A Lunch for Candlemas

Yesterday was the feast of Candlemas, historically the end of the Christmas-Epiphany season. It was also Stella's birthday. And it was the day that Pat, Freyja, Simon, Ian and I had our belated Christmas lunch.  Freyja and Simon usually go to Pat's place for lunch on Christmas Day and join us for whatever we are doing on Christmas night. This recent Christmas they were, of course, in Sheffield. So we moved Christmas lunch to my place, coincidentally on Candlemas and Stella's birthday, and invited Lindsey and Ian to join us.

Lindsey was working so couldn't come. We are having a new computer system installed at work and she joined other doctors in the afternoon for extra training.

So I used tofu, which Lindsey really doesn't like and which Freyja loves.

I have a fairly new cook book and took inspiration from that:

We had sweet and sour tofu

And on the side we had a Japanese vegetable curry, mixed vegetables and rice

Freyja's photo

Candlemas revellers

It was quite hot over the weekend. Lindsey and I went to the Bridge Street market on Saturday morning before the heat kicked in and visited several of the shops as well as the market. The Bridge Street market is still only quite small but it was busy and bustling on Saturday. I got some cherries and raspberries for yesterday's lunch and some vegan friendly yo-yos. I might try making my own yo-yos in the future. It can't be that difficult and the ones from the market were a bit dry. The raspberries and cherries were delicious.

It's supposed to stay hot for the rest of the week, although we did have something of a cool change overnight. There was lots of rain, thunder, lightning and a noticeable drop in temperature. It's still quite early but the weather so far this morning is lovely.  The sun is shining and the temperature is around 24°. There are a few fluffy, white clouds and there is a gentle breeze. It is expected to warm up again during the afternoon so I am enjoying having the doors and windows open to let some air in.

I forgot to mention: I was at work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week and stayed in the flat with Lindsey on Thursday night. We met Freyja and Simon, as well as Ian who happened to be passing by, in Kinyoubi for dinner in Fitzroy and enjoyed some lovely Japanese food.  I was as prepared as I could be by Friday afternoon for the transfer to the new system, and for me having February off work. I have taken this morning fairly gently, so far (It's 9:00 now) but I can see this month vanishing at great speed. I don't have any great plans, although I have organised a long weekend in Melbourne mid-month and I have a list of things to do, organise or consider. But experience of overseas holidays means that I will not be surprised to wake up tomorrow and find that it's the 3rd of March and I'm due to go back to work!