Let’s do this!

An incredibly massive amount of things has happened since my last post (two years ago!)

Here are the highlights in a couple of pictures…

Beginning of 2011 we had to move twice cause we couldn’t find the right house in time but it was totally worth it and we are now living in our beloved Waver-Tree-House.

It came with an amazing roof terrace.

and an inflatable pool which after some extensive cleaning work is now a dream ;)

We went to two amazing festivals:

The Secret Garden Party near Cambridge (UK) and  to Sonar in Barcelona

we had an amazing cowboys and Indians themed house party

Greg and me went on a road trip down the US west coast from San Francisco to Las Vegas.

I learned skiing on our trip to Val Thorens.

We cooked a couple of amazing Christmas lunches – where I dare say the turkey was a success!

but most importantly Greg and me got engaged!!! So happy! :) Since then I’ve started quite a few DIY projects which I plan on writing about on this blog.  So no pictures for those yet hehe. Planning a wedding is quite a big thing I’ve started realising quite quickly but none the less lots of fun! Luckily I have/had lots of time to organise and plan things, cause I really don’t want to turn into a bridezilla! I made a promise not to and I plan on keeping it :) and so far all seems to work out fine!  And in the meantime let’s see if I can get this blog back to life!

All in a tumble

Again one of my “oops I haven’t been on my blog since erm… when?” posts.

I’ve been thinking of doing little reviews of different cafes, restaurants and shops (like I did with Corns n pops) so maybe just start with that… I’ve been walking past a beautiful bakery/restaurant on Wardour street basically every day. What made me notice it was that you can watch them baking their bread from the street.  Awesome!  So I went there with a friend during my lunch break the other day and found they have “real bread” (A topic I’ll definitely have to address in another post), delicious pizza and pasta but also cakes and pastries.

It’s quite expensive (£7 for a loaf of bread) which is the main reason why you won’t see me there every day… cause food-wise you definitely would. One can just taste and smell that everything is made right there and then, which is one of my main criteria for good food — freshness.

Another place that I have come to appreciate lately is Berwick Street market.

It’s not very big but efficient :) You can get cakes, fruit, nuts, flowers and fish. That’s all you need, no? Or maybe it just reminds me of my beloved Naschmarkt in Vienna. I don’t know what it is but whenever I’m far from somewhere I’ve lived for a longer period of time I yearn for things that remind me of it, even if I really like the new place.  Does that sound familiar to you or is it just me being nostalgic?

It’s the same with houses. We are just moving from our house in Brixton to a short let in Streatham Hill. And everybody has become a bit melancholic about all the good times they had in the old place and if this is the end of an era etc. and even though we were all so happy about this temporary solution until we find the right and final home we are comparing the two houses all the time.  Saying this and that was better and “we don’t have” and “we might not” and it ain’t this and that, but I guess it’s really just people getting attached to things and not wanting to let go. And I’m not any better! On the contrary haha. But I am also very optimistic that we’ll find the right place for all of us. It’ll just take some time…

Moreover I’m seriously considering to get a cat for us.  One of the housemates who is moving out had an amazing cat called “Gadget” who everybody loved and it just made the house so much more like a home. Adding a lot of family feeling to it. Chilling in the living room with the fireplace on and having a purring cat on your lap… what could beat that? ;)

And he was so smart too, like here during my breakfast where he is trying to show me that he wants food. Now!! He knows exactly where it is and doesn’t even give me a single glance but is just completely fixed on the cupboard where his cat food is. Haha. So cute! :) Do you have any pets? And if so what are their quirks?

a very merry belly rally

I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to go home for Christmas this year as I had to work until the 24th and be back again after the weekend. At first I was a bit sad, but then my sister decided to come to London! So all was good! And in the end it was even better than I had imagined. Thursday we went out with my new housemates to the Hootananny in Brixton,! :) Friday my sis and me had a nice little dinner, just chilled out and watched “Three wishes for Cinderella” and Saturday we got invited to have lunch and dinner at another big houseshare.  And it was soooo nice and cozy! Totally made up for not going home :) Felt like a real family-dinner!

And the food!! Everybody had contributed something so we had loads! There was a big turkey with all kinds of roasted veggies, potatoes, stuffing, prawn cakes, Yorkshire pudding, herring salad, ham and egg pie… and of course lots of mulled cider! Mmmm lovely! :)

Despite being German my family normally always has raclette or fondue on Christmas, which I like very much. And I don’t know if this was a traditional English meal – but it was delicious! And also whoever said British people don’t know how to cook!? Not been true with any I’ve met so far :)

Anyway what is your family’s traditional Christmas meal?

Whooooosh!

Time really does fly past lately… So a quick update on what has been going on around here.

