Archive for November, 2008

I was recently in Mauritius with Richard who is currently doing some work for the Ministry of Tourism and Board of Investment on the re-branding of their country (more on that in future posts).  We were watching some groups and I took along my knitting.  Very indulgent and mildly unprofessional, but it wasn’t my project, so I’m allowed.  The Franco-Mauritian simultaneous translator was absolutely amazed that “someone so young” (bless her) was into knitting.

It got me thinking about knitting in London and other major urban areas and the trend towards all things authentic.  This is nothing new or earth-shattering — people have been seeking out authenticity in many categories and areas for the past several years.  However, it seems that this trend is gaining momentum with the recession.  I heard on radio 4 the other day that “we should all start saving money by growing our own food and knitting our own jumpers.”  Ha!  The newsreader has clearly not checked out the price of wool at John Lewis lately!

I’ve been knitting for the past 5 years.  Above is one of my most recent creations — I’m very proud of it.  I’d heard of knitting groups who met in the bars and clubs of Manhattan and loved the idea of it so got a colleague to teach me the simple stitches.  I found it completely relaxing on the many long-haul flights I have to do for my job.  I even joined a knitting group back when I was still only capable of making scarves.  It was such a great way to relieve stress on a Monday night and also not a bad way to meet people — group knitting gives people license to come up and chat to you without feeling self-conscious.

I would never have become the kind of knitter I am today without the help of this lady in the picture above.  This is Aneeta Patel and she is a FABULOUS knitting teacher based in Stepney, East London.  She’s so good she’s even got her own book and was recently profiled in the Sunday Telegraph (telegraph-2nd-nov-08).  I am so proud of her and wish her all the success in the world (but not too much because I still want the excuse to go sit in her living room and chat under the guise of private lessons!)

When I come across something this good, I think it only fair to share.  My knitting teacher told me about Tayyabs about 5 months ago and since then, we have spent almost every Sunday lunch there enjoying their incredibly fresh and tasty Pakistani food.

Everything I’ve tried on the menu tastes like someone’s grandmother is in the kitchen preparing the delicious homemade food.  Everything always comes hot and steaming.  On top of the fabulous food, the service simply cannot be beat.  I get the feeling that most of the guys serving have been working there for years and years and take real pride in what they do.  It’s a real pleasure in a place like London where a service culture hasn’t really been developed in my (American) opinion.

Tayyabs is very, very busy so unless you go for lunch, expect to wait.  You can make reservations on Friday and Saturday night but at time of writing, you need to make them at least a week in advance.  And, Tayyabs doesn’t have a liquor license, so if you want to have a lovely Kingfisher to go with your curry, be sure to bring it yourself.

I recently helped out my friends at Greet and Wendy at WeJane and Ute at Colibri with a paper they presented at Esomar, about women and their handbags.  You can read all about it for yourself at Globalbagstories.com.

I was delighted and honoured to be included as the UK partner on this project and I had an absolute ball doing the fieldwork.  I got to talk to some amazing ladies about their handbags while Richard took some fantastic, often poignant, pictures of them in-situ.  We blogged about it so that the ladies writing the paper could get feedback on our interviews as we completed them.  This format also allowed for further probing on their parts should they have any additional questions.  For me, this is a great way to run an international project.  It’s quick, it’s insightful and it’s actually quite fun to do!