Beer then?

We celebrated B’s birthday in the Chamberlayne pub in Kensal Rise on Sunday afternoon.  It was a lovely bunch of people and two of the cutest dogs, Oscar and Freddie. 

Sarah and Oscar, Naz and Freddie

A few people were intrigued about my new regime and were surprised that I’m not drinking for a whole year.  I seriously think I’d have had less of a response from everyone if I told them I’d developed a smack habit. 

The conversation with B and D the night before went something like this…

“So you’re not drinking for a WHOLE YEAR?!”

“Yep, that’s right”

“What about vodka?”

“Nope.”

“Whiskey?”

“Ew, I don’t like whiskey anyway.”

“Gin?”

“Gin makes me mental and I’m actually ok with not drinking.”

Cue a look of disbelief…  “BUT you’ll have to find a drink for S and B’s wedding or you just won’t enjoy it.”

OH MY GOD!

So back at lunch now and I was recounting this story to Benny who was sitting opposite me.  My food arrived, a lovely roast sirloin, (with no gravy or yorkshire pudding).  I had a few bites and then we did a happy birthday cheers to B, the birthday girl.  Then calamity struck and glasses just started toppling over on our side of the table.  Benny’s beer spilled into my plate and on to my food.  “Oh no, I can’t drink beer either” I exclaimed.  Benny kicked into action and rustled me up some more food and all was well in the world again.  I’m still a happy teetotaller.

Thanks for a lovely afternoon B, many happy returns sweets xx

I think she likes it

Birthday Balloons

Hello my name is Little Miss Sunshine and I am a sugar addict

I’ve been clean for 15 days now (bar that little incident with the hash browns) and am feeling great.  It’s not just that I’m not mindlessly grazing on peanut M&M’s anymore or that I’m giving Haribo sweets a wide berth… do you know how much sugar is hidden in packaged foods?  Who would have known that they sneak it in to so many things, seriously – hash browns! 

So my 360 degree switch change on my diet has been weirdly easy.  I’d been expecting to hang around outside Patisserie Valerie with my nose pressed against the window looking longingly at the pretty cakes.  Or reaching for a can of coke at 4pm in the afternoon or settling down to a movie craving a big fat glass of merlot.  But no, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

As well as sugar I’ve discarded alcohol, white junky refined carbs, anything yeasty, anything smoked or fermented and fruit.  Not that fruit isn’t healthy because it is and I love it – but because it doesn’t fit into the sugar free regime. 

I’ll be on this healthy path for a year and keeping it in perspective that I’m only a few weeks into my regime, (and haven’t been to the pub with my friends yet) I’m faring rather well. 

Just in case I get a mad craving to stuff my face full of jaffa cakes I’ll take inspiration from my slightly adapted version of the serenity prayer

 

Universe grant me the self control
not to stuff my face full of cream cakes; 
willpower to stay away from the sweets aisle;
and wisdom to embrace the healthy food difference.

 

London Snow

Well the burbs might be snowed in, but we’d need a fair amount of snow in London Town for that to happen.  It hasn’t stopped some people cleaning out supermarket shelves, JUST in case there is a blizzard.  I have to confess at first I was confused when news reports came in that kitty litter was running low everywhere.  I found it odd that people would stock up on kitty litter for their kitty litter trays in case they were snowed in.  Duh!

Scare mongering in the media is so crazy.  Every single day is dominated by the snow and how gas supplies are low, grit supplies are low, food supplies won’t be able to truck on through and we’ll all die a slow, cold, miserable death.  Enough already!

The snow makes my park look really pretty.  We need more though as there are too many footprints in it and some of it’s a little bit dirty.  Don’t buy into the media hype, go sledging! 

It’s not quite as impressive as the snow dump from last year which you can see below.  Now that’s snow.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

The smell of candy floss and hot caramel almonds permeates the air, along with the sounds of shrieking kids on fast, stomach churning rides.   Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park has all the fun of a fun fair with an added bonus of mulled wine and cider.  

Not only mulled wine, but also fabulous German food like bratwurst and mini pancakes.  I missed the hog roast unfortunately as I was stuffed by then.  As well as the rides there’s also ice skating and fabulous people watching. Snapping away with my new camera I captured some of the highlights.

Love life, not stuff

This is my mantra for NO-vember, when Little Miss Sunshine is abstaining from any sort of consumerism.  No shopping for this little retail princess.  Aside from supermarket shopping, I am not supporting the retail economy in the UK.  ASOS’s like for like retail figures will slump, Boots will go bankrupt and SpaceNK will never be the same.

