A 'Going Away/We Got Married Today' Party!

Hello!

Right. Well, I've been in Australia for months now & I've spent that time generally hanging about, but haven't bothered to put anything up here because I've also been spending most of my mental time stressing about getting my new UK Visa. The sheer amount of energy I spent worrying/stressing about said Visa was most definitely unwarranted - I have in my possession a new 5 year UK Visa (!!!!!!!!!) and a whole lot of time/energy to spend doing something other than worrying about it so I thought it might be time to pick up where I'd left off around here...

Last year was fairly hectic & I have a backlog of photographs I want to share with you but for now I thought I'd post about that time we got married at the Camden Town Hall & had a nice Going Away/We Got Married Today party at the brewery with all of our friends...

The day went something like this:

Caught bus into town/Headed to Store Street Espresso for pre-getting married coffee & cake times/wandered to town hall in the lovely grey drizzle of London/Met a few very wonderful friends that agreed to be our witnesses/Got married/Walked to the pub for some drinks/Caught the Tube to Bermondsey, and spent the rest of the evening drinking/eating and generally having a lovely time! We are so stupidly lucky to have such amazing friends (and to have been able to have a super relaxed party in the brewery - which we are oh-so-grateful for) 

Obviously all of the photographs are of food. I do not apologise.

Ice cream by the genius La Grotta Ices

Cheese (of course): Stilton/Satwley/Montgomery's Cheddar/Tunworth/Bermondsey Frier

The most amazing Tarts/Rum Babas by the super talented Poppy & Sebastian 

I didn't take many photographs so I missed out on getting pictures of a few things (including getting someone to take one of us!) but hopefully everyone had a good time and ate some delicious food! 

We were really lucky to be able to get almost everything from the incredible makers of Spa Terminus where we both work - and are so crazy grateful to our friends who did things like bake 20 baguettes fresh for us, make amazing veggie friendly Borscht (and remember to get bowls/spoons which we totally forgot to organise!), make a special trip to buy cheese & cycle it back to the arch, let us have a party in the brewery, procure ice cream, pour their own beer, turn up to a party on a Thursday evening after working all day and just be seriously fantastic all-round amazing people! No wonder we can't wait to get back to London... 

I'm not eloquent enough to write about any of this in a decent way, and I'm sure I've forgotten to mention lots and I'm really sorry but basically we had the best time ever at our Going Away/We Got Married Today party... thank you. 

Possible Future Neighbourhood Exploration

Possible Future Neighbourhood Exploration is what we have been up to lately - a few weekends ago we headed south of the river(!) to wander around Peckham & see if perhaps a move down that way could be on the cards. We had a lovely, lazy Sunday meandering about the place - helped along by too much coffee (caffeine overload is pretty unpleasant it turns out) and some seriously delicious baked goods. 

Coffee at Anderson & Co

Guinness chocolate cake 

One of the most exciting reasons to move to Peckham: The possibility of having an actual garden/outside space again! It has been too long - gardening inside the apartment ain't the greatest. 

 Turns out I was a bit snap-happy at Anderson & Co and didn't manage to take any actual photographs of anything else we did that day. Except (of course) of my coffee at the tiny/lovely Cafe Viva...

I loved this cup/saucer. I wanted to steal it. I didn't. 

Xx

E5 Bakehouse & other bread-y goodness

I've been dreaming about a lazy weekend breakfast at E5 Bakehouse for a while now - hopefully it will become a reality again soon! For now, here are some pictures from previous visits. It's a beautiful bakery in Hackney, under the railway arches (like all good things) where delicious-ness is made every day. We were even lucky enough to be shown around the bakery a while ago - I love getting a glimpse into spaces like this...

Having cakes right after breakfast is definitely the right thing to do, yes?

Hackney Wild: Oh-so-good but my favourite has to be the Rye Bread

We were disappointed one day when we realised we hadn't made it in time for the breakfast stuff - until we devoured these!

