We spotted a Banksy!

One Nation Under CCTV

On the corner of Newman Street and Eastcastle Street right off Oxford Street

If you are in London right now, make sure to go check out what is being called the biggest, if not best, Banksy yet!



Playing on the U.S. Pledge of allegiance 'One Nation under God', this piece of genius graffiti was done by Banksy in the middle of one of the most populated areas of London after erecting 3 storeys of scaffolding on right in front of - get this - a CCTV camera on a Post Office yard site. The piece shows a boy on a ladder, whose painting is being observed by a policeman and his trusty police dog. Classic comment on this Big Brother society in which we live in the UK.

KT rocks!

On the 11^th of April, we went to the Hammersmith Apollo to see KT Tunstall, finally after three months of impatiently waiting, tickets at the ready. We thought at first that the show might not take place at all. As we arrived at the Apollo, the entire area around the venue was blocked off, with policemen stopping access to the already forming queue for KT. The street was cleared of traffic and even the tube entrances across the street were closed. We snuck into line though; we weren’t going to risk missing the show! We found out later there had been a bomb threat – soggy sandwiches in a leftover lunch bag. Easy mistake.

First, Sam Lewis came on stage. His smooth soulful voice sailed across the crowd without a slip up - Jack Johnson-esque. Twice calling his father up on stage was sweet, though, as was dad. Only later did we put it together that he is KT’s lead guitarist in the band.

When Teitur came on stage next, his appearance was full-on geek, minus the chic. We all gave him a chance. and Dani and the crowd finally warmed to him, as his mannerisms were actually endearing, and his appearance was so ugly, f-ugly even, that he was almost cute. Like a really ugly puppy. Just as the crowd warmed to him and started to classify his as quirky and original rather than straight up nerd, he went off the deep end and ruined his entire act with a sadly solo a capella song with far too many verses. The crowd began grumbling during the song as it was just too weird. He has a great voice and is a talented musician, but I think the crowd wasn’t quite sure if he was taking the piss, and if so, was he taking the piss out of himself? Or us?

And finally….KT was drastically fantastic! Slinking out in an (revealing all-white) jeans and Ghostbusters II T-shirt outfit, KT teased us with the idea that this former London tube busker may somehow be just like us. But from the perfect curves of her body to the complex tones of her deep Scottish voice, KT Tunstall proved for 2 hours straight that she was always destined to become a star.

KT rocked from the gates, addressing the bomb threat before the show quite gracefully. Despite the sniffer dogs, policemen, and firefighters all blocking us off, we still managed to see her, and from the front row centre at that. Seeing KT so close up, her tiny size (a petit 5’2”) is overshadowed by her big, confident clear voice and glam guitars. We have to talk about her guitars…after each and every song roadies brought her out a different guitar, and our position in front allowed me to sneak a peak off stage, where I caught a rack with at least 20 guitars hanging, ready to be brought out to KT - some folk style acoustic guitars and some completely glam.

Though the band was involved the whole time, the night was all KT, whether intentional or not. She stood front and centre for the whole show and thankfully took time alone on stage for her classic ‘Black horse and a cherry tree’ and an “old picky picky tune’ – a slow, skilfully played guitar tune. KT treated the Apollo like a pub gig; her banter was that of a bartender or a busker but not a big star, which made the sold-out popping event actually quite intimate.

We both enjoyed the show very much, and Dani pointed out that even though she is huge worldwide she remained a normal girl, like the girl next door, and it was plain good fun to watch her play.

Southall

We finally made it to Southall!

We had been meaning to check out Southall since we moved to London, along with a slew of other locations which still sit undiscovered on our to do list. One Saturday this month, however,(perhaps as a direct result of my insatiable Indian food phase), we hopped on the 207 on Uxbridge Road toward the Hayes By Pass. To Southall you can also take the 95 or the 260 Express toward Uxbridge. Alternatively, Southall has a rail station, and at a ten minute ride from Paddington Station, it's a quick and easy way to discover one of London's most ethnically interesting and rich areas.

