A Street Food Extravaganza at Deptford’s Job Centre

An employment job centre isn’t usually somewhere I’d consider spending an evening, but Deptford’s Job Centre isn’t exactly what you’d expect. Having been turned into a quirky relaxed bar, it now attracts a whole host of people, not just those who are on benefits or looking for a job. Every Thursday to Saturday evenings, Kitchen Hijack takes over with a mouth-watering selection of street foods from some of London’s best pop-up vendors.

As soon as I heard about this place from Kasha I knew it was somewhere I just had to try out. Street food and cocktails in a quirky bar? It sounded like my perfect place to spend an evening!

Continue reading

Skydiving in Namibia

Things I’d Never Do Again When Travelling

Free from the responsibilities of home life and wanting to experience as much as we can, we all lose our inhibitions a bit when we travel. We become more confident, more adventurous and a lot more courageous, doing things we would never usually do at home. I always try to avoid saying no to something new which makes the possibilities endless when travelling.  But it also means that in amongst all the fantastic experiences, there are bound to be a few not so fantastic experiences too.

Aside from the time we were almost mugged in Namibia , I have never really written about anything negative on the blog.  I’m generally a very positive and easily pleased girl and, to be honest, we’ve been amazingly lucky and haven’t really had many bad experiences on our travels.  But there are a few things that I can say I would never ever do again.

Continue reading

Afternoon tea with a twist at BRGR.CO

Afternoon Tea with a Twist at BRGR.CO

Afternoon tea is one of those quintessentially English things that everyone has to do at least once in their life. Or preferably once every few months if you become addicted to it, much like I have.

London is chock-a-block full of a huge variety of places serving afternoon tea.  From a fancy high tea, traditional afternoon tea or a more modern tea with a unique theme; whichever one it is, I love them all.  Savoury snacks, warm scones smothered with clotted cream, different flavours of tea from all over the world, and enough sweet nibbles to leave you well and truly satisfied.

Continue reading

Paddington Bear Trail London

On the Search for Bears on the Paddington Trail

With my overly excitable and big kiddish personality, I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that I love a fun children’s film, so when I saw the trailer for the new Paddington movie, of course I was massively thrilled. Alex usually gets dragged along to the cinema, packed full of screaming and giggling children, to watch these sorts of movies with me, but even this was one he actually wanted to see.

So when I came across the Paddington Trail, a fun adventure in London by the NSPCC and Studiocanal to celebrate the release of the film, my excitement tripled!  Paddington Bear statues popped up all over the city waiting to be found by curious children and eager adults.

Continue reading

Ice skating at Somerset House London

Getting Festive in London

I will admit that up until now I have been a bit of a Scrooge.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Christmas, and not having a proper Christmas last year as we were travelling around India, means I’m looking forward to it a whole lot more than usual this year.  But seeing Christmas gifts starting to be sold in shops, hearing Christmas songs on the radio, walking past houses twinkling with lights, and being asked about my plans for Christmas in October and November, well that is just way too far in advance for my liking.

Continue reading

Go Ape tree top adventure

Monkeying around at Go Ape!

As the name of this blog suggests, I love a fun adventure, so when we were invited to try out the Tree Top Adventure at Go Ape I jumped at the chance – quite literally when it came to the activity!

Our location was Wendover Woods, a lush green forest not far from Oxford where we were heading for a weekend getaway outside London.

We were hoping for one of those unexpectedly warm and sunny days we’re occasionally treated to in autumn but unfortunately for us we woke up to a foggy drizzly morning, the ground already wet from the rain that had clearly poured down through the night.

Continue reading

Malteser chocolate cake

Weekly Photo Challenge: Achievement

Anyone who knows me at all will know that I love food.  All food, any food, I love it all.  But when it comes to making food…well that’s a whole other thing entirely.

I was never taught to cook or bake when I was younger so now that I’m all grown up I just don’t do it, which may explain why I eat out so much.

But for my mum’s last birthday I wanted to do something special for her.  She is the biggest chocoholic I know – she’s actually intolerant to chocolate but still eats it anyway – because what crazy fool would give up chocolate?!

Continue reading

The Cotswolds: A Photo Essay

After a lovely couple of days in Bath and Cheddar Gorge, the last stop on our mini road trip was the Cotswolds where we planned on seeing some of England’s greenest countryside and stopping off at several of its small villages before heading back home.  As is typical in England, it rained pretty much the whole time, but this didn’t make the area any less beautiful.  In fact, I took so many photos that I just had to share all the prettiness of the Cotswolds with you.

Continue reading

Cheddar Gorge

Adventures (and Cheese) in Cheddar

In my quest to see more of my own country and to prove that there are all sorts of adventures to be had right on your own doorstep, our recent visit to Bath gave me a valid excuse to convince Mr Ayla into visiting somewhere else close by, and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at that.

Not far from Bath, the small town of Cheddar is home to one of the greatest natural wonders in Britain; the 450ft Cheddar Gorge towered over us as we drove our way through its winding roads.  Around every bend there was another stunning view with plenty of opportunities for me to shout at Alex to pull the car over for photos and to explore.

Continue reading

Afternoon tea at Hush

Afternoon Tea and Cocktail Making at Hush, London

I’m ashamed to say that, despite living in London for the whole 26 years of my life, I had never been to afternoon tea before.  I find this hard to even believe myself as I have so much love for tea, cake, chocolate, scones, pretty much all food really, that this sort of thing should have been high on my to-do list.  When I finally had my first afternoon tea experience earlier this year, I’m pretty happy to say that it exceeded all expectations and I now seem to have become quite addicted.  A pretty good addiction to have though wouldn’t you agree?

Continue reading