Author Archives: Grace

The Graduation

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One year in the making Mirela was awarded her Masters today. The year has fairly flashed by since I met her and she began her Masters. Mirela jokes that in my reviewing and editing her assignments I contributed somewhat to her award. Ha ha. I ended up taking half a day from work to attend the graduation which was held mid-afternoon at the Barbican. I’ve never actually been into the Barbican and I must admit it was an impressive and nice venue for the graduation. When I arrived the Barbican was fairly buzzing with all the students and friends and families milling about.

For some reason Mirela’s class (admittedly pretty small with about 15 graduating students) was being awarded their Masters with the School of Architecture students. The graduation ceremony itself was not very exciting. Various official people gave some speeches with a guest speech and honorary distinction being awarded to some dude who, though graduating with fairly average marks, has gone on to be revolutionary in charitable work in building and architecture. After he gave his speech is was a matter of sitting through and clapping through what felt like a couple of thousands of students! It did go by very quickly but my hands were a bit sore from all the clapping. Sadly two students had died since finishing their course so their degrees/masters were awarded posthumously. As you can imagine they got some of the biggest claps and congratulations.

Tickets to the graduation ceremony had to be paid for and this was to cover, presumably, the hire of the hall, tea/coffee/champagne/juice and biscuits. The price, which I can’t recall how much, was pretty cheeky really for what was served.

After the ceremony we headed to a nearby Italian where Mirela’s parents shouted the bunch of us (the family, Enrique (Mirela’s boyfriend), Mirela’s cousin Harry, Sabrina (who had also finished her Masters but had chosen not to go to the ceremony) and Sabrina’s boyfriend) the celebratory dinner which was nice of them!

We finished the evening by heading over to St Katharine’s Docks near Tower Hill for a couple of drinks. St Katharine’s Docks is really very pretty and it’s a shame to say I’ve never been there in my years in London. By the time we got there it must have been about 9.30 or so – so it wasn’t too busy and actually most restaurants/bars seemed to be closing. However the Prohibition Bar was still open for business. Actually part restaurant part bar Prohibition was pretty cool. There was also plenty of seating as it was relatively quiet. Drinks were impressively reasonable and different from the usual offerings – including the non-alcoholic versions.

The night couldn’t last too long as we all had to get up before 5 the next morning so that everyone could catch their flights to Madrid so we managed to catch pretty much the last tube home. Hopefully Mirela had a nice day today!

The Greeks descend – Part 2

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After the Good Food Show I caught up with Mirela and co for drinks before Mirela headed off to pick up her boyfriend from Victoria. Whilst she took him back to Sabrina’s house to settle in and for some dinner I went for a walk with Mirela’s Mum, sister and Aunt from Westminster to Trafalgar Square. It was a beautiful evening for a walk if a bit nippy.

Currently at Trafalgar Square they have a new art installation called under scan which runs from dusk until midnight.

The concept behind the installation is that motion detectors will sense whenever someone is standing within the installation and this will trigger a very life-like projection of video portraits on to the ground that will “shadow” you. It was pretty cool and the projects were very effective.

Some video footage here:

After this little walk (which ended up being a couple of hours) I met up with Mirela and Enrique again for a drink at Eclipse in South Kensington. Mirela’s cousin Harry also joined us. Eclipse wasn’t a very big bar/club (not sure what it was) but it was pretty busy for a Sunday evening. It seemed to be split into two rooms – one side filled with dancers and the others with sitters. By the time it was all done I got home for 2. Thank goodness Harry drove me home otherwise I may have been asleep on a London night bus somewhere. I think I’m going to be a little tired tomorrow!

Good Food Show 2008

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Nearly three years ago I braved the Festive Good Food Show at Earl’s Court so I thought it was time to whip around again. On this occasion we also purchased premium tickets (£50!) for a Food Icon “cookery” session with Nigella Lawson but more on that later.

