& Other Stories [Part 2 // Doin' Stuff]

Onwards and upwards.....

A few days after the previous blog ended, Marthe and I went on a really epic adventure:

Hampstead --> Hampstead Museum --> Keats House --> Wellcome Collection --> Ghadi Memorial --> British Museum --> Brixton --> Brixton Markets --> Home

Such a good day. I'm normally an uncultured heathen but I can now say I've been to the house Keat's lived in and met his girl Fanny (er), of whom Bright Star was written. Bright Star is apparently some rad poem, haven't gotten round to reading it yet. Oh heathen's back.

                                       

The Wellcome Collection wasn't even on my radar, but it is, I think, my favourite London museum! (Although I haven't been to the Transport Museum yet. That's not me being sarcastic either, the tube fascinates me). It's named after a doctor called, drum roll please, Wellcome, and is full of the wackiest things! Want to see a chastity belt? No probs. A necklace made from teeth? Sure. A small penis ornament with wings that brings luck? Of course! There was an interactive bit as well, I figured out my "biometric identity".

Yah my heart rate is only 46, which means I'm basically dead.

This guy was great:

Brixton markets were much smaller than I expected, but really cool. The whole area is very eclectic, there is a large caribbean influence which brings a cool vibe. Lots of plantains for sale!

Brixton stations has bats...

The original Honest Burgers!

Saturday the 25th May was a solo adventure day: Bermondsey --> Tower Bridge --> Notting Hill --> Portobello Markets --> Jamie's shop Recipease --> Sophie's birthday. 

Soph's birthday wasn't solo, we sat in a lovely beer garden in Wandsworth then boogied on the d-floor to some sick tunes. I should probably delete the sentence "boogied on the d-floor to some sick tunes" but I ain't gonna!

[Only a bit more, keep reading!]

 Monday was a public holiday so Marty and I volunteered to cheer at the BUPA charity 10km race on behalf of the Alzheimer's Society. (Okay full disclosure, Marthe put my name down). Felt good to do something nice though, and thumbs up to this guy who ran in full armour!

Mo Farah was running as well, he won in I swear under 30 minutes. Amazing.

The National Portrait Gallery and a demonstration by the ever classy English Defence League were also on the cards that day, as was a free viewing of the London Symphony Orchestra!

Until next time!

XXX

& Other Stories [Part 3 // Brighton and the Future]

So the place I used to work at home is located on Brighton Road, the shop itself is named after the road, and the beach at the end is called Brighton. Throw into the mix being a frequent watcher of Choccywoccydoodah (a shop that makes cakes out of chocolate, please click that link, if not for me, for your soul), and just general whispers that Brighton, UK is phenomenal, it was with great trepidation and excitement that I stepped on the train with trusty old Joni to Brighton on 1st July!

OH it's amazing. So many tiny, winding alleys full of vintage shops, book stores, cafes, lots of people with beards and tattoos, and a blooming good pier! We spent the day wandering about, getting lost, walking to the end of the pier, eating fairy floss, debating whether or not to go on the rollercoaster (too expensive), visiting the aforementioned magical choc/cake shop, purchased some alcohol, met the lovely Brodi, at who's house she so kindly let us stay at, went to a house party, a club along the seaside then an amazing gay club. Such good times!

The next day I even saw a pizza shop that did dairy and gluten free. Is Brighton my heaven? Haven't been everywhere in the world yet, but I suspect it may be....

Further proof of heaven

A wee florists down one of the alleys

The Brighton Pavillion

The pier!

Close up...

SUGAR

That's a chocolate horse!

Havin' a laugh

A terrible selfie

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Brodi, who I've blogged about before here: link. And to Brighton, you have my heart.

IN OTHER NEWS!!!!

I have a bloody busy schedule for the remaining 6 weeks in London.

I cannot believe I only have 6 weeks left, it's almost exactly a year since I left the mother land (June 16).

My schedule is:

Bournemouth

London--> KOL, visit from Bob

Morocco!!

London--> move out of my house and into Joni's, say goodbye to Marthe :( :( :(

Porto

London--> for one night

Manchester- Grandma and Grandad's

London

Scotland for T-in-the-Park festival

London

Home......

