It’s Friday and the thought of cooking and eating in our cramped apartment was not enticing. So A and I decided to meet up at Angel.

One of the annoying things about London is that everytime you walk into a restaurant, you’re effectively gambling away roughly £25. You really just never know if your coke is going to be lukewarm or your steak is going to be rubbery. Its easy to doubt the reviewers too because – well really, do they even know what they’re talking about if they grew up eating London food??

We decided to go out on a limb today and thought we’d splurge on a place called Byron. We’d heard from a few sources that the burgers there were well worth the money; and it really isn’t good to walk past it every week without putting their word to the test.

So we strolled in at about half past seven. The place had some people but plenty of seats upstairs for two. We sat down and was promptly presented with two menus each. Burgers/ salads/ sides/ drinks and desserts.

It was a quick affair with the simple and uncrowded menu. A ordered a Byron Burger (patty with bacon and cheese), I ordered a cheese burger (I chose blue cheese from a small gourmet selection), courgette chips cought my eye and A didn’t need much convincing to agree. Drinks and food were ordered and we sat back with a sudoku each until the food arrived.

First up – icy frosted glasses. This alone is going to bring me back again. Ever since we arrived in London we’ve been complaining about how bad refrigeration seems to be – because our drinks are never cold enough. Most of the time the ice is already in a puddle before it reaches my table.

Not only was my lemonade fresh, it came in a ice frosted glass with chunks of ice (that were still there at the end of my meal) topped with a slice of lemon and sprig of mint.

Not long after, our food arrived. Bowl of extremely crunchy looking courgette (zucchini) chips and wholesome burgers with half a pickle on the side.

True to London fashion, the chips were not salted. But the crunchy outside with the melting middle more than made up for it. We sprinkled some salt and pepper on top. And it was perfect.

Our burgers were cooked medium, just like they promised. My giant chunk of blue cheese slice was slowly melting into the crevices of my meat patty; with my new found favorite hot sauce on top, this truly was a great burger.

A’s Byron Burger had a special Byron sauce that was reminiscent of thousand island dressing but with a zing.

All in all we decided our meal was excellent. The only thing we could think of to improve was the bun and we promptly wrote this down on the feedback card and handed it back with our £23 of payment. We left the now crowded restaurant with a smile on our faces, smug that we’d come at the right time and arn’t one of the fools lining up by the door.

Hopefully they send us discount vouchers for my birthday. Why else would they ask for a birth date on the feedback card right???

Did you know that Oxford University’s brand colour has it’s own Pantone code?
Neither did I, until today, because I bought a blue Oxford t-shirt for my da and was wondering if maybe I should have got grey. Turns out I got lucky.

So a few new things have changed since my last post.

Most importantly – I have a job. *Cheer!Huzzah!Hurrah!* – sort of.
Being a PA/EA sounds fancy, until you realise, you’re really just someone’s bitch. I spend all day organising someone else’s life, while not having much of my own. I don’t think I’m too bad at it, but it’s not an industry (recruitment) I care much about so motivation isn’t exactly – UP THERE. But I think about Venice, Paris, Amsterdam and the day goes by quicker as my eyes glaze over.

One thing good that’s come of it is that a workmate informed me of some cheap deals.
Which leads me to my next thing.

My First Out-Of-London experience!!! OXFORD, OXFORDSHIRE! – £10 return with a valid Oyster Card. Cheaaaaaaap as! We could’ve also gone to Cambridge, but somehow Oxford sounded more – posh.

We really weren’t sure what to expect. Just an old, quiet town. And we weren’t that far off. But A and I both agree that Oxford is how you imagine England to be before you actually land in London. Our visit was during the summer break so I’m guessing it was quieter than usual, it was a welcome if not very slightly odd quietness – it kind of felt like we were on the set for Hot Fuzz.

The town itself seems like one giant university. Old buildings, college houses and faculties are dotted all over town, between old castles and chain restaurants. Big Red tour buses snake between old buildings and modern shopping centres.

We did a tour of Oxford Castle – most well known for being a ‘gaol’ (until 1996!!). It was cool – literally – being in a big stone building. Loved the light-hearted history lesson that came with the tour!

We did the tourist-shop rounds and 2 pins, 1 t-shirt, 1 jumper and 1 scarf later, we decided food was on the menu. And lo-and-behold – First.Ever.Jamie’s.Italian!!!!
It was on the expensive side, but we couldn’t go home knowing we walked passed a Jamie restaurant and didn’t taste anything.

