High Tea & Cocktails at The Savoy

Thanks to some very generous presents from siblings, we had an incredibly luxurious London afternoon to celebrate Adrian's 35th birthday.

First, thanks to a (very belatedly used) Christmas present from Dominik, we had high tea at The Savoy in the Thames Foyer.  Having been recently renovated, The Savoy is absolutely beautiful and such a sumptuous place to spend a few hours.  Adrian had the 'high tea' (sandwiches, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, crumpets, and cake) and I had the 'afternoon tea' (sandwiches, scones, petit fours, and cake) - basically so we could try everything! 

Both came with the choice of an extensive selection of teas, and I chose the 'Lychee Red' ("Surprisingly sweet and soft, with lingering, lifted aromas of Asian fruits and perfumer’s flowers. Baroque, decadent, and irresistible") and Adrian had a really interesting yellow tea (I didn't even know you could get yellow tea!) which was the 'Huo Mountain Yellow Buds' tea ("Graceful, sappy with a hazel sweetness and a distinctive cool finish that leaves the mouth very refreshed").  We each had about four or five whole pots, so it was just as well we both really enjoyed our choice!  The tea was served from a tea set consisting of a tray, tea pot and water pot, the cumulative value of which was £900...

The food was delicious, with the favourite sandwich of both of us being the egg (lightly flavoured with mustard), and my favourite thing overall being my delicious petit fours (although the lemon curd that came with the scones was pretty nice too).

The funniest part though I thought was that we were in the very front table, facing the entrance way, so we had prime people watching position (you can see the front table where we were in this video).  I know we're going to appear in a lot of people's photos as well!  (Adrian reckons they put attractive people in that spot, so I'll take the compliment thank you very much.)  I also thought Emmy would be interested in this stunning display of orchids in the foyer.

I was absolutely stuffed after the afternoon tea (for over £50 per person I should hope so), so we took a short walk across the river to the Southbank to peruse the bookstalls before heading back to the American Bar to meet Pam and Dan for some cocktails.  Again, while pricey, they were an absolute treat and thank you to Alexandra for sponsoring them!  I particularly liked my 'Blushing Monarch' (gin, Campari, Triple Sec, passionfruit), named after Princess Diana, who apparently frequented the bar regularly.

We finished the night at Cay Tre in Soho, with some really delicious, fresh Vietnamese food - something completely different to The Savoy, but the perfect yin and yang I think.

So, a completely decadent day in London, but definitely well worth it!

Bibliophilia in Oxford

It's been an absolute age (nearly six months!) since I last posted which is absolutely terrible, as I've been doing so much travelling between then and now and have so many great photos to post, but I'm going to try hard to remedy the gaps and put everything back up - if only for the purposes of helping my memory and nothing else!

But, I thought I'd start with something altogether more recent.  I recently got an email from the LSE Review of Books (who I've written for a few times so far) asking for people to write about their favourite bookshops within a particular town, and I immediately knew I had to write about Oxford.  It's one of the best places for books in the UK in my opinion, particularly because of the Last Bookshop, where they sell remainder specialty books for only £2 each!  It was very hard to restrain myself from buying too many books that's for sure...

The piece is online here, and also talks about Blackwells and the original Oxfam bookshop, so if you're ever in Oxford and in need of inspiration for a book buying mission, check it out!

(c) Peter Titmuss/Alamy

A favourite place

Corsica is one of those places, where, if I could, I would visit year on year on year.  It just has everything that I love - beautiful beaches and crystal clear water, hot weather, great food, and is French!  My French is getting rustier by the day, so I always love an opportunity to try it out on unsuspecting locals...

We were incredibly lucky to go to Corsica and stay with good friends who were over in Europe from Australia.  The villa they hired was absolutely gorgeous and in a beautiful location called Porticcio, not far from Ajaccio.  We flew down to Marseilles, then picked up a rental car at the airport and got the ferry across to Ajaccio.  It was pretty nerve-wracking to drive on the wrong side of the road for the first time, but after driving for a week on the hair bend corners of Corsica, with seriously crazy Corsican drivers, I know I'll be fine anywhere!

It was the most relaxing week - we just slept, ate, swam, and then slept, ate and swam some more!  It was so much fun playing with our friends' daughters (two and four years' old) and we also went on two day trips, one to Corte, right up in the mountains in the middle of the island, and the other to Bonifacio, right down the bottom of the island. 

Both were beautiful but Bonifacio was particularly breathtaking - one day when I'm rich and famous I think I could easily have a villa there!  We could pop across to Sardinia for lunch even...  I particularly liked the cemetery right on the tip of the island, as it had lots of little houses almost for each family and was so peaceful and tranquil to walk around. 

The blue, blue waters of Bonifacio

It was also ridiculously hot, over 30 each day and lovely and dry.  My New Zealand tan was topped up nicely!  The memory of that will have to tide me over for quite some time though so I'm glad it was so good...

To see the rest of the photos click here.

 

Jet-setting through Jordan

After Egypt, it was on to Jordan.  I must admit, I had pretty much no expectations of Jordan, as it wasn't really somewhere that I knew much about.  That was probably the best thing that could have happened as I was blown away but pretty much everywhere we visited!

We caught the ferry across from Nuweiba to Aqaba in Jordan - home of the cheapest alcohol in Jordan apparently so we were advised to stock up if necessary!  We were definitely still in a celebratory mood so I think we picked up a bottle of wine or two which we later drank on our last night in the desert.  But first, it was straight to Medaba, where we saw the oldest mosaic map in the world.  It has only partially survived, but it was pretty interesting to see the walled city and how they managed to deal with perspective and depth etc. even at that early stage.

