Amy Comes to Visit!

Last week my dear friend and co-favorite college roommate, Amy, came to visit.  And we had some much needed girl time. Truth be told I'm still lacking in the girl friend department in England so I am pretty sure I talked Amy's ears off.  Yes both of them.  But luckily, seeing as she is our 12th visitor to England, I'm getting pretty damn good at this tour guiding thing.  If only the British weather would cooperate a little better.  

Here's a rundown of our week in pictures....

The first night we went for a sundown walk in the Peak District.

Picturesque, No?

Then we went to Chatsworth.  Again.  

I love Chatsworth though so thats OK.  Especially the gardens.  

They don't get old.

The of course we had to go to London.  

We stayed in a very cheap girls only hostel which I can highly recommend

 for poor female travelers called Piccadilly Guest House.

 The plan was to see the major tourist spots, but England had other ideas.  

So shortly after this was taken we headed off to Harrods where they were having a sale!  

Hurrah!

We had dinner at my favorite restaurant in all of England, Bumpkin, then we went off to the West End to see Dirty Dancing. Ohhh Johnny!  No one puts baby in the corner!

When we came back to Sheffield I took Amy for a little more English countryside action.  

I love the Peak District.  

It's God's country (according to the locals anyways.)  

I must say I agree... at least when the sun is shining.  

I made a lil picnic.

 But then we had to go home because my hair was just not cooperating.  

Forrealz.

But not before Heidi pissed off a herd of sheep.  Eeeeeeeeeek!  

Sheep are creepy sometimes.

But then we saw these cute little baby horses on the way home.  

Awwwwww.  I love country life.

And then Amy and I passed out.

Note:  While we were curled up uncomfortably on the couch Heidi was in my bed.  

Typical.  

I take this to mean I was a successful tour guide.  

ps.  I didn't include pictures of our spa day at Harrogate Turkish Baths .  (this is due to the fact that there were looooooooooads of naked ladies wandering around and taking photos would have been totally inappropriate... fyi the English are so much more comfortable than Americans with nudity.)  But besides the fact that Amy and I were somewhat uncomfortable with nudies, and we creepily checked out the more ample hair styles sported by the very self assured British ladies, we had a wonderful time at the beautiful spa and this is certainly going on the guest list itinerary.  

Miss you already, Amy!

And thanks to Mr. and Mrs. N for buying her plane tickets!  What would we do without our parents?!

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.

You Yanks Like Stately Homes, Don't You?

When I asked the girls on my rowing team where I should take my American friend, Sarah, 

Chatsworth - "a stately home" was recommended.

So thats where we went.

We had a great time.

We took silly pictures with sculptures....

Played dress up.

Wandered around the beautifully manicured gardens.

And imagined how great life would be if we had diamond encrusted tiaras to wear to our next fabulous dinner party in that fancy dining room.

Everything was absolutely beautiful.

Apparently it's often used as a location for Vogue photo shoots.  

I don't do outfit posts, but I do do stuffing my face with brie and cranberry crepes from the food market that just happened to be going on in front of the house.

Yeah so the cleanse/diet didn't go so well yesterday...

But it was a delicious addition to a fabulous day!

Hope your weekend is extra fun!

Happy 4th of July my patriotic friends.

Please wear your red, white and blue and sing I'm proud to be an American for me.

I think my America pride is generally frowned upon over here...

Borough Market

Ever since we decided to leave London, I've been on a mad dash to finish as much of my London To Do List as possible.  So today Nick, his mum and me headed out to check Borough Market off the list.

(Why do boys make such silly faces in photos?)

And let me tell you, it was every bit the food lover's paradise I heard it would be.  Plenty of good street food, fresh produce, cheeses, chocolates, wines, fish, and meats.  We were out of groceries so we stocked up on some veggies at this stall.

And they had the most fabulous looking mushrooms.  We couldn't leave without a few handfuls of them.  I went for the King Oysters and Nick's mum chose the Chanterelles.  Anyone have recipe suggestions?  I've never cooked with King Oysters before, but they looked too fun to pass up!

