Au revoir Syama ...

Hard to believe that yesterday I was still sweltering away and avoiding les moustiques after dusk, and that today I'm tucked up in Paris with the heater going, wearing four layers and a goosedown jacket and expecting snow at any moment ... really!

So let's take a look back at my west African lifestyle before my Parisienne lifestyle kicks in. The highlights included of course moving into my very own hut!


Tour all a-r-o-u-n-d my house

And as often as possible ...


Another dance

... with the gents in Fourou.

And what may be news to some of you is the night Pup proposed at the bar - I even got a handmade ring, fashioned out of a Castel wrapper - what more can a girl ask for?


Oh happy days!

Of course, I was abandoned only minutes after this joyful event as duty called him away to Liberia, armed only with a tin of pistachios for company.


Me and the aircrew

So thank goodness the geophysical survey crew arrived to keep me entertained for a few weeks.

Meanwhile, back at base there were one or two issues with the vehicles ....


Fixing the car

... nothing that a bit of manpower can't sort out! And we didn't even have a serious load, unlike the


Light cargo

... that you see on the road to Bamako!

An area in which the exploration team showed consistent and excellent performance was, naturally enough, on the fashion front.


Le guardien du sondage

in required attire! Perhaps outdone by the ever stylish and ...


... truly orignal ...

Ali Soro. The D&G poster boy geologist! And I like to think that I am also able to put up a fine effort when working on my tan.


Outdoor ensemble

And just in time for Simmo's departure, everyone was able to finally shine in ...


The Somisy Collection '08

I tried very hard not to give Siaka too much trouble, but I'm afraid that wasn't always possible.


I promise Siaka

Especially so whenever Catherine came to town.


Night out with CC

Thankfully a night out with the Irishmen is enough to get you giggling and stop you thinking about your worries!

As can a night when every man at Syama manages to bring you that much needed G&T, replete with cocktail umbrella and a wedge of lime ...


Ooooo ... for me!?!

Proving that it is possible to do the impossible in the middle of Africa ...


Garlands ...

... if you want to enough, hey Sean? (Always have to have the last word don't I?)

So before I left I had a few things to wrap up.


My stash

Most importantly, the eating of the stash - yes sir-ee - this is the cupboard of joy that kept me ... and Marcus ... and Simmo ... and Amanda ... and Ronnie ... and ... going over the months.


Blast buddies

John (and Paul) made sure that I managed to see the 'best of the blasts' in my final weeks - pretty damn cool I must say, and thankfully far more controlled (and therefore far less scary) than a volcanic blast.


Me and the driller

Rob de WADS took me on a tour of the new Chateau de WADS at Taba - just a few finishing touches required, including a fence to enclose the freestanding gate. The beauty of it all was of course that Rob sourced 90% of his building materials out of the rubbish dump at site!


...egads!

And after 18 months of being almost entirely free of any mosquito bites, the evil insects had a veritable feast on my arms in my last few days ... retribution! Let's just hope Madame Anopholes wasn't the culprit and that my malarone holds steady!

Then all too quickly it was time to go ... we had a lovely BBQ prepared by Chef Simon out the back of the exploration office and tried to share the joy of working together, rather than the tears of parting company ...


Rowdy bunch

... with plenty of happy memories shared amongst us ...


Mariam models a mug

... because your friends are with you wherever you go, always in spirit!


Sunset over Syama

Weekend in Amsterdam

Yes - I went to Amsterdam, via Haarlem! Katie told me she was going to be in Europe during the first week of October, so I decided to catch up on all the news of her life in Cambodia in person.


Reunited

How did two girls who met at the Alliance Française in Melbourne end up in Amsterdam?

Have passport - will travel!

What a transition - we both left Melbourne in the same month, Kate headed off to the tropical wilderness of South East Asia, while I headed off in the other direction for the tropics of West Africa. We were enjoying the novelty of being cold and wandering around paved streets and slipping into cafés at will for a cappuccino.


Photographie Artistique

As I tried to get an artistic shot of the art nouveau façade of this building I discovered that it was once an artistic photographic studio (hopefully their work was better than mine!)


