saturdays under the railway

one of the things we love most about london is its diversity, and how we are at most half an hour away from an as-yet unexplored market. much as london is fast-paced and rushy, there are also parts of it so laid back that it feels like we've left the city. people are so friendly, everyone has time for banter, and no one's in a hurry. these little arches under the railway is one such place. who'd have thought there would be the yummiest custard donuts, ultimate reubens and little bird cocktails under a railway :) can't wait for our next londontown adventure!

why we walk

so i got a teensy bit conned into a 10km hike. the mister suggested we take the funicular up the mountain. seeing how i don't usually enjoy going against gravity in the natural, a funicular solves all problems. little did i know that the funicular only went midway up the mountain. and the mister, oh the mister, had his eye set on the many kilometres of forested trails. we alighted from the funicular, took a few great shots of the view from the platform and then started walking behind the pushchair army. but then the pushchair army stopped, and we kept going, and suddenly we were walking almost vertically. and off piste. which was not fun. 

hike

we rode the funicular thinking there'd be a good view from the top, and so there was! what i hadn't realised was that this was all part of the mister's sneaky plan to hike 10 (!!!) km in the undulating terrain, before catching our afternoon flight back to london. it was a breath-taking walk with majestic views of the norwegian wilderness. what we liked was how everyone and their mother seemed to be on that mountain on a sunday, just chilling. it was so social - like it was the common meeting point and we saw many groups of friends / family walking together. what a great example of healthy living! unfortunately, the guidebook sort of under-sold (over-sold?) the route the mister chose and when we as we were climbing steep steps cut into the mountainside, i started to wonder what exactly we'd signed up for.

bryggen

so bergen is all about the bryggen moneyshot - the row of hanseatic houses by the water. there's also a fish market that's cleaned up its act and moved indoors since i visited in 2009. we climbed up to the church behind the funicular ticket house and had a good view of the rooftops, followed by a cheeky cup of coffee at a cosy cafe tucked among the windy windy lanes.

bergen b&b

the mister found us this sweet little b&b for our weekend in bergen and boy did we feel the pinch in norway! other options in our budget were youth hostels and having been there done that five years ago (okok my last time was march 2012 in NYC when i was picking the wedding dress!) it's become a last resort now. guess we're in that sweet spot where we've more spending power (well relative to when we were working part-time as undergrads) and more time than ever. family commitments are miles away in singers (oh the sheer luxury of having weekends entirely to ourselves!) and it's this wonderful period of self-indulgence where it's us against the world, free to skip the country at our whim and fancy. but back to the b&b! so norway is crazy expensive and we paid through our noses to sleep on a sofa bed in a tiny room. granted, the b&b oozed eclectic charm and was impeccably turned out. you could've eaten off the floors if you'd wanted to. it was that clean :) so if anyone is looking for a b&b in bergen, this is a good value one-roomer. also, i did not stop balking at the price of things. i mean, GBP50 for 1 soup and 2 beers?! are you kidding me?! and GBP10 for a kebab?! wertttt... haha as you can tell, we didn't really have much haute gastronomy in bergen. the b&b hostess did give us a feast every morning, and in true budget fashion i packed the extras into sandwiches for lunch. and we'd a junk food (read: inexpensive) dinner. so there. bergen on a budget, or not.

ambleside

funny story here but the last time i was i ambleside, i was three years old! naturally, have absolutely no recollection of it but got a kick out of re-visiting all the same. the belsfield opened right onto the bowness-on-windermere pier (it's a sweet stroll through the grounds to reach the main road by the pier) and oh-so-easy to take the cruise over to ambleside. had a leisurely wander around ambleside stopping every few metres for nibbles (sigh!) and while it was v-e-r-y quiet, seeing all the kit shops on massive sale only served to fan my wanderlust. had to remind myself i've more kit than i need and should really not be encouraging the wilderness bug, seeing how london has slowly edged out being in the mountains on weekends :(