Our Order:
1xTruffle Tagliatelle – main
1xTruffle Chips
1xTiramisu

We were on a budget, but was surprisingly full after.

The Tagliatelle was delicious. Simple, buttery, garlicky, MUSHROOMY! The Truffle chips weren’t very truffly, but still crispy and delicious with shaved parmasen on top. Tiramisu was slightly on the sweet side, but the orange zest equalled it out – creme fraiche on the side was perfect.

We called it a night, and headed back to London – ready for work the next day. All in all, a successful day trip!

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It is quite possible, that we’ve found heaven…as we know it.

A random suggestion to visit London Bridge has lead us to the goldmine that is Borough Market.

We had no idea what would be at London Bridge, well, besides a bridge. So when we stepped off the bus and saw a sign saying “Borough Market This Way”, we shrugged our shoulders and followed the sign pointing into a dingy under-the-bridge tunnel… the rest of the day was a blur…

It was like the pot of gold at the end of the tunnel…

Our nostrils filled with the smells of grilling meat, cheeses and fresh bread; while our eyes feasted on the brightly coloured fruits, veges and cakes. I had a few reactions.

Orgasm – no, just kidding, close though.
Excitement – at the smells, the colours, the things to explore.
Anger – that we’d just ate… and that I’d neglected to bring my DSLR camera.
Guilt – at how disgustingly bad I thought ALL Londoners ate.
and finally
Relief – that we won’t be in good-food-starvation mode any longer.

We spent about an hour just trolling through the 3 markets and noted down everything we were coming back for – and that’s exactly what we did the next day.

Behold, pictures of our discovery!

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Hey guys!

Photos by popular demand!
Would love to have given you more, but house hunting has temporarily taken over our lives.

Actually some photos of the ridiculous places we’ve seem would’ve made a good post, we’ve seen one with a brick wall outside the window, one with NO window, one with NINE bedrooms, one came with a guy eating instant noodles out of a pot in his pj’s at 2pm…one that had 2 single beds that looked like it belonged in a dirty jail cell and another which had windows that opened straight onto a main road – it used to be a shop front.

All that aside, we’ve managed to sneak in a day or 2 of ‘sight seeing’ and LOTs of walking around. Here’s the proof!

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It’s been 1 week since me and A arrived in ye’ old London, so I do apologise that I haven’t updated everyone earlier! I promise that we are both well!

Our first week has been light, mostly getting used to the transport system – which puts Australia’s to SHAME!!! Tube (trains system) and buses run constantly to late. And night (12-5am) or 24hr buses are the norm. I question why anybody would want to drive here!?

We’ve spent much more time online than we wanted – searching for a flat is a 9-5 job – actually probably longer. It’s cut into our sight-seeing time before we tuck into work, but it’s definitely familiarising us to the suburbs, tube stops etc. We’ve already had 3 Brits ask where this or that tube stop is, and surprisingly we’ve been able to point them in the right direction. Actually, it felt pretty damn awesome!

There hasn’t been anything majorly exciting for us, but there are heaps of little things that I find amusing. These will come to light in later posts as I ponder them.

Leave you guys with a couple of teasers!

*common greeting among Brits – how they say what’s up, how’s it goin’?

I don’t usually blog twice in one day, but I just came home from a scrum-didli-umtious dinner and wanted to share. Plus it’s good practice for future blogathons.

Today was my sister’s graduation ceremony (Congrats!!), and we thought a splurge on a congratulatory dinner was in order. Steak was on everyone’s mind, and since Rockpool wasn’t really within our budget, she found another Melbourne based ‘steak specialist’ – “Squire’s Loft”

A quick look at their website shows 4 locations and numerous saliva inducing pictures (we dined at the South Yarra location). I didn’t personally look at their menu before dining there tonight, but it’s pretty basic – not over crowded – clearly focused on their steak specialty.

Have never been a steak connoisseur and had no idea the difference between a rump steak and an eye fillet. The staff were extremely polite and friendly, explaining to us basic taste and texture differences. They were helpful with my sister’s lactose intolerance and were quick to ask the kitchen for details.

For entree: Baked mushroom with feta and garlic butter, Grilled beef sausage with chili sauce

Mushrooms were very tender and juicy with a very flavousome feta and garlic bake on top. The cheese bake on top was soft with a slight crisp, delicious but slightly on the salty side for me.

The grilled sausage was massive and perfect for sharing thatswhatshesaid. Was not a particularly memorable dish although the chili sauce had a nice zing to it.

For steak I ordered a Scotch-Medium Rare with Danish blue cheese sauce and a baked potato.

