TeaSaturday with Nigella

On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to get a ticket to TeaSaturday organised by Daniel Young of youngandfoodish fame and catered for by Nigella Lawson. Daniel Young is a food writer and critic from New York who now lives in London and organises brilliant pop up events such as the famous BurgerMonday.

The event was today, Saturday, at 2pm in Holburn in London.

We each got out own copies of Nigella's new book, Nigellissima, on arrival and afternoon tea prepared by Nigella (more on that below).

The recipes all come from the book and were for an an Italian inspired English afternoon tea

The afternoon tea was held at Andrew's cafe in Holburn, complete with old formica tables and everything.

The food was delicious and made entirely by Nigella and her assistant. An impressive feat given that there were two sittings of 60 or so people in each. My favourite was probably the panettone stuffing squares, closely followed by the Italian Christmas pudding cake.

Nigella and Daniel Young were charming hosts, I met some lovely people sitting at my table and every seemed to have a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. Definitely one of the perks of living in London!

x

An engagement in the Cotswolds

We are so excited to be engaged to be married. The excitement bubbles over now and then but mostly I just walk around with a huge grin on my face, probably looking a bit odd because of it!
We had the most wonderful weekend. We caught the last of the autumn sunshine before England heads underground and indoors for winter.You will have picked up that I'm already a huge fan of sunshine and light. The light this weekend was just so beautiful. What you might not know is that autumn is my favourite season. I love crunchy leaves, smokey mornings, soft light, dewy grass and autumn harvest. Autumn and sunshine in the Cotswolds? The perfect weekend for an engagement

xx

Ich bin ein Berliner

For a city that was divided only two decades ago by 160km of concrete wall, where crossing between east and west was on pain of death, Berlin is quite remarkable.

It's a city I'm almost nervous to write about, given it's history. There are so many people with so many opinions about this place and its influences on the world over the last century. But from my brief observations over the course of only two days, it's a city very much trying to confront that history and be honest about it. It's also vibrant, exciting, energetic, and a fun place place to visit.

We stayed in a fabulous, cheap hotel right on the border of the old wall between west and east Berlin. We visited the Reichstag, which was the former seat of Parliament before the rise of the National Socialists and is now the seat of the Bundestag. We went on a great walking tour around the the main sites, wandered the Tiergarten and Museum Island (aptly named), in fact just did a lot of wandering. We also visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe - a harrowing, thought-provoking and very considered memorial and exhibition concerning the murder of some 6 million European Jews by the Nazis. Poland's Jews made up almost half that number. Many are un-named. And yet, this exhibition space is right in the middle of Berlin, it's impossible to avoid.  Which is precisely the point.

My favourite place was the Tiergarten. The leaves had changed from green to yellow, red and orange and were falling as we walked through the wooded paths. I think it reminded me a bit of home in the autumn, with its crisp, dewy air and dappled light.

The Festival of lights was on while we were there, and a selection of major buildings were lit up with choreographed light displays. There were tripods everywhere. We saw more cameras in Berlin than we had seen anywhere before.

Oh! And this one is for Barnes, Becs and Christian - a whole store selling onesies. I kid you not. Even Christmas themed ones. It was quite awesome. I was tempted to send you guys an early Christmas present, but, alas, the store was closed. Maybe next time.

Back soon

x

A sculpture on the wall of the lobby of our hotel

Pretzels! 

The Reichstag

At the Tiergarten

This dog was so cool. He dragged this massive stick for ages. It was so heavy, he had to keep dropping it and having a wee rest before starting over again. Hilarious.

The French Huguenot church (built about 20 metres away from, and facing, the German church)

Bicycle mad city - bikes and cyclists everywhere

Berliner Dom

Museum Island

"One Piece" pop up store

Festival of Lights

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Autumn colours

A 6 month London recap

Hey friends

It's almost 6 months since we arrived - that went quickly. I feel much more settled now and excited about all the amazing things you can do here (particularly the travel, and we've done a lot of that).

Here are a few photos of some things we've done over the last 6 months that I haven't had a chance to tell you about.

Back soon!

x

The Olympics! 

