A Perfect Sunday

 I admit it is nice to have a free day with nothing to do but something spontaneous. As I went out to water the plants in the morning, my friend Whatsapped me asking if I had any plans. I thought why not join her to Brick Lane and Columbia Market as it was a sunny day for a change.

What made it better was 3 other girlfriends joined us, which made the company even more fun, including my friend Maggie, who I haven't seen for quite a few months; plus was the first time to see her in the daylight hehehe :P

She was so excited to come out with us, as it had been a long time since she's headed East on a Sunday as we passed Petticoat Lane as we passed it to go towards Brick Lane

I have to admit, Brick Lane is the best on a Sunday ^.^

After lunching in Brewer House, we ventured over to Columbia Market, as it's the first time Wendy & my Cousin Jade have ventured to Columbia market, was such a good day out and perfect timing as 3pm onwards, the stalls usually start closing up and the bargains come in ^.^

Maggie was so easily excited it made me laugh, complementing strangers' buys from the market, shame hayfever kicked in and we all were sneezing (=.=")

As we were about to leave we all decided on heading into this Vintage shop with a quintessentially quirky coffee shop called Cake Hole

The afternoon tea of scones & tea was just amazing, the Boss Louise was just so lovely, and Maggie was just so chatty it made us laugh XD

What was such a sweet surprise was that the boss gave us some free cake as it was end of day & we did a favour to her asking some other patrons to move around slightly so the five of us were able to sit together. She told us that customers were usually arsey with her if she asked them to budge up. 

They need to make business as they are only open 2 days a week and of course they'd want to be able to get as many customers in as possible

The cost for Afternoon Tea for 1 person is only £6.50, much cheaper than some high class Mayfair hotels and is not as pretentious, plus the food tastes so fresh

I would definitely recommend people going to this sweet place and will definitely want to visit this place again ^.^

This was such a perfect Sunday, no rush with good company and only spent under £5 everyone's happy (^.^)

Brixton Village

The reason I wanted to head into Brixton today was to check out the Farmer's Market I was given a flyer for last week. I was pretty curious and intrigued to check it out, however when I got there with my friend it was just along the street by the Brixton Recreation Centre, a few stalls selling vegetables, plants and a few food stalls - quite disappointing in my eyes, should have headed over to Columbia Market instead. 

 As my friend Di was going to catch up with some girlfriends in the area for lunch, I tagged along, though we had 2 hours to kill beforehand. So we took a walk around Brixton Village. Di has lived in Brixton for over 10 years and has only recently discovered this gem with me, this little hub is so quirky with many independent eateries and boutiques. Brixton is slowly getting quite upmarket though there are still the typical shops selling meats, fish, fruits and veg, especially on Electric Avenue 

We wanted to find a place to sit for a drink to keep us warm as the winds were so cold today >.<" but we were so attracted to this eatery where the tables had a big toaster where people toasted their bread, so it's fresh and warm. We decided to try it out, small brunch snack of DIY toast for £2.50 with 4 slices of different flavoured breads from normal white to a bit more fancy olive oil and mixed herb bread and many condiments to choose to spread onto the toast -^.^- there was also the option of having breakfast things such as scrambled eggs, bacon etc to go with the bread for extra cost.

Very fun quirky place for Breakfast - Brunch and the environment is so relaxed and not too expensive

Once Di and I met up with the other girls and had a little wander, we got hungry again and headed back into The Village for more food, this time for some Japanese Okominyaki, Japanese savoury pancake with vegetables and assorted fillings you can add into it with a slightly sour sauce, mayonnaise and flakes of Dashi and seaweed (-^.^-) Di and I had been craving it hehehe!

This little eatery was so lovely with simple retro Japanese decorations, and I was obsessed with playing with this wooden toy with a ball that was on the table, quite a difficult game to play with limited space! The food was very yummy and so filling, only £10 PP can't complain ^.^

Need to try out the other restaurants in the village now!!

London's Big Egg Hunt 2012

Two Years ago it was The Elephant Parade, this year in the lead up to Easter it's an Egg Hunt!! Over 200 eggs designed by many artists scattered around London, fortunately in the Zone 1 area compared to everywhere with the elephants!

