Olympics, Bah Humbug

People who don't live in London always ask me if I'm excited about the Olympics coming up.

My answer? No.

Here's why: Recent headlines in London news...

Type O- Blood Donors Needed For Olympics

Want to beat the Olympic rush hour? Try rollerblading: Transport bosses' advice to help beat the traffic

London bus drivers to go on strike in Olympic bonus row

So not only do we have have to rollerblade to work, but now they're actually demanding blood?!

In Defense of Cooking

Since I'm not working at the moment, I've decided to take my housewifely duties quite seriously, especially in the kitchen. No more sandwiches and crisps or takeaways for J! I'm pretty sure he cries himself to sleep at night at the prospect of oven-baked kale chips, but I sleep fine so all is well with the world. Hehehe.

When I lived on my own, I ate mostly yogurt and raw fruit and vegetables. Not because I was on some weird diet, but more because I couldn't cook and I just couldn't be bothered. I didn't even own a microwave, and kitchen appliance stores like Sur La Table just scared me. I couldn't figure out what most of those things were for. Example:

Once I got married, I decided that I should learn to cook. It's an essential life skill, and one I should've picked up before the ripe old age of 28. You can't eat raw food forever, it turns out, and your husband probably won't go for it. I know mine didn't.

My first attempt at baking resulted in a spectacular chocolate cookie fail when I thought baking soda = baking powder. That turned out to be so not true. But I eventually figured things out in the kitchen, and I'm pretty good about getting a healthy meal together for the two of us.

And then along came a book by Michael Pollen - In Defense of Food. It's a pretty interesting read about the "food" that we eat today and the associated negative health effects. His advice? Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

It sounds easy, but it turns out that most conventionally grown fruit and veg lack the same nutrients as their organic counterparts. Major bummer, especially since organic costs so much more.

Solution? A CSA box! I put in an order for a fruit and veg box to be delivered weekly from Abel & Cole. They pile organic and seasonal fruit and veg in a box and deliver it straight to your flat. The prices aren't that much higher than that of conventionally grown produce, and eating seasonal, locally grown food is much better for you and the environment. Just think of it this way: You're buying nutrients, rather than calories.

My delivery came early, and I jumped out of bed to check out the goods. And the goods were good.

I usually dislike cooking and see it as more of a necessity, but looking at all the fresh produce got me moving. Once I spied the carrots, I decided to make a hummus dip.

I'm thinking J wouldn't mind eating raw carrots so much now...

One of my most hated chores is prepping vegetables, and I thought I'd get it all out of the way in one big shebang. I spent all morning washing and chopping and julienning and mandolining, and now my refrigerator looks like this:

Truly, the stuff of J's nightmares.

But heaven to me is a bowl of freshly washed fruit.

Don't worry, he'll live. Since I made biscotti and roast chicken - I'm not that cruel...





Except for the fact that I ate it all while he was at work. Muahahahaha!

It Isn't Easy Being Green

This past Saturday was the first dry day in quite some time, so I dragged J outside to check out the London Green Fair in Regent's Park.

I got the gist that it's about being environmentally friendly, but I wasn't quite sure what we would encounter there.

Some things were pretty obvious, such as the plant and gardening booths.

Other less obvious offerings included lots and lots of food stands. J and I were kicking ourselves for having lunch at home. Too full for churros = sad.

The many different music concerts were definitely a pleasant surprise - the choices varied from beatboxers, classical musicians and reggae bands.

I was also a big fan of the free books, although I felt a twinge of sympathy for the authors whose books had been picked over. Kind of sucks that no one wants your book, even if it's free!

The thing that kind of confused me is that there was so much stuff for sale.

I'll admit to having some hippie-ish tendencies since I went to rather liberal schools, and I thought the best way of being green was just to consume less. I mean, unless you're really in need of a dreamcatcher made entirely out of hemp.

J and I weren't really in the market for henna tattoos or soap made out of goat's milk (how does this even work?) so we left the fair to check out something that I've been wanting to do for a year! I can't wait! And don't worry Mom, it's not nearly as high as it looks and it's perfectly safe.

Horsing Around at Hyde Park Stables

I never asked my parents to buy me a pony. But then again, I grew up in LA and I don't think horses are allowed on Wilshire Boulevard. Asking for a horse wouldn't have made much sense back then so I made do with my hamsters.

Since I've moved to London, I see horses everywhere. The cops ride them around, and I frequently heard the clip-clopping of hooves down Chancery Lane outside of my old office. All of a sudden, horses are an option, and I decided that learning to ride would be my kind of fun.

Seeing as how I've never ridden one before, I decided a taster may be in order and I signed up for an hour-long ride with Hyde Park Stables.



Silly me, I showed up an hour before my ride was to begin, so I walked around Hyde Park for a bit. The weather had definitely cooled down quite a bit, and the park was deserted.







No one swimming in the Diana Memorial this time around.



Anyway, I returned to the stables, and they fitted me with the proper boots and a riding hat while I waited for my horse. I should mention that I was probably the only grown-up there - I was surrounded by eight year-old girls smartly dressed in jodhpurs and chaps. There was quite the variety of horses - I had my fingers crossed for a mid-sized one if not a pony.



And then they brought out Monty. He wasn't huge or anything, but I still needed a mounting block and a big hop to get in the saddle. But not before he let out a bucket of pee all over the cobblestones. Nice.

