The Experimental Cocktail Club

I received an invite to this gathering 3weeks in advance. I was so confused but intrigued.

Confused because my this was quite an unusual group of us, though the organizer does know the other friends from doing a walk in the Peak District at the end of Summer, but I generally knew them from different circles.

Intrigued because this bar sounded very interesting and hidden in Chinatown, out of all the places.

As June and I were early we were trying to find the bar I remembered the number of the building so we were searching for that door. I instantly recognized the door from the website.

As we went up the stairs into the bar, it was such a quiet relaxed environment; the staff welcomed us and took us to our booked table. I was really loving the Speak easy vibe of the bar dimly lit and playing classical music across 2 floors, however they only kept to the 1st floor, 2nd floor leading to toilets was closed/empty. Who knew above Chinatown there was such a bar such a contrast! The majority of the customers were Caucasian, my friends and I were the only Oriental group. The cocktails had some very interesting names, “Winne the Pooh”, something blank. The prices of the cocktails were about £11-11.50, shame there was only 2 pages of cocktails and the flavors were quite sweet to sour or bitter.

One of my friends chose a cocktail which came in a medicine bottle, pretty interesting, but did have a bit of a medicinal after taste to it >.<" Mine tasted sour and had grapefruit zest in it, another friend had one that had absinthe in! Pretty strong cocktails that are definitely sipping only than gulping!

  

But we all enjoyed the gathering playing Trivial Pursuit (other boardgames to play also available), and drinking, very chilled for a Sunday, but usually I don’t drink on a Sunday, just a personal don’t do but since it was Christmas and a belated treat from my friends why not ^.^  

Definitely recommend people giving this place a try to escape Chinatown hustle and bustle and unwind to a relaxed environment. Just need a fireplace!

http://experimentalcocktailclublondon.com/

Dismal December

Usually December is indeed the time of year with joy and cheer, but for me December has actually been one of the worst in times of Fortune in life.

I unfortunately lot my job at the beginning of the month, due to my careless mistakes, so was given a weeks notice of work before being terminated, Great (!) finish working a day before my birthday. I knew the stress of joining the property ladder had really worn me out with the stress and lack of sleep, causing me to lose my enthusiasm for work. This was one of my main worries; how am I going to be able to maintain paying money for mortgage?? I felt pretty screwed over. (-.-")

Next thing to find out was my Grandma had been staying in hospital being very ill, so mum had to go take care of her every other week trip to the Midlands. Grandma now has Dementia, so has trouble-remembering people and has mood swings of depression.

On the evening before my birthday I had to head back down to Devon as I had a meeting with my mortgage insurance advisor the next day; I then only found out from my Brother in that Dad had been in hospital in Hong Kong, I wasn’t able to get any details until mum was back from work. Found out he had been eating some seafood over in Sai Kung with friends, then he was suffering an infection in his throat so had to go to 2 hospitals to diagnose the problem then go to surgery to remove the bacteria out of his throat. He had to stay in hospital for 2 days. What happens when you’re not used to eating the food in Hong Kong where it is not properly cleaned, sure his friends were fine, but they’re immune, everyone was worried and had difficulty getting into contact with him.

In the evening back to London as I was to celebrate birthday, unfortunately fashionably late, but I’m allowed. Triple joint birthday and a switch of venue changing but I was adamant to keep the first part of drinking at Montague Pyke – cheap drinks in Soho and majority of people know where it is.

As I finally got to the venue, majority of the people were the other birthday girl R’s friends. I was also receiving txts from friends saying they were unable to make it.

I kind of felt a bit down, disappointed and was really not in the mood to going out. After about half an hour in the pub 2 Jagerbombs and a double Archer in lemonade, then R said we had to go to the club, it was only 10pm. I thought ok; I’ll see what the place is like. So when I was still chatting to some friends and messaging friends to let them know where I’ll be, once I was ready to leave R had already left the pub. I was quite annoyed as I thought she was going to wait for me.

I had to power walk to the club to catch up with them, as I got to the club there was a fair queue to get in. I was so pissed off and upset, I just broke down in tears, my emotions were all over the place.

I told R that I was really in no mood to go into this club so I ended up bolting down to Vauxhall for K pop. Fortunately one of my party buddies stayed with me and we danced the night away. All that matters with good music, though the alcohol pretty much burned out of me, was pretty much sober through the night. It really didn’t feel like my birthday, the friends who I saw in K pop were there to party but celebrating another’s birthday, I just felt like a tag along.

I did feel some guilt bailing on some other friends I wanted to see who stayed at R’s party but hearing they had to pay £30 for entry was simply extortionate, but R was refusing to budge and had a diva moment at one of my good friends.

Joys of the end of this year for me, I don’t think I have cried so much for such a long time, I felt to down and depressed. I hit quite a low point and have never hit this point ever.

I am still in the dark of what’s happening for Christmas, as it’ll just be myself and Mum, as Dad’s not back to UK until February. Will we stay in Devon just the two of us? Will we head up to the Midlands and keep Gran Company? I hate being clueless.

