The Top Floor Flat

• Off to the gothic quarter for museums, cathedrals and las ramblas #
• Every city in europe seems to have an arc de triumph but i like this one best so far. #
• Church service in amazingly beautiful church. Could barely understand a word, though. #
• In the picasso museum, very very cool collection and building. #
• Pretty city but it’s really really cold! Need un find another museum or church i think. #
• Mmm… Hot chocolate and churros! Reminds me of being in mexico with mom. #
• http://twitpic.com/p8kx - Multimedia message #
• Damm, definitely getting sick. Going to have to call it an early night. #
• Shower, hot drink, advil and the potential for a super early night and i’m feeling 99% better. Whew! #

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• is being financially irresponsible for the first time in her life. And freaking out about it. Oh well… in 8 hours I’ll be in Barcelona #
• At heathrow and waiting to board my flight to barcelona! Bought a map so won’t get lost #
• Of course, we’re delayed. At this rate i shouldn’t bother leaving the barcelona airport! #
• Most disorganised boarding ever. Heathrow should be fined for this. Now waiting on ground next to plane. #
• Whew finally touched down go barcelona and now need to figure out where i’m going. #
• Ok, why was public transport a billion times easier than my 100 quid flight? On train to hostel. #
• Safely arrived in hostel, looking forward to sleep in and exploring the city tomorrow! #

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With very little Spanish speaking skills, no map, the vaguest idea of how to get from the airport to my hostel, and a growing credit card debt, I’m off to Barcelona in three hours.  I’m still sorting out what to pack (a process delayed by the fact that I’m still waiting for my laundry to dry) and what to do when I get there but I’ve got 40 hours in the city and I want to make the most of it.

Expect the usual twitter updates along the way (I’m going to be testing a new service as well that will let me send pictures along with my updates!) and feel free to send a note using the form on the site.  This should be a pretty hectic 48 hours.

On the other hand, six months ago at this time I was planning for an even more hectic and less well-planned trip to London.  It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is six months to the day that I left the US to come to London.  I think I’ve managed pretty well, what do you say?

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• Holy crap, going to Barcelona in 24 hours. Maybe should pack/get money/figure out how to get to my hostel from the airport/learn Spanish? #
• @JakeHird Muchas gracias! And really, what else does one need to be able to say? Oh yes… dos cervezas por favor. #

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Some pictures from the Winter Wonderland Festival at Hyde Park

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Well, I have been woefully bad about updating my blog, although thanks to Twitter I’ve managed to sneek in a few updates over the last few days.  Here are some of the highlights.

Last Saturday I went to the Winter Wonderland festival in Hyde Park.  I wasn’t sure what to expect although it was supposed to include ice skating, carnival rides and a German Christmas market.  It was definitely heavy on the rides and light on the Christmas market, and I certainly wasn’t going to pay 10 quid for an hour of skating on a rink the size of my flat’s living room but it was such amazingly nice weather and the whole thing felt so Christmas-y that I couldn’t help but enjoy it.  If I had been under the age of 14 at that fair, it would clearly have been absolute heaven.  Even as it was, I had a great time walking around.

On Sunday, I meet up with a group called London Ice Skaters that do social ice skating around the city.  I had had no idea that there was an amazing indoor ice rink quite near to my flat and it was so much fun to be on skates again! At least I didn’t have any horribly embarassing falls although I couldn’t do anything much fancier than go around in a circle.

Monday was back to the office and the start of an immensely crazy work week which I can’t decide if I can’t believe it’s already mostly over or if I’m amazed it’s gone so slowly.  In any case, I’ve had a number of late nights and busy days.

Tuesday evening, I went to another meetup group, this one I organised, for Digital Media Experts in London.  It was fantastic to meet some other people in the city who have an interest in and understanding of digital media tools and social media.  I’m looking forward to getting to know more people in the group.

And, tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I’ve made a pumpkin pie to bring into the office to celebrate my American background. And eat pie.  It’s so convenient that those two things complement each other so well.  Hurray for heritage. And pie.

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• Awesome! Ice skating at local rink. This is fun, how did i not know about this place? #

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• Off to explore the winter wonderland festival and german market at hyde park! #
• Have totally lost interest in winter fair in favor of walk through park in this gorgeous weather! #
• Well. Suddenly i feel line i’ve never seen a proper christmas celebration! This is like kid heaven! #

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A brief interlude from my Food Show recap for a purely self-indulgent blog post.