Defeating the purpose of my virtuous crusade just a wee bit, I made sure I did loads of shopping last month, getting my ASOS fix in before the credit cards were put on ice.  I also made a slight error in judgement today, when I downloaded an iPhone app – but that’s hardly stuff now is it?  It’s not going to take up any space in my tightly packed wardrobe or my overflowing drawers.

I watched this video called ‘The Story of Stuff’ some time back and it made me think about the life cycle of stuff, about all those things I’ve bought and not used, about the cheap little things you buy – just because you can.  I don’t agree with everything in the video, but it does make you pause and think.  There are repercussions for all of our consumer habits, some of them are positive, like keeping the economy flowing and people in jobs.  Some of them are not so positive however, as our creaking planet can attest to.

So I’ll keep you updated as to my one woman crusade to save the planet this month.  Who knows, some frugal habits might just extend past this little experiment, god knows my credit cards and bank balance would benefit greatly… but then there are all of those people who depend on me shopping to keep the economy ticking over.  What a shopping dilemma I face, but not until next month so I’ll mull it over until then, feeling all virtuous and frugal.

New York Night Life

If you need someone to show you a good night out then you can’t go wrong with Miss Adi.  My partner in crime from the good old days, now a mum, but still a party queen underneath it all.

We started our night with cocktails at Sushi Samba, moving on to sake (quite nice, could be my new tipple) with our sushi.  Telling the waitress to bring out what she thought we’d like was a good way to order and the food was to die for!

These shoes are taxi shoes, not walking shoes!

From Sushi Samba we made our way to a fabulous bar in the West Village, I’ve no idea of the name.  There were a couple of things that amused/bemused me when we first arrived.  It was the seat hunt at the bar, which we excelled at, then it was the gigantic tip Adi gave the barman up front so he’d keep serving us! 

Our attentive waiter after a big tip

The biggest thing though, was the amount of absolutely stunning girls in the bar and very average looking men.  The girls were still eying these men up, like hungry lions that haven’t eaten for a while.  We spoke to one girl, who we decided was the epitome of the single New York girl.  Stunning, high maintenance, confident and very very single.  While she was talking to us, her eyes constantly flicked around the room, settling on men, she’d scan them from head to toe taking in the quality of their shoes, clothes and doing a quick assessment of their bank balance.  Most amusing to watch.  Single guys, get over to New York, it’s a cherry picking dream.

Stunning and Single in New York

Making our way to Buddha Bar, we watched as groups were turned away at the door, being told there was a minimum table spend of $350.  Ok, I was up for a big night, but not that big!  Adi assured me we’d be fine and hustled her way to the front, gaining us access with no problems whatsoever.  Work it baby!

Fabulous night babe, can’t wait to see you back in Blighty! x

Momofuku Magic

When Tammy told me that pork was the latest big craze in New York restaurants I was impressed. What an excellent way to get piggy revenge for swine flu, if you can’t beat em, eat em!

So after a happy hour of drinking fabulous malbec with Tom at Morrells wine bar, and a quick visit to the Rockefeller Center, I made my way to Momofuku in the East Village.  

Pretty New York Skyline

Tammy’s recommendation was spot on and she wasn’t kidding about the fact that pork was the menu flavour of the day either. This place is famous for their pork buns and for good reason. They are A.mazing! So was my waiter who remembered that I wanted my photo taken when they arrived. He was so good that he came back when my main arrived to see if I wanted another photo taken. Boy, you gooood! If you ever want to go on holiday with me you’re more than welcome. What more does a girl need, someone who is happy to take her photo and knows instinctively that every photo needs a seal of approval or a re-shoot.

A happy girl and her pork buns

My only very slight criticism would be that my main came out a little bit too soon after my entree. But what a main it was, so they were forgiven very quickly! I had Bev Eggleston’s Pork Shoulder Steak, which came with grilled eggplant, eggplant puree, beans, seaweed and of course melt in your mouth pork.  I meant to ask my waiter why Bev Eggleston, but I forgot. 

Bev Eggleston's Pork Shoulder Chop

I didn’t think that I could possibly finish, but sometimes I surprise myself. A chilled glass of chablis helped and it all comes down to mind over matter. In a freak of nature way I fit far more food in my belly than I thought physically possible.   

A little dent made

You can do it!

Oh. My. God, I'm full!

But the fun didn’t stop here.  I broke through the pain barrier and walked through Momofuku Ssam to Momofuku Milk bar. I hate milk, but this place does amazing milk infusions. To be honest, I’d rather have a vodka infusion. But with cereal milk and other inventive creations on the menu I just had to have a look.

