London Sevens 2012

We had so much fun this Saturday at the London Sevens - especially because it was the first time we'd been in the sun in London in weeks!

The London tournament gives an overall theme to inspire everyone to dress up which, this year, was 70s disco.  We donned our best polyester, but there were lots of people in all sorts of costumes like smurfs, tiggers, mimes, even a group of marmite folk!  Do you like our orange wigs??  We were definitely easy to find in the crowd!

As always with the Sevens, it's not really so much about who's winning and losing, although the Kenyan team got lots of cheers, as did the underdog of whatever game was on - apart from when England was playing!  We cheered heartily for NZ and were happy to hear that on the second day of the tournament, while not winning this weekend's event, they took out the World Series title for the 10th time.  What was also cool was that the coach, Gordon Tietjens, was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame for all the work he's done with the team - congratulations for sure!

Something that did surprise me a bit was the booing.  I've always been told that booing is incredibly poor sportsmanship, but talking to an English guy in front of me he didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong with it at all.  Basically on par with cheering for their own team!  Ah well, there's always a new cultural difference around the corner to discover.

Click here to have a look at the rest of the photos.

Coastal meanderings

After months and months passing without seeing the sea, it was time to rectify the situation with a few spring-time trips to the beach.

First, we headed down to Brighton for a night to catch a band in concert that Adrian really wanted to see and completely lucked out with the weather.  Adrian had cycled down, and I met him there after getting the train.  We visited the Brighton Pavilion which was quite incredible (George V's boy's weekend getaway palace basically) and walked down the pier and just enjoyed the sun.  We were staying right on the seafront too which was fun and made it really easy to get around.  Lunch on the Sunday was at a delicious restaurant called Food for Friends, a vegetarian place where the food was absolutely beautiful - and yum!

On the rollercoaster on Brighton Pier

 

Our second trip was to Cornwall for Easter, where we based ourselves at Holywell Bay, just south of Newquay, and spent five days exploring.  We covered a lot of ground, starting from Exeter, crossing Dartmoor, then visiting various towns including Polperro, St Ives, Fowey, Padstow (where we had Rick Stein's fish and chips - yum!) and right down to the bottom to Lands End, and then Lizard Point which was really beautiful - quite wild and untamed.

However, probably my favourite bit of Cornwall was the Eden Project.  It's basically a huge garden, half of which is under these huge biodomes, built on the site of an abandoned clay mine.  One of the biodomes is a tropical rainforest and the other is a Mediterranean garden.  I would definitely recommend clicking on the link to find out more - it was so cool!  We spent hours there, just in awe at what they'd made.  I loved it and would definitely recommend anyone to go if they're thinking of visiting that area.

And then the third of our coastal trips was to Guernsey and Sark.  I've wanted to go to Sark ever since I read about it here at the beginning of last year, and it absolutely didn't disappoint - I've never seen stars like it!  We were really lucky apparently, with Venus super bright, and then Saturn and Jupiter really yellow and red respectively.  The local astronomy society's president (the 'Star Fleet Commander'!) Annie was so welcoming, and spent an hour with us in her back garden explaning everything, and even pointing out the International Space Station going overhead.  

Sark itself is so neat - there are no cars allowed, so it's only bicycles and tractors, and the main street is tiny!  It's only about 4.5km from one end to the other, so we explored the whole island in one day, just cycling about and walking down to the sea at the edges.  We had beautiful weather, and really enjoyed camping under the stars after boogieing down at the Mermaid Disco - Sark's premiere night spot!  We also had delicious food, including some amazing croissants and a half lobster - so good.

Here's a really cool video showing the incredible stars :

 

Guernsey was also really interesting (you have to go to Guernsey to get to Sark via the ferry) and we were lucky enough to have friends there who we could stay with.  We walked through a beautiful bluebell wood, visited Victor Hugo's house, did a circumnavigation of the island to see all the bays, saw the Little Chapel and again, ate really good food!  (I'm sensing a theme here...).