There's also an Egg based on Where's Wally that moves around London, fortunately I've found him thanks to my friends on Day 3 ^.^ 

This is a very fun and fit activity to do which is free!! (o^^o) it's also great to do with friends and family, good way to bond

Problem I'm finding with the eggs, they will not only be on a Stand, they'll also be hanging/ suspended in the air, so you'll have to literally keep you eyes peeled and search high & low!

All for charity, if you text the code on each plaque with the egg, you also get put into the prize draw of winning the 500g Faberge Egg worth £100,000 

Happy Hunting to those taking part!! I've already managed to find over 100 eggs after 4 trips out, I'm going to do my best and get as many as I can!!

http://www.thebigegghunt.co.uk/eggs

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 ^.^

Welcoming Autumn with the Thames Festival

The weather has definitely changed this week, as Winds from a Hurricane somewhere are effecting the English water, so Britain's getting a bit windy lately, less daylight moving on to Winter ~.~

But I do love Autumn- leaves change colour, temperature gets cooler, light knitwear to layered styling and the weekend just gone, I decided to join my friends and check out the Thames Festival on Southbank:-

I haven't really explored it these past fee years, so it was something nice to see, and Mark Autumn arriving.

Fortunately we went out later as we wanted to see the fireworks in the evening, otherwise we had ALOT of time to kill!!

Typical of a festival, there were a lot of stalls selling assorts of things along the Southbank- clothes, ornaments, music, books and of course food & drink from around the world. It was nice to walk around Southbank, along the Thames in the evening, the feel was so relaxing and enjoyable, minus the congested crowds of where the food stalls were.

Other reason we wanted to go to the Thames Festival, we wanted to see the Korean section by the OXO Tower (^.^) 

There were quite a fair few stalls too and a stage for the Korean Culture performances including music, dancing and martial arts. Wish I checked the Korean area the evening before as they had a K Pop event!

Was quite surprised to see a stall devoted to K Pop Karaoke! My friends wanted me to do it, but I don't know all the lyrics, mainly the choruses to the songs they had! (^_−)−☆

They even had this song by Shinee on the Karaoke ^-^

We unfortunately missed the carnival parade as it was on the otherwise of the river, so wondered around to find a good spot to see the fireworks. Despite The fireworks being delayed by 15mins, we didn't see them let off till 10pm, Boris must have rambled lots of there was a speech involved! (z_z)

But it was a very enjoyable display, seeing the rockets so close let off from the tug boats on the river, was worth the wait (^^)

Good way to lead into Mid Autumn Festival (-^.^-)

Exploring East Central

Gosh it's been a while since I've actually got round to composing a new blog post >.<" work has been busy and then after work activities take over making me get home late and just sleep! Bit of the rat race lifestyle me thinks (-_-)

Last weekend after Japanese class, I chose to skip Zumba, as I needed to rest my legs before the race (10k run in Central) the next day.

So my friends and I decided to head over to Farringdon for lunch. they told me they were going to Exmouth Market and try out this Japanese cafe called Necco cafe; I was intrigued as I have not really explored Farringdon and sounded interesting so tagged along.

Exmouth Market is actually a street full of different cafes and restaurants, a very relaxing street, but no markets; I felt a bit mislead. But I'm sure the place used to have markets back in the day!

There were just so many varieties of food you could have, from Italian pasta, Spanish tapas, bakery classics, to local English food that were jellied eels. Many of the eateries had some nice cosy decor to something very trendy and quirky.

But Necco Cafe was really sweet little place with Japanese food that was so yummy and not too expensive, I definitely would recommend this place. The food was so homely especially the brunch bento that was in three layers, a lot of heart was put into the food (^-^)

Their desserts were quite nice too (o^.^o) I tried their green tea Tiramisu which was so yummy and not too rich.

I really thought Necco cafe would actually have some felines around, but I suppose it's just the name of the place, as I know in Japan there are places where you can pay to pet young animals such as cats or puppies (^^) But not this shop, I suppose sake of hygiene with cats running around the place! 