At the Globe to see Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew"

The Globe from the banks of the Thames

Provincial Spain - Asturias

At my cousin's wedding in Asturias, Spain

Where I got to see my parents - looking very sharp 

A weekend in Norfolk, where we visited Oxburgh Hall

At Oxburgh Hall

Italia

Hey there

It's been a little over a month since I last posted anything. Since Paris, I have had my birthday, been to the Olympics, had good friends Alana, James and Helen to stay, and then - the icing on my birthday month cake - went to Italy for 9 days with Emma, Nick and Hamish.

After such a busy year so far, Italy was just what I needed. We spent a few days on the Amalfi Coast visiting Sorrento, Praiano, Amalfi, Positano and Ravello (we packed a lot into 3 days) before heading off to the Isle of Capri for 5 days of sun and swimming.

The Amalfi Coast was picture postcard perfect. We had beautiful weather, amazing sunsets, delicious food and lots of Aperol Spritz (Aperol, prosecco and soda - a new favourite). We also did an inspiring walk up from Praiano along the Path of the Gods (I think so called because it's hard to tell up there where the sea meets the sky) to Positano. The walk was hot and quite steep on the way up but the views along the way were spectacular. We passed a monastery, fig trees where we ate fresh figs on the path, grape vines and no real signs of life. Back down in civilisation, we took the boat to Capri.

Capri, we were warned, was supposed to be chaotic with tourists, unlikeable in the high season, and expensive. It was quite the opposite and charmed us in every way. We swam every day, toured San Michele, the home of Axel Munthe, ate our year's quota of pasta and gelato, watched the rich and famous on their super yachts, took the gondola to the top of Monte Solaro, hired a boat and toured the island, swam in the blue grotto (a dream) and walked up to one of Tiberius' old Roman palaces. From there, we saw the spot where he alleged used to throw people (mostly women) off the top of the cliff when he got bored with them. It's a long way down, but in case any survived he apparently had people stationed below on the rocks to harpoon any survivors. I can't work out whether he was trying to be humane, or cautious to ensure they were well and truly dead. Apart from that gory detail, the ruins were interesting and the setting quite superb on the top of the eastern most point of the island.

Feeling rejuvenated and rested, we headed to Ischia, a larger island north of Capri to wander around for a day. We saw the most incredible thunder storm (which i will attempt to post below) and saw the remains of an old Aragon Castle. It's been privately owned, and slowly restored since 1910 and the family has done a wonderful job of returning it to its former glory after it was pillaged of its treasures and ransacked during a period of government ownership in the late 19th century.

Our final night in Italy was in Napoli, home of the Gomorra mobsters and to Snickers bar flavoured gelato. They had me at Neapolitan ice cream, but really sealed it with this - amazing. Napoli was filthy and crumbling but had its charms too - the people were friendly and helpful and the chaos was kind of refreshing after the beauty of Amalfi and Capri. The mob obviously wields significant control in Napoli, recently moving into the "legitimate" businesses of waste disposal and concrete production as well as controlling a significant portion of the port, where most of Europe's exports from China arrive. Plus, they're into the usual array of drugs and arms dealing. Naturally.

Now that we're home, the leaves are starting to turn yellow and the air is crisper in the mornings. It might just be time for my first northern hemisphere winter. I'm quite excited about: wooly scarves, gloves, and hats, knee high boots, pumpkin soup, hot chocolate mugs, cuddles by the fire, Geneva for a mid-winter break, long starry nights and Christmas

Until next time

x

Lunch! 

Emma and Nick swimming in Praiano

Beautiful Ravello

View from Ravello

View from Ravello

The Amalfi Duomo

Sunrise in Praiano

Path of the Gods

View from our apartment on Capri overlooking Marina Piccola

Tiberius' drop (affectionate title, isn't it?)

Mid-afternoon beer

Via Krupp

Night lights at Marina Piccola

View from our balcony, Capri

The captain

Bliss! 

View from Monte Solaro

Ischia

Aragon Castle, Ischia

And then the rain started

Stormy Ischia skies

Lightening flashes

Napoli

Napoli

Chocolate and snickers bar gelato

The oldest Christian mosaics in the western world