In the Jordaan

And then there are the canals to wander through - what a pleasant way to pass the afternoon, and happily we'd met Hoeke and Frans from Friesland who took us on a tour of one of their son's re-furbished rental canal houses - a real treat! Those buildings are surprisingly big inside, hiding a rabbit warren of high high ceilinged rooms heated by beautiful delft-tiled stoves.


Brunch on the street

Of course all of that tourist activity is very tiring and calls for a pitstop at some point. Soph and I luckily had the seats next to the exhaust grill from the kitchen, which kept us wonderfully warm, but the occasional burst of grilled kipper smoke was a wee bit trying ...


Night life

After a hard day on the tourist trail we hit the bars of the Jordaan and went out to meet the Dutch!


Night light

And check out their design work ... how about that for a light fixture? My failed attempt to get to the Droog Design store however, did allow me to indulge in a perfect slice of ...


Dutch appel tart

In fact - and as some of you may have guessed - there was one venue on my Amsterdam agenda that I'd been wanting to visit for years. Ever since I read about De Kas, I'd wanted to go and check it out! A restaurant in a converted greenhouse in the middle of a park where the 5 courses they serve you (and it's a surprise everyday) are sourced directly from the nursery or from local growers each day.


Oooo ... exciting!

Yeah - this is my kind of place! And who better to share the experience with than ...


The Sisters Fraser!

As Sophie rightly says, "a whole lot more fun than the Brothers Grimm"!


Olives

Check out the size of those olives - not to mention of course the über cool ring that Kate is sporting!


Broccoli and old cheese

Hmmmm... autumn is a season for delicious things, unfortunately my venison was far less photogenic than the broccoli, but it was outstanding nonetheless - with a glazed and roasted parsnip crowning it's glorious majesty!


Mousse

We finished with a rich trifle of macerated fig, red wine jelly and dark chocolate mousse with spiced icecream and praline. That made everyone's evening!

Now I know that Holland is not really known for it's plethora of fantastic food experiences, but I am happy to report back that you can't go wrong in a Dutch bakery, the bread is fantastic and I might be very bold in saying this, the butter cookies I bought at the little artisan bakery in the nine streets were beyond great, far and away the best I've ever tasted!

But the Dutch do have an uphill battle trying to live down the horrors imparted by ...


Febo ... ?

Remember the Jetsons? Yes, that is a burger vending machine. Eeeeeerrrrrggggghhhhh .....

Long lazy summer afternoons ....

... in London are for riding the ...


Tube

to your favourite site ...


My friend Ben

... and strolling along the Thames with good friends.


Trudy and Cathryn, my London girls!

AND best of all, perfect summer afternoons in London are simply made for ...


Afternoon tea


With champagne of course, darhling!

We spent an evening doing some research into the history of afternoon tea and were determined to be traditional - at least in as much as choosing to go to a central London hotel (the Savoy is closed for renovations, and the Ritz requires advance bookings, Browns well, we couldn't get in there either) - but the sandwich and petits fours selection at the Four Seasons had the non-traditional twist we antipodean chicks love! And they had a spot for us at just the right time.


Three-tier platter of delights

After the vine-ripened tomato and goat's cheese tart(lette) this amazing array arrived - just gorgeous, sandwiches galore and a liberal dose of scones under the big silver dome. Honestly, it took us a good hour to get through it all, thank heavens for the tea and piano music to keep us soothed during proceedings.

And that was just the beginning! We then had a selection of cakes to choose from - we all went for the peach and pistachio roulade, and varied between Eaton crumble cake or cherry and chocolate cake with tonka bean mousse (how about that Kylie? Tonka beans again!)


Apricot palate cleanser

As if that wasn't enough, the final final round was this absolutely delightful Pim's stewed apricot with yoghurt sorbet and mint syrup - to cleanse the palate and prepare you for dinner!!!

And as we stepped back out into the late summer twilight they had the red carpet waiting ... No, not for us sadly (we didn't have the right shoes on!) - some premiere or benefit or something at the swish hotel across the road. But what a fitting reminder to us that here we were, in one of the world's most fabulous cities!