Divine!

The waitress had told us the Scotch fillet is mostly marbled and quite tender, and she was quite right. The knife cut through it easily, and unlike so many places that think medium rare is char grilled, it was cooked to just the way I like my steak, tender and pink on the inside – not bleeding, grilled on the outside.

I was going to opt for my usual favorite black pepper sauce, but as a cheese lover, thought I’d take a gamble and went with the danish blue cheese – definitely worth it. If any of you have ever tried the blue cheese sauce at TGI Fridays that comes with the buffalo wings, it’s just as cheesy but with a soft buttery creaminess to it. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

It was perfect on both my potatoes and steak. Although I’d encourage you to take a few bites of that steak without any extra sauce, their light basting brings out the natural meat flavours and is really quite exquisite.

My dad’s porterhouse – medium also tasted quite tender, whilst the rump – medium rare proved quite chewy. The mushroom sauce was creamy and tasty, and don’t be fooled by their BBQ sauce. The only sauce there that does not contain butter, we were expecting stock standard BBQ a-la-bottle, but it actually had some onion chunks in it – like a freshly brewed A1 steak sauce. Not bad.

Overall, would definitely go back there if a steak craving arose again. Not exactly a cheap eat but didn’t break the bank either. My only protest is the complete lack of greenery in my entire meal. Would’ve loved a salad option on the side.

Will probably try the T-bone next time with a green pepper sauce, and probably a side order of salad to compliment the meatiness!

As some of you may know, A and me are planning our working holiday to UK.
It feels good to be out of the ‘talking’ phase and into the ‘doing’.
Interviews for our visa application are set for tomorrow, and we’re both a bit nervous. They definitely do a good job of freaking us out about visa refusals.
Luckily we’ve joined up with IEP and I’m not feeling as stressed out as I probably would be otherwise. It’s good to know they’ve got our backs if we have some stupid nooby questions!
Other than official planning like visas and plane tickets, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’ll be documenting our experience.
C.L is in the works to become the new home to my adventures (including the planning phase) so keep checking back for updates!

At the suggestion of an old and well read friend. I read the short story “The Man Who Planted Trees” by Jean Giono. The story is both simple yet profound and I can fully appreciate how it has endured over many decades and translations. Stories that inspire the human spirit usually do.
Unlike movie trailers of late that give away more than too much, I encourage you to pick this up and go on the journey yourself. It will take you but a short moment but I’m sure will stay with you for much longer!

Yesterday marked the last day of the Dali Exhibit at the NGV. Me and the girls managed to sneak in some cultural time on Friday before a full-on shopping spree at Bridge Rd; and I must say… it was worth it!

A 30min wait in line for the tickets and a massive crowd wasn’t ideal, but I was definitely glad I went. It was amazing to see such a full body of work from the amazing artist, from his early impressionist works to move sets and ballet productions. Although I am not an explicit  fan of his work or style, there was no doubt that Dali as a person was infinitely interesting. His experiences, personality, interests and all that inspired him to create what he created was what I found most satisfying from the whole exhibit. I was a bit upset that I’d missed the animation of Dali and Disney’s collaboration titled “Destino”, but I did manage to find it online. WOW! I just can’t believe it’s still in archives.  Also, did you know that the dream sequence from Hitchcock’s “Spellbound” was designed by Dali? How cool is that!

Definately an artist I’m going to do more reading and research on!

According to Google, today is Confucious‘ birthday (technically it should be October 15th for the 2009 Lunar Calendar).

I click on the Google customised event logo, eager to learn something of this great philosopher from my ancestry. Besides the warranted link to Wikipedia, I link to a page of his quotes.

I always knew – of course everyone knows, that Confucious is one of the greatest or at least well known philosophers in history, but somewhere along the line, I got wind that much of his teachings contributed to the chauvinistic and problematic ways of thinking in today’s society. It was easier for me to discredit and put aside his knowledge than to delve into the nitty gritties of why people came to this conclusion.  There was no desire to make an argument for or against these accusations. But that was years ago.

I’ve decided that I do want to dedicate my time to learning and understanding as much as I can. I’ve decided that all knowledge is powerful whether I agree with it or not, and that it’s worth my time to debate ideas thoughts and theories even if just to myself. I’ve decided to be a student again. On my own terms.

To my delight, I did find many of these quotes to be both enlightening and relative. It gave substance to much of what I already believe and insight to more ideas to ponder over.

I leave you here with one quote – it sums up what I strive for and know will achieve one day:

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”
- Confucious

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