My Week in Rambles 7th November 2016

'Catssssss ahhhhhhh Saviours of the Universe' 

Me, age 25 and three quarters

Oh hi there. Welcome to my new style of post, which everyone else does but I never have. How you doing? Well that's great, now let's talk about me. After all, that's what you came here for (spoiler: modesty ranges from high to low throughout). So I've decided to write a bit more on here, I realised the main things I like writing are the rambles at the end of my blog posts so I thought I'd go wild and dedicate a whole post to it but under the guise of telling you stuff about my week (so cunning).

Anyway on to the good stuff, which mostly involves brownies, cookies and the wedding of the year!

Comté & Bubbles, My New Favourite Combination

 

'I put cheese above everything. My boyfriend, my friends and definitely lactose intolerants'

Me, a few moons ago 

Several moons ago, on the night that I lifted my weight in cheese (see here), the lovely Megan from Got To Be Gourmet and, as importantly, Comté, invited me to a night of Comté and bubbles. The Comté was several different months old and the bubbles were sparkly. Even better than a night eating cheese and champagne, is a night spent eating cheese and champagne with some of your closest friends (aside from Megan), cue Persephone, Mike and Hannah. I should say, and it's probably quite clear from the cheese weightlifting (honestly I look awful, see here), that I was reasonably tipsy during the event and quite drunk by the end (see cheese weightlifting as reference). It's fair to say I had a great time, so did the rest of the gang, I can't say the cheese enjoyed itself but I can vouch for it's deliciousness. 

I love cheese. It's obvious, I probably mention in almost every other post I write, even if the post has no relevance to cheese. It's in my blood. I'm not going to go on about how Comté is my Swiss Grandmere's favourite cheese, and how her and my mum raised me on it, and we have it in our fondue every Christmas Eve and New Year, but in short Comté is my life. So when Megan invited me to the Comté and Bubbles event I was all aboard.

For reasons I'll most likely mention at the end of the post in my usual waffle, it's been quite a while since I wrote a post and almost as long since this event and as such my notes which clearly made a huge amount of sense at the time I have now forgotten. Who am I kidding, I made no notes, just drunken scrawls, for example, for pairing number five I describe it as 'fizzy' and 'I ate it too quickly' so let's all keep an open mind when it comes to this write up.

Getting my Craft on at the Viking Arty Party!

Recently Viking, the all powerful stationary company, invited me to a craft event, aka the Viking Arty Party. If you follow me over on instagram (lookie here) you'll see amongst the many photos of food, peonies and London, I also like to practice what some call 'modern' calligraphy. This basically means I can't do pretty traditional calligraphy letters so I ad lib (see unicorn cat, Albus Severus Potter and Riding Dirty as reference). So when Viking Stationery asked if I'd like to come to their crafty event where we'd be learning some traditional calligraphy (as well as block printing and mindful origami) I was super excited.

I was not super excited when on the day of the event my main manfriend, Dan, tried to help me get my stuff together and dropped my camera on the floor to which it semi-luckily fell lens side down, smashing the lens to pieces (insert thumbs up emoji here). On the plus side my camera body was fine, on the downside the most expensive and only short lens I own was not. This leads me on to my next tangent, never have I loved my mum more. Since I left home (a wee 8 years ago), my mum never ever comes to visit without giving us something, which is really thoughtful and normally always involves cheese (you can take the Swiss out of Switzerland...) which I obviously love. However, we live in a tiny one bed flat (standard London grade 1 style) with zero to zero storage space and often I have to say thanks mum for the 'make your own beer kit', 'humongus python skin' or 'bag full of beads and shells' (genuine gifts my mum has tried to give me...the python skin was my Great Grandads) but no thanks. Anyway luckily for me, my mum almost always 'forgets' to take the stuff with her, so it ends up in the cupboard of doom (the only storage we have in the flat) which is where I found the old film canon camera my mum gave me 3 years ago which had a detachable short lens. 

