The Wallace Collection

So with our tummies filled with love and whole lot of carbs we headed out to the London City, more specifically Bond Street. No, this wasn’t for more shopping but actually a bit of culture education.

We headed out to The Wallace Collection which is a well hidden piece of gem in Manchester Square.

A bit of history, the Wallace collection is an institution in honor of Lady Wallace’s, nee Amelie –Jule Castelnau’s late husband Sir Richard Wallace.

Sir Richard Wallace and his father, the 4th Marquis of Hertford, were connoisseurs, collectors and devoted Francophiles, spending most of their time in France, mainly Paris. The collections were left by the French woman under the condition that the gallery would have free entrance and also no item from the collection may be lent.

So if you want to the see more pictures like this happy…I think he’s happy ….chap here,

..chances are you will only see it here.

This is London’s answer to the Palace of Versailles and thank you Mrs W for making sure that us Londoners would be able to enjoy this beautiful collection.

So what’s in this beautiful collection – the collection mainly comprises of paintings and more paintings, gorgeous furniture, glassware, sculptures, armour, clocks and china.

The rooms itself were just gorgeous, it’s something you would imagine Buckingham palace to look like.

Each room had a unique wall color and mainly jewel color based. It was just gorgeous with heavy chandeliers and antique furnitures with carefully placed urns and clocks.

All rooms looked like they would have been successful Good Home covers, the 1500 editions.

There was also a massive room dedicated to religious treasures with paintings of angels, glass goblets and altar pieces.

All ,again, extremely beautiful and you do not have to be a arts connoisseur to appreciate this art. And the best bit, all of this for absolutely FREE!!

OMD's Farm

Ok so, I believe that Bank holidays are jinxed. i.e. I genuinely believe that the there are some forces out there that makes sure we have a horrible weather if it’s a Bank holiday! So you could just imagine the “excitement”in our household when we were invited to a birthday party for my mates 2 year old. And what goes well with awful weather... a walk in a farm themed park.. I was dreading it…especially since my boy was feeling a bit under the weather. But the weather was not too bad and the lil bean was jumping excitedly just knowing the fact that we were going out ….AGAIN!! For all he knew we could have been going to Tesco’s for milk. This is an absolutely brilliant thing about kids, everything gets them excited. And I just love that about them. It’s a little something we ought to learn from them, be happy with where you are right now and with what you’ve got. It’s only bound to get better!!

Old MacDonald's open farm is a petting farm located in Brentwood, Essex. The farm was quiet big with loads of rides and picnic spots with loads of animals to see, feed and pet.It is a far cry from the nursery rhyme as there are not only cows, horses, pigs and sheep, but a whole lot of other animals and a very lazy cat.

The standard prices are £15 for adults and £14 for children over 2 and free for children under 2. Although do keep a look out for Groupon vouchers or Wowcher coupons.

Since we were invited for a birthday party we went it for free. So yayyy!!

The Birthday girl had her own Birthday Party room where she got to cut her cake and have all her friends around and the whole shebang. Lovely colors and something every toddler would love to have.

Who would have thought about having a fun filled family day-out in the home of TOWIE and also just off the M25.

There is a lot to do here at the farm to fill a whole day out - for us; we were there for abouit 4 hours.We saw all the animals and the little ones had a go on the majority of rides.

I'd recommend taking a picnic as you can leave it in your car if you wish as they give you a band to enable re-entry.

And if the weather ever decides to get miserable - not to worry as there is an indoor soft play area full of slides, ropes and bridges and its right next to the restaurant, so mums and dads will be happy too.

V & A Museum of Childhood

Did you know that Lewis Carroll’s Alice character was based on a real girl called Alice Pleasance Liddell?

Or that Thomas Dam made the first troll toy in Denmark and they were intended to be cute good luck charms?

Or that Barbie was closely modelled on Lille, a German fashion doll?

If these facts fascinate you, or if you want to know more facts like this, then the V & A Museum of Childhood is your place.

Looking for something to do on a Bank holiday Weekend, we were looking to go somewhere not too pricey and also not too far away from home as our 18 month old was feeling quiet poorly but perfect enough to blog about as well!!

