Lost in Paradise

Hello my lovelies, hope you guys had a lovely bank holiday weekend and just counting days till the weekend, as, believe it or not , its almost here.

Mr Not-So –Spontaneous surprised me and the little bundle of joy over the bank holiday weekend. Usually it’s down to me to search for deals , weather, food and stalk tripadvisors looking for reviews.



Over the weekend we paid a visit to the Paradise Wildlife Park, a family run zoo in Hertfordshire. I absolutely love visiting zoos and just love, love …LOVE being around animals. Ok, so in my head…zoos need a lot of space to run and this is London,  so putting 2 and 2 together I automatically assume that this zoo has got to be like really ..really far away, but we got there in like about 40 mins from home (Chigwell). Which makes me think their car parks must be cramped or worse case FULL!!…it being bank holiday and all! But it wasn’t. Ample space and no lack of instructions. Great, you would think that would be it. But no, my head just goes to the next possible disaster, what if it isn’t all it promised to be. Boy Oh Boy! How wrong was I?

The zoo is apparently the only zoo in UK who shelters 5 massive cats.














Home to over 400 animals from your lion, tiger, lemurs as well as sheep, goats and pigs, it also offers a full programme of animal shows every half an hour or so , a play area for the toddlers and also your park area for your ‘getting back to nature’ walks.

I personally feel the park is a great day out for couples and families, especially if you love animals.











Just make sure the suns beaming as I cannot imagine doing those walks in the rain.








My son loved it to bits and I think his favourites were definitely the 5 cats which were the White Lion , White Tiger (who was having a siesta…shame!!) Snowy Leopard,  Jaguar and the Tiger.





It was just awesome to see these animals in their full element. There are eating areas available all over the park , same with toilets and baby's changing facilities.






My little one enjoyed it to bits and I’m sure kids of all ages will really look forward to it, even if it is the kid stuck within the adult you.

Peppa World

“Let’s go to Peppa World, this Easter bank holiday weekend”. This was followed by a minute of silence to allow my boys to digest the fact that we will be spending most of the day outside queueing up for rides on a day where there was about 80% chance of rain and horrid windy moments. So after the awkward one minute silence the hubby comes back with this, isn’t that more of a little girls thing. We both look at our 2 and half year old son who’s already ranting about how I was Mummy Pig, my husband, Daddy Pig and if he would see dinosaurs. So that pretty much sums up how a 2 and a half year old thinks. Blue, Pink, green, aqua, the stereotypes don’t matter to them.

We set off at 9 am, the little bundle of joy slept for most of the journey, the weather was getting grim and so was my expectation of this being a good out. We arrived by 11 and managed to get a parking space, 3 minutes walking distance from the main entrance. The car park was full, which wasn’t surprising to be honest, it being Easter bank holiday and all.

As we entered the park, there were moment where I actually asked myself,” Are we at the right place.?”. There was no sign of Peppa or the whole pig clan. It took us a bit to realise that the actually Peppa Pig is a part of the Paultons Park .Which worked brilliantly for us as Paultons park have rides more suited for your teenagers and adults . Funny enough, it was my little boy who first spotted Peppa World and before we knew it, we had a child on the run.

To say he enjoyed it, is an understatement, he LOVED it, mainly because he knew the characters. He couldn’t read but he understood we were at Peppa’s house, the Windy castle, the helicopter rides and George’s dinosaurs. He even stopped at Peppa’s school for a photograph, all smiling minus any of those “before shots” tantrums. He told me he wanted to get in a yellow car and the blue seat on the train. This was his world and he definitely was no stranger here. The ones who felt out of place was my hubby and my friend’s daughter who was a teenager. Hubby, because the weather was getting to him (Did I mention it was so windy , we could see the helicopter rides actually shaking mid-air ??) and my friends daughter, because she was a teenager and she couldn’t force herself to enjoy this world and just couldn’t understand why we weren’t  trying out the rides at Paulton Park. So this world does come with an age limit. I think my son might appreciate it for another year and maybe that’s it. But I’m sure by then there will be more 2 and a half’s in there knowing their Peppa World like the back of their tiny palms.

