Life

Gardening Leave: A last minute trip to Berlin

- Michael 10 Comments

Tube strikes. They’re the bane of many people’s lives (whether you support them or not they are disruptive) and when the last one was announced it fell across my last couple of days in my old job. This chucked up the issue of “working from home” which, let’s be honest, wouldn’t have happened. So my old job put me on gardening leave for the last couple of days and I suddenly had a whole week off between jobs. I jokingly tweeted about taking the chance to sleep on twitter and my friend Rae of Love From Berlin intervened:

I quickly checked some flight costs and made sure she wasn’t actually joking and booked a last minute flight to Berlin to hang out with Rae her cats, eat loads of food and explore a city I’ve heard a million good things about. So that’s how I found myself on a coach at 4am on a Sunday morning on my way to Stansted airport (I can get the coach from basically outside my front door, that’s dangerous for me to know) and an adventure in Germany.

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Music Monthly: August Jams

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It amazes me that it’s somehow part way into September already. The temperature has already dropped and British Summer Time is coming to an end. So what you’re all eagerly anticipating (or not as I don’t think anyone reads these particular posts) is of course my Music Monthly (old posts here) post for August. With Hevy Fest at the start and a trip to Berlin it’s been a fairly playlist heavy month. But I’ll start with a band (and then a couple of playlists which I listen to fairly often).

Thrice – Back Catalogue

They are my favourite band and have been for many years. They reformed and headlined Hevy this year (the main reason I was there). They basically matured musically as my own tastes started to mature. I could go on for a while here so I’m just going to stick a playlist of all of their songs for you to educate yourselves with instead.

Top picks: Red Sky (Vheissu), In Exile (Beggars), Anthology (Major/Minor), Phoenix Ignition (Identity Crisis), Silhouette (The Artist In The Ambulance), Image Of The Invisible (Vheissu).

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East London Summer: Burgers, Bikes, Coffee & Parks

- Michael 2 Comments

Victoria Park
So I finished my old job, so long iCrossing, you were good to me. I even got put on Gardening Leave (thanks tube strikes, that then got cancelled) for the last few days. Which meant I finished on a Friday and had a whole week and a half off work to look forward to. I booked in a last minute trip to see my friend Rae in Berlin (more on that to follow) but started with an absolutely gorgeously sunny Saturday pootling about East London with my friends Gabi and Erica. We met up for a burger at the new Patty & Bun in London fields, where I had possibly the messiest burger experience of my life (worth it), before walking along the canal down to Victoria park.

Patty & Bun

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A Weekend In July: Parents, Les Mis, Bao, Museums and Caravan

- Michael 6 Comments

Caravan Eggs

A few weeks back my parents came down to visit! For many of you that wouldn’t be all that much of an event, but now they live on a Scottish Island I don’t get to see them all that much. I mean, I’m planning my next trip up to see them and I have to break it down to London – Glasgow (coach, train, sleeper service, plane, car, cannon) , Glasgow – Oban (train), Oban – Craignure (ferry), Craignure – Pennyghael (bus or pick up by parents). It means that if they are coming down you need to do more than just hang around and it likely means they’ll need a hotel. I’m apologising now for a very photo heavy post.

Boat Ride

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#FDbloggers: Get To Know

- Michael 3 Comments

For those who don’t know, Loriley runs the #FDbloggers community across on twitter. You can see the account here and get involved with the chats 1 hour each week on a Thursday! She’s even arranged a meet which is happening next week (annoyingly I can’t make it as I’ll be sat in a field getting drunk – otherwise known as  festival). She’s also started up #FDbloggersGTK to encourage us to start chatting to each other!

Loriley's Gluten Free Berry Oat Cookies

Loriley’s Gluten Free Berry Oat Cookies

I was nominated by Cate from Cate In The Kitchen after she did hers along with a couple of others and you can find mine, along with my own nominees below. Definitely check out both Loriley and Cate’s blogs as they are full of food inspiration.

Summer Berry Flapjack Crumble

Cate’s Summer Berry Flapjack Crumble

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