As with the Good Food Show in 2005 the lesson of the day is to make sure you arrive early not only to make it easier to make your way around the stalls but also to allow you to get free tickets to any cooking sessions such as that put on the by the Co-Op this year. Other events include the Tasting Sessions (extra £ on top of show entry) and for the first time this year there was also a Producers’ Village which this year was host the Slow Food pavilion.

The Restaurant Experience this year featured Blue Elephant, Roast, La Porte Des Indes, Smiths of Smithfield, Kai Mayfair, Café Spice Namaste and a few more. Circling the restaurants early on we knew we wanted to try Smiths of Smithfield’s Roast Pork Belly … mmmm ….

Walking around the venue I was surprised at just how many wine/beer/spirit stalls there were. They certainly seemed to outnumber the food stalls on the lower ground. As we got there for opening it seemed just a tad early to be hitting the alcohol but I could see that didn’t stop many of those around me!

It didn’t take us long to circulate all the stalls in all honesty and that included the Producers Village (where we ran into Sam and Stu!) The sampling on offer was quite generous but after a while I got a bit bored of “competing” to get a sample. I couldn’t understand the people who stood in front of the stall taking up space even though it was clear that they had no interest in the product on offer.

As I said earlier the Co-Op were putting on live cooking demonstrations and we’d picked up tickets for the fish session. It was a good session – the chef was quite good with interacting with the crowd and gave some helpful tips. The best bit was that we got to eat what he cooked at the end of the session! 🙂

The highlight of the day and the reason we paid the big bucks was to have a session with Nigella Lawson. I find here so very funny and I think its the fact that, despite how she glamourous etc. she always appears, she is an extremely down to earth person with no airs whatsoever. The fact she also constantly admits that she’s greed is just even more charming. A woman after my own heart.

Although we were in the Cookery Experience she didn’t really do much cooking – she made something out of her latest book – a Christmas recipe book – which was basically a decoration for the tree. Really it was just a way to introduce the Q&A session which subsequently followed. During this session I became even more impressed with Nigella. She’s smart, funny, witty and actually does know her way around the kitchen. She also came across as wanting to genuinely help people with their cooking queries. I walked away very impressed.

Finally, we finished our morning at the Good Food Show with the Pork Belly from Smiths of Smithfields. It was amazing! Melt in your mouth tender with the crispiest pork crackling – delish. Can’t wait to head to the restaurant to have a full serve.

Overall the Good Food Show was just about what I expected it to be. Lots of food and drink sampling and a few cooking and product demonstrations. As we were leaving I couldn’t believe just how crowded it was getting but also the number of people who’d opted for the VIP package – credit crunch or not its definitely not stopping people getting good food into their stomachs.

The Greeks descend

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With Mirela’s graduation on Monday all her family are slowly arriving in London. Late late last night Mirela’s Mum, sister and Aunt arrived tomorrow it will be her father and boyfriend. They’ve all been here numerous times before so it wouldn’t seem there is much left for them to sight see. After a bit of a sleep in we ended up at Primark, walking down to Trafalgar Square, having linner (it was kind of like lunch/dinner at about 5pm) at my local chinese (again! Told you Mirela loves the hoisin sauce) before meeting up with Sabrina early in the evening at Sloane Square for another long walk all the way to South Kensington and the Natural History Museum (too tired to ice skate.) Being a Londoner I’m used to all the walking but I’m afraid it really tired the greek contingent out! They were wiped out by about 10pm ….

Hoisin Sauce … with a side of duck

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Mirela arrived back in town late last night, to attend her graduation next Monday, and the first order of today was dinner at my local Chinese for some Hoisin Sauce .. err, I mean Duck with Hoisin sauce. For some reason, and I could see the appeal, Mirela absolutely loves the dark stuff. I quizzed our waitress on the magic formula of the sauce and she said it was a mixture of Hoisin sauce (2/3) and Yellowbean sauce (1/3.) Who would have known.

