A day of wedding shopping

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman? Not the end bit where Richard Gere sweeps her off her feet, but the first bit, where she's in that small flat working the streets and wearing clothes that the night owls around here like to wear on the weekends.  

After today's experiences I kind of feel a bit like Julia did in the first part of that movie. No not the working the streets bit, but the one where she walked into a posh shop and no one would serve her.

I did get served most of the time, actually let me clarify that, people answered my questions because they had to, most of the time there was no customer service.

Let me share the experience.....

Stop 1 : Debenhems, Oxford Street

• I'm looking for hair clips which they appear to have quite a lot of. But when I asked the shop assistant for a particular style I was looking for, the bitch just pointed and couldn't tell me whether they had any.
• In the shoe department I actually got some service, but nothing took my fancy.
• In the lingerie department there was no one to help me, lots of choices but without some customer service I was keeping my money.

Stop 2 : House of Fraser, Oxford Street

• You would expect some decent customer service from a rather upmarket shopping centre and since my personal shopping experience there was so good, I was expecting big things. 
• In the shoe department there were no bridal options at all. 
• In the lingerie department, the bitch didn't even help me find the right sizes and just pointed to where some options were. I even asked her for some advice and all I got was 'what you have there will be fine'.

Stop 3 : BHS, Oxford Street

• They do have a bridal area, but nothing worth looking at.

Stop 4 : Coast and Monsoon, Oxford Street

• I love these shops!
• One pair of shoes at Coast I liked, but surely I can find something cheaper.

Stop 5 : John Lewis, Oxford Street

• In the jewellery department they had a measly 2 hair clips. Not even worth the time to look at!
• Time for a coffee and a sandwich!

Stop 6 : Selfridges, Oxford Street

• Oh my gosh, actual shop assistants that have personality and want to help. I couldn't afford anything there mind you but at least I got some tips on where next to go. I did see a lovely pair of sparkly Jimmy Choos... a girl can dream!

Stop 7 : Moda In Pelle, Somewhere down a little lane off of Oxford Street

• I decided to get off the main shopping trail and see what I could find. Feedback from the Selfridges team suggested there were a few bridal boutiques near Bond Street station.  
• It was then I found this little shoe shop. Finally I found the most beautiful pair of shoes... yah a purchase at last! And the girls there were so lovely.

Stop 8 : Victoria's Secret, Just a little bit further on from Stop 7

• I wasn't looking for this, but what a bonus. 
• Victoria's Secret has just opened in London this week! 
• Bridal lingerie is a small fortune so I can only look and admire.

Stop 9 : Berketex, A bit on from VS

• This was an actual bridal shop, so they do exist in central london! 
• When I asked to see their range of hair clips and veils all they said was help yourself. I've never put a bloody veil on in my life, once again shop assistants that couldn't give a shit.

Stop 10 : Tube

• Time to go home

I feel a bit sad that my day of shopping was overwhelmed by poor customer service, I wanted to feel special shopping for these bits and pieces. However I do have to be thankful that I did find a gorgeous pair of shoes and I can tick that off my list of to-do's!

So now I'm treating myself to a nice glass of red and some chocolate... yum.

Date Night

This week we decided to go to a new little Bavarian bar and restaurant called Steins.

It's a quaint spot, not overly large but you escape to another world when you walk inside. It's adorned with floor to ceiling wood paneling, wooden tables, animal furs (not real for those of you that love animals) and old style black and white photographs showing off some lederhosens. It also has a great outdoor area overlooking the Thames which we've enjoyed before when the sun was shining.

Unfortunately there was no sun this evening, replaced by plenty of rain, so we sat inside.

Being Bavarian there is lots of sausage to eat... and pork. Not my most favourite of foods considering I was watching a program one day and it said that pork is a flesh most like human. In any case there are other options and I went for the chicken. 

The main course was average. We've been there before and the tasting platters are the way to go. However we'd never tried any deserts until now. Look what we had;

Yes a big platter of pancake and it just melted in your mouth. Crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy in the middle and served with an apple mousse.  I would hate to think how many calories I consumed, but hell it tasted good. 

We did have a few issues with service which was kindly acknowledged by the team there who offered us some complementary schnapps to finish up with.

We'll definately go back again.

Cake decorating

A quick blog just to make up for being offline the last few days!

I have just finished decorating a cake for our cleaner Paula. She is Hungarian and doesn't get to see her family and in particular her daughter very often. With only two days to spend with her, she wanted a nice cake to take home. 

