8 Hidden Secrets of Temple, London

Normal Londoners will rush through the Temple area of London, race along Fleet Street and possibly settle into a cosy chair somewhere delicious along The Strand.

Instead of doing the above, the next time you find yourself with a spare half an hour or so fancy a 'London Kiwi'-style tour of the area instead? For medieval history, cats, Hollywood movies, Charles Dickens and a decent cup of tea read on. 

A (Too) Quick City Break in York.

Much like the Grand Old Duke of York, who had ten thousand men and marched them up to the top of the hill, and then marched them down again, I can't get enough of York... (because he visited repeatedly, that was obvious, right?)

Having visited nearly half a dozen times over the years, and somehow not managing to share it on my blog over the years, I would say that although you could visit from London for the day, I wouldn't. Go for a minimum of an overnight stay, or a few days if you can. Witness a misty morning, and a candy coloured sunset, wander out into the Dales or slip in a seaside visit somewhere like Scarborough, and really get to know the ancient city.

The Bulford Kiwi - a 130m tall piece of Graffiti near Salisbury, Wiltshire.

High above the Salisbury Plains one of the biggest pieces of New Zealand graffiti in the world overlooks an army base. (It's to the left, out of shot.)

Forget the Westbury White Horse in Oxfordshire or the Cerne Abbas Giant over Dorset both cut into the hillsides by the Celts (possibly dating back to 500BC) as pagan worship to their gods; a giant Kiwi was dug into the rolling hills above Bulford Army base just after World War One and attracts curious locals and crazy visitors to this day.

English Traditions: Bell Ringing in Churches

One of the moments in my life that I'll never forget is hearing the Church bells pealing as Mr Kiwi and I took our first steps as a married couple.

Our favourite song was playing, many of our favourite people around the world were smiling all around us and that bloke who had just vowed to stand beside me through thick, thin and endless photographs of doorways (that wasn't in the vows, it was implied) took my hand.

48 Hours Sashaying Around Singapore

When I planned my round the world trip (the New Zealand one - don't worry, I'll get to my recent US/Canada trip sometime soon, maybe) I plotted my journey around a few of the brilliant people I've met over the years.

Hopping through Doha, Australia and New Zealand, my last stop was Singapore. And, in only 48 hours I managed to take 983 photos.



Arriving into Changi Airport at 7am, I freshened up in the spa and then shot to my home for the first night - the horizon dominating Marina Bay Sands. With only two nights to spend in Singapore I made sure to make every moment count, and dropping my bags off with the concierge, I took the 57 floor lift and enjoyed a breakfast with an incredible view.

10 London cocktail spots this summer

My little blog profile image came about almost by accident. I was chatting to a Kiwi cartoonist one day on Instagram who offered to use me as a practise subject (his name is James Espie, check him out) and he, given a few of the few photos of me on the blog, drafted up my cool little avatar. Cocktail in hand.

So, in essence, I blame him for this habit.

Nb: Post contains a couple of blogger invites, marked with*
but I've been back to all of these on my own dime.

The habit of meeting good friends in delicious bars around the London. Ok, ok, who am I kidding. It's a labour of love that I greet with glass in hand. It's quite a London thing - with commuters living in all corners, a well planned or last minute (there aren't many in between) catch-up somewhere lovely is one of the pleasures of living in London.

How to travel in-between "travelling"

Alas, our lives aren't always a constant flurry of airport lounges and glamorous glasses of champagne poured at 30,000 feet. Mine certainly hasn't been - for the last 5 years I've been balancing a full-time job with running a blog, trying to sneak travel in as much as I can, and lately freelancing for clients.

This has meant that I have had to become creative when trying to slake my wanderlust around a 9 to 5 desk job. Luckily, I live on one of the best islands in the world. People often worry about becoming a travel blogger, thinking that they don't jet off to all corners of the world every weekend and they won't have enough content. Well, to that I say phooey.

The Scarlet Hotel, Cornwall: A sumptuous seaside spa stay

We arrived just as the sky turned ink blue over gentle waves. Stopping the car in the middle of the deserted road we rolled down the window and simply swooned at our cliff top view. Below us the beach stretched out, softly hugging the foam crests of the incoming tide. (And then we instagrammed because you can take the bloggers out of London...)

 Disclaimer: We were very relaxed guests of The Scarlet Hotel but all of our blissful enjoyment and thoughts were very much our own...

We navigated the curving road around, heading further and further away from the surfing epicentre of Newquay and with one last hairpin bend worthy of Top Gear slow motion panorama, we found our home for the evening. Snugged into the cliffs, the Scarlett Hotel is a peaceful retreat, hiding away from the clanging updates of the world.

