Hamptons Hideaway

After a high stress week in the city, a weekend at Mark & Mary's was exactly what this dandy needed.
I took the train out on Friday night and met up with Ian and Max at the house.
We cooked and managed to finish five bottles both nights. Well done liver!
Keenan Duffty and his amazing wife Nancy dined with us Saturday night and I taught Alistar to say, "Whats shakin bacon!"

But besides moving in a new couch and making Alistar a harmonica strap out of his train tracks I slept super late, did some major swimming and had much needed therapy with old friends.

Beatrice as Yoda!

Here she is as Yoda/ Yogi my amazing God Daughter on the beach in South Hampton.

“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not.
For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is."

We did it! Fried Green Tomato's!

As you may know- Lucy, Linnea and I signed up for a CSA. Each week we get a pot of gorgeous veggies from upstate. Well this week Linnea and I decided to cook up a mean meal. Luckily PHJ, Rod and Lucy decided to take part.
What did we make may you ask?
Coconut curry chicken
Green beans with ginger
And to all of our amusement-Fried Green Tomato's!
I have never cooked such a delicacy but thanks to the Mary Mac Cookbook from Atlanta we figured it out.
Oh and my mother's emergency call explaining that we must refrigerate our fried goodness before the actual fry.
We ended up with a damn good side course. Not to mention our dip: mayonnaise, hot sauce and cayenne pepper dipping sauce.
We had one of the best dinner parties ever.
But I can't accept all the thanks- Douglas Little did provide the malachite plates.
Doesn’t everything taste better on such a stone?
It a’int easy being green.
Love-

Mario's 33 birthday

Apres le Hamptons we dropped Eric off for some R &R and mother and I headed to Bacaro for a Ventian tapas dinner. We dined, drank and ate but the highlight was all the boys trying on mom's jewelry.
Fun non?

Mother love the Hamptons!

I rented a zip car (a BMW at that!) and scooted Eric and mother out East.
We dined at Jamie's home and folly and beached up with Mark, Mary and their clan.
Mother had a perfect day. And apparently so did Eric. Thank God! He had the world's most stressful week.
Ah the world of finance. Alas...

Frick Garden party

Mama swept into town yesterday afternoon just in time to change into her Daisy Fellows garden attire and head to the Frick with some other 'Young Fellows'.
(Mother no slip?! Very Princess Di of you in that silhouette!)

Mint juleps were sipped, hats admired and an amusing garden tour was taken where we discovered there is a four story vault underneath the Koi pond built to shelter the art in case of war!

Dinner was lovely as the sun set over the pond at the Central Park boat house. And in true Sparks/Lang fashion, a sing along was conducted in the cab with our amused driver.

Wish yall were there!

Picnic Wrap Up

BA is boarding my flight but I just wanted to post these before I head back to NYC.
Our last night was PERFECT!
Cornelia thinks PHJ emailed God for this weather.
The most ravishing sunset, gorgeous crashing waves, final chat ups and GRILLED BANANAS DRIZZLED IN CHOCOLATE!

Rod is spread out on the Works on Whatever beach towels Lucy and I bought for his bday pressie. Glad they arrived in time for the picanica!

Saturday house crawl

After we all peeled ourselves out of bed from Maharaja madness the Miles' invited us over to their home for a tour of the gardens. I spent a fun filled evening there two years ago and it was great to be back and see the gardens filling in and of course my favorite chicken!

Then Kim gave a ring and asked me to come around for an afternoon cocktail. Deal! Their house was amazing. Right on the cliffs overlooking France. They built an infinity pool below (you can barely see in one shot) that is 15 feet deep so that guests can jump from the cliffs and into the pool. Wheeee! I brought my bathing suit to test the waters but after a tour of the grounds and a long fun chat I had to dash out to get ready for the sunset picnic.

Tired yet?
One more night to go!

India in the Evening

You would think that after a lush bash at Gorey Castle that the rest of the trip would be low-key lunches and quiet dinners. Not on a Philip Hewat Jaboor weekend!

Friday night (July 4th!) Philip hosted an exotic Indian costume soiree at his home, Maison de la Fontaine. Everyone had brought costumes, many of them from his 50th birthday party in India we attended five years ago.

Again, I was rummaging through his closet to find proper attire. My bags had STILL not arrived but luckily I did hear they would be in my hotel by nights end.

Philip Astley-Jones let me borrow some slippers and Rod and PHJ provided the rest. The evening was a total success as everyone looked like one giant acid trip and indeed as the night grew longer and champagne kept flowing the colors were bleeding into one fantastic kaleidoscope.

I sat next to Kim Turbeville who is a documentary filmmaker. She and her husband Nigel live in a Napoleonic fort on the north tip of the island that she invited me to visit on Saturday. Yes please!

To my left was Raquel, Alex's girlfriend (Alex is PHJ's nephew). She is from Madrid and we had a lengthy discussion about bullfights. Ole!

During dessert PHJ finally introduced me to Philip Ozouf, a senator from the island he has wanted me to meet for ages. He is quite fun and openly gay in politics. Hoping to work with him on an article about Jersey for a certain travel magazine since he is also head of tourism. Fancy that!
He took Jonathan, Luke and I on a club crawl that was fun in theory but everywhere we went was just rotten.

It didn’t hurt that we were in Indian drag and everyone thought we were the entertainment.

The night ended in a nirvanian blur.... Namaste PHJ for another wild one!