The Flower Room

I love having fresh flowers in the house but I'm definitely not in the habit of buying them weekly. There's a sliver of a flower shop just up the road from us in Barnes which is an adorable little space and I'm always so pleased to shop locally. Since the cold has somewhat left London, hopefully I'll get in the spirit of regular flower shopping soon.

Counting Crows

The Counting Crows are one of the mister's favorite bands so when I saw they were coming to London, I snapped up some tickets. We saw them back in Seattle, where we had amazing seats (see pics below) but this time all that was left when I went to buy the tickets at 10am the morning they went on sale, were 2 tickets in the last row. Thankfully the Hammersmith Apollo isn't too big so they were still good seats. 

I love the Crows and don't think I'll ever tire of seeing them live because they're constantly mixing up their songs, doing something different than what's on the album and they play their classics (of which there are a lot!).

The were 3 teenage girls in front of the mister and I at the concert who seemed to have such a deep emotional connection to the music, that they mainly expressed by hugging each other in excited glee and waving their hands back and forth through the air. I don't know if it's age or the abundance of digital music - music that is inextricably linked to a period or moment in my life seems so far behind me. Jack Johnson's 'Sitting, Waiting, Wishing' - a college heartbreak, 'Just Like a Prayer' - late night joy rides in high school and what about last year? I listened to a lot of music last year but no one song brings me back to a moment... Is this a sign of growing up?

PS - Seattle peeps, Counting Crows + The Wallflowers at Chateau St. Michelle this summer! SO Jealous! 

Lorde

I ran across Lorde on Twitter yesterday, it was her NZ heritage that caught my eye but I love her soulful voice. Have a listen to the first track, Bravado. Love it. 

our trip to Rye

For my 30th birthday the mister planned a whole week of celebrations. It was all a surprise which was so much fun!! After Easter weekend, we got on a train Monday afternoon to Rye, although I didn't know where we were going until we switched trains in Brighton. A short 1.5 hours later we arrived and checked into our Windmill. Yes, that's right, we stayed in a windmill!!

Rye is a decent sized village, but it is a village. We spent one day exploring the sites and shops and the rest of our time relaxing, which is exactly how I wanted to spend my week. 

There was plenty of good food and of course the mister spoiled me every night with delicious meals and wine.

Webbe's Fish Cafe

The Ambrette at Rye

After dinner drinks at The Mermaid Inn, one of the oldest Inns in the UK (their cellar
dates back to 1156 and the building to 1420!)

The Landgate Bistro

Cheers!

And then there was my actual birthday, which was one of the most relaxing days I've had in a very very long time. The mister booked me a massage at the local Aveda salon and then we spent the afternoon sipping champagne. 

Post massage sorbet and water. so relaxed.

And as if this birthday week could get any better, a gift from Tiffany!

All and all, one of the best, most relaxing, weeks of my life. Thank you hubs! x

move

Remember this video from a while back? I feel so lucky to be able to live this part of my life in London and have such easy access to Europe. Now, to plan a trip. :)



MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

disco burger

Disco Burger is tucked away on a tiny back road of St. Pauls. Normally, all the new 'cool' stuff is in east London, so I was over the moon when my friend mentioned he was organising dinner here, just down the street from my office!

Disco Burger is above a pub, in a space that was probably never meant to have a proper kitchen and certainly not a kitchen that could feed both the downstairs pub-goers and their own patrons. This is probably their biggest down fall, absurdly long wait times. We waited 45 minutes for a table and another hour and a quarter for our burgers. The burgers however were really good. (but I don't think any food is worth waiting 2 hours for). The meat was tender and as an added bonus, the burger comes with bbq-ed short rib on top. Yummy!

We also ordered a basket of cheesy fries to pass the time while we waited for our burgers. I could have easily eaten a whole one of these myself, but am glad I saved room for the awesome burger.

via

We finished the meal off with some mini doughnuts that had some sort of passionfruit (?) glaze on the side. The doughnuts were ok, nothing to write home about, but I was so stuffed from the burger, I was happy to only have 1.

Disco Burger
61 Carter Lane
London
EC4V 5DY

Easter came and went

Easter snuck up on me this year. This year we had some people around for lunch and then we wandered down to the river for the Oxford Cambridge boat race. It's a fun tradition to watch the race and I love that it's a short hop from our front door.

I dipped into Ina's 'How Easy is That' for 3 of the recipes for lunch but of course forgot to take pictures of  any of them. From Ina's book I made sugar snap peas with pancetta, tuna and hummus sandwiches and mocha chocolate icebox cake (which took me 20 minutes to make and was absolutely amazing!) 

We also made 2 small red onion, walnut, avocado and gorgonzola pizzas, chicken, sausages and root veggie mash. I love having people over for meals, least because we always have so many yummy leftovers!

And of course, what holiday would be complete without cupcakes!