Melly in London - Night before and Day 1

So when I first received the email from Mel to say that she was coming to London, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face! I was so excited! It was perfect timing as I was starting to feel a little homesick with my birthday coming up. The first birthday I would spend away from home. But also Mel was my very first visitor from Melbourne :)

So, on Friday 19th March, I went to Heathrow Airport straight after work (took me 1 and a half hours to get there) and greeted Mel, along with her Aunty, at the arrival gates.

Now Mel would be able to tell you that getting from my place to the airport is a long journey. I pretty much live on the other side of where the airport is so by the time we got back to my place, it was close to 11pm. Neither of us had had dinner so we cooked a quick meal of pasta and sauce and went to bed not long after.

Mel's official first day in London was spent walking up and down Oxford Street, Regent Street and around Leicester Square. And what did we do? Shop, shop and shop! :) I always enjoy having someone else's company as not only can you share your experiences together but also go to places (or shops in this case) that you would never go to by yourself! Mel introduced me to stores like Ted Baker and Anthropologie (which I'm starting to love)... brands that I had heard of but would never browse in!

For brunch, we came across a very cute little cafe/patisserie called Princi (yes, I found what it was called melly) while on our way to another restaurant we had originally planned to go to for brunch.

The had an amazing range of salads to choose from.

Mini foccacia: olives and tomatoes.
Mini spinach and cheese pastries.

The counter where you could look at all the different sweet and savoury foods on offer, freshly baked!

Tried to get the counter with all the food behind us but didn't quite work :P

Melly in London - Day 2

So I wanted to show Melly the weird yet interesting things you could find at Camden markets so on the Sunday, we made our way to the famous Camden Town.

Look what we discovered! A whole stall full of gourmet donuts! Yum! We tried the banana-vanilla cream one.

Taken just across from the Camden Lock Village market.

We also intended to go to the Portobello Markets but silly me forgot that they weren't open on Sundays. But we went anyway as I had cravings for ice cream! To get to the Portobello Markets you have to pass a gelato/ice cream palour called Gelato Mio! Didn't take a photo of it unfortunately.

Notting Hill is so pretty and these houses are part of what makes it so! Look, they're painted in beautiful pastel colours... guess which one I like the best?

The blue one :) (the colour is paler than it is in real life)

Not too sure about the maroon coloured door though!

Melly in London - Day 3

St Paul's Cathedral is a definite must see tourist attraction! After going with Mel, I can understand why a lot people would be really interested in visiting cathedrals. I find it hard to comprehend how people in those days could build such a magnificent piece of work, thinking about the hours and effort that must have gone into it. The fine details that you can see in almost every part of the building is intriguing.

Trying to capture the whole cathedral in the photo was a challenge! Obviously I failed.

We asked a lady to take a photo for us and I think she was attempting to get a good picture of the cathedral behind us but also failed.

One of the spiral stairs we had to climb to get to the very top!


The view from the top! 111 metres high! (It was very very windy!)

The sun was trying its best to shine through.

While Mel was here, we tried to make the most of her stay and one of our ideas was to have high tea. We thought of going to the Ritz but due to it been quite expensive (and that I will be going there with my mum as a belated birthday celebration), we sort other options from Audrey who had been to a few herself. She recommended a few but we narrowed it down to two:

The Berkeley

Metropolitan

We had a hard time deciding which one to go to but finally went with the Metropolitan. (We will go to The Berkeley when Mel visits next!)

A selection of sweet and savoury cupcakes, fruit scones and 'no bread' sandwiches (the little glass pots), all made with healthy alternatives (eg. fruit purees replace sugar, olive oil instead of butter and all made from fresh, local, organic ingredients!

Cupcakes and macaroons! One of the reasons why we picked this place :)

If You Were Here

Dear David,

If you come to London on the 3rd or 4th of April, I will buy you tickets for this:

:)

Home Alone

For one week, Jake and Audrey were away skiing in France and left me in charge of the house. I've realised that living on your own is not that fun. It was great to have the whole place to myself and do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted... but it was very lonely having to come home to an empty house everyday. Hence, after the first two days, I made sure I had some company everynight.

On the Wednesday night, I invited Wern-Yi and Jeremy over for dinner. I was very excited as it was the first time I cooked for dinner guests on my own! Usually I would be the one helping mum in the kitchen. I have to say, hosting a dinner party isn't easy... and I was only cooking for two (well three including myself)! No wonder mum gets so stressed when a whole group of friends are invited over for dinner! The amount of preparation and organisation that goes into a dinner is stressful! lol. But I think I did pretty well for my first attempt. Even if it was only making pizza! :)

The food I prepared before my guests arrived:

roasted vegetables, cheese, various meats and spinach.

I love roasted vegetables: sweet potatoe, zuchinni, capsicums (three different colours), mushrooms, carrots, eggplant and onions.

Meat: chicken, chorizo, ham.

I didn't get a photo of us rolling out the dough. That was tiring! My arms ached after rolling one base out!

Baking in the oven.

The finished product!