I'm pretty sure the lens hadn't been used since we left the Falklands and as such it really needs a good clean! However, for a last minute 'Oh my God you broke my camera' replacement lens it worked well enough, don't you think? Anyway rushing to the Viking Arty Party, I had 0 time to eat anything before I got there but was rewarded with tea, pastries and the prettiest space ever. Like if my flat is Grade 1 London, Lumiere London is a 10. The hallway is deceptive as it's slightly shabby entrance leads you up to a space which is opulently gorgeous (#housegoals). 

'We Make Many Graffiti' - Reykjavik Street Art

'We make many graffiti'

Anonymous Icelander

In an unusual twist of blogging today, this post is going to have considerably less waffle in it. That's not to say I'm not going to write two/three/maybe four paragraphs on Iceland graffiti, get sidetracked and tall about something else, constantly make reference to Harry Potter at every opportunity (I'M GOING TO SEE HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and use an unnecessary amount of punctuation. I'm just going to do slightly less of this than I would in my usual blog posts...because I'll be writing less...so really my writing will not improve in any way, shape or form (this is going to be a good post, I feel it). 

If you've been following my blog you'll know this is my third (but not last) post on our (my manfriend, Dan, and I) trip to Iceland. For parts one and two, see here (apartment tour and our visit to Reykjavik) and here (Icelandic food on any budget and the best hot dogs you'll ever have). You know what parts one and two reminds me of? Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which, I may not have mentioned, I'm going to this week (!!!!HARRY!!!! [this punctuation is getting out of hand]) with my dear friend and fellow Potter fanatic, Sophie (she also bakes alot and blogs about it over here). Anyway to quote the famous anonymous Icelander, the people of Iceland make many graffiti and it is wonderful. I love graffiti, for my high school art A level (several moons ago) my projects were covered in spray paint and stencils, that is chicken stencils...my theme was against battery farming which I took very seriously...I even got a pet chicken (Kiki) who I would sketch in the garden as she attacked our dog (she ruled the roost...apologies). Anyway I digress, I've always loved graffiti, it's publicly available, can speak powerful messages or just be for fun, I like how it fits into it's environment, how it's not permanent and most importantly it's so diverse. Graffiti isn't just a word sprayed on to the side of a building, it doesn't even need to be painted, it could be made out of tiles, stickered or even knitted. Anyway graffiti can be awesome, it can also be offensive and normally always is illegal. Except in Iceland, they commission graffiti artists to create art everywhere. And I mean everywhere.  

By the time I've finished this post, some of the graffiti that I've photographed won't be in Iceland anymore. It might have been destroyed or painted over but hey that's part of it's charm. This post is mostly photos of the graffiti I saw in Reykjavik but I'll point out a few streets/area which are definitely worth visiting if you want to hunt down the many graffiti of Iceland (as the Icelander said, they make many). The Laugavegur is the main street that runs across Reykjavik, here you'll find lots of shops and restaurants including the amazing Sandholt Bakari (those cakes!), quite a lot of the shops have commissioned graffiti on the front and side of them, my favourite was the black, white and gold valkyrie by Caratoes,who we saw painting it when we were there in October. Parallel to this street is the Hverfisgata, this street has a lot more graffiti than the Laugavegur, but you need to keep your eyes peeled for it, it's mostly hidden round the back of buildings and car parks, the best was a series of sepia painted photos from a scrap book by Ernest Zacharevic that took up the entire side of a house, beautifully eerie, this piece really spoke to me. Down town is also an area not to be missed, there's not so much specific streets I would recommend but just walk around and make sure you look up. Deih's spaceman who's cosmos is pouring out of his face into pools of galaxies was incredible. And finally there was the road our apartment and, more importantly, Reykjavik Roasters, was on; Njálsgata. If I'm deeply honest, my favourite on our little road was the feeder pillar sprouting weeds and grass up it's front, it's simple but I liked the idea of bringing nature into such an urban object (another A level art theme). Anyway my ramble is coming to an end (stay tuned for the final paragraph...) but wherever you go in Reykjavik you're bound to see some beautiful and inspiring street art, see below for a snapshot of the ones we saw and fell in love with. 