Of course I still love cooking, but unfortunately don’t have the time for it at the moment. When I’m on the late shift I get dinner from the company and it’s mostly curries or noodles and wraps etc.

But with me hopefully moving in soon with my new amazing housemates, who love to cook as well, I’ll definitely be doing it again once we’ve found the right house. The kitchen at the place I am living right now doesn’t really inspire you to any culinary creations… but soon soon I’ll put up new and lovely pictures of christmassy food and biscuits I hope :)

I also got a new cook book the other day:

I had never heard of Miss Dahl before but I found it standing in the queue at the post office inside WHSmith. Great pictures, delicious recipes, good quality printing on thick paper and only £6.25 for a hardback copy?! Pretty catchy title as well, don’t you think? :)

Two quite unfortunate events happened though… First I got my iphone stolen. Right in the middle of Oxford Street! I was waiting in front of a cash withdrawal, texting and a guy ran by and grabbed it right out of my hand!! I was wearing high-heels and he was gone so quickly I didn’t even realize what had just happened, otherwise I would have killed the b******! And not enough that they stole my phone! No! They logged into my facebook, skype and whatsapp and insulted my friends! Anyhow, I changed all my accounts and then went and bought myself an old crapberry…

Two days later my macbook broke down. It just went dead. And with my room not being available back then I found myself with no home, no phone, no laptop and no internet. How fun! Also no mobile company wanted to give me a contract as my credit check wasn’t good enough. But how could it be? My bank account was only a week old!! :D

But let’s forget about all that. At the place I was staying during the week before I moved into my own room they had the most adorable little dog! And it was really lovely to come home in the evening and get such a cute welcome :)

 

More importantly though the two girls living there are just great and I’m absolutely looking forward to seeing them again tonight :)

More soon!! Have a great weekend everybody!

Let’s get cooking!

I finally got to move into my new room in London. Unfortunately just for this week until the former tenant comes back from his business trip, but at least I can already do a little decorating and also leave some stuff here so I don’t always have to die of exhaustion when I move from one couch to the next :D

When I got here on Saturday nobody was home so I went to the Pret A Manger around the corner and did a little reading.. I’ve been carrying “the girl with a dragon tatoo” around with me for some time now… Then Yanny came with her boyfriend so I could drop off my bags and we went to make copies of the keys. Meaning I’m officially a part of the flatshare now! :) I really like living with other people, it’s nice to have someone around when you come home, but there are these tiny little things like…. when I got back, I realized the kitchen was a complete mess and it seemed like no one had cleaned it in QUITE a while. Hmmm! So when I wanted to cook myself dinner I just went crazy and cleaned the whole room haha. Took me about 4 hours lol, but now it looks a bit homier at least. And  believe me, I’m not a crazy cleanliness freak!! Definitely not! But how can you do any work when the sink is filled up with dishes and all the surfaces are crammed? :D Also it is a mystery to me why one would have eight wooden cooking spoons but not a single drinking glass… Anyway, I went out and bought some kitchen equipment and at the same time did my groceries… First I went to Waitrose near Russell Square. Outside there was a little market with a few booths that sold lovely home-made cakes, cookies and muffins.. mmm

Then I realized that it is probably the most expensive British supermarket I’ve yet been to and decided to go to the gigantic Sainsbury near Camden town station… I got so much stuff or rather such heavy stuff, that my moving suitcases seemed like featherweight compared to it. Also two of the plastic bags ripped on the way home and I smashed a glass of Wilkin & Sons Orange marmalade :( how fun! But I’m all stocked up now and don’t have to live on sandwiches and pies during the week anymore :) cool!

Awww, Yanny just got home and look what she made for me and Lucy! That’s the kind of stuff  that makes you feel at home, don’t you think?

Crazy London

The last couple of weeks have admittedly been pretty crazy, but fun none the less. I got a call from one of my favourite film post production studios in London. I was so excited when I saw it was them calling, that I couldn’t even pick up the phone and called them back a few minutes later. They asked me if I could come in for a job interview and of course I said yes, booked a flight and was there just 5 days later. To make the story short, after the interview and insanely long hours of trying not to get a heart attack, I got the job and had to freak out a little bit of course. Calling everyone and screaming into the phone. :D

In retrospect the hardest part was to find a place to stay though. London is unbelievably expensive and I didn’t even know exactly how much I was gonna earn. So I spent the last two weeks on people’s couches while spending hours on gumtree, moveflat, easyroommate etc. and finally got lucky and a pretty nice room in a flat in Bloomsbury. Only problem is the moving date, which is at the end of the month, meaning I’ll be sleeping on couches for just a little longer… Nevertheless I’m sooo happy to be here and it has been just great up to now. Will post a few of my favourite little stories that happened here when I find the time.