I suppose we need to pick ourselves up and move on. I think this mini break on myself will do me good as I haven’t had a long break in quite a long time, so need to concentrate on my new project that is my new home & job-hunt for a new opportunity in the New Year as it is Christmas time. It’s good to have my friends around me keeping my mind off things which is the best thing for me.

Pole Dancing

My Friend mentioned to me that she had been doing pole dancing for about 6 months now. She suggested I should give it a try; I decided why not, it's something I'd actually like to try out.

Pole Dancing has become quite a trendy form of fitness for the past few years, it's great to tone the whole body and build up the strength.

Di's Teacher has been practicing this form of fitness for over 3 years, I find it so amazing how she moved so fluidly on the pole. We started out with warm ups and the teacher was going through the basic positions with me.

I did over think some of the positions as she talked through me to do about 3 positions together, my problem was over thinking things so my leg positions were all over the place (-.-") I will have to laugh at myself with the first position I was pulling such a silly tense face.

Fortunately I was surprisingly able to stay up on the pole for a bit, however I was really not used to the friction against my thighs & calves. I was surprised the teacher got me to do a position like "sitting chair" and I managed to do this quite a while on the pole. I was constantly reminded to tense the abs so I could balance out the weight of my body out on the pole.

It was a good experience to do this class, I know that my legs and arms will ache the next day >.<" even though the class is great price wise £15 for an hour and the teacher will teach different levels of moves to the student, compared to the pole schools who will not really tailor moves to your abilities.

I did enjoy this form of fitness, however I am not able to afford doing this quite a bit compared to my £6 Zumba lessons!

K Pop United Cube Concert lands to London

Beginning of the week I joined friends to the first big Korea Pop concert in London. I only heard the about United Cube who is the label of 4 Minute, GNA, B2ST who performed, via friends FB statuses, so I spontaneously decided to get a fellow K pop lover to join me. Though the tickets were a pinch especially with the booking/service charge £72 a ticket >.<” (Birthday present treat for myself!) on the upside they were giving away quite a few freebies including a T-shirt! ^.^

Taking place in Brixton Academy, good venue in my opinion, capacity for 3000, and the floor is slanted, so everyone can see! Was quite surprised how many eager K pop lovers there were queuing to get in! Compared to my friend and I just easily slipped in via the ticket office! Haha! But did regret not going to eat at the Nandos across the road before the concert (fail)

The venue I suppose was half full, but Korean Pop is still quite a new genre that has come across the West. The audience at the concert – Orientals! LOL!!

I was just laughing at some of the fanatics who were already standing towards the front stage watching the Artist’s MVs and screaming in hysteria when certain MVs started showing

When the bands finally came on it was really exciting ^.^

4 Minute opened up the show which was pretty exciting, great to hear them live and surprised to see they’re actually not that tall & are a normal dress size (8-10) compared to seeing them on camera looking like 6-8. Their dancing was pretty good however HyunA fell I didn't see it as I’m too short >.< it was good to see that band interacting with the audience

GNA who was ok but lip synced to be honest we weren’t really a fan of hers, but were surprised how good her English was! 

Then finally B2ST who were just brilliant, love their choreography. But Seriously the hysteria in the room was unreal that 3 people fainted?! They were pretty funny, though not so interactive to the audience compared to 4 Minute. But when the Thank you video of their's was being projected with their song Fiction, I really thought they wouldn't sing the song, but they did! Was happy when the sung Lightless, Pretty song -^.^-

I will admit I really enjoyed the concert; definitely a good night thought would have been worth more like £60. Now I’m just waiting for 2NE1 & Big Bang to come over!!

Discoveries of London

Many of my friends know I have a tendency to go out, explore and sometimes get lost; it's not necessarily a bad thing, as I was always encounter a new discovery ^.^

This weekend my friends and I decided to explore Angel as we anted to explore this Christmas Market that is opened for the next few weekends. But before we went to the Market, we headed over to Camden Passage for some breakfast.

This little area is just divine. This street has so many lovely little shops selling alsorts of antiques, like a mini Portobello.

However the other market we went to with all the Christmas things was kind of disappointing, there were not that many stores and I suppose the weather didn't help as it was so grey and bitter winds blew frequently >.<"

I thought, as we were in the area, I suggested to my friends of us taking a trip over to Hackney to explore Broadway Market; a bus ride away from Angel which is all good ^.^

So we arrived to Broadway Market, one of the many market gems in London, this place is only opened on a Saturday bare in mind if you want to visit. The crowds are the young professionals who are also influenced by art and love their vintage, as there were quite a few stalls in the market that sold vintage clothes; good for them, but vintage clothing isn't really my cup of tea. Of course not only clothing but FOOD many food stalls at this market including some pretty amazing Vietnamese sandwiches called Banh Minh (don't know if I've spelt it correctly)

I really enjoyed the this place, was nice to hear this busker who was singing away soulfully <3

Food porn pics from Broadway Market ^.^

Kotki Dwa's Late Lunch

It is nice going to quirky intimate gigs with a twist, which is what I got up to during the week.

