Mall Marching

The party last night was lovely.  The director’s home was decorated for Christmas and it was a perfect venue for an elegant evening.  Everyone brought enough food to feed forty people but there were only twenty of us so there was lots to go around.  My Basque Chicken was well received and I must say it looked festive.

Basque Chicken

We took a nice walk this morning and ended up at our little café for an espresso before heading home for breakfast.  After cleaning up and doing some emails we headed for the Metro and took a ride to a mall we’ve not visited. My Metro pass had expired so I had to purchase another one and I must say, it was much easier to do knowing the words than it had been the first time I purchased a pass.  Progress!

We were looking for little trinkets for Christmas and we wanted to price some Russian Fur Hats. We had no idea how much these hats might cost so it was fun to go into stores and look around. The quality and prices are truly amazing, ranging from faux fur and cheap fabric for about $25 up to some breath taking fox fur that was about  $1200.  We passed on all of them; maybe someday we’ll buy one.

This mall, like most of them downtown, is rather upscale and has all the shops you have come to know in big malls worldwide.  I must say the fancier shops were almost empty - perhaps the rich shop during the week - and the lower end shops and department stores were doing a brisk business.  We went into one of the upscale department store’s food area and selected a couple of bottles of wine and some jams and jellies, only to be confronted by an enormous line at checkout. Only two people were manning the seven registers so we simply placed our items back where we found them and left.  We ended up in a grocery store and got all of the same stuff for a third the price and no lines. Not only that, Cindy found Arborio rice so we got two packages and I can predict risotto for dinner one night this week.

We jumped back on the Metro and then walked the long way home so that we could stop for bread. Our timing was stellar since the loaves had just come out of the oven and we got two, one dark and one French, and raced home while they were still warm. I made some great sandwiches and then we just snuggled on the couch and napped for an hour or so.  Very refreshing. 

Dinner tonight will be, yep, Basque Chicken with yellow rice. There was plenty left over so we’ll finish most of it off tonight and the rest will become a soup with the chicken broth in the fridge.  We are trying to use up everything in the apartment before we head back to West Virginia so as not to leave anything that might go bad. 

That’s it for the weekend.  One work-week and counting before the great escape.  Best to all, Cindy and Wm.