Lili’s handy homebirth hints

Tags

birth, Family, health, home birth, hypnobirthing, Independent Midwives, medicine, pregnancy

Now, I’m not prone to boasting but I a few weeks ago, I experienced the most amazing home birth of my delicious son, Rafferty.
I’m not sure whether it was down to the Hypnobirthing, my Independent Midwives or my own preparedness but it was empowering, beautiful and made me high as a kite on natural endorphins. So today, I thought I’d share with you some of my hints and tips that maybe you can use when the time comes for you to give birth. Obviously, do check with your midwife that all these things are suitable for you. I was considered low risk, I’m healthy, I eat well and am rather active.

Ok, so my first tip is to build a good team around you. My husband and I liked to imagine we were producing a show. You put together the best team you can so that you have the support you need to be the stars. We had our Hypnobirthing Practitioner, Maggie who prepared us beautifully. I went to an osteopath every three weeks, and towards the end I had a pregnancy massage once a week. Then we had our two fabulous midwives, Mal and Jacqui. All these fabulous people helped us to be prepared and relaxed. Which brings me neatly to my next point.

Relax. Relax. Relax. If you approach your birth relaxed and calm in the knowledge that your body is perfectly designed to birth a baby. I listened to a fabulous deep relaxation app by Andrew Johnson every evening, (they also work well for the insomniacs amongst you!) Try to let go of fear and NEVER watch One Born Every Minute. If you can let go of the fear associated with childbirth, and trust your body you will find it much easier. When you get into the hardcore labour, during your surges (contractions) loosen your jaw, relax your hands, let your shoulders go and breathe deeply as if blowing up a huge sparkly balloon. It doesn’t have to be sparkly, of course. I blew up heaps of glorious jewel coloured balloons in my mind.

My next tip is about preparing. I drank litres of Raspberry Leaf tea which, when it arrived, made me look like I had a huge habit! Make sure you get the hardcore stuff, not the lovely infusions! A great tip from Mal, one of my midwives, was to add Ribena to the tea to make it more tasty. Hot Ribena, delish! I also took two capsules of Raspberry Leaf morning and evening. Just covering my bases! I also took Pregnacare capsules – I practically rattled!

Oily baths. I used Neal’s Yard Mother’s Bath Oil with added lavender oil. I spent so much time in the bath, I practically grew gills. However, I have come through with no stretch marks. I put this down to keeping my bump well oiled. I also enlisted the help of my husband for ‘booby, belly, bum rubs’ with Mama Mio Tummy Oil, I have a feeling he enjoyed it as much as me!

Preparing for your homebirth, you’ll need to assemble a bit of a kit. All the usual things, shower curtain/small tarpaulin, soft towels, incontinence bed pads, maternity pads ( I used Boots own brand and you’ll need way more than you think for the first few days. Best you just clear the shelves at your local Boots!), nipple pads, Lansinoh, old bed linen.
Go to M&S and buy three packs of their multipack lycra big knickers in two sizes bigger than you usually take. Otherwise, the midwives give you really uncomfy maternity knickers.

You should pack a hospital bag just in case. While you are at it, pack one for your other half. You might be there for a while. We kept ours out of sight to keep the negative thoughts away. The power of positive thought is totally underrated!

When labour kicks in turn the lights down low, get into the clothes you are going to birth in, breathe and don’t be scared. You are made to do this and it will make you feel like the most powerful being ever. Good Luck!

A quick checklist of things it’s helpful to have:

Scented Candles (and a lighter!) We had four or five on the go.
Ipod loaded with relaxing music
Plenty of coconut water (highly hydrating)
Sports bottle (doesn’t leak!)
Dates, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, fresh pineapple (easy to eat, sweet and will keep your energy levels up!)
Arnica tablets (Start taking them as soon as you go into labour to help ease the bruising)
Clary Sage Oil to strengthen the contractions
Pulsatilla tablets to aid with the baby blues when the endorphins fade.
Birth ball
A long button up nightshirt (I found some fab ones in M&S, although when it came down to business, I became terribly liberated and whipped my clothes off in a jiffy!)
Witch Hazel (As long as the skin isn’t broken, soak a maternity pad in witch hazel, pop it in the fridge and when you pop it in your knickers – Bliss!!)
Red Bull/ Coffee for your other half!
Food for the midwives!

