I love a bandwagon, me!

 Congratulations Swansea City Football Club!!

A quick weekend in London

Source: www.lindenhotellondon.co.uk 

London, oh London, you just never disappoint!

Mr. O and I got home late last night after our very whistle stop visit to the capital. We're both a bit shattered today, but we crammed a lot in and had a really brilliant time.

We didn't set off until Saturday morning and arrived in Notting Hill just after lunch. We'd found the New Linden Hotel, on laterooms and, as our only real stipulation (apart from price) had been location, we were pleasantly surprised. Our room on the ground floor was very small, but nicely furnished and perfect for a one night stay. If we could get the same rate, we both agreed it's somewhere we'd book again in the future for another weekend getaway.



Shamefully, I didn't take nearly enough photos of our weekend, but I'd like to think it's just because we were enjoying our time together too much to keep stopping for photo breaks. Suffice to say, on Saturday afternoon, I fell a little bit more in love with Notting Hill, as we explored the last of that day's Portobello Road Market, window shopped for clothes we couldn't afford and skipped lunch in favour of Nutella crepes and our first Hummingbird Bakery cupcakes:

Vanilla for Mr. O and Black Bottom Cheesecake for me.

We had grand plans of a trip to Burger and Lobster for dinner, but after coming down off our sugar highs and trying both their Mayfair and Soho locations, we realised our tummies wouldn't survive the 90 minute table waits. The food at both restaurants looked delicious though and we'll definitely be more organised when we're next in London - my love for burgers knows no limits and I need to find out if these live up to the hype! After lots of traipsing around, in the end we settled for a cheerful plate of pasta each in Prezzo - not quite as exciting as we'd hoped, but hey, we don't have a Prezzo at home either!

Luckily, our culinary adventures on Sunday were a lot more successful. Ever since our Australian travels last year, Mr. O and I have been fans of Bill Granger, so couldn't resist Sunday brunch in his restaurant Granger & Co., located, conveniently for us, on Westbourne Grove. We must have timed our arrival perfectly as we walked straight in to a table, despite worries that we'd have another Burger and Lobster situation on our hands.

Source: www.grangerandco.com 

I've been lucky enough to eat at Granger & Co. a couple of times in the past few months, but this was Mr. O's first visit. The dining room itself is incredibly cool - an understated design that manages to make you feel both relaxed and part of something special at the same time. It really feels very Australian, thoughtful and arty enough that you know it's a spot that takes its reputation seriously, but with a laid back , 'anything goes' atmosphere. 

Playing my trump card that this was brunch and that we might not eat properly again all day, I managed to persuade Mr. O that we should share a plate of sweetcorn fritters to start (which wasn't a problem at all). The fritters arrived looking delicious and we both dived in. I'm not normally big on savoury breakfasts, but these were incredible! The fritters, combined with bacon, tomato and spinach, created the most incredible flavour combination. Crispy and salty, cut through with sweetness from the corn and tomato - Mr. O was happy to report that they tasted just as good as they had in Bill's Sydney restaurants! 

For round two, Mr. O ordered Bill's granola with coconut yoghurt and rhubarb and I went for the ricotta hotcakes (my motto in these situations has always been 'if you're gonna do it wrong, do it right'...). Though the granola was delicious, very light and refreshing after the sweetcorn fritters, my hotcakes stole the show! The hotcakes themselves were fluffy and a great, less spongy, more tangy alternative to your standard American pancake. The accompanying honeycomb butter was plentiful and the banana took the edge of all the sweetness, making me feel slightly better about my very piggy breakfast!

The delicious ricotta hotcakes. Source: www.grangerandco.com 

After such a relaxing start to the day (which included about three trips to the loo, to make the most of the Aesop handwash and lotion...), we decided we needed to stretch our legs for a bit. Setting off in the direction of Kensington Gardens, we made it all the way to the Palace, where we interrupted the sweetest family photo shoot. Standing in front of the golden gates was a small boy named Patrick, who very clearly did not want to have his photo taken. Whilst he groaned and gurned through his mum's best efforts to get a shot, his incredibly cute twin sister smiled sweetly alongside him, princess twirling while she waited. Patrick's 'CHEEEEEEESSSE' is still echoing in my ears and I think the poor boy might be quoted by Mr. O and I for a long time to come!