Night in the Zoo to B&Q (well not really)

Instead of the Science Museum for a change, my friends and I decided to venture to London Zoo after work on a Friday evening. We couldn’t help taking up the opportunity especially Groupon doing the deal for £9, absolute bargain!!

I have never been to London Zoo before and was definitely one of those places to go explore in London. I think what puts me off the zoo is the cost, finding the company and of course what every London dweller in conscious of, time and weekends tend to be overcrowded with families.

I find the problem with going with a big group of friends is that you need to wait for them, especially when you’re coming from work, everyone is based in all parts in the M25 Bubble, so of course we were a bit late, didn’t get into the zoo till about 7.30pm, the animal rooms were opened until 9pm, so we had a lot to go through.

We decided to split up in twos to make it easier; unfortunately I didn’t get to see all the animals, gorillas my friends said were really amazing and there was drama in their room as there was a bit of a scrap with the male vs. female gorillas.

Seeing the animals were very fascinating especially the giant ants, birds of prey and the new enclosure for the penguins, they were so cute!! ^.^ It’s a shame I didn’t manage to get to see the meerkats, giraffes and nocturnal animals as they were on the other side of the zoo!! >.<

Good thing about late night events, no kids! The ability to walk around without any bulky prams, children screaming, and allowed to take alcohol around apart from some areas like the bird cages as the birds may knock it off your hand! Bonus with the late night events is that they have the silent disco as well, I didn’t bother going as I’ve been there and done it, but it’s a definite experience very fun! Wasn’t so happy with the cost of food and drink; however it was nice the individual tents serving different varieties of food, funny bit was the hog roast that was actually not far from the bearded pigs!!

This trip is definitely worth going but the duration of 2½ hours in the zoo wasn’t enough for me, should have got there about 6.30-7pm!!

Day out in Columbia Flower Market

In Devon, the typical Sunday activity I usually get up to with family is walking around the Sunday Markets.

Sunday just gone, I decided to join my friend for a stroll down in East London's Columbia Flower Market, as it was a sunny day didn't want to waste the day an it's one of the places I wanted to check out on London.

Only opened on Sundays 10am-2pm, but people and the bargains don't roll in till 1pm. On very sunny days this is definitely the perfect Sunday activity, though yes typically being London the Market gets crowded, and buzzing full of tourists, local Londoners buying flowers and plants as gifts for friends or for the home

I found haggling for my lilies pretty hard as the boss wouldn't budge the price saying wholesale they were £4.75. In the end I keeled over & paid the £6 now it's learning to look after them!

My friend Yee on the other hand had quite a few bargains 3 for £5 in the mix rain daisies & other floral plants, hopefully they'll survive on her 1st floor flat balcony by the river!

Columbia Road has such an aesthetic character, it's quirky and vintage, in a sense that there are musicians busking on the street, markets selling antique brick and brac. 

Weekend of excessive activities

So, my last weekend in Londontown before I headed over to literally the East. Being typical me, it was a jam packed weekend!

First things first, my damn body clock woke me up @ 7.15am on the Saturday morning... Hate it when that happens, dosed off till half hour later, the alarm goes off. Skyped the parents checking if they needed anything from Uk to HK, mum only wanted 2 bottles of brandy for £50 from the duty free. On that note mum is not a drinker but dad & his pals are & the liquor is for a dinner party we're doing! Ooh still need to find an outfit for that! 

Next out the house before 9am to get breakfast & refund another thing to trusty Primarni, so annoying to think something looks good on the hanger but is actually not flattering on my body. 

Then 10am getting to Euston for 2hour free Japanese class! Some Japanese came back to mind but some of the words were a bit tricky for the tongue to twist, practice makes perfect non? I will have to admit there were some REALLY Kawaii kids attending a different Japanese class, just so cute!

