Friday Figments and photos (ok, ok it's Saturday...)

It seems to have been a pretty bits and bobs kind of week. A bit of sunshine here, a touch of rain there, an enormous soupcon of bank holiday picnicking and too much coffee (by which I mean not enough) and many hours of laughter bobbing as some of the travel scrapes our linkup lovelies have been up to. Seriously, you need to read at least a few of these 28 travel posts.

Laboured metaphors aside, we seemed to delight in a week of hometown tourism. Pottering through a few old visitor favourites and discovering several new ones. You'd think after 9 years it would all get boring, but nope.



We pottered through the Olympic Park, wandered through Greenwich, tore upstream to London Bridge, marveled at the joy of a cold beverage, lost ourselves in a set of immersive theatre, inhaled toasted banana bread, chortled at bad jokes and missioned our way up several hills.

The things I do for this blog!

Gaylord London, a North India-style feast and restaurant review

You know how us bloggers are meant to be avant guarde foodies, will 'o' the wisp creatures that skip from cool new thing to the coolest new thing? Well, through years of trial and error living in the UK I now only ever order one curry dish from our favourite local Indian restaurant. *shock* *gasp* *will you ever read my mutterings again*

Our favourite takeaway is usually on a Friday - the long hard week having taken it's toll, is normally eaten at home in our pyjamas and there might just be a celebratory beverage here and there. The whole ordering rigamarole is hilarious. I'll get a phonecall or email or message asking 'what are we having for dinner?'. There'll be at least 17 messages backwards and forwards where neither of us wants to be the mischievous one who suggests our favourite naughty treat meal, and yet somehow by 6.45pm a plate full of vibrant flavours will be eagerly dug into. 

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Gaylord Restaurant, but my (many) opinions are only ever my own, and I would never recommend anywhere that I wouldn't happily visit. And revisit.

My absolute favourite is Lamb Saag Gosht (mild because I'm a bit of a spice wuss, even though the lads that take our order always sigh a little in disappointment - I'm fairly sure they're actually slowly dialling up the spice without telling me because my tolerance seems to be growing), fragrant mushroom rice and if we're being really naughty a freshly baked naan bread. Every. Single. time. It doesn't even matter where we go, as I adore Lamb Saag Gosht so much that I judge every single restaurant by the quality of theirs. Call it a neutral sample if you will.

As if trying to puncture this day-to-day rut we'd happily settled in, the Gaylord Restaurant team have been inviting a few bloggers here and there to sample a flavour feast of gargantuan proportions, and perhaps dislodge us old dyed in the wool diners from our comfortably favourite dishes.

 

The joys of commuting in London (it's all in the subtle detail)

Commuting sucks. Being stuffed under a stranger's armpit in sweltering heat whilst the tannoy crackles with another delay platitude is not fun. Racing down stairs, around corners and cramming onto a train so you're not late for that very important meeting, to only watch the train carriage close and pull out of the station. To be kicked out from a malfunctioning train into the pouring rain on a winter evening. We've all been there.

But there is still something quietly adorable about the spider web of train tracks that provides London with commuter lifeblood. You don't believe me, do you? In fact if you're in London you're probably reading this now after getting on at 'your' door, hopefully getting a seat and watching the countryside slowly turn to city towers as you head towards your 9-5.

Sipping our way through the Scottish Isles

A realm of faerie-stories, kilted clansmen and bagpipes, we knew that visiting the Scottish highlands we were going to see beautiful scenery, but we weren't quite prepared for the variety of stunning vistas that seemed to appear ever time we turned a corner.

From the civilised streets of Edinburgh we wended our way into the Northern Highlands, stopping overnight to visit Nessie in Loch Ness, snuck as many castles stops as I could into the itinerary, passed through the Trossachs, sipped proper Scotch, admired the spirit of kilt wearers, watched the sun set and the mist lift on the Isle of Skye.

Travel experiences I never want to have again - May Travel Linkup

Whilst travelling we’ve been pickpocketed in Barcelona, had to race across an icy tarmac as we had almost missed our connecting flight in Helsinki, been slightly stuck in a luxury Moroccan oasis hotel due to security concerns, left my passport tucked under an Italian hotel mattress only to discover it 10 minutes before we boarded a train to Rome, sipped sake at 7am in Japan, were (laughingly) threatened by a knife wielding Parisian waiter, burst into tears on a Kayak in France and panicked about not having a Visa mid-flight to Prague*.

And yet somehow I think I'd do it all again. Each of the countries we've visited really has been a new adventure – the good, the bad, the hour-long queues - all of it. We've learned so much over the years from what went wrong, that it was hard to wrap my thoughts around a truly negative situation for the lovely Shikha's suggestion of our travel topic this month 'things you'd never do again'. (Posts are open from the 1st May-7th May so get scribing!)