Mini Adventures #5

So. I've clearly been eating my stresses this week. (Kummerspeck, anyone?) Over half of my mini adventures are food-related! Pretty sure it's A's bad influence - he's come to stay with me for a couple of weeks and, being a sweet-toothed male, loves to eat at least one pudding a day. I weighed myself on Wednesday and I'm hovering around the top end of what I would consider to be my average weight range, so I might need to cut down on those puddings pretty darn soon...:P

Here's what I've been loving this week.

1) Digging into a box of Pierre Marcolini Palets Fins chocolates. Part of the joy of these chocolates is how beautifully designed they are. That typography is gorgeous, plus they're so thin that they snap in half with one bite. They only have a small amount of filling in them too, so you won't feel like a total pig if you only have one at a time. (Yup...I'm in denial). My favourites have been the Praliné Pistache Noisette and the Caramel Mangue. 

BBC's Monkey Planet

2) Watching Monkey Planet - a new BBC 3-part documentary about primates that A and I have become a wee bit obsessed with. It's amazing how closely related we are to primates. My favourite moments so far have been the scene where an orangutan mimics humans having a wash by soaping up next to a river, and the part in the second episode where presenter George McGavin (who is GREAT) uses his iPhone to demonstrate how some species of monkeys have established a proto-language. We've been snuggling down to watch it on iPlayer on Thursday evenings, and I fear I'm going to be bereft without it when it ends this Thursday...

3) Ordering pizzas late at night from Sacro Cuore, my favourite local pizza place down in Queen's Park. It's had some bad reviews regarding its customer service but I've never experienced that as I always order and pick up. Besides, the pizzas themselves are deliziose and that's all I care about! Tartufata, my pizza of choice every time I order, is the absolute bomb. 

4) Seeing the blossoms shedding on the streets. It's like walking through a Japanese anime in Queen's Park right now; pink blossom petals fall gently to the ground in the spring breeze to swirl around your feet in little eddies. I hope that was a sufficiently gagworthy description. Seriously, though, if I could get married in a grove of blossoms in the spring (somewhere warm) with petals falling all around me I totally would.

5) Trying Gü's new After Dark pots - 'Gü York Cheesecakes'! So tasty, and they were on offer. Just one of many puddings that has disappeared into my tummy this week. My life is wild, I know.

6) Hanging out at A's grandparents' place in south-east London. Their garden is so pretty, with a winding path that leads to a little semi-wooded area of bluebells. We had fun picking bay leaves for future Italian-inspired recipes and sitting in the sunshine.

7) Working chez Gail's Kitchen in Bloomsbury. I love Gail's - all the pastries are wonderful as they taste home-cooked, and they have a fair few branches around London now (including one on my doorstep in Queen's Park). For lunch I had a juicy sausage roll with tomato sauce...and then a slice of their incredible carrot cake. Ok, I have no one to blame for my pudding addiction but myself.

8) Wearing a panoply of jumpers. My house is so cold at the moment, even when it's warm and sunny outside! Walking out of the house is literally like transitioning from the dead of winter to spring. Ok so maybe this isn't the most adventuresome of the things I've done this week, but it means I'm getting an extra bit of use out of all the jumpers I'm going to have to pack away soon! (Who am I kidding...jumpers come in useful all year round in good old Blighty). This one's a favourite, bought from Topshop last autumn. And yes, although it's mercifully over-exposed, I am makeupless in this selfie. I wear very, very little makeup, if any, when it's dissertation/revision o'clock. And frankly the hair is lucky if it gets brushed.

8) Counterbalancing all that pudding eating with some healthy smoothies! Ok, maybe not totally healthy. I know drinking smoothies and juice is basically like pouring sugar down your throat. But the two I drank this week kept me hydrated, and had a few 'super' ingredients in them too, so they were hopefully better than nothing! I had a Bliss Blend from Crussh - a tasty blend of coconut, mango, pineapple and orange, 98% fat-free probiotic yoghurt and their 'bliss blend booster', a mix of vitamins and amino acids that's supposed to activate mood-improving endorphins and relax the body. I also tried out the new 'ENERGISE' drink from the Innocent Super Smoothie range. It's got guarana and flax seeds in it alongside strawberries, cherries and apple. There are much healthier green smoothies available from both Crussh and Innocent, but I clearly wasn't feeling virtuous enough this week. Clearly. Erm...maybe after exams I'll do a big detox?

A lot of these photos go straight on to my Instagram, which you can follow below if you wish to see more of my gluttonous escapades!

