Friday figments and photos

I am bursting with tales to share of the last couple of weeks, and never have enough time to tell them. An idyllic weekend to France, a 1,000 person picnic dressed entirely in white, Downton Abbey blogger antics, a luxurious London staycation, cocktails in a quirky bar - decorations inspired by the John Soane's Museum, sunshine coffees, frustration with my blog images at the moment (sigh), learning about infill flash and frolicking through wildflower meadows.

 

 

Just all the feels.

How to survive without a smartphone.

With my aforementioned device of all-encompassing life throwing a fit in the cobbled Streets of France last weekend, a week without the world and technology at my pocket has been an interesting exercise of modern life.

Think about it, how long ago was it since you referred to that little black box in your pocket. Hours? Minutes? Seconds? In fact, are you reading this on your phone? See what I mean? I’ve come to realise just how this has taken over my life.

It starts with a series of electronic tones urging me to crack my eyelids open in the morning - several rounds of them if I’m being honest. Then a quick morning peruse of social media and a few cheeky blogposts over breakfast cereal and coffee. Another alarm warns me to leave the house for the commute ahead (accompanied by few giggles at the “Danger Will Robertson, Danger Will Robertson” panic spirit that keeps me organised) where I spend the time dodging internet blackspots and the occasional armpit.

Why you should visit Eltham Palace

It took a good friend and I more than a year to visit Eltham Palace. Taking into consideration the ease of getting there (there are several central London train stations which serve the 30 minute journey to the Zone 4 Mottingham Station), the Art Deco beauty that Eltham is known for and the curious architectural history of a medieval royal residence, you would think we'd have gotten our act a little more together.

We did try a fair few times but as the Palace opens Sunday-Thursday for a limited few months, we kept ending up in the pub, brunching out of the rain or curled up on our respective couches in defeat. Moral of the story, learn from our mistakes and check the opening times before you set off, ok? (Or as I suspect the social butterfly Courtaulds would approve, just make sure there's a good pub nearby.)

First mentioned in the Doomsday book, Eltham Estate was presented to King Edward II in 1305 and developed into one of the most favoured royal palaces with 1,000 acres of deer park on its doorstep.

The joy of being "A Creative" type

As a paid up member of the worldwide blogger tribe I can only really speak for myself, but I do look at some of the antics we get up to in the name of our favourite hobby and wryly chuckle with a knowing glint in my eye. (As an aside, how on earth do you wryly chuckle?)

romantic picnic flowers, fresh baguette, pate, hummous, er, camera #bloglife strikes again...

Having more energy than a box full of chickens on energy drinks

The hilarious creation of laboured metaphors

Thinking out of the box & having friends side-eye you (the good ones do it with amused love usually)

Thinking too much

Planning a holiday trip schedule based exclusively on Pinterest finds

Beany Green, Liverpool Street Brunch review

Sometimes all you want to do is spend a morning in the sunshine with a friend. Living in London definitely has downsides, and one of them is most definitely trying to get a girly date in the diary with less than a month's notice. Sometimes, though sometimes you get a hankering for a gossip, the stars align in an incredible way and after an afternoon of messaging, a golden date appears in the diary for a good old catch up.

We then played the inevitable 'what's central to both of us, and where do we fancy' game (bonus points for each additional player you involve) which was surreptitiously solved by the crew at Beany Green inviting us for a sampling of their bottomless brunch in the Broadgate Circus branch. (Try saying that 10 times in a row).

Spoiler, it was amazing and features a Banana Bread tower, read on.

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Beany Green, but my (very many) opinions are only ever my own, and I would never recommend anywhere that I wouldn't happily revisit - in fact I've also frequented their other London branches several times on my own dime.

Tucked unassumingly in a selection of eateries an entire 50 seconds walk from Liverpool Street Station - yes, I timed it - Beany Green is another of those secret discoveries that I never want to share with anyone else (it happened to my Shepherds Bush favourite, and now they have queues out the door sigh). But if I must, this Melbourne-style cafe hidden in a modern edifice is a rather lovely combination of convenient tube line convergence, smiley staff, quirky decor and locality to the creative blogging hipsters of Shoreditch.