Oh and after I had to cancel our highly anticipated Halloween party in Vienna… I’m still sorry about that!!! I at least had to go out and try to make the best effort to dress up with the stuff I had with me. So it’s not really what I was hoping to be this year (cause I loooove Halloween) but it worked out ok I guess and the party I went to was pretty cool as well. Still, I really did miss my friends that evening!

Not to forget… new english breakfast habit: porridge with banana and peanut butter. And hear hear: I’m almost never drinking coffee anymore but tea with milk instead… hmmm, am I sick? ;)

Food – plain and simple?

How many hobbies do you keep your entire life? And if you do, why is that? My biggest hobby has always been music and films and I was lucky enough to turn it into my job. So my job is my hobby :) then there is photography, where sometimes I can’t stop shooting and other times I leave my camera in the corner for weeks. Cooking on the other hand is something that you have to do every day in one way or another, cause you simply can’t survive without eating. So it combines necessity with pleasure, if you do it well enough (…burned my pancakes this morning haha) A lot of my friends say that it takes way too much time to cook, but I have to say that’s not entirely true, cause once you got down a few basic recipes you can pretty much be done in less than half an hour. And show me the restaurant where you get a freshly cooked meal faster than that, except when you’re the only customer maybe :)

And above all you can have anything you like at any time you want it :) goat cheese with pear and rucola for breakfast? why not? peanut butter with chocolate cream, jam and banana for dinner? hell yeah! you can try any crazy combination you like. I don’t know many people who haven’t fallen in love with cooking once they’ve really tried it. Or at least I definitely have!

up and running

Since Saturday I’ve been out running three times. I wake up, have a banana and a teaspoon of peanut butter, put on my running gear and off I am. And what can I say? It works!  Having eaten just a few minutes before I start my run doesn’t seem to bother me at all. On the contrary I feel way better than any time I ran on an empty stomach. So I’m absolutely optimistic that my plan to become a “morning runner” will work. Keep your fingers crossed for me! :)

Something that I’ve always been using during my runs is an iphone app called Run keeper Pro. It tracks your elapsed time, average speed and distance you’ve been running, and if you want you can have a nice woman read them to you every five minutes ;) Today something went wrong though, I guess I didn’t have a very good GPS signal and look what came out: on the left is my end status from two days ago and on the right the one from today.

Pretty slow huh? :D

Corns n’ pops

Wanna have the best cereal you ever had in your entire life? Then Corns n’ pops is the place to go. I went there with two friends a few days ago and I assure you it’s cereal heaven. They got a huge variety of everything you could ever want in your muesli. Wanna go healthy? so maybe you’d fancy some spelt pops, whole wheat flakes, buckwheat and millet, almonds and macadamia nuts with maple syrup. Craving for loads of sugar? Just take the sugar-coated cornflakes, fruit loops, smarties, chocolate chips and marshmallows. I’m sure there is the right stuff for everybody there. And if you don’t want cereal, they also have bagels, salads, waffles and cakes. And all of this set in a really cute cafe with friendly staff plus it’s just 10 minutes by foot from my flat haha – well that can be really important in the morning, right?

Here you can see my choice was to try everything at once. :)

Suit up!

Wednesday was international suit up day. So what’s that exactly? There is this guy called Barney  from the TV series ‘How I met your mother’. He is a… well, actually nobody knows exactly what he is doing, but he’s wearing a suit every day and encourages everybody to do so because: “Suits are awesome!” and they supposedly help guys score with women. So his advice to “suit up” quickly becomes a catch phrase after a few episodes. Snow suit up! Flight suit up! Slut up! or even: Law suit up! According to him most things he suggests are “awesome” or  ”legen – wait for it- dary” and he loves to high-five in every possible way: Phone five, tiny five, freeze-frame high-five, hypothetical five and so on and on. He’s an absolute womanizer but still or maybe even because of that a real fun guy. So to come to the point: There is an episode where he invites his good friend Robin to a cigar bar and is very impressed because she “suited up”.

An guess what? That’s exactly what Bastian an me did on suit-up day. We went to Kruger’s, drank Whiskey and smoked cigars. I had never ever tried a cigar before and I’m not really planning to make a habit out of it, so I spent a few more bucks and got a Romeo y Julieta wide churchhill, which just got out this year. And I have to say I quite enjoyed it, which sadly I cannot say of the whiskey. I had a Jameson 12yrs on the rocks, but like every other whiskey I’ve ever tried, it just tasted like medicine to me. I can’t help it. As much as I like the whole idea of having a good glass of whiskey  in a dark cozy bar, me and whiskey – just doesn’t work. So it is with great sorrow that I have to announce this to be the end of our short-lived relationship. ;)