March 2014

Early in the month, Ben and I went up to London to meet with Megan and Ed. We started our journey in a new area- London Bridge. London Bridge has Borough Market right by the train station, a foodie haven that we had never been to before. BUT THE MARKET!!!! It is amazing! I can't wait to go back and try more of the tasty treats:

We had some cider from New Forest and a Hot Salt Beef Sandwich. OM NOM NOM NOM! It was great getting to spend good time with friends and wander around different parts of London. Along the way, we found a few interesting sights:

I have really really gotten into spinning and am loving the classes offered at my gym. But March held a very important fitness goal for me- I ran my first 5k! I know that for many people, this is not much of an accomplishment. But for me, as someone who doesn't run and who has never before enjoyed running as an exercise option, this is a big deal! Long distance running is in no way appealing to me, so I'm hoping to work on running the same distance in less time.

One weekend, Ben and I decided to go for some walking/hiking in the South Downs. We started at Ditchling Beacon, an area I had never been to but was eager to explore. Along the way, we saw the Jack and Jill Windmill and then in an attempt to get to Devil's Dyke, we went in the completely wrong direction and got to the Chattri. We then just decided to walk home, a total of 11 miles.

We went to London again about mid-way through the month in celebration of Ben's birthday. We did walking tours and tried out even more of the food markets around London. We started out at Maltby Market:

THEY HAD LEGITIMATE TAMALES!!!!!!
We then continued on to Greenwich, an AMAZING area that we both loved:

And saw the Meridian line!

And finally, we hit up London one last time in March. This time, it was to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra play the music to Pirates of the Caribbean at the Royal Albert Hall. But not before heading to Portebello Market:

Then we headed straight to the concert and it was AMAZING

 

January and February 2014

Hello!

The most exciting parts of the past two months have been the weekends away. The mini-vacations punctuated an otherwise intense workload... And work is not the most exciting thing to write about.
The whole reason why we were able to go on these two European excursions was because Eurostar had huge sales during the winter months. Ben and I took advantage of that.

Brussels:

 This is Mannekin Pis (the spelling may be off)... But this little guy is famous in Brussels. Keep an eye out for him later.

 Tin Tin was created in Brussels and the people love their comics! They respect it as an art form. We went on a street art walking tour of the different comic murals and this is just one of the gems we found.

 Ben stole Tin Tin's hair style

 OH THE WAFFLES!

 European bread and patisseries are the best in the world. And it makes me so sad that you can't find anything like this in the US or UK (at least, they aren't all over like in continental Europe).

 THE BEERS!

 MORE BEERS! I was in the land of Lambics and I was loving life.

 Mannekin Pis eating a waffle. Amazing.

The food in Brussles was phenomenal! I absolutely loved the city and would recommend it as a nice weekend trip for anyone.



January also saw the beginning of baking adventures and getting back into an exercise routine. How hilarious that the two came at the same time! I was going to weekly spin classes, which built up over a month to multiple weekly spin classes, and I now have spin classes and running re-instated into my life. It took so long to get back into the routine, but I've finally now gotten back into the swing of things. I just need to add in some lifting sessions and I'm set! But more excitingly, here are the details on the baking adventures!!!! Ben and I have been baking from the Mary Berry book and started with a Victoria Sponge:

Delightful. We will have to make our own jam when summertime rolls around.



Paris:

I have now been to Paris twice, but still need to take a walking tour around Montmartre and go into Musee D'Orsay and L'Orangerie. I guess I'll just have to go next time!!!!

Our baking adventures at home continued with a Mary Berry Battenburg Cake (except we made pecan/spice instead of vanilla/walnut):

THIS recipe for bread and butter pudding:

THIS recipe for Buttermilk Pie:

The Mary Berry Tarte au Citron (which we sadly do not have a picture of).

And of course plenty of other delicious, non-sugar and butter based recipes.

Besides cooking and baking, we have been minorly exploring some pop-ups around Brighton. Half man Half burger pop-up and Likkle Bickle pop-up. I've only got the HMHB picture:

Besides food and travel, February also held a night of Derren Brown (a magician/ mind bender/ illusionist) and a concert with Eliza and the Bear and Luke Sital-Singh. I also, VERY EXCITINGLY, got some scholarship money for my PhD this past month!!!!! Overall, an epic start to 2014 and hopefully the rest of the year will continue this way!