Lili’s Got Vintage Guilt at Victorian Gilt

Tags

1950s, clothing, Fashion, New Zealand, Shopping, style, Travel, Victorian Gilt, Vintage, vintage shop

My name is Lili and I am a vintage addict, I’m always searching for treasures to squirrel away into my collection.

One of my favourite places to search used to be a tiny vintage shop in Auckland. Called Victorian Gilt, it was in the very stylish suburb of Remuera. From the outside, a little shabby but once inside the shop was a veritable treasure trove of wonders. Stuffed with clothing and accessories from the late Victorian, all the way to the 1950’s, it was a heaven for someone like me! Dresses from all eras hung five deep around the walls (a moth’s dream!) and it was a tough job searching through and frequently I’d work up a glow. Everywhere I looked, my eyes fell upon 1930’s evening dresses, cabinets filled with rhinestone jewellery and piles of vintage linen. If you wanted furs, she had it. You wanted a prom dress from the 1950’s made of chiffon, she had it. You wanted a 1920’s, fully mink lined, bright orange, chinoiserie silk, full length evening cloak, she had it (honestly!).
Once last year, as I was searching, my eye was caught by a flash of pale pink, pleated satin. My heart leapt. When I first went to New Zealand, five years ago, my husband (then boyfriend) took me to Victorian Gilt and I fell head-over-heels in love with the most stunning ball gown. Handmade in the 1950’s, she was curvy and made of heavy satin in the palest oyster pink. The front was hand-appliquéd with swirls of purple and grey ruffled velvet and the skirt adorned with rhinestones and sequins. A consummate beauty, she made me feel a million dollars. Sadly, she also had the most fantastic price tag and I could only dream of taking her home. This beauty had waited for me for five years, hidden beneath several other vintage dresses. I lifted her down and put her on. She was a little dusty, and there were some areas which needed attending to, but she was as lovely as I remembered her.
Sadly, at that time, she was still outside my price range, but I was ever hopeful that I may get to take her home one day.
I consoled myself by trying on heaps of other wonderful dresses. I tried on a fabulous 1940’s coral red dress, with beautiful square shoulders and a gracefully falling crepe skirt, which I then hid at the back of a rack, so that I could go back and get it another day! I ended up taking home with me the quirkiest green dress. It’s 50s, Chinoiserie design silk and designed so that the top looks like a dressing gown, with wonderful lapels and an Obi-style belt which really nips in the waist. It’s become a favourite in my collection.

So ladies (and gents), if you do get the chance to go to Auckland, I insist you go to Victorian Gilt, now situated on Waiheke Island. Spend plenty of time ferreting around I guarantee you’ll come out with a treasure or two.
When you get there, if you are looking for an oyster pink ball gown, you are too late. My husband came home from his last visit with a very special parcel for my birthday…

Tiramisu? Don’t mind if I du!

Tags

Italian, La Notte, Melbourne, recipe, tiramisu

One of my all time favourite desserts is a divine tiramisu. The first time I did the Melbourne Comedy Festival with my husband in 2008, we stayed in the Italian quarter, right above the most divine Italian restaurant called La Notte. We’d eat there almost every night, and it got to the point where they would save us some tiramisu and we’d pick it up and eat it on our balcony. Happy memories.

Now, I make this dessert at least once a week and my family demolishes it in a couple of sittings. It’s not as traditional as some recipes, but it is super quick and delish and that is all that matters.

300ml double cream
250g tub mascarpone
80ml Amaretto, you can measure this out using the guide on the side of the cream pot. I know, clever huh?
5 tbsp golden caster sugar
400ml strong coffee, I use 3 Nespresso pods and top up with water
2 madeira cakes
25g chunk dark chocolate
2 tsp cocoa powder

Pop the cream, mascarpone, Amaretto and sugar in a large bowl and give it a really good whisk until the cream and mascarpone are completely combined and are smooth and thick.