Burning Down the House, Ink, London

 'Burn everything and anything, and it tastes better; leeks, onions, the house [burning down the house!]'

Martyn Meid or Tom Jones...not a direct quote...

About 2 years ago now, I was invited to a blogging event that changed my life (big claim here, it's going to get emotional guys, grab the tissues). The event was held by Miele and it was a chef's table with Martyn Meid, the Nordic genius who burns everything (EVERYTHING) he can get his hands on. What I thought was a big blogging event turned out to be an intimate 9 course tasting menu for seven of us. It's one of the best events I've ever been to, the food was amazing, the atmosphere was really great and I had such a fun night. This in itself doesn't make the event life changing, but meeting Sophie and Frankie, definitely does. We speak to each other everyday, I hang out with Sophie more than any of my other friends and I definitely know more about both of them than I should. Anyway from meeting these two gals at the Miele event, I never thought we would be so close. 

Becoming friends with Sophie and Frankie has opened us up to meeting more bloggers that we'd never met before. We're all grown women and we live in the digital age (urgh I sound so old, who says 'the digital age'...I think my boyfriend's dad does...) but meeting people through the internet can be scary and you should definitely be cautious. We play it safe by meeting new people together, so if one of us meets a blogger that they think is cool or someone approaches one of us and says hey let's hang out (this mostly happens to Frankie...she has one of those faces), then we'll meet them as a group rather than one on one. It just makes it feel safer for everyone, the new person knows you're not a psycho because they're meeting you with another blogger as well, and in the reverse if the new person is a weirdo you're a lot safer with your friends. That being said people invest a lot of time into blogging and I think you could tell from a personal blog if a blogger isn't who they say they are (it's difficult to get so many pictures of the same girl eating a burger in different clothes without actually being that girl), plus you know we've yet to meet any weirdos. I've made some really great friends this way too; Persephone alongside Sophie is one of my closest friends, she's the kindest person you'll ever meet and us all together with our manfriends/P's fiancé make a good little dozen for hanging out (they're getting hitched in November, and Sophie and I are making their wedding cake [ok it's brownies but, you know, still a cake!], which I am super excited about and cannot wait for them to tie the knot), Gianni is the not-so-crazy cat lady with a talent for penning short stories and the best laugh you'll ever hear, Hannah is hilarious and I really can't say anything else without being explicit, Mike is cool and I'm not just saying that because we have the same taste in music I mean he also knows where to get the best burgers in town (not exclusively London town either, I think you could tell him a city and he'd tell you where to eat), Emma is my food twin and the adventurer I wish I was (check out her latest trip to Vienna here), and then there's Lauren, a real sweetheart with the best fashion sense. 

That was completely off topic but I just wanted to show you what could happen from spending the night enjoying the food of Martyn Meid. Since that event and probably every time Sophie and I get together we always talk about how great the food was that night, so much so that  my manfriend, Dan, asked if we could go to Martyn Meid's restaurant, Ink, for his birthday. A night of great food and the possibility of a second life changing experience quickly settled me booking a table for two at Ink in Bethnal Green, for the 72 hour tasting menu after all it's not everyday your young man turns 11 (first Harry Potter reference of the post...Dan's not really 11). What's a 72 hour tasting menu? Well you tell Martyn 72 hours before your booking that you want to try that menu and he creates a 7 course tasting menu for you (without any food you dislike at your request) for £72 per person with a glass of wine per course. This has got to be the best price I've ever had for a tasting menu in London with wine, I'd even go so far to say it was one of the best tasting menus we've ever had (definitely up there with those we tried in Reykjavik, see post here, and our London favourite, Pollen Street Social, which was ridiculously expensive but one of the best meals of my life). The first challenge of the night, was trying to find Ink, unless you know where it is it's really quite difficult to locate, Frankie had been before and told me it was in an estate so we were prepared but we didn't know it was actually right in the middle of the estate. If you follow the canal from Bethnal Green you'll eventually get to some blocks of flats/offices and Ink is nestled on the end of one overlooking the canal. I really hope they get a good amount of traffic, because the food and atmosphere are excellent, but the location probably isn't somewhere you'd look to find a restaurant. 

