Saturday 30 June 2012

What Diet?

Previously I was working to a 1,200 calorie per day diet. It is the first two weeks of a longer plan which then moves into the 14/1,400 (two more weeks of 1,400 calories per day). Unfortunately this is where the wheels came off the wagon for me.

Routine is a great thing for me. Running/training/planning. Take these things away from me and I become lazy and hungry for filthy food. This week has been one of those weeks. Being busy in the evenings et al doesn't help. When I am good for a period of time I get motivated so want to do well again the next day, and the next day. Having a goal is a good thing. Since my routine has been thrown on it's head the carbs have moved in. As has the alcohol. For two weeks I drank barely anything, for me anyway.

To give you an idea of how this week has shaped up...

Yes we had champagne in Pizza Express. Classy


More champagne, this time it was office warming.
I snuck this little one off around the corner...
Steak burger with smoked cheddar...DOWNSTAIRS 

Being in an office with a gastropub downstairs has it's advantages. Mainly they do not involve my waistline.
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Friday 29 June 2012

Street Food

Last week we were quite sad to be leaving our offices behind in the heart of the diamond district and a stones throw from Leather Lane. Leather Lane is an eclectic mix of food stalls, market stalls selling 'high street' goods and little boutique shops - as well as some surprises like Agent Provocateur. 

We have however moved to much nicer offices in the heart of Clerkenwell in a gorgeous square amongst lovely bars restaurants, but seemingly no street food. On a lunchtime explore yesterday I discovered Exmouth Market. Basically I died and went to lunchtime heaven. Unlike Leather Lane, Exmouth Market doesn't sell tat or have market stalls cluttering up the ambiance. Instead of these? Lovely bars, cafes and restaurants spilling out into the street and a small row of amazing looking street food. Another thing to note? The clientèle are much snappier and attractive!




I didn't queue for this one, but it looks like it will be good



I went for the Spanish flatbread. Partially because the queue was long enough for me to be reassured about it's taste, but not long or confusing enough for me to make a muppet of myself. It was delicious, garlic-y, covered in chili flakes and packed with chorizo and BBQ'd chicken. 

I expect to be frequenting Exmouth Market Street Food and the bars and restaurants on offer a lot in the future. Too much choice, but I love the new office...particularly the ground floor...


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Wednesday 27 June 2012

The World Is Your Oyster

Last year The Oysters Summer Party was one that throughout trying could not be topped by any other organised parties (spontaneous nights out that of course end up amazing do not count). It was also the reason I decided to start this blog. I wished that I had a blog already so I could try and get across that fantabulousness of this party. Alas I didn't start the blog until after. This year it's all going to be different...

Today I received my invite for this year's party. It is only 10 days away. The world will drop everything for this party and boy do they know it. In previous years we have schmoozed with flamingos atop Kensington Roof Gardens, drank copious cocktails, made our own hand rolled sushi (and ate properly prepared rolls), danced the night away, taken away THE best goodie bag I've ever received and a free holiday. Splendid.

The party is for international event organisers. Countries from all over the world (classes as 'oysters') bring you the best of their country to try and entice you to hold your next event in their representative countries.

Here is some of the other things we did last year...

Chocolate from Switzerland...
Gentlemen from Australia...
Food from Japan...
Dancing from the 70s...
...and Santa in July
There was also a photo booth. Pictures from said booth are remaining under lock and key no matter how much you beg to see them. Suffice to say it was incredible.

I can barely wait until this year... wardrobe decisions must be made. Camera cables must be found (still!)
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Tuesday 26 June 2012

My Week in Instagram

So I have misplaced the cable that links my camera to my computer. This is a major frustration. I managed to  get the pictures from Radio 1 Hackney Weekend onto my hard drive in a very round about way, it involved another PC that has a working SD slot...very annoying. The most frustrating part? I know it MUST be in the house. I used it like a week ago. Anyway, serious tight chest looking for it all over the place.

In the meantime I have taken a few little snaps via Instagram, mainly on Saturday evening at a friends birthday party. I felt I had a totally undeserved hangover on Sunday when I woke up with standard hangover number 4; the 'Oh my god what is happening in my mouth dehydration' hangover. It wasn't until I remembered the offending seemingly innocent half pint of vodka jelly I gobbled up earlier in the evening (well it was a birthday party...jelly is a must).

Do not be fooled by innocent appearances...

Porn Star Marinis
Real men are comfortable drinking martinis...and kissing
My camera skills know no bounds
I seriously do not remember rocking shades...
...but I do the next day
Mini mud...this will get worse...
As honestly, it rained RELENTLESSLY...
for about 5 minutes
I think this was the start of the 'chicken' dance
This is something I am very excited about...
One of my fave restaurants coming to London
...Now I must hunt for my camera cable and get back to proper posts!
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Monday 25 June 2012

Radio 1 Hackney Weekend 2012


This weekend the BBC put on two days of free music at hackney marshes. As local (ish) residents we managed to wangle tickets. We were attending on the Sunday where Rihanna was headlining. Saturday night was headed by Jay-Z.

The weather has been nothing but awful in the last few months. Rain rain rain. Apparently the wettest June in 100 years. Hello global warming. Therefore outfit selection is crucial. Hunter Wellies were a must, as was the new lacey white number I bought the day prior.

Boots, black tights, jacket...not exactly summer attire.
Dress - Warehouse
Jacket - Zara
Boots - Hunter
Bag - Michael Kors
Shades - Ray Ban
On arrival we were ticket checked no fewer than 4 times, and had to go through airport style security. Seriously?! Eventually we got in and headed to the one extra tent. In there were a boy band, so cute their voices hadn't even broken yet. We pulled some wicked shapes laughed our heads off then darted out. 

