Task for today: to somehow find a cheese expert in London, to help me pair cheeses with a selection of my homemade jams for a party I am hoping to throw in December. Does anyone know someone? So far, I've initiated contact with Whole Foods (going to call me back) and Neal's Yard (nice, but not offering the personal service that I am looking for). If Whole Foods falls through, I'm thinking of putting a call in to La Fromagerie. Any advice would be welcome.

This morning I whimsically decided to get a shot of peppermint syrup in my latte. Unexpectedly, my peppermint latte brought back a vivid taste-memory of the first time I got drunk - on peppermint schnapps, in 1983. I can't say my first time was an exquisite experience, but the flavor was quite vivid.

I'm working tons this month - last weekend I was scheduled to work overnight Friday and Saturday, then I worked late last night, and I'm scheduled to work overnight this Friday and Saturday, too. Next week I'm booked in for two evenings and both weekend days. With any luck, some of those won't be needed, but I'm not as tired as I feared I might be by now, so I'm not too worried.

Other than working lots of hours, my job is going pretty well. We still haven't resolved the situation with not having enough desks (they hired new people before they had secured desk space for them), so I and my teammates are all working from home one day per week, and I am migrating from desk to desk every day, except the day I work from home. Last week I unexpectedly had to take up that awful clerical task again, as the lovely woman who was hired to take it over unexpectedly had to take the week off, but she's back this week, and it's a huge relief to me.

I haven't made any jam for a week or two, but I did eventually make a batch of hawthorn and crabapple jelly, which had a fantastic set, and a strange but pleasant flavor. The front garden raspberry bushes have pretty much ceased producing berries - I'm eating the last few berries with yogurt for breakfast. I used the bulk of the autumn raspberries for a seedless raspberry jelly (with just a little bit of strawberry) that turned out a bit sticky - I tried boiling down the juice before adding sugar, to see if I could intensify the flavor without overcooking the sugar. The resultant jelly has a really intense flavor, but is... sticky instead of jelly-like. Brock is devouring it.

With all the time I've been putting in at the office, we've totally neglected the allotment for the past 2 weeks. I worry that the cabbage patch might be choking itself off or being eaten by aphids, and we had some broad beans drying out, but other than that, it's all to winter tasks now. Oh - except there should be some baby beets soon.

You can see a satellite photo of our allotment (and my house!) on google maps.

Trips planned: To Berlin the first weekend in December, in time to go shopping at the Christmas Markets there.

Books I have read so far this year: On the Subject of the Photographic, by Craig Smith. What It Is, by Lynda Barry. The Museum of Bad Art - Masterworks, by Michael Frank and Louise Reilly Sacco. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs. Daughter of Fortune, by Isabel Allende. The Ascent of Money, by Niall Ferguson. I just re-read Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. Living Gluten-Free for Dummies by Danna Korn. (I've been reading The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir for about 4 months now - hence why the overall list is so short).

I am missing the following Starbuck's city mugs:
US: Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Portland (Portlandia)
Europe and the middle east: Brussels, Mykonos (2), Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Lisboa, Valencia, Ankara, Antalya, Aydin, Balikesir, Bursa, Izmir, Kocaeli
Mexico, the Bahamas, and South America: Argentina, Brazil, Sao Paulo, Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Cancun (Red), Ciudad Juárez, Cozumel, Leon, Merida, Mexicali, Monterrey, Morelia, Playa del Carmen, Puebla, Queretaro, Saltillo, San Luis Potosi, Torreón
China: Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenyang, Wuhan, Wuxi, Xian
the rest of Asia and Australia: Adelaide, Bogor (India), Yogyakarta (Indonesia)
You can see photos of most of these here.