Feeling Homey with Uncommon Goods

Something I haven't mentioned on this blog before is how me and my manfriend, Dan, are currently saving to buy a house/flat/shed/whatever we can afford in London (stop the front page). We've been together just shy of 8 years and I really want a place that is ours. As a bit of a DIY diva, for every flat we've rented I've dreamed about how we could improve it. This normally involves tearing down false walls, ripping up carpet and painting walls. Basically if you can't do it in a rented property, I want to do it. Unfortunately, I don't think our landlord would be too impressed if I went all DIY SOS (daytime tv anyone) on the flat. So we've made do and tried to make it our own while shaking off that university home style. You know what that is. Uni style is basically when you amass an array of mismatch items that just don't go together, pint glasses from your local appear in your cupboards (stop it guys you're breaking the 10 commandments) and things you find when you're drunk suddenly become wall art in your living room (aka the foam finger of this post, excuse the terrible photography, highway signs and magazine cuttings bluetacked to your wall). 

Recently we've been having a lot of dinner parties and having people round (if any potential future guests are thinking of bringing a gift to our next dinner party see here) so I've been conducting my usual spring clean, and throwing out all the old uni homeware and replacing it with a more adult, collected but still kooky (I sound like my mum) Scandinavia theme. It was about this time that Uncommon Goods, a Brooklyn based company that sells designer, handcrafted and unique homeware and gifts, contacted me and asked if I'd like to include some of their items in our flat update. Would I? That's rhetorical, of course I would. Dan has essentially banned me from buying anything house related (to which I have not listened to at all) under the guise of what if it doesn't go in the new house? What if we spend our whole lives saving for a house and we never get one or the new wardrobe we desperately need because our current one is falling apart, what if that happens?  Anyway back to the point, Dan said no to buying stuff but if I'm being sent it does that count? I quickly justified to myself that it was a no, and said sure thing to Tom from Uncommon Goods, keeping Dan fully in the dark till it arrived and I asked him to pick something up from the post office. 

The gig was up when he picked up the parcel covered with some cool branding for Uncommon Goods promoting their charity scheme (they've donated over $1 million to charities worldwide!) and saying it had travelled all the way from Brooklyn in the USA. Rumbled, I quickly unpackaged it to reveal a variety of homely items to which he replied 'only you would ask for glasses with cats on'. I disagree, I think there's a huge market out there for cat-themed goods and it's not just cat ladies it's guys do (although saying it's not just ladies have you seen this cat lipstick by Paul and Joe???? I'm in love). Uncommon Goods  sell more than just unique and hand-crafted products, they're selling goods that fundamentally are ecofriendly, and free from animal and human cruelty. In a world which is, unfortunately, still full of shops selling products created with pollution, slave labour and animal cruelty, I guess the question is why aren't you buying from Uncommon Goods. Essentially it's a way to feel good about shopping. Not only are you buying items you love, you've also helping to support charities that help sexual abuse survivors, provide victims of war with the means to provide for themselves and save the forests all in one purchase (how many people can say that!). 

Eat Like an Icelander in Reykjavik on Any Budget!

If you've seen my previous post on Reykjavik (see here) you'll know we stayed in a self-catered apartment through airbnb (apartment's listed here if you're a nosey parker) and we got hold of a lot of local produce that we cooked ourselves and ate in with a couple of Icelandic beers. However, we also went and ate out at least once a day, be it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. So I thought I'd compile a list of the places I'd recommend you visit if you want to eat out in Iceland. I've broken this down into food to go, casual dining and eating out like the fancy pants that you are, for ease of use. A quick note on food in Iceland; it's not as expensive as everyone says it is. Alcohol is a different matter (think London prices if not a little more for everything bar wine which is more like three times the price) but food itself is really reasonable. We ate at two really fancy restaurants for dinner, opting for their taster menus, and I think each meal cost us £65 per person which for me is beyond reasonable for 7+ courses considering you're looking at a minimum of £100 in the UK.

