Film on the Green

Every year on the August Bank Holiday, Hampton hosts the Luna Cinema on the village green. It's completely free though they do fundraising for it and ask for donations. This year was Beauty and the Beast and the weather was a lot nicer than last year so I went.  

First location.

A bunch of shops in town have stalls and happily one feeling Indian and one selling wine! :)

Dinner.

The flyers said from 6pm onwards, but the film didn't start until 8pm when it got dark. Which was fine (I had wine and my book) but in the meantime, an annoying group of people came and set up chairs right in front of my blanket! :( Rude! So I had to move. Happily the next group that did this were kind enough to leave me a gap to watch through.

Sunset and ready for the film

I may have sung along a bit (the disney version is one of my favourite films!) I don't think anyone else noticed. (Or were too drunk to care.)

Beauty and the Beast

It was fun but got a bit cool. And I get a little annoyed with kids and adults kicking grass all over my blanket and at one point in my wine! (I just fished it out but still.)

BBC Good Food Festival

This weekend was the BBC Good Food Festival at Hampton Court and I decided to treat myself to a VIP ticket. (I am a member of Her Majesty's Royal Palaces so got into the festival free and a discount on the VIP ticket.)

When I checked in, I was offered a free ticket for a flower arranging class. So why not? (I did get there a little late as finding the white Marque was a bit harder than expected as they were all white!)

My flowers

Demo

I was definitely the odd one out in the class (only one on her own and below 50) but it was something different and the other people were all very lovely. My arrangement turned out ok but it was more of a "randomly stick them in the vase" exercise. I don't think my next career will be flower arranging.
But I did get the flowers to take home. :)

My "arrangement".

 After the class I rushed to the other side of festival for my cooking demo.

Showing a giant steak

Lisa Faulkner

I will admit I randomly picked a chef as without TV, I have lost track of who's who. She cooked a Spanish style steak and potatoes which smelt amazing! And I got a copy of the recipes t=so I will have to try it out at some point.

The best part of having a VIP ticket was somewhere shady to sit down and unlimited Champagne (the real stuff, not Prosecco), plus tea, coffee and soft drinks. And it was near to the pavilion with some great 50s live music.

View from my seat. 

Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Once cooled and "hydrated", I went to do some shopping. There were loads of options though disappointing on the gluten food side.

However very well stocked on the gin side. :) It was hard to choose. (I did manage to get some little tasting sizes for an at-home gin tasting I am planning.)

So many options.

Followed of course by more Champagne before heading home. It was free and very nice! What is a girl to do? :)

Plus my feet were killing me! I really needed to sit down before the trip home.

Happier feet.

I did spend more money than I should have given I am saving for a holiday but I did managed to get about 30% of my Christmas gifts sorted. As well a few little treats for myself. There was a lovely non-alcoholic gin which tasted amazing, a real artisan gin, and some Garlic Vodka. It sounded odd and a bit disgusting so I had to try it and turns out pretty nice. It's made from sweet roast garlic and would go great in a liqueur coffee. Plus weird enough to be wonderful.

I also found out my only vase is now somewhat less than waterproof so had to make a couple of vases MacGyver style. 

Berlin

I spent Wednesday in Berlin for a work meeting (I love my new job!) and got to spend the evening exploring. 

After the meeting (and a few drinks) Heather, Lizzie and I headed to our separate hotels and arranged to meet up later.

I was staying in a little hostel like place called Arte Luise. The rooms are all different and decorated with random things and pop art. My room just had a single bed (with a shared bathroom) but I was only there a few hours and had fun (if a little creepy) decorations.

On the ceiling

Looking at me.

Random shoes on the wall

The message encouraged people to write on the walls and people had left messages from all over. (I added my own.)

Great view from the room

I really wanted to explore and as I was up a 5am that morning, sitting down was going to be a bad plan, I headed back out after dumping my things and headed down to the park.

Crossing the river.

I was staying near the Brandenburg Gate. The gate was part of the Berlin wall (1961-1969), standing between the east and west.

Brandenburg Gate

I headed through the gate and down through the park to the Soviet Memorial. 

Russian tank.

Memorial

And then round the park to the Reichstag building, which used to be the home of the Imperial Diet of the German Empire and is now the meeting place of the German Parliament. You can't see very well from the photo but there is a dome above. You can go in (well book a tour) and and walk around above, watching parliament. The idea is they want the parliament and what goes on to be completely transparent.

Reichstag building

I was a little early to meet the others so sat by the river for a bit. It was really peaceful.

After a few drinks and food finally (I skipped lunch), we had a walk around the town. Down by the river, there was a video projected on the side of a building showing the history of the Berlin wall and it coming down. 

Brandenburg Gate at night.

We ended up hopping around a few bars. The night ended with Jägermeister. :(

I got back to my hotel at 12.30am and had to be up again to get to the airport at 4.30am that morning. I went straight from the airport to work for the day but left at 2pm. I was exhausted! But it was a great trip and I really want to go back to Berlin again. :)

Vineyard trip back

On Sunday, we headed slowly back to Hampton via some vineyards and a pub for lunch. First stop was Chapel Down Vineyards. We got there early so walked around the vines before doing our wine tasting.

Their herb garden could do with some weeding and tidying (it seems to have gone a little out of control since I was here last).

Crazy herb garden

The walk around the vineyards was nice and then we headed for a tasting (mom was our designated driver). They have some great wines and a lovely cider. We all got some and dad decided to buy a giant cork (much to mom's confusion and disgust). He was very proud and happy with his giant cork (a table or stool) but none of my photos seem to be on my phone. :(

Second stop was Biddenden, a short distance away for a second walk around some vines and another tasting.

I made mom and dad pose for some photos!

Dad ended up walking around bare foot for some reason.

At the vineyard, they even remembered me from my last visit. (which I think is a good thing). And of course we left with some more wine and some cheeses. 

I had booked a Sunday lunch at a pub near Tunbridge wells which turned out to be amazing! I forgot to take any photos though. We were too busy eating. We got back and spent the evening nibbling on cheese and crackers, drinking more wine (obviously) and watching movies.

This morning we had lunch and did a little shopping before they headed off home. 

However I have just had a phone call to say they had packed my kindle and 2 of my bottles of wine. The little thieves! (At least one of the things I brought was a book!)