I didn't bake it, she actually did that, but I did cut it up, smother it with white chocolate ganache and fondant and set about making it look pretty.

Thankfully she liked it ! 

Big cakes are a bit different from cupcakes though, so it was good to get some practice in particularly since I will have a wedding one to do in January!

  

  

A day trip to New Forest

A trip to New Forest usually takes 1.5 hours from Kingston. Over the bank holiday it took us a little over 2. 

We did make it though, and our first stop was Lyndhurst information centre to work out where to go.

Apparently New Forest is England's smallest National park. It was named 'nova foresta' (New Forest) by William the Conqueror more than 900 years ago. Forest in those days meant an area of land set aside for hunting game. Now a days you can't hunt and as you drive through ponies, cattle and deer graze freely. 

We had a little wander through Lyndhurst and found the grave of Alice Hargreaves (Liddell) that inspired the character Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

Grave site of Alice Hargreaves

As the forest is full of walking and cycling trails we took the advice of the information centre and headed for Blackwater Arboretum. The walks around this spot left a little to be desired. I don't find walking along a busy road particularly relaxing, so we drove further and found a nice walk along a little river. 

  

Before we headed home we did a detour to Burley (home of witches), well that's what the brochure said. I didn't see any and all I could find was lots of shops selling the same corny nic nacks. After waiting for ages to try and get a pint at the local watering hole we cut our losses and decided to head back to London, spoiling ourselves with a nice Indian curry on the way home.

I think we'll have to stay a whole weekend next time!

Technology problems

For those of you that follow my blog you may have noticed I have not posted any new stories over the last few days. 

I haven't forgotten about you and wish I could tell you what I've been up to, but unfortunately there seems to be a problem with uploading photos.

It seems to have coincided with me uploading the latest norton software, so I've run a diagnostic and no issues.  I've checked blogger for any issues and nothing. So I've sent off an email to Norton and will post a query on Blogger issues. Hopefully someone can help me.

Write soon I hope!

Missing Aussie wine

On a gloriously rainy Saturday in Blighty (I have to put a positive on it), I'm thinking about date night tonight which is down at the local new Bavarian bar and wishing that I could find a nice Aussie wine to drink.

Unfortunately its impossible.

While I enjoy living here, what is really disappointing in Blighty is the lack of good quality Australian wine. 

Bentalls used to stock Bird in the Hand sparkling which was a bit of a novelty. Not from the Barossa unfortunately, but still a good summer sparkling. 

In Waitrose I will walk through the bottle shop area just to see if they have any new Australian wines. Typically though its the standard Jacobs Creek, Yalumba, Hardys or Wolf Blass.  I usually walk away disappointed.

Perhaps I've been spoilt by living in the Barossa Valley where I had the best variety and quality of wine at my finger tips and not just the mainstream ones.

For wine on a summers evening I could pop down to Rockfords and purchase some Alicante Bouchet or a bottle of The Willows sparkling shiraz. During winter a hearty bottle of Henshke or Hentley Farm shiraz. Then there is Tscharkes. I've never gotten through the whole wine tasting list, but I have taken a few people to this spot and they absolutely love it. 

If you can't have it you can dream about it...

For those of you sitting at home in the Barossa, can you please make sure we have a sparkling shiraz to drink when I get home!

A bloke called Perves

Today I was served by a barrister called Perves. 

I don't normally take any notice of barrister names, however for some reason this one jumped out at me. I did think I had misread the name badge but when he brought me my coffee I rechecked, yes it definately was Perves.

I wonder if there's many Perves around? Actually there typically is when you're walking around building sites, I just wasn't expecting one in a coffee shop.

Seriously though parents usually are careful about the names they give their children so they are not teased at school, imagine this poor bloke!

Maybe he has a celebrity parent as they typically choose odd names. Look at Nicole Richie's kid called Sparrow.

In Oz we have some Sparrow slang which is 'up at a sparrows-fart', which actually means getting up very early. The bird Sparrow is typically a pest as well. So poor Sparrow if she ever goes to a normal school!

Back to Perves, he obviously enjoys his name as he has a badge with it clearly printed in black and white. And while I think he has a rather odd name I have to conclude that he makes a damn good coffee.

POD

Once upon a time there was something known as SAD syndrome. SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) was a well known depression associated with lack of sunlight and bright blue skies. All of which Blighty typically lacks.

But we now have a new syndrome that is hitting the residents of Blighty quite hard, and its called POD, also known as Post Olympics Depression.