The best brunch in London

I felt that this challenge was a noble pursuit for my most recent R&R because 1) at Syama I never get to have brunch - I'm up w-a-a-a-a-a-y too early for that, and 2) it was in keeping with my overall plan to relax as much as possible after a fairly heavy-duty stint and a seriously fast-paced year-and-a-half since I left Australia.

So I settled in for 3 long weeks of sleep-ins and lined up a few London-based contenders for the weekend brunch challenge. And let me just say - thankfully - it's not hard to convince most people to head out for a breakfast-like meal at the crack of noon!

Cathryn and Trudy left their babies behind and stepped out with me for a day of it, starting with fresh produce viewing at the Borough Markets! In fact, breakfast turned out to be a takeaway cappucino and a variety of cheeses, sausages, pastries, custards and fruit that we sampled. Cathryn was bravest mixing her coffee with a stinky French cheese tasting episode - don't think she'll be sticking her hand up for that job again.


Fresh veggies anyone?

After a ramble through the markets we stopped at Brindisa for a Spanish, small platter fest. Lovely traditional tapas and rosé on a gloriously sunny afternoon in London IN September - who would have guessed! And it turns out that my discovery from last summer is everybody's favourite bar/café as well - twice more during my stay, different friends suggested we go here for a meal. Trust those Spaniards to have so many fans.

So that was Saturday - on Sunday I met Anita at the Providores and Tapa Room which I discovered after doing an internet search for the best brunch in London. Of the 3 restaurants in the Top 10 list that weren't all-american-style-diners (wasn't looking for that) I chose this one because it had the most interesting menu, and guess what? That's right, the chef is a relocated antipodean - a Kiwi in London! Again, who would have guessed?


Anita does delicious!

As expected, the meal was very good indeed, and the restaurant friendly, cosy and comfortable. I think I'd have to say that our pear and tamarillo spiced cocktail really was the most outstanding flavour combination of the day. In contrast, the corn and blueberry fritters didn't quite make it for me - I'm still recovering from the sheer joy imparted by the corn fritters at Replete in Melbourne. Hmmmmmm ... just remembering your tamarillo vinagrette, Cat!

But sometimes you want a really traditional full English breakfast to get the day going. So Cathryn and Mike and Heath and I headed up the street to 'Big Chef' in East Finchley, which is always packed, to see whether we could satisfy our appetites.


Full English £4.50

And the answer is of course yes, so long as you enjoy everything liberally greased!

So verdict? I still have to say that the best short order cook in London, by far and away the best breakfast/brunch maker - entertaining his diners with stories and amusing musings all the while - would have to be the husband of Cathryn Gifkins, Mike Buchanan!

Thanks Mike - your breakfasts rule!

A travel invitation (challenge, perhaps)?

For those of you who don't already know, yes it's true - I'm leaving my post at Syama come the end of November. It's been a wild and crazy ride and I've had a very good time, and met some wonderful people ... but Paris is calling me, loudly.

And I always like to leave the party when it's peaking!

So - my challenge to you is this: all those people who've been telling me for the last (almost) two years, "Mali Ali, wow, we'll DEFINITELY come and see you there, would LOVE to go to Timbuktu, the pays Dogon ...", now is your chance!

So is there the faintest possibility that anyone of you out there fancies a ten day trip from Bamako to Syama (where you will join me), and we will take ourselves on a roadtrip to Ouagadougou, via Bobo-Dialasso then on to Dogon country, Timbuktu, and back to Bamako along the mighty Niger? The sweetener after all that hot and dusty travel would be a couple of recovery days in Paris at the end.

Any takers?

Until I arrive in Paris again on the 9th ...

... this be my cappuccino machine!


Pleasures in privations?

Aclimatisation ...?

They told me I couldn't avoid it, and I didn't want to think about it or acknowledge it, but now I have to tell you all that, yes, it has finally happened ... Mali has ruined me for temperate climates!

