The Grounds

It's amazing how quickly holidays start to fade into the background. Last week was a busy one for me, I started a new job (nothing too different, it's two floors down from my old job, but there's a lot to get my head around), but then halfway through the week managed to catch a cold which meant a day and a half at home, plus a very quiet weekend, feeling rather congested in the head. Not quite what I had planned.

Anyway I wanted to share one more post on Sydney, more specifically on the The Grounds of Alexandria. It was one of those places (along with Koskela - which is amazing, and where we ended up going twice - more on that another day!) that I had read about a few different times, seen a lot of pictures of and was keen to try out the food. We went on a Monday, and while it was busy the wait wasn't too long and by the time we shared a lemonade and had a wander around the outdoors area it was time to go in (I have to say Kevin Bacon the little piggy was super cute). For lunch I had the burger and Matt the tasting plate/ploughman's lunch, there were so many options I would have liked to try and the cake/pastry cabinet looked pretty darn good too, but the meals were quite big so we didn't really need to go there. I'd definitely go back, the styling of everything was lovely and that green they use on the tea/coffee cups and in the garden, I think that is the best green ever!

A place I'd like to visit....

Brook Farm General Store in Brooklyn looks amazing, I think I would very possibly loose all self control in a place like this. One day I'll hopefully get there, New York and Brooklyn that is.

This week seems to be going incredibly fast and I didn't take any photographs on the weekend at all, which was not the plan. But I was tired and have a bit of a cold and lingering sinus head. We did head off to ethos for lunch which was interesting and rather excitingly saw David Byrne and St Vincent on sunday at Mona Foma, both were incredible. Tonight it's Elvis Costello, can't wait!

Images via decor8

Early Long Weekend

Tomorrow I'm starting the long weekend a day early and I can't wait, I'm of to see parts of Tasmania I haven't been to since I was a child. I forget sometimes that there are places here to be excited to visit. This week has been tiring, but my head cold is finally going away so I'm looking forward to a change of scenery and some exploration. Hopefully some photographs to share once I get back.

Lately..

I had last week off for a rather needed holiday and got away to country Victoria and Melbourne for a few days. It was really lovely, despite the fact that it rained in the city the whole time! We had some fantastic food: went back to Pizza Verde in Kyneton, dinners at Hu Tong and Movida Aqui, breakfast at the European, lunch at Earl Canteen and cupcakes from Little Cupcakes....mmm now I am hungry just thinking about it! I also did some shopping to stock up on basics, which was a bit dull, but necessary. Oh and I also got bitten by the Instagram bug, I’ve been hesitant about it for a while, but it is so easy while being on holiday to use the iphone rather than lug the slr about. So above are some of my shots...I'm littleglowinglights.

Holidays

ahh finally blogging again, I know it's been ages! I've been on holiday, and I think I really needed it. Went to Victoria for a week and spent half in the city seeing bands (Black Lips, Bon Iver, and Real Estate), eating good food and a wee bit of shopping and exploring and the other half in the country side doing more exploring, eating more good food, watching films in old movie theatres and just generally having a very nice time. Always sad to come back home but gee it does feel good to have got away!

two good things in one

Beautiful Bon Iver sans vocoder (it always amazes me why people who can sing use those things!) and beautiful Iceland to go with it. oh now I really want to go back.

London

So today is my final post on my holiday, I can’t believe I have already been home now for several weeks ugh! Anyway London was my final stop for a few days before flying back to Australia and at first it seemed a little strange to be back in an English speaking country, I missed being curious and not understanding what people were saying! Not having a lot of time, I saved the Tate Modern and the Victoria and Albert (both very high on my list) for my next trip I just didn’t want to rush through them. Instead I did some more general sightseeing and tried to get my bearings just a little.

The food in London was great, I had pizza at neals yard deli, fish and chips and mushy peas with some really nice organic cider for lunch at Canteen in Baker Street, poached eggs and salmon for breakfast at Fortnum and Mason, and a lemon cupcake at the Primrose Hill Bakery in Covent Garden. That shop is so sweet, I loved the rabbit door stop and the people eating a selection of cakes to decide what they wanted for their wedding, the girls working there were nice and chatty and let me take a few shots inside. I also ended up rather randomly going to the Hummingbird Bakery too, I was walking towards the tube station in Kensington and heard a girl say to another ‘oh hummingbird is just around the corner’. Of the two I confess I liked Primrose the best.

