Regent's Park

On Sunday, I was itching to get out of the house.

I finished off my dissertation draft in the early afternoon, (that's right folks, I'm finally at the end of the diss road!) pinged it through to my Director of Studies, grabbed a pair of sunglasses and headed out with A to catch some rays.

It was the day of the London Marathon so we knew the centre of town would be swamped. I had three very simple priorities: a green space, some lunch, and some time to read a non-academic book. A had one: ice cream.

We're very fond of Regent's Park after having one of our first dates at London Zoo (it was a good one - I pointed at everything and got very excited) so decided to catch the tube there.

We picked up a Pret lunch from Great Portland Street. I had crayfish and rocket sandwiches, a blueberry probiotic yoghurt drink and some kale crisps. All solid choices. Then we sprawled out on the grass to munch our lunch with some good books. I was reading Shift, the sequel to Wool, which I loved. There were some more fantastic twists in the follow-up, and I now can't wait for exams to be over so I can finish the trilogy with Dust! Read more about the books on my TBR list after I've finished my exams here.

After lunch we had a little stroll around to walk off our sandwiches. Regent's Park really is gorgeously planned out - it was constructed in the 1860s and really reminds me of the Jardins des Tuileries in Paris, which would have been designed and implemented at roughly the same time. It's got similarly long, sweeping tree-lined boulevards and beautiful fountains.

I may have had an immature giggle at the shape of some of the manicured topiaries.

A cute squirrel decided to pose for me.

We walked all the way over to the far side of the park, stopping to admire a cool sculpture of a big cat and his female companion about to pounce.

A and I couldn't resist a bit of pounce-posing ourselves.

They sold ice-cream tubs in the park, but A was really after a cone. We hightailed it back to Queen's Park, found the nearest ice-cream van and got a 99p cone each! With all the trimmings. So nostalgic. (See Instagram shot below, in which I am clearly too thrilled with my cone to care about my makeup smearing all over my eyes). Hey - we may be in our 20s now, but we're still kids at heart.

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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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