We didn't have a bad meal in Iceland, maybe part of this is because I research everything food related in the nearest 100 miles of where we're staying before we go away but I think a huge part is related to the quality of the food in Reykjavik.

If you're going self-catered and would prefer to cook in your apartment there's lots of great bakeries and a couple of butchers that you can go and grab some local produce from, which are all reasonably priced. Fruits and vegetables wise, if it has to be imported, it's going to be more expensive. However, Iceland grow a huge array of their own vegetables and fruits now, which is pretty cool when you think it snows for a lot of the year. We got all our fruit and veg from Bónus, which is Iceland's budget supermarket and the only one within walking distance of the apartment we were staying at. Things to try in Iceland are definitely their skyr (the thickest creamiest yogurt ever), their jams (this sounds like a weird one, but Iceland have a lot of unique berries so have a browse) and their lamb (if you're a meatasaurus like me, it's very reasonably priced and absolutely delicious)!

It's worth noting, you can't buy alcohol from general stores so either bring it with you, stock up in duty free, prepare to spend big bucks on it going out, or have a detox cleanse and go booze free. We bought about 4 bottles of wine with us and picked up a couple in duty free in Iceland, for the 8 days we were there. We didn't drink them all but it was nice to have the option of having a drink at our apartment first before going out.

Cider Crumble Cake with Rhubarb & Waddlegoose Cyder

I'm a hot house plant. I'm not one for sitting outdoors in the cold, indoors is where I thrive. Don't get me wrong I love the winter, hosting big dinner parties eating baked cheese (like this yummy Comte fondue), drinking hot chocolate while snuggled up on the sofa in my pyjamas, thick woolly socks and hidden under blankets while watching the latest episode of something awesome (currently rewatching season two of the OC for my Summer fix), and of course if you wrap me up in multiple layers (coats, hats, the whole shebang) I'll be the first to make (and instantly regret making) a snow angel before running inside for a glass of mulled wine. But Summer, Summer is my time. I'm not going to lie I win at Summer. I just do. It helps that all my European blood (Swiss/Italian/Excellence...I'm sorry I'll stop soon) has made me able to withstand the hot Summer temperatures, my love of food and easy cooking has given me great BBQing skills, and I excel at ALL Summer activities (sunbathing, swimming, sunbathing etc. [you get the idea]).

So yeah it's fair to say I'm looking forward to Summer. And I'm starting to see it coming round the corner. Rhubarb, probably my favourite and most underrated Summer fruit (or is it a vegetable? who knows...google apparently), has started appearing weekly in our local green grocers, and my mum recently gave me a huge hall from her little garden. My favourite peonies are appearing in Columbia Road Market, a sure sign Summer is almost upon us, and as such my boyfriend is overdosing on hayfever tablets. And of course there's my ultimate favourite Summer place, beer gardens. Beer gardens are upping their game, planting flowers, getting the umbrellas out, I even went to one with a BBQ the other day; combining all my loves. Grabbing a chilled pint of cider and sitting outside is looking pretty darn tempting right about now.

I've always been a cider and ale gal. I grew up in the Falklands where home brewing (of a sort) was pretty common, and since we moved to England I've always worked in cider and ale pubs (secretly/not so secretly being a bar maid was probably one of my favourite jobs, the people, the atmosphere, it's a good laugh). So when Aspall got in contact with me about sampling some of their new brand of cider Waddlegoose Cyder (find more information and where to purchase here), me and, to a larger extent, my mum jumped at the chance. My mum's actually the biggest cider fiend I know, and Aspall is her FAVOURITE British cider, no jokes, she's obsessed! She actually gets a bit snobby if a pub doesn't sell Aspalls, which is a bit much but there we go, she's a lady who knows what she likes.