Time to serve and eat!

Malaysian Cusine

After a day of shopping and salsa, Wern-Yi, Jeremy and myself needed to catch the bus to our next destination. It was my first time on the top level of the double decker bus and Wern-Yi insisted I capture the moment! I had never wanted to go upstairs to sit as I was too scared I would miss my stop! But it was such an awesome feeling been so high up with a big window view!

The happy couple that shared my experience!

The view from the top level :)

Evidence

So we were on the bus heading to dinner at a place called Awana in South Kensignton. It is a Malaysian restaurant with typical hawker food but all fancied up... including the price! :) We went to this restaurant for two reasons: one - during the chinese new year festivals, I was so disappointed that there weren't any stalls selling satay. So to make up for it, we were on the hunt for good satay. And two - this restaurant was on the Top Table website where it offers specials and discounts.

Wern-Yi had mentioned that there was a place which had a 'Satay Bar'. What's a satay bar you ask? Well, I wasn't sure either... even when we got to the place. I think it's like a normal bar, except instead of selling alcohol, you can just order satay! (see picture below).

The only confusing thing about this 'satay bar' was that it was also the kitchen. So it didn't JUST cook satay.

Anyways, here are the dishes we ate (the food was fabulous!):

Paiti

Spicy Chicken Wings

Chicken Satay

Mixed Vege with Kang Kong in a filo pastry nest.

Coconut Prawns

Beef Rendang

Roti

This was my fruity berry mocktail.

I'm loving restaurants that serve mocktails.

This is a restaurant I will definitely go back to. Not only was the food delicious, the atmosphere and service was also a 10 out of 10! Only flaw would be the cost... but hey, that's what discounts and special vouchers are for! :)

St Patrick's Day

I've decided that festivals here in the London are crap! I've been to two so far and they both consisted of lots of crowds to push your way through, poor entertainment and no decent food or interesting stalls to explore!

I went to the Chinese New Year festival and was very disappointed when I didn't see any food stalls (especially no satay stalls) and a very boring dragon dance that drew a big crowd but instead of providing entertainment, created a barracade of people that you had to push through just to get from one end of china town to the other. It was ridiculous!This was the entertainment put on near China Town (not the main entertainment). This photo is of a caucasian man teaching the crowd how easy it is to learn and speak Mandarin.

This little boy made up his own dragon dance with his sister! He was so cute! He did a much better job than the real dragon dance performance! :)

On the 14th March, I went with Francis, my new Irish friend, to the St Patrick's Day festivals held in Trafalgar Square. Again, another disappointment. The only slight different with this festival was that not only did it have a lot of people, it also had a lot of drunk people. To the left and right of that stage were 'bar areas' for people to drink to their heart's content :)

Les Miserable

I saw my first musical on Monday night - Les Miserable. It was amazing! The singing was fantastic! There were two little children playing a small role and the voices that came out of those little mouths were so good it gave me chills!

Proof that I went (with Tom)

Ant - I thought these lights were so cool... they reminded me of those Newtons Cradel (the 5 metals balls that swing back and forth when you pull the end one.)

Stonehenge and Bath

Jess and I decided to take a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath (1.5 hours from London to Stonehenge and then another hour to Bath).

I present to you: Stonehenge!

There are a lot more questions about this prehistorical monument than there are of answers... and one of those questions you may wonder about, as someone else did while we were there "What's so famous about a pile of big rocks?" hahaha... well lucky for those people we had a handy guide:

This was our audio guide that informed us of interesting facts about Stonehenge including:
- the exact purpose of these rocks remains a mystery

- if we cut the stone in half, it will reveal blue and white speckled stone

- the stones range from 30-50 tonnes each

- approximately 600 men were needed to transport the stones

This stone is called the 'Heel Stone'. I can't remember why it was famous but I thought it sort of looked like a grumpy face!

A different angle of Stonehenge.

After spending an hour walking around and taking lots of photos of Stonehenge, we headed off to Bath - a beautiful tourist city that is better if you stay the night. There was so much to see and do but didn't have enough time!

A quick shot of the city while on the bus - it looks more impressive in real life :)

Look at how symmetrical all the buildings are!

Bath Abbey - didn't get time to explore it.

Off to the Roman Baths... but not before spotting a Ben and Jerry Ice Cream Palour just opposite! Again, due to lack of time, I missed out! :(

I was so disappointed :(

Roman Baths

Ozbear decided to come with me on this day trip...

He even got to have a photo with a Roman lady!

By the time we explored the Roman Baths, we had about 1.5 hours to kill before we were due back on the bus. We hadn't eaten lunch yet so off we headed to the famous Sally Lunn's! Never heard of it? Well neither had I until my mum mentioned it. Sally Lunn (real name Solange Sollie Luyon was a Huguenot (French Protestant) who came to Bath in 1680. She worked in a Bath bakery, which is now known as Sally Lunn's, who made the famous buns. I stupidly forgot to take a photo of the buns for you but its similar to a breadroll only very crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside! Can be eaten with sweet or savoury toppings!