Christmas in London With Diana

Hey Friends,

I just got my very first roll of film developed from my diana mini!

Here are a few our trip to London last month.  

Generic view of the English countryside from the train.

St. Pancras station in London.

Great train station with one big problem, it is always freezing.

Seriously, why did no one think to put doors on this station?

Also, I almost always mispronounce this place.  

St. Pancras is not = St. Pancreas.  

(In case you were wondering)

A double decker bus, blue street lights, 

and Debenham's department store lit up for Christmas.

A typical red phone booth over exposed with red Christmas lights.

A big lit up umbrella and Christmas present.

We had a really fantastic day in London.  That city sure does have an amazing energy.  And I like the fact that I can navigate the city now.  It was such a big daunting place at first, but now going back to London is like visiting an old friend - the kind of friend that you only like in small doses though.

Anyways back to Diana - while she is an absolute joy to hold, and so much fun to shoot with, I must admit that she is very temperamental.  I think I need to buy a flash because all the ones we took inside didn't turn out at all.  Any lomography lovers have any tips?

Tower of London

I took Eb to the Tower of London while she was here.

And I think it was her favorite thing.

Australian's don't have old stuff,

so the fact that the tower dates back hundreds of years was pretty cool to her.

Oh and it was her first castle. 

All the King's horses.

The tiniest armor ever.  Next to the biggest armor ever.

If you must know, we made love to this guard with our eyes.

And no, he didn't reciprocate.

Better luck next time.

This guy, however, flashed his pearly whites and called himself,

"a thorn between two roses."

How charming.

The Tower of London is a tourist trap that is well worth getting trapped in.

And I can't say that about every tourist trap in London.

My favorite is the Queen's jewels - they have her crown there.

And oh man is that mature bird BLING.

I also like the torture rooms and the rooms where the prisoners were kept.

But I was too enthralled to take any pictures there.

Harrod's Pet Department - We Had A Furbulous Time!

After a night full of Long Island Iceteas (our drink of choice)

and bumping, grinding and making boys fall in love with us, 

Eb and I were feeling a little  LOT rough Sunday morning.

We didn't make it out of bed in time to see Krystal do her gorilla run (so sad),

but we did have just enough time to make it to Harrod's pet department.

I couldn't wait to share these pics with you, blogosphere.

What's a pet store without pets?!  

I accidentally broke the no photo rule to take a picture of these cute little Bichon Frises.  

They also had baby pekinese pups, and hamsters and gerbils, etc.

If you already have a pup,

for a mere £139 you can get him/her this pet hamper.  

Complete with "pupcorn" and various other doggie delights.

See the Pupcakes book in the back?  It's a dog cook book. 

Eb bought it for me... I mean for Heidi.

You betcha bottom dollar there will be dog food posts appearing on this blog in the future.

Paw-fiterolls at the Pet Cafe.

I'm not gonna lie, I'd eat these.

The Pet fashion department.

Does your furry little diva need a new party dress?

It's Geek Chic.... 

but it makes me feel kind of immature.

"I bone" Seriously?

Just in case you need to dress your doggie up as a the Very Hungry Caterpillar for Halloween.

Roberto Cavalli's line for pets.

If you loved your furbaby, you'd get him a puffer vest.

For only £250 your dog deserves this.

I think I spent too long in this store, 

because by the time we left I decided Heidi needed this collar from Mungo & Maud.

It would match her fur perfectly.

Yup, I've lost my mind.

Last but certainly not least,

the Michael Jackson Chihuahua.  

There are no words.

You don't have to thank me.

I know this made your day better.

You're welcome.

Cupcakes in Notting Hill

While Ebony was in London,
she got really excited about visiting places that were on the Monopoly board.

Apparently in Australia the squares are named after places in London.

Who knew?

One of her monopoly destinations was Notting Hill.

So of course I had to take her there.

And by "had to" I mean Notting Hill is my favorite neighborhood in London,

especially on a Market day, so this was pretty much a no brainer for me.

Seriously, if we ever move back to London, Notting Hill is where it's at.

It's the perfect spot for people watching,
and there is always something to eat (most importantly) see or do.

