in december drinking horchata

Horchata - Vampire Weekend

A few more piccies from our trip that I liked and wanted to share with you. Did everybody see the Britney episode of Glee which was on UK teevee this week? Loved it! I think it is the best yet. Mostly because it featured my favourite character Brittany, she is hilarious!

I freakin' love these bendy things.

Mmm coffee. Not. This man thought we wanted two coffees when Wes tried to order one for himself. I think coffee is yucky. But I drank this one because the man who made it was really sweet and I didn't want to offend him. It wasn't actually that yucky.

Paella and sangria: my perfect meal.

new change is the name of the street

Got to check out One New Change yesterday, a week after it opened as London's newest shopping centre, and the first proper one in the City. It doesn't have heaps of shops, but it would be just enough for a lunchtime whip around, which is of course the whole point. It looks pretty boring from the outside but is pretty cool inside which is where all these photos are taken. A major drawcard will be the food, with Jamie Oliver opening Barbecoa, an homage to meat, right across from a new Gordon Ramsey that is yet to come. Barbecoa is open now, and I did quite like the look of the menu if I ever had some poundage burning a hole in my pocket and I felt like a steak. In the meantime, we went to Byron for burgers and I got a proper hamburger with beetroot on it! They are only for a limited time though, as part of Movember which is an Australian fundraising event that has been adopted in the UK. Hence, the Aussie hamburger. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

They have a Topshop, Mango, Reiss, Banana Republic, Karen Millen, Office and Dune all with quite workwear-oriented stock, plus a couple of outdoorsy-stores like North Face which I didn't quite get. Is that what city workers do on the weekends? Mountain climbing?

no, i'm not a monster

What's-his-face was onto something. Haven't you heard? Gingerbread men are the new cupcake! Well to be accurate, they are the new whoopie pie, which was the new macaroon, which was the new cupcake. To be more accurate, it is just me that decided this, but I think some others are starting to catch on. You're not still eating cupcakes are you?? Yeah, me too, but I really love gingerbread men!! And I think maybe they're not as bad for you? Pret's little man called Godfrey is pretty good, and of course if your local bakery makes them, even better, as long as they're thick enough to have a bit of give in the middle, you don't want them too hard...okay maybe I have thought about this a little too much?

Extreme sweet tooth

I think my sister may be bad for my health. The problem is we are both total chocoholics, and we both hate coffee, so while others might meet up for coffee and a chat, we meet for hot chocolate and cake instead. On Friday we literally stumbled upon (must have been fate!) a guerilla ice-cream cafe in the basement of Selfridges! Yes, while 'pop-up shops' are becoming a little too ubiquitous, along comes a fabulous new marketing tool - the 'guerilla installation'! It was fun, if a little bit bizaare, and Sex Pistols-themed! We thought we had ordered a fancy-sounding hot chocolate, but were served with the richest, most chocolatey ice-cream sundaes ever (again, definitely fate)! So should have taken a piccy of them as they were quite a sight to behold, but that would have taken too long and nothing was going to get in the way of gorging! Still can't believe we didn't realise you could sit in the van until we were on our way out :-(

ps. Felt soo sick afterwards - if you go, maybe share?

Just call me Betty, Betty Homemaker. Or Betty Crocker. Or Betty Draper.

To some of you who know me, it may come as a surprise that I love baking. Yes, I would rather eat dry Ryvitas than cook dinner some nights, but carefully measuring and mixing flour, sugar and vanilla essence is my idea of a fun afternoon. The other day I made chocolate cupcakes and they are sooo good! Warm, with ice-cream, however, they are beyond good, they are heavenly.