Those suffering from POD typically describe feelings of missing something and tend to be teary. Some have been found staring at their television sets constantly changing channels searching for the remnants of any Olympics news. Others who have to go back to work, lack concentration skills and are regularly seen staring out the window.

POD sufferers should be able to ease their symptoms with the upcoming Paralympics, but after that I'd suggest they're going to just have to get over it!

I know I write this in jest however POD is something that has been mentioned in the news over here. I wonder if any other country has created an actual syndrome for the after effects of the Olympics?

Spiced Plum Chutney

What do you do with excess plums? 

The easiest solution would be to try and make jam, however I wanted to see whether I could find something different. So after googling for a while, I found Delia's Spiced Damson Chutney.

I've never made a jam or chutney in my entire life so this has got to be something for the record books!

The process (or some of it!)

It actually was quite easy, the plums simmer amongst ingredients such as apple, raisins, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. 3 hours cooking time allows the spice to settle around the apartment reminding me of grandma's cooking. 

The end result!

H wanted to try it straight away but I had to break the news to him, we have to let it sit for a good 3 months, just in time for Christmas!

What do I do with the rest of the plums?

Harry High Pants

Be warned there seems to be a revival of harry high pants in Blighty which means its on its way to you shortly (if not already). 

On an outing to the grocery store today I saw two girls in their 20's sporting them. On the weekend I saw one as well (below).

High pants : The one on the right!

I don't mean to be a bad sport but seriously do those things really look flattering?! High pants are typical of our senior citizens, as you get older your pants get higher. That's just the way it is. 

They were also a trend in the 80's with 'were' being the operative word. I know 80's fashion seems to be enjoying its revival, every time I go shopping I walk out disgusted by all the over-sized t-shirts, however would you willingly subject yourself to high pants fashion?

Pity they don't have the oversized hair, fingerless gloves and big earings to go with it!

I have to confess I do have one item from the 80's that has made its way back into my wardrobe  - it's a top with shoulder pads. But that's as far as I'm going. Let's hope harry high pants goes back to where it belongs, in retirement!

The hottest day

Let me firstly clarify, it hasn't been the hottest day ever, just the hottest day for 2012.

And the top temperature... 32.4 degrees in Cavendish, Suffolk.

While I would typically balk that this temperature could actually reach the 'hot' classification, by actually experiencing it I can say that for Blighty it is 'hot'. Weather is typically wet and cold over here so houses and businesses alike are not well equipped with air conditioners like we get in Oz. And if you have the added pleasure of travelling on the tube or bus, then you're more likely to experience something like a sauna. Just imagine the smell of hot sweaty bodies rushing home on the tube after 5pm on a week day. It is not something anyone looks forward to.

While in Oz we either escape to the cinema or shopping centres for some respite from the heat, most people over here sunbake in local parks or sit along the Thames drinking pints at local pubs. The shopping centre air conditioning isn't quite to Oz standards.

Thankfully its late evening and the cool breeze has started giving us some relief in our non-air conditioned apartment. Actually its quite pleasant sitting on the balcony amongst our little garden eating fish and chips and having a glass of wine. Sorry I know its winter back in Oz but you can rub it in when you're enjoying those bright blue sky days I love so much.

Hot and Spicy

I knew that would get your attention!

A while ago there was a news program on television in Oz about a pub in Adelaide serving up a burger called 'The mega-death burger'. Apparently the burger is laced with an American spice that is 500 times hotter than a jalapeno chilli. For $25 you can try this but you have to wear latex gloves to eat it! 

More recently, in Kingston we had a chilli eating competition. There were no latex gloves required, however participants had to sign a death waiver. mmmm would you willingly sign away your life to pure pain?

Personally I don't fancy anything hotter than a standard Thai or Indian curry however there were about 8 participants in the competition, half of whom were female crunching away on chilli like they were juicy apples.

Did you know that the heat of a chilli is measured in scovilles? So taking a typical jalapeno, that would be between 2,500 and 5,000 scovilles. Cayenne Pepper takes it up to between 30,000 - 50,000 scovilles and then there's the Naga which is what most of the participants were eating towards the end of the competition. If you fancy a taste of this one it sits at around 1,382,118 scovilles. You can understand why eyes were bloodshot, noses were watering and random gagging could be heard. And they did this to win a ring of fire sauce?!

The winner turned out to be a draw between a male and female who had consumed about 6 of these Naga chilli's and that was after the first course of approximately 8 others. Personally I'll stick to my Indian curry.

