Bumbag Motel

Had a mystery dress up party where we had to have a ‘theme’ for our room. Cam found some ‘where’s wally’ wrapping paper at a toy store, which served as a great feature wall – and then to find that there were two where’s wally costumes in the dress up box – brilliant! Dan and Millie below had an asian ambient theme going on, and we had Morrison’s band ‘the Delirium Tremens‘ play, with their very catchy song ‘Mushie’s Tushie’.

The ‘mystery’ part of the dress ups was each person getting a card, e.g a 10 meant you had to dress in the opposite sex, and then being given 42 seconds to go through the dress up box to find their evening’s attire – made for some interesting combinations!

Continued weekend pursuits on Sunday, with Sarah and I heading to a Vintage Wedding Fair in the lovely Chiswick town hall to get some great ideas for whenever wedding time happens. Huge turnout with lot’s of people well on the preparation trail and trying on dresses and whatnot. Checked out a sweet car boot sale at Battersea school on the way to last Sunday dinner at the Castle (photos above and below) a kiwi pub that is moving from its current sun capturing premises.

The benefit of having such extreme amounts of rain meant that, once the sun came out, the parks were a very lush place to be. Emma had her first ciders in Regent’s Park for a going away party, excellent to see so many familiar faces and feel some warmth on the face! Also enjoyed the well manicured grounds, lakes, birds, free toilets, hedges and all round neat park order!

Rain mania was a strong theme this weekend, just like the energizer batteries it just kept going and going and going. Still got out and about in Shoreditch with Kate though, to check out the many excellent shops about and find some ‘work appropriate attire’ at the vintage fair (below). Rest of the weekend entailed more catch ups out of the rain and in pubs and flats – all is well with so many good people to catch up with!

Wakefield cooked up a storm for a ‘fine with me’ evening at the flat, very impressed with organisation and culinary goodies, though I didn’t partake in the chicken dish, the roast vege, cous cous and green salad were delectable. I baked a Barbara’s chocolate cake for dessert with chocolate ganache to top it all off. Cam wasn’t there to partake though, as he went to Belgium for the punk rock festival ‘Groezrock’.

Cam whipped up some delicious vegie burrito treats for our first dinner with our flatmates – Morri, Cam, Wakefield and Millie. Was a bit awkward busting out the camera here but the Willie Couper in me just bursts on out on such occasions.

From this photo it looks like it’s all blossoms and cupcakes, but really this is a but a brief reprieve from the rain onslaught that has been April. Drought declaration was followed by seemingly unending amounts of rain.

Not working for the first few weeks in London provided good opportunity for strolling, although admittedly this is the 10 min walk to the big supermarkt view from ‘Lavender Hill’. There used to be fields of lavender here back in the day, now it’s a decadent haven of brick houses and tenaments.

Sunday was action stations after a relaxing at home Saturday. Above is Sarah and Alice at the Columbia Road flower markets. Beautiful aromas and full bloom colours swept through the cobbled bustling streets, with small second hand stalls in side alleys and gorgeous vintage and design shops lining the streets – it was all so cute! I had a coffee (flat white = excellent) with Charlotte and McRobie at the top of Primrose Hill (view photo below) and then McRobie and I navigated our way south to meet Cam at the others at ‘The Castle’ pub. Lot’s of sun soaking and catch ups all round made for a marvelous first Sunday in London!