Egg Wars: A New Yolk

I wanted an epic name for this Easter egg review, I think this fits. I debated about Game of Eggs - Easter is Coming and Lord of the Eggs - The Fellowship of the Egg, and Dan suggested Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Eggskaban, but in truth I'm so excited for Star Wars to come to DVD in May (SO EXCITED) there was only one real option. Why was an epic title needed? Because this is the battle of the Easter chocolate, an egg to egg if you will. I'd very generously been sent an Easter Egg from the chocolate Gods, Lindt,who I've collaborated with before to bring recipes like Blueberry Cheesecake Brownies and Dark Chocolate and Malbec No-churn Ice Cream into existence. And the lovely Bettys had also sent me a couple of Easter goodies to try.

When I found out Bettys was sending me some treats I was so excited, just to put that excitement in perspective it wasn't that dissimilar to my feelings about Star Wars: The Force Awakens coming out. This might sound a bit over the top, but let's take trip down memory lane to when I was 17 (yesterday...) and got my first actual paycheck working for a butchers as opposed to, you know, the dreaded cash in hand £3 an hour wage. What did I do with said first paycheck? I took my mum out for afternoon tea at Bettys Tea Room in York. It was perfect. Apart from you know my Swiss and Falkland Island roots, the dark side of my family is from Yorkshire. Last weekend my mum and her boyfriend came up to visit us and she bought up our trip to Bettys, it's nice that some days (ok several years) on we can still talk about how good their cornflower tea is. Having sampled some of Bettya chocolate they sent me, plans are definitely in the works for making a return visit!

So as the most spoilt girl this South side of London, let's crack on with this Egg comparison shall we (the puns run all the way through this post, I can only apologise for any emotional damage caused)?

I Left my Heart in Reykjavik - Apartment & City Tour

At the end of last year I fell in love. I should say we fell in love, because there's two of us in this relationship. Dan (my long term man-friend) and I, fell head over heels for Reykjavik, the small, urban and hip capital of Iceland. I've always wanted to explore Iceland. Coming from the Falklands they have a similar climate, sparse beauty in it's environment and wildlife (we're talking whales, seals and sea birds), oh and a couple of Icelanders live there too. Chuck in a few penguins and a sea lion, and Iceland's practically home. My family has always talked about going back to the Falkland Islands (East side baby) but with return flights costing at least a couple of thousand pounds per person, it's a dream that's long been in the pipe line. So when Dan started mentioning he wanted to go to Iceland, I did the kind of reckless thing I am prone to doing sometimes and booked flights...without looking for somewhere to stay, checking if I could get the time off with work or even asking Dan (how do you think I booked our trip to go to Edinburgh...queue one semi-mad phone call from Dan). Yes, I agree I can be a tad unpredictable, but in truth I prefer the word spontaneous; it sounds more fun and care free, and less manic and volatile. 

Flights booked, I found a cute little central apartment on airbnb to rent for 8 days (it's this one if you're nosey), and Dan proceeded to be, what I like to call, a sensible salamander buying us ski jackets and thermals, while I bought several very unsensible pairs of heeled boots and a super short shirt dress as my Iceland appropriate clothing. After a super quick flight to Iceland (I can't believe it's only 3 hours from London) we landed and I hate it when Dan's right. 

It was bloody freezing.

Never have I been so grateful for Dan and his ski jacket, thermal layers and general sense. As we stepped off the plane I was so cold I almost didn't see them...the Northern Lights. Even in Iceland, it's rare to see them and we saw them stepping off the plane. Can you believe that? It was incredible! They're so beautiful, how the molecules collide, it really does look like they're dancing across the sky. By the time we got on the coach and were fast approaching Reykjavik I realised I hadn't even taken a photo, just as the driver told us we probably wouldn't see them again while we stayed in Iceland because of the cloudy forecast for the rest of the month. Not going to lie I was gutted (SPOILER - wait for the end of the post).