We chose to take the slower 207 to get a peek at some of the other stops along the way, such as what lies further up Uxbridge Road, as we never head west on it ourselves. We passed through Ealing Broadway, and, note to Londoners – Ealing Broadway has high street shops similar to Oxford Street without the fuss of tourists and crowds. Might check it out one day soon.

And on to Southall. Stepping off the bus, we were awash with the feeling of being in a foreign land, the same feeling as if we had flown all the way to India that day. As we've said before, London Town is one of the most ethnically diverse arrangements of people on the planet, and Londoners are accordingly accustomed to dealing with people of many races, cultures and backgrounds every day. But Southall is different. Southall is Little India, and the true sense behind the nickname came clear as the 207 continued up the road and we looked around and realised we had been transported to India. Indian food, Indian people, not another white face in sight for hours, Indian music...

Speaking of Indian music...The high street in Southall is packed with music/movie shops, stocked fully and exclusively with Bollywood movies and Indian music – available both on CD and cassette!

We don't even have a cassette player, but were tempted to buy just for the old school principle of it all. Also purely Bollywood was the movie theatre in Southall - A legitimately large cinema dedicated almost entirely to Bollywood films.

The selection of street food in Southall is excellent as well, with many new treats to be tried! Unfortunately the taste of the sweets is not as good as the sweets appear. We had a rose-flavoured something or other which tasted like soap and big green bar of rather interesting tasting pistachio paste.

Once off the bus, we spotted the golden dome and headed straight to the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Temple as if drawn there by a higher force.

This imposing impressive building welcomes visitors, but alas, there was a wedding of some sort on that Saturday, and it was packed with Indian people dressed to the 9s in typical dress. We were lucky enough to spot quite a scene as some very well dressed members of the party loaded into their cars after the ceremony. Very cool, and has raised our Neasden temple trip to the top of our to do list.

We were hoping to chow down on some fab vegetarian Indian food, but the thunderstorms drenched us, the wind whipped us, and at some point we decided that some Indian take out from the comfort of our cosy home might be better.

Overall – If you want to visit a part of London far from the tourist centres off the beaten path, definitely head to Southall. Even Londoners will feel like a tourist in their own city. A must see.

Gone to the Gower

On April 5-6th we swapped London and the crowds of the Olympic Torch Relay for the fresh air and open spaces of Wales. We jumped a 7:45am Great Western Rail train to Swansea from Paddington, and this Great Western train was much nicer than the one we shared with my parents to Bath on their big UK trip over Christmas 2006. Thankfully so, as the trip to Swansea is twice as long as to Bath, and we were able to thoroughly enjoy a hearty (self-made by Dani) breakfast, Cafe Nero and a relaxed reading of the papers and sightseeing until our Swansea arrival four hours later at 11:45am.

The sun accompanied our arrival and we explored the city centre a bit before heading to the hotel. We headed up Castle street, aptly named, as the ruins of a small but striking castle sit right in the centre square, across from a large McDonald´s which, as we saw later that night, must send out a silent whistle that only teenagers can hear, as it becomes overun by tweenies and teenies at night.

The sunny Saturday afternoon led us past the McDs to the high street, where we discovered the Swansea market, and of course we jumped right in to discover a large local market which, in spite of Swansea´s 227,000 population, seemed more like a big small-town market than anything comparable to how a proper city market feels. The first thing that struck us, hard, were the prices. It was as if we travelled back in time rather than simply 4 hours west of London. We bought a cheese and potato pasty and an almond pastry for 1.05 (together) and had we stuck around, I am sure we would have bought a few more things, as you could pick up 4 brownies for 60p, cheese for a third of London prices, etc. Some of the stands sold items which we certainly don't see at the Portobello market, like burlap aprons that your grandma might wear in the kitchen – prominently placed and on sale for just 4GBP. Again, small town feel in the centre of Swansea.

Oh Swansea. Swansea might be in the same Welsh family as Cardiff, but rather than Cardiff's little brother, Swansea is more like the hick second cousin you only see at weddings and funerals. On first appearance, with the market, the castle and the sun, Swansea seemed quaint, but upon our return from our day on the Gower, that all changed. But I am getting ahead of myself.