Spring was definitely coming as the day was very sunny and was nice seeing daffodils ^.^ 

Next stop, to Angel for La Dolce Vita, Itallian event @ the Islington business centre, a fair bit of Italian food though was mainly olive oils, bread a bit of meat and of course ice cream!
Top up for the evening my friends and I decided to go to this concert held at the Royal Festival Hall, £5 for a ticket wouldn't say no. I was definitely intrigued to know what this concert was; it was al I knew was there was VV Brown performing and was a celebration of International Women's Day
It was such an interesting and emotional concert where there were 5 powerful female artists - ESKA, VV Brown, Speech Debelle, Krystal Warren and African singer Annie-Flore Batchiellilys with host Baaba Maal.

Listening to this music was absolutely beautiful, the music is not usually what I listen to; a range of world music with brass and African percussions, the singing was just amazing and very   deep, particularly when ESKA and Annie such it just blew me away



I will say I knew there was a reason I wasn't a fan of Speech Debelle's music, it's too much MCing and urban for my taste, Kystal Warren's lyrics in her music were not bad but was another artist I wasn't feeling, her voice was quite low to what I was expecting 


It was great that this event was held, as it was the 1st ever concert held to mark International Women's Day, marking the 100th Birthday, I would definitely recommend people attending events like this, it's nice to do something different and listening to different genres of music, though my friend's brother didn't enjoy it much as it isn't really his type of music to listen to.
     

Tropical Extravaganza @ Kew Gardens

I finally managed to accomplish one of the places I've always wanted to go in London, that has been recommended by Time out, take a trip to Kew Gardens

My friend suggested about going as one of the conservatories, the Princess of Wales one, as it was opened to the public for only a month.

Definitely a great Sunday morning trip with friends, seeing all the beautiful flowers on display, getting tips in how to maintain the flowers

The flowers were absolutely beautiful, the different species particularly orchids and a few lilies, the colours were amazing, I really respect the gardeners who take their time maintaining them. I have to admit the conservatory was pretty humid as it's perfect condition to maintain the tropical types

I would definitely recommend people to pop over to West London to visit this garden, best would be Spring/ Summer time as there would be more flowers in bloom and would be a great stroll on a sunny day ^.^

Spontaneous Getaway!

So I decided to take a spontaneous long weekend trip to Iceland! A friend of mine asked if I fancied going a just over a week before I went; so I thought why not! I could do with a mad trip away from city and the crap hitting me at work, I needed to get away!!

Landed and arrived to Keflavik Airport about Midnight, getting on the bus, I was quite dark and I could just smell the salty air, reminded me of the beach; nicer air compared to London!

4hours sleep of course everyone’s fussy minded in a daze; despite the lack of sleep during the trip and early morning, naptime was always a good call on the bus, especially the Golden Circle tour!

Visiting one of Reykjavik’s power plants, the air stank of Sulphur, passing green houses that grew Reykjavik’s fruit and vegetables including bananas! The island can afford it as their electricity and hot water Since Iceland sits on geothermal plates so free hot water!

Moving over to the Geysers. Really interesting, couldn’t believe how blue some of the pools were and was really exciting seeing the Geyser blow a lot of steam surrounded us!  Next location was to the Gull Foss waterfalls before that we checked out a smaller waterfall and loved the sign saying no peeing next to the hut!! Was seriously amazing the water was crashing so fast, around there was still ice around us. Was good to have food in the restaurant yummy lamb soup, very homely tasting ^.^

Finally over to the Thingvellir National Park, didn’t look like much of a park as the tree aren’t very tall, and seeing the divide of the two continent plates North American and Eurasian – it’s quite a big gap, I couldn’t get over how wide the crack was and how clear the water was, I would have wanted to dive into the water! But this place is where the Vikings used to have their annual assemblies where different tribes gathered with political issues…. Enough history from me, as I’m not the best at it!

The Blue Lagoon is another amazing thing so relaxing, blue and waters heating up to 38C and free silicate salt masks to exfoliate! Was so cold in the beginning especially the wind chill >.< but we dunked ourselves in the water and went through the water gate as oppose to the double doors and to the pool!

Shame we didn’t see the Northern Lights, due to crap weather conditions but this was a really fun getaway from all the hustle and bustle of Capital City, definitely would recommend as a place to check out and explore ^.^

I shall do a food porn blog of Iceland food!