Whoa. I bought all my bits and bobs for Morocco, I went heavy and got SPF 50 sunscreen, I imagine that African sun to be quite unforgiving!

So I guess I'll blog again when I'm back from Le Maroc.

Before I go, here are some nice things:

Classic Marthe

Has really important life interests and likes to share them with me

(Femail is the Daily Mail's gossip section)

Thinks I speak Dutch. I'm not a scientist I don't know what koffie is?

Is annotating HP 3 for me

Gonna miss that small human, can't say the word capsicum (says pepsicum), fifteen (says five-teen), or gruesome (gruelsome), but I sure will miss her.

BBC Radio 6 Music

My new fave.

Dad's Birthday

Is on Tuesday! I hope he's looking forward to Skype, I have something pretty impressive up my sleeve

I'd like to sum up by showing you this photo of a pineapple at Fortnum and Mason, £8.50!!!!

Adios

XXX

& Other Stories [Part 1 // Jamie, Russell and Me]

Ola amigos. Long time, my apologies! I've been too busy doing things to provide content for the blog to actually blog! So much so that this is part 1 of 3!! Buckle up....

RIGHT first things first: if you have me on Facebook, or Instagram, or know me in real life, you will undoubtedly be familiar with my brush with fame.

On 17th May I went along to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution street party, because why wouldn't I. Ellie and Sarah came too, and we saw the Essex fella as soon as we walked in, I was giggling like a school girl and we all took some pics:

After we got over it (it took a while), we checked out the amazing food stuffs! There was pulled pork rolls, vietnamese street food, fish fingers burgers, pizzas, you name it. The only thing I could actually eat was eton mess minus the cream from the Meringue Girls (meringue is the new macaron you know).

So delicious.

Proof I ate it.

We sat down to watch some demonstrations and saw these guys: Ben and Jamie from Sorted Food, which is a YouTube cooking channel I hadn't heard of before, but have since become fairly obsessed with. 

SO during each demonstration, while the kitchen was cleared up for the next person, there was a half an hour window where the audience watched something on the screen you can see in the bottom of that screen ^^^. We were watching Jamie Oliver and Russell Brand making 'boobie pasta' (whole tomatoes being the boobies), when it clicked that Jamie was in the same outfit he'd been in that morning.... which meant what was occuring on screen was live.... WHICH MEANT RUSSELL WAS IN THE VICINITY.

Long time lover of Russell, I have all his books, his live DVDs and listened to his radio show until it went bust. After hyperventilating a little bit, I was like "right i MUST get his autograph". Then a lady came out into the audience and said "does anyone want to ask Russell a question?", and I think not many people heard her, but Ellie's ears pricked up and she said "WE DO", so the lady came over and asked if one of us wanted to go and ask Russell a question personally. At this point, I may well have shoved Ellie out of the way and elbowed Sarah in the nose in my rush to volunteer (not actually, but soz guys if I was a bit exuberant), so she said "yup great" and led me away...... to Russell and Jamie's small hut.

I walked in which what was no doubt an expression of confusion and disbelief, to be confronted with the extremely handsome Russell (he may look scruffy on screen, but he is anything but in real life), and my personal hero Jamie Oliver!! I sat down and was told to cuddle up to Russell, which I obliged.

As they had been discussing eating strange things like placentas and breast milk, after Jamie ascertained my single-status and age, Russell said, "now Annie, you're single, and we need a placenta, so I'm going  to have to get you pregnant". I replied, in what I hope was a casual, clever way, "well, can we at least turn the cameras off first".

Zing right? We chatted for a few more minutes, I panicked thinking they'd want me to taste the pasta (my natural enemy), but in the end Russell and I fed it to the crowd.

Then I gave Russell my number and the rest is too rude for the blog.

Joking. Unfortunately.

I'm waiting for the video of the whole thing to be uploaded to YouTube, but no hope yet. I'll add it in here when it's up.

HERE IT IS!

After that excitement and thrill, I spent most of the following week (and the week prior to Russell-gate) at work! My work experience at the radio station has finished now, but I had such a great time, very good experience and I know have a lot more confidence in calling up strangers asking for things, a skill a journalist certainly needs.

