London for a Fiver: Get your dancing shoes on!

This Saturday night, Traveller and flattie shook off their converse and hit the dance floor.

The Blues Kitchen in Camden was our space of choice and boy, what a brilliant place to move it.

Traveller can quite easily tire of 'doof doof' music, so when presented with constant blues hits from the 50s, 60s and 70s - she found her happy place. The Blues Kitchen has live music from 9:30pm and the bands on Saturday were fantastic.

It reminded T of the 'cassette tape' her father presented her with around her 10th birthday - it was a triple decker and choc-full of hits from those time periods. T can remember listening to those tapes over and over until she knew each and every song.

So, inevitably, on Saturday there were times whenT was the only one on the dance floor who knew the words to songs from the likes of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis and The Big Bopper.

Ah well, at least everyone was dancing!

With a great atmosphere, a fantastic playlist and at only £3 for an entry fee, it is a veritable bargain!

{image}

Prohibition Style.

This weekend, Traveller and flattie went to a bar in Soho and found themselves in an entirely different era.

Bourne and Hollingsworth is a 'prohibition style' bar where the cocktails are served in tea cups and jam jars alongside cucumber sandwiches and shortbread cookies. Yum! Smaller than your grandma's living room, the bar is fitted with 20's style decor which includes flowery wall-paper, tassle-adorned lamps and various mis-matching chairs and tables.

Having never been to a 'speakeasy' - Bourne and Hollingsworth was a light foray into this dark era for Traveller and she couldn't help but bop in time to the themed music spinning from the turntables.

Please forgive the photo quality - it was pretty dark inside!

Schmaltz.

Traveller saw 'The Blind Side' with her flattie tonight.

T loves Sandra and couldn't wait to see the movie despite the lacklustre reviews it has been receiving in London.

It seems the city is full of hardened cynics who can't stand a little cheese in their movie.

Reviewers have called it 'patronising' and 'clichéd' but T really loved it.

For those of you who haven't heard of it - 'The Blind Side' is a film which is based on the true story of a down-and-out kid who is taken in by a family who proceed to take care of him (cue tissue grabbing). He later becomes a professional in the NFL.

There's something about 'fighting the odds' type stories that really get T - she even finds herself tearing up on The X Factor or Idol when a down-and-out contestant realises their dreams.

Ultimately, the memorable line from The Holiday, "I'm looking for corny in my life," epitomises how Traveller feels about shmaltz.

Love it.

If only we were in Moscow.

Traveller saw this lovely lady on the stage last night.

Romola Garai is currently playing in Three Sisters by Chekhov at the Lyric Hammersmith and boy, it was fantastic!

The play itself was compelling and poignant, albeit a little bleak

{it is Chekhov!}

Flattie had a few tears and Traveller has been pondering the play's meaning all day.

The characters, like in most Russian plays, were facing dark and meaningless lives, which they were sure would be much improved if they living in Moscow. Sort of a 'grass is greener' tale.

It definitely made T think.

Garai was striking and skilled as one of the sisters and she was joined by a large and talented ensemble cast.

T is continuing to love theatre in London.

{especially because flattie has discovered that she is viable

for free theatre in London due to her spritely age (under 26!). She managed

to procure us super-close seats which were only three rows from the very front. Awesome!}

Ramsay, you've done it again!

This weekend, Traveller and her flatmates (old and new) went to Gordan Ramsay at Claridge's... and oh boy, T wanted to stay forever.
Claridge's is a whole new world in regards to service - the waiters were so attentive that T and her friends almost started to giggle at their exuberant helpfulness. Upon entering the room after a powder-room-break, T and her friends received a 'Welcome back, ladies' from one of the enthusiastic waiters.
And, after a waiter recommended a dessert to one of T's friends, he came by the table to make sure that she liked it. When she was a touch less than uber enthusiastic {because of some very minty icecream}, he sped to the kitchen to procure her an ice-cream flavour more palatable to her tastebuds!
It was just lovely.
And the food... oh the food!
T's three course menu consisted of carrot and cardamon soup with wild mushroom {compliments of the chef}, parmesan risotto with duck bacon; guinea fowl with peal barley risotto and pinot noir glaze and finally, a chocolate fondant with mint ice-cream. Every single bite was oh so very delicious.
A London-restaurant-one-must-do-before-one-leaves.

Let it snow.

Today, London was put on a severe weather warning. It is, hopefully, going to snow more than it has since 1962! Now, you should know by now how excited Traveller gets by the snow. Apparently it will keep on snowing all day tomorrow!

{ so, so excited}

The only negative in this extremely positive situation is that husband was told {half an hour before he finished work} that he has to stay in a hotel near work tonight! Apparently everyone at his newspaper company will be working from home on laptops and, as he is in I.T., he has to stay to make sure the computers are working! He is a little glum that flattie and T are going to be playing in the snow tomorrow while he is at work. Poor hubbie.

Still, nothing can hinder T's snow-filled-excitement.

The snow is just starting to come down and a few gleeful rounds of applause have already filled their cosy, London flat.

Celebrating on Primrose Hill.

This year Traveller and hubbie celebrated New Year's Eve with friends at their little London flat.

They furthered celebrated by walking up to Primrose Hill to cheer in 2010 and watch the fireworks.

The yummiest part?

T made some s'more cookies.

The most lovely part?

It snowed just after the countdown.

{magical}

Them's fighting leaves.

Traveller has a fun flatmate;

she joins in on spontaneous autumnal leaf fights
and she has the coolest camera around...

The Diana Camera.

Can I have S'more?

When Mom & Dad Stuart asked Traveller what to bring as a gift for hubbie, T could only think of one thing. Food. They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach; this was never more true than for T's hubbie. T asked hubs specifically what he might like, and she was right; the first thing to come out of his mouth was, 'the ingredients for S'mores, please'.

So, true to their word, the Stuarts lugged graham crackers, marshmallows, and hershey bars across the pond. As a result, we made them right in our apartment with the help of Mom Stuart.

Traveller can honestly say that there is nothing more fun than toasting marshmallows on a gas stove!

Delicious!

The 'Waiting for the Tube' Dance

Flattie took a phone video of T dancing on our way to the farmers' markets on Sunday. Ahh, the things you do when there isn't anyone on the platform.

Sometimes when we are bored...

...we play this.

Hubby, along with being a fuzzy's grub pusher, is the keenest board-game player on the planet! As soon as we have anything resembling a group at our flat, he's the first to bring up the possibility of playing a game. Luckily, our lovely flatties are very obliging to hubbie's passion and will quite often play with us.

We currently have two games that are doing the rounds, 'Settlers of Catan' and 'Carcassonne'. These are two strategy games of building roads and houses, where if you gain more points than your opponents - you win!

Unfortunately, in all of his exuberance, Hubbie usually wins. There is the odd occasion where someone else wins and it results in a highly energetic happy dance because we are so used to him winning all the time. T thinks this is a throwback to his childhood where he and his brothers would play all sorts of strategy games, like Risk and Democracy, with their dad.

Hubbie is actually going, tonight, to a pub in London where they play boardgames from 5pm till late every Wednesday. Needless to say, he is very excited to find some gamers who are more up to his speed!