The park itself looks small and you might feel for a second or so that this can be covered under half an hour. But perfect enough for those little people in our lives. All rides are basically a variation of the same thing , they are all rides going in a straight line or around a wheel. There’s an eating area with both indoor and outdoor eating facilities and toilets and baby’s changing facilities, all clean. There’s food available which is mostly your burgers, chips hotdogs that kind of thing. Or you could just have a mini picnic and you might even have a curious duck walk up your table for a morsel. There’s a souvenir shop with all your Peppa Pig merchandise from your stationery to your towels. In addition to this, Paultons Park has another souvenir shop which you will see as you enter the park, which houses merchandises of most of your cartoon characters.

I would have loved the experience all the way through if we had better weather and the hubby didn’t end up losing my little boy's backpack. But it was still a good day nevertheless and you just won’t be able to get that Peppa Pig tune out of your head, even if you tried. It plays everywhere in Peppa World all day. It s a shame I couldn't get any pictures as my camera was acting up and all I have are just videos.

The tickets aren't cheap but kids under 1 meter go free. But there are offers available if you go in groups. Check out ticket options here : https://paultonspark.co.uk/tickets/buy?category=21

 

Needless to say , my little one was knackered for the journey back home and when we got home he asked if we can go to Paw Patrol World next time round….HELP!!!


How were your bank holiday breaks? Do you have any family faves?

The Graham Norton Show

Sawubona lovely peeps!!Hope you guys are all set for autumn and embracing the last rays of sun we might see for a bit. I have had couple of amazing days with some even amazing experiences and all blog worthy I assure you!

So if you have read any of my previous posts you will know by now that I am actually looking for experiences in this beautiful city of London and this weekend it happened. Now, one of my guilty pleasures is binge watching the Graham Norton Show with subtitles on…thank you BBC. And no , it’s not because I don’t understand the Queen’s English it’s a precaution …just in case I miss out something hysterical if my 2 year old decides to showcase his vocal talents. So imagine my excitement when I got an email from SRO audience saying that I actually had a chance of watching this show LIVE at the ITV studio and on a Saturday!!

Ever since I went for the BBC radio’s recoding for Sketchorama I just had to see a TV show as well. So I requested for some tickets on the SRO audience website and it actually took some time for them to get back to me with ticket availability. So the hubby backed out and in comes my friend Sandy and the two of us made our way to the itv Studios, a 10 minute walk from Waterloo Station. Now I thought I was being really smart by turning up at 4:30 pm , when the email actually mentioned about showing up at 5:15 pm for a 6:30 show. So, that chuffed smile didn’t last too long when I saw an already massive queue in front of the building. But regardless, we queued up and were given a neon yellow wrist band around 5pm. We were told to come back and that they will be calling out the numbers and if your number gets called out you get to go in and if not you get priority tickets for another show or the same show another day.

 

Note : Once you get your wrist band you are free to go away and come back closer to the time the studio door opens . If you have a priority ticket or a red chair story, you don’t need to queue up once you get your wrist bands. And it does help if you get there as early as you can.Security is quite tough here and if they say No Pics, they actually mean NO PICS. Unless you want to be turned away after all that queuing up.

So we went to the pub round the corner for a quick lunch and saw people in their with wrist band going into the 400s range .Now my ticket was 299 and Sandy’s was 300 and you can imagine the sigh of relief we had when we got back in the queue and it was announced that anyone with ticket number greater than 300 would be turned away as the studio was full. Talk about luck!

There were just so many disappointed faces as they had been queueing up in the cold and it really didn’t help the sorry feeling when we got in the studio and Sandy had one look at Jonathon Ross’ pic and asked out loud “Who’s that dude?”

By the time we managed to get inside the studio, most of the seats were occupied and we didn’t get to sit together but they were real good seats. Graham Norton came on at about quarter to 7 and he was just hilarious intentionally and unintentionally.

I’m not going to give too much away about the show as it’s going to be aired this week but I can say , how they manage to get guests who have amazing chemistry between all of them surprises me and the show was just spot on . We had Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway for their new movie The Intern . Sir Kenneth Branagh for his own company’s new play in the West End directing Judi Dench in The Winter’s Tale and Tom Hiddlestone for his new movie Crimson Peak. Graham Norton was just hilarious both on camera and off camera and The Shires were the music segment and they filmed this first .They were just amazing …how can a couple of brits sound that country?