Pretty much the Best Mushrooms On Toast Ever. Seriously. 

 On another bread related note - here is a nice short-film about Tartine bakery in San Francisco. A friend lent us one of their cookbooks a while ago (not that we've made anything from it yet, mostly just oooh-ing & aaah-ing over everything!). Isn't cookbook a funny word!?

Xx!

I'm Sorry I Grumbled About You Amsterdam. You're Lovely.

I must admit, I didn't like Amsterdam very much at first. I have a tendency to dislike new places for no apparent reason, it is completely irrational & thankfully wears off pretty quickly! The city definitely grew on me... being able to walk everywhere, beautiful canals, interesting museums, good food - how could I have mumbled about not enjoying it for the first day & a half?! 

We rambled about the place & did a few touristy things (The Anne Frank House, Van Gough Museum) as well as spending time drinking in the sunshine along the canal, eating cheese, exploring markets, searching for delicious apple pie (which we definitely found!) missing out on eating pancakes (next time!) and frequenting good beer venues. I hope that we'll get a chance to go back to Amsterdam sometime soon so I can appreciate it without having the awful 'grumpy traveller' phase!

Of course

Much nicer than Regent's Canal!

Apple Pie at Winkel 43. Yum.

Managing to get a table outside next to the canal made our lazy Sunday afternoon totally blissful!

Some of my favourite places we visited in Amsterdam:

Koffie Salon - recommended by a friend & luckily just around the corner from our funny little hotel. Great coffee & a beautiful building - I can't believe I didn't take any photographs of this place! Must have been concentrating too intently on getting my morning coffee fix.

Winkel 43 - we stumbled upon this place late on a Sunday afternoon on the hunt for Apple Pie. I am so glad we did. Not only was the pie delicious (see above) & the setting lovely, we also had drinks accompanied by deep fried cheese sticks (don't judge us). We left feeling rather tipsy and full of goodly delicious Apple Pie. 

Noordermarkt - Strolling through this market in Jordaan was lovely (before the skies opened up & we had to run for cover in a nearby pub, what a shame!). I really enjoyed exploring Jordaan, interesting streets, cute shops, good food/drinks - a nice cruise-y way to spend some time in Amsterdam.

The Anne Frank House - Heavy going but excellently laid out - the museum was definitely worth a visit & the wait in line (we had failed to book online in advance, which I very much recommend doing!). The worst part of the day was being asked (while standing in the line, nay, having stood in the line in front of this person for 20 mins already) 'So, who was Anne Frank?' That was a frustratingly bizarre conversation. 

Van Gough Museum - It panned out that we only had time to visit one other museum on our trip & this was it. It was really well put together (as you would expect for a museum dedicated to one artist) and is worth a look even if you're not the biggest fan of his work. My advice to you is (as always) Go early! Obviously booking online ahead of time (for the more organised of you) is the best way to go but getting there early meant we managed to avoid the queue, which was massive when we left, and enjoy the museum without too many people about. 

There's a lot of Amsterdam left to explore & we are hoping to be back there in a month or so to do just that! If anyone has any favourite places let us know & we will put them on the to do list!

Xx

Berlin (Part III) Beer & Baked Goods

Obligatory pictures of beer/food (if donuts can be considered food...oh wait, the filling was made of fruit so it definitely counts.) Being Vegetarian in a non-english speaking country was totally fine, falafel was our go-to meal & we pretty much never get tired of it so no complaints here! I had envisaged eating vegetables covered in cheese which I would also have had no complaints about...

Aside from the 4 day donut crawl that our trip became we also managed to get around to a few brew pubs. I have it on good authority that the beer was good most places and I can definitely say that the cider at Hops & Barley is good but I'd be careful of it if you're ever there! 

I got horribly drunk in this fine establishment. All I could think was how did I end up here, in Berlin, so very drunk? When the room stopped spinning I realised that I had perhaps had too much cider & getting to Berlin just involved a short plane trip. All very simple to the sober mind.