A uni mate and I decided to catch up and go to a gig in Old Street at The Arts & Music Project, where the event was called Late Lunch - Kotki Dwa's Album launch. 

Not only there was good music being played, in the grungy venue, but there was also experimental food for everyone to try. I missed one course where there was bread with spread that glowed under UV Light, but didn't miss the sausage worms in the cumber decorated basket or the light liquid lunch, consisting of watery tomato soup with nutmeg & something else

I kind of forgot Kotki Dwa was my friend's band, electro happy music, very him ^.^ always optimistic and puts a smile on your face

Good music & good fun food always brings the like minded people together. In this case, it brought quite a few of my uni mates together, was really lovely catching up with them & reminded me of the times of Uni & where we had the movement that was the "Yellow Revolution", where all art specialisms got together and collaborated on projects.

Hence the style of the Band's music videos being very animated, as they were made by a few uni friends who specialised in graphic, animation/ illustration

It was a really fun evening where there was even a raffle where the winner won a bottle of bacon flavoured vodka.... I would be intrigued to taste what that would have been like. I think I remember on Jonathan Ross' show he had a bottle. However it did take 4 goes of the raffle to finally find a winner, haha! 

Good Times ^.^

Distant Worlds Final Fantasy

Well instead of the traditional trip pit somewhere to watch the fireworks in Bonfire Night, I decided to head down to Albert Hall to watch a concert. 

I nearly forgot I had these tickets as I brought them so long ago, thinking it will be something pretty interesting to watch.

So Distant Worlds finally came to London to perform at a perfect venue to. Consisting of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Voices performing music from the Final Fantasy games. 

It was just very beautiful as the first song played with the harp, was quite emotional. They also had screens either side showing clips of the games; it was interesting to see how much the game has evolved since 1987.

I was happy we had pretty decent seats in the upper circle for £25, netter than £10-15 for the gallery where it's standing! 

The crowd were definitely a mix of a few kiddies to adults, there were some serious fanatics at the show, you could tell their look - computer geek chic to people making effort dressing up as their favourite characters, bit of an Anime convention with music!

It was great to see the Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu attending this concert in his Japanese head scarf, tabi socks & sandals, was so cute!Then at the encore, he joined the choir to sing Sephora

I will say my favourite games were VIII, XI and X because of the story lines, but the music I loved is mainly from X ^.^

The visuals of the game were interesting with the scenes of live game play, mini story clips and of the drawn illustrations of the character on watercolour, was simply beautiful. It made me remember when I was a kid I used to love drawing characters; makes me want to het back into drawing! 

I was happy they played this song, was so beautiful and emotional ^.^

Billingsgate Fish Market

November time, waking up at 3.30am with some friends to leave the house just past 4am, still dark outside As British Summer time has ended. Why are we up and out the house so early? A trip to Billingsgate Market of course!!

I've heard my friends mention about this place is great to buy fresh seafood cheap; businesses get their stock from here and it's been a place I've wanted to visit since being in London, as I'm quite the foodie and enjoy seafood, however getting there has always been the challenge as well as getting up so early in the morning, though people have suggested me heading there after clubbing... NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!(O_o) 

Fortunately I managed to tag along with friends to the Market as they needed to venture to buy for a Hot Pot session. 

So from SW to E as Billingsgate is based in the Docklands, with an extra pair of hands to Carry the seafood -^.^-

I couldn't believe when we arrived to the Market before 5am there were already quite a lot of cars and buyers. A lot of seafood - fish, lobster, crabs, squid and molluscs. 

Interestingly quite a lot of stalls were selling oysters, must be in season ^.^ we ended up buying a large box of about 25 oysters for £15, not too bad, trouble was shucking them! 

There was so many different prawns of shapes and size, mussels for ￡5 for 2kg amazing!!

Def need a car to get there, might bus will just be LONG! Was great to check this place out. I couldn't believe as we were leaving the place, the car park was so full！

A great place for seafood lovers -^.^-

Madrid food porn

As promised, I finally upload the food porn from the trip to Madrid ^.^

I will admit it's so strange having dinner over there about 9pm onwards, really wasn't use to it!

Traditional Spanish dish of Oxtail in a tomato based sauce, was very nice and tender

forgotten the name of this pastry, Spanish enjoy sweet treats for breakfast, must be an influence from the French

Top left, Seafood paella (was a bit salty >.<) Top Right, Spaghetti, bottom, tuna salad with white asparagus, Asparagus wasn't so nice, think it was canned 

Smoked or dry cured ham

amazing yoghurt with many healthy toppings!! ^.^ 

This place was such a good find by my friends and I as we were walking up and away from the Cathedral up towards Plaza de Mayor. It was a food mecca, many stalls selling different tapas, fruit, sweets and seafood was amazing!

Cheese!

Mini burgers, were very nice but a bit too herby for our taste

Some reason in for breakfast, they really like their egg, ham, cheese sandwich with the bread cut out to see the egg, very quirky!

They say Churros is a traditional Spanish breakfast, but I find it's too deep fried for my liking