Dear London Town

In my attempt to blog more regularly, I have added the WordPress app to my iPhone. This is my first attempt. I thought I’d show you my £5 loot from Columbia Road today. Four bunches for a fiver and a bunch of lilies from Lo’s purchases.

Dear London Town,

Though I took a six week absence from you, I owe you an apology. It’s been a long time since my last letter to you. I remember a friend telling me once that she felt funny about calling me or writing me after such a long time of not communicating. She thought that maybe too much time had passed and we would be unable to retain our connection as friends. I told her she was silly and off we went on our merry way.

I’m such a hypocrite.

It’s been so long since I’ve last written, I had been thinking of ending our affair and hiding it away. I feel like this is some sort of confessional where the public can pass judgment.

‘Forgive me, blog & readers (psst – you out there?), for I have been lazy. It has been three months since my last post.’

There. I said it. I’m a bad blogger.

Maybe I only judge myself. Perhaps I just want one less thing on my list of responsibilities. I go to work and then after work I am busy doing networking meetings, tastings, events, watching shows, enjoying friends. When I have a night to myself, I just want to sit and do nothing. I make a meal and watch some episodes or a movie and spend far too much time on Facebook and Twitter. I guess I just don’t feel like blogging, but I’m trying to start out slowly and make Sunday my writing day. It is MY day and I will use it to bring back some balance to my life.

I bought myself a big treat today. I now own a bike. (Thanks, Gumtree!) It has a name – Hercules! No kidding! It actually says that. It’s a vintage Hercules Balmoral bike, complete with wicker basket. I just need a bell!

I also picked up a serious load of flowers today at Columbia Road flower market. I will tell you a secret. OK, well, it’s probably a well-known one, but still. Go after 2:30pm to get your flowers and you’ll get a ridiculous deal. I need to check out a book from the library or something. I have no idea what half of them are, but I know they are pretty! It makes me feel good to have lots of green inside since we lack a garden outside. (In American, that’d be a front/back-yard.)

__(‘Read the rest of this entry »’)

Christmas Shoppe, Pet Stores and Toys, OH MY! We hit Harrod’s before seeing Billy Elliott and Piccadilly Circus. We had a tired trooper on our hands! The long days were catching up. (approx 5.5min)

Here’s a quick look at the actual Nom Nom Nom ’09 event sponsored by QypeUK and the Cookery School last Sunday.

Shopping took place at the Marlyebone Farmer’s Market.

We were given bags from the school and a 40gbp limit to produce a 3-course meal for 4 people.

After we returned with out goods, we were given stations and we set all our goodies out.

Photo credit: Chris Osborn/QypeUK

Then it was time to cook:

Photo credit: Chris Osborn/QypeUK

Finally, we plated it up for the judges to review. Starter: Prawn Summer Rolls with peanut sauce

Photo credit: Chris Osborn/QypeUK

Main: Thai Green Curry with chicken, tri-color peppers and courgettes served with Jasmine Rice

Photo credit: Chris Osborn/QypeUK

Dessert: Honey, lime and mint dressed berries over vanilla ice cream

Photo credit: Chris Osborn/QypeUK

The judges’ review of our meal was:

• Tom: The dishes were very good, with some great tastes overall. This team made a great effort and produced some great flavourings!
• Rosalind: Lovely idea, however the food needed to be a little tastier (think salt).
• Dan: A lovely selection and combination, but it needed more care in the finish and cooking.
• Alegra: Summer rolls were my favourite, they looked very sexy. Seeing the prawn through the wrapper made me think of silk knickers.
• Jenny: I liked the South East Asian focus, the summer rolls were very refreshing.
• Nick: Started looked great and very appetising. It was a lovely summer dish that followed through on taste, and I especially loved the watermelon for its colour and freshness.

We didn’t win, but we did take home lots of goodies!

Congratulations on a job well done to all the finalists!

For more pictures, see my full set, Tom’s set and the official QypeUK Nom Nom Nom 09 set. You should also check out the excellent documentary on the Qype blog.
Voting is still open for viewer’s choice… we’d love your vote, but we’d have a lot of ground to make up to knock out the front runners.

Sundays on Columbia Road are filled with the smell of flowers and the sounds of the (mainly) men shouting out prices for each bundle and bush. Yesterday was a particularly lovely day in London. There was plenty of sun and a warm enough temperature to leave the coat behind.

Is Spring really upon us?

After wandering the street and checking out prices, I settled on a colorful bunch of somethingerothers. I think they are tulips.

I was going for something a bit more green, but sometimes the girl in me gives in to pinks.

About a 10-15min walk away from my flat is Elephant and Castle.

I wanted to get out and explore the area since it’s so close and has access to various shops and grocers within an easy distance. So G, my new young friend, and I took a stroll down the lane.

As we walked I asked him if he knew how the name originated. His response was that “they used to parade elephants around the castles here,” or some such nonsense like that.

I called bullsh!t. Or elephant dung. Whichever.

Well, as it turns out, its

…distinctive name is often said to be a corruption of the Spanish “Infanta de Castilla”, but there are many other theories…

I clicked around Google a bit and found the archived photo seen above. So it must have been a landmark in the roundabout, but I dont believe it’s still standing. If it is, I’ve yet to see it.

Anyhow, this site about Elephant & Castle really sums up where we went to shop, what’s available, and what I saw. So I’m going to let it do the talking.

