London Loving & 5 Years of Byron Loving!

Last year we had such a fun filled anniversary staycation in London that we decided to do it again!

I can't believe it's been 5 years of milkshake drinking bliss with this guy!

We started out in Hoxton with a little farewell dinner that Jade and Naomi cooked up for us, Mexican, of course because they know how to please! After we had feasted on Fajitas and some Oreo Fudge Cream Pie I had brought for dessert...Jay-dee revealed she had a surprise in store for us!

I was very excited, because I love surprises...

especially when milkshakes are involved!

especially when said milkshakes are SO thick that I could have probably tipped it above my head and it wouldn't have drenched me!

especially when we ended up at this super cool little boutique bar that only has hot dogs, waffles and milkshakes on their menu - yes Jade knows me very well!

especially when I had never even heard of 'The Love Shake' before which was a huge relief to Jade since I'm a bit of a milkshake connoisseur but this was all new!

and what a find it was!

I had an amazing strawberry shortcake milkshake, real fresh strawberry blended with chunks of shortbread - how could that not be amazing!

It was such a fun night, shaking it up until the early hours with my bestie!

On Saturday I had big plans for us! I have been trying to get my hands on a Lucky Chip burger for over a year! Last summer, Mara and I trekked (and it is a trek) to Netil Market...I only had 30 minutes to grab the burger before I had to catch my train and Lucky Chip decided to open late that day! so I missed out.  This time around I was determined we were going to get there, because they are famed for having the best burgers in London!

So after walking the wrong way out of Bethnal Green station, and only realising a great deal later after cycling the wrong way on Boris Bikes..and then getting very wet on said Boris Bikes once it started raining, and then after going the right way and finding Netil Market there were no Boris Bike docking stations nearby and we literally had to cycle all the way back to where we'd started! ditch the bikes and then hop a bus back to the market! So a lot of effort was involved!

and when we were greeted with this unassuming burger truck I wasn't sure whether all that effort was worth it, but then I sunk my teeth into this and I decided I would have cycled through rain in the wrong direction all over again just to eat one of these at the end! It was amazing! plus it was called Kevin Bacon, so I kind of loved it before I'd even tried it! Remember how much I loved Meat Market's burgers? Well I've decided this one sneakily trumps their burgers so if you haven't tried one of them yet you definitely need too!  On some other blogs I had read people saying Lucky Chip also serve the best chips in London so I was pretty excited but mine were WAY too salty and so they didn't get a thumbs up in my book.

Our day was made even better by the fact that Street Shakes had decided to pitch right next to Lucky Chip! The Milkshake Gods were smiling on me kindly this weekend!

I love that Street Shakes combines two of my fave things...old skool VW's and milkshakes! and these weren't just any old milkshakes!

I got a brownie milkshake, which had chunks of homemade brownie blended in! It was so delicious and decadent! For my milkshake loving self, I would have preferred it thicker but that's because I'd stick a straw in a tub of ice cream if I could when it comes to thickness, By thought it was just the right thickness!

and then when we thought we'd got stuck in the rain before, that was nothing compare to what was to come! The heavens opened and there was literally monsoon style rain! We took refuge under our rather flimsy umbrella and waited it out, and saw some rather spectacular lightning in the process!

After that we took a rainy walk to let the food go down! before we were headed to my next spot of fun...

Violet! which I'd heard really good things about.  It's a cute little bakery, little being the operative word! but luckily we found seats to wait for the storm to pass! I've tried their brownies before which are amazing, this time I opted for a mini vanilla bean cupcake and I wasn't impressed but for a warm place to shelter from the rain they did okay!

While we were in the area, we popped into Spitalfields and browsed around Brick Lane a little, and I let our a little gasp as I caught sight of my favourite London landmark!

So naturally pictures had to be snapped.  How I love the Gherkin, and I await the day when they will open that viewing deck up top to the public! 

We rounded off our day of foodie fun with an awesome meal at the...

which is a ....

How cool is that! 

By went all out and enjoyed some Maine Lobster! 

I stuck with the ribs, which were also seriously tasty! It was the perfect place to spend our anniversary! Tasty and fun, just how we like it! 

While the sun was still shining, we made the most of it and headed to Hampstead Heath...

and found the perfect picnic spot! 

It was glorious! Shorts and all! 

Plus co-ordinating with my husband without even planning it is one of my fave things!!

and sunny days accompanied by ice cream are also pretty awesome! 

That evening we headed to another fave spot - Primrose Hill! How people can think London is lacking in green space, I have no idea! Everywhere we turned on our 3 day staycation we were met with completely amazing parks!! What an awesome skyline hey? I love the way the sun as it was going down was reflecting on those buildings in the middle! 

and we weren't the only ones who thought it was a pretty cool spot, there was probably a hundred other people in groups and couples hanging out at the top of the hill!

We also went to check out an exhibition of Mr Brainwash, who is a friend of Banksy...and he makes super cool art! 

