Sping arrives at last...

This is here are the first blossoms of spring on Chetwynd Road, and now London streets and parks are beginning to blossom left right and centre, with daffodils, cherry blossoms, and magnolia blossoms. Beautiful.

And a week later...still lovely..

Two men called Ben and Jerry...

These guys created something wonderful, called icecream (well they were not the first ones...but the first really good ones maybe....but then there is gelati, but that is another story).

One day once upon at time in a wee little factory in a dreamy country town called Vermont, in the United States of America for those not up on the whole geography thing.

And more recently they have created Half Baked, my new favourite icecream, which is actually two favourite icecreams in one. I no longer have to decide between them. It is chocolate and vanilla icecream with chunks of chocolate fudge brownie and chocolate chip cookie dough...mmm...heavenly.

Quote me...

"To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times"

Trappist Monk - Thomas Merton....in the 1960's

Dozing on the couch

That is what Mark is currently doing, its nearly 11pm and he plonked himself there at about 8pm tonight, so I thought to entertain myself by writing a few blogs. I have only got one done so far, as you can see and looking back on my last lot of blogs its clear that I am a bit behind again.

This weekend we headed over the the Natural History Museum for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, its one of my favourite ones and I missed it last year.

This little one was my favourite, though its hard to pick and the ones that won were certainly not the ones I would have picked as the best.

Thus we have started embarking on our ever lapsing cultural expeditions, but there will be no more of that now, winter is over, the sun is coming out and staying out longer, hibernation time is done with. That and the countdown is on - 11 months and counting.

Last week I armed myself with a Time Out London magazine, grabbed the Saturday papers and poured through them for inspiration on where to go and what to do. That also makes it a bit trickier as whilst on a daily basis my only clue as to London's hidden activities (they are as if you don't look for them you won't know they are on) are the posters in the tube escalators, having such in depth guidance only adds to the confusion, as my god there is just far to much on.

Alas, it must be done, as there are only so many times you can see the posters for Carmen, Chicago and We Will Rock You and after a while you start to think that maybe you did see them...(no doubt I haven't but all 3 now must be added to the never ending, and never to be completed - such is life - things "To do in London" list.

Starting us off will be next week seeing Sneaky Sound system in Shepard's Bush (good ol' Shepard's bush....used to be very Australian but now a very large Polish community), but I have complied a short list for my own amusement of things I really would like to see this year....and in no particular order;

The Australian Film Festival to see Cactus...(recommendations welcome)

We Will Rock You

Chicago

The 39 Steps

London Fashion Week (I just missed it this weekend)

La Clique

Hats - An Anthology (V&A)

Le Corbusier at Barbican

Babylon - British Museum

Museum of Docklands

Kew Gardens

Fabric (night club - though seriously getting too old for this...)

Burlesque....not sure who or where

Three Days of Rain (play)

Summer movies in Regents Park

Mamma Mia! (again)

Priscilla Queen of the Desert (the Musical with Jason Donovan...got to be hilarious)

The Paper Cinema - not sure myself but has good reviews

Billy Elliot

Taming of the Shrew

Les Miserable ....just because I cannot believe I have not seen it yet

Jack the Ripper walking tour (and several others actually)

I think that is all for now...but I will review the posters in the tube again tomorrow...quality reading :-)

Sunday Roast Obsession

That is what I have, I need to have a roast on a Sunday, and I have been since, humm let me see, I think I have to go back to last August now, with maybe a few exceptions in between. Most usually when we have got the pub late and shock horror, they have run out of roasts! Never a happy girl when that has happened.

Since moving to Tufnell Park we have been trying to find the currently, but hopefully not for long, elusive best Sunday roast in Kentish Town, Dartmouth Park, Tufnell Park triangle, as you can see there are actually quite a few (23 are shown below)

So far....

The Torriano - One of the first pubs we visited in the area, we did a lot of walking around when flat hunting so we were always find random pubs. We stopped at this one for a cheeky one of the way to a viewing one night. Lovely and neighbourly, its tucked away so you'd have to know it to find it. We felt a bit out of place, so probably won't get back there for a roast, but loved the center bar and the big couches.

