Han, in London

 Beginning of July...

Sculpture thing in a park in Leicester
Two photos (one in front and one behind) of a sequin Union Jack hanging in Carnaby Street
A Herman mixture (made a very nice cake)
Palestra House, near Southwark Tube
Shaaaaaaaaard
Lesley's Union Flag bunting and baskets (yet more red, white and blue)
Rainy train window
Less than half (!!) of my uncle's DVD collection
Knitted wool creatures on top of a knitted wool phonebox :D
Phonebox reflected on the pavement (because it was raining so much)


( July 1st - 10th )

Blue flower
Wall painting near the Phoenix Garden by Stik (I posted another one earlier on from East Dulwich)
Part of a giant cloth tree thing on Southbank (I love this thing, seriously, I've got loads of photos of it)
A giant crown made of flowers
Jeanette Winterson books 
Bee on flower (I have NO idea where I took this)
Swarovski hedgehog and other animals 
Blue building in SE1 
Chocolate flowers from Daskalidès (http://www.daskalides.co.uk/)
Phonebox art thing (there's a two-headed dragon holding up the second box, which I am telling you because it took me ages to work out)

( Jun 11th - 20th )

I am currently having some unexpected downtime away from my flat (and all my stuff), so thought I might as well get round to posting some of my photos of the day as I am suuuuuuuper behind. 

Penguin statue
Detail on a fountain (I think near Lincoln's Inn Fields)
Letter blocks up at Southbank (they kept changing them so they made different words)
Giant nutella jars at My Old Dutch
Graffiti...somewhere
Union Jack ribbon window display
A Tiffany ring (!!!) one of my colleagues bought
Kinder Joy (whhhhhhy don't we have these over here??)
Red, white and blue flower arrangement
St Paul's Cathedral reflected in some odd mirror thing
A moth failing at camouflage

( May 20th - 31st )

Stencilled 'PRIVATE' on a post (I was in a font type of mood, I think this was during one of my 'madly downloading fonts' phases)
Periodic table artwork near my flat (this seems to change every year or so - I need to get some more photos)
Homemade seashell chocolate halves (I filled them with marzipan)
Also homemade peanut butter cups
Necklace in a Jewellery shop in Covent Garden which is called... *pause for me to look it up* ...Satya (they 'celebrate the adventures of lives lived fearlessly', apparently)
Roof window...somewhere (the trouble with having a gap in between taking and posting these things is that I forget where the heck I've been...)

Ah, hang on, the roof window might well be Finsbury Pizza Express where I went with L from work after we saw Avengers. HA!

Incidentally, recipe for peanut butter cups as everyone loves them (from a UK site):

325g milk chocolate (dark and white also work well)
260g smooth peanut butter
1/4 tsp salt
60g icing sugar

(NB I have seen US recipes advising the same amount of sugar as PB which I always find too sweet - I usually go for a quater - a third of the weight of PB)

Mix sugar, PB and salt in a bowl and put in the fridge for about half an hour - this isn't essential but will make it easier to handle.

Melt some of the chocolate in a glass bowl on top of a saucepan (with simmering water). Spread chocolate in to cups (I get cheap silicone ones from the pound shop), put in fridge to set.

When chocolate is set, take PB and split into small amounts to put in chocolate cups. Obviously you can decide for yourself what PB-to-chocolate ratio you want ;). Put back in fridge.

Melt more of the chocolate as the lid to the cup and pour on top. Put back in the fridge to set.

A lot of this recipe is trial and error and personal preference. I usually try to have some spare chocolate around (and I usually get the 30p bars from Aldi as it doesn't need to be high-class!) in case I use more than I originally intended (this happens every time).

Gosh I wish I had some right now.

( May 4th - 9th )

Apr 18th - 22nd

Parents' swish new Auris
Peanut butter cookies
Marbles
Lesley's Dad's 90th birthday cake (mmmm, cake)
Street in Steyning with mostly Tudor buildings

( April 18th - 22nd )
Rec: am currently watching a repeat of Silent Witness, but it is a rather good one, if a bit silly (Harry goes off to Hungary and his gf gets killed, which is the start of Harry's Epic Sadness about not having a family, and then a bunch of exciting running and shooting etc happens). So if you're bored you could watch that. 

