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.

Beekeeping

Instead of the normal sandwich and reading combo which makes up the most of my lunchtimes, last Wednesday was something a little different.  After having read about it in one of our many newsletters, I decided to join the LSE Beekeeping Society.  For the mighty investment of £1.50, I'm now a fully paid-up apiarist-in-training! 

We had our first session on the roof of Connaught House, one of the main buildings right in the middle of the busy city campus.  There are eight roof gardens dotted around the campus, although because Connaught House is right on a corner and would get a lot of wind, this garden is pretty basic and mostly stones and ground cover plants.

The session was mainly about what a hive consists of, and our instructor went through all the various parts.  The fact that the hive has the outer wooden layer (painted white here) gives it a bit of extra warmth and is apparently a quintissentially English thing.  The bees aren't coming for another two to four weeks, but when they do we'll have another session (although there are only four protective suits so we might have to take turns!) learning how to look after them.  There are also two other hives on the roof of one of the halls of residence further north, so we'll probably head up there at some point too.

It was really interesting to learn about the bees, including things like the fact that the honey bee is the only bee to survive over the winter in any great number (a couple of thousand hunker down in the hive and we'll have to feed them every fortnight over winter).  For example, only the Queen bumble bee survives in that species by hibernating underground while pregnant, and then giving birth come spring.

So watch this space for more on the bees!  The society has a blog as well as a publicly accessible Facebook page.  Check them out for some interesting videos and more photos.



Update: Check out the LSE Bees official album of photos from our first training session!

Amaretti biscuits

Adrian's brother and his family recently moved back to NZ (and stayed with us for a few nights before they left - I'm going to miss having this little cutie blow kisses to me when I leave the room).  Moving out of a flat inevitably means some left over food, and these guys were particularly well stocked in the baking and spices departments.

One of the things they had a lot of was ground almonds, and having some spare egg whites left over in the fridge after having made a dressing using egg yolks for a potato salad just a few days before, I had a look online for something I could make.  Hence Amaretti biscuits!

I adapted this recipe a bit by reducing it to only one cup of sugar and substituting the almond extract for vanilla extract, as well as taking one of the recommendations in the review section to chill the dough a bit before baking and making them quite small.  And they came out perfectly!  Such a simple (and yummy) recipe - I'd definitely make it again.

Welsh choir

At the end of February, the Six Nations rugby tournament started.  One of the games was England versus Wales at Twickenham, which meant that London was inundated with Welsh supporters.

We were out and about in Kensington of all places, and we (Adrian, me, and Bruce, a friend of ours) ended up in a pub filled with rugby supporters.  They ran through the most amazing line-up of songs, doing nearly every traditional rugby song imaginable.  The singing was pretty good - check it out!