It's my own fault really, I left Australia before summer was really over, so I've only experienced about 15 actual wintery days since September 2006, and so my body has adapted to the heat! I still loathe it, never will enjoy being hot and sweaty, but nowadays I reach for my jumper when the temperature cracks a chilly 27 degrees! Pathetic I know.

There is an upside to this story, believe it or not. Yes that's right, three days ago my air-conditioner stopped working - utterly and completely died - but, as luck would have it, Pierre - the only man on site that a girl needs to know - the air-conditioner man, returned from Togo! He made sure that attending to my aircon was first on his list of jobs, but it turns out that my problem is a little more complex than it seemed on initial inspection ...


Tagged out-of-service

... until further notice!

The Perfume Dinner

What do you mean, a degustation meal matched to perfume? Sure wine, yes, that's what I would expect, but perfume?

I was intrigued, naturellement, so decided to take the plunge and book in. How could I not, when I started my university career all those years ago as a student of chemistry and French with the ultimate aim of making perfume in Paris!?! Here was the perfect combination - Paris, perfume, and dinner ... and at Laperouse, a fabulous art nouveau restaurant almost at the foot of the Pont Neuf.


The venue

And what does one wear to such a fine establishment and such an interesting sounding event?


The outfit

The designer outfit you bought the week before in Italy of course! (The disadvantage of travelling alone, mind, is that you don't always find the perfect stranger to help you take the glamour shot - the ensemble was marvellous, I felt like a princess!)


The table

I was all dressed up with some place to go - how exciting! And what a great experience it was. I met Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic, on arrival, and within half-a-minute I knew I'd been in for a greatly entertaining evening. And as the other guests started to filter in, it just got better and better ... a beautiful room filled with interesting, articulate people with fascinating stories-careers-lives - how refreshing.

To be honest, and as Chandler reminded us all, it's really not such an odd idea to match food and fragrance ... it is very well known that the majority of our sense of taste relies on our sense of smell, something that wine fanciers know all too well. And a quiet nod to you Blakey, I never saw you start any meal without having a lingering sniff to begin proceedings!

We began the evening with some introductions to base ingredients of perfumes and learnt how the master parfumiers build layers of these ingredients to create their signature scents. It was at this point that I discovered that I'm not a 'nose' at all, the elegant man I was sitting beside, and partnered with, in the table-wide competition to 'guess-the-scent' had it all over me I'm afraid - luckily I had managed to find the correct buddy for the evening!

And the food you ask? Surprisingly enough, there were three fish/seafood courses on the menu - which is not something I would have thought would match well to perfume, but then Bertrand reminded me about ambergris, which has been used for a longtime in perfume manufacture.


Asparagus course - just for me!

However, as I don't eat fish or seafood I got a special menu all to myself, and imagine my delight to see this artistic asparagus arrangement ... just look at that poached egg - don't think the Syama kitchen could manage that! Here's my tip after dining on that dish, asparagus chips work! That fried sliver of my favourite green vegetable added all the texture and the taste you could ask for ...

About halfway through the evening, and after one too many 'olfactory holograms' (Chandler's excellent term) we stepped out in to the Paris night to clear our noses and heads. It was at this point that I told Bertrand that I'd at one time had a dream to come to Paris to make perfume, to which he replied 'well, you have been very lazee...' (god I love a French accent!). It was at this point also that he revealed to me that he was, in fact, a master parfumier (!!! although it was to be kept strictly secret for the 'big reveal' at the end of the evening), and ... not only that - yes, in another startling coincidence - his father had a distinguished career in earth science (the first French pedologist)!

By the end of the night I had a new appreciation for perfume, was highly satisified with myself that I'd picked one of Bertrand's own creations as my favourite (matched to the duckling - sorry Andrew), had eaten very well and had laughed my way through the evening with some lovely people.

The next morning I got up and regaled poor, tired Karin and Ned - who'd been there for the shoe-shopping (last minute lucky find in a recycled boutique tucked away in the Marais) and accessory crises - for far too long with anecdotes from the night before over a breakfast coffee and tartine at their local ...


Les Folies

And believe it or not it was then time to leave my beloved Paris again, but not without a last look at the ...


View from Belleville Hill