Egerton Hotel: A pawfectly luxurious doggie afternoon tea.

My cutest afternoon tea date (ever) arrived at our Egerton Hotel rendezvous wearing a blue bow tie and his salt & pepper hair suavely combed - just right for a Kensington afternoon tea. 

Paws down, this is the cutest afternoon tea I've ever done. Ever. And I shan't be apologising for the litany of puns about to litter this post. #Sorrynotsorry

Pocahontas and her connection with Gravesend, Kent

Sometimes I feel that this country isn't real, that Britain is actually a storybook tome, disguised with trees and chimneys to fool the reader into thinking that we are living on a rock. In actuality perhaps if we prodded it a little bit harder and peered a little bit closer that we would see the seams between worlds. (That got a little bit Matrix in style, sorry!)

But seriously, it sometimes seems as if each corner has a knight on pure white steed about to charge (Temple Church), damsels defending their land (Queen Boudicea in Epping Forest), incredible feats of daring (Bletchley Park) or wizards ready to enspell the world (Stonehenge) and the tales are such a rich tapestry of fascination - especially for an expat like myself.

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Races

When I'm an old* lady**, I want to look back on a life that looks like a patchwork quilt, embroidered with tales of adventure, contrasted with silver stitches of quiet reflective moment and panels of laughter. I want to explore stories, live in escapades and make my own kind of history. And, when I'm an old lady, I want to be able to say that I lived life to the utmost in my own unique way*** free from competing with the Jones' and full of contentment.

(For the best resolution of the images, click them to open the slideshow.)

So it is with great pleasure that I finally, finally, finally made it to the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Races accompanied by the gorgeous Annie of MontgomeryFest fame - the taco-adoring Southern belle who helped us plan our Louisiana roadtrip escapades making it our best holiday ever. With her and her husband having moved over to London from Louisiana (via Brussels and San Francisco), I wanted to share with her some of my London, that crazy traditional history side that keeps the magic of my adoptive city alive (and if you don't agree you are a muggle, fact.)

Harewood House, West Yorkshire - March Travel Linkup

Many moons ago, I tripped Up North to spend a weekend with my favourite purple-hued American and her sweet boy (look, not all my friends are bloggers but the best ones definitely are or were, there's something about scribing on the internet that makes for interesting people) and feeding our dual-obsession for all things English history, we packed the car for a road trip to one of her favorite spots.

Before you roll your eyes and click off yet another post about a gorgeous stately home that features heavily in dream home pinterest boards, let me just say: Humbolt penguins, a man carrying a lion on his shoulder, flamingos and pygmy goats.

(Psssst scroll to the bottom of the post for the travel linkup widget!)

There we go. That got your attention didn't it?

Quirky London - the BallieBallerson Adult Ballpit in Dalston

How would you react when someone sends you an excited message about a bar in East London that has 250,000 clear balls, 10,000 coloured lights, not to mention ice, fire & helium cocktails? Well, luckily for me, my gorgeous (and slightly insane) partner-in-mischief Sam, simply answered 'Yes yes yes'.

Warning: Contains bright neon colours and slightly burry photos...
 

So, on a recent Thursday evening we shook off our old lady personas (ok, my old lady persona and her normal outlook on life) and we found ourselves in the very trendy East London suburb of Dalston.

US Roadtrip Diary: A serving of Dallas glamour and cowboys

It really is true. Everything is bigger in Texas, from people’s hair to their pickup trucks.

If we're being totally honest we made our way across the northern section of the Louisiana/Texas border intent on uncovering a slice of JR Ewing's family home city - for you younguns, Dallas was an 80's TV show that even I was too young to watch, charting the wheelings and dirty dealings of a mega rich oil family in the world's first uber soap.

A Louisiana bayou swamp tour - our incredible experience.

"C'Mon Gators! COME AND EAT US" screams our captain as he lobs chunks of meat over the side of the boat.

Mr Kiwi and I swap uneasy looks with each other, both wondering if going on a swamp tour was such a brilliant idea after all. Miles from New Orleans we were floating on a glorified tin can, surrounded by rusting steel structures wrapped in mangroves and very little else as far as the eye could see.

We wait a just a little bit longer in apprehensive silence*. The smooth surface ripples, two prehistoric eyes appear before an elongated snout rises out of the murky waters. His** jagged back sways through the water as he gets closer and closer to eating us, sorry, start nibbling on the scraps of treats our captain threw in the water.

