Royal Ascot Races - June 2016

As some may know, I have returned to the lively city that is my second home - London.

Even before I had arranged to come back on my second visa (thankyou British grandparents!) my London friends were sending me links and invitations to some great events happening in the UK this Summer.

The main event we booked was the Grand Finale Day of the Royal Ascot Races on June 18th.

We secured tickets through the tour company Fanatics which got us tickets into the Windsor Enclosure, travel to and from the race track and a bottle of bubbly to share on the way!

We had a group of 6 girls and as we had departed so early for the racetrack we arrived early enough to secure a table under a marquee. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit hit and miss, but at least it didn't rain!

Me, Tanita, Cara, Georgina, Becca and Hanna.

We got to see a couple of familiar faces, one right in our marquee and the other trotting past us in a fancy carriage.

Her Maj racing down the track

A Bride-to-Be brought this handsome devil along

While we may have been more concerned with the drinking, eating and men in suits, we did manage to put a few bets on. Cara, with help from Uncle George up in Scotland, was in charge of placing our collective bets -  GBP2 each way.

We did pretty well, coming in with 40 quid on the 3rd race - enough to get us a jug of Pimms and secure our next bet. The last 2 races had no return, but we had our Pimms so we were pretty pleased.

We finished the day off returning to London with a sing along on the bus.

The Details

Royal Ascot Races

Started in 1611 by Queen Anne, the Royal Ascot Races run over 5 days and are a major event on the British social calendar.

Ticket prices start from £27, depending on the day and enclosure you choose.

This year we paid around £60pp for our ticket through Fanatics.

Victoria and Albert Museum

With some free time on my hands today, I took the advice from one of the girls from the Facebook group London Bloggers and ventured down to South Kensington to explore the Victoria and Albert Museum.

If you don't know who old Vicky and Bert are you probably a) live under a rock or b) live in a country that has no ties to Great Britain. Queen Victoria is the longest reigning female monarch (63 years) in history and Prince Albert was her husband (also her first cousin too! Ewww).

There is a bit of a range of of exhibitions, from glassware to fashion to antiquities from all over the world.

The change in fashions after the Great War was led by Coco Chanel.

Wandering further through the museum I came upon this great find in the China Exhibit. 

It's an ancient Chinese esky!! (ice chest)

There is so much to explore at the V&A, from limited exhibits to the more permanent ones such as Japanese, Chinese, Medieval Europe and glass!

            

                      

                              

The Victoria and Albert Museum is located in Kensington, with the nearest tube station being South Kensington. Admittance is free but they do ask for a £4 donation for upkeep.

Cambridge

My London home is filled with many people (high teens we're talking about here) so there is always something and someone to do stuff with. 

Mid January saw a bunch of us head to Kings Cross for a train journey to Cambridge. 

One of the main attractions of the university town (besides the university) is punting on the River Cam. Punting is just a fancy word for some bloke pushing you up and down the river in a boat - like the gondolas in Venice. 

our boat driver and some housemates

Pro tip for punting: do NOT bring sandwiches on board. The ducks on the river are vicious and will try and eat out of your hand!

invasion of ducks

Many of the colleges of Cambridge back up on to the River Cam and have wonderful rich histories (they've been around long enough - 1209). 

And a few famous students, including Stephen Hawking and Alan Turing as well as comedians like John Cleese, Simon Bird and Stephen Fry. 

King's College Chapel

Cambridge is a lovely medieval town with amazing architecture and something for everyone, from markets to pubs. 







*Punting for 10 people cost us £10 per person. 

Dinner at Work - Not-Peanut-Butter and Spinach Curry with Basmati and Wild Rice

One of my main duties in my job as a live-in carer is cooking. 
Some of my clients are cool to sit back and let me work my magic and some others like to make kitchen magic with me! 


Since the end of August I have been paired with a guy in Norwich who is a wizz in the kitchen. 
Due to the fact that I absolutely loath peanut butter with a vengeance and he really wanted a peanut butter curry he thought of a way to still make the curry, but delete peanut butter from the process.

I give you.....

