One Step Closer

Good news... I have successfully found another brunch/lunch place with the help of Daniel. As Daniel knows Kum and I are foodies and love to try out new places with amazing food, he recommended a place in Angel (the place to be) called Ottolenghi.

A quaint little cafe that serves amazing cakes and other sweets...

... but they have to be famous for their amazing choices of gourmet salads!

Thanks Dan for the recommendation! Will definitely be going back there often! :)

Through the Forest

A beautiful sunny day means perfect weather to go for a bike ride. I had bought my second hand bike over a year ago and I can count on one hand how many times I have ridden it... which is clearly not many. So I thought it was time I brush off the dust and put those wheels into motion... literally! :P

Bike... check. Friends... check. Forest... check. Wern Yi, Jeremy and I were off to Epping Forest, just a 25min ride from my house.

The trees looked like they were going to come alive...

Some lake.

You know it's Spring when you see baby ducklings and baby swans swimming peacefully with their parents.

Can any bird expert tell me what type of duck/birds this is? It had the most unusual but beautiful feather design on it.

The cyclists :)

One Flat White Please :)

Since coming to London, I've realised that unless you know where to go, London doesn't have many cafes that do good food and coffee. So I've made it a mission to find the best places for breakfast/brunch and so far I've only managed to find one - The Breakfast Club. So to continue my quest, I had heard of this place called Flat White which is apparently run by Australians. The coffee is meant to be just like the coffee back home, served in a small glass and made to perfection. It's a pity I'm not a fan of coffee as I wouldn't know the difference so I brought Kum along with me to get his opinion.

The first impression.

It's a cute little cafe with limited space but I guess that's what makes it cosy. Most of the people there were talking with Aussie accents, which is expected, but I was more interested in the food and coffee they had to offer.

Background décor.

The food was disappointing... nothing special. The poached eggs weren't runny on the inside and the bread was too dry.

According to Kum, the coffee wasn't that great either.

Well, I guess it's back to the drawing board!

BECE night out

Catching up with Amy and Christine from uni is not an easy task.We can never seem to find a time and date when we're all free or at least in the same country :)

But tonight we managed to organise an outing to Electric Ballroom, a club that plays the oldies but goodies that everyone knows the lyrics too :) This is the only club I've been to in London so far and I love it. Don't go there often but it's best to go in big groups. It's funny watching everyone sing and dance to their favourite tunes.

My dear friend Amy from the good ol' uni days.

Stonehenge and Bath Round 2

Our trip to Bath found us some travelling buddies :) Daniel and Lydia had coincidentally booked to go to Bath the same weekend as us and Dan offered to give us a lift there in his car.

On our way we decided to visit the 'famous pile of rocks' - Stonehenge :)

It was super windy that day as you can probably tell from my hair :)

Once we had all settled into our accomodation, we met up for lunch and explored the Roman Baths together.

As this is my second time to Bath, I don't think it's necessary for me to comment on it again :) Refer to my older posts about Bath :)

The last time I came here it was on a tour. Day tours are great for getting a taste of the city but not if you want to explore the city properly. It was nice coming back and being able to take our time.

Like a kid looking in a very expensive lolly shop :P

The famous 'Circus' in Bath.

Examples of beautiful Georgian architecture.

Trying to look like I live here :)

The other famous Georgian houses at The Royal Crescent

30 houses lined in the shape of a crescent :)

Dinner was at: Jamie's Italian

I found out that there's also one in London at Covent Garden. If you do want to eat here (and I recommend you do) you will have to go early to line up. We had to line up for about 40mins and then wait even longer at the bar before we could actually get a table.

Pre dinner drinks... I had a cocktail that made me a little tipsy after drinking half of it :)

Entrees were the best:

Crispy Polenta Chips with parmesan

Arincini

Selection of breads

Full and satisfied :)

The following day, it was beautiful weather for a relaxing stroll around Bath. Kum and I walked along the river heading towards Prior Park.

Unfortunately when we got there, we didn't realise that this park wasn't a park. It was a garden that you had to pay to get into to :( We didn't have much time as we had to go back to the centre to meet up with Dan and Lydia so we would have wasted our money to only stay for a few minutes. And it was a long walk uphill just to get there! So long that we took the bus back to town :P

Afternoon tea before we headed back to London:

The famous Sally Lunn buns :)

Kum had a bum with raspberry jam.

I decided to try the scones as I had the buns last time I came.

Milan cont.

The next day we took a very long walk to San Siro, Milan's Football (soccer) Stadium.

Our ticket included looking through the museum and a tour of the stadium.

Entrance to the Museum.

Mini model of the stadium.

The two Milan football teams:

Internazionale Milano

AC Milan

Our tour guide was fantastic! She was enthusiastic, informative and funny. She could speak so many different languages, including Spanish which impressed a few of the young Spanish guys in our group ;)

Facts I learnt about the stadium and teams:

-the stadium was named after the 2 time world cup winner, Giuseppe Meazze, but later changed to San Siro, after a neighbouring cathedral.

- over the years, the stadium has been built up now consisting of 3 tiers. the third tier is not finished on one side as they do not have enough land to complete it.
-the changing rooms of both teams have very different layouts reflecting the team's characteristics. AC Milan believe that each player is valuable and therefore have sections divided for each player. Internazionale Milano believe more in teamwork and have one continuous bench that is shared by all players.

We stumbled across this next attraction accidentally - Castello Sforzesco. A castle in Milan that now houses artwork by famous artists including Michelangelo and Da Vinci.

Milan was enjoyable but I wouldn't be in a rush to go back anytime soon :)