Covent Garden By The Sea (Brighton)

Yesterday I went to Brighton for the first time in ageeeees with my boyfriend, Paul.

We got off the train & crept into a side passage to get away from the crowds. It turned out this passage was the beginning of North Laine - an area famous for its unique & vibrant boutiques. We looked into a few shops but quickly headed towards the food shops, for a beach picnic.

(p.s. how awesome are those balloons?)

The beach was packed but perfect, it was cool but sunny & as it was a pebble beach, our food remained intact, bliss.

There were even a few brave people out swimming despite the water being freeeezing.

After lunch we made our way to the famous pier...

It was so lively & so much was going on. The rides looked good although we didn't go on any (this time...).

There were also hundreds of 2p, 10p & various other machines inside the arcades.

Our next destination was a very pretty park Paul had heard of, so we set out searching...

On our way we found this fountain which had apparently been adopted as a bird bath:

The park was gorgeous! Filled with flowers & trees and there was a beautiful building in the centre (The Pavillion).

After a fair bit of roaming around & taking photos of all the pretty flowers, we found a lovely spot in the shade close to a man playing music in the park.

It was loooovely! I would describe Brighton as Covent Garden by the Sea (hence the title) It has all the lively street artists & independant shops London has on a slightly smaller scale, and with a sea next door - hooray!

I have a few more photos of the day ready for my next post too! Dun dun dunnn...

Listening tooo: 'Let's go' by Matt & Kim and 'New Slang' by The Shins

(I'm off to Paris now woohoooooooo!!)

Wagamama

It's the end of another Cambridge term & that means another trip to bring E home.

This time we stopped by at Wagamama to escape the cold snowy weather, and enjoy their huge portions & good food.

To begin with, we had a selection of Miso soup & Ebi Gysoz (vegetable dumplings for you & me).

I'm not a huge fan of Miso soup, but the pots they're served in, oh my they are brilliant.

I could base an entire architecture project on them if I was allowed...

Then we had our mains. I chose Yasai Yaki Soba (below). It was delicious. Although I love noodles so I would say that. The vegetables were cooked really well & I liked the mixture of flavours. Especially the ginger, which worked well with the ginger beer I was drinking.

Above is Chicken & Prawn Cha Han (although we found no prawns) & below is Amai Udon. From the empty dishes my family left, I assume they were also delicious.

As the portions are so big at Wagamama, we managed to have these 3 mains between the four of us with leftovers!

And there is always room for desert...

E chose Sweet Ginger &Apple Gyoza (above) & we all had a taste. It came with some custard which she seemed very pleased about & my favourite part was the cinnamon.

Although I think my dessert was better. Of course.

Raspberry natural fruit ice lolly. Mmmm. You could tell it was made using real raspberries, not just flavouring as there were little bits, my favourite!

To emphasise how odd it was to be eating an ice lolly when its snowing outside, I thought I should wear my mittens. Teehee.

Retro Rollerskating Rookies

Last Saturday, I spent my evening with these lovely people.

Equipped with 4 wheeled skates, bunches & a humungous will to go back to the 80's, we set our skiddy feet on the roller disco scene. 

Vicky (on the right) & I had been scouring the area for a roller disco for months. Literally. So as soon as she spotted this venue, we were there quicker than a lightning bolt...well nearly...

When we arrived, not long after it had opened, the place was already packed & music was in full flow.

Once we had got to grips with how to skate the old fashioned way, the games began. 

Stuck in the mud & speed skating were clear favourites - although this being our first time, none of us felt up to the challenge.

If you want to go down & try it for yourself, it's not far from Milton Keynes & only costs £6 including skate hire on Saturdays. 

For more details, you can find them here.

Weekend in Cambridge

This weekend was the beginning of my holiday. So it was the perfect opportunity to spend the weekend with my sister at university.

I arrived in the afternoon & we had time for a walk & cookies before we wrapped up & began the hunt for a restaurant.

After a short search, we picked out a little Mediterranean restaurant. Both our meals were lovely - I had Salmon Agora whereas E had Moroccan Style Tagine.

We then did some exploring before escaping the cold for a short supermarket trip to buy some microwave popcorn. As I don't have a microwave at home (shocking I know) this would be the first time I had it & so the prospect was very exciting.

We dashed through the cold back to my sister's room to do some sketching & watch Anna Karenina with our popcorn. I had no idea I had been missing out on something so tasty.

After a surprisingly good night considering I had to camp on the floor, we did a little more exploring. Although it was still early, the parks were filled with students playing football, rugby & a whole host of other games. We also managed to catch a snippet of a rowing race.

We then had a little meet up with a distant cousin we had never met before. This was lovely - we had heard he went to the same university but never had the actual chance to meet until then.

Our thoughts then turned to lunch.

We've always liked to experiment with recipes, so this was our chance to combine our favourite flavours into a perfect lunch. A mixture of sweet potato, greens, puff pastry, onions & haloumi cheese, it was GLORIOUS. I'm sure I'll be posting the recipe one day.

It really was one of the best lunches I've had in a while - I can't rave on about it enough, especially if you consider how speedy, easy and tasty it was.

Once our lunch was over, we had hot drinks & treated ourselves to chocolates & our mother's homemade cookies before heading out for one last exploration before I had to leave.

Cambridge is so beautiful, it's always a pleasure to go there, between the parks, rowing races, shops and university events, there is always something going on.

A perfect start to my little holiday.