Author Archives: Grace

Katy Christie at the Caponata/Forge in Camden

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For something a little different Laney invited me along to see Katy Christie at the Caponata/Forge in Camden as her and Jonny knew one of the violinists who peforms with Katy. I was expecting to walk into a club/bar and have Katy and Co up on a stage but instead what we got was quite a little intimate performance in what was effectively a restaurant cum bar. So intimate that Katy was less than two metres in front of me and there were only about 15 of us in the audience at a push!

The night was really good though and Katy has a totally amazing voice. I like the fact she was accompanied by a string quartet and piano. Music was jazz to folk and cabaret and the Waltzing Matilda remix was very touching. She even sang Old McDonald Had a Farm! Her support was awesome.

Koya

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Koya is a new little Japanese cheap eats that has popped-up in Soho. The menu is simple – noodles, noodles and noodles (with sides of tempura and maybe a few bits and bobs …) Those not familiar with Japanese noodles you get all sorts: fat ones, thin ones, flat ones, round ones, ones made of wheat, ones made of buckwheat, served hot or cold there’s quite a selection.

Koya is an udon shop and it’s a no fuss venue with simple tables and chairs which are crammed fairly close together though strangely there is a big amount of empty space down the middle of the front room. The staff are all genuine Japanese too which was very welcome because they were all so very friendly, efficient and humbly polite! Such a Japanese trait! Although for the most part the customers at Koya were a mixed bunch Jenny and I got to sit next to some proper Japanese customers – one lady, once she was finished, actually said thank you for sharing the table with her.

Man I love the Japanese – they are so polite!

So, Koya – my problem? I’m not a Japanese noodle fan! but I still found options on the menu for me. I went for one of the non-noodle dishes on the menu – gyudon which is basically beef on rice. It was good but the tempura that we got to accompany our meal, perfectly lightly battered, was nicer.

This is not a eatery where you will spend very long eating your meal (though there is no pressure for you to vacate upon finishing its not the kind of place to really linger, especially when you see the giant line out the door and also when you find you’ve sat through two rounds of people finishing their dinner …) but you will spend a long time here. Riddle? Well, if you like noodles then there’s not doubt that you’ll be a Koya visitor time and time again.

Hey – on another topic – I like how Jenny’s and my nails went together. Very summery!

National Dining Rooms?

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Lunch at what I think were the National Dining Rooms!

It felt so civilised in there but the best bit about lunch? Getting out of the cold and rain!

Random Sightings about Town

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I love the fact you can wonder around London and see the most random things such as interesting shop window displays, I especially love the use of the fish tanks

or giant Snakes and Ladders, Checkers and Connect 4 etc.

or, in Selfridges, giant ducks and Converse shoes

I like.

holland park surprise

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I have lived in Notting Hill for nearly 6 years now and somehow I’ve never made my way through Holland Park which is just under ten minutes walk from my doorstep. It’s a very strange space – I only wandered through today as I was looking for elephants (more on that another time) but its got all sorts of weird things in it – including a piggery!

Supperclub

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This should have been an exciting evening accompanied by decent grub and groovy music only it ended up kind of being a bit blah although Su Yin, Laney and I did try to make the most of it.

Supperclub is located in a very non-central out of the way position in Notting Hill. Its best described as being located at the end of what would be the Portobello Road markets and to the right a bit. Its not near any other restaurant, shop, pub but actually in what appears to have been an abandoned warehouse.

After taking our names at the front desk and being given red dot stickers to wear on our lapels we were taken by this gentleman (dressed in a white lab coat, bright yellow sneakers, yellow cap and matching yellow-died beard) into this giant white wall painted room. The walls were lined with beds. That’s right – beds. So ladies in those extremely short skirts and shoes which are a killer to get in and out of think hard about your apparel before you come to supperclub – I mean you’l have to take them off, then put them on (to mingle or go to the toilet), take them off, put them on etc … I think it would have been much more fitting if we’d been asked to wear some sort of slinky pjs and slippers …

The first impression you get walking into the venue is that you’re walking into an asylum: white walls, white sheets on the beds, a video projection on to the wall with the mental asylum videos, the waiters and waitresses in their white lab coats (upon which you could draw on at your leisure if you wanted!) and the random writing on the wall. Having said that, however, the lights in the room kept changing so actually what we saw was green, then red, then pink etc There is a giant gaping space in the middle – later we were to see it was used for entertainment but I also imagine when this club turns into a proper club it would be used for dancing and the like – but in the time we were there it was just a vast space.