Eb isn't really into the whole antiques market scene,

so when we passed the famous Hummingbird Bakery,
 and I told her how I often lusted after their cupcakes,

but was far too impatient to stand in their very long line,
she convinced me that we HAD to do it.

So stand in line we did.

And continuing on with our dishevelled homeless theme for the weekend,

we plopped ourselved down on a side street, and devoured this cupcake goodness

while watching the vintage girls, the hipsters and the posh crowd stroll by.

The cupcake was definitely worth the wait.
(which honestly wasn't as long as I thought it would be)

The icing was delicious, cake was good, 

but just a little too far on the dry side of things  

to merit "perfection". 

Still excellent cupcakes though.

It was the ideal Saturday afternoon in London.
I wish you could've been there.

ps.  If you are too far away from Notting Hill to pick one of these up yourself,

Hummingbird Bakery has a cookbook that looks absolutely fabulous.

I think I'll buy it when we finally have a kitchen again.

pss. I know my sparkle blue nail polish is trashy, but I love it anyways.
So there.

An Australian in London

Hello Friends,

So sorry for my long blogging absence! 

I've been getting too busy to blog! 

 ...and then my computer broke (the horror)

The day after we moved in I headed straight to London to pick up my good friend,

Ebony, an ex housemate from Australia, who is on her way to Germany for study abroad.

I was so happy she made the pit stop in England to visit me!

Have I ever mentioned I LOVE guests?

Sorry we look a little rough (homeless?).

It was my first true hostel experience.

And I definitely did not come prepared.

Towel - I forgot.

Hair dryer - I forgot.

Showers - I didn't take many.

probably shouldn't be admitting this publicly.  

But had I known better,

The Walrus Waterloo Hostel treated us pretty good.

Below is the view at sunrise from the top bunk of our room.

I showed Eb all the sights. 

And I hope by the end of it she hearts London too.

Living in the country for the past six months, 

I kind of forgot how the city has a real buzz and energy to it.

I definitely needed the change of pace!

I have lots more of our London adventures to share with you,

but I'll save them for next time.

Just wondering, are you city people or country folk?

Cultural Difference : Appliances

Owning appliances in England just isn't considered the absolute necessity that it is in America.  I'm not talking about appliances like a Kitchen-aid, I'm talking dishwashers and clothes dryers.  Yes, that's right dishwashers!  Nick never had a dishwasher growing up and I can't remember life without one.  We finally got one put into his old house, and then we moved.  Our rental property does not have a dishwasher and nor do most the houses we're looking at buying right now.


I HATE this fact.  I'm not a fan of dishpan hands.  Call me a lazy American if you will, and yes I'm not the domestic diva that I wish I could be, but seriously, would you like standing over the sink for at least 45 minutes a day doing yesterdays dishes, sweating as you immerse your yellow rubber gloved hands into the hottest water possible, scraping congealed orange juice off of glassware and cooked on tidbits from pots and pans?  Yeah, thats what I thought.  


Now get this, my husband told me recently that he didn't even have a washing machine until he was 18!!  18!!! You think you know somebody, and then they tell you something like that!  Apparently he had what he calls a "spinning machine"  which he described as a massive salad spinner but for your clothes.  Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?  Have you ever heard of such a thing?!  It sounds like something those Little House on the Prairie people would use.  I've never even heard my parents talk about not having a washing machine, and that sounds just like the sort of "when I was your age..." type of shit my dad loves to spew when telling my sisters and I how spoiled we are.  


Now you may be wondering just how old my husband is seeing as it sounds like he grew up decades before me....  You must be thinking I'm a gold digger after all his moolah when he kicks the bucket right?  Well he's 27.    


The thing is, in a third world country you would expect this kinda crap.  But England is supposed to be pretty on par with America.  So let me just say, respectfully, England...

GET WITH THE PROGRAM!

Pinch, Punch

Pinch, Punch

First of the month.

And NO returns.

Via

People in England like to say this while they pinch and punch you.

Nick gets me every month....

but today...

I GOT HIM!!!

Looks like I'm getting good at this being English thing.

ps.  Hope you're having a good weekend!