All in all, I feel completely rejuvinated by our time at the sea - unfortunately it's yet to get warm enough to swim, but hopefully that's not too far away!

Click here for the rest of the photos...there are some good ones I promise!

Photo catch-up

I've been a bit remiss posting photos from my mobile lately - it's far too easy to just take them and then forget about them!  But here are some highlights from the last little while:

Our amazing meal at 'Hot Stuff' in Vauxhall, where they just bring you the best bits from the kitchen, and you get a huge meal for only £15 pp.  The bread was huge!

Very happy about the food - probably the best Indian meal I've ever had actually.

 Also loved the ice lollies that the owner got from the dairy next door and gave out!

Spring sprung (as it is wont to do) in London, reminding me that it was a year since we moved into our flat as the blossoms were out when we first moved in as well.

Adrian on the Big Ride, raring to go.

The Foster the People concert we went to at the Brixton Academy last weekend.

An absolutely delicious Sunday roast at the Old Red Cow near the Barbican in honour of a visit from Amber.  It was great, it's the only thing they do on a Sunday and they bring out enormous casserole dishes of everything so you can share it amongst yourself.  I couldn't finish my hunk'o'meat (despite its deliciousness), but the cauliflower was definitely worth seconds...

And another meal out with Amber, this time at the NZ cafe just down the road from us called The Roastery, for breakfast before she flew up to Scotland.  Delicious bircher muesli!

And finally my latest crop of seeds: courgettes and heirloom French beans (called 'Lazy Housewife' beans).  Looking forward to planting them outside and (hopefully!) getting some beans later in summer...

 

Love London Go Dutch

Even though London is officially in a drought, it hasn't stopped the heavens opening this past fortnight, giving us some of the wettest and chilliest April weather on record apparently.  However, that doesn't stop hardy cyclists like Adrian and I, who've been getting out and about and on with our business cycling through the streets of the city in our wet weather gears.


This Saturday we joined an estimated 10,000 other London cyclists who took part in a central city bike ride to raise awareness for cycling safety.  While the situation in London is incredibly advanced compared to Auckland (recently suggested as one of the worst cities in the world for cycling - now that's not something to be proud of), with lots more cycle lanes and bike parks, it's not so good when it comes to big intersections.  I cycle through several of London's most dangerous intersections on a daily basis on my way to and from university, and let me tell you, there's always an exhalation of breath when you know you've made it across in one piece.  The 21 year old cousin of a good friend of ours over here was also recently killed by a lorry while cycling (in broad daylight, wearing fluro), so the situation really does need to improve.


The bike ride was part of the London Cycling Campaign's initiative called 'Love London Go Dutch' which aims to make London as safe for cycling as the cities in the Netherlands and despite the rain, wind and cold, was good fun to be part of.  There's a video of the event here (can you spot me??) and some great photos on this Flickr stream by beenbrun, including this one below showing us all coming up Piccadilly:

The London mayoral and local government elections are coming up, so here's hoping it made a difference! 

Feuerzangenbowle

During our trip to Munich in December 2010, we came across Feuerzangenbowle.  What is that you ask?  And how on earth would you pronounce it?  (Try saying it even two times fast...)

A more easily understandable, but no less interesting, name is 'Flaming Fire Tongs Punch' - basically, mulled wine with rum and a sugar cube on top, lit to caramalise the sugar and burn off a bit of the rum.

After coming across it in Munich, we actually ended up buying the goblets and always intended to try it again.  We had a go last Christmas, but the rum we tried wasn't high enough in alcohol - even though it was 45%!  But fortunately, Adrian came across 'Stroh' rum in Austria recently, and having first tried it in South Africa, we knew that it was absolutely lethal and would definitely have the alcohol percentage we needed.  It's actually about 80%...

A board games night on the weekend with some friends was the perfect opportunity to give it a go.  And it worked!  Definitely a good party trick (watch the eyebrows mind) as well as being delicious.