Like this, which By quite liked...

and these awesome paint cans which I fell in love with, I think I could have a go at doing one myself maybe!!

Plus everyone loves Snoopy!

and Bob Marley! His dreads were made from vinyl records - so clever!

This was my fave from the whole day - what a cheeky monkey! plus I kind of love what he's spraying. I think I'd like this picture on my wall! Following your dreams is what I'm all about - Did I mention we leave for Vancouver in the morning?! hehe, we're crazy excited!

and By's favourite was this rather old skool guy busting out some moves on his skateboard! 

Of course no weekend of fun is complete without delicious cupcakes so that's where Bea's of Bloomsbury steps in! Their passion fruit frosting is just my fave! 

and By had an amazing chocolate and peanut butter combo! 

It was quite the London adventure, I could spend every day of my life in that city and never get bored! 

Next time I blog, I'll be telling you all about Vancouver no doubt! woooooo! 

A 24 hr snapshot of London: Afternoon Tea's, Southbank Sightseeing and Nightime Cycling!

So last weekend my American friend Charity came to town! She was only going to be in London for less than 24 hours so I knew we had to pack in as much fun stuff as possible! Charity is the most fun and adventurous and enthusiastic person I know! If you don't believe me go check out her blog, her love of life is contagious! and so I knew we were going to have to make our time together count! and man alive (to steal an Eyre family phrase) did we have fun!

First stop was Portobello Rd, and I'm not too sure we paid that much attention to all the cute little stalls because we were SO busy being chatterboxes and catching up on what's been going on in our lives since we last saw each other 2 years ago! but we did have time to snap this pic in front of those lovely coloured buildings!

Next up we headed to Bea's of Bloomsbury at One New Change, St.Pauls.  Here is Charity being ever so English with her pot of blackcurrant tea! Can you believe she had never experienced an Afternoon Tea before so I wanted to introduce her to this British tradition!

There is nowhere else in England I'd rather have afternoon Tea than at Bea's...because the amount of goodies they bring you on your platter is ridunculous!! Typically an afternoon tea consists of sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream and cake.  Here is what we got with ours:

Mini baguettes with goats cheese and ham, and sundried tomatoes

Homemade Scones with lashings of jam and clotted cream

Treats: Carrot cake cupcake, valrhona brownie, belgian blondie, passionfruit meringue, mango marshmallow and my fave of the lot were some giant lime and coconut marshmallows (all homemade to perfection!)

After we were more than sufficiently stuffed, we headed down to the Southbank where we took in this lovely view from the viewing deck at the top of the Oxo tower.

We passed some cute little decorated beach huts along the fake beach front which we thought were rather cool...

and then we found this awesome ride which had to be one of the highlights! I have seen swing rides at fun fairs plenty of times before, but never one that lifts you high into the air and THEN swings you round!! It was really quite an experience!

Especially because of where it was situated!! We were swinging high above the Thames just loving all those sights we were taking in...like the London Eye, and Big Ben that you can see behind Charity in this pic! It even started to go backwards half way round, and let me tell you that was a whole experience in itself!!

We had to take the obligatory shots in front of all the tourist spots!

Luckily for us, the weather actually turned out pretty good and once some of the clouds cleared there was actually some blue sky under there! so that made a nice change from the Irish weather Charity had experienced in the days preceding London!

I loved this shot of all the signs to help the tourists find their way, with the London Eye just peeking into view!

As the sun was setting we wondered over to Buckingham Palace and snapped this pretty pink sky behind this statue just in front of the Palace.

Charity wanted to go check out Hyde Park..so what better way to do it then to hire some of Boris' (our mayor of London) Barclays bikes! It costs £1 to get one out and as long as you just use short journeys and return the bikes to other docks within 30 minute periods it's totally free!

So after cycling around the park for a while we decided to be brave and head down Oxford St!

It was surprisingly less scary than we expected it to be! The buses behaved, and it actually turned out to be alot of fun! Even at gone 9pm London was buzzing and it was so fun to be in the middle of all the hustle and bustle! The pic above is Charity at Oxford Circus.

We finished our bike ride at Picadilly Circus where a nice fellow tourist snapped this pic for us.

We headed to the M&M store to take a few more touristy pics!

Gotta love the M&M guy in his busby!

We returned to the Southbank to take some more shots of Big Ben...this time illuminated!

and here we are with the London Eye in the background, excuse the dodgy pic - I forgot to turn the flash on! Picture taking never runs as smoothly without Byron around!

For our final pic of the night before resting our weary feet, we found a phonebox!

The next morning Byron came and picked us up and we headed south of the river to Borough Market.

It was alot of fun checking out sooo many different food stalls! Charity had never seen such massive meringues before! I took tons more pics but I'm sure you're wondering when this post is going to end so I'll spare you!

We opted for the giant bratwurst, it was seriously delish!

So we bid farewell to Borough Market and to Charity as we dropped her at the station Basingstoke Bound ready for the rest of her U.K tour!

Hopefully next time we see each other it will be on her side of the Atlantic for some California fun!