the belsfield lake district

in line with trying to make the most of our london base, it was high time for a visit to the lakes! funny to go off-peak (january in the lakes? really?) but it was a good jaunt nevertheless. we'd a lovely suite overlooking lake windermere as a little post-exam treat and i spent a happy afternoon reading while soaking in the beautiful view. there's a certain picturesque moodiness to the lake in winter and just what i needed after, uh, a weekend of intense revision. any excuse :) the grounds were amazing and the hotel so charming, i can only imagine what she looks like at the height of summer. excellent restaurant on site and hmm, i wasn't expecting such culinary awesome-ness from the lakes, to be absolutely honest with you! we each had a massive sticky date pud swimming in toffee sauce with equally massive scoops of ice cream and double cream. i mean, let's just go all out right? :) would've taken a photo but we'd company and i didn't want to play right into that dreaded asian stereotype!

what a week

oh wow, has it already been a week since exams ended? finished on tuesday and what a whirlwind. was in the lake district wed/thurs and then bergen fri/sun. slept the whole of yesterday, a holiday from the holiday if you will, to make up for the crazy traveling. really need to stop blaming age as to why i can't keep up with the mister who's incidentally waaay older than i am. where he gets his boundless energy from is beyond me. and that metabolic rate! life's not fair :(

back to school and our exam results are out. despite the worst jetlag ever (sprung awake at 2am on both exams days and couldn't get back to sleep. boo!) they went well. thank God! it's a slow start to the term. deadlines looming but nothing that can't be efficiently hammered out over a solid weekend in. then again, my problem is staying put in one place over the weekend. lunnon, whinge as i do, is fantastically fascinating and there's always something to see and somewhere to go. speaking of which, i hear the mister has fast booked us up this weekend and uhh this paper-churning is starting to look more pipe dream than reality.

the snow is such a massive inconvenience. you'd think the city would be better able to cope with it but noooo... our BA flight back from bergen was unceremoniously cancelled (good job, BA! have yet to be on an on-time BA flight ever...) but thankful we managed to get last-minute seats on  an earlier norwegian flight. but still! good thing the mister is organised and email-checking that way. would've been so miffed if we'd only found out about the cancellation at the airport.

will be posting some photos from the lakes and bergen over the next few days if you'd like to see!

inside a snow globe

had paper 1 today and thank God for holding the snow till we were inside the exam hall. had horrible visions of me wading in knee deep snow to the venue but the flurry only fell midway through the exam. kept looking across the hall and out of the window - snow is still novel and fascinating - but thought i might seem suspicious and had to stop. but when i left, couldn't resist taking photo after photo of the fresh snowfall. it's not the first time this winter but it wasn't this thick or pristine the last time :) and now to get cracking on paper 2 before it's off to the lakes midweek. looking forward to holiday part deux after the exams are over and done with.

bergen

the mister is taking us to bergen soon and i was re-reading old blog posts in anticipation. went with my parents in october 2009, while i was on exchange in stockholm. we did a pirated (hurhur) version of norway*in*a*nutshell and i've fond memories of the amazing meals. reading old posts always makes me cringe. did i use to sound like that? it's a bit like hearing your own voice played back to you, the same sense of dissociation and disbelief. while the mister's seen the northern lights in tromso (without me, i might add!) and we've been to oslo, albeit separately, he had been meaning to visit bergen after i returned raving about the fjords. ironically, doubt we'll be seeing much this winter which might mean a trip back when there are longer day light hours. but flights were cheap and any excuse to escape london, really.

and here are some photos from my fb album from 2009! can't wait to soak in the gorgeous hanseatic architecture all over again :)

guinea pig

poor sister wondering what she did to deserve being "patient" to two medics. brother's more keen than i am and was determined to nail blood pressure taking. to find out if he was doing it right, we'd needed a control. have had the benefit to taking blood pressure at the GP before the break but was quick to join the fun. good to know we were reading right, and later tried teaching our sister how to measure pressure too. but she fail. and that's when we realised she's so much better suited to law.