The Church – The First Anniversary

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I hadn’t even realised it until Pauline pointed it out to me but our visit to The Church today was actually the anniversary of our first visit. Not sure if she had arranged it to be that way, if not then the timing was pretty coincidental. We also dragged along a few other people for today’s visit including James, Caz, Leah, Amelia, Dee, Sam, Stu and another friend of Leah’s who’s name escapes me for the moment. All of us Aussies, naturally, except for James who was our token English person. I had tried to invite other English people from work but none of them were brave enough to venture on to the hallowed grounds of The Church. 😉

Entry into the Church was something like £7 but Amelia somehow managed to get us into The Church for free. I reckon the guy selling drinks cards in the line took a shining too her! This was a good deal as then that money was put towards the £7.50 drink cards they pre-sell you in the line prior to entry (though of course drink cards are also available inside.)

Once inside it all seemed fairly mellow at first. Not as many people drunk and disorderly early on as last year as I recall though there were some energetic dancers in particular a bunch of Kiwis just behind us. There was also some strange push-up thing happening with a bunch of some particularly younger guys nearby. Not sure what that was about – James mentioned something about a drinking game based on saying a particular word. Whatever it was funny anyway.

The camera people were on their game pretty much labelling everything and everyone on sight on the big screens. None of my photos turned out but they were really getting in some nasty labels. For some reason, and probably egged on by one girl going topless (bra included apparently) early on, whoever was on camera was obsessed with getting girls to show their wares. Like seriously obsessed. It was funny at first especially when the girl would try to run away from the camera, which of course simply followed her, but it got old fairly quickly after that. Thankfully I was in a t-shirt so no cleavage to entice the camera people with. Our bags, as usual, proved a hazard to those breaking into our dance circle. I know they just wanted to get across to the other side but still – respect the bag and coats!

Before long the entertainment started with a bit of a teaser with the first “dancer”. Female in this case and I saw tease as she mostly danced and writhed around on stage and though getting most of her kit off stopped at taking everything off once she got to her bra and undies.

We thought that was it so Pauline thought it would be funny to try and continue the theme as she kept on trying to pull our tops up. Caz and I weren’t quick enough to avoid her little hands but somehow Leah managed. Thankfully soon after that the entertainment continued with first a male “dancer” and then the same female “dancer” from before. This time it was all the way and because of both Caz and Leah’s agression we ended up right near the stage for a full frontal view so to speak.

Thankfully the entertainment wasn’t as disgusting as last year and the dancers were actually quite fit this time around. I don’t know how they feel up there on stage – I felt almost embarrassed for them. Still, I guess its a job and fairly harmless at that if you don’t mind showing the world your business.

After that it was more dancing and, for everyone else, drinking. Leah and Caz pushed their way up on to stage when things were wrapping up. Traditionally the girls on stage will take their tops off but I think the crowd were pretty conservative today so no such action on that front to the disappointment of the males in the crowd I’m sure.

Finally, after getting kicked out of The Church, we headed over to the Shebu Walkie which is apparently the traditional thing to do. I was a bit over it by that stage though, and as much as it may sound so mature of me, I had to go home and do my Sunday chores so didn’t stay long at the walkie. However, I stayed long enough to witness these two guys, one of whom was there with his girlfriend, who were absolutely hammered enough to do this for the camera:

Fun times!!

Alexandra Palace Fireworks

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I missed all the Guy Fawkes night celebrations this week as it was on a Wednesday and I’ve been too busy at work (and working too far out of central London) to try and tee up an event but I couldn’t miss out on fireworks completely this year so with my fireworks buddy, Sandra, we headed off to Alexandra Palace.

Alexandra Palace is a tourist destination on its own merit but I’ve never been (something to rectify for sure.) It boasts beautiful views over London and proved to be a perfect place to see the fireworks – not only those that were put on at the Palace but also all of those going off across London at people’s homes, other greens and even the ones over near Canary Wharf.

