Best of Britain

Audrey's best friend, Angie, is moving to Hong Kong for work in a couple of weeks so she had a farewell party last night. Wasn't just any ordinary party. Apparently, Audrey and Angie enjoy fancy dress parties. So much that I was able to pick from a wide range of costumes and props that Audrey has in a big box. So, of course, this fancy dress farewell party was themed: Best of Britain. I went as a soilder/guard/one of the beatles all mixed into one. I didnt take many photos but I did manage to capture a few people who made the effort to dress up.

Only photo I took where you can half see what I was wearing.

Oh, and I made another friend :) Her name is Amelia. She was such a content little baby.

Audrey dressed up as Torvill, the famous ice skater, with her partner (blow up doll) Dean.

Ange dressed up as a PG Tip, brand of teabags. The tea leaves are individually cut!

Claire, on the right, came as Samantha Fox.

Can't remember this lady's name but she was dressed as a chav.

Not only did we dress up for the theme but Audrey and I also baked a cake which also reflected the theme!

Bake in the oven

Cut cake in half, spread strawberry jam and fresh strawberries

Spread fresh whipped cream over strawberries

Decorated top layer with icing

And... ta da!

Spitalfields

Spitalfields is an area in the East end of London. It's famous for the shops, restaurants and markets that you can find there. (http://www.spitalfields.co.uk/). Just before you hit the main area, there is an open area for people to sit and relax. In the middle of it were these:

Took a photo of them for Sara :) No they're not real, but still quite cute!

I wasn't allowed to take photos of the market as there were signs up everywhere saying 'No Photos Please'. I didnt want to appear like I was trying to steal designs from people. It was a market full of amazing unique designs of clothing, arts and crafts and accessories and fresh food (but not fruit and vege). There are so many stalls and shops to look at that I got confused of which stalls/shops I had seen and which ones I hadn't. I'll definitely be going back there again.

I had lunch at a restaurant called Leon. (www.leonrestaurants.co.uk) Really yummy organic middle eastern food served for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

My lunch - Chicken and Chorizo wrap

Happy Place No. 2

So I stumbled across another bakery on my explorations through Covent Garden Market.

Red Velvet Chocolate

Lemon and Poppyseed

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!

Australia Day was spent going to work, talking to the kids about Australia Day and telling them how I shouldn't be working. When I got home, Audrey, Jake and I decided to go to a local pub to celebrate. Because it was just a local pub in the east and it was a Tuesday night, there weren't many people. But we weren't looking to have a big night as all three of us had to get up early the next morning.

Audrey and Jake had an Australian beer on my behalf :)

What's Cooking?

Had a day off from work on so I decided to bake! I made banofee cupcakes/muffins. I don't have my cupcake icing set so no fantastic icing decorations for now.

Can you see the toffee oozing out of it? yum!

Free London Walking Tour

So I finally got to go on the free london walking tour. My first touristy experience! :) It begins at Hyde Park Corner, where you can find the Australian, New Zealand and British memorials. This is also the place where I made my first new friend!

This is Joanna. She is from Ireland. We were both loners in the group so me, being the shy but friendly person I am, I introduced myself and instantly made a new friend :)

This is Wellington Arch. This arch was built to the entrance of Hyde Park but due to busy traffic conditions, it was moved and became the grand entrance to Constitution Hill. The statue above it is the angel of peace.

Buckingham Palace.

(This tour wasn't the best for taking good photos.)

Looking at this photo, can tell whether the Queen was home or not?

Clarence House.

This is where Prince Charles lives.

This is one of the guards, in his winter outfit, that protects Clarence House. He doesn't look very scary does he? But that's a real gun he's holding!

St James Palace.

The Queen's postal adress if you need to send her a birthday card or letter :)

Do I make a good guard?

Clearly there were a lack of guards on duty so we thought we'd help them out :)

(my photographer couldn't take a straight photo)

At Trafalgar Square.

Couldn't get a great pic from where we were standing.