After our exploration, we walked up the hill and up Walter Road to the White House Hotel.

As the owners, Mike and Phil, had been super helpful pre-booking, I was very interested to check the hotel itself out. While `Hotel´is a bit of a misnomer, this quaint and well-run B&B provides a perfect base for any visitor to Swansea/Gower Peninsula. The room was very clean, spacious, complete with bath, hair and face towels, hair dryer, warm blankets, nice chairs, a very comfortable bed, TV, big window which let in lots of blue sky, and a spic and span tiled bathroom with a powerful and roomy shower (no tub, but who needs a tub?). Breakfast was included in the 72GBP nightly room rate, and we had an excellent breakfast on Sunday morning. The breakfast buffet included fresh (really tasty) fruit, cereals, yogurt, milk, orange and mango juices, nuts, jams and pastries galore, and the service included tea or coffee, toast and full English or Welsh breakfasts, beans on toast, and eggs on toast among others. The room also had a nice selection of hot chocolate, tea and coffee as well as three different types of cookies. The only downside to the hotel is not the hotel´s fault. As with every building in the UK, insulation is at zero, which means you hear everything, well a lot, from the rooms....which we found out the humiliatingly hard way. Overall – we would very much recommend The White House Hotel!

The Gower

After quickly settling in the room, we ran out the door and 100m down the road to the bus stop where we hopped on the 118 Gower Explorer to Rhossili Bay/Worms Head. The 50 minute ride is more like an unguided tour through some of the most beautiful open land and quaint little villages I have seen in the UK yet. And the sheep – there are hundreds of them, roaming the countryside, so close to the road that if the windows of the bus were open it would be like a drive-thru petting zoo in spots along the way.

Once we arrived at Rhossili, we could hardly contain our excitement as we sprinted down the 800m National Trust gated path to the beach along some of the most beautiful coastline I have ever seen. I'll let the pictures do the talking here:

Then it was back up the path, through the gates and over to Worms Head, which we explored for another two hours. Windy as can be, Worms Head is stunning, and had we gotten there earlier, we could have hiked all the way out to the tip of the worm. When the tide comes in, however, the head gets cut of completely from the mainland, and there are hefty warning signs with safe cross times, warning even of past deaths of the uber-adventurers.

We took a pass, explored the top of some beautiful cliffs, and headed back to the bus stop, where we hopped on the 116 to Port Eynon, where we spent an hour before heading back to Swansea for the night. This is the touristy summer hot spot, which is evidenced by not one but 6 camper van locations, and the 'high street' consisting of a surf shop, gift shop, restaurant and a pub. For a chilly April late afternoon the tables outside were quite full, but mostly with locals rather than the hordes of tourists that will no doubt hit while we are in Spain on the Bank Holiday Weekend 2-5 May.

We did explore an old ruin, an old salt extracting plant made of stone, about a 5-minute walk from the bus stop, which is where we headed an hour later, after a trip to the gift shop and the purchase of jams for Dani's grandma and peanut brittle for me, which I gleefully bit into before we even made it onto the bus. Note: Dumbest health and safety warning ever:

Peanut Brittle - Caution: This product may contain nuts

And back to Swansea it was. Rather than clean up first at the hotel (a sure fire guarantee of falling asleep after such an adventurous and windblown day) we took the bus straight into the city centre in search of a nice restaurant for a hi-calorie dinner that we both earned!

Alas, Swansea has no food. Well, no typically Swansea-type places. No hidden gems. No character, at least none that we could find on that Saturday night. And if anyone has a nose for sniffing out yummy local hidden gems, its the two of us. We were forced to choose among the most major of the restaurant chains for dinner, as chains seems to be doing swimmingly in Swansea. TGI Fridays, Revolution, Frankie and Benny's, an American Diner, Chiquito, Ask, Pizza Express and La Tasca, which we we chose in the end. Food – bland, Service – Slow, price – affordable. Suggestion: Do internet search of restaurants before heading to Swansea or hit the Tescos before it closes! Though we had found the market in the morning, any further bits of life or originality were completely absent in Swansea.