Hops & Barley

Schalander Brew Pub

Flammkuchen!

Some of the many, many donuts

Delicious baked goods
(We managed some self restraint & didn't buy the GIANT donut we encountered at this bakery. Perhaps next time.)

Seriously. We ate a shit tonne of donuts.

Not eating donuts again any time soon

If you ever find yourself in Berlin I can highly recommend Donuts & Falafels since that's about all we ate our entire time there. Washed down with a lot of beer & club-mate. 

Xx

A Primrose Hill Picnic/Good Times in The Sun/Coffee (always)

Spring is definitely making an appearance in London. I have ventured out sans coat for the past 4 days in a row. Crazy times! This weekend I am going to 'oooh & ahhh' at the beautiful Spring flowers - they will all be finished by the time we get back from our impending trip to Berlin, Copenhagen & Edinburgh (excitement is beginning to take hold!) Spring is my favourite season and I want to make the most of it.  

The sun came out on the weekend and we (along with the rest of North London) headed out to Primrose Hill for a picnic, drinks (too many for me) & some much needed Vitamin D. Lots happening in the coming weeks - as the days get warmer and longer I remember how amazing London is in the summertime & can't wait to see what this one brings.   

Affogato at our regular Friday evening cafe stop - Tapped & Packed. This is where we plan our weekend adventures.

The Shard with bonus Rainbow from our balcony.

Sunday Picnic with fellow sunlight devotees. Don't worry - we cleaned up after ourselves. 

 Football in the mud.

The photos don't capture it but I swear it was sunny. 

Happy mid-week everyone!
Xx

Pretzels, Biscuits, Cakes vs our A W F U L Oven

The sun is out in London today & I can hear Ice Cream Trucks for the first time since last year. It's still cold but at least we are getting a hint of nice weather! I worked at Borough Market today which was fun & I had a nice wander along the River too. We've been hanging about London as usual & once I've sorted everything out I'll have something a bit more interesting to blog about but for now I will leave you with some pictures of food (how unusual!)

Raspberry & Lemon Yoghurt Cake. Our oven lived up to expectations and failed to bake this quite the way I had intended. It was still delicious toasted but a tad disappointing! 

Buns from The Little Bread Pedlar (I hate our purple plates...)

I dipped some Pretzels in Peanut Butter & Dark Chocolate 

Ben made Banana, Choc Chip & Cacao Nib Biscuits. So good.

Happy mid-week everyone! 

Xx

Electric Dounts

A few weeks ago Ben and I made our way to Portobello Market on a miserable rainy Saturday on the hunt for Electric Donuts. It's no secret that Ben loves donuts. Loves them, so it's surprising it took us so long to get to Notting Hill for Electric. The tiny shop is inside the Electric Cinema & only opens a few days a week. The flavours change regularly and on the day we went we tried Pistachio, Old Fashioned Buttermilk, Birthday Cake & Lemon Poppyseed. The best of the lot was by far the Old Fashioned Buttermilk and on our next visit we didn't bother with any other flavours. My personal favourite donut is still the Custard from St John's Bakery but the Old Fashioned was delicious and you can get two for the price of one custard donut which is a bonus! 

Behind the bustle of the market stalls

Standing in the rain eating donuts. Classy. 

Old Fashioned, Lemon Poppyseed, Birthday Cake, Pistachio

Devouring the Birthday Cake (featuring the hand warmers I crocheted recently. Still glove weather over here!)

Old Fashioned delicious-ness

Over the long weekend I plan to bite the head off a Lindt chocolate bunny, eat a Hot Cross Bun (even though you can get them all year round here) & freeze at The Kernel on Saturday after visiting Ropewalk on Maltby Street & Borough Market. Also: Drink coffee (always).