To ensure that the event at Alexandra Palace was a hit for everyone it even had a carnival happening near the entrance at the bottom of the hill which had all sorts of rides including the giant Booster (which I think I’ve seen at the Brighton Pier.) I really wanted to ride it because it looked like a mad ride but Sandra was still feeling to full from our ribs at Monkeynuts. To be fair if we’d gone up I’m quite certain the ribs would have come up and out onto the people below us – not something they would be pleased about I’m sure.

There was also apparently a beer hall somewhere to celebrate a belated Oktoberfest but by the time we climbed the hill to get a good position for the fireworks there were so many people around we had no chance of getting through the crowds.

Even without fireworks tonight the setting would have been beautiful. The view truly was amazing and I could have sat up there all night. Thankfully the weather decided to take a kind turn and it stayed most of the late afternoon and all evening.

Before the fireworks started the crowd was entertained with music blasting from the loudspeakers which would later play the music to accompany the fireworks. Although Sandra thought the effort at Battersea last year was better I was just happy to see fireworks in any situation. I just can’t get enough of them.

MoNkEyNuTs

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Before Sandra and I went to Alexandra Palace for the fireworks tonight we dropped into Crouch End for a very early dinner. I’ve never really explored this part of London before but to my surprise Crouch End is actually a very nice area with lots of funky bars and restaurants – its just a shame that its not actually on a tube line. Though buses are frequent the inconvenience of getting on a bus makes me just that little bit less motivated to come out this way.

Monkeynuts is a steak house and wine bar which is a meat lovers delight. Though there are some vegetarian options the focus is on burgers and steaks. The menu is largely American themed and, though we didn’t realise until after we’d ordered, it also comes with American-sized portions. However as both Sandra and I went for the ribs we’re not sure if other dishes were also served in gigantic portions.

Not straying too far from the name of the restaurant the decorations are monkey this monkey that from the mini plastic monkeys dressing the drinks, to the barrels of monkey nuts, to the stuffed monkeys spread throughout the joint and to the various monkey pictures. Kind of cute really.

As it was rather early neither Sandra and I had a huge appetitite but that didn’t stop us getting a set of ribs each and sharing sides of onion rings and potatoe wedges. When the ribs came we didn’t know what to think. It was massive (strangely in contrast to the shot glasses we were given to drink our tap water!) Not sure how our petite waitress even managed to carry our platters out to us. The bones on the ribs (beef ribs) were the biggest I’ve ever seen prompting me to wonder whether they had come from a small dinosaur rather than a cow. The meat on the ribs were at least an inch and a half thick too. Just like eating a steak. The ribs also came with coleslaw and salad though they didn’t really get a look in.

For the first time in probably quite some time I couldn’t even finish half my ribs. Disappointingly we left a whole heap of onion rings and potato wedges too (both of which were delicious – I particularly loved the wedges which were super-crunchy on the outside and light and fluffy on the in.) See the pic on the right to show just how much we left. At first neither of us were going to take the leftovers home but our waitress seemed so disappointed that we 1. couldn’t finish and 2. didn’t want to take the leftovers home that I buckled and took my leftover ribs to the fireworks then home.

I quite liked our visit to Monkeynuts. Good service, very kid friendly (not that it is high on my list but could be good for some) with their crayons and colouring-in placemats some of which are displayed on the first floor, decently-priced food, availability of root beer and tasty food. Wish there was one of these nearer to home!

JR hits Foyles

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One of the things that I love about London is the random art that you come across when you’re walking around. One of my favourite shortcuts is to go from Tottenham Court Road past Foyles and into Soho to get me to Chinatown (technically its probably not any shorter but it definitely gets me away from all the darn tourists!) Looking up I recently noticed that Foyles and nearby buildings have gotten a facelift:

Looks great right? Its by an undercover photographer/artist called JR. His signature is to do things on a giant scale posting black and whites up on to big spaces like the face of buildings. Earlier this year, something I unfortunately didn’t see, he even had something up against one of the walls outside of the Tate Modern. All with political/social commentary in the background of course.