I walked around Notting Hill and just loved wandering - taking a few shots and seeing all the flowers everywhere in bloom. I visited Liberty and thought the rug room was so amazing, spent some pennies in Anthropologie (I was impressed that place deserves the kudos it gets) and at Orla Kiely, loved Selfridges and hated the ten minutes I spent in Harrods : )

I felt so sad having to pack my bags and go back home, it’s nice to feel so free and do and see completely new things everyday. I know a lot of it is about your state of mind and if you try to think of the everyday at home in a different light it can help but sometimes, like now in the depth of winter I just want to plan for another trip!

Reykjavik and the south coast of Iceland

Apologies for the light posting this week, it has been cold, wet and miserable here and it has made me feel a bit flat… but never mind tomorrow is Friday and we have a long weekend coming up and that is a good thing! So tonight I thought I would share some photographs from visiting Reykjavik and the south coast of Iceland.

Originally I had planned to spend a full week in Sweden, which would have been ideal, but then I started looking at maps and realising that Iceland was much closer than I originally thought. It seemed crazy not to go! I’ve always loved music from Iceland I grew up mad about Bjork and then later Sigur Rós and most recently Ólöf Arnalds and Seabear, so I felt rather drawn to it.

Coming in on the plane was so beautiful with the stark land, black coast and blue/turquoise water, then the drive to Reykjavik through the lava fields, I’m pretty sure I had a crazy grin on my face the whole time.

I only had a few days to explore, one and a bit for Reykjavik, which is stark but really cool at the same time with the different coloured buildings, and another for a long bus tour along the south coast to the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. Going past some beautiful waterfalls, the glaciers, black sand deserts and several of the volcanoes, none of which had any activity going on while I was there! I loved it but found the bus tour rather frustrating with not being able to stop where I wanted to take photographs so I think next time hiring a car would be the best idea.

I also think it would be a wonderful place to go with a group of friends, to go out and have drinks, enjoy the looong daylight hours and just have a laugh, sometimes it's not so easy to do that when you travel alone.

Stockholm

After Barcelona I said goodbye to my Mum and flew solo to Stockholm. I LOVE Stockholm it is beautiful and cool and I didn’t heave nearly enough time there! The days I had there were the only cold ones on the whole trip but despite that and the rain I had a great time exploring, such a great city to walk around.

I visited Gamla Stan and the fantastic buildings and the sweet letter boxes (at least I think they are letter boxes) in the shape of houses, the flowers in pots everywhere (Australian’s really don’t use flowers enough), the beautiful food in Östermalms Saluhalll, Ahlens and the homeware section in NK – that I had to walk away from because it was too overwhelmingly good and none of it I could carry home – the Vasa museum, Moderna Museet and Södermalm where I wandered around and followed my google map to Manos Karin Eriksson’s beautiful shop. Karin was so kind and friendly and I would have loved to bring more of her work home but am very happy with the little dish I did get. I also brought home some Camilla Engman printed cards (as she had visited the store only a few days before me).

After visiting Manos I had the biggest hot chocolate (it was a full bowl) and yum-oh blueberry pie at Gilda’s café (on Oscar Lucinda's suggestion, thank you so much I loved it), followed by a lot more walking after such a bit sugar hit!

My time went so fast in Stockholm and I cannot wait to go back it is on the top of my list, I would love to see it in full summer with the leaves on the trees but also in winter I am sure it is magical too.

Barcelona

So moving on to the next city of my holiday - Barcelona!
I still don't quite know what I think of it, half the time I was so conscious of what everyone, including the hotel (which I highly recommend), had said about pick pockets etc that I think it might have partially clouded my judgment, but in saying that we (my mum and I) had no problems at all and had a lovely time.

I found it so fantastic seeing the Gaudi building's, particularly the Casa Batlló, very cool and I wish we had gone inside but the line was so long and we had already lined up for the Sagrada Família. The Sagrada was a bit incomprehensible for me, the ceiling inside is beautiful but how does someone's brain come up with that, and the fact that it is still being worked on was interesting too.

We visited the Picasso museum housed in a lovely old building and I saw some of his ceramics for the first time, which has been the start of my new found wish to learn how to do that myself! And we had a wander around the botanical gardens in the rain and I learnt that after following my mother around plant nursery's all my life I'm not too shabby on some latin names.

The other big discovery for us in Barcelona was not the architecture or art but finding the COS store! All I can say is my bank balance was a lot lighter after visiting there, and I am heartbroken that there isn't one in Australia : )

The food that we had was a little hit and miss, I had a fantastic cocktail with vodka, apple and ginger and some lovely tapas but a somewhat disappointing paella.

I'm sure there is so much more to do in Barcelona and we only scratched the surface but it was definitely worth visiting.