Feasting like a Boss at Berber & Q

Let's talk about shawarma baby

Let's talk about shawama and me

Flick, They Called It The Diamond Blog

I feel like I have spent a lot of time recently eating round Haggerston lately, but with so many good places cropping up who can blame me? No one. We've sampled the newly opened Chick 'n Sours, Duke's Brew and Que, and Berber and Q. Basically all the and's and q's. Coincidentally I have been to all these restaurants with my friend Louie, who is finally left London to go and live in New York after years of threatening to do so. 

Before he left, his one request (alongside going to Hawksmoor for breakfast, bowling, karaoke, being reckless at Club Propaganda [I had to draw the line somewhere, plus I hate clubbing]) was to visit Berber and Q. As huge lovers of Lebanese food, of course Dan and I said we'd accompany him, and by God am I glad we did. We were the kings of meat that day (vegetarians turn away now). 

Getting Back to My Roots with Comte Fondue

'I don't like cheese.'
Said no-one, ever

When Megan (blogger at Got To Be Gourmet meets PR extraordinaire) from MBA asked me if I'd like to receive some Comte cheese to make a recipe for Mothers Day (#MothersDaytheComteWay, can I replace Mothers Day with any holiday, or just you know a Monday. Let's be honest it doesn't even need to be a Monday), I had to think for 0 seconds. In what has to be the quickest reply email I've ever sent, I played it cool and said sure why not. I totally played it cool. 100%. Like an iceberg. I can tell you I didn't reply and out myself as a 'big' cheese fan, or you know go down the whole I'm Swiss so give me the cheese route (why do the Swiss only get aggressive over cheese?), and I definitely did not follow up anxiously when I had yet to receive said cheese...two days after receiving Megan's initial email. So yeah I'm the picture of cool.

Assurance of me being cool aside, I really love cheese, it's a family weakness (at least on the maternal side, who knows about paternal, who cares? No one, moving on). Being French Swiss, my family is full of cheese lovers, my Grandmere's favourite is Comte, my mum's Gruyere, and I can't choose a fave (I'm like Brucey on Strictly Come Dancing, they're all my favourites). So every time we make fondue the fight goes down about what cheese we should use. It normally ends up being a combination of Gruyere and Emmental, Comte and Emmental, or a mix of all three (who's bringing the Emmental to the table, nobody knows) depending on who's cooking. But having spoken to my Grandmere only the night before about how much she misses Comte and having sampled how good the Comte was that Megan sent me (plus you know, Mothers Day, and my mothers certainly love fondue), I decided to make a Comte fondue all on it's lonesome (sorry Mum) and it was, in my boyfriend's words, the best fondue he's ever had. Which actually could be seen as kind of rude about my Grandmere and Mum's cooking, albeit one time my mum had a bit too much wine before making the fondue and used red wine instead (JUST NO), but you know what I'm not going to complain because it really was the best fondue I've had in ages. And I friggin made it. Me. The least Swiss person in my family of Swissanites.

No words can describe the amount of national pride I'm feeling right now.

Black Forest Brownies

I know what you're thinking. These look like they were made for Valentines Day and posted late. You'd be wrong my friend, although it is true I made these brownies on Valentines Day, I made them to try and combat the joyous activity my boyfriend had planned for both of us...a 5k (almost, 4 and a bit doesn't sound as good as 5) run round the lake. Perhaps to some this sounds romantic, a lovely jog together, serenading each other as we stride side by side; to me this sounds like the end of our 8 year relationship together (I'm kidding/waiting to see whether we have to go for another run next Sunday).

The truth is I really want to enjoy running. I really do. And I want to have the flattest stomach this side of instagram. But I also really want to eat brownies, in my pyjamas, all day. Which is why my washboard stomach and abs of steel (they are there!) are hidden behind, what I can only describe as, my brownie belly. Ok, really it's a brownie/burger belly but let's leave something to the imagination. So when Dan (my main manfriend and possible ex manfriend if the running continues) suggested we go running on Valentines Day, I don't think I've ever moved so fast to eat a brownie in my life and then feign not being able to run because I'd just eaten. This horrifically backfired when I was pushed out of the house, being made to run 5 whole k (overdoing it now) and resulted in me feeling like I might regurgitate said brownie at any point. Not a great result. But really when it comes down to it you know who I blame? Myself, for telling Dan about my secret ambition to run 10k this year (for all you fitness fanatics this is probably easy as pie [mmm pie] but I tend to hit a wall after 7K, and want to sit on the floor and cry, preferably while being fed trifle).