And here's the short ramble I got into before I realised it was a repeat, lol:

1. “What is it, have you shagged everyone in London?” “Not quite.”
2. Well, this is already more enjoyable than last week’s.
3. “Simon’s my hairdresser, he’ll take ten years off you.”
4. HAAAAAAAANG ON. This is a repeat, right?
5. Well that explains why it’s better
6. OH, HARRY CUNNINGHAM
7. Oh gosh he’s so charming.
8. I presume I rambled about this last year so I'll stop now.
9. OH GOSH HARRY (ok, really stopping NOW)

Apr 23rd - 27th 

Formula 1 car suspended in Woking shopping centre
New buildings near the Tate (Holland St, I think)
Three cats staring. They were watching another cat, lol. 
View up in the centre of a building (I think I was in a kind of courtyard). I could find it again but clearly failed to note the address, sigh. 
Some weird kind of decoration on a wall. Or in, I suppose. 

( April 23rd - 27th )

Mar 29th - Apr 2nd


Top of the Shard
Egg Hunt egg from Selfridges (more of those at http://metropolithan.blogspot.com/ and more to come)
Sound sculpture in front of Canada Tower (called Aeolus - it's been travelling round the UK and was actually in Cornwall when Crishna and I went last year :D :D) - http://www.lukejerram.com/aeolus
Biscuit thing (I've forgotten what it was called, aaaaargh, was a lot like a florentine) that a colleague brought back from Turkey. Yes, those are petals. I'm weird and I like flower-flavoured things.
Dinner. Sometimes I just really like the food I cook. This was one of those times.

( March 29th - April 2nd )

Rec: new music! BIGKids (latest thing from Mr Hudson)





http://soundcloud.com/bigkidsmusic 

Apr 3rd - 7th

Tiny graffiti in the toilets at Centrepoint
A little alley by Snow Hill Court
Selfridges at night
Massive elephant thing set piece from the Les Mis film (at Greenwich)
Pumpkin (youngest niece)

( April 3rd - 7th )

March 8th - 12th

Restaurant dessert (it was yum)
View from Centrepoint down into the Crossrail site
The name stamp that is now on allll my cards
Gates at Green Park in the evening
Buildings on Holborn Viaduct

( Mar 8th - 12th )
Book rec: Alison Hewitt is Trapped, by Madeline Roux. A zombie novel in the format of blog entries, which is an idea so good I'm sick I didn't think of it (don't be surprised if I end up doing it in a fanfic one day).

It's a really engaging book - Alison herself is an easily relatable character, resourceful without being unrealistically badass, The blog format works surprisingly well, and allows for a few other voices besides the main characters without letting them get tiresome. I really enjoyed everything about it, basically. 

There's a second book in the series - Sadie Walker is Stranded - that has just come out. I'm looking forward to it!

March 13th - 17th 

Lion drinking fountain (no longer in use) 
A very very cold Coke Zero can (people keep mucking with the temperature control in our work fridge)
A charity dog model thing in One New Change (part of the SANE Black Dog campaign -  http://www.sane.org.uk/what_we_do/black_dog/) 
Chairs and tables in Covent Garden in the morning 
Posts outside Brussels Midi (on the way to Germany)

( Mar 13th - 17th )

 Feb 22 - 26

Sign on the Church of Scotland near Covent Garden
Two magpies on a sign
Pub sign for the Lamb and Flag (guess where...)
View across Finsbury Avenue Square with another egg 
Insect on a window (not sure what kind of insect but it was teeny!)

( Pictures )

 I swear, there will be some fannish content soon. HONEST. 

Feb 12 - 16

Newest keyring (acrylic)
Detail on decoration above a door on Henrietta Street
Some big metal art thing near St Paul's (it was just off Warwick Lane, and I can see it on Google Maps but can't find out anything about it...why is so much street art just placed with no information??), filtered to black and white
A building reflected in another building on Holborn (yes, I spend a lot of time on Holborn, I know...)
Aaaaaand finally, the watch that the parents got me in America. 

I think I need to stop walking towards London Bridge via St Paul's so often, I've taken so many photos that way. I'll have to try taking a longer route to Charing Cross or something. 

Bonus pic outside the cut: green elephant at Serjeant's Inn. No idea what it's doing there, who made it, why etc etc. Just...a green elephant.  


( other pics )

 In this post:

Street in Tunbridge Wells near the Pantiles (ahem), Southwark Cathedral at night, my glass butterfly sun catcher that Crishna made, SUSHEH (sadly I ate two pieces before taking the picture, haha), my parents' ridiculous bamboo with an extra bit of snow, and a building on Betterton St (I think). It looks abandoned but when I went round to the next street all the buildings were in use so I couldn't quite work out which was the front... need to go back to work it out, I think. 

I'm quite pleased with how it's going so far, although I think you should all be impressed that every fifth picture doesn't feature the Shard in some way...

( pics )