Entire streets were absent of cars and empty storefronts lined both sides of what was once a major thoroughfare to the station. But in terms of Saturday nightlife, those chains are hopping, and all the locals were out, and out big. Similar to our nights out up in Durham, girls dressed in almost nothing and men with their buttons downs all buttoned up and tucked into jeans spilled out of bars, drunkenly squealing for the next chip shop or queue to enter the next cheesy Whetherspoons-type chain next door.

We did manage to find a bar waving a rainbow flag and head into Exchange, a Swansea gay bar, which was, ahem, interesting. Like your typical farm town gay bar, there were flamboyant men and equally drab bull dykes, a few girls who had seen the L Word and since given lipstick lesbianism a half-assed shot, and friends of friends who were, quite obviously, visitors to the gay scene, rather than regulars. A quick Corona and a cranberry juice later, and we wrapped back up in our scarves and coats and headed out onto the streets back to the White House Hotel.

Sunday morning, after our delicious breakfast and power shower, we had a lie-in (Friends was on!) and decided to head to Mumbles, a 20-minute bus ride or 3 hours walk down the coast from Swansea. Note: Mumbles was named after a mispronounced French nickname – meaning, as described in the Lonely Planet, er..teats. The walk up the beach to the Mumbles was gorgeous, the town was quaint, and we enjoyed a peaceful three hours among the more active of Swansea folk on the way to the pier at the other end, which was our unspoken goal. The winter ocean had spilled piles of shells onto the beach, and we crunched along the entire way. The water didn't come anywhere near us, as it crashes onto the shore about 200m out from the beach proper.

Legs tired and aching, we reached what came ever more clearly into view as the rickety, falling down pier three hours later, which we didn't even go out on because a: I was scared we would fall through the rotten planks and b. they wanted 50p each to walk out onto this deathtrap that has literally nothing out on it except a fence to keep you from going over the far end.

We climbed down around the other side of the pier for awhile, but after we both took hearty spills among the rock jutting dangerously out of the earth, we headed back into town, pausing to stop at Salt at the George, a fabulously affordable and scrumptiously satisfying all-purpose family-restaurant and 2-for-1 cocktail bar right in the Mumbles centre. The restaurant is independently-owned, well-decorated, very large with two floors, a balcony and amazing sea views. Veggie options were creative, and we ordered the Veggie Platter for two, which, along with a side order of fries, stuffed us right up. The platter had vegetable root crisps, veggie tempura, flat bread, vegetarian wontons, dips, olives and lettuce. We had all that, plus fries and two diet cokes for 12 GBP. What a deal.

The bus back to town was less of a deal, as it cost us 5 pounds for the two of us to ride back 20 minutes. Note: Day savers are the absolute best option, both for travel within Swansea and out with the Gower Explorer.

With a little over an hour to spare before heading back to London, we attempted to find something else to discover, but the high street in Swansea on Sunday was absolutely empty, shops were closed, and, as tumbleweed blew across the road in front of us, we headed to the only beacon of life on the High Street – Starbucks.

Dublin 20/03/08 – 24/03/08

After a disastrous first attempt to hop a flight to Dublin in September left us tearful on the floor at Heathrow as our plane took off from Gatwick, the Easter break six months later was a perfect opportunity to give a trip to Dublin a second chance. We checked the itinerary several times and, absolutely certain that the Stansted Express would get us on the plane this time, we left Liverpool Street Station to Stansted, were nearly first to the check in and sped through the gates. We were surprisingly lucky, with both flights being on time and our luggage arriving on time at the airport with us in good condition despite we hear many horror stories about Ryanair.

In Dublin, we saved the 6€ fee for the airport bus and took a local bus to the city centre from where the LUAS tram led us directly to our hotel – the Glashaus hotel in Tallaght, a good 40 minute sojourn from the city center.

