A Weekend in London: Camden Lock & Somerset House

E // Back in April, Beth and I went down to London for the weekend to house-sit, and also celebrate her sister's birthday (happy birthday Jen!). We started the weekend off by visiting Hawaiin restaurant Kua 'Aina (you can read out blog post about it here). The next day we had a bit of time on our hands to explore, so we headed over to Camden for a visit with two of Beth's friends.

B // Shout out to Brogan and Joe, heeyyooooo!

E // As far as I can remember, I hadn't been to Camden before this (after all these years, I'm still a London newb), so it was nice to finally go check it out. Unfortunately, it was freezing cold and drizzling rain and the main food market was closed for refurbishment... So not the best time to visit! Part of the market had moved across the street though (we're not sure if there's always been another food market there and we just never noticed..?), so we still got to enjoy some of the culinary delights, including some delicious Jerk Chicken, and some very tasty little Dutch Pancakes. If I had a larger stomach and limitless funds, I would have loved to have sampled more of the food, there was so much on offer and it smelled incredible.

B // I'm not really a fan of Camden, but I do love the food market and seem to end up coming here quite often when I visit London with friends. There always some pretty cool street art dotted about too. The market stalls can be pretty fun to walk around too, but they tend to be the same kind of stalls repeated over and over again across the majority of London.

Brogan's yummy vegan lunch

Jerk chicken, salad and tropical mayo 

Dutch pancakes!

B // I've never ventured off the beaten track in Camden, so we typically end up going for a drink at Lock 17 as it's in such a central location. On a sunny day it's pretty nice to sit out on the decking and lock out across the canal and the lock itself.

Lock 17 Pub

B // After spending some time in Camden, we wanted to venture over to Southbank to soak up some artsy culture. But after getting off at the wrong tube station (which was Ellie's fault, just sayin'), we ended up the wrong side of the river. As we're all incredibly lazy we headed to Somerset house instead. We had no idea what exhibitions were currently on, but I always enjoy turning up at a gallery and finding new artists you'd never heard of before.

Brogan in Somerset House courtyard

El in Somerset House courtyard

That week we happened to stumble upon several gems. We first saw Invitation Strictly Personal, a collection of fashion related sketches and notes from Iain R Webb, including catwalk invitations dating back to the 60's. Some were presented in a conglomeration on the wall, each separated by thick black tape, whilst others where displayed in a more orderly fashion in glass cases. This wasn't really mine or Ellie's thing, but Brogan studies textiles/fashion so it was probably of more interest to her. 

B // Next up was by far Ellie's favourite part of the day. Beards. So many beards. Beautiful bearded men. This exhibition was literally just called 'Beard' and shows portrait photography by Mr Elbank of glorious bearded fellows and explores the ~art of grooming~. 

E // I love beards. I just love them. I didn't know it was possible for a lesbian to feel so strongly about beards, but I do. If Beth could grow a beard, I think I would be ok with that.

B // You pognophile (beard lover if u didn't know). All delicious beardness aside, the images themselves are pretty nicely shot and are displayed very pleasingly. The exhibition also features Harnaam Kaur, a British bearded woman who has been growing a beard since the age of 16 after being diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition which causes excess hair growth.

 B // The next exhibition we saw was my absolute favourite, and probably one of the best exhibitions I've ever been to. The Syngenta Photography Award 2015, this year responding to the theme of Scarcity-Waste. 

"In the past 50 years, our demands on the natural world have doubled. Many of us are barely aware of the fragility of the resources we depend upon for our survival. While resource scarcity is evident everywhere, it sits alongside enormous waste. As nearly one billion people go to bed hungry worldwide, others are wasting over half of the food they buy. The award called for photographs that tell stories about scarcity and waste and the tensions and relationships between them. Photographers, whatever their approach, were invited to interpret this theme to spark dialogue about our changing planet." (somersethouse.org.uk)

Abandoned Island Development (United Arab Emirates, 2012-2014) by Richard Allenby-Pratt

Freetown City Dumpsite (Freetown, Sierra Leone, 2012) by Mustafa Abdelaziz

B// The final exhibition we visited was War Requiem & Aftermath by Maggie Hambling. The exhibition showed delicious, texture rich abstract paintings and sculptural pieces, some of which reached from floor to ceiling. 

B// We finished the afternoon off with a drink in Tom's Kitchen, the restaurant in Somerset House. Brogan got a fancy coffee, me and El got water because we are poor students. Cry.