Have a lovely weekend everyone! 
Xx

Pizza from a Big Green Egg

Farewell pizza at Ben's new work on Thursday evening. There was a Big Green Egg. It was slightly scary but it cooked the pizza & kept us warm outside, both good things. Three people made pizza dough & there were crazy delicious toppings. Home made pickled eggplant, wild mushrooms, tomato, basil, artichoke, olives, capers, parmesan, mozzarella, caerphilly & the parsley/walnut pesto I made was there too! It was lovely to meet everyone Ben works with at the brewery - I even drank half a beer!  

Y U M.

All the dough

Yes - that is a whole wheel of cheese - Caerphilly, so good.

We may have been taking the pizza out of the crazy egg with a saw but I'd say it turned out pretty well...

Xx!

Like driving into the future

A few weeks ago we spent a day in Greenwich with a stop off in Deptford for coffee/lunch at The Waiting Room which is connected to Kids Love Ink just a few shops down. The cafe was cosy and super cheap (sometimes I forget how expensive it is in London) with good veggie/vegan food and decent coffee - definitely worth the detour. We wandered around Deptford for a while & made our way down to Greenwich where we spent the rest of the day in the National Maritime Museum. We were there for ages & still didn't get around to seeing everything. Hopefully next time we'll see the rest of the museum and make it to the observatory as well - I would also like to be first on the DLR so I can sit in the roller coaster seat up the front.     

On the walk into Greenwich

Veggie hotdogs

To the observatory!

Hello Monday, why so grey?

Being made redundant due to lack of funding sucks. Being unemployed in an expensive city (and just generally) sucks. I am counting today as my first 'official' day of unemployment since my final paycheque included last week. I haven't been super productive so far (although I've written about a million job applications - which you need to do in a town this big) but I am aiming to be positive & do things I've wanted to do for ages. At the moment though I am looking out the window at the grey, rainy outside world  and putting off doing the groceries...not the best start. 

Okay - I'm going to brave the 10 minute walk to the shops & stop complaining on here. All in all things are pretty damn good, I just need to find a job. In the meantime I am going to:

- Crochet the stash of yarn I have lying around

- Make curtains

- Apply for jobs

- Cook/bake a lot

- Walk to the park or Heath whenever it is remotely sunny

- Apply for jobs

- Visit nice cafes

- Go to ALL the free museums in London

- Try & have a regular routine, stop stressing too much & wake up at an appropriate time

Here are some pictures from the lovely Brighton (possibly my favourite place ever) where I hope to be in a few weekends time. 

Best veggie burger ever. Cheap & Cheerful after a night at a gin bar. 

Mmmm...pita chips + cider

Have a lovely start of the week everyone! 

Xx

A burger of the honest variety (and cake!)

A few weeks ago we finally made it down to Brixton to check out Honest Burger - we were prepared to have our names put on the waiting list and spend a while wandering around Brixton Village but luck was on our side & we got a table outside straight away! I can't believe it took us so long to get around to this. Honest Burger was  A M A Z I N G (Ben reckons the chips are among the best he's ever eaten) and it is really great that they have a solid veggie option. Since then we have been to the Soho shop too & it was just as good, although we had to skull our pre-lunch pints at a nearby pub when we got a table earlier than we had anticipated!

Brixton Village Market was great too - I have been obsessed with making new curtains for our living room & we found material for £2 per metre which made me very happy indeed. I still haven't made the curtains though, it seems I calmed down about it once I'd found the right material...and I'm a bit craft-lazy.

We will definitely head back to Brixton sometime soon - there are lots of cafes and shops we didn't get to check out as it was the quiet period just after New Year. We ended up having some delicious cakes from a cute little place in the market for dessert, so all in all our spontaneous trip to Brixton ('Hey, this bus goes to Brixton...why don't we hop on that instead?') was worth it. 

An Honest Burger, chips & home-made lemonade (surprisingly carbonated)

Carrot Cake vs Zucchini and Orange

I've been lazy for a while so there's lots to catch up on, having some holidays together meant we got around to doing a few things we'd been talking about for ages. 

I'm going to try and drag myself out of the house now - coffee (to help me write job applications) is worth leaving the house for.

Xx