Food is a “surprise” menu. Sometimes I think “surprise” is just a restaurant’s cheat way of making most of whatever ingredients they have on hand rather than planning a proper menu! Supperclub’s description of their food is thus:

Our amuses were a gazpacho, and a leek and gorgonzola tart. The gazpacho was weird but the tart was divine – though in fairness you can hardly say anything bad about such a combination – the full fat content after all should assure a well-flavoured dish – but it was hardly innovative. This was followed, nearly 20 minutes later, by our pre-starter of a vegetable medley soup (containing coriander, mushroom and a thai flavour). This wasn’t too bad but I found it strange that we would kind of have two liquid items in a row.

The next course, I guess what is the official starter, was to be another half an hour: smoked duck and sea bream terrine (odd!) and tomato bread. Not a favourite with me this one. Unfortunately it was to be further half hour before I got the next taste in my mouth our main of seared beef with some sort of Oriental influenced sauce, soba noodles and potato croquette. The cold soba noodles weren’t really to my liking but I have to admit the beef was well cooked, tender and nicely flavoured. Su Yin, not being a beef eater, got a vegetable terrine type thing – if I were her I wouldn’t have been happy!

And finally for dessert was a sorbet, chocolate and congac crumble with cream. This was apparently compiled in that big empty space in the middle I spoke of earlier but I was in the toilet at the time so didn’t really see what went on. I think it was just basically dishing it out into our little containers etc. so don’t think I missed much

Diet and allergy requirements aside everyone is pretty much having the same thing so it shouldn’t have been difficult to produce or manage the timing of the food. Instead at times some dishes were cold (when it should have been hot) or once not all of us got our food at the same time (Wagamama may be able to use the excuse the food is cooked fresh and delivered as completed – but I could hardly say that supperclub could use the same since we were all eating the same thing!) or seemed to take forever to come!

Food-wise I was expecting more though that’s not to say it wasn’t alright – it just wasn’t as mind-blowing as I was expecting I guess from the combo of the food we got and to the timing of delivery.

The other thing in the mix, and was a valid excuse for why food took a long time to come out between two of the courses was the entertainment. On the hour (so for us it happened at 9 and then 10) they had entertainment in the form of a burlesque dancer (actually – I’ve seen her before at Boom Boom Club) and a kind of burlesque fire throwing/swallowing by this dude dressed in drag. He was kind of awesome. Both acts probably lasted less than 5 minutes and was a good way to break up the time though it would have been nicer for more often and longer performances.

Staff at supperclub are for the most part friendly and actually at times entertaining though hard to get their attention sometimes because the place is so huge! The dude (in yellow everything) who brought us in was a particularly funny guy and boy could he salsa. He later gave us his resume but it read quite funny – all sorts of strange things that can’t be mentioned in this PG entry!

Overall I’m not a hundred percent convinced that supperclub were really at their 100% tonight – food was ordinary with glimmers of loveliness, entertainment was good but way to little of it, staff were friendly but hard to get a hold of at times, and the atmosphere, admittedly on a school night, was a bit dead even as we left at nearly 11.30 … value for money-wise we paid about £33 which I guess wasn’t too bad but was at a discounted offer ….

Psy

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D and I went along to the Peacock theatre tonight to see what 7 Fingers could do for us. Ha ha. 7 Fingers are the circus troupe behind Psy: psychological disorders as presented via acrobatics and juggling. How you may ask? Very well I answer. Heh heh. The last show I saw by 7 Fingers was Traces which was excellent and I am pleased to say that Psy equally delivers.

The show opens with facts about mental illnesses etc. and epilepsy mixed in with messages about switching your phone off – typical disclaimers twisted the original 7 Fingers way. I like how shows more and more now are thinking about the whole performance right from the start and including it as part of the show.

The cast of Psy comprise of 11 performers each who are to represent a particular mental illness such as addition, agoraphobia, multiple personality disease, OCD, insomnia (there is a brilliant Chinese pole act associated with this one) etc. and though at times the allusions are a little wide of the mark for the most part the perfomers are able to deliver their characters and that’s a feat considering it was all done with circus skills. But clearly being a circus performer is not just about being able to juggle, do a handstand, swing on the trapeze or work a giant wheel but you also have to have personality, act and, in the case of Psy, also be able to dance!