The participants

 One of the winners 

Cornish Fairing

One of my welcome presents when I arrived in the UK in May was a 'Bake for Britain' cookbook. 

Do you think this was a hint?

Feeling domestic today I flicked through the book to see what I could make.  The Cornish Fairing caught my eye, mainly because I already had all the ingredients in the cupboard. 

Because I'm curious I googled the Cornish Fairing. Apparently it's a traditional ginger biscuit commonly found in Cornwall. The term 'Fairing' used to mean an edible treat sold at fairs, now more commonly known as Ginger Biscuits or Gingerbread.  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_fairing



They are an easy biscuit to whip up but beware, even if you roll them into tiny balls they spread everywhere. The recipe also said to cook them for 10-12 minutes but they looked well baked in half the time. 

Not sure if these look like the real thing. H will have to taste test when he gets home tonight!

The recipe

Olympics hangover

Today Britain is sporting an Olympics hangover.

Over the past two weeks our days have been entirely consumed with sport. On the street, television, radio, conversation. I've even resorted to Twitter... don't tell anyone!

Talk on the street today was about the closing ceremony and how wonderful it was.  There were comments at the gym that not since war time have we seen people so engaged and talking to one another. 

Someone else mentioned thank goodness Paul McCartney didn't sing. There was a resounding consensus from everyone with this statement.

While I enjoyed the closing ceremony, I have to make one point that annoyed me. They didn’t show all the countries athletes but focused only on the British and a couple other nations. What about the Commonwealth!?

Over the past week, I have been asked numerous times 'what has happened to Australia, they used to be really good athletes'?   I would have to agree. I think we have to congratulate our athletes for what they did achieve, but seriously what has happened to our once well regarded sporting nation? 

One article in Australia suggests too many of our good coaches have been allowed to go to other countries. In another article it mentioned that NSW are dropping funding for sailing and yet this was an area which actually got us some gold medals. What is going on?!

I also haven’t heard or seen the Ranga (Australia’s excuse for a Prime Minister) at all during the Olympics. Actually I never saw or heard anything from her during the Queens Jubilee celebrations either. Is she actually still our Prime Minister or have we moved up in species?

Regardless of the performance of our athletes or prime ministers, the hangover is well and truly here. Thankfully we have a week to get over it before the Paralympics kicks off. 

How far would you go for your job?

A picture paints a thousand words...

Walking along Oxford Street the other week I caught sight of this guy standing in the middle of the footpath. With an expression of complete disinterest further exemplified by the fact he was listening to his iPod, you could not escape the bright clothing so tactfully (not) displaying  advertising.

We snuck a photo!

So this has got me thinking about just how far would you go for your job? 

Would you sport some neon lycra and stand amongst the public advertising your companies goods. 

When I first came to the UK a number of years ago I was on a bus ride out to see one of the many castles around here and got talking to a young British girl next to me. When I asked what she did for a job she paused before replying and told me that no one knows what she actually does for a job but essentially she was a stripper. Apparently she did it to pay her way through University. 

I do recall many years ago helping out a friend and putting on an inflatable Mr M&M costume only to be the playmate of dozens of children that thought it was funny hitting me from behind so that by the time I turned around they had run away. I think this would be as far as I would go.

So how far would you go for your job? Feel free to comment as I'd love to know!

Growing things

There’s nothing worse than being trapped in cement.

Where you get a sense of overwhelming gloom brought on by an overdose of cement walls, floors, high-rises and little chicken skies (the sky is falling in, the sky is falling in).

That’s why I need to have greenery around me.  

However being in Blighty and living in an apartment we do not have a normal backyard that you'd typically get in Oz. We do however have a balcony that has been looking for a little love and so we've set about trying to grow things.

It started with removing about five garbage bags of dead things. I’m not sure how long they had been dead for, but I had to prise the rock hard soil out of the pots. Some pots even disintegrated. Mmmm perhaps it’s the weather over here!

A 99p bag of sunflower seeds started the process. I decided to plant them all because usually only a few seeds come up. To our surprise the full fifteen started growing, and we now have a good crop of sunflowers blooming.

  

  

Thanks to H’s mum and dad we have also acquired a number of plants which means we also have a lovely herb patch, tomato plant and some other pretty flowering things.

It's nice to now sit outside on the balcony amongst the greenery and trickling solar powered Buddha to read a book and close my eyes on the cement.

Thank goodness I can actually grow things!

  

Do you Dance or D'aa'nce? Vacuum or Hoover?

Have you ever had one of those days that you feel like you’re repeating yourself but never getting anywhere?