From Medaba we travelled to Mount Nebo, the site of Moses' view of the Holy Land and where he died (apparently).  We were really lucky that we had a very clear day, and you could see Jerusalem in the distance which was pretty cool.  Hopefully we'll get to visit there too one day!

But after Mount Nebo it was the first of the Jordan highlights - the Dead Sea.  I'd heard lots about this from people who'd been before, but nothing prepares you for actually swimming in it.  It's the most bizarre experience and it actually didn't get tiring at all to just bob about like a cork!  I also really liked the Dead Sea full-body mud packs, but was unfortunately a bit too vigorous layering up Adrian's back as he ended up with deep scratches from all the salt deposits...whoops!

Mud larks

The resort from where we accessed the Dead Sea had a full-on water park area too, so after cleaning all the mud off, we spent a ridiculously fun few hours being kids and playing on the hydroslides - not something I thought I'd be doing in Jordan, but excellent nonetheless!

From the Dead Sea we travelled through a sandstorm to get to Petra, the second major highlight.  We stayed literally right in Petra, at the hotel at the information centre, which was amazing as we were really in the middle of things.  Because we got there reasonably late, our first view of Petra was 'by night' which was absolutely breathtaking.  They light literally thousands of candles which illuminate the main path down to the Treasury (called the siq) and then illuminate the beautiful facade of the Treasury itself.  There's lots of haunting music and singing and it was a great introduction to the site.

However, the next day, the full extent of the Rose City revealed itself - it's massive!  We had a fantastic guide in Jordan who was from the aristocracy of Petra and who took us all over the place.  We spent one full day exploring, and then very early the next morning, he took us trekking in the very back routes and paths until we wound up right on top of the Treasury!  Very cool indeed.  I loved all the beautiful swirling colours of the rocks and the sheer audacity of what was done there - it was just quite literally incredible.  I just think we're so lucky that it has survived so well today and I hope the preservation and restoration is such that it remains intact for many more generations to come.

The Rose City!

Looking over the Treasury

We also had one of the best meals I have ever had in my entire life (and that is no exaggeration).  It was a "mansaf" which is a traditional Jordanian dish made with lamb that's been cooked in a sauce of fermented dried yoghurt.  We had ours served on rice.  I cannot recall the last time I wanted to eat something so much that when my stomach was absolutely full to bursting, I was still trying to shovel it in!  The tangy yoghurt flavour was just so delicious, I seriously am going to have to learn how to make it...

From Petra it was into Wadi Rum (also known as the Valley of the Moon), and the last part of our visit to Jordan.  We were incredibly lucky that our night there was the last night before the first rains of the season, which were extremely welcome for the locals, but not so much for the tourists that night who wanted a night out under the  stars!  Our trip into the desert camp was really fun, with our 4x4s racing each other through the desert and up and over sand dunes with total abandon.  I'll have to see if I can dig out some of the videos because they show just how bumpy the ride was!  Our dinner was cooked in an earth oven, kind of like a hangi, and was really pretty good.  My favourite part though was all the singing and dancing in the camp, a great celebratory atmosphere and hilarious when Adrian and I were "married" - that would have been a lot cheaper than the real thing!

 

 

 

Waiting for the sunset in Wadi Rum

All in all, Jordan was an amazing experience, helped most definitely by our excellent guide (who works with On the Go, I'm so sorry I can't remember his name) and some pretty magical places.  I highly recommend it!

To see all the other photos click here.

Kuala Lumpur and Penang

On the way back to London after the most brilliant summer in New Zealand (I know I'm skipping over several months worth of stuff - photos from Jordan etc. are coming!), I stopped over for a week in Malaysia.  Discovering the joy of the stopover has been delightful as it means an horrendous experience of staying awake for over 24 hours (I struggle to sleep on planes) is broken down into infinitely manageable 12-14 hour stretches.

I also love Malaysian food, so it was a bit of a no-brainer to organise a few days there.  Despite the pull of Borneo, I thought that a week would be best spent staying in the Western Peninsula (I'll get to the jungle sometime though!).  I had three nights each in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Kuala Lumpur was interesting, but it was pretty hot and humid, so that always makes things tough, and I was by myself (although met lots of nice people at my hostel), so those two things combined weren't the best.  The highlight of KL actually was a walk I took north of the city with a guide called 'Happy' who was all about connecting with nature and taking time to smell the roses etc.  We walked up this river, crossing it several times, and eventually got to a waterfall where we swam and jumped off rocks etc., it was great fun!  He took me to some delicious places for food too - it's always good to be with a local. 

 I also really liked a visit I took to the Batu Caves, which is this really interesting temple just north of the city, where you walked up a whole lot of steps beside a massive statue, then into this natural cave formation.  The monkeys there were so cheeky!  I actually saw one steal a bottle of water right out of a woman's bag, screw the lid off, then drink it.  They certainly know what they're doing...

Penang was a bit of a slower pace, and I spent most of my time wandering around the historical centre (Georgetown) with some other people from my hostel there who were really nice too (although everyone else was on these massive trips through Asia and couldn't believe I was only there for a few days!).  I loved the food in Penang, lots of delicious noodle soups and things which were so yum.  I also made my own pewter bowl at the Royal Selangor factory which was pretty cool and swam in the sea in Asia for the first time - it was like swimming in a bath it was so warm!  Again though, it was super hot in Penang - so lots of ice-cream to help cool down was definitely in order...

The rest of the photos are here!