Grabbing a drink in Tom's Kitchen

Hallo Holland!

E // While Beth is away in Nepal, I got to head over to Holland for a few days to visit my sister and her boyfriend in their fairly new flat. They live in a little town called Bussum, which is conveniently placed half way between Amsterdam and Utrecht.

We were super lucky with the weather, and it ended up being sunny pretty much the whole time, though it wasn't always warm. We arrived on Thursday evening, and then spent the whole of Friday walking around Amsterdam. We visited the Begijnhof, or as my sister preferred to call it - 'The Lady Garden' which was pretty cute and very peaceful. We then followed this with what I was told were 'the best chips in the world', so I had pretty high expectations. Not gonna lie, it was a major let down. They were average, just had good sauces. I am also adamant that I have already tried the best chips in the world at Little Big Burger in Portland. The good thing about the chips though was that you could take them into the pub across the road and enjoy a nice Dutch beer (I spent a lot of this holiday drinking beer). We also saw a few naked ladies in windows, which really added to the experience. I don't think I would have felt like I had properly seen Amsterdam otherwise.

On Friday evening, we took a ferry across the river to eat at a restaurant called Pllek. It was awesome, made up of old shipping containers and decorated in a very simple industrial way. The food was sooooo delicious, and the only downside was half way through when some DJ came along and started playing really weird lift music.

We covered Utrecht on the Sunday when there was a really nice little market on, selling all kinds of food, drinks and crafts. Shonagh was at work at her restaurant, but luckily they had a BBQ going on too, so we got to taste some delicious pork cheek, king prawns and italian sausage, and washed it down with some tasty homemade sangria.

I really liked Utrecht. It seemed like quite a chilled out place with loads of cool little streets and shops to explore. The canals running through the city make it really special, and it was great being able to sit next to the water in the sun enjoying a nice cool beer. I would definitely love to visit again!

In the time in between the two cities, we had a look round Bussum, and managed to visit two different petting zoos (who knew dutch people like petting animals so much!?).  One of these was located right next to Naarden, which is a beautiful little place situated in the middle of an old star fort, complete with walls and a moat. I liked the friendly/hungry deer best, but the scruffy pigs were pretty nice too.

We also took a day trip to Keukenhof which was basically just a big garden packed full of tourists and a hell of a lot of flowers. I won't talk about it much more because I think you get the gist. It was pretty and all, but just not my kind of thang.

Anyway, I plan on heading back to visit again soon with Beth, so we can spend more time exploring these cool places. Thanks to Shonagh and Arjan for being such accommodating hosts!

And finally, I want to apologise for the crappy photographs in this post. I really struggle with cameras...

Interiors: El's Bedroom

B // El recently redecorated her bedroom in her parent's home in York and we've wanted to blog about it for a while now. As we've been staying there a good bit recently it was the perfect opportunity to do it. We decided that rather than just being like "look, this is my room, isn't it great", it would be more interesting if we both picked some of our favourite things from each others rooms and shared the stories behind them (so look out for a post about my room in the future!).

E // I've shared a room with my older sister my whole life, and it was only a couple of years ago after we had both moved out (her to Holland and me to uni) that I got a chance to redecorate. Seeing as she uses the room whenever she comes to visit, and still has a lot of her junk in it (GET RID OF IT SHONAGH) we both had input on the design. The room isn't quite how I imagined it, but it's still a nice relaxing space where I'm happy to chill. The walls are still a bit blank, but since taking these photos, I've bought a couple of prints and started collecting some nice things to stick up. 

E // I'll just pick out a couple of things to talk about, as I'm sure you're not all THAT interested in my sleepy room. The skull on my shelves is one I've had for years. It's a sheep skull which my dad found when out on a walk, and because he knows me so well, he stuffed it in a plastic bag and brought it home. I bleached it really good ok! Don't worry. I used to have it on my wall at uni and hung loads of jewellery from its horns. I like to think the sheep would have been happy to have a purpose beyond the grave.
The banjo and ukulele are from my stringed instrument collection. I'm not that great at playing them, but it sure is fun to try! Plus I'm hoping maybe I'll wake up one day and suddenly be a pro. I can dream.
The beer bottles are there because... I like beer. Ok.
Also shout out to Ryan Gosling! I see you there, peeking out. Cheeky.
And finally I want to give a special thanks to the dust, for being there always. Life is too short for dusting.