Slice the Madeira cakes lengthways and in enough sections to cover the base of your serving dish. Then cover it with half the coffee and let it have a good soak.  Now spread over half of the delicious (completely calorie free?!) creamy mixture. Using a grater, grate over most of the chocolate and then repeat the layers (using up all the coffee), finishing with the creamy layer.

Cover and chill for a few hours or overnight, the longer the better!
To serve, dust with cocoa powder and grate over the remainder of the chocolate.

Voila! Delicious dessert in almost no time at all. Let me know how you get on.
Love Lili.  xx

Ivor and I

Tags

Bobbie Andrews, Ivor Novello, musicals, Noel Coward, Novello, Red Roofs, songs, West End

My favourite (non-classical) composer has always been Ivor Novello, ever since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. So I thought, on this snowy and freezing cold Monday, I’d share with you a little more about the sick-makingly delicious Mr Novello and I.

I sang my first Novello number, Waltz of my Heart, aged 13. It’s a divine song, utterly romantic with sweeping melodic lines and in lilting waltz time. It conjures images of 1930s string orchestras and bias-cut gown-clad beauties waltzing until dawn.

From that first early meeting, I was hooked. So who was this matinee idol who won me over at such a tender age?

Ivor Novello was born David Ivor Davies in Cardiff on the 15th January 1893. His early successes were predominantly as a songwriter, although he went on to star in film and stage productions. His first big hit was the ever popular  “Keep the Home Fires Burning” in 1914. It’s a highly emotive piece, which struck a chord (pardon the pun), with a country in the grip of a catastrophic war. It’s a song that never fails to bring a lump to my throat whenever I sing it as I imagine all those bereft families, and also those families in wars since. It was a huge success and brought him fame and fortune at the age of 21.
In 1917, Novello was introduced to the actor, Bobbie Andrews, who became his partner for the rest of his life. Scandalous for 1917, how delightfully modern though? Andrews, in turn, introduced Novello to the younger Noel Coward, who was awed by Novello’s instinctive glamour, he later wrote
“I just felt suddenly conscious of the long way I had to go before I could break into the magic atmosphere in which he moved and breathed with such nonchalance”

Bobbie Andrews in the early 20s
In the 1920s, he turned his rather talented hand to acting, first in films (he was the star of some rather early Hitchcock films) and latterly on stage. With his handsome profile and distinctive voice, he was rather successful at both. He also starred in the lavish West End productions of his own musicals, (didn’t I say he was just too talented?) The most successful being Glamorous Night in 1935 and The Dancing Years in 1939. I actually met a lady in Adelaide who went to see The Dancing Years when it first opened in London. As we say in Essex, I was ‘wel jel’ and by her account, Mr Novello was indeed divine.

As well as being successful on stage and screen, Ivor was also quite the success romantically speaking. Sometime in the early 20s, he had a short-lived affair with Siegfried Sassoon, whose biographer later wrote that Novello “was a consummate flirt who collected lovers as he gathered lilacs”.

In the late 20s, Ivor was able to buy a large property in Littlewick Green called Redroofs. It became a hotbed of bohemian entertaining, and weekend parties became quite notorious for their disregard for convention. Cecil Beaton coined the phrase “the Ivor Noel Naughty Set”!