Not-Peanut-Butter and Spinach Curry

with basmati and wild rice

Ingredients:

                             Blender:

Pumpkin seeds

sunflower seeds

linseeds

fennel seeds

ground almonds

garlic cloves

olive oil

red wine vinegar

salt

Pot:

onion, sliced

veg stock

salt

spinach (we used 6 frozen cubes)

tomato, diced

hot curry powder

garlic granules

chilli powder

pepper

cinnamon

garam masala

Cooking is very much a trial and error process, so we tend to just play it by ear with the amounts used. 

Don't forget your rice!

Method:

Put all of the ingredients into the blender and blend. You may need to add a dash of water to get it into that 'paste' consistency.

In the pot fry the onion with a coating of cinnamon. 

Add in a cup and a half of veg stock (you will get steam burn if you're not careful!)

Add in the spinach and tomato

Add in the pepper, salt, chilli powder, curry powder, garam masala and garlic granules

Stir and adjust for your taste

Once the paste is consistent add it to the pot and stir. It will thicken out and look a bit like baby's poo thanks to the spinach.

While that is infusing together, get your rice on to boil. 

Once your happy with your rice and curry serve it up and enjoy!

Richmond Park

On Thursday I caught up with my Australian mate Nathan. 

It was a lovely Summer's day so we decided to check out one of the eight Royal parks that are dotted around London. 

Richmond Park is in the South West of London and dates back to the 13th Century!. It is the largest of the parks and is also a national nature reserve. 

It was a long walk from Richmond tube stop to the gate so we decided to head in the direction of the closest cafe. And lucky we did! 

About 5 minutes down the road we came across a herd of deer. 

One of the deer thought that the grass would be greener on the other side and proceeded to hold up traffic and cross the road. 

This particular deer wasn't scared of us mere humans, he came right up and nibbled my hand! He also posed a bit for photos. 

After are amazement of the deer wore off we headed to the cafe, grabbed a cider and enjoyed the sunshine and beautiful scenery. 

River Thames

Richmond Park

Richmond Park

random path

On our way back to the tube station we found a playground! 

We took one spin on the spiny-round thing before I felt ill (I don't do rides real well) and headed down to walk along the riverbank.

We of course had to take on last selfie together as today Nathan departs on a 47 day Topdeck trip before going back to the land down under as his visa is at an end (sad face)!

The Great Contiki Challenge 2014 #TGCC14

Last Saturday myself and three friends participated in the Great Contiki Challenge.

For those of you who don't know, Contiki is a travel tour company aimed at the 18 - 35s. 

We started of in Russell Square and had 5 hours to complete our task. 

The Challenge consisted of a list of clues that we had to work out, go to that place and take a photo of us with it. 

The clues came in 3 parts: easy, medium and hard.
Easy clues were things like 'ride a Barclays bike' or 'mind the gap'. 
Medium clues were a little bit more cryptic, such as 'the Covent Gardens version of Diagon Alley'.
Hard clues included 'I tried to extinguish a burning boy with my inflammable dress'.

Running around London also gave the opportunity to take some amazing photos, here are a few I snapped:

Join in the Challenge in 2015!

Brighton Up Your Day

On Tuesday, a friend and I headed down to the English coastal town of Brighton.
Brighton has got to be one of the most visited tourist beach destinations in the Summer - luckily we went at the beginning of March so it wasn't all that busy. 

The seaside resort town became more popular during the 1700s as some bloke decided to push the idea of drinking and bathing in seawater as a general remedy to illness. 

King George IV liked this idea so much he built a royal residence in Brighton - the Royal Pavilion.  Unfortunately i didn't have time to check out George's digs, although it is constructed in the Indo-Saracenic style that is popular in India. Bit of a contrast to the traditional English buildings Brighton sports!

One attraction we did get down to is Brighton Pier.

We headed down around dusk - an ideal time to snap some great sunset shots!

The pier has an amusement arcade full of different games - car racing, Dance, Dance Revolution, 'shoot the bad guys' - as well as 2p games. 
The 2p game was something new to me as we don't have anything like it in Australia.
 You put your 2 pence in a slot up the top and it slides down and tries to push the other coins out of the way. if you're lucky the coins fall over the edge and you get an influx of 2p coins to continue playing!



No arcade visit is complete without trying some of the rides. Here are the two I got on:

After our Pier fun, we checked out another side of Brighton.

Kelly's Brighton Murder and Mayhem Tour was all about the murders and mysteries of Brighton's dark past.

