What do I talk about now?

As you've probably gathered by my incessant road trip posts, I made it back to Boston without incident. Despite having been sat for the best part of 10 days, both Lia and I were exhausted. Still, life goes on, and the Euros had just begun.

I shan't get into England's performance right now because I don't want to cry, but as I sit writing this, Poland are playing Portugal in the first quarterfinal match of the cup. Not only are Poland one up after just one minute forty-something seconds, I can actually enjoy this game. It's like a weight has been lifted. Bloody England.

Now that we're at the quarterfinal stage, there aren't three matches a day any more, so I can no longer spend all day on the sofa, convinced I'm "recovering from driving across the country, something that many people died trying to do*". So I have to get outside and enjoy this beautiful hot, sweaty weather Boston is blessing us with. 

(*we never came close to dying, and nobody has in years. I'm just being a lazy git.)

I've lived in Kenmore Square for just over a year now, and I've only just discovered that Fenway is in fact a decent neighbourhood. If you walk quickly away from Fenway Park and all those who patronize it, there is actually quite a decent food scene. In addition to Tiffani Faison's Sweet Cheeks Q and Tiger Mama, there's also the brick and mortar of food truck Mei Mei, and a Tatte bakery, which Lia and I visited for some lunch yesterday.

Love them or hate them, basics know what's up with the food scene. 

Floors: what an under-utilised canvas.

As we'd gone to a place known for their baked goods, naturally I got a meatball sandwich. But it was a very good meatball sandwich, and the house-made ciabatta bread was outstanding. Lia got quiche, which was a little more par for the course. 

Presentation is everything.

Speaking of versatile, egg-based dishes, I made frittata the other day. It came out pretty well, despite having to cook it twice (my cast iron skillet looks really cool, but I'm still learning how to use it.)

I made fries to go with it, but the fries were ready about an hour before the frittata in the end. So they were all gone by the time I plated my eggy goodness. 

I wanted to take some frittata over to Lia's to eat in the morning, and I thought it would look nice if I took it over still in the skillet. I didn't think it would be at all strange to take food into an Uber in cookware - grown up people take dishes over to other houses all the time, right? - but Harris said it would. I scoffed, and confidently got into my Uber with my skillet-full of baked egg. Sure enough, five minutes into the drive, he turned around and asked what it was. I told him, and asked how weird it was. He said it was "up there" with the weirdest things he's seen. I argued that it could've been a significantly worse weird thing, like a human limb. He agreed; frittata in a skillet was a pretty good weird thing to have on your passenger's lap. I maintain that he must've been a very sheltered Uber driver. 

Frittata consumed the next morning (Lia also thought I should've brought it in tupperware. I was just trying to do a nice, aesthetically pleasing thing!), we went to check out Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's sculpture installation on the Greenway as neither of us had seen it yet. 

We stopped along the way at Gracenote Coffee, as it was voted Boston Magazine's best coffee in Boston this week. Shame I don't like coffee. But Lia looked like she really enjoyed hers. 

It was an interpretation of the twelve signs of the zodiac surrounding a fountain, and I'd really recommend checking it out before it leaves in the fall. Such is the nature of temporary art pieces. The detailing on the bronze was really intricate, and each of the animals looked a little nasty, which was cool. 

I took a picture of the rooster. Lia took one of me taking a picture of the rooster, and told me she got a nice photo of two cocks. Nice.

To get our daily steps in, we also took a trip to the Aquarium to play the poor man's game of admiring the seals in the outside tank.

Why do seals have fingernails!?

And then we walked back to Lia's apartment via the open doors of King's Chapel, on Tremont Street, which neither of us had ever been in.

Despite being a rather atheistic person, I'm always impressed with what humans can build in reverence to the higher power they believe in. And there's beauty in that.

Renato Sanches just scored in the Portugal v Poland game, the youngest player ever to start for Portugal. Harris and I played far too much FIFA 16 at one point and got him up to a 94 overall in career mode. He was banging long shots in for fun.

I'll be writing a lot more on here going forward, at least until I find some other form of occupying my time. I've got a few feelers out, so hopefully I find something and don't have to just keep shouting into the void on here. Fingers crossed!