At less than 200 GBP for 4 nights for the two of us, this three star new build was a real bargain. We were completely satisfied with our large room with a wall of windows and a large comfy double bed, flat screen TV, tea & coffee making facilities and hair dryer, though the door handle in the bathroom did break off on first use.

We didn’t go to the (usually empty) hotel bar, nor did the nibbles and meals on the menu appeal at all. In spite of the holiday weekend, the hotel and Tallaght in general seemed rather like a ghost town. The area consists of brand new buildings, most of which appear to stand empty, and a respectable mall with all the major chain stores and a 24 hour Tesco superstore directly opposite the hotel.

While we were satisfied overall with the hotel, there are two things to be pointed out when staying at the GLASHAUS:

1. The city centre is FAR. Walking to the city is only recommendable if you are prepared to set up camp for a night in between. For the rest of you: you´ll be dependent completely on the tram. The tram (LUAS) station is one minute from the hotel and offers frequent services (every 8 minutes), even on holidays, lasting, as mentioned, 46 minutes to the center. If you´re prepared to stay in the center all day anyway, the distance is just fine, but a trip to the hotel to freshen up before a long night out clubbing would cut an entire two hours from your itinerary to Tallaght and back.
2. Don’t rely on restaurants in the area. During our stay, there were only very few restaurants open – a Captain America right opposite the hotel (super-hero in name only), a Spanish restaurant and a few fast food places in the mall (including BK and McDonald’s). The Tesco is a great option to stock up before a trip out to the surrounding areas or a nice night in, and the Papa John’s at a few minutes' walking distance from the hotel served us mouthwatering pizza at a relatively (relatively being a key word there) good price. The area is still under construction, and we would expect that in a few years´time, Tallaght will be a perfect tourist location – the Starbucks going in right on the corner is a probable testament of developments to come.

We had three full days in Dublin and found this to be enough time to explore the city and even the surrounding areas. Day 1 we spent entirely in the city and did the typical tourist stuff – Temple Bar, Connolly Street, St Stephen’s Green, Grafton Street, etc.

We would have done even more, but were quite shocked by the prices for food and drinks which, even compared to London prices, were, well, they were quite frankly ginormous. Simple sandwiches run about 5€, and meals in restaurants start from 12€ (veg), and 18€ for the omnivores and carnivores.

While wandering through the adorable Market Arcade in the Temple Bar area, a little place called Honest to Goodness,

a healthy-type sandwich bar, caught our attention with the not-so-subtle rave reviews from various papers plastered in the window of this otherwise modest little shop. For around 6-7€, they offer a wide variety of creative sandwiches on different breads including creative creations with hummus and grilled vegetables or goats cheese, sundried tomatoes and pesto, both of which we sampled, and even Sloppy Joes (!), which we didn't. The soup du jour seemed to be a big hit as well, though we were so full after splitting these two sandwiches that we had to pass on the soup.

Day 2 saw us leaving Dublin on the DART, an overground train which connects the city with its suburbs towards the South following the coast to Killiney, a small town by the sea.

Though only 20 minutes from Dublin proper, the train ride inspires a feeling of seeing the ‘real’ Ireland, with green hills and the blue sea crashing against the rocky shore. Killiney, however, felt more like Italy than Ireland, with its palm trees, narrow winding roads with names like Sorrento Drive and Alpha Romeos speeding along them.

Killiney is apparently where both Bono from U2 and Lisa Stansfield both call home.

It was along these lovely ocean view roads that we made our way on foot from Killiney to Dalkey, passing from one mansion after another. Dalkey offers some enviable vistas of Dublin, the sea and the neighbouring villages down the Southern coast from whence we came.

After a coffee and cake break in a local bakery, we wandered through the village, with its very sweet high street loaded with independent boutique type shops and pubs. We took the DART from Dalkey back to Dublin at Colloney station.

Day 2 was definitely the highlight of our trip, as we both liked this part of our trip best and highly recommend to add a visit of Killiney / Dalkey or even more Southern suburbs (the DART goes until Greystone) to a Dublin city break.

