Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is coming! This will be my second Northern Hemisphere Christmas.  I had one a few years ago with my friend Nicola's family, and it even snowed on Christmas Day! This year I will be spending Christmas Day and New Year's in Holland with my boyfriend and his family, so it will be fun to experience some different traditions.

Of course there are now many Christmas cards to be written and posted back to Australia, along with wrapping of presents and putting up a tree.  I didn't want to actually buy a tree when I might be moving again within a year and it would just be one more thing to pack, and I don't have many presents to put under one anyway, so I did this:

A colouring-in page from a bunch I had printed for work, I had fun colouring it in too! I also enjoyed writing lots of Christmas cards for my friends and family back home in Australia, I loved these designs in black and white with the dogs and splashes of red:

I have also been out and about in London a bit, doing Christmas shopping with my friend Amy at Harrods, and wandering around the city in the evening taking photos of the pretty Christmas lights!

This lady was singing opera from a balcony overlooking the Egyptian Escalator (in Harrods)!

What do you get for the child who has everything? Oh yes, their own Mercedes.  Maybe if you're a Beckham.

But I'll take one of these life-sized huggable polar bears any day!

Oh and if you're a rich person with a dog or cat, you simply MUST get your beloved pet a beautiful bed like these:

The price for the white one is over a thousand pounds!! I hope one day I'm rich enough to spend that much on a pet bed.

The Harrods Christmas window displays are also pretty amazing, I especially love the one with the white peacock and all those birdcages.

Christmas street lights around Covent Garden, Carnaby Street and Oxford Circus:

All those robins!!

Getting very excited about Christmas!

If you'd like to check out more gorgeous and extravagant designer items, the Harrods website is here.

Honky Tonkin'

So my British friend Amy and I have started a tradition where we hang out and have lunch and do something fun together on a Sunday afternoon.  Last weekend the northern line was closed for engineering works so we decided to meet at Clapham Common since it's quite easy for both of us to get a bus there.

Winter is definitely well on its way over here.  The weather has been cold and wet and grey lately, but Sunday it put on a burst of Autumn sunshine.  Still cold, but also very pretty.

The first thing I saw after getting off the bus were these little remote-controlled yachts on the pond in the common.  So pretty!

I met up with Amy and we decided to go to this cool little place called Honky Tonk!  I mostly wanted to go there because of it's awesome name, but the menu also looked quite delicious.

While I was VERY tempted by the nutella waffles I felt like something savoury, so had "The Big Nasty" full English breakfast with a twist, and it was yummy! The potato hash had a Mediterranean flair and the home made baked beans were also kind of spicy, but tasty not hot.  Oh and did I mention my vanilla milkshake came in an actual milk-bottle? So cute! We are planning to go back again (at least once) so that we can try some of the other yummy looking dishes as well!

I also loved the quirky little details like these mirrors on the way to the bathroom and the fact that our bill was delivered inside a book!

After lunch Amy and I wandered around the Common for a while, before it got too cold! The sun sets around 4pm now, and is fully dark by 4.30pm! So I took some last photos in the (probably last of the year) sun, before dashing home to put on my pyjamas and sit by the heater :)

For more details or to make a booking at Honky Tonk, here is the website for the Clapham Common restaurant:
honkytonkchelsea.com/clapham-common/

Banana Blueberry Bread

I felt like doing some baking, and I had bananas that were very ripe and needed to be used, so I found an easy low-fat recipe on an app, and adjusted it a bit, to make this delicious low-fat Banana Blueberry Bread!
The recipe is really easy, and it smells heavenly while cooking; my housemates kept asking me what I was making and saying how good it smelled (to remind me to share? I was planning to anyway!), and then that it was delicious when done.  Tastes amazing while still warm from the oven, and was also still moist and yummy the next day.

Would probably keep for longer, but it didn't last that long!

Enjoy :)

Banana Blueberry Bread

Ingredients

1/2 cup mashed overripe bananas
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup reduced-fat milk
1 tbs light olive or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
cinnamon and nutmeg

Steps

1 - Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2 - Combine the banana, sugar, milk, eggs and oil in a bowl.
3 - Sift over the flour and fold gently into the banana mixture until just combined. Add the blueberries and gently fold in as well.
4 - Pour mixture into a pan and sprinkle with a little caster sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg as desired.
5 - Bake in oven for one hour or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Voila!  I only waited a couple of minutes before digging in while it was still warm and gooey, delish!

Fantastic Fantasy Fiction

Can't believe it's been nearly a month since my last post, must catch up, but been so busy lately!

Work was kicking my ass and Christmas is coming which means shopping, card-writing and posting of everything back to Australia is also required.

There's been lots of things I keep meaning to post about, and will have to do a separate entry for one or two, but for now one of the highlights of the past month was meeting the author Robin Hobb and getting a signed copy of her new novella!

It was a good read, if a little short for me (I'd finished it by the time I got home from the signing - reading while waiting in line, having lunch and then on the tube).  It gives readers a glimpse into the legend of the Piebald Prince (if you are familiar with the Farseer series then you will know all about this) and even manages to surprise the reader with details unknown in the later events of the universe.

Only got to speak to her very briefly, but it was still pretty awesome to actually meet and speak to my (possible) favourite author!

I have been in love with her books since high school, I think I've read (and re-read many times) all of them, and my favourites are definitely the ones set in the the world of the Farseers.  Her writing is effortless to read, her characters are always so well-rounded and non-stereotypical.  I particularly love the strong female characters she writes, and her portrayal of dragons is really unique.  I would definitely recommend her to anyone who loves a bit of fantasy and magic coupled with fantastic characters and complex, fascinating story-lines!

If you're interested in buying any of her books here is her Amazon UK page. 

I would suggest reading them in this order:  

Assassin's Apprentice

Royal Assassin

Assassin's Quest

Ship of Magic

Mad Ship

Ship of Destiny

Fool's Errand

Golden Fool

Fool's Fate

Dragon Keeper

Dragon Haven

City of Dragons

Blood of Dragons

The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince

The above four series can stand alone, but they also interweave characters and plots and the events chronologically happen in the order they were written (the order above).  They are ALL fantastic! She has written others as well, but those are all part of the Farseer universe, and my personal favourites.  Happy reading :)

Also, her official website is http://robinhobb.com/