Some of the more impressive acts, in addition to the Chinese pole one, included the massive group juggling act and the swing act finale (basically people jumping all over the place and from all over.) Note however that for all the good though there were also occasions of weirdness such as a bizarre knife-throwing section which I couldn’t fully comprehend. The show also got quite a bit dark in spots which I didn’t think were entirely necessary.

This is a jaw-dropping show and will have your eyes popping out. You’ve never seen circus quite like this.

Roast by Caro

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Well Nate and Caro really spoil me when I’m at their place. They always make sure to feed me something gorgeous for my meal and they know how I miss having an oven and totally adore Caro’s roast. Its been a couple of months since the last one but remembering how I overate that time I made sure not to go overboard this time. I didn’t want to get into a food coma after all. Heh heh.

Gaspar is starting to get into some adult food now and its totally adorable that he wanted to eat everything we were eating. Poor Caro though as she couldn’t get to her own food for a while! The lad sure is growing up quickly – not too long now and he will be a year old!

Iron Man 2

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I loved Iron Man 2! I had just watched the first Iron Man the day before so that was fresh in my mind. In my humble opinion this is one of those rare occasions that the sequel was better than the first (though I think people have a different opinion).

The first one was all about the Man and there was quite a back story to it before I thought it really got moving. In Iron Man 2 we of course know all about him and though Iron Man gets a little bit indulgent and dare I saw a little annoying as a character the movie itself was still rather amusing. Perhaps it was the addition of the extremely hot Scarlett Johansson, as the Black Widow, (even if she kind of played a fairly 2-D character) but I just felt there was more going on in this one. Robert Downey Jr (damn that man is some kind of sexy) delivered in his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark and I liked the contributions, though small, of Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury. If there was any failing there was almost too much going on with loads of threads going this way and that. Visually it was a feast for the eyes without going over the top on the CGI.

Thumbs up for this second coming.

Anzac Day in Turkey

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Every year on the 25 April in Australia we honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Gallipoli was where the allied troops landed in a vain attempt to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula in order that the Black Sea could be accessed by the allied navies. Unfortunately for both sides it ended up being a stalemate after eight months of fierce fighting and significant loses on both sides. Today the losses are honoured by Aussies, Kiwis and Turks in a joint commemoration at what is now known as the ANZAC Commemorative Site (formerly it was held at the Ari Burnu War Cemetery at ANZAC Cove but so many people attend now they moved it.) Though technically my family has its origins in China I can still appreciate the sacrifices that the members of ANZAC made and I was eager to join Rache and Nic on the pilgrimage this year.

I’ve never been to Turkey and I was torn about whether to combine our ANZAC pilgrimage with a bigger and more encompassing tour of Turkey. In the end I decided to focus on the ANZAC part and come back and visit the rest of Turkey another time. Let’s hope I get that opportunity because it is a gorgeous country. During my short time in Turkey I completely fell in love with its people and its beautiful landscape and culture.

Photos photos photos

When? End April
Weather Hot and sunny for the most part, sometimes cool and wet

The Experience

We decided to do our ANZAC pilgrimage on a tour, with Travel Talk. Relatively cheap it also took the hassle of getting around out of our hands. I’ve never traveled with them before but was pleased with how it turned out, even if some of the hotels we stayed in were a little bit skanky. The funniest hotel was Temizay Hotel in Canakkale where our “triple” room consisted of one double room and then a smaller side room with a single bed. It was funny because the single room had a door and key of its own. Well, it loses a bit in translation – guess you had to be there!

Day 1 – Istanbul, Bosphorus Cruise

We landed in Istanbul late in the afternoon so that didn’t leave much time for exploring. As it was we had to wait at the airport for over an hour anyway as they were waiting for our bus to “fill up” before we were brought to the hotel. As a result we missed the tour briefing at the hotel (though as it turned out it wasn’t that informative anyway!) We did however arrive with enough time to relax before heading out on the pre-organised evening cruise of the Bosphorus, which is the strait that separates Europe and Asia. Though being on a cruise at night was pleasant enough, because it was night there wasn’t a whole lot to sea (get it, see/sea)! The drinks on the boat were also very limited and, rather cheekily, also scarce so after the first round of drinks they were only selling large ones!

Day 2 -Travel from Istanbul to Gallipoli and Overnight Stay

Day 2 started off fairly early though not ridiculously so (8am start) as we had nearly 300kms to travel from Istanbul to get to Gallipoli and we didn’t want to arrive too late and miss out on the limited spots to lay out our sleeping bags. The area they’d allocated for sleepers at Anzac Cove is not huge by any stretch of the imagination.