We were getting pretty hungry at this point and Nick and his mum picked up two kangaroo (yeah like actual kangaroo) burgers to chow down on.  Apparently they tasted just like regular hamburgers.  Meanwhile I went to the stall across and picked up some hot apple cider to warm me up.  They asked me for I.D.  - who would've thought apple cider was alcoholic?  The guy must've thought I was a bit of a drunk ordering an extra large at noon, but at least there was plenty for sharing.

Then I got hungry, and I ordered the most delicious veggie burger.  Look at this beauty...

It was a halloumi burger with pesto and hummus on whole wheat.  It was just perfect.  I was in street food heaven...

We were so tempted to buy so many things, but we were trying to be good.  I am kinda kicking myself for passing up an amazing looking chocolate truffle stall.  But we couldn't leave without a bottle of white truffle oil.  We have a bottle which we purchased in a little souvenir shop on a layover in Charles de Gaulle, but it is surprisingly terrible.  We think the French were taking advantage of our silly tourist selves.

But this bottle is a winner.  Pure liquid gold.  I already used it on roasted asparagus for dinner tonight, and lets just say they were a big hit!

Borough Market was a vibrant charming little place, buzzing with people, smells, sights, and sounds to create a great atmosphere.  I wish we did our grocery shopping here every week, and I'm glad I get to cross it off my list!

Avenue Q - Totally Underrated!

When Cecilia was here last week I wanted to take her to the best tourist attractions and ensure she had a spectacular visit to London, as any good hostess would.  Since she is in her last year at college, and I'm currently unemployed, we needed to get the best bang for our buck... eh... punch for our pound?

A lot of the tourist activities in London are just plain tourist traps.  They'll frisk you like a very good pick pocket, and you'll leave the city feeling robbed of all your money and a little of your dignity.  I try to skip these traps, especially because many things are free here - but man, the things that aren't free will sure cost you.

There is one touristy thing I always recommend though, and that is going to the theater.  There are tons of shows in London, and Leicester Square is host to plenty of half price ticket booths.  This is an ideal place to pick up tickets the same day or a few days before a show, especially if you're not super picky.  

Like a good hostess, I told Cecilia that she could pick the show.  Of course, I didn't actually mean this, because I'd already seen most the ones I wanted to see.  So she went through the gauntlet of shows and I kept saying, "seen it."  That is until she said Avenue Q.  I hadn't seen this one, nor had I heard anything about it, except for all the advertisements which said it was "pant-wettingly funny".  I had wanted to see it for awhile, mostly because of it's self-proclaimed hilarity, but I was kind of embarassed by this because the show is done with Muppets.  

So we went to my favorite half-price booth and we managed to score tickets for a mere £15 each.  

Then when we arrived at the show the next day, they upgraded our seats!  Little did we know we were about to enjoy the most hilarious piece of Muppet theater ever...

Imagine if you will, the genius that is The Labyrinth, combined with Sesame Street, only this show addresses adult topics.  I felt I could particularly relate to the main character, who felt so sure that he would do very well after his graduation, however, he soon finds out that his BA in English is pretty much useless.  There was a bunch of musical numbers that really got the audience going such as, "It's OK if you're Gay" - done by two male muppets whose relationship resembles that of Bert and Ernie.  This show certainly wasn't afraid of adressing taboo topics, however, by doing it with hand puppets, statements that would generally be offensive were transformed into words of true comic genius.  For example, the Avenue Q crew comes to the realization that "everyone's a little bit racist" and of course they burst into a song that addresses this fact.  If the idea of puppets discussing politically incorrect topics appeals to you, then you really must see this show. 

There is one downside to this show - I found myself getting pretty perturbed at my fellow audience members.  They kept laughing!  I mean, what good is a comedy if you can't hear the next joke because everyone is laughing too hard?  Don't answer that. 

The moral of the story is - never be embarrassed of your love of Muppets and when given the opportunity go see Avenue Q!