And tadaaaa…..it’s a perfect place for the child in you and it’s based in Bethnal Green and about 5 minutes’ walk from the station. Oh! And get this, the entrance is absolutely FREE!!!!

Once you’re in there are lots of things that’s bounds to make you feel nostalgic and also keep you little ones occupied for some time.

Even I was super excited about the massive doll houses with accurate detailing and also wondering what happened to the good old days where children would just build things from scratch and not get China involved.

I personally feel that things like this contribute to your character as you pick up attributes like patience, attention to detail and also get in touch with your creative side.

But Alas! Crafts like this are a thing of the past now and great creations are sheltered behind glassed cabinets in museums like this.

The museum itself doesn’t take too long to walk around but you do tend to stop and admire some of the old toys that you might have played with in your younger days and also in some cases realise the full potential of some of these toys.

The museum also displayed the Alice look which included some of the garments and photographs to mark the 150th anniversary of the first publication of one of Britain’s best-known and most-loved children’s books, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Who ever thought that poor old Alice would have been a trendsetter!!



This definitely was a flash back to my own childhood and the toys I played with and secretly wished for and in some cases not so secretly!! The 80s and 90s was definitely a good era.

Before calling it a day , we decided to grab some grub from Max's Bistro . To be honest there was nothing much to write down about the food as it was quiet average but the staff were just so sweet and welcoming.

I had the duck while the hubby had the steak burger and we both had the Prawn,Mango and Avocado Salad for starters.. Overall 2.5 /5

STREET FIESTA

 No birthday weekend is complete without ..foood.glorious food!! The Birthday Girl had already set her mind on a bit of al fresco eating in the form of Street Feast at Dalston Yard. Again, I have never been to the Street Feast but have heard great things about it. And since the weather was just absolutely beautiful, there was no reason not to. Although to be fair, they did have fire pits around the yard for anyone to huddle around if the temperature ever dropped.

 I just loved the ambiance, the concept and this very rustic kind of feel in the yard with the fire pits, graffiti drenched walls and rusting containers

 
The venue is actually quite massive and was almost full by the time we got there; we had a stroll through all the vendors and met some very hungry and friendly faces.

So the birthday girl had set her mind on Bleecker St. Burger which was definitely confirmed as we bumped into a Bleecker staff on our way in. Their description on the burger states ‘Arguably the best burger on the London streets’ so that kind of stamped the deal. We settled down with cups of pinacolada and then shortlisting places to have our starters from. Bottom , Bee’s sister selected the starters from ….and came around with 3 paper plates with 2 pork ribs on each. The portions were massive and it was Amaaaaaaazinnn!...we even had couple of guys stop by asking us where we got them from .Now most of the vendors I saw were new to me and I was most keen to try them out but after my “starter”I was stuffed, which should explain the portion sizes but still decided to check out Bee’s and Bottom’s food.

The queue for Bleeker St was quiet long and we thought we would check out this little bar for all gin lovers, which had an even longer queue. So it was a battle of the shortest queue, we finally decided on the Bleeker St.

Bee ordered a Bacon Burger and sweet potato fries for herself..although i kept knicking some fries in the name of 'for the blog!!!'…Ahhh! Sweet potato fries…mmm…NO…no distractions!




And I got a Chicken Satay rice box from the Sambal Shiok for the other half. All I can say street food is definitely meant to be consumed while around the streets, the rice box…well obviously not the box, the stuff in the box.. was quiet tasteless by the time I got home despite warming it up.
 

The Bleecker St Burger was good but they should definitely stick with the “Arguably” in their description as I have had better. But it definitely looked filling. I was so gutted I could not have any more as I was definitely finished for the day. I didn’t even have dessert and now that’s saying something .
 

I could go without starters or even mains…but not dessert! So this was definitely saying something. I had to leave around 8pm but there were still loads of girls and boys swarming through and no one, inside already, had any intention of calling it a night.

Gutted I couldn’t try Bottom’s slider burgers. They looked too cute..!

Needless to say Sunday was a not very productive day! Happy Birthday Bee! X