There was even a possible link between a Brighton man and Jack the Ripper! Kelly was very enthusiastic about the subject and was great to talk to. 

It's £8 per person and the walk goes for around 2 hours.

A train from London Bridge or London Victoria stations will take anywhere from 1 hour to 90 minutes, and will set you back around £16.

Or you can do what I did and invest in a personal chaffeur (make friends with locals with cars). Parking in Brighton can get quite expensive - 3 quid for 1 hour on the foreshore or £10 for a 24 hour parking permit from a hotel if you're staying down. 

It was a lovely day out with much to see and enjoy. 

Relaxing Weekend in Cumbria / Lancaster

Last week I was up in Lancaster for a training course, and as I had not yet been away from London I thought I would stay up north for a weekend and see what country life is like :)

The only place near Lancaster that I could find was in a little hamlet called Kent Bank, right near Grange-Over-Sands. I stayed in a place called Abbot Hall Hotel, which was kind of like being back at recruits, except this place was full of elderly people.

 Which isn't bad, but one lady kept mistaking me for some chick called Suzie. Even when I told her I wasn't Suzie, she kept asking me questions about her. Was kinda cute though.

On the Saturday I hired a bike from Silverdale Bicycle Hire and decided to try and bike the 3 or so miles to a little town called Cartmel.

The have a middle Ages priory that was pretty cool to check out, the floor was made out of tombstones which was pretty interesting, and it had a pretty awesome stained glass window.

 The Priory floor

The stained glass window of the Priory.

















Cartmel was a pretty little place. The day I was there they were holding a Antique Fair, which was pretty cool, I bought a turquoise brooch.

After much scurrying around the village, looking at the 5 different pubs that were in the main square, I decided on the Royal Oak for lunch.

The soup of the day was a Carrot and Orange, which I thought was extremely weird, but decided to try it out, and it was THE. MOST. AMAZING. THING. EVER. I have included a recipe for it, which I am hoping to try out sooner rather than later. Maybe you might get lucky Mum and I'll make it when I'm home! (jsut as long as it doesn't turn out the way of the chicken soup fiasco...)

http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/carrot-and-orange-soup

On my way out of the town I stopped by the local Cartmel Cheese Shop, and got a sliver of cheddar and half a round of camembert and crackers for dinner.

This was my trusty stead for the day. Unfortunately for me, it seemed that I spent more time pushing the damn thing up the hills then riding it. By the end of the day I was totally buggered!

My London Home

As you all know, I have recently moved to the other side of the world.

I thought I would take some time to show you just how tip top Engish living is. 

This is the facade of my new London home. Now, it does look abit like one of those houses that you would cross to the other side of the street to avoid walking by it, but it's not that bad! 

The top two windows span my whole room! I am sharing with another girl, so this is my side of the room, in both clean and messy. 

This first photo is from the first day I moved in, when everything had it's own place and I had just bought all my new bedding.





 








This second photo was taken today, after I had spent most of the day tucked up in my blankey watching episode after episode of Heartland. 

I scored a new chest of drawers as well to go with my broken set. The most exciting thing was getting so much more surface space for all my crap!

This next photo is of the main bathroom. i'm sure Dad would be pretty impressed with the tiling job in the corner there! :-)









 



 Our wonderful lounge room. We have an armchair, a 2 seater leather couch and two fold out couches - Phil this will be where you're staying! 
Luckily, that thing on the wall is part of the central heating. It gets pretty warm, especially with nine people living in the house. 

  



Our kitchen has everything a kitchen needs, as well as houses our washer and tumble dryer.

The oven is a bit hard to work, as it is gas and doesn't have the temperature gauge, but goes from 1 - 9 in heating. 

It's pretty much just a guess on what heat you need the oven and just pray that nothing burns!





 One of the newest things that we have discovered is that where our tumble dryer is, it looks like it used to be a bit of a shower. Which we thought was a bit weird, because if the kitchen had been built on after the house was built, you would have to exit the home and then walk around to the 'shower' room. 

This is a photo of the new discovery, complete with soap dish!

So that's pretty much my new London home. Besides the backyard. Which, at the moment, looks a bit like a jungle. We even saw a fox out there the other day! Nobody goes out there, I think we might be too scared we're going to step in some month-old vomit or something.