My office was incredible and on the edge of St James's Park:

In other adventures: I ventured out to Kensal Rise, in the west near-ish to Notting Hill, to have a look at their Sunday morning farmer's market, really good one, full of fresh produce, meats, cheeses, ready meals, exactly what you want at a market.

I nerded up and went to Tate Modern (hated it, if you're reading Dad!) and an exhibition at the British Library, titled Propaganda: Power and Persuasion. I know that's probably not up everyones alley but I loved it, a really interesting look at governments from around the world, mainly Russia, China, US and the UK, not only during times of war but sports, health, technology and the like. Anyone in London it's on until September and if you're a student, only 5 squids! 

I can only assume you're bored to tears now, so until tomorrows part 2! Good bye!

XXX

The Life and Times

My life in pictures:

Joni and I went down to Bournemouth last weekend, which is on the south west coast of England. We were visiting a friend we made in Croatia, Jesse, who very kindly housed us for two nights while we did these things:

Went to a huge Bournemouth Uni event called Block Party, six bars were open to those who had wristbands all night with DJs and events.

Went on a bouncy castle at the pre's to that ^^

Decided we weren't ready to go back to London and just didn't get on our return train home.

Drank Bloody Mary's the next day to cure out hangover.

Sunk our toes into the white sand at Bournemouth pier, Joni eating mint choc chip ice-cream, me some hot chips in newspaper.

Went out again, this time to celebrate a birthday with a motley crue that included 61-year-old Marg, the photo below is of the completely stocked bar she had in her back garden, personally hand painted by the woman herself.

Laid on the beach again, this time I got very sunburnt, which has now turned into tan. Unfortunately the tan is a definite line running half way up my thigh. 

Got the afternoon coach home in various states of depression and exhaustion, slightly wishing we had Jesse's life, and lived in such close proximity to the beach.

Got talked into going back again for the uni's Summer Ball! C'mon June.

Thank you again Jesse :)

I spent Tuesday and most of Wednesday recovering from the weekend, only for Wednesday night to turn into quite a ruckus: homemade strawberry daiquiris, going to Cheapskates where the drinks are £1.50, loving hearing Haim and, as always, the new Daft Punk song, and coming home at the completely unreasonable hour of sunrise. 

Sorry about the evil red eye

My Friday-Sunday was quite a contrast, I went to St Paul's Cathedral (not to repent my sins just to sit in the garden) and the Museum of London on Friday, and explored Clerkenwell (where I visited a very quirky and interesting bookshop, Magma).

Museum of London- good to see they included the important things!

On Saturday I went to London Fields, where Broadway Markets was in full swing. They're food markets. Did I like it? Ehhhh, yes, I loved it.

I got a mint tea from the famous Climpson and Sons, along with a vegan and gluten free cupcake and sat in the park with my book. Heaven.

Saturday night Joni and I watched Flight- very good! - and managed to not convince ourselves to go out, which is what normally happens when we plan a quiet sleepover.

In food news, I was chef this week for Marty, Sarah and I. We split the shopping bill, I cooked, and they washed up. Best idea ever.

shopping...

This was the menu:

Thai Chicken Salad

Steak, Asparagus and Roasted Sweet Potato

Thai Fish Cakes with Green Salad

Stuffed Capsicums (or Peppers. Or Pepsicums as Marthe once said)

Chicken Kebabs and Quinoa Tabbouleh

Chickpea and Sweet Potato Burgers

I loved life.

Here is a picture of a green smoothie that I slurped up quick smart.

At the moment, however, I am homesick.

I'm loving London still, my to-do list is miles long, I've got work experience so I'm busy etc etc.

BUT it was Mother's Day today at home, and I wish I would have gotten a cuddle off Mum.

I think the Bournemouth ocean has made me want to be here:

This quote I saw in the Museum of London made me chuckle though, and it sums up London perfectly.

"It it not a pleasant place, it is not agreeable or cheerful or easy or exempt from reproach, it is only magnificent"- Henry Jame, 1869

One last note, the next two weekends are my last full ones in London.....

Every other one I'm either away, going away, or coming home from going away.

So I suppose I'll be sipping a Tasty Tom's at Yelo before long...

xxx

P.S. I saw Simon Amstell at Kings Cross Station.