That evening we explored a few of Dublin’s gay bars. First on the list was The George in Great South Street, but this seemed a men-only venue, as we could only see boys lined up at the bar. So we headed to The Globe instead, where ´the crowd´ was mixed equally, though for a Saturday night there were plenty of open seats. We then ended up in The Dragon. The venue is fantastic, a very stylish and modern bar with little private sit-in niches and an upstairs area and a dance floor in the back of the bar. Although we both were impressed with the chic bar, it was also strangely empty for a Saturday night on a holiday weekend. On the way back to Tallaght we popped into the Front Lounge at Parliament Street, which turned out to be the top address for the ladies, packed with gay girls of all types and ages (but there were men in there are as well). The atmosphere was very cool and we both liked the place immediately – would definitely be our prime location if we lived in Dublin. A Must for lesbians who want to explore the scene in Dublin.

As our trip to Dalkey and Killiney was so successful the day before, we decided to make Day 3 a day trip as well. We headed north this time to Howth, a small peninsula in the North of Dublin which you can get to easily within 20 minutes on the DART. Howth village is a little fishing village with a big harbor – where we saw walruses swimming in the harbor!

These walruses were certainly not afraid of the crowd of spectators...they swam right up to us hoping to get some fish. Another highlight was the market which was set up right by the harbor offering not only fruit and vegetables, but also Lebanese sweets, French crepes, and German breads.

After a hike up a steep hill toward the center of the peninsula, an accidental bus ride right out of Howth and a train ride back to Dublin, we decided to take the night easy as we had to be up and out of the hotel room by 730 the next morning for our flight back to London. We headed to The Lemon, an affordable European style cafe/restaurant, with a typical menu of crepes and paninis. Though I started off unenthusiastic about our order (tomato/pesto panini and a veggie and cheese crepe - booooring), we enjoyed both the warm panini and the crepe (which Dani refers to as a pancake, so you can see how thick and filling it was). This was really the only meal we sat down for during our whole trip, as the words 'Dublin' and 'on-a-shoestring' do not seem to go together at all.

That night it was a bit of football on the telly and a last night in the comfy queen-size before we trampled back onto the 730 tram ride to the city centre, we where we boarded the number 747 Airport Express back to the airport. We planned on taking a regular public bus, but we had just missed it and it ran only once an hour, so we forked out the 6€ for a tourist-packed direct ride to the airport, arriving in 20 minutes rather than the 50 minute stop-filled trip we were prepared to take. Note: From Tallaght on the red line, I think we may have been able to change at Heuston and go direct to the airport, rather than heading into town and back out again. It was just too early and too much hassle to figure it out at split-second´s notice. Back in London and home in Shepherds Bush by 2 in the afternoon, our 7 hour trip went smoothly, which is representative of our trip in general. Excellent.

P.S. we didn't mention Guinness once in the post. The Guinness factory is right in the city, and tours run regularly. We didn't make the trip to the Guinness tour, as we were never sure about the opening times on Easter weekend, and as we had found so many places outside of Dublin proper to explore. Dani did have a Guinness at our favorite bar on night 2. Tasty as any Guinness we'd had before, the rumours of it not travelling well are in our opinion a bit far-fetched. More a good marketing ploy than actual fact.

MexiCali in Notting Hill

Apparently it is in an American's DNA that when abroad, we must constantly be on the search for the perfect authentic Mexican restaurant. This obssession has also rubbed off on my German counterpart, whose own obsession has only increased since returning from our trip to Chicago over Christmas. As soon as we hear of a restaurant boasting Mexican or TexMex anywhere in the Capital, we're there, taste-testing enchiladas, nachos and some of the more interesting but less authentic creations the owners have brought back with them or invented after their travels across the Atlantic. We've been to Wahaca near Trafalgar Square, Taqueria in Notting Hill, Cafe Pacifico near Covent Garden, (with shame I admit we've also been to) Chiquito in Leicester Square, Desperados in Upper Street in Islington, Oscars in Whiteley's Shopping Centre, and we've attempted a night at Crazy Homies in Westbourne Park Road, but it was an hour wait and we were too tired to and close to home to bother to wait. More recently, we surrendered to our Mexican cravings and headed to Mexicali, at Notting Hill Gate, a stone´s throw from the Coronet Cinema.