Picnics and Chameleons

On Tuesday Nick had off work for the Easter holidays so we had a picnic!  It was a bit chilly and windy, but there were plenty of people out enjoying the park... even the icecream man made an appearance!

We picked up some sandwiches from this little place called The Honey Pot, which I'd been dying to go to.  It has such a delicious sounding name don't you think?  Especially when all the other sandwich shops have names like "Pulled Pork Sandwich Shop"  Umm... not the best place for your favorite vegetarian.

Alas, in the country, vegetarian food is hard to come by and even in The Honey Pot, the best they had to offer was a sub par egg salad sandwich.

While we were out we stumbled across the coolest reptile shop ever.  Now I'm not normally in the business of sharing my dreams on this little blog, but a few weeks ago I had the most vivid dream about Heidi playing with a pet chameleon named Charlie.  I have been wanting a chameleon desperately ever since, but where the hell do you even buy a chameleon? Well this reptile shop sold them!

The owner asked if I kept reptiles, and I replied, "no but I had a dream about a chameleon and I've wanted one ever since!"  I could see his crazy lady / terrible reptile pet owner alert going off in his head, so I pulled the....

I've worked with cheetahs....

And elephants....

and Sumatran rhinoceros line. (coolest animal ever FYI, this is Emi and Harapan, they're famous)

I'm not sure if at that point he thought I was a complete nutter, but he seemed to believe me enough to tell me its chameleon breeding season!  And brand new (captive bred) chameleon babies will be available in a few weeks!

(Via)

Now these little cuties run about £100 a pop, and thats not including the fancy set up they require.  They're also prone to stress meaning they die easily and only live for 2-5 years if well taken care of.  Plus, the reptile guy said they are a lot of work and give you no affection, he recommended a bearded dragon as they are apparently more affectionate reptiles.  However, I still want/need/must have a baby chameleon.  

HAVE I LOST MY BLOODY MIND?

Archie and Friends

Hi everyone,

Sorry for my lack of blogging.  We haven't really had internet except for on our phones for the past week.  But we're back in business and I can't wait to catch you all up with my silly little life.  Pictures of our new home will be coming soon, but right now we are still amongst boxes.

Anyways, Thursday was our last day on in London.  And while Nick and I didn't really have anyone to say tearful goodbyes to, Heidi requested we visit the local park to bid farewell to her dear friends, Rio the King Charles Spaniel, and Archie the Bull Mastiff mix.

They always have a fabulous time in the park together.  

Heidi likes Rio, but she LOVES Archie.  Though things weren't always like that, it certainly wasn't love at first sight.  She was intimidated by his large muscular physique when they first met.  But, she soon found out that looks can be quite deceiving, and developed a bit of a crush on this handsome young chap, which she expressed by jumping all over him and chasing him around.

Since Heidi seems to have made so many friends in the past two months she's lived in London, and I seem to have struggled in creating my own social circle in this country, I had to ask her for some advice.  

Heidi's Tips for Friendship 

With translations by Kelly

1.  Anyone can be your friend.  Even if they growl at you, don't take it personally.

1. Anyone can be your friend.  If someone shoots you down, don't take it personally.

2.  Greet any potential new friends by sniffing the crotch area

2. Greet potential new friends by introducing yourself and shaking hands.

3. You're never too busy to play with your friends.

3.  You're never too busy to play with your friends.

4. If you see a good friend from a distance, run up to them as quickly as possible!

4.  Run up to your friends and hug them!

5.  When playing with your friends nothing is more worthy of your attention.

5.  When you speak to people, they should have your full attention.

(Hint : turn your phone OFF!)

6.  If your friend hurts you when playing, it was an accident.  There's no reason to stop playing with them once you've recovered (in approximately 10 seconds).

6.  If someone says something offensive or annoying, they probably didn't mean it.  

There's no reason to hold it against them.

XOXO

Puppy kisses.

Heidi

Addicted to Purple

I'm so addicted to purple right now.  Lavender to be exact.  I bought purple nail polish at selfridges, and ate a purple cupcake from Candy Cakes that I stole from Nick (someone bought it for a leaving present for him).  Isn't it cute?  It didn't taste like I expected.  It was more muffinish than cup cake-ish.  There were even blueberries inside.

