea! (I am usually exhausted by 11pm)

So you toss and turn and think crazy caffeine filled thoughts until about 1:30am. At this point you have burned off those finger sarnies and your stomach is empty. So you creep to the kitchen to eat half a pomegranate and some pesto pasta a few glasses of water to try and flush out that bloody tea and try to get back to bed.

On the way back to the bedroom you forget about the two stupid Ikea boxes of shelves that no one wants to embark on putting together and in the dark you trip over them and go flying onto your knees! I had a glass of water in my hand and managed to save that albeit my pjs are a little wet. So you hobble back to bed and feel the throbbing and check out the knees which are both scraped and bloody - lovely! I feel like I am 6 years old again with this sensation - I can't recall the last time I scraped my knees?!

I digress from the subject of the posting- afternoon Tea at the Wolosley was lovely - we had a lovely waiter and Dustin Hoffman, bless his soul he looks fabulous, was there with his family enjoying afternoon tea too. Rexi seems to always be bumping into celebs everywhere she goes so it was fitting that on her bday one the greatest actors was there laughing and having a great time next to us.

The Wolseley was lovely and I recommend you going there as the atmosphere and the Venetian & Florentine influenced decor is just fabulous - it was originally a car showroom in the 1920s. Next time I will order a meal and leave afternoon tea to it's proper time - in the afternoon around 2pm non? Or I will order decaf!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REXI! luv Sands