This was our second visit to Mexicali, as the first time (pre-Chicago trip) we were both pleasantly surprised with the place. The venue itself fits right into the trendy Notting Hill neighborhood, with open plan seating, a lofted second floor and a sunken ground floor in the back providing for a multi-level space with plenty of leather seating throughout. The staff are all native Spanish speakers, and the place can have quite a seductive feel as the lights dim and candles are lit once the sun goes down.

The menu, on the other hand, turned out to be not as seductive as we remembered from our first visit, when I was very happy to see Chile Rellenos on the menu – a rarity in London indeed (though not as rare as a tamale, but dont get me started there or my mouth will not stop watering). At second glance, the menu has very limited vegetarian options, is way overpriced for fairly unauthentic Mexican food, and the flexibility for veggie substituions was laughable on this occasion. Having already ordered the Chile rellenos and no desire for Veggie Fajitas, I opted to order the tacos, requested refried beans in place of the standard Chicken or beef option. The native Spanish-speaking waitress had a hard time trying to politely warn me that the bean option would be unsatisfactory, and I decided to go ahead and order the beans options anyway. What I received was three open-faced corn tortillas, cooked but cold, with a sprinkling of onions and tomatoes inside, and what can only be called bean soup on the side, which I was to pour on, erm, fill my tortillas with. The guacamole on the side only added insult to injury, as the tiny spoonful/taco ratio left the tacos empty still, in spite of the addition of another ingredient.

On the other hand, Dani was pleased with her oversized and well-stuffed veggie Tacquitos appetizer and Allison´s simple can´t-go-wrong beef burrito seemed to please as well. We managed to scarf down all of our food despite the unappetizing images of the Elephant Man and a travel show with the presenter bashing the heads of squid and octopus in in Spain on the very large flat screen on the wall right in front of us. Why a restaurant with such ambiance would want a flat screen like a Whetherspoons is beyond me. On the whole, I would say that even though it´s so near to our dear Coronet Cinema, I think we´d rather hit Tapas TexMex Bar or explore the Italian and pub pre-movie dinner options than eat again at Mexicali.

Lounge Bohemia – shh...don´t tell anyone...

Dani and I met up with a colleague of mine, her boyfriend and some of their college friends recently at a hot new bar called Lounge Bohemia in Great Eastern Street, 10 minutes walk from Liverpool St Station. Hidden behind an unassuming and unmarked brown door between a newsagents and a shop, you (should) have to stick your hand into the mail slot and ring the buzzer inside to be let in, where you then head down a set of unsturdy scaffolding-like steps which transport you to a 1970s communist Czechoslovakian living room as you make your way down them.

Note: Having been there twice now, the door was actually always open, and there was no need to ring the buzzer at all.

Lounge Bohemia is owned by Paul, a native Czech who is so nonchalant about the place he keeps as quiet about it as possible, though Lounge Bohemia has already won 3 different industry awards since its opening in November last year. We had excellent cocktails and creative nibbles at affordable prices in a super chill atmosphere, as the venue really is the size of a living room, and holds no more than 40 at once on its few tables tucked in corners and orange couches out in the middle of room.

It's worth a peek in and at least one cocktail if you're in East London anywhere near Liverpool St/Columbia Road area.

Chick concerts

Right after moving into our new place we happened to go to a concert in our ‘local’ concert venue – the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The Empire used to a proper theatre and can fit 2,000 raging fans. Completely packed to the brim it was indeed on 2 March 2008, almost completely by women, all there to see UH HUH HER, or rather, all there to see Leisha Hayley, the only real lesbian on The L Word, with her band U.H.H. We both had only heard a few tracks on YouTube, but I had high hopes for the show as I knew some of The Murmers songs, Leisha’s former band, which I liked very much.