I can sympathise after my visit to the Post Office today. For some reason the man behind the counter could not understand what a post-it-note was.  After consistently repeating myself I gave up.

This has happened before.  The other week I asked for a Flat White in a coffee shop and the woman looked at me blankly. I did repeat myself until I had to describe to her what I wanted; a coffee with milk please. I thought I was asking for something that does not exist in the UK until I visited another coffee shop and carefully scrutinised the menu; yes there was an item called a Flat White!

I wonder how many other Brits don’t understand what I’m saying. Next time I might have to try ‘G’day mate, I’ve just arrived from woop woop, can i have a cuppa and a bickie?’ Their mouths will probably drop in amazement.

When I was at the health shop the other day the shop assistant was Eastern European and she was so pleased to hear me pronounce Vitamin as V’ite’amin and not V’it’amin, that we ended up having a conversation about it.

This has got me thinking about all the different words and pronunciation differences between nationalities. 

Pronunciation Differences

Australian                          British

D’a’nce                               D’aa’nce

V’ite’amin                           V’it’ amin

Ac’quat’ic                            Ac’qat’ic (think quack and take the ‘qua’)

M’awl’                                  Mall (think of the blokes name Al)

Different Words

Australian                          British

Eggplant                               Aubergine

Fridge                                   Refrigerator

Vacuum                                Hoover

Doona                                   Duvet

Capsicum                             Pepper

SR Flour                               Self Raising Flour

Snow Peas                          Mange Tout (sounds like a disease!)

Zucchini                                Courgette

Before I came here I’d never heard of Bunting either, I actually thought it might be a type of sport but no it’s actually a string of triangular colourful flags.

I think I might keep adding to this list... if there are any pronunciations’ or word differences you can think of let me know?!

Weightlifting

If there was one sport you'd really like to see at the Olympics, what would it be? 

I can't say I'd choose weightlifting.  If I had the choice it would be swimming, but we were lucky enough to actually get some tickets and you just have to go to whatever you possibly can when its the Olympics.

We watched the weightlifting in the ExCel stadium. The buzz and atmosphere was amazing, particularly when the Brit hit the floor. It was nice that everyone cheered on all the other countries, unlike the Lithuanian vs Nigerian basketball match we watched in a pub in central London where there was actual boo's, ended up going for the Nigerians! 

And yes as you probably have seen in the news there were a lot of spare seats. 

So we watched the snatch and then the clean and jerk. Meanwhile as the weight gradually increased we watched their eyeballs almost bulge out and veins pop as they struggled to lift the weight.

Before I share some pictures of the event here are some Olympic weightlifting facts to top yourself up for the next quiz night... Weightlifting featured at the first Olympic Games in 1896, it had a number of absences in the games in the early 1900s, joined the Olympic program for good at Antwerp in 1920. Women's events were added in 2000.

The Weightlifting area

The contenders

Gareth Evans the Brit contender

Watching Wiggans win Gold at the Time Trials

After five hours of standing on my feet in one spot I am finally allowed to rest up on the comfy couch with a cuppa, a home made raspberry muffin and of course the good old laptop. I can now sit back and reflect on the days events.

For the Olympics it started with a bit of controversy surrounding the badminton players. Who would have thought Badminton would have made front page news?! The Chinese and Korean pairs both tried throwing the match which was so obvious when you watched the replay, even I could have hit a shuttlecock better than they were. It is a shuttlecock isn't it? Anyway the Aussies are now back in so that is a good thing.

Skip waiting for the riders

In Kingston, it was time for the Time Trials, so I set out for an early morning walk to suss out who was around.  At 8.30 in the morning people were already holding spots at key turns on the track. 

So at around 11.00am with a backpack of supplies, I found myself lined up along the route, right next to some Aussies sporting their green and gold tops. The funny thing was when we got chatting they actually live in the same apartment block as me. What a small world it is?!

Thinking we would be the only Aussies in the crowd it was nice to see a few other Aussie flags in the distance as well as the boxing kangaroo.

By the time Wiggans came past the crowd were well excited and absolutely roared and screamed. People were crammed in every spare space they could find, some even hanging out of windows in the nearby shops.

Looking for the best view

Unfortunately the Aussies didn't do very well at all but that seems to be the theme for the Australian contingent this year. It was nice to see the Poms get a gold (or two) so far today. Fingers crossed the Aussies can get a medal in tonights swimming!

The women riders arrive

Aussie Riders - Go Aussie!

The Gold Medallist - Wiggans!