Cat Bothering.

*Insert gratuitous speil about cute cat here*I don't think I'm ever going to get bored of my little lady, she's truly got her own personality, I just hope she's accommodating to her cat-sitters (my Gran & sister) while we're away. Her insistance on waking us up really early just for a cuddle and being super-excited that we're home from work but not really being bothered with us any other time apart from when we need chasing or to feed her, she's still far from boring.



I don't really understand people who are cat or dog 'people', I think because generally I'm an 'animal person', but I know somewhere (even if it is deep down) she feels something for us.

I know he wouldn't admit it, but there are times Moon feels as smitten with her as I am. Now she's completely calmed down and we're used to her quirks, he loves nothing more than a play fight with her and she's usually more than happy to play along.


♥

Ducks, Puppies, Boats, Oh My!

With last year's Newbury Waterways Festival being such a hit with us last year, we were pretty pleased to see it return last Sunday. Sadly the weather wasn't nearly as nice as it was last time and I was actually bordering on chilly, but the duck race was just as amusing and we even bet on a few this time around.



Pup on a table. ♥



I wore super-apt attire, with a pretty nautical silk scarf my mum got for me and a new stripey dress from Primark.




I thought the feed bags on these hobby horses were super-cute!







Looking super-Chinesey with my 'close enough' ice cream cone from the Victoria Park kiosk.




SO PUMPED! – not quite as much passion as the lady in the kayak curating the race, you go, your passion for the duck race was unsurpassable.







You know me, I basically like anything where I can be nosey and eye-up cute dogs all afternoon, so I was pretty happy, even if I was desperate to rush home and warm up with a cuppa as soon as the ducks crossed the finish line.

I really like the sense of community you get in Newbury sometimes, with my feet itching to perhaps move somewhere new in the not to distant future, I can't help but think that it's something I'd miss if/when we did move.

Festival Goodness!

This time tomorrow I'll be enjoying the feels from being at the greatest music festival in the world. Glastonbury is just a day away! I'm by no means a festival veteran, I've found Glastonbury and I know I never really want to go to anywhere else. After doing Reading last year, I know that all the walking and the mud is still worth it, Glastonbury is the place to be.

I've seen a mixture of festival-fashion related things recently, and I honestly have come to realise it's never been something I've paid attention to - I'd just advise on warm clothes, leggings and comfortable shoes. Festivals are one of the few places I don't think you should be particularly bothered about what you look like and I pretty much wear what I like anyway but it becomes really obvious how little things like that really matter when you go to somewhere like Glastonbury.

I like to think that I've learnt a fair amount from my two trips to Glasto, we're so organised this year, our trolley (not making the mistake of not bringing one for the third time in a row) is all packed up and we have everything we could possibly need, right down to washing up liquid and a drying up cloth. I was pretty pleased with the feedback I got from my 'Festival Essentials' post before I headed off to Reading last August, but since I'm not really packing anything much differently I figured it was a little unnecessary to do another one. However, I thought it was a good chance to share a few of my favourite Glasto-related pictures (and one video) from previous years.

This year, I'm taking a bit more 35mm as well as my (literally crumbling to pieces) compact digital camera - I can't wait!












A (very long) short film I made of our last Glastonbury experience.
I've got a couple of posts scheduled for the next couple of days from a few unrelated things just to keep everything in a nice, logical order, but other than that I'll be spending the rest of the day getting everything in order for my cat-sitters and making sure I've not missed anything.

TASTE.

As I mentioned in my last Flavrbox review, I was lucky enough to win tickets to head over to Taste of London in Regent's Park on Friday. Not only did it let me have a pretty nice, long weekend, but generally it was a pretty nice day out all in all and I had a great time.

Neither myself or my Gran expected that we would be able to spend a full four hours at a food festival, but we did, it was actually really easy to get sucked into the realm of free samples and there was a little more to it than we had thought. My Gran got to make dim sum with Ping Pong, we saw Michel Roux Jr totally slumming it at his restaurant's stall and I got to try so many different kinds of cheese!




I don't think I've ever been to Regent's Park before and there sure were a fair few pretty flowers in bloom, it's just a shame that the late warm whether has meant there's still so much yet to come out.





Ping Pong's Dim Sum masterclass.




Some seriously exciting freebies!


There was a huge Thai section, with all kinds of fancy food and exotic fruit as well as some traditional Thai displays.




Amazing Fruit-Artist.


Tasty Tempura.





It was pretty funny how my Gran was all about the freebies, especially the ones that didn't have a queue. Pretty sure just before she got this she was telling how much she didn't really like frozen yoghurt...



Rolled pizza giveaway!



Display from Duck & Waffle, including an ox-cheek donut.





After making a concerted effort to actually find somewhere to eat rather than graze on samples, we ended up with a steak sandwich and a beer from Santa Maria del Sur. The steak was traditional Argentinian steak and the sauce was really good, Argentinian food isn't something I've thought about before but will definitely be on the look-out for from now on, especially since there seemed to be so much Argentinian cuisine on offer and London isn't somewhere that has a shortage of places to choose from either.


The Producers Market was awesome, definitely the hub of all the free samples - I tried mint chocolate-flavoured tonic water, about 5 different types of olive oil and this is where I consumed the majority of the cheese I tried that day.


Just a bottle of £16.50 balsamic vinegar...





Very encouraged by Joe & Seph's Cheese on Toast Popcorn, definitely want to try more of their range now.


A chocolatier who works for Lindt and was trained by a Lindt Master Chocolatier but is not a Lindt Master Chocolatier...




I must admit that I'm unsure of the usual £28 price tag being worth it given that you also have to put more money towards 'crowns' - the official currency of Taste of London - in order to get some real food, and given that the 'real food' on offer was more of a taster menu than regular-sized portions, there is a part of me that feels it was a little stingy.

However, as a prize, it was pretty top notch and for the atmosphere and something completely out of the ordinary, I'm totally happy to have gone and would still recommend it. Unfortunately we weren't able to take part in any wine tasting or big cook offs because they were all fully-booked, they're definitely things I'd check out first if I went again, I've never been wine tasting before but it sure sounds like fun.

I've made a full set on Flickr, but if you've been reading for a while, you probably know that I'm pretty bad at editing down images as it is so it's pretty similar to what you see here.

Have you ever been to a food festival? What did you think - Taste of London totally has me thinking a little bit about Jamie Oliver & Alex James' Big Feastival at the end of August.