The first act we were going to see on the main stage was Plan B. I can't say I'm a massive fan and I couldn't have named any of his tracks beforehand - and cant remember any now! He had a beat boxer on stage in between songs, he was really getting the crowd going, we loved it...honestly this beat boxer was better than Plan B, so we took the opportunity to catch up with some other friends we had met...
...and check out the mud situation
One of the acts I was really looking forward to seeing was Jessie J. Her tracks are so catchy and some of them are on my running playlists - much fun. She also seems like a gorgeous person. We were looking forward to seeing the outfit! She didn't disappoint, belting out all the hits from Man Dem to Price Tag and Whose Laughing Now. Finally we heard the opening notes on Domino. Cracking summer tune. The party had started.
Not sure what happened to this pic, but I like it

Next up was Tinie Tempah, Florence and The Machine and Lana Del Ray in the New Music arena. In between this we popped to the food vans for some much needed, over priced, terrible food. After Florence we decided to go to the Dance Tent, for the first time that day where David Guetta was pressing play on the Mac to deliver the tunes. It was honestly one of the highlights of the day. Dance music isn't really my thing. Don't get me wrong I like some David Guetta tunes, but they are all the ones with vocalists and a catchy hook. Just 'doosh, doosh, doosh' isn't for me. Maybe it was the mud or the shades inside (a tent) but we really got into it. It was almost a shame to have to leave and meet our new friends who were hooking us up for Rihana.
Tinie getting the crowd going
Lana Del Ray looked hawt
Serious 'do and eye liner
Flo looking like she would have a boob incident any second
My David Guetta pics kind of suck...
When we disappeared for the aforementioned over priced food we got chatting to one of the security guards. He was a marine and this was the first time he had worked a concert. He said he would hook us up, we kind of took it with a pinch of salt and thought we'd try our luck but didn't hold out much hope. At the allocated time we went to meet him at the platform that was directly opposite the stage and raised above the crowd where the camera crew were and also some guests with special requirements. When we caught up with our man and amazingly, he came through. We were waved straight up onto the platform and the view was cracking. We did a little victory dance and then realised we were out of drink. C (for Crazy) was dispatched to the bar...
Hello view
Ri-Ri's set up
The woman herself. Hot (but no Beyonce...)
When we had been 'downstairs' with the masses for every other act that day it wasn't that busy and we got kind of close even for people like Florence who we thought would be packed. The crowd for Rihanna was no joke. I don't know if all the other tents pretty much shut down but it felt like the whole of east London had descended onto Hackney Marshes. The crowd was insane. Cue another victory dance...picture flailing limbs, high tenning (five just wasn't enough) and general hyperactivity.
Thank god we're not down there

As soon as Rihanna came on the air was electric. You cannot recreate an atmosphere with photos or videos. They do not do anything any justice. The first track was Only Girl in the World. Amazing. She did some of the best hits including my favourite, What's My Name. I made a video of this moment...which when I watched back I had completely ruined by my dreadful singing. Honestly when you're there you can't hear yourself and think you sound amazing. On reflection I wanted the sofa cushions to swallow me up and make it stop. It's unfortunate because otherwise I would share!

The Umbrellas came out for all the right reasons...the song. Electric
The pièce de résistance was when Run This Town came on. Our new best friend (who had seen the show the previous day) Whispered 'this happened last night' at which time we speculated until we needed to no more. Jay-Z comes out on to the stage and the crowd literally went wild. If you thought there were a lot of cameras in the air before (from our vantage point we had a gorgeous view of this) the whole crowd was one big phone screen. Although I captured some footage and photos I was determined not to see the whole thing through a small screen and just focused on singing and dancing very enthusiastically. Serious shapes were thrown. What a work out.
Ri-Ri and Jay-Z
Ohhh Snap
The final song was We Found Love. Again my 30 seconds or so of video is just me singing, like a wild woman. I love the tune and it's another on my running playlist but live? Oh My. Next time I run and that comes on I will literally have goosebumps. Amazing.

As this wrapped up we heard England had gone into penalties, cue some spontaneous EN-GER-LAND, EN-GER-LAND chanting, especially when Italy missed. Honestly I think the euphoria would have been too much for us had they won. A bit of a come down that they crashed out of the Euros, but what did we expect?

Overall, that's what I call Sunday's...
Thank you BBC Radio 1.
Thank you Hackney

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Friday 22 June 2012

The Glamorous


Tonight is not what I would call a lavish evening, nor was it particularly glamorous. There were drinks involved in a pretty nice bar. Pretty average, but the discussion was far from...and superbly glamorous.

The occasion for the drinks and nice bar, was that we had to get together to compare diaries. We made a plan to make a plan...terrible I know. Getting four people in the same room on any given evening  is a challenge, getting those people out of the country for a sneaky jaunt is another thing entirely.

Amazingly we seem to have a cracked it with a date so achingly close that hopefully nothing will go wrong. In a couple of weeks time we will be jetting off in a private plane for a mini break to the beach. Does it get any more more glamorous?!

This is not the first time we will have done this, the last time we did so it was a fabulous day of luxury leather seats on the plane, a very impressive cockpit (I rode shotgun on the way out) fantastic local wine and freshly caught fish, scrambling up sand dunes and some aeronautical acrobatics when we were feeling braver on the way home. Of course with it being a private plane there are no duty free allowances to worry about, although we all came back with a moderate amount of gorgeous French wine and chocolate. This time, I am getting more.

Frankly I cannot wait...and I will take you along for the ride.
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