But before we even left Istanbul we had a stop at a Carpet Seller! It wasn’t actually too bad because the seller went into great depths to explain what the carpets were made of, what made some more valuable than others, what to look out for when buying carpet etc. and they even gave us some apple tea (though I understand in Turkey it is tradition to negotiate over cups of tea.) I actually expected a much bigger push for us to buy the carpets but they weren’t at all aggressive.

When we finally got to Gallipolli it was nearing 5pm! I don’t know where time went. There was a massive queue to get through security but ridiculously we were split up into males and females. Typically the male line went through quickly and it took us girls over 45 minutes to get through. I couldn’t understand why it was taking much longer for us since everyone had the same amount of gear (overnight bags and sleeping bags in the main.) Luckily the guys on our tour had staked out some space for us where we all just managed to squeeze it. It was well cosy. The Fanatics got the best area though right near the stage which made us wonder just how much earlier they’d gotten to Gallipoli (apparently the gates didn’t even open until just before we got there).

I was actually very surprised at the amenities at the site for us overnight campers. There were giant TV screens, there were food vendors (the chicken kebaby men were hilariously singing out their wares all night) and most importantly there were a lot of porta loos which were quite well maintained and cleaned throughout the night. There was also always plenty of toilet paper and soap for washing of hands. The toilets barely even got clogged up. I was quite impressed.

For those not lucky enough to get any laying down space there was stadium seating surrounding the sleeping sites. What was amazing to me was that all night people were arriving. At no stage did the influx of people stop. I couldn’t even estimate how many were there but surely it was thousands and thousands.

We were really lucky with the weather because although it got fairly chilly I didn’t even need to get into my sleeping bag until nearly 2am. It was apparently fairly mild compared with previous years and additionally the rain, thankfully, stayed away.

Sleep-wise I did manage to snatch probably about an hour’s sleep all up throughout the night. It wasn’t actually the people and laying out in the open that stopped me sleeping – it was the fact that there was “entertainment” going on all night. It would either be live bands or singing on the stage or documentaries on the video screens. They certainly had the volume cranked up so everyone could hear everything. Many of the documentaries were extremely moving but the most moving was the still photos they showed of all the young men who lost their lives in the fight. I couldn’t help shedding a tear, especially when I saw that some had died only a month after joining the service.

The thing that hit me most was how respectful people were. Sure we were searched to make sure we didn’t bring alcohol on to the site but I’m sure if people really wanted to they would have found ways to. For the most part our overnight stay was solemn and of a quiet contemplation. There wasn’t any rowdiness, not sound systems and thankfully no one playing ball. It was mostly card games and quiet talking amongst each other.

Day 3 – Dawn Service, Ceremonies, and Anzac BBQ

I didn’t take any photos during the dawn service so this bit is all about the text. It didn’t seem right to do anything more than listening and absorbing the ceremony. I must admit getting twitchy when they started to lay down all the wreaths along the ANZAC commemorative site wall but otherwise it was an amazing experience to be a part of. Mostly the joint contemplation by the entire site whether they were Aussies, Kiwis, Turks or random nations it was very touching. And when they played the Last Post. Goosebumps much?! Unfortunately our PM at the time, Mr Rudd, didn’t make it to Gallipoli instead sending along Australia’s first female Governor General: Quentin Bryce and actually she was a pretty cool lady and I was proud to have her representing us.

After the dawn service everyone started their trek to visit the respective ceremonies held on separate sites, the Aussie one at Lone Pine, the Kiwi one at Chunuk Bair and I can’t remember where the Turkish one was held. The trek is not an easy one and we were keen to get to both the Aussie service and the Kiwi service (which were also about 3 kms apart uphill!) But we made it.

At both services the reps, Quentin Bryce for Australia and the PM John Key for New Zealand, were really generous with their time – going around to the crowds, shaking hands and even in the case of Quentin Bryce accepting gifts! One girl passed her an Anzac biscuit and she said a polite thank you and put it straight into her pocket. So down to earth it was great to see.

Both services were interesting but it was so difficult to keep our eyes open (not having slept really the night before and it being so hot!)

