Theo leads from the front

This is our third (and unlikely to be the last) blog which includes Brixton Village, if you want to see previous instalments click here and here.

Last Saturday our friends Marsh and Fee picked us up and we went to Brixton for lunch.

We took Theo in our Baby Bjorn front pack. Babies are supposed to be 3.5kg before you put them in the front pack, Theo is only 3.3kg but we tried him out and he seemed fine.

Jackie and I have never been to Brixton Village on a Saturday, we've only ever been on Sunday when it is quiet and many of the shops are closed. It was quite a different atmosphere on Saturday with hoards of people, considerable queues for some of the more established cafes and a number of shops open that are not open on Sundays.

We found a tiny middle eastern restaurant, called French and Grace (see their blog post on their development here) they could probably seat 16 people tops. We managed to snare a table outside for the 5 of us. They had a very small kitchen and a small menu to match. And they had already run out of their special for the day, which both Marshall and I wanted. The food we ordered came quickly, was quite simple but really delicious.

We loved it and the atmosphere was great, across from us was a pizza restaurant that was busy and had the boom sounds cranking, while to our right was a Malaysian restaurant and on the left was a butchers.

Theo in his Baby Bjorn, he didn't have much of a view, but he slept most of the time anyway

My view of Theo

The shop on our left as we ate lunch was this butcher, not sure about the food safety involved here but we didn't mind. 

To our right was the Malaysian restaurant - they had a bit of a queue. 

Our middle eastern restaurant was called French and Grace

The Bush Family

My wrap

I had to protect Theo from any food or sauce dropping from my  wrap, the enamel plate sat nicely on Theo's head, he didn't mind a bit. 

The tiny kitchen and friendly staff at French and Grace

After lunch we went to get a coffee from Federation coffee, I think I've mentioned them in previous blog posts, the coffee is good but the service not so, this was once again the case. They were busy but we were told it would take them 15 minutes to make our coffees. I'm sorry if you're a coffee shop you should be able to keep up with demand better than that. Their coffees are really nice and we did wait which was ok as we could look around the other shops and cafes but Federation coffee is still yet to win me over - it takes more than great coffee to make a great coffee shop.

There are so many great cafes in Brixton Village we've decided the challenge is to eat at them all. I can't wait!

Make the most of it while you can

Just a general update blog today. We've had quite a busy week as we try to make the most of our last weeks as a twosome.

Last Sunday I watched the rugby with some friends before Jackie and I headed out in search of afternoon tea. We decided to head to Clapham Common which is kind of a big brother suburb to Balham. It's bigger, noisier and more brash than Balham and for that reason we rarely go there. However on this occasion we uncovered a treasure we didn't know existed. Venn Street.

Until recently it was a relatively ordinary street with cafes, bars and an independent movie theatre. What has given this street a new lease of life is that it is now pedestrianised. So the cafes, bars and restaurants now have more sprawling outside tables. We took a seat at one cafe, it was probably not the pick of the options but it was one of the few with seats available. We had a great people watching spot so were were happy.

Jackie on Venn St

On Tuesday and Wednesday I had an off site work conference that I had to go to, the bus bringing us home came right past Balham so I got the driver to drop me off and was able to surprise Jackie at her 3pm doctors appointment. After which we went for cake at a local Balham cafe called Trinity Stores. It was great. We followed this with a walk around Balham and Wandsworth, quite a treat and good reward for the longer hours I'd been putting in preparing for the conference.

Trinity Stores in Balham

Then on Friday we went to view a nursery in Balham which we both loved and hope to be able to get baby Bush in to. After which I worked from home which allowed Jackie and I to go out for a nice lunch. It was back to Clapham and while we had a look at Venn Street we ended up going to a place we last went to probably more than 4 years ago. The food was delicious and it was a nice break from work.

Esca for lunch

YUM! and reasonably healthy.

On the way home we stopped in at the Nightingale cafe which is opposite Du Cane Court where we had hot drinks and cake in the sun.

View from out seats at the Nightingale cafe towards our favourite local restaurant - Bucci

View from our seats at the Nightingale towards  our home - Du Cane Court. Shame about the road works, spoils the photo a bit. 

The weather in the past couple of days has been brilliantly sunny but very crisp, winter is definitely on the way! Another sunny day today and we're about to head out for a stroll.

So we've had a good week of spending time together, relaxing and enjoying each others company because soon we just won't be able to do things like that!

Heatwave

This past week we have had the 2011 summer that never happened.

Temperatures have been pushing 30 degrees up to and including the weekend.