It was definitely a brilliant evening and I would definitely recommend applying for tickets just to see the whole process involved in getting a show out to you. And if not for anything else, for the whole novelty of being a couple of feet away from some huge personalities and also just to see how the show comes to life on screen.And all this for...absolutely FREE!!!

You can get tickets for the GNS or other similar shows by going to the SRO audience site and by applying for tickets.

Have you been to similar TV shows? What’s been your favourite?

More of Hawksmoor, please!

So I turned another year wiser and the other half turned another year older. And to celebrate us getting another year closer to the grave, my mates bee and bottom took us to The Hawkmoors steakhouse at Spitalfields. Now, I knew this was happening and had to keep my tummy well empty and I’m glad I did.

If you love your meat, then chances are you have heard of Hawkmoors and if you have been there you know it’s worth the hype. The restaurant is just a walk from the Spitalfields Market and oozes British decadence. The interiors are just lush with brick display walls, leather seating and wooden tables.

We had reservations for lunch on a Sunday and it was buzzing with people queuing up. We grabbed our seats next to the window and right in front of the special board displaying the variety of different cuts of beef.
 

The girls had their minds set on the Chateaubriand (the most expensive one) and we opted for the Porterhouse. The meat is priced according to the quantity you order, I ordered 900g for the two of us and the girls ordered 800 g between the both of them. We ordered our meat Medium rare and it was just lush….and by far the best I have ever had. My taste buds have been too pampered and a bit spoilt now. It’s difficult to explain just how perfectly tender and moist the meat was. Another recommended item that we tried out was the Bone Marrow with Onions for starters, which was still good but did not have much portion-wise and I preferred my Roasted scallops with white port & garlic. The sauces we had with our meat were the bone marrow sauce and the béarnaise sauce. And trust me when I say this it was lush and I am partially drooling as I write this!!!!

Now the meat just comes on its own so it’s up to you to order your sides we had Anya potatoes, creamed spinach and roasted field mushrooms and all played a perfect part in making this the best food I have had in a while. The food was excellent, if you haven’t figured out yet and the service was excellent. It is a bit up there price wise but it does deserve at least a onetime visit.

 

Needless to say we were stuffed but had enough space to squeeze in one teeny tiny dessert in the form of the Strawberry &White Chocolate Cheesecake, the Crunchy bar and the Peanut Butter Shortbread with Salted Caramel Ice-cream….ahhhh Lushhhh!!!!

 

Bee, Bottom…the carnivore in me thanks you from the bottom of my hoofs and I have now realised that I am not drooling and it is in fact my taste buds shedding tears at the very thought of the lovely food! Respect!

 

 

 

http://thehawksmoor.com/locations/spitalfields/

Have you been to Hawksmoor? Would you recommend something else from here? Are there any other similar steakhouses out there?

Thinking inside the box

Hallo me lovelies!!! Can I please start this post with a question that’s in most of our minds….Where has the sun gone??? Is this officially autumn? I can’t even believe it’s almost the end of 2015…I just blinked there for a while and now we are here almost welcoming 2016. I had to attend some courses and write some exams and hence the long gap. And can i just say....I HATE exams!!!…I mean the whole reason I did uni was just cause I thoght that was the very last time I would have to do an exam. I’m just a complete wreck close to the actual exam. And I was so foolish to think that my uni days will be the last time I would ever hear the words exams and results and in some worse cases both words put in the same sentence. But with the competing work environments right now and most companies actually wanting their employees some sort of qualification trained …it’s just unavoidable!

So, as a treat for clearing a previous exam, decided to have a girl’s night out. This time, in the hope of learning a bit of art and culture, I and the girlies decided(again.as with most of my decisions to step out and do something..I had very little to do with this decision!) to take a trip around the world with Joseph Cornell’s Wanderlust, the latest exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Joseph Cornell was an American artist, sculptor (who could not, ironically, draw, paint or sculpt!!!) and one of the pioneers of assemblage, the art of making connections or reuniting things. Using his art and the ideas behind his work, Cornell manages to travel across seas and oceans, at the comfort of his own New York home. The exhibition gives an opportunity to see a good number of collections of Cornell’s work.

