Monday 13 May 2013

London favorites nr 3: Food


In these posts I’m taking you to London, telling about my favorite places. 
For part one, about musicals, click here
For part two, about shopping and sight seeing, click here.

Last but not least… food!

I eat a cupcake every day I’m there. Sometimes two. Or three.
My favourite was the black bottom cupcake from the Hummingbird bakery. Rich, dark chocolate cake, filled with cheesecake and topped with cream cheese frosting. Read that sentence again.
I know.
You want it.
I ate it so fast I forgot to take a picture.



We like traditional English food like pies and fish and chips, so we eat that often. And last time we discovered Jamie’s Italian.
We love to cook Jamie Olivers recipes and it was delightful to eat it there. I highly recommend this restaurent! Go early or make a reservation, ‘cause it can be pretty crowded.
There’s so much more to discover…China town, lots of Indian restaurants.

The photo left with our friends is taken in Jamie's Italian.

Enough about my past trips… I can concentrate on our new trip next week! Planning new musicals, where to shop, what to eat… exciting!

I’ll keep you posted of course. London baby!


Sunday 12 May 2013

London favorites nr 2: Shopping and sightseeing.


This is part two of my London favorites. For part one, click here.

In fabulous London, it’s all about shopping till you drop. The huge stores on Oxford Street, the little shops in Covent Garden, the famous Harrod’s. Shopping is great in London.

I visited the Primark last year. That one is always incredibly crowded, so I went in at 10.00 AM sharp. And it was nice and quiet. By the time it got crowded, I decided to go fit.
Mistake. I took too much time collecting my stuff (it was just 15 minutes!), so there was already a line.
I waited for 45 minutes.
Forty-freakin-five minutes.
I was a little bit annoyed I didn’t get more items to fit. I just had three. The good news? Two of the three items were good, so I bought those. One was jeans, for ten English pounds. Ten pounds, can you believe it! And I have been wearing them for one and a half year now. Great.


                                                      One of my favourite items I bought in London are these heels. 
I have no pain when I wear these and they look great with a lot of different looks. I’ve got no idea where I bought them, but the shoe box says Irregular Choice. Don’t you think the website looks like a candy store? If I ever find the same shoes I’ll buy two more pairs. And I really hope they’re available in purple :-) 

The funniest store we ever went was the M&M Store. It was quiet and 4 floors, so we spent a lot of time over there! 


We bought two t-shirts and a present for our nephew and because we spent over fifty pounds, we got a M&M dispenser and two kilo’s of M&M’s for free. We like crazy things!



Now, about the sight seeing.
The thing is, most high schools in the Netherlands visit London for a few days. So many 16–year-olds have seen a lot in London, like St. Pauls Cathedral, changing of the guards, the Big Ben and more.
So did my hubs and I... and so we don’t do a lot of sightseeing! Weird right? But we always try to see one thing. Last time it was the Tower Bridge. As you can see, they were busy with the Olympic thing!

 



Hope to see you tomorrow for my final post in my London Favorites, about food!

Saturday 11 May 2013

London favorites nr 1: musicals!


My husband and I try to go to London every year in February. We love to see new musicals and to shop and eat there. This year was a bit more difficult, so we didn’t visit this year.
But… I wanted to go soooo bad, so we saved some money, we found a tiny hole in our busy schedule and I booked us a last minute 2 day trip to London.
Yay!

Normally we go four days. And then we like to see two musicals a day. (I know, we’re nuts, but we love it. And in a way, it’s a business trip too!)
So this time, we’re trying to squeeze in three musicals in two days.
We’re going just after Whitsun, so I can’t write about this trip, but I will tell you some of my highlights over the past few years!

This post is about musicals, musicals, musicals…

Singin' in the rain was one of my favorites. I loved the dancers. The old fashioned musical jazzdance and tapdance were gorgeous and it’s such a shame it’s not a part of many modern musicals.
We were in the front row and got wet… But it was totally worth it!

Matilda was also awesome.
As a musicaltheatre teacher it’s so great to see lots of talented kids on one stage. This is not a musical where there’s also a kid (like Miss Saigon), it’s a musical done by kids and supported by some adults.
Absolutely fantastic and my dream for our musicalschool.

The photo under Singin' in the rain was the stage of Matilda.
Avenue Q is one the first musicals I saw in London. 
I was with two friends and we also visited a lot of shows.
The last night, I decided to go to Avenue Q. Again. Second time that week. I was sitting in the second row and one of the actors winked at me, obviously recognizing me from a few nights ago. Awkward. I love musicals, I love to see a lot of them, but I am not a girly fan who asks for autographs and stuff. Again, awkward. Thankfully, the next time I saw the show was two years later. 

We will rock you! I can see this one over and over again.
In fact, I’ve seen it twice in London, once in Cologne (Germany) and once in the Netherlands. And it doesn’t get boring. I love the Queen music, the weird story (which is the worst actually), the great singers and the Bohemian Rhapsody in the end.
Nice little story:
A couple of years ago I was auditioning for a show (can’t remember which one). The pianist asked me what I was going to sing and when I said: “Somebody to love”, he was soooo excited.
He had been playing piano in the We Will Rock You orchestra for three years and totally missed that show. When I finished, he complimented me and told me how well I sang it. Cool! I've never sung that song better than that time. He was fantastic.

On the right we were visiting Shrek (loved it too).
The worst show I’ve ever seen in London?
There are two. One was Dirty Dancing. Great singers, great dancers.
But nobody puts Patrick Swayze in a corner.
It wasn’t the real stuff.
The second awful show was a play. Can’t remember the name. It was so dull.
My two friends went with me, because it was cheap. Why I went? Orlando Bloom was in it.
But listen to me my friend: Don’t ever let that be a reason to go to a play.

I’m so excited. Next week London!
Check back tomorrow for my favorite shopping and sightseeing in London!

Friday 3 May 2013

Happy high five!


It’s a miracle. I’ve discovered there’s a DIY-er inside of me. One that actually finishes stuff. 
Did some awesome things this week!



1. Photoshoot.
I’m a terrible photographer, but a while ago I decided for my blog to take better pics. I’ve learned a lot since then. And now… I did a photoshoot of my beautiful pregnant friend! I’m still not very good, but I was pretty surprised how good it turned out.

2. Bear.
Made a bear cake for my pregnant friend (who is really not me! But I’m respecting her privacy, so am not showing a full picture of her). The cake is not that special, ‘cause I bake more often than I DIY, but I like the colours and flavours. There’s vanilla cake, cinnamon cake and chocolate cake.