The underground trains are crowded.  Always really really crowded.  Usually it’s all I can do to squeeze into the car, and getting a seat in the morning? Not a chance.

However, I live on a rather obscure one-stop branch of one of the lines and while it’s always crowded if I take it in the morning, it’s usually nearly empty on my ride home.  I don’t actually take that line too often because the trains run so infrequently but I have a secret guilty pleasure when I do end up at the right place at the right time and manage to be the only person in the entire train car.

Let me add at this point, I can’t sing.  I entirely fail at hitting the notes and carrying the tune I am mean to hit and carry.  And possibly worse, I’m not tone deaf so I can hear exactly how off I am.  This is a problem because I love to sing.  I sing in the shower, I sing when I’m home alone and… when I’m alone in that train car heading home after a long day, I can’t resist singing on the Underground.

Yes, there are probably CCTV cameras recording me looking ridiculous.  And I’m not doing it for any reason except for the pure enjoyment of being able to do the one thing I would never do in public while in what is usually the most crowded place in town.  And I have to say, it’s one of the most fun, liberating things I think I could ever do on public transportation.

So if you see a nearly-empty train wizz by with a girl singing to herself, wave… that’s me!

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The BBC Good Food Show didn’t just feature food, it also had a fair number of drinks.  What caught my attention, not surprisingly, was the range of teas available.  Rarely have I seen so many styles and flavours of tea all in one place.  Lucky for me they also offered samples so I downed my way through white teas, black teas, green teas, red teas and probably some maroon teas but I’m not entirely sure.

Top Pick for BBC Good Food Show Tea: Revolution Tea

Revolution tea instantly stood out due to the number of teas they had on display and their simple, elegant logo and packaging.  I realise that marketing and packaging shouldn’t be the main reason I pick a top tea (and it’s not) but it definitely drew me in to begin with.  They had the misfortune of being sandwiched between some of the more aromatic pork vendors, probably not the best placement for something as subtle as tea and were placed in an incredibly high traffic area.  Therefore, when I noticed the simple smell and packaging I was instantly drawn in.

If the idea was to provide a relaxing experience they certainly delivered.  The pomegranate white tea I sampled was a lovely break from the overwhelming flavours of the stalls around me and had a taste that held up even with the assault of the nearby pig roast.  In exchange for my email address, I also got a sample of the pear white tea to take home which I enjoyed over the weekend.
Had I the time (or if I didn’t think they’d have kicked me out) I would have sampled a much wider range of their teas as they had an almost overwhelming amount on display.  Possibly most impressive is that they stood out in the land of tea when they’re actually based in Arizona.  Who knew such wonderful tea could come from America?  While the natural ingredients do of course come out of Japan, China, India and other Eastern tea growing countries, the blend is perfected in the States - a perfect meeting of East and West.

Check out their website for the full range of their teas.  I haven’t sampled the full range but I can wholeheartedly recommend the pear white tea as it was fantastic.

Other favourites:

Tiny Teas ltd
Tiny Teas once again had a wide range of teas available, all of it loose leaf.  While this might make it a bit more difficult to manage at home if you don’t have a tea strainer (come on guys… who doesn’t have a tea strainer?) many people feel loose leaf teas tend to have a better flavour.  They are also a world-friendly tea.  All of their packaging and shopping bags are hand made by the Kawangware Street Children and Youth Project which aims to but a sustainable community structure in place in Kawangware.  Pretty cool.
They also gave me a card with a recap of what different teas are good for.  Here’s the rundown:
Black teas for relaxation, stimulation and digestion; Green for stress reduction (ooh, need some of that), metabolism and immune system; Oolong for general well-being; White for detox, bones and fatigue; Rooibos for skin, colds and allergies; Herbal for general wellness and their fruit infusions for lots of vitamins.
Check out the full range on their website.

My Cup of Tea
Again, I was won over by adorable packaging and then sold on the delicious teas.  In this case I tried their black tea.  Although I’ve been on a white tea kick lately I can’t pass up the classic.  They do have a much smaller range of flavours (all available online) but what’s interesting is that they make and sell tea to businesses and the part of the business called My Cup of Tea is their consumer facing branch.  With My Cup of Tea you know you’re getting the quality you’d get in a restaurant.  Yummy!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my recap of Sweets, Squashes and Ciders from the BBC Good Food Show.

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