Nick also bought me these purple rainboots at Selfridges.  Have I ever told you how much I LOVE Selfridges?  I know it's all over priced and every time I walk in there I'm getting screwed like the rest of the tourists that shop there, but I appreciate the shop assistants' relentless flattery, even if she is making commission.  That's probably why when she told me, "I'm looking at your style, and purple is DEFINITELY your color,"  I said "Yes you're right!" and walked out the store with ridiculous purple Hunter rain boots, or "wellies" to use the British term.

I don't care though!  I kinda, sorta love them.  And now I'm actually willing it rain.  Rain is SO much more fun with purple wellies.  And they are so very practical for hiking with Heidi, which we will be doing a lot of in our new home!  (More to come on that later - we are moved in though!)

Also, isn't this picture neat?  I saw it on Rockstar Diaries, which I am addicted to probably more than the color purple.  The artist is Casey O'Connell, and the coolest thing is you can buy her paintings on LTL Prints, as wall graphics that you can just stick on the wall, and remove, and restick and do it again 100 times.  Perfect for people like us who are renting and can't put lots of holes in the walls.  Oh and it's only $15.    Don't you wish all paintings were mass produced like that?

Wouldn't it look really great on a purple/grey wall?  

Or am I just getting a little too purple obsessed? 

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Because I am such a suzy homemaker, I made my dear dear husband muffins on Wednesday, so that he could enjoy them for breakfast on his final day of work on Thursday.  Little did I know while slaving away over these delicious muffins, that the light of my life would be so hungover from his leaving party on Wednesday that he would be completely unable to consume anything without projectile vomiting for the entire day on Thursday.  I'm not joking, he showed up on the door step Wednesday night looking like a soiled tween after his first party with alcohol.  He also kept repeating "wig for Doodle" because apparently he had acquired an Elvis wig for our poor dog.  I guess thats a post for another day.

But nevermind that, at least I had muffins.  Very good muffins indeed, thanks to Madhuram's Eggless Cooking.  Yes, eggless *gasp*! Have I taken my vegetarianism to the next level and gone vegan on you?  No, but we were out of eggs.  And these were surprisingly good.  They were very zesty and not too sweet.

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar ( I used a mixture of light and dark, but mostly light)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Wet Ingredients

• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 teaspoons ground flax seed (a hippy ingredient I'll admit, but I had it on hand because we put it in smoothies, its a good supplement for vegetarians.) 
• 1/2 cup water
• Zest from one orange
• 1 cup freshly chopped cranberries

Start by preheating the oven to 375 F or 190 C.  Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.  In a food processor, add 1/2 cup of water and 2 teaspoons ground flax seed and blend until it gets frothy.  Squeeze 2/3 cup of orange juice, (from about 2 oranges) and add water to the juice till you reach one cup of liquid.  Add the flax seed mixture and the orange zest to this and stir well.  Pour all the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until it just comes together.  Gently fold in your cranberries.  Spoon into muffin liners and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes (mine took more like 23 minutes to be exact).  

Let cool (just a bit though, they are SO good warm), unwrap and enjoy!  

ps.  We just finished these off yesterday, and that means they kept well for at least 5 days.  

pss.  In case you were wondering, my husband also thought they were amazing after he recovered.

Thumbs Up for the Big Move

I've had a bit of bloggers block lately.  Mostly because we're pretty stressed with moving right now.  In fact, we're really stressed, and sometimes we wonder if this move is even worth it.  Now, perhaps I'm a product of my Catholic upbringing, but I think God does send us signs from time to time, and I think he just sent us one....

Conversation with Nick...
Nick- "Kelly, we really need to move out of this neighborhood."
Me - "Why?"
Nick - "A missing man's thumb was just found here."

Yes, if you don't believe me, here is the article.  A man has been missing for about a week, but his THUMB turned up in our neighborhood.  I wasn't a fan of being chased through the park while running, or the nasty little pervert that flashed me outside our house, or the story Nick told me of the man who ran into our street with his eyelids and mouth sewn shut - and I think this is definitely the last straw.  We'll be leaving now.

