Category Archives: getaways

london getaway 2016 | day 4

06 Saturday Aug 2016

Posted by in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, getaways, london, restaurants, retail therapy, travel, trips

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london day 4

Friday was SHOPPING DAY, as I had a few places I wanted to check out in the Regent & Oxford street area. I hopped on my trusty number 15 bus, which took me directly to Trafalgar Square, just around the corner from Regent Street (not the shortest route, but saved me from having to take the Tube). I got off the bus and immediately lost my 4G connection, so Maps stopped working too. Then I started crossing the square and – who knows why? – just after taking this photo I was overcome by one of the worst panic attacks I’d had in years. In fact, since the whole cancer thing I’d pretty much stopped having attacks, but suddenly there I was terrified in the middle of Trafalgar Square. Somehow I got to the other side and saw two women talking in the street, so I went over and asked them for directions to Regent Street. This calmed me down a bit (distraction therapy) and I was able to carry on, but then realised the time (going on 2 pm) and decided to stop somewhere for lunch first. A nearby-ish recommendation from my Twitter pal Robin @HERMANOPRIMERO proved to be the perfect spot for solo dining.

london day 4 1

I got a place at the bar and ordered a couple of tasty dishes, had a couple of glasses of wine, and thus fortified I was suddenly much less “panicked” and able to head out shopping…

london day 4 (1)hot butter devilled shrimps

london day 4 (2)black pork Kari Dosa with chutneys: coriander, tomato, coconut

What followed was a four-hour shopping expedition, mostly fruitful. I got some new clothes – Sevilla has very little “fat lady” clothes that aren’t awful polyester numbers better suited to grandmothers and maiden aunts. But man, it was hell walking in totally packed Oxford street, with many people staring at their phones as they walked, so bumping into everyone else. At some point I heard back from my friend Lizzie @hollowlegs who said she was able to get away from work early after all and would meet me at Noble Rot Wine Bar for their famous slip sole (apparently one of the trendiest dishes in London atm). Yes! But that meant getting there. From Oxford Street it looked a straighforward walk, but once again I got lost and – once again – Peter came to the rescue, directing via WhatsApp messages. And I finally arrived…

london day 4 (7)
london day 4 (4)slip sole with smoked pimentón butter

london day 4 (5)roast saddleback chop, coco de paimpol beans and salsa verde

london day 4 (3)Lizzie chewing on a bone

It was great to catch up with Lizzie and hear all about her new job. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to join the couple of group dinners I’d arranged so I was really happy she made the extra effort to join me here for a quick bite, even though she had to get up at 5.30 the next morning. We called it quits around 9.30 and Lizzie also helped me order my first Uber! I got home exhausted and happy, and wondering how I was going to fit my new stuff into my already over-stuffed suitcase. There was only one solution – I’d have to buy another bag.

london getaway 2016 | day 3

05 Friday Aug 2016

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london day 3 (1)One issue with my otherwise fabulous apartment in Wapping is that the WIFI is dodgy, to say the least, making it impossible to work. And although not ideal, Mark suggested I pop over to the nearby Yurt Café to take advantage of their WIFI. Turned out to be an unusual and interesting venue, a massive yurt with a small patio basically under the rail lines. So I was able to get some work done and it was a nice place to spend the morning.

Later on that evening came one of the week’s BIG EVENTS. Dinner at Som Saa…

london day 3

london day 3 (2)Mark @marcooth, John @cityjohn, Thane @thaneprince and “look no hands!” Bob

london day 3 (3)whole fried sea bass – spectacular presentation but didn’t quite deliver on taste

london day 3 (4)star dish of the evening – pork neck with “nahm jim” sauce

While the food was mostly good (though nothing spectacular other than that one pork dish imho) it was a terrible shame that a gathering of witty and wonderful people ended up in a shouting match across a rather narrow table because the FUCKING MUSIC WAS TURNED UP TO MAX. Seriously… why? It’s a small venue, and it’s a restaurant (with a small bar area as you come in). Ironically the bar is quieter than the restaurant. So what’s with the fucking ear-splitting music, unless it’s to make clients eat up and leave fast so they can turn more tables? Som Saa started off as a pop up and, after the owners went off to do research in Thailand, they opened this very new restaurant in Commercial Street. I’m told they didn’t actually change their pop-up menu much after their research and to me it all felt a bit contrived. Staff didn’t seem well-trained… overall not an experience I’d repeat.

london day 3 (5)all the Som Saa dishes we tried

london day 3 (6)just to show I wasn’t exaggerating about noise level – we measured it

Afterwards us diehards (John, Mark and me) headed to a wine bar in nearby Spitalfields Market as Thane & Bob headed home (they had an early morning next day). Can’t remember the name of the wine bar but Mark ordered for us and we enjoyed a couple of lovely wines – always a treat for me to try non-Spanish wines. Afterwards I got on one of my trusty 3 buses that seemed to take me almost everywhere and got home to find messages from the boys asking me to check in. Nice. Nice friends, great evening out.