There is a whole of deal of meticulousness and patience that he put into his work and it’s not a case of piling boxes next to each other. The contents of his pieces seem to be scavenged from thrift shops and antique shops as most of his work seems to be massively made of maps, travel guides and toys. But he manages to convey stories with his pieces and you have to admire the thought process that was involved into each composition.

 

If you, like me, enjoy surreal art or even better, appreciate Cornell’s work, you will definitely appreciate the exhibition and if you don’t, this could be an opportunity to see something really unique. The former textile salesman manages to fulfil his dream to travel the world and discover cultures without having to set foot outside New York and in the process transform everyday objects into treasures.

 

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/joseph-cornell

 4 July — 27 September

Saturday – Thursday 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm

The Sackler Wing, Burlington House
£11.50 (without donation £10)

Hello Hello Fresh!

Dia dhuit my loveliessss…..another day another post.

Now, if you live in London, chances are you have been handed a voucher for HelloFresh at some point or left in some package you got, like me. I got my £25 off coupon card with my Glossybox. So I grabbed this chance to check this service out.

Now, in our household, all the food shopping takes place on the first week of every month. And we usually stock up on things just to avoid the hassle of schlepping to the supermarket for an onion or a potato. But it was exciting to get a box with just enough ingredients for 2 meals. And I was impressed with the pre measured ingredients and with absolutely no wastage at all. I did read some reviews saying that some items were missing off their box but I received every little ingredient even the 2 cloves of garlic!!

The recipe cards for the 3 meals were very easy to follow and if you follow it to the t you will have no issues getting it right. So a Michelin star chef you definitely don’t have to be.

Hello Fresh gives you 3 options for recipe boxes. You have your Classic box which comes in options 3 meals per week for 2 people (£39), 3 meals per week for 3 people (£49), 3 meals per week for 4 people (£59) and 5 meals per week for 2 people (£49). I selected the Classic box - 3 meals per week for 2 people which came up to £39 and with the £25 off it came up to £14, which worked out really good for me.

There’s also a vegetarian option which comes up to £36 for the 3 meals for 2 people and £59 for the 3 meals for 4 people. And a Family box which consists of 4 meals for 4 –5 people per week.

You get an option to select the days and time you will be around to receive your box, weekends included, and this is a weekly commitment if you decide to stick with it and again you can choose the days you will be able to receive your box. I ordered the Classic box and it had fish, chicken and steak in it. I couldn’t open my box till the next day but it was fresh as it had ample ice packs and Styrofoam to make sure the stuff stays fresh.

Now I’m a total food junkie and would love to think I appreciate good food. But the hubby is tougher to please. Luckily, the 3 meals that we had were all crowd pleasers and definite summer style dinners. We had the Chicken Paillard with Rosemary potatoes, rocket salad and gremolata, Chipotle Steak wedge and Coconut Poached cod with kaffir lime and noodles.

Ok so pros – very easy process, easy to read recipe cards, Quantities are spot on with no wastage, fresh produce from local farmers and butchers, you don’t have to possess culinary skills or knowledge to have a go.

Cons – some of the recipes do require you to use techniques like butterflying a chicken breast, you can choose not to but if you have never even heard of this, it might put you off a bit.

Since we already had most of the items purchased as part of our monthly shopping, there were instances where the hubby had to turn around and ask me could you not have just made this yourself with the stuff we have. Meh!He is right though…I love cooking so the meals would have been something that I would make in my kitchen anyways and bar the chipotle paste, red wine vinegar and the kaffir lime leaf, I had everything else in my kitchen. I think this would be ideal for couples on the rush or for people who despise the thought of cooking.

There’s just too much food for one person for one meal and the measurements don’t include for just one person. The follow up calls…..oh the follow up calls! And emails- it just annoyed me! Now my deal with Hello fresh was a one off try it kind of deal but I have received at least one mail every couple of weeks since then. So if you ever do try it, please don’t give out a mail address that you usually use.

I know it looks like there more cons than pro but that’s not the case the cons are just teeny tiny things compared to the convenience this will compensate for. Overall, 3.5/5

Have you used Hello Fresh yet?What are your thoughts?