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Mini Adventures #4

Life is a bit frantic at the moment. The weeks are rolling by far too quickly and the dreaded April 22nd and May 26th, 28th and 30th (all the deadlines and exam dates I categorically do not want to arrive) are approaching! Even so, I've been enjoying myself as much as I can with the little wiggle room I have. Here's what I've been up to in the last fortnight.

1) Reading The Fault In Our Stars. It's a weepy one. You can read my review on my book blog, Lignin and Petrichor, here. I can't wait to get into reading again - the minute my exams are over (May 30th, I'm looking at you), I'm going to bury myself in books.

2) Making a beef and potato bake. The weather's taken a turn for the cold, again. Welcome to England. This bake was the perfect comfort food. I'm planning to cook a chilli con carne tonight, 'cos it's pretty chilly out there!

3) Strolling around the back garden and enjoying the flowers while they last! We have lots of blossoms and daffodils, but they're all on the wane now.

4) Chowing down on some super tasty pizzas from Kerb for lunch on a library day with Jess! We headed down to Granary Square to sit next to the river behind King's Cross. It's a perfect lunch spot when it's sunny!

With Jess in Forbidden Planet on a separate visit. I could spend hours in that place...

5)  Exploring Forbidden Planet in Covent Garden with A. Forbidden Planet is a mecca for every fan girl and fan boy out there (it just has everything fantasy and sci-fi related - Doctor Who Oyster card holders, Legend of Zelda belt buckles, Harry Potter wands, and the most well-stocked manga section I've seen in the UK!) and in the depths of its literature-heavy basement, I discovered The Walking Dead graphic novels. I've since read my way up to chapter 100. I'm pretty sure this wasn't a good move... Then again, I've just found out I have a dissertation deadline, mock exam and revision day all in the space of three consecutive days at the start of term, so maybe tons of post-apocalyptic zombie outbreak comics are exactly what I need right now? Maybe? 

6) Eating the Byronosaurus Burger at Byron on Wardour St, accompanied by a projection of the original Godzilla film. I've always loved Byron, and I know that the burgers are the things to go there for, but at the moment I'm pretty obsessed with their salads too. Their Cobb Classic is so delicious!

Image source

7) Taking a trip to the cinema to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Oh my, the muscles on that man. Plot's actually pretty good too - some great twists which kept me gripped past the body! Also, Falcon's wing suit. Want very badly.

Photographer: Andreas Grieger

8) Seeing the press night of A's new show, Once We Lived Here, at the King's Head Theatre. More on that tomorrow!

9) Showing my Light Blue pride with my nails on Sunday for the 160th Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race. We all headed down to Putney Bridge to watch the start of the race! Sadly we lost to the Dark Blues, but it was an enjoyable evening anyway :)

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Mini Adventures #3

I write this huddled by the stove in my living room. Spring has sprung, but unfortunately London has once again been seized by an arctic grip. Yep - after last week's joyous declaration of shedding my outer layers, I'm back in the oversized jumpers and cable-knit leggings again.

When it's nippy outside, I tend to do two things. One: anything that allows me to wrap up and not have to move very much, like watching films/TV/theatre. Two: Eat until I've created a whole new layer of blubber to keep me warm.

You shouldn't be too surprised by the things I've enjoyed doing this week then!

1) A few trips to the theatre that - gasp - weren't opera-related! I saw Sondheim's wonderful Into the Woods at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge, then 1984 at the Almeida on Tuesday. I thought 1984 was just jawdroppingly good - I loved the use of set and effects, and can't quite get Winston's Room 101 treatment out of my head five days later. 1984 is sold out at the Almeida (though you can get tickets by queuing up in the morning), and will be transferring to the Playhouse Theatre on the West End from April til July. I highly recommend seeing it!

2) Making Lottie's Little Kitchen's Malteser Tiffins. Ironically, I'm not sure I actually put enough Maltesers in them, but A still gobbled them all up :)

3) Returning home to London to see all the daffodils poking their heads out at me!

4) An early Easter present from Jess - a chocolate dinosaur, which I've nicknamed Pod, 'cause he's a super cute sauropod! (I geek out over palaeontology, sorry not sorry.)

5) My post-term book-fest. I had a good old peruse of some chick-lit, reading Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook and Sophie Kinsella's Wedding Night. The former caused me to cry a lot, while the Kinsella was a lovely way to turn off my brain for a bit. Then I absolutely demolished the first of Hugh Howey's Silo trilogy, Wool - and wrote my thoughts about it in my book blog.