My stomach started churning at the thought of another food onslaught, but I whispered to my groaning belly that I wasn’t eating anything else, so it settled down long enough for me to buy some cookies for my breakfast. It would be more nutritious than the gourmet jelly beans I had yesterday!

Momofuku Cookie Menu

The milk bar has some weird and wonderful dessert concoctions, as well as the famous pork buns.  There were crack cakes, towering banana cakes, milk infusions and some very strange soft serve icecream options.  I had a little taste of the salty cucumber soft serve.  Before I tasted it, other patrons warned me that it was weird and salty. They weren’t wrong, it was salty but quite pleasant. Weird and salty was an apt description.

Salty Cucumber Soft Serve Icecream

So it’s 4.50 am New York time and I’ve tasted the cookies.  They are amazing.  My choices were the compost cookie which includes chocolate chips, pretzels, potato chips, butterscotch, and coffee grinds.  Strange, but it works!  The other choice was a cornflake (hey it is breakfast after all!), marshmallow and chocolate chip cookie – Brilliant – not quite as good as the compost cookie.  It’s the coffee grounds that make that cookie so good.  My last little taste is of the blueberry and milk crumb cookie.  Even feeling slightly sick from cookie overdose I think this cookie is fabulous.  If I had to rate them in order, it would be compost, blueberry and then cornflake, but it’s a close call!

Me Love Coooooookies! (say it cookie monster styley)

Momofuku, I’m glad I made the trek across town – you have to go if you’re in New York.  I’ll be back.

Momofuku Ssam and Milk Bar

Neighborhood: East Village
207 2nd Ave
(between 12th St & 13th St)

Two old laydeeeeeees

Adi and I caught up last night at a fabulous Mexican restuarant and had a lovely time, but ended up going home before 9!  Two kids under 3 for her and me still being on London time, meant an earlier night than we used to have back in London town party days.  Back then, it wasn’t uncommon to be up when the birds started tweeting, only then did you think that perhaps it was bed time. 

So we’ll use last night as a warm up to tonight, where we have to stay out until at LEAST midnight, just to preserve our party street cred!

Words of Wisdom from Miss Dolly Parton

If it’s baggin’, draggin’, or saggin’, it’s gonna get nipped, tucked, or sucked

 

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Window Boxes and Terrarium Swings

I was walking past my stair well window the other day and stopped to admire the contrasting colours in the window box, bright cornflour blue, buttercup yellow, delicate fuschia and intense red.   I need to admire them now before winter comes and kills them!  I’m not sure who actually tends to them, whether it’s a resident or the body corp.  They are a sight to behold and make walking up my millions of stairs that little bit more enjoyable.

Then later that day I was walking down past Selfridges and their futuristic window displays.  Here’s what our gardens could look like in 2109! 

Notting Hill Carnival Magic

I’d heard the drum beats all day on Sunday and had resisted the temptation to go down and check out the carnival. Monday came and all resistance melted away as I found myself hypnotically drawn towards carnival magic. 

Miss B and I went to check out the floats, I’ve been to carnival twice before and didn’t see any floats either time.  This needed to be rectified immediately! 

We also got our faces painted and were transformed into carnival princesses.

Carnival Princess Transformation Complete!

Ok, enough floats, enough drums, enough jerk chicken, let’s get to the Good Times Bus with Norman Jay and have a street party.  This man is a genius, managing the crowd like a puppeteer, working us up into a frenzy and then giving us some down time to recover.  It’s truly a magical experience rocking it with people from all walks of life.

See you next year carnival!

Bridal Bash Extravaganza Day 2 – Part 2

Time to get our glam on and step into the glamorous and decadent world of burlesque.  Primping, preening, donning wigs, applying beauty spots and quaffing copious amounts of Pol Roger is a fabulous way to spend time with a bunch of lovely ladies.

Then we departed the hotel and made our way to Volupte Lounge, the final secret was at long last revealed. 

After cocktails and umpteen burlesque lady poses we finally took our seats downstairs in the boudoir style lounge.  The food was amazing, the show even more so.  We got swept away with the story from The Candy Shop and Missy G was pulled up to take part in the show.  I risked life and limb to get photos and footage of this as cameras were strictly banned.  I got told off twice but just resumed my camera sniper position once the staff member had left.  Missy G was the star of the show, as if I’m not going to take photos!

The show was fabulous, the food was too.  The music was great, until it wasn’t and then we went back to the hotel to carry on our partying until the sun came up.

