and walk on the grass. (Ps. I got these sandals from here in the sale if anyone is interested.)
shopping
on the upside
Yesssss new shoes. I am still without a bike but on the upside this means I get to do a lot more window shopping on my morning walk :) They are from here of all places, I had never considered entering this store before.
The picture at the top reminds me to mention that Simon writes about his record collection here. He knows a lot about records.
Postcard Teas
I first heard about Postcard Teas from my father who really likes fine green and black teas. As I had just run out of the sencha that I was using at work I placed an order for a green tea and a black tea to try it out. I chose Wazuka Sencha and Yunnan Red Cloud:
Wazuka Sencha is the epitome of a fine Japanese Sencha. From Wazuka in Uji where the imperial Sencha is grown, this sweet grassy green tea is blended by Hidekazu whose family have been in the tea business for over 100 years. Brew with water cooled to 70˚C and a teaspoon of tea per cup.
Yunnan Red Cloud is a hand made Yunnan black tea made from ancient wild tea trees up to 800 years old. This sweet fruity tasting black tea is best brewed with water just off the boil (95˚C) and a large teaspoon of tea per cup.
They are both completely delicious and I could keep sniffing the tins all day. They are like the descriptions, the sencha is a lovely sweet fresh tea, and you really get the fruity scent from the black tea. It is not cheap but I consider it a reasonable cost as I will enjoy these several times a day every day. The packaging is great too. I am looking forward to trying out some of their other teas.
new traditions
I bought this set of prints for us - for Simon and for the house. It is my new Valentine tradition to buy us some art on this day :) Because I am not a millionaire I am not able to buy all the art that I would like and I hope that this will be a nice way to add to our collection. The prints are by Blanca Gómez aka Cosas mínimas. I have admired her work for many years, we have another of her prints by our front door - I think it was one of the first things I bought for our house.
Toast
Shhhh but I went back to the Toast sale again. Really I have been very good about not buying a single thing lately, but when an email came through about their archive sale just as I was checking my email before dinner last night I could not resist checking it out, I think my blood sugar must have been low or something. Anyway today in the light of day I am very pleased with my purchases, there are some great deals to be had at the moment and it is about quality not quantity right? :)
daily travel
It still feels quite empty out on the streets, I guess the students aren't back from their holidays and it isn't really mega tourist season. This is the side of the Bodleian Library that I am passing by here on my way home.
We have had a couple of tiny dustings of snow (like 1mm or something) but it hasn't stuck around for more than a couple of hours. I don't mind cycling in snow unless it is really deep. The really scary thing is ice as I don't want to slip and crack my nut but fingers crossed we haven't had much of that yet.
Oh I just thought of something! As a winter cyclist there is one thing that I really find helpful and that is... Ear Bags!
(photo from earbags.com)
They sort of snap on over your ears, there is a diagram of how they work here. I have been wearing them for many years, as has my dad and sister, and to me they are absolutely essential when cycling from about October to April. They are also ok to wear with my earrings including hoops and longer earrings, and you can hear through them which is important when you are out on the road.
I currently sport the 'Knitted Elk' design but they do all sorts including plain black if you don't want anything too crazy. For me the worst issue in winter cycling is the cold wind blowing over my ears (oh the pain!), a hat alone doesn't stop the cold getting in when you are powering along.
I promise you I haven't been paid to endorse these! I just find them so helpful in my daily travel that I thought maybe someone else out there might be interested to hear about them too :)
Toast Sale
This is just a quick heads up for any other Toast devotees out there that the Toast Sale is now on in the stores with the online sale beginning on 5th January. I bought three very beautiful nightdresses but restrained myself from anything else for now. It is so difficult to find nice nightwear I think, but these are just perfect. I had been thinking about buying these before Christmas at the full price so am very happy to have found them in the sale, isn't that just one of the best feelings to find something that you already really wanted (and in your size) in the sale?
I am not going to do any other sales shopping. I have been having fun cutting up clothes that my sister no longer wanted and making them into new things. So far I have made a top out of a skirt and I have reworked a dress. I am going to wear it out on New Years Eve so now it occurs to me that I will be seeing in the New Year in reworked/recycled clothes which seems auspicious somehow :)
How do you shop?
It's intriguing how different people shop and plan out the day-to-day (or maybe that is just me??) :) I was thinking about this yesterday as I realised how different the way I shop now is from how people would have done it even 10 years ago. We order about 90% of our food online; with a weekly delivery of organic vegetables and a delivery of the other groceries (flour, tins, frozen things) about once every couple of months.
We just did one of our grocery shops. How I do it is to gather all the reading material I have been looking at, in this instance Everyday Food, Gourmet, Nigella Christmas, and Ices. List everything that we need for the things we would like to try (with an eye on the cost and calories). Then go around the house with a notepad writing down everything else that is needed. Then I log in to our account, book a delivery, and add to the shopping basket. As easy as that and it saves us lots of money as you can really plan meals.
Sunday in Notting Hill
My sister lives in London so whenever I can I head out to see her because we always have such a fun time :)
We went to a vintage fashion fair that is normally in Lavender Hill but on Sunday it had relocated to an old theatre off Portabello Road in Notting Hill.
We didn't get anything for ourselves but we bought some lovely gloves for my aunt who's birthday it is next weekend.
After browsing up and down Portabello Road market we stopped for pizza in the sun, such lovely weather.
And did some house oogling, it is like icing sugar isn't it?
Speaking of icing sugar we picked up two cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery which specialises in American cakes, the main difference with British cupcakes is the buttercream frosting. I chose a red velvet cupcake and my sister a vanilla chocolate cupcake.
We used a coffee stirrer to cut them in half so we could try half of each one :)
Then we laid in Holland Park shooting the breeze.
More breeze.
Is there anything better than laying chatting in the park in the hot Autumn sun? I don't think so. My sister got a personal call on her mobile from Nepal which impressed me, I mostly get calls offering me a 'better' deal on my phone bill :)
Look how busy it was, and this was the quiet end of the park.
It is quite a crazy sight if you are used to a more spacious city!
Then we headed to Whole Foods which there is a UK branch of in Kensington. We were more window shopping rather than buying! I came away with just a yoghurt and a drink but if I had money I would have bought everything. It reminds me a little if the organic (bio) supermarkets in Berlin. So much yum.
The end to a lovely day. Today I woke up with an intense cold so I hope this post isn't a little delierious :)