The Shopping Centre management has made a real effort in recent years and the quality of the shopping environment has improved dramatically. The ground floor houses chain stores such as Tesco Metro, Iceland, WH Smith, Woolworths, Superdrug, Boots and Peacocks, whilst an eclectic mix of small stores and restaurants has made the first floor a really lively cultural centre. Also in the Shopping Centre is Palace Bingo and the Elephant & Castle Mega Bowl. A market operates outside the shopping centre.

After several years of dereliction the Coronet has been revived as a superclub, cinema and corporate hire venue.

Round the corner in Gaunt Street the Ministry of Sound continues to draw clubbers from across London and beyond.

The Elephant & Castle was once considered the “Piccadilly Circus of South London”, but these days it is a centre of student life, with London South Bank University and the London College of Communication (formerly London College of Printing) having campuses nearby. LCP has occasional exhibitions at the Eckersley Gallery. As a consequence the Elephant benefits from a Blackwell’s bookshop in London Road and the excellent Tlön Books secondhand shop in the shopping centre.

The whole area is set to be transformed as part of a much-delayed major regeneration initiative.

And another nifty fact to be known:

The Elephant is something of a traffic nightmare – official figures show that it is the fifth most dangerous road junction in London.

Be sure to look right when crossing the street. Too many international students walking around and forgetting which way to turn!

As someone who likes to communicate, it has been surprisingly easy to be unreachable by phone. I could safely leave my mobile behind in my room and not fret about the fact that it wasnt on me. I knew there were no missed calls or texts piling up in my inbox.

A week has passed since I first arrived here in London Town and my new friends were quite anxious about my not having a number. Plus, I knew there would be paperwork to be filled out requiring a phone number soon, so I had to go and remedy the situation.

Dz had given me a used Nokia of his along with a couple different SIM cards. He no longer had the charger for the Nokia, so I needed to locate one. The back-up plan was to take my own LG to Tottenham  Court Road to one of the somewhat dodgy electronic stores to have them unlock my phone from the Cingular/AT&T network.

Since I had to go to the university first to sign my life away to debt before I could deal with phone issues, the lovely M of financial services suggested I try The Carphone Warehouse first to see about the charger.

I followed her directions down Oxford Street and went into the busy shop. I looked at the various models available for pay-as-you-go, and then tried to locate the accessories area where chargers would be. I got behind a lady in the express line for top-ups and accessories, but the express lane had me standing there for nearly 15 minutes.

Panicking at the time, since I had to make my way to a 3pm meeting, I took off. I left feeling a bit bummed, but knew that my connection was right near Tottenham Court Road, so I could check into solutions there.

After my meeting at Soho Curzon* with a local film producer/film fesival producer, I made my way up to find a shop to help me out. I spotted another Carphone Warehouse, so I thought I’d try them again.

No go.

The line was massive. People are serious about their phones here.

So I walked back across the street and into one of the unlocking shops. I explained the situation about Dz’s Nokia needing a charger or my LG needing to be unlocked and the Asian guy went to work.

First, we tried a charger for the Nokia. He found one, but no charge. So he popped in a new battery. It worked. Then he put in a SIM. It blipped. He tried another SIM. No connection.

“Do you know what network this phone was on?”

I didn’t. And I had been given two SIMs by Dz, so I had assumed it didnt matter.

The guy attached the phone to a wire and did some work on a laptop. Finally, he came to the conclusion that it was the phone itself. Apparently there had been water damage.

I took out my phone and he gave it a look. We discussed the network, my SIM cards, and options. He tried to unlock it.

No luck.

He ended up taking it downstairs to another computer with more programs and came up with a grin.

We tried the O2 SIM that Dz gave me. And then the Orange SIM. Then his SIMs. Vodaphone connected! He tried his O2. It connected.

Apparently my SIMs had expired.

So I paid £10 for the successful unlock and walked across the street to O2 and purchased a new SIM for £15 to cover my needs for a while.

Sadly, my phone keeps wanting to shut itself off now, so I may end up with a new phone after all! But for now, it’s mostly working. And as no one is really calling yet, it doesnt matter too much. <HINT>

It feels good to be so independent from this little device I’ve had since summer 2006. It’s the most basic little phone and yet it has held up so well.

If anyone needs my new number, please contact me in the comments section.

*At the Curzon I booked a ticket for a screening of Milk with a Q&A with the director Gus Van Sant and the writer Dustin Lance Black on January 17. I’m looking forward to the movie and the talk!

London Town, you are serious about your IKEAr. Yes, IKEAr. How is it possible that words ending in an a gain an r at the end of it here?

First, it makes me giggle that my Oyster card fits into a plastic wallet with the IKEA logo emblazoned on it. Then, it gives you the location of the four stores: Croydon, Edmonton, Lakeside and Wembley. Two of these locations have a free shuttle bus from the closest tube station.

I met up with Dz and R near Enfield Town (quite a hike from mine including walking, tube, train, bus w/ boozy smelling driver, and a wrong stop thus more walking). We had a nice lunch of fish pie before heading off to IKEA-Edmonton so I  load up on some kitchen, bathroom and bedroom items.

The three of us spent something like 2.5 hours making our way through this massive structure 3-story building. It’s so large that it comes complete with arrows on the walkways so you don’t get lost.

After seeing all the model rooms on the top floor, we walked down a level where things got crazy!

Danger, KM, danger!

There were all sorts of fun things that I just had to have. I did keep my hands to myself when possible. The most expensive item of the day was a white bathrobe  for £19.56. The best buy was my £2.93 wok. And the most random buy was a small lamp that matched my room for £5.86. All in all, I purchased 34 items for £76.87. Impressive!

Now, London Town, I can see why you love your IKEAr.