After the last of the party girls had left we made beds out of chairs, couches and of course, the bed.  Later that morning we woke up feeling the full after effects of the night before, plus some.  We called up for room service and got cooked breakfasts sent up.  I tucked in as soon as the tray arrived, enjoying the fried breakfast, eating like I’d never eaten before.  The waiter had forgotten our smoothies, but he brought them back up to the room quite quickly.  I was busily scoffing my breakfast and didn’t pay much attention as he placed them down on the table… until they splatted everywhere.  I looked up at him to see smoothie dripping down his hair, his face and shirt.  It was all over the rug and drips even made it up the wall.  He was shocked and didn’t know what to do.  It was like everyone in the room was frozen, including him.  If he had a wish at that precise moment it would have been to have the earth open up and swallow him whole.  He was beyond mortified.  He finally came to life again, said he’d be back and then sprinted from the room, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.  It was the funniest end to a fabulous weekend.

I’m NOT a camping kind of girl

When I told people I was going to The Big Chill they exchanged surprised glances.  Really?  You?  Do you go camping often?  Well no I don’t,  the last time was actually four years ago, funnily enough at The Big Chill.  Four years had put a thick rose coloured filter over my camping experience, so I found the reality a bit of a shock.

Let’s examine the upsides of festival camping.  Ok, that was a short list. 

Now let’s look at the downsides, bugs (lots of them), spiders (there was a momma spider there somewhere with a whole nest of little baby spiders), deflated airbeds, chilly nights (with ridiculously thin sleeping bags), hearing people in the tents around you (that was actually kind of funny sometimes), lack of hot showers (well there were showers but the queues were long, the shower was one open air room where boys could see in – some pervy ones worked out there was a good vantage point from the top of the hill).  I ended up having a shower from the hose pipe in the corner of the camping field.  FREEZING cold, but it was so nice to be clean.

The last downside of camping needs it’s own paragraph.  The toilets.  Words fail me.   I was gagging when walking up the hill one morning, the smell was so stomach turningly putrid.  I have major public toilet issues anyway and that’s for toilets that flush and are cleaned regularly!  I met people and my opening topic would always be about the toilet.  I had major issues all weekend and could not put myself through that again. 

Toilet Dilemma Solution

I tried sneaking into the Podpad bit because they had their own power showers and toilets.  We got busted and escorted out of their enclosure, we were so close too!  I tried bribery, wheedling and then downright begging.  Nothing worked.  Next year I’m going upmarket. 

You may wonder why I’m actually planning on going back.  Well let me explain.  Norman Jay.  Sunshine.  Music.  Fancy Dress.  No Responsibilities.  Junk Food (even for breakfast!).  Funny festival experiences, you just can’t beat them. 

Good friends balance out the toilet trauma somewhat too.

I love the fancy dress, we were partying by the group that had yellow  as their theme

Bananarama

Rockin Banana

Here’s some more yellow fans

We met a Jack Sparrow look  a like, who was a total festival con man and I loved it.  He told us he was planning to fight global corporate evilness to save the rain forests, we just needed to cross his palm with silver (or caress it with a note).  We declined, but I did get him to read my tarot cards and gave him a tenner for the privilege.  He was totally full of crap, but I found his style of delivery most entertaining and it was well worth the money.

Jack Sparrow Con Man

We helped (I watched) let some lanterns off too, so pretty!

So I will be back, but I’ll be back with my own private shower and loo.  A winnebago would fit the bill I think.  It will be a much more pleasurable experience if the topic front of mind is fun, rather than ‘oh my god, I can’t drink anything or I’ll need to visit the toilet of doom’  I would happily pay £5 to do my business in a loo that is clean and flushes.  For a fiver I’d like soap and water to wash my hands and paper towels would be nice too.  In fact, that could be a bloody good business opportunity.  If you’re interested in setting up a new business, I’d pay £50 for the weekend for a sparkly dunny.  Long live the porcelain bowl.

Door stop

The Dolce went on a cooking spree recently, but found this bread not so much to her liking.  Wholemeal is meant to be dense, but not brick like dense.  In the age of recycling it’s good to think of what other uses household items may have, so this little wholemeal brick has a brand new lease of life as a doorstop.

Wholemeal Doorstop

A Little Angel

How cute is this little munchkin!  It’s been far too long since I’ve caught up with Ange and cherubic Maggie.  She is the most well behaved child ever, sitting happily eating her icecream while we chat.  She almost makes me want to have children, but not quite.