New York Video

The first installment of our trip to New York a couple of years ago! We had such a good time and I love filming our trips away, it is going to be brilliant to look back in years to come and remember.

Click the picture below to link through!

A Day Trip to Oxford

As it is the bank holiday weekend what better time than to take a little jaunt out of London to Oxford. I have never been before. When I was growing up I always wanted to go to Oxford University to study English but that just never worked out so instead I contented myself with a lovely day wandering around and looking at the beautiful buildings.

We took the Oxford Tube down from London and arrived early afternoon. We had such a lovely walk through the streets admiring all the architecture. It is such a shame that a lot of the interiors are off limits as I can only imagine how stunning they are.

This is a very picture heavy post so grab a cup of tea and have a scroll!

 

After we has our fill of everything  we could see we followed a tip on a pub and we were not disappointed. Hidden down an alleyway 'The Turf Tavern' is a perfect little hideaway with a very good pub grub menu and plenty of seating and some fire pits. The courtyard is framed with original mid 13th century city walls. I would highly recommend visiting if you are in Oxford.

 

 

We honestly has the nicest day. It was lovely to do something different and get some fresh air over the bank holiday weekend.

I hope you had a lovely Easter.

C x 

Lesser Spotted London

A little look around at some of the history right on London's doorstop! We ventured out to soak up some of the secret bits of London that you might walk past on a daily basis. Let me know in the comments if you know any more!

Click on the picture to link through...

C x

Amsterdam - The Final Day

We woke up to our final breakfast opting to pay for a bacon and egg roll to see us through to lunch. We checked our bags into the lockers so we wouldnt have to carry them and set out.......in to the rain.

We sought shelter in The Royal Palace situated in Dam Square and spent a lovely and interesting 2 hours walking around and learning all about this grand building. The giant sweeping marble maps on the floor and the impressive heavy iron chandeliers all portray a glamour that you just don't see every day.

After we had finished feasting our eyes on all the splendor we feasted our bellies on some very tasty food. We stopped at a little cafe which smelt divine. We treated ourselves to a cheese pastry and an apple cake from the vast selection.

 

We had a couple more hours to kill so we decided to walk the streets a bit more to see what we could see. We weren't disappointed either, as after turning down just one street we found some incredible graffiti

We had to go back to the hostel to get our stuff so we made our way through the streets, picked up our bits from the hostel lockers and then got on the train back to the airport. Our flight was a little bit delayed which was annoying, especially as we had work the next day but we made it in the end.

Amsterdam is really beautiful and it's not just all about going there to sit in coffeeshops and get as high as possible. We saw so much just by walking around the city, we didn't get any public transport and it was probably the best idea to walk, although the bikes scare me so much! They really do rule the road over there. I would really recommend going if you haven't been or going again if you've been already because there is always something new to do or see.

C x

Lack of Inspiration

I have been a little bit quiet on the blog front this month. No special reason, I've just been a little stumped when it comes to blog post ideas.

Once again I wish I could tell you about all the fun and interesting things I have been doing but really it is just a case of me working late, drinking on the days I'm not working late and sitting in bed eating fried chicken at 3am.

I walked through London earlier today, and when I say London I mean the center of it all. The hell that is Oxford Street. It wasn't actually that bad at 8.30am, there was still some ducking and weaving, but there were no shops open at that hour so there was less agro than normal. Anyway, I was walking through Oxford Circus heading toward Piccadilly with a Starbucks in one hand and my mobile and cigarette in the other and I thought, 'Oh get me, people might think I'm a proper Londoner',until I ruined it all because I'd forgotten to plug my headphones in and the incredibly helpful Google maps lady told me to 'turn right at Regent's street' and I lost all credibility because only a non Londoner would need Google maps to get them from Oxford Street to Piccadilly Circus. Unless you just happen to be utterly crap at directions like me. The illusion I'd created was shattered by this point though and I thought to myself 'well it can't get worse, I might as well be a legit tourists and take some photos'. I tried to resist the urge to tell my fellow commuters I do in fact live here and they shouldn't judge me.

I've also been watching The Riot Club trailer on repeat because those boys are just too good to look at and well... why not? Other things I like to do in my spare time include:

• Eating burger cheese slices
• Getting lost in Buzzfeed
• Questioning why as of late I keep going out drinking without eating first resulting in a whole load of toilet bowl hugging
• Watching my cat stalk flies
• Doing anything but blogging really

Things I should be doing in my spare time:

• Going to the gym or in fact doing any form of exercise that doesn't just consist of getting up to turn the TV on
• Churning out blog posts at an alarming speed so you can all share my joy in life
• Going to the bank to sort my finances 
• Being proactive in enjoying London and all it has to offer

I'm hoping that this is just a brief lapse in creativity but I need to find it soon because my course has started again and it requires me to write stories. If they need me to write a story about procrastination I'm the girl for the job. Or I might just have a sleep. 

C x

Notting Hill Carnival

So in the 3 years I have lived in London I have never once been to Notting Hill Carnival. I have always been out of town and so I miss the fun and revelry! But this year we were around and so with glee we headed to Westbourne Park to join the madness.

We started off by walking the streets and stopping every so often to appreciate the sounds of reggae music and the smell of jerk chicken.

We ducked and weaved our way through the crowds - the amount of people is unreal! We had missed most of the procession as we didnt arrive until later but we still saw some of the floats, music and colour that the festival is famous for.

 

 After queuing for 45 MINUTES for the toilet we met another one of our friends before grabbing some jerk chicken and dumplings which set my mouth on fire but was so very tasty.

We headed down the streets finding one of the many speakers pumping out music and had a bit of a dance under the cloudy sky.

We danced into the night before heading to a pub in Kentish Town for a friends birthday. It was quite a crazy day - with SO many people. I did spend a large amount of time worrying about my bag but it was interesting to see the atmosphere and in general how people tend to react with each other. There is always a lovely people spirit at events like this.

C x

Market at Christmas

With only 3 days to Christmas what better way of celebrating the Christmas spirit than with a trip down to the wonderfully festive London Borough Market. 

At this time of year there are so many festive stalls and things to try. When you first walk through the gates the smells of cheese, meat, flowers and mulled wine float aromatically around you and it feels safe and warm inside although the warmth is probably from the hundreds of people that were crammed in which I suppose is only to be expected so close to Christmas!

There were so many lovely things to see:

Pretty flowers, including some lovely Christmas berries

Tons of vegetables are to be found in numerous vegetable stalls

The smell of oranges always makes me feel Christmassy

And then there's the glorious spice stalls with the different exotic smells

And all the mushrooms which are a favourite vegetable of mine although Leigh is not a fan.

There are lots of tasty saucisson's to be tried, that range from the standard to Duck and Pistachio.

And of course the most exciting bit about the whole trip was the amount of cheese that I got to eat. You just need to ask and they will let you try little bits of cheese. We tried all sorts including a 36 month matured cheese which was full of flavour.

We bought several cheeses and once home arranged them on our lovely slate cheeseboard

But back to the market...


There are lots of places to get something warm to drink

And you can finish off the day with a piece of cake or chocolate on the side...

It was lovely to spend a few hours soaking up the atmosphere and if you want to feel festive and eat a lot of cheese I would definitely recommend it.

xxx