Summer in 2013 included a number of exciting personal milestones - our 1 year wedding anniversary and our 5 years as a couple.
Celebrations involved the purchase of a Le Creuset grill and pan as Olie is keen to build up an inventory before we return home to Australia.
As the weather improved we tried our best to spend weekends outside of the house - seeing concerts, catching up with friends and of course plenty of eating. During the past couple of months, we ate out at a number of restaurants in London and therefore this post is full of 'food' pictures. Great food deserves recognition.
Umu, Mayfair
Umu, a Japanese restaurant specialising in Kyoto Kaiseki cuisine where we tried the eight course set menu where each dish was artistically arranged - too pretty to eat.
Umu restaurant
Cured salmon with truffle sauce
Scottish lobster on tofu
Sashimi
Steamed abalone
Guinea fowl and foie gras
Wild eel, rice and pickles
White asparagus ice-cream with blood orange treacle
Real Food Market
For a quick dinner on a Friday night - we visited the Real Food Market behind Waterloo Station and ate the duck confit sandwich in a brioche roll.
Borough Market
At our old time favourite, Borough Market - the extended daylight hours made it perfect for a late night cheeseburger (Elliots), Bob's lobster rolls or just a paella topped with spicy chorizo.
Elliot's cheeseburgers and a glass of rose
Bob's lobster roll
Paella and chorizo
Billingsgate Market
What would give us sufficient incentive to wake up at 7am on a Saturday? Fresh seafood at Billingsgate market; and also now the option of a scallop and bacon bagel from the takeaway shop in front of the market.
Our local seafood market
Bagel with scallop and bacon
Singapore Chili Crab
Even though the market is only two tube stops away, we hadn't been back for a while. On this occasion, we felt a craving for seafood pasta and Singapore chili crab. The latter is very easy to cook with some blue swimmer crabs, tomatoes, chilli and noodles. One thing we did learn is that discarded crab shells need to be triple bagged before putting them into the bin - particularly when there is warm weather and bins only get emptied every fortnight.
Prawn and smoked salmon pasta
Five blue swimmers sitting in our sink
And turned into Chilli Crab - yum
Voting, Australian Elections
As expats, we still exercised our right to vote in the Australian Federal election. Pre-polling booths had been set up at the Australian High Commission on the Strand and they had boxes with ballot papers for every electorate in Australia. Whilst there were no cake stands (unlike voting in Melbourne at the local primary school), it felt like home with a room full of Aussie accents.
Australian High Commission
Melbourne Place
Music Scene
Our time in London has also included a number of concerts, kicking off with:
Aerobatic antics of Pink
Short video from the concert. This woman is an amazing performer - no safety harness used
Soulful Melodies of Alicia Keys
Boisterous performance of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Playing at the Royal Albert Hall, the concert was titled: Symphonic Rock and it included songs by U2, Coldplay and Bon Jovi accompanied by flutes, strings and a very enthusiastic quartet of electric guitars.
The amazing acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall at night
Eric Clapton - a concert missed
We did also have tickets booked for Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall, however a mix-up in diary dates led us to believe that the concert was on a Thursday, rather than the preceding Tuesday and we missed the event completely.
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Summer in 2013 included a number of exciting personal milestones - our 1 year wedding anniversary and our 5 years as a couple.
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