Outside Kensington Palace, minus Patrick and his sister.

After satisfying my inner Royal geek, we hotfooted it back to the car, frantically typed our destination into the sat nav and set off for Wembley. Well, the weekend couldn't be all eating, shopping and culture could it!?

Meeting up with my whole family, pulling on layers of black and white clothes and piling into the stadium with thousands of other Swans fans made for a very exciting evening. The atmosphere was electric and we felt so lucky to part of such a huge occasion. Lucky for us, the goals seemed to come thick and fast, though it was pretty humbling to watch the opposition's fans support their team so steadfastly, waving their flags and banners for almost the whole of the second half. At one point I found myself watching them more than the game, tears rising in my throat. Five goals secured a Swansea win though and the black and white side of the stadium erupted! We stayed until the bitter end, before jumping back in toour warm car and heading back down the M4. And let me tell you, I was very glad of those sweetcorn fritters and ricotta hotcakes by that point!

Highlights of the weekend: Spending time with the wonderful Mr. O...and the hotcakes.

Additional highlight of the weekend: Walking past Jason Donovan!

New Linden Hotel, 58-60 Leinster Square, London W2 4PS

Granger & Co., 175 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2SB

Off to London to see the Queen!

Ever since I finished my last full time project at the end of December, Mr. O and I have been desperate to plan some time away together. Unfortunately for us, whilst I've been swanning around as an lady of (almost complete) leisure, Mr. O has been incredibly busy at work and we just haven't been able to make our escape. But this weekend (thanks in no small part to a very important sporting event!), we're off - London here we come!

We're not going far and we're not going for long, but boy are we excited! The choice, pace and sights of the big city, the feel of being a part of such hustle and bustle and the fact that around every corner there is something new and exciting happening or a story waiting to be told, makes London one of my favourite places to spend time, especially when we're adventuring together.

This time around, we're zoning in on Notting Hill. Thanks to some last minute booking, we've got a room at a lovely looking hotel just off Westbourne Grove and we're making a long list of things to pack into our limited time. My half of the list consists mainly of places to eat...

Looking forward to reporting back on both the food and football fronts soon!

Delia, we love you!

Thank you, thank you Saint Delia of Norwich, for what was quite possibly the best apple, rhubarb and strawberry crumble ever. It may not be much to look at, but there are two very happy tummies in the Lighthouse this evening!

World Nutella Day

I have a dangerous addiction...to Nutella. A 'straight from the pot, piled high on a spoon' kind of addiction. I'd like to say that I can restrain myself and that when I get my hands on a pot I make it last, but, well, that wouldn't be strictly true.

So, you can imagine my excitement that, when doing some Nutella related googling last week, I stumbled across World Nutella Day. How did I not know this was a thing until now!? I'd found out in the nick of time though - in possibly one of the best coincidences ever, 2013's World Nutella Day was just days away on 5th February - come on!

This is the Nutella feast we had that evening - a flourless Nutella cake (my contribution), American pancakes with extra Nutella (courtesy of Mama) and...some fruit (which I'm certain balanced everything else out).

I was in heaven. I'm just wondering now if it's too early to start planning for next year? I hope not as there's plenty of inspiration out there - you can find the recipe for the cake (which was delicious just got better and better as the days passed by), along with countless other Nutella-based recipes, at the incredible World Nutella Day website.

The Green Monster

A confession - since I was about 15, I have suffered with problem skin. It's not really something I can hide, it's there on my face for all to see, but this feels like a confession nonetheless. It's a funny old thing, something I'm sure is more to do with my tendency to overthink things than anything else, but somehow my skin always feels like the elephant in the room - the one thing everybody notices, but nobody talks about. The 'does she know how red her face looks?' moments and the first thing I'm sure people notice when we're introduced for the first time. Over the years, I've spent more on lotions, potions and supplements than I'd care to add up, all in the quest for perfect, clear skin and a healthy glow which would let me walk out of the house makeup free, not giving a hoot about who I might bump into.