Because the area was so beautiful it was actually difficult to picture that 95 years ago the whole peninsula was a big giant war field. But what brought it home was something that the MC said at the Australian ceremony. He said something to the effect of “as you walk around today just remember that you are walking on ground where people have died and shed their blood.”

After a long day of ceremonies and memorials we headed finally to Ayvalik where we would stay for the night before heading to Troy the next day. Our hotel was such a stark contrast to the night at Gallipoli. It was a lovely hotel, we all had giant balconies and the pool was gorgeous (though it was too late and cold to have a dip.) Admittedly there wasn’t much of a nightlife (we were the only ones in our hotel club!) but it was nice nevertheless.

Day 4 – Troy and partying in Canakkale

Troy was, shall we say, underwhelming! The history, of course, is fascinating but what remains at this ruin is not a whole lot. The most fun thing is the replica Trojan Horse which you can climb and poke your head out of the windows. Tolga, our tour guide, did his best, however, to impart the history and tell the story of the ruins that did remain.

Later, in Canakkale, there was another replica Trojan Horse – apparently the one that was used in the movie in which Brad Pitt starred. It looks a lot bigger in the movie and this one couldn’t be climbed.

We only spent a couple of hours in Troy and jokingly, but also seriously, our tour guide said that we could now at least say we’d been there for what it was worth! After all the driving to and fro we had about some of the afternoon to spend in Canakkale. We didn’t see too much except for the waterfront, the replica Trojan Horse and an internet café!

After some dinner, drinking games in our hotel lobby (for which we kept getting shushed – heh heh) it was off for a night out at a local bar or two.

Day 5 – Gallipoli again

We spent our next day back at Gallipoli visiting all the sites again sans the crowds this time. Our first pitstop was the Kabatepe War Museum which is worth a look if you’re interested in seeing some photos from the war and bits and pieces such as original uniforms (blood included), bullets, weapons, diaries and letters. There were actually so many bullets in the air that they even hit each other mid-air!

After this we visited all the memorial sites at Gallipoli including Lone Pine, Chunuk Bair, Jonston’s Jolly, North Beach, Ari Burnu, and many more. Visiting the cemeteries in particular were very moving. Seeing all those headstones laid out brought goosebumps to my arms again. At some key sites we were posing and taking photos with our Aussie flags etc. but it felt really awkward. I mean – do you smile for your photo, do you grimace, do you even take a photo?

Mid-afternoon we’d done all the sites and started our long trek back to Istanbul for our final night in Turkey. We were all totally exhausted and there was not really a peep from anyone on the trip back.

In Istanbul our night’s entertainment consisted of some belly-dancing but we ended up there too late and didn’t really see much. Actually, Nic got pulled up to do some dancing so we saw that and then there was this random guy doing the belly-dancing. A cross-dresser! It was strange!

And finally we finished the night with some shisha. Good stuff but went straight to my head with my lack of sleep.

Day 6 – Istanbul

Our final few hours in Turkey was spent hitting a couple of tourist spots such as the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. Both were beautiful but it was absolutely heaving and with so many people about made it a little difficult to enjoy the serenity of the beauty.

At Topkapi Palace which is huge with many rooms and courtyards to explore some of the highlights include the Harem (extra entry fee), the Imperial Treasury (look out for the Topkapı Dagger and is three large kick @rse emeralds and the fifth largest diamond in the world) and the gardens themselves. We had about 45 minutes to get around to everything – impossible when there are hundreds of rooms!

After the Palace Rache and I made a quick drop in to the Grand Bazaar. Now all over Turkey I was expecting the same attitude and pushiness that I experienced in places such as Marrakech and even Dubai to some extent but to my surprise, in the majority, we didn’t really get that. Sure I got a lot of attention from the men, including our tour guide, heh heh, and even many men on the street declaring they were in love with me but their flirtations were harmless and friendly even. I didn’t sense any pushiness to make a sale or any sleaziness or anything and I quite liked it. In fact as a whole the Turkish people, men and women, were very friendly and helpful. The Grand Bazaar, on the other hand, was completely different. They were extremely aggressive in there and once you encouraged them even a little bit they were on you like white on rice!

Last Words

I felt a little sad to be leaving Turkey. Sad because I didn’t feel I got to see much of it (probably a day all up doing touristy things) but only a little sad because I know I’ll definitely be back. The country is beautiful, from what I could tell from the hours spent driving on our tour bus!, and the people equally beautiful. I look forward to coming back and experiencing more. Maybe try some more of that Turkish ice cream: