Celia Brooks Food Tour

Last weekend I went on a food tour around the Belgravia and South Kensington area, with a chef/author Celia Brooks the tour started in a chocolate shop called Rococo which some very tasty chocolates. 

Over the road, the second stop was a cheese shop for a short cheese tasting. I did think about getting one cheese but s I am away next week, didn't seem like a good plan however tasty.

Lunch was at a Lebanese restaurant and then to Harrods food hall for a quick trip around and to pick up some macaroons. The food hall is very impressive but after seeing some the prices I wasn't so impressed. £5 for a punt of Strawberries. Insane. 

Harrods macaroons.

They do impressive cakes

Only for the rich

 The last stop was wine tasting. The shop was very cool with a lot of variety.

And they cater to some very rich clients apparently.  This Cristal is worth over £8000. I dared not get any closer, but the feet give some perspective.

After we grabs some bottles and went to a cook shop for a drink and chat. I was very restrained and did not purchase any cooking gadgets. (I refused too look - my kitchen is way too small for anything else and I am saving the last little bit of room for a blender.)

The tour came with some discounts at the shops so I got some chocolate and some gin. They didn't have the one I have been looking for but this one was intriguing. 

new bottle in my gin collection.

Christmas Tourist with Kerry and Craig

Kerry and Craig were in London over the weekend so we met up on Saturday for some Christmas tourism. They (well, Kerry) were looking for a sparkly angel Christmas Tree topper. So we tried to get to Harrods. Our navigation skills were questionable (we blamed a dodgy app) and we ended up in Carnaby (totally the wrong direction). But we did find choccywoccydoodah cafe and shop. The cafe was booked out but the shop was very cool.

We tried some of the cake and surprisingly it wasn't the best. I guess you go for the chocolate which was really impressive. After a sit down and a drink, we started some shopping. All window shopping but it was pretty.

Regency Street.

We eventually found Harrods. However London seems to have sold out of tree toppers. :( We tried Harvey Nichols later as well with the same amount of success.

Harrods.

So we started walking again. We wouldn't have had to walk so much but the tubes were ridiculous. You would think a weekend so close to Christmas they would stop playing around with the tube lines. But no.
We also tried to get Craig to try ice skating but he was not keen. Maybe next year.

Ice rink at the Natural History Museum.

It took a while but we made our way to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. It was rammed and just worse. Very pretty but mostly fair ground. I has hoping for more stalls.

Entering.

Rammed.

We did manage to get into one of the revolving bars.

:)

However some bits, mostly the Bavarian village, were very strange.

This was about 3 stories tall.

We gave up early when it started raining. And started walking again. We finally found a tube station that was open. And somewhere to have a drink. It was outside, under an awning but it was fairly dry and we could sit down. I did over 21,000 steps. My feet hurt. But worth it. Lovely day. :)

Centre Parcs - day 1

Last weekend I went to Centre Parcs in Milton Keynes to meet up with Matt, El and Clare for the weekend. On the Friday this involved a 10 hr trip, including 4 trains to get there. The others had spent all day at work so Friday night we eat and crashed. Well, El had had coffee so we had to go for a walk first to calm El down a bit.

The weather was good again and we hired a pedillo on the lake as Clare and El had always wanted to go on one. Matt and Clare decided to pedal - El and I didn't protest.

On the lake.

Enjoying the exercise.

Enjoying the ride.

El and I directed and we spent some time chasing ducks. And there were baby ducks!

Ducks ahoy!

Ignoring us.

Baby!

Having a nice bath

The lake and beach

All on the beach

In the afternoon we went to the pool - I forgot to pack my waterproof camera. I was not a fan of one of the rides though. The others went on again a few times but I decided to chill out in the wave pool and lazy river - much more my speed. I did really like  rapids, though I did feel bad about wiping out 4 small children and an older couple. Oops! I had no control over my direction. 

We brought logs for the fire place. Matt may have set more on fire than needed - we ended up with a lot of smoke. We also brought dipping chocolate, strawberries and marshmallows for desert! 

Fire!

Desert

And I did my first french braid in Clare's hair. I was very proud of my first effort.

First french braid.

Chocolate Festival :)

Last week was long and filled with just work. Not very fun but my life at the moment.

However Saturday was the Blacksburg Chocolate festival, and thankfully this year the weather was lovely. It seems spring is trying to come to Virginia finally. (Though on Sunday it didn't feel like it once again.)

Spring

I meet up with Cait and some of her friends there. Thankfully they got there before I did and got me some tasting tickets (you can't get chocolate without them!) as the ran out a little while later. I seriously would have cried if I couldn't have chocolate.

Companies from Blacksburg and Christiansburg buy chocolate from a vendor and we get it from them with the tickets. So you end up getting chocolate from banks and lawyers, which is a little weird.

Chocolate from a Bank

chatting

Pretty soaps but not edible :(

 They were also tickets available for the saddest looking beer/wine garden I have ever seen. Set up in the parking lot of a rundown motel by the market, it cost $25 to get in. Very sad and oddly not very busy.

Beer "garden"

 They also haas some really interesting chocolates. I tried chocolate with rosemary, which I really loved. Though I wasn't so sure and the Beer bacon brittle. (I decided to skip that particular taste.)

Lots of Beer Bacon brittle left

 It was a lot busier than last year and it was so nice to be out int he sun for a change.

Not the only one whose happy

 And I thought I was remarkably restrained. I only got 10 tasting tickets. (The others were saying how they couldn't eat anymore chocolate - they obviously don't have my stamina!) And I didn't try to buy/run away with the giant teddy.

Giant teddy!!!!

sunny College Avenue

We had a wonder around and finished up our chocolate tickets. I did put a few in my bag for later (something I did regret as 2 melted) as we went for lunch. And instead of the depressing beer garden, we went up to the roof of a nearby restaurant to grab a drink (though I am being good at the moment so stuck to ginger ale). It was so nice sitting in the sun. After this winter, I am ready for warmth.
Sunday was shockingly working.
Now I need to go a get my laundry. Just as another thunderstorm breaks. Figures. It's impressive but So much for putting it in the drier! And now it's hailing. great! :(