The tea party

The tea party was a full success. Sunshine, cakes, good friends, tea, hugs, fruits, lemonade and laughter combined to make a wonderful day. I was incredibly busy the last two days, trying to get everything ready.I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed it, from the baking to the decorating. Maybe I will do it again next year.

Fireworks

It’s the 6th of November today and that means that yesterday was Bonfire night! Thanks to a reminder from Squeak, the Mister and I actually managed to go to one of the display. I was going to show you a number of pictures I took during the display but then I realised I had taken a very nice sequence of the finale. Enjoy :)

Spitalfields City Farm

One of my favourite places in London on a Sunday afternoon is the London’s East End, especially the area around Brick Lane Market. It’s fully of little cafes, crazy flea markets ( I got some sunglasses for 2£ yesterday), the best curry houses in the city and a whole variety of people ranging from the stylish to the completely normal. It also hosts the Columbia Road Flower market which is probably my favourite market in the city.

Yesterday, I strayed a little from the busiest streets around the Brick Lane Market when I suddenly found myself in front of the sign above. The city farm turned out to be a crazy mix of somebodies allotment, an animal shelter, a kindergarden, a farmer’s market and every hippies favourite place to hang out. It was great!

The farm had pigs, sheep, geese, a donkey and a pony, guinea pigs, rabbits, ducks and a whole load of pigeons (I don’t think they were meant to be there). There are probably a few animals I missed. Apart from that, they had green houses, vegetable beds and flower fields left wild for the butterflies. They were also just trying out their new bread oven. No picture from that as there were too many people standing around, watching intently.

I especially loved the fact that they evidently did a lot of work with local schools. How often do city kids, which grow up between brick and concrete, get to stroke a sheep? Or see a live pig? Big cities need more places like these.

Congratulations your Majesty

So, the Queen has been a queen for 60 yearts. Quite impressive! Only Queen Victoria has ruled longer so far. Of course, that warants a big celebration and where would be a better place for a huge boat pageant in honour of the Queen than on the Thames, watched by half of London?

I unfortunately did not get a picture of the actual royal barge because by the time it came along, it was raining so hard that I did not want to take my camera out. However, I’m proud to say that I have now seen the Queen, even though I was too far away to actually make her out. I still think it counts. Despite the rain, it was great fun to watch the boats on the river. I was lucky to find a spot where I could actually see. It might have involved climbing up some barriers but we won't tell anybody about that.

Fabric shopping in London

If you ever come to London and have any inclination to do any crafting at all, I only have one suggestion for you: Go to Goldhawk road, it's fabric heaven! There is one shop right next to the other and they all offer an amazing, crazy, colourful and often surprisingly cheap collection of fabrics. It can be so overwhelming, I only walk in there with specific projects in mind otherwise I buy everything or nothing.

With a bit of digging, one can find pretty much anything. If you buy larger quantities of fabric, haggling is perfectly acceptable! It can also pay off to check several shops but often the prices are fairly equal. However, since the stock is so erratic, don't expect to be able to come back six weeks later and get some more of the same. Odds are, it's probably sold out.

Haberdashery is harder to come buy. There is a stall in the actual Sheperd's bush market, right next to the shops (open Monday-Saturday between 9 and 6 I believe) which sells it. Alternatively, “All-in-One fabrics”, the one at the corner to the market, has a small haberdashery section on the upper floor.

How to get there: Goldhawk Road is a street in Sheperd's bush, somewhat off the beaten tourist path but well worth a visit. To get there, take the Hammersmith and City (the pink one) or the Circle line towards Hammersmith. Just get out the tube station and you can see the shops directly.

Opening times: Careful, shops close fairly early, at around 6 pm I believe. Don't turn up too late!

A night at the Opera

We had an amazing night out with the greates womanizer of all times and the most awesome chocolate desert I have eaten in London so far. I did try to take some pictures of the dress for you but photographing a black dress by night is impossible. You will have to wait until the weekend when I can take some proper pictures.

 

The Mister in suit and leather coat. Nothing like some contrast in ones outfit.

The Royal Opera house where we saw "Don Giovanni"by Mozart and Da Ponte. One word: Awesome.

My absolutely amazing chocolate desert. Instead of going for a cheap meal out, we decided to treat ourselves and have just desert but pick a nice place instead.

So nice, while we were waiting to pick up our coats, a lady smiled at me and said I had "absolutely lovely hair." Note to self: give more compliments to strangers in public.

The Royal Opera House from the outside. Amazing, isn't it?

The liquid heart of London

 

 

 

You are late, you know? But there still is some tea.

