wingardium leviosa!

You know what's awesome? Knowing other people who love Harry Potter as much as I do. It sounds crazy because, well, everyone loves Harry Potter, right!? Wrong! Apparently I found & married the only person in the world who has no interest in wizards, quidditch, horcruxes or polyjuice potion.

Darn!

Luckily for me, his relatives don't quite feel the same way. When my in-laws were visiting recently, which coincided with Uri's nephew's 8th birthday, we all (sans non-interested parties, ahem, Uri) went on a celebratory trip to the Harry Potter studio tour!

The tour itself is wonderful. I was worried that it might fall a little short of expectation but you really do get to see and explore loads of sets, costumes, props etc. Above you can see the potions classroom, the yule ball decorations, and the Ministry of Magic. I also poked my head into Hagrid's hut, Harry's dorm, the Burrow, Dumbledore's office, and loads more. 

My dad-in-law and I sat on broomsticks in front of green screens (wearing proper wizards robes) and acted out some flying scenes from the films! We even bought some of the overpriced photos, which I haven't had a chance to scan in yet. It was hilarious.

One highlight of the day for me was getting to try butterbeer! It was actually pretty gross & I didn't finish it, but the tour is one of only two places in the world you can buy the stuff (the other being the theme park in Orlando). So I was pretty excited! 

I also walked across Hogwarts bridge. :)

We went through the 'creatures' room - in which Buckbeak is actually the best thing, so realistic! - and on to another of my highlights - Diagon Alley!

It really did feel like you were walking through one of the films. 

The moment we walked into what is one of the final rooms, I literally welled up. Hey, there was music playing, ok! That orchestral Harry Potter soundtrack music. Like, from the credits. 

And there she was: Hogwarts! A 1:24 scale model of the gorgeous castle. It was totally breathtaking, and I really did almost cry. 

Thankfully I pulled myself together in time to try on a sorting hat in the gift shop (and buy a chocolate wand!).

It was such a fun day, and I really felt like it brought the magic of HP to life all over again, even though in a way it is dispelling it (no pun intended) by revealing all the 'behind the scenes' stuff. It's just kind of magical that they created this whole world, physically, that Rowling created with words.

Not to mention it's just so wonderfully British. :)

le party francais

Over the long weekend, our friends threw a French-themed soirée! They had done an absolutely wicked job decorating, and the night was filled with the music of Vanessa Paradis, Lady Marmalade & Sash! Party party. 

The food spread was also really impressive - croissants, cheese, quiches, and a scattering of garlic, bien sur...

They had decked out the bathroom as a 'district lumiere rouge'... complete with a sleeping bag in the bathtub, to encourage people to set up camp in there I guess..?

Alex span some tunes on his decks, and Siobhan was dressed as a French maid! In fact most people had pretty awesome costumes (sooo many stripes & berets), but I didn't quite manage to photograph everybody. Hopefully they'll turn up on facebook at some point!

Oui oui, it was a night to be remembered! Why are the French so easy (and fun) to stereotype!? I love 'em.

japanese saturday

It was a couple of Saturdays ago now, when we went on a little quest to Piccadilly - lower Regent street to be precise - with a little shopping list of ingredients from my bento cookbooks. We were headed for Japan Centre; a big Japanese supermarket/café which stocks all kinds of things you can't often find in the 'oriental' section of Waitrose.

I bought a number of awesome things including dashi stock, miso soup paste, soba noodles, specialty green tea, fruit gummy lollies.... amongst other stuff. But! The most amazing part of the day was when we ate in the café - we got 'japanese burgers', which was a beef teriyaki & wasabi patty, cheese & salad, on 'buns' made of toasted sticky rice, all wrapped in a big piece of seaweed! It was soooooooooo delicious; it tasted a little like eating a giant, fried piece of sushi. And erm, if that sounds gross... it wasn't!

Happy hubby!

We also bought some peanut butter mochi. They were DIVINE! 

Here's some of the spoils once we got home. It was well worth the trip (which really isn't that far!) and we'll be back there again REAL soon! 

welcome, warmer weather! (and a look back at winter)

Somehow, we had been having these gorgeous sunny days all last week. It hasn't really lasted through till this week, but still.

 Like I did last season, I thought I'd herald the summer with a little homage to the winter! Read on for some of my favourite moments from this Cold Season.

coffee by day, cocktails by night

On sunny Saturday morning I skipped coffee with breakfast, met up with Rose at Old Street and took a stroll down to the Truman Brewery for the London Coffee Festival. Not only did we guzzle many delicious cups of jo, we also picked up a bunch of freebies, ate 'cocktail cookies' (vodka & lime flavour!) and gelato, and played in photo booths (as we are generally wont to do).

It was so much fun! Any excuse to drink ridiculous amounts of coffee ticks my boxes. Though I'll admit I did have the proper coffee shakes for the rest of the day...!!! 

We shared this ricotta & sour cherry flavour gelato, which was heavenly. Also, check out the coffee machine covered in hot air balloons! Adorable!

We emerged from the Costa photobooth, the attendant took one look at our strip of pictures and declared: "you two have clearly done this before!".

Haha, yep. Photobooth pros.

That evening, Uri & I went to check out 5CC, a sneakily-hidden tiny cocktail bar above a pretty regular-looking pub on Exmouth Market. I had a lemon drop, which was delicious!

Exmouth market is pretty beautiful on a rainy night.

happy birthday willy shakes

I wonder if anyone ever called Shakespeare 'Willy Shakes' as a nickname? 

On Sunday we took an afternoon stroll south. We wandered around Bermondsey, and discovered that it is full of under-35-year-olds. Lots of trendy cafés etc. It was a nice walk to do on a Sunday afternoon, and I spotted the above brightly coloured pots which added a really cheerful element to this otherwise beige-brick street..!

I also saw this angsty graffiti right in the middle of Borough. Odd!

Meanwhile, we were down that way for Shakespeare's birthday whirligig at the Globe Theatre. I had won top-price tickets on twitter and we got some choice seats right in the middle, behind the standing yard.

There was a great line-up of entertainers - magicians, comedians, musicians, mind-readers, puppeteers, etc. Above is Johnny Flynn performing some truly lovely acoustic-y type songs, and his baby son was in the audience occassionally singing along which was adorable.

We walked home & admired the views. London is really so lovely by twinkly evening light.

space party

On Saturday Olmo had his second round of birthday celebrations: a space party with all his school friends.

It was a lovely afternoon filled with cake and games and space creatures. 

I was the official photographer.

Uri & Adrie enjoyed the teeny tiny chairs.

Ivo had hilariously cute hair.

Olmo was dressed (of course) as Spiderman, although he informed me that he was in fact "Spiderman in space". So I guess that's something...!

Jo constructed the most amazing blue rocket cake! It was delicious and very impressively tall!

So: it's official! My little baby cousin is six years old.

CRAZY!