For all his four 1930s musicals, Novello wrote the book and music, Christopher Hassall wrote the lyrics, and the orchestrations were by Charles Prentice. Glamorous Night starred Novello and Mary Ellis, with a cast including Zena Dare, Olive Gilbert and Elizabeth Welch, and ran from 2 May 1935 to 18 July 1936, at Drury Lane and then the London Coliseum. Careless Rapture ran from 11 September 1936 for 296 performances, with Novello, Dorothy Dickson and Zena Dare in the leading roles. Crest of the Wave starred Novello, Dickson and Gilbert, and ran from 1 September 1937 for 203 performances. The last of Novello’s pre-war musicals was The Dancing Years, which starred Novello, Ellis and Gilbert, opened at Drury Lane, closed on the outbreak of the Second World War, and re-opened at the Adelphi Theatre, running for a combined total of 696 performances, closing on 8 July 1944.
Novello presented only two new shows during the war. Arc de Triomphe in 1943 and Perchance to Dream in 1945. In between the two shows, Novello got himself into serious legal trouble and served four weeks in prison for misuse of petrol coupons which was a rather serious offence under rationing laws in wartime Britain. The prison term was a huge shock to Novello both mentally and physically and had serious lasting effects. Not everybody was supportive and even Coward’s sympathy was limited,
“He’s been fighting like a steer to keep going as before the war and hasn’t done a thing for the general effort”.

Novello died suddenly from a coronary thrombosis at the age of 58, a few hours after completing a performance in the run of King’s Rhapsody. He was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium, and his ashes are buried beneath a lilac bush and marked with a plaque that reads “Ivor Novello 6th March 1951 ‘Till you are home once more’.”

His music never fails to move me, it is always a joy to sing and whenever I put together a new show, it is always liberally peppered with his songs, both popular and rare. I love to hunt out some of his lesser known songs and one of my favourites, which I found in a London archive, is called ‘Dark Music’. The most hauntingly beautiful melody,  it’s packed with unusual chromaticism and luscious chords.

I often wonder whether a whole show of his songs would be like eating a whole tin of Roses at Christmas. Heavenly but altogether too rich. It’s music that needs the piquancy of other composers to show it off to its best advantage. Put it in a show with some Coward and some Hollander and it really shines.

I adore Ivor, I love to sing his songs and share the ones that aren’t so well known with audiences around the world. I’d like to think that had we met, we would have been kindred spirits and what terrible fun we would have had and what songs we would have sung.

Only a few weeks before Novello’s death, Coward wrote of him:
“Theatre – good, bad and indifferent – is the love of his life. For him, other human endeavours are mere shadows. The reward of his work lies in the indisputable fact that whenever and wherever he appears, the vast majority of the British public flock to see him.”

Truly, a star.

Lili’s Fabulous Italian Puttanesca

Tags

food, Italian, puttanesca, spaghetti

Lili’s Spaghetti Puttanesca

I am a huge fan of ‘whore’s spaghetti’, not only is it stupidly easy to make but the explosion of really strong flavours make it a perfect choice for a winter supper. From the tang of the capers, to the heat of the dried chilli and the saltiness of the anchovies, every mouthwatering forkful is packed with kick-arse deliciousness. On a chilly evening, this can be thrown together in about 25 minutes with ingredients that are generally lurking in the larder.

So here, I share my recipe for this Italian favourite.

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red onion, chopped
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
8 anchovy fillets (I prefer the tinned rather than the oily bottled ones) *
4 tbsp olive oil
800g chopped tomatoes
500g dried spaghetti
100g black olives (don’t buy pre-pitted olives as you’ll get better texture and flavour from unpitted. I use the ones from the deli counter, they are so delicious when soaked in the sauce)
1 tbsp capers, crushed
a large glug of good red wine

Pop the water for your pasta on a high heat, salt liberally and bring to a fierce boil.
In a large frying pan, soften the onion and the garlic in the olive oil. Add the anchovy fillets and the chilli flakes and cook until those delicious little anchovies start to melt.
Add the chopped tomatoes and a very healthy glug of red wine. Bring to the boil then turn down and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the sauce is rich, dark red and glossy. Stir the olives and the capers through the sauce and turn the heat down.
Cook the spaghetti in the boiling water until it still has some bite. Pop a couple of ladlefuls of the starchy pasta water into the sauce to loosen it slightly.
Combine the sauce with the pasta and serve.

Enjoy!

Love Lili

* If you really hate anchovies, stop it, you can’t taste them in the sauce! If you really, really hate anchovies, you can substitute in tinned tuna.