Getting my Swiss on at Truc Vert's Raclette Night

I don't think it's a secret that I love cheese. 

Felicity, They Called It The Diamond Blog

You know some people say they love cheese but then there are people that are in love with cheese. I fall firmly into the latter category. It's in my blood, with my Swiss heritage and all. And then this is when it gets weird. Despite being Swiss and loving cheese, I have never had Raclette. I've felt ashamed about it for ages, but my family are all firm fondue fans so it never gets a look in at home. My mum said she had a Raclette gizmo once, but if it ever existed it lies sadly forgotten in a house where dipping into cheese is central to our well-being. When I asked my Grandmere about Raclette once, she said she didn't like it so if I wanted to try it I'd have to go elsewhere, wagwan this is a fondue house gurl (ok she left off the gurl but you get the jist). So when the lovely people behind Truc Vert (aka Frankie, Russell and Louise) asked me if I'd like to come and try out their Raclette Wednesday Night (now also held on Saturdays!) I was intrigued. Then when they said Sophie, Gianni and a bottle of wine were coming I was more than willing to cast my fellow Swiss fam's feelings aside and open myself up to this cheesy event. 

First off, I'd been invited to Truc Vert a while before, where me and a table of ladies and gents sampled their tasting menu (read about it here, it was absolutely delicious), so I already knew it was going to be good, but I couldn't contain my excitement about the spread that was placed before us. To give you an idea, all that food was there to feed four of us and there was tons. If it wasn't for my carefully concealed cheese stomach, I'm not sure we would have finished it.

Happy New Year! & A Wake Up Swim

3...2...1...Happy New Year!

Ok so it's slightly belated but Happy New Year! We're now well into the start of the year, the holidays feel so long ago, but meeting up with friends the chat is still turning to how was your Christmas/New Year/Winter Solstice? Dan, my long-term man friend, and I are one click away from booking our next trip abroad...as soon as we decide where to go! There's so many places I want to visit, but we might be going to New York (sooooooo excited) to visit our friend Louie (featured topless later in the post) this year so we're going to have to make some harsh choices about where else we go away in 2016. Decisions, decisions. Currently we're toying with the idea of going to either Berlin, Amsterdam or Copenhagen (help me make a choice, which one has the best bakeries?! Jokes but no jokes). But seriously planning holidays is hard, the dream is to visit them all eventually but which one first?!

Anyway, New Year normally calls for a bunch of resolutions that we all know I'm not going to keep and then I'll feel the pressure building up towards September because I know I haven't done that thing that I said I'd do this year (this is normally always learning to drive, oh no! You know my secret, I'm in my twenties and I can't drive, the shame! Where's that woman with the bell from Game of Thrones when you need her!). Which is why I never make New Year's resolutions. If I want to eat healthier or learn to drive/knit/sing my name backwards I'll do it but if I pressurise myself into it, it's just going to go one way or more accurately won't happen at all. That's right, this girl does not respond to peer pressure, even if the peer is herself...wait, that makes no sense (on with the post!).

Moving on, I don't make New Year's resolutions but I do make plans. And this year my first plan of 2016 was to get some friends down to Broadstairs for New Year and do the New Year's Day swim off Viking Bay. I'm going to get it out of the way and say it was bloody freezing. Definitely worse coming out of the sea than being in it, however, it also has to be the best way to get rid of a hangover. Honestly, we all felt amazing afterwards, don't know if it was the adrenaline, cold or the copious amounts of Bailey's coffee drunk afterwards but it worked a treat, leaving us open to going to the pub afterwards...It's safe to safe we did not repeat the swim on the 2nd January, but it probably would have helped a couple of us.