6) Eating my way across London. The picture above is a memorial to a delectable chunk of truffle pecorino I picked up from Selfridges last night that unfortunately did not survive breakfast. It's now in my belly, but I will think of it fondly forever. I also polished off a saddle of lamb with celeriac mash at Le Mercury on Upper St, Bone Daddies' Sweet 3 Miso Ramen, a double cake and tea at Peyton and Byrne in the British Library, and the veggie burger at Byron. *Rubs stomach happily*

So I'll be topping this food and culture heavy week off with a trip to the cinema tonight! I'm going to see The Grand Budapest Hotel - I can't wait, I've heard such great things!

What have you been up to this week?

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Mini Adventures #2

The last week of term has flown by. I took a trip to London to see my boyfriend's show (he's musical directing Dido and Aeneas, at the King's Head in Islington), and ate a lot of food! Here's my favourite bits from the past week in pictures.

image source

1) Seeing Spike Jonze's film Her at the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge. I thought it was chillingly close to our reality, in which you get on the Tube and everyone's gazing down at mini screens. I'm sure that one day, operating systems like Siri could become so much more to us tech-dependent humans. 

2) The arrival of spring! I can finally go out without having to Eskimo up with a bajillion layers.  (I was so excited to not have to wear a jumper last week that selfies happened). Warmer, brighter days definitely make for a happier Tamsin!

3) Popping into the exhibition Georgians Revealed at the British Library for my course on British painting from the 18th to the mid-19th century. There was a giant map of London on the floor, so I was instantly pleased. It's sadly closed now, but the British Library is always worth a visit, especially the permanent Treasures of the British Library exhibition - you can see all sorts of things from a death warrant signed by Elizabeth I, to illuminated medieval manuscripts and hand-written scores by composers like Handel and Mozart. 

4) Grabbing a bite to eat at Fork Deli Patisserie in Bloomsbury before the exhibition. It's a hipster's paradise - all filament bulbs and painted wood. Meals are certainly pricey but delicious - Alex had salmon with a beetroot and kale salad, while I had a caprese, which was lovely, but tiny. So of course I had to fill up on raspberry nata tarts for pudding. Of course. 

5) Having my first taste of Five Guys on Upper St! My verdict - excellent chips (cooked in peanut oil, and especially tasty with their special spicy powder) and high quality burgers, but ultimately a revved-up, more expensive version of McDonald's. 

6) Coming back to Cambridge to a lovely house barbecue to make the most of the good weather. We feasted on more burgers, corn on the cob and spare ribs. I certainly wasn't hungry this weekend...

7)  Finally getting round to having my hair cut, after about 9 months (I know. I'm ashamed of myself) at Stilo in Cambridge. It's so much healthier and lighter now. Need to go to the hairdresser's more regularly for sure!

8) Finishing Umberto Eco's The Name of The Rose! Read my thoughts on it on my new biblio-centric Wordpress, Lignin and Petrichor. 

I'd love to know what you've been up to this week! And if anyone has any tips on things to do over the Easter break in London (culture, foodie spots, books to read), please share them! I'm so excited to go home for a bit :)

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Mini Adventures #1

At Cambridge we have a bizarre way of planning out our time.

Instead of doing Monday-Sunday weeks like the rest of the world, our weeks start on Thursdays.

Today marks the beginning of Week Eight, the last week of term (and therefore the end of my penultimate term ever - hooray!)

Here's ten snapshots from my iPhone that have put a smile on my face in the past fortnight.

1) I produced an opera, Mozart's Don Giovanni, at the end of February, set at the end of World War II. Here's our set designer Rob looking on admiringly as the lighting team fly one of the dirigibles!

2) Painting the Don Giovanni set on the Sidgwick site in the sunshine.

3) A shaggy haired Alex does his best model squint outside Andrew Northrop's Butchers, where we picked up our rack of lamb.

4) On our way back from the butcher's we discovered Mill Road Feast - a tri-monthly festival/farmer's market hybrid. Definitely going to drop by in June!

5) Caramel Snack-a-Jacks. I lived off these in show week and am still obsessed. Perfect for nibbling on absent-mindedly when you're doing an essay!

6) I saw this jumper in Topshop and fell in love with it immediately. It's a bit art historian-y, my favourite colour, and only £29!

7) Trinity College Cambridge in the sunshine.

8) Pancake Day selfies.

9) OCD housemates devising a new spice organisation system.

10) Getting stuck into Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose for World Book Day today!

Happy World Book Day everyone - hope you're all having fun being bookworms today too!