The Assembly House - Large simple pub right near the station, another one Mark and i sat in whilst discusing the deporable conditions of some of potential new flats, along with the joy of finding the one we currently occupy. Large windows, big ornate ceilings, wood turned central bar, lots of large tables and a simple but tasty looking menu, but alas on looking Sunday roasts were not on the menu. It is quite grand and has potential, but something feels amiss there, just not cosy enough, must be those high ceilings and the lack of massive oversized chandeliers that all the gastro pubs seem to have.

The Junction House - nice food, but not anything to jump up and down about, average roast and clearly not memorable as I am struggling to even remember the food at all. Had Addelstones cloudy cider on tap, which is good as have developed a taste for that after being introduced to it by Pam before she trotted back to sunny Melbourne. The service was good too.

Lord Palmerston - We thought we were on a winner with this one, gastro pub, good wine, a mere 20m from our front door, a thoughtful mention in the London Lite (free evening paper), however it, despite all this, ended up leaving us quite disappointed and quite empty - literally.

The roast was tiny a mere one piece of roast meat, tasty but my tummy kept grumbling, a few roast potatoes and a small bowl of vegetables between the two of us. Usually roast lunch is the meal of the day, I took one look at this little lot and promptly told Mark I would require dinner. On the upside the apple crumble was tasty, we had lots of space to spread out our papers, and Mark had a well made Bloody Mary from the Aussie chick behind the bar. Oh and its named after the Lord Palmerston who was British Prime Minister twice in the 1800's.

Boston Arms - Good Guinness and the football. An Irish old mans pub is all I can say really, a very large and impressive building on the outside, but stripped of all decadence within. They didn't even do food and didn't bat and eyelid when I popped out to the chippie and got us some nibbles.

The Oxford - Nice gastro pub atmosphere, right on the Kentish Town high street so attracted a rather mixed crowd, but more importantly nice good - a good solid Sunday roast. Though Mark thought it needed more vegetables, and my only problem was the Banoffee pie I was so looking forward to was more like cream pie with a bit of caramel and 3 little bits of banana. So almost there, the hunt continues.

The Dartmouth Arms - This is a find and a half! We are both chuffed that this pub is rated the highest of all of them so far, and we only found it by accident, despite it being only at the other end of our road.

Friday night we headed in with Anais, Ahmed and Kerry to discover that this pub was Marks dream pub. It has the sports, big comfy couches, plenty of atmosphere, delicious home style food (my chicken risotto was quite impressive, as was Mark's burger and oysters...) and best of all one of the largest cider selections in all of London - about 14 in all, most places your lucky if you can get 1. Mark being very fond of cider was definitely very pleased.

I also think he will even be more pleased when I tell him they have Moules Marinara on Thursdays. Best of all we have not even had a roast there as yet, so we are going to have to book ourselves in as whilst its a tucked away local, its definitely one all the locals go to all the time.

The Abbey - We tried this one just today actually with Matt and Cristina, and it was not half bad. After nearly drowning on the way there, we got caught in a spring shower, we got in an scored a seat - just. The roasts were pretty good with lots of meat, roast potatoes and vegetables, too much meat almost, i actually ended up leaving some - ah heaven forbid.

There was a good wine selection, and the fruit crumble was large and tasty too. So despite quirky and rather "muppet" (Matt's word for stupid person) like staff members, we checked off a few boxes on that one.

It also has an amazing beer roof garden, a very random crowd (it is near Camden end) and plenty of tunes - though it was just a tad difficult for a chat as the random music started to get quite loud (Jimmy Hendrix, Crowded House, Kings of Leon....). Oh and its got an overall Afro Caribbean feel, well the food overall and well we are going to head back one day for traditional home style Jamaican Jerk chicken...yum.

Coming soon..... further reviews on The Dartmouth Arms....as its yet to have its Sunday roast scrutiny and another one called The Pineapple.