違う贅沢・A different luxury
今は証券時代と全く違う祝日の過ごし方で贅沢を味わう様になっています。今日は雲1つ無い青空の春日和、朝からパティオに作ってもらったピザ釜に火をおこして、気まぐれサラダを作り、家内が白ワイン、僕はミネラルウオーターを飲みながら二人で静かに会話を交わしながらピザが焼き上がるのを待っていました。 Nowadays, we enjoy a totally different sense of decadence in the way we enjoy our holidays to what we did when I worked in the financial industry. On a cloudless spring day, I fired up our pizza stove this morning, set the table in the patio, and nibbling on a fresh salad with a cold drink--white wine for my wife, mineral water for me--we chatted about this and that as we waited for the pizza to be ready. 二人と言ったが正確には二人と2匹です。手前は11歳になるプリンセス、顔を上げている奥のは5歳になるお嬢様気分のちかで、何いいものは無いのかと言わんばかりの二人がテーブルの周りをうろうろしていた。 When I say we, I include of course our two darling dogs. In the foreground is Princess, 11 this year, and the inquisitive lass behind her is Chika. They roamed round and round the table, hoping that some titbits would come their way. ピザのいい匂いが充満したら、早速へらで取り出す作業に入りました。奥は昨日芝刈りしばかりの去年ティフトンのポット苗を植えたまだ一年も経たない芝生の庭が見えています。 As soon as we sensed the marvellous smell of freshly-baked pizza, it was my job to retrieve it. In the background you can see the lawn, where I planted tifton seedlings last summer and mowed yesterday. 本当は食べる前に写真を撮りたかったが気付いたら半分が腹に入っていました。今日のピザはニンニク、ブラックオリーブ、フェタチーズを細切りにしてミックスしたペーストにサーモンとシイタケ。 I guess I should really have taken this photo before we started eating but it was so tempting that we could not wait. The pizza was very simple: a sauce made of finely-chopped and mixed garlic, feta cheese, and black olives, topped with fresh salmon and shiitake mushrooms. 以外とボリュームがあり午後2時頃食べたら、夕方になってもおなかがまだ一杯という感じで夕食はコンサバとリーでハーブティーとがまで焼いたパンだけにします。 Though simple, it was very filling so despite having eaten lunch at around 2PM, we are both quite full this evening and will satisfy ourselves with a cup of herb tea and a slice of the wholewheat bread I baked in the embers of the fire.