Once I was up there, I became super aware of the fact that there was nothing to catch me if I fell. And it felt pretty precarious perched up there, but I quickly got used to it and riding at a walk was pretty easy once they had my stirrups adjusted and I figured out how to hold the reins properly.

Cameras aren't allowed while riding, so you have to take my word that it was pretty sweet. I rode around Hyde Park with an instructor, who held my horse on a line, and we were followed by another instructor who was riding a spooky pony. And by spooky pony, I mean that he was scared of everything. He had a major freak out when he saw two ladies rolling luggage along and we had to avoid a big orange fence, but other than that, the ride was pretty mellow.

A lot of the ride was at a walk, but my instructor was keen on trotting so trot we did. I was told to hold on to the saddle for dear life and stand up and down with the rhythm of the horse as it trotted along. Apparently, this is the English style of riding, and it's a lot harder than it looks but I managed to nail it after the first failed attempt. Two days later, and my forearms still feel like noodles from grasping the saddle so as not to fall to my death.

As fun as it was, there wasn't much, if any, instruction during the ride, and I definitely want to learn properly. I've done some looking around, and it looks like there's a stables down in Wimbledon that's more like a proper school and a bit cheaper. Their weight restrictions also aren't quite so strict as to limit the riders to children or munchkin-sized adults.

I do hope their horses are a bit smaller...

The Harry Potter Studio Tour

I'm absolutely terrible at keeping surprises to myself, so it was everything I could do to not blurt out where we were going on Tuesday to J. He's a major Harry Potter fan, and I secretly booked us tickets on the Warner Bros tour of the Harry Potter studio and backlot.

J gamely followed me on to the train without any clue of where we were going, but he finally figured it out when he spotted the shuttle bus waiting outside of the train station with the Harry Potter logo emblazoned all over it. Needless to say, he was pretty stoked. I was busy noticing that we were one of the very few people there without any kids. Oops.

The ticket warns you to come at least half an hour early, and we were there with ample time to kill so we grabbed some coffee and wandered around the gift shop, which had pretty much everything from the movie for sale. For reals, I saw small children running around with full-on broomsticks in their little paws. And I wonder if Voldemort knew that you can get the Sorcerer's Stone for the low, low price of 79.95.

Rather than broomsticks or stones, I was much more interested in the candy...

Too bad for me, I didn't get a chance to buy a chocolate frog before it was time for us to queue to enter the studio. The tour started out with a short film, and then the screen rose up to reveal the entrance to the Great Hall. J was nearly squealing with excitement at this point.

After the Great Hall, we wandered around with our audio guides in tow. Some familiar sets were on display...

Dumbledore's study...

 Harry and Ron's dorm room...

Potions classroom...

Umbridge's office...

And they had lots of costumes and props on display as well.

The clock from the Weasley's house...

The door leading to the basilisk...

After oohing and aahing over everything, we wandered around the outdoors bit with a butterbeer (which turned out to be cream soda with whipped cream on top) in hand and got to see the house on Privet Drive before the cold, wet weather drove us back inside.

Once inside, we did a quick tour of the Creatures room and then wandered down Diagon Alley. We saw all the familiar shops such as Ollivander's and Fortescue's and Weasley's Wheezes. I wouldn't have minded doing some shopping in these stores, but sadly, they were cordoned off.

 J was quite taken by the model of Hogwarts that closes the tour. I think he was a bit dismayed when I shut down his suggestion that we move to a flat where we could have an empty room to build our own Hogwarts model. Um, yeah, not going to happen.

I think that was the best two hours J had spent in quite some time, and I was pretty pleased with myself for having thought of it. I hope he remembers this when my birthday rolls around...

Bank Holiday at the South Bank

J and I accidentally on purpose forgot to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee, but we definitely wanted to take full advantage of the bank holidays on Monday and Tuesday.

I knew the South Bank was having a World Food Festival, and I didn't have any trouble convincing J to accompany me.



All I needed to say was: Do you want mac 'n cheese or hot dogs for lunch?



Of course, there were tons of other things on offer...





And my favourite - FROYO! Too bad it was too cold for ice cream. Seriously, everyone was bundled up in coats and scarves. Whatever happened to summer and global warming?!



But I consoled myself with some churros dipped in melted chocolate. Yum.

After we finished stuffing our faces, we walked along the river and caught some interesting sights on our way to the Tate Modern.

There was a lovely group playing to the crowd outside the National Theatre...



And a photo shoot going on in the skate park...



It was a pretty long walk, but we finally found ourselves in front of the Tate Modern, London's premiere modern art museum.

Entry is free, so we wandered in to have a look-see at what the fuss is all about. My initial impression was that the space is absolutely huge, and the bottom two floors look pretty much like an airplane hangar. The floors above are smaller but the common areas areas are much more interesting.





The art itself was... hmm. Some of the exhibits were pretty interesting, but some of the other bits were just "huh?!". I took some snaps of the examples of why I find it difficult to like modern "art"...

A plain black canvas...



Air conditioning ducts...



Maybe my eye isn't sophisticated enough to appreciate these pieces, but J and I both had enough after a few hours. I think J's favourite part of the whole museum was the BBQ truck set up right outside the entrance.



We walked across the Millennium Bridge, which J likes to refer to as the "Harry Potter bridge" since it was the one that got attacked by the Death Eaters in the film, and hopped on the Tube to head home. Severe delays on the Central line. Of course.