The problem (other than spots!) is that after so long, you kind of have to get on with your life. It's been over 10 years and I still haven't found the miracle cure, although certain products have certainly helped matters. Years of battling blemishes, combined with the palest skin known to man, has left me with reddened patches, scarring and enlarged pores...yet I'm also now starting to see the first signs of aging, as the condition of my skin continues to change. You just can't win! But, whilst wearing makeup always makes me feel so much more confident about my appearance, I also haven't found a perfect cosmetic solution to my problems and years of worrying about letting my skin breathe has led me to hate the way makeup feels on my skin. The result is that I'll go and meet my closest family and friends, the people I love and trust the most, wearing no makeup and then spend my time with them worrying about what they might be thinking. More than anything else, the condition of my skin has had the single biggest influence on my self confidence and I often wonder how different a person I might be if I had grown up with perfect skin.

I might well be my own worst enemy though, for whilst I have brilliant willpower when it comes to my cleansing regime and taking regular excercise, my diet leaves a lot to be desired. We don't eat large amounts of processed food (most of our meals we cook fresh and from scratch), but I have the most terrible of sweet toothes. I can't resist chocolate, cake is practically a dietary staple and I eat Nutella from the pot with a spoon. I'm incredibly lucky that I don't yet struggle with my weight (thank you gym membership and portion size awareness!) but, for the sake of my skin, I've tried eliminating all the usual suspects from my diet in the past and never seen any results where it really matters to me - my face.

I'm coming to realise though that my poor eating habits might not be setting me up properly for the future. To that end, I've been trying to work more fresh fruit and vegetables into my diet and also on finding natural alternatives to help curb my need to snack on unhealthy treats. On one of my recent internet trawls for tips, I came across Sofia's excellent post Skin Care 101 on her blog, Sofia's Journal. Since reading about her experiences, I've added a probiotic to my daily supplements, something I think has had a really positive effect on my poor old bowels! I also came across her recommendation for green smoothies. Mr. O and I have been juicing pretty regularly for the past year, but we've so far shied away from thicker, blended drinks. Reading through the website Green Monster Movement last week though, I became convinced that this was the answer to all of my worries (another bad habit of mine - every next thing is sure to be my miracle cure!).

I decided to start with a Virgin Green Monster, a drink the website said even the biggest sceptic would be sure to love. I followed the recipe to the letter, blending together spinach and flax with banana, almond milk and ice. The smell was delicious and the drink itself didn't look too bad either:

Lovely and green...bottoms up!

Unfortunately, that's where the success ended. I tried my best, I really did, but the lovely bananary smell did not match my Green Monster's taste at all!. I don't know if it was the spinach, the flax or the almond milk, or the fact that I'm not really used to tasting any of these ingredients in such a concentrated form, but my beautiful, natural drink tasted nothing but metallic. It was awful! I forced down a couple of mouthfuls, thinking of increased energy levels and a healthy glow, but I was beaten by the second half of the glass, which I'm ashamed to say remained half full - probably the only time that has counted as a negative!



The Green Monster beat me...

I'm going to try to persevere with this one though. Maybe I need to cut out the flax for now, scale down the spinach and add another fruit, so that the overall flavour isn't quite such a shock to the system. Who knows, one day soon I could be one of the cool kids who regularly downs a green smoothie before breakfast! And as for my skin issues? Well, I'm sure there'll be more posts about my quest for calmer skin to come.

So there you have it, one of my biggest anxieties out there for all to see. Funny how a post about a drink became a pouring out of the heart...!

New Beginnings

Every year, for as long as I can remember, I have walked this beach on New Year's Day. Racing ahead of my parents, laughing with friends and, more recently, strolling hand in hand with my husband, the beauty of being near the water never fails to make me feel fresh and invigorated for the year ahead. Sometimes we have to battle against the wind and rain, sometimes we're lucky enough to have glorious sunshine, but whatever the weather, it's a tradition that I love, knowing that - no matter what happens - we'll make this walk together at the same time every year.

February might be a strange time to write about Christmas traditions, but this year I made a promise and, thirty seven days later, I'm just about ready to start fulfilling it! I know lots of people dive straight into their new blogs, but I wanted to give my first post a sense of occasion, so here it is - The Beloved Road's very first walk on the beach.