We had a great weekend in the sun. On Saturday Jackie went to a new yoga class and I went for a jog. We packed a lunch and caught the train two stops to Battersea Park where we lazed around watching people around us, including lots of observing young families. As the day drew on we caught a bus back to Clapham Junction where we went to the Drafthouse for a pint and we ended up staying for a meal too. A few photos from our day below...

Jackie looking resplendent next to the lake at Battersea Park

Battersea Park is next to Battersea Power Station funnily enough, the chimneys are ever present towering over the trees

Ready for some serious paper reading

The park is on the Thames, we thought being close to the water might offer some respite from the heat

High tide on the Thames

Jackie in front of a large fountain pond. Some kids were paddling in the pond but it looked pretty gross and I think most of the kids regretted getting in once they had. Especially the poor girl on the right of this shot who appeared to be stuck, she didn't move an inch while we were there and looked quite terrified. She sent her younger brother off to get mum to help out, we didn't hang around to see the outcome. 

All four Battersea Power station chimneys

Jackie's bump silhouette

 This morning we went for a tour of the hospital where Baby Bush will be born. It was hot in there, they don't have aircon because heat like this is unusual. I'm pleased that by the time we have to go back the weather will have cooled down a bit. Apart from the heat the hospital was great. The birthing rooms are comfortable, private and have all sorts of contraptions which I'm looking forward to using. We also saw several tiny babies around the place which was great. One mother even got up to introduce her 1 day old to the entire tour of 12 people!

After the hospital tour we went to a cafe for yum smoothies, French bread with jam and chocolate croissant.

The afternoon was spend in a beer garden at a friend's farewell, we spent most of the time speaking to our friends who was also at the farewell who have a 6 week old baby girl, we got lots of tips and suggestions from them which was great.

Jackie pre hospital tour

After a shower and a change of outfits ready to go to the farewell party. We didn't take the pram but did think about it. 

All in all it's been a great weekend with amazing weather but we're ready for it to cool down now. Bring on winter.

Anniversary of sorts

Friday was our five year anniversary of living in the UK.

When we moved over here we genuinely thought we would be here for one or two years tops but as time has gone on we have become more and more settled, enjoying the travel opportunities of living close to continental Europe and the close friendships we have over here.

I had thought of doing a retrospective blog looking back over some of the highlights and low lights of our five years here but I'll spare you that. Instead here is a video from a favourite band of ours, the song is appropriately titled '5 Years Time'...

To celebrate our 5 year anniversary of living in the UK we had a massive feed of nachos with a glass of red wine each. Jackie had two sips of hers and I got the rest. Afterwards we went for a walk around Wandsworth.

On Saturday we had our second NCT antenatal class which was good, the people in the group are all really nice, we went to the pub with some of them afterwards and hopefully will catch up with them all again before too long.

So anyway, today (Sunday) Jackie got up really early because she couldn't sleep, this meant I could sleep. After a sleep in and a jog we decided to head out to do one of our favourite things, explore a suburb of London that we hadn't been to.

First of all we caught the bus to Brixton, we went to Brixton village (see blog regarding our first visit here) which has now got even more shops. We had a really nice lunch at an Italian restaurant, we just had a deli platter for two and breads so it was quite cheap but was filling. We love Brixton Village and think we'll head back more often to try all the different food options, a few photos from Brixton...

It's where the ultimate jerks hang out

In Brixton Village

We had lunch along this avenue, great atmosphere and delicious food

From here we walked towards Brockwell Park. Brockwell Park was our intended destination but the suburb just before the park, Herne Hill, turned out to be a bit of a gem.

Blackbird Bakery, Herne Hill

Pullens cafe next to Herne Hill rail

Jackie used to go through Herne Hill every day on the train to her old job but had never needed to get out there. Next to the train station is a pedestrianised area with a nice looking cafe, pub, deli, bakery. We continued exploring and at another deli picked up two pan au raison and a drink which we took to the park.

In Jackie's words, "Brockwell Park has everything" including:

• Miniature railway, 
• Cafe
• Hills (not so common in London)
• Tennis courts
• Volleyball court (not so often you see one of these around, it was being used too)
• Swimming pool (they call them lidos over here)
• BMX track (first time I've seen one of those in the UK)
• Community garden including bee hive

Brockwell Park Miniature Railway

Autumn has arrived, some leaves on the ground

The gardens

The 'Kitchen Garden'

I call this one, "Butterfly and Daisies"  

SQUIRREL

No idea what these were, there were some very oddly shaped vegetables

Jackie in the gardens

BMX track in the distance

 After exploring the park we went to the bus stop to get a bus home. While waiting a young lad lost control of his bike right in front of us, crashing into the ground. On asking if he was ok he said he wasn't looking where is was going, that'll do it everytime but I figured he didn't need me being a smart arse. He got himself up and tried to cycle off only to find his front tire was punctured so he had to walk. He was dressed quite well and I could see his bag had picnic goodies, I hope he wasn't on his way to a date. At least he'd have a good story to tell her I suppose. It was only after he'd left I thought I should have taken a photo of him, but that probably wouldn't have been too nice.