london getaway 2016 | day 1

03 Wednesday Aug 2016

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Although officially away for ten days, with two of those days basically travel days, that meant I had eight full days in London to look forward to. Not bad! The plan was to arrive in London around 6.30 pm and get to the apartment by about 9.00, in time to pop over to one of the local pubs recommended by Jo & Mark for a quick snack and a drink. But of course I was flying with RyanAir.
london day 1 (1)

I got to the airport in plenty of time, so I just relaxed with a cold beer and did a bit of stuff online while I waited for the boarding announcement. I was one of the last to pass through into the departure lounge and about two minutes later came the announcement… a 2 hour delay!

london day 1 (2)

At which point we were all stuck in the hot and airless departure area and not allowed to go out for a drink or to comfortably sit elsewhere. Finally we were off, with my already late estimated arrival now even later. After all the faff at Stansted – passport control, customs, luggage pick up – I hopped the train to Liverpool Street Station and then got a taxi to the apartment.

london day 1 (3)

Upon arrival I dropped my bags with the porter and said I’d be back in an hour to collect the keys, then hightailed it over to the closest recommended local on my list, The Prospect of Whitby (apparently the oldest riverside pub in London). Got there about 10.40 pm and asked if the kitchen was still open. Um…no way. In fact, I was told they were closing in precisely 20 minutes. So dinner that night was a glass of pub Pinot Grigio and a packet of Kettle Chips. But on the way home I was rewarded with this lovely view…
london day 1 (5)

And once home I felt immediately “at home” once again in Jo & Mark’s beautiful apartment in Wapping (it’s the second time I’ve stayed here). I did the bare minimum unpacking, had a cool refreshing shower to “wash the plane” off me and fell into my comfy bed.
london day 1 (4)

More to come…

london getaway 2016!

19 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by in getaways, london, travel, trips

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london

Remember back when I was thinking of planning my summer getaways in June? Well, I did book Galicia, but then was left up in the air about whether to go to London or San Sebastián, with part of that decision being based on whether I’d get my renewed passport back in time. And well, it came yesterday! So without another thought I decided to go with London, went online, booked my flights and – eep! – that’s done now. I’ll be there August 2nd – 11th!

Well okay, I did have a few thoughts. I still hadn’t heard back from my SS pal, and if she wasn’t going to be there it didn’t make much sense to go. Then a quick check by Twitter DM asking if various London friends would be around ended up with immediate responses and invitations and whatnot, so I decided to go with London. Flights clearly not as cheap as if I’d booked in June, but what the heck.

I’m going to London! 🙂

“it’s easy” he said

23 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by in day trips, food & drink, friends, getaways, Malaga, malaga getaway, summer, travel, trips

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torcal[click to enlarge pic]

When I first made plans for this Málaga Getaway a few months ago, the idea was to take a couple of day trips with Victor (in his NEW CAR) to visit friends in Alhaurín de la Torre and Colmenar. It turned out I couldn’t have chosen a worse week as both friends were up to their eyeballs in work, so we came up with a Plan B, which was to visit Antequera and introduce Victor to the delights of Charo Carmona’s Arte de Cozina. But first Victor wanted to show me the stone monolith dolmens and the amazing rock formations of El Torcal. All went well until we got to El Torcal and Victor asked if I wanted to do the shorter “low effort” trail. “C’mon”, he said. “It’s easy”, he said. So like a fool I said “Okay!” and off we went.

fin de senderos

Turns out it’s easy if you’re a mountain goat. Or Victor. Or at least NOT an overweight 59-year-old woman prone to tachycardia with arthritic knees and twice-sprained dodgy ankles. It also would’ve helped if Victor had warned me about proper footwear, if it wasn’t mid-day under a blazing sun (34º), and if we’d brought some water with us. The 45-minute trek ended up taking just over an hour – the thing was that by the time I realised just how impossible this was going to be for me it would have been just as long going back as keeping on. Duh. Also, I’m very stubborn, so I refused to give up. But every step of the way (seriously EVERY step) I kept envisioning another swollen sprained ankle and me having to be air-lifted out of the place by helicopter. Because there really was no path to speak of, just seemingly endless clambering up and down the rocks. I tell you, I was so happy to see the Fin de Senderos (end of trail) sign, and that cold beer was the best I’d ever had in my lilfe. And, once it was over, I was really glad we’d done it.

arte cozinaThen it was off to Antequera for lunch, and although arriving as a sweat-soaked bedraggled mess hadn’t been my intention, it was great to see Charo again. We opted for snacks at her Arte de Tapas next door instead of the full restaurant experience next door (since we were going to be having a full restaurant experience in the evening at Restaurante Amador). Everything was great – the croquetas, morcilla with mango, fried rabbit ribs – but that unassuming looking tapa (lower middle photo) is worth taking a trip to Antequera for. It’s lomo de orza, or cooked pork loin that’s been preserved in pork fat inside large clay urns (orzas). It was served over confit potatoes on toast and each bite was heaven.

casa az
Finally it was time to go home, rest up a bit, and get ready for our evening out. By now my hair couldn’t have looked any worse so we drove back to Málaga with the top down and I managed to get this great shot of Victor driving with the Peña de los Enamorados in the background. An amazing day.