Cartoon Museum

Aloha me lovelies…it’s been a while and this has been solely down to me playing single parent for a week as the hub-ster had to get out of town for work. And after a week of playing mommy, chef, nurse and still go to work, I have this new found respect for all the single parents out there. Seriously! My son is an almost 2 year old who acts like he’s on battery fluid rather than milk or any other kind of baby food, as he just tends to go on and rarely tires out. Fortunately my work places is quiet understanding about things like this and try to make things at work as manageable as possible for me. And this is something mums out there need to know more about rather than suffer in Silence. Most multinational and government offices currently support most kinds of personal situations, all you have to do is ASK! So expectant mothers, Adopters, Single Mums and dads find out what options your employer is willing to offer.

So a week later I log on to my blog page and have found out some readers in the US, France, Romania and Ukraine along with some from the good ol’ UK. Guys please do let me know how you find the blog and also some ideas to get more noise in here. But seriously, thanks for stopping by!

Well, before the week off, my friends Bee and Bottom along with their work mates decides to visit the cartoon museum and expecting some of my old cartoon classics I decide to tag along, not knowing that this is your “OLD” classics like your Beano , your Dandy you get the picture. Now these are some classics and it’s always nice to get a quick visit to Nostalgia Town especially if the ride is free. Considering how popular comic strips were and also how significant input in Britain’s satirical culture both past and present I was quiet surprised that I haven’t seen more of museums like these.

I know that the direction that the worlds heading to right now, freedom of speech is just so last century and it’s all about the “freedom to be comfortable” but I’m so old fashioned in that way and find that the freedom to express your thoughts is just so under rated. So it was refreshing to see a museum dedicated to showcase some of the more risky cartoons along with your fav old comic strips.

 Considering the range of comic strips that are out on display a change of illustrations every now and then is almost guaranteed. The evening we visited they had a little show on and the theme was Heckling Hitler World War 2 in cartoon and Comics.Heckling Hitler shows how World War II unfolded through the eyes of British cartoonists and comic artists, as throughout the war they played their part in helping to raise the morale. There was also a small piece on the Globe Dance from one of the classics ‘The Great Dictator’ starring Mr Chaplin himself. Fun fact, born four days apart, Hitler and Chaplin are actually 2 equally famous faces, and for some, namesof the 20^thcentury .One, a genocidal fascist tyrant and the other a lovable socialist clown, the words poles apart springs to mind. In the Great Dictator Chaplin plays both Adenoid Hynkel (read Adolph Hitler), dictator of the fictional country of Tomania and a Jewish Barber. The movie is all about mistaken identities and how the Barber Chaplin is mistaken for the Hynklel Chaplin. The touching scene in the movie was when Chaplin had to give a speech after the attack on the fictional country Austerlich (read Austria) and was neither Hynkel nor the Barber but a mere human being crying out “Enough is enough…let’s just embrace peace now!”. Sad, considering that nothing much has changed since the movie.

The scene played by the actor on the day was the scene where Hynkel dancing on his toes, tossing a gigantic helium inflated globe from hand to hand and gracefully cavorting through his office whilst dreaming of world domination.

Now I have to say this, the ambiance in the museum is quiet friendly and everyone’s just out there to talk to each other and sometimes even share thoughts. So if you like to visit museums with just you and your thoughts this might not be the museum for you. Along with the cartoon display, there was also a session on how to dance the foxtrot and you also get the chance to show off your "Jazz Hands!!!"...for which my friend Bee was selected a winner....so you necessarily don’t even have to be good at it.... ;) Just kidding Bee!!!

 The dance moves were taught by the same young lady who acted out the globe scene so a one trick pony she definitely is not. There was also a little drawing competition to sketch your version of a British superhero! The best sketch gets a little prize in the form of more comic books. There was a mini bar for refreshments and a gift shop to buy some little souvenirs but nothing that you wouldn’t get in any other souvenir shop.

All together, another hidden gem and worth visiting but please make sure what exhibition will be on display and also if there are any additional activities happening on the day, like the dance lessons, from their website.

http://www.cartoonmuseum.org/

Mon - Sat: 10.30 - 17.30

(inc. Bank Holidays)
Sun 12.00 - 17.30