More Dancing

31 Oct 2008

Off for a Halloween Ball with the jive nation crew – there will be pictures. But for now…

Winnings

30 Oct 2008

Wow.

So… back when I was looking at ways Spoonfed could add some cool competitions, I spent some time looking at our competitors and similar site to see what sorts of prizes they offered and how they ran the competitions.  In most cases, I actually entered the competitions both to see how the entering process worked and because the prizes were often pretty darn cool.

Even through I was working through competitions on the Spoonfed end, giving prizes to real people (and hearing back from many of them, quite happy they had won!), it never actually occurred to me that I might win any of the things I had entered weeks before.

So imagine my surprise when, upon coming home one day, I had a giant package in front of the door which, upon opening, revealed a 70cl bottle of premium triple distilled Smirnoff vodka, two cans of Schweppes ginger ale (to make my moscow mule cocktail of course) and a professional barman’s cocktail kit including shaker, sieve, measuring cups and recipe booklet.

This weekend will certainly be shaken, not stirred ;).

Apples

29 Oct 2008

Well, after my over-excited update from last night, seven hours later the snow is long gone and now it’s just bitter cold.  Oh well, it’s actually quite autumnal and nothing made me feel that more than the Apple Day and Borough Market near London Bridge.

I hadn’t been to Borough Market before although Londoneater did a great two-part post about the place.  It’s in one of my all-time favourite parts of the city, right on the south bank, next to the Globe and Tate Modern, and all but directly under the Tower Bridge.  The market itself is huge (and thankfully covered as it was raining the day we went) and I’m not sure if it’s generally closed Sundays or not as only about half the stalls were open.  But those that were took part in celebrating the apple theme of the day.

As I said, it had been raining pretty heavily on the way over so as soon as I made it to the market (no easy task – finding it was no problem but getting anywhere quickly was more of a challenge as enormous crowds were being led from the Globe to the Market by volunteers in Renaissance period dress) I grabbed a cup of hot apple cider and proceeded to enjoy the smells of the market.

For lunch, Sarah, Steve and I all got the irresistible looking “hog roast,” a delicious roast pork (we could see the remains of the actual pig on the fire pit behind the stall), thick apple sauce, spinach and some cracklin on a warm cabatta roll.

The more difficult decision was in what to eat for a sweet.  One vendor had an array of absolutely stunning desserts, including some meranges the size of my head (pictures coming soon).  I was finally tempted into a sugar high by the candy makers Burnt Sugar which had some very unique kinds of fudge and candies.  I had the relatively ordinary chocolate fudge, treacle fudge, peanut brittle and coconut clouds but then mixed it up with some of the more surprising flavours – chocolate chili fudge, chocolate and ginger, and chocolate and sea salt.  Don’t worry, it was just a bite of each!

I would love to go back to the Borough Market but it would be a tough place to do my shopping as it’s so far away from the flat.  Apple Day was the perfect introduction to the market and a delicious way to get into the Autumn spirit!

Snow!

28 Oct 2008

Another busy day and I’m about to fall asleep but…

It’s snowing!  This is completely remarkable as I’ve been told we get snow about once a year in London – it’s not going to stick until the morning or anything but it’s absolutely amazing! It’s clearly a rarity as every person I know in London has something along the lines of “Snow!!” as their away message or status on Facebook.

But boy is it bloody cold.

UK Trips

28 Oct 2008

I know I’m off to Munich in a few days (very exciting!) but I really wish I could do a bit more travelling in the UK before the year is over. My plan for the last few weekends has been to head up to Kings Cross, walk up to the ticket counter, hand them 20 quid and ask for an open return ticket to somewhere. But between all of the things I’ve had to do, it’s been difficult to plan a last minute trip anywhere. There are a couple of sites that I’ve discovered that allow you to plan last minute breaks but often the bigger problem is where to go.

There are two places I feel I really need to travel to, and hopefully soon – they’re also the sorts of places where I can do a last minute trip and still feel as I haven’t missed out on anything I could have accomplished with advanced planning.

Firstly, Bath. The home of Jane Austen, setting of many of her novels, only a few miles away from Stonehenge and with, of course, the ancient Roman baths. I’ve already (sadly!) missed the Jane Austen Festival earlier this year but there’s so much there in terms of history, places to see and shopping that I’m certain I could spend a day, a weekend or even longer. It’s also incredibly accessible from London which makes it pretty high on my list of last minute destination choices.

The other place I’d love to visit is Cornwall to see the Eden Project. Mimi went earlier this year and her pictures were amazing – basically the Eden Project is a series of ecodomes and is kind of a cross between a museum, a garden, an amusement park and a concert venue. It’s a bit longer trip from London but will be absolutely worth it. As soon as I have a nice weekend I think it would be worth looking at how much a trip to Cornwall would be.

There are so many other places I need to visit in the UK – Canterbury, Haworth, Isle of Skye, Dover, Durham (as my dad keeps telling me)… I haven’t even seen the Windsor Castle yet!

I may have some international trips coming up, but there’s is clearly plenty to keep me busy right here :).