Dear God,

Point taken.

Love,

Kelly  

Things I Want to Do Before I Leave London - Update

With under a month left until we move out of London I thought I should post an update of my London To Do list.  I guess I'll have to make a new one when we get to Sheffield.  Oh, and for those of you that I left hanging, our offer was not accepted on the ever so freaking perfect dream home.  I'd love to post a link, but I'm not sure that is proper netiquette, so just conjure up an imagine of the most cliche, well kept, 200 year old little British cottage in a village with sheep two minutes walk in one direction and forest in the other.  Got it?  Perfect right?  Yeah well its not ours.  Oh well, first up on our Sheffield To Do List : find a place to live (hopefully to be accomplished this Saturday - except we need a dogsitter again.  eeeeek.  why do all you useful people live 4,000 miles away???).  Ahem, without further ado.....

Things I want To Do Before I Leave London 

1. Get a puppy and give it a very English name (like Harry or Charles, but I'd call it Charlie) - oh and I want it to be an Englishpuppy - like an English Setter, or Pointer, or Bulldog.    We got a german shorthaired pointer puppy and gave it a german name, but I'm crossing this off anyways.
2. Take a trip to Paris with Nick
3. Visit relatives in France (may or may not be in conjunction with trip to Paris)
4. Go to a comedy show
5. Go to a night club and rage Nick is too embarrassed to take me dancing.  I'm too embarrassed to go alone.  Note to self: Make friends in Sheffield who like dancing.
6. Go on a boat tour down the Thames
7. Go to a Stich 'n' Bitch night  I probably should've gone more than once
8. Go to Ireland
9. Go to Scotland and catch Nessi (OK we didn't catch Nessi, but we did go to Inverness)
10. Go to Stonehenge (Does anyone know if this is as boring as it looks?  I feel like I should go... but it looks so boring)
11. Go to Bath
12. Buy something antique at Portobello Road Market
13. Get a job   I got one and I got fired/quit 3 weeks later.  Does that even count?
14. Visit London Zoo
15. Visit Museums
1. Victoria and Albert
2. Natural History Museum
3. National Gallery
4. National Portrait Gallery (My personal favorite)
5. Tower of London (Crown Jewel's are here - her majesty is so BLING)
16. Take Aerial Level 1 Circus Arts classes at Circus Space Never got this done, but did get to see Cirque Du Soleil
17. Finish fixing up the house. We worked hard on this.  It's not quite  finished.  But we're moving out and so it doesn't matter now and I'm crossing it off anyways.
18. See Big Ben and Parliament
19. Take Pictures of the Guards
20. Visit Borough Market
21. Ride the London Eye
22. Go to a Musical
1. We Will Rock You
2. Billy Elliot
3. Little Shop of Horrors
4. The Lion King
5. Lord of the Rings (Most boring musical ever DO NOT SEE THIS)
6. Thriller 
7. Avenue Q
23. See a major concert at the O2 
24. Go shopping at Harrods and Selfridges

What do you think friends?  How have I done?  I think some of these things can transfer over to the future Sheffield To Do List.  So it's not the end of the world that I haven't finished all of them I suppose.  

ps.  My friend Lauren just posted her Denver To Do List which reminded me that I had this saved and ready for posting.  If you're a To Do list fiend or from Denver, go check hers out!

pss.  Do you have a To Do List for the city you live in??? I'd love to see it or post it here to share with everyone.  I think it might be fun!  

Heidi in Action

Nick and I took Heidi to the park this morning and I brought along my camera to capture all the action!  Heidi loves to run and she is already way out of both mine and Nick's leagues.  Soon we won't be able to wear her out.  But for now we have so much fun taking her to the park to play and she thinks its the best thing ever.   Since it rains all the time here, a pond has magically appeared in the middle of the park - its actually just like a huge puddle.(Hooray for British weather!)  We're teaching her that water is fun!  Hope you enjoy these puppy action shots.

(I almost got a picture of her pointing, ugh so close yet so far!)