So anyway we caught the bus to Clapham Common and walked the rest of the way home. 

Another part of London conquered, we loved Herne Hill and could imagine living there although it's not ideal for my work, or Jackie's so a non starter really. 

Camden

So this weekend Jackie and I didn't have much planned. On Saturday we took the train to Hampton Wick and walked to Teddington, we had afternoon tea there and acosted a lady in a baby clothes shop asking her all sorts of questions about her pram, she was very obliging and said she did the same when she was looking for a pram. We then picked up some salads from the supermarket, walked across Teddington Lock, had our salads by the River Thames in Kingston. A nice day out.

Today we decided to head up north to Camden. Camden is famous and infamous. A real tourist trap but also one of the gems of London. Jackie and I first went to Camden over 4 years ago. I remember loving it and saying I wanted to go back soon. Today was my second trip to Camden markets.

Camden is notorious as the home of Amy Winehouse who recently died at her flat in Camden, the biggest shock being that apparently there were no illegal substances in her body when she died. I suspect the damage had been well and truly done in the preceding years.

Camden has several markets selling all manner of things, lots of knock off goods as well as original design clothing and accessories and lots of yummy food stalls. As you can probably imagine most of this blog will be about the food.

We started with a sandwich we had made at home with yum turkish bread from a local shop.

Two home made sandwiches modelled by Jackie

First of all a few photos of Camden to set the scene for those of you that haven't been there....

There were lots of oversized, quirky shop signs

We didn't actually go in to this particular market, there are other Camden markets but with different names, I guess this might have been the original Camden market

Camden has several shops selling leather clothes, I guess the one here specialised in tight leather trousers -  Jackie and I did NOT getting matching pairs. 

Not sure a slogan of "Evil from the Needle" was particularly well thought out for a tattoo shop, although we're not really the target market are we.

Another oversize sculpture, this one for the Chinese Buffet

Dark Angel, another tattoo shop

Camden Lock

Oversized rocking chair

The Stable Market, another one we didn't actually go in on this occasion

Unfortunately, and like our first visit to Camden, the weather wasn't the best so we had to find shelter. We just happened to find shelter near several food stalls.

We started with a chocolate chip cookie which was yum and made yummer by the fact that that they warmed it up in a little oven they have. While Jackie was buying the cookie I went to the Ethiopian coffee stall where they were roasting their coffee beans in a little frying pan on a cooker. A machiato for me and chai tea for Jackie.

We spotted the cookies from here, the Ethiopian coffee stall is the small one on the left of this shot

Close up of the cookies that we would later snaffle. 

We went back to our shelter to share the cookie and our drinks. We happened to be standing at the back of an ice cream shop which was fascinating. We had a good view in, basically the idea is you go in, there are 3 ice cream flavours, and each serve is made to order by pouring the flavoured cream into a cake mixer, then, and this is the cool bit (pun intended!), they poor liquid nitrogen into a flask, which is then poured into the mixer which is turned on at this stage. The liquid nitrogen freezes the cream in seconds and served in a little pottle, sauce is added and a topping.

After watching this process with fascination from the back window we decided to head in and get some of this. Photos below step through the process...

Our view of the ice cream "lab" from the back window, Jackie holding the Ethiopian drinks. The cookie is long gone by this stage

View from inside, this is the mad scientist that owns the ice cream shop/lab with his wife, here he is getting the nitrogen to freeze our vanilla cream

Out comes the nitrogen

Nitrogen being poured into our vanilla cream as the mixer goes on

Abra cadabra

Hey presto, perfect ice cream

The assistant technician applies the desired sauce (caramel in our case) from the beaker

And we choose a topping from the selection - we went for honeycombe

Voila

Someone looks excited

Another oversized thing looked over us as we tucked in to our ice cream (and hot chocolate)

The Lab

The Hot Chocolate was pretty special too, very, very rich but not too sweet. It was thick and hot and delicious. 

Chin chin labs (http://www.chinchinlabs.com/) is the name of the place, it's only in Camden at the moment but I wouldn't be surprised if they start branching out in the near future, it's a great concept and the ice cream (an performance) really are worth it.
Some how as we left Jackie thought it would be a good idea to have a donut, we decided that it might be best if we left that till next time we visit - hopefully not another 4 years away!

From here we got on the tube home, out of the station in Balham Jackie asks "what do you think we might have for dessert tonight?" A piece of fruit maybe!