 

 

green chaos

Remember when I blogged about our attempt to shape the front garden? At the time we pulled pretty much everything out and I distributed what felt like kilograms of seeds. As ever, most of it was never heard of again but some came out quite nicely.

Unfortunately I can't remember what exactly I put in so it is hard to tell what is meant to be growing and what isn't but for now I'm just being hopeful and leaving most of it.

Change of luck

Not far from here is a row of very pretty red brick houses with bluish windows, white friezes and a big sky light. I always wonder if they were built for artists, the top floor must be amazingly light. I just have to close my eyes and I can see how I would furnish one of these treasures, even though I have never been inside.

I believe that when they were built, they were situated on an averagely large street, in close proximity of a tube station and not too far from the next busy high street. I'm sure they were sought after and expensive even though they are a little on the small side. Somewhere along the lines they must have had a change of luck, as the street in front of them has significantely grown in size and the noise level is unbearable. Three out of the five bear signs saying "for sale". I'd still want one but it is a pity. I wish I could just pick them up and put them somewhere nicer. Or we should go back to horse drawn carriages.

What do you do with a B.A. in english?

Well, I don't know and to be honest, the question isn't a major concern for me as I am working on a MSci in Physics instead but it provided good entertainement for tonight because we went and saw Avenue Q! It's hilarious, I haven't laughed that much during a show in quite a while.After a few days of long hours in the library, it was exactly the counter balance I needed.

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1+1=2 and hot chocolate

No, this is not a Valentines Day post. I seem to be surounded by people distinctly unenthusiastic about it so you won't find many hearts on this blog (which is a shame really but why bother and craft something if i know it isn't going to be appreciated?)

However, this IS a post about my awesome little sister who came to visit me in London for a couple of days, which is much better than heart shaped chocolates anyway. I'm glad you are here! We duly celebrated the occasion with large cups of hot chocolate. With marshmallows on top! So worth it.

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Somewhere in Southern France

Some of our friends are real board game enthusiasts. They have incredibly many and slowly but surely the enthusiasm is wearing off onto my household. One of these friends kindly left her copy of "Carcasonne" here for a few days and let me tell you: we are hooked. Last night we had a very entertaining game, including a long strategy debate and a minute analysis of every move, over which people got entertainingly emotional. So much better than playing Mario Kart together or watching TV ( even though I have to admit, playing on the Wii is also fun) I think next week we might have to swap Carcasonne for a different game and see where it takes us.

A bit of winter glee

It is hard to come by some real winter entertainment in the middle of London. While the rest of Europe regularily seems to get doused in snow, we are staring longingly at the sky but the only thing the wind brings us is the feeling of being chilled to the bone. However, today we went ice skating at Canary Wharf and it was amazing. We had various levels of skill but that just added to the entertainment. Afterwards we tried to warm up with some mulled wine but as it turned out to be the worst mulled wine in history, we skipped that bit and went for beer or coffee instead. It's all about improvisaiton.

It's midnight? Let's build a snowman!

The biggest advantage of not living at home is that creative ideas can be implemented at any time. Today, we decided after dinner that it is definitely snowman-building time, so off we went. Luckliy, there was still plenty of snow about and we now have a proud guard to our house. Mind the glowsticks!

Dear old lady...

... I think wearing a Sombrero to ward of the first snow in London today was an amazing idea.

weheartit

back to London!

Important news first: I'm back in London. The move has come with all the crazyness of going back to uni after a long summer, moving into a new house and generally trying to get my life sorted. It's had some good sides, like moving in with my new flatmates (lots of fun) and several good parties but it has also had some bad sides ( 9 o'clock starts and an expired bank card) but I think it's all falling into place now.

Then a good friend visited for a few days and we went shopping. A lot. I got some really nice pieces, I'll have to show you. Unfortunately I have to postpone this to a random "some time soon" as my camera broke. I'll try to fix it as soon as possible. Until then, I'll show you the last picture it took before randomly abandoning me.

Isn't it cute?

Brick Lane

Today was one of these days I love living in London. What better things are there in life than waking up comfortably in your own bed, meeting up with a few friends and then spending the next few hours digging through a lively market? That's what I did all day today.

The market on Brick Lane is truly amazing. It's a crazy mixture of vintage, small designers, junk, cheap imports from China and some real flea market, well spiced with a truly international mix of food, street musicians and lots of quirky people. All in all, it's great fun. I never go home without buying a few things. Today they included a bunch of tulips, some small mother of pearl buttons, a role of patterned paper and a pack of green tea with cherry. If I had lot of money, I would spent a significant portion of it there.

That little restaurant in the red bus serves amazing vegan food by the way. :)