This was one of the four statues surrounding Trafalgar Square. This forth plinth was interesting as it didn't always have a statue on it. Due to lack of funding, the statue that was meant to be there initially was not finished and therefore left an empty space. Antony Gormley, an English sculptor, invited the people of the UK to occupy the plinth and make it their own. It went for 100 days with one person standing there for an hour each. You can watch footage of it on youtube.

National Gallery.

Joanna and I came back here after the tour. It was free :) I'm not the biggest fan of art galleries but I'm glad Joanna asked me to go with her. Even though I don't know much about 16th - 20th century artwork, but I sincerley appreciated the sophistication and detail that went into each painting and the messages there were being portrayed. Though there were some random paintings which confused me a little, the famous paintings that I did know of blew me away! Seeing them up close and being able to see the different paints and brushstrokes that were used to create such a masterpiece was amazing! Too bad I couldn't take a photo to show you all!

'The grand old duke of York,

He had ten thousand men.

He marched them up to the top of the hill

and he marched them down again.'

Remember that nursery rhyme? Well I couldn't get a very good shot of him, but that statue in the background is that very same 'Duke of York' :)

Our group photo of the tour group at Horse Guards. People from different countries and of different ages were in the group. This place is where they perform all the horse parades, including the one that is performed for the Queen on her birthday 'Trooping the Colour'.

St James Park.

If you look to the left of the photo, you will see three pelicans that are apparently famous (not so sure if its those exact pelicans :P). They're famous because on youtube you will find a video of them fighting with a seagull. It ends with one of pelicans eating the seagull. I guess the pelicans won?!

What's that behind me? It's...

BIG BEN! :)

Facts about Big Ben:

- it's the largest four faced chiming clock

- 'big ben' refers to the bell

Westminster Abbey

Not sure where this was as we passed it after our tour. But there was lots of people taking photos. Some people were standing really close to the horses, probably unaware that:

:) One lady nearly got bitten!

So on our way back, Joanna and I decided to get up close and personal with one of the four lions. What we didnt know was that it wasn't meant for people to get so close to the statues as there was no easy access for people to get up there. We had to climb up the wall, using our hands to lift each other up! It was a challenge as we were both quite short. But after we got up, we realised that if we wanted to get to the front of the lion, we had to balance and maneuver ourselves around the lion on a very narrow ledge. Me, being scared of heights, failed the challenge hence I'm standing near the lion's bum.

Joanna was worse. She couldn't climb up again so she just stayed at the bottom. (you can see a couple of ladies near the lion's bum trying to do the same as us).


It was an eventful but tiring day. My knee definitely needs a rest tonight.

Dine at Leyton

So tonights dinner we had a three course meal:

Appetizer was a very classy packet of peanut cracker mix :) They're pretty much peanuts coated in rice crackers... how cool is that?! Very yummy!

And very colourful!

It isnt a very good photo but this is our main: blue cheese drizzled over hand made gnocchi served with rockets leaves and parmesan. yum yum yum!


And for dessert, dutch apple cake (simply apple and cinnamon). Delicious! This is definitely a recipe I will be keeping!

My Happy Place

No guesses for where my happy place might be! I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the very first cupcake bakery I went to here in london. It's called Hummingbird Bakery. It's one of the famous cupcakes bakeries around Central London. I bought two cupcakes today specifically for the decorations. They had others with interesting flavours but I figured I have a whole year to try each and everyone of them!

Chocolate cupcake with butterflies - reminded me of Jojo

Vanilla cupcake with a pink heart... any guesses for who it might remind me of? (starts with J... ends with ...el) haha...

Inamo Restaurant

I met up with a friend/work colleague, Pauline (photo above), who is from Scotland. On her way back to Australia so decided to stop in London to visit a few friends... which included me! :) We had dinner at a restaurant called Inamo (inamo-restaurant.com) where they have an interactive ordering system. You sit down and in front of you is a computer screen. On your right you have a menu of all the food, drinks and sides you can order, as well as service options. They include games for you to play while waiting for your meal and you can view the kitchen via webcam to see what is happening. When you view what you want to eat, it comes up on your placemat (see photo above).

Pauline and I had a great time catching up. Good luck with the rest of the wedding plans!

Caroline and Irene. Great company. Two of Pauline's good friends.