Before we could enjoy the new sounds of Uh Huh Her, however, we had to stand a one-hour performance of, let’s just go on and say it, the worst act in the world. I am still trying to find out who paid these two chicks to literally stand behind a laptop and load songs onto Windows Media Player for the crowd to hear. Oh, and they did swing their hips slightly from time to time. Not so much in the way that a respectably talentless act might have choreographed dance moves to deter our attention from the lip-synching, but rather their hips swung in that way that even the most geriatric plastic hips might swing instinctively to loud music blaring over a sound system intended for a live act. They were unbelievably bad – if they were supposed to be a DJ act to warm us up, one would have expected some floor filler songs (but NO), a proper DJ performance a la Carmen (The L Word) and mixed tapes rather than a laptop, mp3s and a media player. I mean, really – who allowed them to go on stage!?

The performance of Leisha and Camila Grey was Grammy-winning in comparison to these two mannequins opening for them, but we both expected a bit more of Uh Huh Her considering the long time both of them were in bands already, and Leisha´s music connections (kd lang's ex). You could feel the lack of experience in performing together and Leisha´s insecurity about the whole thing. Another minus was the bad sound quality up on the second circle where we were. The music style was excellent though, and I look forward to the album release in May.

Two days later, on 5 March, we went to KoKo in Camden (30-minute ride on the 31 bus from Shepherds Bush), a fabulous venue, to see Tegan and Sara, a Canadian sister duo of 10 years, loads of albums and so many fans chanting all the words its a wonder that radio hasn't picked them up.

After the detestible performance of Uh Huh Her’s warm-up band, we were positively surprised by Northern State, a three-(white!)girl hip hop combo from New York, produced by Adrock of the Beastie Boys among others. Tight rhymes, deep beats that go boom boom boom in your trunk and absolute tongue-and-cheek awareness of their whiteness...All three girls played instruments, danced and handled the mic like pros. We still cannot believe that there isn´t already more buzz around them, considering their producer, their talent and the fact that they´ve been around quite some time apparently. Overall feeling – watch out Salt-n-Pepa, Ellen´s gonna be replacing her Shoop rap with Northern State´s 'Can I keep your pen?' - the next album on our must-have list.

Tegan and Sara gave a strong, solid performance, if not a bit simple and straightforward. The two concentrated purely on their instruments and the music, delivering a live presentation of their new album The Con. They sprinkled in some of their classics such as Speak Slow, Walking with a Ghost and So Jealous. The show was in no way lackluster, with the twins in top form and showing an absolutely flawless performance. The two are talented, serious musicians who had the crowd captivated by their musical performance rather than the banter in between. The only downside to the show was that Tegan and Sara skipped “My Number”, a real shame, as this song is especially fantastic live and gives the whole group the goosebumps.

Overall the show left us both even bigger fans of Tegan and Sara and near-groupies of Northern State!

Travel tales

London, baby! We live in a city that can feel like the centre of the universe, the forefront of just about everything, one of the most visited in the world and one of the most lived in as well.

There are hidden gems throughout London to be discovered, and since we moved to London last June 2007, Dani and I (Jessica), have set out to set foot on as much of London as possible before the time comes to conquer new territory.

Almost every weekend, we visit a new (to us) neighbourhood, discover a new restaurant, see a new exhibit or show, catch a concert, and so on and so on. And then there is the travelling outside of London that we have done – from Germany to Bath, Oslo to Brighton, Chicago to Beachy Head, and Edinburgh to Dublin and Wales, where we also love to discover as much of the cities or countryside as possible, keeping our eye out for off-the-beaten-track tips and pics as we skip along from place to place. All the while we clumsily translate the experiences we share into emails to friends, quickly share tips to visitors and Londoners alike and spatter our flat with pics from the trips we take both in the UK and beyond.

One purpose of the blog is to turn our travels into a multimedia diary, not only for our friends and family to stay up to date with our globetrotting and day to day London lives, but also for us to remember our adventures of this great life that we live.

A second purpose to this blog is provide personal travel tips, recommendations, anecdotes, warnings, suggestions, and more to travellers in London and beyond.