9 of our favourite things to do in Austin, Texas

Every time that someone hears we visited Austin on our epic road trip, they immediately say "Austin? Texas? Why'd you go there?" Well, we were lured there by a Stetson clad Pied Piper - we booked for the rich music culture, the curiosity of exploring the LoneStar state and some of the best BBQ in the world - or so we were told.

The tagline adopted by the capital city of Texas is a curious one. Found on T-shirts, posters and marketers, "Keep Austin Weird" and we can definitely confirm that in between the downtown skyscrapers and government buildings, a vibrant and bohemian community thrives.

Gods Own Junkyard, Walthamstow

"This train will be terminating at Walthamstow. Please, Mind The Gap"

With years of listening to Victoria Underground line announcers call out this village name, and never quite having a good reason to stay on all the way to the end of the track (even by accident, which is a genuine London miracle) one day this Christmas break we found ourselves whistling out to Walthamstow with a spare afternoon and a hankering for something slightly different.

Turning out of the station and passing the historic buildings of old Walthamstow village (thanks to Jaime's recommendations we already want to revisit and explore a little more) we began to wander as all intrepid explorers armed with the internet do.

PizzaBuzz & the 3rd meeting of #PizzaClubLDN

I've always been a firm believer of indulge in what you love (within reason) so when Pizza Club was invented I knew I wanted in. Unfortunately I've been keeping this delicious secret to myself, not wishing to spill the beans or share a slice of the pie as it were. Except on instagram.

Pizza Club itself is simple. A gathering of some of London's biggest pizza fans - initially Vicky, Connie, myself and Claire - we get together to catch up over a few slices of the good stuff whilst we natter and solve a few of the world's problems. (Don't believe me? We sorted global warming over a slab sized tabletop of pizza in Shoreditch a couple of months ago - it's just a shame that the latest developments in American politics may going to undo all of our hard work...we'll just need to organise our next session sooner than planned)

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of PizzaBuzz but all of my discerning levels of Pizza addiction are entirely all of my own making (and volition)

Calling themselves "the Subway" of gourmet pizza purveyors, PizzaBuzz is a brilliant concept. You take-a-de-pizza-base-and-add-a-delicious-toppings-dat-you-a-love.

Cottons Restaurant: a taste of St Lucia without the 8+ hour flight

Our evening at the Notting Hill branch of Cottons began with rum cocktails and ended with singing along Holland Park Avenue, which I feel sums this little gem up. Mr Kiwi took a stroll along memory lane, recalling his holiday to Barbados (sadly before I was around) and the hotel balcony he & friends watched sunsets from as they knocked back refreshing rum cocktails. It's an adventurous menu with tropical flavours that you can almost feel as you walk in from the Georgian terraced street.

Our evening felt particularly timely with the Notting Hill Carnival having recently rampaged in the amazingly colourful processions of bright costumes, danceable beats and beaming smiles of the policemen being danced on, but meant that we could get our fill of jerk chicken without having to contend with overzealous partiers. (Sidenote: does this mean we are getting old?)

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Cottons Caribbean Restaurant and Rhum Shack of but all of my very, very many thoughts and laboured metaphors are only ever my own...

It was one of those face meltingly hot London days we get occasionally where it's just too much to cope with, and passing through their bar and front room we parked ourselves in the air conditioned back room and broke out the cocktail menu. The boy not realising quite how extensive the r(h)um menu is - 375 varieties! - is went with a bottle of Banks a classic Bahamas lager, whilst I chose the 'Smokin Hot', a dark rum cocktail served with Bourbon, demerara & blackberry syrup, tarragon infusion, orange & angostura bitters. Served smoking, it was a strong sultry start to our evening.

8 reasons why I adore Brighton

Brighton is one of those cities where the pulse thrums with music, the taste of fun is in the air and streets are filled with more than a glimmer of mischief. We've visited a few times - firstly as a brand new visitor to England, later for hijinks with friends and often as a seaside day trip from London - but haven't revisited for years.

The culture is a little offbeat, the locals are friendly and the coffee is AMAZING. Neighbouring Hove is a little more reticent and refined, but Brighton is where the fun starts - and when the train companies behave it's only an hour or so away from London.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Ibis Brighton but all of my very, very many thoughts are only ever my own...

So when a tribe of bloggers along with our plus ones (the lovely Leigh, Lisa, Leanne and I were invited and corralled by my pink-haired beauty Erica) were invited to a night of open air cinema and to snooze a Friday evening away, how could we resist another taste of the city?