Harrods at Christmas + the £22,500 Bowl.

For the second half of our Christmassy day in London, my sister and I headed to Knightsbridge for a mosey around Harrods. As much a destination as it is a department store, it's pretty crazy to see how the other half live - £22,500 for a crystal fruit bowl, I was dumbfounded!

Before checking out the Harrods Christmas windows, we popped over to Harvey Nichols after rumours of a Burger & Lobster. I've heard about them before but never had a chance to visit, but let me tell you something, I don't think I ever want to eat out anywhere else in London! With a limited menu of a burger, whole grilled or steamed lobster or a lobster roll for £20, Burger & Lobster has essentially ruined all other restaurants for me, forever.



I went for a lobster roll (twice the size of the one I had at Neptune and Prawn when I visited Northern Ireland in September) and my sister had a grilled lobster, both were incredible. We accompanied our meal with a Hawaiian pineapple cooler for her and a grapefruit soda for me. And in case you're wondering what a £20 burger looks like, let's just say it's much less impressive than the lobster - I mean, if you like your burgers to be all bap then go for it, but it's pretty obvious that the lobsters are the star of the show here.



With our tums full of lobster it was time to hit Harrods, and I guess I'll let the pictures do the talking from here on in. You definitely need a map, something we didn't manage to pick up until just before we left.






I was a little disappointed to discover that the hilarious and fun pet section had closed at the beginning of the year. No cooing at £5,000 Siamese cats for me or any chance to check out potential outfits for Doll (I wouldn't, obviously). We did manage to grab a cream tea at the tea rooms and had fun guessing the price of things, we also managed to get lost a few times but there's nothing quite like this place at Christmas (+ toy department = incredible).





If only this guy wasn't £72. :(




I pretty much want all the Stieff stuffed animals, they'd play a great part in creating an indoor jungle.








We detoured to Carnaby Street before going home, better lights than Oxford St. in my opinion. ♥

Photo An Hour: 6/12 – June.

28th June 2013
I'm incredibly aware of how it's actually July now, I mean, what?! It seems June was another month where I had 'Photo An Hour' at the back of my mind a bit without making any proactive effort to do it. What more unique, and better place to do one though than Glastonbury? - because I can't possibly bore you enough with it in upcoming posts...
Glastonbury is somewhere that's pretty difficult to keep track of time, luckily - like the prepared camper I am, I had a watch on me, you know, so I'd know when what bands were on and things.

These were taken on the first 'official' day of Glastonbury, as those not-in-the-know see it anyway.


10am // Excuse the late wake-up, all the walking had me being a bit of a late riser considering I'd essentially been outside as the sun came up. This is two days without a shampoo in, so dry shampooing was a definitely start-of-the-day-must.


11am // I must admit to being a little disappointed in the change of toilet layout around our camp this time, felt like far too many to one loo, not something to look forward to first thing in the morning - especially as it's like Russian roulette with those queues.


12pm // Breakfast/lunch from Salad Days in the form a chicken wrap. It was very good, so not bad going for a food stand in sight of the Other stage - proof that good fonts are an easy way to reel me in.


1pm // We picked up a neat free bag from The Guardian, here is Moon modelling it unawares.


2pm // Checking out the Farmer's Market in the Greenpeace Fields, Moon got me a delicious raspberry crème brûlée tart, definitely one to try at home at some point, it was amazing.


3pm // A nice surprise to catch Rizzle Kicks' secret set on the BBC Introducing Stage.


4pm // Sticking around BBC Introducing to catch a set from upcoming Bath-based band, Bite the Buffalo, they were very good.
Definitely one for Black Keys fans.


5pm // Delicious cheese toasties that were well worth the wait.


6pm // Wait for Frightened Rabbit to come on, being delighted by this Powerpoint mastery.


7pm // Sitting on the floor, getting pushed to the back by the overwhelming amount of fangirls muscling their way in for Bastille. We stayed for a few songs and he sounded good, but man, it was far too crazy.


8pm // Making our way to the Pyramid stage for Dizzee Rascal & Arctic Monkeys.


9pm // Sometimes you need to be there to get it, a fun VT of Robbie Williams lip-syncing accompanied Dizzee Rascal's 'Goin' Crazy', totally didn't make any sense.


10pm // Arctic Monkeys on the Pyramid Stage - turns out I know a lot less of their stuff than I thought I did. They were a lot of fun though, even if the crowd were a little pushy.
This year has gone by so quickly and it makes it feel all the more fast-paced to think that this challenge I've set myself is now literally halfway through, I can't believe it.

To The Garden of England!

I don't mean to have neglected you as much as I have lately, but there have been a few contributing factors to this. I'm quite tired most of the week and when I'm not, I want to just relax without thinking about anything, a lot of my job involves sitting at a computer - not that there's anything wrong with it, I'm just trying to settle on how to balance my downtime appropriately, as well as spend quality time with Moon. Also, I do enjoy sharing things with you, but I felt like I was getting a little same-y, not that much fun to write so I can't imagine that much fun to read. I'm hoping this short break will have cleared my head a little, plus I'm feeling really fresh this week.

With a short trip to Cornwall this weekend, hopefully there will enough to stop either of us getting bored and clear my head a little.

In other, less rambling, news, I helped move my little sister over to the University of Kent last weekend. I sure wish it wasn't so far away as Canterbury looks like a lovely place to wander around, it just makes me more determined to finally get my driving test passed so I can go visit her without a boring/long train journey in between. This weekend made me realise how I miss my family quite a lot while being all independent and grown all the way over in Newbury. Don't get me wrong, they drive me crazy and I love where I am right now, but it's nice to have them with me rather than at the end of the telephone sometimes. It doesn't help how difficult it is to get back by public transport, especially on a Sunday, another problem of a non-driver.

It might just be me being a little emotional because my sister is actually embarking on the beginnings of becoming an adult, which is weird, because even though I know she isn't, she basically always will be 13. I just hope she gets on okay, at least she didn't cry when we left her, a much better job than I did when I was left at Portsmouth.

The University of Kent campus is way out away from the main city, not something I'm used to as a graduate of a University that's so integrated into a city. Saying that, there seems to be a lot going on, especially if you love controlled fun, which freshers do. It's quite green and I saw squirrels, I think my sister will be very happy there.

Sunset on Friday night on the way back to New Malden.



My sister's room is an alright size for a halls room, and I'm pretty envious of the amount of shelves she has. I'm sure it looks much less like a prison cell now she's unpacked and has had some time to put more of a personal stamp on it.



The car park view from her window is much nicer than the car park I looked out on from my halls. So leafy.



She's catered, so she has a dining hall, and although that's kind of lame, I think it's kind of cool for two reasons, it almost looks like a church and she gets to see this view every morning.




We picked up lunch from Origins in the Darwin block (clever name, eh?), it was really reasonably priced and I ate so much, standard.



There was a man doing piano covers of songs, from the Harry Potter theme to Mumford and Sons it was quite nice. If anyone knows who he is, it would be neat to know more about him.




All the grinning volunteers made it a little, but not really, like Disneyland.

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When we got back from Kent, my mum cooked me this, I'll put this right up there with reasons I miss her sometimes. Doesn't help that we've yet to find a decent Chinese take-away or restaurant since moving here.

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It's quite weird to me that University began a whole five years ago now, and I got out alive, maybe even a different person.
Time goes so quickly sometimes, but good luck to this year's freshers, it's a lot of fun, I reckon you'll enjoy it.